Content Enough: Embracing for Contentment No Matter the Circumstances

Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2025 23:59:38 GMT, Duration: [00:38:21.88]

Good morning. You made it. I did too. It's a good thing. It might have been touch and go last night. I might have decided to run away. I'm not. I'm not confessing to anything, but I might have run away last night. My sister didn't know it, but I might have run away last night. And then she would be left with. Where's. Where's DJuana? Dr. DJuana? I don't know. She got up and left and I haven't seen her since last night. Wow. I don't know where she went, but I made it. I didn't run away. God is faithful and good. Amen. Amen. Before I get into the sermon, I want to stand here and act in the role of elder treasurer. Thank you so much for all that you do to bless our church. Thank you. You've allowed us to walk into a great blessing by the way that you give and what you do for us. And so we appreciate it. One of the things that we're trying to do is to as much as possible trim the fat. You understand that, right? You know, get rid of things that are costing us too much money and that we can find other ways to do the same thing, but cheaper. Right? Like going to the grocery store instead of getting that name brand can of Hormel or whatever, we get the Kroger brand. Right? Kind of like that. Kind of like that. So what we've done is that we've been working on since probably the middle of the summer to get rid of tithely. Tithely is costly for us. It costs us a little bit more than we would like for it to in operating as far as the fees that they give us for doing tithely. So we've been trying to encourage everybody to go to church center and give through there and everything. And about 90% of us have done that. 95% probably have done that. Yay. But there's that 5%. They won't let tidely go. I don't know what it is, but they won't let tidely go. So there are literally nine families or nine giving units that we still have giving through tidely. So what I'm going to be doing this week is reaching out to these people individually. So this is your warning. You're going to get a phone call or an email or a letter from me that says, hello, My name is Dr. Dewana Drew. I am your elder treasurer and I am working to get you off of tithely. Okay. To give it up completely. So, yeah, just give it up, just let it go. Give it to Jesus. He's going to take care of tithely. Okay? So when I do that, I don't want you to be surprised by my phone call, my email, my letter. I really want to engage with you if you need help with it. You know, sometimes the issue is the scariness of trying something new, right? So if there's a problem, if you need help, I can help you and I'm willing to do that. But this is just the warning, the shot over the bow coming for you, all nine of you, whoever you are. And I only mean that in love. I'm not trying to run you down and chase you down and throw you to the ground. None of that. But I do want to make sure we can get you off of Tithely so that we can move on with church center. All right, thank you so much. I appreciate that. All right, so then we are going to talk about today a couple of things that are going to be might be a little difficult, but at the same time we have the power of God with us so we could do anything with God's help. Amen. So first I just want to give you my Basically my topic is to be content enough embracing contentment no matter the circumstances or or content enough to invest wisely. My main idea today is financial wisdom is not about fear based control but spirit led stewardship. Contentment frees us from comparison and empowers us to invest in the kingdom of God and others. So I'm going to read for you the passage that I'm using today, which is Philippians chapter 4, verses 10 through 19 and it is in the English Standard version so you can read along with me. I'm not asking you to stand or anything, but we're going to read the Read along. You can read along with me. As I read, I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but had no opportunity. Not that I'm speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low. I know how to abound in any and every circumstance. I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble. And you, Philippians yourself 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. Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases your credit. I have received full payment and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. A fragrant offering, a serve, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. God's word is blessed. And so we say, let this word fill our minds and flow through our mouths as we live lives as beloved children of God. Amen. Amen. So I'm going to pray again. Just because I like to pray, it helps to settle me. Are you okay with that? All right, let's pray again. God. God, in your goodness and grace, remind us today that you are right here with us in this present moment and that there is nothing that we're going to face later today, next week, next month, next year, in the next 10 years of our lives that you are not already there. We love you for that. We thank you for your goodness and your grace. Always be with us in this moment as we learn more as you form us in the midst of this sermon and allow us to see your work in our lives. So we bless you and we honor you in the mighty and strong name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. So this week has been a week of many things for me. Revelations, transitions, and answered prayers. I want to say that God has blessed me with many blessings and graces. Things I know if it wasn't for him, then I would not have received those blessings. And I want to acknowledge that. I want to also share one specific blessing. And it is a group of people that I get to sit with once a month as a bereavement coordinator for a hospice care agency. These people are 70, 80, and 90. There might be a couple of them that are close to 100. And they sit with me in a support group to talk about different things that are going on with them, things that maybe are not going on with them. Excuse me, my eye is itching. Sometimes they want to talk about me. They want to ask me questions of, like, I'm not interesting, but they find the funniest questions to ask me about me. And other times they talk about things and I'm not. And I wasn't even aware that they were still concerned about that. Right. Some of them are still concerned about their finances. Do I have enough money to stay here to live here? Some of them are still concerned about how long do I have left. I'm 93 years old, I've lived a full life. How many more years do I have? So those kind of things kind of come up sometime. But I asked them a question this past week. I was a little sneaky, but I asked them a question and I asked them, are they content? Interesting question for 70, 80, and 90 year old people to answer. Very interesting. They gave me a little bit of everything. And I'm going to say it this this way, but I don't mean any harm by it at all. Some of them gave me the safe answer that was the first thing out of the gate. Well, God says that we need to be content. Good answer. But are you content? So when they sat there with it for a little bit and they looked at me and they realized I was serious, that I wasn't just joking, then they sat back and they said things like, I'm not content. I still miss my wife. She and I were together for 45 years and she got me and now nobody gets me. And so I'm not content or I would be content if my kids would come to visit more. I don't get to see my grandkids, I don't get to see them. I don't get to see my kids. I don't get to see what's going on with them. They drop me off and I don't see them much. And some of the other answers were varied but about the same. And I found myself a little bit shocked initially and then not so shocked. Because contentment is something that we grapple with for the entirety of our lives. From being an infant that wants a bottle, wants picked up, wants attention, wants to take off their clothes that you just put on them. I don't know how y' all do it. I didn't have any children. I look at some of the things that kids and I go, how do they do that? How do they. I mean, kids don't want to get dressed when you want them to get dressed. They don't want to eat, but you tell them to eat. Jesus, I applaud all of you for having children. Amen. Give yourself a hand. You did a good job. You had a child. I mean, really, really. Some of you had multiple. Oh, my goodness. Yes. Yes. You should pat yourself on the back because it's hard to live in contentment, live in peace, live in comfort, live in the assurances that God is taking care of everything when someone is screaming at you because, yeah, you just fed them, but they're still hungry. Yeah, yeah, that's something else. So I spent Some time talking to this group of people and got the answers that they gave me. And it just caused me to wonder, God, what other ways in which we find our lives in such disarray that we're not able to be content. So as I considered this sermon and the main topic of contentment, I decided to try out, tried the question out on my 80 year olds and my 90 years, as I mentioned to you, and, and got the answers that I did. So my group of wise, funny and engaging group members confirmed one thing, that it takes work to master the place of contentment. And that work can often accompany us throughout our entire life. I found out, I found that to be good news and bad news. Good news that I am not alone in this journey. Bad news, because I was hoping for tips about mastery from my 80 and 90 year old people. I mean, come on, give me the, give me the scoop, give me the skinny, right? But the truth is I could be 9 years old, I could be 19, I could be 91 and still working to find contentment. They had no idea I was using them as my case study or project. But I appreciate everything that they shared with me that day. Some of us walk through life and if contentment is a thing, we wonder if it's elusive, something that we may never achieve. But Paul says not so. He achieved it and tells us how he did it. His encouragement allows us to apply a contentment to each facet of our lives. Financially, personally, spiritually and emotionally, just to name a few. There is a mastery class available to us. And in today's passage of Scripture, our brother Paul is teaching the class. He is showing us the way to find and to be content. Contentment and its other forms Content and its other form. Contentment can be used as a noun, a verb and an adjective. Nouns can define, adjectives can describe, and of course verbs show action or movement. Right? So I want us to see this, going through this passage today as a formational moment, that God intends to do something specific with each and every one of us concerning the life that we're living today. God knows how to be relevant to our current situation. He does not necessarily delve in our past unless there's something that we need to deal with. He doesn't often go to the future unless we're spending too much time thinking about the future. But God will deal with us in this present moment about what we may be concerned about. So in this part that we picked up here in Philippians 4, verses 10 through 19, Paul is simply writing a thank you note. To the Philippians, sharing with them how much they mean to him and how much their support, even when they could not offer it, was a blessing regardless of their ability to support him. Paul also chooses to make his note of thanks a time to introduce a concept of contentment that would assist the Philippians and us in understanding the secret. Because he used the word secret, the secret of being content to Paul and the family of supporters he was writing to, contentment was not a foregone content, foregone conclusion in one's life. Yes, we can live our whole lives and not be content. We can arrive at 90 years old and still wonder what contentment is and what it would could mean in the life of a normal everyday person. Even though I wouldn't describe myself as a normal everyday person. Why does that matter? Why do we need to be content? Why is contentment important? How can being content improve my spiritual life and connection to God, which is the ultimate goal? Right? The answers to those questions may be found in the points I have listed below, and so we're going to go through those here soon. My prayer is that you can My prayer is that the questions associated with each point will cause you to notice and to wonder about how God is working through your individual life circumstances to assist you in drawing closer to contentment, a place of contentment that can only be found in his presence and in this present moment. So my three points are this. Number one, Paul speaks about embracing the Whatever the circumstances of contentment, it is true that we face many circumstances in life which was to go to work in the morning due to traffic, who should I marry? Do I want children, and how many. The doctors say they have done all they can do now. Now what? In the midst of these varied situations and circumstances, Paul says, regardless of what it is, no matter the circumstance, I have found contentment. Really? I mean, Paul, really. My first question is, how is that possible? Well, without without jumping ahead too far into our story, it would appear hard to end each day content. I sometimes go to bed concerned about the happenings of that day or about the things that have lingered for days or months. I also know that this stance is not consistent with what God encourages me to do, but it does not hinder me from doing it. I still do it, and I can say that most days I try to do better with the concerns that would tend to weigh me down. But there are times that it is hard to be content. The piece of the passage we read, referring to whatever appears to be specific, Paul did not say whatever the circumstances unless it has to do with your bank account or your health or your marriage or your kids. He said, whatever the circumstances. And that appears to be everything, no matter what. Point number two Embracing the coping with life aspect of contentment. Paul states that contentment, or the state of being content, is not swayed or changed by what may come our way. He stated that he knows what it means to have plenty and he knows what it's like to be in want. He also mentioned that there is a secret, a method to what may appear to be some madness. It seems madness to say, I'm going to be content every day. I mean every single day. At the end of that day, I'm going to be content, really. Okay. He also mentioned that there is a secret, a method to what may appear to be madness to us again and but still possible. So. But Paul says, not so because I know the secret. He says I have the secret. He is saying the same things that another teacher in our Bible, David said, but he said it a different way. David says in Psalm 23, verse 1, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not. The NIV says, I lack nothing. What? I lack nothing. When there's some days I look at my bank account and go, oh wow, I would love to win the lotto today. But not so. David already says I lack nothing. So I read this book by one of the authors you may know. His name is Max Lucado. Lucado. I don't know how to pronounce his name. He wrote a book called Traveling Light, releasing the burdens you were never intended to bear. He explores Psalm 23 and makes these statements about the exploring the facet of want in our lives. And makes these Statements about Psalm 23, verse 1. Come with me to the most popular prison in the world. The prison of want. They want something. They want something bigger, nicer, faster, thinner. They want. They don't want much. Mind you, they want just one thing. One new job, one new car, one new house, one new spouse. They don't want much. They just want one. Are you in prison? You are. If you feel better when you have more and worse when you have less. You are. If joy is one delivery away. Thank you, Amazon. One transfer away, one award away or one makeover away. If your happiness comes from something you deposit, drive, drink or digest, then face it, you are in prison. The prison of want. Now, Max came a little hard there, but just a tad. But his words resonate with what Paul is teaching us today. Our desires tend to run us and run away with us. We have to measure our Desires in light of kingdom principles. And God says through Paul and David, our wants, which can control how content we are, are to be directed by and attended to by the Spirit of God, who provides all. No matter what we need or want. He provides all things. Period. End of discussion. He provides. Amen. All right, point number three. I'm gonna get off your toes here in a few minutes. Embracing the author of our strength, the Creator of contentment. I can do all things through him who gives me strength. Paul's secret is out. It is no longer a secret, but has been known to everyone who has read the Word of God. And the secret is this. I can do. I can do it because I lean on, lean into, acknowledge the power of, and rely on that power of the God of the universe. The first and the last, the beginning and the end. My Savior, my keeper, my counselor, the one who calls me friend and his beloved. I can rely on him, that same one, no mistake. It's him. So since the secret is out, why don't we act like it's the best kept secret in the world? Why aren't we running the streets of Columbus right now telling people the secret is out? Rely on God, Trust in God. Because we still. We still struggle. As my sister said this morning, in praise and worship, we learned so many things as little people. I learned all that stuff and even more. I could probably preach a sermon just from what I learned when I was five. But hearing it and living it are two different things. Hearing has to become embed in us. And that imbuement, that connection from our head to our heart has to take over so that we can live in contentment, live in a place where we trust in God, that no matter what happens, I stand by it. I believe. I remember recently someone hit my car. Silly thing. They drove by my car and hit my rearview mirror. Now, they didn't tear it off, they didn't even take the paint off of it or anything, but you can tell it's been hit when you look at it closely, right? And eventually I would need to get it fixed. But it's not. It didn't even destroy the functionality of the mirror. But I worried about that all day long. I was upset. First I was mad, then I was upset. Then I was. Oh, God, do I need to move? I mean, I just. I don't know how to tell Angela. We're going to have to move. People are hitting my car. I mean, my goodness, this is a terrible thing, but it really wasn't. And the mirror is still the same. That it was the day it was hit today. And that happened maybe two months ago. And God had to finally get to me and say, what? And I had to release it and try to find my peace again because I was so upset, so turned around by somebody hitting my mirror. But. But it's the small things and it can also be the big things that really tear us up inside, that really keep us from being content and as such then peaceful. Because where there is contentment, there is also peace. And where there is peace, there's also love. And where there is love, there is grace and forgiveness and all the other fruit of the spirit that should come from us. The goodness that we should live in all those things. But it's hard to live those things when our hearts are crowded with worry and fret and concern and doubt. Absolutely. Absolutely. The statement that Paul made is not to be. Is not meant to be anticlimactic. But sometimes I think it is we. Because I place all of us in this space, forget whom we are relying on. It is the nature of being human. Our weakened flesh wants to believe that we did it ourselves. Oh, yes, I made it through taking all those hard exams because I did study and it paid off. Or I was able to pay all my bills this month and it was good. It was a good thing because I was so close to being homeless that it was funny. You know, they still are saying that some of us are just one paycheck away from being homeless. Not just, you know, needing to call a friend. Let me live with you for a few days. No homeless. Homelessness could be one paycheck away. That's scary. That is very scary to me. But. But God. But God, we are not ones that live by the luck of the draw. We don't have this special treatment on some things, but we do have the grace of God. We do have the love of God who is continually blessing us and always there to and to hear and to answer our prayers. It is by. It is the power, grace and mercy of a great and gracious God that has allowed me to be standing here right now looking fairly sane. Do you think I look fairly sane? Fairly, yeah. It comes and goes. Yes. And speaking in words that make sense, it is all God. And I appreciate Paul and so many other scripture writers who took the plunge to say out loud for others to hear, we should never ever forget how we made it this far, whether we are 66, 88, or whatever our age. Never ever forget who sustains us and keeps us each and every day. And that is our great Father. So our goal in these three sermons, Pastor preached two of them and I'm preaching the last one today, was to focus on making decisions, wise financial decisions, and embracing greater life decisions based on understanding the concepts of contentment and what it means to have enough. The day. I can't say it. The day Anu prayer. I'm sorry for mispronouncing that. Practice is meant to instill the concept of enough and what it means to God. He always overdoes it. We cannot beat him giving. As some of the older people would say, in my church, no matter how hard you try, you can never beat God giving. He does not just answer my prayer, but he answers it in ways that lets me know he answered it and went beyond my prayer request to give me more. Diana, the God of more than enough. It wasn't enough. That. And here's my Diana prayer. It wasn't enough that you moved me to Ohio over 30 years ago. But, Diana, you provided me a job that I. That I moved here with and an apartment that I was able to get the day I arrived in Ohio. Diana, you did more than enough. I have many Diana prayers and stories of God's faithfulness, goodness and grace, and I hope you do, too. God is good and does not fail us. So my hope is that we can walk away today understanding that being content in whatever the circumstance we find ourselves in will help us with the wise choices we need to make each day. If I know you, if I know I am covered by the enduring Shepherd, a God that provides more than I can say with confidence. I want for nothing. I can trust him with what I am paid from working a job because he is supplying my wants and my needs. He worked. His words teach me that I lack nothing. I can trust. How he leads me to. Leads to give me because. I'm sorry. He leads me to give because he knows what I have and knows what I can do. Sometimes we just have to trust God with the voice that we hear to say, give that. And you're like, well, God, I. I was going to Lane Bryant today. So you're saying I'm not going to. Okay, fine. Fine. Good. Good. I don't need any clothes anyway. My closet is full. Right. So whatever God is saying to us, we can be assured that he knows exactly what we can do and exactly what we need. All the wisdom that I need is found in Him. I can make wise choices about my life, my finances, and all the other things. And as I make this statement, kind of like my credo, kind of like Something I could hang over the door and say, this is. This is my. This is my statement. If you want to say, I have one. And it reads this. I can do all things through him who gives me strength. Amen. All right, so I have some reflections for reflection questions for you as we work to finish up this sermon today. So as we're bringing up some of the questions, I just want to say this, I want you to hear me say in this, in this sermon that contentment is, is a needed component of the spiritual life. Paul encourages us in his passage in Philippians that contentment is a basic survival skill. Basic question and one I would like you to ponder as you leave today is how would you measure your level of commit contentment in your spiritual life at this moment on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being, I'm not. I'm not content at all. And number two being, oh yeah, I got this thing down. I'm so content I could. I'm probably bleeding contentment. Oozing contentment. If you are, stay. Come up here later. I need to rub shoulders with you. Okay. All right. The second question. Contentment is a learned skill and it's not something we were born with. So please don't give yourself a hard time because you're not content today. You were not born with this knowledge. We're learning and growing in this today together. Amen. When Paul says, I have learned to be content, how does that statement resonate with you? Are you still learning? Learning is a good place to be. Number three, what might God be saying to you right now about your ability to be content? And this is another place just for you to ponder and notice. What is God? When you say contentment to yourself? What is God? Even throughout the sermon, what has God been saying to you about your level of contentment? And again, God does not. I want you to hear me. If you hear condemnation right now, that is not coming from God, let's say that out loud and make the devil a liar. God does not condemn. God loves us through the places where we need to learn more about him, and he encourages us to learn more about Him. And he loves us through that process. That's what God does. God does not condemn. Amen. Amen. And then our last question. Notice how you feel when the word content or contentment is used. Those feelings may tell you more about where you are with being content. Amen.