Trusting in Gods promises

Q: What does the Bible say about contentment?

The Bible teaches that we should be content with what we have, as expressed in Hebrews 13:5-6. The Bible emphasizes the importance of contentment in several passages, notably in Hebrews 13:5-6 where it instructs us to be without covetousness and to be content with what we have. The assurance that God will never leave us nor forsake us is foundational to our ability to live a contented life. Paul also speaks of contentment in Philippians 4:11, stating that he learned to be content in all circumstances. Contentment is seen as a key aspect of godliness, indicating that true happiness comes from relying on God's promises rather than seeking fulfillment from material possessions.

Q: How do we know God's promises are reliable?

God's promises are reliable because He is faithful and His word is true, as stated in Hebrews 13:5. The reliability of God's promises stems from His immutable nature; He does not lie or change His mind. Hebrews 13:5 assures us that God will never leave us nor forsake us, highlighting His unwavering commitment to His people. Throughout Scripture, God has demonstrated His faithfulness time and again, reinforcing the trustworthiness of His promises. This builds our confidence as believers, knowing that we can rely fully on God to fulfill His word and that we can boldly proclaim, 'The Lord is my helper; I will not fear what man shall do unto me.'

Q: Why is humility important for Christians?

Humility is crucial for Christians as it aligns us with God's will and opens the door to His grace. Humility is fundamentally vital for Christians because it reflects a heart aligned with God's will and an acknowledgment of our dependence on Him. As mentioned in 1 Peter 5:6-7, we are called to humble ourselves under God's mighty hand, which leads to His exaltation in due time. This principle is echoed throughout Scripture, emphasizing that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Humility allows us to cast our cares upon Him, knowing He cares for us. It prepares our hearts to receive His guidance, enabling us to reflect Christ's character in our interactions with others.

Q: How can we find peace amidst discontent?

Finding peace amidst discontent comes from trusting God's provision and relying on His promises. To experience peace amidst discontent, we must shift our focus from our circumstances to God's providential care and faithfulness. Hebrews 13:5 advises against covetousness and encourages us to be content, reminding us that our security is found in God who will never abandon us. Peace is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22), and it flourishes in the hearts of those who trust in God's sovereignty. By seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33), we can cultivate a heart and mind at peace, even in discontenting situations, knowing that our ultimate fulfillment is found in Christ alone.

Friends, greatly needing the help of God, let us turn to his holy word into the chapter that we have read together this morning, the 13th chapter in the book of Hebrews, particularly verses five and six. Hebrews chapter 13. Verses five and six. Let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have.

For he hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me. Let your conversation be without covetousness. Be content with such things as you have. For he hath said, I will never leave thee. nor forsake thee, so that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.

In the word of God we have much, teaching we have much, instruction. And as we come to this closing chapter in this epistle to the Hebrews there is now this verse that we have before us. May the Lord God of heaven as he has sent his word among us this morning Be pleased to use it for our teaching, our instruction, and for our good as we live our lives.

Whilst we have breath, we are too. Be careful, be mindful, to be considerate, over these three words that we have that begin with C in this text this morning, conversation, covetousness, and content. Ordinarily, we think of the word conversation as a dialogue between two or more people. to converse with our voice, to speak one to another. We have conversations where we can talk to one another and tell each other those things that we have in our heart or that we need to convey to somebody else. This conversation here this morning is not a conversation with a voice. It's a different language.

It's our body language. It's our walk, it's our conduct, and how we are to be mindful of what? Our body language. What our temperament is showing, what it is speaking. how good it is, how needful it is, how necessary it is to be reminded or to be taught these things. Because it can often convey to others, though we may not necessarily think of it or realize it, Our walk and the way we walk and the way we act can convey, as it were, as a conversation. It can tell us something of what is inside another and what their language, what their conversation is speaking. Perhaps maybe we'll try to be guarded in our conversation in what we say and how we say it. How needful and necessary it is in the way we are.

Not just in the house of God, but with family, with friends, with neighbors, with all people. because how quickly and easily people can pick up on things. Sometimes we can be led to completely wrong conclusions of another. There is a saying, isn't there? Actions speak louder than words.

So as we come to the word of God this morning, We come here on God's day, come to meet around his holy word, that our hearts may be ready and softened to receive the word, to hear the word of exhortation. was let us ever be mindful, and even remembrance, God knows what is in our heart. You may be tempted to say, well, the word of God says, man looketh on the outward appearance, but God looketh upon the heart, and that is true. But we have here this warning, this exhortation, that it's the way that we conduct ourselves. You see, man looketh on the outward appearance and he may look at somebody perhaps for their clothing or for their dress or for the way they look.

But this is speaking of how we act or how we react in situations how error and how trouble can so quickly and so easily creep in even to the Church of God by the way we are and the way that we convey ourselves to fellow believers or perhaps the way we are to towards unbelievers, towards children, towards young people. Let your conversation be without covetousness. So it's all to do with our character and our behaviour. It's to do with our manner of living.

Their hearts are left untamed, they become cold, they become hard. They become distant. They become unloving. The cares that we perhaps once had Maybe you're not there anymore. It is all because there is that pride of covetousness to become dissatisfied suddenly with the way things are. Maybe those temptations that creep in that we can do the things the way we want to do them, how we want to do them. And so we become self-centered, become proud. We can become arrogant. How vital it is to be doers of the word of God, to be lovers of God's word rather than lovers of pleasure.

See, they're the things that Satan will tempt us, that we can have both things. Jesus said, you cannot serve God and man, you cannot. It is impossible to keep both masters pleased. Can I have the one in one hand and the one in the other? because they are not compatible, they do not balance. We'll either love one more than the other or we'll hate one and love the other. Ye cannot, Jesus says, serve God and mammon.

But we are to be content with such things as we have. And so we have these three Cs. What is it to be content? Well, if we're contented with something, we'll be satisfied. When we become unsatisfied, dissatisfied with something or somebody, we become and that coverture spirit.

Therefore, our walk and our way and manner of life, the way we conduct ourselves with people and around people can change. Therefore, we're becoming lovers of the world and lovers of pleasures more than lovers of the living God. So especially among believers this morning, those who have made that profession of His great and holy name, how do we stand this morning? If need be, the words may be for each of us as a reproof, as a warning, that it may touch our hearts.

May God by His Spirit draw us and to see we've got no abiding city here, but we seek one to come. This world is not our rest. This world is not our home. The things and the pleasures of this life, well, they're just passing. Remember we were taken from the dust and to dust we shall return.

And so as we reflect, even upon the past day, upon the past week, upon the past months or past years, what is the word of God speaking to us this morning? What is it revealing to us this morning? God is sovereign. God is holy, God is just in all his ways and dealings. And he would have us to be obedient unto his word.

First epistle of Peter, that well-known chapter five, This chapter is perhaps well known for verse seven. Verse that you see quite often perhaps on cards that people might send. A word that people might often say to you. Before we can come to verse seven, we must come to verse six.

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. And this verse carries on. It's got a colon between. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon him. For he careth to you. Humility, friends. Humility.

And just at the end of verse five, we have this. Yea, all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility. And this is the reason. This is what Paul is saying. Do thou subject one to another? For God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves Therefore, because of that which you have spoken, humble yourselves therefore. This is not an outward humility.

It will be so in our walk, if that in our heart is made right first. Verse eight, it carries on, be sober, be vigilant. And this is the reason why, because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour, whom resists steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world, but the God of all grace hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus. after that you have suffered a while. Make you perfect. Establish, strengthen, settle you.

To him be the glory, cringe great things he hath done. Our Redeemer God, our hope, our way, our life, our end. Or may we bring that praise unto his great and holy name this morning. For the Lord well knoweth what we are each in need of. He knows what's happening in our life right now today. He knows what has been in our life. And he knows that which needs correcting.

May our hearts be softened under the word and not to reject the word. Not to say, I will not have this man to reign over us. Be content with such things as you have. For if there is that discontent, there can never be that peace. There can never be that true happiness. If we're uncontented, we will not be settled. If we're uncontented, we'll be just like the waves of the sea, backwards and forwards, in and out, up and down, never the same. Never settled. Let your conversation be without covetousness. And be content with such things as you have.

The amazing wonder of the gospel preaching is not the perfect deliverance of some great perfect sermon, but it's what God does by his Holy Spirit in the hearts of those that hear. He uses the foolishness of preaching for the good of souls, for his word to go forth. This is the good seed. The good seed is the word of God. But for a seed to grow, it must first go into the ground. For a corn of wheat must go into the ground and die before it can shoot up and spring forth and bring that fruit.

May our hearts be humbled and softened under God's word, that this word, the word of God may go in. This is a loving exhortation of Paul. How often he says, and I love that term of endearment. He said, dearly beloved, dearly beloved. And how it is the prayer and desire of every true preacher of the word, that the Lord will have the honour and glory, that the Lord will use his own word to accomplish that which He will, that it may turn our hearts from the lusts of the heart, for the pride of the heart, that we may see Jesus as the one thing needful, not life, not all the things that are in it, Not all the things that Satan will tempt us are just all right.

We could do a little bit, we can go there a little bit. Because we know the heart of man is deceitful, it's desperately wicked. Now we can go out after these things. Just a little bit, just a small piece. But we know that that doesn't happen. My dear old dad used to say to me, he said, if I give you an inch, you'll take a mile. It's true. A word. If he said you can go out for five minutes, I'd stay out an hour. I didn't want to submit. I didn't want to do what was required of me. It saddens my heart now, but the deeds were done. You've had to learn by them. And I remember another time, one evening I asked my mum if I could go out on my bike and she said no. So I went.

And this was after I'd had This great injury back in 1979. I was knocked off my bike. I went underneath, thankfully a parked car. I cut all my knee open. There's no way I could hide the fact that I hadn't been out. Visibly shaken up, ripped open trousers, the bleeding knee. I couldn't hide it.

I had to come home to my mum and confess. The amazing wonder was, I was expecting good telling off as I deserved, but disobeyed. I'd gone against that one little word, no. I thought I'd be all right. I wanted my own way. I wanted to do what the other boys were doing. I was coveting after what they were doing. It didn't seem any harm, just going out for a ride.

I had to learn the hard way. And I hope perhaps that that experience that I had all those years ago may be for a purpose here to somebody this morning. You see, I was expecting a good telling off. But you know, my dear mum, I remember her now. She got down. And she was really kind to me. And she helped me patch my knee up and talked me out. I had to go back to her. And may there be that speaking even through this very simple, perhaps very insignificant little account from my own life that will speak very loudly and profoundly to you this morning. God is a gracious God. He is a kind God. He is a loving God. Do you remember the prodigal son?

He went off, took his money, went off into another land, wasted all his money on riotous living. He came completely to an end of his money. He proved that he got no friends. There he was from a man that had his pockets full of money to suddenly he was penniless. Then he came to his senses. Bread in my father's house, mourn to spare. That young man he had to turn. I will go to my father's house. I'm no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thine hard servants. Was the father angry with him? He ran to meet him. He kissed him, put his arms around his neck, brought forth that robe, that ring, and those sandals for his feet. What a pardoning God we have, or who has love so rich? and free.

Jesus in his ministry said repent. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as ye have. For he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee, so that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me. And there was just Another verse I'd like us to turn to in the First Epistle of Timothy, chapter six. And we'll read verses six to nine. But godliness with contentment is great gain. We brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out. Having food or clothing or covering Let us be there with content.

What makes you content this morning? What gives you that greatest contentment in your life? What gives you that greatest happiness? That joy? Is it the things, can it be the things that are here, that we can see, that we can touch? These things Jesus tells us, if our treasures are upon the earth, it doesn't matter what a treasure is, if something is a treasure to us, It could be something that would be millions, billions. It could be something of relatively low cost, but we treasure it.

These things are all passing. We didn't bring them into the world. We didn't have them when we were born. It is only through the Lord's goodness and mercy and grace and love, that we've been blessed with the things that we have. The word of God tells us if we've got food and clothing, let us with just those things be content.

Not with the lives or the health or the strength, or the peace or the blessings other people may have? Not with the possessions other people have. Do we walk with the Lord? Do we believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? Then may we know that blessing of the Lord that maketh rich and that addeth no sorrow therewith. Just to continue in this chapter of Timothy, this last chapter of his first letters to Timothy, verse nine, that they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare. and into many foolish and hurtful lusts.

And what do they do? Drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money, not the having of money, but the love of money, is the root of all evil, which while some coveted after, they have heard from the faith, pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee from these things. But thou, O woman of God, flee from these things and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, and meekness.

What blessed fruits these are that we long for these things, to follow the Lord, to take up our cross and follow him. That we seek to do good with what the Lord has blessed us with. That we may set up those treasures which are in heaven those things that cannot be accustomed to rust or moth or be corrupted for your Father. Matthew 6, for after all these things did the Gentiles say, for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought, the things of itself sufficient unto the days the evil thereof and then just finally to epistle to the philippians And here, the apostle is speaking of himself. In verse 11 of chapter four, Philippians 4,

11. Not that I speak in respect of want, for I have learned in whatsoever state I am, in whatsoever state he was in, to be content. This dear man, God appointed to be a minister.

We have all this amazing instruction in these letters. He can say, I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound everywhere and in all things. I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer. Neat. I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me. He giveth grace to the humble, but the proud he knoweth are far off. I know, he says.

What about you and me this morning? as we come to a close for this morning. If the Lord will lead us further on into that next part of the verse later. I know how to be abased. and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer and eat. I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.

And just remember as we close, And Paul has had those revelations, lest he should be lifted above them in measure, God gave to him a thorn in the flesh. Paul, those three times, he asked the Lord to take that away from him. No, Paul, that's yours to keep, but I'll give you something better. My grace. is sufficient for thee, and my strength is made perfect in weakness. And our dear man, he could go on to say in 2 Corinthians 12, that he would rather bear all the infirmities in his body that the power of Christ may rest upon him.

May the grace of Christ our Saviour, and the Father's boundless love, and the Holy Spirit's favour rest upon us from above. May we all abide in union with each other and the Lord, and possessing sweet communion, joys this world cannot afford. Amen. Let's sing together our closing hymn from Hymns for Worship, number 165. 165.

Jesus calls us all the tumult of our life's wild, restless sea. Day by day, his sweet voice soundeth, saying, Christian, follow me. Hymns for Worship, 165, tune 897. Jesus calls us on the two parts of the life-dwelled restless sea. Day by day his sweet voice and dear singing Christian folk ♪ As of old her poor soul sat here ♪ ♪ By the gallow lay and lay ♪ ♪ Torn from her bed, torn and injured ♪ ♪ Weeping o'er for his disdain ♪ ♪ Jesus chose us from the worship ♪ ♪ Of the vainglorious soldiers too ♪ ♪ From each rightful that would keep us ♪ ♪ Sing we this joyful hymn of hope ♪ In a joyous and in a sorrowous days of toil and mass of ease, still he calls in chaste and precious Christian Jesus Christ, by thy mercies save, that day we hear thy call. Give our hearts to thy obedience, serve and love thee best, O Lord. Now may the grace of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the love of God to our Heavenly Father, the sweet communion of the Holy Spirit, be with us all both now and for evermore. Amen.

Trusting in Gods promises

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about contentment?

How do we know God's promises are reliable?

Why is humility important for Christians?

How can we find peace amidst discontent?

Sermon Transcript

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Trusting in Gods promises

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about contentment?

How do we know God's promises are reliable?

Why is humility important for Christians?

How can we find peace amidst discontent?

Sermon Transcript

Comments

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