The Secret of Contentment

Welcome to the Island's Christian Church podcast.

Subscribe to hear a new episode every week.

Thanks for joining us. So we are in Part 2 of a series

called Enough Is Enough. Who's ever heard of Malcolm

Gladwell's book Outliers? Someone give me hands.

If you've heard of Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers, three

of you. Wow, this is amazing.

So this is a great book. This is actually, the fact that

we've never heard of this is kind of indicative of our

culture and where people's hearts are.

So Gladwell's argument in the book Outliers is that it takes

about 10,000 hours to become a master at anything.

So if you're going to become really good at something, it

takes about 10,000 hours to do it.

We tend to think in our culture that we should just kind of wake

up and be good at something. Like, you know, we should just

be like, I started doing this and I've been at it a week and I

can't believe I'm not getting better, right?

And that's just kind of how our hearts work.

We kind of think we want immediate satisfaction.

We are the microwave culture. I mean, you know who grew up in

the old days where you had to put your popcorn in a little

dish and you had to put it on the stove and you waited and

waited and waited and waited over like 20 minutes.

You got popcorn and now you put popcorn in the microwave.

And how fast do you have popcorn, right?

Two minutes, you got popcorn, right?

So we kind of live in a culture where everything's instant.

And Gladwell's argument is simply this, that mastery isn't

natural. Mastery is not natural.

I also love the book by George Leonard titled Mastery, which

also makes the same argument that it takes a long time to

become a master at anything. And this idea that we're just

not automatically good at something that we have to

practice and that it takes time and it and it's mastery over a

long period of time. That idea helps us with our

passage today and helps us with this, the topic that we've been

talking about over this series so far, and this idea of

contentment. Because a lot of us are

malcontent, a lot of us are discontent.

We don't like this about our lives.

We don't like this that about our lives.

And we want this to change. And we often think if this

situation would change, then my life would be happier and I

would be more content. We tend to think that

contentment is a personality trait or something that just

happens that, you know, if you're, if you're spiritual

enough, if you have enough faith, if you believe enough,

then you will have contentment. But Paul says the opposite in

our text today. He actually agrees with Gladwell

and and George Leonard that contentment is something that

you master and learn over time. And so if you're a young person

and, and you feel malcontent and you feel discontent, that's OK.

You're still in the learning process of how to be content.

And if you're an old person and you've yet to learn how to be

content, then it's getting late in the game for you.

OK? It's getting late because it is

something that you learn over time.

Contentment is learned. It's something that God grows in

US over time. It's not something we can just

absorb. You can't read about it.

You can't hear a sermon about it.

You learn it. So we're going to read a text,

Philippians chapter 4, verses 10 through 13, and then we'll keep

Philippians 4:10–13

talking about this idea of contentment being something we

learn Philippians 410 through 13.

Now Philippians, ironically enough, we're talking about

contentment in the letter to the church at Philippi, which

remember, Philippians is just a letter.

It's just Paul literally sitting down like an e-mail and like

writing his friends at Philippi and he's giving them some

instruction. And this is what's crazy.

This section we're going to read today is about contentment.

And Paul is actually writing this letter from does anybody

know prison from house arrest? He's writing this letter from

prison from house arrest. So this guy doesn't have

freedom. He can't just go out and do what

he wants to do. He's he's locked down.

And this, these are the words. These are the words he says from

a place where most of us would say, I'm not happy right now.

I'm not satisfied. Life is not good.

And this is what he says. Verse 10 of Philippians chapter

Philippians 4 · chapter mention

4. If you have your Bibles, go

there. If you have your look at it

there, Philippians 4, chapter 10, verse 13, this is what it

says. I rejoiced greatly in the Lord

that at last you renewed your concern for me.

Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show

it. In other words, the Philippian

believers had sent him some money.

They'd sent him some resources, which is always a good thing

when you're in jail, by the way, put money on my account, right?

And so like, like, you know, it's it's something that Paul

needed. He needed some money.

They send him some money. She's like, I'm thankful that

you guys showed concern for me. Verse 11.

I'm not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to

be everybody say content. Content, for I've learned to be

content whatever the circumstances.

I know what it is to be a need and I know what it is to have

plenty. I have learned the secret of

being content in every in any and every situation where

they're well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in

wants. I can do all this through Him

who gives me strength. So if you're a note taker, and I

know some of you are note takers, there are three ideas

that we're going to unpack from this text, right from the

verses, verse 11, verse 12, and verse 13.

And here are the three ideas. Number one, verse 11,

contentment is learned, Contentment is learned #2 verse

12, Contentment is independent of circumstances.

Contentment is independent of circumstances.

So if you write notes, write that down #3 verse 13, the

secret, the secret of contentment.

The secret of contentment is found in dependence on Christ.

So there we go. Those are the three.

Dependence on Christ is where the secret of contentment is.

Number 3 #2 contentment is independent of circumstances and

#1 contentment is learned. So let's unpack this idea of

contentment is learned. We tend to think that if you're

a believer in Jesus, if you're a church person, if you're a God

person, you tend to think if, if minute, why am I so discontent?

Why am I so malcontent? Why can't I be happy with my

life if I could just get enough faith?

Maybe I don't believe in God enough.

Maybe I don't have enough faith then if if I had more faith, I

would be content. But Paul gives us a different

perspective. Let me just reread verse 11 to

you. He says I'm not saying this

because I'm in need and listen to what he says.

Comma for I have, what's it say learned?

Everybody say that again, I have what learned?

I have learned to be content. Whatever the circumstances.

When we learn something, what are we doing?

We're acquiring the skills, we're taking the process.

If you sat down to learn piano, you would not be very proficient

in the first week or the first month.

It would take you quite some time.

And this is what Paul is saying. This word learn is good news for

your souls, man. It's good news if you're a

person who feels discontent about life, if you're a person

who deals with malcontent, contentness, this word is good

news. We learn contentment.

See, contentment isn't something that you just have or don't

have. It's something you grow into.

It's a spiritual skill that you form over time through

repetition and experience. Now, there's a guy named Thomas

Watson who was a Puritan that lived in England in the 1600s.

Yes, I'm quoting a guy from the 1600s, all right, because he

wrote a book literally about contentment, a whole book about

contentment. The whole book is about

contentment. It's called the art of divine

contentment. And you can get it on just like

Google it use PDF. It's free.

So you can read this today. Like you can read and I would be

impressed if you read this because like it's, it's you have

to be pretty smart. Read this stuff.

All right, So I mean, I have struggled reading.

I didn't read the whole book. I just was perusing it.

Listen to what Thomas Watson said in The Art of Divine Commit

Contentment about Paul's words in this verse.

He says Paul did not come naturally by it.

In other words, by contentment. Paul did not come naturally by

it, but he had learned it. It cost him many a prayer and

tear. It was taught him by the Spirit.

Contentment isn't instant, it isn't automatic.

And most of the time, listen, look at that quote.

Most of the time when we learn it, we learn it through

struggle, through tear, through prayer.

We we learn it in difficult situations, we learn it through

necessity. There are so many stories of

people who are going through difficult seasons of life,

challenging times in their in their walk with God, going

through dark seasons of the soul, if you will.

And they will tell you, like when we look at their situation,

maybe they've lost a loved one, maybe they're walking through

some great tragedy. We look at their situation and

we say, how could God do this to them?

Why did this terrible thing happen to them?

They surely hate God now. There's no way that they could

be close to God. But if you go and sit down with

the person walking through the dark night of their soul,

walking through the difficult season of their life, they will

tell you that in this dark season I'm walking through, God

has met me and comforted me. He has walked with me.

He has taught my heart contentment.

He has soothed me, He has comforted me.

And this is the thing about contentment.

Contentment is something that we have to learn.

And ironically, we oftentimes learn it out of necessity.

We learn it out of looking at a circumstance and saying, well,

there's nothing I can do here. I can't change the circumstance.

I can't make it different. I can either be content in this

moment or I can end my life. And so people figure out, they

begin to learn contentment from God.

Contentment works this way. We don't learn it by reading

about it, We don't learn it by wishing for it, but we learn it

by walking through real situations of our lives.

And some people when they hit hardship, honestly, I've been a

pastor for a long time, When they hit hardship, when they

come up against something hard, they just give up.

They just throw their hands in the air and they just say, well,

life's too hard. I'm done.

I'm they deconstruct away from their faith, They walk away from

God, they walk away from the local church, They say, this is

too hard. There's no way any of this is

true. But instead, if we looked at

hardship and difficulty and we said, hey, this is a place where

God might meet me. Let me lean into this moment and

see if God will show up and move in my life and grow something in

me. And one of the things often

times that God will grow in you during difficult seasons of your

life is contentment. And I think this is what Paul is

saying is that hey guys, I have learned contentment.

I've learned to be content in any and every circumstance.

I've learned this because I've been through some good stuff and

I've been through some bad stuff.

I've had to walk through some dark days and I've, and what has

happened in those dark days is God has met me in those places.

So here's the deal. Contentment is something you

learn, and if the apostle Paul had to learn how to be content,

if his heart had to had to learn how to be settled and be at

peace, then do not think that you too will also have to learn

to be content. In other words, you're not going

to stumble into it. You're not going to have enough

faith, you're not going to go to church enough, you're not going

to read your Bible enough. It's going to be through

experiences, learning to trust God and walk with God that He

teaches you contentment. He teaches you through time.

Paul learned it through prayer, through tears, through pressure,

through difficulty, and the Spirit did the work in him.

And the same is true for us. So that's number one.

Contentment is something we learned #2 Paul shows us that

our contentment is independent of circumstances.

Our contentment is independent of circumstances.

Let's read verse 12. Because we tend to think if I

could just change the circumstance, then I would be

happy, right? But look at verse 12.

It says I know what it is to be a need and I know what it is to

have plenty. I have learned the secret of

being content. I've learned the secret of being

content in any and every situation where they're well fed

or hungry, where they're living in plenty or in Walt.

So here's what Paul is saying. Paul is saying, hey, I've

experienced the full spectrum of circumstances, man.

I've had plenty. I've had where the cupboards are

full and the, the, the resources are overflowing.

I got more than I need and I've had it where the covers are

empty and the bank account is dry and I don't know how I'm

going to pay the bills. I've experienced it in both

extremes. And I'm going to tell you, Paul

says, Paul says, listen, in the circumstances where things were

great and I had plenty that did not inflate my contentment.

In other words, I wasn't more content because I had a bigger

bank account or because I had more food in the pantry.

And then he says, hey, listen, I've had it where I didn't have

enough, where I where I was short and the covers were bare

and the bank account was empty. And you know what?

That did not diminish my contentment.

And what he's saying is whatever the circumstance, whether it's

having plenty or having a little, those circumstances did

not determine the condition of my heart.

My heart was content apart from whatever the circumstances were

going on around me. So contentment is not dependent

upon your circumstances. It's independent of your

circumstances. His contentment and yours too,

doesn't have to rise and fall with your circumstances.

You don't have to be like happy this week because things are

going good and unhappy this week because things are going bad.

Does anybody live that life? It's a terrible way to live your

life. It's a because here's the thing,

circumstances change. They move, they they change.

See, Paul gives us a message that is better than the message

of our culture. What is the message of our

culture? If you're not happy, change your

circumstance. If you want to be happy, change

your circumstance, change your situation.

That's the message of our culture, but that's not the

message of the gospel. The message of the gospel says

contentment is independent of circumstances.

What we know if you live long enough, especially once you

know, if you, if you live but long enough and you and those of

you who are maybe over 45 or over 50 / 40, you could set up

and say this. You could say, hey, yeah, there

were, there was a time of my life when I thought if I change

that circumstance, I would be happy.

And if I change this circumstance, I would be happy.

And without fail, what happened was eventually I realized

wherever I went, there I was. Wherever I went, there I was.

And so, so the, the culture says our hearts say change your

circumstance and be happy. But Paul says the circumstances

can change, but contentment can remain steady in our hearts.

Now, let me have a quick caveat here, because I, I don't want

you to walk away going. So should we not pursue changing

our circumstances? No, that's absolutely not what

I'm saying. There are times when you look at

your circumstances and you ought to change them.

And I think there are rules around them.

Like, hey, would changing the circumstance dishonor God?

Well, if it would dishonor God, then I don't want to change the

circumstance. You know, like that happens

whenever I talk to spouses where one spouse is saying to me, you

know what, I'm just not happy being married to this spouse

anymore. I want to find a new one.

And I'm like, OK, well slow down.

OK, slow down because we got to talk about that a little bit.

Because if it, if you think just like changing that one out for a

new one is going to solve your problems.

The first problem you're starting out with is you got a

massive moment of dishonoring the Lord in your choice.

Like you just you're dishonoring God in your choice.

So, so if, if changing your circumstance doesn't dishonor

the Lord, right, there's freedom there.

OK. And so, so I don't want you to

think that that Paul is suggesting that that it's OK to

have a stagnant life. Do you ask the questions, would

this change a circumstance? Would it dishonor God?

No, it wouldn't dishonor God. OK, well, now you have some

freedom here, but then you ask the question, do am I thinking

changing the circumstance will make me happy?

If that's if, if the answer to that question is yes, if you're

going why I'm going to change the circumstance, it's not going

to dishonor the Lord and I think it's going to make me happy.

Now you're setting yourself up for a terrible mess because

you're going to find out that it's not going to make you happy

in the long run. So if you need, if you look at a

a circumstance or a situation and you think I should change

this, here's my advice to you. My advice to you is first pursue

contentment in the Lord. Pursue having contentment with

Christ. Looking at the situation you're

currently in and looking at it and going, this is not

determining my happiness either way, good or bad, Find

contentment in the Lord. Pursue that first and then from

a place of that contentment prayer and ask Jesus to lead you

in whatever change you're considering making.

So maybe you're thinking about changing jobs right now and

you're like, I want to change jobs.

Or maybe you're thinking about changing schools, or maybe

you're thinking about changing majors or whatever the changes

you're thinking about doing is like, I'm going to make this

change and it's going to make things better.

The the advice I would give you is first go, Hey, don't think

it's going to make things better.

It might make things everybody say worse.

It might make things worse. It it just might get making it a

lot worse. So first say, am I, am I content

in the Lord? Do I have peace with where I'm

at? And then from that place, pray

and ask for wisdom about the change of circumstance you want

to make. Now here's the truth.

You can change some circumstances in your life.

If you have a if you're at a job where people are abusive and

it's terrible, then you pray and you say, you know what, the

Lord, this isn't healthy for me. I'm going to seek a change here.

Will you guide me in that? There are some circumstances

that you have power over and you can change in your life, but

let's be honest, the majority of circumstances that are happening

to you and happening to me, we have no control over.

We just have no control over the circumstances that we face.

The world is moving around you at breakneck speed and it is

never asking your permission for how its movements are affecting

you. Other people are making

decisions that are impacting your life right now.

Circumstances are always moving and changing, and you are always

being affected by them. And the reality is we have very

little control over our circumstances.

I cannot control the things that might happen to me.

But here's a principle for your life.

I can always control how I respond to the things that

happened to me. I can always respond to how I

respond to the things that happened to me.

Warren Weirsby wrote a book about facing challenging

circumstances, and in that book he had a chapter on contentment.

Listen to what Warren wrote. He said real contentment must

come from within you and I cannot change or control the

world around us, but we can change and control the world

within us. We can't.

We can't. We have no control over what

people are doing around us, but we do have control over how

we're responding to it, how we're reacting to it.

And Paul tells us exactly tells us exactly how to respond.

You see, there may be a storm all around you.

There may be craziness happening in your life right now.

If it isn't today, it may be next week.

Whatever that storm is that's happening in your life, your

heart can still sing with joy and confidence because

contentment does not come from a life that's finally easy.

You do know looking for a life that's finally easy is a waste

of time, right? Contentment does not come from a

life that's finally easy, but from a heart that is firmly

anchored. And Paul tells us exactly where

to anchor our heart. He says in the middle of verse

12, I have learned the secret of being content in any and every

situation. What's the anchor for your

heart? Where do you anchor your heart

in that secret? I have learned the secret of

being content in any and every situation.

So Paul says there's a mystery. The Greek word there is mystery.

I have learned the mystery. I've learned the mystery, the,

the secret of, of contentment. And that's where you need to put

your anchor if you want to experience contentment.

Not in getting your circumstances right, not in

getting just the right job, just the right spouse, just the right

house, just the right car, just the right clothes, whatever.

And then I'll be happy, like killing all of that away from

you and saying, no, there's a secret to contentment.

And this is what Paul is saying. And that's where I need to

anchor my heart. So what is the secret to

contentment? And here's #3 for this morning,

the secret of contentment is found in the dependence on

Christ. Dependence on Christ.

Look again at verse 13. Verse 13 says, I can do all this

through him who gives me strength.

Now we got leave this up here for a second, please, Chris,

because we got to talk about this verse for a moment.

This is a verse that has been mistreated in many ways.

The translation of this verse in the NIV is very good.

This is my In my opinion, the NIV Bot 2011 has some problems

and it has some good things about it.

I mean, they're just like all translations that are good and

bad. This translation of this verse

in the NIV 2011, this is the best translation of this verse

in all English translations. There's not a better one.

This is it like this is the best translation.

And the reason is is because of that simple pronoun, I can do

all this. Do you see that I can do all

this. That word makes this the best

translation of this verse. Most translations of this verse

say something like this. I can do all things through

Christ through him who gives me strength.

I can do all things through him who gives me strength.

And while that sounds really good on a coffee mug and it will

sell all day long on AT shirt and I think Tim Tebow put it on

his eyes when he played football.

That translation. I can do all things through him.

Who gives me strength is missing the context of what Paul has

been saying up to this verse. It's too broad.

It's it's it's it's not it's not true that too harsh.

It's just the word this is a pronoun and the translators, I

can do all this. They chose this as opposed to

all things they chose the pronoun this to help us capture

the context of the whole section.

Now English one O 1A pronoun always has a what starts with an

A who knows it anybody and to antecedent, right, A pronoun

always has an antecedent. You're all like, I don't know

why I'm here right now. I didn't know I was coming to

English class. I actually taught college

English for a little while, guys.

So, you know, buckle up. All right, so we may need, we

may need to have some English class around here.

Nobody knew what an antecedent was.

So every pronoun has an antecedent or what is an

antecedent? That is the antecedent is the

idea or the word that the pronoun is pointing back to.

The pronoun is standing in the place of the antecedent, right?

And so the pronoun is saying, Hey, this is the word.

This is pointing back to something.

And So what is the pronoun this pointing back to?

Well, in this case, this is pointing the word.

This is pointing back to verse 12.

So let's reread verse 13. I can do all this through him

who gives me strength. I can do all this.

Well, what what is it? What is the this, what is it

that you can do, Paul? We'll go back to verse 12.

I can do all this verse 12. I have learned the secret of

being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or

hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.

And so verse 12 is Paul saying, I have learned how to be

content. I've learned how to whether

things are going great or things are going bad, it doesn't

matter. I've learned how to be at peace.

I've learned how to be confident in God.

And OK, I've learned all this back to verse 13.

How have you learned it? Well, I've learned all this.

I can do all this through how? Through him who gives me

strength. You see how we read the Bible.

This is how you read the Bible. You slow down a little bit, all

right, You slow down a little bit and you read the Bible and

you say, OK, what's actually what's actually the context

here? If you when you read verse 12

and you read verse 13, there's no way Paul can be saying, I can

do all things. I can go to the moon through

Christ who gives me strength. There's no way Paul could be

saying that. There's no way He could be

saying that. What he's saying is I have the

secret of being content, no matter how bad my circumstances

are. And that secret is the strength

of Christ. I am dependent on Jesus Christ.

He's the one who gives me strength.

The word. This in verse 13 is the key to

unlocking the secret of contentment.

This equals being content in every and all circumstances.

Paul is saying I can stay content in all situations

because Jesus gives me strength. So write that down.

If you're a note taker, write that down.

I can stay content in all situations because Jesus gives

me strength. In other words, contentment

isn't something I muster up. It isn't something I do, you

know, just being determined to do it.

It's something that this is important.

Contentment is something that Christ produces in me.

And this is true for everything related to your sanctification.

Fancy word that just means becoming more like Christ.

Everything related to your sanctification is not something

you muster up. It's not something you do.

You don't convince yourself to be more obedient.

You don't convince yourself to be more righteous.

You don't convince yourself to be more content.

You don't willpower your way into that.

What we do is we depend on Christ to do the work in our

hearts and to change us from the inside out so that we become

people who are content in any in every circumstance.

This is why learning contentment can oftentimes take a lifetime.

Because Christ is still working on you and working on me.

He's working on you. I say this when I do something

stupid. I say something stupid or out

like a jerk. Anybody ever out like a jerk?

Come on, husbands, don't lie. Don't don't make your wife get

up and testify. We will hand her a mic in a

minute. I will say, well, you know,

Jesus is still working on me. He's still working on me.

He's still, he's still bringing from within me a new type of

person. I have a vision of a future self

that I want to be true of me. This, this, this type of older

man that I want to be. And I'm not there, but I want to

be like this man. And I know that I can't muster

that up. It's the same thing with

contentment. If I'm going to be content, it

will be because I'm dependent upon Christ doing this work in

me. Warren Wisby again has this

great quote. Listen to what Warren said.

This is beautiful. He says contentment is having

that spiritual artesian well within you so that you don't

have to run to the broken cisterns of this world to get

what you need. The power of Christ and the

inner man is all we need for the demands of life.

Isn't that beautiful? The world is full of broken

cisterns. The job, the money, the new car,

the new toys. If everything would just work

out, even things that matter deeply to you like this is this

is a hard thing to say. But if, if, if everything was,

you know, if everybody I love was healthy, then I would be

happy. And why that feels so true.

That's still a broken cistern. It's easy for us to call like

new boats and new cars a broken cistern.

But even perfectly healthy kids and a perfectly healthy spouse

and to think if I had that, I would just be happy.

Even that is a broken cistern. The only thing that satisfies is

the artesian well of the presence of Christ in your life,

the dependence of Christ in your everyday life.

That's the only thing that brings contentment.

And so here's the secret. Ready Christ is enough.

No matter what you face, Christ strengthens you to endure what

you never thought you could endure.

He strengthens you to endure circumstances that you never

thought you could endure and endure them with contentment, to

endure them with a song in your heart.

Christ sustains you when circumstances fall apart.

Christ stabilizes you. When your life is unstable,

Christ is there for you. So when Paul says I can do all

this through Christ, he's giving us permission to say the same

thing. I can face this, I can walk

through this. I can endure this because Christ

in me is stronger than what is happening around me.

Dependence on Christ is not weakness.

It's actually the only path that you have to lasting and lasting

and strong contentment. It's the only path you have is

dependence on Christ. So today when you hold these 3

verses together, the picture becomes beautifully clear.

Contentment is learned. So don't be discouraged.

Contentment is independent of circumstances.

So don't wait for life to settle down.

Don't wait for things to get right.

If you wait for the perfect situation to feel content,

you're never going to experience it.

Paul learned to be content in plenty and in one.

Contentment was not attached to his situation #3 contentment is

enabled by Christ. It is in your dependence upon

Christ. So you cannot produce

contentment on your own. We talked about this last week

that the majority of Eastern religions and mysticism says if

you want to have contentment, then just kill all desire in

your heart. If you have no desire, then

you'll be content. And what we're learning as a

church and as Jesus followers is actually what the Gospel calls

you to do is not to kill your desire, but to redirect your

desire to the person of Jesus Christ.

And that he is the only place your heart can find home is when

you are depended upon Christ. Your strength is never enough.

Your willpower is never enough, but Jesus Christ in your heart

leading you is enough. His strength is your source of

contentment. And here's the hope for everyone

of you and for me. If you want to learn Paul's

secret, if you want to figure this out, pray.

It sounds so simple. Pray consistently.

Pray constantly. Pray to quote the Bible without

ceasing. Pray.

Talk to Jesus like you talk to a friend.

Just talk to him. Tell him what you're happy

about. Tell him what you're not happy

about. Tell him when you're upset.

Tell him when you're good. Just pray.

Lean into Christ. Lean into Him, walk with him,

look, listen for him, depend on Him, Trust Him with what you

have and with what you don't have.

Let him reshape your life and friend.

When Christ becomes your source, your strength and your

satisfaction, you will discover what Paul discovered.

I can do all of this. I can live content no matter

what. Through Him gives me strength.

He is my source, and if I don't lean into Him, if I don't know

him, if I'm not walking with Christ, no wonder I'm

discontent. No wonder I'm malcontent.

Because He's the only source of contentment.

He's the secret in any attempt to be content without Him will

always fall short. Will you stand with me?

And I'm going to say a blessing over you.

So, my brothers and sisters, if you want to close your eyes and

receive this blessing over you, that would be great.

May you go today with hearts that rest in Christ alone.

May His strength be your sufficiency, His presence your

peace, and His love your satisfaction.

As you face plenty or need this week, may you remember that

Christ is enough for you and that through Him you can't do

all this. Go in grace, the strength and

the contentment of Jesus. Amen.

I love you, friends. See you back here next week.

If you enjoyed this episode, please like and subscribe to

hear a new episode every week. You can also worship with us in

person in Savannah, GA or watch our live stream on Facebook and

YouTube every Sunday at 9:15 AM. Have a great week.