-Transcript-
00:36 Amen. Thank you for joining me. Good to be here today.
00:40 Hope you’re having a wonderful day, a wonderful week. Today we’re talking about such an important topic that is contentment. It’s a second message in a multi-part series on contentment, learning to be content, contentment over coveting,
00:53 because truly you can’t be content and covet, can you? If you’re saying I’m fully satisfied, I’m content in Jesus Christ, but I have to have this.
01:05 Well, then you’re not content, are you? We’re all guilty of this, I believe, and it’s something that’s so rich in the scriptures. There’s so many scriptures on this.
01:09 1 Timothy 6:6-8. But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.
01:26 And having food and raiment, let us be there with content. That word raiment means clothing. So having food and clothing, be content.
01:37 Because think about it, we came as dirt, we’re made of the dirt, we’re leaving. Naked we came, naked we go. We don’t have any, we can’t take anything with us.
01:47 In fact, in a way, it’s a good way to live, is let me live prudently and honestly and help me to live each day, Lord, to serve you and not to think so much about piling up some big thing of goods that I don’t know what I can do with.
02:03 One big barn of goods, big storage unit full of stuff, and then your kids are going to fight over it or nobody wants it because they don’t care, and it just becomes a burden on them.
02:12 Why not just live for God, amen? Save and be prudent, of course, but live each day as it were your last, not knowing what God’s going to do tomorrow.
02:22 The Bible says that tomorrow will take care of itself, amen, and the evil is sufficient thereof for the day, amen, we know that. So let’s be content. And the principle here is godliness.
02:32 What is it? It’s living by faith and being holy, set apart, leading to contentment. So we can have godliness here on earth. If we’re saved, we accept Christ as Savior by living by faith and being holy, set apart.
02:47 Holy doesn’t mean angel wings and trumpet sounds and so forth. For us here on earth, it means being set apart. It means being different.
02:58 It means not partaking in the sinful thing, the unclean thing, staying away from it. It means looking very different than the world. If you look very similar to the world,
03:08 if the church you go to is very similar to the world, if the books you read are very similar to the world, everything that you do is very worldly, you have to ask yourself, what am I doing? Because God says I should be set apart from these things.
03:20 I should be of a sober mind. I should be living for him. I should be separate.
03:24 I should not be around groups of people that are constantly sinning because that is going to make me sin as well. And so that becomes hard. And we see here in James 1: 2-4, My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
03:48 But let patience have her perfect work,that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. So now we’re kind of seeing how contentment plays itself out in the believer in the world. We’re living in the world.
03:59 We are falling into diverse temptations, all kinds of temptations, all kinds of snares, all kinds of problems. It’s impossible to avoid them. Trust me, I’ve asked God.
04:09 I said, Lord, can we just avoid all these temptations and just live content and just study your word and be peaceful? My wife has said sometimes to kind of picture this like, hey, you know, could we just have like a little Christian community off in a field somewhere and just live there in our little bubble?
04:25 And she’d say that in the context of all the crazy news going on and all the drama in this world. But the Lord’s told us we can’t depart sin because we’d have to depart the world and that we must live in this world and must be a light on a shining hill.
04:37 And so we must hold fast to godly values, to godly principles, to living for the Lord.
04:42 We must hold fast to those ideals. And what’s that going to do? We’re going to be falling into all kinds of issues, all kinds of problems. And it’s going to try our faith.
04:52 And God tells us through James that that’s going to work patience within us and that patience is going to have a perfect work and that we then are made perfect or right, amen, with God, entire, amen, wanting nothing.
05:06 Well, what is wanting nothing? That is contentment, being satisfied. You know, you ever go out to a meal, think of a nice restaurant that you like to go to, you sit down, they feed you, they feed you, they feed you, say, can I bring you anything else? And you say, I am completely full.
05:21 I don’t want a single bite of anything else. I’m completely full. That’s how we should feel about our relationship with God.
05:29 We should be full on Jesus, amen. We should be so close to him that we’re just about to burst, amen. We should just be loved up in the Lord and in the Spirit and walking in the Spirit and so far from the flesh.
05:38 And we should be just praying to God without ceasing and living for him and studying his word and serving him and waiting on him. That’s how our life should be, whether we’re at the workplace, whether at school, whether at church, whether at home, that’s how our life should be.
05:51 And why should it be that way? Because we, those that are saved, were purchased by the precious blood of Jesus.
06:00 You know, we are to be set apart because he died for us because of that grievous sin. He had to go to the cross because we had a sin debt that we could not pay, amen. Great gain comes from recognizing what Jesus did.
06:14 What did he do? You know, we had a sin debt that is hereditary, that is passed down from generation to generation, that started in the Garden of Eden. And we inherited that sin debt and we have sin in our flesh. Anyone that says they don’t sin, they’re a liar, amen.
06:29 They don’t know God, amen. When we realize that we have a need, then we start to understand. You know, the Bible says the fear of God is the beginning of all wisdom.
06:37 When we realize that we have a need and we say, God, we can’t do it. Oh, how we try to do things on our own. Oh, how we try to fix the broken things on our own.
06:44 I’m one of them that, oh, I got to fix it. I got to do it. I, I, me, me, me.
06:49 The Bible says in John 3:30, I must decrease, but he must increase, amen. We must just cede ourselves over to God, give ourselves over to him. You know, that’s why it’s called surrendering to the Lord, amen.
07:04 I didn’t go to Bible college. I’m going to be a pastor. I’m so excited to be a pastor.
07:09 I surrendered to the Lord. Oh, how I wrestled with that idea. And I said, Lord, really this, how, oh my goodness, how am I going to do this? And I finally, I said, okay, Lord, I surrendered to you.
07:17 And if I’m honest, I was pretty cowardly because brother Ronnie Dale, preacher at Holland Memorial Baptist Church was over at our old house one day. We had something called pasta and preaching and we’d have the preachers over and I was just an audio video guy and so forth.
07:32 And brother Ronnie told me, brother Clark, when are you going to preach? I said, I don’t know.
07:37 And I had never even met him before. He said, well, let me tell you, I was running from the Lord for some time and I had a stroke and I had a heart attack. And I said, no, no more, no more.
07:42 I’ll do it. I’ll do it. Amen.
07:45 I don’t want all that. I surrendered to the Lord. I’m so glad I did.
07:49 It’s the best profession and occupation that I could have. Amen. It is a great calling.
07:52 And it’s the point I’m making here is we must understand that we are purchased by the precious blood of Jesus and that it is not us that fixes the problem. It is him. And it’s not us that can do anything to get right with God.
08:03 It is Jesus. That’s why we’re in the ministry of reconciliation. We are reconciled to God, the father, by God, the son, and then we get the Holy spirit living within us.
08:10 That’s the Holy Trinity. Amen. We are purchased by the precious blood of Jesus and we are to be set apart.
08:17 Next time you want to sin, next time you want to look at something you’re not supposed to look at. Next time you want to pick up that bottle. I want you to think about Jesus on the cross.
08:23 Think about it. Think about the nails in his hand. Think about him dying in agony for your sin.
08:29 And then go ahead and pick up that bottle and see how you feel. The most miserable person on earth is not the lost person. It is the saved person that is backslid, that is living for the world, that is going with some second rate stuff.
08:39 And I can’t use some of language that maybe even the Bible would use about what you’re doing when you’re living for the world. But you get the idea. It’s not good.
08:49 It’s not holy. To have contentment, we need to live holy. Is God going to call us to something unprofitable? Have you ever thought about that? When he was taking the Israelites out of bondage in Egypt, was he calling them to something unprofitable? Hardly.
09:02 He knows what we need. And he split the Red Sea and he delivered them out of bondage. Amen.
09:07 That’s a picture of what Christ will do when we accept him as savior. He’ll deliver us out of the bondage of sin. And be clear, sin is a grievous bondage that we cannot get out of.
09:16 And what did the Israelites do? They get in the wilderness, they complain, they murmur, this is not great. Where was God leading them? To the holy land. And God was working patience in them.
09:24 And they were to be content with what God was providing. Manna was falling from heaven. He was literally delivering their food by air mail.
09:31 Amen. He was providing their every need. Their shoes didn’t wear out, but they weren’t content.
09:39 And oh, how that lit the flame of fire in God, his indignation. I tried to get it there, that Bible word. Indignation was lit.
09:42 He was upset. He was angry. And he dealt with those Israelites harshly.
09:48 Amen. And why? Why? Because they weren’t content. And here we are in blessed America with every accoutrement and every… We can drive through and get our food and we can sit on a leather seat in the car.
10:03 We could turn on the air conditioner in the summer and the heater in the winter. If we don’t have enough money in the bank, there’s people falling over themselves, tripping on themselves to lend us money. Amen.
10:11 We have every kind of hospital, medical clinic. Our little town next to us, Charitable, they’re building two urgent cares within a few miles of each other. So hey, if you get hurt, you can take your pick.
10:21 I mean, look, we are blessed beyond blessed, beyond blessed. And how do we find a way to complain? I heard someone say this. I believe it was a preacher and I can’t remember who said, you’re complaining about work.
10:30 It’s work. It’s not supposed to be that fun. It is work.
10:35 And sometimes we all need to tell ourselves that. I got a day job. I got to tell myself that too.
10:40 Look, it’s not supposed to be a theme park, a fun job, unless you work at a theme park, I guess, but it’s not supposed to be a day with the family at the beach. It’s work. Amen.
10:48 Our grandparents, our great-grandparents, all these other folks in our family line, they went and rolled up their sleeves and went to work. But now we got a problem. We can’t be content unless we’re making XYZ and doing what Peter’s or Paul’s doing or John’s doing or whoever’s doing.
11:02 We need to live for the Lord and be content with what he has given us because he bought us. Amen. You know, Paul in his epistles refers to himself as a slave to Christ, as a bond servant.
11:12 Paul even uses the word prisoner. Are you a prisoner to Christ today? Are you saying, Lord, I am at your will and I am at your disposal, so to speak. You do as you see fit with me and I will be obedient to you.
11:29 I am your prisoner. Oh, how your ways are higher than my ways. Think about this.
11:34 What happens when people don’t live like that? They oftentimes are lacking faith. They don’t believe God is who he says he is and to quote Hebrews, that he’s a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. They don’t believe that.
11:49 If they believe that, then they would submit to him and that they would realize that they are blessed to have what they have, that God has a eternal purpose for their lives, and that if they would just submit to him, he will bring them into the Canaan land eventually as he sees fit into the promised land.
12:07 But oh, how they want to wander in the wilderness and how they want to murmur and how they want to live in sin and how it, you know, you read Revelation, you read the letters to the seven churches and you see how Jesus addresses these churches. It’s so patient and it’s so loving.
12:22 It’s remarkable, the love and patience, the long-suffering nature of our Savior. And I was telling them, look, I know you and I know your works and I also know that, you know, some of you have been involved in this or in that, and I’m telling you to repent, you know,
12:36 and it’s incredible because he could have judged them so much quicker or he could judge us so much quicker, but he’s long-suffering, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and all should come to knowledge of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.
12:50 People that covet often say they need a certain thing to be happy, but, you know, in our text verse here, in 1 Timothy 6:6-8, it tells us all you need is food and clothing.
13:02 Is that enough to make you happy today? If you are able to have a meal and have clothes on you, and I’m assuming that you are, amen, if you’re in America, I’m assuming that you are, if you’re able to have those things, are you content? Are you content with those and Jesus, amen.
13:17 Are you content with just wanting nothing, letting faith work patience in you? Are you content with those things? I hope you are here today. There’s so much more that I would like to say, but time is running out.
13:29 And so I just challenge you today to go to the Lord in prayer, to repent of the sin of covetousness, to ask God to work a right spirit in your heart, to be content in Him and watch what He does through you.
13:43 Be content in Him and watch what He does through you. And tell this to others, share with others, let them know that we don’t need all these things we think we need. The Bible tells us we need food, we need clothing, and most importantly, we need Jesus.
13:58 We need to be saved and we need to be living for Him. And if we have those things, we are good. We are so good.
14:05 We are better than anyone else. Thank you so much for listening. Take care, God bless, and amen.