last week about where we were
in this and where we're going to go and so this will be sort
of a stab into that and maybe in the first of the year I'll
finish this out along with the book of James and then we'll
move into some Old Testament narratives. But specifically speaking I want
to focus today, 1st Timothy chapter 6 starting in, as we say in the music business,
the pickup of verse three, teach and urge these things. If anyone
teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound
words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords
with godliness, verse four, he is puffed up and with conceit
understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for
controversy, for quarrels about words which produce envy, dissension,
slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people
who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining
that godliness is a means of gain." I'm going to stop there
for a second because I'm not talking about this this morning.
I've already talked about this some years ago, but I need to
tell you what the but is for in verse 6, which is where I
want to be. But. So when you see a but, you have
to stop and ask why. What is the contrast there? So what's
happening is we see people who are theological warriors, who
are excited about their ideas and their philosophies and their
expectations in the context of what the Bible has taught, and
they've made a mess of the church because they've insisted on these
things at the cost of intimacy, they've insisted on these things
at the cost of friendship, they've insisted on these things at the
cost of love, and the correction in their false teaching is to
stop doing it, not to be changed in their mindset. So I just want
to remind you of that. When we correct error in the
church, we're not going to always change people's minds, and we
do not judge them based on what they think. We judge them based
on how they submit to the Word of God in correction. And when
I say judge, in other words, we don't make consequences in
that context. So someone who says that they're
intimate with Christ and the gospel of grace will also be
intimate with his word in far as much as the word tells us
to do certain things for the sake of intimacy, for the sake
of unity, for the sake of peace, even when we're dealing with
heresy, which is what was happening here in Ephesus. And so these people who continue
to deal with this, continue to try to become highly spiritual,
Whether they're right or wrong in their understanding of a theology,
when they're wrong in their appropriation of their actions at the cost
of love, they're puffed up, they quarrel, they create envy, they
create friction, they create suspicion. And many of us have
been in that situation where we've either been the one causing
it or the victims of it, or both. And so we know what it looks
like. But the contrast of that to the instructions of the people
here is but. See, godliness with contentment
is great gain. So here's what Paul is teaching
this young elder. No matter what gain you think
you have, and this is what Paul said this to the Philippians,
right? I considered it all loss, and any gain that I had was nothing
compared to the priceless gain of Christ as my Lord. I've counted
all loss. Godliness with contentment is
great gain. Theological perfection, theological
debate is not godliness. It is not, let me say that again
very clearly, it is not godliness. In any form, in any way, through
any means, if it creates tension and dissension amongst the sheep
of Christ, amongst the mild, the meek, the lowly, We don't
do that. Jesus is very clear about when
the religious leaders and the teachers of his day would cause
burden of fear and shame and guilt and oppression theologically
on the people that may or may not have even understood who
he was, but he was very clear. When you cause one of these young
children to stumble, he's got some things to say about it.
He says, it would be better for you to be tossed in the ocean.
It would have been better for you to not have been born. Because
I'm coming after you when you mess with my kids. You know,
that's sort of the sentiment that Jesus has. But I want to
focus today not on that, but on the antithesis, on the positive
doctrine, the positive teaching that Paul then provides, not
just to Timothy, but for us today. But godliness with contentment
is great gain for, and he explains it, verse 7, we brought nothing
into the world, and we can take nothing out of the world. But
if we have food and clothing, with these we'll be content. Full stop. I think about this for a second.
I mean, how many of us right now would be content with the
clothes on our backs for the rest of our lives? I think, man,
if I'd have known this was the last time this is what I was
going to have, I'd have worn something different because I
have a jacket that I really like more than this one, or I have a pair of
shoes that are a little bit more comfortable, or I didn't change my underwear.
Oh, no. I mean, you know, like if I just had a clean pair of
socks, whatever it might be, there's probably a sense in some
of us and most of us that would say, I don't know that I could
really be content with that. And as I said last week and the
week before and years prior, this isn't, and preaching is
not to make you feel guilty. Because the gospel is not about
bringing guilt out of you or conviction in the context of
judgment so that you may change your life. The gospel is about
relieving the guilt. A couple of years before we moved
into this building, we were in another space about a half mile
down the road. It was very small, very hot.
And I remember teaching on a Tuesday night. We did Tuesday night services
at the time. I remember teaching on Tuesday night, and I was teaching
out of Hebrews. And in Paul's writing of the
Hebrews, he brought a real tension in that, do not fall again unto
what? Unto unbelief. If you return
into sin in this context, there's no longer a sacrifice for sin.
And the timbre, the tone of that is extremely just, it's negative. It's negative. It puts us in
a place where we begin to feel the tension, and we begin to
personalize it, we begin to internalize it, and then we come to the place
of going, oh my gosh, I am in big trouble, I can't overcome
this, I'm condemned. And then you keep reading and
Paul takes that tension that balls up on purpose, sort of
like a good movie script. You ever been in a movie and
you're watching it and you haven't breathed? And you get to breathe. So the Bible does the same thing.
Paul did the same thing in some of this stuff. And we see that
tension, but then we can breathe. It's like Paul telling the Thessalonians,
keep yourself in the love of God. by trusting in Him. He keeps
us, right? That's the promise. Nothing can
separate us from the love of God. Himself cannot separate us from
His love. So, here's the tension. I'm not content. I'm not content
with the clothes on my back. I'm not content with it. Because,
you know, if we have food and clothing, but those who desire
to be rich, I want to be rich. I mean, you know, this is what
we do. Oh no, woe is me. It's not about woe is me. This
is some practical instruction to this pastor, and he'll go
on and say, he'll say, flee these things, young man. Oh man of
God, pursue righteousness, pursue godliness, pursue faith, pursue
love, pursue steadfastness, pursue gentleness, fight the good fight
of faith. Take hold of the eternal life
to which you were called and about which you were made the
good confession in the presence of many witnesses. and on and so
forth. And then, as elders, we are charged
to teach others this in the presence of many, that we may learn to
grow content in the gospel. So I'm not saying these things
today to bring a charge against you. And the Holy Spirit may
say, you know what? You're not content, and that's
okay, but it doesn't condemn us before our Father. He knows
us. We're not pulling one over on
Him. He's not going, oh man, until that sermon, I didn't know
that James was discontent. He knows me. He loves me anyway
in spite of me, and He loves me because of His glory revealed
through me by my confession of hope in the Son that He sent
for me. And that's the confession that you can have too, beloved.
And so today as we look at this text, I want you to see that
the concept of contentment is very hard. We talked about it
some weeks ago where we looked at fulfillment being the sandwich
bread that holds contentment and joy and peace and all that
kind of stuff and happiness. And those things ebb and flow,
but fulfillment, contentment is right close to it. It's like
the surface patina, it's like the layer of skin on top of fulfillment. Our identity and our understanding
of who we are is found in Christ Jesus because of the gospel,
because of the grace of God, the simple grace of God that establishes in us by the
power of God and the Spirit through the Word a resting faith, a childlike
non-ambitious resting, knowing that our needs are met, knowing
that mom and dad are going to be there in the morning when
the sun comes up, knowing that the bed's not going to vanish,
even though we may know without a shadow of a doubt there's a
monster in the closet, we don't fear. Because parents are near,
right? That's where I would usually
use some tactical expression about shooting things, but I'm trying
to get away from that. So violent. In 2008, I was a pastor in a
church in the tri-cities of the East Bay of California. And for
the first time in my life, I had divorced myself from a lot, a
lot of cultural churchianity. And I found that the more I thought
about these things, the harder life became. And so one day,
I'm in this little thrift store or whatever, and I see this metal
stamp sign, and it simply said, pun intended, simplify. I was
like, this is $2 well spent. I went, took it, went to my office. As I walked in my door, I put
it three inches from the ceiling, and I nailed it there, so that
every time I walked into my study, I would see simplified, because
it was the mantra that I lived by, and the simplicity of life,
and the simplification of my thoughts, because I'm not a simple
person. I mean, and lately when I'm asleep,
I'm working out problems through crazy dreams, you know? I'm not
a simplified person. I'm a complex person with a lot
of complex ideas and a lot of complex emotions. And many of
you are the same way. But it's who I am. It's what
makes me me. And sometimes when we hear the word simplify, Or
just to keep it simple, we think that that means to arrest that
and throw it away, to not be who we are authentically, but
that's not the case. The Bible does not tell us to throw away
who we are. The Bible says to understand who we are, and more
importantly, understand who we are in Christ, and even further,
moreover, to understand whose we are in grace. Who do we belong
to? As the scripture would say, my
life is not my own, I've been bought with a price. The scripture
would say these things. We work this stuff out. We're
supposed to not get it and then go after it. We're supposed to
work it out. We may have it and understand it today and then
simply just not understand it tomorrow. We may live it out
well for a little season and then something happens in our
lives and we just completely lose sight of everything. That
is normal. That is okay. It doesn't bring
condemnation. For there is now, right now,
this present day with my voice speaking to your eardrums, no
condemnation for anyone who is in Christ. So here's what the
devil says. through people. Well, maybe you're
not in Christ. And then the journey is to be
found in Christ rather than rest in Him. And that's not good news. If we're seeking to be found
in Christ, we certainly haven't found Him. Just rest. And I know it seems like a play
on words, but beloved, I'm telling you right now, we need to simplify
life and we need to simplify the gospel, we need to simplify
things because the complexities of life create stress and chaos
that's already there at an exponential rate. So when I put that sign
in my office, in that moment, so for a few years, I was living
probably the most simplified life I had ever lived, more focused,
And I thought, never again complex. Oh, never again. Well, you can't
help when complex people bring complex problems into a complex
world. And then they ring your doorbell.
You can't help it when you yourself ring your own doorbell and bring garbage into it. But I'm thinking in the context
of contentment, that comes through simplicity. It comes through
simplicity. We can be fulfilled and be in
chaos. We can find peace in the midst of the storm. But if we
want contentment, there's really not room for chaos. There's really
not room for angst. So where is that found? I believe
it's found in simplicity. So this anchor of 1 Timothy 6
through 8, godliness with contentment is great gain. We brought nothing
into the world, we can take nothing out of the world. If we've got
our basic needs, if we're not naked and hungry, we will be content. I love how Paul says that. He
says, you should be. He doesn't say that, he says,
you will be. Like he says to the church of Philippi, have
this mind among you. A big charge to have the mind
of Jesus, the God man, which is already yours in him. Though he was equal with God,
he did not take his divinity, something to be made much of,
to be grasped, but made himself a slave, obedient unto death,
even death on a cross. Because of this, then, the Father
exalted him, that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow,
and every tongue will say the truth, that Jesus is the Lord
of all." Contentment. So there's five
little parts and then a little essay at the end for today. There's a dilemma. When it comes
to thinking about these things in simplicity, I mean, our TV
went on the blink, so we got us a newer TV and, you know,
the details, I mean, the other TV we had was 10 years old and
I'm thinking, my goodness, you know, look at all the different
things that you can put on the television now. You wanna download
this app, this app? I mean, I've never seen so many
television apps, so I downloaded everything. And I spent like
an hour scrolling through all, this is a couple of months ago,
and I spent like an hour scrolling through all these different apps,
and I'm looking, I'm going, look at all the choices. I can have
1,143 channels here, 916 channels here, or I can watch movies over
here. Wow, there are 5,000 movies.
And I spent an hour trying to find what I wanted to watch. instead of watching anything.
And then I was like, I gotta go to bed. Now I've since taken off all
but about 10 of these apps, but it took a month or so to get
through them. And I started remembering that this weekend when I was
talking about simplification and being content. And I remember
the little 13-inch black and white television. It was black
and white because it wasn't color. And it was also black face with
a white frame. And it sat literally about this
much. It was 13-inch screen. And it was like three inches
on the outside. It had a handle on it and a little rabbit ear antenna
that come out like this. Little circle thing for whatever that
picked up. We never got anything off of that, so we tore that
off. And I was a kid. And it was 13 channels on a dial.
all but four of those channels were snow. But yet on the evenings or the
afternoon, there was never not something to watch for hours. And we were at the beck and call,
we were at the robbery, if you will, of the program manager
of NBC, ABC, and CBS, and then GPTV, Georgia Public Television,
who also syndicated BBCs. stuff like Sherlock Holmes and
Doctor Who, of which I have devoured through my lifetime. I digress. The point of that
is this, is that there were very little choices, but we had a
lot of contentment. And now we have all the choices,
and we don't know what to do. So there's an illusion in our
day. There's a paradox of choice, and I won't get into the psychology
of that, and I certainly won't get into the philosophy of that,
but those of you who enjoy those things as a hobby, even the theology,
go for it. We'll talk over coffee one day,
and then somebody will call and want to know where we are. But
spiritual excess, even. What is this paradox of choice?
Sometimes the modern dilemma is that we think that if we have
more choices, we have more freedom. If we have more freedom, we're
more content. That's not the truth. Because more choices bring
complexity. And this is true not just in
the world at large or the secular world, it's not just true for
the fact we go to a restaurant and they give us a nine page
menu. How many different ways can you make rice, chicken, and
burritos? I mean in corn tortillas. I don't need 40 choices, just
meat, bread, there we go. Quit giving me all these choices,
it's not freedom. It's not freedom in the mind.
It's not freedom. I could eat the same thing every day for
the rest of my life. I could wear the same set of
clothes every day. I have to wash them all the time,
but I mean, I could wear them every day. I could wear the same
outfit. And if you gave me 24 hours to
pick an outfit, I could pick it right now in my head. I don't
need the choices. I like them, but it's not liberty. And the same thing happens in
our spiritual lives. We have all these choices. We have all
these ideas. We have all these wants and all
these desires. We see something else. We see this. We see that.
John talks about it. Do not love the things of the world. The
lust of the eyes. The lust of the things we see and we just,
oh, I'd love to have that. I'd love to have that. How many of
the I love to have things do we have in the garage that we
wish we could sell for a loss? How many of these I love to have
downloads do we not even know where they are? How many of I
love to have digital media are gone forever? DVDs, CDs, LPs. You used to couldn't fit the
LPs I owned in the back of a pickup truck triple stacked and now
I've got, I can't find but that many. An LP, long play record,
vinyl. Some of you are like, what's
that mean? And now I hoard digital material. I have to have information. I
turn everything that I like into a PDF and I stick it on a drive
and then I have triple redundancy at my house. I back it all up
every night. 9 p.m. But spiritual access. Sometimes
we have spiritual access because of the inundation with choices.
Well, you're gonna serve God this way, do you have this spiritual
gift, do you have all this? I mean, when do we get a menu
of spiritual gifts? When do we have to come up with all these
different systems and these different structures and these different
frameworks? And I love frameworks. I've written three frameworks
in the last eight months about specific things, but they're
not prudent for us, so you won't hear them unless you talk to
me later. The idea of being more for God rather than resting in
the declaration of who we already are often overcomes us. See, contentment transcends circumstances. Paul talks to the church of Philippi,
he says, not that I'm speaking of being in need, these are his
words, for I have learned that in whatever situation I am in
to be content. I know how to be brought low,
and I know how to abound. He's talking about there in the
context of finances, of having food. He says, I know what it's
like to starve and have nothing, and I know what it's like to
have everything I need in surplus. In every circumstance, I've learned
that the secret of being, excuse me, the secret of facing plenty
and the secret of facing hunger, abundance and need, is that I
can do anything. I can endure everything. I can
do anything. through Christ who strengthens
me. Now I know we butcher that text
and we put that text on everything, every sporting event, every final
exam, and it's not misappropriated. You can play this game by the
mercy of God. I remember the MVP year of the
last, I think it was one of the last years I played baseball.
And I broke my foot in a swimming incident, running on a slick
carport after jumping out of a pool, playing stupid stuff.
And I bent the toes, I broke two of my toes on my right foot.
And then I had to play baseball that night. Thankfully, I knocked
in two runs and I didn't even have to go to the bases. I was
like, what am I gonna do? Won the game. It was good. I could
do all things through Christ. I can run the bases with a broken
toe. See, sometimes that's how we implicate that. And it's just
such a weak thing. What if I lost my leg? What if
I could never play baseball? I can endure that. What if I
lost my ability to even do anything? I can endure that. Sometimes choices are taken away
from us, not to teach us a lesson, but to bring us contentment.
You think about the context of the things that we have in the
world, this modern consumerism. just our own properties and how
much it takes of our time and our thoughts and our spiritual
commitments to just maintain things. And it doesn't mean that
we need to go and remove everything. We just need to be aware of it.
I want you to hear that, church. We need to be aware of it. Because
we get to the place where we're thinking, well, I'm not content
anymore. I need to do something. Well, I'll tell you what you
need to do in a minute. What you don't need to do is
listen to the urgency of the fear in the condemnation. So what does the Bible say about
simplicity and contentment? in 1st Timothy we see here. Matthew
6.33, Ecclesiastes 5.10, they talk about materialism, they
talk about emphasizing spiritual priorities. Matthew 6, Jesus
speaking in verse 33, he says, you know this verse, seek, I
can't say it except in the King James, seek ye first, you know,
but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and
all these things will be added unto you. all these things will be added
unto you. Ecclesiastes 5, you know Ecclesiastes, Solomon's
melancholy expose, woe is me, life is terrible, nothing new
under the sun, what's it worth living? He answers it, to be
found in God, to rest for his namesake. Solomon says he who
loves money will not be satisfied with it. nor he who loves abundance
with his income." This is vanity. What is vanity? It's just empty. To be vain means to have no worth.
The irony behind that is that we want more to fill up the coffers,
we want more choices, we want more complexity, we want more
knowledge, but yet what we're doing is we're stuffing more
into a bag that's empty. And the more we put in there,
the emptier it gets. So what does it mean to be content?
Are we just supposed to worry ourselves with food and clothing?
No, we're not supposed to worry ourselves with anything. How does God's seeking kingdom
first reshape our priorities? That depends on how we understand
God's kingdom. And I will say this without the
time this morning to really unpack it. If you listen to everything
that I've taught over the years, you will find it in pieces. Maybe
I will spend an entire Sunday on this in December. But the culture in the Christian
community and the Christian ideology that we live in in America is
not the kingdom. Matter of fact, even the way
we do congregationalism is not necessarily to be misunderstood
as the kingdom. And at the same time, we don't
need this ethereal idea, this mystical thing. There is a tangible
reality of God's kingdom in Christ, and then there is a future promise
of God's kingdom in Christ. And I think, as Paul would say,
we, for two weeks in a row, we referred to 2 Corinthians chapter
4, where it says to put our minds on that which is eternal rather
than that which is temporal. Our focus, our majority, our
drive, our passion. And in doing so, whatever we
have to do here, whether we're working on a relationship and
a marriage or with our children or we're working on relationships
in the church or at our job or in our community, we're doing
so as unto the Lord for His glory. It brings a contentment and a
joy and it reframes our understanding of why we're doing what we're
doing for the sake of God's name rather than just to try to find
some happiness in it. And then in turn, that gives
us some happiness because we find fulfillment in being part
of God's kingdom. And some people would say to
me, and they've said to me through the years, Tippin, you just,
you philosophize way too much in the context of scripture.
Okay, thank you, I appreciate that compliment. Because the
Bible commands us to meditate on the word of God day and night.
We don't, meditation is not mantra. Meditation is twofold, and I
do meditate. I meditate physiologically and
emotionally and psychologically and spiritually. sometimes in
extremely imbalanced ways. But if I'm to meditate on the
Word of God, it speaks. He speaks. And when He speaks,
I hear. Why? Because the Spirit of God
in me causes me to hear. I know the voice of my Savior.
And in doing so, then I work it out and think. You know, one
of the reasons we don't think is because we're just getting
the answers. Oh, theology on call, Sunday
night, 6.30, whatever time it was, you know, let's ask this
question of Pastor Tippins. And I loved it, it was great,
it helped me think, y'all were helping me. I miss that sometimes. But at the same time, you always
know that my answers were driving you back to the text, driving
you back to your own understanding, driving you back to the basics,
not just telling you what is, but telling you how I came to
that conclusion that you also may test my premises. And people say, well, I don't
understand why we have to do this at all, because the Bible
tells us that godliness with contentment is great gain, the
application of that is not get rid of everything that's not
to wear or to eat. The application of that is to
be mindful of the gospel of grace that Jesus Christ is the God
of the universe who came into this world, took a body for himself,
lived a life of complete righteousness in obedience to the Father, and
he died on a cross to substitute himself for us. And that substitution was qualified,
that substitution was guaranteed, that substitution was sufficient
because he did not stay dead. For the wages of sin is death,
so the sinless man of God, the sinless God-man, was raised alive.
It's a very simple story. You see why simplification is
necessary? If we make that complex, if we dig into the weeds of theological
philosophy and historical theology, oh my Lord, I love weeding there.
I love it. It is a hobby. Much like the
deflection of cue balls and different types of shafts. Much like contemplating the absence
of time. Yeah, you know where I'm at. One of you. But it's not necessary. The gospel is the story of Jesus. the man, the Son of God, who
died to save his people, and he finished the work and it's
done, the gospel is the good news of what has been done. It's
not an offer, it's not an option, it's not a sales pitch, it's
a proclamation. And we need to think about that.
We need to think about that. We need to simplify that. Because
if we don't simplify grace, if we don't simplify the gospel,
then we're never gonna be able to live it. We're never gonna
be able to live with contentment. And the Bible calls us to live
a life of contentment. You can't argue that. So if it
calls that, and I'm a shepherd of this church, and I'm supposed
to be working this out on my own life that I may share that
journey with you, because I can't do anything else, then I think
it deserves some time. I think these things deserve
time and I think that it's well within the confines of exegesis,
of exegetical preaching, of good oversight to really work these
things out. So I believe we need to embrace
simplicity in our lives to such a degree that it becomes I don't
know, like a moving sidewalk upon which we stand. And we find ourselves running
up the wrong way or being carried away in some windstorm, whether
it be mind or body or circumstances, whether it be fear or hopelessness
or despair, anger, frustration, whatever it might be. We can
recognize that we're moving or we're standing still. We're moving
in the wrong direction or we're standing still or we're walking against
the wind or we're trying to go up the down escalator. It takes
a lot more effort than to just ride the wind of grace. So we need to see the simplicity of the
scripture. I mean, think about the call
of Moses. Let's just take a few things
for a second. I could start with Adam and Eve, but I don't want
to get in that because we're going to get in that later. I mean, let's
look at the call of Moses. Moses is put into a basket and sent
up to the palace because he was about to die as a firstborn child.
Pharaoh's daughter finds him. Pharaoh's wife finds him. raises
him as a son. He is raised in the palace with
prosperity and privilege, and then he kills an Egyptian guard
who is beating a Hebrew slave, and he has to flee as a murderer
to Midian. There in Midian, he becomes a
shepherd of sheep, obviously, and then God speaks to him. through a bush that's on fire,
but not consumed. Remember? Y'all know the story. And Moses sees this bush burning,
and he goes up there to it, and what's happening? What in the
world? And God speaks, Moses, take off your shoes, for you're
standing in the place of righteousness. This place is set apart for me. That's what holy ground means.
Holy means set apart. So he fell to his face and God
told him, I want you to go back to Egypt where you are a wanted
man and I want you just to tell. I want you just to open your
mouth and I want you to say, the God of glory, the God of
Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God over you,
Pharaoh, is ordering you to let his people go. And I want you
just to say that. And Moses argues. Scripture says Moses wasn't able
to speak very well. So God says, well, take your
brother to speak for you. Well, I just can't go alone.
I need some weaponry. Okay, here's a stick. Just take
this stick. That's where it came from, I
guess. Speak softly and carry a big stick. You know your history. So he goes, and the simplicity
of it is that Moses had no skill, Moses had no expertise, Moses
had no plan, Moses just simply went according to God. Long before
that, Abram, same thing, Ur, Chaldean, worshipping the moon
at the ziggurat. Go, where, doesn't matter, I'm
saying go. So he just goes. Simple. It's
simple. Didn't worry about what was going
to happen, probably, in a little bit. You know, we worry, we see
the... But look at the simplicity, look at the contentment. The simplicity. The simple instruction
that Jesus just existed in the world for 30 years without revealing
who He was. Simple. He played with toys,
He sang songs, He danced, He fell down, He got boo-boos. He
got stomach bugs. He had happy days. He had sad
days. His parents were irritated with
him. We see that. Yet he just simply did what the
Father had sent him to do. He just simply lived. Beloved, one of
the main reasons that we can't be content is because we don't
live simply. We don't simply live. And there are things that
make some of our lives complex, and there are some things that
we can never get away from in their complexity, but it doesn't
mean we can't approach them simply with contentment in the gospel.
So how do we do that? Well, there's a couple of things
how we can do that. Two major things, and then some
little sub-things in my head that would fall into one of these
two categories. The first thing is there are
practical things that we can do. The first practical thing is
to consider our ambitions. What do we really want? Because
the book of James says, the apostle James says, you know, don't ever
say we're going to do this and do that, we're going to make
a profit here or there. Because the reality of it is if the Lord
doesn't will it, it's not going to happen no matter how hard we
work. Some of the hardest working people in the world are the poorest. And some people that never lift
a finger just fall into it. I'm like, how does this guy get
that? Not even smart, they just show up at the right place, the
right coffee shop, the right person sees them. Yeah, I could
work with that. Here's a billion dollars. What? It's not about working hard,
it's about the will of God. It's about what He has determined for us.
So where we are and what we're doing right now, what we're going
through, exactly where we've come from, from that point to
this point right now is where we are. And where we are is exactly
where God has placed us. So let's find contentment in
that. I want so much more, y'all. And when I say that, I'm not
even talking about finances. I'm not even talking about stuff.
I'm not even talking about things. prosperity or position or even
ministry. Those things, I say I want so
much more. I want depth. I want understanding. I want
the ability to just open my mouth and just share simply the journey
that I've been on and the understandings that I may have that somebody
else may be able to glean and just be free. I want more, but I have to be
content with what I am. And so do you. Otherwise, we
run this race ragged. Hard work is not going to escape
us. Trials are not going to escape us, but contentment can be here.
And I believe simplicity is the key to that. Some practical ways
to live a simpler life. Minimizing our possessions. Yeah, it's got so much maintenance,
we'll get rid of some stuff. I need more closets. How many
handy houses do we have to buy? Get rid of it. How many implements
do we need for our tractor? How many magazines do we need
for our rifle? How many, right, well, that's, I'm not even gonna
go there. How many pairs of shoes? We need to reduce distractions.
How many things do we go after that distract us from intimacy?
With ourselves, with our family, with our Lord. Because I'll promise
you this, there is nobody praying and worshiping to the point of
losing sight of their relationships. I've never met a person, you
may be it, come up, I want to meet you and talk more, I want
to spend a lot of time with you, because I need to hear what you
have to say. But I've never known that spiritual things would take
precedence over everything else. Now some people think that they're
spiritual, but they're usually hobbies attached to some spiritual
thing. But just time with the Lord,
time in prayer, time reading the Bible, these are good disciplines
and we can have them in balance. That's not what I'm talking about,
distractions. I'm talking about distractions that would take
us away from those things. Distractions that would cause
us to have a more complex line of thinking, to constantly have
this mental dialogue that's going and worrying about some things.
And that's not going away either. We need to deepen our spiritual
practices. We need to pray and emphasize the importance of prayer.
And for some of us, praying is the hardest thing that we'll
ever do. It's the hardest thing that I do. I want you to hear
that, church. And this isn't new, I've shared
this before. Prayer is the hardest thing in my life. I can write a book and read two books, and that's not as hard as praying. Because there's something intimate
about prayer and our mind fights it. It's in our mind, it fights
it. So I have to pray out loud. Because if I'm praying in my
mind, if I'm laying in the bed, I do pray at night in the bed,
but I have to really almost verbally whisper the prayer because when
I go to praying in my head any long period of time, next thing
I know I'm talking to God about physics. Or I'm talking to God about,
is the gate closed? Or I'm going through the to-do
list for next week. And He don't need to hear all
that. He knows it already. I'm not praying. You can see
how our thoughts go. Just like, what? What was I doing? Oh yeah,
I was talking to my father. Bible study and community and
fostering simplicity. Beloved, I think as a people,
as a spiritual family, we need to listen to that. Not to always
have the answer, not to explain to people what they need to be
doing differently, but just listen. And when someone tells us about
their trials, one of the things that we should be thinking about
is, is there a way that this person can simplify something
in their life? Because there's something about my life that
I can't see, because I'm in the midst of it, but you can see
it. But if we're not sharing life together, if all we're talking
about are the chores and the shopping list, then we're not
having time together at all. If all we're talking about is
the next thing on the calendar, that's not life. I can talk to an AI
bot with that. Cereal, take care of that for
me all day long. I never have to talk to another human being. Sometimes we have to share life
to whatever degree we feel comfortable. Community is important. We also
need to, as I spoke about last week, cultivate gratitude. We
need to be thankful. We need to encourage shifting
our focus from what is lacking to what is present. Let me say that again. We need
to encourage ourselves and others to shift our focus from what
is lacking to what is present. Can I just say it one more time?
Shift our focus from what is lacking to what is present. Because what is present, there's
much to be praised. What we have is something that
we don't deserve. And we should thank God for it.
Thank God for the nuanced idiosyncrasies. Thank God for the little trials.
Thank God for the irritations. Thank God for the whole mess.
My grandmother used to say that. Just thank God for the whole
mess. And that was her way of not using profanity. And it was sort of like a stopgap
measure. We're not having this. We're
not doing this. You just thank God for the whole mess and let's
get on with it. You know, I can see her now. She get it. I never
really understood that until I had a whole mess of my own.
But being thankful. And these aren't new. We talked
about them last week and the week before and the week before that. Another
thing that we can do practically in the context of simplicity
is We need to realize and remember that serving others can help
us redirect our focus from ourselves to our community. And I just wrote a whole lot
over the last month about compassion. And that, I think, is one of
the primary things that fuels compassion in our lives as believers,
is that we keep mindful the gospel and the compassion of Christ,
as I talked about last week, and then we serve others through
that same compassion. And the more we serve, we shouldn't
do it out of feeling like we need to do more, because that's
complexity. We need to serve in a place of
simplicity. I just want to help this person, this one second,
this one thing right here for this one time. And if they come
back, make it one time, you see? Sometimes we compound our obligations
to the point where even the joy of it is gone because it's overbearing,
rather than just simply saying, this time. And that's where forgiveness
comes in, isn't it? Forgiveness says, well, this
is new. Are you kidding me? They've said
that same gross thing to you for 28 years. They've said that
same thing to you for 53 years. They've treated you like that
since you were a baby. Okay, forgiveness says, huh,
this is new. But wisdom says, hey, there's
a character issue I need to make you aware of. It's okay to be
honest. And that's part of being simple. And it's not gonna be easy. It's
not gonna be easy. It's not gonna be easy at all. But the final thing I
want us to think about this morning in being simple is Psalm 46.10. And you know the text. You may
not know the reference, but Psalm 46.10 says, be still and know
that I am God. And then it goes on to say, I
will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. What's it mean to be still? We've
talked about this a lot, beloved. Simply be still. Be present. Be mindful of the
Lord. Be here, not somewhere else. Listen to what, not necessarily
I'm saying, but listen to the truth behind it. Listen for it. Listen with expecting ears. One
true thing about our lives is that we are self-fulfilling prophets,
and we have self-fulfilling prophecies. When we go into something looking
for it in a certain way, we will find exactly what we're looking
for. If we're looking for problems, hallelujah, we found them. If
we're looking to be bored, you betcha. That's the way it works. That's the way it works. And
so we need to reflect on this, finding peace in God's presence.
Be still and know that I am God is the simplest thing we could
ever do in life. And beloved, you know what really
brings that around for me? Is trauma, terror, and pain. Not during it, but after. After, it's like, oh! I mean,
Hurricane Matthew scared us to death, tore our little property
to pieces, ripped our roof off like a piece of paper, water
coming in sheets down the walls. Trampoline was 12 feet up in
the air, three feet from our bedroom. And after it was all done and
we did not die, I had PTSD, literally PTSD for a very long time when
I heard thunder. It was like, I got sick, I got
panicky. It's crazy. But after we cut
that trampoline out of the tree, Robin wrote, be still and know
that I am God. We were gonna frame it, but it's
hard to frame a trampoline canvas, even the little section of it.
It's still out there in our garage. But see, that's when I know to
be still, is when things have been turned upside down. We need
to get to the place where we live in such a way that that
simple resting and stillness can be found in the beginning
of the chaos. Does it change the circumstances?
No, but it surely changes our position in it. And so, beloved,
I want you to think about it, to apply these principles, to
consider what it means to be content, for you to be content
in your life, to consider what those distractions are, what
relationships you need to encourage, fostering simplicity together,
Bible reading. I don't even hear a lot of saying
Bible study anymore because I believe we gotta read it first. We gotta
read something to study it. And prayer. Being thankful, serving
other people. one step at a time. And reminding ourselves that
God is near. That God is near. Isn't that
so simple? But yet it is the hardest thing
that we will ever do in life and the only success we have
is in the midst of finding that we're trying to be simple at
the cost of life. The only hope we have is the
resting place of Christ. the body and the blood of Jesus
given to us for the sake of our joy. Because only in the gospel
do we find such peace. So that is my prayer for you,
is that you would be established in the presence of God today
and simplify your life. And I'd love to hear, share with
me what you do to make your life simpler. Because I need the ammunition. Let's pray. We thank You, Father,
for loving us, for guiding us to truth, for helping us to see
all of the promises that Your Word has given us. And Lord,
that we are not guilty. We are not to be ashamed. We
are not to be confronted with condemnation, but Lord, to be
set free in our minds and in our lives in such a way that
we can rejoice. Lord, teach us to be content.
Teach us to be simple. To get the things out of our
lives that we don't need. And Lord, to reframe the things
that we want and the things that we do need, that they may be
a joy to us. And Father, we are grateful for the gospel. We are
grateful for salvation. We are grateful for your love.
And we are grateful because of Christ. And we pray to you because
of Christ. Amen.