No Longer a Slave to DISCONTENT!
Series: No Longer Slaves
Chuck Sligh
February 17, 2019
NOTE: A PowerPoint presentation is available for this sermon by request at chucksligh@hotmail.com.
TEXT: 1 Timothy 6:6 – “But godliness with contentment is great gain.” (Please keep your Bibles open to this text as we will return to it later in the sermon.)
INTRODUCTION
The Bible says that being godly is not enough. Great gain in the spiritual sense is attained only when a godly person adds to his godliness a spirit of contentment
Contentment is defined as “satisfaction with what one has.” If that’s the case, then America is a country that has a massive case of discontentment. How ironic it is that though we live in the most prosperous nation on the face of the earth and in the history of the world, we still struggle with contentment.
John Cheever said, “The main emotion of the adult American who has had all the advantages of wealth, education and culture is disappointment.” (Leadership Journal)
Discontent is the driving force of our political divisions, it’s the main reason we go into debt unnecessarily, it causes people to resort to unnecessary cosmetic surgery, and feeds our incessant “keeping up with the Joneses” syndrome.
Illus. – Some time ago there appeared in a newspaper a cartoon showing two fields divided by a fence. Both fields were about the same size and each had plenty of the same kind of grass—green and lush. In each field there was a mule, and each mule had his head through the fence eating grass from the other mule’s pasture. All around each mule in his own field was plenty of grass, yet the grass in the other field seemed greener or fresher, although it was harder to get. And in the process, the mules were caught in the wires and were unable to extricate themselves. The cartoonist put just one word at the bottom of the picture—“DISCONTENT”!
Actually, the Bible has a lot to say about satisfaction and contentment. God wants us to learn contentment, but it’s not something that comes naturally. It’s the nature of mankind to be discontent. Contentment is something that we must learn. Paul said in Philippians 4:11 – “Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have LEARNED, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.” Paul had to learn content because it was not something natural to him.
How do you know when you are becoming discontent?—When you find yourself saying these two little words: “I wish…”—“I wish we had more money,” “I wish we had a bigger house,” “I wish we had a better car,” “I wish I had a better figure,” “I wish I had a better personality,” “I wish I had a better spouse,” “I wish I weren’t married,” “I wish I WERE married,” “I wish I had better parents,”—“I wish; I wish; I wish.”
When we do that, we put ourselves in spiritual peril because God REALLY does not like it when His people grumble and complain. When the Israelites complained about their hardships, Numbers 11 says God sent fire down from heaven. He literally got “fired up” over it, so to speak. Later, in the same chapter, it tells us that the Israelites were not satisfied with the manna God provided for them daily. No matter what God did for them, they murmured and complained. In 1 Corinthians 10:10-12, Paul said, “Neither murmur…, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed…. 11 Now all these things happened [to] them [as examples]: and they are written for our admonition…”
As you can see, grumbling and complaining really tick God off! Why does God respond so strongly to discontent?
First, because discontentment betrays a lack of faith.
It denies that God is good. It rejects the sufficiency of His provision for our needs.
Second, it shows an unwillingness to submit to God’s management in our lives.
It says, in effect, “God, You don’t know what You’re doing. You’re blowing it. I can run this show better than you can.”
Finally, discontentment reveals a deep ingratitude for God’s blessings. – Let’s take the Israelites as an example:
God had blessed them immensely by delivering them from slavery, by delivering them from certain annihilation by Pharaoh’s army at the Red Sea, and by providing all their needs over and over and over again in the wilderness. Yet they continually murmured and griped.
I would like you to note three areas in which God wants you to be content:
I. BE CONTENT WITH YOUR UNCHANGEABLE FEATURES.
It’s a good testimony to look as good as we can with what we have to work with. We should keep ourselves properly bathed and wash and brush our hair, and there’s nothing wrong with highlighting our looks or being stylish and so on.
But in our sensual age, we often find ourselves dissatisfied with certain unchangeable features that are given to us by God. You may be dissatisfied with your body type; your curls, or lack of them; your intellectual capabilities; your race or color; your body blemishes or birthmarks; your lack of talents;…the list of discontent in our lives is endless.
Pretty much, you should try to present to the world the best version of you that you can. But did you know that the things you don’t like about yourself aren’t FLAWS, but actually they’re design FEATURES by God?
Listen to Psalm 139:15-16 – “My substance [lit. “frame”] was not [hidden] from [You], when I was made in secret [that is, in the secret place of the womb], and [intricately woven] in the [depths] of the earth. 16 [Your] eyes did see my [unformed body]; and [in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.]”
God made each one of us PERFECT for the plan He laid out for us in our lives. God wants you to be content with the body, mind, capabilities and capacities He has designed you with. There are some things that are unchangeable to some degree, and God wants you to be okay with that.
II. SECOND, YOU SHOULD BE CONTENT WITH YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES OF LIFE.
Hebrews 13:5 – “Let your [behavior] be without covetousness [wanting what you don’t have]; and be content with such things as ye have: for he [has] said, I will never leave [you], nor forsake [you].”
Our text was 1 Timothy 6:6 – “But godliness with contentment is great gain.”
But verse 6 is actually the beginning of a longer paragraph where Paul elaborates on contentment.
Look with me at verses 7-10 – “For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. 8 And having food and [clothing] let us therewith be content. 9 But they [who] will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. 10 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”
Illus. – Coming downstairs one morning, Lord Congelton, a Christian aristocrat, heard the cook exclaim, “Oh, if I only had five Pounds, wouldn’t I be content!” Thinking the matter over, and anxious to see the woman content, he handed her a five-Pound note, worth about twenty-five dollars in today’s currency.
She thanked him profusely. He paused outside the door to hear if she would express her contentment and thank God.
As soon as his shadow was gone, she cried out, “Why didn’t I say ten?!”
Illus. – John D, Rockefeller was one time asked; “How much money does it take to be happy?” – He replied, “Just a little bit more.”
Quotation – Bill Hybels tells us this about the billionaire Howard Hughes:
At one time Howard Hughes was the richest man in the world. All he ever really wanted in life was more. He wanted more money, so he parlayed inherited wealth into a billion-dollar pile of assets. He wanted more fame, so he broke into the Hollywood scene and soon became a filmmaker and star. He wanted more sensual pleasures, so he paid handsome sums to indulge his every sexual urge. He wanted more thrills, so he designed, built, and piloted the fastest aircraft in the world. He wanted more power, so he secretly dealt political favors so skillfully that two US presidents became his pawns. All he ever wanted was more. He was absolutely convinced that more would bring him true satisfaction. Unfortunately, history shows otherwise. He concluded his life emaciated; colorless; sunken chest; fingernails in grotesque, inches-long corkscrews; rotting, black teeth; tumors; innumerable needle marks from his drug addiction. Howard Hughes died believing the myth of more. He died a billionaire junkie, insane by all reasonable standards. [Bill Hybels in Leadership, Vol. X #3 Summer, 1989, p. 38.]
It’s been proven over and over again: money and material things do not bring contentment. Contentment comes from the heart regardless of your external circumstances.
The whole advertising business is built on creating discontent. It shows the latest and best of something or the other and cries out in subtle ways to you, “You need this,” or “You’re not beautiful enough, but this will make you beautiful and noticed and accepted,” or “You will be more respected if you buy this car,” and on and on it goes.
Here’s a test of your level of discontent:
1. Do you complain about your level of income?
2. Have you bought anything on credit this month that you will not be able to pay when the bill comes in?
3. Are you jealous when someone you know gets something you cannot afford?
4. Do you often dream of having things you never expect to be able to get?
5. Have you complained about your car or your clothes this week?
6. Do you think that you could finally be happy if you had just a little more income or material goods?
Here’s how you know you’re being content: When you’re not complaining about the way things are and you’re thanking God for whatever you have rather than focusing on what you do not have. Being content with your circumstances also involves learning to be satisfied in the bad times as well as in the good times.
In Philippians 4:11-13, Paul says, “Not that I speak [because I am in want of anything]: for I have learned, in whatever state I am, to be content [in it]. 12 I know both how to be abased [that is, “to be humbled,” or “to be in need”], and I know how to abound: everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. 13 I can do all things through Christ [who strengthens] me.”
Christians casually quote that last verse “I can do all thing through Christ who strengthens me” in all kinds of contexts it has nothing to do with.
• I can stay on this diet because “I can do all thing through Christ who strengthens me.”
• I can do well on my PT test because “I can do all thing through Christ who strengthens me.”
• I can get that promotion because “I can do all thing through Christ who strengthens me.”
Maybe this verse can have other applications, but they have nothing to do with what Paul was saying here.
What Paul’s really saying is, “I have learned something important in life. What I’ve learned is to be just as content when the I have very little and when I’m in poverty as when the money’s flowing in and everything’s going my way.”
If you’re content when all your bills are paid, the money’s good, and you can put some money in the bank, that doesn’t tell me any thing about your spirituality. Of course it’s easy to be content when you’re “abounding,” as Paul describes it! But when you’re being “abased,” that is, when you’re financially struggling, when you have to go without some things, when you can’t keep up with the Joneses anymore, when you had to sell your house to get out of crushing debt—if you can be content when you’re in that state or condition in your life, you’re truly showing the kind of contentment Paul speaks of.
Can you do that? Of course!—For it is in exactly THAT very context—in that very situation—that Paul declares, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Being content with your circumstances in life also includes where God puts you. Many of you are discontent because of where the Army stationed you. But you’ve got that all “catawampus,” as we say down in Texas. The Army didn’t cut your orders, or your husband’s orders; GOD DID! God could have had you stationed at any Army post in the world, but if you’re here, GOD HAS A PURPOSE FOR IT! You should stop complaining, stop talking about missing Walmart and Chick-fil-A or whatever you’re missing, and say, “God, You have me here for a purpose, and your purposes are always good. I’m gonna put my big boy pants or my big girl pants on and I’m going to be content and look for the good and great things you want me to learn and grow in here.
Happiness and contentment in life are not based on WHERE you are, but WHAT you are.
Illus. – When I was growing up, we would visit some friends in Michigan where they got tons of snow and interminable months of cold weather, and all they did was complain about it—The cold and the snow and the ice, and on and on they went.
So, one year they had decided to move to Florida where the sun always shines, and they were SO excited. It was like they were moving to the Promised Land and all their problems were going to disappear. They’d go to the beach every weekend, visit Disney World and Sea World every summer and all their problems in Michigan would melt away.
But when they moved to Florida, they found out they had problems there too! In Florida there were bills to meet and taxes to pay and traffic to circumnavigate just like in Michigan. And no, there was no cold, snow and ice, but the summers were uncomfortable and swelteringly hot. And they became so busy that one day they realized that when they lived in Michigan, they actually visited the Florida beaches and Disney World and Sea World more often when they were in Michigan!
And when we visited them a few years later, they were still unhappy and unfulfilled and were talking about moving to California!
Happiness is not based upon where you’re located. Otherwise, Paul could not have been happy in a jail cell in Rome. But when you read the book of Philippians—written from a Roman prison, the words joy and rejoicing are found more frequently than in any book in the New Testament. Someone once said, “If the grass looks greener on the other side of the hill; you can bet the water bill is higher!”
III. FINALLY, WE SHOULD BE CONTENT WITH THE PEOPLE GOD BRINGS INTO OUR LIVES.
You should be content with the family God put you in.
Note Genesis 45:1-8, with the backdrop of all the things that happened to Joseph because of his brothers – “Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him; and he cried, ‘Cause every man to go out from me.’ And there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. 2 And he wept aloud: and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard. 3 And Joseph said [to] his brethren, ‘I am Joseph; [does] my father [still] live?’ And his brethren could not answer him; for they were troubled at his presence. 4 And Joseph said [to] his brethren, ‘Come near to me, [please].’ And they came near. And he said, ‘I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt. 5 Now therefore do not be [distressed] nor angry with yourselves, that [you] sold me [into slavery]: for God send me before you to preserve life. 6 For these two years the famine [has] been in the land: and [still] there are five years, in…which there [will] neither be [plowing] nor harvest. 7 And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. 8 So now it was not you that sent me [here], but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.’”
Like Joseph, God wants you to learn contentment with the parents God gave you; the siblings God gave you; the parents-in-law you chose (when you choose a mate you also choose your in-laws). God could have put you in a different home, with different parents, in different circumstances.
But He put you in the home you are in with the family members you have for a purpose. It may be that you were mistreated or neglected, but somehow God had a purpose in it that you may never see in this life, but God always has a purpose and His purposes are always good. Come to peace with your family and see how God may have used your circumstances and upbringing to make you into the person you are today.
Speaking of people in your life, you should be content with your spouse. When people date, they are so “in love” that they usually do see the faults in their loved one, but think, I’ll change those when we get married. How’s that working out for you?—Usually, not so good.
Now don’t get me wrong, you and your spouse need to grow and become better people and learn from one another. But folks, I’m going to tell you right now, the things that drive you crazy right now are going the be the same things that drive you crazy 50 years from now! These kinds of things start to eat at a marriage and make the two of you start to eat up each OTHER! At some point in your marriage, you have to decide what are a few absolute necessities that HAVE to change with your spouse, and articulate them to him or her, and then you just have to let the other stuff go. They will just make both of you distressed and unhappy and discontent. And in learning to overlook the faults in your spouse, you will learn to be a better person, more patient, more loving, less stressed out.
Being content with many of your spouse’s faults and foibles is way better than being a fault-finding, negative, critical, judgmental, argumentative spouse.
CONCLUSION
So, what is the antidote to discontent?
First, understand the ultimate result of circumstances and people in your life.
Romans 8:28 – “And we know that ALL THINGS work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” – It’s easier to be content with the circumstances and people in your life if you understand that they are part of God’s plan and purpose in your life to bring about good in your life.
Second, learn the practice of PRAISE – Psalm 34:1 – “I will bless the Lord AT ALL TIMES: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.”
When things are going good, praise God; when things are going bad, praise God. Just praise God ALL the time!
Third, give THANKS – 1 Thessalonians 5:18 – “In EVERYTHING give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”
Just give thanks, whether you feel like it or not. You’ll thank Him later when you see the purpose for which he allowed you to suffer. Thanking him now is an expression of trust that God will turn whatever bad you are experiencing into good. Rejoice – Philippians 4:4 – “REJOICE in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.” Just rejoice; in good times and bed. Always rejoice.
