Christmas 1
28 December 2025
Vineville Baptist Church
Macon, Georgia
Gregory Pope
THE APOSTLE PAUL AND THE ROLLING STONES
Philippians 4.1-23
In 1965 the Rolling Stones sang to the world: “I can’t get no satisfaction, but I try and I try and I try and I try, I can’t get no satisfaction.”1 We know what they mean. We know people who sing that song. We’ve likely even sung it ourselves. Paul had sung that tune as well, but, he said, over time he learned contentment.
Even in our abundance, we’re tempted to focus our attention and energies toward the things that we don’t have rather than toward the gifts that we do have. We would do well to stop and reflect often on the gifts that are in our lives and to be grateful for them. Gratitude helps us live more grounded lives. Thanksgiving leads to contentment and generosity. If you watch carefully
the lives of those who have learned to live joyfully despite the fact that their lives turned out in ways they never would have planned, one of the virtues they all seem to share is a quiet sense of contentment.
Now when we talk about contentment, we must be careful. Because there are plenty of circumstances with which no one should be content. There are wrongs to be righted and injustices to be confronted. There are situations that cannot be endured and evils that must not be tolerated. There are habits to be conquered, addictions to be battled, callings to be followed, remedies to be sought, and cycles to be broken. I don’t think Paul is advocating the kind of contentment that lapses into complacency. I think Paul is calling us to the kind of contentment that comes to terms with the things that cannot be changed, the kind of contentment that looks at life as it is and says: “I may wish I had a different life, but I don’t. I may wish life had given me a different kind of mind or body or skills or talents, but it didn’t. My life is what it is. This is the hand that I’ve been dealt. How can I make the best of it?”
The greatest obstacle to a life of contentment is desire and want. We always want more than what we have. And there is always something out there that lures us, making us unsatisfied with what is ours, desiring more. Do you ever wish your desires would take a rest? Do you get tired of a life of discontentment, finding it ever so difficult to be satisfied and content with what you have and where you are in life?
I spent time this week reading over this final chapter in Paul’s letter to the Philippians And it seems to me Paul’s words in this final chapter provide something of a roadmap on the path to contentment, stones along the path with wisdom to guide our way
The first wisdom stone is to stand firm in the Lord. Don’t try to control your circumstances. Let the wind blow where it will. But keep your heart planted firmly in the God whose presence never leaves you and whose Spirit will guide and keep you.
A second wisdom stone is to seek unity in the face of conflict. Discontentment often springs from relationships in conflict. Paul names two people in the Philippian church who are at odds with each other, and he asks the church to help them resolve their conflict, because contentment cannot flourish in the church where brothers and sisters are at odds with each other, or when any relationships are in conflict. If you desire contentment, seek unity, practice the things that make for peace.
A third wisdom stone is to embrace joy wherever you find it. Rejoice in the Lord, always, Paul writes, and again I say rejoice. Instead of looking at your life and seeing what you don’t have, see the blessings you do have and rejoice in them.
And for all the circumstances that tie your heart in anxious knots, pray, open your soul to the presence of God in your life, and allow God’s peace to flood your heart and soul. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Wisdom stone number four: pray for peace.
Wisdom stone number five is to focus your thoughts on what is good and true and beautiful. Thoughts are real and very powerful. They affect the way we act and live. Paul told the Corinthians to “bring every thought captive in obedience to Christ.” Paul knew the importance of how we think. And he offers guidance here in this letter to let our thoughts dwell on whatever is true, honorable, and just, whatever is pure, pleasing, and commendable, all that is worthy of praise – Paul says, “Let your mind dwell on these things.”
It is interesting how most of us protect our physical selves. We don’t let people touch us, push us around, or control where we go. But when it comes to the mind, we’re less disciplined. We hand it over willingly to social media, to television, to what other people are doing, thinking, or saying. And we don’t even know that we are doing this.2 There’s a new book out entitled “Don’t Believe Everything You Think.” Good advice! Think on what is good and true and beautiful.
Stand firm in the Lord. Seek unity in the midst of conflict. Embrace joy wherever it may be found. Pray for peace. Focus your thoughts on what is good, true, and beautiful. Simple enough, right? If it were easy, we all would do it! Paul said he had to learn contentment. And wisdom stone number six is the anchor that holds all other stones in place. It is this: Depend upon the strength of Christ. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Paul had learned that contentment comes from the power and presence of Christ within us.
It is often what is hidden that provides the needed strength, that becomes a hidden resource. The most important part of a tree is the part you cannot see – the roots deep beneath the surface. The most important part of our lives, our source of strength and contentment is not found in what people can see, but the power of Christ that fills us from within. Christ is our strength and our source of contentment. He is the strength we need to battle our greed, and he is our source of contentment when we find ourselves in need.
A New Testament scholar was lecturing about happiness and said the word that describes happiness for him is contentment, and he gave the example of his father-in-law at dinner. He would sit, savor every bite of the dish in front of him, never ask for a second helping, push the dish away, sit back and say, “Thank you, God.” Contentment.
It is a scourge of the human soul to say “I do not have enough.” And it is a grace of the human soul to say “What I have is enough.” It doesn’t matter how much or little you have,
the question comes: “What is enough?” Paul says: I have learned in whatever state I am in to be content. I know how to be abased and I know how to abound. In any and all circumstance I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and want. I can do all things in him who strengthens me.
There is a seventh and final wisdom stone that helps keep us on the path, and it is: to lean on the community of faith. Paul concludes this letter by naming those within the Philippian church who lean on each other and help one another along the wisdom path. There is nothing about the Christian life, even learning the lesson of contentment, that we can do alone. We need one another to lean upon and learn from. We need the wisdom of others. People like author Cheryl Strayed who reminds us in her book Tiny Beautiful Things: “You don’t have a right to the cards you believe you should have been dealt.”
There is so much of our lives that is out of control. We don’t control the hand we’ve been dealt. We don’t determine the hand we’re dealt. Our biology isn’t up to us, nor is our place in the world. But we do get to decide how we play the hand we’ve been dealt. We decide what we do about it. We decide who we become.
Not long ago I ran across a phrase that captures this kind of contentment in a powerful and beautiful way. It was in a collection of spiritual memoirs called Pilgrim Souls. In a chapter on the poet Emily Dickinson, the editors wrote that Dickinson had learned to be content with the narrow boundaries of her limited life in small-town New England because “Her soul had reached a settlement with her life.”3
The Rolling Stones began this sermon singing in 1965 how they could not get any satisfaction. But somewhere between 1965 and 1969 it seems that the Rolling Stones had a Bible study on these words of Paul to the Philippians which inspired Mick Jagger and Keith Richards to lead the band in singing to the world a different tune that offers this wisdom: “You can’t always get what you want but if you try some time, you just might find, you get what you need.”4
Of all the resolutions you might make for the new year, how about the resolve to be gratefully content with what you have instead of striving for what you want that may never be yours. Peace comes at its deepest and fullest by resting in the awareness that “The Lord is near.” “The God of peace is with us.” God stands guard over our hearts and minds with his peace, a peace that runs deeper than our fears or anxieties. God is with you. Rest and rejoice.
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- The Rolling Stones, “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” lyrics by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, from the album Out of Our Heads, 1965
- Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman, The Daily Stoic, “March 8,” Penguin, 2016, 78
- Anna Mandelker and Elizabeth Powers, Pilgrim Souls, Simon and Schuster, 1999, 65
- The Rolling Stones, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” lyrics by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, from the album Let It Bleed, 1969