Discontentment

Good morning, welcome to NHCC. Please open your Bibles to Job 10.

Quick reminder for Sunday School next Sunday morning for adults in the Worship Center, beginning at 9:00 AM, and enjoy your extra hour of sleep.

Happy Halloween

More importantly, Happy Reformation Day.

October 31, 1517- Martin Luther hammered 95 theses on the door of the church in Wittenberg, Germany.

95 arguments calling out the corrupt practices of the Roman Catholic Church.

Marks the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.

Number 62- The true treasure of the church is the most holy gospel of the glory and grace of God.

Reminded this morning that we are saved not through our behaviors, not through the observing of religious rituals, but by the grace of God alone, through faith alone in Christ alone for the glory of God alone.

Our underlying principle- Sin is sin, and sin is destructive, no matter how seemingly insignificant, and not matter how beautifully dressed up.

This morning- discontentment, or bitterness.

Read Job 10:1- “I loathe my life; I will give free utterance to my complaint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.”

Pray.

A few words on our text:

Job overview.

First two chapters- challenges to God and challenges to Job.

Then, Job converses with his friends, all of whom are trying to understand Job’s predicament.

Ch. 9:27- Job tries to forget his complaint.

Doesn’t work, so he finds a new strategy.

Job like one big courtroom.

I loathe my life- I am disgusted by my life.

Free utterance- I will leave behind my words. I will unload what is on my mind.

How well we might find ourselves identifying here with the words of Job.

1. What is discontentment?

Stems from ongoing and unchanging circumstance over which we have no power.

Long range health problems, unfulfilling or low-paying job, unhappy marriage, singleness later in life, inability to have children, physical disabilities.

Sometimes can be something more trivial, meaning that we tend to always need to be on guard against discontentment, no matter how good life is.

The need to recognize discontentment as a sin.

Many tend to consider discontentment to be a normal response to the difficulties of life, responding with anxiety and frustration.

Discontentment rests on our response to such circumstances.

Discontentment is looking at the world, looking at circumstances the same as one who does not trust in God at all.

Discontentment spreads.

Author of Hebrews is writing how believers should behave in light of their relationship with Jesus.

Hebrews 12:15- See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;

What discontentment is not.

The existence of difficult circumstances.

Our awareness of such circumstances.

In fact, there is a place for legitimate discontentment.

Should be discontent with our sin, with injustice and evil in the world, discontent with our spiritual state.

Is God to be found in our discontentment?

2. How is discontentment destructive?

What are the dangers of discontentment? What happens when it is allowed to run rampant in our lives?

Ignore God’s control of both great and small.

Happenings of the world and moments of the personal life.

Consider a couple of texts:

Matthew 10:29-31- Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.

All of the intricacies of the human being are known and controlled by God on high.

Colossians 1:16-17- For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

God not only knows and controls the smaller details of life, He also holds together the greatness of all creation. He is a sustainer.

Both of these realities are necessary. Romans 8:28- And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

In order for this to be true, God must control the greatness of the universe and the tiniest of realities in our person.

What good is it for God to control one but not the other?

Discontentment sees God as having forgotten a detail, either great or small.

Ignores God’s control of both the significant and insignificant in our own lives.

Psalm 139:13-16- For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

Not only were we formed and put together lovingly and caringly by God, but our days were also formed and written.

God’s control extends to the circumstances of life.

All of this leads to the biggest danger.

Erodes our trust in God.

All of life in Christ depends fully on a robust trust in God alone. This is the very heart of faith.

As trust erodes, so does our faith in Christ.

3. How is discontentment to be conquered?

What will bring us to the place that we can say with Paul in Philippians 4:11-13- Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Consider the discontentment of Satan.

Discontent even as an angel of God.

Richard Sibbes- “Satan has most advantage of discontented persons, as most agreeable to his disposition, being the most discontented creature under heaven. He hammers all his dark plots in their brains.”

Others setting an example for us can often be a powerful tool in rejecting mindsets and behaviors.

A child growing up in a home of alcoholism.

Master your life.

Aletheia playing soccer, watching Jackson another field, wishing she had that player on her own team.

She could play hard with what she has, or she could waste her time watching what is happening a field over.

Many of our lives are spent watching the next field.

Francis De Sales- “Do not sow your desires in another’s garden, but cultivate well your own. Do not desire to be what you are not, but desire to be very well what you are; occupy your thoughts in making that perfect, and in bearing the crosses, little or great, which you will meet.”

Focus on what has already been given you.

Ephesians 2:1-10.

Ephesians 1.

Romans 8.

1 Corinthians 15.

Galatians 2.

What are we to feel in in moments when discontentment knocks?

We are to remind ourselves of the greatness of what God has already extended to us.

Kids have a great meal in front of them and want spaghettios instead.

The gospel is the great meal, discontentment causes us to want less.

Wrap ourselves up in the truths of the gospel, what Christ has already accomplished on our behalf. And know that such truth drives us to the point of knowing God’s heart of affection, love and care toward us.

Appreciated the closing words of “Gentle and Lowly”

Dane Ortlund- “Whatever is crumbling all around you in your life, wherever you feel stuck, this remains, un-deflectable: his heart for you, the real you, is gentle and lowly. So go to him. That place in your life where you feel most defeated, he is there; he lives there, right there, and his heart for you, not on the other side of it but in that darkness, is gentle and lowly. Your anguish is his home. Go to him. If you knew his heart, you would.”