Contentment: A Virtue to Cultivate (Hebrews 13:5-6) | Worship Service

Good morning, and welcome to Kootenai Church. Would you please stand as we begin our service this morning, and we're going to start with a call to worship from Psalm 96, and it says, sing to Yahweh a new song.

Sing to Yahweh all the earth. Sing to Yahweh, bless his name, proclaim good news of his salvation from day to day.

Recount his glory among the nations, his wondrous deeds among all the peoples.

For great is Yahweh, and greatly to be praised, he is more fearsome than all gods.

For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but Yahweh made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before him, strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.

We're going to sing together, Christ our glory. He is in heaven, our rest is not near, then why should we tremble when trials draw near?

Be still and remember the worst that hath come, but shortens our journey and hastens us home.

Christ our glory, Christ our hope,

Christ our king forevermore.

Be still and remember the worst that hath come, but shortens our journey and hastens us home.

No hour should be wasted on seeking our joy, and placing our hope in what will be destroyed.

We look for a city that heavens have not razed, we long for a country that sin has not slain.

Christ our glory, Christ our hope,

Christ our king forevermore.

Though trouble and anguish increase all the more, they cannot compare to the glory in store.

Come joy or come sorrow, whatever befalls, the light of the

Savior will outshine them all. Christ our glory,

Christ our hope, Christ our king forevermore.

Christ our glory, Christ our hope,

Christ our king forevermore. Come sorrow or come sorrow, whatever befalls, the light of the

Savior will outshine them all.

A couple weeks ago we sang a new song at our annual meeting called the glorious gates of righteousness.

It's Psalm 118 and it's to the song or to the hymn of all hail the power. The glorious gates of righteousness grow open unto me, and I will enter them with praise.

O Lord, my God to Thee, and I will enter them with praise.

O Lord, my God to Thee, this is thy temple,

O Lord, the just shall enter there. My Savior, I will give

Thee thanks, O Thou that dearest prayer.

My Savior, I will give Thee thanks, O Thou that dearest prayer.

The stone rejected and despised is now the cornerstone.

How wondrous are the ways of God, the God of man,

O Lord. How wondrous are the ways of God, the

God of man, O Lord.

In this the day that Thou hast made triumphantly we sing.

Send down prosperity, O Lord, O Lord, salvation bring.

Send down prosperity, O Lord, O Lord, salvation bring.

We were ruined in our sin, we were guilty and undone.

When Your love reached out with sovereign hands and beckoned us to come.

You sought out the wanderers, made the prodigals of all.

With a lavish feast You welcomed us, for You made us

Your own. You have loved us like You loved

Your Son. Be heartless with Christ, fought by His blood.

How great the sin shown.

With a lavish feast

You welcomed us, for You made us Your own. You have loved us like You loved

Your Son. ♪ But no strangers to your flow ♪ ♪

We draw near you now in confidence ♪ ♪ For all our fears are gone ♪ ♪

And when Christ our King returns ♪ ♪ We'll meet saints we've never known ♪ ♪

And forever we will be amazed at you now ♪ ♪

You've made us your own ♪ ♪ You have loved our sons and daughters with pride ♪ ♪

How brave the hand shows ♪ ♪

Through your children now you've made us your own ♪ ♪

You have loved us like you loved your son ♪ ♪

We are heirs with Christ bought by his blood ♪ ♪

Oh how brave the love that we've been shown ♪ ♪

Through your children now you've made us your own ♪ ♪

Through your children now you've made us your own ♪

And you may be seated. Well, good morning.

Just a couple of announcements. First, after the service today, we have two meetings that you may be interested in.

One of them is for the graduates and their parents. So if you are a graduate and you are graduating from homeschool, private school, public school, this coming

June, May or June, there'll be a meeting for you. That is the graduate and the parent both need to meet in the library that's in the office area there about 15 minutes after the service is over today.

And then second, there is a choir practice at the same time in this room that is the back, back here if you are participating in the

Resurrection Day Choir. And then I needed to make one clarification of something that I said at the annual meeting this last month that I just wanna make sure everybody's clear on this.

We talked about at the annual meeting, the security guys out in the foyer. And if you're going out into the foyer during the service to quiet a noisy child or something, to try and be mindful of the security guys who are out there trying to participate in the service.

Some people understood that we meant that you can never leave here and go out into the foyer with a noisy child or if you did, you had to take them out into the rain or into another room or a closet somewhere.

Whatever that idea was that people had in their mind, you are fine to take your child out into the foyer.

We encourage that. But just try and be mindful when you're out there not to strike up all these conversations that make it noisy out there for the people who are in the foyer trying to listen and participate in the service.

So just please use it if you need to, but don't think that you're excluded from that and just try and be mindful of the security guys out there.

That was all. All right, will you please turn to 1 Timothy chapter six, please. 1

Timothy chapter six. We're gonna read through beginning at verse three and we're gonna read through the end of the chapter.

1 Timothy chapter six. Beginning at verse three.

If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, he is conceited and understands nothing, but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions, and constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain, but godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment.

For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. If we have food and covering with these, we shall be content.

But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction.

For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some, by longing for it, have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

But flee from these things, you men of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness.

Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of eternal life, to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

I charge you in the presence of God who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our

Lord Jesus Christ, which He will bring about at the proper time, He who is the blessed and only sovereign, the

King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to Him be honor and eternal dominion, amen.

Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy.

Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed.

O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called knowledge, which some have professed and thus gone astray from the faith.

Grace be with you. Will you stand with me as we pray? Let's bow our heads.

Our Father, it is your great mercy to us that you have called us to yourself and provided us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

Those who are in Christ can look forward to with great hope the kingdom that is to come, the eternal inheritance which is reserved for us in heaven, for which we are kept by your power, the reward for service, the glories of a world in which there is no sin, there is no covetousness, there is no greed, jealousy, envy, strife, abusive speech, or any of the things that we have been warned about in this passage.

Ours truly is all that you have given to us in your Son, and thus we possess and have received a kingdom even now.

Though we do not experience it yet, we can with certain hearts and certain expectations look forward to the great grace and glory that is to come.

For it is as predestined and as certain as our salvation as anything else that you have appointed.

And you have appointed that concerning us, and so we can trust you and rest in that goodness and that appointment.

And we pray that you would teach our hearts contentment, to fix our hearts upon heavenly things, to take our eyes and our hearts off of the earthly realities and to focus upon what we have in Jesus Christ.

Teach us, we pray, to be content with what you have appointed for us in this life and to wait upon you for the glory of that which is to come.

May you be honored and glorified through your people here today in the preaching of your word, in our singing and worship.

And as we sing to you, our great God, our great King, our only sovereign, our Lord, our

Redeemer, our rock, our fortress, we pray that the affections and sentiments of our heart may be informed by your word and may reflect hearts of gratitude, worship, and hearts ready to obey.

We love you and thank you for your kindness to us and your goodness to us. Settle us into these truths, we pray in Christ's name.

Amen. ♪

He is my shepherd, I shall not want ♪ ♪

Pastures, he makes me lie down ♪ ♪

He restores my soul and leads me on to God ♪ ♪

For his name, for his great name ♪ ♪

Surely goodness, surely mercy ♪ ♪

Right beside me all my days ♪ ♪ And I will dwell in your house forever ♪ ♪

And bless your holy name ♪ ♪

You prepare a table right before me ♪ ♪

In the presence of my enemies ♪ ♪

Though the arrow flies and the terror of night is at my door ♪ ♪

Surely goodness, surely mercy ♪ ♪

Right beside me all my days ♪ ♪

And I will dwell in your house forever ♪ ♪

And bless your holy name ♪ ♪

And even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death ♪ ♪

I will fear no evil ♪ ♪

Walk through the valley of the shadow of death, my son ♪ ♪

Of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil ♪ ♪

And even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, my son ♪ ♪

Surely mercy right beside me always ♪ ♪

And I will dwell in your house forever ♪ ♪

And bless your holy name ♪ ♪

And bless your holy name ♪

In Isaiah 26, it says in verses three to four, the steadfast of mind you will keep in perfect peace because he trusts in you.

Trust in Yahweh forever for in Yah, Yahweh himself, we have an everlasting rock.

We're going to sing together, Christ the sure and steady anchor. ♪ Christ the sure and steady anchor ♪ ♪

In the fury of the storm ♪ ♪ When the winds of doubt blow through me ♪ ♪

And my sails have all been torn ♪ ♪ In the suffering, in the pain, in the pain, in the pain ♪ ♪

In the sorrow, when my sinking hopes are few ♪ ♪

I will hold fast to the anchor ♪ ♪ It shall never be removed ♪ ♪

Christ the sure and steady anchor ♪ ♪ While the tempest rages on ♪ ♪

As temptation claims the battle ♪ ♪ And it seems the night has won ♪ ♪

Deeper still than goes the anchor ♪ ♪ Though I justly stand and lose ♪ ♪

I will hold fast to the anchor ♪ ♪ It shall never be removed ♪ ♪

Christ the sure and steady anchor ♪ ♪ Through the floods of unbelief ♪ ♪

Hopeless somehow, O my soul now ♪ ♪ Lift your eyes to Galilee ♪ ♪

This my boundless love assurance ♪ ♪ See His love forever prove ♪ ♪

I will hold fast to the anchor ♪ ♪ It shall never be removed ♪ ♪

Christ the sure and steady anchor ♪ ♪ As we face the wave of death ♪ ♪

When these trials give way to glory ♪ ♪ And we draw our final breath ♪ ♪

We will cross that great horizon ♪ ♪ Clouds behind and life secured ♪ ♪

And the calm will be the better ♪ ♪ For the storms that we endure ♪ ♪

Christ the sure of our salvation ♪ ♪ Ever faithful, ever true ♪ ♪

We will hold fast to the anchor ♪ ♪ It shall never be removed ♪

And turn now, if you will, to the book of Hebrews, to chapter 13. Hebrews chapter 13.

We're gonna read together verses five and six of Hebrews 13. Hebrews 13, beginning of verse five, make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have.

For he himself has said, I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you, so that we may confidently say, the

Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What will man do to me? Let's pray together.

Our Father, we ask now your blessing upon your word, and may your word ring true in our hearts.

May we see that truth, embrace that truth, and love that truth, and pray that you would be honored and glorified through our meditation upon the truth, and that we would be satisfied in your word and by your word today as we hunger after you and after your righteousness.

We pray this in Christ's name, amen. Well, contentious, covetousness,

I should say, is a difficult sin to mortify. And one of the reasons that it is so difficult is not just because it is woven into the warp and woof of our hearts and deep in there, but because of the dizzying number of influences in our culture and in our society that encourage covetousness, excuse covetousness, incentivize covetousness, and appeal to our covetousness.

Advertising appeals to our discontent, and the purpose of advertising is to make us discontent and to appeal to our discontent so that we will seek to satisfy that discontent with something that we are told will finally make us content.

But once you see an advertisement for something, you can almost never get that idea, that discontentment out of your heart and out of your mind without a very purposeful and intentional attack against that sin of covetousness.

Sometimes we don't even know that we need something until we see an advertisement for it. We see the

Whatchamagiget advertised on television and we think to ourselves, how did I ever live without a Whatchamagiget up until this point?

I didn't know I needed a Whatchamagiget until I saw the Whatchamagiget advertisement. And now I wonder, how has human history ever gotten by?

How have we ever lived for 6 ,000 years without Whatchamagigets in every home? And then you go out and you buy a

Whatchamagiget and you're satisfied by that, you're content by that for a little while until the Whatchamagiget 2 .0

comes out. And then you think to yourself, how in the world did I ever get by with a Whatchamagiget 1 .0?

Because the 2 .0 surely is gonna satisfy that craving that I have in my heart and soul for the

Whatchamagiget. And so you go out and you buy the Whatchamagiget all because it is far too easy for people to appeal to our discontent.

It is all too easy for people to appeal to our covetousness. Greed and envy and jealousy have this strong gravitational pull that affects our hearts and draws us toward those things.

And it is a pull that we must fight against. It is a draw that we must resist. Covetousness has become a national pastime.

It used to be tax evasion or tax avoidance. Now it's covetousness. It's become something that we do just as a matter of course.

It's almost a sport in our culture to chase after the next biggest thing, the next greatest thing, the next intriguing thing.

And it is a defining mark of our culture. It has become the water in which we swim so much so that we are not even really aware at times just how covetous we are and how much covetousness drives what we do.

As an aside, the problem with covetousness is not that we live in a capitalistic system.

That's a lie. It's not a lie. Well, it's actually a lie that we live in a capitalist system.

We live in a government -controlled, government -regulated, government -mandated, government -curated society where they allow just enough production, just enough freedom so that they can take just enough to keep us from revolting to give to our benevolent overlords.

That's the system that we live in. That's not capitalism, but the lie that says that capitalism is something that creates greed.

You hear this all the time. It's greedy people that flourish in a capitalistic system, and capitalism appeals to greed.

Capitalism doesn't appeal to greed. Capitalism appeals to our self -interest, and the problem is not that a capitalist system creates greed.

People who say that, I just wonder, do you think that people in socialist countries and communist countries, they don't have covetousness?

You think people in socialist systems read, you know, Be Free From Covetousness, and they wonder, what is that? Covetousness, what is that?

I wonder if we lived in a capitalist system, I bet we'd understand what covetousness is. No, we all have it.

Capitalism doesn't create it. Socialism doesn't create it. It's just manifested differently in different environments in which we are placed.

It is a problem of the human heart, not the environment in which we live or we swim.

We just happen to live and swim in an environment that appeals to that sin within us.

We live in an environment that appeals to a lot of sins within us. But let us never fall prey to the lie that says, if we only lived under a different system, people wouldn't be so greedy.

Different systems just give a lesser number of people the power and influence to be greedy and to take everything for themselves.

At least in a capitalist system, we can all take as much as we want. But the problem is not the capitalist system, that's a lie.

The answer to covetousness in our hearts is not to change the environment in which we live. The answer to covetousness in our hearts is to cast it off and to put it to death and to instead foster the delightful virtue of contentment.

Covetousness and contentment, these are polar opposites. And so our text, verses five and six, tells us that we are to go to war and to war again.

We are to go to war against covetousness and instead we are to cultivate the virtue of contentment. The answer is contentment.

The greatest reason for contentment is stated at the end of verse five and in verse six in our text, I will never desert you nor will

I ever forsake you so that we may confidently say, the Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid, what will man do to me?

That by the way, those two quotations are the verity, that is the truth that the covetous heart must speak to itself to put to death the sin of covetousness.

In other words, the author's point is, you have been given everything you need and therefore we have no excuse for covetousness and we have every motivation for contentment.

If I truly understand that the Lord has promised himself to me, that has secured then the fulfillment of every single promise he has ever made.

For him to give himself to me is to give to me everything he has ever promised to me, every good thing.

And if I have that, then of course I can be content. This is the truth that feeds the virtue of contentment and it is meditating upon this truth itself, which is the ammunition that we must have in order to put to death the sin of covetousness.

Now last week we considered the vice that we are to cast off, that's covetousness and this is just a review of the outline that we're stretching out over three weeks, last week, today and next week.

Today we're looking at verse five, the virtue that we are to cultivate and that is contentment and then next week we will look at the verity that we are to cherish, namely

God's companionship, the fact that he is with us. So let me review for you, since this is part two or the continuation of last week's message, let me review for you a couple of definitions.

First, what it means to be covetous, covetous, what is covetousness?

Covetousness is a disordered desire, a disordered desire of the heart that manifests itself in endeavoring to acquire and possess more than God is pleased to give us.

In other words, God is pleased to give us this, he has circumscribed the boundaries of what he has provided for us.

The covetous person is the one whose heart has the disordered desire to acquire and possess more than what

God has apportioned to us. It is an attitude of discontent, a desire for things and a longing for them, it is the setting of our hearts and affections on them, whether we possess them or not.

In other words, I can possess certain things and still be covetous for those things and for other things like them.

When the author says, make sure your character is free from the love of money, remember he is talking there with the word character, he is describing your entire way of life, not just something about your heart, but everything that you do, our conversation, the words that we use, the attitudes in which we reflect, the way that we approach life and live our lives should be free from the love or the perverse affection of the love of money.

So last week, the vice we were to cast off, now let's look today at contentment and what it is. And I would begin with a definition of contentment because this is always helpful.

The word that is translated being content there in the passage is a word that describes to be satisfied with or to be sufficient.

It described having a state of adequacy or having enough. And notice that the author does not say, go get enough so that you can be content.

He says you are to have enough with what you have, being content with what you have, being sufficient, being at a fullness and a sufficiency with what it is that you do have.

So it's not getting more so that you can be content, it is looking at what you have and saying, I will be content with this.

And before you get upset or confused, let me flesh out what this means and what it doesn't mean.

Being content is being satisfied with the sufficiency that you have already been given.

Covetousness and contentment are both heart attitudes, notice that. They're both dispositions of the heart, inner realities.

Covetousness is a dissatisfaction with what has been given and contentment is a satisfaction with what has been given.

Covetousness looks at what has been given by the hand of God and says, that is not enough. Contentment looks at what has been given by the hand of God and says, that is enough, that is sufficient.

Now notice that neither of those words, covetousness nor contentment, neither of those words have anything to do with the measure of what has been provided.

Whether it is great or whether it is small is irrelevant to the issue of contentment and covetousness.

You can be covetous with a little and you can be covetous with a lot. You can be content with a little and you can be content with a lot.

Neither of those words have anything to do with one's station in life, the amount of provision, the timing of the provision, the grandeur of the provision, the nature of the provision, because we're talking about an attitude or a disposition of the heart.

Jeremiah Burroughs in his excellent book, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, offers a definition of contentment.

You try it again. Jeremiah Burroughs in his excellent book, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment.

And I say that twice, because if you don't have that book on your shelf, you should buy that book and read it before you put it on your shelf.

I was gonna say, put it on your shelf. You should buy that book and read it. It's written by a Puritan from the 1600s or so, and it just spends in a

Puritan fashion an entire book describing what covetousness is or what contentment is and what it is not.

And it is very helpful. You will want to read that slowly. You will want to read it thoughtfully, and you will want to work your way through that.

It's a very good book, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment. It's like seven bucks on Amazon. That's not bad, a little

Puritan paperback. Here's the definition that Jeremiah Burroughs gives. He says this, quote, Christian contentment is the sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, which freely submits to and delights in God's wise and fatherly disposal in every condition.

Close quote. It is the sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, which freely submits to and delights in God's wise and fatherly disposal in every condition.

It is therefore to greet God's provision with satisfaction and to submit to his disposal of you and your possessions and your circumstance and your situation and your life in all of its details.

It is to greet God's disposal of that, his use of that, what he has apportioned in that with satisfaction and submission.

It is to say, I will receive this from the hand of God, what he has prescribed concerning you.

Now here's the value of contentment. Contentment can, when you are content, it means that you can be satisfied with very little.

You can also be satisfied with very much, but the value of contentment is that it can make you satisfied with very little, so that you don't have your heart churning over what you don't have and obsessed with what you don't have.

Instead, you can take delight in what you do have. In fact, one of the poisons of discontentment is the fact that no matter how much you have, you can never fully be satisfied with that and you can never enjoy that.

So it's like the child who gets the gift on Christmas morning, here's a big Lego set, and you give that to them and they open it up and they think that's great for a second until they realize at the end of all the opening of all the presents that they didn't get the

Lego set that they wanted. And suddenly they're discontent with that and now because they didn't get the

Lego set that they wanted, they're unable to enjoy the Lego set that they got. That's what discontentment robs us of.

It doesn't just make us unsatisfied with God's good gifts, it makes us so that we can't even enjoy the good gifts that he has given to us with a sense of submission and gratitude.

The value of contentment is that one can be satisfied with very little. 1 Timothy 6, which we read just a few moments ago.

Godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment, for we have brought nothing into the world so we cannot take anything out of it.

If we have food and covering with these, we shall be content. If we have food and covering with these, we shall be content.

Every person in this room has those two things. If you didn't have covering, we wouldn't have let you in the front door here today and the fact that you were able under your own strength to get here is evidence of the fact that you have food.

You have food and covering with these, we shall be content. That's a very low bar, isn't it?

It's a very low bar. In fact, Spurgeon said we may have the necessities of life upon very easy terms, whereas we put ourselves to great pains for its luxuries.

Very easy to have the necessities of life, food and clothing, very easy to have those. You don't have to work a lot just to have the bare necessities.

It's the luxuries of life that we kill ourselves for. The necessities of life we have very easily.

That is wise counsel. Contentment not only can be satisfied with very little, but when you are content, it suits you for every condition of life.

Paul says in Philippians 4, verse 11 and 12, not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances

I am. Whatever my circumstances are, Paul says, I have learned to be content.

I know how to get along with humble means and I also know how to live in prosperity. In any and every circumstance,

I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, of having abundance and suffering need. If contentment is the situation or condition of your heart, you can live at peace in prosperity and you can live at peace in poverty.

Contentment trusts the good hand of God's provision, what he ordains and what he circumscribes for us because it suits you to live in every circumstance that life can give you if you have learned the secret of being content.

Now, let me offer some needed clarifications because at this point there may be some confusion and I want you to offer these clarifications so that you don't think

I am indicting you with covetousness when I may not be. So here's what I, here are the clarifications.

Number one, contentment does not preclude hard work and industry. It does not preclude hard work and industry.

God calls us to work hard, he calls us to be industrious, he calls us to use the gifts, the talents, the things that he has given to us, our treasures, to better our circumstances, to better our situations, to provide for our family.

Contentment does not preclude hard work and industry. In fact, you are sinning if you are not working hard and seeking to use what

God has given to you in a wise manner that would reflect a good stewardship. So it doesn't exclude hard work and industry.

We do have to provide for those who rely upon us, right? And we can't just say, hey, kids, I know there's no food on the table and the last meal you had four days ago was hot dogs and rice, but we just need to learn to be content.

No, a man is worse than an infidel if he doesn't provide for his own family. So we have to do that.

Being content does not preclude hard work and industry. Paul was a tent maker and he worked hard. He had double duty, preaching and tent making, to provide for not only himself but also his fellow traveling companions.

Paul says, I think it's to the Thessalonians, maybe the Corinthians, he said to some first century Christians, he said, these hands have provided not just for my needs but also for the needs of others around me so that he could have something to give to others.

Second, contentment does not preclude preparation and planning. Doesn't preclude preparation and planning.

If you see evil coming, if you see that your furnace is gonna need to be replaced in the next couple of years because it's 20 years old or 24 years old like mine is, it would be wise for you to set aside a little bit of money over the course of the next several months and try and get that replaced sometime before the next cold snap that starts in February of next year.

It doesn't preclude preparation and planning, investing and thinking about the future, thinking about what might break down.

Your roof's gonna need to be replaced. You need to plan for that. You need to think for that. You need to save for that. Maybe invest for that.

Contentment doesn't preclude those things. In fact, that's wise behavior to foresee evil and then hide yourself or get out of the way and make provision for that, what might be unforeseen or what you can see definitely coming down the road.

So contentment doesn't preclude that. Contentment is not the same as apathy and indifference. So your water heater goes out.

Contentment doesn't mean that you say, I guess I just have cold showers for the rest of my life. God wants me to be content with this.

I have a sore tooth that's probably gonna get infected and may even get into my bloodstream and kill me. But just two weeks ago,

I heard Jim talking about being content. So I guess I'm not gonna have to do anything about that. I would take pain medication, but that would maybe be trying to be discontent.

I don't wanna be discontent. If you're sick or ill or you're in pain, contentment doesn't mean that you do not, that you approach life with apathy and indifference to the things that come into your life, even if it is affliction.

To repair or to replace or to improve things that expire or wear out, that is not covetousness.

That is wise stewardship. Ecclesiastes 10 verse 18 says, through indolence, through aftersag and through slackness, the house leaks.

It is foolish to not do those things, not covetous. Contentment doesn't preclude improving your situation.

God may provide for you or give you opportunity to have a better job or to retire or to sell a business or have a better position within a company or a more favorable opportunity.

He may bring those things into your life. He may grant you huge blessings and give you opportunity to improve your station in life.

And it is not sinful to take those opportunities. You're living in a state where the

People's Republic of California, for instance, and you're sitting there looking at what everything is going on.

You say, you know what? I can't foresee raising my children and my grandchildren in this environment. I think wisdom would dictate that I get out of this environment and go somewhere where I'm safe, where I can be safe, where my values can be cherished, where my children are not gonna be manipulated and brought into this system.

We should move somewhere. It's not sinful for you to move to Oregon or Washington or Utah or Arkansas or Arizona or Florida or Canada or Egypt or England or France or any place else on the planet.

None of that would be sinful. It doesn't preclude fixing your condition.

If you get ill, seek medical advice. If you're in a dangerous place, get out of the dangerous place. To be discontent in the sense of,

I'm accepting where I'm at in God's hand, but I will also take opportunity to improve my lot if He should bring it, and I will even pursue that if that's not covetousness, because you can have these two things going on at the same time.

I want to improve my lot and help my family and my circumstance, and I am also willing to embrace what

God gives me in His good timing and be content with whatever it is that He says yes or no with that seeking to improve my circumstances.

Further, we may even seek or pray or trust God for relief. The Psalms are full of this.

The Psalms are full of, Lord, here's where I'm at. Here's the circumstances that I am in.

Bring me deliverance. Get me out of this. Give me relief. Give me salvation from this.

Take me out of this. Make this stop, please. Here is what this is doing to me and my loved ones.

Please make this cease. That does not come from a heart of discontent. So it is okay to seek

God or to pursue relief from affliction or horrible circumstances. Paul, who was in prison, prayed for his own release, and he asked others to pray for his release, and then he made plans under the expectation that he would be released from prison, and when

Paul was in prison, do you remember when his nephew informed him of the plot to take his life and they said, we're not gonna eat or drink anything until Paul is dead, and Paul's nephew came and told him that?

What did Paul do? He said, well, I guess I'll just be content with a hit man deciding that he's gonna kill me before I leave

Jerusalem. Did Paul do that? No, he sent his nephew to the captain of the guard and said, inform him, tell him, and then

Paul was ushered out of there to Caesarea, and when he was put on trial before the Pharisees and the Sadducees, did Paul say, well,

I guess they're just gonna kill me? No, he didn't. He said, I appeal to Caesar. Paul moved in his own life and took action in his own life to improve his circumstances and to avoid danger.

You can do all of that without being discontent. Lastly, last clarification, our possessions or our lack of them is no measure of contentment.

You can't look at somebody with a meager existence and say, oh, he must be content, and you can't look at somebody who has a lot in their life and say, oh, he must be content, or somebody who has a lot and say, he must be discontent, or somebody who has meager provisions say, he must be discontent.

You cannot read contentment at all from the outside based upon what somebody has or even how they use what they have.

That is no sure measure of the state of someone's heart. It may be, but it is no sure measure of it.

So in terms of wrapping up the clarifications on what we mean by contentment and discontentment, let me give you two last considerations.

If you are tempted to take the instructions for contentment as an excuse for your sin or your folly, you have misunderstood what

I have said. If you are tempted to take the idea of contentment as an excuse for your sin or your folly, you have misunderstood what

I have said. Sin might be, I'm lazy and I call it contentment. Sin might be,

I refuse to work with anybody else and therefore I can't get a job because I'm contentious on the job site.

Nobody wants me around. I can't be satisfied with anything. So I'm just not gonna work and I'm gonna call that contentment.

Or I refuse to provide for my family. I'm gonna call that a lesson in contentment. Don't take pious language regarding contentment and use it as an excuse to cover up your sin, all your other sins.

On the other hand, do not use pious language to cover up your covetousness by trying to portray it as something that it is not.

Well, Bible calls me to provide for my family, therefore I must have to work 20 hours a day, seven days a week and never see my family.

Don't call that provision. Don't call that wisdom. Don't call that being a good steward.

Don't take pious language and use it to cover up your neglect of other duties under the guise of providing or under the guise of being wise or being a good steward.

So obviously we don't wanna take the language of contentment and cover up our other sins or the language of covetousness or the language of other virtues to cover up our covetousness.

This is what makes contentment such a difficult thing for us to wrestle through because we have to examine the condition of our own hearts.

And that heart work is hard work. It's tough because I have to be able to look at my own heart, my own circumstances, my own desires and say, why am

I truly doing this? Is this, am I disguising my covetousness with this or am

I excusing my laziness with contentment? And you've gotta wrestle through that.

And I can't answer that for you. So not that I don't love you, but don't come up to me afterwards and say, look, here's what

I got, here's where I'm at and my covetousness or content. I don't know that. That's something each of us has to wrestle through with the

Lord. Why do we do what we do? Christian contentment is that sweet inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit which freely submits to God and delights in His wise and fatherly disposal in every condition.

Now here's the mystery of contentment. The mystery of contentment is that we can have a healthy discontent.

Now if I haven't already messed you up with all the other stuff that I've said, it is possible to have a healthy discontent.

I am not content with my level of holiness. I'm not content with my knowledge of scripture.

I'm not content with how I treat other people. I'm not content with my own preaching ability.

I'm not content with where I'm at in how vigorously I serve the Lord, how

I use my time. I have all kinds of things in my life that I'm not content with. Those things have nothing to do with what

God has provided for me. They have to do with my use of those things that God has provided for me.

So there is a happy way of being discontent. Listen, you should be discontent with your discontentedness, right?

That discontent that you have that wants something else, the covetousness. It's not a virtue to be content with your covetousness. You wanna be discontented with your covetousness.

So that's a healthy discontent. A lack of satisfaction with where we are at spiritually, that is possible to exist even within one whose heart is marked by contentment.

Now, how do we cultivate contentment? It is a virtue. It is a sweet frame of the heart and mind. And therefore, it requires a work of the

Spirit of God in our hearts and a continual pursuit and cultivation of this virtue.

How do we go about it? I would remind you of Philippians 4, which I read a few moments ago. It teaches us something about contentment.

That is that it is a learned virtue, a learned virtue. Philippians 4, verse 11, I have learned to be content in all things.

Paul didn't say, I woke up one morning and I was content. Finally, I prayed forth the night before, Lord, make me content.

I woke up the next day, I was content. That's not what Paul says. Paul says, I have learned contentment in every circumstance.

Paul says, I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry. You know how you learn contentment?

By being filled and going hungry, by having plenty and having nothing. That teaches you contentment.

That's how we learn contentment in all of life's circumstances. We go through all of life's circumstances and then we allow the

Word of God to shape our hearts and to reveal to our hearts where we are sinning and where we are lacking so that we may learn contentment in those circumstances.

It is a learned virtue. You pick it up in the school of life. Some people pick up these lessons of contentment quickly and some people slowly.

Some people need to go through those life circumstances over and over and over again to learn those lessons of contentment.

But it is a learned virtue. Second, we must identify covetousness and cast it off.

So this has to do with how do we cultivate this? First of all, it's something that we learn. It takes time.

We get it in this school of life. Second, we have to identify the covetousness and then cast it off.

See what it is that you are craving for. See what it is that you are upset about. When you have this but it is not enough,

I want something else. Then you say to yourself, now I am holding this thing that I have been given with an attitude and a heart of discontent because now

I covet something else that somebody else has. I may have a new whatchamagigget, but my buddy has a whatchamagigget 2 .0.

He shows up at the job site and we're both there. He's got the 2 .0, I've got the 1 .0. Man, I wish

I had that 2 .0. That's covetousness. You identify that and then you have to mortify that sin just like you mortify any other sin.

You put it to death by reminding yourself that rather than complaining, I should give

God thanksgiving and be thankful in all the things that I have. So when I identify covetousness, when you identify covetousness, you remind yourself of this truth.

The Lord has promised that He Himself is with me in all things and therefore, because He is with me, He has guaranteed that He will provide everything

I need if He has given me everything I need, then whatever it is that I am longing for in this moment, I don't truly need it.

With food and with covering, I can be content. I have both of those things. Therefore, I can tell my heart, be content with what you have.

And identifying that sin and then thanking God for the provision that He has given and then reminding yourself of His goodness in providing it and all that that has done for you and being thankful in it.

Replace jealousy with rejoicing. Rather than saying, oh, I wish I had that. Boy, I can't live without that. Boy, if only, if He turns

His head, man, I'm gonna snag that thing. Rejoice. Lord, thank you that you have given me this.

It's not what you've given to other people, but if the Lord gave to me what He has given to other people,

I might not be able to handle it. But the Lord knows me and has appointed all things concerning me and therefore, what

He has given to me is perfectly suited to me and my circumstances at this moment. And so I will be satisfied with that and I can submit to that and then pray for contentment.

Third, and this I think is the key to contentment, and this I think is worth a whole message, but I'm not gonna belabor this point.

Instead, I'm gonna remind you the rare jewel of Christian contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs. Now, I'm gonna give you the money paragraph.

I'm gonna give you the money quote. It's a summation of the whole book, but don't use that as an excuse not to buy the book and read it.

We don't gain contentment. This is not Burroughs. This is me for a moment. We do not gain contentment by adding to our lives because that just feeds discontent.

When I satisfy my discontent, remember that's an idol of the heart that is never satiated. So when

I am discontent about something and I covet something and I give my heart what it covets, it's gonna feel satisfied for a moment, but I have really not changed the condition of my heart at all.

I haven't made it content. My heart is still discontent, but now it's gonna be discontent about other things or it might take a while for me to experience or feel the effect of that discontent, but it won't be long before it will be hungering after other things.

Because again, it is an idol of the heart that demands everything, gives us nothing. And when we give to it, we only feed it and it's insatiable so we can never feed it enough.

So we don't arrive at contentment by adding things to our lives. It's the opposite. You have to lose something.

You have to lose something from your life and not possessions. And I'm not talking about giving up anything that you have.

You don't have to lose any comfort. You don't have to lose any convenience. You don't have to lose any physical thing, but you do have to lose something.

The blessing of contentment or the virtue of contentment is gained not by adding to what you have, but by subtracting from your desire.

That's the key to contentment. I have to subtract from my desire. What do

I want and crave and demand in this moment? I have to remove that from my desires.

Jeremiah Burroughs says this. Some men have a mighty large heart. Let me pause for a moment there.

By that, Burroughs is not saying, he's not using big hearted in the sense that we would use big hearted as somebody who's generous and gracious and gives and has empathy and sympathy and very outgoing and just bears everybody's burdens and is very nice.

That's not how he's used. He's talking about a big heart that is a big cavernous desire for more things. That's what he means by big heart.

A heart that can never be filled up no matter how much you put into it. So Burroughs says this. Some men have a mighty large heart, but they have straightened or small circumstances and they can never have contentment when their hearts are big and their circumstances are little.

But though a man cannot bring his circumstances to be as great as his heart, yet he can bring his heart to be as little as his circumstances, to make them even and this is the way to contentment.

It is not to bring my circumstances up to my desires. Instead, it is to bring my desires down to where my circumstances are and when my desires match my circumstances, then

I can be content because then I have everything I want, right? That's what contentment is.

It is being satisfied and having the satisfaction or contentment of my heart match the sufficiency of what

God has given to me. That's the definition of contentment. It's not gained by adding things to your life to satisfy those desires.

A contentment is achieved by taking away from my desires so that my desires match my circumstances.

That is biblical contentment because we can't control our circumstances, can we? I have a piece of meat smoking on the smoker out on my deck right now.

That smoker could start on fire like it did a couple of weeks ago and I could come home, my whole house be up just smoking ashes by the time

I get home. I'm not gonna know about it here because all my notifications are turned off. So right now my home could be a smoldering pile of ashes in my yard.

That's possible. I can't control that. I mean, I can from my phone, I can control my smoker, but I mean,

I can't control whether it burns down or not. You know what I mean? But I can control this when

I get home. If it's a smoking pile of ashes, I can control my desires and say, at least

I'll be warm while the ash is cool. And I can be content with that. I can bring my heart's expectation down to my circumstances so that my circumstances match my heart's expectation because I can affect my heart.

I can dictate to my heart what is true. And I can dictate to my heart what is true that can make my heart desire what it is that God has provided for it.

And then I can be content with what God has provided. If we have food and covering with these, we shall be content. So how do

I arrive at a place where I am satisfied and where God has satisfied all of my desires,

I make my desires match what God has provided. And then he has satisfied all of my desires with food and with covering, with these we shall be content.

Spurgeon said this, "'Possibly you are dissatisfied "'because you cannot bring the contents of your pocket "'up to the height of your wishes.

"'But if you bring your wishes down "'to the level of the contents of your pocket, "'you will be satisfied with what you now have.'"

So covetousness is the disordered desire of the heart that manifests itself in endeavoring to acquire things that God has not given to us.

Contentment is the condition of the heart that submits to what God is pleased to give us. You and I have to feed our soul with the truth of verses five and six.

He has promised himself, "'I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you.'" Therefore we can confidently say, hey, what's man gonna do to me?

Burn down my house? Take away my stuff? Put me in prison? If God has circumscribed the boundaries of my life, if he has ordained this, then

I can make my heart to be content in that circumstance and I can praise him and rejoice in him in that circumstance as I meditate upon this truth that he has promised me himself.

He has promised to never leave me or desert me. He will never forsake me. And therefore, if God is my helper, I will not be afraid no matter what may come.

I can be content with that. We seek to correct our disordered desires by the truth of God's living word.

That's the pathway to contentment. If I believe and I'm convinced that the purposes of God are for his glory and for my ultimate and eternal good, that is what he has ordained.

Then I can meditate upon that reality that God's purposes are for my good, not just in this life, but also in the life to come.

And if I am convinced that in the providence of God, he rules all things by his benevolence and his kindness and his infinite wisdom, he has controlled every detail of all of existence so that he can accomplish what he has purposed concerning me and my good.

And if I am convinced that by the power of God, he cannot be thwarted and his purposes will be accomplished and his intentions will be fulfilled, and that by his power and by his goodness and by his providence, he will fulfill all good things that concern me.

And if I am convinced that the promises of God can be trusted, that he will fulfill his every word for me and all who have believed upon him and everything that is contained in scripture.

And if I am convinced that his presence is with us and that he himself will never leave us, never forsake us, never abandon us, but that he is with me at this moment.

And he will be with me for all of eternity, never to leave us or forsake us. And that the promise of his presence is itself the promise that he will fulfill everything good he has ever promised to us.

If God gives us himself, there's nothing left for him to give for he has gives us every good thing in Christ when he gives us himself.

God gives us himself in the gospel and then he has promised us, I'll never leave you, I will never forsake you, no matter how we feel in this life.

So if all of those things are true, that the purposes of God is my good and his glory, in the providence of God, he rules over all things, that the power of God is without limit, that the promises of God can be trusted and that his presence is with us even at this very moment, then brethren, we can be content.

Can we not? We can be content. And therefore I identify covetousness,

I cast that vice off and I cultivate within myself the virtue of contentment as I reflect upon the truth of God, the verity that he will never desert us nor forsake us.

So we have looked now at the vice that we are to cast off and the virtue that we are to cultivate and next week we will look more closely at those two promises and what they mean for the believer.

Let's bow our heads. Our father, we are so grateful to you for all that you give to us.

We are not even aware of half of the blessings that you have poured out on us in your son.

Blessings of salvation and redemption and security and sanctification, the indwelling of your spirit, all things in this life that we need you have appointed for us, both affliction and suffering you have appointed for your people, delights and joys you have given to us, strength and courage are ours in Christ Jesus, your very presence, your promises, your power, all of your purposes are for us.

Everything you have done is for your people and you have given to us Christ himself and if you have given to us your son, then what good thing would you possibly withhold from those who are yours?

Father, convince our hearts of these truths and make us to reflect upon them, to be aware of them and to submit our minds, our hearts and our affections to them.

May your word shape our desires and create in us a contentedness that honors you and glorifies you, brings peace in our homes and in our lives and may be glorified to do these things in all who are yours, who are here this day, we pray in Christ's name, amen.

Please stand and we'll end our service this morning and sing together the love of God. ♪

The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen ♪ ♪

Can ever tell, it goes beyond the highest star ♪ ♪

And reaches to the lowest star ♪ ♪

The guilty pair bow down with prayer ♪ ♪

God gave his son to win his very child ♪ ♪

He reconciled and parted from his sin ♪ ♪

O love of God, how rich and pure ♪ ♪

How measureless and strong ♪ ♪

It shall forevermore endure the saints and angels ♪ ♪

All years of time shall pass away ♪ ♪

And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall ♪ ♪

When can the hearer refuse to pray ♪ ♪

On rocks and hills and mountains tall ♪ ♪

Shall still endure all measureless and strong ♪ ♪

Redeeming praise to Adam's praise ♪ ♪

The saints and angels song ♪ ♪

O love of God, how rich and pure ♪ ♪

How measureless and strong ♪ ♪

It shall forevermore endure the saints and angels song ♪ ♪

Could we with thee the ocean fill ♪ ♪

And were the skies of parchment made ♪ ♪

Were every song on earth a quill ♪ ♪

And every man a stride by trade ♪ ♪

To write the love of God above ♪ ♪

Would drain the ocean dry ♪ ♪

Nor could the scroll contain the whole ♪ ♪

The sky to sky ♪ ♪ O love of God, how rich and pure ♪ ♪

How measureless and strong ♪ ♪

It shall forevermore endure the saints and angels song ♪

Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the eternal covenant, our

Lord Jesus, equip you in every good thing to do his will by doing in us what is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever.