The Secret of Contentment
Philippians 4:12
Dr. Roger W. Thomas, Preaching Minister
First Christian Church, Vandalia, MO
Introduction: You can’t buy contentment. But you would if you could!
Every parent or grandparent knows that when the final history of the world’s wars is written, the greatest battle of all time won’t have been fought at Gettysburg, Valley Forge, or Normandy. History’s greatest conflict is the Battle of the Golden Arches. We have all made our stand and lost. It starts when we make the mistake of asking our little ones where they would like to eat. No matter the choices, their answer is always the same—McDonald’s! McDonald’s may not be our choice, but it is almost always theirs. You didn’t really have to ask. What looks like Golden Arches is really a super secret, high-tech “kid-magnet.” Every child under ten feels the tug.
You also know what they want once you get to the counter. You only have to ask what kind of “happy meal” to order. It’s always a “happy meal.” Somewhere along the line some marketing genius figured out a way to convince our little ones and through them their parents and grandparents that the little bag contains more than McNuggets, fries, and a dinosaur stamp. You’re not buying a kid’s meal. You’re buying a happy meal!
You know that once they get their hands on the little plastic thingamajig, they won’t touch their meal. Try as you might to convince the kids to skip the cheap little trinket, nothing works. Even if you promise to give them a quarter to buy their own little toy from the bubble gum machine by the door after they eat, they still want “a happy meal.” Of course, you give in. What self-respecting adult wants a restaurant full of people craning their necks to look at the tight-fisted, penny-pinching cheapskate who made the little kid cry by denying him a “happy meal?”
Of course, you can’t buy happiness in a hamburger sack. The only one that stays happy is McDonald’s. That’s why Ronald McDonald has that great big grin painted across his face. Twenty billion Happy Meals, that’s why! The toy breaks. Whatever joy that came with the happy meal disappears as soon as you get back in the van. At least half the food tossed in the garbage as you leave.
Writer John Ortberg identifies the real issue, “When we get older, most of us don’t get any smarter; our happy meals just get more expensive.” (Adapted from John Ortberg, Dangers, Toils & Snares: Resisting the Hidden Temptations of Ministry (Multnomah, 1994), pp.99-100).
We can’t buy contentment. But that doesn’t keep us from trying. In Our Daily Bread devotional booklet, Philip Parham tells the story of a wealthy business man who, while on a weekend getaway, struck up a conversation with a local commercial fisherman. The guy was just lounging under a tree near his boat. "Why aren’t you out there fishing?" the businessman asked. "Because I’ve caught enough fish for today," said the fisherman. "Why don’t you catch more fish?" the richer man asked. "What would I do with them?"
The businessman can’t believe what he has heard. So he offers unsolicited lecture on “business management 101.” "You could earn more money," the businessman insisted, "and buy a better boat so you could go deeper and catch more fish. You could purchase nylon nets, catch even more fish, and make more money. Soon you’d have a fleet of boats and be rich like me." The fisherman shot him a skeptical look and then asked, "Then what would I do?" "You could sit down and enjoy life," said Mr. Moneybags. "And what do you think I’m doing now?" the fisherman replied. (Scott Minnich, Toms River, New Jersey. Leadership, Vol. 16, no. 3.)
You can’t buy contentment. It isn’t for sale—at any price. And as our text suggests, for a lot of folk, contentment is a secret. You can’t buy it. But you can learn its secret—for free! Anybody here interested in learning the big secret? It’s all right here in the surrounding verses.
Look at the verses that surround our text. “. . . I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”
Contentment isn’t circumstantial. It has nothing to do with position and everything to do with perspective. It is internal not external. It really has little to do with finances. It is all about faith. If you are not contented where you are, you’ll never be contented where you’re not!
The verses that precede our text are organized around a series of commands and promises. Together they reveal the secret ingredients of contentment. Follow the instructions, discover the treasure, and experience the contentment.
Note the command in verse 5: Let your gentleness be evident to all. Gentleness describes a calmness, a steady, settled, secure mindset that’s not easily ruffled or angered. Note the associated promise. The Lord is near. Our calmness flows from our confidence that we don’t have to handle everything. Our God can handle it.
Note the second command in verse 6: Do not be anxious about anything. Telling someone to stop worrying is like saying “don’t think about pink elephants.” The command itself insures its failure. But there is more to the verse. “But in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” We can’t force ourselves to stop worrying. But you can’t pray and worry at the same time. The promise of the next verse guarantees that. “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
The third command in verse 8 drives the intensity up another notch. “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.” Garbage in; garbage out! What you feed your mind determines your frame of mind. Verse 9 links such thinking to learning and obeying God’s Word. “Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me–put it into practice.” Contentment grows from a God-filled mind. Note the promise: “And the God of peace will be with you.”
Did you catch the way the three promises associated with the three ingredients are linked? God is near. The peace of God will guard your heart. The God of peace will be with you.
There it is. The path to contentment! Those three ingredients lead direction to our text. “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”
The late preacher and writer Charles Allen observed,
“[our society has taught us a lie] We have been told that if …you want to be happy, if you want an abundant life, the way to accomplish it is to get the right kind of automobile, television set, washing machine, refrigerator. If you get enough of these mechanical things, life to you will be a happy existence. Americans have swapped god for gadgets. But eventually something will happen that you’re not prepared for. You learn that you can’t meet a crisis with a Cadillac; you can’t mend a broken heard with a sewing machine; you can’t lift the burden of a guilty conscience with a vacuum cleaner.”
Jesus told why we can’t buy contentment. “A man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Lk 12:15). He also said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and all the things (the needs of life) will be added to you.”
The richest man in town is not the one with the most money or the biggest farm. The richest man is the contented man!
You won’t find it in “happy meal” no matter how much you pay for it. But, as our text says, you too can discover contentment through the Christ who strengthens you.
***Dr. Roger W. Thomas is the preaching minister at First Christian Church, 205 W. Park St., Vandalia, MO 63382 and an adjunct professor of Bible and Preaching at Central Christian College of the Bible, 911 E. Urbandale, Moberly, MO. He is a graduate of Lincoln Christian College (BA) and Lincoln Christian Seminary (MA, MDiv), and Northern Baptist Theological Seminary (DMin).
