thankFULL with Pastor Clayton Tyner

Welcome to the MetaCurch Podcast.

My name's Clayton.

I'm the pastor here at MetaChurch.

And my hope is that today's podcast finds you at the perfect time in your life that God uses it to inspire and enlighten you.

I hope that you enjoy today's message.

Well, MetaCurch, happy Thanksgiving.

I hope that you really have enjoyed your holiday.

Maybe you're still gathered with family and friends.

Maybe they're even streaming our service with you.

Now, this is an interesting weekend.

We are digital only in preparation for our transition to our brand new space.

We're going to be opening next Sunday, December 5th, two service times, 9 45 and 11 30 a.m.

at 1207 Richland Hills Drive.

We are so, so excited about that.

Now I have a similar experience every Thanksgiving, and many of you know this.

I love, love Thanksgiving.

Like I get really offended when people just go straight from Halloween to Christmas as if Thanksgiving doesn't exist.

And we always have a great time.

We get together with Katie's side of the family, and these people can cook.

And so every year I think the same thing.

And I don't even know why I waste my time with this strategy, but every year I think here's what I'm gonna do.

I'm gonna make a decently proportioned plate.

I'm gonna go through, sample little bits of every different casserole, every different side, potatoes, corn, all of it.

I'm gonna get some turkey, I'm gonna get some ham, and I'm gonna eat just until I'm satisfied, you know?

Like there's no need to overdo it.

There's no need to put myself in a food coma by the middle of the afternoon.

I'm just gonna go through and I try, you know?

I go through and I get a little bit of this and some turkey, and you know, we have a couple different kinds of rolls, throw some butter on it, like really do it up.

A little bit of all the sides, I go through, I eat it all, and I'm full, but I notice there were a few sides that I missed, and there's still a lot of turkey left.

And so I start rationalizing.

What I'll do is I'll just make one little trip, but I'm gonna get really small portions.

And by the time I'm done with that next trip, I have another loaded up plate.

I take the whole thing in, and some Thanksgivings, I'll go back for thirds.

And by the end of it, you're in that mode where you gotta loosen the belt up a little bit, you gotta find a nice recliner, you gotta knock out for just a few little 15, 30-minute nap.

Every year I eat past the point of actually being full, past the point of being satisfied, past the point of even my own comfort.

It's a part of the yearly tradition.

And it kind of drives to a deeper point on the very week that we are supposed to be giving thanks.

Gathering together with our families often actually fuels some of our deepest insecurities and really highlights our lack of contentment.

And we are a culture that is drastically lacking in contentment.

You get around your siblings, and of course, there are sibling rivalries, and we all experience this in different ways.

And what's so interesting is that these insecurities come up because maybe you're not at the same place in life as your sibling, or maybe you think they get more attention from your parents.

Maybe by some measures they have ended up more successful than you.

And what you don't realize is that as you, uh maybe you're still single and you want to be married, but you haven't found the right person, and you show up and you're you're very envious of your sibling who is married, they've started their family, they already have kids, they're in the career they wanted.

And what you don't realize is that it's just as easy for your sibling to show up to see you still single, able to spend your money exactly how you want to spend it, set your schedule exactly how you want to set it, not anywhere near the level of responsibility that they have, and they can be just as envious as you.

We have this lack of contentment.

Families get messy, you know, so sometimes you show up, and being around your parents is just a reminder that things weren't always the way that you wish they would have been growing up, or maybe you have to choose which parents' house you're going to go to because they split up long ago.

There's often family drama, and so all of these insecurities get drawn out of us, and in the very time that we're supposed to exercise our gratitude, we often end up just becoming more and more discontent.

And of course, this is highlighted the day after Thanksgiving when we all go to Target and like stampede over each other to try and get the best deals at Black Friday, right?

Just fueling our need for more and more and more.

And so I have a short and simple message for you.

And I hope that it will shed some perspective on why, as a culture, we lean towards entitlement and ingratitude instead of being able to find contentment.

Maybe you've been there.

Maybe you feel like your entire life has been searching for contentment.

You leave one job after another, you leave one relationship after another, you buy things and sell them, you get bigger and better, you make more and more money, you're constantly searching for the magical combination of people, places, and things that will finally bring you contentment.

And it seems like the harder you try, the more evasive contentment actually becomes.

This is a problem that in the Christian scriptures goes all the way back to the beginning.

In Genesis chapter 2, the very first book of the Bible, it says, The Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man that he had formed.

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

And the Lord God caused to grow out of the ground every tree pleasing in appearance and good for food.

This garden, every tree, was pleasing in appearance, and it was good for food, including the tree of life in the middle of the garden, as well as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Every tree in the garden, every single one of them, was pleasing to look at and was good for food.

And what we find out in the book of Genesis is that God's original intention for his world and his original intention for humankind was for us to live in a state of perfection, to have all of the resources that we could ever need, to have perfect relationships, to have meaningful, purposeful life and jobs, and to have direct access to the divine.

That is what the world was supposed to be.

And because of this, all of the trees not only were good for food, but God cares about beauty and wants us to enjoy creation, they were also pleasing to look at.

And maybe you have heard the Christian story of creation, and you know that it wasn't long until this one rule that got established that there was one tree in the center of the garden that was not to be eaten.

That one rule was broken.

And rules establish relationship, and so when that rule was broken, the relationship was broken, and we now spiraled into this world of disarray and disappointment, a world where we struggle every day just to be content with what we have.

We read about that in the next chapter, Genesis chapter 3.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

It says, The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom.

So she took some of its fruit, even though it was against God's rule, and ate it.

She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it.

And I want you to notice that when God first planted the garden, every tree was pleasing in appearance and it was good for food.

But Adam and Eve wanted more.

In verse 3, she saw this tree was good for food, it was pleasing to look at, and there was more.

And it offered something that she didn't currently have.

And all of a sudden, even though it had the same attributes of every other tree, all of the trees of the garden, all of which Adam and Eve could eat for, this one had something else.

And it was the something else that almost magically made all the other trees seem inferior, and this one tree seemed irresistible.

It was good to look at, it was good for food, and it was desirable for obtaining wisdom.

In verse 7, we see the effects.

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked.

And so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

What happened when Eve realized that compared to all of the other trees, this new tree had something she did not yet have.

it really drills in on the problem of discontentment.

Because we think we are discontent because we don't have enough.

We don't have the things we want.

Our desires aren't being met.

Our relationships are not fulfilling, our career isn't going anywhere.

We think that contentment is based on our situation or on the things that we do or do not have.

And yet, Adam and Eve, according to Scripture, lived in actual perfection, which means they had every single thing they needed.

This proves the point that our lack of contentment is not based on situation and it is not based on material possessions.

Our lack of contentment stems from something deeper.

And although she had everything she could ever want, although Adam had everything he could ever want, when there seemed to be something more, they now had a point of comparison.

I'm gonna keep today simple, and if you don't remember anything else, remember this.

Comparison is the great enemy of contentment.

Comparison is the great enemy of contentment.

And if you are lacking contentment and you were willing to do the honest work of tracing that contentment to its source, it will be rooted in comparison from something you do not have and what you actually do have.

And so we're saying a few things when we are discontent.

We're saying that what God has given us isn't quite good enough.

We're saying that if we were the ones in control of the world and in control of our lives, that we would be able to create a better life than God could create for us.

What happens when we are discontent is we get so focused on the point of our comparison that we lose the context of everything else that God has provided us.

And so we go to Thanksgiving with our families.

And at Thanksgiving, where we're supposed to be giving thanks, instead, we play the game of comparison.

Instead of highlighting and counting our blessings, we count the offenses of all that the other people in our family have that we don't have, all that they've accomplished that we have yet to accomplish, and all of our desires that have not yet been fulfilled.

Comparison is the great enemy of contentment.

Adam and Eve had a boundary issue, you know?

It's like God had one rule and he set a boundary around one tree in the center of the garden, and they could go to any of the other trees and eat as much as their heart desires.

They could go in and out and in and out everywhere they wanted to go.

They could live their lives, how they saw fit.

There was only one thing they couldn't do, and they crossed a boundary.

God said, All of the trees are yours, but one tree, one tree, is not.

That's a boundary.

And your life is full of boundaries.

And inside of those boundaries, you have your blessings.

And the problem is we are so busy focused on the blessings outside of our boundaries, the blessings that are not a part of our life yet, that we fail to be gracious and thankful for the blessings that we have.

And so we spend our time thinking, my life would be great if God would just give me this, if God would just give me a relationship, if God would just give me a wife, my life would be fulfilled if God would just give us some children, my life would be great if I could just make a little more money.

God, if you would just bless me.

And we wait, and sometimes we even grow bitter because of the lack of perceived blessings, and blessings are not the key to contentment.

I'm telling you, and I know some of you have just like cried out to God, if you would just give me this blessing, my life would finally be whole.

I could finally sleep at night, I'd finally have peace, I'd finally be fulfilled, I'd finally feel significant.

And the truth is, we don't have blessing problems.

We have boundary problems.

A lack of contentment is desiring something that is out of bounds for where God has your life today.

And envy and jealousy are incredibly powerful forces.

And they cause us to blind ourselves to that that we do have, the opportunities right in front of us, the relationships we are in, the job opportunities that we could be pursuing, the life that we could be living, the generosity we could be putting forth.

Comparison is killing us.

And you add to that that we're not a content culture, in fact, we're an entitled culture.

And an entitled culture always looks outside of their boundaries not only to desire what others have, but actually feels that it is owed to them.

Entitlement is just the next step of discontentment.

And your life can grow exponentially better, your soul can grow exponentially healthier, your peace can increase in immeasurable volume if you can accept the life that God has given you.

Not that it will be your life forever, not that you will be single forever, not that you will be in the job you're at forever, but you are in that job today, and you are single today, and you do have the things you have today.

This is your life.

And where you're at in the present is where you're at in the present.

And often, what God seems to be looking for is people who will be content with what he has already given them, steward what he has already given them well, and then he can add increase to our lives.

What happens when we're discontent is not only do we spend all of our time focusing on what is outside of our boundaries, not only do we spend all of our time in the constant search of comparison, but because our eyes are fixed on what we don't have, it diminishes our ability to manage, steward, strategize, and execute with the things that we do have.

Contentment doesn't just kill us spiritually and emotionally and mentally, it harms us practically.

It keeps us from being able to move from one season of our life to the next season that God wants us to get to.

The Apostle Paul lived an incredibly difficult life.

You can read in one of his letters in the New Testament about all of the trials and tribulations that he went through.

It's amazing that he survived many of these things.

He was often beaten, run out of town, starved, almost to the brink of death.

He was in multiple shipwrecks.

He was, they tried to execute him, they imprisoned him multiple times.

And here's what he says in Philippians 4.

He says, I don't say this out of need, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstance I find myself.

I know how to make do with little, and I know how to make do with a lot.

In any and all circumstances, I have learned the secret to being content.

Whether well-fed or hungry, whether in abundance or need, the secret to being content is I am able to do all things through him who strengthens me.

And oftentimes the people we are most jealous of in life are the people who somehow have cracked the code to contentment.

The people who show up to your family reunion and have no need to compare to what anyone else is doing.

They are confident in who they are and in the life that they are living.

And because they are not spending their time searching past their boundaries in comparison, they are able to handle and navigate what they have been given through contentment.

They live successful lives because they are not measuring their success compared to anyone else's.

Paul says, I can do it all because I do it all through Christ.

And when you are content with where you are today, you're making a very powerful statement.

And that statement is I trust that God knows better for my life than me.

It's the opposite statement that Adam and Eve made in the garden.

By taking the and pleasing to look at, good for food, and comparison, discontentment.

By reaching past their boundary, they chose to believe that they knew better for their life than God.

Contentment does the exact opposite.

Here's a lesson we all need to learn.

Contentment is not achieved in a change circumstance.

Contentment is found through a change in your perspective.

And that is very, very good news.

Because you can't always change your circumstance.

You cannot force your employer to give you a promotion.

You cannot snap your fingers and be married to the person of your dreams.

Circumstances are largely outside of our control, but our perspective we get to choose.

You can change your perspective.

By changing your perspective and respecting the boundaries of the life that you've been given today, you can find contentment.

And contentment will make you an unbelievably powerful individual.

We'll never be content trying to live the life that God has given to someone else.

And so, what is it that is in your life?

And what boundaries are you constantly trying to cross?

Trying to make your way to comparison, hoping that a change in situation will bring a change in contentment.

The truth on this Thanksgiving weekend is that if we are not full of thanks, eventually we will be full of resentment.

And if you are comparing and discontent, you cannot be thankful.

There are goals we have, there are dreams we have, there are desires we have, and many of those dreams and desires you have placed inside of us.

But God, those are not up to us.

What you have given us to do is to take what you have placed in our hands, who we are and what we have, and to trust you with it, to stay inside of our boundaries, to use who we are and what we have for your purposes, for your good and the good of those around you.

And God, I pray that we will quit the constant search for comparison.

That this would be the thanksgiving that we learn through contentment to actually give thanks.

That we would move from a very vulnerable and weak position of constantly wanting more and move to a very powerful position of believing that we are enough because you are enough.

We love you, and we pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thanks so much for listening to the message today.

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Man, I love you guys and I hope you have a great rest of your day.