Sermon: The Prudence of Contentment

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02:23

Praise God So good to be with you church, I'm very joyful To be here today to be able to deliver to you

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God's Word. I could not help but Transgress the thresholds of the sanctuary before I was reprimanded about preaching for an hour and a half or longer so I just calmly replied by Telling the reprimanders that you must have me confused with another teacher that graces this pulpit

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We're going to be in Proverbs chapter 14 Our readings will be from verse 30 and then in chapter 15

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Verse 16 These are the words of the living and true god a tranquil heart

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Gives life to the flesh But envy makes the bones rot in chapter 15 verse 16

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Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble with it

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Thus far as the reading of God's Word Please join me in prayer Lord God Open my lips

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And my mouth will declare your praise And now may the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing

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And acceptable in your sight Oh lord our rock And our redeemer

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And it's in the name of our savior our lord And our great treasure jesus we pray

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Amen Last week

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We heard a tremendous message About what God has to say in regards to the prophet of hard work the cultivation of holy ambition

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And the duty to pursue excellence To take risks for the kingdom to do new things

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To do old things that we haven't yet acted upon And this week i'm going to attempt to thread the needle here

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By holding together the bible's condemnation of idleness And its elevation of godly toil for profit with the call for christian contentment

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Because I think it might be sometimes difficult to Reconcile these two concepts.

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Are you telling me that I should work? Hard and run hard for god's kingdom and have godly ambition or that I should just be satisfied

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With what I have and satisfied in god That question often arises and I think

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I would just say I would no more reconcile those two things than I would try to reconcile good and close friends

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There is a balance to strike no doubt in Running hard after the glory of god in the service of his kingdom and all the various Avenues of life and all these various spheres that god has given us to chase

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And being wholly satisfied at the very same time with the provision that he has given us regardless Of the circumstances in which we find ourselves

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So in that I pray That the lord would make us a people that have a godly zeal tempered

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By a heart that is submitted to however The lord has chosen to dispose of our lives

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When we speak of wisdom We need to remember something in particular with this sermon series and that is

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God is all wise. Amen Amen He disposes of his creatures

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In whatever manner pleases him the most and leads to the maximization of his own glory

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He made you He made all of this And he knows why he made you and what you're for and what i'm for better than we do

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And therefore he knows the best way to conform you and I to his heavenly blueprint

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Do you believe that Sitting here today church. Do you believe that? That god has every right to dispose of you in a manner in which he sees fit according to his good pleasure

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I think the more that we understand this and come to praise this reality the happier in god we will be

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And the great thing about that is as a result the more useful we will be to his kingdom

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Because to be richly and ultimately Satisfied in god as to have god be more glorified in us his creatures

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Which increases our delight and pleasure that he is pleased with us. And so there's this beautiful relationship there

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But to do this properly We're going to turn our attention to the subjects of envy and covetousness

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That god's wisdom warns us about And then what the antidote for that is in the scriptures this joy

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This calling that we have of christian contentment what it means to be

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Satisfied in god to have god be our all in all so that we can say together with the apostle paul

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I can do all things through christ who gives me strength i've discovered the secret to facing

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Little and to facing plenty i'm good either way because Anything that the world chooses to take from me.

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I still have christ And anything that the world chooses to give to me or anything that is strained from my father's merciful hand

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I should say to give to me as a blessing I have christ

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And he is my all in all he is not only my lord He is not only my savior, but he is the greatest treasure that I possess

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He is that which is most valuable and precious to me So let's take a look at our text here today in chapter 14 verse 30

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In verse 30 here We read a tranquil heart You might say a peaceful heart, but this isn't the most accurate way to render this word

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It is a healthy heart a Life giving heart what we come to call in our english language sound right?

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We speak in the reformed world often of Sound doctrine. This is health giving.

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This is life giving a sound heart a health giving heart Gives life to the flesh

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But envy in contrast makes the bones rot

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Isn't that fascinating? I know we've talked about this before in previous messages, but how the bible and god puts the finger not only on the physical aspect of our lives or the immaterial aspect of our lives, but about the relationship between the two our

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Emotional state our emotional capacity Is connected to our physical well -being?

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This fascinating insight from god's word we know this intimately in our lives right when our

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State is emotionally distraught or conversely When it is joyful that has a direct impact

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Or indirect impact upon our very bodily health our countenance

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That's why we read in the book of proverbs also that laughter is a very good medicine joy right a

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Pleasant and happy feeling gives health to our bodies. Well, our text says today A tranquil heart a life -giving heart gives life to the flesh but envy

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Makes the bones rot The bible teaches us about the emotion of envy

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It is not an emotion that is inherently sinful Either good or bad.

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It depends upon its contextual usage this envy this strong desire

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Is the most powerful emotion of all in fact It can be used in a positive sense to denote zeal passion

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And it can be used in the negative sense as well As a strong desire for that which does not belong to you

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Proverbs makes a stunning statement elsewhere about the power of envy in proverbs chapter 27 verse 4

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This is what it says Wrath is cruel Anger is overwhelming

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But who can stand before and the word there? Jealousy Is also translated as envy

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So this word envy is also translated as Jealousy and what that text is saying and you've probably experienced this before You have probably been the object of someone's wrath at one time or another in your life

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Maybe that experience stands out to you right now. It's Still in your memory you still bear the scars from that encounter when someone just gave full vent to their wrath upon you

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They chewed you out. They tore you down. You couldn't even get a word in They were just going in on you

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Tearing you down with their words. You were the object of their wrath and you still carry those scars around today

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We know what that's like to be the object of someone's unbridled anger.

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They are unleashing upon you But the text says although Wrath is cruel and anger is overwhelming

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Who can stand before jealousy? Who can endure?

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Envy It's a powerful statement Envy is listed in Galatians 5 as one of the works of the flesh

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Right next to division discord rivalries and strife

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It appears in romans chapter 1 as a sign that people are being judged for their rejection of god

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And it is sandwiched between the vices of malice and murder If you look at romans chapter 1 there and you see malice and murder what is right in the middle envy

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What is envy though exactly? I think the most succinct definition that I found comes from herbert schlossberg

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Sinful envy is the ardent desire to have the possessions of others

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Of course, it's also translated as strong concern such as the jealousy, for example that a husband has for his bride right when the

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Sanctity of that relationship is threatened that strong reaction that comes on the part of a husband to maintain the exclusivity of that relationship

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Cannot be withstood Cannot stand against Such emotion such strong passion

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To uphold the sanctity of that relationship, for example the psalms speak of not envying the wicked psalm 37 and psalm 73 because Of course the wicked and all that they seek to accumulate to themselves by lawless

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Deeds and by lawless actions and plans will ultimately pass away and give way for the righteous to inherit the earth

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But it can be summarized as this very very briefly. It's wanting the good things

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That happen to your neighbor to happen to you Instead of them it is a grieving at their success

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It is a grumbling and a murmuring when things go well for them covetousness which is closely related to this

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Appears in god's law as the tenth commandment covetousness says

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I see what you have And I want that too So what's the difference here between covetousness and envy?

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How do we draw the distinction because they seem awfully similar and a ton of overlap here well envy

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Says not only do I want that but I deserve that not you

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That's the difference And if I can't have that No one can So envy has this vicious and malicious bite to it

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That's the distinction I think it was doug wilson that described the difference between those two terms in that way it is

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A rancorous meeting of covetousness and enmity That's envy right malice

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Viciousness in your heart towards a brother or sister towards a family member towards your neighbor over what they have

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You're angry that god has chosen to give them that thing and not you

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That's envy And it operates on the basis of I deserve that Not them

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I deserve That house That they got

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I deserve that position That they were awarded. I deserve that accomplishment

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I deserve that praise and that recognition that they received I deserve those obedient children

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I deserve those children I deserve those clothes

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I deserve the vindication that they received I was the one that had the right to take that trip.

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Not them Why do they get to do that? And not me I deserve to be invited to the church christmas party.

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Not them I deserve their financial means

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Must be nice To not have to worry about how you're going to afford every week must be nice To not have to worry about how you're going to pay for your medical debt must be nice You hear it.

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You're the viciousness the bite I deserve his skinny wife

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I deserve her godly husband Who is intellectual and can teach the bible? I Deserve her healthy body that isn't riddled with sickness

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I deserve those reliable friends. Why don't I have friends like that? You get the picture

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It operates on the basis of our inflated self -worth Here is what

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I am owed This is what I deserve And it operates of course quietly at first but unchecked

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It leads to all manner of sin Of course That's why it's listed among certain sins like slander gossip and all those things because it involves

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If that person has what you want and you can't get it The closest you can get is actually tearing them down in the process to belittle them with your words

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Right painting them in a very bad light and then Of course, there's actually physically acting upon it

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And trying to harm that person trying to take their life up to that point even covetousness now

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You might hear that the 10th commandment you shall not covet And it might strike us as something that stands out in the second table of the law because it concerns an

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Attitude and not merely a behavior Right, you shall not steal.

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You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor You shall not covet

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Notice that in exodus 20 The specific possessions are listed there. Why didn't god just say you shall not covet?

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It actually says don't covet your neighbor's wife, right? Don't covet their servants Don't cover his property his possessions right very specific

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His ox his donkey now does this mean

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That Desiring the good things that god has given is automatically a sign that you have a covetous heart a jealous heart an envious heart

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No It is not sinful To want wealth and be prosperous.

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That's what last week's message was about ambition Covetousness is not ambition.

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It's not seeing what your neighbor has and saying My brother did well

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I would really like that too And I think that there is a path to work hard so that I can be prosperous as well

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And maybe I can have that one day There's nothing wrong with that. That's godly ambition

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And it ought to egg us on it ought to drive us To succeed it ought to drive us to be excellent and to pursue excellence and what we do and what god has called us to It's not sinful

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But it is sinful to want to attach to yourself something that properly

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And lawfully belongs to someone else That's the key

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In the new testament the apostle paul goes so far as to call it idolatry

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You remember that passage in colossians chapter 3 When he's telling the church put to death what is earthly within you

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And then he starts listing things and then he gets to covetousness and he says it's idolatry it's the worship of a false god

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It's that serious How is it idolatry?

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Well, I think that John piper provides a very good definition of covetousness when he says

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Covetousness is desiring something so much That you lose your contentment in god and start to seek it elsewhere

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Covetousness is desiring something so much That you lose your contentment your satisfaction in god and you start to seek it elsewhere

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I think this is a wonderful description Because it brings us to what should always be our focus and that's obedience to god's law if our hearts are marked by envy

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And covetousness We will violate god's law

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In all manner of expression But up to and including the very first commandment, which is what?

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Anyone know the first commandment You shall have no other gods before me why are the 10 commandments bookended with number 10 being you shall not covet

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Because you shall have no other gods before me God is the only true god and paul says when you are guilty of covetousness in your heart

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You become an idolater because you are taking something in creation And you are loving it so much that it begins to displace

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The ultimate place of god himself on the throne of your heart That's how it's covetousness, that's how it is idolatry

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Anything When you start to seek it elsewhere That satisfaction

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So it's not only a second table violation that leads to things like murder theft

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Lying about your neighbor adultery It not only leads to all of those actions and behaviors

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But it also leads you to be an idolater to violate the first table of the law as well remember what

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James tells us in james chapter 4 verse 2 you desire and do not have so you murder you covet

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And cannot obtain so you fight And quarrel, right?

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It's the source not only of the end action of taking the life of your neighbor, right?

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Actually removing their existence But the source of our our strife and our conflicts with one another our arguments with each other right seeking to Accumulate to ourselves things that we want to the point that that desire

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Even destroys our relationship and as proverbs tells us It will not only destroy

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Your emotions it will not only eat you up inside to the point that you lose sleep

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To the point that you don't eat but those things will also affect your physical health

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It is poison to your body. It is cancer to your bones. It will rot you from the inside out

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It will destroy you if you indulge it That's how dangerous it is

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Envy has an ethic the ethic of envy is about taking and grasping

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For what god has said does not lawfully belong to you Now we see this of course in our own community

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But we also see it in the world and in society at large today Right many in our land in our nation worship the god of wealth and material possessions

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We covet what we see It's in our sight.

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We see it. We don't have it. We want it And we want it badly.

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We want it desperately And so we have envy in our hearts

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Just as our first parents did in the garden It's what the serpent prayed on in his temptation in genesis chapter

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Three the serpent came to eve And he convinced her That god had been holding out

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That this Knowledge of good and evil that god alone had the right to dispense with as he saw fit

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Was used as a source of consternation for humanity

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There was this doubt that was sown in the minds of our first parents that god

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Is somehow unjust in his provision what he has given us is not what we would have given to ourselves

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If we were in charge And that was the temptation you decide

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You want the power to determine to define for yourself? What is right? What is wrong?

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What is good? What is evil? What is true? Right what our state has sought to now enshrine into our very own state constitution

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It's called autonomy that self -definition eve our first parents envied that Satan wanted our first parents to be dissatisfied with the provision of their creator

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And his right to withhold certain things According to his good pleasure and give them in his timing and in his way

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That's god's prerogative to do that And there is no injustice on his part.

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He owns all things. Amen. Is he not the creator of all things? Is he not the ultimate disposer of all things?

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Does he not get to do what he wants with his creation? That is the point here.

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And this is the closest distance that we can draw between covetousness and contentment

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Are you ready? God knows best He is all lies

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He doesn't need our counsel about how best to dispense with His good things that he has created the parable of the

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Vineyard workers reminds us of that. Remember the workers that jesus

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Is saying are called into the kingdom of god to labor And then there are those who come later after the fact and it's closer to the end of the day

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But they're still getting paid the same amount of money And they're like wait, wait a second

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Wait a second. I've been here the whole day and he got paid the same thing

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And what's the response of jesus in matthew chapter 20? Uh, i've done, you know injustice friend

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Am I not allowed to do what I choose? with what belongs to me

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Or do you here it is begrudge my generosity Do you begrudge my generosity and that word there

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Is envy That's what it means it is an idiom for the evil

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Eye of resentment I begrudge your generosity

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I don't like that. You gave them this They don't deserve that How often have we considered?

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How god has blessed our neighbor With the evil eye of resentment towards his generosity

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Now you see How god has blessed a brother or sister Right there.

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They're able to to afford A new home and so they're they're joyful about it. They're celebrating about it and then here comes the post in the church facebook group

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Where they say actually all these plans fell through and and we're no longer able to to acquire that anymore.

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We're devastated by this And secretly inwardly You're just a little bit happy about that.

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You're just a little bit Happy that they didn't get that because you wanted it you're actually aggrieved

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When things go well for them Because of maybe some past experience with them that you're not on the best

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Terms as far as your relationship goes with them. And so you look at that and you say something like ah

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Finally got what was coming to you Do you understand the bite of this how poisonous it is?

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How malicious how vicious? It will lead you straight down the path of hell saints

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It will not only affect Your emotional well -being your happiness your satisfaction in god.

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It will affect your physical well -being And if you leave it unchecked it will lead you to hell

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How often have we considered that god has blessed our neighbor and we look at that with the evil eye of resentment?

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I'm resentful towards you for having that How often has this led to such unnecessary anxiety?

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and worry in our lives Turn with me to matthew chapter 6

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I trust you know it. Well Consider it in this context

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Matthew chapter 6 and verse 19 Do not lay up for yourself treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal

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But lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal

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For where your treasure is There your heart will be also

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Verse 22 the eye is the lamp of the body

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So if your eye is healthy It's whole it's life -giving

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Your whole body will be full of light But if your eye is bad your whole body will be full of darkness if then the light in you is darkness

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How great is the darkness and here's this famous section that we're all familiar with No one can serve two masters for either

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He will hate the one and love the other or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other

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You cannot serve god and and the word there is mammon Love of wealth and material possessions

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And what is the section of scripture that comes right after this? Do not be anxious for anything jesus warns

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There's this extended section on the value of storing up treasure in heaven rather than on earth

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Right. Don't allow your heart to be covetous Make sure that your treasure is in heaven where the things of this earth cannot choke it out

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Because life does not consist in the abundance of possessions. Jesus says elsewhere But make sure that your treasure is with god your ultimate happiness your ultimate satisfaction

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Your ultimate joy and not in things on earth that can be taken away at any moment that can be stripped away

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And then there's this section in verse 22 talking about your eye What you see is what you want

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But if your eye is healthy if you have trained your eye to be satisfied with treasures in heaven

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Then your whole body will be filled with light. It'll be healthy because you cannot

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Worship at the altar of mammon and have jesus be your lord. You can't do it

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There's no neutrality. We say that all the time, right? You cannot serve both god and the love of material possessions and wealth

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Therefore I tell you jesus says verse 25 Don't be anxious When do we get anxious in our lives?

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I would submit to you that it is when we move away from finding satisfaction in god alone

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And we move towards having unhealthy eyes for the possessions of our neighbors

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What god has chosen to give them and not us? Little do we know

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We are inching toward a different lord and a different master every time that we do that And we live in the midst of a society that loves

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Wealth and material possessions We don't even have to go into the materialism that is rampant in our culture, of course but this desire for the possessions of others is a spiritual ailment that Drives people to commit all manner of crimes that we see on the news all the time to burglarize to extort

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To bribe it's what drives evil marxist policies Economically speaking like runaway inflation

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Or as I like to call it quiet taxation That robs people of their property in the name of compassion right these things are

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Evil and we should hate them Because something like inflation or this hidden taxation defrauds our neighbors

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It robs our neighbors of their property by taking the purchasing power of their money and giving it to someone else

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Unjustly stealing that and we should be zealous We should be envious of the glory of god enough to say that's unjust

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I am zealous for my own property. I'm zealous for the property of my neighbor. No one gets to take it

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From them and give it to someone else. No one gets to steal that Because you are greedy and you are covetous

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Now can we denounce that kind of injustice? And at the same time say

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Hey, I got jesus. It doesn't matter what they take Yes But we can prophetically denounce it when we see it and we can work to call our magistrates

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To not be greedy but to be righteous every time the government prints fake money

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Stealing wealth from one party to redistribute it to others in the form of a quiet tax. They are playing god

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That's what covetousness will do to you That's what counterfeiting money is it's

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The stones to bread philosophy you remember when

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The devil came to jesus and the first temptation What did he tempt jesus to do if you're the son of god

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What take these stones? And turn them into bread Yes, right because satan knows the word of god very very well.

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Yes, I know That your father in heaven can furnish a table in the wilderness

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I know that But don't be dependent upon his provision Save yourself jesus circumvent this entire process

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And save yourself by your own self -sufficiency And rob the father of his glory in the process

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Come on, aren't you hungry? I mean 40 days.

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I would have died I wouldn't be here Right. I struggle with the spiritual discipline of fasting whenever I do it it is

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Wearisome and taskful to me To go without food as i'm sure it is for some of you as well

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But think about this right christ going without food He is hungry if anyone had a had the ability and the right

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To turn those stones into bread. It was god incarnate And yet jesus in the midst of all of this

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In the midst of this Enticement to do exactly what he was capable of which is create ex nihilo

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Right, ironically, that's the temptation of satan take these stones and make bread out of them unbelievable

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He's talking to god in the flesh who spoke the universe into existence and tempting him to do this amazing

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Right, but the point is don't rely on the provision of your father Don't rely on the god who can do extraordinary things when the normal means of provision are cut off Trust in yourself

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Save yourself Right, you remember when jesus was on the cross and they were saying that save yourself

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But he didn't Jesus consigned himself to rely upon the superior provision of his father and if we are to overcome things like envy

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And covetousness We must learn from our master and do the same So what is the answer for this?

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Runaway train this ferocity of envy and these illicit desires the gospel in a phrase

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But the gospel is what trains our hearts to be content because like I said envy

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Is based on a mindset of earning I deserve this you remember that? How does that philosophy match up against the concept of grace?

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Is it not antithetical to grace Grace Grace is precisely what we do not deserve and envy operates on the basis of here's what i'm owed

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Here's what I deserve Here's Myself enlarged right my own self -worth is here.

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I am exalted Everything else here exists for my benefit to serve me. Oh, there's there's that thought of covetousness again, which is idolatry again

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Everything exists to serve me i'm the center of this When the gospel comes in it taps us on the shoulder if we're preaching it rightly and it starts this way

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You should be crushed by a mountain of condemnation Because you violated god's law, right?

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your works What you are owed by god is hell

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Is eternal damnation? For your sins against god for my sins against god

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But we have this mindset of what we're owed and it sets us at odds with the very concept of grace

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Right, you see it in advertising all the time You deserve a golf club like this

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You deserve this Skin care product because you deserve to have beautiful glowing white skin or something something like that Just think fill in the blank right you deserve this

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All on the basis of what we're owed not only physically, but spiritually our zeal for god

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Is small that's our problem. So our zeal for ourselves increases and along with it our desires

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For what others have that we don't Right, we become like little gods

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That crave more because it will satisfy me And that's the lie is that these desires

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Will bring you satisfaction They will bring you the happiness that you are seeking but god is adamant that they will not

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Envy will destroy us but On the other hand

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Contentment is the antidote if you turn with me to first timothy chapter six verse three verse three

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If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our lord Jesus christ and the teaching that accords with godliness.

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He is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and quarrels about words

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Which produce what's the word church Envy Dissension slander.

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I love this evil suspicions evil suspicions

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I know what's really going on with her I know what his ulterior motivation is for why he's doing this.

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I know It's to get some kind of profit or some type of gain at the expense of others.

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I know why this is happening. I know him I know her right evil suspicions and constant friction

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Among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth imagining that godliness is a means of gain

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Okay, so like the pharisees In the passage that we're reading with jesus condemning the worship of mammon right before that.

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What were they doing? They were praying to be seen by everybody They were fasting and making sure that people knew that they were fasting

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They were performing their acts of righteousness To be seen another way. We might say that is they were imagining that godliness was a means of gain

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Verse six but godliness with contentment is great gain For we brought nothing into the world and we cannot take anything out of the world

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But if we have food and clothing with those we will be content But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation

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Into a snare into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction

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See don't take it from me. There's the destructiveness right there in the text For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil

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It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs But as for you, oh man of god flee those things pursue by the way, it's fleeing the pursuit

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Of using godliness as a means of gain and the love of stuff

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Pursue righteousness godliness faith love steadfastness gentleness and here's the verse fight the good fight of faith

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You want to know what it means to fight against covetousness and envy in our hearts in our churches in the world?

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Fight the good fight of faith If we don't believe that god loves us

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And that he will meet every need that we have and satisfy every longing of our hearts

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We will not have contentment. So what is this covetousness?

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If the antidote to it is fight the good fight of faith Then what ails us is in this covetousness?

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Unbelief we just don't believe that god knows how to take care of us Just admit it

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You think that you could govern your life better than him? By what circumstance he has caused you to walk through at this moment?

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I think I could do better god That's unbelief But paul calls us here to fight the good fight of faith

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To trust that god knows better to trust that he's wise wiser than us To trust that his ways are higher than our ways and his thoughts higher than our thoughts

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There's a great definition of christian contentment has anyone read the book by jeremiah burroughs of puritan

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On christian contentment, I would recommend it to you, but here's his definition here

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Christian contentment is that sweet inward quiet gracious frame of spirit which freely submits to And delights in god's wise and fatherly disposal in every condition

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Not only am I submitted to it Not only am I not murmuring and complaining underneath it.

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I'm actually praising god for it No matter what it is That's the challenge.

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I'm actually giving thanks in the middle of it. Thank you god for causing me to walk through this

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Thank you It hurts, but thank you

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Because I know That you know what I need better than I do And guess what?

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I know that you love me more than I love myself, and that's good news Isn't it good news to know that that god loves you more than you love yourself god loves me

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More than I love myself There was a night in recent memory I was having dinner with a friend

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And we were talking about The high nature of reformed theology and on and on But we were laughing about the fact that sometimes the best theology is the most simple

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Right, you might be able to recite catechisms you might be able to Parse greek, but do you know and have you experienced the reality that god loves you?

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God loves you now that has been taken And perverted and twisted by those who are trying to use godliness

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As a means of gain god just loves you so much. He's crazy about you. He's heartbroken that you're not coming to him and It's been used in that way, all right god is crazy about you he's in love with you

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But it's true that god loves his people that he loves us

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And this is not A half -hearted love friends. I want to describe that to you here as we continue to work through this and we're

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Coming to the close Contentment is the cause of our love

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Philippians chapter 4 turn there with me philippians chapter 4 philippians chapter 4 here the

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Apostle is rejoicing with the church as they have

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Financially partnered with him in ministry for the gospel, but that's not the reason why he is rejoicing here

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Verse 11 not that I am speaking of being in need for I have learned in whatever situation

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I am to be content I know how to be brought low and I know how to abound in any and every circumstance

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I have learned the secret of facing plenty And hunger abundance and need

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I can do all things through him who strengthens me so paul is

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Deflecting what may have been an objection in this letter about him just being happy to have this financial support right now

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And he says no, no, no, you you misunderstand here. I'm joyful actually because you're benefiting

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He goes on to say that in verse 17, not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit

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I Can tell that you're satisfied in God right now that you are delighted in your redeemer because of the way

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That you are so eager to lay up treasure for yourself in heaven that you have supported me

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You are obviously satisfied in God. So I seek the fruit That increases to your credit

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I'm not looking out for myself and trying to use this as a means of gain I already know how to be brought low

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I already know how to abound I can do all things through him who gives me strength.

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I have learned the secret I know the secret of being fine.

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Here it is God is my all in all whether plenty or scarcity

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Whether famine or feast How do we escape?

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the bone -rotting trap of envy contentment Satisfaction in God delight in God where does contentment come from How do we understand it and elucidate it better?

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So that we lay hold of it I love this Remember we looked at the word envy and its various usages you recall envy zeal

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Jealousy I would submit to you that the only way to overcome covetousness and envy

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Is by resting secure in the provision of our jealous God in exodus chapter 20 verse 5 exodus chapter 20 verse 5 we are told

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You shall not bow down to them or serve them for I the Lord your God am a jealous

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God And then again in exodus Chapter 34 verse 14

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Listen to this church For you shall worship. No other

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God for the Lord whose name is jealous Is a jealous

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God He's not only jealous. His name is jealous The Lord reveals himself to his covenant people as jealous and it's not a sinful jealousy like ours so often is

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Our jealousy often leads us to self -exaltation But praise be to God that his jealousy

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Is what packer calls? The virtue of a committed lover who wants the total loyalty of the one he has bound himself to honor and serve

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I love that God's jealousy is the virtue of a committed lover who wants the total loyalty of the one he has bound himself to honor and serve

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Again with this word jealousy think of when Jesus went into the temple to cleanse it He's tossing everybody out

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He's got this passionate fire in his bones that's eating him up for the glory of God And what's the passage that's applied to him?

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How? How is it made sense of what's going on before the eyes of his followers psalm 69 9 it is written zeal for your house has consumed me

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As the reproach of those who offend you falls on me Zeal for the things of God.

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This is a passionate righteous jealousy For what rightfully belongs to God think about the apostle

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Paul when he says in second corinthians chapter 11 I have a divine jealousy for you church

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To present you as a pure virgin betrothed to one husband Jesus This is amazing.

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Listen to how divine jealousy is extolled elsewhere in the wisdom literature in song of solomon chapter 8 verse 6

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Set me as a seal upon your heart as a seal upon your arm For love is as strong as death

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And jealousy is fierce as the grave And that word fierce

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There it's best translated as hard Unyielding Unrelenting You can't turn it back you can't stop it

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You might say it's irresistible This is the same kind of divine love to which

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God calls us to be satisfied So you may ask

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What about last week though we're talking a lot about being satisfied in God here But how do

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I reconcile that With having this godly ambition that I am to have that we are to have as the people of God Well, I think it's beautifully reconciled in this way the blessed god the happy god

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Who is fully and completely satisfied in himself? Decided in eternity past to set a love upon your life that was more unrelenting

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And unyielding than the grave itself How irrevocable is the call of death?

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Think about that for a moment when death calls You come right when it summons you show up And yet we have been given by God Whose name is jealous a love

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That it is strong as death a jealousy that is

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As all consuming as the grave that is unyielding as unrelenting as the grave

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And you know this if you're in christ You know this because the spirit has witnessed the truth about jesus in your heart

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That death itself could not turn back his love toward you So here's the question if death couldn't stop the love of christ for you his child

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What on earth or in heaven church will stand in the way of a love that is that ferocious?

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What will frustrate that kind of holy jealousy and all consuming zeal

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Well, according to the apostle paul in romans chapter 8 Nothing in all of creation will be able to separate you from the love of god in christ.

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Jesus your lord not Famine or trial or danger or nakedness or sword or any kind of peril?

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and what grounds this with extra context of Awesomeness Is that the god who in his being lacks nothing and has no deficiency in him that must be met by you or I?

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Philippians 2 tells us did not consider all of these things something to be grasped or clung to What does it tell us about jesus he emptied himself

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He took on the nature of a servant And he humbled himself to the point of obedience even the death of obedience on the cross

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Just gave himself away Had everything in eternity had the glory that he shared with the father before time began

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The gospel of john tells us And in so doing he has brought you

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By his spirit into the fellowship that he has shared with the father eternally that's what john 17 tells us

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Verse 22 the glory that you have given me I have given to them that they may be one even as we are one

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I in them and you and me that they may become perfectly one So that the world may know that you sent me and love them even as you loved me

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We have been brought into the glory of trinitarian fellowship that pre -existed time itself

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By the work of christ on our behalf And the spirit taking that work of redemption and bringing us into the fellowship of father son.

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Holy spirit the triune god Bringing us into everlasting enjoyment and delight in him and happiness in god

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Forever and ever and ever and that love cannot be turned back. It cannot be overcome.

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It cannot be resisted In the same way that when death calls you come when the voice of christ our king

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Shouts into the darkness of our dead and diseased hearts and says come forth

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You have no choice but to come forth in life in newness of life It can't be resisted it can't be overcome it can't be swallowed up By anything in this world.

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It is a jealousy so ferocious A love so exclusive and until we come to experience the freedom of that contentment

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That comes from such intimate knowledge. We will not lay our lives down in the service of the kingdom

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I don't need to envy and covet what my brothers and sisters or my family has or my neighbors have

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I can be happy For them because I am happy in him And only in that freedom of knowing god's love can

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I like christ freely give myself away That's another way to say we need to know god more

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We need to have a more holy and righteous zeal for his truth and allow that truth to grip us so tightly that it actually changes us

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That's what paul's referring to in the book of ephesians when he says i'm praying for you church That the eyes of your heart would be enlightened that god would give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation

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So that you may know the hope to which he has called you you need to be gripped by this so deeply That it actually changes you from the inside out and you begin to live differently

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You begin to believe differently and you can grasp and experience the love of christ that surpasses all knowledge

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God loves you He is jealous for you And it is the jealousy of a committed lover

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Love like this sets us free and gives us perspective. So not only sets us free It gives us perspective you remember last week let's talk about ambition and running hard for things that god has given us to do

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Proverbs 15 16 better is a little with the fear of the lord than great treasure and trouble with it.

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That's perspective Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a fattened ox and hatred with it

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Okay Better to be at the table with the family eating ramen and in fellowship

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Than hating one another and have a feast all around you, isn't it?

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Better to be late to church Because you're busy in the car confessing sin to one another

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Then it is to be on time And have to skip communion perspective

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We don't need to covet what our brothers Our family our neighbors have

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We can freely give ourselves away. We don't need to covet We can have this kind of perspective that says this if i'm content in god

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But guess what? I can do some of those crazy things like we were told last week to do things that Really are scary and involve a considerable amount of risk even sometimes

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Right. That's a scary prospect But guess what?

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I am secure enough in him that I can do something that i'm too afraid to do Because I don't have to even know exactly how to do it or have every plan in place all nice and neat before I start

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Because i'm satisfied in god I know he loves me no matter what So start

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It's often the enemy of godly productivity, right productivity is messy Right proverbs 14 4 where there are no ox and the manger is clean but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox in other words

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If you want to make an omelet, you have to break some eggs Okay, I know all about that in my house.

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We make eggs all the time And when my little one stands up on the chair wanting to crack the eggs everything within me just goes

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Don't get the shell and the yolk, please. I don't know how to get it out without you know, breaking everything

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Productivity is messy moms dads

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Don't be so concerned with being so nice and neat in your home Because the abundant crops come by the strength of the ox.

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Yes The ox and the means of the productivity makes a mess it's messy Right.

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Are you so concerned with being neat and having everything in order all the time? That it's actually not productive

01:07:49

The mess brings the productivity You can't despise that right the the crops come by the strength of the ox but There's some messiness involved in that So here's my charge to you saints embrace the messiness of business running

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Embrace the messiness of striving to take care of your physical health Embrace the messiness of serving the local church

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Embrace the messiness of raising little ones Embrace the messiness of all manner of kingdom activity and may your crops be abundant

01:08:32

Run hard for glory brothers and sisters have godly ambition be creative be generous build serve proclaim, but don't forget

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In the process of doing that that you start from the ultimate place of security in christ

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Your treasure and in the ferociousness of his jealous love

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He will protect you and he won't let you go be satisfied in his love

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Always let's pray Heavenly father.

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Thank you so much for what went forward today God only you can take it

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And illuminate these truths for the good of your people for the glory of your kingdom

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Thank you god for allowing me to be your instrument today your mouthpiece God, would you please make us a people?

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That are so satisfied in you That we are not consumed by casting anxious looks at the things that don't belong to us

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Would you make us the kind of people? That are so satisfied in you that are so content in you

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That we can say If we lose everything or if we have everything

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We have you and that's more than enough lord. All of you Is more than enough for all of us

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So help us to submit to your fatherly disposal of all things in our lives and help us to praise you in every circumstance because We are secure and free in christ.