A Peaceful State of Happiness
Brody Holloway | WinterSWO
What does it mean to be content?
Does it mean to have everything you desire? Or does it mean learning to be okay with your situations? In this session, Brody unpacks what it looks like for the believer to be content in every circumstance. Forsaking what the world offers to satiate your desires and turning to God and His divine will to bring you understanding.
Philippians 4:11-13
Transcript – A Peaceful State of Happiness
All right, last session together, let’s turn in our Bibles to Philippians 4, we’ll finish it out. I would encourage you, when you leave here to take the next few days and maybe read through the book of Philippians and I think some of it will come alive in your imagination and in your memory. One of the things that I think students are often times and not just students, it’s something that grown folks do, is that they believe this lie that the Bible is too hard for you to understand. It’s over your head. I can’t read. I can’t focus. Some of you are really good readers. Any of you all like to read, raise your hand if you enjoy reading. It’s pretty good, raise your hand if you haven’t read a book. Few people, it’s fine, don’t be ashamed, there’s so many words in them and then, all the pages have words on them and then, the next it’s like and so, for some people, reading it’s not supernatural, for some people, reading would be supernatural. It would take a miracle, Is it real natural, it doesn’t come easy for you, but I just encourage you read the Bible and just spend time in God’s word every day and it’ll be really helpful for you and if you leave here and you spend the next few days reading through Philippians I think a lot of what you’ve heard this weekend will come alive in your memory, you’ll remember it.
It’ll be very encouraging to you and it’ll help you. The word of God is here for our growth. It’s here to help us and I’ll tell you a story, very brief. It’s not part of my sermon and it’s not something that I’ve shared at any winter SWO I did do a podcast episode on this one time. I’ll tell you a very quick and brief version of it. There’s a lady, her name was Sunita and she lived in a place called Bogmalo Beach, which is in India. It’s in the state called Goa and we were Little and I, my wife and I were in India, we weren’t there to see her, we were there to visit a missionary friend, spend a couple weeks and it was my wife and myself and our oldest daughter who, at the time, was like, I don’t know, maybe 13 years of 12, 13 and there was a girl that worked at Snowbird and she was a college soccer player, she played soccer at Barry College, which is down in Georgia and she had gone, they do these things where you all might have heard of this, you get on a team and you go to another country and you play like, if it’s soccer, you will play soccer games against teams and then, it’s like a platform where you can share the Gospel. Have you ever heard of something like that? Pretty cool way to do ministry is sports ministry.
Anyway, she had done that, she’d been over there this girl, Lindsey and she met this lady named Sunita and she told us about Sunita and she said Sunita is so sweet and precious and she loves Jesus and the love of the Lord is just coming out of her, you can see it, she said, but Sunita, she can’t read or write, couple things she can’t read or write. So, that’s one thing. So, she can’t read the Bible and she’s not from a Christian family/. So, she doesn’t have any support, she’s from, her family’s from a religion, it’s called Hindu or Hinduism, if you ever heard of that and it’s completely opposed to Christianity, if all of your family is Hindu and you become a Christian, you may face opposition. This happens in many religions. It happens in the Islamic faith, if someone leaves that faith to embrace the Gospel of Jesus Christ, they may face persecution from their very family. Did you know that? Jesus said this would happen, he said, if you take up your cross and follow me, it could cause a problem for you, even with your own family relationships, but here’s what he said, but it’ll be worth it, because I’ll give you the most fulfilling life you can ever imagine and it’ll be eternal life and this lady, Sunita, had accepted and embraced that.
So, she had been turned out by her family and she was about 30 years old, she had two kids, two boys, is trying to raise them and she’s wanting to raise them to love Jesus, but her husband was a real bad alcoholic, you all know what that is, just drink, stay drunk, drink all the time, wouldn’t work, she worked and so, this girl, Lindsey, asked us to go see Sunita when we were in India. Now we’re in a different part of the country. It’s a massive country. It’d be like if we were here in North Carolina and somebody said, there’s a lady that lives in Oregon, will you all go see her? Well, I’m dumb enough to not know better than to say no to anything and that sound like a cool adventure song. We’re, we’ll go find her, but all we had her name and we knew she lived at some beach, something that started with a B and it was a beach, the name of a beach and that’s all we knew and it was in this very general region, but the reason we wanted to go see her is because Lindsey, who knew her, was sending with us these little things called Bible sticks and it’s like air pods and you put them in and you hit play and it reads the Bible to you. So, if you don’t know how to read, it’s an awesome way to get the word of God and so, Sunita has been a Christian at this point for two, three years, since Lindsey had met her and She’d come to faith in Jesus and Lindsey had said, I promise you I’ll get the scripture to you. So, we found her
I’m not going to the whole story, but you all it was crazy. It took us two days, we flew, we were on a bus, we it was planes, trains, automobiles, we’re on a bus, we’re on plane, we were and I’m telling you something when I go to parts of Asia where there are no white people, I stand out like a daggum sore thumb, everybody’s looking at me and so, we’re trying to navigate our way around this little remote area and we found her and we found this lady down on this place called Bogmalo Beach, she’s down by the water, she had a little shop where she sold some goods and that’s how she made money and a lot of times she would have to sleep in that shop because she couldn’t sleep in the home of her family and so, we gave her those Bible sticks and she wept and she cried and we had to go and stay in the closest town, we called a taxi or I think we rode a bus, went to town, got a room, we said, we’ll come back tomorrow, visit with you for one more day and we spent about eight hours just teaching her the Bible and discipling her and getting some good foundation and it was crazy, because when we went in there, Little said, how have you been reading the scriptures, what are you doing for the scriptures?
She said, I made my own Bible and we’re like, you can’t really do that. That’s against the rules, aren’t a lot of rules, but that’s one of them, like and so, but what she had done is she had learned some Bible stories and taken construction paper from her son’s school supplies and drawn pictures of all these Bible stories. So, she had a picture of Jesus raising someone from the dead, I remember she had a picture of David and Goliath and I was like, no, that’s not bloody enough, he chopped that sucker’s head off, let me show you and I doctored that up, but we told her the stories of the picture she had was awesome and then, we left, we came back the next day and she’s sitting down by the beach and all night long, she had sat and listened to the scripture, she had listened to the scripture and her eyes were bloodshot from not sleeping and from crying and she said something that has stuck with me ever since she said, my heart is full. I have never been so content, contentment is a powerful thing, isn’t it? Contentment is a powerful thing. I eat my two pieces of pizza. I said I’m content. I was good. Contentment is that feeling of satisfaction. A definition for what it is to be content would be, now this definition just comes straight out of dictionary. To be content is to be, listen to this, in a peaceful state of happiness. That’s what it is to be content and the way Paul closes out this letter Philippians is he basically, to this point.
Think about everything we’ve learned, we talked about the first night, we talked about the purpose of God and saving you. Chapter 1:6, he who began a good work in you, you can be sure of this, he’s going to be faithful to complete it and that’s his purpose, is that he would remember this. It was like, by the providence of God, the power of God, the promises of God, we can live positive lives, we can have joy in our hearts, in our lives and we moved from that into that beautiful passage of scripture yesterday morning, Philippians 2 where Jesus humbles himself, becomes a servant and the good dies for the unjust, the righteous dies for the unrighteous. Jesus takes our sin upon himself, goes to the cross and is exalted to his rightful place at the right hand of the Father and because of that, we worship him, recognizing we are not good, he is and he’s given us his righteous salvation. It was a beautiful and powerful passage of scripture and then, we were challenged by chapter 3 last night, to run the race, to strain towards the goal, to strive and pursue after Jesus, to leave our baggage behind and to strive for the prize that is, in Christ Jesus and then, this morning, we were reminded of the opportunity that we have to just have joy in our lives. Be joyful. Sunita taught me a lesson all those years ago about joy that no one ever has really been able to teach me.
She taught it to me in a completely different context, she’s sleeping outside because her family wouldn’t let her inside, her husband was abusive. I told her, I’d go take care of it. I don’t think it translated culturally, you’ll take care of it, what does this, take care of it? I said, oh, trust me, I’m from Appalachia, we got a way of doing things, he won’t hit you no more if you let me explain some stuff to him, she said, but that wasn’t the answer, she said this, God will give me the grace I need, she had contentment, she had happiness, she had joy and she taught me, I think, what Paul’s teaching us, what the Holy Spirit is teaching us through Paul in Philippians and so, we come to chapter 4:11 and we have this wonderful biblical truth that God may not spare you from difficulty, but he will go with you through difficulty. God may not keep you from trial and tribulation, but he will strengthen you in trial and tribulation. God may not give you money and wealth, there’s preachers that will tell you that if you follow Jesus, you’ll just be rich. Listen to me, that’s a lie. That’s garbage. That’s not true. I know a whole bunch of Christians that haven’t got nothing and they’re happy in Christ. Jesus didn’t never tell you he’s going to give you money on this earth,
He said, don’t layup treasures in this earth. Layup treasures in heaven. That’s eternal treasure and so, we’re going to learn tonight that we can find contentment, a peaceful state of happiness. Only in Christ recently went with my family to an escape room. Have you, raise your hand if you’ve ever been to an escape room? Okay, good. So, most of you familiar with that an escape room is, it’s this thing, you go in there and you’ve got, you’re with a group of people with, it was me and most of our family was together, we got to try to get out of the escape room. It’s like a puzzle, you got to try to get out of there. Our scenario was we had been kidnapped and put in this room and this psychopath, sociopath, killer, he was like a crazy man, he’s left and he’s going to be back in an hour and we have to escape before he gets back, or he’ll kill us and you all, we are my family, we aren’t good at stuff like that, some people good at riddles and puzzles and some of you all probably good at riddles and puzzles, not us, we can like, that’s not our strength. I said, guys, I have a better idea, let’s don’t try to get out, let’s wait for him to come back, unless all eight of us jump on him and kill him. So, we had figured out the puzzle, but I remember, in that escape room it was, it was awful because, we’re really trying to get out of there, we really were not good at it and, and, as the clock’s ticking down, you’re like, oh, gosh, oh gosh.
We’re not going to make it. I don’t know how you all, those of you that have experienced it, I’m like, we got to go and that’s when I made the joke. I was like, just forget it, let’s just beat him up when he comes back. Take the keys to his truck and leave, but in the Christian life, sometimes I think there’s an escape mentality where it’s like, how can I solve the riddle of living the Christian life, so that I don’t have hard times and difficulty and pain and listen, you all, we live in a fallen world. There’s going to be times in your life that are just hard. There’s going to be times in your life where people say ugly things about you, turn their backs on you, life is not always going to be easy. What Jesus promises us is that we can be content, live in a peaceful state of happiness, even in the midst of spiritual warfare, trial and tribulation. So, we’ll see that in our verses, we’re just going to read three verses, chapter 4:11 – 13, let’s begin in verse 11, not that I’m speaking of being in need for I’ve learned in whatever situation I am to be content. So, Paul’s like, whatever situation I’m in, I’ll be content, he’s like, every day, when my feet hit the floor, I have the opportunity for what attitude I’m going to have today. I can be always thinking about what I don’t have, but that I want, I can always be thinking about how I wish some people liked me, maybe that don’t like me, but he’s saying whatever situation that I’m in, I’ve learned to be content.
In other words, he’s learned it. It didn’t come naturally, if you have to learn something, it means you didn’t already know it and so, one of the things that’s important for you to learn and for me to learn, is that in Christ we can be content. What does content mean? Peaceful state of happiness. I can have joy and happiness even in difficult times, but I’m going to have to learn it and how do you learn that, because he says, I’ve learned it. That’s an important word. Why does he say I’ve learned it? Some of you are going through hard times right now. Some of you are going through struggles right now. Some of you are going through maybe the most difficult season of your life right now and what you’re going to experience is what Paul’s talking about, you’re going to learn, if you’re a Christian, that in those hard times, God’s got you and he’s with you and he’s in it with you, but you have to learn it. How do you learn it? You got to go through stuff and Paul been through stuff. The book of Lamentations, 3:22, 23 are two of my favorite verses, it’s one of my favorite passages, where the prophet Jeremiah is writing this and he says, the steadfast love of the Lord endures forever, his mercies are new every morning, great is his faithfulness. God’s going to be faithful to you, even if things are difficult.
Paul learned that and you’ll learn it too, I’ve learned it in my life. I learned it in 2007 in a way I’ve never learned it before in 2007 February of that year, my father died. I had a very strained relationship with my father after my parents split up, very strained, very difficult relationship and over the course of the spring, several catastrophic things happened, Little and I lost a baby. A very close friend of ours died, she was young, she was in her 30s, she died June 2nd of that year, the man that had probably invested the most into my personal discipleship, helping me learn how to be a man of God was one year older than me, had a young family and fell over dead, I got the call and it was devastating and one week later from that day, four Snowbird staff members got killed in an automobile accident and at three in the morning, I had to call their mamas and tell them, because it was so chaotic, because the car crashed on I 575, down there, about Canton Woodstock area, somewhere down in there, in just north of Atlanta. Those of you that go that way and the two people that survived the crash were in intensive care, like touch and go, maybe they’re not going to make it and I had to, I won’t get into the details of why that, that it went down this way, but I had to call their parents and tell them.
We did those memorial services and we laid them to rest and we celebrated their young lives and all the while, while that was going on, that year, Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters almost went under because the state of North Carolina came in and imposed a bunch of fines on us for how we were doing things and what I think was unjust in the way they treated us, but it costs us so much money, we almost couldn’t pay it, we almost lost our status as a business and nonprofit corporation and we almost didn’t make it. Keyword there is almost, because if God is for you, it doesn’t matter if governors or presidents are against you and so, we made it and I’ve had people ask me, how did you go through that year and I’ll tell you this, I felt closer to Jesus in that year than maybe I’ve ever felt in my life, because when you go through the most difficult times, you’re going to feel his presence in the most powerful way and that is a biblical truth. That’s why Paul says, I’ve learned this. It doesn’t just happen that you know it, you don’t just know it. You have to learn it and then, the longer you live your life. Now that does that mean that you’re going to have to go through something that crazy? No, doesn’t mean that I don’t want to freak you out. It just means the longer you walk with Jesus, the more you learn to rely and depend on him.
Maybe your struggle this week is going to be nowhere near that severe, in fact, in my, over a half century of life, well over a half century of life, that’s the hardest little season of life ever. It’s not like something that’s always happening, but you know what does happen, I have trials and struggles every day, difficult situations, people that… Any you all go to school every day and deal with drama? Ladies, let me tell you something the most intense group of people on planet earth that will kill you or teenage girls. Am I right, ladies? It’s a struggle. I’ve raised daughters and it’s a struggle and so, you may not be burying friends or going through the stuff I just described, but it might just be hard to go to school this week because somebody’s going to say something real nasty about you that isn’t even true. What happens is, in those situations, you learn to be content, you learn to rely on Jesus, he says, I’ve learned that means I’ve experienced enough life to see Jesus be faithful. No matter what’s going on, you going to have some good days and you’ll have some bad days, because them days I just told you about, they were hard days, but you know what else, I’ve had some really good days. The day I asked Little, will she marry me? She said, yeah, that’s a good day. I thought, there isn’t no way she’s going, isn’t no way you’re going to marry this dumb Hill Billy. I went and talked to her daddy,
Her daddy was six foot five and weighed 325 pounds. That’s the kind of dad, look you got to like a girl real good to go tell her daddy you want to marry her when he looks like that sucker, he wore bibbed overalls and chewed Levi Garrett and he’s a legend at Snowbird Outfitters and they call him the big kahuna and I remember going to see him, but here’s what’s funny, mamas, here’s what’s funny I found this is 30 some years ago. I found out he wasn’t a scary one, her five-foot-tall, 105-pound mama, scared me to death. I was like, I am not messing with that girl. That was a good day when he said, yeah, you marry my daughter. I remember I was standing there talking to him and he looked at me literally, this true story, he took a step back, he looked from top to bottom and these are the exact words that came out of that man’s mouth. me and him laughed about it, he went to be with the Lord a couple years ago, but it was one of our favorite stories to relive, he went, you’re about what we’ve been looking for. So, kick the tires that was a good day. It was a good day when he said, I could ask her. It’s a good day when she said, yes, I sold a Ruger Black Hawk 44 magnum pistol that Charlie Hill gave me as a summer bonus when I worked for him on his landscaping crew. Sold that to buy a ring from stencils jewelers.
In Asheville, North Carolina, got that ring it’s burning a hole in my pocket. I couldn’t wait and I put it on her finger and she said, yeah, that was a good da., you’re going to have some good days, you’re going to have some bad days. The day that every one of my young ones came home, all six of them, we walked through the door of our house, those were good days watching my girls play volleyball and basketball and soccer, those are good days. Those aren’t days are going to last forever, but they’re good days, you know what I learned on those days to be content, to appreciate what God had given me, to appreciate the snow outside, to appreciate the sun coming up, to appreciate the air I’m breathing and the running water at my house, to pause and just go. I’ve learned to live in a peaceful state of joy that comes from knowing Jesus, some hard days, some good days and what you learn is that in the hard days and the good days, Jesus is worth it. Jesus is enough, but nothing else that you’re ever going to encounter young people is as worth it, or is enough to carry you through those highs and lows. See, you can find things that will carry you through the good days, money, sex, drugs, whatever you pick, what the world is offering it’ll carry you through the good days, but what about the bad days, the hard days?
The dying days, those are the days when I need to learn to be content. So, Paul says, I learned it. I got it. I’ve learned contentment. Then he says, in Verse 12, I know how to be brought low. I know how to abound and in any and every circumstance. I’ve learned that the secret of facing planet plenty and hunger and abundance and need. Okay, so now he’s pressing into this a little bit, he said, I’ve learned to be content, but let me explain how I learned it. Good days, bad days, highs and lows. I’ve learned to be content, read 12 again. I know how to be brought low, in other words, he’s saying because I’ve learned this, I now know how to go through hard times, let me ask you this, don’t answer out loud, don’t raise your hand, you don’t have to shake your head. Do you know how to endure difficult days? Maybe you do, maybe you don’t. Do you know how to get through the dark days of your life and on the other side of that, do you know how to celebrate the goodness and the gifts of God in your life? It’s learned, you learn it by walking with Jesus, you, he says I know how to be brought low and I know how to abound. That means be blessed, get good stuff, have good days and in any and every circumstance, I’ve learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need, he’s saying, I’ve been he’ll…
There’s another place, there’s two other places where he explains, I’ve been whipped, stoned beaten, dragged through the streets, thrown in prison, he was in shipwrecks, he was like, marooned on a beach and they almost died and it was winter time and like, this dude had been through all kinds of stuff just because he was preaching and proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So, when he says, I’ve had highs and lows. I’ve had plenty and nothing. I’ve learned how to suffer and how to abound, he understood it at a level that most of us don’t, but I’ve seen a little bit of this when the floods came through back this past fall and we were working at people’s houses and we’re digging people out and we’re the Snowbird team was every day, going over and working and I would, you meet people and you knew if someone was a Christian, because they would still be joyful. Their whole house just washed down the river. One dude talked to one guy, he said, it’s right below my cousin’s house and my cousin said, we came down here. This dude came out of his trailer and he’s screaming, my wife’s in the trailer. My wife’s in the trailer and the trailer was literally looked like a boat going down the Pigeon River and disappeared around the bend. They found her 24 miles downstream. 10 days later, the guy’s wheels came off, he was unraveled, he was undone because he didn’t have a relationship with Jesus.
But, the next person I talked to had suffered great loss and was like, it’s hard, but we’re going to be fine, because the Lord is going to carry us through, you get in a situation like that, you see the difference in the mindset, let’s take all of that and let’s apply it to just the normal day to day life that you and I are going to live this week, you’re going to go to school. Somebody’s going to talk ugly about you. Somebody’s going to use their device to try to attack you, maybe somebody’s going to say something that’s not true about you, maybe you’re going to go back to a household, a home where there’s not a lot of love, it’s difficult to live under that roof and Jesus is going to go with you and then, that context, Paul’s saying, if you learn how to live your life with Jesus, no matter what’s going on, you’re going to be fine and he tells us how this is the last thing, verse 13, I can do all things through him who strengthens me. How are we going to be content no matter what? Through the strength that Jesus gives us. I don’t want to only talk about the hard things you talk about. How do you not let it go to your head when good things are happening? Through the strength that Jesus, the strength of Jesus is what lifts me out of suffering and what keeps me from becoming prideful when things are good, the strength of Jesus in my life is what’s going to carry me through life. I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.
Jesus strengthens you, you’re going to be fine, you lean into Jesus, he’s going to give you what you need, not just to go through hard times, but to go through good times. Did you know that we need Jesus in order to go through good times, so that we celebrate them for what they are gifts from the Lord and we’re thankful and we’re appreciative and we need Jesus to go through difficult times? I stood on this stage right here and preached a funeral of a 16-year-old boy that died in a drunk driving accident. They were leaving a party up here in a place called Healy Fields, coming off the mountain and they wrecked the car. Two boys survived. They were sitting right here on the front the family was right here. A minister to that family for years, Little and I had known the family hit when this boy’s dad was his age, we administered to him, he was a local kid that came from a really broken situation, he made a profession of faith the dad, when he was in his 20s, I had the privilege of discipling him for about three years and then, he turned away from the Lord, fell back into the world, his son sort of, followed suit, stood right here and preached. Listen, you all preaching to people who have no hope in a situation.
Because, they don’t know Jesus tonight the most important thing that you can fix your eyes on and commit your life to is a relationship with Jesus, because it’s through him that you’ll have the strength you need to get through the highs and the lows, Jesus is enough, especially if you got Jesus and then, a bunch of other people that have got Jesus, AKA your youth group. FBC Taylor says, you all don’t matter if you Clemson fan or Gamecocks fan, don’t matter, you need each other, you need Jesus, your youth group, your people, you can go through life together with the people that you’re worshiping together with and you can learn what Paul learned. Paul learned, I need Jesus and the strength that Christ gives me and I need the strength that he supplies through his people and with that, I can live in a constant and abiding state of joy in happiness through Jesus. Tonight, if you don’t know the Lord, my prayer, our prayer is that you would confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead and the scripture says and this is a promise of God, you’ll be saved. So, tonight, as we sing to close our time and we go into share groups and we spend time talking through it, make sure you understand where you are with Jesus. Okay, thank you, Lord, for Your word book of Philippians. Thank you for the promises laid out in it.