The Christian's Call to Contentment, Part 1

Father, we thank you for tonight. What a great, great day it is. Every day, Lord, is a gift from you. And every day that we have a chance to get out of bed and go to work, be with our family, we have the opportunity, Lord, to be used by you. And our prayer, Lord, that on this day we can look back on it and say, look what God did.

We realize, Lord, that there are so many ways in which you deal with us. And none of us you deal with the same. You deal with us all differently. And that's a good thing because it tells us how personal you are with each and every one of us. How so in tune you are to our makeup, and that you will stretch us and make us into the people you want us to be for the glory of your kingdom.

So tonight, Lord, as we open your word, we pray that you would lead us and guide us in the way that we should go. Help us to understand your word. To apply your word. Help us, Lord, to leave here knowing what needs to happen, not just tonight and tomorrow, but the rest of this week and for the rest of our lives. Because truly, Lord, we will have learned to follow you and trust you for everything.

We thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to be in prayer for Debbie McCor, her daughter Kim, as they've lost a sister and a daughter. We just pray for them, Lord, that you would give them the kind of comfort that only your spirit can during times like these. We pray for Peggy that, Lord, you would be with her and strengthen her. And pray, Father, that she would understand more of your grace now than ever before. As she sees you sustaining her each and every day. And so, Lord, we know that both of these women are in your hands, and we know that, Lord, you're in charge of their lives. And may we always be reminded that you are completely sovereign.

We pray for our country, all that's going on here. Lord, you know all this. It's not a surprise to you, it might be a surprise to us. But it's not to you. You have a plan. It's running right on course. We just ask for your will to be done. We ask, Lord, for your kingdom to come. We ask, Lord, that you would cause us to be the kind of people that would be instrumental in sharing Christ with others, that we'd be a living testimony to the grace of God, speaking to others about your word, they might learn to follow and serve you as well.

And so tonight, as we open your word, Lord, may we have great joy. Because you speak through your word to us. In Jesus' name, amen.

Tonight, we're going to begin a study on contentment. It's going to take us into Thanksgiving. As we understand, as we prepare for the holiday season and the things that God has for us, we want to trust the Lord and we want to look to all that He's going to do. And so we're going to look at what the Bible says concerning contentment. How is it? Amidst all the chaos, amidst all the crises that we face, we can truly be content.

If Paul, the Apostle Paul, learned contentment, we too will need to learn contentment. The question is, how does that happen? It's not a gift. It's not an ability. It's something that's learned over time. It's not learned in an hour. It's not learned in a week, it's learned over time. And so hopefully, we'll give you the principles that will allow you to understand how it is God wants to teach you contentment.

So let's begin this way. Think back with me, if you would, eight months. Go back to March. And ask yourself: what are the lessons that God has taught you over the last eight months? Since the COVID crisis began in our country, and with all the riots and all the looting and all the things happening in our country, and all the things that happen in your life, what did God teach you? What did you learn about yourself? I think that every one of us could say, I've learned this about myself, I've learned that. That over the last eight months, there's many things that God has revealed to us about ourselves.

What has God taught you about your own personal life or your family life, your marriage? What's God taught you about your work? And how God wants to use you there? What has the Lord taught you about your church? What has the Lord taught you about everything that you touch? How has God taught you? Because God is always teaching us lessons. And as I was thinking back over the last couple of weeks about the things that God has taught me, I can go back and think of so many different things that the Lord has brought to light in my own mind.

But one thing that I was struck with is that I've come to realize that as Christians, unfortunately, we can live very discontented lives. Of all people, we should be the most content. But we tend to live discontented lives. So we find out during the lockdowns that we're not as content with our marriage as we thought we were. We're not as content with our family as we thought we were. We're not as content with our friends as we thought we should be. We're not as content with our job. We're not as content with our living conditions.

We didn't want to stay at home all day, but we were at home all day. And so we realized about all these things how discontented we are. How discouraged we can become, how depressed we can become. And that's seen by the rise of depression in families, the rise of alcohol, drug abuse, spousal abuse, child abuse. It's on the rise. All that was taking place during the last eight months because people truly are discontented. They really had not come to a place where they realize that God is absolutely enough for them.

But think about it this way. Let's say you could go back to March. And there wasn't a COVID crisis. Let's say everything was happening as it normally does. There's not a COVID crisis in March. You pay your taxes in April, like you always do on April 15th. You plan for your vacation in the summertime. You get to go on your vacation in the summertime. Your kids get to actually go to school and graduate from their school and plan for the next school year. Everything seems to go on course. You still go to work. You love your job. Things are great. Right? Your marriage is wonderful. And so everything is, for lack of a better phrase, hunky-dory. Right?

Would you, if that was the case, be content then? And the answer is probably not. Probably not. Although we might think ourselves content, we usually find ourselves discontented. And there's a reason for that. And there's a reason that you and I face every single day. And as we look at our lives, we begin to realize there's a four-letter word that is a very ugly word when it comes to us as Christians. A four-letter word that helps us understand our discontentment. And the word is more.

We want more luxuries. We want more money. We want more time off. We want more of this or more of that. We just never really have enough. There's always something that's lacking. What I have today is going to pale in comparison to what I might obtain tomorrow. And so I find myself in this constant spiral of discontentment. So the question comes for you and me: how do we get out of that spiral? What does the Bible say concerning contentment?

So, I was reading a book this past week. It's called Simple Faith, written by Charles Swindoll. And in that book, he has a poem that cites and expresses the discontentment of people's lives. It says, it was spring. But it was summer that I wanted, the warm days and the outdoors. It was summer. But it was fall that I wanted. The colorful leaves and the cool, dry air. It was fall. But it was winter that I wanted. The beautiful snow, the joy of the holiday season. It was winter. But it was really spring I wanted, the warmth and the blossoming of nature.

I was a child, but it was adulthood I wanted, the freedom and the respect. I was 20, but it was 30 I wanted to be more mature and more sophisticated. I was middle-aged. But it was twenty I wanted the youth and the free spirit. I was retired. But it was middle age I wanted the presence of mind without limitations. My life was over, but I never got what I really wanted.

That's us. Unfortunately, there's always something on the horizon. Whatever happens today, I want something different tomorrow. I want more of this or more of that. I want better this, better that. I'm never really truly satisfied with where I'm at today. I mean, think about it. If we were to sit back and say, okay, right now, at this moment in my life, at my age, my income, my place of living, my family, my church, I am absolutely 100% content. I wonder how many of us could really, truly, honestly say that. And be truthful about it, right?

And so as we go through the scriptures, we want to begin to understand what the Bible says about learning contentment. One person said this way, to whom little is not enough, nothing is enough. Wise words. It was that great Catholic theologian Francis Xavier who said, I have listened to multiplied thousands of confessions. I've yet to have one person ever confess the sin of covetousness. Because we always want more. And covetousness is that secret sin behind a discontented soul.

So let's begin tonight by looking with me, if you would, to Matthew chapter 4. Matthew chapter 4. If you've got your Bible, turn there with me if you would, please. And I want to show you how Jesus would deal with this. Okay? And then we're going to look at the Apostle Paul in the book of Philippians, the fourth chapter.

But in Matthew chapter 4, verse number 23, it says, Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people. Now, the reason he did that is because he was the king. And as the king came, he would present the kingdom. In so doing, he would have to present the messianic credentials of the kingdom. So as he went around preaching about that kingdom, he would heal every kind of disease among the people.

So, verse 24, the news about him spread throughout all Syria. And they brought to him all who were ill, those suffering with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics, and he healed them. Large crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and Jerusalem, and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.

Now, you can imagine what the crowds would be like. I mean, after all, the use of medicine in those days wasn't nearly as advanced as it is today. So if you got sick and you got ill, or you had some kind of broken bone, or you had an eye problem, you needed to be healed. And if there's somebody who could heal you, you would go to that person. And sure enough, everybody from the region all around were coming because of this one called Jesus. Who was healing everybody? And word would spread rapidly. And everybody would want to come. And they would bring all those in their family who were sick. All those who were paralyzed, epileptics, diseased, those who couldn't see, they brought as many as they possibly could, and he healed them all.

And this became the tone three years later. Remember, he's just now beginning his ministry in Galilee. But in Luke 19, remember at the triumphal entry, they would praise him. Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And they did it not because of the message that he taught, but because of the miracles he performed. They wanted Jesus to be their king because of his miracles.

In John chapter 6, they try to make him their king by force. Because in John 6, you have the feeding of the 5,000, which literally is around 20 or 25,000 people. And he fed them all with a few fishes and a few loaves of bread. And so they wanted to take him by force and make him their king. I mean, if he can do this with just a little bit of food, we would never, ever go hungry. And so he would slip away because they wanted to make him king for the wrong reasons.

So Jesus begins his ministry, and all of a sudden, these people are coming, he's healing everybody. And yet he knows that just because now they're feeling better, those who couldn't see can now see, those who couldn't walk can now walk, those who are diseased are healed. They feel so good. They feel so much better. Everything is just great. And everybody's happy. But he knows in the depths of the soul. Their needs are not met. He knows that in the inner part of each man, each woman, each child that's there. That they might be healed today, but tomorrow somebody will die. Tomorrow, somebody will fall down and break something again. It's not always going to be this way. Tomorrow or the next week or the next year. But even if it was, there was an emptiness on the inside.

So Jesus sets them down. Matthew chapter 5, verse number 1. When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. He opened his mouth and began to teach them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And he goes on and he gives this whole beautiful scenario of the Beatitudes, nine different blessings that come to those who are poor in spirit. Who mourn over their sin? He gives blessing to those who are meek or gentle. A blessing to those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, because they and they only will be satisfied, not those who are healed physically, but those who truly hunger and thirst for righteousness. They and literally they and they only will be satisfied.

Those who mourn over their sin, they and they only will be the ones who are truly comforted. Those who are truly poor in spirit, theirs is truly the kingdom of heaven. And so the Lord gives these beatitudes because he presents to them the plan of salvation. He knows that what they need in their soul is a cleansing. They need to follow him as Lord, as Savior. As master. And so he gives this sermon, Matthew's 5, 6, and 7. It's probably the whole sermon. Maybe it's not everything that he said, but it's basically everything that is recorded in scripture that we know.

At the end, he says these words in Matthew chapter 7, he says in verse number 24, or 2, excuse me, therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them may be compared to a wise man who built his house upon the rock. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and slammed against that house, and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house, and it fell, and great was its fall.

And when Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one having authority. And not as their scribes. He says, Look, I want to offer you true blessing. The word there is makarios, which is a word that means inner joy, a joy that's not dependent on anything on the outside, nothing external. In other words, there's something that takes place on the inside that is not subject to that which happens on the outside. That's true blessing.

In fact, it's the same word used of the Lord in Psalm 68, verse number 35, where it says, Blessed be God. Psalm 72, verse number 18: Blessed be the Lord God and the God of Israel. Psalm 119, verse number 12, Blessed art thou, O Lord. Same word used to describe the Christ. 1 Timothy 6, verse number 15. He is the blessed and only potentate. The king of kings and the lord of lords.

So he says, Listen, I want to give you a true blessing. I know you're here because you're sick. I know you're here because you don't feel good. I know you're here because things aren't going well for you physically. And I can heal you physically. That's not going to help your soul. I want to heal you eternally. I want to heal your soul. I want you to know what it means to be a follower of mine. I want you to know true blessing, true joy, because physical healing makes you feel better for a while until you're sick again, or until you fall down and break something again.

But the soul on the inside needs to have true inner joy. And it only comes if you come to me on my terms. Because if you don't come to me on my terms, you will never experience that joy. So, if you hear these words and you act upon them, you're blessed. Why? Because you would have built your house upon the rock. And when the floods come, when chaos comes, when crises come, you stand. You don't fall. Why? Because on the inside, you're as calm as a cucumber. But if you don't hear what I have to say and you don't follow me, well, when the rains come and the winds blow, you're not going to be able to stand. You're going to fall because there's no foundation by which to live your life. And everybody marveled at what Jesus said. But no converts. Nobody came to Christ and said, you know what? I need that. Because in their own minds, they were satisfied with where they were. They were content. After all, they needed to be healed and they were. They came for something and they received it. And that was good enough.

And yet, Christ knew it wasn't good enough. He wanted to give them the best life possible. A life that did not depend on the externals, on the physicality of life, but what's happening on the inside of a person. So important. So he knows that unless there's been a true inner conversion, there is no contentment. Granted, there are people who live a worldly life who don't know the Lord, and they might look like they're content, but inside, they're being ripped apart. And there are Christians who even for the most part look like they are content. But on the inside, depression. Discouragement, chaos, no peace, because they haven't learned the lesson that Paul learned. And think about it. Paul just didn't wake up one day and say, you know what? Hey, this is great. I'm content. No, he had to learn it. It took time. Same is true for you and me.

And so, you're not going to learn it in eight weeks either. It's going to be eight weeks long. You're not going to learn it in eight weeks. It's going to take you probably years. Some of you don't have that long, all right? But it's going to take at least that long. Because it's something you learn every single day.

Society says, very simply, this: happiness is having all the right things. The right house, in the right location, with the right kind of car, the right size family, the right size income. But Jesus says in Luke 12, 15, man's life does not consist in the abundance of things which he possesses. Society says it's not just having the right things, it's doing all the right things. Because if you do the right things, if you are once an employee and then you become the employer, or you're the employee, then become the employer, or you're the vice president, then become the president, things will always be better for you. But Solomon said that everything in life under the sun is vanity. It's empty.

And think about Solomon. Solomon, the richest man who ever lived, the wisest man who ever lived, who had everything he could possibly want. He had 700 wives. I don't know what you do with 700 wives, but that's how many he had. He had 300 concubines. He lived in a palace. In the city of peace, Jerusalem. It was made out of gold. It would shine and sparkle. Best house anybody ever had. More wives than anybody could dream of. The Bible tells us that his silver was as the sand on the seashore, the rocks on the ground, innumerable. It just went on and on and on and on. Whatever you wanted, he could buy. Never had to worry about a retirement plan. He had everything.

But at the end of his life, he would say, you know what? It's all empty. It never truly satisfies. I have all this, but it means nothing. So he says at the end of the book of Ecclesiastes, what? The sum of all things is fear God and keep his commandments. Now, we can read about Solomon and know what the scriptures say about him, but we have a hard time believing he had all that and yet was discontent. But he was. He was never truly satisfied because there was always something more to attain. More wives, more concubines, more silver, more gold. More horses, more gardens. And he had hundreds of horses, hundreds of gardens. Another palace. There's always something more.

Except the more he got. The more empty he became because he could not fill the void in his heart. The void that was there that could only be filled through the forgiveness that comes through Jesus Christ our Lord. That's why when Christ says, blessed are you when you're poor in spirit, when you're meek. Blessed are you when you hunger and thirst for righteousness. Blessed are you who are the peacemakers. Why? Why? Because that blessing is the same blessing that describes me. And Peter says that we're partakers of the divine nature. So, because we're partakers of the divine nature, the same blessing that God has because of who He is. Is now available to you and me as children in his kingdom because we are partakers of that blessed divine nature.

So, when you become a Christian, all of a sudden, now God's nature is a part of you. And now, you can experience the blessing that He has to give. What a great thing. And so as we begin to go through this, we begin to understand that no matter what the world gives me, it can never give me enough. Even though I might always want more, getting more will never satisfy.

And some of us are thinking, well, if I just had more, let me figure that out on my own. Let me try to figure that out. Give me more money and let me see if it satisfies. Give me a better house. We always think that if we change locations, right? Things will be better. If we move out of California, things will be better, right? I mean, after all. California's going to hell in a handbasket, and so maybe it's just better to move out of California and go someplace in the Midwest. Maybe go to big sky country in Montana. Go, you know, plant potatoes in Idaho. I don't know. Go to the show me state and go to Missouri. Just leave California. And if I leave, guess what? In another state, things will be better. No, they won't. Who told you that? Did you watch some TV program where they sold you a bill of goods that if you moved to their state, things are going to be better? What makes you think that if you leave California, all will be well? You have no guarantee of that.

If I just change jobs, just change job location, maybe, keep the same job, but a different location, maybe that will satisfy. It won't. It won't because there's one key common denominator. You. You're the key common denominator. You're in every scenario, whether you're in California or in Montana. It's still you. Whether you change job locations or not, it's still you. You're in the job. You're the common denominator. So the issue is not where you live. The issue is not even how you live. It's what is God doing inside of me? What is God actively doing in my life right now that teaches me contentment?

Listen, if you're not content in California, you won't be content in Montana. Or any place else for that matter. It's like the guy who's married but thinks if I was just married to her, I'd be content. No, you wouldn't, because it's you, and you're going to take you into the new marriage. But we always think something's going to be better. More of this or more of that doesn't work that way. We like to think it's that simple, but it's not.

Contentment is something that's learned, but it can only be learned if you're a child of God. Because then you are a partaker of His nature, and the blessing that He offers you is now available to you. Because now you tap into that eternal resource.

So turn with me, if you would, to the book of Philippians. The book of Philippians. Philippians chapter 4. And you know, Philippians is written from prison, and so Paul is writing a prison epistle, one of his prison epistles, right? And so, therefore. You always need to remember that when you read what he says about, you know, rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. He's not saying that because he's in some beach house in Laguna. No, he's in prison. It's rat-infested. It's cold. It's damp. There's no air conditioning in the summer. There's no heat in the winter. It's just a cold, damp, dark place. But he rejoices in the Lord.

He would early in the epistle say, Do not grumble. Don't grumble. In fact, it says in Philippians 2, he says, Do all things without grumbling or disputing. In other words, no matter what your situation, no matter what your circumstance, don't be a grumbler. Don't be a moaner. Don't be a groaner. Don't be one of those people. He says that as he writes from prison, not an ideal location, but he learned contentment. So that in whatever state he was, not state in terms of California versus Montana, or state in terms of what's happening externally around him. He learned to be content.

So in Philippians 4, he says this: verse 10. But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now, at last, you have revived your concern for me. Indeed. You were concerned before, but you lacked opportunity. Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstance I am. I know how to get along with humble means. I also know how to live in prosperity in any and every circumstance. I've learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Nevertheless, you have done well to share with me in my affliction.

Paul sums up this contentment that he's learned. And he wants you to understand that. As he uses a word that the Stoics used. The Stoics were Greek philosophers in Athens. And it's a word that simply means self-sufficient. The Stoics believed this. They believed that the virtue of self-sufficiency or independence of external circumstances was the highest of all virtues. They held that a man should be sufficient in and unto himself in all things. When asked who was the wealthiest, Socrates said, He who is content with least, for self-sufficiency is nature's wealth.

So Paul would use a word that's very familiar to those who understand the Greek language, but he uses it in a different sense. Not in the Stoic sense, but in the biblical sense. Because there is a sufficiency about contentment. But it's not a self-sufficiency. It is a God sufficiency. And that's what he says over in 2 Corinthians 3, verse number 5, when he says, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to account anything as from ourselves. But our sufficiency is from God.

And so the Greek word for contentment literally means satisfied. It means adequate, it means sufficient. Same word is used in 2 Corinthians 12:9, where Paul had beseeched the Lord three times to remove from him this thorn in his flesh. We don't know what the thorn was, we have no idea what it was. And that's a good thing. But God says no, because my grace is sufficient for you. My grace is going to satisfy you. My grace is more than adequate for you, Paul. My grace is that which is completely sufficient for you. For when you are weak, now you will be the strongest. And Paul said, You're right. I glory in my weaknesses because this is when I'm actually the strongest.

So, Paul would use that same word in 2 Corinthians 12, verse number 9, but here he uses it: I've learned to be that way. I just didn't wake up one night and because I prayed about it that all of a sudden now I'm content. No, I actually learned to be content.

One author said it this way. Christian contentment is the God-given ability to be satisfied with the loving provision of God in any and every situation. Isn't that good? Let me read it to you again. Christian contentment is a God-given ability to be satisfied with the loving provision of God in any and every situation.

In other words, contentment is independent as well as dependent. As a Christian, I am content because I'm independent of anything in the world. But completely dependent upon the God who possesses heaven and earth. I'm independent from the things of the world. I don't need those things. I'd like to have them, but I don't need them. I'm independent of those. But I am absolutely 100% dependent upon God and His grace to sustain me and take me through every day in life. I am content. I am satisfied. It is more than adequate to have the provision that God chooses to give me.

Now think about this. As I was writing this down, I began to realize why you and I are not the Apostle Paul. Paul was certainly qualified to make such judgments. He had once been stoned and dragged out of the city in Acts chapter 14. He had been beaten and thrown into jail in Acts 16. He had been plotted against by the Jews. He had been in tribulation, in needs, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, and in fastings. Second Corinthians six. He'd experienced trouble on every side, accompanied by outward conflicts and inward fears. Second Corinthians seven. And then in 2 Corinthians chapter 11, he says he had known abundant labor, frequent imprisonments.

Close encounters with death. Five times he had received thirty-nine stripes from the Jews. Three times he was beaten with rods. Once he was stoned, three times he experienced shipwreck, he once spent a night and a day in the water. He faced death from robbers, from his own countrymen, from the Gentiles, from false brethren. He had often experienced weariness, sleeplessness, hunger, thirst, cold, nakedness.

And yet, somehow, in the midst of all that, he learned contentment. He learned to be independent of anything external, so he could be completely dependent upon that which is internal. That's what contentment was in the life of the Apostle Paul. He learned that. And if you read on, it says this. I have learned, he says, to be content, in whatever circumstance I find myself, because I have learned the secret.

Wait a minute. Why did God make something a secret? Why wouldn't he make it easy to find? Listen, the Lord wants you to learn contentment. If it was easy, everybody would be content. But it's not. There's a secret behind it. One author says this. This word, I have learned the secret, was used in Greek mystery religions to describe people who had worked their way up through the various lower degrees, and had finally been admitted into full possession of the mystery itself. Paul is saying, I have made my way up through the degrees of progressive detachment from the things of the world, its comforts and its discomforts alike. And finally I have reached maturity on this point. I know the secret. Circumstances can never again touch me.

Paul had learned the lesson. Bit by bit, test by test, circumstance by circumstance, he persevered through the lower degrees until he finally graduated and the secret was his. Contentment did not come easily for him. He purchased it at the price of exacting discipline. He worked his way up to this, looking and realizing that none of those things he had to be dependent upon. He was independent of those things. But what he was dependent upon was the grace of Almighty God to sustain him, to stabilize him. He depended upon that grace to save him. Now he needed that grace to satisfy him.

And that's not something that just happens overnight. It comes as you learn to walk with the Lord, as you learn to talk with the Lord, as you learn to depend upon the Lord in every situation you find yourself in. And that's what was happening to the Apostle Paul. He wasn't saying as he sat in the prison writing this letter to the Philippians, listen, I wish I was in another prison. I wish I was in that cell over there. That cell at least has a pillow in it. I wish I was down the road and I was in that prison over there in another part of the country. No, he knew that no matter what prison he was in, that prison, that circumstance, that state. Did not hold him. But what held him was the grace of Almighty God. What sustained him was the ministry of the Spirit of God that indwelt him. He was a partaker of the divine nature of God, the true blessing of God. And so, therefore, he could live independently of externals. So, he could live dependently upon that which was internal, the word of the living God.

In verse 13, he says this. Not yet have I learned the secret of being content, of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Now you understand the verse. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. What does that mean? Does that help me be a better athlete? Help me be a better worker? Does it help me be a better person? Plumber, a better painter? Does that help me be a better police officer? What does that help me? What do you mean I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me?

It simply means that there is something in me that allows me to grab a hold of. That I'm completely dependent upon, so that no matter what my state, no matter what my circumstance, no matter what my marriage, no matter what my family, no matter what my job situation, no matter what my housing situation, no matter what my health. I have the Lord, and He means everything to me. You see, the problem with most of us is that He's just not enough. What did the writer say? Jesus is all you need, but Jesus is never all you need until Jesus is all you got. He really is all you need. But you never recognize he's all you need until that's all you have left.

Remember the testimony of Debbie McCor when she had lost her husband, Dave, three years ago in September. She'd learned to realize that the Lord was enough. It wasn't that she didn't miss her husband Dave. She missed him dearly. But she realized in the midst of her pain that God's grace was sufficient and that God was enough for her. And she learned that. She learned it by the help of the people in the church who came around her and prayed with her, supported her, did things for her, took her places. But when she spent time in the word of the Lord, reading God's word on her knees, she learned to be independent of everything external, so she could be dependent upon the one who was internal.

And that's what contentment is. Peggy now is learning that same thing, having lost her husband Larry this past week. She's learning now how to be dependent upon that one person inside of her. And no longer dependent upon that around her, but independent of all those things. Not in a bad way, in a very good way, a very healthy way, a very biblical way. Because Jesus is really all we need. But we have to get to that place.

Paul. Through all of his imprisonments, through all of his shipwrecks, through all of his beatings, through all the turmoil he went through, you would ask yourself the question. Paul says, I learned to be content whether I was poor or whether I was prosperous. And you ask yourself, when was he ever prosperous? Because his whole life is either writing from a cell or going to a cell. I mean, where was his life ever prosperous? And yet, everything was going from bad to worse, to worse, to bad, to not so good, to bad again, to worse again? I mean, spending a night and day in the water, being snake bitten, being shipwrecked, not just once. Not twice, three times. I mean, if you're in a car accident, that's one thing. If you're in a car accident twice, that's another. If you're in a car accident three times in your lifetime, maybe you better let somebody else drive, right? So here's Paul. Don't get on a boat anymore. Shipwrecked three times. But all that he was learning to do. To be independent of everything external and to be dependent on that which was internal. God. That's why he could say in the book of Philippians, rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say, rejoice. Because Jesus was everything.

That's why, when Peter said in 1 Peter 2, verse number 6, he said, Those who believe in this cornerstone will never ever be disappointed. 1 Peter 2:6. It's a quotation from Isaiah 28, verse number 16. Where Isaiah says it this way: He who comes to me will never be in a hurry. Never be in a hurry? How did Peter get disappointed from that? Listen, when you come to Christ, you're never ever in a hurry to leave. You always want to be with him. Why? He never disappoints. See that? So Peter picks up on that and says, He who believes in this chief cornerstone will never be disappointed. You'll never want to leave. Why? Because he's everything.

We sing about it at Christmas in our Christmas songs, Haggai chapter 2. He is the desire of the nations, right? The desire of the nations. Whatever man desires, Christ is. Now, you might not recognize that you desire that, or that you need that, or you absolutely have to have that. Because of your sin, and you're blinded by Satan. But in all reality, the desire of the nations. Is the one who never disappoints. Because what does he do? He forgives you of all your sin, he cleanses you from all your filthiness, he indwells your life. And promises to take you through every situation and trouble that you face, so that one day you will enter into glory with Him. That's contentment.

And so, what Paul does is he writes to young Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter 6 and tells him that godliness with contentment is going to be the greatest of all gains. And when you come back next week, we're going to take you to that passage in 1 Timothy 6, and we're going to take you from verse 9 all the way down to verse number 19. And what we're going to do is show you the different principles that Paul gives to Timothy to show him how it is he learned to be independent from that which is external. To be dependent upon the one who is internal, the one who never disappoints, who is the desire of the nations, who is the God of the universe, who indwells your life. I trust you'll be with us.

Let's pray together. Father, we thank you, Lord, for tonight and a chance to spend time in your word. Truly, Lord, your word speaks volumes to every one of us. And there is so much we need to learn about ourselves. But more importantly, so much we need to learn about you.

Forgive us, Lord, for being independent of you and dependent upon those things around us. Forgive us, Lord, for not seeing you as the ultimate desire of our souls. Forgive us, Lord, for thinking, even for one brief nanosecond, that you would ever disappoint one of your children. You're just not that way. And so we're asking, Lord, that you would do a great and mighty work.

I want to thank you for those who are here tonight, the opportunity they have to hear your word, to digest it. May they be like the one who builds his house upon the rock. So, whatever trouble comes, however fierce the winds, however heavy the rain, they just keep right on standing. Because the foundation is strong because it rests in thee. That's our prayer. And we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.