Contentment. Part 2.
Sunday, May 13, 2007
We have now completed 1551 hours on the book of Philippians, and we are now ready for the last phrase in PHI 4:8.
The great gain = when we live the spiritual life, God provides contentment, capacity, and blessing which all adds up to His happiness in us or +H.
We love and appreciate God so much that we have our eyes on the Giver and we have our eyes on the Source of every blessing in this life.
PSA 103:2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget none of His benefits;
Once you get your eyes on the Giver then you begin to appreciate the gift.
Occupation with the person of Christ plus sharing God’s happiness and having all of that doctrine will give you a capacity for life, happiness, love, and blessing and all of these things add up to a marvelous spiritual picture.
God does not give what you cannot enjoy.
Having friends and loved ones and having things you enjoy and enjoying materialistic things is a by product of the capacity for life which comes from Bible doctrine.
1CO 4:7 What do you have that God hasn’t given you? And if all you have is from God, why act as though you are so great, and as though you have accomplished something on your own?
JOB 1:21 “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
Is - pres-act-ind - estin - !Estin = “to be” = “keeps on being”
Great - adjective megas
Gain - predicate nominative noun porismos = gain, profit or prosperity -
“a great means of prosperity”
“When accompanied by contentment” - preposition meta + genitive - autarkeias - au*tarkeiva"
Autarkeias = contentment, to be content, to be self-sufficient - the happiness of the believer who has reached certain stages of spiritual adulthood.
1. Autarkeia or contentment means a perfect condition of life in which no aid or support is needed.
2. Autarkeia or contentment means freedom from anxiety or worry.
ROM 14:23b and whatever is not from faith is sin.
3. Autarkeia or contentment means “independence” or “self-sufficiency.”
4. Autarkeia or contentment is that disposition of mind in which one is independent of outward circumstances through the grace of God, PHI 4:11.
5. Autarkeia or contentment means to be free from worry because of satisfaction with what is already one’s own.
6. Autarkeia or contentment means to be sufficient, to be possessed of sufficient strength, to be strong, to be satisfied.
7. Autarkeia or contentment denotes freedom from reliance upon others, whether other persons or other things.
Whatever we have in time, literally we have it for a short time.
The only things that you can take with you when you leave this world are the things you pack in your soul.
True contentment is a real, even an active, virtue - not only affirmative but creative. It is the power of getting out of any situation all there is in it.
Godliness or living the spiritual life that God has provided is a means of great profit when accompanied by contentment.
Godliness means that you are in the place where God can train you - that is, residence, function, and momentum inside the spiritual life that God has provided.
Having perfect happiness, God then gives us the ultimate in suffering for blessing which is evidence testing and this is how “godliness is a means of great profit.”
“Contentment” = perfect happiness, begun in spiritual self-esteem, continued in spiritual autonomy, and completed in spiritual maturity.
Providential preventative suffering at spiritual self-esteem is designed to put you in a state of weakness in that there is no human solution to the problems that you’re facing.
The four types of testing in vs 10 are warm-ups for spiritual self-esteem in order to advance to spiritual autonomy.
1. People testing
2. Thought testing
3. System testing
4. Disaster testing
“On behalf of Christ” = the glorification of our Lord demands that the believer in spiritual self-esteem put muscle on that status, that he pass providential preventative suffering so that he might advance to spiritual autonomy, thus increasing his perfect happiness.
“Strong when weak” = the utilization of divine power for momentum in the spiritual life that God has provided for the Church-age believer.
Providential preventative suffering brings you to the point where you realize life and the devil are bigger than you, and that you will not be able to solve your problems on your own.
To the extent that you have illusions about your so-called strong points, you are depriving yourself of the blessings of grace.
The objective is to have money as your slave and perfect happiness as your master.