-
Where can contentment be found?
-
And so often, Christians
admire contentment
-
and they long for it
-
and they confess they're
strangers to contentment.
-
They make it so unattainable.
-
"Oh, if only I had the second blessing
-
how contented I would be."
-
And they blame their upbringing
-
and they blame their personality.
-
They say, "My mother was discontented,"
-
"my grandmother was..."
-
and I'm discontented too.
-
Paul says he learned contentment.
-
He learned it. He learned it.
-
It didn't come to him
on the Damascus road.
-
One moment, driving, rabbinically furious,
-
and then the Damascus road,
-
and after that he was just
laid back from then on.
-
It wasn't like that. He learned it.
-
He was in a meeting once -
a prayer meeting -
-
and an old Christian got up and he said,
-
"Let's think of Psalm 23...
-
'The Lord is my Shepherd,
-
and so I will not be in want.'"
-
The Shepherd - like my Lord?
-
The King of the universe is mine?
-
Oh, I'm not going to be in want.
-
I'm going to trust Him.
-
I'm going to be content.
-
Paul listened.
-
Paul learned like you learned
-
coming here Sunday by Sunday.
-
He learned it.
-
And you have to learn it too.
-
What did he learn?
-
He learned one:
-
being discontented is a sin.
-
It's against our whole position
-
that our Lord looks after
us and cares for us.
-
All things are working
together for our good.
-
You know, we can parade
our discontentedness
-
because: "I love her,
but she doesn't love me."
-
"She won't marry me and I'm sulking
-
for the rest of my life."
-
You're saying Jesus made a mistake then
-
in closing that door.
-
Being discontented is a sin.
-
Secondly, it's possible to be contented.
-
Those of you who've had
a very trying upbringing,
-
it's possible for you
to learn contentment.
-
Not just a few people who are
-
self-integrated and intelligent
-
and sensible men and women.
-
Not just them, but you
-
with all the pressures and strains
-
that your life has been under,
-
you can be a contented person.
-
And no circumstance,
no set of circumstance
-
can take that contentment from you.
-
That's the Christian life.
-
I have learned in whatsoever state I am
-
therewith to be content.
-
And then thirdly,
-
Paul discovered how -
-
how to be content.
-
Well, I've taken over the
Hilton in San Antonio.
-
It's only $100 you have
to pay next weekend.
-
I'll be giving lectures on
how to learn contentment.
-
Not. Not.
-
I'll tell you without
money and without price
-
how to be contented.
-
You go to God
-
and you say to God,
-
"Thy will be done."
-
That's it.
-
Thy will be done.
-
I don't want my own will.
-
I want Your will.
-
And that's why so often
I'm a discontented person
-
because I don't like God's will.
-
I don't like what God
has done with my life.
-
And there's no way I'm going to wear
-
the red jewel of Christian contentment
-
without taking my stand on this:
-
what I want in my life is the will of God.
-
And then when God says,
"Alright, My child,
-
this is My will for you."
-
"This is the way I want you to walk."
-
"I want you to be brave."
-
"I want you on the narrow path."
-
"I want you to be looking
unto Me every day."
-
And then when I know,
well, it's God's will,
-
and I'm not frustrated,
-
I'm not discontented, I'm not depressed,
-
I'm not plaintive,
-
I'm not self-pitying
-
because this is my Father's will.
-
And so I rejoice to do Thy will, O Lord.
-
And Jesus could say that perfectly.
-
And that's my righteousness.
-
That He's left me and example
-
and I walk in His steps.
-
And I want to be content
too following the Savior.