Contentment is more of Jesus.

Intro

I received almost everything I asked for last Christmas

I got a few Switch games and a PS4 game

I got the books that I wanted

I got a couple of the movies I wanted

I got the watch strap that I wanted

I got a 4k HDR TV and a Fire TV Stick

But I’m not happy yet.

When my family asked for another list, I had more.

I’ve gotten almost everything I’ve asked for on birthdays and Christmases.

I have most of the things that I’ve asked for from the last many years.

Tension

We have a problem. Most of us could say that we’ve been discontent recently.

Who has looked at a new console, new phone, or new headphones in the last week? New clothes, new makeup, new games?

If you find yourself less happy with the things you already have, greed may have made you discontent.

How many of you stayed awake this week even when you felt tired to do one of these things: watch YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, or play a game?

If you find yourself bored and exhausted, then greed may have made you discontent.

How many of you hit the “Continue Watching” screen on Netflix, completed an entire season in days, or had a screen playing for at least an hour without watching any content?

If you’ve binged content without question and you’re still bored or unhappy after the fact, then greed may have made you discontent.

We live incredibly blessed lives.

No one in history has had faster computers.

No one has had better videogames.

No one has had more entertainment options.

No one has had more knowledge, information, and science.

No one has had more money, bigger houses, more possessions in those houses.

No one has had more food, better tasting food, and healthier food.

We are discontent.

Your generation is more anxious, despite having more information.

Your generation is more depressed, despite having more entertainment.

Your generation is more bored, despite having more access.

Your generation is less content, despite having more and nicer things.

Truth

How do we find contentment?

Paul the Apostle was a Christian that lived in the 30’s AD when he saw the resurrected Jesus.

He wrote that he had found a secret.

Philippians 4:11-13 Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. 12 I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little.

The secret is contentment...

Contentment is like satisfaction, happiness, or joy.

All different, but a good way to understand them.

Contentment is the marriage of happiness and gratefulness.

Many times that looks like striving for less.

Our culture tends to buy more, upgrade faster, and get extra.

Minimalism has been really cool over the last couple of decades

[Marie Kondo]

[Minimal Documentary]

[Minimal Apple]

[Steve Jobs]

Jesus was minimal before it was cool.

Matthew 6:31-32 “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ 32 These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers…

But the secret to contentment is not minimalism.

Minimalism still places our hope in the few things left.

Philippians 4:12 I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little.

Philippians 4:13 For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.

Contentment is more of Jesus.

Application

Take your hope back

“Don’t let your happiness depend on something you may lose.”- C.S. Lewis

Be content

[Satisfied]

Closing

“…we remain conscious of a desire which no natural happiness will satisfy. But is there any reason to suppose that reality offers any satisfaction to it?”

“A man’s physical hunger does not prove that man will get any bread; he may die of starvation on a raft in the Atlantic. But surely a man’s hunger does prove that he comes of a race which repairs its body by eating and inhabits a world where eatable substances exists.”

“If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”- C.S. Lewis