Are You Satisfied?

Hebrews chapter 13 verse 5. That's going to be

Hebrews 13:5

toward the back of your Bible. Hebrews chapter

Hebrews 13:5

13 verse 5. The author of Hebrews is bringing

the letter here to a close in these verses. And

there's really a lot of good stuff. and the verses

surrounding this particular verse. We won't look

at those things today. Maybe at some point we

will. But today we're just going to look at one

little verse, Hebrews chapter 13, verse 5. We'll

Hebrews 13:5

read through it, then we'll pray, and then we'll

get started. Your life should be free from the

love of money. Be satisfied with what you have,

for he himself has said, I will never leave you

or forsake you. Let's pray. God, we thank you

for this simple command, this simple verse, this

simple truth, dear Lord. It is so easy to read

this, and it's easy to understand this, dear

Lord, but it is quite difficult for us to live

this out. So I pray, God, that you would help

us to grow from your word today. I pray, God,

that you would help us to be a people who would

seek you, to fight the temptations, to live for

the world, and to seek the things of the world,

dear Lord. I pray that you would free us from

distractions today. We come in here with our

worries and our pains and our stresses of this

world and things that happened last week. Worry

about what will happen next week, but I pray

that in these few moments, dear Lord, that your

Holy Spirit would just be among this place, God.

We want to hear from you today, God. There is

no good word that I can speak if it does not

come from you, so I pray, dear Lord, that your

Spirit would come upon us today, that you would

be glorified today, dear Lord, that you take

away any fear or any pride that is within me,

and that every word that is said today is for

your glory. That every word, dear Lord, points

us to Jesus Christ. That every word would be

an encouragement or a correction to us. Whatever

we may need, dear Lord, you know where we are.

So I pray, God, that you just would be with us

this morning. And I ask these things in Jesus'

name. Amen. There is lots of good instruction

in the Bible. I suppose we could say it's all

good instruction. Some of it is not as easy to

understand. Some of it is very easy to understand,

but a lot of it is very hard for us to live out.

We live in a world where we are constantly bombarded

with temptations. There's a fleshly part of us

that is... that is longing for and tempted by

the things of the world. And more times than

not, the very things that we are drawn to are

the things that the Word of God tells us to be

on guard against. And so it's a constant struggle

because the things of the world butt heads with

the things of God's Word. And so many of the

things that our world holds up as important,

that our world tries to say, these are the things

you need to do. This is what you need to strive

for. This is what you need to be successful.

Many of those things are things that the Bible

would say are things that will destroy us. And

one of those things that's talked about occasionally

in Scripture is greed, is a love for money. It

is a desire for material things. Now our world

has a certain metric, a certain standard that

says, you know, here's how you can gauge if you

are successful. Have you graduated high school?

Have you graduated college? Do you have an undergrad

degree? Do you have a master's degree? Do you

have a doctorate? And every level that we get

that next little peg up the ladder, then that

shows, that's the evidence that we are successful.

Do you have a job making $50 ,000 a year or $100

,000 a year or a million dollars a year? And

every time we make it to that next level, it

proves that we are successful. Do people know

your name? Do people talk about you? Are you

famous? Do people want to get their picture made

with you? Are you an athlete? Are you the best

at what you do? There are all these things that

the world would kind of prop up and promote,

and we see it on social media, and we see a kind

of target in our young people that this is what

you need to strive for, and this is what success

is, and this is what you need to be. And a lot

of times money is right at the center of that.

A lot of times, rightly or wrongly, we gauge

our success on the amount of money that we have.

And so money becomes a God to us. And we may

not like to say that. We may not like to admit

it. But maybe more times than we want to admit,

or maybe even that we know, maybe God, our God,

has become our money. That has become what we

strive for. That has become what we find our

comfort in. And when our bank accounts have plenty

of money, we're pretty relaxed. When our bank

accounts get pretty low, we get kind of freaked

out. Now what does that tell us? If you fall

into that category, and maybe we all do, well

that might tell us that we're trusting in our

money more than we're trusting in God. Now we

probably would all come in here today and we'd

give the church answer. I would say, what do

you love more than anything? And you would all

say, God! Because that's the right answer. That's

the church answer. But that might not be what's

really the answer in our heart. That really may

not be true for us. And there's a really easy

test for us all to take, whether we are young

or whether we are old, to determine what we really

love in this world. And the way we determine

what we love is what we spend our money on. It's

just that simple. Now you can think about, not

right now, listen right now, you can get your

pen and paper out later and you can start figuring

it up. But you don't have to think very long

because you already know after I said that that

I'm spending way too much money on X, Y, and

Z. And that's an easy way for us to tell what

we love. Do we love God? Well, if we love God,

we're probably going to use what God blesses

us with to bless other people. We're probably

going to use what God blesses us with, whether

it's our money or our skills or our time, and

we're going to use that to bless other people.

And so the question that we have to think about,

and this is scary, because probably some of us

are not going to like the answer we get, because

we're going to start figuring up, and we're going

to start seeing, Maybe we spend way more money

on stuff than we do on service to God. Maybe

we spend way more money on ourselves than we

do on people who are in need. You know what that

tells us maybe? Maybe that tells us we love ourselves

more than we love other people. That's not to

say everything we do for ourselves is evil. But

the Holy Spirit can help us to be able to discern.

The Holy Spirit can help us to know when we maybe

need to pull back a little bit. The Holy Spirit

can help us to know if we begin to place things

of the world and our wealth of the world over

God and the commands of God. And in Hebrews chapter

Hebrews 13:5

13, verse 5, he said, Your life should be free

from the love of money. And we probably would

all say in here, I don't love money. Well, maybe

you don't. Praise God. There's probably some

that don't. But maybe we don't care necessarily

about having a big bank account, but we might

like stuff. Probably got some stuff that we like.

We like our technologies. We like our vehicles.

We like our other hobbies, whatever they may

be, fishing, hunting, golfing, whatever it may

be. We can find a variety of things. And guess

what those things cost? They cost money. And

so we may look at verses like these and say,

well, I'm off the hook. I don't have a bunch

of money in my bank account. I'm not storing

up a bunch of money. And this verse is a good

verse for us to consider today because God's

word says that our life should be free of the

love of money. So what does God want us to do

with our money? Well, some people. They just

want to hoard their money. They want to be stingy.

They're a miser, and the Bible talks about that.

Not in a good way. God blesses us. Praise the

Lord. God doesn't want us to be stingy with our

money. On the flip side, God blesses us. He doesn't

want us to just blow it all on ourselves. God

wants us to use what he has blessed us with to

bless others. So the question that we have to

answer is, do we love our money? More than we

love God? Do we love our things that our money

buys us more than we love God? And if we love

our money more than we love our God, then guess

what our money has become? It has become our

God. Now the scripture talks a lot about the

poor. In James chapter 2 verse 5, listen to what

James 2:5

it says. It says, listen, my dear brothers, didn't

God choose the poor in this world to be rich

in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he has

promised to those who love him? Didn't God choose

the poor to be what? To be rich in faith. Now,

there's a problem that we experience, especially

as Americans. Now, some Americans have it better

than others, but generally speaking, as Americans,

we're doing pretty good. We're doing pretty good

when we compare ourselves with the rest of the

world. We are pretty blessed. And there are many

people in the world, the vast majority of the

people in the world, who would look at us today

and say that we are all wealthy. Now, we may

not consider ourselves as wealthy, but quite

frankly, we are. You look at Americans in 2025

today, and we are blessed beyond measure. But

the problem with that is the more we get, the

more we want. And the more we get, the more that

begins to pull our focus from God. The more we

get, the more we begin to trust in the things

that we get and the wealth that we have. The

more we get, the more we trust in the things

and we quit trusting in God because what need

is there for God when we're wealthy? That's why

it's hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom

of God. That's why it's the poor who have greater

faith in God as we see here in James. Now that's

not to say that rich people can't have faith

in God. They certainly can. There's certainly

been plenty of wealthy people throughout the

history of the world that were genuinely and

truly servants of God that had faith in God.

But it's not easy. It's not easy. And I suspect

that more of us... fall into that trap of trusting

in our money and trusting in our material gain,

then we realize. And Hebrews says, look, you

should be free from the love of money. And then

it goes on to say this in the next part of Hebrews

Hebrews 13:5

chapter 13, verse 5. Be satisfied with what you

have. Now that's the hard part right there. We

see that idea. Some of your translations there

may say be content. We see that idea of contentment

and being satisfied with what we have. So he

says, look, don't love money. Don't be consumed

by money. Don't put your trust in money, but

be satisfied with what you have. There's another

test there for us to take today. Are we content

with what we have? Maybe you are. That's a beautiful

thing. To find contentment and to be satisfied

is a beautiful thing. But to be discontent, it's

a horrible thing. Because to be discontent, we

continually strive for more and more and more

and more. And we're looking for that next thing

that's going to fill that longing that we have

in our life, to fill that void that we have in

our life, to give us that joy that we're looking

for and that happiness that we're looking for.

And we're never happy with the thing we've got.

We always want the next thing, and that comes

with a lot of burden. But to be satisfied comes

with a great deal of peace. Proverbs chapter

Proverbs 17:1

17 verse 1 says, Better a dry crust with peace

than a house full of feasting with strife. You

see, our world would say we're successful if

we have the fame and if we have the wealth and

if we have the positions of power. But the Bible

would say just the opposite of that. The Bible

would say, It's better to have a little and to

be at peace. It's better to have nothing and

trust in God than to have all of the wealth in

the world and trust in your wealth. So the book

of Hebrews in 13 verse 5 here gives us a good

command, some good instruction, a good test for

us today. Are we free from the love of money?

Are we satisfied with what we have? I can look

back at my life and I can say, and maybe you

can too, but the times in my life that I was

satisfied and content were the happiest times

of my life. And you know what? Most of the time

when I look back at those times, they were times

when I did not have anything. And what little

I had, I was glad to have it. But there's this

problem that we have. The more we get, the more

we want, the more we expect, the more we think

we are entitled to these things. When we don't

have and God blesses us, we appreciate it. And

the more blessings that we receive, all of the

sudden we stop being thankful to God and we start

trusting in those blessings more than the one

who gives them instead of just being proud that

God loves us, that God has blessed us and being

satisfied with what little or what great amount

we have to know that it is God who has provided

it for us and we are satisfied in God. I remember

when I was probably... Oh, this was like 1998

probably. I went back and I did the math. I was

probably like 15 years old. And I was at my grandma

Irene's house one day, and she told me, I want

you to go look in the back seat of the car. I

got you something. All right. I was pretty excited

about that. And so I go out there, and I open

up the door in the back seat of her car, and

lo and behold, there on the back seat is a 13

-inch color TV that she had bought at a garage

sale. And when I say color TV, I use the word

lightly. It was slightly tinted. It was wore

out 15 years before she bought it at the garage

sale. But you know what? I was so happy to get

that. I was so proud to get that. I was like,

I got a TV, a 13 -inch TV. It wasn't even as

big as this tablet. And I was so proud, and she

got it. Because she was tired of me playing my

Nintendo games on her TV. She wanted to keep

me out of there. And I'm telling you, and I used

that TV for like five years. I used that TV for

a long time. It was horrible. But I didn't know

it was horrible. I was like, this is the greatest

thing ever. I was just excited to get it. I was

satisfied. I wasn't even thinking about getting

another TV. And that's how we need to be when

the Lord blesses us. We need to be excited when

God blesses us. We need to be satisfied and say,

God, thank you for what you've given me. But

sometimes we may say, God, you give me this and

it's okay, but couldn't you give me a 17 -inch

TV? I mean, Mario, I can't hardly see him. But

the problem is that not maybe that we're not

satisfied with the things of the world, the real

core of the issue, When we're not satisfied with

the things that we have, when we're always complaining

about the things that we have or the things that

we don't have, when we are not satisfied with

the things of the world, the real problem is,

is that we are not satisfied with God. is that

we are not content with God. Because if we were

content with God, if we were satisfied with God,

then we wouldn't care about these other things.

If we got them, we would say, praise God. If

we didn't get them, we would say, praise God.

And so our real problem with discontentment and

dissatisfaction that we face is that we are not

content with God. We have not gotten to the point

where we love God more than we love our stuff.

And Paul talks about this in his writings. He

says in Philippians chapter 4, verses 12 and

Philippians 4:12

13, he says, I know how to have a little, and

I know how to have a lot. In any and all circumstances,

I have learned the secret of being content, whether

well -fed or hungry, whether in abundance or

in need. I am able to do all things through him

who strengthens me. Paul says, I don't care what

the world has for me because I have Jesus. If

I have a lot to eat, praise God. If I don't,

praise God. My strength does not come from what

I have in this world. It comes from Jesus Christ.

And so many times what happens to us is we put

all of our strength in the things of the world,

and the things of the world disappear. We put

our strength in our wealth, and our wealth is

gone, our strength is gone. We put our strength

in our health, when our health is gone, our strength

is gone. We put our strength in our friends and

our family and our spouses and our kids, and

they abandon us. Our strength is gone. If our

strength is based on and founded on things of

the world, those things can be gone in a moment.

And when those things are gone, our strength

is gone. But Paul says, my strength is in Jesus

Christ. And because of that, I can do all things.

I live in a world and I have things or I don't

have things, but that's not who defines me. That's

not what defines my success. What defines my

success is whether or not I'm living in obedience

to Jesus Christ. And Paul got it. But what about

us? Can we say that today and really mean it

from the heart? Can we say that today, that I

have learned to be content in all things? And

maybe you can. And maybe you can't. And praise

God that we're here. That's why we come. We don't

come here because we're like a bunch of super

Christians, like we just do it all right and

we're just kind of like, oh yeah, these are good

words for the peasants, but we can do it. No,

these words are for us that sit in these pews

because this is a struggle for us. Maybe it's

a struggle for some of us more than others, but

I suspect it's a struggle for all of us. But

Paul understood what it meant to be content.

And as long as we're striving for things of the

world, we will never be content. I had that 13

-inch TV. I thought that thing was pretty hot

stuff. I loved it. And then one day I got a 55

-inch TV, and then I thought, that's pretty good

stuff too. But you know what I thought, too?

I thought a 65 would be better. And so now we've

worked our way up to an 85. And you would think,

you know what you would think, you'd think, that's

pretty big, you ought to be happy with that.

You know what I look at every once in a while?

I look at a 100 -inch. I think you know. And

that's our problem. And that's not good, by the

way. Y 'all can pray for me on that. That's not

a joke. I'm serious. That's one of my struggles.

We all have our struggles. But what I should

say is I should say I just need to be content.

And I need to rejoice in the 85 inch that I got.

Woe is me that I can only watch the Super Bowl

in 85 inches of 4K ultra high def. But you know

what? My life was a lot simpler and a lot more.

peaceful in the world of TVs when I had a 13

-inch TV that barely had any color because I

was satisfied. So there's something to this being

satisfied. There's something to this saying,

you know what, the things of the world look pretty

good and they feel pretty good and they're pretty

enticing, but the problem with the things of

the world is that they leave us empty and broken.

and just wanting the next new shiny. But if we

are content with Jesus Christ, we will be satisfied

with everything else. And if we're not satisfied

with the other things in our life today, then

the fact of the matter may be that we are not

content with Jesus Christ. Paul said, In 2 Corinthians

2 Corinthians 12:10

12, verse 10, So I take pleasure in weaknesses,

insults, catastrophes, persecutions, and in pressures

because of Christ. For when I am weak, then I

am strong. That statement, those words, are words

that can only be spoken by one who is satisfied

with Jesus Christ. What about you today? Can

you say that? Can you say, look, I take pleasure

in my affliction. I take pleasure in my pain.

I take pleasure in the persecution. I take pleasure

in the difficulties of this world. I take pleasure

in not having the things of this world. I take

pleasure in the ridicule that I receive from

other people. I take pleasure in these things

because of Jesus Christ. Can we say that today?

Paul could say it, and he could mean it. only

because he was completely satisfied in Jesus

Christ. Perhaps today we need to change what

our goals are. Stop trying to accomplish the

goals of the world and start trying to accomplish

the goal of Scripture, which is to trust in Jesus

Christ, which is to allow him to be our strength.

And the moment we begin to trust in Jesus, the

moment we realize that he is a Savior who gave

his life on a cross so that our sins could be

forgiven, and he is the only source of strength

that there is, he is the only source of strength

that there is. There is no other today. And we

try to find strength in all of this junk in the

world. And we could just make a long list of

the things that we try to find comfort in, but

it only comes through Jesus Christ. The scripture

says that God is the God of all comfort. He is

the God of all strength. There is no other comfort,

there is no other strength tonight, today, excuse

me, apart from God. And he is the only one who

will sustain us today. And if we are sustained

with Jesus Christ and content with Jesus Christ,

then nothing else will matter in our life. And

if there are things in our life of the world

today that are overwhelming us, then we need

to give those things to him. And we need to humble

ourselves before Jesus Christ. Are you satisfied

today? You ever, you remember the hymn? Some

of you may have sang it before. Maybe you've

heard it before. I am satisfied. I am satisfied.

I am satisfied with Jesus. I'm satisfied with

Jesus. Can we sing those words today? And then

the chorus ends. But the question comes to me

as I think of Calvary. Is my master satisfied

with me? Let's pray. God, we come to you today.

We thank you for your words. And I pray, dear

Lord, that Jesus would be our strength today.

God, maybe there are some in this room and they

do not know who Jesus is. Maybe they know the

scripture, they've heard it, but maybe they don't

know him, God. They don't have a relationship

with him. They know of him. But God, maybe today

there's some in this room and Jesus is not their

strength. Maybe they have been searching this

world over for strength and comfort in their

careers or in their wealth or in their families

or whatever it may be, dear Lord. But these are

not the things that define us, dear Lord. These

are not the things that give us strength. These

things only leave us longing for more, looking

for more, searching, dear Lord. And maybe there

are some that have come into this room today

and they were searching when they came into this

place, dear Lord. And I pray today that their

search may end at Jesus Christ. That they would

just give up the rat race, dear Lord, and try

to keep up with the world. And that they would

submit themselves to Jesus Christ. That in this

moment, God, that they would ask that you would

forgive them. That they would repent of their

sinfulness, dear Lord. God, maybe there's some

in this room today and they are yours, but maybe

they have put other gods before you today. Maybe

we all in some way, shape, or form, we trust

in our wealth and our junk a little more than

we should, dear Lord. But God, I pray today that

we would trust you all the more, dear Lord. Your

word calls us not to... Not to love money, but

to be satisfied, dear Lord. And it ends with

the promise that you will never leave us or forsake

us, dear Lord. We can be sustained by that truth,

dear Lord. While the things of this world may

fail and may fall away, dear Lord, you will never

leave us or forsake us. God, that is our strength

today. We cannot make it through this life. We

cannot make it through all the struggles and

the pains and the difficulties of this world,

dear Lord. We can't fight against sin on our

own. We can only do so knowing that you are with

us. So God, I pray that you would remind us of

that truth today, that we see at the end of this

verse, God, that you will never leave us or forsake

us, dear Lord. I pray today, God, that if there

are some who are yours, that have tried to find

the power to carry on in things of the world,

that they would give those things up today, that

they would trust you, that they would be sustained

by you, that they would be content with you today,

dear Lord. I thank you for each one that's here.

I pray that you'd watch over each one that's

here. I pray that you'd bless them. I pray that

you would just work on them right now, dear Lord,

whatever you need them to hear. I pray that you're

working on their heart. And I pray, God, that

if there are any who are here that do not know

Jesus Christ, who want to put their faith and

trust in Him, who want to repent of their sins

today, who've already made that decision, God,

where they see it, I pray that as we sing in

a moment, that they would come forward, that

they would make that decision known, that we

would rejoice with them. God, maybe there are

some here today and they just struggle. Maybe

they're like me and they just struggle with the

dumbest things, dear Lord. Help us to be content

even with the simple things in this world. Help

us to be able to fight those temptations and

to rejoice in you. God, maybe if there are some

that just struggle today that need prayer, let

them come down to get prayer today. Let them

pray where they are. But God, if you've spoken

to anybody today, I pray that they would respond

in these next few moments. And I ask these things

in Jesus' name. Amen.