Examine yourself - Contentment 007

Examine yourself - Contentment 007

For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
(2 Corinthians 12:10 ESV)

LEARNED

Paul did not learn contentment from just the scriptures or the Holy Spirit.  He learned contentment in the crucible of life.  (NOTE: People experience – endure hardships yet not learn contentment –- would you say it was the combination of experiences, scriptures and the Holy Spirit?)

Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea;
on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.
And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.  (2 Corinthians 11:24-28 ESV)

So, any questions?

We do not learn contentment from being in a situation that breeds contentment.  The contentment Paul learned was a contentment in adversity - in life threatening circumstances, in knowing that the above difficulties (what an understatement) would probably continue to present themselves.

Paul accepted Christ's teaching that in this world we would have tribulation and be hated.  He accepted persecution and other dangers.

There are two aspects to the crucible in which he learned contentment.  The first was the crucible of persecution and the second was the crucible of life.  Life here is full of uncertainty and danger.  Life here, as a follower of Christ, is full of certain danger.  Paul accepted that - it is what it is.

He didn't try to control of conquer his circumstances.  He didn't try to manipulate or manage the conditions or people he lived among.  It is what it is.
He accepted that.

But he accepted that within a specific context.  That context was the sovereignty and faithfulness of God in Christ.  Paul did not WANT to be beaten or stoned or naked or hungry.  He did not seek these things in some warped quest for higher spirituality.  They were simply what they were.

But Paul also accepted that his sovereign and faithful God was in total control and that anything that happened was in God's control and for God's glory.

There's an old chorus I remember singing:
In my life Lord be glorified, be glorified.
In my life Lord, be glorified today.

I'm a lot more tremulous when I sing that today.  When I used to sing it, my mind was seeing success and influence and prosperity and health.  That's what I thought was glorifying to God and it can be - but not in every life.

I made this statement at a Bible study last night.  "The love of God is meaningless without the wrath of God."

We are all too willing to accept nice things as God's will but not so nice or un-nice things?  We always ascribe them to Satan or men.  But God is sovereign - right?  See Job the first two chapters.

Contentment for Paul was defined by his heart, not his circumstances:

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith--   (Philippians 3:7-9 ESV)

The "whatever" in verse 7 certainly refers to the accomplishments Paul lists before it but it is not limited to it.  He says, "For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish."

"Count" = in the above passage carries more than a simple "consideration."  There is an element of command in this counting.  Paul pronounced all these things rubbish.  It was a pronouncement of commitment.  He decided that in his life everything was rubbish in comparison to the grace of God in Christ.

When he says he did this for, Christ's "sake," he is saying that because of Christ he does so.  It also carried the idea that Paul does this "through" Christ.

Paul determined that apart from Christ there was no contentment and that in Christ there was no reason for discontent.

Ahh - here's the rub!  Do we really say with Paul, "I no longer live!"

Think on the following:

I have been crucified with Christ. (Not "in" but "with")

 It is no longer I who live, (Not "me")

but Christ who lives in me. (Just Him)

And the life I now live in the flesh  (Here and now - hated and persecuted, hungry and naked, beaten and stoned etc...)

 I live by faith (This is a biggie!!  Faith = trust, submission, surrender, dependence, etc.......)

in the Son of God,
who loved me and
gave himself for me.
(Galatians 2:20 ESV)


Think about that - more later --

This is not some legalistic imposition I'm striving for here - I am trying to help us see that contentment is utterly redefined in Christ.  Simply put, we must be content with our redemption and not seek it anywhere else - because, if we are indeed "in Him," it can't be found anywhere else.  ms

Peter’s Pen 1st Peter 2:20-25

1Pe 2:20-25  For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.  (21)  For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.  (22)  He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.  (23)  When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.  (24)  He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.  (25)  For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

Let me cut to the chase:

(21)  For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. 

Any questions?

Mat 5:11-12  "Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.  (12)  Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Peter’s Pen 1st Peter 1:17 & 19

1Pe 1:17-19  And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile,  (18)  knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold,  (19)  but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

This can be a chewy passage if we’re not careful.  What Peter writes in verse 17 makes one quiet uncomfortable.

“And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile.”

In vs. 17 we see that, this is our God and this is what He does and we need to always keep this in mind.  How poor we are when we forget where and how we once stood. 

Eph 2:12  remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

The cost of not remembering that truth is beyond measure.  When we forget this prior state, we are going to stumble.  When we do not keep it in mind in our prayers, meditations and conversations, we can all too easily begin to rely upon ourselves and upon other things for our hope and security.  When that begins, it’s a very subtle and slippery slope.

But, even though Peter and Paul call us to keep our dearest and deepest need ever before our eyes and foremost in our hearts, they do not leave us there to squirm and suffer for there is no reason for us to do so.

1Pe 1:18  knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold,

And what, pray tell, are these futile ways?  Simply put, idolatry and autonomy (which is pretty much self-idolatry).  Our “forefathers” looked to deities they created and/or to their own abilities to live, to have power – for provision.  They rejected God and turned from the creator to the creature.

Isa 57:13  When you cry out, let your collection of idols deliver you! The wind will carry them off, a breath will take them away. But he who takes refuge in me shall possess the land and shall inherit my holy mountain.

Jer 10:2-5  Thus says the LORD: "Learn not the way of the nations, nor be dismayed at the signs of the heavens because the nations are dismayed at them,  (3)  for the customs of the peoples are vanity. A tree from the forest is cut down and worked with an axe by the hands of a craftsman.  (4)  They decorate it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so that it cannot move.  (5)  Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field, and they cannot speak; they have to be carried, for they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good."

We, followers of the Christ, have been RANSOMED/REDEEMED.

We WERE slaves to sin and self and for that we stood condemned.  A price was demanded, justice had to be served and so it was done.  Not by anything we could or would do.  Not by any riches we might amass and offer not by any power we could gather and hold:

1Pe 1:19  but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

1Pe 3:18  For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.

Gal 2:20  I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

1Pe 2:9  But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Eph 2:8-13  For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,  (9)  not a result of works, so that no one may boast.  (10)  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.  (11)  Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called "the uncircumcision" by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands--  (12)  remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.  (13)  But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

In the early days of the church our faith was known as “the Way” (Acts 24:14) and I believe we have lost a lot in losing this name.  When we look at our lives as lives following the Way, we have to remember that where we are is not where we began and hence we remember where we began. 

John Newton, writer of Amazing Grace, wrote:

“I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am.”

And

“Although my memory's fading, I remember two things very clearly: I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior.”

Let us pray we REMEMBER~!