Godliness With Contentment Series

INTRO.- What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever done in life? Let’s say the hardest physical thing. Work an 80 hour week? That’s just about 12 hours a day. Well, 84 hours in 7 days. Did you ever do that?

That would be hard no matter what kind of work you were doing.

Let me suggest that the hardest thing you’ll ever do in life is nothing physical but it is extremely humbling, draining, time-consuming, exhausting, fighting and fitful or sporadic. WHAT’S THAT? It is to become godly and contented at the same time.

Godly and contented at the same time? What a tall order! We understand about godliness or do we? It is to become like God,more like Christ in all ways. The idea of contentment in this text is to become contented materially speaking, and that’s required in order to become godly.

And there are several reasons why I say this is the hardest thing you’ll ever do in life if you indeed work at this. It’s so hard because of our human nature to sin and to rule our own lives and to never be contented with what we have materially.

IT’S A PART OF OUR SIN NATURE to fight against God, to not let Him rule our lives, to not be like Him, and to never be contented with anything in this life!

ILL.- A woman proudly told her friend, "I'm responsible for making my husband a millionaire." "Well what was he before he married you?" the friend asked. "A billionaire."

That sounds so much like our society. We not only want to spend our own money but everyone’s money! If I have the money and I see something that I want really bad it is very hard for me to restrain myself and not buy it. ARE YOU THAT WAY?

If I don’t have the money and have to charge it, then I can restrain myself, BUT IF I HAVE THE MONEY. WATCH OUT!

It is our nature that if we see something we like and we have the money, we will get it! But what does the Scripture say?

Hebrews 13:5-6 “5Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."So we say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?"

If the Lord is our helper why shouldn’t we trust Him to provide what is needed in life? We often want more than what is needed.

What could we do without in life? We don’t want to think about it, hear about it and most of all, make any decision about it. Haven’t you figured out that we Americans are spoiled? We have more of everything and still want more!

Philippians 4:11-13 “I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”

Paul learned the secret of being content no matter what he had or what he didn’t have. HAVE WE LEARNED THIS LESSON? God wants us to be content materially speaking but discontent spiritually. We should never be satisfied with ourselves spiritually. We should be satisfied with Christ but not our relationship to Him.

PROP.- Paul’s message was about godliness plus contentment.

What will godliness plus contentment do for us?

1- Godliness plus contentment will bring great gain

2- Godliness plus contentment will avoid harmful desires

3- Godliness plus contentment will keep us faithful

I. GODLINESS PLUS CONTENTMENT WILL BRING GREAT GAIN

6But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.

ILL.- A man named Larry said: I really didn’t know much about the stock market until becoming a senior in college. Here’s what happened. There was this guy, Ed, in my dormitory the entire 4 years of college. He was the genius type with bad eyesight. He had these thick coke-bottle glasses and never went to class, but he always got A’s on every test. Instead of going to class, he just sat in his room and studied the stock market. He had stock charts all over the walls and even had a computer before you could even buy them in a store!

Upon reaching my senior year, I realized it was time to get serious about making a living, that I would need to go out and make some money. So I went down to talk to Ed.