Preacher: Jeremy Herbert

Theme: Contentment

Text: Philippians 4, 1 Timothy 6

Notes:

1. Focus on godliness
   • “godliness with contentment is great gain”
   • Deuteronomy 8:18, “the Lord your God…it is he who gives you power to get wealth”
   • God is both the source and the object of our joy and contentment
   • Godly contentment doesn’t preclude wise and holy ambition–it simply precludes making wealth the source or object of our happiness
2. You can’t take it with you, but you can send it ahead
   • 1 Timothy 6:7, “we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world.”
   • Luke 16:9, “make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth,”
3. Learn to live without so that we can learn to live with
   • 1 Timothy 6:8, “if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.”
   • We learn to focus on spiritual joy when we are distracted by things
   • “The soul that is only content with things will never be content”
4. We must watch our desires
   • We must avoid distraction from present reality
   • We must avoid attempting to fill soul emptiness with temporal wealth
   • We must avoid seeking status in temporal wealth
5. Craving wealth always ends badly
   • 1 Timothy 6:9, “those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.”
   • Jeremiah Burroughs, ‘The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment’, having much is more dangerous than having little, because you can afford harmful temptations
   • When you cling tightly to things it hurts more when they are taken away
   • Wealth tempts us to be prideful
   • Wealth tempts us to oppress others
   • Micah 2:1-2
6. Wealth tempts us to trust ourselves
   • Hosea 13:6, “but when they had grazed, they became full, they were filled, and their heart was lifted up; therefore they forgot me.”
   • Contentment results in generosity
   • 2 Corinthians 9
   • Matthew 6:19-27

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Preacher: Jeremy Herbert

Theme: Contentment

Text: Philippians 4:10-13

Notes:

“To live in a state of true satisfaction.” –Joe Thorn

“Who is rich? He that is content.
Who is that? Nobody.” –Benjamin Franklin

When Paul writes about contentment, he is not writing from a position of abundance–he is writing from prison.

Signs you are lacking contentment

1. Complaining
   • The children of Israel complained constantly after God led them from slavery in Egypt
   • “murmuring”
2. Covetousness
   • We want what others have
   • Exodus 20:17
3. Conditional Joy
   • “I will be happy if…

What does discontentment reveal about us?

1. We have a worship issue
   • Our tendency is to exchange the truth of God for lies
   • Our tendency is worship the creation instead of the Creator
   • Note: it is not wrong to enjoy good things that God gives
     • Our issue is that we make these requirements for contentment/joy
   • “The human heart is a perpetual idol factory.” –John Calvin
2. We have a pride issue
   • “Thus, a godly man wonders at his cross that it is not more, a wicked man wonders his cross is so much:” ― Jeremiah Burroughs, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment
3. We have a thankfulness issue
4. We have a faith issue
   • We don’t really trust God
   • We don’t believe God
   • We rebel against God

Enemies of Contentment

1. The World
   • The world nurtures greed
   • The more you get, the happier you will be
   • If only you had a newer/better/younger car, job, spouse et al, ad infinitum
2. The Flesh
   • Our flesh nurtures pride
   • Our flesh craves  (and believes we deserve) affirmation and exaltation
3. The Devil
   • The devil nurtures unbelief
   • God is holding out on you, he does not give you His best
   • Psalm 106:13, fat bellies and lean souls

Paul firmly believed that Christ was the secret to contentment, and unlike everything else in the world–Christ cannot be taken away.

Preacher: Jeremy Herbert

Theme: Love is not irritable or resentful

Text: 1 Corinthians 13:5

Notes:

The descriptions of love in 1 Corinthians describe the character of Christ.

Proverbs 22:1, “A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches”

Irritable

• Paul’s primary concern in this verse is that love is not irritable with people
• However, when we are irritated with circumstances, we are often irritated with God himself
• Love chooses not to be angered, annoyed, or exasperated with others
• Paul himself was not immune to this temptation, nor was his partner in ministry, Barnabas:
  • Acts 15, “the contention was so sharp that they parted from one another”
• Why do we get irritated?
  • Our values are distorted by sin
  • We value our time and energy more than we value people
  • We would love to get our way more than we love others
  • We view others as obstacles to happiness rather than agents to push us toward holiness
  • Those who irritate us help us to see our own weaknesses

Resentful

• Irritation(s) over a period of time fester into resentment
• The biblical language is rooted in accounting/recording wrongs in a ledger
• “Love keeps no record of wrongs”
• Love does not ‘forgive and forget’–it remembers, and still forgives
• Chrysostom, love quenches wrongs rather than recording them

How do we respond when we get irritated or resentful?

• Angry looks
• Angry words
• Poisoned courtesy
• Silent treatment
• Sulking
• Withdrawing

God uses people and circumstances to grow us into Christlikeness

Real joy is circumstance-independent

How do we address this in our own heart?

• What do I really want?
• Philippians 2:1-4
• Galatians 5:26
• 1 Corinthians 13:7-8
• No matter how difficult circumstances and people are, love persists
• People are not obstacles
• 1 Corinthians 13:13-14:1, “the greatest of these is love…pursue love”
• We are most like our Savior when we love

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