I can confidently say I've never
heard that song sung more beautifully. My goodness, I'm glad they did
that acapella. That was a blessing. All right,
if you would, open your Bibles with me to Philippians chapter
four. Philippians four. We'll begin our reading in verse
11. Not that I speak in respect of
want, for I have learned. In whatsoever state I am therewith
to be content. I both know how to be abased
and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things
I'm instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound
and to suffer need. My title this morning is contentment,
contentment. And my subject is a difficult
one. Because contentment is very, very elusive to most people.
Even believers, even believers. But I have three points from
the word of God that will teach us about true contentment. And I pray that it will enable
all of us to be more content, to be able to find true contentment
in whatever state our God has been pleased to put us in. I
believe all my points are questions, and the first one is this. What
is contentment? What is contentment? Well, the
word contentment that Paul uses here means to have sufficient
for oneself, is to have everything that you need. And it also means
independent of external circumstances. Now, the reason that contentment
is so elusive to us, is we understand the first part of that definition,
don't we? I can understand being content if I have sufficient.
If everything I want, everything I need, I can understand contentment.
But by nature, we don't understand the second part of that definition,
that contentment, true contentment, is independent of external circumstances. See, the thing, the key to this
thing of contentment is the second part of that definition. It's
having my contentment be independent of external circumstances in
the flesh. Now that definition tells me that having contentment,
true contentment, is not having all that we want of this earth's
goods. It's not having everything that
I want from my body. True contentment, if it's independent
of external things, Can't be based upon external things, can
it? True contentment is a matter of the heart. And it doesn't
have anything to do with what I have or what I don't have.
Contentment is satisfaction. I'm satisfied because I believe
God. I have contentment because I
trust Him. And everything that happens to me and to mine, I
trust Him. That's contentment. contentment
is being satisfied with things as they are as I wish they were,
but as they are. And here's the reason that I
can be satisfied with things as they are. Whether I'm hungry
or whether I'm full, whether I'm a bounding or whether I'm
a based, here's the reason I can be satisfied, content with things
as they are because I know my God made this situation to be
what it is and I know he always does only what's right and what's
best. So I'm content because our God
has done it. And I tell you the thing that
keeps us from having contentment, being contented with things as
they are, it's pride. That's all it is. It's pride.
Pride says, I deserve better than this. Pride says, I deserve
to have what I see other people have. I deserve that just as
much as they do. Pride says, I deserve that, what somebody
else has. Contentment says, I'm satisfied with this situation.
I'm satisfied with what God has given me, because he's given
me exactly what he intends for me to have. That's contentment.
Now let me say this, and please listen to me. I don't think,
hopefully nobody here will do that. Somebody listening to the
recording or something might, but somebody is very likely,
because of the flesh that we all have, is going to get real
outwardly religious, and they're gonna take this thing too far
and stress the scriptures and try to make it mean something
it doesn't mean. And usually when they do this, they don't
do it for themselves. They do it to put a burden on
somebody else. They take this thing too far
to put a burden on somebody else. Now listen, I'm not saying, and
scripture does not teach, that we're not supposed to care about
our welfare and the welfare of our family, the happiness of
our family. You know, you parents, it's your
job to be concerned about the welfare of your children, the
welfare of your family. That's your job. God's given
you that responsibility. Now, if somebody's hungry, don't
say, oh, well, God intends for him to be hungry, so I'm not
going to do anything about it. No, you have to eat. Then I'll tell
you what to do. Go out and work. Work hard. Buy you some good food and enjoy
the fruits of your labor. Don't blame it on God. If you're
homeless, don't say, well, God intends me to be homeless, so
I'll just sit here under the bridge somewhere. No, you need
a roof over your head. Go work. And as much as you can,
buy something that's sturdy and nice and as comfortable as you
can. A place to live and stay out of the weather. Here, aren't
you glad you're not homeless today? The snow blowing, it's
so cold. Nobody's saying you have to be content with that.
If you have a bad boss, you spend nine, 10 hours a day at work,
and that boss makes you utterly miserable every second of every
day. If you work for Ebeneezer Scrooge, don't say, well, God
intends for him to be miserable, so I'm just going to sit here
and relish in my misery. No. Go out there and look for
a new job. Go out there. What's one of those
job websites? Sign up on one of them things.
See if you can get you a new job. And if somebody offers it to
you, take it. As long as it doesn't stop you from worshiping God.
As long as it doesn't take away your ability to meet together
with God's people, you take it. Faith in God, trust in God, does
not make a believer fatalistic. Not in the least. Believers are
to be hardworking, they're to be diligent, they're to be resourceful,
they're to be dependable people. You're being resourceful and
finding a solution to the problem that you have. That's not questioning
God. That's just not. Here's what
the scripture teaches in regards to all these matters. And it's
about contentment. Number one, most importantly,
we're to pray about them, aren't we? Aren't we to pray about these
earthly situations? Our Lord taught us to give us
this day our daily bread. And I'm confident that doesn't
just mean food we put in our mouth, it's what we need in this
life. Our Lord taught us, give us this day our daily bread.
And then go work to earn it. Go get a job and work to earn
it. Paul said, if a man won't work, neither should he eat.
Isn't that right? So we pray. We pray and ask the Lord, give
us what we need. Go work for what you need and
then trust the Lord to provide what's best. See that? Work for, ask the Lord, pray,
ask him for what you need. He said pray about all things,
ask me, because I'm your father. What child is afraid to go talk
to their father? Talk to him. And work hard, you know, to make
a living in this world and trust the Lord to provide what's best
and right for you. See, we are to have some care
about our welfare, aren't we? We're to take care of our families.
We're to take care of our animals. We're to take care of our jobs.
We're to take care of our reputation in the community. We have some
concern about those things, but this is what scripture teaches.
Don't have excessive care about those things. Don't have excessive
worry about those things. See, if I'm really trusting the
Lord to provide what's best, I'm not going to have excessive
care. If I truly trust the Lord, I know that I'm just not gonna
have excessive care about the things of this life. Because
I know there's something more important. Knowing Him, trusting
Him, worshiping Him, that's more important. And nobody's saying
the things of this life are not important. Now, how you provide
for your family and how you work your job, that's important. But
the things of Christ are more important. See, that's what scripture
teaches. Give each of these things the
attention that they deserve in their place. That's why our Lord
told us, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
That's what you seek first. All these other things are bad
to you. And that will keep us from excessive worry. That's
contentment. All right, here's my second question.
Why should a believer be content? Every believer ought to be content.
Why should a believer be content? I have a lot of reasons for this.
I didn't number them, but there's a lot. First of all, I should
be content because it's dangerous to be discontented. It's dangerous
to be discontented. It's dangerous to be the person
who can never be satisfied. There's a danger in that. There's
a danger in that in my personal life, the life that I live in
this flesh. If I'm always complaining about what I don't have, I'm
very likely to miss out on the blessing of what I do have. If
I'm complaining about what God hasn't given me, I'm very likely
to miss out on the blessing of what God has given me. And boy,
he's given, hasn't he? Hasn't he given hand over fist?
Now, if you're unhappy in a situation, I don't blame you at all for
seeking to change it. That's what you ought to do. There's
nothing wrong with that. But if you do that, and the Lord
just closes every door, there's just no way out. He just shows
you. He's not gonna allow this situation
to be changed. At least right now, He's not. Then don't complain
about it. Because remember, this is what
the Lord shows you. If He closes every door, there's
just no way out. A believer is to be resourceful,
but boy, the Lord's just not providing a way out. Then the
Lord's made it clear, this is the Lord's will in this situation
for me. since he does what's right and
what's best, I'll be contented in it because contentment is
independent of external things, right? Contentment for the believer
comes with a satisfaction in the will of our God and a humble
submission to it. That's, that's contentment in
the heart and not having that That takes away enjoyment from
my natural life. It makes it more difficult. It
makes it less enjoyable. But boy, discontentment can do
the very same thing. It can cause the very same damage
to my spiritual life. If you and I here are not satisfied
with the ministry that God has given us here, He's been pleased
to give us this ministry. He hasn't been pleased to give
us one of the great ministries of the past. There's thousands
of people there and all those things. But he's been pleased
to give us this ministry. And we're just not happy with
it. We can't be contented with it. I'll tell you what we'll
do. We'll be very prone to compromise. We'll be very prone to compromise
the gospel. I'm not satisfied with the number
of people who attend, so I'm gonna compromise the gospel so
I'll attract more people. I'm gonna find a way to make
this thing more palatable to the flesh so we'll get more people
here. So I'm just not satisfied. Can't
be content with it. There's two big problems in that.
Number one is this. If we compromise the gospel,
we compromise the truth in order to get something externally,
we've dishonored our God, we've dishonored our Savior, and we've
harmed the souls of men. We've harmed their souls by not
telling them the truth. And our second problem we get
by compromising the gospel is this. Say you do compromise. Say you take the edge off of
it. Say you do things that attract more people. You know who you're
going to attract? Goats. That's exactly who you're going
to attract. They're not going to attract sheep. Sheep are drawn
to the truth. Sheep are drawn to Christ. Sheep
are fed on Christ. But if we compromise the gospel,
all we're going to get is goats. And nobody in their right mind
wants to be a goat herder. That is our dissatisfaction. has harmed the church body yet.
Say somebody's not contented with the building, it's not fancy
enough, it's not in a big enough place, you know, it's not impressive
enough, doesn't have columns, doesn't have what all, well you
know what we're gonna end up doing? We're gonna end up garnishing
the building and not garnishing men's souls with Christ by preaching
Christ to them. If somebody's discontented with
their role in the ministry, you know what they're gonna do? they're
gonna tear it apart. They're gonna tear it apart and
scramble over everybody that they can to get the place that
they want, to get the recognition that they want. Instead of being
submissive to God's will and doing what I can do for the ministry,
instead of being submissive to God's will and doing what God's
given me to do, I'm gonna do everything I can to do what I
want to do. I'm telling you, it's gonna tear up the ministry.
tear up the congregation, and we do that, we've harmed the
ability of people to come together and worship in peace and harmony. Second, I should be content. It's dangerous to be discontented.
But secondly, I should be content because you know what? God's
given me everything I need. He has given me everything, both
physically and spiritually. I don't think there's a person
here that could disagree with that statement. God's given me
everything I need. And I should be content, physically
speaking, in whatsoever state I am, because I'm telling you
this, whatever it is I have, Eric has a whole lot more than
I deserve. I thank God He hasn't given me
what I deserve. I don't deserve the least of
God's mercies. Yet I can say with David, my
cup runneth over. I should be content with the
mercy that God... He's made my cup run over. with
the riches of his mercy, the riches of his grace. Solomon
and all of his riches would be jealous of the life many of us
live. Joyce Brown pointed out this
to me. You think what Solomon would give to have indoor plumbing?
I mean, he'd be jealous of us. Oh, we're rich. We're rich. Oh, and spiritually speaking,
how can we not be content? The Father has given us the unspeakable
gift of His Son. He's given us faith to trust
Him. That's good religious sounding
words, isn't it? To say, oh, I trust Christ. I
trust Christ. And I tell you, I should be content
trusting Christ. I don't want those things to
be just words. I want it just to be real in my heart. I should
be content trusting Christ. Because even though my flesh
is sinful, my thoughts are sinful, my ways are sinful, I'm so trapped
in this nature of sin, the Lord Jesus Christ has made me the
righteousness of God in Him. Even though the only thing I
see about myself is sin, the Son of God has made me as righteous
as Himself. I should be content, shouldn't
I? Look back at Romans chapter 8. I should be content? Because whether I'm in the valley
or on a mountaintop, whether I'm hungry or full, whether I'm
abounding or whether I'm being abased, whether I'm on a valley
or on a mountaintop, I should be content. Because God is doing
the best possible thing for me right now, whether I'm on a mountaintop
or in the valley. Romans 8 verse 28, and we know. Now we know this, my prayer is
God will help us believe it, We know that all things work
together for good, to them that love God, to them who are the
called, according to his purpose. Oh, if what God is doing now
is working together for good, I really should be content. And if God gave me faith to believe
him and trust him, I will be. I'll be content in all these
different situations. Here's another reason I should
be content, because our Lord is sovereign. Now in a time of
trial, why has that time of trial come? Our God's sovereign, he
arranged the events of providence to happen just this way. He,
in his sovereignty, brought this trial to me. Now we know it's
not an accident. God did it. Well, now I'm not
gonna complain about God's sovereignty, how he sovereignly brought me
into this trial, because you know what? It's him and his sovereignty
that can bring me out of it too. I'm thankful that God's sovereign
I don't have to find a way out of this trial. It's not up to
me to climb out of the pit. God and his sovereignty is going
to deliver me. And it's time when it's right. Here's one I should be content. It's independent of external
circumstances. Because God's grace is sufficient. That's God's promise to his people.
My grace is sufficient for thee. In anybody that's experienced
God's grace will testify to this. His grace is sufficient. God's
grace is sufficient to save the worst sinner, the most vile sinner. God's grace is able to take the
chief of sinners and save them to the uttermost, to make them
holy, to make them righteous, to make them accepted in the
beloved. I'll tell you, I'm content with
the gospel of God's grace. I'm content with God's grace.
I'm so content to rest on His grace to save me. I'm so content
to rest on His grace to keep me. I'm so content to rest on
His grace to one day present me faultless in the presence
of God Almighty. I'm content with His grace, aren't
you? It's sufficient to save. And God's grace is sufficient
to give peace and contentment to the hearts of his people,
even in the worst trial. The storm is still raging, but
God gives peace of heart, even though the storm is as bad as
it ever has been. I'm content with that grace,
aren't you? I'm content with that grace to
give peace to the heart. Then I'm content for this reason.
All of us should be content for the gospel sake. Almighty God
has given us the gospel of his son. He's given us the gospel. He's given us this gospel to
preach and to believe, to hear and believe the gospel of God's
son that tells me who he is and tells me to trust him. That's good news. God's given
us a gospel of good news. Now I don't know the message
that generally preached, or I should say specifically preached at
all these different, as Brother Fortin used to call them, goat
farms that people call church buildings around this town. But
generally speaking, I know what they're saying. They're saying
you gotta do good. You gotta do better. You gotta
work harder. You gotta do this in order to get that. Brother,
that's not good news. What if I can't do it? I mean,
I can't do it, but what if I realize I can't do it? What if something
stops me from doing it? What if I'm a thief on the cross?
I can't do anything. I'm restricted from... That's
bad news. God's given us the gospel of
His Son. There are redemptions in Him.
Now, don't go to work. Go to resting. Go to resting
in Christ. Oh, God the Holy Spirit has been
pleased to take that gospel of Christ and reveal Christ the
Savior to many hearts here this morning. Many of you. Aren't
you content with that gospel? No other message will content
me, because no other gospel satisfies my need. The gospel of Christ
does. I'm content with that gospel. Content to preach it, content
to believe it, and have no other hope, no other message. See,
by this gospel, The Spirit enables me by faith to see the Lord Jesus
Christ. And when I see Him, oh, I see. I understand how God saves sinners.
I understand how He cannot fail to save His people from their
sins. I understand how He's going to keep all of His people. I
understand how His people are going to be irresistibly drawn
to Him. Just look at Him. Look at His beauty. Look at His
righteousness. Look at His holiness. Look at His character, His compassion
for sinners. How can you not come to Him? I'm content with this gospel,
because by the preaching of this gospel, I have communion with
Christ Himself. He said, where two or three are
gathered together in my name, or just any small crowd is gathered
together in my name, preaching Him, preaching salvation by Him,
preaching His righteousness and His alone. He said, there am
I in the midst of them. Oh, I like communion with y'all.
in fellowship with y'all. Oh, but what draws me here is
communion with the Savior. He's here. To comfort your heart,
to speak to your heart, to draw your heart to Him. I'm telling
you, now really, if I have the presence of Christ, huh, how
can I not be content? His presence is so glorious,
it so overwhelms the rest of the situation. I don't care whether
I'm abounding or whether I'm being abased. You can't see it
because all you see is Christ. Does that make sense? Prisons
would palaces prove. Jesus would dwell in there if
I have his presence. Then I should be content for
the sake of the glory of God. Now, what does it say about me?
If I say, I publicly, I say, I believe God, I trust the Lord,
I trust the Lord, I know him, I trust him, he's revealing himself
to me. If I say that, and then I turn around, I say that here
in this building, oh, that's the gospel I believe, that's
the gospel that saves me, that's the Lord who saved me, and then
I leave here, and that's not my attitude anymore. Now, all
I'm doing is complaining and griping about things that are
just not the way I want them to be. I'm just complaining about
the affairs of this government. I can't believe just what people
are doing and just sending this whole society to hell in a handbasket. Just, oh, look what they're doing. I've been preparing to be a grouchy
old man all my life. Just grouchy. All these people,
look what they're doing. Now, I'm not saying you don't
have a point about those things. I'm not saying that at all. What I'm saying is, if I'm constantly
complaining about those things, you know what, I'm giving off
this impression, I forgot who's running the show. Politicians in Frankfurt and
politicians in Washington and politicians here in our local
governments, brother, they're not running the show. They're
God's servant. God's put them there to do what
his will is for this society. And when I'm constantly complaining
about those things, you know what I'm doing? I'm taking away
from the glory of our God because I'm putting the focus of everybody
I can get to listen to me on people and on things and on events. Instead of on God who's running
the show. Well, I should be saying, you
know, I wouldn't do it that way, but God's doing all things well.
I'm going to just trust him. Let's wait and see what God's
going to do with this thing. Let's just wait and see. And then when a believer comes
in a time of trial, it's hard to be content, to find yourself
content in a time of trial. I mean, I'm talking about a trial
now. You know one big fear of every
believer, when the Lord brings us into that valley, every believer
worries, I'm going to dishonor the Lord. I'm afraid. I'm going
to open my mouth and what's just going to vomit out is all the
things of this flesh. I'm going to dishonor the Lord. But I glorify God for his glory
to be just as content in times of poverty as I am in prosperity. If my contentment is in Christ,
in the glory of God, and it's independent from these external
things, Then I should be content for
the sake of others. Now, I'm not so sure that contentment
is necessarily contagious. You know, a believer who is truly
content, that sure is a good witness to other believers, isn't
it? It's a good example of faith to others. But I'm just not so
sure that contentment is really contagious because contentment
comes from within. Contentment is independent of
these external things. But I do know this. Fear and
murmuring and complaining and discontentment, those things
are contagious. They're contagious. I've seen
it happen. You have too. I've seen it happen.
I've seen it happen in this very place. A group of people are
together and they're talking, they're having a conversation
and the conversation's happy. The conversation's pleasant.
And then somebody walks up and joins the conversation, and they
start complaining. What are all these stupid people
are doing, and this one's doing that, and this one's doing that,
and I don't like this, and I don't like that. And right quick, the
entire conversation turns into a gripe session. I don't know
that I've ever seen it happen in the reverse. I've seen it
happen that way. And I would caution all of us
on this. If you can't help people, At least don't hurt them with
your discontent. At least keep your mouth shut.
If somebody's happy, at least keep your mouth shut. Let them
be happy. It probably won't last long.
Let them be happy while they can. Don't hurt them. These folks here look around
you. Do you love them? Do you have
any care for them whatsoever? And God help us not to hurt them.
with our time. I now look at first Timothy chapter
six. I should be content because God has given me absolutely
everything that I need. Now he didn't give me everything
I want, but sure has given me everything I need. And when he,
in things I want, he doesn't give me that's for my best too.
He's given me everything I need. First Timothy six, verse six.
But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought
nothing into this world, and it's certain we shall carry nothing
out. And having food and raiment, let us be therewith content. Now the word godliness Paul uses
here means a reverence toward God, a respect towards God. This
godliness is knowing God and it's trusting him. Nothing does
God more reverence than trusting him. than trusting his son, than
believing his word. And the word sufficient, Paul
uses, means a perfect condition of life so that you don't need
anything. God's given his people food and
rain. They don't have to beg. God's people do not have to beg.
David said, I've been young and I've been old, yet I've never
seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread. And that
wasn't just David's experience, because he wrote that under inspiration
of the Holy Spirit. The Lord's given us enough, hasn't
he? He really has. And the Lord has given his people
a perfect condition of spiritual life. It's so perfect, the life
he gives is eternal life in it. So we can never die. The Lord's
made his people perfectly righteous. He's made them perfectly holy.
He's made them perfectly accepted. He's made them a child of Almighty
God, joint heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ. So that he's given
you everything. In Christ, he's given you everything. And we're content, because we
don't need anything else. Physically speaking, our clothes,
maybe they're not the finest clothes, but you know, I can
do without finer clothes. I mean, you know, Cheap clothes
covers your nakedness as much as fine clothes do. But I can't be clothed without
the righteousness of Christ. I must have him. And since the
Lord's given me his righteousness, made me righteous in him, I'm
content. The Lord's given us shelter.
You know, we can do without a nicer house. I guess there are people
who maybe always like to have a nicer house. Jan and I passed
this house for sale. I mean, this thing's a monster.
It's a mansion. I mean, I bet that thing's going
for $2.53 million. But it's on a real busy road.
I told Jan, I said, boy, I'd love to have that house. And
she said, I know you would. I said, but I'm not going to buy it. She
said, why not? I said, I don't like this road.
That's the only thing stopping me from buying it, you know?
Well, you know what I can do without that $3 million house?
I really can. Jan said she'd be real happy
not to. She said, it's too much to clean, she said. I can do
without a nicer house. I can't do being found outside
of Christ. Being found without Him, I cannot. Oh, God's been pleased to put
me in His Son. To hide in His Son. To dwell
in His Son. Oh, I'm content. I'm content
with that. We all have plenty to eat. It
may not be the most expensive food that you can find, but it
fills the belly. It fills my belly too much. You
know what I can do without more expensive food? I cannot do without
feeding on Christ the living bread. I must have Him. And I'm content. Aren't you?
Feeding on Christ, I'm content. I don't need anything else for
my spiritual, the perfect condition of my soul. I don't need anything
else to feed on Christ. I have His righteousness now.
I don't have to wait for that glory. I have His righteousness
now. I'm justified now. I have forgiveness of sins now.
Oh, I have His grace now. I'm content. I don't need anything
else because Christ is my all. Now look at Hebrews chapter 13.
Here's the primary reason I should be content. It's the promise of God. Hebrews 13 verse five. Let your conversation be without
covetousness and be content with such things as you have. For
here's why you're content with such things as you have. For
he had said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee so that
we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper. I will not fear what
man shall do unto me. Now this is the Lord's promise
to his people. I'll never leave you. Never. I'll never forsake
you. When you go into the valley,
I'll go with you. When you go to the mountaintop,
I'll go with you. Those three Hebrew children were thrown into
the fiery furnace. What did they find out? The Lord
was already there. He was there before they got
there. The Lord's with them. He's not going to leave his people. So no matter the trial, no matter
the blessing, God is with his people. Now, if we have his presence,
what does it matter what the fleshly circumstances are? If
we have his presence, do you want a palace? I mean, with better
circumstances like that around your flesh, is that what you
want? A palace, a toy would appear if I had the presence of Christ
compared to him, compared to him. I'm content because of His
promise. Here's the third thing, quickly.
How can I learn contentment? I see what it is. I see what
contentment is. I see why I should be content.
But how can I have it? How can I have it? Well, Apostle
Paul says you got to learn it. You got to learn it. And the
Lord's got to give it to you. In verse 13, back in our text,
Paul says, I can do all things through Christ which strengthened
me. Here's how I can be content. The Lord gives it to me. He's
got to give me contentment. And he's got to teach me contentment. And here's the way the Lord teaches
his people contentment. It's through trial and affliction
and suffering and loss. That's how he does it. You know,
one way that the Lord teaches his children contentment is by
teaching us what we don't need, what we don't need to be contented.
And our father is going to teach all of his children. He's going
to teach them Christ. He's going to teach them. Isn't
that what the Lord said? They'll all be taught of the
father. They'll all know who he is. They'll all trust him.
And the father is going to teach his children that our contentment,
that our peace, that our hope, that our confidence is not found
in the things of this life. It's found in Christ. And he
might take away some things of this life. In order to teach
us, I can still be content without those things as long as I trust
Christ, as long as I have him. If I have Christ, I'm content.
In trials and suffering and loss, those things also teach us the
faithfulness of our Lord. They teach us the preciousness
of the presence of our Savior. See, when the Lord sends trials
to his people, he always comforts their hearts. with his presence.
And then we learn, Oh, it's the presence of the Lord in my heart
that gives me contentment, not the, not the things of this life.
When I learned that the Lord is faithful to his promise and
he promised to never leave his people, he promised his grace
is sufficient. When I learned that the Lord
is faithful to his promises and he always does And I learned
the preciousness of him. I learned the preciousness of
his grace and the preciousness of his presence. I'm going to
be content to wait on the will. I will. Because he is what I
want. His presence is what I want.
And I'm content to wait on him. Trials teach us to be content. His grace really is sufficient. And you can't learn that until
you need it. And when the Lord gives it, oh,
how precious. I can't tell you how many times I have prayed
for grace sufficient for this trial. Many times. And Aaron almost
immediately, he gave something. He didn't take the trial away
now, but he gave something that made it easier to bear. That teaches contentment, doesn't
it? I can be content waiting on God's
grace. I can be content waiting on His
presence. Because I don't need anything else but Him. I hope
that'll help you. I know contentment is a very
difficult thing. But if we seek it in Christ,
if we seek it in His grace and His presence and knowing Him,
we'll find it. We really will. Let's bow together.
Our Father, we thank you for this time together. How we thank
you that you have taught your children that contentment, true
contentment of heart, is possible to have, even in this world of
sin and this body of sin, that you give it to your people. How
we thank you that you didn't make it a difficult thing to
find, but that it is all in Christ, in Christ our Savior. Father,
I pray you take your word as it's been preached. that you
cause it to be beneficial to your people by taking this message
and causing it to glorify Christ our Savior, causing us to have
that benefit of looking to Christ, trusting in Him, relying in Him,
in Him alone, and entrusting Him to find true contentment
as we go on through this journey here below. Father, it's in Christ's
sake, for His glory and for the good of your people, we pray.
Alright, Sean.