September 5, 2004 Stewardship Sermon on Being Content
• In North Africa the natives have a very easy way to capture monkeys. A gourd, with a hole just sufficiently large so that a monkey can thrust his hand into it, is filled with nuts and fastened firmly to a branch of a tree at sunset. During the night a monkey will discover the scent of food, and its source, and will put his hand into the gourd and grasp a handful of nuts. But the hole is too small for the monkey to withdraw his clenched fist, and he has not sense enough to let go of his bounty so that he may escape. Thus he pulls and pulls without success, and when morning comes he is quickly and easily taken.
The illustration of the monkey says it all. There’s a saying that goes, “A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.” Another says, “Not he who has little, but he, who wishes for more, is poor.” Ever since the fall of man there has been a serious problem with people not being content with what they have. It is amazing that father of lies was able to convince Adam and Eve not to be CONTENT with what they had. Here they had a perfect creation, a perfect garden, perfect bodies and a perfect relationship with God and each other. Yet Satan convinced them it wasn’t ENOUGH. The sly creature said of the Tree of Knowledge, God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. (Ge 3:5) Satan’s temptation was to make them think God was selfishly holding something back from them - to make them discontent with God’s time line - to break God’s law for that knowledge. When God asked Adam, “what have you done?”, Adam responded, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” (Ge 3:12) What happened to the man who had initially responded with joy at the bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh? He was no longer content with the woman that was given to him.
This sin set the pattern for ages to come. Ecclesiastes 6:7 says, All man’s efforts are for his mouth, yet his appetite is never satisfied. Isn’t that the truth? This past week I was able to enjoy a wonderful hamburger at Annie’s grill - it had melted cheese, mushrooms, and fried onions on the top. I poured on the ketchup as it went oozing over the top and onto the plate. During this wonderful lunch I also had a full size baked potato, with melted butter and sour cream on the top. To top it off, I was given a rich chocolate pie. I left that place feeling more than content - I was just plain stuffed. Yet just four hours later, I was hungry for more. This is a miniature picture of the plight of life. When you’re in college, you can’t wait to get out of college and get a full time job. But once you get in the routine of life, then you start wanting someone to share it with. If you do get married, you soon find out that’s not enough. Then you feel like you need children. When you have children, then you’d die to get a good night’s sleep or to have an evening off once in a while. Once the kids grow up, you can’t wait to get them through high school and onto college. Then you wish you knew what to do with your time - you wish there was more to do. By the time you get older, you say to yourself, “life will be a lot better once I get this house paid off.” The list goes on and on.
If that weren’t bad enough, we like to go back in our lives and think - “if only.” If only my kids were better behaved . . . . if only I had married someone else. . . if only I had gone to school. . . . if only I had taken that job . . . if only I had stopped smoking . . . if only I hadn’t bought this house.” There comes a time in life when you finally have to ask yourself, “if I can’t be content with my job, my health, my family, my life, when will I be satisfied? When will I be content?”
• One of the riches men in the world, oil tycoon Paul Getty, was being interviewed in London. “If you retired now,” asked a reporter, “would you say your holdings would be worth a billion dollars?” Getty paced up and down the room, mentally adding. “I suppose so,” he said, “but remember, a billion doesn’t go as far as it used to.”
• Coming downstairs one morning, Lord Congelton 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 satisfied, he shortly after handed her a five-pound note, then worth about twenty-five dollars. She thanked him profusely. He paused outside the door to hear if she would express her satisfaction and thank God. As soon as his shadow was invisible, she cried out, “Why didn’t I say ten?”
Ecclesiastes 4:8 There was a man all alone; he had neither son nor brother. There was no end to his toil, yet his eyes were not content with his wealth. “For whom am I toiling,” he asked, “and why am I depriving myself of enjoyment?” This too is meaningless— a miserable business!
We never stop to think that if the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, you can bet the water bill is higher also. This idea of not being content UNTIL we get something is against what being content is all about. Hebrews 13:5 says, Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have. Note - not be content with what you WILL have - but with what you HAVE. Content means -
1) to be possessed of unfailing strength
1a) to be strong, to suffice, to be enough
1b) to be satisfied, to be contented
A part of being content has to do with being strong - to suffice. The picture I get here from these different meanings is to have an inner strength - so that don’t need anything on the outside to make you strong. Being content - therefore - means being able to survive with what you have - so that your attitude, words and your actions cannot be changed by an outside want, pressure, or temptation.
Think of Jesus for instance. He didn’t need to prove to the devil that He was the Son of God. So when the devil tried to get Jesus to turn the stones into bread, jump from the temple, or bow down and worship him, Jesus didn’t feel the pressure to prove anything to Satan. He knew He was the Son of God - He was content with that. When the disciples tried to dissuade him from going to the cross so He could be their kind of king - Jesus didn’t need their approval - He knew He had the Father’s. He was content with that. So He stuck to the course - even though He knew it would be painful. When Jesus’ was called to preach and teach, which also involved going without a bed at night and working late hours - He didn’t worry about it - because He was content with just knowing He was doing what He was born to do. As long He was doing what the Father called Him to do - which even meant being crucified - He was CONTENT with that. Even though He prayed that God would take the cup from Him, when the Father said “no”, Jesus didn’t complain. All He said was, “rise, let’s go - here comes my betrayer.”
When you aren’t content in life - it’s usually because things aren’t going YOUR way - or even if they’re going your way - they aren’t going there fast enough. So the only way you can deal with your problems is to whine and complain about them and walk around with a sour look on your face. You either do that or live life constantly trying to get things to make you content - which usually leads to just plain exhaustion.
• In a cemetery in England stands a grave marker with this inscription: SHE DIED FOR WANT OF THINGS. Alongside that sign is another which reads: HE DIED TRYING TO GIVE THEM TO HER.
Being content means being happy with what you’ve got. It doesn’t mean you don’t try for more or work for more. But WHILE you’re doing that - you have to learn to be happy with what you’ve got. It means not feeling the need to be in the “in” crowd. It means not having to have as nice of furniture as your relatives or friends. It means not having to be as athletic or as popular as someone else at school. It means not having to have the promotion. A true test of whether you’re content or not - is if you don’t get what you want - if you end up angry over it or lose sleep over it. Then you’re not really content with what God has given you.
I have a sinking feeling that not only I am guilty of this sin, but so are you. When you really think about it - it really has got to be aggravating to God. It reminds me of what happens more than occasionally in our house. I can spend a whole afternoon playing with my children and entertaining them, but as the afternoon goes on, and I get more and more tired, my children become more and more demanding. They start whining if I don’t do more and more with them, or buy them a snack, when it is time for us to get home. Nothing irritates me more. I say to them, “couldn’t you little cretins be the least bit thankful at least? Stop and think about how often God must say that to Himself as He sees us Americans complain because we’re so tired or our TV’s aren’t big enough or our beds don’t adjust quite right. Oh, what a rough life we have. The question has to come - when will you ever be content?
How do we get that strong and content attitude - the kind that doesn’t feel the need to have more than what we’ve got. I believe it starts with taking a good look at what you’ve got. First and foremost - you have a very generous God - who has not been stingy with you. In Psalm 23:5 David declared, You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Notice what he said about his cup - it wasn’t empty - it was overflowing. David also predicted in Psalm 22:26 that, The poor will eat and be satisfied; they who seek the LORD will praise him— may your hearts live forever! When God offered His Son as a sacrifice - He spared no expenses. He didn’t just offer some filthy prostitute or a drug addicted beggar. He offered the best blood He could find - the blood of God - His ONLY SON - Jesus Christ. God Himself devoured this plate with His wrath on the hill of Golgotha. This wasn’t just a sacrifice for a select few - but for the entire world of sinners. Paul explained it this way, The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. (1 Ti 1:14-15) Think about how gracious God has been with us! As you realize your sin and once again throw it on the cross this morning - God doesn’t say, “ok, but this is the LAST TIME.” He generously says to us, “here’s my blood that was shed for you - here’s my body that was sacrificed for you. Take it and eat it and drink it. Remember - these were sacrificed for you. Go in peace!”
This would be enough of a gift that with nothing else - not one of us would have the right to claim God has been stingy. Yet God goes well beyond this. Listen to what Jesus says in His Sermon on the Mount -
Matthew 6:28-33 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, 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.
When the writer to the Hebrews wrote to fellow Christians, he told them why they were to be content with what they had - 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?”(Heb 13:5-6)
How can you be content? The answer begins and ends with going back to the promises of God. God has given you holiness and perfection and eternal life in Christ. On top of this, He promises that He will give you enough to eat and drink and wear in this life.
• A bishop of the early church, who was a remarkable example of the virtue of contentment, was asked his secret. The venerable old man replied: “It consists in nothing more than making a right use of my eyes. In whatever state I am, I first of all look up to heaven and remember that my principal business here is to get there. Then I look down upon the earth, and call to mind how small a place I shall occupy in it when I die and am buried. I then look around in the world, and observe what multitudes there are who are in many respects more unhappy than myself. Thus I learn where true happiness is placed, where all our cares must end, and what little reason I have to complain.”
When we look at life from that view point, we can then say with Paul in 1 Timothy 6:8 that if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. We have a gift of knowing that God accepts us in Christ - that God gives us eternity in His blood. Knowing this, we can also sing with Martin Luther, “and take they our life, goods, fame, child and wife - let these all be gone, they yet have nothing won - the kingdom ours remaineth.” Remember, if you lose your job, you still haven’t lost your salvation. If you lose your health, you still haven’t lost your Savior. If you lose your reputation with your friends, you still have the same reputation with God - through Christ. If your spouse dies, your faith in the resurrection still lives. Nothing can take that away from you. This is the secret of being content.
The Green Bay Packers used to have a quarterback named Randy Wright - whom I believe went to the University of Wisconsin. He was not a very good quarterback. His arm seemed to be like a wet noodle - and every time he was tackled it looked like he was going to cry. I can remember getting so frustrated watching him play after having had ex-K-State quarterback Lynn Dickey at the helm - it was like night and day. Yet after his very mediocre performances, Randy Wright actually had the gall to try and hold out on the Packers because he felt like the Packers weren’t being generous enough with him. He didn’t want to play until he got more money. I thought, “you’ve got to be kidding me! Here we are paying you tons more than we’ll ever get - and you want more money to throw interceptions and get sacked! You should be paying us to play!”
Many people accuse God of not being generous enough with them. They feel they’ve been given the short end of the stick because of their health, their family, or some other mishap that happened in their life. They have no desire to serve God in the least - they are in fact NOT ABLE to serve - because they don’t feel God has served them. It’s a joke! Can any of us truly say that God has been stingy with us? Look at that cross - and tell me that God has been stingy with you. Look at the empty grave - and tell me that God hasn’t given you His all? Look at the birds and flowers of the field - and then look in your closet and fridge - and tell me that God hasn’t taken care of you? Do any of us have a right to hold out on God? No. It is a baseless accusation. You and I realize that God has been more than generous with us. We have every reason to be content. Therefore, with Paul and David, through faith in God’s promises, we have every reason to serve and be good stewards. Amen.
