Content, Only With Christ!
Every day you walk by hundreds, even thousands of people. They have different faces, names, genders, physical characteristics, religions and nationalities. Through all the differences that we have with everyone else, we all have one thing in common; every one of us carries baggage with us everywhere we go. It’s not physical or even visible baggage, but it’s all internal. For some of us we carry the bag of guilt for past wrongs, the bag of pride, the bag of worry, and the bag of loneliness. We all carry a different bag and we take these things with us everywhere we go. Wouldn’t it be nice if we had a place to go to check our bags and not have to carry them with us anymore? Wouldn’t it be nice to finally lay down your pride so that you would stop wearing yourself out trying to be the best? Wouldn’t it be nice to finally lay down that guilt you have been carrying with you for the things you have done in your past? Wouldn’t it be a weight lifted off your shoulders to finally lay down that worry you carry with you everywhere? Wouldn’t it be nice? Well, I have good news! No I didn’t save any money on my car insurance by switching to Geico, but I have something better. I know where you can go to check your bags!
Come with me to a scene that thousands see everyday. Here there is lots of baggage. People are traveling. There is a lot of noise, loud speakers directing you where to go. And airplanes lifting off or landing taking passengers back and forth to different cities. We are in an airport. Most of you are familiar with the experience of an airport.
Pull into the parking lot with me as we get ready to be dropped off for our flight. On our way into the parking lot we begin looking around and noticing different things. For instance, a nice new Mercedes or BMW is just across from you. Over there in that other parking space is a nice Corvette and we think to ourselves, “Man, what I wouldn’t give for one of those.” We have all seen a car or truck sitting there in the parking lot and imagined ourselves driving it. We get to the door and we unload our bags. Now the scene changes, we go inside and we get in line at the airline we are flying so that they can give us our tickets. We are standing there with our 5 or 6 bags and we look around and notice the other people in line around us. We had to get up early this morning to catch our flight and so we didn’t have our nicest outfits on. We notice a man or woman up ahead of us who has obviously taken the time to put on their name brand clothes and we think to ourselves, “Man, it would be nice to have those clothes.” Then we look down and notice that one of our bags has a hole in it. “Great”, we think to ourselves. Then something else catches our eye, the business man up there has some top of the line luggage. We look closely at his luggage to catch the name on the tag and the name says, “Hartmann.” Hartmann is one of the most elegant and most expensive lines of luggage available. And we think to ourselves, “Boy, it sure would be nice to have some luggage that didn’t have holes in it.” Then we wonder what type of bag we have so we look down to see the name and it says, “Discontent.”
I was in St. Louis last weekend with my family for the 4th of July. On Monday morning we couldn’t really decide what to do and no one had any opinions. So some of the ladies decided for us that we would go shopping. Now when I think about shopping I think about Target, Wal-Mart, Champs Sports, stores like that. Apparently, that’s not what they had in mind. We landed at the Galleria in St. Louis. This is a mall for people who have money to burn. We walked in and I looked at Grant and said, “Grant, don’t get your fingerprints on anything. We can’t afford to buy it.” We looked around and everything was so beautiful yet so far out of my range and social class. The guys and gals split up to go look around. As the guys and I looked around we found ourselves in the Bose store. We were looking at all the flat screen TV’s and wondering what they would look like in our living rooms or dorm rooms. Then I was invited back to their theater to check out this new sound system they had. So I headed back with a couple other guys and sat down in this theater type room, staring at this big screen and watched their presentation. They showed me how my life wasn’t complete without this sound equipment because I was missing so much in my “normal” sound equipment at home. They showed me how my big, bulky speakers couldn’t do near the work that their special Bose speakers could do. So, I watched this presentation and I’ve got to admit, I was impressed. I was thinking to myself, “Man, this would look really good in a family room downstairs.” I was just eating it up. The sound was great, it was a big TV. What more could a guy want? When the presentation was over the guy told us a few other things about the product and said, “This could be yours today. Which color do you want?” I had to just laugh at him. The speaker system by itself was over $1,500. That didn’t include the nearly $10,000 TV and the projector that we watched the presentation on. Even in our entertainment, if we don’t have the latest, biggest or best, we’re missing out. So I went home without and watched NFL Network on my 27” Sanyo, non-flat screen, non-high definition, bulky TV. It wasn’t quite the same experience.
We are living in a discontent world and we are stuck with two little words in our heads, “if only.” If only I had a different job, then my life would be better. If only I had a different spouse, then my life would be stress free and nag free. If only I had a better car, then I would look good to my friends. If only my house was bigger and newer, then I would be satisfied. If only my clothes were nicer and I was more cultured, then I would be able to fit in with a certain group. If only I was at a different church, then I wouldn’t feel so much pressure. And as a result of those 2 little words, you buy that nice new car. Then the new car scent wears off and your neighbor just bought the newer version of your car. He has one more amenity and more safety features. So then we say, “If only I had that, then my car would be perfect.” Technology and gadgets have kept up with the times. Now if you still use a cassette player or a walk-man, you are behind the times. An iPod is much better. You just plug it right into your computer, download your music and go. The battery last longer than a walk-man. You can play more songs. They look better and are more portable. You see, there is always going to be an “if only” in your life.
I have started getting up at 6:15-6:30 to go running out at the track recently, so I had to buy a pair of running shoes. My wife and I were looking for a pair over in Springfield and I ran across a pair of Nikes that were okay. I’m not a big fan of Nike, I prefer Adidas. I tried the pair of Nikes on and they fit pretty well, they were a tad big, but I didn’t mind. I’m a guy. When I find what I want, I buy it. I don’t wait around and check prices for 3 weeks at 30 stores, right? My wife warned me and said, “You should wait till we get to St. Louis to see if you find something there.” I said, “No, these are fine. I don’t want to wait.” So I bought the pair of Nikes. Sure enough, as we shopped in St. Louis we came to Champs Sports. I looked in the window and there was this amazing pair of Adidas shoes, a brand new line unlike any shoe I had ever seen before. They were beautiful, soft and were very light. I fell in love instantly. I looked at the price and realized they weren’t too expensive either. I looked at Misty with my big puppy dog eyes and begged for the shoes. She gently reminded me that I had just bought a new pair of Nikes the week before. I looked down at my feet and sure enough, there they were, attached to my feet. And wouldn’t you know it, those 2 little words came out of my mouth. I said, “If only I had listened to my wife I could have gotten the Adidas I really liked.”
With that in mind, I want you to recognize that everyone deals with discontent. Everyone in their life has had a run in with the baggage of discontent. All of us have looked in the mirror and said to ourselves, “If only.” Benjamin Franklin once said, “Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? Nobody.” Even the wisest of all men to ever live had a run in with the baggage of discontent. We can actually find his experiment in the book of Ecclesiastes 2:1-11. The story is that of Solomon, the same Solomon who went to God and God told him to ask for anything he wanted. And what did Solomon ask for? He asked for wisdom. Because of his decision to ask for wisdom instead of women, money or power, God gave him all those things anyway. God had told him to be careful not to get a big head with his new found wisdom and for a while Solomon did really well, but soon he began to push his limits with God. Soon, 1 wife wasn’t good enough and he ended up with over 700 wives and 300 concubines. I sometimes question the depth of his wisdom on that point. And in Ecclesiastes 2, he actually decides to test the theory of discontentment. He decides that he is going to give himself whatever he wants and see if he can make himself be content with that. He made houses for himself, gardens, vineyards, ponds of water, male and female slaves, flocks and herds. He even gave himself a mini concert with singers and gave himself many concubines v. 8 tells us. Then the Bible says that he increased more than all who preceded him in Jerusalem and that he did not refuse his eyes anything that they wanted. If King Solomon wanted it, he got it. This was his reward for his hard work. You might think that a man with all of that, the ruler of a nation, a king, all that money, power, women, homes, etc. would finally get to a point where they had enough and they were happy. Well look at what v. 11 says about that (read). It profited him nothing. For all his work and exertion he got nothing out of it and wasn’t pleased at all. It was futile and all those things were useless. He compares it to chasing the wind.
May I challenge you with something? On a windy day, go outside with a Ziploc bag, chase the wind and try to catch it. If there are any success stories out there of someone who actually catches the wind, I would love to hear about it. You see, the wisest man ever to walk the face of the earth even knew that trying to get things in order to be happy couldn’t be accomplished and was pointless. You will never be content if you only want to have the latest, newest, brightest, biggest or fastest. Maybe you are living that kind of a life today. You keep saying to yourself, “If only” and you continue to strive to have more and make more. God’s plan for Christians is that we learn to be content with what we have. Whether that is 1 million dollars and a Lexus, or $20,000 a year and a beat up 1993 Honda Civic.
So how do we go about changing our mind set? Most of us have lived in this style of discontent for so long that it is going to be hard to change. Let me ask you a question that will hopefully bring this into perspective. When you pass away, how much of what you have or are making are you going to take with you? We are going to take nothing with us when we pass away. Read Ecclesiastes 5:13-16 with me (read). First Solomon says that it is “evil” to hoard “things” and it only hurts the owner. Read v. 16 again, he asks a very tough question there. If you have a $500,000 home and your neighbor has a $70,000 home, guess what? When you both die, you’re both going to leave them right there. Neither home is going to go with you to eternal life. They will both be completely destroyed. You came with nothing and you will leave with nothing. So why waste your life trying to “keep up with the Jones’?”
But Solomon isn’t the only biblical character to tackle this issue. Jesus Himself had something to say about it. Look at what He says in Matthew 6:19-21 (read). Brothers and Sisters, we need to realize that this is not our home. We are just traveling through, we are just aliens in a foreign land. This is not our home. Our home is yet to come. Our home is being prepared for us. So rather than storing up things or treasures on earth where they won’t last, we should be looking further down the road toward heaven, our eternal reward. When you begin to look at what someone else has and wish that you had that as well, I would challenge you to catch yourself, and look at what they have in comparison to heaven. A man who lives on our street is obviously very wealthy and he drives a beautiful Cadillac Escalade. I mean it is absolutely gorgeous. If he knocked on my door and said, “Hey, you want to take it for a spin?” There would be no hesitation on my part. But according to Jesus, my mindset when I see that vehicle should be, “You know what? He may drive a nice vehicle, but someday, I’m going to walk on streets of gold.” No Escalade can compare with that can it? So catch yourself and make yourself realize that there is something better waiting for you than just things. Until you have your focus on bigger things in life than things, you will continue to be discontent with the things you have. You will continue to carry your baggage of discontent around with you.
Allow me to share with you lastly the way the Apostle Paul dealt with this issue. Look at Philippians 4:11-13 (read). Whether he lived in prosperity or was flat broke, was hungry or full, having everything or suffering needs, he knew the answer to the question, “How do I get content with what I have?” The answer is in v. 13, a verse that is highly misused today. Through Christ you can deal with any situation that you are in. If you are here today and have been blessed financially, great! Look at that and realize it’s from God and that through Christ you can be content with the things you have. Maybe you come from a lower class and you don’t have very much at all, that’s okay too. Realize that through Christ you can make it through any situation you are in and if you let Him, He can help you be content with the little you have. This isn’t about saying rich people are bad or that Christians shouldn’t have nice things. It’s about realizing where those things come from, then focusing our thoughts and attentions on heaven so that we can enjoy the life God has given us.
Philip Parham tells the story of a rich industrialist who was disturbed to find a fisherman sitting lazily beside his boat. "Why aren’t you out there fishing?" he asked.
"Because I’ve caught enough fish for today," said the fisherman.
"Why don’t you catch more fish than you need?’ the rich man asked.
"What would I do with them?"
"You could earn more money," came the impatient reply, "and buy a better boat so you could go deeper and catch more fish. You could purchase nylon nets, catch even more fish, and make more money. Soon you’d have a fleet of boats and be rich like me."
The fisherman asked, "Then what would I do?"
"You could sit down and enjoy life," said the industrialist.
"What do you think I’m doing now?" the fisherman replied as he looked placidly out to sea.
Our Daily Bread, May 18, 1994.
Back at the airport, your flight is about ready to leave and the man checking your bags reminds you that the flight’s destination is contentment. But he also reminds you that you can’t get there with your baggage of discontent. You are going to have to check that here at the desk. He points to a man standing off to the side. His name tag says, “JC.” And He says to you, “Cast all your anxiety on me, because I care for you.” The flight is about to board. Will you choose to check your bag and leave your discontent behind? Or do you want to continue to miss out on the amazing things God has in store for you because you are too discontent with the things you already have? Wouldn’t you like to check your bags today?
