Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:04 Happy Mother's Day. Happy mother. I know, I, I got, I was, I was trying to see if I could catch one of you. My name's Michael Fueling. I'm the lead pastor here at the Village Church. And, uh, I want to welcome you and, uh, so glad to have you here today. Uh, before we get into the message, um, I wanna read to you from Proverbs chapter 31, verse 25 to 28. It's talking about the godly mother. Strength and dignity are her clothing. And I, I love, this is actually my favorite line in all of Proverbs 31. And she laughs at the future. She is so confident in her God and in her faithfulness and her preparation, that when she looks at all the anxieties of the world and all the what ifs, she steps back and says, future, what do you have for me? I'm prepared.
Speaker 1 00:00:53 And my God is faithful. Strength and dignity are her clothing. And she laughs at the future. She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue, and she looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. And so, uh, husbands, dad's kids listen to this line. Her children, they, they rise up and they call her blessed. Her husband also. He rises up and calls her blessed and he praises her. I, I hope, um, today you've set aside a day to make sure that the moms and your life are honored and cherished and treasured. And what I love about motherhood is when you see a strong, kind, tender, feminine mother, what you see as a part of the image of God, you get to see this part of the beauty of God's character to de displayed every time your mom loves you.
Speaker 1 00:01:48 Well, she's made in the image of God, and God's fullness of his image is displayed in man and woman. But moms, you have such a sacred, beautiful, wonderful part. And, uh, what I wanna do is I wanna just take a moment. I wanna, I wanna pray for our moms. I know that Mother's Day is one of those days that is gut-wrenching for many, it's bitter and it's sweet. And I also note some of you are here, it's Mother's Day, and you're here because your mom or your wife said, it's Mother's Day. My one gift is for you to come to church. So pray for you as well. All right? Let me pray for you. Uh, father, I thank you for revealing such beautiful and unique aspects of your nature and your character, not just through women and femininity, but through motherhood. Every time we experience a faithful, sacrificial, nurturing, preserving, strong tender mom, we experience a reflection of you.
Speaker 1 00:02:42 So today, may you comfort the grieving. May you encourage the tired, and may you point every mom to Jesus, the true source of a mom's superhuman strength and energy. We pray all of this in Jesus name. Amen. Dads children. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. All right, so we are in a series called Healthy Souls. It's week two of this series. Last week we looked at the issue of anxiety, and, and the elders and I got together and we, we plotted out what are some of the, the greatest threats for our church this time to our spiritual health. Here's what we know, summer is coming. It's coming like a storm. Your kids are gonna be outta school. Your grandkids, all of life is gonna be tops, seeded, turvy. And, and we already know this is coming, and every time it happens, we're sort of surprised, like, oh, my whole life is upside down.
Speaker 1 00:03:29 But what we want to encourage you to do is to set apart Christ as Lord. This summer. We, we wanna make sure that as you go into this, you can even prepare yourself now to make sure that you are worshiping him, pursuing him, loving him, knowing him. And you're gonna have to make some decisions beforehand about what your schedule's gonna look like, because everything is gonna go topsy turvy. And, uh, so this is, this whole series is designed kind of identifying some of those main threats and saying, let's, let's really look at these and let's, let's make sure that we are submitting even this aspect under the authority of Jesus Christ. So my, my prayer is that each of us would be tender to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Now I'm gonna tell you what the word is in just a moment, and you're gonna be like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 00:04:13 Got it, got it, got it. I've been there, done that, heard that. And, and my hope is that by the end of the, by the end of the message, you're going to step back and say, God, this is a really big deal to you. And, and I, I'm, I'm just gonna ask you at the beginning, would you just ask the Holy Spirit, if this is a problem in my life, I if this is a sin issue that has crept its way in, God, would you show me and would you heal me? All right, here's the, here's the issue for the morning discontentment here, here's the definition. I love a restless desire for more. Now, if we just stopped here, this is probably how the secular world would, would just identify it. But we are Christian people, and so we're gonna go a little bit deeper here.
Speaker 1 00:04:54 A restless desire for more than what God has for you. Now, anybody a little sense, like there might be a little dis discontentment. All right, here, let's go deeper. If you could change one thing about your life right now, what would you change? Now, I'm not talking to somebody else's life. I'm not saying like, get, like you in your life. If you could change one thing, what would it be? And, and, and there are four big buckets that about 99% of all of people's discontent falls into. And here are the buckets. I want more money, better relationships, a better career, and a better body. The vast majority of American discontentment is gonna fall into these categories. And now you might be thinking to yourself, Nope, you didn't get mine. Mine's, mine's better vacations. That comes into the more money category, right? So one of these is, one of these is gonna reflect probably as you think about the things that you're discontent about, it's gonna fall likely into one of these buckets.
Speaker 1 00:05:54 And if you're the 1% who has a different bucket, that's great. Come talk to me afterwards and then we'll make sure we add that for the next time we teach this <laugh>. What's fascinating by each of these buckets is that we can only control a small part of each of these. And, and there are three characters in our life that actually really influence the state of our lives as we relate to these. And, and the first character is yourself. The, the quality of each of these in your life is largely determined by how well you steward each of these. And, and, and so more money, some of you, you're like, I want more money, but you have a ton of debt, you spend more than you have, and you're not a good steward. And, and so nobody did that to you. You did that to yourself.
Speaker 1 00:06:34 And so there might be a bit of discontentment there. Better relationships. Well, maybe your relationships aren't great now because we have actually been a really hard person to be in relationship with, and now we're accruing the negative impact of that over over time. Maybe, um, you want a better career, but you're really lazy. Your bosses don't like you and you keep getting in trouble. Maybe you want a better body, but you love to eat past dinner, like you love pizza and beer and wine, and you're doing, you're eating all the things you shouldn't be eating to have a, to, to have some kind of physique, right? And you're like, I don't know what's happening to me. And I'm like, I could probably guess after dinner what's happening in your life. And so you gotta just take a step back and say at some point, a significant, like, part of the equation is the, how I'm relating to these things has to do with the way we have stewarded them in our lives. But, but there are other characters that affect how we see these. The second character is really just other people.
Speaker 1 00:07:26 E even if you steward all these wonderfully, I I can't control what my boss does. I can't control how much the government taxes me. I I can't, I can't control my friends. I can't control the person who has too much to drink, gets on the road and very well could hit my car. Like there's a handful of people in this room that your physical body has been so devastated, impacted by the behavior of other people. You didn't choose that you, you may have actually done all of these things wonderfully and someone else does something ridiculous. And the entire course and trajectory of your life is hijacked there. There's a third character actually that impacts all of these. And that would be God, like I might have all the ambition, all the gifting to be able to have great things here, but sometimes the Lord actually just says, no.
Speaker 1 00:08:11 Like, you look at God and you're like, there's no reason I don't have more money, better relationships, a better career and a better body. And, and sometimes God's just like, that's, that's not my will for you. That's my will for someone else. You know that person you're envious of and you keep looking at their life and wishing it was yours. That's, that's not the, that's not the life I made for you. So we step back and we, we realized though that discontentment is very real. And and again, I'm praying that the Holy Spirit would bring to your mind if there are areas of your life, particularly in these buckets, that you, you have this restlessness and you want something. And here's the, here's the word now that God doesn't want for you. Let's look at this def definition again. Discontentment is a restless desire for more than what God has for you. Now, can we agree that the Lord does want something better for us? And that would be the word contentment. Let's define this together also. Contentment is a, a deep satisfaction with all that God gives you. Now, can we just sit with this for a moment? Read it again. A deep satisfaction with all that God gives you now.
Speaker 1 00:09:24 Yeah, but you don't understand Pastor Michael. Um, if you saw what was going on in in my life, you wouldn't be satisfied. I'm not here to justify what other people have done to you. I'm not here to just be trite and gloss over some of the hardships. Um, we're actually gonna see in the text today is we're gonna see a very counter American counter flesh approach to contentment even in the negatives. All right? Open your Bibles, flippings chapter four. We're gonna be in verse 11 through 13. And, and these three verses, they're gonna walk us through the nature of contentment and discontentment. And they say in preachers that preachers should highlight their weaknesses and just live out their godliness. So we don't draw attention to ourselves and be braggadocious. And I agree with that. So I'm not gonna sit here and talk about how content I am, because honestly, through the duration of this, of the preparation of this, I was like, ouch.
Speaker 1 00:10:14 Holy Spirit was just convicting me. And he is like, you, you gotta do better. And there's some areas of encouragement. But the Apostle Paul seems to ignore this kind of like rule altogether because he points to himself regularly and basically says, yeah, I got this down. Watch me do what I do. Follow me as I follow Christ. And he's just unashamed about the reality that he has really, if, if not mastered the art of contentment. Now look at, look at verse 11 with me. He says this, I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. Uh, content is actually derived from two words. And the first word has to do with self, and the other word has to do with sufficiency. So in the most literal sense, the way a secular person would use this term is, I am self-sufficient. Uh, what I have in me is enough, but, but with the apostle Paul is gonna make very clear is that it's not his own self that is sufficient.
Speaker 1 00:11:06 It's what Christ has done in him. It is Christ in him because Jesus is in him. He has everything within himself to actually bring God glory no matter what circumstance he's in. But it's this idea that what I have is enough and everything on top of it is a bonus. But look at, look at this in verse 11, he says, I have learned in whatever situation to be contented. So initially when I'm reading this, I'm thinking it's gotta be hyperbole, exaggeration for the sake of effect, right? I mean, this is like a pretty all-encompassing statement. So, okay, the Apostle Paul, um, are you content when your loved ones are murdered and killed, which is what happened in the first century? Are you content when you are, when you are beaten to a pulp, when you're treated like dirt, when you're falsely imprisoned, when your name is slandered?
Speaker 1 00:11:55 Like, are you content even in those circumstances? Surely that's, that's not what you mean. I mean, surely there's gotta be something that can happen in a Christian's life where you can be a curmudgeon and a grumpy complainer, right? Like surely there's gotta be something where you can say, woe is me. And God's like, yes, woe is you, right? Like, something's gotta happen there. You would think, because like, we should be able to, to grumble and complain. Well, verse 12, you unpacks this. He says this, I know how to be brought low and I know how to abound. And, and here he goes again. Look at this in any, in every circumstance, I mean, again, consider the totality of what he is saying and, and he gives two categories of circumstances. The first is abundance. And let's be honest, wouldn't we all love to have abundance all the time?
Speaker 1 00:12:49 That would be great. And he is like, yeah, I've learned how to be content in abundance. We're like, thanks man. Everyone else can too good. But, but he also identifies, I've learned to be content in loneliness. If you're not familiar with the Bible, you, you may be, you may have an impulse to think or say, well, what does the Apostle Paul know of deprivation, of loneliness, of lacking? He's the most revered of all the apostles for 2000 years. He is celebrated, read and taught. We love the apostle Paul and I I think if you met him after about five seconds of just looking at his body, you would realize maybe the story you have in your brain of the Apostle Paul might not be consistent with the actual life of this man. So I want you to open up your bibles with me, the references on the screen, second Corinthians chapter 11, verse 23 to 28.
Speaker 1 00:13:45 But I want you to open up your Bibles because I want you to read this with me. Uh, if you have your phone, you can just go to Google or chat. E b t would love to help you. And uh, I'd also write a sermon on this if you're so interested. Uh, but I want you to read this with me because what I want you to understand is that the Apostle Paul is not some preacher goon who's like giving trite statements that are meaningless and don't actually apply in the real world. So listen to, listen to what he says and, and, and here's the brief context. There are what he calls false apostles who are saying, Paul's not a real apostle because Paul was a real apostle. Paul would be rich and happy and healthy and wealthy. And he's like, God, Jesus never promised us that.
Speaker 1 00:14:31 So to prove that he's a real apostle, he's not going to talk about how good his life is. What he's gonna do is he's gonna talk about all of his sufferings. And what he's gonna do is say, if God would allow Jesus to suffer, it stands the reason he would allow his apostles to suffer as well. And so he's gonna try to prove his apostleship based on his suffering. Verse 23 says, with far greater laborers, far more imprisonment with countless beatings and often near death, 99% of us in this room have not been imprisoned because of our affiliation with Jesus, nor have we been beat to a pulp over and over again. Now, there there is some interesting implicit things in this text that I think most Christians are probably not aware of. And I wanna show you them because it's very striking. In verse 24, he says, five times I received at the hands of the Jews, the 40 lashes less one.
Speaker 1 00:15:37 Jesus got one of those, he got five of them. And the reason it was 40 less one is because they believed that no human could actually endure 40 lashings where they whip you. And this whip goes around and rips your flesh out from top to bottom. 39 times this happened to him five separate times. But behind this, this is actually something interesting because with every one of these lashings, there was a false accusation against him, a trial against him, he was found guilty, and then the leaders of Israel beat him to a pulp. Five separate times. That is five times this guy has been falsely accused of something, found guilty and then beaten. That's five trials, that's a lot. But he's not done. In verse 25, he says, three times I was beaten with rods. Now we're moving from the Jewish leaders. We're going to the Roman world.
Speaker 1 00:16:28 That means three times accusations were brought against him before the Roman leaders. Three times he was tried, found guilty, and then he was punished by the beating of rods. That's eight trials, that's eight accusations all found guilty and unjustly beat to a pulp after every one of them. Oh, we're not done. He says this once I was stoned, which means huge accusations were made that would require the Jewish leaders to end his life. The accusations were apparently proven to be true. And so here's what they would do. They would take the people who accused, they would give them not big stones, but not small stones. Sometimes they would put them in a pit and then they would throw the stones at 'em first because the accusers go first. And then the rest of the congregation would come up and they would pelt the person with stones somehow after being lashed in five separate occasions. Now, he has a ninth trial where this guy is found guilty here. Here's what, here's why I say this. If you met the apostle Paul, you would see scars all up his face, his neck, his back, his legs. He says in Galatians, that I bear on my body the brand marks of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1 00:17:39 I say this because I want you to understand this. The apostle Paul is not just some self righteous pastor who's looking at you saying, be content in all circumstances. Look at me. He is a man who has probably suffered 20 x, what 99% of you and I in this room have ever gone through. And he looks at you and says, there's something about Jesus that gives me the ability in every circumstance, crazy totality of those to be content. He goes on in verse 25, 3 times, that was shipwrecked. Anybody else? I actually would love to hear the story. If you were please, you were shipwrecked at saw that a night and a day I was adrift at sea on frequent journeys in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea, danger from false brothers and in toy and hardship through, through many a sleepless night and hunger and thirsts, often without food in cold and exposure, like we get a little bit chilly and we're like, I can't handle this.
Speaker 1 00:18:50 He's spending nights in the cold because he has nowhere to go and he doesn't have his north face apparently. And then in verse 28, he, he takes off all the physical side and, and I don't, I don't know what's worse, physical, suffering, emotion, I don't know. But like he says, apart from the other things, there's the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. I mean, this is a pastor he's willing to sacrifice, but what is burdening his heart? It's not his next meal. It's, I want to love the churches I started. I I want to make sure they have everything they need. And so this is what he thinks about. He's cold. When I'm cold, I think about getting warm when he's cold. He's like, God, I just, I pray for the church in Dussel, lanica, God, I pray for the church.
Speaker 1 00:19:37 And Philippi God, I pray for the church in Corinth. And, and his heart is burdened for his people because that's, that's what a pastor's heart does. Paul knows what it means to have no food, no shelter, no love, no friends, no respect, no reputation, no health, nothing. Let's go back to Philippians four in verse 11. I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I I know how to be bra low. Does he know what it means to be bra low? Sure does. And I know how to abound in, in any, in every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. Let me ask you a question. Has, has your contentment been challenged?
Speaker 1 00:20:27 Something that I have, I've learned really only through experience, is that sometimes the only way to go through deprivation or lack is to having already gone through it. Look, I bet the first time he was falsely accused, arrested, and beaten with 39 lashes and had to recover for weeks on end as the scars healed off of his body. I bet that crushed him by the fifth time. How about the ninth trial? Like at some point you go through something enough times and you start to learn, I actually have the ability to bring God glory in this. I have the ability to choose contentment and not let other people have free rental space in my brain because they don't deserve it. I'm actually gonna let Christ reside here. I'm gonna let truth in reality reside here because here's what I know, you can do whatever you want to my body, but ultimately you cannot do more or less than what Jesus allows a a and you can do whatever you want to my emotions, but my soul is secure.
Speaker 1 00:21:26 And, and so the apostle Paul like understands this. I think he just learned to grow. And this is one of the hardest things about contentment in so many other virtues, is that the only way to learn them is to be deprived. And so oftentimes we will say, God, this deprivation, this lack, please fix it. If you loved me, you would. But what maybe you don't know is that what he's doing is building in you the muscles that you need now for the weight he's asking you to carry later. That is one thing I've learned about God. He has never wasted a single pain in my life. But it takes going through pain and deprivation and lack, and then having the space and time to, to look back and see the goodness and faithfulness of God in that, to go through it a second time, a third time, a fourth time, a fifth time to be able to step back and say, yeah, been there, done that.
Speaker 1 00:22:18 Throw everything you got the lord's good, he's faithful. Come on. And the apostol just learns this. And he's like, I have learned and lack or abundance to be content. That's a powerful statement. Philippians four says, I have learned the secret. Uh, this, this is an interesting word because what this word means, it means secret means to be initiated into something. And, and, and what he's communicating is, if I could speak a little crassly, hey, there's a club and there's a, there's a club of contentment and the only way to get into it is be, is to be initiated. And, uh, here's the secret. Um, hard things are gonna happen. But if, if you want to know the secret, you, you need to be able to give God glory in the middle of that. Because if you can't give God glory in the middle of it, you're never gonna learn contentment.
Speaker 1 00:23:08 You're gonna wag your finger at God, you're gonna be upset for all the things you don't have but deserve to have, et cetera. And, and he is like, I've been initiating to the club and here's what I can just tell everybody in this room. Most of you are in the club. You have suffered, you have gone through deprivation or lack in some way, physically, emotionally, relationally, and, and you have built the muscle. Some, some of you are are able to actually say, because I've gone through it, I'm ready for it again, the preparation the first time is getting you ready for the next one. But, but there are a number of us who every time we go through it, we stay in discontentment and we're gonna explore what that actually looks like practically. And we still have not learned to bring God glory when none of life works out the way I want it to.
Speaker 1 00:23:58 I want I want you to look at the book of Hebrews chapter 10 with me, verse 35. I'll put this on the screen. And, and, uh, I think this is just one of the most powerful passages because what is the temptation? When the discontent gets big enough, the temptation is to point your finger at God, walk away from him and say, you haven't done enough for me. And the book of Hebrews is written to a bunch of Jews who are being persecuted. They're dispersed to their, there's a, a large area of territory that they're around. So this letter is cycling amongst the Jewish people. And and here's what's happening. They're saying it's too hard to follow Jesus. So these Jews are going back to Judaism, they're abandoning the gospel. And and he is like, listen, I know that it's not what you want. I know that this is, is it ist ideal?
Speaker 1 00:24:41 I know that you're suffering. I get that. And and here's what he writes to them. He says in verse 35, therefore, do not throw away your confidence just because it's hard and it's harder than you want it, and you're discontent with how things are going. Don't throw it away, don't throw your confidence. Which, which has a great reward. Like those of us who go through life's difficulties and and we remain steadfast and we say, I, it's not what I want, but I'm gonna give you glory in this. I'm gonna have a hearted gratitude. I am going to be content in this circumstance. If I can change it, I will. But if I can't, I'm gonna give you glory no matter what comes my way. Like there is a great, great reward for those of us who do that. Verse 36, he says, for you have need of, and and they're probably thinking safety, ease of life.
Speaker 1 00:25:33 And he says, no, you have need of endurance. A a and all these things. What are they doing? God is creating them a heart that is capable of enduring. He, he says, you have need of endurance so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised for yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay. But my righteous one, that's, that's you and I, my righteous one should live by faith. And if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him. And, and well, here's what he's saying. Don't throw away Christ. This is not what God wants for you. And verse 39, verse 39 is the, is the pinnacle of the culmination. But we, we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed. That's not what we do, but of those who have faith and preserve our souls.
Speaker 1 00:26:25 And what the writer of Hebrews is saying is endure, don't give up and be discontent and be grumbling like the Old Testament Israelites did. And God had to kill 'em all. Don't do that. Endure and endure with your faith, your confidence, your trust and God, he will repay you for all the deprivation you experience. Now, all of it will be paid back if you endure. Back to Philippians four, verse 12, I have learned the secret. I've learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. And here's the verse. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Here's what this doesn't mean. It does not mean that because you are a Christian, there is no physical feat that you are unable to accomplish. Try jumping 15 feet in the air, it's not going going to happen, right? And so we put this in on our, on our our mugs and different things, and we're like, I can do anything.
Speaker 1 00:27:23 And that's not probably exactly what he means. Here's, here's what this actually means with Jesus help and training God, you put me into any circumstance and I now have the ability to bring God glory here. Here's what it means. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me if I have Christ in me. The apostle Paul is teaching that there is zero circumstance that God would allow orain or permit for him to be in where he does not have the ability to bring God glory in that moment. So, so when you see this verse pull back, and this is, this is really what you're saying. If I have believed in Jesus and I have the Holy Spirit, if I've Christ in me, it does not matter where you put me. It does not matter how much, how big the pressure is. It doesn't matter how bad things are.
Speaker 1 00:28:11 It doesn't matter how much it hurts. It doesn't matter how mean people are. I have the ability to bring God glory in this moment. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. In the Bible, there's, there's three major origins of discontentment. Uh, the first is, is greed. Greed is, uh, the intense desire for more. It could be more of a good thing, more of a bad thing. But greed is when you're like, I, I have this thing and I want as much of it as I can get. I'd say raise your hand if you've ever struggled with greed, but you all have. And I have. And if you don't, then you're lying. So don't wanna make a liar out of you. <laugh> Number two, it's a little bit different. You're gonna see that these ha these have, uh, overlapping semantic ranges, but envy and covetousness, I can't say covetousness, <laugh> just sinfully desiring what someone else has.
Speaker 1 00:29:06 In fact, in the, in the Hebrew covet to covet means to pant. And you think of a, a dog who is just so thirsty and obsessed and they just want water and they're panting. And, and so this is this idea that you look at something someone else has and you are obsessed with it and you want it. Lust is a little bit different. Lust is the third category. And and this is desiring what is wrong. Sometimes it's, uh, about sexuality. Oftentimes really you can lust after a whole bunch of things. And this is the idea that the thing that I want is not a good thing and that my heart is obsessed with wanting this, this sinful thing that God doesn't want for me. Dis discontentment is such a big deal. And you can see the heart is just coming up with these things. It's such a big deal to God that of all the 10 commandments, four of the 10, the last four either explicitly or implicitly deal with discontentment, I'll just show this to you.
Speaker 1 00:30:02 Number number seven is you shall not commit adultery. So lusting after your neighbor's spouse, don't do it. Number eight, you shall not steal. So, uh, envying your neighbor's stuff to the point where you're gonna steal it. Can't do that. Uh, nine, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor in one of the primary reasons people do this is to cover up their tracks for their own theft. Number 10, you shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor. I mean, the last four are going after this heart condition of discontentment. And one of these is gonna be motivating it. And, and I just love the Lord's like look of, of the 10 most important rules, okay? You wanna see a society crumble upon itself, put a heart and spirit of discontentment in the people, and they will look at each other and envy each other, and they will inevitably turn on each other.
Speaker 1 00:30:45 That's what happens. And God's like not amongst my people, amongst my people, I want you to step back and look at your current moment and say, I have a deep satisfaction with the reality that I am now. Not because it's the best, not because I love it, not because it doesn't hurt, but God, whether you've allowed, ordained or permitted, or whether I have put myself here, I'm gonna learn to be content. And if there's a next step that I can take, I'm gonna take it. But I'm not gonna wag my finger at you, God, I'm gonna bring you glory. And whatever it is, whether it's something somebody did to you or you did yourself, we're gonna step back and say, whatever this is, I will bring you glory in this. And, and all of this, I want you to see that desire is not the issue wanting what God has not chosen for you at this time.
Speaker 1 00:31:39 That is the issue. And, and so we are a group of people. If I were to truck every one of us up front and say, what are the five hardest things about your life right now? Every single person would at least have one, two, or three that would roll off their tongue if they felt safe. And our hearts would break after probably almost every story. And and yet the Apostle Paul who goes through what he has says in whatever the circumstance, I have learned to be content and I wanna share with you two. So whats, here's the first identify and put away the symptoms of Discontentment. Three big symptoms. Number one is complaining. Anyone else like to complain? I do <laugh>, thank you for your honesty and your complainings fun. Sometimes it is, but at the heart of a complainer, when I complain there's a heart of discontent, it's a very dangerous place.
Speaker 1 00:32:41 And I, I wanna show you biblically how God sees complaining. Uh, the book of Jude. There's only one chapter in Jude. So Jude one verse 14 through 16, I, I want you to kind of hear this because I think this is such a powerful passage. The vast majority of us have never read Jude. So let's, let's dig in. You're now gonna have read like I think one sixth of the book. Behold the Lord comes with 10,000 of his holy ones second coming to execute judgment on all. And, and I want you to listen to how many times some version of the word ungodly comes up to execute judgment on all and convict all the ungodly of all their deeds, of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way. And of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners has spoken against him. Now he's going to identify to the biggest sins of the ungodly.
Speaker 1 00:33:37 Here's what I wanna put in that category. Murder, right? Anyone like big sins? Here's what he says. These are the ungodly grumblers and malcontents. A malcontent is a person who's always, always complaining. They're never content. The grumbler is obviously the grumbler. And and it's so interesting, I think the reason Jew has this in his brain is cuz he goes right back to like the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. And he's like, what makes God the most angry? Well, the worship of false religions and complaining, he kills so many people because they have a complaining spirit and they won't repent. And he is like, I'm gonna be honest, he did it back in the Old Testament and he's gonna come back and here's what he's going to find. A complaining spirit is flesh but contentment. This is what the Holy Spirit births in people.
Speaker 1 00:34:35 So complaining. That's number one. Number two is comparison. And I'll just be honest. Comparison is so ugly. It's ugly on us when we do it. When you hear other people do it, you're like, eh, it doesn't look good on you. Like, but you move from this complaining spirit to like, well, why do they get that? And I don't. And now you're putting two people at odds against each other. James has a lot to say about this, but James 360 and he says, for word, jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder. And every vile practice, like when you look at somebody and you're like, well, they're like this, but I'm like that. Or Why did they get this? And I only get that. What is the inevitable result of that? Is it gonna be a deep sacrificial, affectionate, brotherly or sisterly love for that person?
Speaker 1 00:35:20 No, not at all. And so here's what you find. The complaining spirit will inevitably progress to the comparing spirit in the comparing spirit. If it's not repentant of it does go to the next level. And this is contempt. James four, two says, you desire and you don't have, so you murder, you covet and you can't obtain. So you fight and you quarrel. When somebody gets in the way of something you want, like get outta my way, I want it, you stand in the way. And and this is what happens when we have discontent that is unrepentant. And and I'm wanna come back to this. Does this what the Lord wants for the body of Christ? No, not at all. Actually, what the Lord wants for the body of Christ is a group of people who yes, suffer and yes, celebrate together in a spirit of contentment.
Speaker 1 00:36:08 The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. And whichever season we're in, job says, blessed be the name of the Lord. I can do all things to Christ who gives me strength. I have the power not of my own, but because Christ is in me in this moment to put down my wagging finger and to give God glory. Here's the second. So what? The secret to dis to contentment. It's no longer a secret. Paul actually tells us how to do it. <laugh>, it's really wonderful. Thank you. It's not a secret any, any longer. A and here here's the first thing. There will be no true deep soul contentment until every one of us trust in Christ like that. Until you, until you trust in Jesus the kind of contentment that Paul is talking about, it's only for those who have become a Christian. So it's interesting there, there are so many people who are, who are like, God, I want this from you and that from you and this from you.
Speaker 1 00:37:05 And if you don't give it to me, I'm gonna be really upset. And how could you, if you were good, you'd make my life easy, but I won't give my life to you. I won't tell you I'm sorry for my sin against you. And I will not live for the glory of Jesus Christ above and beyond my own glory. Why would God give you all of the things that you're demanding of him if you won't even tell him you're sorry for your sin against him? Nor trust in Christ is your savior. It's foolishness. And yet this is how so much of the world thinks, well, I don't like God because he didn't do this for me. It's like you, you literally are at odds with him and you have never been reconciled. Go to him, tell him you are sorry. Tell him I believe that Jesus Christ died for my sins and was raised from the dead.
Speaker 1 00:37:44 Until we make a personal profession of faith, we are not reconciled with God in the, in the peace of God and the contentment of God and so many other things. We don't have access to them until we personally trust in Christ. And, and I think if the Apostle Paul were here, he would say, trust in Jesus. It, it's not good enough that your mom was a Christian. It's not good enough that your grandma was a Christian or your spouse is a Christian, or that you're here or that you're better than most of the terrible people in the world. All of us are sinners who have been separated from God. And every one of us need to make a personal decision to trust in Christ. And and I, and I think if you're in that situation, the greatest advice that I could ever give you would be to tell him you are sorry and believe in him and ask him to save you from your sin.
Speaker 1 00:38:31 His promise is that anybody who trusts in Christ will be once and for all and forever forgiven. Now, for all of us in the room who have trusted in Christ, Paul few verses earlier, he said these words, practice these things. Contentment is not easy. If it was, everybody would have it. Amen. And it's not. And so what are the things that we practice? And you see a theme in Paul. Number one is you give God glory for everything. And number two, you thank God on a regular basis. Gratitude like these are, these are two commitments. I will bring you glory no matter what circumstance I am in, even if I don't want to, even if I don't feel like it. I am gonna bring you glory in this. And I am going to count my blessings. And I'm gonna thank you a lot. God, thank you for my family.
Speaker 1 00:39:27 Thank you for my spouse, thank you for my body, thank you for my church. Thank you for your word. Thank you for how kind you are. Thank you for your grace. Thank you for not destroying me that one time I did that thing. Thank you for being so gracious with me. Thank you for listening to every word I say. I could go on and on and on and on. There are innumerable things to be grateful for to our God. Practice these things. If you don't practice these things, the flesh will take control and you've seen it in your own life. And yet we have everything we need by the power of God to give God glory in any circumstance and to thank him in any circumstance. And the implications, if we avoid those things are that discontent creeps in and that we begin to see division and harm and hurt and selfishness.
Speaker 1 00:40:13 And that is not what God wants for the body of Christ. I I wanna take a moment, I wanna pray for you and, uh, I'm just so thankful, father, that you have given us everything we need. You've given us everything we need for salvation. You've given us everything we need for life and godliness and, um, I'm particularly grateful God that you have given us the blood of Christ because even as we pursue you, we fail miserably all the time. And even as we pursue contentment, discontentment just kind of creeps up on a regular basis. And I I want to thank you that, that the blood of Christ covers all of our failures, all of our inadequacies and with you and the blood of Christ and the Holy Spirit and the help that you have given us. We have the opportunity to give you glory in every circumstance we find ourselves in.
Speaker 1 00:40:58 And so, God, I I I pray that your Holy Spirit, as we preach on discontent, whatever, maybe it's an encouragement that you want to give some of us, maybe it's a, a piece of conviction that you want to well up inside of us, whatever it is, whatever you are wanting to do in our life, may we be tender and sensitive to the voice of the Holy Spirit this morning. Lord, may we not quench your spirit. And Lord, thank you for the encouragement that is found in Christ. I thank you that we are not left to our sins, but by the power of your spirit and obedience, we can see and overcome so much of the flesh and the tendencies inside of us. And when we do, we give you all glory because without you, none of it is possible. We love you, we worship you, and we celebrate what you have done for us. And we do all of this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen.
