You Can Learn to Be Content - Geoff Thomas

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.