"Contentment" Part 2 | Developing Christians for Christ Series | Pastor Carl Henry

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, this is part two, those of you who were not here last week will give a quick overview of some of the things that we've been talking about.

[SPEAKER_01]: We have is the title contentment, but we've been looking at coveting, and it seems in the scriptures that these two words are shown together, in portions of scripture, to show how they are opposing one another.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's certain things that God tells us in line of coveting that it is has to do with greed, phrases that I use last week,

[SPEAKER_01]: It's just not enough.

[SPEAKER_01]: You got to have a whole bag full and then and it's thought is we're never satisfied and as we saw in this text, it is the love of money not money itself.

[SPEAKER_01]: We are in a society of greed, greed, greed, greed, greed.

[SPEAKER_01]: Never can I have enough.

[SPEAKER_01]: Corporations are built on it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sorry, you know, not everyone, but there are many that I talk to.

[SPEAKER_01]: If the corporation made $3 million this year as far as profit, well then we got to have 3.5 next year and we have to have more.

[SPEAKER_01]: And if we don't make 3.5 the next year, then somebody did something bad has nothing to do with the economy because we're had to be a way to make that money.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we're going to cut people.

[SPEAKER_01]: axiom because if you know they're not helping them we're going to act some there's no loyalty and we're going to talk about that down the road loyalty and and it's just like this got to have got to have got to have.

[SPEAKER_01]: Most of us have weeks that in our small corporations that we had a profit of 3 million we pretty happy.

[SPEAKER_01]: But because many are saying we're in the red this year.

[SPEAKER_01]: But enough seems like in America, it's never, ever enough.

[SPEAKER_01]: We can't be happy, we're gonna conclude with thankfulness.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's just like we can't find that contentment inside.

[SPEAKER_01]: So God says, when we have that mindset, it is coveting.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's that strong desire to have.

[SPEAKER_01]: As we also mentioned, the word for in Greek for covet can also mean a desire for something that is good.

[SPEAKER_01]: He talked about, but desire or covet, the more important spiritual gifts.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we can see, you know, we oftentimes will say, I covet your prayers, meaning I really strongly desire for you to be praying for me and I really, really want that.

[SPEAKER_01]: We've seen subjects last week as in where it starts from within man and mark seven.

[SPEAKER_01]: We've learned that when we are not satisfied, we are taken away from the concepts of the word, Ephesians 5.5.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let me read, actually, my ratings now.

[SPEAKER_01]: There have been an American reader who knows.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're consumed with that which we want and then it becomes number one in our heart taking our mind away from the Lord So basically a caution of three features five the coveting which is idolatry We also saw saw as we mentioned earlier the love of money.

[SPEAKER_01]: This has to do with the coveting which is idolatry Please the asses we talked about that how we're never satisfied even Solomon said there's no satisfactory I had everything that I've ever wanted

[SPEAKER_01]: and doesn't fulfill the void.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's always a void inside of our lives.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so, it shouldn't be mentioned among us, but there are things that we should be coveting or desiring as far as home, as far as our church family, our time with God, God's desires, those should be the things that are inside of us.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, we want to finish this section on the coveting and I'm getting old, so I'm taking my time.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think that this is a subject that we as a church need because we live in America.

[SPEAKER_01]: And what happens, oftentimes, in a culture through process of time, ends up landing inside of the church.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the mindset, the theories that they can have, oftentimes come in and then the church ends up being

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, this is the body of Christ that is conducted the way God tells us to, not the way a man tells us to.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is a functioning body, body parts, the mind, the physical, the spiritual.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so that's what we've got to be careful is this greed is not enter into us.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I'll be honest with you when the church voted,

[SPEAKER_01]: to put on the addition.

[SPEAKER_01]: On the honest, it's hard for me for all of us as Christians to justify the amount of money that took to put 5,000 square foot on.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what we got.

[SPEAKER_01]: We got some bathrooms, some offices, and the place for us to exit to, did it at about 100 some seats, and that's great.

[SPEAKER_01]: But it was, it's pretty pricey per seat.

[SPEAKER_01]: You follow me?

[SPEAKER_01]: And just think what we could have done with missions.

[SPEAKER_01]: Think what we could have done.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we always wrestle back and forth with, what do we put into the building versus what do we give in our way becoming greedy and so it's like, I think that the church did a, we did a very moderate job of what we did.

[SPEAKER_01]: Could have spent more could have been lavish and so forth.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's a very nice, modest addition.

[SPEAKER_01]: Gary did a splendid job designing the trustee.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's everybody that we're involved, but we're still talking about.

[SPEAKER_01]: hundreds of thousands of dollars to put on five thousand square foot because we needed extra septic system that was failing here because it's like really really old and we had to do this we had to do this and we had to add more parking if we have more seating we had to in all of a sudden that everything adds up and it's about money and when churches are about money and we're thinking money guess what just like at your house

[SPEAKER_01]: When money is talked about, what happens?

[SPEAKER_01]: I think it should be this way.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think it should be this way.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's this way.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we begin to listen.

[SPEAKER_01]: I had a guy come here, he goes, I've been here this church about three, four months.

[SPEAKER_01]: You don't want the thing, I've noticed.

[SPEAKER_01]: He never talked about money.

[SPEAKER_01]: Every church I went to has a don't-for-go-about, your commitments to the building fund and don't forget your commitments to this and don't forget like they needed reminded every week.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he's like, what is this?

[SPEAKER_01]: And folks, I hope that we never have to be burdened about making ends meet here.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's because we want to be smart with our money and we don't want to put ourselves in a situation into a debt where we as a church or a hurtin' and we can't even pay our missionaries.

[SPEAKER_01]: If I'm a...

[SPEAKER_01]: It's like, it's got to be bigger.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's got to be better.

[SPEAKER_01]: We've got to build a dynasty.

[SPEAKER_01]: We've got to have the biggest steeple in towns everybody says, that's that church.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not built on a building, folks.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's built on you sharing your faith of Jesus Christ, with the community.

[SPEAKER_01]: And inviting your neighbors.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I still believe the best advertisement is still word of mouth.

[SPEAKER_01]: We don't need huge billboards, you know?

[SPEAKER_01]: We don't need to do that because you are our billboards.

[SPEAKER_01]: You are the ones that are sharing your faith and talking to your friends and neighbors and saying, listen, where's your relationship with Jesus Christ?

[SPEAKER_01]: Can you sense I get frustrated with the mindset of churches?

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, I'm saying, remember a verse.

[SPEAKER_01]: I get tired of the mindset of preachers.

[SPEAKER_01]: So several years ago, I met a preacher's meeting, everybody's talking about this, and I usually be quiet.

[SPEAKER_01]: But the one guy was like, oh man, we had a bad snow day, and we had to shut the service down.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I was like, yeah, you know, of course there's two bad of weather, we couldn't get the church.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he goes, man, it's just horrible.

[SPEAKER_01]: And everybody's like, oh, what's going on?

[SPEAKER_01]: He goes, well, statistically, what happens?

[SPEAKER_01]: If you miss a son, do you never recover that money the next week?

[SPEAKER_01]: Isn't that greed?

[SPEAKER_01]: I might be thinking, man, maybe we've missed some people with a gospel.

[SPEAKER_01]: But not about, man, we're never going to recover that money.

[SPEAKER_01]: Never recover the money.

[SPEAKER_01]: Never recover the money.

[SPEAKER_01]: Never recover the money from a preacher.

[SPEAKER_01]: Come on, it's not about finances.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's about God and relationships that we have with him.

[SPEAKER_01]: Do we need to pay the bills?

[SPEAKER_01]: Does anybody not know we have to pay the bills around here?

[SPEAKER_01]: You follow me?

[SPEAKER_01]: They might not know we're supposed to give him time and so forth.

[SPEAKER_01]: Of course, we know that.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not the hammer you ever week about it.

[SPEAKER_01]: That means I gotta have more.

[SPEAKER_01]: I gotta have more.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's wrong.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was hoping for at least one amen.

[SPEAKER_01]: One, one right there.

[SPEAKER_01]: I thought that was a really valid point.

[SPEAKER_01]: All right.

[SPEAKER_01]: Look at, look at Proverbs with me.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we're going to flow through Proverbs in chapter 28.

[SPEAKER_01]: Show you just a couple more concepts as quickly as I possibly can, and get you out into that cold weather.

[SPEAKER_01]: We had out there.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's cold.

[SPEAKER_01]: Proverbs 28.

[SPEAKER_01]: I have four degrees out there this morning in my house.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's cold.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, two, minus two, remind me not to go to your neck of the woods then in the morning.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's cool.

[SPEAKER_01]: Proverbs 28 and verse number 20.

[SPEAKER_01]: A faithful man shall abound with blessings, but he that it make it taste to be rich, shall not be innocent.

[SPEAKER_01]: The opposite of innocent is,

[SPEAKER_01]: guilt.

[SPEAKER_01]: So it brings a guilt somehow on this person's life when all their life is around is got to have, got to have, got to have, got to have.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then somewhere along the line, in a sense, we think of the innocence of a child.

[SPEAKER_01]: They work hard.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're so grateful for what's being received.

[SPEAKER_01]: And instead, it's just like, got to have more cut anybody out that gets in my way.

[SPEAKER_01]: And God is saying, if you get into the rich, get rich quick schemes that are

[SPEAKER_01]: It's all about the money.

[SPEAKER_01]: Something negative is going to be happening.

[SPEAKER_01]: Trust me.

[SPEAKER_01]: Proverbs describes how we make ends meet at we work hard.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're wise with her money, usually good things you're going to be happy at the end.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I realize some jobs produce a whole lot of money and compared to one person, it's a lot of money.

[SPEAKER_01]: Another person is not a lot of money, but nonetheless, it has to do with the haste, the can't wait for this happen.

[SPEAKER_01]: That which is hurried.

[SPEAKER_01]: We had read the other part of that, the next one, it has to do with does end up leading

[SPEAKER_01]: I guess I say this, we as a nation, we can't stop spending, I mean, I'm trying to rat my brain around is they show on these bill wars and places how quickly our deficit is increasing.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you were losing in your house, I'm just going to throw a number out there, $500 per day.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you were in your house losing $500 per day, would you continue borrowing to pay the interest rate, not the principal, just the interest rate would you continue to go in debt?

[SPEAKER_01]: Is that about as dumb as a bagger or a auction?

[SPEAKER_01]: So you stop spending.

[SPEAKER_01]: But that's the point in the scriptures is the nature of man.

[SPEAKER_01]: As we do not want to suppress a lifestyle, we want to continue in it because we are proud.

[SPEAKER_01]: We don't want to do without.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the result is we keep on going in debt, going in debt, going in debt, and who knows how many generations going to be so we can pay for what we have as far as a debt.

[SPEAKER_01]: Isn't it silly?

[SPEAKER_01]: By the way, in the last days, we're talking about on Sunday nights, there's this is all part of it all, all part of it all, the economy.

[SPEAKER_01]: These nations are in our, our ponds in our, our God's hands.

[SPEAKER_01]: establishing exactly what he wants to have happening because he is setting up for his return.

[SPEAKER_01]: He is setting up for the Antichrist.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's setting up for these little last days that we are in and it's kind of fun.

[SPEAKER_01]: Kind of fun that we were part of it all.

[SPEAKER_01]: But we shouldn't be part of it all.

[SPEAKER_01]: You see him saying?

[SPEAKER_01]: Pray for our nation.

[SPEAKER_01]: Pray for wisdom with them.

[SPEAKER_01]: How can you not have a budget that's balanced?

[SPEAKER_01]: My job just goes, how can you not have a budget that's balanced?

[SPEAKER_01]: And then I ask us as Christians who were stewards, those my devotions this morning was about stewardship in the book of Luke, and we can laugh them but how is our budget going as people?

[SPEAKER_01]: Are we holding that same mindset?

[SPEAKER_01]: Got to spend, got to spend, not happy unless we're buying and got to have, got to have.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we say, how would we go pay for this now?

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.

[SPEAKER_01]: I thought you were going to come up with a money.

[SPEAKER_01]: All right, all right, you were going to get a second job to pay for us all.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's not go there.

[SPEAKER_01]: It brings destruction.

[SPEAKER_01]: I got to save some time.

[SPEAKER_01]: Proverbs 11, 18, and 19 talks about how, let's get one person together.

[SPEAKER_01]: And let's go ahead and kill somebody and take what they have.

[SPEAKER_01]: Covening could actually lead to murder.

[SPEAKER_01]: You see, that's an extreme, but it happens like all the time.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, we've heard the stories of the person that was killed and they pulled 10 bucks out of the ATM and they were murdered for $10.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, okay, we're gonna, we're gonna knock you over the head, take the $20 that you have so we can go out and buy some math because I'm a daddy.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, that's coveting something that is somebody else's.

[SPEAKER_01]: I have an old fashioned way of correcting that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Get a job.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, thieves have their part in hell, okay?

[SPEAKER_01]: It's showing what's going on inside, okay?

[SPEAKER_01]: So it's like let's do it with the old fashioned way and let's actually get a job and actually work and get off of the dope and actually care about society and you might want to help that grandma and grandpa instead of wanting to kill them for their money.

[SPEAKER_01]: I have,

[SPEAKER_01]: Grandkids, literally stealing parents, grandparents, money out of the person, we have them taking prescription drugs so that they can take them out into the market and sell.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, grandparents, drugs that they need to live for pain management and all of these things and the kids grandkids could care less about the health of the grandparents because they

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, we're having problems in America.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let's go coveting that I will go to a point where I have to have this and you are having, so I'm gonna covet what you have and I'm gonna take and steal what you have and there again, it comes to leading into theft.

[SPEAKER_01]: You realize that's really, intently what Aiken had done against God is he stole,

[SPEAKER_01]: Gosses to Israel.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, you're getting ready to go into the promised land.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is like a really good thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: We've been waiting a long time for y'all to get into the promised land.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to give you victories.

[SPEAKER_01]: Everything is yours.

[SPEAKER_01]: Go in.

[SPEAKER_01]: You take it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so as they go in, Gosses, now listen, place number one Jericho.

[SPEAKER_01]: That place is mine.

[SPEAKER_01]: You don't take of the gold, you don't take of the spoils, you take the city, but let it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now you go to the next town and you beat up on them, everything that they're, take it.

[SPEAKER_01]: You're the next town, whatever you got there, take it, it's yours.

[SPEAKER_01]: Every town after that, God says, it the spoil of war is yours.

[SPEAKER_01]: But the first one, back here, this one, this is mine.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's a picture of giving the first and the best to God.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so they go in just like they're exposed to, they walk around, they do the drums, the shout, the walls come down, they beat them up.

[SPEAKER_01]: And one person, one person, goes in and says, look at this, look at this, this is really nice, let's just take enough for me.

[SPEAKER_01]: And instead of saying to everybody, look what I've got, he knew it was wrong.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was guilty to what did he do?

[SPEAKER_01]: He went and hit it.

[SPEAKER_01]: But God sees everything, doesn't he?

[SPEAKER_01]: Joshua didn't know what was going on.

[SPEAKER_01]: So they go into a war, get say hi.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's just like, we don't need very many troops.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's just small places going with it a little bit.

[SPEAKER_01]: And they come out and Israel lost.

[SPEAKER_01]: And Josh was like, I don't get it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm doing what I'm supposed to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: Or he take these big walls of Jericho, and we win, and we go against a little nation, and we lose, I can't figure it.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's literally on his knees praying.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's saying, Lord, what's going on?

[SPEAKER_01]: And God comes and says, get off your knees.

[SPEAKER_01]: In other words, it's not a time of prayer, it's a time of action.

[SPEAKER_01]: He offered these and go because we're sin in the camp.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's time to take care of the sin.

[SPEAKER_01]: This man ached and coveted what was God's.

[SPEAKER_01]: He took and stole, if you will, that which was dedicated to God and kept it for himself for his own wealth and his own riches.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's how far sin will take us, folks.

[SPEAKER_01]: Can you imagine, I wish I had an offering plate up here?

[SPEAKER_01]: Here imagine, your offering plate goes by,

[SPEAKER_01]: And instead of taking in, putting in, you pull out.

[SPEAKER_01]: Can you imagine?

[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, there's a 50.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you very much.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then you pass it along.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now some guys might make change.

[SPEAKER_01]: Lord, I love you, but I only got a 50 on me.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I don't want to throw that in and we'll just, we'll go to, you know, I see 25 in there and we'll cut in half and I'll take 25.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just, that's a joke, man.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, it's just like, that's kind of like what Akin did.

[SPEAKER_01]: He just found like, oh, there's some cash.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna pull this out and keep it for myself.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's just like, oh, no, no, agreed, agreed, agreed.

[SPEAKER_01]: Gotta have, gotta have to do this girl.

[SPEAKER_01]: And she left the area and she came back in the town in her Mercedes.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then what you're talking about, Dave and Mercedes, like it was a 700 series, there's something like out of our Mercedes.

[SPEAKER_01]: And she pulls this beautiful beautiful, it's meant to brand new Mercedes.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it girls, she went to school.

[SPEAKER_01]: She goes up there, she goes, look at you.

[SPEAKER_01]: You're doing really good for yourself.

[SPEAKER_01]: She goes, I haven't seen you for a long time.

[SPEAKER_01]: Where have you been?

[SPEAKER_01]: She goes, I got married.

[SPEAKER_01]: And she said, well, that's a really good thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the girl said, well, it's not so good.

[SPEAKER_01]: And she's looking at the Mercedes.

[SPEAKER_01]: She's looking at her.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's like, what's the bad?

[SPEAKER_01]: She goes, he got married.

[SPEAKER_01]: She's, yeah, but he's ugly.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the girl said, well, that's not so good.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then the girl said, no, it's not so bad.

[SPEAKER_01]: And she goes, well, it's not so bad about he's a millionaire.

[SPEAKER_01]: She goes, well, that's a good thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: She's in.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's not so good either.

[SPEAKER_01]: And she says, well, it's so good.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, the guy hordes all his money and all he does is his buys and builds properties.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, well, that's bad.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, well, it's not so bad.

[SPEAKER_00]: She said he built us a mansion to live in.

[SPEAKER_00]: And she says, well, that's a good thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: She goes, and that's not so good either.

[SPEAKER_00]: And she says, well, what's not so good about the mansion?

[SPEAKER_00]: She said, it burnt down.

[SPEAKER_00]: She goes, all that's bad.

[SPEAKER_00]: She says, well, that's not so bad.

[SPEAKER_00]: And she says, why is it not so bad?

[SPEAKER_00]: He was in it.

[SPEAKER_01]: The American Dream, well, okay, I'm not going to get my composure again.

[SPEAKER_01]: Our American Dream is about having and what we get, but the seeking of riches can end up leading us into poverty.

[SPEAKER_01]: What we lose when we begin to go away from what God destined for us is we go away from God's blessings.

[SPEAKER_01]: He wants what is best for us.

[SPEAKER_01]: And when we go and as Exodus 20 and verse 17 tells us that thou shall not covet.

[SPEAKER_01]: That shall not cover that neighbor's wife, his animals, his land, anything that is your neighbors, he says, don't go there.

[SPEAKER_01]: You're still there in Proverbs, aren't you?

[SPEAKER_01]: Look over at chapter five with me, chapter five or 18.

[SPEAKER_01]: Proverbs five, 18.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let thy fountain, I'm wait till you're there.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sorry.

[SPEAKER_01]: less.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let thy fountain be blessed and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now we're dealing with coveting.

[SPEAKER_01]: And Exodus 20, the first thing that God says is thou shout, not covet, thy name is wife.

[SPEAKER_01]: And here God is telling you and I, who you got married to when you were like really young?

[SPEAKER_01]: She should be the one that you are absolutely still infatuated with and an absolute love with her and that you would not cover somebody else's, I wish my wife was like that, or I wish my husband was like that and we begin to desire what belongs to somebody else.

[SPEAKER_01]: There again, American Dread, wife saw, okay?

[SPEAKER_01]: You're like, no, no, no, that's not what this is about.

[SPEAKER_01]: and and gossip's be content happy with and you might say to me yeah but my wife doesn't look like she looked like when she was twenty something have you looked in the mirror late me my friend

[SPEAKER_01]: But we think in our minds and perceive what our spouse is to be and we do this comparing in Washington way too many soap operas.

[SPEAKER_01]: Washington too much junk on TV and we get in our minds of what is perfect or what the world tells us is perfect.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, like he may break.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let's grow up.

[SPEAKER_01]: Be mature and not let Hollywood and the world tell us how to think.

[SPEAKER_01]: we need to be able to look and realize we love each other based on not physical but it is based on a relationship as physical part of it absolutely but it is not all that a relationship is about.

[SPEAKER_01]: And when we begin to desire a relationship with somebody that we're not supposed to, God calls that coveting and leaves into a deep, deep pit.

[SPEAKER_01]: Here's another one for you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Look with me to third John.

[SPEAKER_01]: You doing okay?

[SPEAKER_01]: We're just digging into Bible.

[SPEAKER_01]: Third John.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's right after second John.

[SPEAKER_01]: And if you're going to the gospel of John, you're a way too early in the new testament.

[SPEAKER_01]: So go near the back toward the revelation.

[SPEAKER_01]: Third John.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, there are main characters in here.

[SPEAKER_01]: Gaius, in verse number one, he's the good guy.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's there by cheers for him.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's the one that people are coming to church and he's developing truth and it's a really, really good thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then there's another good guy, Dmitrius, is mentioned in verse number 12.

[SPEAKER_01]: This guy has a really good report of all men.

[SPEAKER_01]: And again, the word truth comes up again.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's truth, it's self-yane, all the bare record.

[SPEAKER_01]: And you know that our record is true.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so here's another good guy in that ministry, but we pick up in verse number nine.

[SPEAKER_01]: I wrote unto the church, but diographies who love us to have the preeminence among them received us not.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, John, this man is the man that God tells us that Jesus loved, he is the man that was separated even from the inner circle of Jesus' disciples and was set apart.

[SPEAKER_01]: This man wrote the Gospel of John 1 2 3 John and the Revelation, kind of an important guy

[SPEAKER_01]: His name means God is a gracious giver, grace is attributed to this man's name, and he was full of grace, terms of endearment, or all through his writings, and this man diatrophies hated them.

[SPEAKER_01]: Didn't like him one bit.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because it tells us he loves to have the pre-eminent or the dominion over top of people.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so what this guy would do is he would begin intimidating people in the church.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, you got a letter from John, I want it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I want to see what he wrote, get back to me.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, you conferred with him, you want to see him?

[SPEAKER_01]: What'd you two talk about?

[SPEAKER_01]: It's called micro-managing.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hopping to know every little thing that's going on because of an insecurity.

[SPEAKER_01]: You want to talk about insecurity, talk to preachers.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, pop the leaders.

[SPEAKER_01]: We can be the most insecure people here.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so he's like, oh, he can't do that.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so look at verse 10, wherefore I, if I come, I will remember his deeds.

[SPEAKER_01]: Ooh, it's like, you don't want to go there, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: That was an apostle, what's he do with?

[SPEAKER_01]: And this is what he's doing.

[SPEAKER_01]: Pratting against us with malicious words.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now notice this and not content.

[SPEAKER_01]: with that, not content.

[SPEAKER_01]: Instead of being content, this is like, it's not enough just to talk about John in a negative way, but he goes this far, that neither does he himself receive the brethren forbidding them that would casting them out of the church.

[SPEAKER_01]: So if anybody talked to John, he would excommunicate them from the church.

[SPEAKER_01]: Can you imagine going that far, never content, never content with power?

[SPEAKER_01]: Anybody else is a threat.

[SPEAKER_01]: The disciples worked through this in their minds because there were some people that out there were doing things in the name of Jesus, healing people and helping people and the disciples came, Lord, you got to tell them to stop it and he's like, hi, why would I have them stop it?

[SPEAKER_01]: If they're not against this, aren't they for us?

[SPEAKER_01]: just because they're not right here and they're doing something over here.

[SPEAKER_01]: Why would that make me jealous?

[SPEAKER_01]: Why would that make me envious of what they are doing?

[SPEAKER_01]: Moses, when he was contended with a similar thing,

[SPEAKER_01]: He had told the cement that they were told that they were going around prophesying and he said, I wish that all of God's people would prophesy the Word of God.

[SPEAKER_01]: He wasn't on an ego trip and he's like one of the most notable leaders in the Old Testament.

[SPEAKER_01]: He wasn't worrying about it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I remember him first started into the ministry as a Christian, and if you had a Bible study, or anything was going on, but you had to have every step of the way he approved, you know?

[SPEAKER_01]: Good night, you want to start a Bible study in your home and reach your community?

[SPEAKER_01]: Thumbs up.

[SPEAKER_01]: You got that approval?

[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I'm saying?

[SPEAKER_01]: teach it, and this whole envy in this contentions and battling of who's leading the show is nothing but a lack of contentment and coveting what another man is doing or coveting what you have, you don't want to lose it, and God's like, get over yourself.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you talked to another preacher in the area, okay, you say you go to one of the churches in the area, and I find out that you go to one of their services, and you actually went there and fellowship with them without running it through me first, and then I kicked you out of the church because of it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Can you imagine that?

[SPEAKER_01]: That's the mindset.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now let's look at ourselves.

[SPEAKER_01]: Are you insecure, do you have this kind of a mindset that you cannot be content with who you are in the way God has made you?

[SPEAKER_01]: And what you do for God may not be as good as somebody else over there, but you don't attack them just because they can do a better job.

[SPEAKER_01]: And all of a sudden, this is like, I think they're on the schedule way too much.

[SPEAKER_01]: Come on, come on, come on, we're out of junior high.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: Or this person or that person?

[SPEAKER_01]: We don't envy what another person is doing for God.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can't do that.

[SPEAKER_01]: I guarantee you, John could flat out preach a whole lot better than diotrophies, and there was jealousy there, and he didn't want him coming in, and the other thing is, I had to face was probably teaching some things that were his traditions, and what he wanted in the church, and his name of holiness, and John was like, are you kidding, we're under grace?

[SPEAKER_01]: You can't dictate to the people this and that, but he had that, you know, micromanaging and putting everybody under his thumb, and he had to control people.

[SPEAKER_01]: contentment, I'm going to stop there, I worry out enough probably today, next week, phase three of contentment.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to actually talk about contentment next week.

[SPEAKER_01]: I promise we're going to get to that point.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we're going to see Philippians.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to delve into the first Timothy six, a little bit deeper, because we needed to show you the broad scheme of what God is showing you and I.

[SPEAKER_01]: How do we come to that place of contentment?

[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to talk about your jobs.

[SPEAKER_01]: Just in case you didn't want to come in here, we're going to be talking to you about positions that we are in in a heart.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's really where this whole contentment ends up coming from is that whole process of contentment.

[SPEAKER_01]: It comes from a thankful heart.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I remember as a young, unsaved man,

[SPEAKER_01]: how I had my life all planned out, had it all in order and God worked in my heart at 19 years old and he began to change everything for me.

[SPEAKER_01]: As a young man, even though I had a good job as a lectrition, I had a pretty girl on my arm, really sweet, nope.

[SPEAKER_01]: 77 Nova.

[SPEAKER_01]: Real rare three speed on the floor.

[SPEAKER_01]: Awesome car.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, people were like, I wish I was Carl type of thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, all my friends was like, yeah, wish I had that wish I could afford that.

[SPEAKER_01]: And, but you know what, I was never happy.

[SPEAKER_01]: There was always something missing.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then I

[SPEAKER_01]: Glory, and I start hearing about Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: Start hearing about Jesus dying in a cross for me.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I realized all the things that I was trying to fill up the void with the physical, the emotional, the mind, the spiritual was not being fulfilled because I missed the one who could fill me up and it's Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: He is my all and all in the times that I am low.

[SPEAKER_01]: He builds me up, the times I think I am high, he humbles me and brings me back down to earth.

[SPEAKER_01]: He is the one who is my God, and he is over me, and I love him, and I know you do too, but if you have not trusted Christ as your Savior, you are missing out on the greatest thing that this world has ever known.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's the greatest story that's ever been told.

[SPEAKER_01]: our God who has created all things came to this earth born of a virgin and eventually died on the cross for the world's sin.

[SPEAKER_01]: He rose again three days later, conquering what sin did to us by rising from the dead and he wants to save you just the way you are.

[SPEAKER_01]: Father, bless this time in your word.

[SPEAKER_01]: And Lord, I do pray that if there are any here, they do not know you as Savior, that you will work in their hearts, drawing them Lord to yourself, this is your work.

[SPEAKER_01]: Convect as conviction is needed.

[SPEAKER_01]: And even Lord, we as Christians, we've been giving a lot of concepts today.

[SPEAKER_01]: We've been seeing how greed can destroy us.

[SPEAKER_01]: Lord, I pray that if we've been worked on in our hearts,

[SPEAKER_01]: We will commit it to you.

[SPEAKER_01]: We will ask for your help and your grace to enable us to serve you better for give us Lord where we fail you.

[SPEAKER_01]: As a church, as a country, Lord help us to be wise and not fools.

[SPEAKER_01]: Help us, Lord, to be mature.

[SPEAKER_01]: Help us not to be as a diantrophies who controls and He's never content.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's always attacking.

[SPEAKER_01]: Lord, help us not to be in Akin, but we would take stuff that's really yours, help us Lord to serve you with our hearts.

[SPEAKER_01]: May you bless this invitation, it is yours, and Jesus name we pray.

[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.