And let's pray. Heavenly Father, God, thank you for this week. The weather is just a blessing, Lord. Thank you for the way it lifts our spirits, the sunshine, the change of season, the colors are going to be coming on here soon. Lord, we pray for A lot of activity that's going on in our area right now with our farmers. And we just pray that you would help them be alert as they're working long hours. Help other people to be alert to their presence as they're on the roads. Lord, we pray for the folks that have been affected by the hurricane. So much suffering is being experienced right now by hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people. And God, I pray for the believers in that area that even in the midst of their suffering that they would still reach out as you comfort them And then they comfort others with the comfort you're giving them. Lord, I just pray that it would be a time that people would turn towards you looking for peace, which really doesn't exist in our world right now with everything else going on. Help us to find that tonight as we continue studying here about contentment. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, so we did have a little issue with our email and website, okay? And as of right now, it still isn't back up. I spent the morning working on it with our email provider and trying to get some things straightened out. It should be, but it's not up and running yet. So bear with us. We did put the assignment for tonight out on our Facebook page. So how many of you saw that? Three people. Oh, and I did send it out on an email, too. Or, yeah, it did go out. It did go out. So our email worked for a momentary second, but right now it's not working again. So I'm not sure what happened there. OK. Well, then, in that case, since the email went out, everyone's expected to input here tonight. No, some didn't get it. OK. All right. Well, let's set that to the side for right now. Now, those of you that have been in the military, I'd like for you to raise your hand for me, so I know who I can call on for input. Okay, we've got four people here. So, what do you remember, Carlton, about basic training? A mind game, okay. The gas chamber, all right. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Gary, what do you remember? Physical aspect. Okay. I might come back to that. Sure Yeah, yeah Okay, so they they got you for like three months basic two months two months Okay, and what do you do during that two months Sandy? Run a lot Yelled at a lot, okay. A lot. Yes. Yeah. Okay, well these are all fond memories of the military. Definitely not a recruitment session here, okay? So they taught you how to shoot, okay? So they took you into a classroom, they said, here's a gun, you hold it this way, pull the trigger, and you're taught, right? How did they teach you to shoot a gun? And then what did they do after they taught you? And you did it. How many times? Over and over and over and over. Okay. All right. And I don't know how many rounds you all shot, but when I received my training years ago for the Sheriff's Reserve, it was a week-long training, and we shot 1,000 rounds that week through our handguns. That's a lot of shooting. Every single time we had to pull up, hold it the right way, Do all the steps right, okay? Gary, besides shooting a gun, what did they teach you? That you had to do over and over and over again. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Lots of things. I remember when I went to Fort Benning, my son was down there during college. He took a spell during the summer and went to Fort Benning to jump out of an airplane, jump school. And I remember driving around on the base with my dad there and seeing these groups of young men going from place to place, marching all in a row. And not just walking, it was left, right, left, right, left, right, okay? Another time I was down there with a ministry that my last church supported. And I was there on a Sunday, and as we were going there, we saw groups of men coming from their barracks marching to this place for church. Drill Sergeant was leading them. They had to come, and they had to march to church. Left, right, everywhere they went, they had to march in those two months. So the military has this way of, and I'm not speaking of every single recruit, but just generally speaking, they have this way of taking these 18-year-old, soft, sleep-in-late, video game-playing individuals, and turn them into a regimented, disciplined, goal-oriented, goal-accomplishing machine in less than two months. Now, how do they do that? Repetitious routine. Same things over and over and over and over again. And with Carlton, they had to do mind games to conquer him. But now, I want you to hold that concept in your mind as we go through this tonight. What is the goal of the Christian life for those that got the assignment? What is the goal of the Christian life? Not a right or wrong answer, I'm just wanting your feedback. What do you think it is? Ethan, to be more like Christ, okay? All right, yes. To tell others about Christ, okay? Any other suggestions? David, glorify God, okay? Anything else? David kind of like threw out the blanket that covered it all right there. So tell us, David, since that was your answer, what does that mean, to glorify God? Because we see it in the Bible all over, don't we? We're always talking about we need to glorify God. What does that mean? Okay, all right. So how do we glorify God? Anybody? Ethan? And I heard one over here just a minute. Obey Him? Yeah, which is obey, right? We just obey His Word. Okay. Now, I want you to look at something on the screen here just a moment. There isn't one definition of what it means to glorify God, okay? But this is a thought about that. Here it is. To see his supreme value, David was talking about that, to ascribe greatness and value to him, acknowledging his greatness, to show his greatness and value. So just look at that for a moment. To glorify God is, to glorify, that word glorify, to see His supreme value, ascribe greatness and value to Him, and then to us show His greatness and value? That's where we're kind of involved in this. So we do more when we glorify God, we have to do more than just agree that God is great. We would all say God is great, right? And we'd all say God is good. Someone would say, all the time. And then someone else would say, all the time, God is good. We know that phrase, right? We would all say that God is great. We would sing that God is great. We live in such a way that reflects the honor and glory of the one who has created us in his image. That's glorifying God. The one to pull in that military component. So we're going to say God is great, believe God is great, and then live in such a way so that we are reflecting the honor and glory that we believe God has. as he reflects it through us, he created us in his image, he enlisted us to represent him like a military soldier. In the military, I think, I don't know if they still have a military code of conduct or something like that, okay? And I don't know how it is for an enlisted man or if it's still the same. But at one time, officers had a higher level of conduct of expectations, right? And they could be dismissed for behavior that was unbecoming of an officer, because they're not reflecting well on the military, the army or whatever branch it is. So they have to watch what they do. When my son first graduated Bible college, he didn't burn his ties, but he's like, I ain't wearing ties anymore, they're not in the Bible, I'm done with ties. This is legalism telling us what we have to wear. He was so done with that. Okay. And I'm like, you're in the military. Okay. So he gets down to his first assignment out of college. He and his wife, they're living on base. He had a dress code. He couldn't go to the grocery store on base wearing sweats, and neither could she, okay? Because they needed to reflect the honor and glory of the military. They represent them. I'm seeing the Cody's back here, fresh from work, okay? They have to watch what they wear when they go to work because they are representing the post office when they're out there in public. Oh, how about this? This restaurant, Chick-fil-A. Who doesn't love Chick-fil-A? Now, there's something very interesting about Chick-fil-A restaurants. You can go into a Chick-fil-A, or go through the drive-thru, or talk to the person that's cleaning the tables, and if you say, thank you, what do they say in response to you? My pleasure. Those employees, when I went to this one in Springfield when it first opened, they were so polite. I couldn't believe it. I walked away from there thinking, I love Chick-fil-A. Man, this place is amazing. We go on vacation. Maybe you're the same way. OK, some people, they head off on vacation. They're looking for a Chick-fil-A because, wow, great service. Now, how do you figure that? How do you come to that conclusion? You've been to one. And you interacted with maybe two employees. And you think, Chick-fil-A is amazing. I think it demonstrates. Those employees were reflecting the values of the company. So in a way, we could say it this way. They were glorifying Chick-fil-A because they reflected the qualities, the image that was instilled in them by their creator, the founder, Mr. Cathy. Those are values that are important to him. And if you want to work there, you got to do that, okay? So, let's look at the biblical argument that we need to understand as we start looking at moving forward towards contentment. Here's the biblical argument. You cannot be content without being content. How's that? Makes no sense at all, right? Okay, so let me kind of pull that apart a little bit. You cannot be content as we think of it and struggle with contentment without being content in God. That's where it starts. Now, let's look at 1 Timothy 6. We're going to be there most of our discussion time here. 1 Timothy 6 and verse 5, here's what Paul writes. He's speaking a few verses ahead of this even, describing some men in his day. Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, destitute of the truth, supposing these men, these false teachers, supposing that gain is godliness. And Paul says, from such withdraw. But godliness with contentment is great gain. Here's what Paul is addressing in these first few verses of chapter 6. There were teachers in his day, false teachers, who were teaching that godliness is a means to gain. Okay? The more godly you are, the more you will gain. Now, what does that sound like today? There's this doctrine, this teaching out there, it's called the prosperity gospel, the name it and claim it gospel. In other words, in order to get more, all you have to do is have more faith. You become more godly and you get more stuff, whatever it is you want, you get it. If you had enough faith, you could get whatever you want. You want more friends? You want a better house? You want a better job? You want more stuff? You want better health? You want better relationships? Then you ask, and if you have this super amount of godliness and faith, then you will get it. What's wrong with that? There's a whole lot of yous. in all of that, right? The key to understanding what is meant by the word gain in that verse, godliness with contentment is great gain, it is spiritual gain and not financial gain. And that's the problem with prosperity gospel, these big, not just big ministries, but other ministries that try to mimic them. If you would just have faith, you could get whatever you... What do you want? What do you want? You want that relationship healed? Then you need to have faith. You want this? You want that? You just need to be more godly and you will get it. It's a very self-centered gospel. The focus is all on you. and what you want. It's like we're using Christ to cash in to get what we want with that teaching. Earlier, Paul says this just a couple of chapters before. Oh, and by the way, at the end of verse 5, as he's describing those people, he did say, from such withdraw thyself. So it doesn't matter if you like their teaching style or whatever, or you listen to them. If they're teaching this, it's false gospel. Paul says, withdraw thyself. Now, 1 Timothy 4, verse 8, Paul writes, for bodily exercise profiteth little, but godliness is profitable unto all things. having promise of life that now is and of that which is to come. So there's several parts to that verse there. Bodily exercise, that's stuff that we go after with our body. Let's say we want better health, okay? We're going to do things, okay? And he's saying godliness is more profitable. Bodily exercise does profit a little, but godliness is profitable unto all things. And then he says, not only in this life, but in eternity as well, the benefits continue to come. The prosperity gospel promotes self-centeredness. It just gets people thinking about themselves and what they want. We don't have any problem with that. We're very good at that now. It promotes greed, which is sin, which is not godliness, by the way. Greed can't be godliness. If you only have enough faith, you can get anything you want, including wealth. And it's ignoring 1 Timothy 6.10, which we're going to look at here in just a moment. By the way, these folks that are going through unbelievable hardships right now in the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee, nothing, absolutely lost everything. We've been, you know, reading and hearing and watching reports of people getting themselves out of the floodwaters as they saw their neighbor's bodies floating past them, okay? And lots of good stories, too. I heard this one. I shared it with Cheryl the other day. I love this. This is such a cool story. This man was getting, he was taking a two-hour drive. It was only gonna take him two hours by car. Seven hours into this two hour trip, through detours and traffic, the road finally got closed by the state police. He's now only 30 miles from his destination. So what does he do? He gets out, he puts on his running shoes, and he goes the next 30 miles on foot through, over, around debris just to get to this destination. It took him another six hours on foot to go that 30 miles. But it was his daughter's wedding, and he wasn't going to miss it. Isn't that a great story? Has nothing to do with this, but I had to share it. So in Paul's day, there were people that were called Stoics. And I've talked about them before. A Stoic taught that if you just looked within yourself, you would find that you are completely self-sufficient. And that means no matter what's going on around you, it doesn't faze you. And that's where we get that term stoic, someone who is just unfazed, they don't seem to have any emotion, nothing phases them. They would look, a stoic would look inward to satisfy themselves, which of course, it's not looking to God. However, I think in our day, we tend to look outward to satisfy ourselves. Whether it's an emotional need, or physical need, or perceived need, and we tend to look outward to satisfy it. I think it's characterized by this statement here. I can only get more if I could only get more and enjoy more, then I'll be happy. Some people aren't happy unless they get that next thing or that thing that they want but they can't seem to get. And so there's no happiness unless they get it. Paul goes on in verse 7 of chapter 6. He says, for we brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out. Having food and raiment, let us be therewith content. In other words, our needs are met. We have enough. I'm guessing most of us in here probably have enough food in our house to survive on for at least a week without going to the store. I'm going to run out of Cinnamon Toast Crunch probably, but I can still survive, okay? But we have cupboards. We have so much food, we have to have cupboards to store our food. Some houses have a closet or pantry for the extra food that we have. Oh, and there's the freezer for that food as well. Having food in raiment, be content. Should we want anything more? I mean, that's the contentment that's kind of like the goal, I guess, that we can't wrap our minds around. But Paul goes on to say in verse 9, but they that will be rich, I'm going to insert here, they that will be rich, meaning those that want more of whatever, They fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts or desires, which drown men in destruction and perdition. So they that want more, they work to get more, and it says they fall into a temptation, a snare, a trap that brings about many other desires. You ever notice that? Oh, if I could just have this one thing. That's all I really want in life, is a lawn without any of that stupid weed that keeps growing in it. But then if I get that, but then there's other things too that start popping up. And the discontentment grows at that point. Now, why is it, why is it as that verse says, that we fall into a snare and it drowns men in destruction and perdition? Because of this, I referenced this verse earlier, 1 Timothy 6.10, the love of money for things is the root of all evil. Which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. They coveted, they wanted more. And as that verse says, they coveted after it. It caused them to err from the faith and pierce themselves through with many sorrows. In other words, it didn't give them the happiness they wanted. It just brought more sorrows. Consider this verse. Paul says in Philippians 4.13, I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. That's not going after more of this and this and this to get me through my day or to make me happy. Christ is all-sufficient. And in Colossians 2.10, it says, and ye are complete in him. which is the head of all principality and power. So in other words, those two verses, in Christ, enough. What else do we need? We are in Christ. The context here, God-given power to endure any circumstance. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. It's talking about God giving us a power to endure any circumstance. We have to look at all the verses around that in Philippians 4. Paul is speaking of, just two verses earlier, Paul is speaking of contentment with circumstances. And then he comes to this verse 13 where we've all heard, I can do all things through Christ, okay? The focus on Philippians 4 is what the believer can do through the strength that Christ gives, not on what we can get, and that's many times how that verse is taken out of context and applied. But we will have strength from God to faithfully endure the difficulties that we have to live with. Obviously comparison to what's going on in the hurricane area We don't really have any difficulties, but prior to that how many of you had a bad day last week? Okay, so what was the thing that made your day bad? God gives us the power to endure any circumstance My job I don't make enough money. I need a bigger house. I need a new this. I wish I had more of this. That's a circumstance. And God gives us the power, Philippians 4.13, I can do, I can be content through Christ. He gives us that power to endure. Paul was teaching that the believer will endure suffering. We will not have everything in this life, everything that we want and just the way we want it to be, but we can be content in any circumstance that comes our way. This strength that enabled Paul, it enabled him to serve as a missionary with intense suffering, Shipwrecked, beaten, chased out of town, okay? That same strength is available in our lives right now. And what did Paul say? He said in Philippians 4, later on in Philippians 4, verse 19, he said, my God shall supply all your need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. Now, wait a minute. Look at that verse. There's another verse that we see on wall hangings and stuff. My God shall supply all your need according to his riches and glory. Well, that means that any need I have, God's going to provide it for me. But the context of Philippians 4 is talking about being content with circumstances. My God will supply the need that we have to endure our life not being the way we want it to be. according to his riches and glory. Now, look at verse 20, and then he ends with, now, unto God and our Father be glory forever and ever, amen. There's the Chick-fil-A principle there. We be content with the circumstances that we have in our life. God strengthens us for it. And as we're doing that, what are we doing? We are being glory to God. We are reflecting God right there at the very end. He throws that in. Now, unto God be glory. So we are to reflect God's glory back to him by being content. And there is that exhortation to reflect the glory of God. So how? How do we do it? Because we all struggle with it, being content. Let's look at number two. How do we grow in contentment? They're in your notes. How do we grow in godliness? Paul said, with godliness and contentment, there is great gain. How do we experience it? Think of the thing you struggle with when it comes to being content, because we maybe all have a different thing. Okay, maybe it's stuff, or money, or a house, or friends, or health, relationships, whatever it is. What is it? Think of it in your mind. What would you do? I mean, this is something you've struggled with a long time, and it has caused problems in your life, in your relationships, whatever. What would you do to finally be free and experienced, satisfied contentment for that one thing that you just can't seem to get? What would you do to achieve that? Would you pay $100 for it? How about $1,000? I mean, this thing has just driven you crazy your whole life or for a long time. If you could pay $1,000 and God would say, okay, just give $1,000 to Father Gerald and he will say a prayer for you and he will get that contentment. And it's a guaranteed thing. How about this? Would you be willing to spend the night in the woods backpacking? Just one night and you will have, yeah, some of the outdoorsy people here are like, well, yeah, we do that now. We don't get nothing for it. Would you be willing to do that, to finally have that contentment? God tells us how to have it. It's not glamorous. It's not paying money. It's not spending a night in the woods. It's not doing some religious ritual. Remember the military? How do they train soldiers? through monotonous, purposeful repetition. This is how God grows us. And can we be honest? We all need to grow in this area of contentment. And He does it through monotonous repetition. Bible reading. I left that whole blank in your notes there so you wouldn't try to guess ahead of time what it was. Yeah, Bible reading. We want to grow in godliness, which allows us to grow in contentment. It's coupled with that. Look what Jesus prayed, okay? So you see where this is coming from. John 17, 17, he said, sanctify, grow them. Through thy truth, thy word is truth." God's word is the path to growth, to godliness, to contentment. We need to change things. We need to change some things about us. Look at 2 Corinthians 3.18, but we all, with open face, beholding as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image. glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." So, as we are beholding God in the Word, we're seeing God there, it begins to change us to be like Him. So, Scripture, because we need to change, Scripture molds us. Don't you wish you could just read a verse, the magic verse, for whatever problem it is? Read the magic verse and poof, all done. You have to go back to that verse over and over and over Monotonous repetition But every time just like those military recruits every time God is moving us closer and closer to reflecting his glory think of when we consider the Word of God. Think of 2 Corinthians 3 verse 16. All scripture, that's the Word of God, is given by inspiration of God and it's profitable. Here's what it's good for. Doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction, and righteousness. Real quick, those four things. Doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction, and righteousness. Here they are. Doctrine tells us what we need to believe about God. Reproof. It's God's Word telling us when we've gotten off track. Correction tells us how to get back on track, and instruction in righteousness, we could say it this way, it helps us stay on track. All of that from the Word of God, from staying in the Word of God. Now, verse 17, here's what it does for us, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. The man of God, or woman, will be spiritually mature, growing to be more like God, becoming more content in God. In Psalm 19 in verse 7, there's actually a number of good verses in Psalm 19. God tells us that the Bible makes wise the simple. In fact, there's a song from that chapter in Psalms. But the Bible makes wise the simple it makes simple people wise So are do you consider yourself simple David? Are you? Very simple. Oh, he's being so humbly honest. Okay, you're all you're all a bunch of simpletons, right? Well, here's what that means in the Bible that word simple It's not, it doesn't mean dumb or stupid or the town fool, okay, not that kind of simple. It's referring to just being immature. The Bible makes immature people mature. Those that need growing. Hey, that's all of us, right? So one of our main hindrances to regularly reading and studying the Bible, since the Bible is going to make us wise, one of our main hindrances to reading and studying it is we think we are wise. Right? Now, the guys we always get a bad rap for this all the time. You know, something breaks and we try to fix it and our wife is standing there with the owner's manual. Tells you how right here or not that anymore. What happens in my house when I'm being the stereotypical guy, oh, I got this, I can figure it out. Well, I'm trying to figure it out. She's googling it, she's watched a YouTube video, and she comes back and tells me the right way to do it, okay? I don't need to check YouTube, I don't need to Google it because I already know how to do it. And so since I already know, I don't go to the source of knowledge. And perhaps that's why we don't read and study the Bible like we should. We already think we're wise, or at least wise enough that we don't need to consult God's word. Is God enough? Yes, absolutely. So then, if God is enough, why do we constantly want something else in our life? I think I have the answer for that. In Romans chapter 1, it's not a passage that we would generally apply to us as Christians, but before we were Christians, what were we? We were the people in Romans chapter 1, and we still have the same sin nature. Here's what Paul describes them with in verse 21, because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations. Their foolish heart was darkened. They professed themselves to be wise. They became fools. and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like the corruptible man into birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. So they do, they did, they still do what we tend to do. We devalue God and we overvalue created things. What can give you the most happiness in your life right now? God, right? That's intellectual knowledge. But in practice, we bring him lower than that thing that we have to have, and if we don't have it, we're not happy. Where God, if we have all of him, we don't need anything else to make us happy. So, Bible reading, okay? How? Let me give you an illustration. I recently read this description of Bible reading, which may explain why we don't remember what we read after we're done. Has that ever happened to you? You get up in the morning, you have your Bible reading every day, let's say, and then by 10 o'clock, you don't remember what you read. What did you get out of it? Oh, it was great. I learned about God. Yeah, you are just fishing right now, okay? So why don't we remember it? What's going on with our Bible reading? Consider this the next time you go to read your Bible. And this isn't original to me. It's called dental chair devotions. Okay, so put yourself in the dentist's chair, you're getting a teeth cleaning, and the hygienist, they're doing all their scraping, and then right at the end, what do they do? They spray that water in your mouth. They spray a little bit in, and then say, squish it around, and now, spit, or they suck it out with a tube. It kind of characterizes our Bible reading sometime. It's the rinse and spit method, the dental chair devotions, where we grab our Bibles, we spend some time, done, put it away, okay? We're taking it in and then done with it. We walk away from it. Later in the day, we can't remember what we read. We took in a little Bible, swished it around, and then spit it out on our way out the door. We haven't engaged the mind and the heart with the Word of God. So let me give you some quick things in the few minutes we have left here. Meditating on God's Word. We've got to not just read and check the box. Meditating on God's Word. How do we meditate? Okay? Quality over quantity. I know that you guys will walk away more, walk away from a message on Sunday morning, okay, if I just stick to one good point instead of giving you 10. You're not going to remember all of those. Two hour message versus 30 minutes. You're not going to remember the two-hour message other than, he went two hours. That's all you'll remember about it. Quality over quantity. And then try this, read the text out loud. Read the text out loud. There used to be a time a couple generations ago, that's the way all reading was done. It was all done out loud. It engages the mind more. when you're reading out loud. And then ask questions about what you're reading. What is the truth here about God? What does God want me to do with this truth? What is this teaching to me about sin, about this sin? Is this sin in my life? You're just asking questions over the small amount that you've just read. And then make applications to your life. Okay, so how do I, you know the question I like to ask, How do I do this verse? And if you can answer that, you are now applying that verse to yourself. You've understood it, and now you're asking, how do I do this verse? And then, so important, you're on a roll. You're doing great. Now take it with you. As you walk out the door, take it with you during the day. If you can, write something down on a card to remind yourself later in the day, okay? Put it on the steering wheel, a dashboard in your car, computer at work, refrigerator at home, or even better, call someone. Say, hey, let me share with you what I just got out of my Bible reading. And that very act of regurgitating it is going to help it stick even more. The Bible is far too important for us to treat so lightly. So make a commitment, more than a dental chair devotion commitment. Instead, we're just going to soak in God's word, take it with us. And that's our first substantive step towards contentment right there. Let's pray. Father, God, help us with this this week, our time with you, our time in your word. Help us to make more of it, allowing ourselves to be in it long enough for it to change us. God, I pray that we'll choose tonight to make that commitment in Jesus name. Amen.