The Secret to True Happiness Philippians 4:10-13 (NKJV)

Transcription

1 Message for THE LORD'S DAY EVENING, May 31, 2015 Christian Hope Church of Christ, Plymouth, North Carolina by Reggie A. Braziel, Minister TOPIC: Happiness, Contentment The Secret to True Happiness Philippians 4:10-13 (NKJV) Please turn with me in your Bibles to Philippians chapter four. And let's read verses Philippians 4:10-13 (NKJV) P R A Y E R 10 But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last your care for me has flourished again; though you surely did care, but you lacked opportunity. 11 Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: 12 I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. 13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. ************************************************************ I N T R O D U C T I O N Do you consider yourself to be a happy person? Would your family members and those who know you best consider you to be a happy person? The American people are the richest, most prosperous people on earth, and yet millions of Americans, including a great number of Christians, live miserably unhappy lives.

2 In his book SIMPLE FAITH, Chuck Swindoll cites a poem which aptly describes the plague of discontentment that characterizes the lives of many Americans. It was spring, but it was summer I wanted, The warm days, and the great outdoors. It was summer, but it was fall I wanted, The colorful leaves, and the cooler, dryer air. It was fall, but it was winter I wanted, The beautiful snow, and the joy of the holiday season. It was winter, but it was spring I wanted, The warmth, and the blossoming of nature. I was a child, but it was adulthood I wanted, The freedom and the respect. I was twenty, but it was thirty I wanted, To be more mature and sophisticated. I was middle-aged, but then it was twenty I wanted, To be youthful and free-spirited once again. I was retired, but it was middle-age I wanted, The presence of mind without limitations. And then my life was over, And I never got what I wanted. Is it possible for anyone to truly be happy in this life? Yes it is! The happiest people are not those who have more money than they know what to do with or those who can own anything and everything money will by; nor is it the people who reach the pinnacle of fame or power.

3 The happiest people on earth are those who have found the contentment that comes from having a deep, abiding relationship with JESUS CHRIST. You see, Jesus didn't come to give us instant gratification or momentary thrills. He came to give us a full...abundant...rewarding life...that comes from being in a saved relationship with Him. The secret to true happiness is learning to be content in Christ. ********************************************************* Ironically, the man who teaches us the most about this kind of contentment is a man who experienced more adversity and misery than any other man in the New Testament; and that is the apostle Paul. Paul was beaten...and stoned...and ship-wrecked...and imprisoned. He was bitten by a snake and abandoned by his friends. And yet despite his many hardships, it was Paul who said: Rejoice in the LORD always, I will say it again REJOICE! It was this same apostle who sang hymns and praised GOD at midnight while incarcerated in the Philippian jail. It was this same apostle who proclaimed: I am hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; and struck down, but not destroyed. Now I don't know about you, but there is something wonderfully attractive and magnetic about Paul's joyously happy spirit that makes me want to look closer at the secret this man had discovered. Paul reveals his secret of true happiness here in our scripture text in Philippians chapter four. In this passage we learn THREE BIBLICAL PRINCIPLES about contentment that will help you and me to be joyous in our circumstances even when we may not be happy about our circumstances.

4 Here is... Biblical Principle #1: Contentment Is A Choice (vs. 11) v.11 Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: 1. Paul is telling us that contentment was something he had to learn, not something he was born with or blessed with. 2. Now if contentment was something Paul had to learn that means two things: -One, it means there was a time in Paul's life when he didn't know what it was to be content. -And two, it tells us Paul had to make a choice to be contented. 3. When you and I came into this world we were NOT contented. In fact almost as soon as you and I learned to talk, we started expressing our discontent with life. I want my bottle! I want my passy! I want my mommy! I want my blankey! I want candy! I want ice cream! I want...i want...i want! And in our immature, childish nature, most of us would cry and scream and holler until we got what we wanted. 4. And the sad thing is, many get into their thirties...forties...and fifties and never outgrow the discontentment of their childhood. I want a new car! I want a new pickup truck! I want a new computer! I want a new ipod! I want a new iphone! I want a new pair of shoes! I want a new dress! I want a new boat! I want a new hunting rifle!

5 5. We will never know true happiness in life until we make a choice to be content with the blessings the LORD has already brought into our life. That doesn't mean we should never buy something new; but rather we should not be dependent upon things to make us happy. In fact, those who depend upon things to make them happy are usually miserably unhappy people. 6. But this doesn't just relate to material things, it relates to all areas of our life. You may be dealing with a situation in your life right now that is not very pleasant. And you have a choice as to how you will respond to that situation: I I can choose to let this situation make me BITTER or I can choose to let it make me BETTER. 7. You may not like your current job. In fact, you may even hate it. Well, there's several things you can do: One, you can gripe and complain about your job and be miserably unhappy every day and make the lives of everybody who has to work with you miserable. Two, you can quit that miserable job and become unemployed and sit at home without a paycheck and be even more miserable. Or three, You can thank GOD you even have a job, and choose to be content until GOD opens the door for you to go to work somewhere else. 8. When Paul was in that Philippian jail think how miserable he would have been if he had hollered and screamed and banged his tin cup on the cell bars and demanded to be released! You see, by choosing to be content and make the best of a bad situation, Paul was able to sing and rejoice. 9. CONTENTMENT IS A CHOICE...A CHOICE THAT RESULTS IN TRUE HAPPINESS.

6 Now here is... Biblical Principle #2: Contentment Teaches Me To Adapt to Life's Changes v. 12 I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. 1. I like the way it is worded in the New Living Translation: I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. 2. When you carefully study the life of the apostle Paul you soon learn his life was characterized by constantly changing circumstances. He would go... * from GOOD TIMES to BAD TIMES * from PLEASANT CIRCUMSTANCES to PAINFUL CIRCUMSTANCES * from HAVING PLENTY to HAVING NOTHING 3. One moment we find Paul sailing the open seas of the beautiful Mediterranean, the next we find him caught in a hurricane and marrooned on a desert island. One moment we find him the best of friends with Barnabas, the next we find them involved in such a heated disagreement over young John Mark that they have to go their separate ways.

7 4. But listen again to what Paul said in VERSE I have learned in whatever state I am to be content. What Paul is saying is, I have learned how to roll with the punches. I have learned to be content in all of life's changes. 5. You know, whether we like it or not, LIFE IS CONSTANTLY CHANGING! Some changes are good! Some are not! Legalizing same-sex marriages and legalizing certain illegal drugs are NOT good changes and we should resist those changes. 6. But there are many other changes in life that are not necessarily good or bad, but they can be emotionally painful. *OLD BUILDINGS get replaced with NEW BUILDINGS! *OLD SCHOOLS get replaced with NEW SCHOOLS. *OLD STORES go out of business, NEW STORES open in their place. *OLD TEACHERS are replaced with NEW TEACHERS. *OLD MUSIC is replaced with NEW MUSIC. *OLD TV SHOWS are replaced with NEW TV SHOWS. *OLD NEWSCASTERS are replaced with NEW NEWS CASTERS. 7. Remember when The Andy Griffith Show was replaced with Mayberry RFD? Remember on Bewitched when the old Darren was replaced with the new Darren? Remember that terrible marketing disaster when the original Coca Cola was replaced with Coke Classic? Remember when Coach Dean Smith was replaced by Coach Bill Guthridge?

8 8. Life is constantly changing. Rarely does anything stay the same. And when it comes to dealing with life's changes we can choose to do one of two things: We can either go through life miserably unhappy by fighting and kicking and resisting all change. Or we can choose to be content in the midst of life's changes by putting all our faith and trust in the One who never changes: Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever. BIBLICAL PRINCIPLE #1: Contentment Is A Choice BIBLICAL PRINCIPLE #2: Contentment Helps Me To Adapt To Life's Changes Now here's our third and final biblical principle: Biblical Principle #3: Contentment Teaches Me To Control What I Can Control and Let Go of The Rest 1. Look just across the page of your Bible at Paul's familiar words in Philippians 3: Philippians 3:12-14 (NKJV) 12 Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

9 2. As you know, Paul had a pretty checkered past prior to becoming a Christian. -He had stood by and watched the stoning of Stephen watching over the coats of the executioners. -He had also been the ring leader of the persecution of the Christians in Jerusalem and even pursued them into the foreign country of Syria to have them thrown into prison or killed. 3. But here in Philippians 3 Paul says he has chosen to forget those things which are behind. In other words, I can't change what I used to be. I have no control over the terrible mistakes I once made. All I can do is move forward. 4. You and I know people who are miserably unhappy because they cannot let go of the past...they can't let go of things they have absolutely no control over. Illustration: Many of us can remember the old vinyl records we used to play on a record player. Remember when the needle would get stuck at a certain place in the song and it would play the same line over and over again? Some people's lives are like that. I know some widows and widowers who replay over and over again what they could have done or should have done differently while their mate was still alive. Instead of choosing to be content and happy in the present they keep playing that song of regret over and over again. 5. When my dad died suddenly in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee back in 1992, I was the only one of us five kids who wasn't with him at the time of his death. I have often regretted that. But you know what, I don't have any control over that and all the regret in the world isn't going to change anything. Instead I chose to remember all the precious times I did have with my dad and move forward with my life.

10 6. There is no way you will ever enjoy the full, abundant life Christ has in store for you as long as you try to control people or control situations that are completely out of your control. As long as you try to CONTROL what other people think about you...or what they say about you...or how they act towards you... you will never know a moment of happiness. As long as you try to CONTROL every situation and make everything turn out the way you want it to turn out, you are going to experience misery and frustration. 7. If you truly want to be happy in life, you must choose to take care of the things you have control over and LET GO OF EVERYTHING ELSE! ****************** C O N C L U S I O N The story is told about a man who became envious of his friends because they owned larger and more luxurious homes. So he listed his home with a Real Estate firm, planning to sell it and move into a more impressive home. A few days later the man was looking at the homes listed in the classified section of the newspaper when he came across one listing that grabbed his attention. The home had four bedrooms, two baths, a huge living room and kitchen and a two car garage. And best of all, the house was listed in a price range he could afford. So the man picked up the phone and called the realtor and said, There's a house listed in today's paper that is exactly what I am looking for. The realtor asked the man several questions about the ad he saw in the paper and then he replied, You're not going to believe this, but the home you are describing is the home you are living in. That's the ad I took to the newspaper office yesterday. Brothers and sisters, sometimes the happiness we think has eluded us is right under our noses! The Secret to True Happiness is LEARNING TO BE CONTENT!