494: The Mystery of Contentment | Dave Sloop

What an appropriate gospel reading for our last week here in the book of Philippians.

He who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted. — Matthew 23:12

I love when God does that. When the Lectionary was created, they didn't know that we were going to be finishing our series on the book of Philippians today, but it ties in perfectly. We're going to be in chapter 4 today if you want to turn there in your Bible, but before we get into the text, I want to ask you a question. In fact, if you can put up that first slide, I want to know how many of you know that term, that phrase—Weimar? Does anybody know what that means, specifically around this time? Tim, you know. Okay, tell me how. Well, it was this hyper-inflationary period in 1923, post-World War I. Because of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany had to pay war reparations, and the only way for them to do it was to massively devalue their currency, and it spiraled out of control. You think we've experienced inflation? How about this: 3.25 million percent per month was what they were experiencing. The cost of just basic consumables was increasing. They were doubling every two days. Waiters at restaurants would have to climb up on the table every 30 minutes to announce price changes. That's how rapidly prices were changing.

Men were getting paid from their jobs in cash three times a day. The reason for that is that their wives would meet them with wheelbarrows—wallets had become wheelbarrows—and they would load up this cash and take it to exchange it for the goods that they needed before the prices would massively increase. It was crazy.

In January of 1923, you could buy a loaf of bread for 250 German marks. In November of that same year, you want to guess? Two hundred billion German marks. It was out of control. Here are some pictures. In fact, the currency was such a joke, it was cheaper for parents to let their kids play with stacks of cash as building blocks than it was to go buy building blocks. This is not a joke. That is a real picture. Here's another picture of them just using cash for crafts. I saw another picture—someone had fashioned a kite out of cash. Here's another one. It was cheaper to use cash for wallpaper than to go buy wallpaper. Can you imagine? There were women who would use the cash in their stove to cook. They would just feed the furnace because it was cheaper than wood. People would leave cash on the streets because it was literally worthless, and they would gather it and burn it.

There was one story that I heard of someone who had gotten paid and collected his paycheck in a suitcase. Then he turned around, and the suitcase was gone, but they had left the cash. They didn't care about the cash—they wanted that suitcase. Things were out of control.

Can you imagine living in that time? You could have, ten years prior before this inflation just went out of control, traded German marks for an ounce of gold. It would have been 170 German marks for an ounce of gold. Ten years later, 87 trillion German marks for an ounce of gold. There were people who saw this trade coming, and they traded all their cash for gold, and they would have made a 511 billion X on that investment. There were people who were literally buying city blocks with a small handful of gold that they had exchanged. It was the trade of a lifetime.

Now, I want you to imagine that you lived in this time period. And then in November of 1923, after everything had collapsed, you went to bed that night—everything lost. And then you wake up the next day, and it's ten years earlier. You're like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day. You wake up, and it's ten years prior. What would you do? Think about it. It's obvious—you would immediately go to the bank. You would liquidate your entire account, and you would take that worthless paper that everybody else presently thinks still has value, but you know that there's an imminent collapse coming, and you would trade it for gold and you would wait. And then you would call everybody that you love and beg them to do the same thing because you knew a collapse of the world's currency is coming.

There's a man named Adam Smith, a Scottish philosopher and economist in the 1700s. He's known as one of the fathers of modern economics and capitalism, and he had a quote from his book Wealth of Nations in the 1700s.

It says, "Every man lives by exchanging," and his point was this, that the bedrock of our economy is your need to exchange with me, and my need to exchange with you, and everybody else's need to exchange with somebody else. It is what keeps our economy humming. It is the invisible hand of free enterprise. Everybody lives by exchanging. Some people exchanged one thing for something else at exactly the right time, and it was the trade of a lifetime.

What Adam Smith probably didn't know, but is unquestionably true, is that this is not just an economic principle. This is a spiritual principle. All of life is a trade, whether you know it or not. In fact, you have a spiritual bank account, and you might be here as someone that says, "I'm not even sure I believe in God. I don't think I have one of those spiritual bank accounts," and I would tell you, it doesn't matter whether you believe in God or not. Every single one of us is socking something of value away in an account that we think is going to make life satisfying, is going to enrich these however many years that we have on planet Earth. We're looking to something. There is some strategy that you are employing to feel fulfilled and satisfied in this life. You likely know what it is. We all are putting something in that bank account, in that spiritual bank. There's a spiritual economy.

The Ultimate Trade

This is precisely the argument that Paul is making in Philippians chapter 3. When he says:

Whatever was to my profit, the things that I was looking to to find meaning and significance in life, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. — Philippians 3

He's like trading German marks for something of immense value, gold. He said, "I traded everything for Christ," because he's better, but he doesn't stop there. He said, "What is more? I consider everything loss." It's not just the stuff I've already obtained. I consider everything that I might obtain in the future as a loss, too.

You remember when Tim talked about this passage? He said that every single one of us has something that we possess, and we have something that we need to pursue, and that's what life is all about, possessing and pursuing. What Paul is saying here is Christ has replaced that which I used to possess, and he is the only thing now that I am pursuing, and he's the only thing that satisfies. He says:

I count it rubbish. — Philippians 3

Everything else is rubbish. It's worthless paper compared to knowing Christ. And I trade it all, why? So I can gain Christ. It is the ultimate trade. It is the only trade of value in the spiritual economy that you exist in, whether you know it or not.

Paul would go on to make this even more clear later in chapter 3 when he says:

I press on to lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has laid hold of me. — Philippians 3

He's like, "I'm going after one thing. This one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and pressing on to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." — Philippians 3

It's the only thing that matters. Every moment of my life, Paul says, "That's the only thing I'm doing. I'm looking for the trade. I'm looking for how I can trade something that I presently have for more of Christ." And that was what he did with every thought, every action, every breath that he drew. He was looking to make that trade. That's what he was doing.

The perspective that Paul has in chapter 3 is this: Christ is better now. He's my possession. He's that which I treasure, but Christ is better in the future too. He's that which I'm chasing. He's what we treasure. He's what we chase. He's what we possess, and he's what we presume. It's what life is all about.

This is the secret, by the way, to fulfillment, to life, and the reason that we're restless, the reason that we are grasping to try to find significance in our life is that we haven't quite fully understood this trade. That's the point that Paul is making.

And in chapter 4, as we learned last week, he's taking you from the principle to the practical, and he's telling you how this principle works in real life. So he takes you to a conflict. There's two women, Euodia and Syntyche, and they're arguing, and he reminds them, "You both, your names are written in the book of life, and you have been striving alongside me, contending for the faith of the gospel." And then he says:

Agree with one another in the Lord. — Philippians 4

Paul is telling them that in the face of this conflict, they actually could gain Christ if they would be willing to do something. But here's what we all have to know. The promise is that you can gain Christ, that every single circumstance in your life is an opportunity to gain more of Christ, but it has to come on the other side of a trade. You will only gain Him as you are willing to lose something.

What was he asking these two women to lose? Their ego. Lose your ego. Trade that in and gain Christ.

More specifically, gain the unity of Christ. In verses 4 through 7, he says:

"Rejoice in everything." He says, "You don't have to be anxious about anything by prayer in petition or supplication with thanksgiving. Present your request to God, and what do you get? Peace."

It's like you can trade in your anxiety and you get peace. What is he asking them to lose there? He's telling them, "If you would be willing to trade in your need for a specific outcome." If you would be willing to trade in this need that you have for things to go your way—by the way, that is what anxiety is. It is the byproduct of trying to sit in God's seat and control circumstances that you will never be able to control. You don't add one minute of your day by worrying, but it's what we do. Jesus, or rather Paul is telling us here, you can trade that in and what you would get in return is Christ, more specifically the peace of Christ.

Then in verses 8 and 9, he says:

"Whatever is excellent, whatever is praiseworthy." He said, "Think about those things."

In other words, think about Christ. Take your thoughts and point them at him. And then he says:

"Whatever you've heard from me, received from me, learned from me, learned, practiced these things."

What's he asking them to trade here? He says, "Trade all of your attention and all of your energy, all of your thoughts, all of your actions. Point them at Christ and you know what you get? His presence. You get the presence of Christ. You move from being someone in verses 4 through 7, who's praying to God to get things to becoming someone in verse 8 and 9, who is just praying to get God. God is no longer a means to an end. He is the end. He is the treasure. He is what I possess. He's what I treasure and He's what I chase.

The Trade of Money

And now in verses 10 through 23, Paul is going to say, "There's something else you can trade." It perhaps is the most obvious thing. It is the thing that we are most aware that we value and it is your money. He said, "You can trade in your money and you can gain Christ."

I know that was a long intro. It's about half the sermon. But I wanted to take my time here because I want us to understand. Everything is going to fall into place once we understand that life is about this one trade. And this is just another version of it. It's another derivative of the trade.

Let's look at verse 10. Here's what he says:

"I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity." — Philippians 4:10

In verse 4 of this chapter, Paul says:

"Rejoice in the Lord always."

And now in verse 10, he says, "I'm rejoicing greatly in the Lord." Why? Because of something that you did, Philippians. He says, "At last or finally you have revived your concern for me." Indeed, you were concerned, but you didn't have opportunity. What is he talking about? He's saying, "I'm rejoicing greatly because you gave me money. You supported my ministry with your finances."

Now, this could be misunderstood. It could appear as if what Paul is saying is, "I am rejoicing because my bank account just went up. I'm rejoicing because now I'm not worried about where the money is going to come from. I'm rejoicing in the money." But that is not what Paul is saying. In fact, in verses 11 through 13, he's going to specifically and explicitly tell you that. He said, "I don't need your money. I'm rejoicing in you because you gave me money, but I don't need your money."

So why is he rejoicing? What is the purpose of his rejoicing? Look at what he says in verse 14. We're going to skip 11 to 13 and come back to it at the end. He says:

"Yet it was kind of you to share in my trouble." — Philippians 4:14

Paul says, "Even though I didn't need it, the ESV translated it was kind of you, but I don't think that's what Paul has in mind. That word can also mean it was good. It was good that you did it. The NIV translates it as 'good.' Let me tell you what I think Paul means here. He's saying, "I'm rejoicing that you gave it, but not because I received it. I'm rejoicing because it was good for you that you gave it." You're going to get something in return because of what you were willing to let go of, and he's going to tell you exactly what that is.

But first, he says this. He's going to tell them, "This is how you've always been," because the natural byproduct of having a heart that is captured by Christ is to want to give him your best. And to give him not just your heart, but your stuff. And so he says in verses 15 and 16:

"This is how you've always been. You Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving, except you only. Even in Thessalonica, you sent me help for my needs once and again." — Philippians 4:15-16

Let me tell you what's going on here.

If you remember from Acts 16, when Paul lands in Macedonia, the first place that he goes is Philippi. They were his first stop, and he meets Lydia and the jailer, and this little fledgling church is formed. He spends some time with them, and then he goes to Thessalonica, it's about 100 miles to the west. And then he goes down to Berea, and some opposition follows him there from Thessalonica. It's so intense, in fact, that he has to sail away to Athens, where he has this famous meeting at the Areopagus. Anyway, he heads down to Athens, and then to Corinth, and here's what he says: "When I left Macedonia, you were the only ones. You were the only ones that were supporting my ministry," but then he says this—but it started way before that. He said, "You were supporting me up here in Thessalonica. I had just left you, and I get to Thessalonica."

And here's why this is so incredible. Paul wanted to get to Thessalonica, and his greatest boast was being able to offer the Word of God, the gospel of God, free of charge, and therefore he made tents, but it wouldn't have been enough to sustain him. You know what helped him? Many from Thessalonica sent money so that he could preach the gospel free of charge to a people that had not yet received or heard the gospel. He's saying, "You did this," and then he uses this interesting phrase at the beginning of the gospel. That phrase could be applied to every single one of us in here that knows Christ. There was a point when the gospel began in you. This is a meta-narrative, but it has personal application in your life. And he said, when it began for you—instant generosity. Because that's the logical byproduct of a heart that has been captured by Christ, he said, "You gave of your treasure."

He's going to remind him again, "Look, it's not that my needs were met." They were, but that wasn't the main point, and that's precisely what he says. He says:

I have received full payment, and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphrodite the gifts that you sent. — Philippians 4:18

He said, "Look, I got my needs met. Thank you. Yes." But that's not the point. He said, "They were a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable to God."

You know what? I just realized I skipped verse 17, which has to come first. Let me back up. He says:

Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that will be credited to your account. — Philippians 4:17

All throughout the Book of Philippians, Paul is using this language of finance and business and commerce—profit, loss. He says here, "You alone were the ones that join me in giving and receiving," and in English, we don't really hear that. We don't hear the language of business. You know what they would have heard in Greek? Debits and credits. Partner was the same word for business partnership. He is saying to them, "You are the only ones who were shareholders. You are joining in the... You are a profit-sharer of what God was doing once the gospel began in you, and it started to spread. You get to share in its profits." That is precisely what he is saying to them.

He says, "I don't want your gift." Paul is like, "Look, I am rejoicing, but not because I need your money. I'm rejoicing because I know that something is happening in you because you gave it." Here's what's happening. Something fruit, he calls it, is being credited to their account. They have a spiritual bank account too, and it's getting filled up because of what they are trading their money for. He calls it fruit, and I think he means it in two ways.

The first way that he means it, I think, is this: There are some souls who are presently lost in Thessalonica, but because of your worthless paper that you traded in, there will be some people in heaven because of your dollars. You invested in the kingdom. You elevated his kingdom above the advancement of your own kingdom, and there will be... You have transferred, translated your savings into souls. What an investment. Is that worth the trade? You bet.

But that's not all. There's something else I think he means by fruit, and to understand what he means, we have to look back and think back to what Jesus said about money. Do you remember in Matthew 6?

Don't store up treasure for yourselves here on earth, where moth and rust destroy, but lay up instead treasure for yourselves in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy. — Matthew 6:19-20

And then he qualifies what he means for:

Where your treasure is, there your heart will be. — Matthew 6:21

Here's the other bit of fruit that is being credited to their account. When they're giving, they are getting hearts that more deeply love the God that created them. Why? Because where you put your money is where your heart goes. If you want to know what you love, just look at your bank ledger. It will tell you, and sometimes it is uncomfortable.

Sometimes it will reveal how much you love Caffe Asia, too. That's for me, I don't even want to know. If I could see a total from 2025, it would be humbling. Anyway, that wasn't in my notes. The point is, where you put your money, we get to choose what we treasure. And when you start throwing money at something, guess what happens? You start loving it more.

He's saying I am so thrilled that your account is filling up, and then he says it even more clearly, which the verse I already read in verse 18, he says, I've already gotten my needs met, but here's the point:

Your gift was a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. — Philippians 4:18

You gave worthless paper and it made God smile. Why? He doesn't need it. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. He doesn't need my money. Why does he? It's the same as Paul. God doesn't need your money. Paul doesn't need your money. You need to give it away because it's taking your wealth and it's turning it into worship. That's what it's doing.

When he says it's a fragrant offering, it's a sacrifice that is acceptable and pleasing to God. You know what that means? It means that you gave some money and it put a smile on his face. Isn't that crazy that we have the ability to do that? That we can make a trade that pleases him, that he sees us and he smiles?

This past week, I got home from work, Melissa was up in our bedroom, we were chatting, bathroom door was closed, and all of a sudden, Claire sticks her head out and she said, "Don't come in here." She closes the door. I said, "Okay, I wasn't going to." Usually I don't when it's closed. And then a few minutes go by and she's like, "Dad, come in here, I want to show you something."

Now, usually when someone's been in the bathroom for a while and they say, "Come, I want to show you something," I don't respond to that invitation. But because it was Claire, I said, "Okay." She burst open the door and she had completely cleaned the bathroom. She's my eight-year-old. She cleaned the bathroom. We didn't ask her to. We didn't expect her to. This is not on her list of chores—like, we even have chores for Claire, come on. She cleaned the bathroom. You know what it did? Put a big smile on my face. I couldn't help it. I'm like, "I can't believe she did this."

Now, let's just forget the part of the story where about 30 seconds later, she said, "What are you going to pay me?" We didn't. I think she was joking. But even if she wasn't, you know what the answer actually was? "Claire? This smile on my face? That is your payment."

And can I tell you something? That's all Paul cared about. He lived for God's smile. And every chance he got to trade something in to please him, oh, he would take that trade ten times out of ten. Every day of the week, he's making that trade.

The Trade Explained

Here's how it ends:

My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. — Philippians 4:19

My God, Paul says, will supply all of your needs. And I want to tell you a dangerous, slippery slope interpretation of that passage. It's this: if I give him my money, he'll give me some money. He'll give it back. Now maybe you can go to some other place in Scripture to support that. But don't use this passage because I don't think that's what Paul is saying.

And in a second, we're going to go back to verse 11 to 13, I'm going to prove it to you. Paul is not saying, if you give him money, he'll give you more money. You give him a hundred, he'll give you a thousand. That's what you might hear from some places. You're not going to hear it here.

Here's what the trade is. It's not money for money. It's money for Christ. You give me your worthless paper and I'm going to give you infinite and supreme value. I'm going to give you the very presence of God, the peace of God, the joy and delight of God. I'm going to put a smile on his face. There is nothing that compares to that. We think that there is. We don't live like that's the most important thing, but it is.

The trade is not money for money. It's money for Christ. It's wealth for worship. It's finances for fruit. What's better? It is the trade of a lifetime. And again, this is just another derivative of the trade because all of life is an opportunity to make it.

But I want to put an exclamation point on this because in verse 11 to 13, Paul is framing what he means by need. He says, "My God will supply all of your need," and you have to understand that whatever he means by that, he means that your needs, he will supply those needs in accordance with what? His riches in glory in Christ. Remember he's going to give you an exchange for your money that has something to do with his riches in glory in Christ. It's better than money.

Here's what he says in verse 11 to 13:

Not that I am speaking of being in need. I've learned a secret, I've learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low and I know how to abound in any and every circumstance. — Philippians 4:11-13

I have learned the secret of facing plenty in hunger, abundance in need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Paul says, I'm content, no matter what. And this is interesting. He says, if I have a lot, I'm content. And we might be thinking, well, of course, you're content when you have a lot. But if you're someone who's ever had a lot, you know that it doesn't work that way. In fact, all you have to do is turn on the news and look at some of the most wealthy people on the planet and they are the least satisfied. They are the most disillusioned because they got everything they thought was going to satisfy and it didn't work. It is supreme disillusionment.

Paul said, I've learned how to enjoy plenty. How does he enjoy plenty? I'll tell you. He looks at the blessing and he goes, God is better than even this. You look in the face of your children, you delight in them and you think God's delighting in me is how I feel about my kids, it's a shadow. It's a sample at Costco compared to the real thing. It's nothing. As C.S. Lewis says, we chase the sunbeam up to the sun. We look at every good thing that life throws at us and we say, this is good, but it's nothing compared to him. He's not saying don't enjoy anything good. He's just saying, don't glory in stuff, glory in the one who gives the stuff. Be grateful for what he gives you.

Contentment in Suffering

What about being content when you're hungry, being content when you have nothing when the bank account is empty, when you're suffering, when you have cancer? How are you content then? You look at that stuff and you say, this is not and will not have the final word. I'm on my way somewhere else and therefore I will look at that trial that has been thrown my way—that by the way God was sovereign over and in control of. He didn't turn his head. He allowed it to happen and I will look at that and I will say God has something for me in this.

Either he will deliver me from it in this life and he will get the glory or as we learn in 2 Corinthians:

This light and momentary affliction is becoming for me an eternal weight of glory that is beyond all comparison. — 2 Corinthians 4:17

Here's what he's saying, either he delivers me now and he gets the glory or he delivers me later and I get the glory. I get a weight of glory that is beyond all comparison. It's so much better than anything. Either I win now or I win later.

Look, when you begin to see all of life as this trade, do you know what happens to you? You become unsinkable because your contentedness does not consist in the stuff of this world. It is beyond this world and you have it and you're chasing it and you can never get enough but you're completely satisfied in him. It is what you were made for. We don't live like it. We think there's some better stuff out there but there's not. But the moment that you live in a place of perpetually making this trade, do you know what happens? You will be following in the footsteps of someone who made that trade before you did. He is the one that we are to pattern our lives after.

He did not consider equality with God something to be grasped but he emptied himself. He lost everything. Why? To gain you. That's what he did. Paul says whatever was to my profit I now consider loss. He says I count it rubbish. But see, the things that were invited to count rubbish actually are rubbish. Christ looked at you—we are rubbish—and he counted us as his treasure. What a trade he made.

In the moment that you see him treasuring you even though you are rubbish is the moment that you are willing to throw it all away to gain him and in his presence there is pleasure forevermore. It starts now but it lasts forever. It is here for the taking.

Prayer and Invitation

Let's pray. Father, would you help us to live this way? What is it that you want us to trade in? Maybe we are holding on to some grievance because we needed to be right. We needed someone to understand. We needed to hold on to this offense. Maybe we would just let go of our ego and trade it in for unity in Christ. Maybe we would trade in our need to control our circumstances to gain the peace of Christ. Or maybe we would take a chance and direct every thought, every action in your direction and we would start experiencing the moment by moment presence of God as we practice your presence. Or maybe we would open our wallet, take that worthless paper and trade it in for fruit. We know that it can become worship and when it does we smile. You smile and therefore we are delighted.

God help us to live this trade every day. I struggle with it every day. We all do. But God, would you give us the courage to take you at your word? It is the truth. It is the truth.

I want to invite you. Maybe today is a chance for you to signal that you are going to make the trade. Every week we open these rails for a time of prayer. Maybe you would just come down here as you are and signal to God, I am ready to make that trade.

Maybe it is one of the things I mentioned or maybe for the first time you are saying God, I am ready to trade my life for you. He's already paid the price, all you got to do is come and receive it.

For the rest of us, let's stand as we worship the king.