Content or discontent that is the question?
Open with Video – Bill Naire talking about the lives of the rich and famous!
Thesis: We need to learn to be content in life.
Scripture Texts:
1 Timothy 6:3-10:
Love of Money
3If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching,
4he is conceited and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions
5and constant friction between men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial 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.
9People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction.
10For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
Philippians 4:10-13
10I rejoice greatly in the Lord that at last you have renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you have been concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it.
11I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.
12I 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.
13I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
Introduction:
What turns a mood of contentment to discontentedness in your life or family?
What is the factor that comes dancing in to steal away contentment?
Is it the Newspaper sale adds?
The newest department store catalogue?
The new car magazine?
The new boat magazine?
Is it a commercial on TV selling something?
Is it the bill board sign you just passed?
Is it driving down 159th street every night and you see the latest and greatest camaro, Hummer, Cadillac or Mini-cooper?
Is it strolling through the mall and then you see than that certain thing which catches your eye?
Is it the ice cream truck which all of the sudden drives down your street and it’s music is playing and the kids starting shouting “I need ice cream, I want ice cream – I need ice cream now!”
Oh how quickly contentment in life can be lost because the tempter or the item is marched in front of our eyes. It does a nice waltz right and front of us and then we have to have it!
Don Jaques reported from New York (CNN/Money) the following:
“A Japanese toilet maker is introducing a high-tech $5,000 toliet to the U.S. Market, according to a published report. The Wall Street Journal reports that Toto has introduced its Deluxe Neorest Toilet. Features include seats that can be set to rise automatically via sensors on the side, so users don’t have to touch the toilet. The toilet also has a wireless remote to raise and lower the seat. It has a deodorizer, a warm-air dryer and water temperature, and a pressure and massaging option.” Rumor has it soon they will have heated seat toilets as another feature.
Before I read about this super deluxe luxury toilet I was content with my one at home but then you mind starts to covet this new toilet – you think of what you are missing and then you want it.
This is how discontentment dances into our lives! It looks harmless and even pretty but then the cost of it hits you.
T.S. - Let’s look at our first text tonight and see what it says about this elusive mind set of contentment:
I. We need to understand that godliness should lead us to contentment.
a. When you attain both of these qualities then you have attained a secret key to peace and contentment in life.
i. It’s not about how much money you have or don’t have:
1. Jaques notes from his sermon “The Secret of Contentment” on sermoncentral.com the following:
a. About 10 years ago, there was a story in U.S. News and World Report. Some of the information in this story is probably just as relevant today, ten years later, as it was then. The story was about the so-called “American Dream.” I guess that would include owning your own home, and having all your needs met for sure, but also having enough to do all the things you really wanted to do, and have all the things you really wanted to have. The story said that for Americans with household incomes of under $25,000, polls showed these people believed it would take $54,000 to fulfill the American dream in their lives. The same survey also showed that for those who make $100,000, they’d like to make about $192,000 for their version of the American Dream. In other words, the American Dream usually lies nearly twice the distance away, at least financially.
b. I Timothy 6:3-10: The Message
i. 3If you have leaders there who teach otherwise, who refuse the solid words of our Master Jesus and this godly instruction, 4tag them for what they are: ignorant windbags who infect the air with germs of envy, controversy, bad-mouthing, suspicious rumors. 5Eventually there’s an epidemic of backstabbing, and truth is but a distant memory. They think religion is a way to make a fast buck.6A devout life does bring wealth, but it’s the rich simplicity of being yourself before God. 7Since we entered the world penniless and will leave it penniless, 8if we have bread on the table and shoes on our feet, that’s enough. 9But if it’s only money these leaders are after, they’ll self-destruct in no time. 10Lust for money brings trouble and nothing but trouble. Going down that path, some lose their footing in the faith completely and live to regret it bitterly ever after RUNNING HARD.
1. Tells us that we need godliness with contentment because the 2 combinations create a healthy life and soul. It creates maturity in our life:
a. Swindoll tells us to do things in life to cultivate a Mature lifestyle (page 224):
i. Look within…and release!
1. Let go of what is holding you back for God.
ii. Look around…and respond!
1. Act as the Lord leads you to someone in need. Take a risk and respond!
2. Swindoll states, “Among the happiest people are those who voluntarily serve others to the glory of God. Some of the saddest are people who have ceased all contact with those in need” (Page 224).
iii. Look up…and rejoice!
1. You are the recipient of His blessings in your life – acknowledge them.
2. It tells us that false teachers will come along and tell us that godliness is a means to financial gain and in reality it is not.
ii. He warns us that those who want to get rich fall into the trap of discontentment which leads to greed and this in time ruins their life.
1. The idol of the love of money has been responsible for the following:
a. The breakdown of the family unit.
b. The breakdown of Marriages.
c. Abortion – it will interfere with my carrier and financial status so I have to have one.
d. To murder for financial reasons.
e. To theft of people’s pensions and life savings.
f. To collapse of society.
2. It is true when money is our love this discontentment in life takes over and all kinds of evil surfaces to the top.
c. We have to learn to be content right where we are at in life!
i. Money will never buy us peace and happiness that comes from godliness and contentment with life and where we find ourselves in life.
1. So instead of looking at what we do not have we should choose to rejoice in what you do have!
a. We need to cultivate an attitude of gratitude!
d. Dr. and Mrs. Meier have a plaque in their home that reads, “All I want in life is a little bit more than I will ever have!” That sign serves as a reminder of the futility of materialistic cravings and of God’s plan for Christians to live contented, well adjusted lives.
i. Dr. Meier’s story:
1. In the mid – 1970’s, while Dr. Meier was a professor of pastoral counseling at Trinity Seminary near Chicago, he was offered a high-paying opportunity to leave his seminary position and become the administrator of a psychiatric clinic. “I admit I had materialistic urges,” Dr. Meier recalls, “and largely because of the salary that was offered, I decided to take the job at the end of the school year.” But then something happened that shook Dr. Meier’s life: his friend and fellow Trinity professor, Paul Little, was killed in a automobile accident. “Paul was a very dedicated man of God,” said Dr. Meier, “a man with real heart for bringing people to Christ. I went to his funeral, and Leighton Ford preached the message. Dr. Ford spoke about the importance of being able to reach a point where you can look back over your life and know that your life has counted for Jesus Christ. As I listened, I was deeply convicted and moved. At that moment, I was filled with a certainty that God wanted me to turn down that high-paying position with the psychiatric clinic and to accept another offer to teach full-time at Dallas Theological Seminary at a lower salary. I heard clearly in my mind the words of Jesus in Matthew 6:3: “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” It was hard for Dr. Meier to let go of the financial security represented by the clinic offer, but he knew what God wanted him to do. His only question was what his wife would think. But when she heard his decision, she responded, “I’m so glad! That’s exactly the decision I was hoping you would make!” Dr. Meier went to Dallas Seminary, where he worked with Dr. Frank Minirth to structure some new counseling courses. Later, Dr. Minirth and Dr. Meier founded the Minirth-Meier Clinic (now called Minirth Meier New Life Clinic), which has since become the largest Christian psychiatric clinic in the world and has a branch offices in 50 cities across the United States. “I came to Dallas area,” Dr. Meier reflects, “expecting to pursue my ministry as a modesty paid seminary professor-but God opened up opportunities I never dreamed of, and which I would probably have never had if I had pursued the higher-paying position. I have learned that God really knows what He is doing in our lives, and I have learned the importance of contentment.” (The Complete Life Encyclopedia page 166).
T.S. – Let’s look at our second text tonight for another thought on contentment.
II. Have you learned to be content in all situations
a. Are you like Paul being content with much or little?
i. Phil. 4:10-13: The Message
1. 10I’m glad in God, far happier than you would ever guess—happy that you’re again showing such strong concern for me. Not that you ever quit praying and thinking about me. You just had no chance to show it. 11Actually, I don’t have a sense of needing anything personally. I’ve learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. 12I’m just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I’ve found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty.
13Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am.
a. Paul had discovered the secret to a happy and fulfilled life – godliness with contentment!
b. Therefore he refused to allow his circumstances to rob him of contentment in life.
c.
ii. His combination of godliness and contentment enabled him to overcome the obstacles of life and it helped him get through many trials and tribulations.
1. From Illustrations Unlimited - SELF-INVENTORY: The story is told of a farmer who had lived on the same farm all his life. It was a good farm, but with the passing years, the farmer began to tire of it. He longed for a change—for something “better.” Every day he found a new reason for criticizing some feature of the old place. Finally, he decided to sell, and listed the farm with a real estate broker who promptly prepared a sales advertisement. As one might expect, it emphasized all the farm’s advantages: ideal location, modern equipment, healthy stock, acres of fertile ground, etc. Before placing the ad in the newspaper, the realtor called the farmer and read the copy to him for his approval. When he had finished, the farmer cried out, “Hold everything! I’ve changed my mind. I am not going to sell. I’ve been looking for a place like that all my life.”
a. Many of us are like this farmer we forgot how blessed we truly are.
b. I challenge you this Thanksgiving to look around at what you have and be thankful for it.
i. It will make you smile!
ii. It will help you appreciate what you already have.
b. Swindoll’s thought on contentment from his book “Laugh Again.”
i. As valuable as affirmation may be, maturity is never more obvious than when an individual evidences contentment. And no one was a better model than Paul, who “Learned to be content,” regardless of his situation. To him it made no difference whether he was freed or bound to a soldier…whether the day was hot and humid or bleak and frigid … whether the Philippians sent a gift of failed to make contact. How wonderfully refreshing. How incredibly mature! (217).
ii. Some people are thermometers. They merely register what is around them. If the situation is tight and pressurized, they register tension and irritability. If it’s stormy, they register worry and fear. It it’s calm, quiet, and comfortable, they register relaxation and peacefulness. Others, however, are thermostats. They regulate the atmosphere. They are the mature change –agents who never let the situation dictate to them (Page 217, 218).
1. This Thanksgiving could you decide to become a thermostat at your family get together!
a. The truth is the Lord can help you with this so that you can change the atmosphere of the event.
c. Paul learned to be content in life - it’s not a gift my friends - it’s a learned behavior – so decide this holiday season to be content and to help others be content!
i. Swindoll tells us that the Greek word for contentment means “Self-sufficiency” which in the context of Paul’s words means having a peace from Christ’s sufficiency (page 218).
ii. Contentment in life comes from a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, it comes by the process of Him saving us from ourselves and helping us renew our minds and thoughts.
d. I find many people lack contentment in their life because they lack significance in their life and significance in life comes from knowing what our divine purpose is in life.
i. Share Pat’s story of the gift of giving.
Conclusion:
Quotes on Contentment from Phillip’s:
He who is content can never be ruined.
—Chinese proverb
A contented mind is a continual feast.
Better a little with content than much with contention.
The best of blessings—a contented mind.
—Latin proverb
Wikipedia Encyclopedia says this about contentment: Contentment is the experience of satisfaction and being at ease in one’s situation.
Are you at ease this Thanks Giving? Are you content and happy with life? If not here are three things you must do:
Here are three things to do to find personal contentment this year at Thanksgiving.
1. Write a personal thank you list to God. Look at what you have and thank God for it.
2. Look for the silver lining in your life this Thanksgiving – in other words look for the good in the bad. Maybe this year has brought many trial to you see the golden nuggets in your life and highlight them – then bad will disappear into the background.
3. Give thanks daily and repeatedly to others – learn to appreciate others and iturn it will bring you contentment.
