Notes

Contentment does not come from what you have or what you do.

If you have Jesus, you have EVERYTHING!

CITIZENS have Jesus, therefore CITIZENS have everything!

How do those who have been given everything live everyday?  They give everything to everyone!

Verses

{“Above all, you must live as citizens of heaven…” Philippians 1:27 NLT}{"How I praise the Lord that you are concerned about me again. I know you have always been concerned for me, but you didn’t have the chance to help me. Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength. Even so, you have done well to share with me in my present difficulty." Philippians 4:10-14 NLT}{“I have been put in prison more often, been whipped times without number, and faced death again and again. Five different times the Jewish leaders gave me thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. Once I spent a whole night and a day adrift at sea. I have traveled on many long journeys. I have faced danger from rivers and from robbers. I have faced danger from my own people, the Jews, as well as from the Gentiles. I have faced danger in the cities, in the deserts, and on the seas. And I have faced danger from men who claim to be believers but are not. I have worked hard and long, enduring many sleepless nights. I have been hungry and thirsty and have often gone without food. I have shivered in the cold, without enough clothing to keep me warm.” 2 Corinthians 11:24-29 NLT}{“My breath is repulsive to my wife. I am rejected by my own family. Even young children despise me. When I stand to speak, they turn their backs on me. My close friends detest me. Those I loved have turned against me. I have been reduced to skin and bones and have escaped death by the skin of my teeth.” Job 19:17-19 NLT}{“But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and he will stand upon the earth at last. And after my body has decayed, yet in my body I will see God! I will see him for myself. Yes, I will see him with my own eyes. I am overwhelmed at the thought!” Job 19:25-27 NLT}{“As you know, you Philippians were the only ones who gave me financial help when I first brought you the Good News and then traveled on from Macedonia. No other church did this. Even when I was in Thessalonica you sent help more than once.” Philippians 4:15-16 NLT}{“At the moment I have all I need—and more! I am generously supplied with the gifts you sent me with Epaphroditus. They are a sweet-smelling sacrifice that is acceptable and pleasing to God. And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:18-19 NLT}

Quotes

C.S. Lewis : “It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
(The Weight of Glory); C.S. Lewis : “He who has God and everything has no more than he who has God alone.” (Mere Christianity ); Craig Groeschel : “Our culture has conditioned us to believe that the things we don’t have are the things that will make us happy. We blindly chase whatever is newer, shinier, or faster.” (The Christian Atheist); Stephen Altrogge : “We won’t be fully satisfied when we get what we want. Because God loves us and wants us to find our satisfaction in Him, He won’t allow us to be happy satisfied. To believe that we’ll finally be happy when we get what we want is a lie.” (The Greener Grass Conspiracy); Mark Batterson : “Most of us spend most of our lives accumulating the wrong things. Start ridding yourself of those things that will depreciate over time and start investing in those things that will appreciate throughout all eternity.” (ALL IN); Larry Allen : “One of the greatest impediments to generosity in the human heart is the fear that our gift to someone else means a loss of that gift’s benefit to ourselves. We fear that if we give sacrificially to someone else, we might have to go without ourselves.” (Growing in the Grace of Giving);