Contentment and Covetousness — Zac Poonen

Contentment in the Presence of Jesus

It's the way I feel when I realize that Jesus is here, the way, how shall I preach when Jesus is here? It's an awesome thing to recognize the presence of the Lord. And I believe that one mark of our spiritual growth is that we become more and more aware of, you know, the truth of that word, Lo, I'm with you always, even unto the end of the age.

And if you really want Him to be with you, it's His presence that delivers us from fear. I've often, I've been thinking recently rather, that when God created man, He didn't make him go to work. The first day was a day of rest, the Sabbath day.

As soon as He created him at the end of the sixth day, He told him, okay, now you're not going to go work for me, that can wait. You're going to spend one whole day with me. And that's how Adam began his life.

And the devil never came anywhere near him that day. It's when he went out into the garden to work that the devil came because the devil knew, I don't have a chance if he's hanging around with God all the time.

And the presence of Jesus, if we seek to live in His presence constantly and develop the habit of recognizing that He's there all the time, the power of temptation decreases considerably. Temptation is still there, but it's not so strong.

I see that Jesus was tempted and so will we be tempted. But as soon as the devil tempted Jesus, Jesus immediately had an answer because He was living in God's presence, the Father's presence. As soon as the devil tempted Him, anytime, there was an answer immediately and the devil would go away.

Come back with another temptation, he'd have another word from the Father and he'd go away. This is our goal, to become like Jesus. We say we all want to be like Jesus, but here's one area where we can seek to be like Him.

That as soon as a temptation comes, I have a word to reply to that. Something from the scripture. Even Jesus never attempted to drive the devil away by just saying, get away Satan, get away Satan. He always quoted a scripture.

And we think that we can just say, Satan, I resist you. But if you don't have a scripture to strengthen your mind against that temptation, you'll still fall. He may go away, but he'll come back. But if you have a scripture, for example, in one place it says, do you know this verse?

Hebrews 13, verse 5 and 6. Let your character be free from the love of money. Being content with what you have because He Himself has said, I will never leave you, desert you or forsake you. The reason why we can be perfectly content with what we have.

And I know, I've worked with people in the villages in India who have 10 or less of what you have. But they are far more content. They are content with what they have. And when you are content with what you have, because you know that the Lord will never leave you nor forsake you, you have tremendous boldness to say, verse 6, the Lord is my helper.

Discontentment and Faultfinding

I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? Discontent with our circumstances or always wanting something more, desiring what we don't have, is the way to a miserable, unhappy life. Or wishing that you were like somebody else, wishing you had somebody else's gifts.

Not content with what God has decided to give you. You know when we find fault with somebody, even we can find fault with the church. You can go to the best church in the world and find fault with it.

The devils will master it, finding fault. But Jesus was so different. He would see something wrong in a church. If you read the way the Lord spoke to the churches in Revelation, He, even to churches that had left their first love, He doesn't straight away say, you left your first love.

He says, there are so many good things in you. I don't know whether you noticed that in Revelation chapter 2. This is a church which has fallen so badly that God is about to remove His recognition of them as a church, de-recognize them as a church.

It's fallen so badly, He's going to de-recognize them. Imagine a church is going to de-recognize and how does He speak to them? I know your deeds, verse 2, Revelation 2. Your toil and your perseverance.

You cannot endure evil men. You put to the test false apostles. You have perseverance. You have endured for my name's sake and I have this against you. Imagine if we began to have eyes like Jesus. That when we see somebody, we don't just see the one thing wrong there, but we see so many other things that are good.

I remember hearing a story of a teacher who stood in front of a classroom and held up a white board like this with one black spot in the corner. And he told all the students to write down, what can you see?

All the students with their sharp eyes wrote, I see one black dot in the corner. And he said, the teacher said, after collecting all the sheets, he said, all of you have noticed the black dot in the corner.

None of them said, none of you said, I see a white board. It was just a black dot. And he said, that's how our nature is. You look at people and you see the one wrong thing. And usually the one wrong thing is maybe one of your strong points.

If you are a very talkative person, you won't criticize another person for being talkative. Because that's your own fault and you don't see that in others. But maybe some area you are a little strong and that's where you see the fault in the other person.

You are discontent and you can sit in a church and be discontent. This thing is wrong, that thing is wrong, the other thing is wrong. I tell such people, why do you sit in this church then? Go and find another church.

And I can assure you, you'll find so many more wrong things there that you'll come back. That's the thing, you know, this discontentment is a tremendous weapon of Satan. It accomplishes nothing except making us miserable and unhappy.

Covetousness and the Illusion of a Higher Standard

But discontent with our situation, our circumstances or the money we have. I always wanted to live at a higher standard of living. I know people in Bangalore, Christians, who wanted to live at a higher standard of living and even neglected their children so that father and mother could go to work, to raise their standard of living.

The end result is, I see where those children are. Those children are all wayward, gone astray from God, because the parents wanted to raise the standard of living. They were not caring for their children.

We have to be very careful that we don't have this covetousness. It says, be content with what you have. Don't think you're such an important person that God has to do this, that and the other for you.

If I say, Lord, give me what I deserve, it's hell. If I recognize that what I deserve is hell. I think a lot of believers don't recognize that. They think they deserve a lot from God and that's why their lives are terribly unhappy.

My life became supremely happy and has remained happy because one day in my life, many years after I was converted, God showed me clearly the depth of my sin in my heart and how I deserve hell. And anything better than hell was God's goodness.

After that, I never had a complaint. I mean, if God didn't heal me of some sickness, I had no complaint. If God didn't answer my prayer, that's fine. I don't deserve it. I deserve hell. I find so many believers who have a complaint against God.

Why didn't you answer this prayer? I prayed to you for so long and you haven't given me this. And I've done this for you and you haven't given me this or done that for me. See, it's like the story of the elder son in the story of the prodigal son.

The elder son says to the father, I have been so long with you and I've been so faithful and why haven't you killed a padded cow for me? Each of us need to ask ourselves whether we have anything of that spirit because what I see in that story is a story of two sons.

And in the beginning, the elder son is in the house and the younger son, the bad one, is outside the house. The end of the story, the younger son is inside the house and the elder son is outside the house.

The younger son was very bad. He wasted the father's everything. But his attitude was, I don't deserve anything. I've learned my lesson. If I get a corner in the servant's quarters in my father's house, that's enough for me.

Whereas the elder son, he felt, I'm not a servant here. I'm an important person. I'm the elder son. And my dear brothers and sisters, if you look into your heart, you will discover whether you feel God owes you something or God owes you nothing.

Except hell. And the day you discover that you deserve hell and nothing better than hell, you'll be a very useful member of this church. And you will really begin to grow spiritually. I'm telling you from my own experience.

Grace, Humility, and Freedom from Complaining

When we've given our life to Christ and we've understood so much truth and we're very zealous, we can suddenly begin to think that, oh, now God owes me something. I'll tell you this. He doesn't owe you a thing till the end of your life.

Everything is grace. Everything I receive from God is pure mercy. We can think that because now I know so much of the scriptures, I know people who go to churches and say, why don't they let me preach?

Brother, you deserve hell and you want to preach? Why don't you shut your mouth and go and say, Lord, I deserve hell. I don't deserve to open my mouth. You know, the spirit of complaining is because we really have a pretty high opinion about ourselves.

We think we deserve something. We are so smart. We are clever. We are capable. We are spiritual. And God is the enemy of such people. And that's the reason and the proof of it is, see, this is the proof, that God is not giving us grace.

You're defeated in your thought life. You're not getting grace to keep your mind pure. You're not getting grace to keep your mind free from complaining attitudes. These are all sin, you know that. And Bible says, if you're under grace, sin will never have power over you.

But sin does have power over you in those secret areas which nobody knows. And that is God trying to tell you, listen, my son, my daughter, I'm not able to give you grace. That's why you're defeated in your inner life, though you have a good testament before others.

And the reason you're defeated is because there's pride in you. Learn to humble yourself. There were two things that Jesus kept on trying to teach his disciples. One was humility and the other was faith.

You know, he always tried to emphasize, trust your father, trust your father. Don't keep worrying about how am I going to feed myself and how am I going to feed my family. You've got a father in heaven.

Trust him, trust him. And he used to rebuke his disciples for unbelief. Why are you so worried if there's a storm in the lake? Don't you have a father in heaven? And do you ever hear a rebuke like that from Jesus?

I've heard it many times. The Lord rebuking you, why can't you trust me here? I said, Lord, I'm ashamed. And as I've acknowledged that, I've come to have more faith for different situations. You know, if you acknowledge, Lord, there, I'm sorry, I really didn't trust you.

And the other thing was he was always emphasizing humility. He said, when they wanted to say, who's the greatest? This desire to be the greatest has been there in all Christians for 2000 years. We want to be prominent.

We want to be known. We want to be seen. We want to be recognized. And there are people who will be in a church as long as they are recognized. And if they are not recognized, then they get offended and go away.

What are these people? They are not disciples of Jesus. I think they are followers of the devil. It's the devil who always wants recognition. Jesus was always trying to disappear. He would do a miracle and then disappear.

He would heal somebody and say, don't tell anyone that I healed you. And when they wanted to make him a king, he just ran away. And he taught his disciples that. He said, you guys are always trying to find out who is the greatest.

You should not be like that. That's for the heathen. So, this discontent with our lot is something that we really have to eliminate from our lives. This desire for something more than God has decided to give us.

It's a very simple thing, you know, this attitude of comparing ourselves with others can lead to a lot of complaining. I remember a couple, a young couple once came to me in Bangalore, you know, complaining about something.

They were quite well off. I mean, they were not the richest people in town, but they were okay. And I said, before I answer you, I want you to, you know, about a kilometer from here, there's a slum. I want you to walk through that slum for half an hour and come back.

And then tell me what your complaints are. They thought that was a pretty strange type of advice for a serious problem they were having. But anyway, they did it. They walked through that slum and came back and saw me.

I said, do you have any complaints? He said, no, we are okay. I think God is good to us. So often, you know, the devil is always showing us somebody who has a little more than us, who is a little better than us and making us unhappy.

He will never show you or remind you of people who are much less than you or who are worse off than you or who have more problems than you because you may be happy and he doesn't want you to be happy.

It's such a simple thing. I mean, psychology will tell you that, leave alone God. Be content with what you have because the Lord has said, I will never leave you. It is only such people who can boldly say, the Lord is my helper.

I will not be afraid. I'll never be afraid. I'll never be anxious. The Lord is my helper. I've seen in the United States, Indians who go there, who are so desperate to get a visa, that they leave and tell lies.

It's almost like America is heaven. Or somehow if I can live here, even if it's telling lies and doing some wrong things, if I can be here, it's alright. And the surprising thing to me is they call themselves believers.

I say, how can it be? I remember when my boys were applying for a visa, I said, listen, if you tell one lie, one small lie in that application, you may get your visa, but you'll be out of the will of God for the rest of your life.

And I don't want that for any of my children. I want you to be in the will of God all your life because when you get into eternity, I want you to have lived your life on earth exactly in the center of God's will.

Not in some place where God never wanted you to go, but where you manipulated and managed to get into some place. I see you regret it. I mean, you may make a lot of money, but money is not everything.

You'll miss the will of God. You'll miss accomplishing what God has planned to do with your earthly life. I remember as a young Christian, I was so afraid that I would miss God's will. I said, Lord, I don't want to marry someone whom I feel like marrying if that's not your will.

I don't want to marry because of looks or language or intelligence or any such thing. Even a thing like that, I want to do your will. I don't want to be a single day of my life outside your will for me because I know that my whole life on earth is just a very brief, the Bible says, it's like a hand breadth, nine inches, that's all, compared to eternity.

And I know that I'm going to spend thousands and thousands and thousands of years in eternity looking back over the way I lived my short life on earth. And I don't want to have a regret about how I lived.

I don't know whether you all think of that. We all say we are eternal creatures and we're going to live eternity in heaven. But you know what you're going to think about in eternity in heaven? I believe you're all going to look back in eternity over the way we lived on this earth and what our goals and ambitions were.

And it won't matter one bit in eternity what type of house you lived in, what type of car you had, how much money you had in your bank account, what honor you got on the earth or what honor you got in the church or what you think was important you find in that day was totally unimportant.

And I want to encourage you to think of that. It will bring a lot of rest into your life, a lot of unrest in the lives of many believers. It's because they don't think of eternity. They're thinking of this life as if this life is everything.

And they get into so much unrest. It's so important. I believe that if you can be a brother or sister who's always living at rest, you'll be a tremendous blessing in your home and in the church. I have taught people in our local church, I say whenever your heart is in unrest about anything, you must keep your mouth shut.

It's very dangerous to open your mouth when your heart is at unrest, whether at home or in the church. If you open your mouth at home towards your children or towards your husband or wife, when there's some agitation in your heart, you're bound to sin.

Without a doubt you'll sin to a greater or lesser extent. But if you follow a simple rule, there's a little agitation in my heart right now and I will not speak. Even in a meeting, when you have meetings where everybody can share, if you're agitated in your heart about anything, it proves you're discontent with something.

Agitation means I'm discontent with something. Maybe you're discontent with God or you're discontent with the elders or you're discontent with somebody else in the church and that's bothering you or you're upset about what somebody else shared in the meeting and that disturbs you.

Maybe you falsely think that he was talking to you. He wasn't. And you get agitated and then you can bless the meeting by keeping your mouth shut. You know how much we can bless the meeting by keeping our mouth shut?

We can disrupt the whole spirit of a meeting by being agitated and that can happen to anybody. It may not be because of sin. It may be because of circumstances. I'll tell you myself, I've been sometimes, not so much now, but in the earlier days when I didn't know how to come to this life of rest, I would come sometimes to a Wednesday meeting, you know, the whole day, maybe something went wrong and I'm disturbed or I come to the church service and somebody who was supposed to do something to make the place ready for the meeting didn't do it.

Or didn't do it in time and the meeting got delayed and it can disturb me. You know, people are very particular about punctuality and all. It can disturb me. I used to get disturbed if people came late for a meeting.

It really disturbed me for many years. I said, Lord, we start our meeting at 9 .30. Why isn't everybody here? And the Lord said to me, these people were not in the military for 11 years like you. That's why they haven't understood the importance of punctuality.

So, you learned it. Just be merciful to them. I said, okay. And the other thing the Lord said to me was, remember, you're a servant. And if you're a servant in a palace and the king says, breakfast must be at 8 o 'clock.

Okay. You're a servant, you make breakfast ready at 8 o 'clock and the king strolls in at 8 .45. You don't say, hey, why are you late? You can't say that. The king can walk in at 10 o 'clock if he likes.

And so, the Lord said, these people in your church have not yet become servants. They're all kings and queens. Let them walk in whenever they like, but you're a servant. And maybe in a few years, some of these kings and queens will become servants and then they'll come on time.

So, be at rest on that. I came to rest. It was wonderful. I remember once in a Wednesday meeting, I was, you know, I knew I had to speak, but we always have a time of prayer of 10 -15 minutes before we, before I speak.

But I was, I don't know, don't even remember what it was. There was something disturbing my spirit while I was kneeling there in prayer. I said, Lord, I can't speak. I will not speak till my heart is at rest.

So, the prayer meeting went on for 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, and people were wondering why this great burden of prayer today. It wasn't any burden of prayer. I was just trying to come to rest.

And finally, when I came to rest in my spirit, I said, OK, I'm in. Then I caught up and I could speak. But I made it a rule in my life. I will never open my mouth at home when my spirit is agitated. I will cause confusion.

I will never open my mouth in the church when my spirit is agitated. Maybe I'm not supposed to say a word. Maybe I'll keep quiet and come back next Sunday and share something. But it is so important. In the Old Testament, the Sabbath was such an important day for Israel.

The Lord said, if you don't keep the Sabbath, I'll cut you off from my people. And it was, God taught them such strictness that a man went out just to pick up sticks on the Sabbath day. And Moses said, what shall I do with this man?

And the Lord said, kill him. Kill him because he went out and picked up sticks on the Sabbath day? Why was the Lord doing that? To teach them something very, very important. And the spiritual meaning of that Sabbath, the Bible says in Colossians 2, that the Sabbath was only a shadow of what is fulfilled in Christ.

Entering the Rest of God

What is that very important thing which the Lord was trying to teach his disciples? You must come to a life of rest. In Hebrews in chapter 4, you know, we have spoken much about the land of Canaan as a land of victory, where the giants are killed and how Joshua and Caleb were the only ones who had faith to go into that land of victory.

But do you know that that land of victory in Hebrews chapter 3 and chapter 4 is also called a land of rest? Victory is equal to rest. See, who provoked him? Hebrews 3 .16, when they heard, Not all those who came out of Egypt.

And with whom was he angry for 40 years? Those whose bodies fell in the wilderness. And listen to this verse 18. To whom did God swear that they will not enter Canaan? What is Canaan called here? He is rest.

The life of victory is called a life of rest. I learnt something from that. I say, Lord, I know I have victory. When my conscience is at perfect rest, convicting me of nothing. If there is some disturbance in my conscience about something, even if I convince myself, No, no, no.

I am not wrong. I am not wrong. I am right. He was wrong. He was wrong. My conscience says, just shut up. You are wrong. Listen to that. You can convince other people with an argument. He is wrong and she is wrong.

But your conscience tells you. That's the first thing. And the other is, if I am agitated in my mind about anything, anything, If I am anxious about anything, it's like a troubled sea. I do not have victory.

No matter how much I say, I don't watch pornography, I don't tell lies. Brother, that unrest in your mind proves that some area you still don't have victory. The land of victory is called the land of rest.

He did not enter into his rest. And then it says, chapter 4, verse 1, let us fear, lest we are given a promise of entering into his rest. And you don't enter into it. It says, you must fear, lest you don't enter into this life of rest.

And he says in verse 9, 4, 9, there is a Sabbath rest for the people of God. There is a lot of similarity between rest and contentment. You know, David says, I want to be like a weaned child in the Psalms.

It's not always crying out, I want some milk, I want some milk, I want some milk. It's at rest. And they couldn't experience it in the Old Testament. If the giants are still ruling, there is no rest in the land.

They are fighting. When the giants are killed, there is rest. So, the Sabbath rest, which is so important, is also linked to the land of Canaan. In Hebrews 3 and 4. And you know how important it was for the children of Israel to occupy Canaan.

How important it was for the children of Israel to keep the Sabbath rest. All these things have an implication for us. In the Ten Commandments, I don't know whether you know, I think if you heard me, you know it, that nobody could keep the Tenth Commandment.

The Tenth Commandment and Coveting

Nobody. Let me read them to you. Exodus 20. All the nine commandments, a lot of people can keep. Even today, unconverted Hindus keep a lot of, or Muslims and others can keep many of these commandments.

You know, I'm the Lord your God, you'll have no other gods but me. Don't make any idols. There are many non-Christians who don't have idols. And don't take the Lord's name in vain. Verse 7, Exodus 27.

Number 4, keep the Sabbath day holy. Rest one day out of seven. Honor your father and mother, verse 12. Number 6, you shall not murder. Number 7, verse 14, you shall not commit adultery. Number 8, verse 15, you shall not steal.

Number 9, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. It's not you shall not tell lies. That was too high a standard because God knew that most people tell lies. But in a court, don't bear false witness against neighbor.

That's the commandment. There was no commandment saying you shall not tell lies. Nobody could have kept it. But the 10th one is the one which is really difficult to keep. You shall not desire. See, 9 commandments are external.

The 10th commandment was about the inside of the cuff. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. In other words, it's what I said earlier about you're not content with your house. You want what your neighbor has.

You can see something with your neighbor and say, I want that. Always this desire and the devil feeds that discontent. Or it could be your neighbor's wife. You wish that your wife was as pretty as her or that your wife could cook like her.

Imagine, all types of things. I say that is just a minor form of adultery to compare your wife's cooking with some other woman. Or anything. Discontent is such a very subtle thing. You compare your wife with your neighbor's wife or in those days they had servants or your business with your neighbor's business.

Discontent, the devil just tries to make you discontent. Satan himself was discontent with his position. He was the most beautiful of God's creation. He was the highest position, the most intelligent and he was still not content.

That reminds me of so many believers who have so much in life but they're still not content. It's amazing. I mean, one would think they're beggars on the streets. They're not. They have so much but they're still not content.

They want something more, something more, something more. Unhappy. We must not be discontent with anything. We committed to the Lord's hand and if you don't have children, for example, you say, well, that's fine, Lord.

I'm not going to be in unrest over it. You know my need and I want to have but if you don't give me, that's fine. A lot of people are discontent about something God has not given them. They look at somebody else and say, I wish I had what they had.

But what about if God says, no, you're not supposed to have that. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife or servant or anything that belongs to your neighbor. I know believers who say, boy, I wish I had children like that, those children.

It's a form of discontent with your own. And the devil feeds on that. Even in the Garden of Eden you can say that what the devil tempted Eve with was covetousness. Let's say you eat and there were 10 ,000 trees and God says, you can eat from any of those 10 ,000 trees except this one.

It's like a huge circle containing 10 ,000 trees and only one tree outside. One would think that's very easy to avoid that one tree because you've got 10 ,000 here. I mean, if God had said there's only one tree inside the circle and 10 ,000 outside, you must only be happy with this one tree.

That may have been a little more difficult. But Eden was full of 10 ,000 trees. The Lord said, you can have all of it. Just leave that one out. And the devil says, you should get that one. I know you've got 10 ,000, but you need more than that.

You see, it's discontent. I want what God has not given me. That's what brought sin into the human race. And if you don't eliminate that completely from your life, I want to tell you, you'll never enter into a life of rest or a life of victory.

Comparing Ourselves With Others

A lot of discontent comes because we compare ourselves with others. It says in 2nd Corinthians 10, 2nd Corinthians chapter 10, it says, those who, verse 12, last part, those who, let me paraphrase it, those who measure themselves with each other and compare themselves with others are spiritual idiots.

You want to be a spiritual idiot? You only got to do one thing. Compare yourself with other believers. Compare yourself with other people and be a little discontent. You don't have what they have. See, I wish I had that.

If God has allowed your circumstances to be different, he can make you a wonderful blessing in the body of Christ with your difficult circumstances. Sometimes we think it's those who have very easy circumstances who are the most blessed.

It's not true. I've seen people come to Bangalore to CFC, children of very rich parents, who come there with everything that their parents, fathers can give them and they never develop to become spiritual people.

And I've seen other people come to CFC who have very little, who come from poverty and struggle and who mature so much. It's not because of poverty or riches, it's because of contentment. A lot of those rich young people, they are never content, they always want something more, they always want something more.

And they disobey the 10th commandment which says you shall not desire what somebody else has, meaning you must be content with what you have. It's not just as even the great apostle Paul, you know, Paul says in Philippians 3 verse 6, according to the righteousness which is in the law, Philippians 3 verse 6, the last part, according to the righteousness which is in the law, I was blameless.

And you would think that he says I'm keeping all the 10 commandments. And you say, Paul, you mean you managed to keep the 10th commandment? And he'd say, no, what I meant is I kept 9 commandments. That's what I mean by that verse.

Because in Romans 7, he says, in verse 7, Romans 7 verse 7, he says, What shall we say then? Is the law sin? May it never be. And listen to what he says, I would not have known covetousness unless the 10th commandment had said, you shall not covet.

And the margin says, you shall not lust. Lust is a form of covetousness. Lust means strong desire. There's nothing wrong in having a strong desire. For example, you have a strong desire for food, perfectly legitimate.

But if you steal to get food, then you're allowing that strong desire to lead you to sin. You may have a strong desire sometimes to sleep because you're so tired. That's fine. But you shouldn't be sleeping when you're working.

You have a strong desire for sex. It's perfectly normal. But if you try to fulfill it in some illegal, wrong way, then it is a sin. But those desires themselves are OK. So, when you have a strong desire and the Lord says, but don't desire what you don't have, to covet what somebody else has, which you don't have, to admire what belongs to somebody else, and not what God has been pleased to give you.

It's a very dangerous thing. We must learn to be content. And Paul admits that. He says, when I heard that tenth commandment, you shall not desire what you don't have. Look at his honesty. This is fantastic honesty.

Verse 8, sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me every type of lust. And you say, Paul, did you have all these lusts in your mind? He says, yes. What type of lust? You name it.

Every type of lust I had. And I just could not overcome. So, when he says in Philippians 3, 6, I was blameless according to the law. Everybody in Israel knew, nobody can keep the tenth commandment. You can only keep nine.

And the law, if you violated the law, you were punished. But how could you ever find out if somebody was violating the tenth commandment? There was no punishment for the tenth commandment. Did you know that?

There was punishment for the other commandments. If you worshipped idols, you would be punished. If you murdered, you would be punished. If you bore false witness, you would be punished. If you committed adultery, you would be punished.