From Dissatisfaction to Contentment

Amen.

Man, this y'all it doesn't feel like an 815 service.

I just feel like uh there's there's a lot of you here, and and the Spirit of God is at work and our worship, and um so thankful for our team and and um uh all those that lead worship and and thankful for you guys being here.

My name's Russ.

If I hadn't met you before, um it's your first time or second time, third time with us, thankful that you're here.

Um we're beginning a brand new series today called Enough Is Enough.

And and if you want to uh look up the first verse, the first little passage we're gonna be in, it's gonna be Matthew chapter six, but we're gonna be in several uh passages this morning.

And while you're just turning to that, um if you want to, let me just encourage you and follow up what Ruth and Jonah mentioned about Shop with the Hero.

It's I think it's year number 16.

And so um, and so we we we're asking for you to to give and to serve.

Give and serve.

So$100 per child, and so there's probably a hundred and you know, uh, anywhere from around 120 to 130 or 30, 40 um children that sign up, depending on how many that the schools uh send us, and they're identified through the counselors and social workers in the school system, and and then we started a few years ago giving a gift card to every hero.

Every hero gets a$50 gift card.

And and so uh I mean that was just something I I felt so um uh uh excited and and burdened at the same time.

They're they're giving their time.

Many of them have to work multiple side jobs to make um to make it, you know, make a living, and um, and and so we want to love on them uh as well as loving on the children and those families.

And um, and so just thinking as we move forward into this season, for example, next Saturday night is Walnut Grove City's tree, Christmas tree lighting next Saturday evening.

And so um last year I came to it and and and I ever I've I've been to it several most of the years that they've had it, and and um, and there was a huge number of people here.

And so I'm just throwing this out there.

I would love it if one of our community groups uh or a few families said, hey, let's let's let's go and and set up a hot chocolate stand and let's just serve.

Or and I'm just encouraging you, come, come hang out and be around people.

That's just what Jesus did.

It's fallen the way of Jesus.

Jesus came to seek and save the lost.

He came and he hung out with people.

He hung out with people that weren't like him, but but what's interesting is all those people that weren't like him, they liked him because they knew that he loved them.

And and so um being in the community is at the heart of who we are as a church.

And so um, and so as we begin this series, enough is enough.

It's really about following the way of Jesus.

And so this phrase enough is enough.

What is it, what's the what's the meaning behind it?

If you looked it up online, you find uh you find out that it's something that is said, it's a statement.

Enough is enough.

Um when one person uh wants something to stop because they can no longer tolerate or accept it or deal with it.

It's when you come to a breaking point and you can't take whatever injustice it is at whatever level it is, you can't take it any longer.

You ever been with your kids and they're arguing and they're fighting?

And it's just enough is enough, right?

There's been times I've been on the way to church and I'm telling my kids, hey, do you want to meet Jesus before we get to church?

Enough is enough.

A relationship and marriage has struggled for years, and there's a breaking point over whatever reason, enough is enough.

Your employer continues to take advantage of you, scheduling you, working you like a dog, not giving you, uh not rewarding you, not giving you nights or weekends, and you, I mean, you just finally say, enough is enough.

There are injustices in this world that that we look at, homelessness or or neglected or abused kids.

Enough is enough.

So we so we we we can come to a breaking point in our lives and declare enough is enough.

And it might be easy when there's when there's this desperation and anger and resentment that take root in our lives, but but it's more difficult to declare enough is enough when your life looks like everybody else's.

We're all flowing in the same direction, and if everybody looks the same, what is it that we're saying enough is enough about?

What I mean is that it's hard to come to a breaking point and seek out change for your life, transformation for your life when your life is simply similar to everyone else's.

We're chasing after some version of the American dream just like everyone else is chasing after some version of the American dream.

You're in debt just like everyone else is in debt.

Everybody has a car payment.

I mean, I counsel young couples that are getting married.

If I do a wedding, that's just part of the agreement.

You've got to go through premarital.

And I and I one of the things I just hammer and I talk to them about so much is about their finances and about about and about the freedom that we can have.

You don't have to get in debt.

You don't have to.

And so we're busy, we have little to no margin in our life, just like everyone else is busy with no margin.

And that word margin, let me let me clarify what it means, it's the distance between where you are and your limit.

And so we all need margin in our life.

Just like you're driving down the road and there's a white line.

That white line is a margin that tells you, hey, you're getting, how many, or or there are those little bumpy things, you know, that people in my family that besides me seem to hit all the time as they hit, and and it's a margin.

It tells you, hey, you're getting over close to the edge.

And see, we need margin in our life.

We need margin financially, we need margin relationally, we need margin.

We need margin for for flourishment in our life.

And so what I'm saying is it's hard to declare enough is enough when it when you it really doesn't seem like you have enough.

Isn't it funny that we live in the most wealthy, the most abundant, just, I mean, I'm talking the our the culture we live in, I mean, it we we just have everything.

But but there is something inside of us that is constantly pulling us toward something else.

Nathan shared an article uh from a writer named Bronnie, where she's a nurse that worked um as a hospice nurse, serving people that had days or weeks to live left in their life.

And she talks about how when people come close to the end of their life, they begin to reconsider how they spent their time and the regrets they have.

And I've been there.

I I I mean, I I was I was with my dad and and and and and I he we had those conversations.

There, he he he said over and over, I'm so sorry.

I'm so sorry.

I'm so sorry.

I've been with people.

And he and Bonnie Bonnie writes this article, this this hospice nurse, she said there's five common themes she says that these people will speak about, they'll share about, and and regret about.

And one is that they wish they had the courage to live a life true to what anchored them, their truth, not just live according to how others expected them to live.

It said, number two, I wish I had the courage to express my feelings.

Number three, I wish I had let myself be happier.

Number four, I wish I hadn't worked so hard.

And in this statement, it was particularly male patients that Bronny encountered that where they would say, all of the men I nursed deeply regretted spending so much of their lives on the treadmill of work, existence.

And then number five, they would say, I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.

Many people get caught up in their own lives and they let some of their golden friendship slip away over the years.

I mean, listen, we're all busy.

It's common for anybody to be busy.

But when you're faced with your approaching death, the physical details don't matter anymore.

It's the relationships.

I'll maybe think of Kevin Gibson who helped us plant this church.

And when he when he got his terminal diagnosis living in Florida, I'll never forget the phone call.

Russ, I've been told I've got three months, maybe a year.

And he said, I want to come home and be with my family.

Now he didn't just mean biological family, I mean that was part of it, but he met his church family.

He met the relationships that were that were the golden relationships.

And and and you know what?

He ended up living not just three months, not just a year.

He lived, he lived for seven years.

And and most of those years until the final end, final year or so, he spent every Wednesday going out to eat with his friends, his family.

That's not even in the sermon notes.

Sass free.

Here's what Bonnie says.

Her patients all agree that they wish they would have simplified their lifestyles, making conscious choices along the way, so that it would have been possible to need less income and thereby creating more space in their lives to be happier and more open to new opportunities.

When the end is near, priorities begin to shift.

And what was important suddenly becomes less important.

The things that we thought we couldn't live without become irrelevant.

We recognize that stuff and money and wealth and possessions are far less important than relationships and the margins necessary for life to flourish.

And here, let me, you know, I'm I'm I'm I'm bringing you to down a path because we're talking about the path of Jesus, walking with Jesus.

Richard Foster, he says, he says, and and I I resonate because I I grew up in a probably lower middle class family.

Um when I was a kid, I I wore these jeans called tough skins.

Anyone remember tough skins?

You you would buy them and literally you just stand them up in the corner.

They were so stiff, and they were awful, they were horrible, but they were cheap.

And I remember going to school, and all my all my wealthy friends had all these other cool clothes, and I remember coming home and saying, Mom, can I get a pair of jeans like that?

And she she would say, Russ, you don't need that.

And so I'd, you know, I'd take 30 minutes to put on my tough skins and tough it on to school, you know.

I just no, they they would, they would, they would loosen up after a while, and then they, you know what?

They would have holes in the in the knees after I'd worn them and played like a boy does, and then you know what mom did?

Instead of buying me a new pair of jeans, she put patches on my tough skins.

So here's what Richard Foster says.

Richard Foster, he's he's a he write, he's a Christian writer, I don't even know if he's still alive, but he writes about spiritual formation and what it means to be formed of, what it means for us to be formed into the image of Christ.

And he says, listen to this, he says, we are made to feel ashamed to wear clothes or drive cars until they're worn out.

That's the culture, that's the enemy, that's not Jesus.

The mass media has convinced us that to be out of step with fashion is to be out of step with reality.

It is time that we awaken to the fact that conformity to a sick society is sick.

Until we see how unbalanced our culture has become at this point, we will not be able to deal with the mammon or money spirit within ourselves, nor will we desire Christian simplicity.

And so the sad reality for many of us is we're unwilling to say enough is enough until we get closer to the end and we recognize that life is so much more than we thought.

So over the next couple of weeks, today and two more weeks, we're doing this series, Enough is enough.

We're gonna spend some time really talking about what it means to be to have gratitude, what it means to be content, what it means to live a life of simplicity, um, and and and to have margin in our life, to have margin in our finances, to have margin in our relational world, to have margin, you know, so we can flourish in the life that Jesus wants us to flourish in.

And the big idea is practicing contentment breaks the chains of consumerism.

Practicing contentment breaks the chain of consumerism.

What does that mean?

How do we break it?

We live in a society.

Listen, we live in a society that is so different than the world that Jesus walked in and taught in.

And in the world Jesus was in, it was all agrarian.

It was all agrarian, where people literally had to grow crops and and grow, you know, care for uh livestock that would feed their families.

And so there if there was a massive drought, it wasn't just gonna affect your bottom line at the end of the year, it meant that your family may not have food on the table.

And so Jesus is speaking into this world, and the challenge for us as believers is to take what Jesus says in his world and bring it to our world.

What does Jesus teach?

What does he say?

And how do we translate it into this society where enough is never enough?

Matthew 6, 19 through 21.

Don't store up treasures here on earth where moths eat them and rust destroys them.

Here's what Jesus says.

He says, listen, don't store treasure here on earth.

Listen, it's going to wither away.

Moth eat moth where moths eat and rust destroys them, where thieves break in and steal.

Then he says, store your treasures in heaven where moth and rust cannot destroy.

Thieves cannot break in and steal.

And he says, wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will be.

Here's what he's saying.

Your heart follows your treasure.

If we're struggling with contentment, if we're struggling with overspending, if we're struggling, I hate to say it, with greed.

Let me tell you this.

If I ask you, how many of you are greedy?

I mean, I'm not gonna ask you that.

Because who is gonna put their hand up?

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

A couple of you, thank you.

We got I listen, I struggle with it.

I struggle with it.

I think we all do.

Our culture, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is rampant.

The only way to break it, the only way you break greed is by giving.

It's by giving.

That's the only way to break it.

Ten percent?

Tithing?

Giving?

I'm telling you, that's why, you know, that's why the first fruit, tithing, percentage giving, before you pay all your bills, give off the top.

It just helps your heart focus back to dependence on Jesus.

Jesus goes on.

Matthew 6, 25.

He says, that's why I tell you not to worry about the everyday life.

Whether you have enough food, drink, or enough clothes to wear, isn't life more than food in your body more than clothing?

Ask a person in a bed on hospice care what matters the most.

Jesus says, look at the birds.

There's no birds in here.

They don't plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly father feeds them, and aren't you more valuable to him than they are?

Paul, we're jumping, jumping over to Philippians 4, 6.

He says, don't worry.

Man, we we live in a culture where worry and anxiety, I mean, it's just epidemic, mental health issues, just man, my heart breaks.

I I'm I'm I'm I'm with I'm one of I've struggled with that.

Don't worry about anything.

Instead, what does he say to do?

What instead of worry?

Pray, pray about everything, tell God what you need and thank him for what he has done.

I had a patcher who said, Russ, worry is the opposite of prayer.

Worry is meditating on the negative thoughts that you don't have control over.

Rather than repenting and saying, okay, I'm gonna depend on God.

And Matthew 6, 11, out of the Lord's Prayer, give us this day our daily bread, the New Living Translation, give us today the food we need.

See, ultimately, to cultivate a relationship with Jesus, that's the heart of what we're talking about.

The heart of everything comes back.

It's all about Jesus.

Ultimately, to cultivate a relationship with Jesus that goes deep, that goes deep where we can we really, really trust Jesus.

To trust Him to provide for our most basic needs.

It's a theme throughout the scriptures.

You read the account, all the while, I mean, all through Scripture, the Israelites coming out of Egypt, wandering in the desert.

You see God, what does he do?

He provides for their daily needs.

It's through this uh subject.

Called manna.

They ask, what is it?

I mean, that's exactly what the word means.

What is it?

And it's a substance that provides for them.

He says, don't collect any more than you need for one day.

And of course, they don't listen to him.

They collect more.

They hide it away, and it rots.

It rots.

It's eaten up with worms and smells.

God is trying to get them to exercise their contentment and their trust, spiritual muscles.

It's almost as if God is, you've heard of Maslov's dogs, you know, the whole science experience, you know, where they're trained by a sound, knowing that the food is going to be there.

God is training his people.

He is training us.

God is leading us.

Jesus, he's saying, come down this journey with me.

I will take care of you.

And if you will focus on what matters most, relationships, salvation of people that are outside of Jesus.

Focusing on building community in the body of Christ, your family.

He will show us how he will take care of us.

And we can say enough is enough.

How do we trust the Lord's provision when we live in a consumeristic society?

The most wealthy civilization that's ever existed.

Three things we're talking about these three weeks contentment.

Contentment today, we're talking about contentment.

Next week is simplicity, the next week is generosity.

So if you want to get sick or get busy, you know, or have something come up that's out of your control, and you want to miss these next two weeks, you can do that, but it's really going to be good because Jesus is going to pull us in a journey.

And contentment is this.

Contentment is a state of peaceful happiness and satisfaction.

Man, don't don't we just want that?

Can we just stop for a second?

Would you take would you take a deep breath with me?

Let's take a deep breath.

In the presence of Jesus.

Just together.

Jesus, would you give us contentment?

Would you give us a state of peace and happiness?

Wouldn't it be great?

You can look back at me now.

Wouldn't it be great if you if you're coming to church or if you go to Kroger or if you run into somebody at the ball field?

Hey, how you doing?

What's the most common answers?

What's the most common answers?

Hey, how you doing?

Huh?

Tired?

Busy.

Tired and busy.

That's it.

That's what I hear all the time.

Tired and busy.

That's what I am.

Tired and busy.

I'm tired and busy.

What have you, how you doing?

How's it going?

You know what?

I'm content.

I almost, I mean, I would feel just almost guilty saying it.

But but I want to just, I want to, I don't, I want to walk in the contentment of Jesus.

Again, we are led to believe the only way we can achieve contentment in life is to get what we want that we don't yet have.

And once we get the next promotion, move into the new house or remodel that bathroom, we'll be content.

We think we might have contentment that will come later in life when our kids are older and out of the house.

And when things slow down.

And we patiently await a package from FedEx.

Listen, I'm I get an adrenaline rush when the truck stops in front of my house.

I admit it.

I admit it.

I'm telling you, God is whipping my tail with these next three weeks.

I do not like preaching this.

Wait till what I'm going to say here in a second.

Have I got time?

I do.

Apostle Paul.

The Apostle Paul made a choice.

I'm going to be content in all my circumstances.

Contentment is a choice we make in light of our current circumstances.

Contentment is a choice we make in light of our current circumstances.

Paul was probably affluent earlier in his life before God called him into ministry.

He had a probably a bit of a wealthier family.

He was a religious leader, a Pharisee, and so he probably had everything he needed.

And when he turned to follow Christ, the decisions he made to follow Christ led him down a path.

And I'm not going to read the whole passage, but 2 Corinthians 11, 23 through 28.

It talks about how he faced death.

He was put into prison.

He was whipped times without number, faced death again and again.

Five times Jewish leaders gave him 39 lashes.

Three times I was beaten with rods.

He travels on these long journeys.

He faces robbers and dangers.

He's threatened by Jews as well as Gentiles.

I have faced danger for men who claim to be believers but are not.

He talks about sleepless nights, going without food.

I've shivered in the cold.

And besides all of this, I have the daily burden of my concern for all the churches.

And I just, when I when that last, I just laughed at that last sentence.

I'm like, how in the world can you pastor with all that other stuff?

But he still says, I'm so burdened about my churches.

Paul says in Philippians 4, 13, what does he say?

For I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Isn't that a great coffee cup verse?

Isn't that a great verse to put on the back of a t-shirt?

Isn't that a great verse to put on your eye black or to ride on your shoes if you're an athlete?

I mean, that's what we taught, that's what we say.

For I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, but we forget the context.

Verse 11 of that passage, Paul says, not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have.

I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything.

I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little, for I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength.

That's the context of that verse.

Take it off the coffee cup.

And so Paul, he goes on.

And here's the question: How do we practice contentment?

How?

How do you practice contentment?

How do we how do we follow the way of Jesus?

In the way of Jesus, there are spiritual disciplines, there are spiritual practices, there are things that we do that help us become more like Jesus, that help us go against the flow of the culture in which we live.

Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5, 16 and 18, rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

So here's how you practice contentment.

Number one, gratitude.

We sang the song a while ago.

Gratitude.

Instead of complaining, thank you.

Thank you, God.

Thank people.

I think about the people that serve.

Thank you guys for serving in the sound booth.

Thank you for serving with ProPresenter.

Man, Grant, Jeff, Reese, all of you leading worship.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for those that lead community groups.

Thank you for being a part of our church.

Thank you for giving gratitude in every area rather than complaining, because we can complain about all kinds of things.

Number two, practice bringing your knees to the Lord.

When you find yourself, you really need something, you really need something.

Pray about it.

Pray about it.

Pray about something little, pray about something big before you go by.

Ask the Lord about it.

Lord help me with this.

Do I really need this?

Do I?

If I got two of two, maybe I should give one of them away.

And here's the third one.

And I'm I'm gonna do this, and it's gonna hurt.

How about practicing a spending fast?

Now, Russ, you just you just suggested a spending fast as we move into Christmas season.

I mean, what what could God do if we gave to the Lord rather than buying a bunch of stuff we don't need?

A spending fast.

And so what does that mean?

That means I'm gonna buy food.

If I need food, I'm gonna have to buy food, but there I'm I'm I'm not gonna buy any more shoes for a season.

I'm not buying any more shoes.

No shoes.

I'm fasting, shoe buying for a season.

I'm not buying, I'm not gonna buy any any clothes.

I I'm told my wife, honey, I'm I don't want anything for Christmas.

That hurts, I'm telling you.

I'm that's this this this this stings right here.

I'm the nickel and dimer.

Little little bitty things.

I mean, I I don't I don't buy big stuff, but I mean this is this is gonna this is gonna sting.

But practicing contentment breaks the chains of consumerism.

What could God do?

What could Jesus do if we went through this season practicing gratitude, practicing bringing our knees, praying about our situations, and rather than just going with the flow like every other holiday season, let's listen to the Holy Spirit's leadership?

And maybe he wants us to give more than we receive.

Amen.

It all comes down to this.

Is Christ enough?

Is he enough?

Is Jesus really enough?

Now I know, I know we we we have physical needs.

I'm so thankful.

I went I had I had a I had a shirt this morning that covered my arms because it was colder.

I'm so I'm so I'm grateful.

I mean, those are needs, those are legitimate needs.

Jesus knows we we we need those things, but really when it comes down to it is he wants our heart to simply be filled with his spirit and to say, Jesus, you are enough.

You are enough, you are enough.

So we're gonna sing, we're gonna sing that here in just a second.

Father, God, would you help us bring us to a point where we truly can say that Christ is enough.

God help us move into a season where we might practice some new spiritual disciplines that will help us walk in the way of our Savior.

Help us walk in the way of Jesus.

Thank you, Jesus.

Amen.