A People of God - A People of Contentment

oh what's going on you guys good hey did uh did anybody just get done with finals close out the semester anybody done with school anybody in your last week of school anybody like making it through last week you got a bunch of finals you going in on person or doing it online online okay i would too hey apparently there's something with school where you can claim like covet trauma and they like like pass you no matter what you don't have to take your finals or something like that little piece of advice all right just just throwing that out there well hey you guys can take a seat my name is connor i'm one of the pastors here at uh young adults thank you i'm a 32 year old dad so i need all the encouragement i can get for my self-esteem um hey new people real quick and i did it once raise your hand again just want to see you want to say hi awesome hey thank you so much for uh coming and hanging out with us tonight i say this every week but it's because i mean it um well aware that there are tons of people in this room that might walk in with different life experience maybe even some different religious views and so stepping into an atmosphere like this takes courage and bravery and so we just want to say thank you so much for trusting us with your thursday night um tonight we're going to unashamedly talk about jesus we're going to lift up god's word because i believe it has the power to transform your life and so we're not going to ask you to sign anything or drink anything on the way out um we're not we're not weird like that i always think that joke is funny maybe not like if you're uneasy coming into church and you make like a cult joke that might not be like the best thing in the world but you don't have to drink it it's optional um no but we're gonna talk about jesus and i believe that um if you just even consider jesus for a minute that you'll find that he is one of the most incredibly kind loving gracious people in the world and i talk about him like that because he's not dead he's alive he's not an ethereal he's a person and you can actually get to know him and his spirit can come and and meet you and that's the whole goal of tonight to lift up jesus to talk about jesus and hopefully have an encounter with him and we know we will because the bible says we're two or more gathered in his name he's here and so if you've ever wanted to meet jesus he's here you can meet him and if you're in here and you've been a follower of jesus tonight my hope is that through his word tonight you're encouraged to follow him with an even greater passion and desire and so we've been in this series called a people of god and the whole thought the whole goal behind the series over the past couple weeks is that ever since the beginning of the bible from genesis all the way all the way to revelation there's this narrative that we see interwoven through the entire uh library of scripture that god wants a people set apart for himself that love him that want to honor him with their life and be set apart for his purpose so that they can represent who god is in this world sorry i'm randomly getting text messages on my ipad that's awesome but as a crowd tonight we're going to gather around and learn about the teachings of jesus and what jesus wants for us is a people set apart and tonight i might press on some buttons a little bit because this isn't like a uh let me use my virginian here a hoot and holler type of message that's the most redneck thing i've ever said from stage um but i think that what i have to talk about tonight will honestly relate to every single person in this room i think it's something that every single person in this room walks through struggles with is some type of degree and i think that if we can kind of get this figured out man not only will we have so much peace in our hearts and our souls but i think it can be one of the most defining things about a community of people representing jesus to this world and so tonight we're going to open up the bible we're going to go to mark chapter 4 and it'll be on the screen but i want to set the stage for a minute jesus is doing his rabbi thing which just means teacher he's teaching people and a group of people gather around by this lake and jesus goes up and he's going to start teaching them and he's going to start explaining to them how the things in god's kingdom and whenever you read god's kingdom it's really just sort of relating to or what it's trying to say is this was god's intentional plan or his very first like hope and goal for all of humanity so when jesus says god's kingdom is here what he's saying is that hey the potential for god's way of doing things the way he wanted from the very beginning it's here now because of me and so he's meeting with these people he's talking them about how things within god's kingdom work and he gives this parable about a farmer who goes out to sow seed and how the soil that the farmer sows into actually is probably the biggest factor in the return the farmer is gonna get on his crops now after jesus gives this parable his disciples come up to him because they weren't educated and i feel like half the time weren't really paying attention and they go up to them and they're like hey that parable that you just gave to all those people that was great what were you talking about like what what did that mean because we were sitting there listening to you nodding your head nodding our head giving you an amen and if i'm being totally honest i have no idea what you were actually like talking about and so jesus pulls them aside and he explains to them and this is what he said mark 4 uh verse 14 he says the farmer in this parable that i just told sows the word god's word some people are like seed along the path where the word is sown as soon as they hear it satan comes and takes away the word that was sewn into them others like seeing seeds sown on rocky places hear the word and at once receive it with joy but since they have no root they last only a short time when trouble or persecution comes because of the word they quickly fall away but still others like seed sown among thorns hear god's word but the worries of this life the deceitfulness of wealth and the desire for things come in and choke the word making it unfruitful tonight for the next couple minutes i want to talk about what it looks like to be a people of contentment so if you're taking notes write this down a people of contentment let's pray and then we're going to dive in father god thank you so much for the ability to meet god thank you for the weather i swear i cannot do another snowy day so if it never snows again in colorado may your will be done lord no but thank you for the opportunity to meet to hear your word to grow to be pushed to be challenged i pray that god not only do we tonight grow as individuals but that your word transforms us as a community that we at young adults would be known as a people of contentment that go out to the world and share the good news of jesus so transform us as individuals but transform us together as a community of people following after you jesus it's in your name we pray and everybody said amen and amen all right think about your life for a minute do a quick little survey i'm going to ask you a question and i want you to kind of like come up with a with an answer in your head how much more would it take be it in your finances maybe your clothing your style your fashion your job whatever how much more would it take for you to say that you have enough to be satisfied how much more in your life would it take for you to say you have enough to be satisfied when aaron and i first got married um we my wife sitting over there in the front row ladies if you don't know her go say hi fellas i guess you can too because we're on baby number two so i don't feel threatened at all but when aaron and i first got married uh we we brought home collectively less than forty thousand dollars a year and take home income which in denver uh you know could buy you maybe a shopping cart um and potentially some cardboard board to put on top of the shopping cart for if it if it does in fact snow or rain again um forty thousand take home isn't a lot especially in denver colorado so what we had to do when we first got married was we were looking for a place to live and realized very quickly that there was very little options but my wife is like a searcher a finder a re like she makes things happen and she literally approached me and she was like babe you'll never believe i found a two-bedroom apartment it's got a kitchen its own laundry room and it is like 800 bucks a month and i'm like shut up there literally that doesn't exist the one caveat is that it's in somebody's basement and they've got two little kids and i'm like yeah no i'm not spending our first like year or so of marriage in somebody else's basement but lo and behold we moved into the basement and uh like it was small like we had to share an entryway the couple honestly they're amazing they're incredible um we kind of became friends might be too close of a word but that we just had this awesome relationship we were kind of sad to leave um but we had this like tiny little narrow stairway that we had to walk down i remember when we were like moving in furniture and stuff we tore their walls apart literally it was like this wide if i ate mcdonald's on the way home from young adults i had to turn sideways to like go down the stairs it was a tiny little entryway that like turned and then i remember it was underground so it always felt dungeony like even though there was like a little bit of light and you know they had lights down there obviously but like it always just kind of felt like we were living underground like the reality of that was present every single day for some reason they were very intentional about trying to save money on their electric bills and so they did not run the air conditioning in the summer i'm not lying i remember like one of our first couple like nights there summer time we got married in in june and so it was pretty hot um and i i'm just like a hot blooded person as it is but it was probably 88 degrees in in the basement and i was like i would wake up in like a pool of my own sweat and so no light got so bad um that my wife and i would go to king supers buy like the dollar bags of like peas and carrots and freeze them and stick them under our sheets uh no lie to to like cool off so that we could sleep so i'm talking real real trying to make it work stuff on under 40k um that's also a virginia trick just throwing that out there but it was all we could afford like literally living in somebody's basement was all we could afford and i remember like we would sit in the basement or we would go out to this park just to like see the sun and we'd walk around and we would be like oh my gosh like if one day we could just own like a small little condo or a small little townhouse above ground like how amazing would it be to wake up and see sunlight right like that is incredible to know what the weather's like by looking out and like not having to like check your phone or oh my gosh like how amazing babe can you imagine what it would be like to have air conditioning i will pay excel energy an infinite amount of money if i don't have to sleep on another bag of peas like seriously like how amazing will it be one day if we could just have some sunlight and some ac maybe a little bit more square footage than this like six seven hundred square foot basement like jesus you know when you like get to the place where you're like trying to bargain with jesus you're like jesus we will dedicate this home to ministry man we will we will have people over to eat every night we will be the most hospitable people you have ever met if you can just get us above ground you know and honestly like after a few years years of being in the basement and saving money and some generosity from family and people we're close to we ended up purchasing a townhouse we got it we were officially above ground baby we did it and we love it we absolutely loved it we we had a little space we had this like little open space for our dog like we have air conditioning like it is not uncommon for our house to be at like 64 degrees sometimes just to like rebel and cold because we didn't know that for like two years and so man we just we got everything that we were looking for god showed up and answered our prayers but isn't it funny how we've been in this place for two almost three years now a little time can pass and you can just find your heart and your soul wandering and wanting just a little bit more right like now aaron and i sit at the table with our daughter and we talk about like man i wonder what it would be like if we could just have like a ranch-style home you know and not this townhouse where there's like so many stairs you have to like climb stairs everywhere and our daughter like falls down the stairs a lot so like what would it be like to just have like a ranch-style home or what would it be like to have like an open concept you know like all the shows like everything is open have you guys seen like those memes where it's like you know when a person sees a wall on hgtv and they're like open concept like what would it be like to have an open cup we have this really cool honestly fireplace like this wood burning fireplace but it like juts out into the middle of our like main floor like creating like little cubes like in our house we're like man if we could just demolish that fireplace and have an open concept what would that what would that be like man what if we had a fenced in backyard because then we don't have to walk our freaking dog every single time he has to go out we could actually just like open the door and he could go out and use the bathroom and we don't have to like walk around our neighborhood three to four times a day like that would be awesome or what if we could get like one more bathroom right so that we could have a bathroom our daughters could have a bathroom like what if we like what if we could just have one more bathroom so that we could like you know not have to share the space all the time right if we could just have a little bit more then man that would be enough right that would be enough isn't it crazy how quickly the human heart can move on from one thing to the next thing right how quickly we can move on like back in the bible times uh god was very specific especially in the old testament when he was talking to his people israel that two things that one there was no other real god besides him now the bible does talk about other gods and when they say that it's like a lowercase g god kind of like demons and other like powers like spiritual powers but there's no other god besides jesus besides god and so god was very clear with his people hey there are no other gods besides me so that eliminates your need to worship any god besides me like i am the one and only god and i'm the only god that you should worship and one of the biggest mistakes we continually see israel coming back to was they would see god move in miraculous ways in their right in their life right like they would go from basements to town homes they would they would probably even more impressive see the red sea part like i would take that right i'd love to see i don't know like what is it sloan's lake like break apart and walk through that that'd be pretty cool like you know that's like the walls of jericho fall down just by marching like no siege tactics like nothing like that they literally just marched around it miracle after miracle mana uh literally bread falling from the sky right like if your keto that would suck for you but like carbs god just gave them carbs like for years in the desert like miracle after miracle we see that they would they would see god move throughout their life but then a few short pages or sometimes even a few short paragraphs later we would see them adopting forming to and worshiping other false gods from the cultures around them we would see god move in miraculous ways for them and then a page or two later they're worshiping some other pagan god of some other culture and i think in 2021 it's easy for us as jesus followers to look back at them and be like how do you do that right like how do you see god move in incredible ways in your life how do you see god perform miracles like you just saw god provide for you you just walked through a dry place with like walls of water surrounding you you just had bread dropped from the sky you just moved from a basement to a townhouse like you just watched god move in your life how can you so quickly give your heart and your attention to other gods when you know and experience the real one and you've seen him move in miraculous ways in your life right it's easy to look back at them and be like man what a bunch of idiots like if i walked through uh the red sea if i saw that i would never give my heart over to another god but isn't it crazy if we're honest how often we find ourselves giving our hearts and our attention to the gods of our time and our culture now listen our culture may not have golden or bronze statues of of certain gods our our culture might not have false gods with the names like baal and molech or you know whatever that is like mole my wife's mexican so i was that like spanish food is like uh like our gods might not have names like that we might have to sacrifice like bring sacrifices to like our false gods but make no mistake young adults this i'm being dead serious here our culture does in fact have gods that are desperate for your time and your attention our culture is saturated with false gods that desperately want your time your energy your discipleship and your attention listen while there are many cultural gods in our day to choose from i mean literally just throw out sex and you can literally name like four or five things that people just devote their life to when it comes to like just the topic of sex right but the two main ones that i feel are so subtle but so present in most of our lives and listen this is a message i'm preaching from experience and stuff that i still walk through to this day two of the most present gods i believe we struggle with as followers of jesus is the god of more and the god of er and i'll explain in a second the god of more and the god of er listen if i could only have more money right then i would have enough if i could only have more security for my life for my family then it would be enough if i could only have more power more influence or more say at my job if i could only have more square footage if i if i could only move out of this studio to a one bedroom or a one bedroom to a two bedroom whatever if i could only have a little more square footage if i could only have a little bit nicer clothes if i could only have more clothes or more shoes or more jewelry or accessories or whatever if i could only have more followers on social if i could only tap into just a little bit more fame if i could just have a little bit more attention from the opposite sex right or if i could only be skinnier right if i could only be richer if i could only be funnier if i could only be smarter or trendy or or prettier if my cars or my clothes could only be nicer then i would finally have enough to be satisfied with my life when the reality is get this according to multiple psychological and sociological studies and i was going to read a bunch but i'm not even kidding there are too many to count you can go research this so i kind of just combined everything that they were saying and this is the gist of hundreds of articles from and and i hate having to preface this but this isn't like christian research i feel like you know like sometimes you like you can find like a christian stat that is like feels a little skewed like in favor of like the bible or something but this is like real time psychology social work like data says this we as humans in america have never been wealthier with access to more options for clothing food hobbies and leisure and yet as our wealth and options continue to rise our mental and emotional health continues to plummet with steady and rising cases of anxiety and depression not just in the young professional generation but in children beginning as young as age nine there is also an undeniable link between the use of social media and the dissatisfaction with one's life because it always leaves you feeling like if you just had fill in the blank those clothes that car that house that open concept man then my life would be a little better think about this the average american owns anywhere from 11 to 14 pairs of shoes at any given time and i thought that is absolutely bogus like no way i love shoes but no way do i own 11 to 14 pair of shoes i own 13. my wife owned 17 i counted right before this so shame on her right the average american will own 11 to 14 pair of shoes at one time not like throughout the year not like throughout your life one time at one given time and get this we will work two and a half weeks of our year not work weeks full weeks of our year just to pay for those shoes that is 408 hours of your life that you can never get back just to put a pair of shoes on your feet and listen i love shoes i told you a couple messages go get me a pair of ai questions i'm good for life right like the pumps like i'd pump them up for the rest of my life i love shoes but everybody who loves shoes knows that the best pair of shoes is the next pair of shoes right like as soon as you get that pair that you've been wanting for a long time in doesn't your eye just tend to like go to the goat app or whatever and just be like i got these but man those just dropped like a week ago oh man i gotta start working two and a half weeks of my life a way to like get those now check this out the average young professional will wear a t-shirt seven times or less before it is discarded and replaced with a new one in efforts to keep up with the ever-changing trends in our culture and in fashion in 2020 youtube and instagram brought in 45 billion with a b in advertising alone why because marketers know that there is no stronger pull than the human emotion of want desire and fear of missing out we have moved from a generation of keeping up with the joneses our neighbors and people within our circle and life sphere to a generation that's trying to keep up with the kardashians uh i can honestly say i've never seen it but but i know sort of what that like we we are so exposed to what everybody else has and people with money and influence and just levels way beyond us but we have this innate drive in our heart to try to keep up with all the images and all the people and all the blue check marks that we see on instagram and tick tock and whatever there is this drive in us to keep up and it's all under the guise that the more we have the happier and more fulfilled we will be and continually in every circle statistic after statistic and study after study is proving that narrative completely false i even read a statistic that said that um children i believe ages five to eight that are pacified with toys like buying them talk more and more and more to pacify a behavior problem are like eight times more likely to show aggression and anger in their life things just don't satisfy the way that we think that they do and i know a lot of you might be sitting in this room and be like okay yeah i get it right like i get it having more things won't make me happy like that is not new information that's nothing new like having more things i've heard it all my life i'd still like to try it at some point but like having i thought that was funny having uh having more things like it's not gonna satisfy me it's not gonna like make me happier but what does that have anything to do with following jesus or being a people of god what is this what does this topic have anything to do with being a people that is set apart for god and to show others god's goodness his kindness and his love i want to go back and look at our verse in mark chapter four because i think often times when we talk about this desire for more when we talk about this like unrelenting desire that we have for more it we often kind of equate it with a money issue or a things issue right like if you have a problem with wanting more things obviously the things are the problem but jesus actually saw this as a heart issue it was a heart issue with the ability to wreak absolute havoc on both your soul and your witness to others if left unchecked i want to read this mark chapter 4 it says this still others like seeds sown among thorns hear the word but the worries of this life the deceitfulness of wealth are the things that we think wealth can bring and the desire for other things literally the desire to have more things come in and check this out choke god's word and make it unfruitful in your life jesus said that our hearts can get so caught up in this cultural narrative that more is better and more will equal happiness and more will equal fulfillment and if i only had this then i'll be satisfied or if i can only get my hands on those then i can i can feel some type of fulfillment and jesus actually said that it can make god's word ineffective in your life let that statement sink in for a minute that our constant desire for more can actually make god's never changing true from the beginning to the end word have no effect on the way you think act live or try to be like jesus it can actually eradicate the effectiveness of god's word in your life like you cannot tell me that that is not the absolute definition of a false god in our culture something with the ability to draw your time your attention your passions your desires and your heart in such a way that it can actually nullify the effects of god's word in your life a commentary on mark chapter 4 um called this a condition of a crowded heart and i'm going to read word for word what it says here it says this heart that jesus is describing pictures the person who receives the word but does not truly repent which just means to change your mind to agree with god and remove the weeds out of his or her heart this here has too many different kinds of seeds i've never thought of it like that this hearer has too many different kinds of seeds growing in the soil of their soul worldly cares a desire for riches a lust after things that the good seed of the word of god doesn't have any room for it to grow to change the image this person wants to walk the broad way of the world and the culture of the day and the narrow way of following jesus at the same time and this simply cannot be done that when you give your heart over unchecked to constantly desiring more and more and more shoes and a different shirt and and a bigger house and a nicer car and a different hat and another watch or whatever like it can actually consume you to such a degree that there's no room left in your soul for god's word to take root and have effect in your life as followers of jesus it is impossible impossible for us to walk and step with the god of more and faithfully follow jesus at the same time now listen this isn't a talk on why christians shouldn't be materialistic or why christians should be minimalist or why things are bad or why you should not ever buy anything new or anything like that no this is just a reality that i think every single one of us walk in that when we scroll through our phones as we're as we're scrolling up looking at that house or if we're on zillow which i man talk about guilty i am one i wake up and look at zillow i don't know why like i just do like it's my drug of choice like but that actually has the desire to crowd our mind and crowd our soul to the extent that we're so discontent with what we have in this season that we can read our bible we can come to young adults and hear a message we can lift our hands and worship and praise jesus and walk out and god's word will not change a single thing about your life if you're following after the god of more and asking jesus to come along for the ride right i honestly believe the antidote to this problem can be a soul-level cure of the epidemic our country is facing of anxiety and depression like think about this for a minute we live in a generation and i don't say this to make light of the real mental illnesses and emotional problems that people walk through but we live in a generation where anxiety and oppression is almost worn like a badge of honor and listen there are people that really struggle with anxiety and depression who god wants to heal but man i think so much healing can be done in our life by putting down our phone and shutting off our desire to just want and want and want without restraint so much of our anxiety and depression in our generation comes from looking at what somebody else has and wanting it and then surveying our own life our own situation and feeling like we don't measure up to some invisible imaginable standard that we have to get to to be happy in life i literally think the solution to this problem is genuinely a cure for most depression and anxiety that we face in our culture and i think if i'm being totally honest this can be for the church one of the biggest indicators to the world that jesus can offer something not just different than the world offers but actually better that jesus can offer not just an alternative but an actual better way of living so what is our response right how as a people of jesus do we go about responding to this god that is so ingrained within our culture of more nicer bigger like the gods of more and the god of earth like what is our response as a church what's our response as a group of young adults how do we live in a culture obsessed with getting more and more and more but how do we live in a way that points people to jesus is as the person that your heart is truly longing for and man you guys can make your way on up i think the way we do this is we become a people of contentment a people who is known by our contentment i want to read philippians chapter 4 11-13 paul the apostle paul one of the most famous people in the bible is writing a letter to a church and he says this he says i have learned to be content content in whatever circumstances i face i know what it is to be in need but i also know what it is to have plenty i've learned the secret of being content in any and every situation whether i'm well fed or whether i'm living or whether i'm hungry whether i'm living in plenty or whether i'm living and want i can do all things through him who gives me strength and listen if you have philippians 4 13 tattooed on you somewhere awesome that is not a verse that says that anything you dream up or imagine god can give you the strength to do sorry to burst your bubble what what that verse actually is saying is paul as he's writing to a church that was one of his main fundraising supporters on his missionary journey they hadn't been giving to him in a while and he says it's because for some reason that we don't know they didn't have an opportunity to be generous and he's writing this letter to almost ease their conscience of saying listen i'm not mad at you like i know that you haven't had an opportunity to get me the funds that you've normally gotten me to help me spread the news of jesus but don't worry don't worry about it i'm not upset i'm not going to hold it over your head because i know what it's like to have a lot i've had a lot i also know what it's like to not have enough and i always like to go to a restaurant and order whatever i want and be cool with it but i also know what it's like to barely have enough money to scrape by to get taco bell i know what it's like but i don't want you guys to feel guilty for not giving to me because i have found a secret that keeps me content in any situation it is the strength of god jesus christ that allows me whether i'm in my highest of high or whether i'm facing my lowest of low i can have a spirit of contentment because i know who god is for me so if you have philippians 4 13 tattooed on your body somewhere awesome what that's saying is you have the power and the ability to be content in any and every situation you face because of jesus later to his apprentice timothy one of his best friends he calls him like a son first timothy uh six six through seven and verse 17 paul writing the timothy says but godliness with contentment is what great gain what does our cultural god want us to be obsessed with gain great gain wanting gain and paul actually says there is a way to have great gain it's following jesus and being content with your life and your circumstance and your situation he says for we brought nothing into this world so why do we ever think we can take nothing out of it the book of ecclesiastes there's an entire book based on this idea of contentment where it says like the rich build up wealth and then hand it to somebody they don't know when they die paul's kind of echoing that book here he's saying listen we we brought nothing into this world we're not gonna take those nikes that that jacket that house that you saved up forever you're not gonna take that with you when you're gone he says command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant or to put their hope in wealth which is so uncertain but to put their hope in god who get this richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment paul encourages timothy that we can be content because our hope is placed in god who provides for us richly listen not just everything for our survival right i think so many of us we approach god with like a survival mentality like god give me just the bare minimum of what i need like we've made this idea of like barely getting by like holy but but paul says no like god will provide everything for what your enjoyment god is so good that if you follow him and not the false gods that our culture desperately wants you to follow god will give you not only what you need but he'll give you things for your enjoyment listen contentment is not apathy being content is just it's not not caring about where you are in life being content is not a lack of ambition it's not saying oh i got to be content so i guess i never try at anything anymore contentment is not apathy it's not lack of ambition it's not complacency it's not just settling for where you're at it's not laziness contentment is not a a poverty mindset or taking a vow of poverty it's not intentionally avoiding nice or new things no contentment is knowing that more can never and will never be your source of provision identity or security that is jesus christ alone who can provide you with those things a people of contentment can be a people of peace in a world of anxiety knowing that god alone is our provider a people marked by contentment can be a people of trust in a world of hustle knowing that god knows your needs and will provide for you abundantly more than you could ever ask or imagine being a people marked by contentment is being a people of satisfaction in a world of more knowing that no matter your season you can rest and enjoy it while still having dreams about your future being a people of contentment is being a people with the ability to be present in a world full of distraction always wanting new and the next being a people of contentment is a people of gratitude in a world of envy and jealousy knowing that just because your portion doesn't look like their portion doesn't mean that god hasn't provided generously for you man that is being a people of contentment think about the radical witness that contentment can be in our culture today filled with the world of anxiety from the pressure of feeling like we always need more to keep up uh the new bible commentary said this on mark chapter 4 it said to the degree with which we live lives of contentment is the degree that we prove to the world the sufficiency of jesus as his people to the to the degree that we as the church live a life of contentment is the degree we show the world that jesus is enough for us you want to know what turns head in a culture that's obsessed with pursuing and worshiping more and more and more it's a people that are not defined but what they have or what they want but it is the people that are defined by who they know and who they serve and that is king jesus christ for us and for you would you stand to your feet i want to pray with you listen contentment doesn't come easy it is an active rebellion against the ways and the gods of our world in 2021 when you declare that you are going to be content in your life i honestly feel like hell turns its attention towards you because if if the enemy can't render you ineffective if you can't make you live a life full of just like these blatant sins what he can do is put this like seed of discontentment that we read in mark chapter four can literally eventually spread roots all throughout your soul to make god's word ineffective for your life so listen i'm not saying that this is easy and that you can just wake up and snap out of it and start being content it takes time it takes practice it takes work it takes reminding it takes accountability it takes community but i honestly believe that it's something that we can do and it can point the world to jesus that we know that show that jesus is enough for us so i want to pray for every single person in here maybe you're in here and you struggle with discontentment right maybe as i was talking because i know this is me you identify with this insatiable desire for more and maybe it manifests itself in your life in jealousy or maybe uh envy of somebody else or you feel like you're constantly comparing yourself to somebody else who has just a little bit more i want to pray for you tonight if that's you could you raise your hand if you feel like you just wrestle with this deep insatiable desire to compare or want what you don't have maybe you're in here tonight and you feel like you're a victim of anxiety and depression because you just can't keep up with where you think you're supposed to be in your life could you just raise your hand i want to pray for you if you just feel like you're always one step behind you're just one step behind where you need to be or you're supposed to be man i want to pray for you and maybe you're in here tonight and you've never known what it's like to have jesus as your source for your soul to where you don't need to look to instagram or the next fashion trend or the next house or the new car you can honestly have jesus and he can be enough for you it doesn't mean that you never want anything again it doesn't mean that you can't go out and buy nice things just means that you just your soul is no longer defined or finds its value in those things because you know jesus if you've never met jesus and you would just like to get to know him tonight would you raise your hand just say man i want to know jesus as my source i want to know what it's like to have fulfillment and purpose i see your hand i see your hand i want to pray for you tonight we're about to go into another moment of worship father god what an honor it is to follow you with all the gods with all the pools with all the the currents in our culture trying to distract us from the people you want us to be it is an honor to say no i'm going to follow jesus so god i pray tonight for any any person in this room that feels like they just can't get over this envy this jealousy this comparison god i pray that your your holy spirit would show up in their heart and be all sufficient for them god i pray for people that are in here tonight wrestling with anxiety and depression people that feel this pressure from parents or friends or maybe just this image they've had of their self of where they're supposed to be right now in their life god would you release them from that in jesus name would you give them a contentment of peace a satisfaction and and let them enjoy and rest the season of life that you have them in god and for everybody that raised their hand to meet jesus jesus would you just be more real to these people than anything they've ever felt if you raised your hand to meet jesus would you just begin to talk to him in your own word it doesn't have to be crazy it doesn't have to be super religious literally all you have to say is jesus i'm here and i want to meet you i want to know you if you really can be the source of my satisfaction if you really can be the source that provides me with all good things would you be that for me and i feel like god's going to show up you're going to meet jesus tonight and he's going to turn your world completely upside down jesus it's our honor to to be together and to worship you and follow you we love you so much and we believe that we can be a people defined by contentment in a world obsessed with more it's our honor to worship you and love you jesus in your name we pray and everybody said amen and amen let's worship you

Channel: Red Rocks Young Adults

Views: 107

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Red rocks church, church, god, religion, faith, hope, love, bible, content, contentment, jesus, jesus christ, christ, connor grim, red rocks ya, red rocks young adults, rrya, young adult, ya ministry, ministry, 20 somethings, young adult ministry, thursdays, denver, colorado, worship, sermon, message, motivation, self help, christian, christianity

Id: IxkG-hxgdjQ

Length: 46min 57sec (2817 seconds)

Published: Sun May 09 2021