Rick Warren - The Law of Contentment—Part One

Hey, everybody.

Welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. Well, we're talking about

your money. That's right. We're continuing a powerful series called

Financial Fit. Rick is opening God's Word and showing us

how to manage what we've been given with wisdom, faith,

and purpose. And I know if you apply these biblical principles,

you'll start to experience true financial freedom and lasting peace.

So let's get into part one of a message called

The Law of Contentment.

Now, the Bible is full of money management advice. I

don't know if you know this or not. But there

are two books of the Bible particularly, one's called the

book of Proverbs and the other's called the book of Ecclesiastes,

which are filled with the laws of money, the principles

of prosperity, the rules for wealth. Now let me make

it very clear, we are not a, quote, prosperity gospel church,

we are not. We do not believe that God wants

everybody to be a millionaire. In fact, Jesus taught the

exact opposite of that. But the Bible is filled with

principles that he says, if you will do it God's way,

then you get God's blessing on your finances. And the

Bible is filled with principles of how to invest wisely,

how to save wisely, principles of saving, of investment, principles

of spending, principles of managing your money, principles of insuring.

There are many, many laws of financial freedom in both

Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. We're gonna look at these in the

weeks ahead, and I hope you'll not only be with

us in every one of the series, but that you'll

bring people with you who you know are going through

tough times, because I guarantee you, these principles are gonna

help them get out of the hole that they're in.

It's not easy, but it is possible to do. Now,

the first law of financial freedom is the one we

have to look at today, because if you don't get

this one, None of the other ones will work in

your life. I can't take you into the principles of

how to invest wisely, how to save, how to spend wisely,

how to budget, all of these principles, until first you

get this first one, which I call the law of contentment. Now,

this is very important because as long as your yearnings

exceed your earnings, you're gonna be in deep doo-doo. You're

gonna be in trouble. You're gonna have debt. And your

entire life you're gonna be frustrated with your finances because

your yearnings are always going to exceed your yearnings. And

until you learn this principle of contentment, you're always gonna

be frustrated by your money. And you're never, never gonna

have enough no matter how much you make. Now this

is not only a problem for individuals, it's a problem

for our entire nation. The chickens have come home to

roost because for decades the government has been spending more

than it makes. Recently, Time Magazine did an article on

this and explained that for every $ 1, 000 that Americans make,

we put $ 1, 300 on our credit cards. Hello? It isn't

rocket science to figure out why people are stressed out.

Why people are in debt. Why people are going into foreclosure.

Because our yearnings are exceeding our earnings. Now here's what

the Bible says. If you pull out your message notes,

and we're going to look in the book of Proverbs

and the book of Ecclesiastes today. The Bible says in

Proverbs 14, 30. Let's read this verse aloud together. It's

healthy to be content, but envy will... eat you up,

it'll eat you up. He's saying it's not only financially

good for you to be content, it's actually physically good

for you to live a contented life. The Bible says

a heart at peace gives life to the body. It

is invigorating, it is good for your health to be

at peace, to not always be under tension, to not

always be stressed out, to not always be worried. He

said envy, this desire to always have more, will eat

you up, it will eat you alive. You see, when

it comes to your health, it's not just what you

eat that matters, it's what eats you. And if your

life is filled with worry or bitterness or guilt or

resentment or anxiety, it's what is eating you that is

gonna cause you to be in bad health. Now another

verse in Ecclesiastes also written by Solomon. These two books

were written by a man named Solomon. Solomon was the

wisest man who ever lived, the Bible says. God says

he was the wisest man who ever lived, so he's

got some good advice for us. He was also the

wealthiest man in the world when he wrote these two

books with the principles of money management in them. Ecclesiastes 6.9

says this. It's better to be satisfied with what you

have than to always be wanting something else. That's the principle,

that's the law of contentment. It's better to be satisfied

with what you have than to always be wanting something else.

Now I can't think of a more timely subject for

us to study, particularly not just this series but this

message as we're beginning the next two months which are

commonly known as the season of discontent. Because there's more

discontent and more overspending in this time of year than

any other time of the year. And over the next

60 days, your mailbox is going to be filled with catalogs.

Now as your pastor, as somebody who loves you, I

just wanna tell you quite bluntly, catalogs are from the devil.

And they will get you to buy things you don't

need with money you don't have to impress people you

don't even like. And you look at these catalogs and

you think, I gotta have this. How did I ever

live without this? And you see it and you want it.

And it creates discontent. Any retailer will tell you that

you spend most of the year in the red until

you get to the last two months. And then in

the last two months, particularly after Black Friday, which is

the You know, the Friday after Thanksgiving when sometimes some

businesses turn a profit for the first time in the year,

and in the last two months of the year, people

are spending, spending, spending. Before you get into that season,

to counter that, I want to just quickly show you

what the Bible says are the effects of always wanting more.

Now the Bible says that there are five damaging effects

that when I want more, it brings a lot more

with it, not just wanting more material goods, it brings

five other things. And they're all in the book of

Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. Number one, the first effect of always

wanting more is that wanting more brings more fatigue. More fatigue.

You're gonna be more tired. If you're always wanting more,

you're always working harder and you are tired all the time.

Being tired all the time is a symptom of your

trying to do too much. The race to get more

drives us to overwork, and we see that constantly all

over Southern California. Tolstoy, 100 years ago, told the story

of a peasant where his master said, I will give

you as much land for you to keep as you

can walk around in one day. And so the present

started running and he ran so much and so far

trying to get so much by the end of the

day he died of exhaustion. And we're dying of exhaustion

for things. Giving our life. Most people give up their

health in the first half of life in order to

get money. They give up their health in order to

get money. And in the second half of life they

give up all their money to try to get their

health back. Be wise and figure that out in advance.

The first thing is more fatigue. Proverbs 23 verse four,

the Bible says this. Do not wear yourself out to

get rich. Have the wisdom to show restraint. He says

it's dumb, it's foolish to wear yourself out trying to

get more things. Because even if you win the rat race,

you're still a rat. Now number two, not only does

bringing Having more, wanting more, bring more fatigue, it brings

more expenses. Did you know that? It always costs more

to have more. It always costs more to have more.

It brings greater expense. You know, I always say that

if the grass is greener on the other side of

the fence, so is the water bill. Because somebody had

to pay for that green. Now Ecclesiastes 5.11 says this.

The more you have, the more people come to help

you spend it. I like that, it's true. The more

money you got, all of a sudden you gotta have

an accountant, or you gotta have a housekeeper, or you

gotta have somebody mowing your lawn. The more money you have,

the more money you spend, and it says the more

people you have, the more money you have, the more

people help you spend it. So what's the advantage of wealth,

except perhaps to watch it run through your fingers? I

saw a bumper sticker the other day that said, I

used to dream of the salary I'm now starving on.

You know, that's not funny. That's reality. You used to

dream of the salary that you now are finding it

hard to make ends meet on and just about the

time you get ends meet somebody moves the ends you

say I'm trying to keep up with the Joneses well

don't because they just file for bankruptcy Now, we think

that we don't make enough. We think that's the problem.

We think we don't make enough. The truth is we

want too much. That's the real problem. We want too much.

And a lot of things we think are needs are

actually just greeds. Now, God has said, my God shall

supply all your needs. He has not said I will

supply all your greeds. God is not obligated to just

give you anything you want. So, It brings more frustration,

it brings more fatigue, it brings more expenses. The third

thing wanting more does is it brings more anxiety. More anxiety,

because the more you have, the more you have to

worry about. If you don't have it, you don't worry

about it. You know, I have to be honest with you.

I never, never worry about my yacht getting barnacles. I

just never worry about it. Why? Because I don't own

a yacht. And if you don't own something, then you

don't worry about it. And the fewer things you own,

the fewer things you have to repair, the fewer things

you have to maintain, the fewer things you have to insure,

the fewer things you have to pay the taxes on,

and all these other things. And now we have so

many things you can't even keep it in your house,

you have to buy a place to rent to store

the things. Now what's the logic of that one? You're

paying rent on stuff you're not even using. So more anxiety.

The more you have, the more you worry about. Ecclesiastes 5.12.

A working man can get a good night's sleep, but

the rich man has so much that he stays awake worrying.

What's he worrying about? How to save it, how to

invest it, how to maintain it, how to insure it,

how to avoid taxes. I read a study once that

said insomnia increases with income. Isn't that interesting? That the

more money you make, the more likely it is you

are to have sleepless nights. Why? Because you worry about more.

You got more to worry about. Now, if you have

more fatigue plus more expenses plus more anxiety, you know

what that equals? Number four, more conflict. You're gonna have

more conflict in your home because of these things. Because

when you're tired, and you got more expenses, and you're

more anxious, you get in more fights. You have more conflict.

It causes more turmoil in your family. Proverbs 15, 27 says,

a greedy man brings trouble to his family. And we

know that today, the number one cause of divorce is

financial tension. Every study shows this. The number one cause

of divorce is people divorce over money. Money issues. It

is now till debt do us part. First Timothy six,

verse seven says this. People who long to be rich

fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and

harmful desires that plunge them into ruin. He's talking about debt,

financial ruin, and destruction. Why? Because when you long to

be rich, you are a sucker for get rich quick schemes.

If you are contented, you don't fall prey to get

rich quick schemes. Nobody can scam you. You're not gonna

take risky things because you are contented. People who are

discontent are always looking for a way to make a

fast buck. They're always looking for the get rich quick scheme.

They're always looking for the fast solution, the double your

return on your money instantly and all of that. And

the Bible says over and over and over and over again,

we'll see this when we get to investments, do not

ever get involved in get rich quick schemes. If it's

too good to be true, it is. And people who

are always in a hurry to pay off their debts,

instead of what the Bible teaches, little by little, systematically, sequentially.

They're always in a hurry to get out of debt.

They're always in a hurry to make it big time.

They are setting themselves up for temptations, traps, foolish desires

that plunge them into ruin and debt and destruction. People,

when they're not content, fall prey to get-rich-quick schemes. They're

always looking for a fast way. Warren Buffett, Warren Buffett,

the wealthiest man in the world, his number one rule

of investment, you know what it is? Very simple. Buffett's

number one rule is this. Never lose the money you've

already earned. In other words, it's more important to keep

what you've got than to take the big risk on it.

It doesn't matter if you make a high return, if

you keep losing stuff, you're going backwards over time. Buffett's

number one rule for becoming a billionaire, never lose what

you've already earned. And yet people lose it all the

time in an attempt to get rich quick. And it's foolish.

I have to tell you, Kay and I have never

lost a penny to get rich quick schemes. I've never

lost a penny that I've earned on the lottery. I've

never lost a penny in Vegas, why? Because I'm not

about to involve myself in those easy come, easy go,

get rich quick schemes, which really, you're gonna lose it.

You may as well just go to Vegas and just

hand them the money and come home. The house is

going to win. Somebody pays for those tall buildings, it's you.

You pay for it. And the odds are not in

your favor. And the Bible says that's foolish. When a

contented person is not lured, ever lured by the lottery.

Because you're contented. So you're keeping what you've got. And

as I said last week, Albert Einstein said, the single

most powerful force in the universe is the power of

compounding interest. That you set it away a little bit

at a time and you let compounding interest It'll make

you rich, not instantly, but over time. I started putting

away 50 cents a week toward my retirement at age 17.

And that's why I've served this church for free for

10 years. Because essentially I retired 10 years ago. Because

I don't have to take a salary. Why? Because I

had been saving since I was a teenager. And the

power of compounding interest builds up over time. It's called

the little by little principle. We'll look at that. Now,

he says you're gonna get trapped if you're not contented.

Now there's one other problem that happens. The effect of

always wanting more is that wanting more brings more dissatisfaction.

It brings, number five, more dissatisfaction. You see, we think

having more will make me more happy. Having more will

make me more secure. Having more will make me more important.

Having more will make me more loved. None of that

is true. Now, it is true that you can buy

happiness for short term, but it doesn't last. The feelings

don't last. They go away very quickly. It's true. You

can go out and buy a new car and when

you get that new car, you're gonna be happy. You

can buy happiness for a short period of time. And

you'll be happy and you get in the car and

it smells, you know that new car smell?

Ah.

But how long does that new car smell? About a

couple weeks. And then, you know, the moment you drove

it off the lot, it was less $ 10, 000 than what

you paid for it. Because it's not new anymore. You

just lost $ 10, 000 in equity just right there, bam, just

like that. And then in a couple years, you don't

care about it anymore. Now this is true with everything

you buy. You go out and you buy a piece

of art and you go, man, I just love that art.

And you put it up in your house and it's

beautiful and it looks so great and it makes you

happy for a while. But after a while, you're not

happy anymore. And you get new drapes and you love

those drapes, but after a while, you're not happy anymore. Why? Why?

Because things, people change and things don't. Things don't change.

So we get bored with them and we have to

redecorate and we have to remodel and we have to

refurbish and we have to rearrange and we have to

replace and we are addicted to upgrades. And you get

a new dress or you get a new shirt or

you get a new pair of shoes and the first

time you put it on you walk out and you go,

I am sexy. You're looking good. You're feeling good. The

fourth time you wear that shirt or that dress, you

don't feel sexy anymore. It doesn't even bother you anymore.

You don't even think about it anymore. Why? People change,

but things don't. So contrary to what you may think,

the Constitution does not say every American has the right

to life, liberty, and the purchase of happiness. Because when

you purchase it, it's not going to last.

What a great message from Pastor Rick. I hope it

touched you just like it touched me today. And now

let's end our show with a closing thought from Rick.

God has five purposes for your life. He wants you

to know and love him. That's called worship. He wants

you to belong to his family. That's called fellowship. He

wants you to grow in character, to be more like Christ.

That's called discipleship. And he wants you to learn to

serve using your gifts and talents. Serve God by serving others.

That's called your ministry. Finally, he wants you to share

the good news and your life message with other people

around the world. That's called your mission. I'd like to

close today to talk to you for just a second

about your personal mission. Did you know that the Bible

says every time somebody accepts the Lord, they throw a

party in heaven? Did you know that? It's right there

in Luke 15, verse seven, where the Bible says there's

more joy in heaven over one sinner who changes his

heart and life than over 99 who don't need to

turn to Christ who are already there. The day that

you accepted Jesus Christ, there was a party in heaven

for you. And by the way, the day that you

help somebody else come to know the Lord There's gonna

be a party in heaven, but there's also gonna be

a party in your heart. I wanna encourage you today

to look outward, to look around you and see the

people who need to hear about the love of God,

about the message of Christ, about the purpose of life,

about the daily hope that we have in our hearts.

The Bible says, always be ready to share the hope

that is within you. Could I pray for you? And

as we bow in prayer, you might wanna pray this

prayer with me. Say, Father, I want the joy that

you've given me to be shared with other people. And

a lot of times I'm afraid or hesitant to talk

about you to others. Would you give me so much

love for other people that the love overcomes my fears

and gives me the right words to say as I

share the hope that's in me? Allow me to help

others find you to find real hope, to find joy

through knowing you. Thank you, Lord, so much for trusting

me to help bring others to you. I want to

accept my mission, and I want to use it for

your glory and in the power of your spirit. Thank you, Jesus.

Put somebody in my life today that I can tell

about you. In your name I pray. Amen.

Be sure to join us next time as we look

into God's word for our daily hope. This program is

sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your generous financial support.