Amelia Church of Christ - Christian Church in Amelia, OH near Cincinnati in Clermont County

Today we’re starting a new series called Games People Play.   We all love games, don’t we? We can play games around a table, on the Internet, and even on our cell phones. If you eat dinner at a place like Buffalo Wild Wings, or B-dubs as we aficionados call it, you can play games on big screens while you eat your wings. We all have our favorite games to play. It can be low-tech like checkers or high-tech like Halo, but we love our games.

The problem is that we often treat our lives as one big game. These games that we play in our lives can prevent us from living lives that are authentic and fulfilling. In this series that will last through the rest of the summer, we’re going to expose some of the games that we play in our own lives, games we play with others, and even games we try to play with God.

Today, we’re going to begin with a classic childhood game: Hungry, Hungry Hippos. Most of us have played this game, but just to be sure that we all understand the concept, we’re going to have a little live demo. (Bring 4 people up to demonstrate how the game is played.)

Obviously the point of this game is for your hippo to eat the most marbles. But to accomplish this, you’ve got to keep reaching for more. You can’t be satisfied with the marbles you have. You’ve got to get more. You just can’t be content with what you have.

The problem is that I didn’t just describe a child’s game. I just described our lives. You can’t be satisfied or content with what you have. You’ve got to keep reaching for more.

Today we’re in Philippians 4. We’re going to listen as the apostle Paul gives us all some principles for living lives of satisfaction and contentment.

Starting in verse 11, Paul writes, “…I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I 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. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:11b-13, NIV)

Do you get the feeling that Paul would have stunk at Hungry, Hungry Hippos? He’s content with whatever marbles he has. But even though he wouldn’t go very high in the Hungry Hippos draft, he’s given us some seriously solid principles that we can use to stop playing this game in our lives.

The first principle he gives us is contentment is not based on circumstances. Let’s go back and look part of our passage again.

“…I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I 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.” (Philippians 4:11b-12, NIV)

The first principle Paul emphasizes to us is that contentment is not based on circumstances. We often get this principle of contentment mixed up with a feeling of happiness. They’re not the same thing. Happiness depends on right happenings, but contentment is not based on circumstances.

Think of what Paul endured in his life.   He wrote in 2 Corinthians, “Five times I was given the thirty-nine lashes by the Jews; three times I was whipped by the Romans; and once I was stoned. I have been in three shipwrecks, and once I spent twenty-four hours in the water. In my many travels I have been in danger from floods and from robbers, in danger from my own people and from   Gentiles; there have been dangers in the cities, dangers in the wilds, dangers on the high seas, and dangers from false friends. There has been work and toil; often I have gone without sleep; I have been hungry and thirsty; I have often been without enough food, shelter, or clothing.” (2 Corinthians 11:24-27, GNB)

If contentment was based on circumstances, then Paul would have been the biggest malcontent in the world. And yet Paul says that he has learned to be content in all circumstances because contentment is not based on circumstances. Paul was actually in prison when he wrote these words. Understand that imprisonment in the Roman Empire meant something completely different than it does in 21st century America. Can you imagine sitting in a jail cell, shackles on your hands and feet, rats and vermin crawling all around you, the stench of disease and death hanging heavy in the air…and yet Paul still writes that he is content?  He is obviously not focusing on circumstances. And he obviously believes that contentment and happiness are two separate things.

Dennis Bloodworth wrote about a girl named Julie who is living like a modern-day Paul. Julie is a high school student. Here’s what Dennis wrote about her. “She is the only Christian in her family. Her mom is a witch (literally). Her dad left years ago and she rarely sees him. Her sister is in serious rebellion and her brother doesn’t really care. Their financial situation is poor and it shows in the apartment they live in and the clothes Julie wears. However, you’re have a hard time finding a high schooler who is in love with Jesus the way Julie is. She reads His Word, prays and talks to Him on a daily basis, and she loves her church and youth group. She could be angry at her situation like her sister or give up and be apathetic like her brother. Instead, she presses on.”

Julie has found contentment because it has nothing to do with her circumstances. When we lack satisfaction in our lives, when we’re struggling with feelings of deep discontent, we need to press the pause button. Freeze right where we are and ask ourselves, “What am I focused on?” It is a guarantee that we’re focused on our circumstances. And if that’s the case, we’ll never be content. Ever. Your situation could always be better. You could have a better job. You could have a better boss. You could have a better house. You could have more money. You could have better clothes. You could have a nicer car. Almost everything in your life could be better, and if these are the things we focus on, you can kiss contentment goodbye. You’ll never live a satisfied and fulfilled life.

Now, this does not make sense to our world. In fact, that’s the second principle that Paul points out to us.

Contentment is not understood by our world. To our discontented and dissatisfied culture, this is a bunch of nonsense. It does not compute.

In verse 12, Paul said, “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation…” The word secret may be better translated as “mystery.” Christian contentment is a mystery to our world. C.S. Lewis said, “This is the American Dream. Work. Buy. Display. Repeat.” The idea of being content where you are with what you have just doesn’t compute with our culture.

There was a guy who really bought into our world’s philosophy of money. He was never content with what he had and he worked all his life to accumulate more and more and more. He grew to become a grumpy, greedy old miser.

Just before he died, he said to his wife, “Now listen. When I die, I want you to take all my money and put it in the casket with me.” At first she objected to the silly request, but he insisted. He made her promise that she would put all his money in the casket with him.

Soon after this, the man died. The day of the funeral came. He was stretched out in his casket, his widow sitting on the front row dressed all in black, with her best friend sitting next to her. When the service was finished, the funeral home staff began to close the casket and the wife said, “Wait a minute!” She got up, walked to the casket, and dropped a small box inside. Then the men closed up the casket and rolled it away.

The wife’s friend said, “Girl, I know you weren’t fool enough to put all that money in the casket with him.”

The wife said, “Listen, I made a promise. I told him that I would put the money in the casket with him.”

Her friend was in disbelief. “You mean to tell me that you put all husband’s money in the casket with him?”

The wife responded, “I sure did. I wrote him a check.”

Our culture’s philosophy is get more, and then get more, and then get still more. Our world does not understand how to be content.   That’s exactly what Jesus told us in Matthew 6. "So do not start worrying: 'Where will my food come from? or my drink? or my clothes?' (These are the things the pagans are always concerned about.) Your Father in heaven knows that you need all these things. Instead, be concerned above everything else with the Kingdom of God and with what he requires of you, and he will provide you with all these other things.” (Matthew 6:31-33, GNB)

Worrying about things is what pagans do. Constant discontentment is a hallmark of the world. This is why Paul calls our contentment a secret or a mystery. We need to understand that what we’re hearing from God’s Word this morning is not what we’ll hear around the water cooler tomorrow morning because contentment is just not understood by our world.

A third principle we can pull out of our passage in Philippians is that contentment is not automatic.

In verse 11 of our passage, Paul said, “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.” Paul tells us, “I didn’t get this contentment automatically. It didn’t just happen. It’s something I had to learn over time.”

Nothing in our walk with Christ comes automatically. We’re told to love one another, but it doesn’t happen automatically. We’re told to forgive others, but we can’t just wave a magic wand to make it happen. Maturing in Christ is a lifelong process. Nothing comes easily or automatically. Contentment is no different.

Especially in our culture. We live in the most materially blessed society to ever exist on this planet, and yet we also live in one of the most discontented societies to ever exist. Contentment will not come to us automatically because it requires us to unlearn everything that we’ve been taught by our culture. We live in a Hungry Hippos world. If we take our cues for our culture, we’ll never find the life of contentment that God has in mind for us.

So where does this leave us? We can’t look to our situation for contentment because we’ve learned that contentment isn’t based on circumstances. We can’t look to our world because it doesn’t understand even the most basic principles of contentment. We can’t just assume that one day we’ll be content because it doesn’t happen automatically. Where does that leave us? It leaves us with the last principle that Paul points out to us.

Contentment is found in a relationship with Jesus. At the end of our passage, Paul wrote a sentence that is one of the most popular Scriptures in the New Testament.

In verse 13, Paul said, “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” Many of you have this verse memorized. It is one of the most well-known New Testament scriptures. It’s also one of the most misused and misapplied Scriptures in the New Testament. Most of the time, these misinterpretations come with good intentions, but they are still misinterpretations.

For example, Christian athletes use this verse to say that, because God is my strength, I am able to excel on the field or the court. There are Christian weightlifting teams who use this verse as a theme to their messages about using their strength for God. It’s not a bad message, but it’s not an honest interpretation of this verse.

I had a professor in Bible College who taught us that “context is king.” In other words, to understand a particular verse, you have to see it in context with the verses that surround it. When we look at Philippians 4:13 in context, we understand that Paul is telling us the secret of contentment. Even in his grim, prison surroundings, he could be content because his relationship with Jesus gave him the strength to do so.

This is why our world cannot comprehend contentment. Because without God’s power at work in our lives, contentment will always be out of our reach.

Hebrews 13 tells us, “Don't fall in love with money. Be satisfied with what you have. The Lord has promised that he will not leave us or desert us.” (Hebrews 13:5, CEV)

We can satisfied, or content, because God has promised that He’ll always be with us. God is all-sufficient if we allow him to be. The question we have to ask is have we allowed him to be all-sufficient in our lives?

It’s amazing how much stuff we convince ourselves that we need. When we were preparing to move, my dad drove out to our house in Indiana and we loaded up a trailer full of stuff for him to haul back here to Ohio. We stayed in Indiana for almost two months after that, and you know what? We didn’t even miss the stuff that he hauled away? If we went two months and didn’t miss one thing in that trailer, I’ve got to wonder how much of that stuff we actually need. We may be having one huge yard sale, because the whole transition from Indy to Amelia has reinforced to Nicki and me how much stuff we have that we don’t need.

One of the songs our kids sang at VBS this week starts with this simple line: You are all I need. Could you honestly sing that line to God? God, you are all I need. I don’t need recognition from other people. I don’t need prestige. I don’t need a nicer car. I don’t need designer clothes. I don’t need another pair of shoes. I don’t need to chase after more money. I don’t need more toys to impress my neighbors. I don’t need more than I have. I will adjust my lifestyle and live more simply because I don’t need all this extra stuff. You are all I need. I am content, I am satisfied, with you.

We live in a Hungry Hippos world. We’re conditioned to keep reaching for more. Contentment is not understood and it is not allowed.

But when we understand what God has already given us, namely His own Son, how can we ask for more? If we take our focus off of our circumstances, if we stop following our frantic world that tells us to get more, more, more, if we slow down enough to turn our focus to the cross of Jesus Christ, we’ll find that the hippos in our lives all of a sudden won’t be so hungry anymore.

If you’re tired of chasing after things you don’t have, you’re weary from this feeling that nothing is ever good enough, there is contentment available through a relationship with Jesus Christ. If you’ve never accepted him as your Lord and Savior, we invite you to come to Him today.

Mike Edmisten