Finding Contentment 2021

Well, before we leave the book of Hebrews, at least for the time being, I want us to visit just a couple more verses that are key to finding contentment, which is, I think, a timely subject for us. How many of you love Thanksgiving week? I mean, Thanksgiving is just so wonderful. It's my favorite holiday. I know I'm not alone in that, just because it's so simple and so pure. And because expressing gratitude produces joy in our lives.

In fact, in a nutshell, the sermon today has to do with the fact that as we choose gratitude, we will find greater contentment. Now, gratitude and contentment are similar, but they're not exactly the same. In fact, I think contentment is more elusive than its sibling gratitude. An author named Natasha Crane, I'm going to paraphrase her, but she puts it this way. She says that, "Gratitude involves my perspective on what I have." Right? We'll count our blessings this week as we should, and we all have things to be grateful for.

Contentment includes that, but it takes it a step further because contentment includes my perspective on what I don't have. You know what I'm saying? To be content, you have to come to terms with the things that you actually don't have in your life. I'll give you an example. How many of you know which NFL quarterback has been to the Super Bowl the most times in history? How many? Just shout it out. Tom Brady. And how many rings does he have? Seven. I'm so grateful that these folks that memorize all sorts of NFL statistics are here in church today. I'll ask you for that. Seven rings.

And some years ago when Brady was being interviewed by 60 Minutes, he had a mere three rings, and he was asked the question, "Well, which one is your favorite?" To which he famously answered, "The next one." Now you got to have that kind of drive to become the greatest quarterback of all time. And it pains me to say that I have to admit because I'm a big Joe Montana fan, but I mean come on, let's not kid ourselves. After 10 Super Bowl appearances, seven championships, Tom Brady is the goat in his role. There's no doubt about it.

And at 44 years old, he's still playing. Like he's not going to be content until he's got a ring for every single finger. You know what I'm talking about? Now I'm sure he's grateful for the seven rings that he has, but his discontentment rises out of his desire for the ones that he doesn't have. Which leads me to ask you this question. What is the missing ring in your life? Be honest with yourself. What's that thing you find yourself daydreaming about, perhaps even obsessing about? When you think to yourself, "If I only had that thing or only had that person, then I would be truly content."

But have you ever noticed that some of the most contented people you'll ever meet, it seems that what they have or their circumstances have little or nothing to do with their contentment level? I think of Cori Ten Boom. Most of you know her story. Her mom died when she was 29, and then that was followed by a disappointing romance in her own life. Then she ends up helping to lead this resistance movement in her town against the Nazis. Along with her family, they hide Jewish people in their home. They arrange for safe transport out of German occupied territories.

What a tremendously generous, sympathetic, courageous thing until one of their neighbors rats them out to the Nazis. Cori, her sister Betsy, and their father Kasper are all arrested. Kasper would die within days of his arrest. Cori and Betsy are sent to the Ravensbruck concentration camp where Betsy would eventually die but just 12 days before Cori is released. Can you imagine kind of dealing with that? And yet rather than becoming bitter, she gets involved leading reconciliation efforts in Europe calling people to forgive as they have been forgiven in Christ.

And throughout the rest of her life, she really embodies what she would tell people often, which is this, that joy runs deeper than despair. Being proof that you can find contentment even in the wake of difficult circumstances and terrible losses. Now to be clear, contentment isn't about just ignoring your pain. Cori Ten Boom didn't just shut down emotionally. Neither is it retreating into your comfort zone and just ignoring the needs around you. And it is certainly not about just becoming lazy as if you're just kind of content to do nothing.

You could still have an ambition and still be content. I like how a pastor named Eric Raymond defines contentment. He says, "Contentment is the inward, gracious, quiet spirit that joyfully rests in God's providence." Doesn't that sound great? Who wouldn't want to have an inward, gracious, quiet spirit that is joyfully at rest in God's providence? As Paul said to his protege, Timothy, "Godliness with contentment is great gain." And so today I want to share with you three things that we can all apply, three things that as they become a reality in our life will lead to contentment in our hearts.

The first thing has to do with being grateful for all the things that God has in store for us. I don't know about you, but so often I just kind of focus on, you know, what's right in front of my face. But it is an understatement to say that the best is yet to come in terms of all that God has for us. And that means that no matter what's going on in our lives now, we can have our perspective. In fact, we can even do this first thing, we can be thankful for the kingdom that we anticipate then, the kingdom that is to be fulfilled and completely ahead of us.

Remember when you were a child and a five-hour car drive felt like an eternity? Anyone still remember that? How many of you, you know, the favor was returned when your own kids peppered you with that saying, "Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we almost there yet? When are we going to be there yet?" Well, guess what? We're not there yet. Hebrews 12:28 reminds us of how the future really impacts us now. It says, "Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be what? Thankful." What is he talking about with this kingdom that cannot be shaken? I have no idea. We're going to end early today. Let's just pray.

Here's the gist. If you read the Gospels and you pay attention, you'll notice that Jesus mentions the kingdom of God or alternatively the kingdom of heaven. Same thing a lot. Like for example, in Mark's gospel, the very first recorded statement of Jesus is this, "The time has come, the kingdom of God has come near." In Matthew's gospel, the very first sermon that Jesus preaches, his longest begins, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the," what? Kingdom of heaven. In the same sermon, he teaches us to pray, "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." In Matthew 13, he tells eight parables. The kingdom is a big deal.

And here's why, because Jesus came to launch his kingdom on earth. As God incarnate, Jesus begins putting things right in this world. And how does that happen? What does that look like? It begins by making us right with God. As we place our faith in Christ, what he did for us on the cross, his resurrection, he forgives our sins, fills us with his spirit, and empowers us to serve his kingdom. Now, are you still with me? In some, God makes us right so that we can share in making the world right. That's how the kingdom expands.

But it gets even better because our king has promised to return to finish the mission and put all things right. So if you want to find contentment, first be thankful for the kingdom we anticipate, then because it is going to be more glorious than we can even begin to imagine. And what started at Christmas will be fully completed. And notice it says, "It's a kingdom that cannot be shaken." And I want you to think about what this means. Because your health can be shaken. Your finances, your family, your relationships, your career can all be shaken. Many of you know this from firsthand experience.

In fact, nations can be shaken. Institutions, societies, all of creation can be shaken. But when Jesus returns, he promises to make all things new. That's his promise. Do you believe him? Thank you. And if you do, then let us be thankful. And so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe for our God is a consuming fire. What does that mean? It's a picture of his purity, his perfect justice, his holiness, which means that in his kingdom, sin, death, decay have no place.

And this is so key to contentment because sometimes, you know, we're not just discontent because we want a better car or a bigger house. We are discontented because we look around and we say, "Where are you, God? Where are you in this world that is so messed up? Where are you in my pain or my loneliness? In fact, you may dread the holidays because they only serve to accentuate your pain." And I get that. But I encourage you to remember, the story is not over yet. Jesus did not teach us in vain to pray, "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." That prayer, those words will be fulfilled fully, completely, perfectly.

Again church, do you believe this? Amen. It reminds me of the last book in the Lord of the Rings trilogy called The Return of the King. And J.R.R. Tolkien, a believer in Jesus, tries to capture what it will look like when the kingdom of God is fully established. And at the end of the book, when the last battle has been won and all has been made right, that's when Sam sees Gandalf and he says, "Gandalf, I thought you were dead." Then I thought I was dead myself. Is everything sad going to come untrue? What's happened to the world? "A great shadow has departed," said Gandalf. And then he laughed and the sound was like music or like water in a parched land.

And as he listened, the thought came to Sam that he had not heard laughter, the pure sound of merriment for days upon days without count. It fell upon his ears like the echo of all the joys he had ever known. My friends, all of the greatest joys that we experience in this life, and there are some wonderful, sublime joys, all of them will seem like just faint echoes in comparison to the joys we will experience then. So be thankful for that kingdom that we anticipate then.

And number two, be thankful for the blessings we enjoy now. Hebrews 13:5 says, "Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have." Because God has said, "Never will I leave you. Never will I forsake you." And I get it. To be content with what you have can be challenging when so much of what you have goes into the cost of living where we do, right? In fact, there's an organization every year they do a survey of the entire world's housing markets and they rank them from most affordable to least affordable.

And in 2017, this is what they released in terms of the least affordable. Number one least affordable place to live is the city of Hong Kong, followed by Sydney, Australia, then Vancouver, British Columbia. And coming in at number four, anybody care to guess? Santa Cruz, California. The first three cities they didn't really have to introduce but then had to add like a little paragraph. "Santa Cruz is located on the beach side of Santa's 8." Blah, blah, blah. It's like, you got to be kidding me. Fourth least affordable place on the planet. Congratulations. Enjoy the sunshine. Don's on me.

My poor brother, he's a pastor here as well. Paul, he lives here in Santa Cruz. He's got a daughter who lives in Vancouver. So he's kind of toast. Pray for him. But my point is this, you don't have to necessarily love money to feel like you never have enough. Just last month, an online magazine called Vox featured this article. It was entitled, "The Problem with America's Semi-Rich." And it begins with this. It says, "America's upper middle class works more, optimizes their kids, and is miserable." And by upper class, by the way, they're referring to anyone who makes or has a household income of $200,000 or more a year.

Now, that's a fair amount of money, but it's certainly no guarantee of contentment. Goes on to say, "They're rich, but they don't feel like it. They're always looking at someone else who's richer. They're also terrified. They want to lock in their positions for themselves and their families. They recognize that American society is increasingly one of have-nots, and they're determined not to be one of them." Let me kind of resonate with that just a little bit. Now compare that with what it says in Hebrews 13:5. "Be content with what you have, because God has said, 'Never will I leave you. Never will I forsake you.' So we say with what? Confidence, not terror, confidence. The Lord is my helper. I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?"

Now please don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to minimize or be glib about the financial stress or anxieties that you may have, but what these verses assure us is that we're not alone. The Lord is your helper. He has promised to provide for you your daily bread. We want it to be our monthly bread, our annual bread, and he says, "No, I will meet you each day and be your daily bread." You can count on that and be content that I will show up again tomorrow. But in the meantime, what blessings can you enjoy right now, today?

How about just the ability to gather as we are gathering right now? You know a year ago this weekend, we couldn't hold a single service indoors. Not one. A year ago, getting a vaccine wasn't even an option. A year ago this weekend, my father underwent quadruple bypass surgery a year ago yesterday. Longest five hours I think in our family has ever experienced, Saturday night. And when I heard the news, after five very long hours, that he had come through the surgery and it went well, I just lost it. I mean I just broke down and sobbed and sobbed and sobbed.

And here's why. One of the things you learn as a pastor is that things don't always go the way people want. Some people come into surgery and it's followed by their funeral. So I'm well aware God didn't owe us any extra time with Dad, but He graciously gave it to us anyway. What can you be thankful for? How about the people in your life? There's no amount of money in the world that can compare to the ones that you love. So enjoy it. Be grateful for it. Find contentment in it. For the kingdom that we anticipate then. For the blessings we enjoy now. And finally, for the Savior we love forever.

I think so much discontentment comes down to this. There's an empty place in the human heart that only Jesus can fill. And this is certainly not original to me. St. Augustine said it the best when he said, "Our heart is restless until it rests in you." There's a great story in John 4. There's a woman drawing water from a well and Jesus strikes up a conversation with her and He says to her, "You know the water, that kind of water, when you drink that water you're going to be thirsty again. But the water I give, he or she who drinks that, will never thirst again." In fact, it will well up in them and become a spring of eternal life.

And then just a few chapters later, John 7, we learn that that living water is the Holy Spirit who lives in us and unites us with Christ forever. And then Jesus, you know, everything takes on a different perspective. I mean look what it says in Hebrews 13:15, "Through Jesus," not through, you know, your effort or kind of like you're getting yourself all stoked up, "through Jesus therefore let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that confess His name." You know in context, this was written to people who were about to go back to, they were tempted to go back to their old wells, their religious rituals and their sacrificial system.

But the writer of Hebrews, you know those sacrifices, they were just signposting what Jesus was going to do on the cross. They're pointing to that. There's no point in going back to the sign, now you have the Savior. If you want to make a sacrifice, offer up your praises as a sacrifice. Express your love and gratitude to Jesus is why we, when we gather, we sing and worship Him so it gives voice to our praise.

I'll never forget, a couple years ago I was speaking at a conference over at Mission Springs up in Scotts Valley. In the particular group they had, there were a bunch of college kids, but they were a distinct group because if you recall when the Soviet Union collapsed, in the years following, maybe the next 10, 12 years, there was a unique window for Christian outreach into the Soviet Union that had just been sealed off for decades. Well, these college students were really the children of those folks who were reached with the gospel. And their families had relocated to the states.

So these are first generation, you know, Russian kids whose parents told them about Jesus. I'll never forget the way that they worshiped because then when they sang, they weren't, it wasn't like you know Jimi Hendrix on stage, it wasn't like a lot of movement, but the soul, the gratitude, the depth, it was absolutely amazing. I just, I was stunned. And I couldn't help thinking they weren't just praising God for themselves. They were praising God for their parents and their grandparents and their great grandparents who could not do that without fear of persecution.

And so they just opened up their hearts and their gratitude just poured out. But we don't just worship God with our praises. We also worship Him and thank Him with our deeds. In Hebrews 13:16 it says, "And do not forget to do good and share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased." You know, we don't do this because you know we're going to curry favor with God. We already have it, but it's out of that abundance of gratitude. We make these sacrifices of praise and of sharing and doing good for others.

Just this last week, our college group pulled together their monies and they raised enough for 4,000 meals for our food bank. I'm so proud of those kids because I don't know about you, but when I was in college, you know I was lucky to have a couple nickels to rub together and it hasn't changed much for a lot of these kids. So in just increments of 5 and 10 dollars, they came up with this amount. And you've also probably heard about a couple in our church. They put on a catered event in their backyard and the cost of admission was a donation to the food drive.

Well, their backyard party produced 34,000 meals for this year's food drive. It's absolutely amazing and we ought to celebrate these things. And as Adrian said earlier, if you'd like to participate, this is really our last day and you can just go to TLC.org/food. But again, never, ever, ever, ever do it out of guilt or obligation. Do it only out of joy and gratitude as the Lord enables you to do. And then don't miss two weekends from now, we will announce the grand total and it's going to be a time of celebration for sure.

He also mentioned Angel Tree. If you'd like to be a part of that, email robin@tlc.org. That won't cost you anything but a little bit of time. But what you will get in terms of blessing and joy as you deliver presents to kids who have a dad or a mom in prison, I mean, wow. Very well could be the most joyful thing you do all Christmas season. However you do it, may your heart just overflow and praise and service to the Lord you love because this is where we find contentment.

I'll close with this. A brilliant pastor and theologian named N.T. Wright shares a story that really helps illustrate what we've been talking about today. And it begins with imagining what it was like a thousand years ago during the construction of some of Europe's great cathedrals. Any of you seen some of these cathedrals firsthand in England or other parts of Europe? They're stunning.

But it begins when armed with the architectural plans, Master Builder assembles the stone cutters at their yard and he begins to tell them about the project they're going to embark upon. Now these stone cutters, they're not literate. They can't read the plans. The builder just tells them, "I will tell you how to cut the stone this way and the next one that way and if this one needs a pattern I'll tell you how to do that as well." It may take a while. You may well get very tired. You might even hurt your hands. But what you're doing now is going to become something glorious, something that you don't have the responsibility to put it all together because in fact it's going to be greater than these guys can even begin to imagine.

It's just so far beyond them. But out of obedience they show up day in and day out and they cut the stones as the Master has told them to cut them and some days they get very tired and sometimes they hurt their hands or they mess up and they get discouraged and they feel like quitting but they just keep going and going year after year after year following the Master's instructions and then the day comes.

And the Master builder shows up and he hauls off all of the cut stones and they hoist them up on the scaffolds and he makes sure that every single stone goes exactly where it's intended to go and it finds its place and when he is done the stone cutters see this cathedral in the morning light and it just takes their breath away. It's more glorious and lofty and beautiful than anything they could even begin to dream about and it just fills them with wonder and awe.

And as the Master ushers them in one by one they start to say, "Hey, that's one of the stones that I cut. There's an eye put that pattern on it. Just that one I thought was really bad. I took no pride in it but somehow it's all the better because of it." Well someday that will be us when we are blinking into the light of God's glorious, finished kingdom and it will be so much greater than we can even begin to imagine.

Today we're still in the stone cutters yard. Sometimes you'll get tired. Sometimes you'll get discouraged. Sometimes you will hurt your hands and feel like quitting. Now just keep focusing and following the Master. He will get you through. And after all only the Master can put it all together. But even so he invites us to offer ourselves in service of his kingdom knowing that he's going to take these rough stones that we have cut and he is going to form them into a future so glorious and so rest in that today. Be grateful for that today and may you find contentment in that every day. Amen? Let's pray.

Gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you that you have allowed us to assemble here, your stone cutters. And we look to you today for our strength, for our encouragement and Lord for our perspective. I know Lord people arrived here today with things going into their lives that bring about uncertainty or anxiety or pain by seeking contentment Lord. We do so not because we think all our troubles will go away. We do this because Lord you are perfectly content in and of yourself.

We want to grow in you and we want to experience the joy of the Lord in an abiding way because the joy of the Lord is our strength. And so this week especially Lord, I pray that even if we come to you with tired, hurting hands that we can class them together in prayer of gratitude. We can hold them up to you in praise and just revel in all that we have in you today, tomorrow, and forever. And it's all because of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And it is in his name that we pray these things and all God's people said, amen, amen.