Living Content in a Discontented World
Phil 4:12
Doing without
I read where a preacher said, "I hate the ice cream man. He takes a nice content moment and turns it into cravings for something my children don’t need and can’t afford – and turns contentment into discontentment."
But there’s an awful lot of ice cream trucks out there, aren’t there? They don’t all go around with children’s music piping out of their speakers – but they can make us feel discontent no matter what we have.
For me they are things like “For sale” signs in front of homes we can’t quite afford.
Want ads for cars that are nicer and newer than what I drive.
Going to people’s homes where they have much nicer furniture or really cool home stereo systems.
No matter how much we accumulate it seems we never have enough. The more we have, the more we want. It’s a phenomenon called the Barbie-doll law: "Accessories once considered optional become mandatory, creating needs and wants we never thought of before." More often than not, we come to the end of every endeavor and acquisition vaguely discontented and unhappy.
The Problem- Many Americans are in Financial Bondage through Credit Card Debt.
Stolen Credit Card
A man called the police and reported that all of his wife’s credit cards had been stolen. Then he added, “But don’t look too hard for the thief. He’s charging less than my wife ever did.”
Source unknown
Philippians 4:10-13
10 How grateful I am, and how I praise the Lord that you are concerned about me again. I know you have always been concerned for me, but for a while you didn’t have the chance to help me. 11 Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to get along happily whether I have much or little. 12 I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. 13 For I can do everything with the help of Christ who gives me the strength I need. (NLT)
I know what it is to be in need and what it is to have more than enough. I have learned this secret, so that anywhere, at any time, I am content, whether I am full or hungry, whether I have too much or too little. (Good News Version)
I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. (KJV)
We seem to think happiness comes with more stuff. So we do what Paul could not do to get it. You can spend more than you make. With credit cards so available to almost anyone with a job you can get yourself into a financial jam in nothing flat. There are emergencies when we may need to do that. The Lord has been dealing with me personally about this verse. The Apostle said I have learned the secret of being satisfied with a lot or a little. We applaud the happy with a lot, but we ignore the second part. Being satisfied with little, or learning to do without. All of the advertising is trying to get you to buy on impulse. It doesn’t matter how great a bargain it is if you don’t need it. Doing without when you didn’t have the money was a common practice for our parents and grandparents. But with credit cards so readily available we don’t do without very often until they are maxed out. The only way to get out of that mess, or to not get into it. Is to learn the secret Paul learned. In Timothy he said having food and raiment I will be content.
- The Secret of Financial Freedom is being content with many things or few things. Even content doing without. It is not in getting more, but needing less.
I Contentment Must be Learned
First we must understand -“Stuff does not bring Happpiness”
The most toured home in America is the white house. But does anyone know where the second most toured home in America is?
The second most toured home in America is in Memphis Tennessee.
It’s the 23 room home of the King of Rock and Roll - Elvis Presley. (thank you, thank you very much).
Graceland is toured by hundreds of people every day. It is a combination of the home, an amusement park and an historic site. 15 million dollars a year is brought in by those visiting and looking at the cars, clothes, airplanes, records.
And few people in his time made as much money as quickly as he did. Certainly no one else had so much fame and popularity. Elvis seemed to have it all. money, airplanes, cars, mansions. But what is all that stuff? It’s T H I N G S.
And if you go fifty yards from the back door of Graceland you find a tombstone. Aug. 16, 1977, 42 years old. An overdose of pills. Depression. He was so drugged in the last days of his life that he passed out while he was eating dinner alone and he nearly drown when his face fell in his bowl of soup.
THINGS did not do it for him. And though he had as much as anybody, he said at one point, "I would give a million dollars for one day of peace."
a. It isn’t natural -not born with it, some people don’t just have it
b. It is learned- Some people because of their upbringing are more likely to be content with less.
-If you were raised poor- but it is still a choice
-if you were raised with everything handed to you - more difficult to learn -behind the curve
II The Way to Learn Contentment
A. Your spirit must control your appetites of the flesh- What rules your decisions?
Phil 3:18ff 18 For I have told you often before, and I say it again with tears in my eyes, that there are many whose conduct shows they are really enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their future is eternal destruction. Their god is their appetite, they brag about shameful things, and all they think about is this life here on earth. 20 But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior.
B. You must Focus on what you have, and be truly thankful.
C. Compare yourself to those who have less than you not more.
D. Discover what you really need, and what you can do without.
E. Don’t believe the alluring lies advertisers are telling you. Don’t listen.
Advertising executives spend a billion dollars a year doing marketing research. A vast network of people, from Madison Avenue to Hollywood, spend their full work week designing novel ways to trigger our desires. Music, slogans, Technicolor sights, digitally produced sounds, and dramatic movement, all collaborate to create a passion to possess. They use fear, nostalgia, pride, sexual arousal, jealousy, and envy to produce the desired effect. Their goal is to temporarily suspend our self-control. They are creating a pattern of thinking, an attitude of discontent which will continue long after their product is forgotten. The result is that they are creating dissatisfaction with life.
F. Remember this world is not your home - Heaven is. Phil 3:19
and all they think about is this life here on earth.
20 But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior.
III The Way to Practice Contentment
Woman put card in ice cube in the freezer to keep from using it easy.
Don’t carry a credit card unless you can control it.
Don’t go into a place you are tempted to buy, look a ads, if you don’t have money. We will talk ourselves into getting something.
Don’t buy to make you feel better.
Don’t try to keep up with the JONES. Envy
All of us are familiar with the scenario. Our neighbor, Don Jones, drives up one day in his new Volvo. We can’t help but notice. That old Ford Tempo he had been driving was a respectable, but modest car. It really made us feel comfortable. But a new Volvo is another story. This upscale car makes us feel uncomfortable. In fact, a new emotion seems to surface. Envy. Discontentment. It is the emotion known as "keeping up with the Joneses." What shall we do? Well, we resolve the problem a few days later by driving up in our driveway in a new Audi. Now we feel better.
Evidence of the success of this movement is seen in the widespread acceptance of this lifestyle. Elements in our culture even applaud greed. In the movie Wall Street, Michael Douglas, playing the high-rolling Wall Street entrepreneur, Gordon Gecco, makes the bold statement: "Greed is good." Many today subscribe to that very philosophy.
The average American is exposed to 3,000 advertisements a day that promise happiness. “If you just had that new exercise machine, you’d be ripped like the guy in the commercial. If you just had those new clubs, you’d hit a golf ball like Tiger Woods. If you just had the right tan or the right makeup or the right clothes.” And slowly but surely we’re eaten by the monster of more
Don’t buy a new __________ until the old one is wore out. (Shoes, car, belt, pants,)
Another reason is the promotion of and availability of get rich quick opportunities such as gambling. Did you know that in 1998, people gambling in this country lost $50 billion in legal wagering, a figure that has increased every year for over two decades and that today, all but two states have some form of legalized gambling from lotteries to river boats. And it’s a trend that is only getting worse and only getting people deeper in trouble.
Surveys show that about 20% of those that declare bankruptcy do so primarily because of debt incurred through gambling. It’s a desire to get that which we don’t earn.
Cook instead of going out to eat.
Eat what you have. (Mayonnaise sandwich to School George Foreman)
Our 24 hour stores have spoiled us.
How many TV channels are necessary? 3, 62, 142
Don’t watch infomercial . , shopping channel, Your House is full of unused stuff.
Wedding rings. Weddings. ($9. at Walmart) Are you any more married with $1,000.ring?) Unless you believe the Diamond sellers propaganda - "The more you love the more you spend")
Drink Water-Instead of buying something. It won’t kill you. You might get healthy.
The Intenet? How fast do you really need?
Do you Shop for car insurance? Big commercial usually equals - Big bill. I went to the taking gecko to save money and they were about $800. higher than what I had.
Take care of what you need - car, house, furance, computer
Buy with cash- or do without.
Pray and Be creative if you really need something and don’t have cash. Don’t just jump to credit cards without asking God for help.
Use the library instead of buying books, magazines, movies.
Make a list instead of making 10 trips to the store. Plan your trips. Mom went to Town on Thursday
BUY or BORROW - I Asked Brandon for CD instead of buying $12.99 for one song for one night.
There is nothing to eat in this house? Is that really true? Be creative . Do without.
Who said we need three meals a day? Or that we need a meat, two vegetables, bread, and milk with each meal. (Eating disorders, and diabetics, aside)
Elijah was only given two meals a day by God in 1 Kings.
What do we really need? What do we need to do without and be content.
GREED has filled us.
Many are turning in their spouses for a better one. Only to discover they have faults too.
IV The Source for this Secret of Financial Freedom
We use this verse all the time out of context, and while it may still be true. In context the strength Jesus gives enables us to live happily with very little or a lot. He helps us be content, and even do without joyfully.
Many Christians aren’t walking close enough to draw strength from Jesus. The Strength comes from his presence.
George Foreman instead
March 1977. A few days before his fight with Jimmy Young in Puerto Rico. George stood on the hotel balcony and wondered about the meaning of life. He had come a long way in 28 years from poverty to wealth. He was the heavyweight Champion of the world.
Yet in spite of his success he said I was empty. For 10 years he had gone through the same routines getting ready for fights. And in the end another win, but for what. My goal for life is another W. He thought, “Is that all there is to life?”
“Money didn’t fill the void. He had more cash in the bank than most could dream of. Three homes, a dozen cars, and a ranch-yet with all that stuff, I was still unfilled. Would another car make me happy? One more house? Some mysterious piece of the puzzle was missing, but I didn’t know where to find it. More than once I toyed with the idea of driving my car over the cliff. (P 21-22 God in my corner- George Foreman)
In 1996, the Chicago Tribune ran a story on Buddy Post, a lottery winner who is “living proof that money can’t buy happiness.” In 1988, he won $16.2 million in the Pennsylvania Lottery. Since then, he has been convicted “of assault, his sixth wife left him, his brother was convicted of trying to kill him, and his landlady successfully sued him for one-third of the jackpot.”
“Money didn’t change me,” insists Post, a 58-year-old former carnival worker and cook. “It changed the people around me that I knew, that I thought cared a little bit about me. But they only cared about the money.”
Post is trying to auction off seventeen future payments, valued at nearly $5 million, in order to pay off taxes, legal fees, and a number of failed business ventures.
He plans to spend his life as an ex-winner pursuing lawsuits he has filed against police, judges, and lawyers who he says conspired to take his money. “I’m just going to stay at home and mind my p’s and q’s,” he said. “Money draws flies.”
Michael G. Moriarty, The Perfect 10: The Blessings of Following God’s Commandments in a Post Modern World (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Pub. House, 1999), 169-170.
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The problem is that this drive can consume our lives. In a cemetery in England stands a grave marker with this inscription: She died for want of things. Alongside that marker is another which reads: He died trying to give them to her.
CONCLUSION
As a rule, man’s a fool
When it’s hot, he wants it cool.
And when it’s cool, he wants it hot,
Always wanting what is not.
If this is you, if you feel your life is always chasing after your personal ice cream trucks, let me invite you to pray a simple prayer with me.
“Lord teach me the secret of contentment regarding…
PRAY: Lord I need to learn the secret of contentment in my life. You have me right where I am today for a purpose. I confess the sin of materialism. I confess the sin of discontent. Cleanse my heart. Teach me the secret of contentment regarding this certain situation in my life…
Adapted from my own sermon -The Ancient Secret of financial freedom
