BE CONTENT WITH WHAT YOU HAVE
Hebrews 13:1-8 - September 21, 2003
HEBREWS 13:1-8
131Keep on loving each other as brothers. 2Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it. 3Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.
4Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. 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."
6So we say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?"
7Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. 8Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
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Dearest Fellow-Redeemed and Saints in the Lord:
How content are you? This morning our text talks about contentment. It reminds us that we are to be content with what we have. Yet, as we look around us, we realize that our society is a society that tends to direct people towards discontentment and unhappiness. As we read the paper or watch TV or listen to the radio, they always have offers for a better life. If only we had a better house to live in, a better vehicle to drive. Or if only we felt better and have good health, life would be much better. In a sense the on the feeling of discontentment and being unhappy with our situation in life is all around us. We could very easily become part of it, part of those who grumble and complain that it is either too hot or too cold or too dry. We are very seldom content.
Paul wrote to Timothy in his letter and said: "But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that"(1 TIMOTHY 6:6-8). We are going to learn how true those words are. God says if we have food and clothing, we ought to be content with that; and yet we have much more than that don’t we? So we ought to be more content, more content than any generation that has lived; and yet, the words of our text are very fitting for us when he says, "Be content with what you have." Right in the middle of our text we find that as our theme,
Be Content With What You Have
I. Because our Savior will never change
II. Thankfully, believers can always change
I. Our Savior will never change
If there was someone who could have complained and grumbled against God, these people may have been able to do that. They were faced with a very severe persecution, so much so that all their property had been taken away from them, even their houses. Yet, what did the writer say to them? He says, God has said, ’Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’ Even though they did not have all of the extra blessings of earthly possessions they had the comforting and encouraging fact that the Lord was still with them. Remember these people were always connected closely to their past, their past in which their ancestors who wandered in the wilderness. These believers realized that in wandering in the wilderness, their forefathers had never been forsaken. When they came to the Promised Land and met many enemies, they had never been forsaken. Now, once again in these New Testament times when these people were ridiculed because of their Christian faith, they would never be forsaken. In fact the writer adds: 6So we say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?" Man had done a lot to them, and yet God could and would do for more for them than what man could do against them. He encourages them to not be afraid even though they might lose all of their possessions, even though they were driven from their hometowns. God was still with them! That was the encouragement they had.
How did these believers learn all of these things? How did they come to that very comforting knowledge that God would never forsake them and God would always protect them? Our text says: 7Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. They had come to worship to hear God’s Word, and they had heard God’s Word, and they believed. God, by His grace, worked faith into their hearts. Remember those leaders. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. If you think of some of the leaders that they knew, they knew or heard about the Apostles. What was the outcome of their life? Hardly any of these Apostles had faced a natural death because of their faith. Just about all of them faced a horrible, untimely death. Yet here he says, remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. That Word of Truth is able to sustain them through life, even when all around them things to make life easier had been taken away. Yet, they still had spiritual life. They had eternal life that could not be taken away from them.
God’s promise was true. He gives us those very familiar words: "8Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. He was reminding these people, as they would look back at their forefathers who wandered through the wilderness, God made many promises and He kept them. In the present God had made many promises and He was keeping them. So it would just follow, as they would look into the future, God would still make many more promises and He would keep them because He is the same. He is the same God that was God for their forefathers, the same God for their parents and them, and the generations after them. Jesus, our Savior, will never change.
Our text reminds us today that as we live in a changing world, this is our hope and our confidence; this is our reason to be content. Our society moves along at the pace of technology, which changes faster than some of us can adjust. The technology age leaves many behind, not just us, but many others; because it advances so quickly. Sometimes we say to ourselves, "Well, what good is change that is just for the sake of change?" Sometimes change is for the better and sometimes not. In the end our comfort, our confidence, our contentment is not that everything is changing that we might feel lost; but our contentment is in the fact that God does not change. We are not lost but found. Listen to the words of the Prophet Isaiah: "This is what the LORD says--Israel’s King and Redeemer, the LORD Almighty: I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God"(ISAIAH 44:6).
At times we put our confidence in the things around us. We might even put our confidence and trust in the technology around us, or the advice of others, or even ourselves. Yet we are always brought back to the simple fact that there is no other God except the Lord our God. The Lord our God, as you and I know Him, is a loving and forgiving God. The Lord our God is also a righteous and just God. In our life we may wander. We may become discontent in this world, because it seems as if evil wins more often than good. That is the nature of our earthly life, isn’t it? Evil abounds. Sin hangs around until the end of time. The Lord will not let sin go unpunished. The wicked may face no consequence here on earth for their evil actions and for their mistreatment of others, but the Lord is just. Those who do not repent, those who continue in sin will face his eternal judgment. In the Book of Romans Paul writes: "But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger"(ROMANS 2:8). Isn’t that a key here in being content? The writer here is trying to focus these readers away from themselves and self-centeredness.
Our Lord does the same for us today. When we look to God and we see His unselfish love for us and His eternal grace that He has provided for us, we can be content with what we have. Yes, the Lord promises judgment and justice, but He also provides forgiveness and mercy. The Prophet Micah says: "Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy"(MICAH 7:18). When we stop to think about that that is almost beyond our comprehension. You and I, because of our sinful nature, do not delight to show mercy. We like to harbor hatred and anger. We like to get even. We like to carry out revenge if we can. That is our sinful nature, but God is just the opposite. He delights to show mercy. He doesn’t stay angry. Our Lord does not want to be angry, but He wants to show His mercy. We can be content with what we have--God’s love and forgiveness.
So our text continues--be content with what you have because our Savior will never change, and we who are sinners but believers can always change.
II. Believers can always change
Now remember these believers were those who had their possessions taken away. They were driven out of their hometowns and had to find new places to live--different towns or even new countries. They could have been discontent, dissatisfied with how the Lord had directed their lives, and they could have become very despondent over their earthly life. Our text begins by reminding them that they are not alone and that God is with them. He also says: 1Keep on loving each other as brothers,. The Lord reminded them that they had brothers in the Christian faith who were going through the same things as they were. He tells them that they were there to encourage them, and they could love them back just as well.
Then the writer expands on that. He says: 2Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it. So it is that he goes from the love of brothers to entertaining strangers or loving strangers. They wouldn’t have to know those whom they were to love, because everyone was their neighbor. Anyone can be a stranger, but yet be their neighbor. He says some entertained angels. We heard a few weeks ago how Abraham did that--welcomed messengers into his home who were angels. His nephew Lot did the same thing in Genesis. He also welcomed messengers who turned out to be angels.
These believers in today’s text had nothing, but were to love others who maybe had even less than they. The writer uses some examples here: 3Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering. They may have thought they were suffering. They may have thought that the world had come crashing down--which it did. But still they had their Christian faith. Still they had their freedom to move around wherever they wanted to. They were not in prison. They were not poor and destitute, but rather they had food and clothing, and they could be content with that. God reminded these believers if they thought they had it bad, there were others who had it even worse. God said, "Sympathize with them—remember them."
Now, directing their attention from a more public way, he also talks to them about a very private and personal aspect of their lives: 4Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. If we think our times are bad, they were also bad during the times of the early church. People thought nothing of it to commit adultery. The rulers of the day thought nothing of it to have mistresses all over the place. Now the writer here says, “But you are believers. You know what is right and you know what is wrong. Do what is right. Honor the marriage bed. Be pure in heart." Then he says: 5Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have. You can well imagine how miserly these people could have become in their lives. They could have very easily thought, "The Lord has taken everything away from us. How can we be generous? How can we give to God’s kingdom? How can we give to charity?" The Lord reminded them that money wasn’t everything, but contentment was. If they had those evil thoughts and if they had backslid into wickedness and sin, they could change. They could strive to be better.
Our lifetime on earth is a lifetime of grace. It is a lifetime when we are able to grow in God’s grace and appreciate God’s grace and be strengthened by God’s grace, His undeserved love for us. As believers then hopefully day-by-day and year-by-year and generation-by-generation, we change; and we always change. We give up those things that snare us. We begin to appreciate those things, which are truly important. We begin to be content with what we have, mainly our faith. Yet, again, our society makes it seem that if we are not wealthy and if we don’t have enough money, we can’t be happy. We fall into that trap. But the Lord says that He knows what we need. In Matthew, He says: "For the pagans run after all these things (after all of the things of the world), and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well"(MATTHEW 6:31,32). Each one of us have a lot more than food and clothing. There is no reason for us not to be content. Yet, our sinful nature is still with us. We are prone to grumble and complain about a hundred and one things under the sun. The Lord says to us: "Seek God’s kingdom and His righteousness." As we are concerned about God’s kingdom and his righteousness, we are less concerned about the earthliness of this world. We realize that the Lord does provide for what we need.
Our God reminds us too, in a world that is full of sin and evil, to be pure in heart. One can hardly turn on the TV at night and see anything that is acceptable to a Christian to be watching. Gone are the days of a husband and a wife and a family portrayed as normal on television. Now, the situation comedies and the way of life are those who practice homosexuality and lesbianism or aren’t married, have affairs and adulteries. That is the norm or at least that is what the world says. You and I know that is not the norm. We know that these lifestyles are not God pleasing. We know that is not what God wants us to watch or approve. So what are we to do? The Lord gives us His advice: "Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body"(1 CORINTHIANS 6:18). Our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit. It can be difficult in this world in which we live.
But it is not impossible because the Lord says we can be content with what we have because God our Savior does not change. Our Lord looks at us and He says, "But you as sinners can change." We get up in the morning and maybe we make a vow or commitment that day to live a better life; to try to not sin as much as the day before. Yet, how soon we sin with our evil thoughts or words; and at the end of the day we come to the Lord and say, "Lord, I am sorry once again for the sins I have committed, sins that I know and sins that I do not know" just as we pray in the Lord’s Prayer. This is our God, our God who wants us to live with Him forever. Ezekiel says: "Say to them, ’as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways!’"(EZEKIEL 33:11). He speaks of repentance, repentance that you and I know full well, repentance that needs to be preached in this world today; because we can change. We can change from lost and forsaken, abject sinners into found and saved sinners who are forgiven. Again, the Lord allows many things to happen that men might repent. We think of disaster that has fallen from time to time. We think of 9-11 a couple of years ago and how all the churches were filled. Now, those who keep track of such things tell us church attendance is lower than it has ever been in our nation.
The Lord says to us, "Repent!" He says we are people who can change. We can change with our new man for the better. Our old man is always changing us back for the worse. Sadly, that describes our nation. The Lord reminds us this morning to rejoice in the fact that you and I as believers by God’s grace have been saved, that you as believers realize that there is more to this earthly life than just living in it and working and striving and then leaving it all behind. We can be content with what we have, because our God who has promised everything is faithful. Jesus is the same, yesterday, today, tomorrow, and forever. We know that we can improve ourselves so that we might be more content, because we can always change.
Paul writes in Philippians. He had talked about the offering that the believers have given, and he praised them for it. He says: "I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.…I can do everything through him who gives me strength"(PHILIPPIANS 4:11,13) It is something to learn--to be content. We can do it because our God is the same. God never changes but, thankfully, we can change from discontentment to contentment, because we can do everything through God who gives us strength, strength even to be content in a discontented world. Amen.
Pastor Timm O. Meyer
