The Dangers of Discontentment (Psalm 34:8-10)

Kootenai Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:01

Our conference this weekend was fantastic, and so I'm very glad that we have Daryl and Virgil both here to take parts of our

00:09

Sunday morning service. So I'm just gonna introduce Daryl Harrison now, and then before the message,

00:14

I'll introduce Virgil. Daryl serves as the Dean of Social Media, Grace to You, which is the media ministry of John MacArthur, for those of you who may not know.

00:23

He has the title Dean of Social Media, and that is a title and a job that Phil Johnson made up out of whole cloth as an excuse to get

00:31

Daryl to move to California and work at Grace to You. So Daryl's responsibility is overseeing the ministry's social media strategy, which means that he scrolls through Twitter all day long on his phone, which is something you can do from anywhere in the world, and I've tried to convince him you can do that from Sandpoint, Idaho as well.

00:50

He has a blog called Just Thinking for Myself, which as of May 2022 has more than 74 ,000 subscribers.

00:56

He is the lead host of the Just Thinking podcast, one of the most, and this is Phil Johnson's words, the most influential long -form

01:02

Christian podcast in the world. It's irregular in that it comes out not necessarily on a schedule like weekly or bi -weekly, but around roughly once a month, and as of right now,

01:14

December 2017, has 4 .9 million episodes streamed. Daryl is the 2013 fellow of Black Theology and Leadership Institute at Princeton Theological Seminary, and I'm supposed to make sure that I say that right, fellow, that's how you pronounce that.

01:29

He's also a 2015 graduate of the Theology and Ministry program at Princeton, is currently in the final phase of his certification as biblical counselor with the

01:37

Association of Certified Biblical Counselors. Daryl and his wife, Melissa, reside in Valencia, California, and Melissa is with him here this weekend.

01:44

They have three adult children, Colin, Naomi, and Yasmin, each of whom resides in their native states. Okay, please welcome

01:51

Daryl Harrison. Wow, good morning.

02:00

I was just telling a brother a second ago, I don't know when the last time I was in a Sunday school class that was this full.

02:08

So thank you guys for coming out. Before I get into the message that I have for you this morning,

02:15

I just have to take a moment again to just thank Pastor Jim and everyone here at Kootenai.

02:20

You guys have absolutely spoiled us this weekend, and it's been an amazing time with you all.

02:26

My wife, Melissa, and I, and I speak for Virgil as well, we're really, in many ways, disappointed that we have to leave tomorrow.

02:36

And, well, somebody said, no, you don't have to. And, well, trust me, coming here from California, I'm not in a hurry to get back.

02:46

I was sharing an article that I came across yesterday where some court in California just passed a law where bumblebees are now protected as fish.

02:55

So bumblebees are now recognized as fish in California. I'm true, I'm not making that up.

03:01

But we just wanna thank you guys again for, first of all, having us here, for trusting us to come here, and you're hosting us for at least two and a half days or so.

03:11

I know we came in here with some heavy, heavy, heavy material, and you guys hung in there with us all day for each of the two days.

03:21

So our hearts are full right now. Y 'all are wonderful people.

03:27

You have a wonderful family here within this church. Please don't take that for granted.

03:33

Don't take that for granted. Y 'all are blessed beyond measure here. And this place, Northern Idaho, is absolutely stunningly beautiful.

03:41

It's just stunning up here. So I just wanted to say that before I got started.

03:47

Those of you who were either here for day one of the conference, or maybe you live -streamed it, you heard a reference made in one of the

03:55

Q &As of the late performer known as Prince.

04:03

And I said, I think it was Virgil who mentioned it, actually, and I said, well, ironically, his mentioning

04:09

Prince, I said it connects directly to my Sunday school message this morning. And it does.

04:14

It was already in my notes. So I didn't just go back and add this. So I thought it was really interesting that Virgil actually mentioned

04:22

Prince because I wanna leverage one of his songs to take you into scripture this morning.

04:31

Believe it or not. Believe it or not. By the time I'm done, you're gonna say, mm -hmm, now I see what he's doing.

04:37

I see what he's doing. Well, 37 years ago, in 1985, the band

04:42

Prince and the Revolution released their critically acclaimed album title, Around the World in a Day. The album included two top 10 songs.

04:50

One was Raspberry Beret, which peaked at number two in the United States. And then the other song was a song called

04:56

Pop Life, which reached number seven on the charts. And though the somewhat playful and whimsical

05:04

Raspberry Beret was the album's most successful single, the song

05:09

Pop Life is my personal favorite from that album because its pensive lyrics pose some very weighty questions which, in my personal opinion, warrant our deliberate and thoughtful consideration as Christians.

05:24

The lyrics from that song Pop Life reads as follow. What's the matter with your life?

05:33

Is the economy bringing you down? Is the mailman messing you around?

05:40

Did he put your million dollar check in someone else's box? Tell me. What's the matter with your world?

05:48

Was it a boy when you wanted a girl? Don't you know straight hair ain't got no curl?

05:55

Life, it ain't real funky unless it's got that pop. Dig it. Pop life. Everybody needs a thrill.

06:02

Pop life. We all got a space to fill. Pop life. Everybody wants to be on top.

06:10

But life, it ain't real funky unless it's got that pop. You know, fundamentally,

06:17

Pop Life is a song about contentment, or perhaps better said, discontentment. With one's station in life.

06:25

Pop life confronts us about the things we desire in this life, and our responses, when those desires and expectations go unmet.

06:36

Christian author Stephen Arterburn, in his book titled Feeding Your Appetites, writes this, quote, when we settle for unhealthy and unfulfilling imitations of what we really desire, our appetites can begin to rage out of control and start controlling us.

06:52

We will turn to sources of satisfaction that will eventually turn on us, and force us either to give up altogether, or to overindulge to the bitter end, unquote.

07:06

Now, many Christians today are discontent with their life. For various reasons, they become emotionally, spiritually, and in many instances, mentally and psychologically jaundiced from a sense that their life lacks that pop.

07:21

Their life lacks that something, or someone, that possession, that experience that they believe will provide them with the degree of fulfillment, significance, happiness, and satisfaction that they've been longing for, but have yet to discover.

07:40

In fact, it was the quest for the pop life that was Samson's problem in chapter 14 of the book of Judges.

07:49

When we read Judges chapter 14, verses one through three from the NESB translation, it says, then Samson went down to Timnah, and saw a woman in Timnah, one of the daughters of the

08:01

Philistines. So he came back and told his father and mother, I saw a woman in Timnah, one of the daughters of the

08:08

Philistines, now therefore get her for me as a wife. Then his father and his mother said to him, is there no woman among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, that you go to take a wife from the uncircumcised

08:24

Philistines? But Samson said to his father, get her for me, for she looks good to me.

08:34

Now it's both interesting and important to note in that passage in Judges 14, the significance of that little three -letter word saw.

08:44

That word appears twice in that passage. And in the original Hebrew, the word saw is not speaking merely of Samson's having observed the woman in Timnah visually with his physical eyes, but with Samson allowing what he observed with his physical eyes to develop into a sinful desire in his heart.

09:08

The word saw literally means to inspect, to perceive, to consider, to regard, to give attention to, or to distinguish.

09:18

So it's not that he just visually observed her, he inspected her, he considered her, he took regard for her, he started imagining things.

09:37

Hence Samson's declaration to his father in verse three of Judges 14, that the woman he saw in Timnah looks good to me.

09:50

The word saw in Judges 14 is the same Hebrew word that is found in Genesis three, where we have the account of Eve and Adam disobeying

09:58

God by eating from the forbidden tree. In Genesis chapter three, verses four through six, we read that the serpent said to the woman, "'You surely will not die, "'for

10:08

God knows that in the day you eat from it, "'your eyes will be open and you will be like God, "'knowing good and evil.'"

10:16

Verse six, when the woman saw, same Hebrew word, which is to say, when she perceived, when

10:24

Eve considered, when she regarded with volitional purpose and intent, when she saw, when she understood that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes, in other words, that it looked good to her, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate, and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.

10:55

In his commentary on that passage in Genesis three, the French reformer John Calvin said this. He said, this impure look of Eve, infected with the poison of concupiscence, was both the messenger and the witness of an impure heart.

11:12

She could previously behold the tree with such sincerity that no desire to eat of it affected her mind, for the faith she had in the word of God was the best guardian of her heart and of all her senses.

11:28

But now, after their heart had declined from faith and from obedience to God's word, she corrupted both herself and all her senses, and depravity was diffused through all parts of her soul as well as her body.

11:46

It is therefore a sign of impious defection that the woman now judges the tree to be good for food, eagerly delights herself in beholding it, and persuades herself that it is desirable for the sake of acquiring wisdom, whereas before she had passed by it a hundred times with an unmoved and tranquil look.

12:09

For now, having shaken off the bridle, her mind wanders dissolutely and intemperately, drawing the body with it to the same licentiousness.

12:25

Now, I wanna draw your attention for a moment back to Samson and the passage I read earlier, Judges 14, and I wanna ask you this morning, my dear brother and sister, as you're listening to the sound of my voice right now,

12:34

I want you to search your own heart to see if there is something of this world that, like Samson, looks good to you, something that you know in your heart, you know in your heart is completely outside the will of God for your life, but that you're nonetheless pursuing it, thinking to yourself that it will make you more content with your life as it stands right now.

13:02

Samson knew very well the prohibition God had established against intermarrying with the Philistines. It's a prohibition that is unambiguously laid out by God himself through the

13:12

Prophet Moses in Deuteronomy chapter seven, verses one through three. When the

13:17

Lord your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it and clears away many nations before you, the

13:25

Hittites and the Gergashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the

13:30

Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and stronger than you. And when the

13:36

Lord your God delivers them before you and you defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them.

13:43

You shall make no covenant with them and show no favor to them. Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them.

13:53

You shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons.

14:02

You see, Samson's problem is that he wanted that pop life. That was his problem. He wanted that one thing that was missing, that one thing that would satiate his self -centered desire to gratify himself regardless of the cost, regardless that it would place him in a position of disobedience to God.

14:21

He wanted it so much, in fact, that he pursued it even against the urging of his own mother and father, not to mention he did it up against the revealed will of God as we just read as it was set forth in Deuteronomy 7.

14:36

In the end, however, when all was said and done, see, Samson ended up with more pop than he bargained for. All you have to do is read

14:43

Judges 16. You see how things ended up for him. And as we reflect on how things ended up for Samson, I'm reminded of these lyrics from an old hymn whose chorus goes like this.

14:56

It says, sin will take you farther than you want to go, slowly but wholly taking control.

15:05

Sin will leave you longer than you want to stay, and sin will cost you far more than you want to pay.

15:15

That's what happened to Samson. That's what happens when you chase the pop life.

15:21

When you start asking yourself, you start sitting down and pondering, oh, man, what's the matter with? That's why

15:26

I asked you guys a couple days ago, said, now, if anyone's unhappy, you need to be here this morning. It's this pursuit of the pop life which, not unlike Samson, has today led many professing

15:39

Christians astray in their misguided zeal to appease, to mollify, and to assuage their feelings that their life ain't real funky.

15:48

They often find themselves in the midst of regretful situations and circumstances that they thought they would never encounter, while conversely reaping devastating consequences that they thought they would never experience.

16:02

But such is the subtle and deceptive allure of sin. As a 17th century

16:08

Puritan theologian, Ralph Vening, writes in his book, The Sinfulness of Sin, quote, one sin, though committed but once, is once and once too much.

16:20

When the serpent's head is in, it is hard to keep out the whole body. One makes way for the other.

16:28

It is almost impossible to sin once and only once. At its most fundamental level, discontentment is rooted in misplaced affections.

16:43

I want you to hear me on that. Your discontentment is rooted in misplaced affections.

16:52

It's really as simple as that. Discontentment is a failure on our part to seek the things above rather than the things that are on earth.

17:01

That's Colossians chapter three. And our affections, for better or worse, are always a matter of our heart.

17:08

Jesus said in Matthew 6 .21, for where your treasure is, there is your heart also.

17:16

The 17th century Puritan, Thomas Watson, in his classic work titled A Body of Divinity, said this about our misplaced affections.

17:24

Watson said, these misplaced affections are the strings of a violin, as the strings of a violin are out of tune.

17:33

They are the lesser wheels which are strongly carried by the will, the master will. Our affections are set on wrong objects.

17:41

Our love is set on sin, our joy on the creature. Our affections are naturally as a sick man's appetite who desires things which are noxious and hurtful to him.

17:53

He calls for wine in a fever, so we have impure lustings instead of holy longings, unquote.

18:06

So where is your treasure today, my friend? Where are your affections?

18:13

Perhaps a better question would be, what are your affections? I ask that because to answer the latter question is to answer the former.

18:25

To answer the question, what are your affections, will tell you where your affections are.

18:34

The 17th century Puritan writer, William Greenhill, in his book titled, Stop Loving the World, said this, quote, if we are to stop loving the world, let us look much to the other world.

18:46

There is another world. There is a world to come, and that world is a better world than this world.

18:53

If we are to get our hearts off this world, which is a very necessary thing, then we must guard our hearts with all diligence.

19:03

Look as attentively to your hearts as you do to your eyes, as you do to the food you eat, as you do to your entire life.

19:10

Keep it with all diligence. Look to your affections and do not let them rove and wander up and down in the world, ranging here and there.

19:23

I'm smiling because I love that advice from Greenhill. Do not let your affections rove and wander up and down, just ranging here and there.

19:38

At the root of all discontentment is a heart that has lost sight of what Jesus said in Matthew 22, 37, is the foremost commandment, which is to love the

19:48

Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.

19:57

And though not often regarded in theological terms, discontentment is sin. It is sin.

20:04

Discontentment is sin because it is evidence that we treasure something or someone more than we treasure

20:10

Christ. Discontentment pridefully declares to the one who willingly paid your sin debt on the cross, sorry,

20:17

Lord, but you're just not enough for me, I need more. That's what you're saying.

20:23

If you're sitting there right now with a discontented heart, that's exactly what you're saying. Sorry, Lord, I need more, you're not enough for me.

20:32

I need this thing, that thing, this person, that person. It is the height of arrogance and pride for any professing believer to refer to Christ as Lord and yet somehow regard him as insufficient to satisfy us solely on the basis that our self -absorbed life ain't got that pop.

20:55

Consider the audaciousness of such a self -centered mindset in light of these words from Thomas Watson, who in his book titled

21:00

The Art of Divine Contentment said this. In a word, a contented Christian being sweetly captivated under the authority of the word of God, desires to be holy at God's disposal, and listen to this, to be holy at God's disposal and is willing to live in that sphere and climate where God has set him.

21:27

Do those words describe you this morning? Can you honestly say as you sit there, can you honestly in your heart say before God, as Watson exhorted, that you're willing to live in that sphere and climate where God has set you, or are you mumbling under your voice?

21:50

You're mumbling in your heart to God. You're complaining in your heart to God.

21:59

You're complaining to Christ who died on the cross for you. You have the audacity to complain.

22:11

That question, as I springboarded off of what

22:17

Watson said about being willing to live in that sphere and climate where God has set you, that's an important question because the sin of discontentment is often the attitudinal gateway drug to other sins.

22:32

Discontentment is such a destructive sin that if left unaddressed, it can and will decimate everything in your path, including your relationships with other people.

22:46

It is discontentment that leads husbands and wives to engage in adulterous relationships with people other than their spouse under the mirage that they'll find happiness, the happiness they're searching for with someone else.

23:00

It is discontentment that motivates many professing believers in Christ to take on financial obligations that they would not otherwise commit to.

23:09

It is discontentment, the desire for the pop life that contributes to increasing numbers of Christians falling into an abyss of spiritual depression and all manner of addictions from which many of them do not recover, all because they're discontented.

23:29

Don't got that pop. The 19th century

23:35

Baptist preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon, who was often referred to as the Prince of Preachers, said this, he said, "'Contentment is one of the flowers of heaven, "'and if we would have it, it must be cultivated.

23:48

"'It will not grow in us by nature.'" In other words, it's not in our nature to be content in and of ourselves. "'It is the new nature alone that can produce it,' "'Spurgeon says, and even then, even then, "'we must especially be careful and watchful "'that we maintain and cultivate the grace "'which

24:08

God has sown in it.'" The English writer and late theologian,

24:13

Gilbert Keith Chesterton, many of us may be familiar by his initials, G .K. Chesterton, expressed a similar sentiment as Spurgeon when he said this, he said, "'True contentment is a thing "'as active as agriculture.

24:27

"'It is the power,' listen to this, "'it is the power of getting out of any situation "'all that there is in it.

24:36

"'Contentment is the power of getting out "'of any situation all that there is in that situation.'"

24:43

We know from 1 John 5, 19 that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

24:49

And it is against the backdrop of that reality that I'm reminded of these words from the Puritan theologian,

24:55

John Flavel, who rightly said this, he said, "'Christ has not freed believers in this world "'from the temptations and assaults of Satan, "'even those that are freed from his dominion "'are not freed from his molestation.'"

25:14

I remember a former pastor of mine years ago said something that I'll never forget. He said, "'The battlefield of Satan is the mind.'"

25:23

That's exactly what Flavel is saying. Even those of us who are believers who have been freed from Satan's dominion, we are not yet free from his molestation.

25:35

You recall me saying in the conference this weekend, one of our favorite verses that Melissa and I leverage in our biblical counseling is

25:40

Luke 4, 13, where after Jesus had gone through the temptations of Satan in the wilderness,

25:46

Luke 4, 13 says that when the devil had finished all his temptations, he left Jesus until an opportune time.

25:57

And I urge you then to always be on your spiritual guard that Satan is always looking for an opportune time.

26:02

And discontentment, when he gets you thinking that in your head, you're giving him an opportune time.

26:11

The battlefield of Satan is the mind. One manifestation of the satanic molestation of which

26:19

John Flavel is speaking is that this sinful world is absolutely unrelenting in its efforts to convince you and me that to live for Christ is to somehow miss out on the best things that this passing temporal world have to offer.

26:35

The mainstream media, the internet, social media, television sitcoms, reality TV shows, movies, and even certain elements and aspects of the evangelical church are increasingly beckoning us to come up with some reason, some excuse, some ethical or moral loophole by which to compromise our biblical confession with a world that wants nothing to do with God or with his word.

27:01

But Christ has already given you and me everything we need in himself, whereas the world gives us nothing, absolutely nothing that is of any lasting value or worth, nothing.

27:16

In his book titled, You Can Change, subtitled God's Transforming Power for Our Sinful Behavior and Negative Emotions, Dr.

27:23

Tim Chester writes this, all too often we think of holiness as giving up the pleasures of sin for some worthy but drab life.

27:33

But holiness means recognizing that the pleasures of sin are empty and temporary while God is inviting us to magnificent, true, full, and rich pleasures that last forever.

27:50

The scriptures declare in 2 Peter 1, verse three, that by his divine power, that power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and excellence.

28:07

You see, to be a true Christian is to turn one's back on the world. That's tough to do sometimes.

28:16

That's tough to do. Not saying any of this is easy. But to be a follower of Christ, or as it was put back in the early days of the

28:25

New Testament church, to be a follower of the way is to turn your back on the world.

28:32

It's to turn away. As followers of Christ, our attitude should mirror that of the apostle Paul who in Galatians 6, 14 said this, but may it never be that I would boast except in the cross of our

28:44

Lord Jesus Christ through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.

28:51

Now can you say that as you're sitting there? Can you say that right now that the world has been crucified to you? That you've been crucified to the world?

28:58

Is the world dead to you? Is the world truly dead to you? And are you dead to the world?

29:09

And yet it is the pursuit of the pop life that invariably draws us to the things of the world and away from the things of God.

29:16

That's Colossians 3. Again, set your mind on things above. To quote again

29:22

Thomas Watson from The Art of Divine Contentment, he says, discontentment takes the heart wholly off from God and fixes it on the present trouble so that a man's mind is not upon his prayer but upon his cross.

29:37

If you're anything like me, yeah, I found it hard to pray many times because I can't pray.

29:42

I can't focus on what I want to pray, who I'm praying to because I'm focused on what I want to pray about. I'm double -minded.

29:53

This is what Watson is saying. Discontentment takes your heart wholly off from God which is where it needs to be and fixes your mind on your trouble, not on your prayer.

30:07

Listen, a discontented Christian is a living, breathing oxymoron. It is.

30:16

A discontented Christian doesn't make any sense. You're a living, breathing oxymoron.

30:23

He or she is a contradiction in terms. You're a walking contradiction in terms. I say that in light of 1

30:28

Thessalonians 5 .18 which says, in everything give thanks for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

30:37

Now, the Greek word for everything is everything. I don't need to exegete that.

30:46

It's everything. Everything. That word means all, each, any, the whole, and things of all types.

31:03

Everything. Look in your Bible at 1 Thessalonians 5 .18, you will find no asterisk next to that.

31:10

So there are no exceptions to what everything is. You will not find print that says, not find fine print that says everything except, not gonna find it.

31:26

We are to be genuinely thankful to God literally for all things without exception.

31:34

In his book, Contentment, Prosperity, and God's Glory, the Puritan theologian Jeremiah Burroughs said this. He said, the wheels of a good watch will stay in constant and steady motion even if a man sits on it or if it is dropped or thrown around.

31:47

So it is with the heart of a man. If there is grace within and the wheels work rightly, grace will keep the heart steadfast.

31:55

Let the conditions be as various as possible, whether tossed up or down, this way or that, the heart will stay the same.

32:03

So in a constant way, whether in prosperity or adversity, the gracious man will still respond consistently before God.

32:10

If God brings illness upon him, he rejoices in God and blesses him. You will find pleasant and spiritual things coming from him even then.

32:20

And if God delivers him and he comes into prosperity, there you will find that his heart still remains heavenly.

32:28

It remains gracious, spiritual, and raised above, created things, no matter which condition he is put into.

32:38

One of my favorite verses in the entire Bible, you heard me mention this over the past couple days, is Ecclesiastes 7 .14.

32:44

And I encourage you to highlight, underline, put a star next to that verse. Ecclesiastes 7 .14, it says,

32:58

That's a one -verse biblical theology against discontentment. Ecclesiastes 7 .14.

33:07

Charles Spurgeon says, so long as we are receivers of mercy, we must be givers of thanks. I mentioned those words from Spurgeon because the cure for discontentment is gratitude.

33:20

The cure for discontentment is gratitude. Think about it. How can you or I or any professing believer in Christ be discontent knowing that our sins have been forgiven and that we've been eternally saved from God's wrath?

33:35

I can tell you right now, whatever you're going through, it's not worth spending eternity in hell. You think you have a right to be discontent?

33:48

If so, I humbly urge you to consider carefully these words from Lamentations 3 .39, where it asks this question, why should any living mortal or any man offer complaint in view of his sins?

33:58

I want you to consider that text,

34:04

Lamentations 3 .39, in light of these words from the 17th century Puritan, George Swinnock, who said, we take the size of sin too low and short and wrong when we measure it by the wrong it does to us, our families, or to our neighbors or the nation wherein we live.

34:23

Indeed, herein somewhat of its evil and mischief does appear but to take its full length and proportion, we must consider the wrong it has done to this great, glorious, and incomparable

34:35

God. Sin is incomparably malignant because the God principally injured by it is incomparably excellent.

34:47

So tell me, my friend, what's the matter with your life this morning? What is it that you're secretly complaining to God about?

35:01

Is the economy bringing you down? I come from Southern California, and parts of LA gas is approaching $10 a gallon.

35:11

You talk about the economy bringing you down? Is the mailman messing you around?

35:19

Did he put your million -dollar check in someone else's box? What's the matter with your world?

35:30

Was it a boy when you wanted a girl? Don't you know straight hair ain't got no curl?

35:40

So you feel free to replace any of those lyrics with whatever it is you're discontent about this morning.

35:51

John Flavel in his book, Christ Altogether Lovely, said this, esteem nothing lovely except as it is enjoyed in Christ or used for the sake of Christ.

36:01

Love nothing for itself. Love nothing separate from Jesus Christ. In two things we all sin, in love of created things.

36:10

We sin in the excess of our affections, loving them above the proper value and mere created things.

36:17

We also sin in the inordinacy of our affections. That is to say, we give our love for created things a priority it should never have.

36:31

John Flavel's absolutely right. Listen, the goal of the Christian is not to live a life that's funky, but to live a life that's holy.

36:45

The Bible speaks of a man in Ecclesiastes chapter two, verses one through two, who endeavored to live a life that was funky, but who ended up lamenting to himself, come now,

36:55

I will test you with pleasure. So enjoy yourself. And behold, it too was futility.

37:03

I said of laughter, it is madness, and of pleasure, what does it accomplish?

37:11

In the end, living that pop life, vanity, empty, shallow.

37:23

In his commentary on Hebrews chapter 13, verse five, the Bible expositor

37:28

Matthew Henry had these encouraging words to say. Having treasures in heaven, we may be content with mean things here.

37:35

I love that. That's Colossians three. When you set your mind on things above, you can be content with mean things here, when things don't go well here, when your expectations aren't met here.

37:48

You can be okay with that. Having treasures in heaven, we may be content with mean things here.

37:54

Those who cannot be so would not be content though God raised their condition. Adam was in paradise, yet not contented.

38:03

Some angels in heaven were not contented. But the apostle Paul, though abased and empty, had learned in every state, in any state, to be content.

38:12

Christians have reason to be contented with their present lot. This promise contains the sum and substance of all the promises.

38:21

I will never, no never, leave thee, never forsake thee.

38:27

In the original language, there are no less than five negatives put together to confirm the promise. The true believer shall have the gracious presence of God with him in life, at death, and forever.

38:39

Men can do nothing against God, and God can make all that men do against his people to turn to their good.

38:48

That's Romans 8, 28. As I close, I wanna quote again the Puritan Jeremiah Burroughs from his book,

38:55

The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, where he has these edifying words to say for us today. Burroughs says, quote, if a man is to be free from discontentment and worry, it is not enough merely to not murmur, but you must be active in sanctifying

39:11

God's name in the affliction. It's 1 Thessalonians 5, 18.

39:16

It's giving thanks to God for everything is what Burroughs is saying here. You must be active in sanctifying

39:22

God's name and in the affliction. Indeed, this will distinguish it from merely being a sturdy resolution to not be troubled.

39:30

So what Burroughs is saying here, it's not being, having an attitude of contentment and it's not about just gritting your teeth.

39:40

No, he's talking about in here. You're sanctifying God in your heart and you're truly being thankful. Do you have a sturdy resolution that you will not be troubled?

39:50

Do you make it a matter of conscience to sanctify God's name in your affliction? And is this where your resolution comes from?

39:58

That is the main thing that brings quietness of heart and helps against discontent in a gracious heart.

40:06

The desire and care for your soul, the desire and care your soul has to sanctify

40:12

God's name in an affliction is what quiets the soul and this is what others lack.

40:23

Psalm 34 verses eight through 10. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.

40:29

How blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints.

40:36

For to those who fear him, there is no want.

40:43

The young lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they who seek the Lord shall not be in want of any good thing.

40:56

I will commit to you the study of Psalm 34 verses eight through 10. If you're a

41:02

Christian who is harboring a hard attitude of discontentment, I humbly urge you to confess and repent of your sin and plead with God to give you a heart that appreciates anew the blessed reality that in Christ you have everything you will ever need, everything you will ever need to live contentedly and joyously, not only in this life, but also in the life to come.

41:31

Jim, thank you. I'll pray, yes. Father in heaven, we thank you for this time. We thank you for this opportunity.

41:37

We thank you for the encouragement of your word. Help us to understand, Father, that our enemy is real.

41:44

The devil is real. The devil would have us to carry about us an attitude, a mindset, a demeanor of discontentment, even in light of the fact that you have saved us from your wrath.

41:57

Help us to love you, O Lord. Help us to truly set fixed, to station our mind on the things above.