ES005 Contentedness is great gain

Hebrews 13:1–6 CSB

1 Let brotherly love continue. 2 Don’t neglect to show hospitality, for by doing this some have welcomed angels as guests without knowing it. 3 Remember those in prison, as though you were in prison with them, and the mistreated, as though you yourselves were suffering bodily. 4 Marriage is to be honored by all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, because God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers. 5 Keep your life free from the love of money. Be satisfied with what you have, for he himself has said, I will never leave you or abandon you. 6 Therefore, we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?

How content are we? Are we satisfied with our situation? Are we satisfied with our wives? Our husbands? Are we happy to be single? Are we content about where we live or our type of accommodation? Are we satisfied with what we have? Do we count ourselves blessed in having our mobiles? Are we content with our TV, our bed? How strong is our desire for more perfumes, clothing, gadgets and furniture? Do we crave fame, beauty and money? How far do we desire what other people have got? How far will we go to get those things?

Perhaps it goes so far as stealing to get what one wants, maybe we think that we have a right to it as we saw with the rioters in Croydon in 2011 who claimed it was ‘just’ for them to have the same as the rich – of course, we would not be so obvious – instead downloading or copying programmes, films and files, even Christian ones for it is a more secret way of stealing because we desire what we don’t have and we will beg, lie and cheat to get something that does not belong to us and we justify ourselves in the process – no one will know, it doesn’t harm the big corporations, etc, etc.

James 4:2–3 NKJV

2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.

Paul follows it up with

1 Timothy 6:6–10 NKJV

6 Now godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. 8 And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. 9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

The fact is that everything decays, everything rots in due course including our own bodies – this is the 2nd law of thermodynamics. This is a law that evolutionists hate because according to Evolution theory everything is progressing upwards to bigger and better things but the universe declares that it is not so…things are winding down and getting more corrupt. And so the things of last century are no longer useful and the things of the 80s were replaced by the things of the 90s and then by the 00s and then the rate of change in things has increased and increased so much so that, for example, we change our mobiles every other year (subject to contract!) and would change them every month if we could for the latest technology and we are part of this consumer society that throws away things that were not yet in the process of decay or rotting without a second thought.

Be satisfied with food and clothing 1 Timothy says. Many in this world know nothing of the riches we have – and rich we are – because we have plenty of food, plenty of clothes and plenty of everything else too. If you are not satisfied with what you have you will not be satisfied with what you desire. Satisfaction is not found by adding fuel to the fire but in extinguishing it. If you are greedy you are not satisfied. It is a fact that those who have £1 million desire £2 or £10 million…does this sound like the rich are satisfied? Satisfaction does not come with riches but instead there is greater desire for even more.

This desire is found in all of us. I am tempted by food – what do they say – your eyes are bigger than your stomach - we see it, we want it, and we get fat on it. In fact, supermarkets and shops rely upon this desire in us and tempt us with excellent shop displays, special offers and so on. We need to be aware that when we shop, unless we stick to a rigid shopping list each week, we will always buy more than we intend. Shops spend millions every year to ensure that we do! And then the council spend more money each year clearing up the waste of society and sending it to the landfill sites – our waste, our waste of food, packaging etc all because we don’t just buy what we need.

It is all because of a deadly sin called covetousness. We didn’t want it before we saw it but afterwards we had to have it. Why do you think that at checkouts they have sweets at the same level as a pram – the kids see them and will scream the shop down to have that chocolate and the parents buy to pacify the child, to pacify the desire to have and lo and behold what happens is that actually no one is left satisfied or content. Only the desire for more grows. The adverts on TV are there for one thing only: to kindle the desire to buy something that you do not have so that you lust after it.

Spurgeon was talking one day with some man that he knew and said to him:

"How was it that St. Francis de Sales, who was an eminent confessor, to whom persons went in the Roman Catholic church to confess their sins, found that persons confessed to him, in private, all sorts of horrible sins, such as adultery, drunkenness, and murder; but never had one person confessed the sin of covetousness?" I asked this friend whether he could tell me why it was, and he made me this answer, which certainly did take me rather aback He said, "I suppose it is because the sin is so extremely rare." Blind soul! I told him that, on the other hand, I feared the sin was so very common that people did not know when they were covetous, and that the man who was most covetous of all was the last person to suspect himself of it. (Spurgeon)

It is a fact that all of us are guilty of covetousness but we have no idea…the desire for more…the desire for other things…if you think that perhaps you are exempt; who bought things at the fair yesterday for themselves? You saw something and you wanted it and you got it at a bargain price! I saw a candle and I had to have it. I did not want anyone else getting it before me. I tried to ignore it and so I sent Irena to buy it instead a whole day before the fair opened! When I saw Pat and Kathryn’s stall I wanted what was there. If I had not seen then I would not have wanted and I would not have desired for the things there. To put it plainly - I coveted.

Is shopping wrong, then? No, of course not. But it is a matter of whether our contentedness comes from these things.

To covet is not recognised as wrong but it was the same desire driven within Satan himself to greater reputation, to greater riches, to greater glory so that he was deceived and thought that he should have all these things and more. It is the same desire that drives our society to be in the greatest debt it has ever been in and is not content to live within its means if the chance arises to have it now – and then governments such as ours or Greece suddenly are on the precipice and have to rein in the spending and raise taxes – all because of covetousness – and it is hard to rein in spending when you are used to it – it is hard to live without when you’ve had it all – it is better not to have experienced it and to experience more than to have experienced more and then to experience less.

To be political for a moment, in the last election, the Labour party fed our covetousness in wiping out student debt. I have such a student loan - but I pay perhaps £12 per month - it is hardly onerous - and all student loan holders only pay if they are over a certain salary threshold. So, wiping out the debt was what? A marketing ploy to get votes from students because of their covetousness. Now, all political parties do such things but that was quite an obvious one. Now both of the main parties want to spend, spend, spend. Why? Because we are all covetous and want things so much we do not care we are storing up debt for another generation.

No matter how poor or rich people are the desire to move from what they are and what they have to another level drives all mankind to madness and swallows up everyone whole. The desire for a better car, to look better, even better churches – to have what others have in a bad way.

Paul speaks of this when he received a gift from the Philippians:

Philippians 4:11–13 CSB

11 I don’t say this out of need, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I find myself. 12 I know both how to make do with little, and I know how to make do with a lot. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being content—whether well fed or hungry, whether in abundance or in need. 13 I am able to do all things through him who strengthens me.

Note that this whole process has to be learned. We naturally desire other things. We naturally are not satisfied. Why is that? Why this gnawing ache in here (the heart)? It is because God has put eternity in our hearts and so we have a natural tendency to be dissatisfied with temporary, worldly things. We know that this is not all that there should be in us is a desire for greater, mysterious things that will last longer than a life-time. We, all, have a God-shaped hole in our lives so whether you are not yet a believer then the only way is found in Jesus in who He is and what He has done – for God is love.

Or whether we are believers and we have tried to fill the hole in our lives with other things rather than being filled with the Holy Spirit. We learn that satisfaction can only be found in God eventually and if we learn our lesson we let go of those things that we think would satisfy us but have proven that they do not – like Solomon saying that everything is vanity and a waste of time and he is a man who proved to the extreme the wisdom of those words – and he found late in life that it was only God who gives satisfaction and true enjoyment.

When we have God in first place other things are given to us to enjoy…but it has to be in that order…it has to be God then other things to enjoy. True enjoyment cannot come from things until we put God first and then we can enjoy them when we see them as gifts given to us by God to enjoy. Because we know that God is in control and that he only wants the best for us we can be content no matter the circumstance, no matter what we have. We’ll be satisfied because we know that God arranged our lives in such a way that will accomplish his purposes.

It is upon the fact that He will never leave us nor forsake us we can be content. He is enough. He is in control. No matter what life throws at us we have confidence in God. Without God you would chase all these things – with God there is no need to. The fact is that God gives us what we need and more beside. We need to beware of asking God for our wants for James makes clear that we will not receive those things if it is solely for ourselves – but if we put God first then he will give us the desires of our heart because they will be more in line with his will.

If we have God with us we also have his help…if God is for us then there is no need to fear being in need as we already have what we need for life and godliness. We have no need of computers, no need of furniture, no need of books, no need of money, no need of…what, sorry…no need of money?! That’ right! The disciples were sent out without money in Luke 10 – and God provided. Elijah was sent out and he was fed by Ravens. God has other ways of providing – he cares for us a great deal. After all, he created everything and owns everything. This does not mean that we should not work when work is provided by God.

When Paul says we can do all things through Christ who strengthens me he is talking about being content to have Christ and Him alone. Our satisfaction is to be found in Him alone. Then we can face the world with all its ups and downs. We are not promised an easy life. Here in the West we generally do have an easy life compared to the rest of the world. Yet what joy can be seen in those Christians who have nothing materially at all.

So let us be content with our situation and with what we have. Let us redeem the time using it wisely according to the purpose that God has called us instead of using that time to gain those things that in the end do not satisfy and let us lead a more simple life. Let us repent of our covetousness – recognising that these desires, these lusts ‘for more’ are dealt with at the cross of Jesus where our sin was nailed to the tree. Why gain things that do not satisfy when God is already with us and is there for us to enjoy.

Is this life all there is? We are caught up in this non-stop merry-go-round so that to get off is nigh impossible – and we forget all too easily that one day it is just going to stop. Everything we craved for, everything we accumulated, everything will, one day soon, come to an abrupt halt and end. This will not simply about decay or rottenness that comes to those things we have, but one day we will die. One day all that is seen will cease to be.

And this temporary world and all that we lusted for will break upon eternity and we will wonder what all the fuss was about and why we were caught up in things that have no bearing upon the rest of eternity. This world will disappear and only those things that cannot be seen will be left. This life is but a blip in eternity.

As Christians we should be examples of those who are living in the light of eternity knowing that our citizenship is in Heaven, not here on earth where all things will pass away and the busyness of them and that true rest, true satisfaction, true contentment is found in one and one only: God through Jesus Christ.

All I once held dear, built my life upon All this world reveres, and wars to own All I once thought gain I have counted loss Spent and worthless now, compared to this Knowing you, Jesus Knowing you, there is no greater thing You're my all, you're the best You're my joy, my righteousness And I love you, Lord

Now my heart's desire is to know you more To be found in you and known as yours To possess by faith what I could not earn All-surpassing gift of righteousness Oh, to know the power of your risen life And to know You in Your sufferings To become like you in your death, my Lord So with you to live and never die. (Graham Kendrick/Tim Hughes/Ben Cantelon)

And Heaven is a continuation of things right here on earth for one promise…a promise given to us now that will also be true in Heaven…that He is with us…He is what Heaven is about and there will be no need to covet there for we will have the living God and the riches of heaven that are beyond our wildest dreams.

1 Corinthians 2:9 NKJV

9 But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”

Benediction

Romans 8:38–39 NKJV

38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Bibliography

Exell, J. S. (n.d.). The Biblical Illustrator: Hebrews (Vol. I & II). London: James Nisbet & Co.