Sermon 10

Philippians 4:11. For I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.

Now there are many pleas and reasonings that yet remain, for there is a great deal of ado with a discontented murmuring heart. And I remember finding that the same Hebrew word that signifies [to lodge, to abide] signifies to murmur; they use one word for both. For murmuring is a distemper that does lodge in men, where it gets in, once it lodges, abides, and continues. And therefore, that we may unlodge it and get it out, we will labor to show what are the further reasonings of a discontented heart.

Philippians 4:11: "For I have learned, in whatever state I am, to be content."

There are many more pleas and reasonings that remain to be addressed, for a discontented, murmuring heart requires a great deal of work. I recall noting that the same Hebrew word that means "to lodge" or "to remain" also means "to murmur." The two meanings share one word — and fittingly so, for murmuring is a condition that lodges in a person. Once it gets in, it stays, settles in, and persists. And so, to dislodge it and drive it out, we will continue to address the further reasonings of a discontented heart.