Phil 4:10-13

This morning we are going to learn about The Secret. But first, let me introduce you to a popular book by the same title. This paragraph summarizes the message of the author.

The earth turns on its orbit for You. The oceans ebb and flow for You. The birds sing for You. The sun rises and it sets for You. The stars come out for You. Every beautiful thing you see, every wondrous thing you experience, is all there for You. Take a look around. None of it can exist, without You. No matter who you thought you were, now you know the Truth of Who You Really Are. You are the master of the Universe. You are the heir to the kingdom. You are the perfection of Life. And now you know The Secret.[i]

According to this author, what is The Secret? To me, The Secret sounds like little more than warmed-over, New Age gobblygook. The author is claiming that we are all gods. The line that really gets me is this one: None of it can exist without you. She doesn’t claim that we are creators of the universe, but that we are sustaining the universe and we are masters of the universe. The amazing thing is not just how arrogant she is, but how incredibly popular the book has become. This book was written in 2006 and there are over twelve million copies in print. Calling someone a god is the ultimate ego trip and apparently people are willing to pay big money to hear it.

If the author were standing here with us, I would ask her two key questions. One, if we are all gods and we all possess the power to sustain the universe, how does that make any of us special? I’m a god, you’re a god, little babies are gods. So what? It all sounds kind of boring if you think about it. The second question I would ask is this: If I am a god, why do I need to spend $19.99 on your book? The whole universe is at my disposal—surely I don’t need an insignificant book called The Secret to tell me this!

¹⁰ I rejoice greatly in the Lord that at last you have renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you have been concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. ¹¹ I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. ¹² 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. ¹³ I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

According to this passage, what is The Secret? If the secret in this New Age book is that we are all gods, then the secret in this passage is just the opposite—there is only one God, and we are not Him. Specifically, the secret that we want to learn is the secret of being content. For obvious reasons, the subject of contentment comes right after worry and peace, because unless you have a certain level of contentment, you cannot possibly have peace.

The first principle is that contentment must be learned. Paul wrote, “I have learned the secret of being content.” This is not the kind of secret you get from reading a book. This is not the kind of secret that you get by whispering in one’s ear: “Hey, come here. I want to tell you a secret.” This is not the kind of secret that is revealed in an instant and suddenly known. This is the kind of secret that must be learned over time. To learn the secret of being content is something that you have to learn by experience, but you don’t learn it only through experience.

For example, you would think that someone who grew up during the depression would have learned this secret. Let’s say you were having a conversation about our current economic crisis with someone who was raised during the Great Depression. Suppose you were complaining about the high price of food or not having to buy that new computer you wanted. This other person might say something like this. “Don’t tell me what it’s like to be poor. I know what it’s like. I lived it. I went to bed countless nights with an empty stomach. My little sister almost died because we could not afford expensive medicine for her. My father went to an early grave because he worked himself to death just to put food on the table. Don’t talk to me about being poor!”

Has this person learned the secret of being content? Such a person may know full well what poverty feels like, but that doesn’t mean that they have learned anything. Many people who have experienced severe poverty have only learned to worry about not having enough. They scrimp and save and go without, not because they are content, but because they are scared to death they won’t have anything. They have learned to survive and they may have learned how to worry, but they have not necessarily learned to be content.

Let’s look closer at Paul’s secret of contentment. 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. Paul knew how to be content with plenty, but what do you think his “plenty looked like? Did it mean he owned a house with a two-horse stable? Did it mean that he had large stores of food? Do you think plenty meant that he had a decent quantity of gold stored up for the future? This is what you and I mean if we say that we have plenty, but I don’t think this is what Paul meant. For Paul, having “plenty” was most likely having more than he needed for that very day. If he had more food than he could eat that day, he had plenty. Paul’s plenty was not the same thing as our prosperity.

What did Paul’s “need” look like? Did it mean that he had a house but only a one-horse stable? Did he have only a small store of food and only a few gold coins for the future? If Paul’s plenty was having more than enough for that day, then his “need” was not having enough for that very day. If his stomach was half empty at the end of the day, then Paul had a need. We must be certain that we do not take our definitions of needs and plenty and assume that this was true for Paul as well.

In case there is any doubt, let me read you a list of Paul’s “needs” that he experienced throughout his life. (2 Cor. 11:23-29)

I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again.

• Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?

Do you think a man like Paul that had so many needs ever prayed for times of “plenty”. I imagine if he did, he would have prayed a prayer like Proverbs 30:8.

Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God. I think Paul prayed just like Jesus taught us to do—he prayed for daily bread. If he had a little more than his daily bread, he was content and if he had a little less than his daily bread he was content.

It is interesting that the Greek word for contentment literally means “self-rule.” Seneca was a Roman advisor to Emperor Nero and wrote this about the word. “The happy man is content with his present lot, no matter what it is, and is reconciled to his circumstances.” That sounds an awful lot like what Paul wrote doesn’t it? I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. Paul’s Greek and Roman contemporaries like Seneca, would have subscribed to the Stoic doctrine: “That man should be sufficient unto himself for all things, and able, by the power of his own will, to resist the force of his circumstances.”[ii]

The common use of the word contentment carried the meaning of self-rule or self-sufficiency. If one could depend upon themselves and persevere no matter the circumstances, you could be content. Most people who talk about contentment in our day are using this very same definition. Here is an important question. Can you experience contentment without God? I think that to some degree, it is possible to be content apart from God. I think this is what Seneca was describing. I think we all know people who are not believers, yet they live in such a way as to be basically free from worry, happy in their circumstances and if we examined their lives closely, I think we would conclude that they seem content. It is not easy, but apparently it is possible to achieve this level of “self-rule” where you are in control of your emotions, where you have learned a positive attitude in all things. This contentment is a bit like the feel-good mantra from the book, The Secret. “You are the master of the Universe. You are the heir to the kingdom. You are the perfection of Life.” If you tell yourself this basic message long enough you will actually start to believe it. Such people have taught themselves to be content with themselves.

But is this the kind of contentment that Paul is referring to? If we only had verses 10-12 we could rightly conclude that Paul’s contentment is the same as Greek contentment. But verse thirteen changes everything. I can do everything through him who gives me strength. This one verse takes the first century meaning of contentment as “self-rule” and radically changes it to a “Christ-sufficiency”. This verse is exceedingly well known. I would not be surprised if at least ten people in this room have made it their life verse. I can do all things through him who give me strength.

It sounds wonderful, but the problem is that most Christians do not use this verse in the way it was intended. This verse is easily morphed into a self-help verse. If I am struggling with a challenging task at work, I repeat this verse to myself: I can do all things through him who gives me strength. We believe that Jesus will give us strength to accomplish the task. If I need help being a better parent to my kids, I say I can do all things through him who gives me strength, and then Jesus helps me be a better parent. Do you see, it’s a way of thinking that is Jesus and me against the world. If Christ gives me his strength, I can do most anything. This understanding of this verse is why it has become a life verse for so many believers.

But it does not mean, “If Christ gives me strength I can do almost anything.” It means that with Christ, I don’t need anything. To have Christ is to have all that you need. It is the opposite of self-sufficiency—it is Christ-sufficiency. If I have daily bread, I am content, not because I have the daily bread, but because I have Christ. And if I don’t have my daily bread, I am still content. Why? Because I have Christ.

On this past Wednesday I had breakfast with Ray Olson and Pastor Jose Reyes from the Norwalk church. Pastor Jose and several of his church members helped us hang drywall for two consecutive weekends last Fall. I didn’t know Jose at all, so after Ray left, we sat there talking for another hour and a half. Jose grew up in the poorest of the poor neighborhood in El Salvador. He watched his single mother skip many meals so that she could feed her three children. Jose told me a wonderful story about contentment. After he had been living in the U.S. for a few years, he and his wife were going to buy a bed from a mutual friend who was moving out of state. After they paid for the bed, he remembered one of their friends who was a single mother with a small baby and didn’t own a bed. The mom and her baby had to sleep on the floor every night. So Jose and his wife felt led by the Lord to give her the bed they had just purchased.

After they delivered the bed and came home, just as he was unlocking the door to his apartment, he began to laugh. He started to laugh and laugh, so his wife asked him why he was laughing. Jose told his wife e was laughing because he just realized that the two of them were going to spend another night sleeping on the floor. You see, they had just given away their bed. It wasn’t an extra bed for the spare bedroom. It was their bed. And the amazing thing about this story is that the whole time they were delivering the bed, not one time did Jose even remember that he was giving away his only bed. Now that is contentment!

But this is so much more than a contentment of material things. If your friends turn their back on you, you can still know contentment. If your wife decides she doesn’t want to be married to you any longer, you can still have contentment. If someone whom I love dearly passes from this life, I can know contentment. I can do everything through him who gives me strength. All of these things will be painful and we will grieve over their loss, but we can still learn the secret of being content.

And remember, contentment is learned over time. We learn it through experiencing Christ-sufficiency during times of need. There are really three steps involved in the learning process. First I have a need. That’s the easy part. Next, I experience the sufficiency of Christ in that time of need. Thirdly, I carry this lesson with me. If you do this enough times, you will learn the secret of being content in any and every situation.

· The best and highest gift God can give me is Himself. The gift of salvation is not an inanimate gift—the gift of salvation is Jesus.

[i] Rhonda Byrne, The Secret,