The Cultivation of Contentment

Thank you so much. I know after lunch is really tricky and you're all gonna go right to sleep. We'll try to, I may tap dance, you just might be surprised. What I might do to keep you awake. It is really fun for me to just see and hear you all talk with each other. I feel like there's just a lot of sweet fellowship among you women here at this church, and that's a delight to see. And I pray that our conversation will be honoring to the Lord and edifying to each other. So it's wonderful to gather with you. All right, we are going to discuss some specific ways that we can cooperate with God in the work that he is doing to help us grow in contentment. We read in the word that we are to be content. That is a command that God has given to us and he equips us for what he calls us to do. So we can trust in him and hope in him and seek to have more and more of his mind and his perspective on things and grow in contentment that honors God and just helps our souls to be more at rest and at peace with him. So we're gonna look at some specific ways that, I just view it as ways that we could cooperate with the work that God is doing in us. Number one, monitor our minds. Monitor our minds. I have become convinced of this over the years that our thought life to a significant degree determines our contentment. What we allow to fill our minds will in turn influence our words and our actions and our emotions. And, you know, we cannot stop thoughts from entering into our mind, but we do have some control over what we allow to stay and to ruminate on. We know this from God's Word where he tells us to think on these things, the things that are true and right and pure and lovely. So we have some amount of control over what we think about over and over and over again. So we need to monitor our mind and see if the things that we're thinking over and over, are they fostering contentment or are they fostering discontentment? Now I read a book that Carol read as well that she mentioned and I love this book by Linda Dillow called My Anxious Heart. Is that right? Okay, it's been a while since I read it. But in that book, Linda Dillow quotes from E.B. Pusey, this 19th century church leader, and he has these resolutions for fostering contentment that you can read there. Allow thyself to complain of nothing, not even of the weather. Do you think any of us have sinned in that way today, or maybe yesterday? Number two, never picture thyself under any circumstance in which thou art not. Number three, never compare thine own lot with that of another. Number four, never allow thyself to dwell on the wish that this or that had been or were otherwise than it was or is. That's quite a sentence. God Almighty loves thee better and more wisely than thou dost thyself. Number five, never dwell on the morrow. Remember that it is God's, not thine. The heaviest part of sorrow often is to look forward to it. The Lord will provide. So isn't it interesting how this list really focuses on what we think about, what we allow our minds to dwell on. What thoughts we let just linger and repeat over and over. And I, it is right here that I think the battle for contentment takes place. Basically, don't allow yourself to think about things in ways other than what God has ordained. God ordained that yesterday would be a rainy day. That's his right, that's his prerogative, he's God. So he loves us, he knows us, he's placed us where he wants us to be. If we allow our minds to go down the path of if only, or why not, or why her and not me, we will be feeding that temptation to be discontent. Now one of the items on his list I think gets at the heart of a lot of our discontentment and that is never compare thine own lot with that of another. I think this is one area that just gets at the heart of a lot of our discontentment. You know I said last night discontentment is having what you don't want or wanting what you don't have. Frequently it's wanting what you have. I want what you have. You see what somebody else has, what their circumstance in life is. And I want it. That's where my discontent comes from. It's so easy for us to look at each other and compare. And you can always find someone who has a better home, job, husband, church, child, appearance, financial situation than you do. And that inevitably leads to a discontent heart, to a lack of gratitude, and to self-pity, feeling sorry for yourself. On the other hand, you can always find someone who has a worse home, job, husband, church, child, appearance, financial situation than you do. And such a comparison contributes to pride and self-righteousness. It's just feeling pretty good about ourselves. Comparing ourselves with others is foolish. It shows, we read in 2 Corinthians 10-12, it shows we are without understanding to compare ourselves to others. Comparison is deadly, and it is certainly the death of gratitude. When we're faced with this temptation to compare ourselves to others, we need to remind ourselves that God is not calling us to be like Sue or better than Mary. God is at work making each one of us more and more like Christ, and that's going to look differently for each one of us. He knows what he's doing. That's the work that he is doing within us to accomplish. And so our focus needs to be on Christ and on his character, on his ways, and our gaze needs to be vertical toward him and not horizontal toward each other. One author wrote the following, you will never really enjoy other people, you will never have stable emotions, you will never lead a life of godly contentment, you will never conquer jealousy and love others as you should until you thank God for making you the way he did. Isn't that interesting? Just accepting, this is who I am. I'm not like her. I'm not like her. This is just who I am. But God is making me more like Christ. I don't need to be a more Christ-like Sue, a more Christ-like Mary, but a more Christ-like Jodie, because that's who I am. There's a wonderful verse at the end of the Gospel of John, John 21, verses 21 and 22. And you'll remember this, this text where Jesus is talking to Peter. You know, Peter had denied Jesus three times. Jesus said to him three times, Peter, do you love me? Feed my sheep. This beautiful restoration of their relationship. And then Jesus indicated that the way that Peter's life would come to an end would be difficult. And what does Peter do? It says he turned and he saw John and he said, what about this man? What about him? If I'm going to have this horrible end, what about him? And Jesus said to him, if it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me. That is a powerful expression. I mean, in a way, Jesus is kind of saying, Peter, mind your own business. Don't compare. Don't compare what I've told you about your life with what might happen with John. I know what you need. I know what John needs. You could trust me to take care of both of you. How we need to embrace this. We need to see that whatever God has planned for others is his wise, good, perfect plan for them. And whatever he has planned for us is his wise, good, perfect plan for us. And I find that phrase, what is that to you, to be really helpful at kind of reorienting me when I am tempted to compare. She's such a gifted pianist. What is that to you? She has a gorgeous house. Oh, I'm loving the Goads house. It's so beautiful. What is that to you? Her children are so smart and gifted. What is that to you? She gets to travel so much. She gets to go to England. What is that to you? She has such an influential job. What is that to you? I think we need to keep that question, that phrase foremost in our mind when we look at the ways that God is blessing other people, especially when he's blessing them in ways that we long for ourselves. And God has not chosen to do that for us to this point. What is that to you? You follow me. Rather than looking this way and that, what's God doing in everyone else's life? What is He not doing in my life? I follow Him. I stay focused on Him. Now, I think we all struggle with comparison. I think that's because we're human and we're sinners and we live in a culture that is consumed with comparison. You know, think back a hundred years ago. Many people in the world lived in smaller towns and were around a limited number of people, kind of ordinary people, right? And they would visit their friends and the people that they knew, kind of ordinary homes. Everything was a little bit more ordinary. But now we have the resources to see the most beautiful people in the world, the most gifted people in the world. The homes that are designed and decorated by the most gifted interior decorators. That just amazes me because I have none of that, none of that ability. But we have just this opportunity to compare ourselves to the best, the best of the best. And even the airbrushed best of the best. We see and compare ourselves to the cream of the crop in all kinds of different ways. So that's where so much of our discontentment comes from. We see what other people have, the most gifted people, the richest people, the loveliest people. And we want what they have. We're discontent. But let's let this piercing question of Christ just reorient our hearts when we are tempted to look at what others have and to covet it, to want it. What is that to you? You follow me. Again, this clear sense that God is at work in each one of our lives to make us more like Christ. And he knows the best way to do that. It's going to look differently for each one of us. One of Jesus' parables in Matthew 20, I think is helpful here. I love this parable, the parable of the laborers in the vineyard. And you may remember Jesus described a master who hired some laborers to work at his vineyard, and he promised to pay them a denarius for their day's labor. And he hired more workers later in the day, and more workers later in the day. And at the end of the day, he began paying those most recently hired laborers, and he paid them a denarius. So the guys who had worked all day are thinking, oh boy, we're going to get more than that because we've worked so much longer. But the master paid the promised denarius. And they complained. They complained about it. And the master said to them, Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me to work for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to the last worker as I give to you. Now listen. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity? Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Remember, all things belong to God. And He's God. He can do whatever He chooses with all that He has. And if He chooses to be generous with someone in a way that He chooses not to be generous with me, that's His right. That's His prerogative. William Plumer, one of those wise Puritans said, if thine eye is evil toward thy neighbor because God is good to him, it is proof that thou quarrelest with providence. And if God should give to one of his children more than he gives to you, has he not a right to do what he will with his own? Friends, we do not want to quarrel with providence. We do not want to begrudge God's generosity with other people. But it's hard, it's hard when others are given gifts that we long for, when others have opportunities that we cherish, when the good thing that we've ardently prayed for goes to someone else. A verse that I find really helpful is Romans 12, 15, a familiar passage. Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. And I think we often find it easier to weep with those who weep than to rejoice with those who rejoice. Especially if they're rejoicing over something God has not chosen to give us. Something that we long for. But it is a sign of Christ-centered maturity, Christ-exalting maturity, to be able to rejoice with those who rejoice in ways that God has been generous to them. It is something that we need to pray for and pursue and ask for accountability. to grow in being sincerely glad for others. This is how God wants us to respond when he blesses others. We're not to be jealous or envious, but we are to rejoice. It sounds so simple, but it's not easy. It's not easy. Rather than envying others in sinful discontentment, God commands us to love one another. Love one another, right? So as we think about loving others, let me just read those familiar verses from 1 Corinthians 13 and think about this in relation to contentment and discontentment. and how to love others when God blesses them. Love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude. It doesn't insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. This is what we're called to, this is how we're called to love each other in Christ. So here's the Elizabeth Elliot quote for this section. In her book, The Music of His Promises, she writes the following. If I imagine that I love my neighbor, let me test my love by asking how glad I am that he has achieved what I have failed to achieve. that he has managed to acquire what I have long wished to acquire, that he is loved by someone or by many or in some way that has never been granted to me. If I love my neighbor as myself, there will be no reason at all for the least twinge of jealousy because I will be just as happy that he has what I wanted as I would be if I had it. Isn't that beautifully sobering? To love my neighbor as myself and be just as happy that God is generous with him as if God had chosen to be generous with me in that same way. Let's think a little bit about sinful comparison and how it contrasts with gospel truth. Here are a few statements that I pray might help us as we seek to love others rather than comparing ourselves to others. Comparison says my value is found in relation to others. God's word says my value is found in creation and redemption. I am a child of God. Comparison says that I have to prove myself to find my significance in self-attainment. God's word says I could do nothing to prove myself, but Christ has done everything. My true identity is found in him. Justification clothed in the imputed righteousness of Christ. Sanctification being changed increasingly into the likeness of Christ. Glorification, when we see him, we shall be like him, for we will see him as he is. All of Christ. Comparison says I need to compete with others for, quote, my piece of the pie. You know that feeling that you have if somebody else gets something good, well then there's less good for me. God's Word says I need to think more highly of others than myself, to love them and to serve them. Comparison says I need to fit in and kind of blend in with those around me and to be like everyone else, because I'm looking this way and that way, how to kind of fit in. But God's Word says I am uniquely equipped by God to serve the church in whatever ways he has called me to do. Comparison traps us in small, self-focused, even at times paralyzing ways, God's word calls us to freedom in Christ. Don't you see that in your heart? That when you're caught up in sinful comparison, you're just cut off from the ministry that God has for you to do. You're so focused on yourself, even in paralyzing ways, that you aren't free to just love God and love others in the way that he provides for you to do. We're spending a long time on number one. That's the longest one by far, don't worry. I've got my eye on the clock. But it's just that monitoring our minds is so important as we think about contentment. So there's two words I want to mention here that I think are helpful as we think about monitoring our minds and about God's purpose in our lives. The first word is, yeah, they're both E words. The first word is expectations, expectations. We bring so much trouble upon ourselves and make it harder to learn contentment because of our expectations. We have expectations upon those around us and our circumstances and ourselves and even God at times for how we think our lives should go. if we only understood more clearly what we should expect. William Plumer says, he who expects nothing because he deserves nothing is sure to be satisfied with the treatment he receives at God's hand. The second E word that relates to monitoring our minds is entitlement. It's not difficult to see that we live in a culture marked by entitlement. My needs, my wants, my rights, these are the ultimate values of the guiding force for many. And this cultural pressure influences us more than we realize. But we are by rights truly entitled to only one thing. Eternal condemnation and separation from God because of our sin. That's what we deserve. That's what we're entitled to. So we need to remind ourselves of that fact. Thomas Watson says, if we do not have what we desire, we have more than we deserve. We have more than we deserve. So we've been talking about guarding ourselves against comparison, but here's a comparison we would do well to foster. Compare what we deserve because of our sin with what we've been given because of God's grace. That would help us learn contentment to regularly and deeply think about our sin and about the offense of our sin to an infinitely holy God. and to reflect on what we would be justly facing if it not for the sacrifice of our dear Savior. Another prayer in the Valley of Vision says, Oh Lord, I am astonished at the difference between my receivings and my deservings, between the state I am now in and my past gracelessness, between the heaven I am bound for and the hell I merit. Are we astonished at that? I merit hell and I am bound for heaven. If we think about these things regularly, fill our mind with these truths, we will grow in contentment and in gratitude. So let's be women who monitor our minds. Don't think about things in ways other than what they are and avoid sinful comparison. Be aware of a sense of entitlement and be modest in expectations. And regularly think what our sins deserve and what we've been given in Christ. As we think these true things, we will grow in learning contentment. All right, number two. Guard our hearts. Guard our hearts. As we fight for contentment, we need to keep our eyes and our ears and our mind and ultimately heart with being filled up with things of this world. When I limit my exposure to things of the world, whatever it is, what I read, what I watch, what I listen to, I more clearly see the futility of the things of this world. And reducing the influence of those things in my life enlarges my heart toward God. A couple of ways that we can do this. One thing we can do is to limit our exposure to advertising. When you think about the advertising industry, this, I don't know, multi-billion dollar industry that is designed to make us discontent. Right? That's the whole thing. Something we don't have, something that now we think we need. So just be careful about how much advertising you expose your heart to. It doesn't really cultivate contentment. Check your soul after leafing through a crate and barrel catalog. I really like crate and barrel. We used to live in Chicago. You know the flagship store there on Michigan Avenue? Love to go there. Looking through that catalog doesn't really foster contentment in my heart. Meditating on scripture, that does, that does. So I just want to be careful what I'm allowing into my mind and my heart. I thought of this recently when I was reading the parable of the the soils, the sower. In Mark 4.18 we read, others are the ones sown among thorns, those who hear the word, but the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word. It proves unfruitful. Do I want the Word to be fruitful in my life? Yes. So I want to guard against the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things. What am I feeding my heart? What direction am I headed? It's a sober reality that being caught up with the cares of the world and the desires, desiring the things of this world, chokes the influence of the Word in our lives. So guarding our hearts against too much worldly influence, including the materialistic influences all around us, is important. Another practical tip is just to limit your kind of what I think of as recreational shopping. You know, just so we have free time, let's just go shopping. That's just not beneficial. I have lived long enough to see such a change. When I was a little girl, my mother would go shopping once a month and she'd put on her hat and gloves and go downtown and shop and get everything. And then the rest of the time she was pretty much at home. You know, it was just a simpler way to live. But now we Both spending time shopping and then the convenience of online shopping. Again, we want to be wise and careful here. I mean, I love the convenience of being able to go exactly what I want and it'll be on my porch in two days. I love that. I love the convenience. And there's a lot of good about that. Using your time well, being a good steward of your money, looking for the best deal. However, We have access to so much choice and it can be so easy to be sucked in and spend way too much time looking for the best deal, the best thing, comparing, comparing, comparing. We need to stop and ask ourselves, is this worth the amount of time I'm spending on it? Is this worth this much energy and this much focus? It's so easy to get sucked in and endless choices breed endless discontent. We can see what everybody else has, and that just feeds the discontent. So we want to be wise, we want to use the things that God has made available to us, to use our time and money well, but let's be careful not to get sucked into that discontentment. Lydia Brownback says, guarding what we watch, read, and hear isn't legalism. It's just sanctified common sense. And I think that's so, so true. Sanctified common sense. And you know what? Common sense ain't all that common. So we need to grow in it. All right, number three is to foster gratitude. Foster gratitude. Remember last night we talked about the cycle of contentment from Psalm 50 where we need and God provides and we thank him and God is glorified. So gratitude is the active acknowledgement to God of his goodness. It is complete provision and it breeds contentment. As we were just reminded, we deserve nothing but eternal judgment and condemnation. None of the good gifts that God gives are deserved or should be expected, but he continues to pour out blessing and to meet needs, and we should continue to thank him. Again, 1 Corinthians 4, 7, what do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it? Now as I think about thanking God in the area of contentment, I think we need to thank God for what He does give and for what He withholds. Recognizing and acknowledging that He knows better than I do what I need. What about when God gives hard things or when He withholds good things? We need to constantly go back to God's sovereignty and His wisdom and His love and bow before Him acknowledging that He knows better than I do what I truly need. When He withholds what I think I need, it requires an act of will and an attitude of heart to submit humbly to Him. We need to look through the gifts God gives to see God the great giver, the gracious giver. We need to look through the withholdings to see God the gracious withholder. He knows best. There are a couple of familiar verses in the book of Job that I think are helpful here. Job 121, the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. He gives. He takes away, he withholds, whatever. Blessed be the name of the Lord. A number of years ago, my oldest sister, so I'm the youngest of five girls, Judy, Joyce, Jan, Jill, Jody. My mother used to sew us all matching outfits. We're Scottish, our last name was McLean, so we had kilts and berets and did a little, anyway. I told you I would tap dance. Anyway, my oldest sister, Judy, She had two sons and her son had just graduated from Wheaton College and was headed to China as a missionary and he was killed in a car accident a week before leaving for China. This happened in the Chicago area the very weekend that our family moved to Chicago, when we left Portland and moved to Chicago. Judy and her family came out from California, and she and I went down into James' basement apartment to pack up his belongings. And it was just one of the hardest things that I've ever experienced. And we're just sobbing over the loss of James. But my sister Judy looked at me and quoted this verse. The Lord gave, the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. I will never forget that moment because I saw the fruit of my sister's filling her mind and heart with God's truth for years and years and years that in that moment of most profound grief in her life, she believed this even though it was so incredibly difficult. I want to be that way no matter what God brings and what God withholds. I want to bless the name of the Lord. He's God and I'm not. Another verse from Job, Job 2.10, shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil? Again, that spectrum of God's sovereignty. Another time, another sister was diagnosed with breast cancer, and that's the verse that she quoted to me. God has poured out so much good, shall we not receive this hardship? He's God. It's his right, it's his prerogative to do that. I have found it helpful to cultivate more gratitude in my heart with just a little habit that most nights before I go to sleep, I think back through the day and pick out three things to thank the Lord for. And it may have been a really, really hard day. You can find something. You're still breathing. You can find things to thank the Lord for. And I think it helps me to kind of go to bed with a little bit more thankful heart and wake up that same way. So I was really surprised a number of years ago to read in some secular woman's magazine where they did this kind of treatment for severely depressed people. People who were so depressed they couldn't get out of bed. And the only treatment that they gave these people was telling them to write down three things they were thankful for every day. And they actually saw improvement in these people. They were less depressed just by carrying that out. And I think that's great. But what I want to say to the people doing the study is, who are they thanking? Who are they thanking? They don't know. I mean, I'm assuming they're not believers. They don't know the giver of the good gifts. Just being thankful is Okay, but we are blessed to know the one who gives the good gifts. We know who we're thanking. What a privilege we have to know him who is the giver of all good gifts. So growing in gratitude to God for his many good gifts, but again holding them loosely, he gives, he takes away. He's God. Number four, cultivate a God-directed worldview. We need to intentionally develop a wider view of the world, be world-minded Christians, not just little United States, beautiful Charlottesville. Do you see the sun? Oh, I'm excited. You live in a beautiful part of the world, but we need to think holistically, whole world about God's world. Now, I don't know all of you. I don't know the financial challenges that you may be facing. But I do know you all have clothes on. You've all had food to eat today. And those two things set us apart from many, many people in the world. And I tried to find statistics on this that all Americans, all Americans, even the poorest Americans, are either among the richest 3% or 1% in the world. So no matter what struggles you may be facing, we're all at the wealthier end by God's grace. He's chosen to put us here at this time. And so it is important for us to kind of get outside this, what John Piper calls Disneyland. He says the United States is like Disneyland. It's just so easy to live here. We have so much abundance. And it's just helpful for us to think about how most people in the world live. We want to cultivate this perspective of just being mindful of how so many people in the world live. So a couple of suggestions I would make. Get to know a missionary that your church supports. Build a relationship, a friendship, and find out what life is like for her or him, her, I guess, in another country. You may know the prayer guide Operation World. Are you familiar with that book? It is updated regularly and there are two or three pages on every country in the world. And it describes what life is like and what God is doing. How the kingdom is growing in this particular country and ways to pray. Operation World. I recommend that highly, just to help you think about other countries and see what God is doing. And they have a children's version that I just bought for my grandchildren. There's an organization called Voice of the Martyrs that serves people who are being persecuted around the world because they named the name of Christ. And we have given money to them for years. And I will tell you, every month when the mailing comes and I open the envelope, I have to make myself look at the pictures. I'd rather not look at these pictures. A woman who's been burned because she names Christ as her Savior. people who have died, people who've lost family members, who've lost all their belongings. But it's so good for me to see what my brothers and sisters in Christ are experiencing. It helps to put what I think I need and what I want into a more eternal perspective, just kind of a worldwide perspective. I have been given so much. I want to be shareful. Which brings us to number five, grow in selfless giving. Grow in selfless giving. Look for ways to be givers. Many, many years ago we had the privilege of attending John Piper's church for a year and it was great. And then we moved from there back to Portland and we kept getting his cassette tapes. Do you all even know what cassette tapes are? You're all so young. I still remember a sermon that I heard him preach during that year when we were there. It was on Ephesians 428. He who steals must steal no longer, but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so he will have something to share with one who has need. And he said there are three ways to think about money. The first, which he did not recommend, and God's word does not recommend, is to steal. Well, we're not going to do that. Second is to work to have. And third is to work to have to give. Work to have to give. And that's what we're called to as Christians, is work to have to give. And as we learn to give more of our possessions and our money and our time and our energy, more freely, as we just give more freely, we become freer from our addiction to things of this world. God is a generous, giving God. And as we become more like him, we will grow in generous giving. At our previous church up north of Chicago, one of the elders was George Sweeting, who used to be president of Moody Bible Institute and pastor at Moody Church. Just this amazing, godly man. But one of his principles that we heard so many times from his lips, seldom resist a generous impulse. I think that is so good because if you have a generous thought, a way of serving others, it's probably from the Lord. It's probably God's Spirit encouraging that because we are not among ourselves, you know, in ourselves naturally generous. So let's be women who are growing in selfless giving, just whatever God gives, just passing it on. Number six, develop an eternal perspective. We need to think clearly and carefully about what lasts. We talked in 1 John about loving God, the things of God are the things that last forever. One thing that I love about growing older is that I just see that more clearly. I really do like getting old. Don't worry all you youngsters. There are so many blessings in being old. It's good. But I have a slightly better grasp on what lasts for eternity, and I'm a little bit quicker to just go, huh, this doesn't matter. I don't need to get upset about that. It just doesn't matter in light of eternity. I love in Ephesians 2 that very familiar passage, we were dead in our trespasses and sins, but God made us alive together with Christ. And then we read in verse 7, by grace you have been saved and God raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. That's what we have to look forward to for all of eternity, is God showing the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. That's what we're headed toward. That is glorious truth for all of eternity. So all the stuff right here and now, It doesn't really matter that much. It's so easy, when we look at the people around us who do not have that hope, who do not know Christ and are not anticipating eternity, they live for today and they live lives of just quiet desperation and loneliness and sadness and they seek all the happiness they can find in their new home or their vacation or their They're whatever it is, clothes and household goods, whatever it is, these things that just fill the horizon for so many people because that's all they have, that's all they know. But where is our hearts? Where is your heart? Where is my heart? Are our best energies going to be concentrated on things that are of this earth? Things of this short season? Am I dazzled by the things that are seen or am I longing for the things that are unseen? Let us remind ourselves regularly that we are sojourners, we are foreigners, we are aliens, strangers traveling through a foreign land. Our true home awaits us. Things will be hard here. It's not our true home and we shouldn't expect to feel at home. We are citizens of a different kingdom. Okay, here's my, I think, one of my very favorite quotes. You'll see it on your handout. Thomas Watson said, death begins a wicked man's hell, but it puts an end to a godly man's hell. Death begins a wicked man's hell. When a man who is not trusting in Christ, has not been drawn to Christ, comes to the end of his life, that's it. Hell forevermore. But death puts an end to a godly man's hell. So no matter what is going on in your life, we all have hard things, we all have things that are challenging to accept, things that we wish were different. No matter how hard your life is, and at times it may feel like hell to you, it will come to an end. 60, 70, 80, 90 years, whatever God has for us, it will come to an end, and then there is eternity where God is going to show to us the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness. So let's let that put the things of this earth in perspective. No matter how difficult life here on earth is, when we die it will end. The suffering will be over, the sadness will cease, and the eternal joy will begin. Lydia Brownback says, we came in with nothing. We will leave with nothing. Anything we get in between is fleeting and temporary. If we would just view our lives from this perspective, our capacity for joy would enlarge. Contentment would become much more than an occasional mood. It would characterize our entire life. Don't you see that? If we just don't care so much about the things of this age, the things of this world, we will be more content. So how can we grow in having this correct perspective? How can we grow in being grateful and patient and content and in valuing what is truly valuable for eternity? Isn't it so clear that we need to have our minds and our hearts just flooded with the Word of God? That we value the things that are more valuable. and we value less the things that are less valuable. We need to have our priorities realigned. The world, the flesh, and the devil all work to tempt us to misvalue things and to get caught up in things that just don't matter that much, to assign a greater value to things that are actually worth less while neglecting the weightier, more important things. Remember Satan with the woman in the garden deceiving her to believe that God and his ways were less valuable, less important, less reliable, less for her blessing than her own desires. We need to constantly be recalibrated by the word of God. We're so tempted to misvalue things. A while ago, we purchased a new bathroom scale. And it's nice. It's a lot better than the old one. But we found out that our old one had been 10 pounds off. And for years, we had been weighing ourselves without accuracy and thinking we were 10 pounds lighter than we were. Sober reality. We were measuring our weight without accuracy. We needed to be recalibrated by the new scale. But that's a great picture of the way we live our lives, isn't it? We give too much weight to things that don't matter. We look at things that are of lesser value, we want them, we get consumed with them, we're not content if we don't have them. And they're just of this world. They're things that don't last, that don't matter. What are we to value? What is truly weighty? May God help us to be increasingly recalibrated by his scale, according to his values, through the transforming work of his word and his spirit. And then lastly, we want to look to Christ, our example. As we seek to grow in contentment, let us look to Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith. Jesus lived his life in the power of the Spirit, and now he gives us the same Spirit with the same power. You know, when he told his disciples he was going away, but it is to your advantage that I go away. And they're thinking, how could it be to your advantage? Because you're right here with us. But what is better than walking right beside Christ is having his Spirit within. And he has promised us that Spirit. Jesus models true contentment for us, submitting to God's will for him, resting in his wisdom and his power and his love, walking in the power and direction of his Spirit, finding the joy and freedom of obedience, who for the joy set before him. Okay, Elizabeth Elliot, one last time, sorry. She said, Jesus loved the will of his father. He embraced the limitations, the necessities, the conditions, the very chains of his humanity as he walked and worked here on earth, fulfilling moment by moment his divine commission and the stern demands of his incarnation. Never was there a word or even a look of complaint. So as we reflect on Jesus, how he lived in faithful obedience to the point of death, even death on a cross, enduring the cross for the joy set before him, may we see in a fresh way what he endured for us. Jesus, the perfect, eternal Son of God, the Word became flesh and dwelled among us as the Spirit-anointed Messiah, full of grace and truth. He willingly bore the just wrath of God against our sins that we deserved. So may God help us know in new ways His abundant grace poured out on us. Christ walked in Spirit-led obedience to the Father, fulfilling His purpose and calling. So may God help us exalt in what Christ has done on our behalf, and may we too walk in spirit-led obedience, increasingly content in what God gives, in what God withholds, what he commands, what he forbids, trusting him with every detail of our lives. He is worthy of our trust. Please pray with me. Father, we thank you so much that you are our trustworthy God. You who created us and then called us in Christ, we belong utterly and completely to you. And we can trust that you know exactly how each one of us needs to grow to be made more and more like Christ. We thank you that we can rest in your wisdom. We can embrace it freely and wholeheartedly. That we do not have to compare what you do in our lives with that that you are doing in others' lives. May you help us, Lord, to battle sinful comparison, to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, to follow him, and to be so grateful when you choose to bless others in ways that we would love to be blessed in that way, but you choose not to. Lord, help us to submit to that. Help us to rest in who you are. Help us to be so confident in your love for each one of us. Help us to see your hand at work in circumstances. And when we cannot see your hand, I pray that you would help us trust your heart. May we fill our minds increasingly with your truth. May we be aware of ways in which we're tempted to just follow the things of this life, the things of this world. Help us to guard against too much influence in that way. Help us to be recalibrated by your word that we value things we ought to value. Lord, we long to be made more like Christ. And we are so grateful to know that you are committed to doing that work in us. And we look forward to seeing how you are going to change each one of us in ways you know we need to be changed. So again, Lord, our hope is in you and our eyes are on you. And we are grateful to be your adopted daughters. And we pray this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.