The Foundation of Contentment

to be with you this evening. I've never been to this area and it's so beautiful even though it's pouring down rain. It's helpful that I'm from Oregon so I'm used to rain and rain doesn't really bother me but I hear that the weather might be a little bit nicer tomorrow so I'm hoping to see some of the beauty. Lisa keeps telling me there's mountains but I haven't seen them yet so I'm not so sure. So it has been a joy. It's just been astonishing to me to see how God keeps having me speak on contentment. And I had talked to a lot of women in a lot of stages of life who are struggling with contentment. And sometimes I wonder if it might be a little bit more challenging for women to cultivate contentment than men. Or it might just be that I don't talk to men about what's going on in their hearts as much as I talk to women. But I talk to women who long to be married and the Lord hasn't brought someone along and they're struggling to be content. I talk to women who are in their dream job, their dream career and finding out it isn't all that dreamy. And I've talked to women who might have recently gotten married and finding out marriage isn't exactly what they thought it was going to be. And I talk to women who have multiple young children at home and are so exhausted by the 24-7-ness of that life, struggling to be content in those long, long days. I talk to women who, their husbands are really busy and gone a lot, and they're struggling to be content. And I talk to women at my stage of life, dealing with the changes that come with aging. Children have left home. What is my identity now? What am I supposed to do? So we women have a lot of opportunities given to us by our wise good God to learn and relearn and learn yet again to be content. And aren't you so thankful that Paul talks about it that way in Philippians 4? He says, I have learned to be content. So this is something that God wants us to learn, but something that he is helping us learn in all of these different circumstances. Thomas Watson, one of those Puritan writers, says that discontentment is universal and epidemic. Universal and epidemic. And I think that's really true. I don't have to talk to very many people before we start going down that road of ways in which we're struggling to be content. Discontentment is so tempting, isn't it? It's just so easy to be discontent. And so I'm going to wait until a little bit later this evening to define contentment. But let me give you a really simple definition of discontentment. Discontentment is having what I don't want or wanting what I don't have. Isn't that true? Having what I don't want. I don't want this thing in my life, but I have it. Or wanting what I don't have. longing for something that God has not given. So you'll notice even in that definition, having what I don't want, wanting what I don't have, we're talking a lot about desires. And so tomorrow morning we'll talk more about that, about the desires of our heart and that struggle for contentment. But I am just convinced that if we are going to grow in learning contentment in the various circumstances in which we find ourselves, that contentment has to be based upon the character of God. It's easy for us, if we got a good night's sleep and relationships are going well and the bills are being paid and everything, to say we're content. But that's just circumstantial contentment. And circumstances come and circumstances go. And if our contentment is based on circumstances, it's just going to ebb and flow. Circumstances change, but God doesn't change. So tonight we're going to focus on several aspects, several glorious truths about our great God. These are things that are probably familiar to you, but I hope as we talk through them you'll see how together these things just build a foundation for learning contentment. And as we begin, let me encourage you to pick out something in your life, something that you have that you don't want, or something you want that you don't have. Maybe a big thing, maybe a little thing. Just pick out one thing that you could kind of come back to. And my prayer is that Later this evening you might think about that one thing a little bit differently because of the truths that we are going to look at about our great God. So we'll focus on God tonight. Then tomorrow morning we'll think more about our hearts and our desires. And then in the afternoon we'll talk about ways in which we can cultivate contentment that is based on our unchanging God. So, let's begin with a word of prayer and then we will dive in. Please pray with me. Heavenly Father, we praise you as the one true living God. We thank you for your word, and we thank you that you have in your wisdom revealed to us what you know we need to know about you. So I pray, Lord, as we look at some aspects of your character, that you would just cause our minds to be filled with this glorious truth, and cause our hearts to be inclined toward you, May we worship you, Lord, as we take a look at some of what you have revealed about yourself to us in your word. And I pray that you would just work through these passages at which we look, the things that we discuss, to help us grow in learning contentment that is based completely on you, on who you are. So please be at work, Lord. You know each one of us. You know what we need to hear. You know ways in which we need to be encouraged and convicted and corrected. So we ask that you would do that work. Our hope is in you. And we pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, our risen and reigning Savior and King. Amen. John Calvin, one of the esteemed Theologians of church history says in his institutes, he wrote the following, nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is to say true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts, the knowledge of God and of ourselves. So wisdom comes from the knowledge of God and of ourselves. So that's the way we're going to focus our time together tonight. We're looking at God tomorrow morning, more at ourselves. So we're going to look at four attributes of God that I think as we think about each one together, how they just fit together to help us think about contentment, about growing and learning contentment. The first attribute is the sovereignty of God, that God is sovereign. So there's a definition there. God plans and carries out his perfect will over the smallest and largest parts of creation fully, and he does so without failure or defeat. This is glorious truth, and I don't know how people who don't believe in the sovereignty of God ever sleep at night. Isn't it just your hope, your stay, the foundation of the way you view everything? God's sovereignty is so precious, and it is a truth that we see throughout scripture. We're gonna look at an interesting Old Testament character, Nebuchadnezzar, and see a way in which God revealed truth to him about his sovereignties. So please turn to Daniel 4. If you have your Bibles, turn to Daniel 4. Now you may remember Nebuchadnezzar. Did you all do that jump rope thing? Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Jews? No? Okay. I'm showing my age. It was really popular back in the 60s, I think, yeah. Anyway, Nebuchadnezzar, he was the king of Babylon, which was a great and mighty power in the ancient Middle East. And one evening, Nebuchadnezzar was up on the roof looking around and he spoke these words that are just astonishing. We read in Daniel 4 verse 30. Is not this great Babylon which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty? And as soon as he had spoken these words of just astonishing arrogance, a voice from heaven responded, O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken. The kingdom has departed from you, and you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. And you shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and seven periods of time shall pass over you until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will. And then verse 33 tells us immediately the word was fulfilled against Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven from among men and ate grass like an ox and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair grew as long as eagles feathers and his nails were like birds claws. Now let's pause here just a minute and think about this picture. This great and mighty king uttered words of such pride and immediately, immediately he was humbled by God. I think one thing we can learn from that is what God thinks about our human pride and how inappropriate it is. He is God. We are not. And God responded to Nebuchadnezzar's pride by literally putting him out to pasture for seven years. So it's easy for us to look at Nebuchadnezzar and think how misguided he was, how arrogant he was. But I think perhaps we're more like him than we think. Lydia Brownback says the following, don't we fall into the same delusion from time to time? We may not credit ourselves with the creation of an economic and military superpower, such as ancient Babylon, but how often do we claim, if I don't get the job done, who will? Or, it's up to me to make sure this problem gets solved. Or, I have to manage every detail of this project because I just don't trust it will get done right any other way. Thinking that our input or actions are necessary for success soon leads to the anxious, fearful, and inwardly focused belief that our world would fall apart if we don't hold it all together. We call it control, which our society calls a virtue, but we fail to recognize that such control is really a synonym for pride. Isn't that true? Ways in which our pride just manifests itself in our desire to control things. So we can learn from Nebuchadnezzar. We can learn from his example. Now following this seven-year period of humiliation, Nebuchadnezzar was restored. So we read in verse 34 and 35, At the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored Him who lives forever. For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. And none can stay his hand or say to him, what have you done?" And then remarkably, the text goes on to tell us that Nebuchadnezzar's glory and majesty and splendor were returned to him, which is just an astonishing demonstration of God's mercy, undeserved restoration. And the chapter ends with Nebuchadnezzar's words of praise in verse 37. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the king of heaven, for all his works are right and his ways are just. and those who walk in pride he is able to humble." Which I think is kind of an understatement. He certainly is able to humble. So it's just an amazing storyline. God blessed Nebuchadnezzar with much success. Nebuchadnezzar took credit for it. God humbled him. And then Nebuchadnezzar in that humiliation learned truth about the one true God and God restored him. And what is the truth that he learned about him? Back in verse 35, God does according to his will among the host of heaven. and among the inhabitants of the earth. And none can stay his hand or say to him, what have you done? What glorious truth. God does whatever he chooses to do. And no one can stop him. He reigns over all things. He puts people into positions of power. and he removes people from positions of power. No one can question him. He is not answerable to anyone. He's the sovereign ruler, the king of kings, and the lord of lords. Now there's one more thing I want us to see about God's sovereignty. Please turn to Isaiah, chapter 45, verses 6b and 7. Isaiah 45, verses 6b and 7. This is a remarkable text. Read with me. I am the Lord and there is no other. I form light and create darkness. I make well-being and create calamity. I am the Lord who does all these things. that just gives us more information about God's sovereignty. This spectrum of God's sovereignty, light and darkness, well-being and calamity. God reigns over all of those things. Now we have to be really careful here, we have to think whole Bible here, because we know from elsewhere in scripture, for instance, God is light, in him there is no darkness at all. We read in 1 John, God is light, in him there is no darkness at all. But he rules over light and darkness. We know that God is good, there is no evil in him, and yet he rules over well-being and calamity. It's one of those mysteries that is so difficult for us to understand, but we need to hold firm to that truth. God, in his word, instructs us, teaches us, in a number of places, a number of texts, that he is the sovereign ruler over everything, the good things and the hard things. At some time when there is a calamity, people who claim to speak for God will say something like, God didn't have anything to do with this. God didn't know what was going to happen. They try to get God off the hook. In places like this, and there are a lot of texts like this, God puts himself on the hook. He declares he is sovereign over everything. Just recently I was reading in Ecclesiastes and I came across another verse like this. Ecclesiastes 7.14. In the day of prosperity be joyful and in the day of adversity consider God has made the one as well as the other. Isn't that remarkable? And I hope you're beginning to see how thinking about God's sovereignty begins to build a foundation for thinking about learning contentment in the things of our lives, the circumstances of our lives, the good things and the hard things. So discontentment says that God is not in control. that the difficulties in our lives, large and small, that the good things that we long for and don't have are outside of His control. That's the temptation that we face. That's the lie that we are tempted to believe when things are hard. So we must continually remind ourselves and each other that God reigns supremely over all things. The sovereignty of God is essential in building a foundation for learning contentment. I believe that meditating on God's sovereignty and thinking about that in relation to all the circumstances of our life, large and small, it's just essential for us to grow in learning contentment. Alright, let's move on to a second attribute of God. God is self-sufficient. God is self-sufficient. He possesses within his own life as God everything that is good. He has it all and no one else has anything that is not given to them by him. He has everything that we lack, everything we need. Now again, we see God's self-sufficiency gloriously taught throughout scripture. We'll look at just a couple of passages. In Acts 17, you may remember, that's a familiar passage, when Paul is in Athens and the people there were, they prided themselves, that's the right word, isn't it? Prided? Yes, thank you. On knowing every god and having an altar and having all these philosophical discussions and just being experts in the area of religion. And they also had an altar to an unknown God. And Paul saw that and began to explain to them truth about the one true and living God. These verses are familiar, Acts 17 verses 24 and 25. This is some of what Paul explained to the Athenians about who this unknown God was. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything. Since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. So God gives to all people, all things, life and breath and everything. You think about Every breath that you take, I've read we take about 20,000 breaths a day. Each one of those is a gift from God. God gives all things to all people. Let's turn to another passage that I think is helpful as we think about God's self-sufficiency. Psalm 50, 5-0, Psalm 50. This is such an interesting chapter. I commend it to you sometime when you have time to read the whole chapter because the people of Israel are on trial and God is the judge and the chief witness and the prosecuting attorney. It's really fascinating. But we'll just read verses seven to 15 of Psalm 50. Here, O my people, and I will speak. O Israel, I will testify against you. I am God, your God. Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you. Your burnt offerings are continually before me. I will not accept a bull from your house or goats from your folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the hills and all that moves in the field is mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine. Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving and perform your vows to the Most High and call upon me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you and you shall glorify me. Now we know from reading the Old Testament that the people of Israel were sometimes more obedient, sometimes less obedient. And when this is written, they're doing something that's right. It says their burnt offerings are continually before God. So they're doing what they're supposed to be doing, right? Apparently not. Apparently there's something wrong with their hearts as they're offering these burnt offerings to the Lord. And when you think about it, the pagan cultures that lived around the Israelites, they viewed their false gods as needy, as angry, and they would offer their sacrifices to their false gods to give them something that they lacked or to appease their gods. So it makes sense that the Israelites were influenced by the people around them and began to think of God, the one true and living God, in the same way. And apparently that's what was going on in their hearts as they continually offered their sacrifices. And God sets them straight. He says, I don't have any lack. You cannot offer to me anything that I don't already have. I love in verse 12 where he says, if I were hungry, and that's a big if, If I were hungry, I wouldn't tell you. The world and its fullness are mine. Everything belongs to me. Don't think that you are meeting some need in God by offering these sacrifices. God has no need because he has everything. So then he goes on to instruct the people about what should characterize their hearts as they're offering these sacrifices. Do you see it in verse 14? What should their hearts be characterized by? A sacrifice of? Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving. If they're thinking rightly and correctly that God has all things, he gives all things, they receive all things from him, All they could offer to God is a heart that is thankful and grateful. God gives and we receive. We owe to him constant thanksgiving and praise for every good thing that we receive. It's all from his hand. It's one of the things that we learn from God's self-sufficiency. So how does this attribute of God help us as we think about learning contentment? Discontentment says, God doesn't have what I need. He can't provide for what is necessary for my happiness. And we're tempted to look elsewhere for happiness. So we must continually remind ourselves that He, the one true God, has all things. He is the creator and sustainer and ruler of all. Whatever I truly need, He can provide. He's able. The self-sufficiency of God continues to build our foundation for learning contentment. Third attribute of God. God is all-knowing. or omniscient and all wise. He knows all things, he understands all things perfectly and he uses this complete knowledge to make the best plans to accomplish his perfect purposes. What comfort that is to recognize that God knows everything and he does everything according to his perfect wisdom. Again, we see this throughout scripture, Old Testament and New Testament. Here are a couple of passages. Psalm 147.5 says, Great is our Lord and abundant in power. His understanding is beyond measure. Think of that, immeasurable, infinite, without limit, boundless. That is God's understanding. And what a glorious truth that is for us finite, limited human beings who frequently don't understand what's going on. I sometimes think of it in this way, I know this much, I think I do, and most of what I know is probably not accurate, and God knows this much. So there's a lot between what I think I know and what God knows. So it's no wonder that I don't always see what's going on, I don't always understand, but I can trust God's infinite wisdom and knowledge. Turn to Isaiah 40, Isaiah 40 verses 13 and 14. Isaiah 40 is just a glorious chapter. Have you learned this about Isaiah? If you're feeling kind of discouraged, it's really a good place to go, the second half of Isaiah, Isaiah 40 on to 66, and just read that and have your mind reminded of what a great God God is. So we read in Isaiah 40 verses 13 and 14, Who has measured the spirit of God or what man shows him his counsel? Whom did he consult and who made him understand? Who taught him the path of justice and taught him knowledge and showed him the way of understanding? These rhetorical questions, you know what those are? Questions that are so obvious you don't need to answer them. But these rhetorical questions illustrate how God knows everything. He needs no counsel. He needs no advice, no new information. There's never an occasion when we can tell God something new. Never a time when we inform Him of a need, of some crisis in our lives. Never a time when He responds, Oh, I didn't know that. I had no idea that was going to happen. I didn't know that was going on. Now we've got to come up with plan B. No, that never happens. God knows everything. He knows it perfectly. His understanding is infinite. His knowledge is infinite. And His wisdom is infinite. It's astonishing to think about. Some of these verses are quoted in Romans 11, 33 to 36. You may be familiar, as you think about the book of Romans, after these 11 chapters where Paul has been explaining glorious gospel truth, just unfolding for us the riches of God's mercy and grace showed to us in Christ. And then as we get to this turning point at the end of chapter 11, before turning to the Implications and applications of chapter 12 and following. Right there at the end of chapter 11, Paul pauses and he just offers up this heartfelt doxology of praise. He says in verse 33, oh the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and inscrutable his ways. And then he quotes what we just read. For who has known the mind of the Lord? Who has been his counselor? Who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. And I think it's so interesting that at that pivotal point in the book of Romans, when Paul could praise God rightly for any number of things, but he praises God for his wisdom and knowledge, which has been demonstrated so beautifully in all of these chapters explaining the gospel to us. But I also think Paul, I don't know, we'll have to ask him someday, but I wonder if he is thinking about our tendency to want to give God our advice, to want to let God know what we think ought to be done. And he has this clear reminder, God knows everything, we never need to instruct him. But in a lot of our discontentment, I think we question God's wisdom. I think if you think about areas in your life where you're struggling to be content, a good bit of it probably comes down to kind of a feeling or a thought we have that we know better than God. Don't you think? I should have this in my life. I would be so much happier if I had this in my life. I think I know better than God. Or, this challenge in my life is too hard. I can't do it. I can't live with this. I think I know better than God. I think that's what a lot of our discontentment is saying if you get down to the root of it. We're kind of saying, God, where were you when this happened? How can you explain this? Are you listening? Do you care? Do you know how difficult this is for me? Don't you see how much better it would be if... So as we think about this battle for growing in contentment, it is right and necessary to consider God's infinite knowledge and wisdom. He knows all things. He knows what is best. He knows what is right and perfect in keeping with his moral, right, perfect character. Doesn't that give you great hope? It's not dependent upon me and the little bit that I think I understand. God knows everything. One of my favorite passages to help me submit my mind and my heart to God's much higher wisdom is Psalm 131, Psalm 131, one and two. We read there, Oh Lord, my heart is not lifted up. My eyes are not raised too high. I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul like a weaned child with its mother. Like a weaned child is my soul within me. And I will frequently say that to myself when my mind starts running along on things that I don't really understand. I will just think, those things are too great and too marvelous for me. I don't need to figure them out. God knows everything. And I attempt to calm and quiet my soul with truth about who God is. So, what does discontentment say? Discontentment says God doesn't know what I need. I know better. I want this or I don't want what I have. But God's word assures us that he knows better. He brings into our lives or withholds from our lives exactly what he knows is best for us. If I think I want or need something and I don't have it, God knows I don't need it. And so I must continually remind myself of his higher thoughts. Fourth attribute. God is love. God is love and he gives good gifts. It is wonderful to think about God's sovereignty, his sovereign control over everything, his self-sufficiency that he has everything, his wisdom that he knows everything. But what glorious comfort it is to recognize these remarkably glorious truths are channeled toward us in his love for us. He loves us. First John 4 10, in this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Another verse related to this, Romans 8.32, he who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, which demonstrates his love for us, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? That verse is such true comfort, isn't it? When we think about our greatest need by far, that we were dead in our sins, our greatest need has been satisfied, has been met by God's love shown for us in Christ, in sending Christ to become My mind just went blank. God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of Christ, that great exchange. So if God has done that for us, our deepest need, we can trust him for all of our lesser needs, can't we? It's one of those arguments from greater to lesser. God has done this. We can trust him for everything else, all the other details of our lives. This is true and this is love, this is God's love. I love this the line from the song, objects of mercy who should have should have known wrath were filled with unspeakable joy. When we think about what we deserve because of our sin, with what we've been given because of Christ, we are filled with unspeakable joy and unspeakable contentment, we might say. James 1.17 tells us every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there's no variation or shadow due to change. We learn from this verse and throughout the Bible that this loving God gives good gifts. He is a loving Father and he knows what we need. But it's helpful for us to remember that God defines what is good. And sometimes God's definition of good looks different than our definition. But he knows better than we do what is truly good. I love Matthew 7, 11. If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father who is in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him? So discontentment says, God doesn't care about me. He doesn't really love me. And I think it might be true that this is an area, a lie that women in particular might be tempted to believe. That God doesn't really love me. I think he loves everybody else. I don't think he loves me. We might be more apt to feel that way, to feel that God doesn't love us. But we must battle those false feelings with the truth of God's word. We have to be filling our minds constantly with true truth so that we listen to that and not listen to our feelings. Recently I read the following in a devotional by Tim Keller, and I think it's such a great picture for this idea that we need to live by truth and not by feelings. He said, we must live on the basis of what God has revealed, not what we feel. Pilots who fly into clouds must follow their instruments even when those contradict their clear SIDS perceptions of which way is up or they will inevitably die. Isn't that interesting? I thought of that today when I landed here because the cloud cover was really low to the ground and we kept going down, down, down and I thought, I hope these instruments are working because you can't see a thing out there. Keller goes on, when we go through clouds of prosperity or adversity, we must not go on feelings of self-sufficiency or despair, but rather should trust a gracious, wise God. Don't you love that? He said, when we're going through clouds of prosperity, we think things are going well, and we feel self-sufficient, that's not accurate. Or when we're going through clouds of adversity, and we're tempted to feel despair, that's not accurate. we need to live by the truth that God has given us in his word and not by our feelings. So God loves us and he is our loving father who gives us good gifts and his greatest gift is found in the cross of Christ. Now as I think about God's love for us and his good gifts and then thinking back to what we read in Psalm 50 about offering to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving It just brought to my mind what I call a cycle of contentment. A cycle of contentment. We need, God provides, we thank Him and He is glorified. This just happens over and over and over again. We need, we are needy people with many needs. God provides what He knows is best. We thank Him and God is glorified. Don't you just see that pattern in your life? And as we think about and live through and have eyes to see that cycle over and over and over, it will help us learn to be more content. Now, we should pray about everything. Those things that are in our lives that are hard, that we wish weren't there, tell God that. Pour out your heart to Him. Those things that you don't have, that you long for, that you ache for, pour out your heart to God. It's astonishing to think that the God of the universe, the creator of all things, the sustainer of all things, the ruler of all things, invites us to pour out our hearts to Him. He truly is our loving Father. And so those areas, maybe that one thing that I encourage you to think about, those areas in your life that tempt you to be discontent, pour out your heart to God about them. But remember to do so under the umbrella of submission to his sovereignty, his self-sufficiency, his infinite wisdom, and his love for you. So yes, tell him your needs, tell him your desires. But we want to be like Christ in the garden and end with, not my will, but yours be done. Because we need to recognize again and again, God knows better than I do. God will do what he knows is right. So what joy it is to be his beloved daughters and have this opportunity to ask, to ask Him to take away what's so hard or to bring what we long for, but to recognize He knows better than we do. As we think about who God is like, what He's like as our foundation for contentment, I want to look at one more text, Psalm 16, verse 5 and 6. We read, the Lord is my chosen portion and my cup. You hold my lot. The lions have followed for me in pleasant places. Indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. Now here's an Elizabeth Elliott quote because I cannot speak about anything without at least one Elizabeth Elliott quote. She said about these verses, I know of no greater simplifier for all of life. Whatever happens is assigned. Are some things out of the control of the Almighty? Every assignment is measured and controlled for my eternal good. As I accept the given portion, the other options are canceled. Decisions become easier, directions clearer, and hence my heart becomes inexpressibly quiet. A quiet heart is content with what God gives. Don't you love that? A quiet heart is content with what God gives. That's the way I want to live my life, with a quiet heart that just accepts what God gives and what God withholds. So we've been spending a little bit of time looking at some specific characteristics of God. We've read in his revealed word that he is sovereign and self-sufficient, that he has complete wisdom, he understands everything, he loves us, he gives good gifts. So I think this might be a good time for us to commit to something. When hard times come, and they will, let's determine to judge the hard times by the character of God and refuse to judge the character of God by the hard times. Does that make sense? We want so much to have our vision filled with truth about God, that whatever happens to us, the good things, the hard things, we see them through that lens of the character of God. And so when those hard things come, let's refuse to doubt God's goodness, to doubt his love, to doubt his sovereignty, and judge those hard things by the character of God. Let's remind ourselves again and again who God is, what He has revealed to us about Himself in His Word, and look at all the circumstances of our lives, the good things, the hard things, through just that category of who God is. It's so tempting when suffering comes into our lives and when we have something we don't want or want something that we don't have to judge that God doesn't have everything, that he's not reigning supreme, that he doesn't understand as well as we do, that he doesn't love us, but God's word tells us otherwise. Now on your handout, I have a long quote. And I put it there because it's a little bit old Englishy and might be hard to follow if you can't read it. But I encourage you to read it as I read it out loud because this just sums up so well what we've been saying. And this is from the letters of John Newton. He's one of my favorite historical figures. His letters, his writings are just so helpful. So please follow along as we read this. One of the marks of Christian maturity which a believer should seek is an acquiescence. That's a good word, isn't it? Acquiescence in the Lord's will founded in a persuasion of His wisdom, holiness, sovereignty, and goodness. So far as we attain to this, we are secure from disappointment. Our own limited views and short-sighted purposes and desires may be and will be often overruled. But then our main and leading desire that the will of the Lord may be done must be accomplished. How highly does it become us, both as creatures and as sinners, to submit to the appointments of our Maker and how necessary it is to our peace. This great attainment is too often unthought of and overlooked. We are prone to fix our attention upon the second causes and immediate instruments of events, forgetting that whatever befalls us is according to his purpose, and therefore must be right and seasonable in itself, and shall in the issue be productive of good. From hints arise impatience, resentment, and secret repinings. which are not only sinful but tormenting. Whereas, if all things are in his hand, if the very hairs of our head are numbered, if every event, great and small, is under the direction of his providence and purpose, and if he has a wise, holy, and gracious end in view, to which everything that happens is subordinate and subservient, then we have nothing to do but with patience and humility to follow as he leads and cheerfully to expect a happy issue. How happy are they who can resign all to him, see his hand in every dispensation, and believe that he chooses better for them than they possibly could for themselves. Isn't that glorious truth? And I love those words, acquiescence. There's more. but resignation, believing that God chooses better for us than we could for ourselves. Again, reminding ourselves who God is and looking at all of life through that truth. You may be familiar with a wonderful book called The Valley of Vision, a collection of Puritan prayers, such a help to us in our devotional lives. Just a couple of lines from one of those prayers. If it be consistent with thy eternal counsels, the purpose of thy grace, the great ends of thy glory, then bestow upon me the blessings of thy comforts. If not, let me resign myself to thy wiser determinations." It just comes back to acknowledging that God is God and I am not. He knows better than I do. He knows exactly what each one of us needs to have brought into our lives, to have withheld from our lives, for each one of us to grow in Christ-likeness, to be made more and more like Christ. So now that we're getting near the end, the time has come to define contentment. Contentment. I mentioned earlier about circumstantial contentment that ebbs and flows. So true biblical contentment is based on our unchanging God. So let's define it in this way. Contentment is being satisfied in God, His character, His works and His ways. First, contentment is being satisfied in God's character. Certainly, these aspects of His character that we've looked at briefly tonight, but so much more. As we read His word, we're continually learning new things and being confirmed in things that we have seen about the character of God. And in His infinity and perfection, there is so much to learn. In fact, we will be learning more and more of the glories of our great God for all of eternity. There's plenty of things to learn to occupy us. Also, contentment is being satisfied in God's works. Again, there's a lot that we could talk about here. God's work of creation, his sustaining of all that holds the world together. But supreme is God's work of redemption, what he has done for us in Christ. And I want to read just a couple of verses to remind us again of these precious truths. Romans 3, 23 to 25. For all who sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. Colossians 2, 13 and 14, and you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. That image of our sins nailed to the cross should just fill our minds and hearts with gratitude as we think again and again what God has done for us in Christ. A number of years ago when we lived in Chicago at our church there on a Good Friday evening, A couple of men in the church built this large, rough, wooden cross that was up here in the front. And there was a time during our communion when people were encouraged to write out sins and to come up there with nails poking out just to put their sins on the cross. It was such a vivid picture of this glorious truth. This he set aside, the record of debt that we owed because of our sin. He set aside, nailing it to the cross. What God has done for us in Christ is so enormous, so eternally significant, that as we reflect on redemption, it will help us grow in learning contentment. This year, I'm rereading through a devotional on the Psalms by Tim Keller, and here's a prayer that he wrote. Lord in Christ, I have been forgiven, adopted into your family, made righteous in your sight, given the gift of your spirit, and assured of my resurrection into glory unimaginable. Remind me that if you never did another thing for me, I should praise and serve you with my whole being for the rest of my life. We might say, if you never did another thing for me, I should be content, grateful, thankful, praising him. So let's reflect often on what God has done for us in Christ. And then, contentment is being satisfied in God's ways. Think about what kind of God God is. You know, the statement that is repeated so many times throughout the Bible, God is gracious and forgiving, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Aren't we so thankful that that is who our God is? He's faithful and patient and merciful and long-suffering. He does not deal with us according to our sins. As far as the East is from the West, so far has He removed our sins from us. He pours out His grace upon us who do not deserve it. How worthy He is and how right it is for us to find our contentment in Him. We cannot look at ourselves or our situations or circumstances, either the good, easy, pleasant ones or the challenging, difficult ones, and find contentment. Our contentment must be found in God, our wise, loving, sovereign, giving God. All right, we are going to end by looking at a passage that actually talks about contentment. I bet you thought we were never going to get there, huh? No, we're going to get there. So let's turn to Hebrews 13, 5 and 6. Hebrews 13, 5 and 6. There we read, keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have. For, he has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. So we can confidently say the Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me? I love this because it gives us some reasons for why we should be content. And it's found in the character of God, what he says here. He will never leave us. He promises us his presence. That is precious truth, his presence. And he is our helper. He promises us his faithfulness. Herein lies our contentment, being fully satisfied in God. It's been a joy to read a number of books on contentment. I love the topic and I'm always grabbing toward it, maybe because I struggle with it so much. But when I see a book on contentment, I want to read it. And certainly one of the best is The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs. And this book is full of wisdom, but here is an example, a beautiful description of a heart that is satisfied in God, content in God. This is what he says. Well, it is right that the Lord should do with his poor creatures what he will. I am under his feet and am resolved to do what I can to honor him. And whatever he does with me, I will seek him as long as I live. I will be content with what God gives. And whether he gives or not, I will be content. heart that is just fixed on who God is. That has got to be the foundation of our contentment. So I hope you are encouraged this evening to just be reminded yet again of some glorious truths that God's Word reveals to us about who He is. And as you end the day and go to sleep tonight, I just encourage you to reflect again on God's sovereignty and His wisdom and His self-sufficiency and His love shown for us in Christ. And may these together just build a foundation upon which our learning contentment can be based. It's a solid foundation. It doesn't ebb and flow. It doesn't change. And it doesn't matter how we feel. It's based in true truth. And that's where our contentment must be found. So please close with me in prayer. Father, we do praise you for your Word. We praise you for the things that you have revealed to us that just help us see more and more of your glory. God, in your infinity, there is just so much to see and learn. and grow in understanding. And we thank you that you have given us your Word and your Spirit to help us in that process. Lord, I pray for each one of us here that we would be women who are just saturating our minds and our hearts with your Word, that we would be women of the Word, and that we would be women who see you, love you, trust you, rest in you, have a quiet heart in you. Women who are confident that you have promised us your presence, you have promised us your help, may our eyes be focused on you. And I pray that all the circumstances of life, the good things and the hard things, would just take their proper perspective, just a smaller, less weighty perspective, as we look at weighty truth of who you are. So, Lord, please be at work to open our eyes and open our hearts that we would love you more. We thank you, God, for who you are. We give you great praise. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.