"BEING CONTENT WITH GOD"

um thank you for being here we're signing on now across the uh not only across the country but across the world we're in 10 different states and 73 countries and right now they're watching us can you believe that from a little church right now all over the world this is being viewed and we want you to know we are so thankful you tuned in and we're going to give you a hand to say thank you while you turn the philippians chapter number 4. philippians chapter number 4. i want to begin reading in verse number 10 please philippians chapter 4 and verse number 10. but i rejoiced in the lord greatly that now at the last uh though at the last your care of me had flourished it's flourished again meaning it happened before wherein you were also careful but you lacked opportunity and paul said in verse number 11 not that i speak in respect of want for i have learned in whatsoever state i'm in there with to be content i know both how to be a base and i know how to abound everywhere and in all things i instructed both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and to suffer need because i've learned all of this then verse 13 applies to us i can do all things through christ which strengtheneth me now there is a prerequisite to letting christ get you through all things through his strength and the prerequisite is found in verse number 11 that no matter what state i'm in now when paul is referring to watch state he's not talking about kentucky south carolina you read next let me clarify that he's not talking about whether he's in new hampshire or he's in florida he's talking about no matter what situation he is in here's how you could claim that christ strengthens you because in verse 11 whatsoever state whatsoever situation whatsoever circumstance i'm in i have learned this thing how to be content so i want to preach this morning on something that can change your life for the better i want to preach on being content in christ being content with god in christ did you know the word content is only found 16 times in the bible it's found ten times in the old testament and only six times in the new its meaning has several joining definitions that presents us a full view of what it's really trying to say the word content simply means a willingness to submit to in other words you have found a resting place that satisfies you and you want to stay there the word content means sufficient it means to be satisfied it means to be so full of something that you don't want anything else have you ever eaten so much that when you got done you didn't know it but there was dessert and you get and the last time you swallowed it stopped right here and then all of a sudden your mom or your wife or whoever turns around said oh by the way we got a hot apple pie with ice cream well that's what you save this for right here but this verse is implying that you are so filled and satisfied with god that you don't have room for anything else to come into your life it's the state of being peaceful and happy in jesus and with jesus many are having trouble finding their resting i'm talking about save people they're having trouble finding their resting place in god because to be honest we are surrounded by a world that's very discontent the word discontent is not even found in the bible because god wants us to learn to be at peace in him no matter what situations we may face in our lifetime there is a terminology in our generation called divine discontentment it is a term used by psychologists that reveals things like stress anxiety worry being uneasy it also refers to being fidgety without a real reason on why you're fidgeting have you ever looked at somebody and wonder why they can't be still to the point that you looked at them and said why can't you be still and then they say to you i didn't know i wasn't what are you fidgety about i didn't know i was fidgety and see what has happened is they are so discontent with life that it even affects their motor skills in their body and they're not even aware of it brenard russell was born many years ago he was mr russell was born into the rich a rich family in the uk his grandfather was the british prime minister at that time what they didn't know was all through his teenage years mr russell thought about killing himself with suicide he said in a book looking at life i have found out that rich people because he was born into a multi-multi-millionaire family he said i found out looking in life that rich people were just as miserable as poor people in 1930 he published a book and he called it the conquest of happiness and it was lessons that he learned or reasons why globally the whole world is unhappy and discontent with their life you're afraid to ask people how they're doing anymore because it is a long list of stuff that they don't like that's going on in their life but even back in 1930 this is what mr russell said was causing global discontentment a life that is meaningless being in competition with those around you boredom because of repetition fatigue in mind and body envy stemming from jealousy carrying the guilt and shame of your past fear of public opinion those were the very roots that made people discontent with life in 1930 could you imagine the list today in 2021 but just like that list then and what the list would be now the amazing part is every one of these can be fixed in jesus it doesn't matter what you're discontent about jesus can fix it there's a paper called the general social survey in march 22 of 2019 this is what the paper said and i quote life in america keeps getting more miserable in the quote you think with all the technology with all the prosperity with all the building you think with all the populous and the humanity and everything we have at our fingertips that people would be happy we have more entertainment than we've ever had we've had more opportunities relax than we've ever had we can travel better than we've ever traveled yet they figured out in 2019 americans are more miserable now than they've ever been in the history of this country can you believe that how is that happening my grandparents went to church in a horse and buggy put hot bricks off a fireplace on the floor of the buggy the kids would sit around the edges and put blankets over it and that's what heeded the kids to get them to church in the winter time and those people were content they grew their own food killed their own meat some of you came out of homes like that some of our homes that our grandparents had didn't even have running water the filthiest thing my grandfather said ever happened into his life was when he let his kids build a bathroom onto the house he died saying that that was filthy and unsanitary outhouses are supposed to be in the backyard not connected to the kitchen and he griped till the day he died they had outhouses they didn't have lights in the outhouse brother they didn't have a toilet they had a path my papal you look we used a serious catalog to order from they used it for toilet paper he told me one time said we use corn cobs and i'll show you i said you ain't showing me nothing with a corn cob say that right now i've never been that poor uncle joe you remember them rough days i got a picture of you and your sister holding a pet goat wasn't it or sheep you took it in the house didn't you brother joe it went in the house it got a sheep in the house no running water slats you can see through no income no welfare no social security no obamacare and yet people were happy now we've got everything at our fingertips we're being spalled the government's spending us checks that we don't even deserve to spend on stuff we don't even like to impress people that we don't even know and and we're living in a country where we got more we got better cars we got bigger houses we got internet we got television we got everything we want yet america is more miserable now and i'll tell you why they left jesus out that's why america is miserable and we as born again christians if we're not careful being discontent can motivate us to make changes in our life that are really not positive when we look around it's very easy to get discontent look at the world at large wars and rumors of wars look at the government that is in session at this time again i'm not political i don't hold either side but just look at the mess we're in no matter what side of the spectrum you believe we are in an absolute mess the mindset of all humanity has gone crazy look at the generation that's coming on what we're having to deal with look at the education system that's filling the minds of our children look at the work ethics of employees i talked to a businessman yesterday he said i can't tell you the last time i hired a guy under 35 years old that would even show up for the job they come to me and say man i got to have a job i give them a job they don't even come back to work the first day of the job but yet they want to know if i could spare them some money up front without them working the work ethics of this and i know i'm preaching but i'm going to tell you something i'm telling you parents have went overboard and spoiled their children and made lazy couch potato brats out of them and let them sit around and play nintendo all day while you cut the grass while you were doing the weed eating while you were taking out the garbage and now we got a generation that don't even know what it's like to break a sweat look at the mess we're in people don't have any goals and dreams to prosper anymore the american dream of owning a piece of land and owning your own home is gone this generation wants to live in condos and let the maintenance man do everything for them look at the lack of respect for others have you ever seen anything like it i never dreamed i would see the day when they would call their mom and dad old man and old lady and answer them huh and what and leave me alone and i'll do it when i want to i'll tell you my daddy would be in prison the rest of his life if he was alive today because you would only say that one time to my daddy you saw i don't know what i'm gonna do with junior when he gets mad he just slams the door i'm gonna tell you when my daddy got done with him he would be out of the door slamming business for the rest of his life he would drive a car without doors just to make sure he didn't slam another door there's no respect for others anymore nobody's even comfortable in this upcoming generation they're not even comfortable with their sexual origin we got boys now saying they're girls and girls saying they're boys and we got things saying they're it and we got some that are neutral and i hate to keep preaching on it but i i really do i hate to keep mentioning it i hate it i hate it [Applause] it is sad that i've got to take bible preaching time to deal with such trash but as long as the president's promoting it as long as the schools are promoting it as long as television is going to promote it i'm going to preach against it until they shut up [Applause] god made you in his image if you're a boy god made you a boy be a boy if you're a girl god made you a girl be proud to be a girl god had a reason for making you what you are accept it love it enjoy it give god the glory for it bless god you could have been a baboon i don't believe we come from monkeys but i believe we're headed that way look at the average homes like a commitment in love they're not living they're existing together and sad above all the churches have fallen into the same discontentment people don't want preaching anymore at churches when i started preaching 43 years ago when people would call the church they would say stuff like this what bible do you use what do you think about holiness what about separation is jesus coming again does the deacon board control this church does the lizard tongue jezebel control the pastor is there a family that's got two or three generations in there that thinks they own the pastor is there a businessman or woman with a thick wallet that thinks they can buy the preacher off that used to be the questions people ask because they were interested in getting around preaching that would save their home and salvage their kids oh no that don't happen anymore oh no that doesn't happen anymore now when they call the first thing they say how many activities do you have for the children what do you do for the kids what else can you do for the kids we do stuff for the kids we have full-time workers here that give their life to work for these kids i'm not against that but i want you to know ahead of time you that are visiting i am not bozo to clown i am not dolly parton this is not dollywood i'm not here to buy your kid pizza every friday or take him to a skating rink every saturday it's not my job to entertain your kids you had them bless god you entertain them i tell you what my calling is to be filled with the holy ghost anointed with power from above and preach the unsearchable riches of jesus christ to the people of god that's my calling [Applause] so you cannot learn to be content in verse number 11 until you first walk through verses one through six you just don't come to the altar today and say okay lord i've decided i'm gonna be content there is a pathway that leads to a place in your life where jesus is not only all you have he is all you need let me show you some things that we have to utilize in our life first and i must be very quickly verse number two look back up earlier in the chapter this is called expository preaching where you take verse by verse and let the bible speak for itself verse number two if you're going to be content in life you've got to learn to get along with other people you've got to learn there's more people in this world than just you if you'll refer back to verse number two paul beseeches two people that they be of the same mind in the lord evidently in the church there in philippi there was a couple of the members that couldn't get along with each other i'm sure it was something serious like the color of their shoes or the way they parted their hair or maybe the chariot they drove or maybe they didn't like those white wall tires on the chariot or maybe they were jealous because theirs didn't have tilt bridles or cruise control did you know there are some people that can't even get along with themselves i know you've heard this illustration a man was on an island by himself for years and they found him when they come upon an island he'd been there all by himself and they got to the island and they looked and they were three huts built there and they went to the man and they said why do you have three huts he said well the first one is where i live they said well i understand that and he said well what's the second one he said well that's why i went to church they said we understand that and they say well what's the third one he said well that's when we split the church and started another one and when you're on an island by yourself and you split a church and start another one you've got problems getting along with people look getting along with people is not easy because we all have different traits we all have different flavors we all have different temperaments and we all have different backgrounds but see learning to be content with people will help you learn how to be content with god that's why paul put this in verse number two you see to be content with people around you that are different than you it takes patience it takes love it takes forgiveness it takes understanding it takes long suffering it takes being quiet when you want to speak in psalms 133 and verse 1 the psalmist said it's pleasant that the brethren dwell together in unity you see ephesians chapter 4 verse 3 says that we as christians are to be endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit of god in our church now why would the devil want us to be discontent with somebody now there are some people that are easier to like than other people there are some people that are easier to love than other people and when you learn to go out of your box and out of your boundaries to love people that's not easy it helps you understand how god can love people with all of our faults and failures and frustrations that he has to put up with us if god can put up with us and all of our mess that we get ourselves involved in surely we can get along with a few people that we share a few with on sunday morning once a week in the house of god and i notice nobody's clapping but you know i'm telling it right now now here's what the devil would love to do he doesn't have to get a fight in the church to lose the power of god he's just got to get us discontent about being around each other is there somebody here you can't shake hands with is there somebody here you can't tell them you love them is there somebody here you shy away because you don't even want to be in their presence that is the very seed that can be planted in the church that causes discontentment among the people of god and here's the problem with it it grieves the holy ghost and now the spirit of god can't move in our church and this is why i preach on this stuff i don't want anything to hinder the spirit of god i want him to know he is welcome here we want him here and we'll make any adjustment we've got to make to make sure he shows up so if you're going to be content in christ you've got to learn to get along with other people number two verse number three if you're going to be content in christ you've got to labor get involved in the things of god verse number three paul talks about the cold the fellow laborers that were helping him you know it seems to me like and i don't understand all of this but it seems to me like the people that are most discontent with the church are those that never get involved you see idle minds is the devil's workshop yeah i think about miss marty most of you don't even know but there are several ladies that come down here every week and keep this church and spam some of them work upstairs some of them work downstairs and then brother lenny and miss judy privately and patiently clean my office every week they're the only ones that go in my office ever have gone in my office and cleaned it but we have workers here that are down here absolutely every saturday making sure this building is spotless because i'm ocd and if there's fuzz hair or lint i'm telling you i'm gonna grieve the spirit of god i can't handle a piece of paper everything's gotta be right the bathrooms have to be clean and by the way let's give them a hand because they do a tremendous job [Applause] and miss anna and many of them that i can mention but i said to miss marty one time i said do i need to get some more help down there can we recruit more women and i'll never forget what she said to me she said preacher i've got enough help at the church right now but she said when i go down to the church and i clean it it's my time with god it's my time with god boy if we could get people to understand that when you get involved and do stuff it's not just a matter of getting stuff done but it's a time you're spending with god you are laboring for the lord if you want to learn to be content in jesus get involved in what the heart of god is involved in and that's the new testament local church quit being a complainer get involved do something there is something everybody in this church can do not everybody can be a preacher or a singer but there is something we can find for you to do i noticed that some of the landscaping out here brother guy we need some more of that mulch stuff out here it kind of got blowed away through the winter time i expect that to be done by somebody by the end of this week coming up i can't handle plastic showing my ocd i can't handle it so put that in your nose brother guy that's got to be fixed by next sunday and so get involved do something you know the bible says the harvest is plenteous but the labors are few i did a survey the other day and i found out that 10 of the congregation congregation does 80 of the work at a church what if everybody at this church was just like you what kind of church would this church be see somebody's got to get involved somebody's got to cut the grass somebody's got to clean the buildings change the light bulbs somebody's got to change the sign somebody has to make sure all the landscaping is done and clean there's all kinds people need to be contacting our visitors we need to have new connections new follow-ups new invites taking them out to eat learning them training with them praying for them getting them to saturate themselves with the word of god and get involved at emmaus i'm telling you we've got to get more people involved the 10 that's carrying the load of this church to be honest it's too much for them sometimes they're overwhelmed and i thank god for their dedication but i don't want to burn them out somebody's got to teach our sunday school classes there is something everybody can do we need you if you're a member of this church god sent you here because we're fitly joined together and the body cannot function to its full potential unless everybody is doing what god has sent them here to do am i still telling the truth now learn labor get involved it'll help you be content with the things of god number three verse number four learn how to worship now here's what the bible said paul repeats himself because he knows he's dealing with baptists he says in verse 4 rejoice in the lord alway and by the way i i know you're hard-headed and again i say rejoice now notice the word alway that simply means no matter where you are at in your life he is still worthy of our praise he's worthy of our praise now watch this [Applause] you've got to understand and i'll deal with thanksgiving in a minute there is a difference between thanksgiving and praise there is a difference when you give thanks like the song we sang in memory brother fletcher and miss joyce of your sister today thank you lord for your blessings on me when you give thanks unto the lord when you're thankful you're thanking him for what he does we're thanking him for a roof over our head we're thanking him for clothes on our back and shoes on our feet we're thanking him that there's food on the table that we got a car in the parking lot and money to put in the gas tank we're thankful that when we sit down we can say thank you lord for food we're not hungry like many around the world are today we're thankful to have a job we're thankful to have an income we're thankful to have health to be able to see to hear to be at church we're thankful to have a bible see thankfulness is thanking god for what he does but praise and rejoicing is thanking god for who he is because he's god whether there's food on the table or not he's god whether there's a roof over your head or not he's god whether there's shoes on your feet or not he's god whether you've got a car or not he's god whether you've got gas money or not so if nothing else if you have no other reason to praise him today if he never does anything you could still say glory to god he's still the king of kings and the lord of lords and he's worthy [Applause] because of who he is we are so spoiled in this country that we only thank him because of what he does i wish i could take you back to mexico and show you a family of four that was living in a refrigerator cardboard box that a refrigerator came out of on the side of a city dump a man and woman and two children living in a refrigerator cardboard box had sticks propped up on the side to keep it from folding over had found a piece of an old tarp to throw on top of it so the rain wouldn't ruin it had a trough dug across the dirt in front of it so the rain wouldn't run in how you going to thank god for that all of them barefooted as a goat that night for supper each one of them had a handful of rice flies everywhere no air conditioning no electricity no car no shoes no oven no washer and dryer we're so stinking spoiled i got a freaking vacuum cleaner at my house i hit a button and it vacuums my house she don't even know how to turn a vacuum on him i said it vacuums my house without talking that's a blessing no complaining and when it gets done it goes back to where it started sucks all the dirt out and a woman's voice comes on and says i'm ready again but that family had a dirt floor she'd never had a perm her fingernails wasn't polished she didn't have a wedding band the kids didn't even have a change of clothes they don't know what a hot water tank is but at seven o'clock that night when i preached in that little mud hut with no roof no windows and no doors that family of four came in and set on rough cut lumber set on top of big rocks with tears running down their face and only a few pages of the bible in their hand and they stood to their feet and they shouted and they cried and they worshiped not because of what they had but because of who he is i'm telling you we've got to get back to understanding he is the lord and all praise and glory and honor is due to his name you want to be content learn how to worship i'm just giving these in closing verse number five live a real testimony the bible tells us to live in moderation the only time the word's found in the new testament it means to be gentle and understanding because through our contentment people will see what we have and what what want what we have through our testimony last of all in verse number six you want to be content lift your prayers up with thanksgiving i want to give you this in closing watch this it's important the bible said making all prayers and supplications be known to god you see that verse 6 how do we make our prayers and supplications be known to god by praying no by thanksgiving so this is what paul's teaching us in chapter four and verse six if you don't wrap your prayers with gratitude god never hears it anyway the bible said your prayers are not being made known to god through thanksgiving see if you take your prayer life and take out lord move this supply this take care of this answer this prayer you'll find that your prayer life is very self-centered but when you take what you think needs to be done and you start wrapping it with thanksgiving and gratitude not only because of who he is but because of what he's done you will find out that your list will begin to shrink and the demands that you think you need from god all of a sudden gets smaller because you start realizing man you fit so good to me why should i ask for anything why should i have all these supplications for me you've been such a good god you've taken such good care how in the world [Applause] so let me give you this one closing i was preaching in opelac alabama i'll never forget this when i got saved i had on 36 inch pale bottom blue jeans four inch white platform shoes a dirty t-shirt my hair and a ponytail weighed 102 pounds i know i've lost weight since then i understand brother charles don't laugh we'll look at your wedding pictures too and i come from a good family but we were not a rich family to say the least let me just leave it at that and so i was an open at opelika alabama and i had an old motorhome that i was living in and my wife was home having one of our children and i was in a meeting there and she'd come and they dropped off my family and i told them i said go on in the church i always like to have quiet time before i preach and i was standing at the mirror and i got to thinking about how good god had been to me i didn't have any requests i didn't have a bunch of pride i just i was just overwhelmed by the goodness of god i remember opening the closet and looking at different suits which one i was going to wear and i thought i never dreamed i'd ever own a suit in my life and i remember looking in the bottom brother mark at the different shoes you know you know me i'm a matchaholic my shoes have to match my socks my underwear everything everything about me has to match my hanky my hanky has to match you see that matches my suit everything has to match so i'm going through the closet making sure i got the shoes that match best the suit i have my shirt my tie and everything and i don't know brother randy i was just overwhelmed with god's goodness to me because i know where i should be and i know what i deserve and here i am standing putting a suit on going to preach the gospel to about 300 people my wife and kids had already went inside the church i'll never forget this as long as i live the presence of god got so real in that little motor home that i honest to god thought it was going to blow up and i got so full of god i said to the lord lord if it wasn't church time there's a big old field out across the road i'd just run over in that field and shout give you glory i can't stand up he said what's keeping you from doing it son i kick the door open to that motor home i come flying out and i cut the corner wide open and i'm dressed by the way i cut the corner wide open and there is a ups man with a big box big black guy standing there and he's turning the corner the other way bam i ran right into him he thought i was going to rob him his eyes was that big around he's standing there with that box and he's he's froze he can't move he don't know what to say i grabbed that box and i got to jumping up and down he's standing there watching me go like this i said sir i'll tell you something god's been so good to me i can't hardly stand it you know what that black man did you know what he did to me he set that box down got my hands and got to jumping up and down with me he said god be good to this black man too and we shouted up and down the church parking here to tell you he's a good god now because you have now walked through the pathway of being content now you can claim verse 11 now you can do all things through christ but not until you take that journey through verse one through verse number six let's give the lord a hand hope you got some help today you

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Length: 34min 37sec (2077 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 23 2021