The Dangers of Discontentment (Psalm 34:8-10) | Adult Sunday School

There he is. There he is. Can we turn him down on the piano side. Turn him down on the piano side a little bit and my mic as well on the piano monitor. How about now. Is that better. Sandy. Ok testing one two.

There we go. That's good.

Ok.

Mine.

There it is.

How's the flute you guys. Is it coming through ok. Is it coming through ok. On your end try one more time. It is awesome. As long as they've got you dialed in I don't think we need to do a song. We can we can do if you want.

But.

Yeah we'll do that upstairs.

Ok.

Who is.

Oh yeah I was telling Emily yesterday when we were singing so I can't remember Emily's dad's name but his mom Betty Jean was sitting at the table and she had her eyes closed and she was singing and the whole family was just standing up and singing and I said if I could have taken a picture for your family I would have because it was just like such a sweet moment that they were all together all worshipping together a lot of families.

Don't have that.

Can we get number one turned on on the monitors for us. Because he's on on the piano monitors but not on these two. Jason is vocal a little bit more piano as well on these two monitors.

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 come home with a lavish feast.

You welcomed us for you made us your own your son. We are strangers but no strangers to your throne we draw near you now our fears are gone and with Christ our king returns your son with Christ bought by his blood.

Shane.

A plus the only thing can you turn Sandy up in her own monitor. A little bit please like an A.

Alright good morning everyone. Come on in and find a seat.

Please if you would.

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 Sunday morning service so I'm just going to introduce Daryl Harrison now and then before the message I'll introduce Virgil.

Daryl serves as the Dean of Social Media at Grace to You which is the media ministry of John MacArthur for those of you who may not know 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 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.

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

Daryl and his wife Melissa reside in Valencia, California and Melissa is with him here this weekend. They have three adult children Colin, Naomi and Yasmin each of whom resides in their native states.

There is a humming going on and I'm not sure if that's the monitors or some instrument up here can anybody else hear that? We'll just make sure we get that taken care of before we... What were you saying?

It happens when you get to be that age? It's still there, it's coming out of the monitors. I'm not the only one that can hear that, right? You're older than me so I know you can hear it too I wrote a book about that, I'm not going to get away with that.

That's better.

I think it's gone. Please welcome Daryl Harrison.

The Problem of Discontentment and the “Pop Life”

Wow, good morning, 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.

So thank you guys for coming out. Before I get into the message that I have for you this morning I just have to take a moment again to just thank Pastor Jim and everyone here at Kootenai. You guys have absolutely spoiled us this weekend and it's been an amazing time with you all, my wife Melissa and I, I speak for Virgil as well, we're really in many ways disappointed that we have to leave tomorrow.

And.

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. 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.

So bumblebees are now recognized as fish in California. I'm true, I'm not making that up, but we just want to thank you guys again for first of all having us here, for trusting us to come here and you're hosting us for these two and a half days or so, I know we 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, so.

Our hearts are full right now, you all are wonderful people, you have a wonderful family here within this church. Please don't take that for granted. Don't take that for granted, you all are blessed beyond measure.

Here and this place, northern Idaho is absolutely stunningly beautiful. It's just stunning up here, so I just wanted to say that before I got started 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 Q &A's of the late performer known as Prince and I said I think it was Virgil who mentioned it actually, and I said well ironically his mentioning Prince, I said it connects directly to my Sunday school message this morning, and it does.

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

Believe it or not believe it or not by the time I'm done you're going to say now I see what he's doing I see what he's doing. Well 37 years ago in 1985 the band Prince and the Revolution released their critically acclaimed album title Around the World in a Day.

The album included two top ten songs. One was Raspberry Beret which peaked at number two in the United States and the other song was a song called Pop Life which reached number seven.

On the charts.

And though the somewhat playful and whimsical Raspberry Beret was the album's most successful single the song Pop Life is my personal favorite from that album because it's pensive lyrics pose some very.

Weighty questions.

Which in my personal opinion warrant our deliberate and thoughtful consideration as Christians. The lyrics from that song Pop Life reads as follow. What's the matter with your life. Is the economy bringing you down.

Is the mailman messing you around. Did he put your million dollar check in someone else's box. Tell me what's the matter with your world. Was it a boy when you wanted a girl. Don't. You know straight hair ain't got no curl life.

It ain't real funky unless it's got that pop dig it pop life everybody needs a thrill.

Pop life.

We all got a space to fill.

Pop life.

Everybody wants to be on top but life it ain't real funky unless it's got that.

Pop you know fundamentally.

Pop life is a song about contentment or perhaps better said discontentment with ones stationed in life. Pop life confronts us about the things we desire in this life and our responses when those desires and expectations go unmet.

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

Unquote. 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.

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.

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

Book of Judges when we read.

Judges chapter 14 verses 1 through 3 from the NESB translation it says. Then Samson went down to Timnah and saw a woman in Timnah one of the daughters of the Philistines. So he came back and told his father and mother I saw a woman in Timnah one of the daughters of the 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 Philistines. But Samson said to his father get her for me for she looks good.

To me.

Now it's both interesting and important to note in that passage in Judges 14 the significance of that little three letter word. Saw that word appears twice in.

That passage.

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.

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

Hence Samson's declaration to his father in verse 3 of Judges 14 that the woman he saw in Timnah looks.

Good to me.

The word saw in Judges 14 is the same Hebrew word that is found in Genesis 3 where we have the account of Eve and Adam disobeying God by eating from the forbidden tree. In Genesis chapter 3 verses 4 through 6 we read that the serpent said to the woman you surely will not die for God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God knowing good and evil.

Verse 6 when the woman saw same Hebrew word which is to say when she perceived.

When 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.

In his commentary on that passage in Genesis 3 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.

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 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. 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 for now having shaken off the bridle her mind wonders dissolutely and intemperately drawing the body with it to the same licentiousness.

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

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 prophet Moses in Deuteronomy chapter 7 verses 1 through 3. When the Lord your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it and clears away many nations before you the Hittites and the Gergashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites seven nations greater and stronger than you.

And when the Lord your God delivers them before you and you defeat them then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them and show no favor to them. Furthermore you shall not intermarry with them.

You shall not give your daughters to their sons nor shall you take their daughters for your sons. 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 was satiating his self centered desire to gratify himself regardless of the cost regardless that it would place him in a position of disobedience to God.

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

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 Judges chapter 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 it says sin will take you farther than you want to go slowly but wholly taking control. Sin will leave you longer than you want to stay and sin will cost you far more than you.

Want to pay. That's what happened to Samson that's what happens when you chase.

The pop life. When you start asking yourself you start sitting down and pondering oh man what's the matter. That's why 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 Christians astray in their misguided zeal to appease to mollify and to assuage their feelings that their life ain't real funky.

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.

But such is the subtle and deceptive allure of sin as the 17th century Puritan theologian Ralph Vening writes in his book the sinfulness of sin quote. One sin though committed but once it's once and once too much.

When the serpent's head is in it is hard to keep out the whole body. One makes way for the other. It is almost impossible to sin once and only.

Once at its most fundamental.

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

That's Colossians chapter 3 and our affections for better or worse are always a matter of our heart. Jesus said in Matthew 621 for where your treasure is there is your heart.

Also 17th century.

Thomas Watson in his classic work titled a body of divinity said this about our misplaced affections. Watson said these misplaced affections are the strings of a violin. As the strings of a violin are out of tune there are the lesser wheels which are strongly carried by the will the master will.

Our affections are set on wrong objects. 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. He calls for wine in a fever.

So we have impure lustings instead of holy longings. So where is your treasure today my friend where are your affections. Perhaps a better question would be what are your affections. I ask that because to answer the latter question is to answer the former.

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

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

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

And with all your strength.

Not often regarded in theological terms discontentment is sin.

It is sin.

Discontentment is sin because it is evidence that we treasure something or someone more than we treasure Christ. Discontentment it pridefully declares to the one who willingly played your sin dead on the cross sorry Lord but you're just not enough for me.

I need more that's what you're saying.

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. 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 satisfy us solely on the basis that our self absorbed life ain't got that pop.

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

Are you mumbling under your voice you're mumbling in your heart to.

God you're complaining.

In your heart to God you're complaining to Christ who died on the cross for you. You have the audacity to complain. That question as I springboarded off of what 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. Discontentment is such a destructive sin that if left unaddressed it can and will decimate everything in your past including your relationships with other people.

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.

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

Don't got that pop. The 19th century 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.

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 we must especially be careful and watchful that we maintain and cultivate the grace which God has sown in it.

The English writer and late theologian 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 true contentment is a thing as active as agriculture.

It is the power.

Of getting out of any situation.

All that.

There is in it contentment is the power of getting out of any situation all that there is in that situation. We know from 1 John 5 .19 that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. And it is against the backdrop of that reality that I'm reminded of these words from the Puritan theologian 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. 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. 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 freed from his molestation. You recall me saying in the conference this weekend. One of our favorite verses that Melissa and I leverage in our biblical counseling is Luke 4 .13 where after Jesus had gone through the temptations of Satan in the wilderness.

Luke 4 .13 says that when the devil had finished all his temptations.

He left Jesus.

Until an opportune.

Time and I urge you.

Then to always be on your spiritual guard that Satan is always looking for an opportune time and discontentment when he gets you thinking that in your head you're giving him an opportune time. The battlefield of Satan is the mind one manifestation of the satanic molestation of which 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. 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 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.

In his book titled you can change subtitled God's transforming power for our sinful behavior and negative emotions Dr. Tim Chester writes this all too often we think of holiness as giving up the pleasures of sin for some worthy but drab life.

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. The scriptures.

Declare in 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 3 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.

You see to be a true Christian is to turn one's back on the world. That's tough to do sometimes 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 New Testament church to be a follower of the way is to turn your back on the world is 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 Lord Jesus Christ through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world now. Can you say that. Can you say that right now that the world has been crucified to you.

That you've been crucified to the world. Is the world dead to you. Is the world truly dead to you. And are you dead.

To the world 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. That's Colossians 3. Again. Set your mind on things above. To quote again 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. If you're anything like me I found it hard to pray many times because I can't pray.

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. 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.

Listen. A discontented Christian is a living breathing oxymoron.

It is.

Discontented Christian doesn't make any sense. You're a living breathing oxymoron. He or she is a contradiction in terms. You're a walking contradiction in terms. I say that in light of 1 Thessalonians 5 18 which says in everything give thanks for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus now the Greek word for everything.

Is everything.

I don't need to exegete that it's everything.

Everything.

That word means.

All each any the whole.

And things of all types.

Everything.

Look in your Bible at 1 Thessalonians 5 18 you will find no asterisk next to that. So there are no exceptions to what everything is. You will not find fine print that says everything except not going to find it.

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

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. Let the conditions be as various as possible. Whether tossed up or down this way or that the heart will stay the same so in a constant way whether in prosperity or adversity the gracious man will still respond consistently before God.

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

It remains gracious spiritual and raised above created things no matter which condition he is put into. One of my favorite verses in the entire Bible you heard me mention this over the past couple days is Ecclesiastes 7 14.

And I encourage you to highlight underline. Put a star next to that verse. Ecclesiastes 7 14. It says. In the day of prosperity be happy. But in the day of adversity remember that the Lord has created the one as well as the other.

That's a one verse. Biblical theology against discontent. Ecclesiastes 7 14. Charles Spurgeon says. So long as we are receivers of mercy we must be givers of thanks. I mention those words from Spurgeon because the cure for discontentment is gratitude.

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.

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 if so.

I humbly urge you to consider carefully these words from Lamentations chapter 3 verse 39 where it asks this question why should any living mortal or any man offer complaint in view of his sins. I want you to consider that text 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. 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 God.