“Do You Want To Know a Secret?”
Philippians 4:10-13

INTRO:
Good morning. We are continuing our study in the 4th chapter of Philippians and today our text is found in verses 10-13.

I’m going to start with a story that involved the Duke of Wellington. He is best remembered as the general who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815. During his earlier service in India, Wellington was in charge of negotiations after the battle of Assaye. The emissary of an Indian ruler, anxious to know what territories would be ceded to his master, tried in various ways to get the information. Finally, he offered Wellington a large sum of money. "Can you keep a secret?" asked Wellington. "Yes, indeed," the man said eagerly. "So can I," replied Wellington.

Have you ever known people who just could not keep a secret? I do know someone like that; it just kills them to keep a secret. When a holiday comes up such a birthday or Christmas, you can always go to them and say something like, “What are you getting me for my birthday?” And they’ll say, “I can’t tell you, it’s a secret.” It won’t take very many guesses though before they will give it away.

We all know if we are going to have secrets we have to be careful who we tell our secrets to, but you know, some secrets need to be told. Some secrets need to be shared. We saw last week that Paul said, “That we are to rejoice in the Lord always, in any circumstance.” No matter how bad things seem or get, it is a scriptural command, and if you do not rejoice always, you live in disobedience to God.

This is not just for people with happy personalities. It’s not just for people that were born with pleasant dispositions. The command to rejoice in the lord always, is for everybody in this room that believes in Jesus. I understand what some might be thinking, “But you just don’t understand my circumstances. Paul didn’t know what my life is like.”

Maybe he would not understand our crazy circumstances today, but Paul does know something we still need to learn. Open your Bibles with me to Philippians 4 and let Paul teach us. Starting in verse 10-13 here I paraphrase, “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. I am not saying this because I am in need, for 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.”

I. Let us do a little review. Why did Paul write to the Philippian church? You will remember that he had a great relationship with them, but as he mentioned he lost contact with them and they didn’t know exactly how he was doing. Paul got arrested and was sent to Rome and was put in jail. When the church in Philippi found out, they wanted to do something to help.
A. You see, our prison system today is not like the Roman prison system. When we put people in jail, the taxes that you pay, pays for their food and their upkeep while they’re in jail. In ancient Rome, when a person was put in jail, they better have some friends or family to take care of them or they will suffer, because the Roman government didn’t pay for your keep while you were in jail.
B. When the Philippian church heard that Paul was in jail, they knew he would have needs. They gathered up some money and gave it to Epaphroditus. He went 600 miles to Rome to give Paul the money for his provision. Paul is writing back and thanking them for their gift. We close the book of Philippians with his thank you note to them.
C. This is one of the most amazing thank you notes a preacher has ever written. Paul said in verse 11. “I’m not needing your gift.” On down in verse 17 he says, “Not that I seek the gift.” How many times have you heard a preacher say that? How often these days, I wonder, when a preacher is given a raise, that the preacher says, “thanks brothers, but I didn’t need it and I wasn’t looking for it”?
D. Paul is quick to say to this church, “Thank you very much for your gift, I appreciate your concern, but my level of joy is not affected by your level of generosity. I have not been pacing the cell hoping the mail would come to see if somebody would send me some money.”
E. Paul did not want to communicate that the physical comfort their money afforded had increased his ability to cope with his circumstances. In fact he said in verse 17, “but I seek the fruit that abounds to your account.” The reason he took their money was so that they could be fruitful not because he needed it. Paul wants it to be clear, “thank you for the gift, it was very kind. I can use it but it didn’t change my ability to rejoice in the lord.”
F. Paul had joy not because of what the gift did for him but for what the gift did for them.
II. Paul wasn’t defined by wealth or by poverty but by a contentment that transcended both. Paul had discovered a secret. A secret that kept his personal happiness from being dependent upon external circumstances in his life. Evidently, this has remained a secret to most people. I would venture to say most people in the US do not know this secret because in this country it seems there is a lot of discontent.
A. If I were to select a song that could sum up our culture in my lifetime, I would pick the song called, “I can’t get no satisfaction.” I know a lot of you know that song. It was a song by the Rolling Stones. I remember that song, and I can visualize people running around today saying, “I just can’t be content, I can’t get no satisfaction”.
B. We are bombarded everyday from the moment we turn on our radios in the morning to the moment we turn off the TV set at night. Bombarded by propaganda that you are never really going to be happy until you move into this neighborhood or until you buy that car, until you wear this suit, until you put this perfume on, until your kids go to this school and wear those clothes and get into this college. At this time of year it is especially relentless.
C. How can you be happy until?... I want to ask us this morning, has the propaganda of a continually dissatisfied culture been affecting our joy level? Folks, people have been looking for contentment in all the wrong places.
D. There is great irony here. Even as Christians we can end up buying into the world culture. We work 60+ hours a week, we knock ourselves out, giving ourselves high blood pressure and ulcers and here’s the kicker—we’re doing it to try to and find what the world doesn’t have. Contentment...
III. Paul tells us, “The world doesn’t have contentment, it’s a secret and they don’t know it because they don’t know Jesus.” Paul knew it and he lived like he knew it. Look again at verse 12, “I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.” Paul said, “I’ve learned the secret at being happy at any time with anything that happens.”
A. And Paul was willing to share what he had learned. Let us take a look again at the text and I want to point out 3 things Paul learned that made him content in any situation.
B. The first one is Paul learned to be satisfied with his blessings. One of the great disgraces of our day is there are so many ungrateful Christians.
C. We are a little bit like the servant in this story about a wealthy Englishman. The master was walking down the stairs one day and overheard one of the maids saying, “Oh, if I just had £5 wouldn’t I be content?” He thought he would make her day so he pulled a £5 note out of his wallet and gave it to her. She thanked him profusely, and he walked off. As he went around the corner he stopped to see if she would thank the Lord for this blessing. Do you know what he heard? He heard her say with discontent, “Oh, why didn’t I ask for £10?”
D. I suspect we are often like that with God, who pours out His blessings on us, who meets our needs. Yet, instead of being content with what we have, it is always, “Why can’t I have a little bit more?”
E. Paul said, “That he knew plenty”. Paul also said, “That he knew want.” My own opinion is that Paul knew plenty of want. I wonder what Paul called plenty. It comes to my imagination that Paul’s definition of plenty is, that one descent meal and nobody beating me with rods today, is a pretty good day.
F. Paul said, “Thank you for your gift, but I’m not saying this because I’m in need.” Looking again at verse 11, Paul says, “I have learned to be satisfied with the things that I have and with everything that happens.” Paul saying, “Contentment cannot be sprayed on, applied, driven, worn, moved into or deposited.”
IV. Paul said the same thing to his young friend Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:6-8 - “But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.”
A. Certainly that is something most of us can relate to. I was fortunate to see my children born, and it is very clear to me. You don’t bring anything into the world, nothing. You come into this world naked in every sense of the word. When we leave this world we will do so with nothing. Everything we have between the time we come into the world and the time we leave is just a temporary gift from God. We are reminded in Philippians 4:19 – “...God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” What does that mean to me? I tell you, my discontent has never been rooted in a lack of food and clothing. My discontentment has always been rooted in the lack of a thankful heart and a trusting spirit that God will take care of me tomorrow.
B. I would like us to consider a little test. Just answer these 4 questions in your own mind.
1. Do you enjoy what you have? I know some Christians that are so covetous of what they hope to get, they can’t enjoy what they have right now. Do you enjoy what you have?
2. Do you refuse to worry about tomorrow because you know God is going to take care of it for you?
3. Do you regularly and joyfully offer thanksgiving to God? Are you just overwhelmed everyday for how good He’s been for you, or—do you even consider it?
4. Here is a tough one. Do you rejoice at the prosperity of other people?
C. In retrospect I have found in my life that I have been content in times of plenty and in times of want. The only thing is, when I had times where I had little I did not know it. I did not see what little I had because I was fortunate enough not to be aware of how much more others had. My problem is having that same contentment when I have plenty. Nina often tells of eating lots of beans when she was growing up. She says, “We didn’t know were poor and beans were all we had. We thought we ate beans because we liked them.”
D. Paul says, “I know what it is to have plenty, I know what it is to be in want, and I have learned that it is those hard times when I have little, that a person can really find out whether or not they know the secret”. Paul explains in Philippians 4:6 - “Do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and petition and with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
E. It’s really not a big secret folks, just this; we can never be a joyful person until we learn to be a grateful person. “Until we learn to be satisfied with His blessings. Then the second part is, we need to learn to be sustained by his strength.
V. Paul’s confidence that God would meet all his needs was not an affirmation that God would remove all his difficult circumstances. It was a firm belief that God would supply the resources, in Christ, to cope with his circumstances. He’s not saying, “God’s going to take away all my problems.” He saying “I know God’s going to give me the resources in the midst of my problems to do everything Jesus wants me to do.”
A. Paul says again in verse 13, “Christ gives me the strength to face everything.” Philippians 4:13 is one of those verses we should stick on our refrigerators. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
B. When Paul wrote Philippians 4:13 he was in a prison, he didn’t look anything like a victor. But he was a man with a strong confidence in the ability of Christ to match every situation.
C. Remember what we read in 2 Corinthians chapter 12? Paul had a thorn in his flesh and it distressed him. Paul asked God to take it away and Christ said ‘no’. In 2 Corinthians 12:9 Christ said to him, “my grace is sufficient for you”. The reason Paul could be content or sufficient in any situation was because his sufficiency was Christ. He said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness therefore I’ll boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”
D. I read about a man named James Hudson Taylor who was a great missionary in China during part of the 1800’s. Taylor was a British Protestant missionary and spent 51 years in China. Taylor was known for his sensitivity to Chinese culture and zeal for evangelism. Under his leadership, the organization he started was singularly non-denominational in practice and accepted members from all Protestant groups, and people from all classes, including individuals from the working class.
1. It is reported that one time he was congratulated on the impact of his mission and he said, “it seemed to me that God looked over the whole world to find a man who was weak enough to do his work and when he at last found me He said, “he is weak enough, he’ll do.”
2. Taylor was also quoted saying; “All God's giants have been weak men who did great things for God because they reckoned on God being with them.” When Paul says, “I can do all things through Christ.” He’s not talking about winning championships. He’s not talking about making it to the top of the ladder. Paul is saying, “Even in a prison, I can do everything Christ wants me to do because He’s going to give me the strength to survive.” What ever Christ wants us to do, Christ will give us the strength to do.
VI. I’m convinced we believe that here. I think we believe that Christ has the power. I think we believe Christ wants to share the power. However I also think we don’t know how to plug into that power. How do we receive the power from Christ?
A. Let’s consider that for a few minutes. Perhaps the problem is we want to experience the power before the test instead of along the way.
B. Do you remember when the children of Israel were told to go into the Promised Land? We find this in Joshua chapter 3. They were on one side of the Jordan River and Canaan was on the other side. The river was at flood stage and there was no way they could get across.
C. Yet in verse 2 Joshua sends the officers through the camp. In verses 3 & 4 we find they commanded the people “When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests, the Levites, bearing it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it. "Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure. Do not come near it, that you may know the way by which you must go, for you have not passed this way before.”
D. In verses 7 & 8 we read what the Lord told Joshua to do and in verses 9 & 10 Joshua said to the people “"Come here, and hear the words of the Lord your God.'' And Joshua said, "By this you shall know that the living God is among you, and that He will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Hivites and the Perizzites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Jebusites:”
E. In verses 14-17 we read that “the people set out from their camp to cross over the Jordan” and when the feet of the priests who bore the ark entered the water “the waters which came down from upstream stood still”. “Then the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan; and all Israel crossed over on dry ground, until all the people had crossed completely over the Jordan.” The Bible tells us when they entered the water the power of God showed up and the river stopped.”
F. The point is this, if we want to experience God’s power we need take a step in faith, in obedience, and do what God said and God will show up along the way and give us the strength to complete the mission. What I’m saying is we want the power before we obey,... God says, “you obey and I’ll show up and give you power”.
VII. As we study God’s word we receive the tools to recognize the help that God provides. Maybe someone here has been in the hall outside of a hospital room and didn’t know what to say. Knowing it was going to be hard to go into that room and see that person that was dying, but they were obedient and trusted God. God showed up and He gave them the power to minister and He gave them the words to say.
A. Perhaps someone here was in a situation where they were afraid to share their faith but knowing God wants us to they took a step in obedience and they opened up their mouth for Jesus. In that moment God’s power rested on them and they found themselves able to share Christ. Perhaps that changed a life because someone acted in faith.
B. If I didn’t believe Philippians 4:13 I couldn’t teach. I am not a teacher, I was never trained as a teacher and I don’t know the first thing about being one. I committed to do this because I felt I should, but I had no idea how to go about it. I prayed to God for guidance and stepped out.
C. Not every lesson I prepare is to my liking. Sometimes I pray to God and say, “God it is the best I can do this week.” When I step up here, I teach because I believe if I’m obedient, Christ’s strength will come and His power will come and He will provide what we need to hear and open our ears to hear it.
D. There was a story told by John Henry Jayet about a woman who lived in England, she was a widow, she was uneducated, unsophisticated and she had little money but she spent her whole life doing good deeds for other people. On her tombstone they put, “she did what she couldn’t”.
E. I love that story. Christ gives us the power to do what we can’t. The Living Bible says in verse 13, “I can do everything God asks me too with the help of Christ who gives me the strength and power.”
VIII. I wonder about us today, in what area of our life does God want us to do what we can’t? I think that is something we each need to think about. Is there somebody at work who needs to hear about Jesus and we think, “I just can’t, I’m so embarrassed, I don’t have enough faith, I can’t share my testimony” Philippians 4:13 says, “You go out in faith and God will show up and give you the strength and the power.”
A. Perhaps we think, “I know I should be faithful. I know I should give of my means to help those in need. I know I should trust God about my finances, but I just can’t.” There are people who might be thinking, “my marriage is hard, I just can’t live with this person another year. To those people Philippians 4:13 says, “You step out in faith and obedience and God will give you the strength and you can.” You step out in obedience and do what you need to do and God will give you the strength.
B. I’m suspect that in many things our problem often isn’t “I can’t”, our problem is, “I won’t”. That is the third thing that Paul learned. Paul learned to surrender to God’s will. I don’t think you can understand Paul’s contentment until you understand Paul’s commitment. Circumstances did not take over his life because Paul was not preoccupied with his circumstances; he was occupied with how he could honor Christ in any circumstance.
C. He was totally surrendered to Jesus Christ, it didn’t matter what you threw at him he was going to honor Jesus. Paul said back in chapter 1:20-21, “So that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”
D. As I’ve said before we are talking about a man who was absolutely sold out to Christ. When we read Philippians we find it has 104 verses and those 104 verses he mentions Jesus Christ 51 times. I’m no scholar, but I can figure out what the theme of Philippians is. It is Christ.

Conclusion:
In this letter we see Paul’s focus on Jesus Christ. Let’s do a little review. What’s chapter 1’s point? Jesus Christ is my purpose. I’m in jail now and I don’t know if I’m going to live or die, but I’ve got one purpose. That is to honor Christ, and I can honor Christ if I live or if I die, so I’m going to rejoice. Chapter 2. Jesus Christ is my pattern. He humbled himself and became obedient to death, he emptied himself to serve others and that’s what I’m going to do.

Chapter 3. Jesus Christ is my prize. All the stuff I used to glory in is just garbage and rubbish compared to Jesus and this one thing I’m going to do, I’m going to press on and use every spiritual muscle to take hold of the One who took hold of me. Chapter 4. Jesus Christ is my provision. He can meet my needs; He will give me the strength.

Paul was absolutely focused on Jesus Christ. He had discovered the secret of a totally surrendered life. Folks, I don’t think we’re ever going to find contentment until we totally surrender too. I think one reason Christians are not content is because we give a 50% commitment to Jesus and a 50% commitment to the agenda of the world. Then we wonder why we are so uptight. If we want to have contentment, sell out to Jesus Christ.

The founder of the Salvation Army, William Booth was asked one time the secret of his success. He said, “There have been many men with more brains and opportunities than me, but I determined that God would have all of William Booth that there was to give.” A few years later someone asked his daughter about what he said and she replied, “That wasn’t really the secret, the secret was he never took it back.”

It’s not any big secret, if you know Paul, why he was so content. Let me tell you in one line the secret. The theme of Philippians in one line is; “I can rejoice in anything when Christ is everything.”

Paul faced life as it came without flinching because Christ was his all in all. Circumstances might change his surroundings, he might be in prison one day, and he might not the next day. He might have a lot to eat one day, he might have nothing the next day. One day he might have money, the next day he might be in poverty. It didn’t matter what changed because Jesus Christ never changed.

Perhaps you’ve heard of the film “Blind Courage”. It is about a man named Bill Irwin who became a strong believer in Jesus. Bill Irwin was blind and he had hiked the entire Appalachian Trail, all 2100 miles, solo. It was reported that he had a computer programmed with voice capability that helped him study his Bible. The program was developed by a man who was Hispanic and so it had a Latin accent. Bill had to change some of the words so that he can understand them. For example he had to change, Holy Bibel into Holy Bible. When he came to the verbalization for Jesus Christ the program rendered it as Hesous Creast. Bill Irwin tried and tried to adapt the software but he couldn’t do it. Finally it dawned on him that the developer made sure you could change anything else but you couldn’t change Hesous Creast.
There’s a moral story right there folks. Everything else about your life could change tomorrow, but Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. (Heb. 13:8)

Paul said, “as long as He’s my all in all, I can rejoice in anything.” That’s the question I want to leave us with this morning, is Christ your all in all? Or if you’re not a Christian will you let Christ be you’re all in all?

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We learn from the New Testament how to be saved. We need to hear the word; believe in Jesus; repent of our sins; we must confess our belief that Jesus is the Son of God; and be baptized for the remission of our sins... If we follow these steps, the Lord adds us to His church.

Perhaps there is someone in the assembly today with the need to be buried with Christ in baptism. If you have never done these things, we urge you to do so today. If anyone has this need or desires the prayers of faithful Christians on their behalf, we encourage them to come forward while we stand and sing.

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Reference Sermon
Mike Glover