Learned
Philippians 4: 11 “Not that I speak in respect of bwant: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be ccontent.” [1]
I. Want
A. Necessity
B. Need
II. Wisdom
A. Lived
B. Learned
III. Wellbeing
A. Satisfaction
B. Serenity
Introduction: We are coming to the end of Paul’s letter that he dictated and Epaphroditus wrote to his church family in Philippi. We are also coming to the time we will have Norman here to bring messages with expectation of revival. The Holy Spirit is easily quenched so it is of utmost importance to enter into our time of homecoming and revival knowing that we must learn to rely on God.
Last week Jerry brought a Sunday school message concerning the importance of teaching. The sermon concerned things that we should learn. It was another time that the Holy Spirit was in the middle of the message of the day here in this church. If God supplies the teacher and we receive the lesson then learning makes a difference in our lives.
Paul was the person known as Saul before he became Paul as a result of receiving Jesus. He could not be taught to be Paul. None of us can be taught to become a different person. When we allow ourselves to receive Jesus, and Jesus allows the Holy Spirit to indwell us; that is when teaching starts in the person God intended us to be.
There is a push by some to have free college for whosoever wants to go. There are some who will take the lessons from a school of higher learning and they will thrive and make great contributions to others with lessons learned. There are others who will take nothing and give less. They will get their FCC licenses and work in radio stations for a while and bomb out. The broadcasting education may come in handy later on when they find themselves publicly speaking but it will take a long time. They might work in a gas station for a while only to have someone trust them with a job in a power plant. Maybe education will come from that public job and then finally about the time they are ready to retire, then they will finally settle down to do what God intended them for so many years before.
If you push your notion for yourself on God He will always surprise you. There will be that still small voice that will not let you go until just the right time and then you will know you are where He wants you to finally be. One thing for sure that we all never want to learn; it is not what we want to do for Him, it is always what He wants and will to do through us when we give up ourselves and allow Him to be the potter and we understand that we are His clay.
Paul finally got that. I’m still getting there. As Paul recited this letter for a church that loved him, he must have finally learned to rely on others. Jump down to the end of this letter and you will find who actually scribed this letter. Could it be that Epaphroditus wrote this for Paul because of Paul’s frailty? Sometimes it takes a lot for someone to give up and tell a close confidant how much they mean to you. God is waiting.
Scripture: Today’s scripture is Philippians 4:11. When you have found it please rise to your feet for the reading of God’s written word.
Prayer: Please be seated
Message: This afternoon after church we will have a homecoming for us all who finally found Merry Oaks to be our spiritual home. We have a few who have joined since Rachael and I came and today we will celebrate their homecoming. Next week we will conclude this series of sermons on Philippians. The last Sunday of this month will be homecoming with Norman and he will be with us through Wednesday for our revival services.
Last Sunday in verse nine we talked about differences in hearing and seeing versus learning and receiving. In Jerry’s lesson we discussed teachers. Some things will be taught and learned by some that will never be practiced or put into any practical use by the ones who hear them.
God sometimes places others in our path that will receive a thing that God has for them to learn and use though we might never know the impact. Paul’s letter was an acclamation of the love that those in Philippi had for Paul. He wanted them to understand how they could feel God’s presence in a real way. Verse ten started with that conjunction “but.”
Apparently there had been other times when they had supported Paul but it seems that there had been a time lapse when maybe they had not been able to fund his ministry as much. He was telling them how grateful he was for them but more than that, but he was telling them how he had learned to be content. To feel God’s presence is the greatest lesson but it comes with another personal blessing. Icing on the cake if you will…
Follow as we read from verse ten, “10 But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at the last yyour care of me ||hath flourished again; zwherein ye were also careful, but aye lacked opportunity. 11 Not that I speak in respect of bwant: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be ccontent. 12 I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed dboth to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.” [2]
Paul learned from the lessons of life that many never learn from because they have not been through the tests. Given the choice, Paul might have said no to the lesson since it meant that he would have hardship along the way.
It is easy to take a course on something and really believe you understand the thing. I am going back through fire training on-line with the firefighters so I will more understand what they must learn. It certainly does not mean that I will be able to rejoin them in battling fires. They are learning to live through the dangers they will face.
Last week I took my young friend, Jatneil, on another airplane ride. This time I started with a little training session on checking out the aircraft or what we call a preflight. The left side wing tank had very little fuel. I told him that. He saw the right side tank had way more fuel. I told him that I was going to fly to Siler City on the nearly empty tank but it would be OK if it ran empty in flight. We would just switch tanks if that happened. Jatneil must have heard because once in fight he asked again, “Which tank is the engine running on?” I told him again, the nearly empty one.
Airplane fuel tanks are bladders like big bags inside the wings. Sometimes the capacity of the bladder changes. Unless you know how much fuel the tank holds you are not safe to plan fuel demand for a trip. To know the capacity for sure, either you drain the tank out or fly it out. When the tank is totally empty and you fill it, then you have learned to true capacity for each tank. So every once in a while I run a tank empty so that I know how much fuel it takes to fill the tank. It’s easier to fly it out.
Well you guessed it. As planned the engine died on final approach into Siler City. In a car when the speed drops you add power. There’s no power. Airspeed increases when you lower the nose. It’s not a car. So I pushed the nose over, turned on the fuel boost pump, and switched the tank selector valve to the other side. The propeller never stopped because the wind kept it turning. The engine started back up and we landed. Jatneil will never ever forget that. He certainly did not love that lesson but he truly learned it because he lived it.
Now I know something too. The tank is supposed to hold thirty gallons. Though I didn’t completely fill it, it wouldn’t have held more than twenty seven gallons. So now I know… When that engine lost power, I expect Jatneil wanted to be on the ground. He probably thought he really needed to be on the ground.
To be in the kind of want as Paul was writing about is not as if we think of wanting a newer car or the more greedy requests that we are used to wanting. In some places today people are in want of things as Paul was explaining back then. People who are in need of essential things such as clean drinking water or shelter often don’t think of those things as necessities. They are in such dire need that having the things that we consider necessity is luxury to them.
Though Paul was once in the clique with those who had riches and all the trappings of wealth, he had learned through his life of suffering servant what it meant to be in the place alongside those he once looked down on. It could be that those who supported him in Philippi were less fortunate than Paul once was. Now they were supporting in his ministry. That’s blessing!
Wisdom attained from worldly loss is an expensive education. Paul gained wisdom as a result of having done without. Some people never learn that working for a living is not a sign of failure because they have never lived it. To depend totally on God is the ultimate freedom.
The rich young ruler asked Jesus what he himself must do to inherit eternal life. There’s an irony here. To inherit something means that somebody else worked for it and you simply wound up with it when they left it to you after they died. There is nothing you can do to inherit anything unless you decide to do away with the person that is willing you the inheritance.
We have all done exactly that. We have done nothing to have eternal life yet the one who willed it to us died so that we could inherit eternity and it was our sin that put Him on the cross.
Paul understood that. He had lived the life of the servant that he was supposed to be and he learned through all that he went through that true contentment, true serenity finally comes when you quit trying to fix everything yourself and give it all to God.
“I have learned in whatever state I am therewith to be content.” It’s that old play on words and maybe that’s where it came from. “Wherever I go there I am.” The one who joked about that probably wasn’t thinking of contentment. We are studying Jonah in our Sunday and Wednesday evening Bible studies. When he found himself in the belly of that “whalefish” he might have said something like that. Jonah learned through his trials too. Jonah learned that he couldn’t get away from himself or God. Neither can you! What are you going to do with that?
Paul wound up with a different frame of mind. Through all the tests and times of isolation and rejection Paul found wellbeing. Paul found contentment. Though he was in a place where he could not leave and though he could only think about his friends through letters that someone else had to write for him, Paul found satisfaction and serenity.
There are so many living through this thing today not knowing when it will be over. There are so many who are locked away in hospitals or nursing facilities and they are much like Paul back then. Some are so deeply depressed they are getting sicker and not from a virus. We are praying for them and I pray that we are praying the right thing for them.
To have serenity through whatever state a person might be requires a deep faith in the God who loves us. Paul had reason to complain if anybody ever had reason but now he had found the answer to suffering. Now Paul had learned how to be content. That takes strength. That takes a relationship with God.
Prayer:
Invitation: A favorite Bible verse to memorize is Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things ethrough Christ fwhich strengtheneth me.” [3] We have a studied this verse in an earlier message. When Paul said that it was through Christ from where his strength came, we know that the wisdom of that truth came to Paul through awesome experiences. Paul finally learned that the strength to endure all that life throws at you can only be realized through Jesus.
The context of these verses explains that a person must do more than simply make a statement of strength to realize Jesus’ strength. We must live through whatever life throws at us so that after the test is over, then we know that it was, is, and always will be Christ who strengthens us so that we can withstand and finally feel wellbeing in the midst of anxiety.
My prayer today is for each of us in this church to once and for all figure it out that it is not about what we must do to inherit eternal life. The one who willed everlasting life to us died on the cross so that we can inherit eternity. You may be living through more of life’s tests today. Few have found that contentment that Paul had which allows us to realize the strength that Jesus wants us to take from Him. You can have that strength but it requires something that is very difficult, especially for us males of the species. You must give up on trying to control your circumstance. You must be willing to allow God to take you to a place where you do not control. You must be willing to accept God’s will so that it finally replaces your will. Consider and invite His will into your life as we sing…
b Mark 12:44.
c See 1 Tim. 6:6.
[1] The Holy Bible: King James Version. (2009). (Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version., Php 4:11). Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
y Comp. 2 Cor. 11:9.
|| Or, is revived. Gk. as Ecclus. 1:18.
z See ch. 3:12.
a Comp. ch. 2:30.
b Mark 12:44.
c See 1 Tim. 6:6.
d So 1 Cor. 4:11. 2 Cor. 6:10. & 11:27.
[2] The Holy Bible: King James Version. (2009). (Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version., Php 4:10–12). Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
e So John 15:5. 2 Cor. 12:9.
f 1 Tim. 1:12 (Gk.). 2 Tim. 4:17. Heb. 11:34. So Col. 1:11.
[3] The Holy Bible: King James Version. (2009). (Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version., Php 4:13). Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
