Increase Contentment (Part 1)

No Compromise Radio Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author,

Dr. Mike Abendroth. Today on No Compromise Radio, we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the

Word of God in a recent message he preached at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

Now let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the Scriptures, verse by verse with no compromise.

Why don't you open your Bibles please to 1 Corinthians chapter 7 as we work through the book of 1 Corinthians, an exciting book.

I call Mark the Indiana Jones of the Gospels and maybe 1 Corinthians could be the

Indiana Jones of the Epistles. It is one exciting book. And today we'll continue our series in 1

Corinthians chapter 7 on contentment. I can ask you the question as I look around, are you a content person?

Or are you the type of person who doesn't have much contentment and you grumble a lot and complain.

You wish you could have newer, you wish you could have bigger, you wish you could have better.

I know if you're really a Christian that your deepest desire is to be content underneath the good and sovereign hand of God.

And so my question this morning is, how do you increase your contentment? Do you just take a long walk and say,

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can? You say, I must, I must. One of the ways

God has devised growth in a Christian is through the preaching and the reading of the

Word of God. So you say, I have a problem in my life and my problem is, well I don't know if God loves me.

Then you study the atonement. Well yes, God loves me. If He gave

His Son for me, wouldn't He give me everything else? If you struggle with work, then the

Bible talks about work. And so God uses His Word to transform your minds and once your mind is changed, then your life will change.

So preaching is of course, it's holistic, but I'm after your mind because the

Spirit of God then applies the preaching that I'm going to, the preaching from the pulpit and then changes your life and changes your mind.

And so if you struggle with contentment, today will be a good sermon for you because my prayer is that the

Spirit of God will use these verses in 1 Corinthians 7 to help us increase our contentment and increase our joy and we can get past the grass is always greener conspiracy as Stephen Altrogi's new book talks about.

Just even last week we were at the beach and about eight or nine of us were out body surfing and the waves were better just a ways down.

They were bigger. They were nicer. And you just go a little farther down and oh no, they're just even bigger and better.

They're breaking more smoothly down that way. That's the way our life goes lots of times.

If I only could have this, I'd get more happiness out of life. Well, where are we in 1

Corinthians chapter 7? What has happened so far? Big picture of 1 Corinthians. He says in the first six chapters there are four moral issues in 1

Corinthians that Paul deals with. He's received a letter and the letter says we need help with these four areas.

He writes back and says, okay, when it comes to division in the church, chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, here's what you do.

When it comes to immorality in the church that's tolerated, remember that whole incest deal, chapter 5,

Paul says, here's my advice. The inspired advice from the spirit of God through Paul the apostle.

Chapter 6, it starts off with people were suing each other and a testimony of the Lord Jesus was decreased because of Christians suing

Christians. And then there was an issue of morality, sexual immorality at the end of chapter 6 that Paul addresses.

Then if you look at chapter 7, the questions and the answers begin. We don't know the questions, we only have the answers.

Now concerning the matters about what you wrote, it's good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman, etc.,

Paul begins to deal with questions that he received and then he begins to answer them.

And so we're up to verses 17 through 24 that we started last week and let me continue in the series in chapter 7, verse 17 through 24 in the issue of contentment in your lot in life.

How to become more content. And so pretty much I know I've got all of you covered today, everyone here needs to understand this better.

And the context specifically is marriage, singleness, divorce, celibacy.

And so you say, well, I could be more content if I only had a better husband. I could be more joyful only if I had a husband.

I could have more contentment and happiness if I could just get rid of this husband.

I'm not laughing, that was not supposed to happen. You guys, that was not set up, insert laugh here, that was what the carnal

Corinthians were laughing about too. And then he gives this deviation in 17 to 24 that seems like it's in a different subject.

It's a digression that he's talking about circumcision and slavery and all these other things and you think, what is he doing?

But it's in the same context, but coming from a different angle. What about my lot in life when it comes to marriage to an unbeliever, to a believer?

Do I stay single? Dealing with this whole issue of if I only had this, then

I could be happier. If only this were true. And so Paul's going to get rid of all the should ofs, would ofs, if onlys.

And I love that when it's out of my mind, this would have happened, if that would have happened,

I should have done this, I should have done that to think, you know, God knows what he's doing. And so you'll see the force of God's great hand in this passage.

The outline for today is, continue from last week, some spiritual contentment vitamins, if you will, designed to boost your stamina or your contentment immune system.

I want you to be more content. In other words, in all situations, marriage, singleness, social issues, ethnic issues, to help you not complain and grumble.

Number one, this first contentment booster, grip God's sovereign call. Let's look at verse 17 again, just quickly in review, grip

God's sovereign call. Verse 17, only let each person lead the life that the

Lord has assigned to him and to which God has called him.

This is my rule in all the churches. Paul has this theme, remain, remain, remain, remain.

Look with me, if you would, at verse 8 of the same chapter. See if you can see how he emphasizes through repetition.

Chapter 7, verse 8, to the unmarried and the widows, I say that it is good for them to remain single as I am.

Verse 11, but if she does, she should not remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband and the husband should not divorce his wife.

You see, there it is again, remain. Verse 20, each one should what?

Remain in the condition in which he was called. Verse 24, so brothers, in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God.

God is sovereign over everything, including you, over every molecule, over every atom.

And if he saved you when and where he did, you shouldn't spend all your time, all your energy, all your resources trying to rebel and say,

I've got to undo what God has done. Specifically, if you got saved later in life and you are already married to an unbeliever, you say, well, now

I'm married to this unbeliever. Does that affect my status before God? If only I had a believing spouse,

I've got to get out of this. Paul says, God saved you at the exact right time with his monergistic, sovereign, distinguishing grace.

He saved you where you were, so then bloom where you're planted. If you could save yourself,

I said last week, and I'll say it again this week, you should have saved yourself a lot earlier. I should have saved myself a lot earlier because the ages of 18 to 29 for me in my life was a complete sinful train wreck.

If I only could have saved myself earlier, I could have stopped all that. I could have not had all those memories.

I could have not had all those things that will haunt me until glory. I could have stopped those things, but I can't save myself.

You can't save yourself. God's sovereign call saved you when he did, and if he saved you where you are, whether you're a slave, whether you're a

Gentile, whether you're a Jew, where you're married to a believer or unbeliever, he saved you at that exact right moment for his sovereign purposes.

Now he's not saying if you're single, don't ever marry. He's not saying if you have a certain job, don't ever find another job.

He's saying this. You can serve God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength where you are right now.

You don't have to have anything better. If I could only get that other kind of job, I could serve him better. If I only had a husband,

I could serve him better. If I only had a better husband, I could serve him even better. No laughing. Calvin said, ignorance, excuse me, of providence is the ultimate of all miseries.

The highest blessedness lies in the knowledge of it. How good it is to know that God's in control of everything.

You're going to have to go back and undo all these things. That's going to drive you to be not content, but to think,

I'm just going to rest in God's divine call, the effectual call, the irresistible call, the invincible call of God.

And when he called my name, as it were, when Jesus was called out of Egypt, it had to happen.

God saved me exactly at the right moment. I mean, I think about it in my own life.

How many times did I hear someone say, Mike, you're sinful and you need to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? And I would hear it over and over and over and over.

But one day in God's sovereign timing, he had the lights go on and that's when I believed and it was all of God.

And when he did it, he knew what he was doing. He wasn't in heaven saying,

I just sure wish Mike would believe. Please believe. And he's kind of this, you know, false Jesus we know of as a gentleman

Jesus. I won't impinge upon you. I won't make you do anything. I'm just kind of waiting.

And he's kind of this, you know, shunned lover. No, here's what

Jesus does. The father has chosen you in eternity past. Jesus has died for you at Calvary.

And then the spirit of God says, I now make you have a new nature. And that new nature that used to, the old nature loved sin and hated

God. Now that new nature says, I love God and I hate sin. And God makes people

Christians. That's first Peter chapter one. That's Ephesians chapter two

Corinth. Be willing to accept any marital condition or any social condition or any ethnic condition because you can serve

God right where you are. Each one of you look at verse 17.

The NAS is a little better here. Let me read the NAS as you look at verse 17, probably in your ESV.

Only as the Lord has assigned to each one NAS, as God has called each, each person twice in the

NAS. Why? Because Paul wants everyone to know no matter what your social position, your marital state, you can serve the

Lord right where you are. So here's what he's saying. If you'd like to be discontent, try to figure out how to undo all the things

God has done in your life. That will drive you to murmuring and complaining. There's another way you could be having no contentment is just sit and watch

TV all day because TV says this. Your current car isn't nice enough. Your current car isn't big enough.

Your current car doesn't have a good enough gas mileage. Your current car doesn't have five DVD players simultaneously in the back.

Your current car, and the list goes on and on. And you go, I want more because advertising creates discontentment.

And so does the person who says, God, your sovereign hand in my life isn't working out. I should have married that other guy.

I shouldn't have married that guy. Paul says, just live where you are.

The NAS goes on to say, and I don't know why ESV left it out, in this manner, let him walk. That should be in verse 17, but it's not.

In other words, don't have undue concern for getting out of your situation. Walk before God now.

Since God is sovereign, just be where you are. Be all there, wherever you are, be all there, be, be, be there.

I love David Livingston. I am prepared to go anywhere, provided it be forward. That's good.

God saved me here, I'm ready to go anywhere, as long as it's that way. Because trying to go back in the past and undo it all, you're going to go crazy with discontentment.

Paul said later in Philippians, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.

Trusting that God knew what he was doing when he saved me. I mean it, what

I'm going to say right now. If you buy The Sovereignty of God by A .W. Pink and read it this summer, and it does not revolutionize your life,

I personally will pay for that book. You give it back to me, and I'll give it to somebody else who has the spirit of God.

No, just kidding. Seriously, you buy that book,

The Sovereignty of God by Pink. And as your knowledge increases of the sovereignty of God, your contentment doesn't nosedive, it increases too.

God's plan is going forward. All systems go. Contentment increases,

The Sovereignty of God by A .W. Pink. Top five books I've read in my life. Number two, spiritual booster for contentment.

Found in verses 17 through 24 is retain proper priorities. One, grip

God's sovereign call. Two, retain proper priorities. Now this is an inference, but I think it's a biblical inference.

Retain proper priorities. I ask the question, what is the church's priority? Social justice?

Political reform? Economic redistribution? Earth Day?

What is the church's top priority? And if you think biblically, it will help your contentment.

Now let's flesh this out a little bit. Let me read verse 17 again. Only let each person lead the life that the

Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. Now look at this universal principle.

This is a universal principle for every church, including ours. This is my rule in all the churches.

The top priority is not undo what God has done. The top priority is be where God has placed you.

And now I ask the question for inference, why has God placed you where you are? Why do you have the family that you do, the co -workers that you do?

Why do you have the neighbors that you have? Why? Why didn't God just take Daniel and Eric straight to heaven after I baptized them?

There's a mission to be done. There's work to be done. What work is there to be done? Now we give him glory in all sorts of ways, but one of the main ways we give him glory is how?

Is what do we do? What's the church's top priority? Why do you have that person sitting in that cubicle next to you?

Why do you have the mom that you have? God makes you a Christian, and then what are you supposed to do? You're supposed to evangelize them.

The number one issue and priority for the church is evangelism. The proclamation of the glories of Christ to unbelievers, not political.

If you say to yourself, the world, America, the Western world is going to hell in the handbasket.

What can we do to stop it? You're going to be discontent because you can't stop it. It's not going to be stopped.

But what you can do is to say, the world might go to hell in the handbasket, but God is sovereign. He saves people through the preaching of his word, and I'm going to preach the word, and I'm going to do everything

I can do. And so when I go home and lay my head down on the pillow, I don't have to have world peace as a mission.

We have a soteriological agenda in the church. In other words,

I really don't care if you're a Republican or Democrat. And the day I see voter registration guides over here, is the day

I want to find out who put them there, because I don't care. Do I vote? Yes. Does it matter?

No, just kidding. It doesn't, vote all you want, run. But Democrats and Republicans go to hell unless they're born again.

Do you know pro -life people who work at pregnancy centers? If they're not born again, where do they go?

Jesus said, I will build my church and the gates of death shall not prevail against it.

We are concerned about not social revolution, but spiritual regeneration.

That is our top priority. That's why Paul's saying just stay where you are. Can you imagine? You say, why do

I work with that guy that I work with? Well, you're there because God placed you there. He saved you at the exact right time.

He coordinates everything perfectly. And you're there for that guy. When I moved here from my one house in Sterling to Lancaster eight years ago,

I said to myself, these neighbors were given to us by God, because lots of them don't know the gospel.

And then now, by the way, they hate it that the evangelical pastor's moving into town. And here's the pastor moving in to their cul -de -sac.

But I'm thinking, these people need the gospel. These people, they don't need to say, well, you know what?

My goal is, I'm gonna make everybody Republican. That's my goal. I'm gonna make everybody in this neighborhood

Republican. And we're gonna fix the world. We're gonna have a moral majority in our cul -de -sac.

And I'm gonna be the president. This is nothing new.

Paul says, I lay down this rule in all the churches. It's not a novelty. It's not new. Vote as you want.

But you think I'm gonna put a vote Republican sign in front of my yard to make 80 % of my neighbors mad at me?

You've got another thing coming. By the way, did you know Democrats can't go to heaven? That might be a shock for some of you people here in West Boylston.

And everyone who's laughing, you're convicted by it. The only way you have relief is by laughing.

The primary purpose is, God saves us. We're to remain there, because the inferences here, and we have many other texts from Matthew 28 and following, that we're to give the gospel.

We're to, 1 Peter chapter 2, 9, proclaim the excellencies of Christ Jesus. Yeah, I've got that new guy at work, and he sure is adult.

I don't wanna be bothered with him. He's an unsaved adult. That might be true, he's adult, but he needs the gospel.

Why is he in front of you? And then if I wanna really hit home, if God saved you, and you're complaining that now he saved you while you've got an unsaved spouse.

I wonder why God would save you in a relationship when your spouse is not a

Christian. Could it be, isn't it obvious to everyone else why

God saved you when he did? When your spouse is an unbeliever, what should you do? Well, I've gotta get away from this person.

He wants to be married to me, she wants to be married to me. I've gotta get away from them because I don't like unbelievers. God is saying through Paul, here's the issue, remain.

Why? Because maybe the reason you were born, maybe the only reason you were born, is to preach the gospel to this unbelieving spouse.

That is a worthy calling, that is the highest calling. I lay down this rule in all the churches.

It's all about the worship of Christ Jesus. Listen to these words by Jesus. This is Jesus' own life as well.

My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, he said to Pilate, don't you love it? Then my servants would be fighting, that I might not be delivered up to the

Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not of this realm. You want to have the church compromise?

Then do what I call the social gospel cuddle. Just cuddle up to the social gospel people, and it is over.

Jesus Christ's mission, Luke 19, to seek and to save that which was

Democrat. I mean, doesn't that just sound stupid? It sounds stupid to me. To seek and save the lost, that's why you live.

That's why you're to remain where you are. Of course, if you're single, you can get married.

It's not the issue. You say, well, yeah, but Jesus had it pretty good during the first century.

And he didn't really have a lot of people who were taxing people exorbitantly. He didn't have a lot of issues going on with cruel despots like Herod.

Jesus is not a social reformer. Jesus is not a political deliverer. He has the gospel to be preached.

I'll even push it farther. When there was a lot of sick people over here, the number one priority of Jesus was not even healing sick people.

Was that a good thing to do? That kind and loving of our Savior to heal sick people? But he said in Mark chapter one,

I know sick people are going to be at the door here, but there's something more important than healing people's bodies, and that is healing their souls.

You can be perfectly physically healthy and still not go to heaven. This is my rule in all the churches, remain.

Remain, why? Because you're to be focused on evangelism. I love the Reformation for lots of reasons.

One of the reasons is it took a huge halogen spotlight and focused in on the reason we live is the gospel.

That's the church's reason to exist. And if you say to yourself, I've got to make

America Republican, it's not going to happen anytime soon, and you're going to be discontent.

If you say, I'm going to do everything I can to live underneath the light of the sovereign God, I can't save my neighbor,

I can't save my loved one, I can't save my spouse, but I'm going to be a good witness and I'm going to preach the gospel to them,

I think you can be very, very content. Someone asked me a couple weeks ago, either at the door or on the radio station, they said, does it kind of bother you that you can't save people?

Isn't that a lot of pressure on you that you've got a lot of people to save? I said, you know what, I have no pressure.

How much pressure do I have to save anyone here? Pastors sitting in the audience, if we say to ourselves, I have to save people,

I would not be very content. John Seale said, a politicized faith not only blurs our priorities, but weakens our loyalties.

Our primary citizenship is not on earth, but in heaven. Though few evangelicals would deny this truth in theory, the language of our spiritual citizenship frequently gets wrapped in red, white, and blue.

Rather than acting as resident aliens of a heavenly kingdom, too often we sound like resident apologists for a

Christian America. Unless we reject the false reliance on the illusion of Christian America, evangelicalism will continue to distort the gospel.

American evangelicalism is now covered by layers and layers of historically shaped attitudes that obscure our biblical core.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston.

You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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