Contentment in The Home

I am going to give you a message kind of in in our series that

we've been doing and it's not, I don't know if it's a series, I

will. There's not really any specific

length or anything like that, but just the topic of the

family. But there this is this is

something that applies to everyone, not just those who

have kids, not just those who are have kids in the home or

grandkids or whatever this is. This is honestly something that

all of us can take tonight and use in our lives.

But I'm going to apply it particularly to those with

families because it's important for us to understand that we've

got to teach these things to our kids as well.

But obviously the the way that we teach it to our kids is by

modeling it ourselves. And obviously we've got a lot of

people in our church that that either don't have kids or your

kids are grown or you're, you know, that your family doesn't

live here and you are a testimony.

You're an example to the young people in our church.

And even even more than just the young people, you're example to

the younger people, right? There's, there's plenty of

people who are in that, that, that age where they've got

younger kids. And you're an example to help

with those things as well. I, I, I'm sure you've heard of

this before, but every year on the 4th of July, Nathan's Hot

Dogs has their, their famous hot dog eating contest.

Right. And if, if I were to ask you,

who is the guy that always wins the hot dog contest?

Yeah. Well, yeah, the guy that eats

the most. But there's a person, there is a

specific person that eats the most every time.

Joey Chestnut. Does that ring a bell?

All right, so Joey Chestnut has he's he holds the record.

It's 10 minutes. All right, this hot dog eating

contest last for 10 minutes. He set the record at Joey's hot

dog eating contest with 76 hot dogs.

And it's not just hot dogs, it's 76 hot dogs and buns.

You have to eat all of them in 10 minutes, 76 hot dogs.

Now he's that's the record that he said he actually won.

He won the event for the 17th time.

OK, He's, he's done it 20 * 20 years in a row.

He, he was not in it in 2024 because in 2024 there was

actually a sponsorship dispute. So he didn't, he didn't go into

the hot dog eating contest in 2024, but he's been, he's

entered 20 times, he's won 17 out of those 20 times.

He won. He won in 2025.

On July 4th, he ate 7070 hot dogs in 10 minutes.

His actual record, his record, apparently Netflix did some kind

of hot dog eating contest for some special and he ate 83 hot

dogs in 10 minutes. Could you imagine that?

I have no idea how you, how you do all that.

But they say that in the course of those of, of his years of

eating and just in that, that, and he's a he's what they call a

competitive eater. By the way, I looked it up

because I was interested. He makes 5 to $6 million doing

this a year because of, because of appearances and because, you

know, I mean, he's the, the world champion eater.

And, and by the way, he's not £500.

He's like my size, you know, he's not a big guy at all.

I have no idea where you put 80 hot dogs and you know, in 10

minutes and then get rid of it. But he does.

And anyway, in those, in just in those competitions that he's

been involved in the last 20 years, he's eaten 12112 hundred

hot dogs in what, 200 minutes, 1200 hot dogs.

That's that's unbelievable to me.

But anyway, I say all that to say that that hopefully you're

not, your children are not in danger of eating 73 hot dogs at

1 sitting and you know, in or even in one day, let alone 7 a

minute for 10 minutes straight. But they are most certainly in

danger, as we all are, of falling prey to the

materialistic values of a consumerist culture, right?

That's what the world is trying to tell us now.

You've got to have more. If you're going to get ahead,

you've got to go out there and make it happen.

We live in a consumerist culture.

Everything about it means I've got to have more, right?

Amazon came along and it changed everything.

I don't know what life is like without Amazon.

I mean, you know, it used to be that you would order something

through a catalog. You'd have to call them up.

And, you know, hey, I'm looking at order number, such and such,

and I'd like to place this order, OK?

It should be there in about 12 to 14 days.

And we're like, oh, yes, that's going to get here quick.

You know, now it's like if it's not overnight between 4:00 AM

and 8:00 AM, what's what's wrong with this?

You know what's wrong with this picture?

You know, I just, I ordered something and I didn't even, I

didn't even need it, but the only option was to get it

overnight between 4:00 AM and 8:00 AM.

And I was like, all right, click, I guess I'll get it at

4:00 AM. And sure enough, the ring goes

off at like 6:00 and there's the box sitting on my porch, you

know, and but that's, that's what we live in a world where

enough is never enough anymore. And a lot of people devote their

entire lives to acquiring wealth and possessions.

And like I talked about this morning that the problem with

all of that is that's going to go away, right?

You can acquire everything. You leave it behind when you go,

somebody else is going to be enjoying that beautiful house

that you built. Somebody else is going to have

all that money that you stashed away in that bank account for

all of those years. Somebody else is going to drive

that car or it's going to be sitting in the junkyard

somewhere, right? Enough is never enough.

When is enough enough? When have you when do you have

enough? That's that's the question for a

lot of people. But living with a focus on the

temporal doesn't begin when a person hits a a certain age,

right? You don't all the sudden switch

to a mindset of I've got to have more when you turn 23 years old

or 30 years old. You know, some kid sets his

sights at 20 years old on a career, on career success or 40

when you hit a midlife crisis and then all of a sudden you're

worried about money. No, it starts way, way, way, way

before that. It begins at a very young age

when a child believes in his heart that happiness and

identity are found in possessions.

When, when happiness and identity are found in things or

in the acceptance that comes by having those things, you know

that a lot of marketing is actually done to children.

A lot of your commercials on TV are actually marketed to kids

because the kids have such a powerful influence over the

parents in deciding what the parents buy.

So they're, they, you know, just children ages 2 to 5.

And now I hope this is different for you and your house.

But children ages 2 to 5 watch more than 32 hours of television

a week and they see more than 40,000 commercials a year.

40,000 commercials. Turns out the kids watch

commercials and television programs with attention to the

point that they they can't even, they don't even know exactly

what those commercials are about.

But they are starting to establish brand loyalties at a

very, very early age. By first grade, most children

can recognize 200 brand logos. They don't have to see.

They can't even read. I remember, I remember when

Jackson was like 3 years old and we're driving by and he said

there's McDonald's. And I was like, how does he know

that that's McDonald's? He can't even read, right?

But you see the big M and they know what it is, right?

It's just the logo. And by by first grade, they can

recognize 200 logos, which is why, OK, when I was growing up,

we got our shoes that payless. But you know what I always

wanted? I just wanted a shoe that had a

big swoosh on it. That's all I wanted, right?

Because those kids had Nikes and I was buying my shoes at

Payless. And they're probably the same

shoes. They're probably made in the

same factory. One of them goes one way and

gets a swoosh on it. The other one goes the other way

and gets nothing on it. And that's what I got was the

nothings, right? There was no difference, right?

And as I got older and I finally was what, you know, had enough

money to buy my own pair of Nikes and I wore them and they

broke down faster than the Payless shoes did, or maybe not

quite as fast. But you understand, I, I, I

thought this was pretty funny because I saw this, they did a

social experiment and in Hollywood or somewhere like

that, they took Payless shoes and they, and they took all of

them and put them in this really fancy store and, and set them up

on the shelf with a light shining on it, mirrors all the

way around it. And they brought all these

elites, all these Hollywood elites in there.

And they were like, Hey, we're starting a new brand.

We just want you to try these shoes on, wear them and let let

us know what you think about them from Payless.

And they're putting these things on and they're asking, what do

you think about this? Oh, I mean, this feels like, I

mean, this feels like a $600.00 pair of shoes.

These are, these are so nice. You like them?

Yeah, these are great, man. How much are these?

Well, these are on sale for $400.00.

Oh, I'd pay $400.00 for those things in a heartbeat.

Wow, this is really nice. And at the end, they revealed it

to them and they were like, what?

Those are from Payless. You know, it's because it's, it

doesn't have anything to do with the quality.

It has everything to do with the consumerist mindset.

If I think that I am buying something that's going to give

me status, then I want it, right?

And we've been trained because of commercials and because of

everything else, that that consumerist mindset is what I

have to have. I'm not successful unless I have

a huge house. I'm not successful unless I

drive. What kind of car?

Cadillac, Mercedes, you know, Lamborghini, if you drive a

Lamborghini, well, man, you've hit the top of the line, right?

I mean, that's, that's what they, that's what they make you

think. I was just telling my boys the

other day, I wouldn't even want a Lamborghini, right?

Because you can't drive it fast. It's, it's from everything I've

read, one of the most uncomfortable cars in the world,

right? Because it's, it's made to go

fast and you can't even use it, right.

And not only that, but how many times are you tempted to just go

flying down the road and get a ticket because you're driving

faster than you should with a Lamborghini, right?

Doesn't it's a status symbol and that's it.

But that's what we're training our young people to do, right?

11 research. They did it, done a ton of

research on this. But one of them said kids

represent an important demographic to marketers because

in addition to their own purchasing power, they influence

their parents buying decisions and are the adult consumers of

the future. So according to this marketing

report, kids have a very heavy influence on their parents

spending choices in these areas. And I've got some, I've got some

statistics that I'm going to give you in a second, but that's

exactly that. They are, they are, they are

marketing to your kids. Because if they get a kid early

on to make them feel like at 3rd grade you got to go to Starbucks

every morning and get a coffee, guess what they're going to be

doing for the rest of their life.

If it's not Starbucks, I don't want it, right?

Early age Nike, if it's not Nike, I don't want it.

If it's not fill in the blank, I don't want it.

So not only are they marketing it the kids because the kids are

like, no, I don't want that store brand.

I want this one. And the parents are like, OK,

fine, whatever. You know, that's that's what

that's what they're, you know, training kids to do, but then

also their customers for life because they recognize that

brand and that's what they want, right?

So when it comes to breakfast choices, they say that 97% of

the time the kids are the ones who decide or or or convince

their parents what to get for breakfast. 95% of the time for

lunch choices where where to go for casual family meals. 98% of

the time the kids are the ones that influence that.

My poor kids are in the 2%. But anyway 34% of the kids

always having a say on the choice of casual restaurant

clothing purchases. 95% of the time the kids have the have the

at the very least the influence on the parents.

Software purchases 76% of the time.

Computer purchases 60% of the time family entertainment

choices 98% family trips and excursions 94% of the time.

I tell you this, a home should not be kid driven, right?

It's it's not, it's not the kids responsibility to decide what is

going to happen in the house. But the problem is we've allowed

our kids to become so consumerist focused that that

that's why those numbers are so high, right?

My kids like, hey, I want, you know, Captain Crunch.

I'm like, whatever the store brand of Captain Crunch is,

that's what you can have, you know, comes in a big dog food

bag at Walmart. You ever seen those?

That's what they get. And we're looking at like, all

right, how much is that is the cents per oz?

All right, this one's 15.1 cents per oz.

You can have that one. I don't know what it is, but you

can have it, right? And that's what you get because

it's, you know, it's about, about, I don't care about brands

and everything else, but that's why that's what marketing is all

about, right? You ever go into a store, you

know the, that, that retail or, or certain brands buy shelf

space, right? Because what are you looking at?

First you walk up there and you're like, OK, here's all the,

you know, cereal, whatever is that eye level is usually what

you're going to buy first. So, so those those companies

will pay for that shelf space because they know that most

people are just going to see it, recognize it and grab it, right.

You want the great value, you got to go dig down in the bottom

and crawl behind everything and grab it and get that if that's

what you want. But that's what it is.

And it's because we live in a consumerist culture, right from

our children's early ages. We are teaching them when we

are, when we go along with that thinking, we're teaching them

that happiness comes from things and that identity is found in

brand names, current fads, whatever it happens to be.

And so I guess the question for us tonight is how can we

cultivate an attitude of contentment in our children's

hearts, right? Instead of, instead of, instead

of cultivating this mindset of I've got to have, I've got to

have, I've got to have, how can we cultivate this attitude of

contentment? How can we break the, the

materialistic influence that's grabbing for their attention and

teach them the joy of having enough?

And I'll tell you exactly what I said at the very beginning.

For starters, we have to model that ourselves.

We have to model that ourselves. I know as you get older and as

you have a little bit more money available to you, you want to

buy things that are a little bit nicer brands.

I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with that there.

There is a difference sometimes in the brand choice, right?

There are brands that are more expensive because they are

better quality, not just because they have a name on it.

Many times you are paying for the name, right?

But there are times when my wife will bring something home from

the grocery store and I'll eat it and I'll say what?

That's got to be a store brand. What is that?

She said, yeah, it's a store brand.

I said don't buy the store brand anymore.

Does not taste the same, right? There's a difference sometimes

between those things. But but the whole point is it's

not. It's not just marketers that

teach us that consumerist discontent.

It's the natural tendency of our hearts.

And it's exactly what we find in First Timothy chapter 6 and

1 Timothy 6 · chapter mention

verse #6 But godliness with contentment is great gain.

For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can

carry nothing out. And having food and raiment, let

us be there with content. Boy, that's it.

That's a big statement right there, isn't it?

Verse 8, having food and raiment, let us be there with

content. You have food and you got

clothes, that's enough. What are you saying?

But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and

into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in

destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the

root of all evil, which while some coveted after they have

erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many

sorrows. So if we as parents are going to

teach our children contentment, we have to have a firm grasp on

that idea of contentment ourselves.

And that's why I say, yes, this is for parents who have kids,

but this is for all of us. Contentment is something that

all of us need to work on. A lot of Christian adults have

bought into this subtle and sometimes not so subtle myths

concerning money and possessions.

And I think sometimes it's subconscious, but we actually

then go on and perpetuate these false philosophies to the next

generation. I want to give you 3 myths

before we jump into our message tonight.

And I'm, we're not going to finish this.

I'm going to, I'm going to do it over the, over a couple weeks

here. But, but here's a few myths and

I want you to turn to a couple of passages.

Go to Job chapter 34. Here's myth #1 prosperity is a

Job 34 · chapter mention

divine right. Prosperity is a divine right.

And not only is this being perpetuated by media, right?

Where you watch commercials on TV and they're telling you, you

have to buy this. And if you don't, what's wrong

with you, right? This is this is the, the

prosperity gospel that's being promoted by all kinds of

churches. God wants you to be wealthy.

And if you're a living right, if you're doing what God wants you

to do, then you'll have all the money in the world right now.

Most of it is plant this little seed of money in my pocket and

God will grow you a great wealthy fortune.

And it never happens except for the person who is getting all

the seeds, right? That's who I want to be.

I want to be the one getting all the seeds.

But call it the American dream, call it the, the, the health and

wealth gospel, getting what I deserve.

Whatever you call it, it's a lie.

Prosperity is not a divine right.

It's a divine gift. There were godly men in the

Bible who were wealthy. You think about Abraham, think

about Job, you think about David, you think about Solomon.

But they were also godly men who were poor.

I think the, the probably the prime example is Jesus, right?

He, the son of man hath not where to lay his head.

He didn't even have a house. He didn't have anything right.

You, you think about Paul, Paul was a tent maker and he had to

he had to work to make ends meet as he traveled on his missionary

journeys. Obviously they depended on other

people for their basic sustenance, but they were they

were godly. I mean, there's nobody more

godly than Jesus, right? Paul is one of the greatest

missionaries that ever lived. Neither one of them were wealthy

and there's others in the Bible that we can point to that they,

they didn't have a lot of money. So wealth that's gained by

wisdom and diligence and, and, and God's favor is a blessing to

enjoy, But it's there to invest in eternal things, right?

It's, it's not so we can hoard it all to ourselves and say,

look at everything I have. It's there so we can say God

gave this to me so I can give it back out and I can use it for

things that are going to last for eternity.

Now, I'm not saying, because the Bible does say that, that, you

know, we ought to be leaving something to the next

generation. We ought to leave something to

our family, right? So it's, it's certainly not

wrong to have money. It's certainly not even wrong to

have generational wealth, but it's a matter of what are you

doing with that wealth? The myth is that that prosperity

is a divine right and it's not, it's not owed to us by God.

God doesn't owe us money because we're living for him, because

we're serving him, right? There's millions of Christians

around the world living godly lives who are barely making it

by, especially in some of these third world countries, right?

They have nothing. They don't even know where

they're literally OK. They say this in America.

Oh, there's so many people that don't even know where their next

meal is going to come from. And that may be true, but that's

that that is not because that's because of a lot of other very,

very poor choices, right? In America, you have no excuse

to not know where your next meal is going to come from.

But literally around the world, there are many, there are

billions of people who don't know where their next meal is

going to come from. And many times they have to skip

it because there is no food for them to eat, right?

We have to be careful not to assume that wealth is a sign of

God's pleasure or that lean times are a sign of God's

displeasure, right? We can have both.

Doesn't mean that God, God is looking down on the person that

doesn't have wealth or he's looking looking up to or you

know the person that does you know that the truth is that God

doesn't view the rich any differently than he views the

poor. He's no respecter of persons.

Job chapter 34 and verse 19. How much less to him that

Job 34 · chapter mention

accepteth not the persons of Princess, no regardeth the rich

more than the poor, for they all are the work of his hands.

Acts chapter 10 and verse 34, Peter opened his mouth and said

Acts 10 · chapter mention

of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons.

He promises to provide for our needs, not necessarily our

wants. We honor him, we put Him first,

He'll take care of our needs, and that's what he says in

Philippians chapter 4 and verse 19.

Philippians 4 · chapter mention

But my God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in

Christ Jesus, right? In America, we've been trained

to have a lot of wants. Most of them are not needs,

their wants. They're things that I have to

have. Matthew 633 But seek ye first

the Kingdom of God in his righteousness.

And all these things shall be added unto you.

That's not wealth. What's the all these things?

Food raiment. Therewith you can be be content,

right? You seek him first.

He'll make sure you're taken care of.

He doesn't promise that he's going to make you wealthy.

That's a myth. Prosperity is a divine, right?

No, it's a divine gift #2 myth. It's my money.

Turn over to James chapter 1. You worked hard for it, so it's

James 1 · chapter mention

yours, right? Actually wrong.

We are stewards. We are managers of our own

money, not owners. Everything that we have comes

from the hand of God, right? And God could take that away

from you in a heartbeat, right? Oh, you got a billion dollars in

the bank? Go get sick with cancer.

See how fast that money goes away.

All right, Have a business deal go the wrong direction and see

how fast that money goes away. God can take it away in a

heartbeat because it's not yours.

He's lending it to you to be a steward of what He has given you

for the time that you have it. Everything that we have comes

from the hand of God. Verse James chapter 1 and verse

James 1 · chapter mention

#17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and

cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no

variableness either. Shadow of turning.

It's God who gave us the ability and the opportunity to work and

earn that money in the 1st place.

It's it's God that calls us to steward our resources for Him.

It's not yours. It's not my money.

It's money that He's let me borrow for the time being.

And I think the way that we handle it in the way that we use

it for His service is how He determines whether or not He's

going to keep giving it to us or not.

Here's the third myth that a lot of people have.

And back in First Timothy chapter 6, if you'll turn over

1 Timothy 6 · chapter mention

there, money is evil. Money is evil.

That's a myth, right? It's a tricky one because it's

close to the truth. Possessing money is not a sin.

What is a sin is being possessed by that money, right?

First Timothy chapter 6 and verse #10 says for the love of

1 Timothy 6 · chapter mention

money is the root of all evil, right?

Oh, you've heard people say that all the time.

Well, you know that money is the root of all evil.

And that's not what the Bible says.

The love of money is the root of all evil.

They say that because they want to get at the rich.

Money is the root of all evil. And, and, and, and it, and it's,

I mean there's, there's a lot of truth to that when it comes to

some of those things, especially, I mean, especially

now you look at everything that's coming out in the Epstein

files and all of those kind of things that money is money

corrupts, right? Money really corrupts, and the

people who have a lot of it have used it in a lot of wrong ways

for a lot of wrong things. But money is not evil.

We can use money for the glory of God.

We can use money to accomplish a lot of things that God wants us

to accomplish, right? It's not money that's the root

of all evil. It's the love of money.

And that could go from the person who has the most money in

the entire world to the person who has the least money in the

entire world, right? The love of money can be from

can somebody who's poor can love money.

You don't have a lot of it, but you love it and everything in

your life is about how can I get more?

Same way that people who are rich can have a love of money

and everything in their life is about how can I get more, right?

It's the love of money that's the root of all evil.

So learning contentment isn't about hating money.

It's about learning what matters most.

It's about putting those things in the right place and having

the right priority. So how do we teach that to our

children? How do we help them to have a

proper perspective on money and a material things?

I want to, I want to give you probably just two points tonight

and I'll probably give you 2 points next week.

Well, next week we have our young men's service.

But after that, I want to look at some of God's instructions to

parents for teaching our children to be content.

And as I said before, a lot of it hinges on us making sure that

we are content so we can model those things to our children if

we want to be, if we want our children to be content with what

they have. I think there's there's some

scriptural practices that we have to follow in our homes.

Let's pray and then we'll jump into this.

Father, again, we thank you for an opportunity tonight to go

through some of these things. I pray that it will be a help to

not only our families, but to us as individuals and to our

church. God, I pray that you bless our

time together in Jesus name, Amen.

Number one, I want you to see this, and I've already kind of

alluded to this, but model contentment in the home.

How do we teach our children? How do we cultivate contentment

in a consumerist culture? Number one, we have to model

that contentment in the home. Well, what is contentment?

Contentment is having enough, right?

That's that's what contentment is having enough.

It's the opposite of covetousness, always calling for

more. I've got to have more.

Just just one more dollar, just one more thing, just a little

bit bigger house, just a little bit nicer car, just just a

little bit higher up that rung, just a little bit higher up that

ladder of success. And then I'll be OK.

But contentment is where we recognize that what I have is

enough, right? First Timothy chapter 6 and

1 Timothy 6 · chapter mention

verse 6. But godliness with contentment

is great gain. That's what everybody wants.

I want to gain. I want things.

Godliness with contentment is great gain.

Charles Spurgeon wrote this. You say if I had a little more I

should be very satisfied. But you make a mistake.

If you're not content with what you have, you would not be

satisfied if it were doubled. And that's exactly the truth.

How many people have fit into that exact category?

Millionaires, billionaires. How much is enough?

One is enough. Enough.

Just one more dollar, just one more deal and I'm done.

All right? I just got to have a little bit

more. And could you imagine what I

don't want to get off track, but you think about how much money a

billion dollars is. A billion dollars is $999

million plus another millionaire on top of it.

That's a lot of money. And yet these billionaires I've

got to have, you know, I got to be the first trillionaire in the

world, you know, I mean, and, and it's just, it's just not

enough. It's not enough.

I got to have more. That's amazing to me.

But Charles Spurgeon has a good point.

How many people do you know who have more money than they need,

but they never feel like they have enough.

And I'll be honest with you, you go around to the different we,

we knock doors in the in the neighborhoods around here and

some of these houses are massive.

And you know how many people we get home?

Almost none because they don't even live there because they're

out there working to pay for the house that they don't even live

in, right? And they're, they're sitting in

the office because they, you know, they're not, they're not

in the fancy car that they're driving because they're sitting

in the office trying to pay for the car that they're driving to

get to the house that they don't live in, that they, that they're

trying to pay for, right? And, and you knock on their

doors and you try to give them the gospel and they're not home.

They leave at 6:00 in the morning.

They get home at 8:00 at night because they're making that

money. Got to have it.

And they get one day a week just to to spend their money and to

enjoy it, right? And they have nice things, but

you can't even enjoy it, let alone to have your family,

right? Most of these people put their

kids in a daycare for 60 hours a week.

They're not. They don't even know who their

kids are. Kids don't even know who their

parents are. That's not teaching contentment

to our kids. And I'm not saying that we have

that in here. I know that nobody, nobody keeps

their kids in daycare for 60 hours a week here, right?

But but that's the that's the danger that if we pass that off

to somebody else and let them raise our kids because we're

trying to make money, it's going to be hollow.

It's going to be empty. And you're going to wish that

you hadn't done that right. You are what you're cultivating

in the home. You you are raising your

teenage. Your teenagers are almost

completely raised by the time they're five years old.

Let that sink in. Your teenagers are who they are

going to be by the time they're 3456 years old.

Who they are when they're little and what you teach them when

they're little is what's ingrained in them for most of

the rest of their life. All right.

And not that God can't get a hold of their heart and not that

you know, they can't go to a youth conference and God can get

a hold of them. God got a hold of my heart when

I was in when I was a teenager. But barring that, your kids are

who they're going to be by the time they're 567 years old.

It is so important. It is so important that you be

involved in their life when they're young.

Don't give that to a daycare person who does not care about

your kids. Don't give it to a babysitter

who doesn't have the same desires for your kids that you

have for your kids, right. You give that to somebody else,

they are going to turn. They are going to be raising

your teenagers. What you, what you want them to

be when they're teenagers is who you train them to be by the time

they're young. And that's what I'm saying, it's

so important. You know, most parents, even if

even if they're home with them, what do they stick them front of

ATV, Let the kid, let the let the TV be the babysitter, shove

an iPad in their face and let them just play games all day

long and watch all those commercials that come across in

the games and all the advertisements and all of those

things. That is what's raising your

children and that is what is training your kids to be a

teenager because that's who they're going to be.

It's very hard to turn. You get a big ship moving in One

Direction. It's very hard to turn it.

And that's exactly what's happening.

You are training your young people from the time that

they're very, very little to who they're going to be when they're

teenagers. And that's not exactly what my

point is tonight. But my point is that if we're

trained, if we're going to train our kids to be content, it

starts when they're little kids, it starts when they're little.

And it's going to it's, it's going to continue on.

But what does enough look like in plain terms?

It's, it's many times it's living below your means, right?

What, what caused that huge bubble to break in 2008 when all

these people lost their houses and their house went into

foreclosure and everything else? How did that happen?

Because they were living way above their means.

They were living on that edge of disaster and the bubble popped

and they lost everything, right? And, and, and people who had

really good jobs lost their house, went into foreclosure

because they were living way above their means.

Everything was on credit, all of those other things.

But spending less than you bring in too many parents are modeling

discontentment. In fact, turn over to Proverbs

Proverbs 22 · chapter mention

chapter 22. I think too many parents and,

and, and the and The thing is, maybe not all of your kids know

everything about your finances and everything else.

Not like I sit down and talk to my kids about my financial

situation and ask them what I should do about it, right?

They don't know, you know what, what credit cards we have and

what our bank accounts look like and everything else.

But they hear the discussions and they know the things that

are going on in your family. And too many parents are

modeling discontentment for their children by accumulating

debt over non necessities and then having to take on extra

hours at work to to, you know, or extra jobs to pay for their

undisciplined spending. And in our culture of plenty, we

live by the assumption that if we want it, we should have it.

By the way, by the way, that's a mistake that a lot of young

people make too. They they get out of high

school, they get out of college, they get married, and they think

they should have everything that their parents had when they were

growing up. It took your parents 30 years to

get that. OK, you're not going to drive a

fancy car. OK, you, you should drive a

beater around for a while and learn what it's like, right?

It'll teach you how to fix a car.

I can tell you that much, right? Drive a beater, right?

Live in a tiny little cracker box of a house.

Everybody expects that the day they graduate, they should be

able to go buy a $500,000 house. And both the husband and the

wife have a, a fancy car that they're driving and, and it, you

know, if it's not brand new, it should only be a year or two

old, right? It took your parents years to

get that. The problem is parents are

teaching their kids that it's OK to have that mindset, right?

Jackson just got his license a couple weeks ago.

You know what he's driving? Well, he's not even driving it

yet because it doesn't run. We're trying to get it running.

A 2007 Toyota 4 Runner with 325,000 miles on it.

Guess what he's going to learn how to do?

He ain't going to be squealing the tires in that thing.

I can promise you that because #1 the tires probably aren't

even going to squeal. But #2 if he does, he's not

going to have a car to drive, right?

It teaches you how to learn those things.

It, it, it forces you to be content.

He can go buy a car if he wants to, but he doesn't have the

money to buy a car. So he's going to drive what's

there, right? And, and, and honestly, I don't

even think it's a wise thing for parents to allow your kids to go

buy a Mustang, even if they're working and they have the money

to buy it, right? Save it and use it for something

else. Learn how to get by on living

below your means, right. Well, this, this kid is working

a job and he saved up his money over the summer.

And so he wants to spend every last dime that he has on a brand

new Mustang. It's his money.

Let him go spend it. No, man, I, I was riding with

the police officer just three or four months ago and we pulled

this kid over. He was 17 years old and he had

15 points on his driving record. He was driving a, a Mustang,

driving a Mustang and he was going 60 miles an hour in a 35

when we pulled him over with 15 points on his driving record.

Do you think he'd be doing that if he was driving a little

beater that barely got to 35 miles an hour, let alone be able

to go 60 in a Mustang? Right.

And, and, and it turned out that his, his dad was on the title

with him and everything else. So it's the worst thing you

could do for your kid. Doesn't matter if you have

money, let him start at the bottom.

Some of the some of the guys who were the most successful have

taught that lesson to their kids by making them start at the

bottom and work their way up, right.

Some of the worst things that could happen is I'm the CEO or

I'm the president or I'm the owner of this big company.

And so your kid graduates from college and now he's the vice

president and he's going to be the president next day.

Soon as I decide to retire, he's going to be the president of

this company. No, he should start off as a day

laborer and work his way up and prove that he can do it.

And all I'm saying is that's that's the mindset that we

should be teaching to our children, right?

It doesn't matter if you can afford it.

Live below your means. Show them what contentment is,

right? It doesn't mean that you can't

enjoy things. But all I'm saying is in this,

in this culture of of plenty, we shouldn't just have this mindset

that I want it, so I should be able to have it right?

Sometimes it's good for us not to have.

And that's that's especially true if it's going to put us

into debt. This guy was a journalist, Earl

Wilson. He lived from 19 O 7 to 1987.

He died a long time ago. He said this nowadays people can

be divided into three classes. And that was nowadays a long

time ago, the haves, the have nots and the have not paid for

what they haves. And he said in his article, it's

better to be in the second group than the third, right?

It's better to be in the have nots than to be in the have not

paid for what you have, right? Proverbs 22 seven, the Bible

says this, the rich ruleth over the poor and the borrower is

servant to the lender. One of the most important

lessons that a kid can learn and one of the most important things

that a parent can teach to their children when it comes to this

idea is to learn to differentiate between needs,

wants and desires, right? There are, there are some things

as a parent, you should provide for your children's needs,

right? Well, son, you're in 7th grade

now. So if you want a place to live,

you're going to have to pay me $500 a month for that bedroom,

right? And if you can't afford it, I

guess you can go find a place in the woods to stay, right?

No, you should provide a place for them to, to, to, to sleep.

You should provide food and, and, and the basic necessities

when it comes to clothes and those kind of things, OK.

But when it comes to wants and desires, there are times when

that restraint is good for us, right?

OK, I'll, I'll buy you a pair of basketball shoes from Payless.

But if you want a pair of of shoes that says Nike on it, I'm

not paying $150.00 for those shoes.

You go buy it if you want it, right?

I remember growing up with those same thing.

I had a pair of shoes. Kmart doesn't even exist

anymore. Actually it does, it's in

Australia. We saw Kmart in Australia, same

logo and everything, but here in the US it doesn't exist anymore.

When I was in 7th grade, when I got into 7th grade, my dad said,

I'll give you a place to sleep and I'll put food on the table.

You want anything else, you're paying for it.

And then he paid me $2.00 an hour to go work for him.

There's a lot of, you know what I learned how to do?

I shopped at Goodwill. I took care of my stuff.

I didn't, I didn't leave it laying all over the place.

I, you know, no, no longer did I run around and slide on my knees

and put holes in my pants. Of course, now you could sell it

for a lot more if you did that, but that wasn't cool.

Back then you had holes in your jeans.

There was something wrong with you.

Now it wasn't cool. You know, it'll RIP them up on

purpose and sell them for twice as much.

But I went to Kmart when I got into 7th grade.

I went to Kmart because I needed a pair of shoes for basketball.

Actually, this was ninth grade. We wrestled all the way up until

9th grade, and then our school switched from wrestling to

basketball and so we'd I'd never bought a pair of basketball

shoes before. I went to Kmart and I found a

pair of Warner Brothers basketball shoes.

Never even heard of it before, and I've never seen them since.

But they were on clearance at Kmart for $16 and I took such

good care of those things that, you know, by the time I was in

9th grade at my feet had grown to kind of the size that they

were going to be. I think I grew a little bit

after that. But I kept those things from 9th

grade all the way until the end of my 11th grade basketball

season. I had to buy a new pair when I

got it into my senior year. I didn't wear them outside.

I didn't wear them anywhere except on the basketball court.

I took care of those things like they were a baby because I spent

$16.00 on those basketball shoes and I was not going to spend

more money on that than I needed to.

It taught me responsibility because I was paying for it,

right? I had to pay for those things.

Now it's not just oh, well that broke, buy me another one,

right? Most parents are like, oh, OK,

well here here's some money, go buy another one, right?

No, we'll, we'll provide for your needs, but your wants, you

go pay for it, your desires, save up the money and go buy it,

right. Teach your kids and we'll talk

about this later. Teach them how to have a budget,

right? You want to, you want to buy

something, save up for it, put it in that envelope and and

keep, keep saving up until you can actually afford to buy it.

And, and here's what happens. They see something in a magazine

or what not magazine, I don't know, wherever you see it.

Oh, I really want that. All right, save up your money

and go buy it. Guess what happens?

They start saving up their money and eventually they're like,

that's a lot of money. I don't think I need that

anymore, right? That's what happens.

You teach them that responsibility and it's teaching

them that contentment at the same time.

Turn over to Hebrews chapter 13. So you'll many you'll often be

Hebrews 13 · chapter mention

able to provide for your beyond your children's needs.

But there should be a time when you just say no, as well as

times you allow them to earn and save and understand the value of

what they have, right? I I'm not.

I mean I'm not. Dirt poor where I have nothing

in a bank account, I could probably afford to buy my kids a

pair of basketball shoes once every other year, right?

But it's the it's the importance of teaching them the value of

it's not a need, it's a one, right?

You got to have Under Armour basketball shoes then guess

what? Go find them on sale at the

outlet, right? Alex just learned that lesson

the other day. We were at the outlets and we

found the they had the basketball shoes.

We were, we were down in well, oh, and it was up in Lancaster

when we went up there for the marriage conference.

And so Saturday afternoon after everything was finished, we

decided to swing by the outlets and just see we were looking for

a couple different things. And we went into, we went into

the Under Armour store and they had their basketball shoes on

clearance for 30 bucks. So my wife called Alex.

Alex, I know you got a pair of shoes for basketball season

right now, but do you want to spend money to buy a pair of

shoes right now that you can have for next year if we buy the

bigger size and you're only spending 30 bucks, He said buy

them, I'll get them $30.00, right?

I mean, it's, it's teaching them the value of those things.

And when you have to pay for your needs, I mean, sorry, your

wants, then you're they're going to be they're going to be a lot

more pay a lot more careful attention to those things.

And so as you as a parent live below your means, you're going

to model to your children the the essence of contentment.

And you need to teach them that you don't need more stuff to be

happy. You only need what God provides.

All right, even more accurately, you only need God himself.

Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 5. Let your conversation be without

Hebrews 13 · chapter mention

covetousness. What does conversation mean?

Your lifestyle. Let your lifestyle be without

covetousness and be content with such things as you have.

For he has said I will never leave you.

I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.

You have God. That's enough, right?

We talked about that a couple weeks ago and the message that I

preached stay at the top of the righteous list.

I've never seen the righteous forsaken nor seed begging bread

and say I've never seen the righteous forsaken, nor not in a

name brand pair of basketball shoes, right?

It says your needs are going to be taken care of.

And I'm here to provide those those for you because I'm your

father. But how do we teach that

contentment? How do we model contentment in

the home? Well, first of all, by living

below your means, but secondly, by providing for basic

necessities. And we kind of touched on this

already, but First Timothy chapter 6, the Bible says this

1 Timothy 6 · chapter mention

in verse #7 For we brought nothing into this world, and it

is certain we can carry nothing out.

And having food and raiment, let us be there with content.

Turn over to Proverbs 23. What exactly do we need to be

content according to this verse? We already kind of highlighted

it a little bit. But the point here is not so

much that we need only food and clothing as much as it is

contrasting contentment with covetousness.

Right. The goal of life and work is not

to just amass things, but to be able to meet our family's needs

and then to give to others. Proverbs chapter 23 and verse #4

Proverbs 23 · chapter mention

Labor not to be rich. Cease from thine own wisdom.

Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not?

For riches certainly make themselves wings.

They fly away as an eagle toward heaven.

One of the ways that you can help cultivate contentment in

the heart of your children is by assuring them that you're going

to provide for their basic necessities.

First Timothy 5 and verse #8 But if any provide not for his for

his own and especially for those of his own house hath denied the

faith and is worse than an infidel.

Well, unfortunately, children, we're we're learning

contentment. So I'm just quitting my job and

we're not going to have anything right.

That's not what he's saying. Which means then you can work,

you can, you can make money, you can provide for your house.

And not only that you can, but you should.

Your job as a parent, especially as a father, is to provide for

your children's basic needs, right?

First Timothy 5 says that very plainly.

What are those basic needs? Well, let's turn over to

Proverbs 31. Shelter, obviously, that's one

of them. Your children need a roof over

their heads, right? A place to sleep.

It doesn't have to be a palace, but it should be a place to call

home. We didn't, we didn't, we didn't

grow up in a mansion. In fact, you know, the older you

get, you go back there and you see it again and you're like,

wow, that was that's way smaller than I remember it, right.

It's the way it always goes, it seems like.

But shelter, food. Consider what Proverbs 31 says

about the virtuous woman, verse 16.

She considereth a field and buyeth it with the fruit of her

hands. She planted the vineyard.

So you should provide for them shelter, food, clothing, OK,

having, having name brand clothing is not a a need, right?

But having clothing is you should provide for your kids

when it comes to wearing clothes.

Obviously education, your child's education is a necessity

in the day that we live in. You know, think beyond high

school and doing what you can to help them through college.

But at the same time, look, my, my parents didn't spend a dime

for my college. I had to work my way through.

And you know what, by the time I graduated, the the day that I

graduated, I paid the final amount that I owed on my bill.

And I tell you one thing, I didn't, I didn't Slough off

through college. I did not care what grades I

got. I was paying for it.

I certainly wasn't going to pay for a second time through that

class, right? But I was in college with people

whose parents were paying for it and they didn't care.

They never studied. They laid around and slept all

day and did nothing and then failed the class.

And they're like, oh, well, I failed again.

Well, my parents will pay for it, right?

It's, you know, there ought to be some incentives and things

like that's not the point tonight.

But but I think the other thing that that would kind of be a

basic need for our children is recreation.

You can have family time very inexpensively, right?

Use the use the opportunities for Christmas and birthdays and

things like that to buy them things that they can use for

recreation. And my kids got a pickleball set

for Christmas and we went down to Florida with my parents over,

over the Christmas, after Christmas.

And we played pickleball a lot, right.

I think the other thing is too, your kids don't need more stuff.

I did this with my kids and I, they're, they're getting picked

on tonight a lot. But I asked them, what did you,

what did you get for Christmas last year?

And they couldn't remember. I said, what did we do for

Christmas last year? What was the gift that we bought

you to do for Christmas? And they remembered everything,

all about it last, I don't know, 3-4, five years.

Instead of buying them stuff, we've been buying them.

A trip or an experience doesn't have to be that expensive.

Hey, last year we went and stayed at the Drury Hotel and

went to the trampoline park. But they loved it and they

remembered everything about it, right?

The Drury Plaza right here has a pool that's inside and outside,

and they have free popcorn 24 hours a day and free soda 24

hours a day. They would rather have that than

a $500 something, you know, because you can, you can eat all

the popcorn you want. You can drink all the, the, the

Mountain Dew you want anytime you want it, right?

This one actually has dinner too, which is even a, a bigger

bonus, right? We went down and ate dinner

twice that night because they had hot dogs and everything

else. And they went back down and got

nachos and cheese and everything else later, right?

It doesn't have to be anything crazy expensive, but it's, it's

the things that are making memories and it's, it's, it's,

you know, especially when your children are young, especially

if you're enthusiastic about what you're doing.

But it's a great idea to plan a family budget that has some

extra savings in it to be able to do things with your family.

Right? Doesn't cost, it doesn't cost

anything to go out and hike in the woods.

Right? Doesn't, doesn't cost anything

to, to, to go out and and play tennis or go play a pickleball

chord, other than the cost of some of the materials.

And if you had to, you can probably borrow it from

somebody, right? Investing in recreation as a

family tells your children that family time is more important

than anything else, right? And, and so many people think

that family time is sitting around the TV watching a movie

or something like that. That's, I mean, yes, you're,

you're, you're together, but that's, that's really not family

time, right? Go spend some time outside, get

them away from all the consumerist mindset and all the

all the things that are trying to tell your kids not to be

content with what they have and just go out and do do some

things together as a family. When it comes to providing for

your family's needs. You have to remember that your

children want you more than they want stuff.

And they may not think of it that way right now.

I mean, my parents are going to be there no matter what.

Give me give me the thing that I want, right?

I've got a whole list of all the things that I want.

I'd rather have that. And you're going to be here

anyway, right? But you look back and, and, and

the thing, I'll be honest with you, I remember some of the

gifts that my parents gave us growing up.

We got a lot of books. We got a lot of things, you

know, that were kind of necessities.

They gave those things to us for gifts for Christmas and

everything else. But you know what I remember the

most when I was growing up and it and it, and it almost makes

me a little bit emotional thinking about it because it,

it's, it's one of those things. My dad owned his own business

and he was so nice that he didn't charge anybody anything

for it. So he didn't, he, he wasn't

wealthy, but we had a soccer game, had soccer games and, and

some of the things that have burned into my mind the most is

seeing my dad walking up the track.

The game's getting ready to start.

I don't see my dad in the in the crowd, but there he comes.

The game starts at 3:00. There he is at 3:00, walking

over there and standing along the sideline watching the game,

being there for the basketball games, being there at the

wrestling tournaments, right? We go way in early in the

morning and my dad can't be there because he's got to go to

work and everything else. And I'm not expecting to be, He

comes walking in the door, right that I remember that he was

there for almost all of the, the sports events that we had.

And, and that has burned into my mind far more than any of the

things that they ever gave us. I, I couldn't, I mean, I could

probably, if I sat here and thought about, I could tell you

a few of the gifts that I got over all of those years.

But I remember it like it was yesterday, seeing him walk into

that gym, seeing him walk up up to the soccer field to watch us

play the games. And man, we used to do stuff

growing up. I mean the run across game, I'm

just my brother. Remember we had a, we had a Tri

level house and we, we had a, we had an upstairs that went into a

downstairs living room kitchen and then it went down into the

basement. And so the, there was two

stories, but one of them was half buried because it was the

basement, right? We, we played this game

non-stop. It was a little soft that like

stuffed soccer ball and at the top of the steps you had to run

across and if and if he threw the ball and you got hit, you

were out. And we played that game for

hours. We used to love it.

I mean, we had we had foosball and we played foosball every

night for I don't know how many years.

My mom's like, all right, everybody get up.

It's time to clear the table. My dad was like foosball.

We're like, yes, we went over there and played.

So he was done playing. And then we had to clean

everything up. We had a dartboard that was on

the back of the door that led out to the garage.

It was a wooden door and there was a giant hole with nothing in

it. And then all the way around it,

holes on that dart board, right? I'm sure it drove my mom crazy,

but but we, we played darts just standing there next to the

kitchen table throwing darts after dinner.

I mean, those are the things we wrestled in the living room.

My dad would get down on the floor with us and wrestle.

I mean, all kinds of those things.

We had, we had a football game that we played outside.

Of course there was, there was enough for three football teams

in our family. So it was, it was a lot of fun,

but we played the interception game.

It was somebody's turn to catch the ball and my dad would throw

it and you had to get 10 first one to get ten wins, but you had

to try to intercept it. If you intercepted, it was your

turn. I think it was a game that he

made-up, but we loved it and we still do it.

We do it. We play it now.

I mean all of those things are things that that I remember

because we most of those things didn't cost anything, right?

I mean, how much is a dart board?

It wasn't very much, right. How much does it cost for a

foosball table? We got it.

We got it used somewhere. How much does it cost for a

little nerf ball that you're throwing up against the wall?

But those are the things that that that I remember and those

are the things that mattered, right?

And, and, and honestly, I would say that those things are

necessities, right? Your kids need those things far

more than they need you to go buy them a brand new car and let

them squeal the tires and get tickets, all right?

They need those things. They need food, they need

clothing, they need shelter, but they need you to be there for

them. And that those are the things

they're going to teach them that contentment.

We're out of time, so I'm going to stop there.

I didn't even get to the second point tonight, but if they're

going to learn contentment, they need to understand the

importance of working for something rather than just

having it simply given to them, right?

The easiest thing for you to do is to just give it to your kids,

right? Because you want to you, you

want to give to your kids. You love them and you and you

care for them and you want to take care of them.

I guess you're done listening. I shouldn't have said I'm done

because I'm really not, but I'm, I'm close.

I'm close. But The thing is, you want your

kids to have more than what you had, right?

I think that's a desire for all of us.

I want to give my kids more. I want to do better for them

than, than what I had growing up because we we missed out.

I mean, we didn't have the name brand stuff, right?

We didn't have everything given to us.

But I look back and I realized, you know what, that was one of

the best things for me, me having to go find work in 7th

grade. You know what happened?

My dad paid me $2.00 an hour to work with him.

We went to a we, we put it, he did invisible fence.

It's, it's bearing the line for the dogs, you know, and that dog

wears the collar and everything else.

That's what he did and he owned his own business doing.

They paid me $2.00 an hour to help him.

It was like pulling teeth to try to get my $2.00 an hour from

him. But I mean, once a summer we got

paid, you know, and he's like, you know, I said, Dad, I got, I

got 300 hours that I worked for with you this summer, 300 hours.

No, I was like all day, every day for the entire summer, you

know, I mean, it's, that is $2.00 an hour, you know.

But all that to say that I, I was working at somebody's house

and they were like, hey, do you know of anybody that could do

landscaping? I was like, yeah, me, we'll pay

you $8 an hour. I was like $8 an hour.

When do you want me to start? I started doing landscaping for

them and they told somebody else and they told somebody else.

The next thing you know, I was doing all this landscaping and,

and my dad was like, Hey, I'm paying you $2 an hour.

How come, you know, I said, I'm making $8 an hour over here,

right? But I learned how to do it

right. And, and, and I learned how to

work. That's what it, that's what it

taught me. If I just got to sit at home and

play video games all day every day, guess what I would not be

doing. Why should I work?

I don't have any motivation to do it.

All right, So I know you want to give, give, give, give, give to

your kids, but many times the best thing is to say no.

If you want that, go work for it, right?

You don't have to go get a job, you know, working 9:00 to 5:00

to be able to pay for some of the things you want.

Go out and you know, you know what we did during the winter,

man, we loved it when it snowed. We'd go out and shovel driveways

for 20 bucks a driveway and everybody is like take my money,

right? Cost.

It took took us an hour, 20 dollars, $20 was pretty good for

an hour back back in the 90s, right or the early to the well,

yeah, it was the nineties, $20.00 for a driveway was pretty

good, especially if you if you had two guys and you're just

going from house to house with a couple of shovels.

I mean, that was we were entrepreneurs because my parents

didn't just give me everything. If I wanted it, I had to work

for it. And they were teaching me

contentment. They never sat down and said I'm

going to teach you contentment. So if you want to learn how to

be content, then you got to go do this.

But they taught, they modeled that, right?

My parents probably could have, could have lived very well.

I don't know what kind of money they made, but I know how many,

how much a job cost and I know how many fences they put in and

I know how much course they had 10 kids.

So they probably all went pretty quick, but at the same time,

they could have lived really, really well if they wanted to.

They lived below their means. They were modeling contentment

to us. And I learned how to be content

with way less than probably I could have had, right.

My dad didn't buy my first car for me.

I bought it was a 1991 Ford Crown Victoria.

I paid $500 in a case of Mountain Dew for that thing.

I had a friend of mine who knew there was a used car dealership

and he was like, hey, 500 bucks and I was like, man 5, he can't

come down any lower. He said, I'll, I'll talk to him

for you. He comes back and he said I told

him you'd throw in a case of Mountain Dew and he, he had

agreed to it. I was like, all right, paid $500

in a case of Mountain Dew for my first car, Man, I took care of

that thing, right? I, I, it had a 5 point O is AV8

had a 5 point O. And it was like one of those old

police cars. I could squeal the tires in

there, but I didn't because I knew I was going to have to pay

for them if I squealed the tires in those things.

Did it once just to see if I could, but I took care of it,

right? And, and my parents modeled that

contentment. They taught me what contentment

was by not just giving me everything right.

And, and so that, that's the point that we're going to spend

the most time on. It's it's the importance of it

is that we have to model contentment in the home, right?

You might be able to afford more than what you have, but it's

good, right? You don't need it just because

you want it. You don't need it just because

you can have it. Sometimes it's good to tell

yourself no. All right, I want that piece of

cake. No, it's good to tell yourself

no, right? I want to go buy that.

Man, look at that. Oh, could you imagine if I had

that? You know what?

I know I could afford it, but no, I'm content with what I

have. I don't have to have that,

right? Let's, let's give it to missions

or let's give it to whatever, right?

There's a lot of things that we can do it.

We'll talk some more about that. But the important thing tonight

for us to understand is that if we want our kids to grow up and

be content, if we want our kids to grow up and not then not be

so consumed with things, then we can't, we have to be content and

we cannot be consumed with things.

How do you think you're going to pass that on to your kids if

that's the only mindset that you have?

This is not just, this is not just some abstract that we find

this all the way throughout the Bible, right?

Be content, be content. What do you think Be content

means I've got enough. I don't need more.

And we should be modeling that for our kids if we expect them

to grow up and be content the way the Bible commands them to

do as well. The love of money is the root of

all evil, which while some coveted after, they have erred

from the faith and pierced themselves through with many

sorrows. You got what you wanted, but you

lost what you had. I'd rather have what I have than

get what I want sometimes. Let's pray.

Father, again, we thank you so much for Your goodness to us.

I thank You for the opportunity to dig into God's word about

this idea of contentment. God, may we, may we be content

in our own lives. May we model that and teach that

to our kids as well. And may they grow up with the

mindset of doing everything they can, not to hoard and to be

wealthy, to have all the money that they want to at their

disposal, but that we'd be able to teach them to give and we'd

be able to teach them to. Serve you with the money that

you allow them to have, that you allow us to have God.

May we use that money for your service and may you use us in a

great way because of it. We thank you again for all that

you do for us in Jesus name, Amen.