THE DISCONTENTED CHRISTIAN

Philippians 4:10-20

How much of what was popular in the 1960’s can you still find today? The Andy Griffith Show is still running strong in syndication but not much else can be found. However, I read recently that this summer the Rolling Stones will once again come to the US for a concert tour. Does anyone remember the big hit that has been identified with them since 1965?

“Satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, 1965)

I can't get no satisfaction

'Cause I try and I try and I try and I try

I can't get no, I can't get no

When I'm drivin' in my car

And that man comes on the radio

He's tellin' me more and more

About some useless information

Supposed to fire my imagination

I can't get no, oh no no no

Hey hey hey, that's what I say

I can't get no satisfaction

'Cause I try and I try and I try and I try

I can't get no, I can't get no

When I'm watchin' my TV

And that man comes on to tell me

How white my shirts can be

But he can't be a man 'cause he doesn't smoke

The same cigarettes as me

I can't get no, oh no no no

Hey hey hey, that's what I say

Two decades later, Jagger admitted that "Satisfaction" was "my view of the world, my frustration with everything." Jagger wrote the words -- a litany of disgust with "America, its advertising syndrome, the constant barrage" of materialistic enticements which promised everything but delivered nothing!

Now, forty years later, nothing has really changed. In fact, nothing has really changed in the 3000 years since Solomon wrote the book of Ecclesiastes stating essentially the same message—there is nothing this world offers that truly satisfies.

Yet somehow, we are not put off by that. We keep trying to find something that satisfies at a deeper level, that brings contentment that reaches way down into our hearts. But we have not succeeded—will never succeed, can never succeed—as long as we are looking for satisfaction everywhere but in the One who alone can satisfy.

THESIS: We will never be content with anything until we first learn to be satisfied with Jesus Christ.

I. CONTENTMENT MUST BE LEARNED BY THOSE WHO ARE NEVER SATISFIED.

--People are inclined to learn for a variety of reasons, but the most prevalent one is that they recognize a deficiency which needs to be remedied.

Teachers constantly face this dilemma. They have to search for a way to motivate their students to learn. Sometimes that means identifying a need…for example, an unmotivated high school student who needs math to graduate may become motivated by the promise of a refund on his tax returns if he will learn how to fill out the forms and do the math. Otherwise, he may never care about those particular skills.

--As long as people believe that they can satisfy all their own needs and desires, they will have little interest in finding an alternative source for contentment.

--After all, when we tell people that Jesus is all they need, experience may not verify that for them at first glance.

--Only when they actually take a careful look at how dissatisfied they are, and how insufficient their typical solutions have really been will they be interested in exploring other options.

A. LEARNED BY THOSE WHO ARE READY TO LISTEN AND LEARN.

--People are not naturally inclined to listen and not ready to learn as long as they think they already know all that they need to know.

--Hearing and listening are not the same—our culture has heard about Jesus Christ or had sufficient opportunity to hear.

--But if they are not ready to listen, voices speaking about Jesus blend into the background noise of our culture.

--However, if they finally see that all that they have been pursuing has been worthless in producing the desired levels of satisfaction they want out of life, then they will tune in to listen.

On the way to O’Hare airport this week, a friend was driving while talking animatedly about a topic that had captured his full attention…to the extent that the sign directing us to the airport escaped his notice. He had directions in his bags in the trunk but did not sense the need to learn how to get there until we pulled up to a toll booth a couple of miles past our exit and asked how far we still had to go. Only then did we realize we had a need to learn where to go…but still did not ask for directions! After several more wrong turns, we finally were able to convince him that learning the right directions was rather important if we intended to make it on time. Sitting at the end of a dead end street, we were finally ready to learn and willing to listen!

B. LEARNED BY THOSE WHO ARE CONVINCED OF THEIR EMPTINESS AND FUTILITY.

--After trying everything else, pursuing every other direction and possible source of fulfillment and finding nothing that satisfies, people will then be ready to listen and learn.

--They have no capacity to be content until their most basic needs have been exposed to them, their fundamental purpose revealed.

--A couple of reasons stand out in explaining why we are not able to find contentment in our lives.

1. Dead in Their Desire for God

--If you do not long for God, and have a compelling desire for Him, there are a couple of very real possibilities that may explain why.

a. Are you still dead in trespasses and sin?

Eph. 2:1-5 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, ² in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. ³ Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. ⁴ But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),

--Until we have been made alive by the mercy and great love of God through the grace of Jesus Christ, we will never have any appetite for Him and for all that truly satisfies.

--By “indulging the desires of the flesh and mind,” we may demonstrate the true condition of our soul, that we desire nothing from the Lord because we have not yet been “made alive together with Christ.”

b. Are you choking the desire and dulling your appetite for Him with what cannot satisfy?

--Many, however, have been made alive with Christ but give no indication whatsoever that they are looking to Him and living for Him in such a way that there is any hope they will ever find true contentment.

Jesus tells the parable of the sower of seed and one kind of seed fell among the weeds and thorns and was choked out before it could grow to maturity. For many who have actually come to Christ, a host of voices cry out to them offering alternatives that promise to satisfy their needs and desires—either more than Christ or instead of Christ. Like a bunch of weeds, they choke our desire for him. Like eating junk food kills our appetite for good food, snacking at the smorgasboard of the world dulls our hunger for Christ!

--Having first tasted the goodness of Christ, they lose their appetite for some reason and begin a fruitless pursuit of satisfaction in all the wrong places.

--That leads us to consider the second reason for dissatisfaction and discontentment in our lives.

2. Confused in Their Search for Satisfaction

--Their faulty assumptions about the essential nature of their lives lead them to pursue all the wrong things and live all out, running full speed in the wrong direction.

--They have become confused in their search for satisfaction and are looking in all the wrong places, having been deceived into walking in the wrong direction.

--Solomon had it all…and yet offers the best evidence that even an abundance of the wrong things leave us feeling empty and frustrated by how futile our lives have become.

a. New Thrills to Entertain Us

--What else explains the bizarre lengths to which we will go to experience some new level of excitement, some thrill to push the limits of what we can stand?

We look for musical thrills with the best stereo systems and pay exorbitant prices to go to concerts…physical challenges that push us to the breaking point of distance running, rock climbing, weight lifting, bungee jumping and so on…consumer products that excite us for a while with their novelty (video games, kitchen gadgets, lawn and garden equipment, athletic equipment, and so on).

Ecclesiastes 1:8-9 All things are wearisome; Man is not able to tell it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, Nor is the ear filled with hearing. ⁹ That which has been is that which will be, And that which has been done is that which will be done. So, there is nothing new under the sun…

Eccl. 2:1-3 I said to myself, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure. So enjoy yourself.” And behold, it too was futility. ² I said of laughter, “It is madness,” and of pleasure, “What does it accomplish?” ³ I explored with my mind how to stimulate my body with wine while my mind was guiding me wisely, and how to take hold of folly, until I could see what good there is for the sons of men to do under heaven the few years of their lives.

--Solomon sought contentment and satisfaction in the same ways we see people seeking it still today…

Laughter…wine…sights obsessed with nature)…sounds (addicted to music)…sex…even power

b. Great Success to Satisfy Us

--Others have already pursued thrills beyond imagining and so they look to make their mark in other ways to see if they can find contentment in accomplishment rather than accumulation.

The heroes of our culture are the achievers, those who have accomplished much (and accumulated much). The way we define and dream about life as it could be, life at its ultimate, we seldom veer very far away from a model that shouts “Success!” and shows off “Stuff!” But the fact of the matter remains that those who have reached those peaks are often the least contented people, the most stressed people we have ever seen!

Guys like Donald Trump and Rupert Murdock, Jack Welch and Bill Gates, men who have made fortunes have seldom been held up as models of contentment and satisfaction. They are driven, consumed with finding that elusive point of ultimate peace when all the component parts of life combine to bring total contentment.

Eccl. 2:4-11 I enlarged my works: I built houses for myself, I planted vineyards for myself; ⁵ I made gardens and parks for myself, and I planted in them all kinds of fruit trees; ⁶ I made ponds of water for myself from which to irrigate a forest of growing trees. ⁷ I bought male and female slaves, and I had homeborn slaves. Also I possessed flocks and herds larger than all who preceded me in Jerusalem. ⁸ Also, I collected for myself silver and gold, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I provided for myself male and female singers and the pleasures of men — many concubines. ⁹ Then I became great and increased more than all who preceded me in Jerusalem. My wisdom also stood by me. ¹⁰ And all that my eyes desired I did not refuse them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart was pleased because of all my labor and this was my reward for all my labor. ¹¹ Thus I considered all my activities which my hands had done and the labor which I had exerted, and behold all was vanity and striving after wind and there was no profit under the sun.

Financial…Great and extensive projects…maintained peace on the earth (1 Chron 22:9)…personal brilliance…all were his, yet…

--Solomon had done it all, gathered it all, spent it all, but concluded that everything he had accomplished amounted to a worthless stack of meaninglessness…no contentment or satisfaction in any of it for more than a moment.

c. Self-Indulgence to Give Us Pleasure

--Note especially his emphasis on self-indulgence and a concerted attempt on his part to withhold nothing in his pursuit of pleasure.

--What about all our marks of affluence which serve to indulge our wants but never satisfy our needs? …Vacations…homes…cars…educations…second homes…elaborate entertainment…expensive meals…clothing and jewelry…marks of a culture gone wild in spending but bankrupt in satisfaction!

Eccl. 2:10-11 And all that my eyes desired I did not refuse them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart was pleased because of all my labor and this was my reward for all my labor. ¹¹ Thus I considered all my activities which my hands had done and the labor which I had exerted, and behold all was vanity and striving after wind and there was no profit under the sun.

--To be honest, few people who live that way are ever reflective enough to take an accurate and honest look at their lives long enough to reach Solomon’s conclusion: SOMETHING IS MISSING! …SOMETHING IS PROFOUNDLY WRONG WITH MY LIFE!

--The core issue is simple…we were created for something far more important than creature comfort and human achievement and accumulation and accommodation!

--We were created in such a way that the only way to find contentment and satisfaction is to learn it, not earn it!

II. CONTENTMENT MUST BE TAUGHT BY THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN SATISFY.

--No one is ready to allow God to teach them until they have come to the end of themselves and figured out that what they know on their own is insufficient in bringing about a satisfying way of life.

--GOD ALONE MUST BE OUR TEACHER!

Is. 48:17-18 Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you to profit, Who leads you in the way you should go. ¹⁸ “If only you had paid attention to My commandments! Then your well-being would have been like a river, And your righteousness like the waves of the sea.

Is. 54:13 “And all your sons will be taught of the LORD; And the well-being of your sons will be great.

Matt. 11:29 “Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls.

--What we need to know, only God can teach us!

A. OUR ULTIMATE NEED MUST BE REVEALED

--Our immediate needs, we think we recognize and set out to satisfy them any way we can.

--Our ultimate need, however, must be revealed to us because only God knows what it really is and only He can show us what true contentment is and where it can be found.

We live in the day of the consultant. People are making their living consulting with business leaders and individuals in order to show them what needs to be done next and why it is important. I recently heard that there are now consulting firms that do nothing but consult with consultants! We have recognized in at least one area that we may not be the final authority on what we need and are going after help to find the answers.

God is the ultimate consultant and only He can diagnose our needs and prescribe to us the only way to satisfy those needs.

--By opening our eyes to see the emptiness and vanity of our own experiences and pursuit, and to see the depth of our capacity for fulfillment in living for that which lasts forever, He alone reveals to us those things we have to discover at the feet of the Master Teacher!

John 6:27, 66-68 “Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man shall give to you, for on Him the Father, even God, has set His seal.” …⁶⁶ As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew, and were not walking with Him anymore. ⁶⁷ Jesus said therefore to the twelve, “You do not want to go away also, do you?” ⁶⁸ Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.

B. OUR GREATEST SATISFACTION EXPLAINED

--God’s eternal word pours out the truth about Jesus Christ in page after page so that we might understand what He goes to such great lengths to explain.

--In His Word, we see Christ as our all in all, as the One who alone can satisfy, as the One who is in Himself worth losing or even forsaking everything that we might have Him.

C. OUR DEEPEST CONTENTMENT ASSURED

Matt. 11:29 “Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls.

--Christ assures us that in Him, as we find Him, we will find what our souls have longed for, but until He showed us what was missing, could never have found!

--All our boasting of what we have accomplished or accumulated is empty when we find no contentment in any of it.

Jer. 9:23-24 Thus says the LORD, “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; ²⁴ but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who exercises lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the LORD.

--Our deepest contentment is guaranteed when we seek it in the only place where it may be found—in the Lord Jesus Christ!

What is it going to take for you to give up trying to find what does not exist—satisfaction from this world? If you are not satisfied now after all your looking, what makes you think there is contentment in what both the Lord and the experiences of folks in all ages say is not there?

At the other end of the musical spectrum from the Rolling Stones and their song “Satisfaction,” is country and western music where the emptiness of life apart from the Lord is summarized in another song—“Is That All There Is?” recorded by Peggy Lee.

SPOKEN:

I know what you must be saying to yourselves.

If that's the way she feels about it why doesn't she just end it all?

Oh, no. Not me. I'm in no hurry for that final disappointment.

For I know just as well as I'm standing here talking to you,

when that final moment comes and I'm breathing my last breath, I'll be saying to myself,

SUNG:

Is that all there is, is that all there is

If that's all there is my friends, then let's keep dancing

Let's break out the booze and have a ball

If that's all there is

Going through life and seeing it as one major disappointment after another should compel people to find another way. God offers that way and the only contentment really possible in this life and the next. We can either keep looking in the wrong places and continue to despair, or we can come to Jesus Christ and find all that our hearts have ever longed for, all that we have ever needed, and all that satisfies us with the deepest peace and more wonderful contentment.

May 22, 2005

Providence Baptist Church

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