Do A Backflip (Be Content)

We're going to continue a series that we started a little bit ago called The Summer of Wisdom.

We kicked this off back in June, took a little break from our study of Philippians, which we'll jump back into in the fall.

But we're going through a lot of scripture that has to do with wisdom.

There's several uh books in the Bible, whole sections of the Bible that are known as wisdom literature.

You have Proverbs, you have Ecclesiastes, the Psalms are often considered wisdom literature, and several others.

And it's just incredible that God has given us wisdom for life, wisdom that you can build your life on.

The world gives us all kinds of earthly wisdom, and a lot of it's just bad advice.

It's flimsy at best.

And if you build your life on it, you're gonna feel a lot of pain.

God gives us wisdom that has stood the test of time.

It is wisdom built on real truth, his truth.

And if we build our lives on that wisdom, things go well.

Now, as part of this series, we've put a number out, and it's a number that you can text to.

I did have someone text me, I've been calling this number, and no one's answered.

It is not a number you can call, it is only text.

So I whoever, I'm so sorry if that happened.

Uh I may have miscommunicated.

This is just a text-only number.

Uh but you can text and you can text any situation you're going through, and I am personally going through those, and I have way underestimated how many would come in.

Um, and I am almost all caught up.

Fourth of July weekend, we had family in town, so I'm a little bit behind, but uh almost everyone, I would say 95% of those that have come in have had a response, and I'm gonna get on that this week and get that to 100%.

Please text in and just know that as these are coming in, it's blessing me tremendously to know what you guys are going through and how I can pray for you.

And that's actually helping to shape what we're talking about.

And so for the last couple of weeks, we talked about finances.

We did a little mini-series within this called Money Problems.

Two weeks ago, we talked about what we usually mean when we talk about money problems, which is I don't have enough money.

And the Bible does speak to how to be wise financially, how to be healthy financially.

We covered that.

You can go listen to that if you want.

Last week we talked about the real money problem according to scripture, which is that money has too great a hold on our lives.

The real money problem, according to God's word, is not I don't have enough money.

It's money has too much of me.

And how do we learn to let that go?

And we know that if we think about it all the time, if we worry about it, if we're constantly anxious about it, if we obsess over it, if it's the primary factor in our lives, Jesus would actually tell us to let it go.

Jesus says very clearly that we cannot serve two masters, we cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.

Jesus said that where our treasure is, there our heart is also.

And so the money stuff is important because it's deeply connected to what we value most.

And so we covered that last week.

And then the plan was for this Sunday, we're gonna start talking about relationships.

I've had a lot of text about relationship issues, everything from marriages, dating, friendships, betrayal, relationship with your parents, relationship with your kids, very messy, fun stuff.

That was the plan.

And I didn't mean to lie to you guys.

Okay?

This is an accidental lie.

But I had this burden, to be honest with you, after last Sunday that I could not shake all week long.

And it was confirmed with some conversations I had with some friends that I really trust.

Toward the end of the message last week, I challenged all of us as a solution to the real money problems to be content.

Be content.

I shared Proverbs chapter 30, verse 8, which says, first, help me never to tell a lie.

Proverbs 30:8

And again, I guess I accidentally lied by saying we were going to talk about relationships today.

I'm gonna push that off to next week.

Lord, forgive me.

Everyone else, forgive me too.

But it says, second, give me neither poverty nor riches, just give me enough to satisfy my needs.

That's interesting.

How many of us have actually prayed that?

Like, Lord, whatever you do, don't give me too much money.

That's interesting, right?

And again, caveat, there is nothing wrong with being wealthy, there's nothing wrong with being successful.

I actually know people who have been blessed by God financially in unbelievable ways.

And part of that is because they're called to be generous in ways that most people just couldn't be.

And it's incredible what they do all over the world and the lives of the people that they love here at his hands and beyond.

So it's not wrong to be blessed financially.

I'm not saying that, but it's interesting.

Here you have Solomon, he's who wrote this.

He was a king, extremely wealthy, and he experienced all of it, all the good and the bad that comes with that.

And he prays, Lord, don't give me too little, like I need to pay my bills, I need to feed my family, but also, God, whatever you do, don't give me too much money.

I've never known anyone who's prayed that prayer.

And we're taught in Scripture to be content.

I talked about this at the end of last week.

One of the last verses that I shared was 1 Timothy 6, 6 through 8.

It says, true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth.

If you want to be wealthy, real wealth, be godly.

In other words, value what God values, do what God wants you to do, and be content, and then you have wealth.

After all, we brought nothing with us when we came into the world, and we can't take anything with us when we leave it.

So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content.

If we just have enough, let us be content.

And that's how we kind of ended, and it there was a lot last week.

And I just said, hey, be content.

And this is what I couldn't shake all week long.

I might as well have told us to do a backflip.

Like just saying, be content, hey guys, just be content.

That's really hard.

I might as well have said, hey, just you know, do a backflip.

Just jump and throw your head back and land on your feet.

It's not that difficult.

Come on.

It is really hard to be content.

And one of the things that I believe is really important here at his hands, actually, shout out to a good friend of ours, Ashley Dickerson.

She's traveling right now, she's not in, she's not in the States right now.

But she said years ago that one of the things she loved most about our church, and this has always stuck with me, is that when she leaves, she leaves feeling lighter.

Now, what that does not mean is that our our job and what I focus on every Sunday is just I'm gonna make you guys feel good every week.

It's just about giving you inspirational affirmations sprinkled in with some Bible verses, you know, like that kind of thing.

There are churches that that's what they do.

It's like everything is, you're wonderful, everything's great, just keep being you, and here's a Bible verse.

And that's not what we do.

When she said leave feeling lighter, it wasn't that we just we just try to uh you know stroke your emotions or whatever.

It was that we leave here with a burden lifted.

And that's my prayer.

I hope that every Sunday you leave here, either realizing that the burdens you're carrying, you can just give it to God and trust God with it and be like, God, you've got it.

Or that we get equipped through God's word to realize that we've got it with God.

So either it's like, Lord, I don't need to worry about this anymore because you've got it, burden lifted, I'm lighter, or it's like, God, I'm stressed about this, but you know what?

I'm realizing that through what you've given to me, through your spirit, through the truth of your word, I can handle this.

I can do this with you, and you leave feeling lighter.

And I really do feel like last week I gave you guys a huge burden.

I just said, be content, bye.

And that stuck with me all week, and maybe you're like, no, Justin was fine, but but no, I I really did feel the Lord's like so.

Basically, what I'm saying is we're gonna talk about how to do a backflip today.

We're gonna talk about how to actually be content, because I feel like that was worthy of more, and then next week we'll talk about all the fun, awesome, messy relationship stuff.

Woo-hoo.

So here we go.

Let's learn how to do backflips.

Who is ready to do a backflip today?

To be content.

Here we go.

It's gonna be fun.

But man, is this tough.

It's tough for a variety of reasons.

One of the reasons being content is hard is that we are what is called uh human beings, and human beings are not naturally content.

If you've been around a toddler recently, you may have noticed that they are they are insufferable.

You know what I mean?

Like, truly.

I raised a bunch of them.

Like, babies are cute in small doses.

Other people's babies are adorable.

Because you can just seem like I was outside, there's a a gentleman I know here, he's got his nine-month-old, and I walked up and I was like, Oh, you are the cutest little thing.

And I spent 10 seconds with the baby, loved it, perfect.

But living with a baby, oh my, they're so selfish.

They're so selfish, it's true, they are.

One of the first words that children learn that they get good at is mine.

It's mine.

And you can mess with kids, like you can go up to them and be like, hey, that's mine, and they're like, ah, they freak out at the idea of not having something.

They want things that they shouldn't have, they want things that will kill them.

They want things like you have to fight to keep things away from it because something in our human nature we we covet, we want what we don't have.

It's really hard to keep a baby content.

So it's hard to be content because we're not kind of, I don't know, naturally, it's not what we do.

Culturally, we live in a very materialistic, very image-driven culture, which makes it a lot harder to be content.

Because we're surrounded with advertising that's basically designed to make you not feel content.

Like that's how advertising works.

You don't have this, you need it, and you'll never be happy till you have it.

It's amazing how many things I've seen, I go, I need that.

I've never thought about it until 30 seconds ago.

It's never even crossed my mind, but now that I've seen it, I think I need it.

Advertising is very effective.

We live in a society that makes it really hard to be content spiritually.

We have an enemy that works really hard to stir all this discontentment inside of us, to make us desire things that are not meant for us, or things that maybe aren't meant for us in this season, or or to try to give us ways to circumvent God's way to have what we don't have.

I mean, you think about the Ten Commandments, the first set of commands God gave people just to say, hey, let's create a society that has basic functioning.

These are the ten things.

A lot of them wouldn't even need to be said if we were content.

Because if you're content, you won't steal.

If you're content, you won't covet your neighbor's wife.

If you're content, you won't have an affair.

If you're content, you definitely won't like cheat and murder and things like that.

You know, you half the commandments are basically a recognition that we're gonna try to do things that we shouldn't do because something inside of us uh struggles with just having peace and contentment.

Even the word content is interesting.

I'm a bit of a nerd.

I like to nerd out on etymology, which is the study of words, and very few people do that.

But but let's put this word up on the screen.

Just the word content.

That is the word content.

But in our culture, it's also another word.

It's the word content.

And here's the way that that worked.

Originally, the word in ancient languages it meant contained.

So content meant that you are contained, you are self-contained.

You're not looking for things outside of yourself to satisfy you because you are contained.

And then eventually books were invented, and as books became invented, there started to be these things at the beginning of books called a table of contents.

It meant this is what is contained within this book.

And then eventually that word content took on a life of its own and it just became the stuff that's in here.

And now content is all about like the stuff that you make.

You gotta create content.

And so it's interesting, if you Google the word content, the very first thing you'll get is the dictionary definition of content, which means to be at peace, to be satisfied.

But then when you scroll down, there's a section on Google that's uh what people are saying, and none of it has to do with contentment.

It's all about content.

So, like I did this yesterday, I searched the word content.

Here are the first results I got on the on the what people are saying.

I've got some images for it.

Okay.

So this one, this one says, getting started as a content writer.

That was the first one.

Like, how can I write good content?

The next one that I came across was what kind of content do you all want to make, uh see me make more of?

What content makes you notice me?

Like, that's the first two things that popped up.

The third one was this.

I love this one.

The number one content strategy to get 10 times more views in 2025.

So basically, take think about this.

The word content has morphed so much in our society that if you search it, the number one result you get are people saying, I am not content with my content, and I need to get more views, I need to get more likes, I want people to like me and notice me more.

I I need better content to make me content.

That's crazy, right?

It's amazing how it's worked like that.

Roger.

All right.

Um, sorry, someone's got a walkie-on, it was loud.

Uh so the even the word content has taken on this life of its own to actually be something that's all about how we're not content.

It's crazy.

Yep.

Would you mind?

Is that is it if you're a police officer and that is a life-threatening situation by all means, but otherwise, yeah.

All right, cool.

Um love our first responders and veterans.

I just want to say that.

Love it all.

No.

All right.

So all that to say that being content is really hard because our culture makes it hard, our nature makes it hard, our society makes it hard, the world we live in makes it hard, and to be content is the equivalent of doing a backflip.

And some of you might be able to do that.

I cannot.

So let's talk, let's get equipped together today on how to be content.

And understand this: that the number one killer of contentment is comparison.

That's the main thing that makes it hard to be content, is is comparison in our tendency to compare ourselves to other people.

Great story in scripture.

Jesus in in John chapter 20, he's risen from the dead.

John 20 · chapter mention

Rather, John 21, and he has uh appeared to his disciples a few times, but this one's really it's interesting, it's intimate.

He's beside uh the shore of a big lake, and he's he's gonna cook breakfast for his disciples.

And one of those disciples is Peter, and the last time that Jesus and Peter had a really intense, meaningful interaction was was right when Jesus was crucified.

Peter denied that he even knew Jesus, he left Jesus, he betrayed Jesus.

And so far we haven't seen Jesus and Peter have much one-on-one interaction since he's risen.

Peter has a lot of shame, feels like he's he's messed up royally, he's probably messed up the calling that Jesus put on his life to be a disciple, to be a leader in his movement in the church.

So Jesus cooks breakfast for Peter, and he and Peter have a beautiful conversation, and he reaffirms Peter's calling.

He reaffirms Peter's place in his kingdom.

And then he begins to share with Peter what life is going to look like from here on out.

And what he says is, I tell you the truth.

Peter, when you were young, you were able to do as you liked.

You dressed yourself, you went wherever you wanted to go.

But when you're old, you will stretch out your hands, and others will dress you and take you where you don't want to go.

Jesus said this to let him know by what kind of death he would glorify God.

Peter was crucified.

And then Jesus told him, Follow me.

He's like, Peter, this is you still have a place in my kingdom, you're gonna be a leader, but I just want you to know that it's it's gonna be hard.

But the calling is still on.

Follow me.

And Peter turned around and saw behind him the disciple Jesus loved.

This is John.

John always describes himself that way.

The one who had leaned over to Jesus during supper and asked, Lord, who will betray you?

And Peter asked Jesus, What about him, Lord?

And Jesus replied, If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?

Ask for you, follow me.

So the rumor spread among the community of believers that this disciple wouldn't die, but that isn't what Jesus said at all.

He only said, If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?

It's a great story.

It's a great moment.

We see Peter, his instant reaction to Jesus doing what most of us would be blown away if God would do, say, Hey, I'm calling you.

This is what I want you to do in life, and also this is exactly how it's gonna play out.

Most of us would at least say, Yeah, I'd love to have that unveiled to me.

But Peter's instant reaction to that was to turn and look at John and be like, Well, what about him?

And Jesus says, What is that to you?

Why why are you comparing your calling, your life, to John's?

John would end up being the only disciple that was not martyred, was not killed because of his faith.

He he died of natural causes, lived longer, but John suffered arguably more than any of the other disciples because he was alive longer.

He was he was imprisoned and all kinds of crazy things.

So Peter's reaction was instant comparison.

We are drawn often to compare ourselves to other people.

And when we do, when we spend our lives looking at other people, comparing our life to their life, our stuff to their stuff, our marriage to their marriage, our job to their job, our house to their house, all that kind of stuff, inevitably contentment starts to go away.

It's all about comparison, it's all about who you're looking at.

Now, comparison comes in many forms.

Some of these are obvious, some of it's like, well, yeah, clearly that's wrong, but we still struggle with them.

Some of them are a little bit, a little bit sneakier.

So let's look at a few categories of comparison to see if if this is something that we struggle with.

We gotta own that and and be able to turn that around.

Number one, competition.

Competition is a form of comparison.

How many of you would say you are highly competitive people?

Highly competitive.

How many of you get annoyed by highly competitive people?

Yes.

Alright, let me let me give, I'm gonna really see who's the competitor and who's not.

Alright, let's do this.

Let's compete, okay?

Um of the things that I've done a lot of in the last decade has been to coach youth basketball.

CYB, Cherokee Youth Basketball, I've coached many seasons for two of my sons, uh, made the playoffs every year.

Just want to say that, a couple of elite eights, one final four.

Um yet to win the whole thing, but one of these days, maybe.

When I when I was coaching my oldest son's fourth grade team, that's the year we made the final four.

We were, we were really, we were really good that year.

I had a boy on my team, I remember his name, I remember his face, fourth grade.

And he came up to me after a practice, we were about halfway through the season, and he said, Coach, I have a question for you.

He said, Can I be the one that brings the ball down?

He wanted to be the point guard.

And I looked at this fourth grade boy and I said, No.

You've got to get better at dribbling first.

You're not you're not very good with your left hand.

Sorry.

Yeah, how many of you hear me say that and you're kind of mad at me?

You're like, what dude, jerk.

How many of you like honest?

You are not very competitive.

Uh because I mean, my my we were trying to win, okay?

We were trying to win, Miss Porter.

We were trying to win.

I just saw your hand, it's okay.

I mean, I but I still remember this moment, like his face, he just like sunk.

I'm pretty sure he quit basketball after that season.

Um guys, it look.

It wasn't his thing, okay?

It's it's hard, it's hard.

But the point is, my filter, my filter as a coach was like, we're trying to win.

And I played all the kids, we had equal playing time, all that kind of stuff, but I mean we're we're trying to try to win.

And so it's like a balance between what is my job to make this kid happy, or is my job to teach this kid the reality of life, and you gotta work, you gotta put in the work, you gotta earn it.

And you know, which is it?

And it's tough.

I chose one of those, clearly.

Um and the reality is like I I am naturally wired to be a competitor, which is one of the reasons that it makes it really hard sometimes to be a pastor, because our church is great, clearly the best church in Cherokee County.

Uh but that no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

That was a joke.

Don't feed that, don't feed that.

That's the whole point, is that there's tons of great churches.

And and I'm wired, like, you know, naturally, the competition to me, if you work in the business world, it's like we are the best company and we're gonna put the other ones out of business.

And if that was your attitude in the church, you'd be a terrible Christian.

Like, that's not how it works.

And so I have to I have to fight that very, very often because I'm naturally competitive.

I was raised in a very competitive home.

Competition's not a bad thing.

Some of you are hyper-competitive, and it's it's what's driven you to success.

And it's and there's it has a really good place.

In fact, there's even a kind of friendly competition that's a great part of life.

I think that might have been some of what was going on between Peter and John.

They were very close friends.

They may have been like best friends.

They were each part of the inner three, the cloak, the three disciples that were the closest with Jesus, but they definitely had, I think, some type of like friendly, competitive rivalry.

So, for example, in Luke's gospel, it tells the story of whenever the disciples go to see the empty tomb.

They get the report back from the ladies who are at the tomb that Jesus appears to and the angels appear to, and they go back and tell the disciples who are hiding, hey, he's alive.

And so in Luke's gospel it says they rush back from the tomb to tell his eleven disciples and everyone else what had happened.

It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and several other women who told the apostles what had happened, but the story sounded like nonsense to the men, so they didn't believe it.

However, Peter jumped up and ran to the tomb to look, stopping, or stooping rather, he peered in and saw the empty linen wrappings, and then he went home again, wondering what had happened.

Now that was in Luke's gospel.

John wrote his gospel last.

John's gospel came years later.

It's like he said, Hey, there's some there's some parts that didn't make it into the others that I think you guys should see.

John was closer with Jesus.

He had stories that the other disciples may not have had.

It's almost like John did the director's cut with the deleted scenes.

Okay?

And so John writes his years later, and he's like, that's not exactly how it went down.

And John says, Peter and the other disciples started running out for the tomb, the other disciples him.

They were both running, but the other Other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.

Like John years later, he's like, I need you guys to know I beat Peter.

He stooped and looked in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he didn't go in.

This is this is uh John going, I looked in the tomb, I just didn't go in out of respect for Jesus, I guess.

Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside.

He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, while the cloth that had covered Jesus' head was folded up and lying apart from the other wrappings.

So John's gospel, he just inserts that, you know?

I beat Peter.

Just want you to know that.

Luke's gospel tells the story of when Jesus was arrested, and it says when the other disciples saw it was about to happen, disciples saw what was about to happen, they exclaimed, Lord, should we fight?

We brought the swords.

And one of them struck at the high priest's slave, slashing off his right ear.

Luke says, Yeah, one of the disciples cut the ear off of one of the servants of the high priest.

John, writing his gospel, says, Then Simon Peter drew a sword and slashed off the right ear of Malchus, the high priest's slave.

John's like, it was Peter, Peter did it.

You know?

Just want everyone to know that was Peter.

And I don't think when John wrote this, he was bitter.

Actually, I have a, I don't know, I don't know this, but I have a tendency to think John missed Peter greatly, and I think they probably had that kind of relationship, and it probably brought a big smile to John's face as he remembered his friend to write that kind of stuff.

And then Peter was probably like, I got to heaven first, you know?

So there's a kind of friendly competition that is part of life, and it's a good part of life, and there's a certain type of competition that that drives you to success.

But what I'm saying is competition is great, but it is a form of comparison.

Because it's all about beating someone else.

Oftentimes when we're hyper-competitive, we are led to believe that success is limited and that there's just not enough success to go around, so we've got to get it for ourselves, and that often comes at the expense of others.

And we just have to keep that in check.

We need the Holy Spirit to help us keep that in check.

If you're hyper-competitive, it can be very hard to be content.

Hyper-competitive people have a hard time being content.

Even in something pure like sports, sports is the purest form of competition.

And if someone in sports, if you follow sports, if someone accomplishes something, they they win.

They're celebrated for a minute, and then all of a sudden there's the expectation of winning again.

And if they do that multiple times, all of a sudden there's debates about are they the greatest of all time?

I don't think they are.

I don't think they're as good as that guy 20 years ago.

And can you imagine how hard that would be to be so good at something, so competitive, and you accomplish so much, and then the result of that is people go, well, you're not the greatest one that's ever lived.

You're like, well, okay.

What am I?

Maybe number two.

Well, that's that's crazy.

But that's competition is not often friends with contentment.

And so if you are competitive, you're gonna have to keep that in check.

You need the Holy Spirit to do that, you need to pray.

In fact, we're told in Matthew chapter 5, verse 45, or verse 44.

Matthew 5:45

Rather, it says, uh, Jesus says, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

Jesus tells us to pray for our enemies.

I don't know how often you do that, but if you can pray for your enemies, even the enemies who are persecuting you, maybe you should pray for your competitors.

Maybe you should pray for for the people you're competing with.

If it's it, if it if it's work, pray for the other company that you're competing against.

Pray for the other salesperson that you're competing with within your organization to try to try to get to the top.

Pray for the other person that you know you're competing with for the promotion.

If you have kids that play sports, pray for the other kids to do well.

I don't do that, but you know, I maybe I should start.

But but pray.

Seriously, like that competitiveness inside of us, it can be a killer of contentment because it's a form of comparison.

It's about comparing your success to others and trying to be number one.

That's it's one of those sneaky forms of comparison, but there's others.

There's others, there's more obvious ones like jealousy.

Listen to what Proverbs, God's wisdom, says about jealousy.

It says in Proverbs 27:4, anger is cruel and wrath is like a flood.

Proverbs 27:4

But jealousy is even more dangerous.

Jealousy.

Even more dangerous than wrath than anger.

We see this borne out in scripture, by the way.

If you know the story of King Saul, he was the first king of Israel and he was set up to succeed.

I don't know if there's ever been a person more set up for success than Saul.

Everyone loved him, everyone was excited that he was the king.

He's the first king, so he doesn't even have like, he doesn't even have to worry about the previous guy and filling his shoes or trying to undo what he did.

He's got a blank slate, and the Lord is with him.

And he's got this prophet named Samuel who's alongside of him, and and it all falls apart for Saul for a variety of reasons we'll explore, but one of those reasons is jealousy.

There's this young guy named David who has a lot of success, and people get really excited about David.

Partially because David's young.

You know, it's one of the interesting things about my my time here at his hands is I used to be like the young guy.

When people would would learn that I was the pastor 10 years ago, 11 years ago, they'd be like, You're the main pastor?

No one does that to me anymore.

Like it's been years.

I I used to get a weird, I'm gonna be honest, I I didn't seek it out, but it felt good when people would meet me and be like, Whoa, you're the main, wow, you're really young.

I'm like, that's that's right.

You know?

And it isn't like I I want it, I was just here and some stuff went down, and I was here.

That's kind of how it happened.

But it that did it felt good, and now no one says that anymore.

No one's like, You the main pastor?

Wow.

They're always like, Yeah, you kind of figures.

Because I'm I'm 42 now, I'm not 30.

And it won't be too long before I'll be the old guy, and I'll get up on stage, and everyone's like, oh, it's the old guy.

You know?

Fred, that was not a knock on you when you speak, you do a great job.

Okay, all good.

I'm serious, you're great.

Fred is older than me, and he has way more hair than I do, so it's all good.

But I know that that's what happens.

Like, so for Saul, part of it was just Saul was the old guy and David was the new guy, and people get excited about the new guy.

And rather than be excited for David, rather than realize, God, you've given me this superstar that's gonna help solidify our kingdom, that's gonna help me have success, and I'm so glad that he's on my team.

Instead, Saul became consumed with jealousy for David, and it was his total undoing.

Jealousy is one of the most dangerous forms of comparison.

You look at other people and you go, I want what they have.

I want their life, I want the credit, I want the recognition, I want the money, I want the the title, I want what they have, and jealousy drives you to do things that are wrong, things that that compromise your character, things that can actually ruin your life, just so you can have what someone else has, and it's it's just a form of comparison.

You're looking at the wrong person.

You're looking at them, going, I want what they want.

And oftentimes it's so silly.

Social media drives this, by the way, because we're often comparing our worst moments to other people's highlights.

Social media, there's so much stuff that's out there.

We see other people's lives, we see their vacations, we see, you know, but you don't see the real thing.

You see the snapshot on the beach where they're all wearing the white shirt and the khakis, you know, and if you've had those pictures, by the way, I think every family should have that picture.

Uh but you didn't see that the kids were miserable the entire time, and in between every smile, there's a dad being like, You better smile.

Uh, you know, and the kids are like, when can we go home?

You don't see those moments.

You just see the good picture, and you go, Oh, I wish my family was like that.

Jealousy, recognize it.

Recognize it, and this as soon, I mean, the moment you feel any of that, you can recognize what's going on.

Drop to your knees and pray, Lord, take this from me.

Get this away from me.

I can confess it.

Like, confess it as sin.

Not because God's angry with you because you had a jealous moment, but because it's that dangerous.

Like, Lord, remove this from me.

Pray for those people, Lord, bless those people.

I pray that they're even more successful.

Because that jealousy will undo you.

It's a terrible form of comparison.

Let's look at another kind of sneaky one.

This one's sneaky.

Victim thinking, victim mentality.

It's a form of comparison.

And we're very much trained to do this in society.

It's like, who can I blame for why my life isn't great?

Whose fault is it?

I mentioned Saul being jealous.

That wasn't his only flaw.

He was he was really bad at the victim mentality thing.

In 1 Samuel 13, Samuel the prophet had told Saul, hey, I want you to wait until I come back to make a sacrifice for God before you go out to battle.

There was a big battle forming, and Saul had his army, and the other army was lining up as well.

And Samuel said, Don't do anything until I come back to make a sacrifice to the Lord.

And it says in 1 Samuel 13, verse 10, that just as Saul was finishing with the burnt offering, Samuel arrived.

1 Samuel 13:10

And Saul went out to meet him and welcome him.

But Samuel said, What is this you've done?

Because Saul had gone ahead and done the sacrifice himself.

Saul replied, I saw my men scattering from me.

You didn't arrive when you said you would.

It's your fault.

You didn't come when you said you would.

You were late.

And the Philistines were at Mi'kmash, ready for battle.

So I said, The Philistines are ready to march against us at Gilgal, and I haven't even asked for the Lord's help, so I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering myself before you came.

How foolish, Samuel exclaimed.

You have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you.

Had you kept it, the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever.

Saul was very insecure.

So basically, in this moment, he had a choice between obeying God and trying to manage what people were thinking and feeling.

He saw his men starting to slip away, and he chose to do what would please people rather than what would please God.

And it did not work out for him.

But in that, he he blames.

He shifts blame.

It's like, you've disobeyed God.

Well, it's because you were late.

It's not my fault.

Adam and Eve do this.

They eat the fruit that was forbidden.

They disobey God.

And God confronts them.

He's like, What have you done?

Why have you done this?

And I love, we actually studied this at uh, we have this thing called the Bad Marriage Bible study that we do from time to time.

We have another one coming up soon.

I'll announce that very soon.

But we looked at Adam and Eve's marriage, and one of the things that made it hard.

In Genesis 3, verses 11 and 12, God's looking at them and they've realized that they're naked, they have shame, and everything's falling apart.

Genesis 3:11

And so God asks them, Well, who told you you were naked?

Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?

And the man replied, It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit and I ate it.

I love that.

It's like a double blame.

He goes, First off, God, it was her and you made her.

And I think she might be defective.

I don't know.

But like I this is this is the model I was handed.

And so when you think about it, really, Lord, it's it's her fault, kind of your fault.

That's that's what Adam says.

He thinks that will go well.

All of us who have children, we've seen these moments.

Like somehow your kid tries to be, well, it was your fault because you uh-uh.

Even if it is my fault, it's not my fault.

That's the way parenting works.

And then later you'll have therapy and you'll figure it out.

No.

No, I'm teasing.

No, it's just that's not a good strategy.

So even kids, even when it is your parents' fault, just know, like, don't do that.

This doesn't it just doesn't work.

Not in the moment, at least.

There's this tendency to have a victim mentality, to always feel like if something has gone wrong in our lives, it has to be someone else's fault.

And look, sometimes it is.

Sometimes other people do things and they mess with us and it ruins our lives, it sabotages our success.

Sometimes we have deep trauma and someone has hurt us greatly.

And I'm not denying that, but sometimes those experiences, those experiences can craft within us a kind of automatic response to struggle, which is always to blame.

You have you have two major thoughts that often drive victim thinking.

One is, not my fault.

It's not my fault.

Instantaneously, it's not my fault.

My kids do this all the time when they fight.

Like one kid will get knocked over, I got three boys, so it gets rowdy, and and a kid will start crying, and the first thing that the person hit him goes, It's not my fault.

The second thought we often have when we struggle with victim thinking is it's not fair.

It's a form of comparison.

Right?

You compare when you when you shift blame, you're looking around, going, Well, I have these problems in life, but but whose fault could it be?

You're looking at the wrong people.

But we also often look around and we see things that other people have that we don't, it's kind of a form of jealousy, but we start to say it's not fair.

Like, God, why not me?

It's this comparison that drives us to feel insecure and to feel like a victim that an injustice has been done because I don't have what other people might have, and it's not fair.

And I need you to hear this: God is not fair.

And that's a really good thing.

You do not want God to be fair.

When my kids talk about fairness, they know this, they've learned this the hard way.

That's like a bad word in our home.

Anytime one of my kids says it's not fair, I'm like, you do not want fairness.

Because it's not fair that I do your laundry.

Right?

You don't do mine.

It's not fair that I work and pay the bills, and you guys just eat all the stuff.

Right?

That's not fair.

I think some of you guys should start working.

I mean, I could put some posts on our our neighborhood Facebook page right now and line up some babysitting gigs, line up some who wants to cut some lawns, who wants to pull weeds, you guys start bringing in some income.

That would be fair.

But it wouldn't be good if I forced them to do that.

There's a difference between fairness and goodness.

And if God was fair, all of us would be in a lot of trouble.

But he's good and he's just and he's gracious and he gives us what we don't deserve.

So, fairness, if you have those thoughts, it's not fair.

Look, sometimes it's not.

Jesus addresses this.

Matthew 5, 45.

Jesus says, in that way you'll be acting as true children of your Father in heaven, for he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike.

Yeah, sometimes it's not fair.

Sometimes people get things they don't deserve, and sometimes they don't get what they do deserve.

At least it doesn't seem that way, but ultimately everyone stands before the Lord.

So the thoughts of it's not my fault, it's not fair, those thoughts tend to reveal kind of a victim mentality inside of us.

It's a form of comparison where we're looking at the wrong people, and it steals our contentment.

Makes us really unhappy.

I got one more and then we'll we'll wrap up.

And it's pride.

Pride.

Pride's a huge form of comparison.

It's where you look at other people and you feel like you're better than them.

And you're looking at the wrong people in the wrong way.

Luke chapter 18 Jesus told a story to some who had come with that had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else.

Luke 18 · chapter mention

Two men went to the temple to pray, one was a Pharisee, the other was a despised tax collector.

The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer.

I thank you, God, that I'm not like other people, cheaters, sinners, adulterers.

I'm certainly not like that tax collector.

I fast twice a week.

I give a tenth of my income.

But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed.

Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, Oh God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.

I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God.

For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

Pride is looking at someone and determining that you are better than them.

Or looking at a whole group of people and determining that you are better than them.

And our society is built on that.

That's basically politics in America.

One of the things that makes us really interesting as a church is that we are diverse in a lot of interesting ways.

And I've actually gotten messages through the text so far, people who are like, I don't understand how a Christian can be this political party.

And it's both parties.

I had someone message that.

Like, what do I do as a Christian when I see people support this and they say they're Christians?

And I was like, all this stuff.

And they my answer is always kind of similar in that, is that that's kind of how it's been for all time.

And that's why you don't put your hope and your faith in any system of man.

Because during Jesus' day, the Sadducees and the Pharisees were the two main political parties in Israel, and they were in many ways similar to our political parties today, not exactly, different culture, different time, but similarly, they did not get along at all, they did not agree on much, but they did agree to kill Jesus.

Because our world sort of it works really hard to get us to identify as a certain type of group and then to have pride against the other group because they're clearly wrong, they're crazy, they're this, and we just end up riled up all the time and we sit in judgment of other people.

And I have very strong convictions about those things, and I'm I'm very convinced that my opinions and those things are right.

Because, you know, I think they are.

But when I shift and I begin to judge those who think differently, I'm in I'm in trouble.

Pride starts to swell up and it kills contentment, it really does.

Because there's a difference between being content and being proud.

Because when you're content, you believe that, well, you at least recognize that what you have is from God.

When you're prideful, you believe that what you have is from you.

It's your wisdom, it's it's your discernment, it's your knowledge.

I love what Jesus teaches us in Matthew 7 about judgment.

He says, Don't judge others, and you will not be judged.

Now, this doesn't mean don't have good judgment.

I also got some questions from people going, like, hey, I have friends who are doing things that the Bible says is wrong, and I don't want to hurt their feelings by talking to them about that.

I don't want them to think I don't love them, and I'm like, look, there's a difference between judging people and judging sin.

You can judge behavior to be wrong without judging the heart of a person.

I can love someone and say, I love you, what you're doing is not right, and it's not healthy, and it's not good for you.

I mean, I still love you.

I'm not judging you and saying that you are horrible and you're no, like that's not my place.

Only God can judge a whole person.

But I can judge someone's behavior.

Okay, so don't let the not judging people thing convince you to just have no common sense or judgment.

It's a little bit different, nuanced, but I think you guys get that.

But Jesus says, don't judge other people.

He says the standard you use in judging will be the standard used to judge you.

And he goes on to say this in verse 3.

Why worry about a speck in your friend's eye when you have a log in your own?

How can you think of saying to your friend, let me help you get rid of that speck in your own eye when you can't see past the log in yours?

Hypocrite.

First get rid of the log in your eye, and then you'll see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend's eye.

So, right here, Jesus says, I love this by the way, and worship team, you guys can make your way up, we'll wrap up.

But Jesus says, look, when you catch yourself prideful and judging someone, catch it.

Like we're all gonna do that.

We're we're trained to do that.

It's, I mean, you need the Holy Spirit in a big way for many, many years to teach you never to do that.

But when you find yourself doing that, you're like, how they are so stop, go, whoa, I'm doing this, and then turn it right back around to yourself.

Lord, what do you want me to change in my life?

I find myself doing this way too much.

Even with the church, if I see other churches or pastors or scandals happen somewhere else, and I'm like, those, how did as soon as I get there, I'm like, okay, Lord, yeah, that's true that I shouldn't have done that, but what is there anything in my heart that needs to change?

Can I recognize anything in me that needs to change so that that never happens in my life or that never happens here?

As soon as you start judging, recognize that that's pride swelling up within you.

That is not the same as contentment.

God opposes pride.

Confess and look within yourself and say, Lord, what do you want to change in me?

Humble yourself, and you'll be more content.

So I want to finish with a real simple thought, and then we'll take Lord's Supper together.

So if you guys have the cups, we're gonna do that in here in just a minute.

If you came in and you've never done this before, um, in the back we've got cups with bread and juice, and you're all welcome to do this.

So if you want to get up and grab that, feel free.

It is really hard to be content.

It is like doing a backflip.

It truly is.

It's so tough.

Because nothing in our culture helps us.

We have a lot of content creators, we don't have a lot of contentment creators in our culture.

But I said earlier that what breeds discontentment is comparison, it's that we're looking at the wrong people.

We're looking at the people who have more stuff than us, we're looking at the people who have more success than us, we're looking at the people who have less than us and feeling proud.

We're looking at the people whose fault it is that we don't have what we want.

We're looking at the people that we're trying to defeat, to beat, to one up so that we can win.

And we look at all those people, contentment drains from us, and we find ourselves without peace.

Because you can't have peace without contentment.

But what would change all of that is that it's simple.

If we looked at the right person.

What would change all of that is if we looked at Jesus, truly.

I don't have this on the screens, but in Hebrews it says, well, maybe they do have it on the screens.

Hebrews uh chapters 1 and 2, or chapter 12 rather, verses 1 and 2, it says that we're to run the race set before us with endurance.

We're to finish our race, essentially, finish the job, live the life that Jesus has called us to live.

And it says, here's how we do this: by keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus.

We look at Jesus, we keep ourselves focused on Jesus because he's the author and the perfecter, the finisher of our faith.

He's who started it, he's who'll finish it.

We keep our eyes on him, and when I look at Jesus, things change.

Truly.

Because when you look at it, whatever you look at is what will fuel the desires you have in your life, right?

So if you look at the people who have more than you, you'll desire to.

Have what they have.

If you look at those you're trying to defeat, you'll desire that victory to win and to feel that.

So many of our desires are just based on what we're looking at, who we're looking at, who we're comparing ourselves to.

But if you look at Jesus and you make Jesus who you constantly focus on, you will desire what he has.

And here's the beautiful thing: He'll give it to you.

This is what's so cool about Jesus.

Like I could I could desire my neighbor's car.

I could look at my neighbor's car and just so, man, I wish I had that car.

I don't think he's gonna give it to me.

I haven't asked.

It'd be weird.

Maybe I should try.

Jesus said, You have not because you asked not.

Actually, Jesus didn't say that.

James says that, but it's Holy Spirit, so it's connected.

So, alright.

But that's not what it meant.

But no, like if I if I look at others and I start to covet, or I start to feel jealous, or I start to compete, or I start to feel prideful, or I start to feel less than, if I look at them, my desires will be shaped by what I'm looking at, and those people aren't gonna, they're not gonna meet my desires.

Jesus, he's different.

If you look at Jesus and you see his wisdom, let's say, you're like, man, I need wisdom like that.

Guess what?

He can give you his wisdom.

In fact, the book of James says that if we ask our God for wisdom, he will give it to us.

He's not gonna be upset with us for asking for wisdom.

If you look at Jesus and you see his love for people, you you keep your eyes fixed on him and you begin to desire what he has in life.

You're hungry for that.

You want to love people the way that Jesus loves people.

Guess what?

He will help you do that.

He'll give you his spirit.

If you follow him, you have the Holy Spirit, you'll grow in that and you'll learn to see people the way that he sees people, to love people the way that he loves people.

If you're suffering in life, if you have something really hard going on right now, you've experienced some type of tragedy, things are tough.

If you look at Jesus, you will realize that he knows exactly what you're going through.

He knows what it means to suffer.

Crucifixion is really hard.

Being betrayed by all of your friends is really difficult.

Coming from heaven to earth to save the people that you created only to have those people reject you, that's really hard.

Jesus understands suffering, and if you keep your eyes focused on him, when you suffer, you realize I have a friend, I have a God, I have a Lord who has suffered, and he can help me, he can comfort me.

If you look at Jesus instead of looking at everything else, your desires begin to be shaped by the person that you're looking at.

That's where contentment goes wrong.

We're looking at the wrong people, our desires are shaped by them.

No, look at Jesus and let your desires be shaped by him.

Look at the relationship that he has with God the Father and go, I want that kind of relationship.

And guess what?

You can have it.

You do have it.

You may just not realize it.

You are a co-heir, scripture says, with Christ.

You are part of the family of God.

Just that Jesus is the Son, you also are a son or a daughter of God because God has adopted you into his family through your faith in Jesus.

So you do have that kind of relationship.

That's why the book of Hebrews says that we can approach God the Father and His throne.

We can walk right up to Him, ask Him for exactly what we need, because we're not servants only, we are children.

If you look at Jesus and you keep your eyes focused on Jesus, you stop becoming jealous with the other people around you, you stop competing with them because it's not about beating them anymore.

It's not about having what they have or having more than what someone else has.

It's not about whose fault is it, it's all about him.

And he actually gives you what you need.

Because he's alive and he's God and he's powerful.

That's why Paul was able to write in prison in the book of Philippians in chapter four, he says, Not that I was ever in need, for I've learned how to be content with whatever I have.

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

I've 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.

Paul sat in prison and he was hungry, he was broken, he was likely often sick, he was beaten, and he's not looking at everybody else and being like, it's not fair.

Why am I in here?

What have I done?

Why don't I have what they have?

No, no, no.

He was content.

He says, I've learned the secret to contentment.

I'm looking at Jesus, and he gives me strength.

You keep your eyes fixed on Jesus.

If you're gonna compare yourself to anyone, compare yourself to him and desire what he has and let him give it to you.

And you will be filled, you will be satisfied, you will be content because you realize that you have him, you have a relationship with the God of the universe, he knows your name, you can pray to him and he listens.

Like, honestly, what?

Do I really need more than that?

Truly.

It's like that's cool, God, but I need a bigger house.

Honestly.

Yeah, Lord, it's awesome that you, the God of the universe, love me and have adopted me, and you've forgiven me for all my sin, and you fill me with your presence and your spirit, and you give me your love, but also I need some, I need some new stuff.

Like, come on.

What kills contentment is comparison.

It's looking at the wrong people.

You become competitive and jealous, and you think like a victim, you become prideful, whatever it is.

But if you if you look at the right person, you look at Jesus, he gives you what you need, he gives you strength, he gives you peace, he gives you himself, and you will be satisfied.

So, with that in mind, let's take this together because Jesus, you are what satisfies us, you are who satisfies us.

And so, Lord, as we take this bread, this is a tiny representation of an incredibly huge reality that you belong to us, Jesus.

You've given yourself to us.

And we might have things in life that we want, and we might have things that we're struggling with.

We we may struggle, Lord, to compare ourselves to other people and desire what they have, and why don't I have this and all that kind of stuff?

And that's normal, that's human stuff, but but right now, Lord, our eyes are fixed on you, and we're recognizing the beauty of the gift that you've given us because you gave us yourself and we have a relationship with you.

And you strengthen us and you complete us, you fill us, you make us whole, you give us your spirit.

Your spirit makes his home in our hearts and dwells within us so that we can abide in you, as your scripture says.

So, Lord, we thank you for you.

As we take this bread, we we ask, Lord, that you would get our eyes completely fixated on you, that you're the one we're looking at, and you're the one who shapes our desires.

So that we can be content with everything.

Let's take this.

Now the juice.

Father, this is your blood.

It's the blood, rather, of your son, Jesus Christ.

This cleanses us.

This is life.

We have life because of you.

In your word, blood always connects to life.

Without you, Jesus, the life we would have would be so petty, so silly.

We'd just be a bunch of people who are trying our best to have fleeting, fleetingly good circumstances that are subject to change.

Even the last few weeks, as we talked about money, Lord, all the money in the world couldn't buy this.

Couldn't buy you, couldn't buy your love, couldn't buy your presence.

So, Lord, as we take this, we surrender to you.

We surrender our lives to you.

And we want to live our lives totally fixated on you because what else, Lord, is worth fixating upon?

Help us look at you, help us desire for ourselves what you desire for us, and we will be content.

Fill us, Lord.

We pray this in your name, Jesus, amen.