WHEN TO BE SATISFIED
Are we suffering from an overload of choices these
days? A couple of years ago on our
pastors’ retreat, we went into a grocery store together to buy some snacks and
found one entire aisle devoted to popcorn…an entire aisle!! Take a look at any retail store and allow
yourself to step back a moment and see how much there is of the same kinds of
things…in a mall there are acres of dresses, mountains of shirts and pants,
hundreds of varieties of cell-phones, too many sneakers to count, and on the
choices go. Ask for a cup of coffee and
you have to have a “barista’s training” to know how to order (“a tall, decaf,
skinny latte, no foam, extra hot” is a far cry from the old days’ “gimme a cup
a joe!”).
Career choices and vocational decisions
abound so much so that many in the under-30 crowd are caught in a confused
whirlwind of possible options without any real sense of what they really want
to do with their lives. Satisfying labor
in a meaningful career takes a backseat to the most lucrative jobs with the
highest salaries.
Ask many today what they are passionate
about and they will look at you as if you are speaking a foreign language. Nothing has gotten hold of their passions and
so they merely endure their work, indulge themselves in their leisure and avoid
any serious consideration of why they are here on the planet in the first
place.
Ideas like satisfaction and contentment
are so far from the vocabulary of our culture that the years tick by without
any effort to identify the “why” questions in our lives, leaving us vulnerable
to the wide variety of ways available to us on “how” to live our lives. Few are even asking the question of what it
means to be content, or how to be satisfied in life.
THESIS: We will never
be content with anything until we first learn to be satisfied with Jesus
Christ.
We need a shot in the arm, a jolt back to
reality…we can be content, we can be satisfied…we can be passionate and fulfilled!
I. THE LESSONS OF CONTENTMENT HAVE TO BE LEARNED
Philippians 4:11 Not that I speak from want; for I have learned
to be content in whatever circumstances I am.
--Discontentment
is our natural state, but contentment can be learned when we are satisfied with
Jesus Christ.
A.
LEARNING WHEN TO BE CONTENT
--Several
things need to be understood when we set out to learn when to be content.
--We
have turned things upside down in our values.
--We
learn God’s contentment only when we know when He wants us to be
content…something we do not know on our own!
--Last
week, we looked at the first issue facing us:
1.
Content with Wrong Things
--We
are often content with the wrong things and dissatisfied over the wrong things.
a. Content with Too Little Obedience
·
Content to Allow
the Lost to Remain Lost
·
Content to Leave
the Defenseless without a Voice
·
Content to Let the
Hungry Stay that Way
·
Content to Avoid
the Poor and Excuse Our Lack of Concern
·
Content to Leave
the Prisoners Alone and Forsaken
·
Content to Ignore
the Plight of the Sick
b. Content with Too Little of Christ
· Content
to Leave Our Bibles on the Shelf
· Content
to Worship with Only Our Words
· Content
to Pray without Any Passion or Faith
· Content
to Have a Savior but Not a Master
· Content
to Believe Rightly but Not Live Righteously
--These
are the things we must learn never to be content about, because God wants us to
desire greater things in these areas!
2. Discontent with Wrong Things
--What
has happened is that we have allowed our lives to become dissatisfied with
things that have no lasting value and comfortable with the state of our souls!
An
entire industry has developed in our culture to feed our natural
dissatisfaction and to cultivate an appetite for that which promises to be
“more and better, new and improved.”
Advertising agencies make multiplied millions making us want what we do
not need, desire what has no value, and often crave what will do us no good.
Who would have ever thought we could
be enticed to spend so much time and money on things that have such little
value. We have bought into a consumer
culture that is never satisfied!
--We
are dissatisfied and not content with…
…Our Income …Our Housing
…Our Cars …Our Clothing
…Our Weight …Our Jobs
…Our Marriages …Our
Children
…and so on!!
--These
are the things we must learn to be content about, so that we can invest
ourselves in things that really do matter instead of in things that eventually
leave us empty and looking for something else to satisfy our insatiable
appetite for “more and better.”
--We
will look into this aspect of our calling to contentment in more detail in
another message later in this study.
3. Discontent with Right Things: Discontent with the Present Condition of Our
Souls
--Here,
the Lord invites us to a ‘holy discontent’ so that we might long for, be
fervent for, zealous after, passionate for, consumed by, eager about…and many
other such biblical phrases which speak of God’s intentions for our hearts.
a. Press on toward the prize
Phil. 3:12-14 Not that
I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I press on in
order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ
Jesus. 13 Brethren, I do not
regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting
what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for
the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
b. Striving and Laboring Together
Colossians 1:29 And for this purpose also I labor, striving
according to His power, which mightily works within me.
c. Excel Still More
1Th. 4:1 Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord
Jesus, that, as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk
and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you may excel still more.
d. Fan Gifts into Flame
2Tim. 1:6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God,
which is in you through the laying on of my hands.
e. Thirst and Pant for God
Psa. 42:1-2 As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you,
O God. 2 My soul thirsts for
God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?
--Does
this sound like God wants you to be content to have a passive, indifferent
interest in knowing and loving and gaining more of Christ?
--I
don’t want to be complacent about, or comfortable with my relationship with the
Lord, but to persist with all that is within me to gain more of Him!
4.
Content with the Right Things:
The Sufficiency of All that Is Ours in Christ
--When
we ‘go hard’ after Christ and allow nothing to stand in the way of seeking and
knowing Him, there we will find the only contentment that matters…we will learn to be content with Him alone!
--When
Paul said that he had learned to be content, what do you think he was referring
to? Content in Christ!
--Who
or what can satisfy my soul at its deepest level but Jesus Christ?
a. Content to Be with Jesus
Matt. 11:28-29 “Come to me, all you who are weary and
burdened, and I will give you rest. 29
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart,
and you will find rest for your souls.
b. Content to Rest in His Goodness
Psa. 116:7 Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the LORD has been good to
you.
c. Content to Be Still
Psa. 46:10 “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the
nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”
d. Content to
Appreciate Whatever My Circumstances Bring
Phil. 4:11-12 I am not saying this because I am in need, for
I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12 I 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.
e. Content Not to Understand but Still Trust
Hab. 3:17-18 Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the
vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there
are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, 18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be
joyful in God my Savior.
Of all the choices spinning around out there, is it not time
to make sure that we choose to live according to God’s purpose for our
lives. Surely we can understand that we
will never be content with our lives until we are fulfilling what we are
created to be and do.
What gets you excited? What inflames your passions? What gives you the greatest
satisfaction? If you answer anything
other than Jesus Christ, you are in for some major disappointments in life!
As followers of Jesus Christ, we have a
calling to be men and women of contentment.
With the world around us teasing us and enticing us to want more than we
have, we have to fight against an attitude of discontentment.
But when we find our contentment in Jesus
Christ, we realize that only He can satisfy completely and fill our lives with
contentment. How many times will we have
to learn that lesson? Every day we have
to remember that only He can satisfy and set our heart on Him.
The old hymn expresses it well.
I’d
rather have Jesus than silver or gold;
I’d
rather be His than have riches untold;
I’d
rather have Jesus than houses or lands;
I’d
rather be led by His nail-pierced hand
Than to be the king of a vast
domain,
Or be held in sin’s dread sway;
I’d rather have Jesus than
anything
This world affords today.
I’d
rather have Jesus than men’s applause;
I’d
rather be faithful to His dear cause;
I’d
rather have Jesus than worldwide fame;
I’d
rather be true to His holy name.
Wouldn’t you rather have Jesus and learn
to be content in the only way that lasts?
May 8, 2005
Providence Baptist Church
©
David Horner 2005
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