26-0913a Transcript

(1:59) Good morning. (2:02) Good to see everybody. (2:03) My turn in our rotation again. (2:07) My sermon is something I struggle with, and it’s being content.

(2:14) It’s called The Secret of Contentment. (2:18) We live in a culture that is professionally discontent. (2:23) Every advertisement, every scroll, every conversation quietly says the same thing.

(2:30) You would be happier if you had a little more. (2:34) A little more money, a little more comfort, a little more recognition, (2:40) a better job, a better house, a better body, a better relationship. (2:47) Ever think that? (2:50) And I have.

(2:52) And yet the people who already have those things are often just as restless as the people who don’t. (3:01) The Apostle Paul writes something that cuts against all of that. (3:05) He is in prison.

(3:07) He has known hunger and plenty, abundance and need, and he says, (3:13) I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. (3:19) I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. (3:25) In every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.

(3:34) I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (3:40) Notice the word learned. (3:43) Contentment is not a personality type.

(3:47) It is not the result of finally getting your circumstances right. (3:52) It is something a follower of Jesus is taught by Christ himself. (3:59) Contentment is not found in changing your situation.

(4:05) Paul had every reason to be discontent. (4:08) He had been beaten, shipwrecked, slandered in prison, and left with almost nothing. (4:16) If contentment depended on external conditions, he would have none.

(4:22) We often reverse this. (4:24) We think, I’ll be content when the job gets easier, when the bills are paid, when my health improves, (4:36) when I finally have what they have. (4:39) The problem is, when never arrives.

(4:44) The finish line keeps moving. (4:47) Seems like especially for me, if I get something, I’ll be happy and content for a few months, and then I want something else. (4:55) So Paul does not tell us to wait for a better chapter.

(4:59) He tells us what God calls gain right now. (5:05) Godliness with contentment is great gain. (5:08) For we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world.

(5:15) But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. (5:19) 1 Timothy 6, 6-8 (5:23) 1 Timothy names the principle, Proverbs 30, 8-9 puts a prayer with it. (5:33) Give me neither poverty nor riches.

(5:35) Feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you, and say, Who is the Lord? (5:43) Or lest I be poor and steel, and profane the name of my God. (5:49) So it’s good to be just in the middle. (5:51) Not too much or not too little.

(5:56) Contentment is not asking God for the most. (5:59) It is asking Him for enough, and then trusting Him with it. (6:05) The world says gain comes from getting more.

(6:09) God says the great gain is learning to need less than you thought you did, and to find sufficiency in Him. (6:20) This contentment is often just unbelief wearing a respectable face. (6:28) It is a quiet suspicion that God has not been good enough to me yet.

(6:34) That’s a good point. (6:36) If we’re not content, then we’re not content with what God has provided us. (6:43) Contentment rests on God’s presence, not our possessions.

(6:49) Hebrews 13, 5-6 gives the reason we can be content. (6:55) Keep your life free from the love of money, and be content with what you have. (7:01) For He has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you.

(7:05) So we can confidently say, the Lord is my helper. (7:09) I will not fear. (7:11) What can man do to me? (7:16) The foundation is not you have enough stuff.

(7:19) The foundation is you have God. (7:24) How many of us think that he who has the most toys wins? (7:28) Have you ever seen that bumper sticker? (7:31) But God says your life doesn’t, you know, it doesn’t revolve around more possessions, (7:39) or the abundance of possessions. (7:44) That is the same word God spoke to Joshua.

(7:48) I will not leave you or forsake you. (7:53) If the Lord is with you, you are not actually lacking the thing, the one thing that matters most. (7:59) Everything else is secondary.

(8:02) That is why Paul can say he has learned that the secret in any circumstance, (8:09) the circumstances change, Christ does not. (8:16) This is why comparison is so deadly. (8:19) When we measure our lives against someone else’s highlight reel, (8:23) we start treating God’s specific gift to us as insufficient.

(8:28) Especially hard with social media. (8:30) You see everybody’s, you know, great things happening to them, (8:34) and you can feel depressed, or that you don’t have what they have. (8:41) But God did not call you to live their life.

(8:45) He called you to be faithful in yours. (8:50) Contentment is practice, not merely self. (8:54) Paul learned it.

(8:56) That means it came, it did not come automatically. (9:00) How do we practice it? (9:04) Give thanks specifically. (9:07) Not thank gratitude, I’m blessed.

(9:11) But naming what God has actually given. (9:14) Today’s food, a roof over your head, work to do, mercy that is new this morning. (9:22) The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.

(9:25) His mercies never come to an end. (9:29) They are new every morning. (9:30) Great is your faithfulness.

(9:33) Lamentations 3, 22 through 23. (9:38) Thanksgiving, starve discontent. (9:43) Stop feeding the appetite for more.

(9:48) Limit the input that train your heart to want what you don’t have. (9:53) Comparison is a habit, so is contentment. (9:58) Sale in a bad abaddon are never satisfied.

(10:03) And never satisfied are the eyes of man, Proverbs 27, 20. (10:09) You can never be satisfied with more. (10:13) I know that in my life.

(10:16) You think you keep doing it and eventually have had enough, but that never happens. (10:23) Look at these billionaires and billionaires. (10:26) They still want more money.

(10:27) Still want more things. (10:31) Next is remember what lasts. (10:34) Houses, cars, titles, and bank accounts stay here.

(10:39) The work you do in the Lord is not in vain. (10:44) Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. (10:52) Knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain, 1 Corinthians 15, 58.

(10:59) A Christian has no retirement from faithfulness. (11:04) We work till Jesus comes, and the reward is not more stuff but him. (11:11) You don’t get a 401k for the Christian.

(11:15) We have to keep working. (11:18) Pray instead of rehearsing a lack. (11:22) Anxiety and discontent often travel together.

(11:27) Bring the need to God rather than turning it over in your mind a hundred times. (11:34) Do not be anxious for anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. (11:47) And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, Philippians 4, 6-7.

(11:59) Hold things loosely. (12:01) You brought nothing in, you take nothing out. (12:06) My favorite line, that’s why you don’t see a U-Haul behind a hearse.

(12:15) So, you know, those tombs in Egypt that they fill with the pharaohs, all the possessions, they’re still there. (12:22) They found them thousands of years later. (12:25) You don’t take anything with you when you leave this world.

(12:31) Job said it best. (12:33) Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return. (12:39) The Lord gave and the Lord taketh away.

(12:42) Blessed be the name of the Lord. (12:45) The truth frees you to give and to stop treating everything as if it were yours to keep. (12:53) None of this means we stop working, planning, or improving our situation.

(12:59) Paul worked, he received help, and he was not passive. (13:04) Contentment is not laziness or pretending pain isn’t real. (13:08) It’s refusing to let the pain or lack become your master.

(13:15) The secret is a person. (13:19) Paul’s secret is not a technique, it’s a relationship. (13:23) I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

(13:28) This verse is not about athletic achievement or career success. (13:36) In context, it is about having enough of Christ to be content when you have little and humble when you have much. (13:47) Jesus is enough when the job is heavy.

(13:51) He is enough when the body aches. (13:53) He is enough when the house is small and the future is unclear. (13:59) He is enough when you are single, tired, or overlooked.

(14:03) The world will never stop telling you that you need more. (14:08) Christ says, I am with you. That is enough.

(14:13) David says it plainly. (14:16) The Lord is my shepherd. I lack nothing.

Psalm 23.1. (14:23) That’s so true. We have Jesus. We have the greatest thing in the world.

(14:28) We have everything we need. (14:33) If you have never come to him, contentment will always be just out of reach. (14:38) Because the one thing you actually need is missing.

(14:43) He invites you not to a better set of circumstances first, but to himself. (14:51) If you belong to him already, the call today is simple and hard. (14:57) Stop waiting for life to get easier before you trust him.

(15:03) Learn as Paul learned. (15:05) In the situation you are in right now, he will not leave you. He will not forsake you.

(15:14) That is the secret. (15:19) So if you need the prayers of the church, if you need to become a Christian, which I don’t think anybody does, now is the time to come forward. (15:27)