Chasing Contentment | Pastor Wade Joye | Elevation Church

so are you ready for the work all right I'm ready to preach here we go we're gonna be in Philippians chapter 4 for our short time together this is verse verse 6 through 13 it says this stay standing do not be anxious about anything but in every situation by prayer and petition with Thanksgiving present your requests to God and the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus now finally brothers and sisters whatever is true whatever is noble whatever is right whatever is pure whatever is lovely whatever is admirable if anything is excellent or praiseworthy think about such things and whatever you've learned or received or heard from me or seen in me put it into practice and the God of peace will be with you I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that at last you renewed your concern for me indeed you were concerned but you had no opportunity to show it and I'm not saying this because I am in need for I learn to be content whatever the circumstances I know what it is to be in need I know what it is to have plenty I've learned the secret of being content in any and every situation whether well fed or hungry whether living in plenty or in want I can do all this through him who gives me strength so the title of the message that God's given me for our church today is chasing contentment chasing contentment lord I pray that you speak to us through your word I pray God that you will give us hearts to believe God give us ears to hear and the faith to obey and Jesus name we pray amen all right go ahead and give about five or six hugs before you head to your seats so like I said I'm I'm the worship pastor here at the church so naturally I love music I'm a retired worship leader retired songwriter used to dabble and all that and so I was I was with my my three kids have three little girls and I was trying to give them a history lesson of music and and specifically the evolution of my love for music and really this was just an excuse to make them listen to all my favorite high school bands from the 90s so we listen to Nirvana Smashing Pumpkins Pearl Jam I think we've got some fans in here also a Foo Fighters one of my favorite bands there's actually there's that there's a debate in our family I have twins Adlee Liana Adlee loves pop music she's not a huge fan of rock Liana she's my rock my rock kid and her favorite band at 11 years old is Foo Fighters so if I've done nothing right as a parent I've at least done that one thing right so we were talking about all these bands and I realized that I really fell in love with music you know way earlier before high school and I think I remembered the very first song I wrote and it was back in second grade I grew up in Columbia South Carolina go Gamecocks probably the only time I can ever say that with confidence from the stage this weekend it's probably heresy to say this I'm sorry pastor Steven but I grew up in Columbia and had a great childhood amazing parents they were a tad overprotective maybe a lot overprotective but I didn't get it at the time but I'm a parent now so I'm kind of overprotective and I saw that there's now I see there was love and and wisdom behind some of their rules but my second grade year I did not comprehend that cause my second grade year was full of angst and frustration due to certain bike-riding limitations that were opposed upon me against my will so I would come home from school and me and my friends did what every elementary school boy did back in the 80s before the Internet we actually went outside we rode our bikes it was awesome you should try it and so you know my parents they let me ride my bike on this one small stretch of road right in front of our house we lived on Mountain Brook Drive and I could ride my bike all the way up to the stop sign but I couldn't go past the stop sign and at first that was great I mean me and my friends we just tore up the pavement right in front of my house showing off all of our tricks it was great but then I think my friend started to get a little restless because their parents were a bit more liberal with with the rules than mine so one day we rode up to the stop sign and then instead of my friends turning around to go back to my house they just kept going and they ditched me I want you to imagine poor little second-grade Wade just standing at the stop sign just so sad just wondering what you know treasures and wonder and joy awaited my friends and this huge neighborhood and so I peddle my bike back to my parents and I'm begging I'm pleading I'm trying to reason with them with all of my second-grade wisdom while I'm responsible and I could handle it and my friends are doing it and none of it worked tried a new tactic and I was like you know who's gonna mess with a man or boy of my stature you know I was very intimidating at second grade that didn't work either so everyday ride to the stop sign waved at my friends I was just sad just pouting so one day I'd had enough and I just rode my bike back to the house and I threw my bike up against the fence i sat down up against the fence once again picture little second-grade wade which was about the size of 43 year old Wade and I'm just sitting here at the fence may have been tears involved and then a song began to rise for my spirit a cry to the Lord this to the best of my knowledge is the first time I remember writing a song and it went something like this nobody understands me nobody understands me it's real complicated if you catch a sing-along nobody understands me big finish nobody understands me so you could tell at second grade I had a talent for simplicity repetition I knew the power of that in songwriting and you know eventually I made it past the stop sign in third grade but I don't think I ever made it past that feeling whether in second grade or at 43 thinking like there's something that I'm missing out on just beyond the stop sign how in the world could I be happy or content on this small stretch of road when a whole neighborhood awaits if I could just get there if I could just be that if I could just achieve that then maybe I would be happy maybe I could find joy maybe I could be content and so Paul's writing in Philippians about contentment and I think I've always thought contentment was one of two things either my life had to be perfect which I don't know about you but mine's never been that way or I have to pretend like it's perfect and fake it and be happy with decisions that are made that I had no control over and somehow that was contentment and you know full disclosure I have a very blessed life I love my life I love my family I love my church I'm getting to live out my dreams but how many of you know that the struggle for contentment is not just when you're in the valley and you wish you were on the mountain sometimes you're on the mountain and you're satisfied and you're happy that you're on the mountain till you look over and you see your friend on another mountain that's just a little bit taller a little bit bigger a little bit sexier then your mountain and you feel like you know I was satisfied but now I'm not because we all want this we all want that feeling of contentment we want to be content with our with our relationships our friendships we want to be content with our career we want to be content with our bank account and our finances you know we want to be content we have this picture-perfect image of what our life should be and if it could just be that then I'd be content but I didn't really know how to be content when I got the call from the doctor seven years ago is that my five week old daughter Sydney had cystic fibrosis I wasn't sure how to be content with that and I wasn't sure how to one day tell her to be content with that I mean how do you be content with the fact that your husband just walked out and left how are you content with the fact that you raised your son in church and now they're there they're hooked on drugs how are you content with a job that you hate how are you content with the things in your life that you really wished you had the power to change but you can so we keep chasing it and we keep struggling with it and we keep thinking if we can just get my life to look this way then I'll finally get it then I'll finally be content and sometimes for me in the chasing I've made some of the dumbest decisions of my life chasing this fleeting feeling of contentment and I really believe God put the strongly in my heart some of you are on the verge of sabotaging your life trying to find contentment because you think it's in the next marriage and you're about to abandon this one you think it's in the next career and you're about to make a choice to find contentment and ruin your life in the process and so somewhere along the way I think I've caught the wrong thought about what contentment really is and maybe you have to how many of you heard the sermon last weekend I caught a thought incredible sermon wasn't it if you haven't listened you need to go back and listen it but I think I've caught the wrong thought I think our culture has caught the wrong thought about what contentment is and I think Paul's trying to explain it to us right here and if you don't know Paul was writing this whole treatise on contentment from a prison cell which is not the ideal place in my mind to write about contentment but I think it's exactly where God wanted him to write it from I see Paul is not saying I'm content with the prison he's not saying I'm happy about it he's not saying I'm content with the lack of resource I'm content with the fact that I've been being persecuted for the gospel that's not it at all I think if you don't read verse 12 carefully you'll miss it this is what Paul says says I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation so Paul is not saying there's a secret to being content with your season because honestly sometimes I don't think God's content with our season I don't think God wants us to hurt that way are to suffer but Paul saying there's a secret of being content in it it's not with it it's in it I had the wrong preposition there the whole time Paul is saying there's a secret of being content in your trial not with your trial and I think that is what caused the first century world to take notice of these people like Paul who claimed to follow this this self-proclaimed Messiah named Jesus and they're facing down death and persecution and they still have joy and they're still rejoicing and the first century world didn't understand that and honestly sometimes I don't understand it either I don't understand how to be content in any and every season and so that was the message that I really wanted to preach today that it's not with it's in because it sounds cute and it's true at face value but the more I started thinking about it and the more I started thinking about you know how do I explain to Sydney one day how are you content in Cystic Fibrosis how do I explain to the person who doesn't have a job how are you don't just it's not being content with it just be content in it it doesn't change how you feel it doesn't matter what word you put there doesn't matter you know what sounds cute I still feel miserable I still feel frustrated I still feel like there's just something missing in my life so maybe that's part of the secret but maybe it's not all of the secret and so last Sunday after church I was sitting on my couch 2:30 in the afternoon and I was just looking at Philippians 4 it's like God what is the secret I really I want to know because I struggle with this and here's what I love about the word of God you can read a passage for years and then in a moment the Holy Spirit can just illuminate a truth that you needed to hear that exact right moment at that exact right time and when God showed me this I wanted to come to Ballentine right then and preach and normally for I'm usually really nervous to say on the stage I'm nervous right now but I couldn't wait to share this with you because it started to help me and I really pray it helps you and I think the secret is in verse 9 here it is Paul says whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me put it into practice and the God of peace will be with you so I think God sent me here to tell you to stop chasing contentment practice it contentment is not a chase it's not a magical download contentment is a practice and it takes work and it takes repetition and it's not normal it's a practice turn to your neighbor say we're talking about practice here today I feel the spirit of Allen Iverson coming over me we're talking about practice so you can be content in your situation but it takes practice it's not your default setting see I love guitar my favorite guitar player Stevie Ray Vaughn and you know I wish one Stevie Ray fan right over there and I wish I just came out of the womb with the guitar in hand just playing his version of little wing first without have been a very awkward and painful birth for my mom that was the case but no I didn't know how to I didn't know anything about a guitar it took years and years and years in high school just closing the door playing along with my favorite bands my favorite music practicing my scales learning a C chord and a D chord and a G chord and now I don't play anywhere near Stevie Ray if I did I'd be taking Joey's spot over here every single weekend but I know enough chords to get the job done and I don't have to think any more about how to play a C or how to play a D or an E minor it comes naturally and so it took practice to make something that wasn't natural feel natural and so Paul is saying you are not prone to make the choice that leads to contentment it is not natural but as he looked at his life and looked at some skills that he had put into practice day after day month after month year after year even when it didn't feel normal he began to learn the secret of being content in a situation he is telling the church in Philippi if you practice these things you can learn it too so I think there's three skills that we can practice to the rest of our time together the next 22 minutes it's not a sermon it's practice so get your sweats on stretch get loose we're gonna practice together three skills that we're gonna practice to help cultivate a heart of contentment and the first is this so note takers write this down it's practice the petition practice the petition so one of my daughters Adlee it doesn't matter if I'm if it's breakfast lunch dinner if I ever ask her where she wants to eat doesn't matter if it's a daddy-daughter date we're in a hurry on the way to church her response is 100% without fail without a doubt always the same Genghis Grill loves Genghis Grill I mean she loves everything about Genghis Grill she loves the the the selection on the menu the variety she loves the the dining experience the ambiance the atmosphere she just graduated from a small bowl to a big bowl but she loves everything about Genghis I enjoy Genghis I feel like I've said yes to Genghis enough to show my love for Adlee and the great dining establishment of Genghis Grill but there's also not a Genghis close to our house so i've also exercised my fatherly veto many times we're in a hurry and i'm like we can't go to Genghis today well a few weeks ago I came home from church had been visiting some campuses and Ferris and the girls have beat me home and Adlee is just smiling her face is just beaming ear to ear and i'm like oh gosh like one of her friends must have given their life to Christ somebody must have gotten baptized at church like Adlee what what happened and she's like mommy took me to Genghis it wasn't easy to please it's just like you know we were running errands on the way home from church and we stopped at a place that was really close to Genghis and I wanted to ask mommy if we could go but I figured she'd probably say no when I kept almost asking and then I did and I almost asked I thought she'd say no and finally we were walking out the door and it's like mommy there's there's Genghis and she said yes and at first I was really shocked that she's surprised that that Ferris would say yes because our bank account shows that she says yes to Adlee a lot doesn't quite connect but I realized that I think the exact same thoughts about God but it doesn't matter how many good things the Lord has done for me over my life for some reason I think his disposition towards me is no and I might tell you yes God is good but I have a hard time believing that he actually wants good things for me I mean he might take me to McDonald's but not Genghis I mean that's it's so hard for me to believe the truth that God wants something good for me and sometimes I feel like if I want something enough it's probably an idol there's no way God would want me to have it and I've missed defined contentment as believing for a no so I'm not disappointed when I want a yes and I don't get it and all that does for me is I lower my level of expectation I lower my level of faith i lower my level of belief and I claim it's contentment and it's really just complacency I've just settled and I don't think Paul says contentment is found from just accepting your situation no questions asked I think Paul says God wants us to ask he wants us to ask him to move ask him to work look at Philippians 4:6 one more time says do not be anxious about anything but in every situation by prayer and petition with Thanksgiving present your requests to God so Paul says offer up prayers and petitions and prayers one of those words we say a lot in church and we can become numb to it so I want to focus on the word petition cause it sounded like a strong word and I was drawn to it so I looked it up and the definition of petition is to make or present a formal request to an authority with respect to a particular cause so contentment isn't found in just accepting things as they are it's found when we recognize that there's actually someone in our life with the power and authority to make it better and that person is not us it's appealing to a higher authority who has the power to act but also the wisdom to know when and how to act and sometimes when not to act so the first step is recognizing that I am not in authority over my life there are some things like you might be discontent because everyone else is getting the promotion and it's really because you're late and you're lazy and you don't actually work hard that's when things are in your authority I'm talking about the things that are actually out of your control and realizing that there's nothing we can do to fix this so we have to appeal to a higher authority and so to make petitions we have to stop hiding our emotions hiding our desires hiding our requests from God I mean it's the worst game of hide-and-seek ever you can't hide anything from the Lord and you know my twins are right here and I feel like I need to confess in front of thousands of people right now that all those times growing up when we played hide-and-seek and I was like where's Liana where is Adlee I knew where y'all were the entire time so forgive me dad lie but that's it's the way it is we try to hide what we want from God and he knows and here's what actually makes that dangerous it's when we do that we begin to believe the lie that God doesn't listen and God doesn't care and when that happens we start to lose hope and there's no way you can have contentment without hope the Bible says that hope deferred makes the heart sick we have to hope that God wants to move and can move if we're ever gonna cultivate a heart of contentment and so petitioning God is also cultivating hope so here's what that looks like in my life right now this is just a window into my prayer life and I wish I could say that I wake up at 5 in the morning and spend an hour of uninterrupted communion with the Blessed Lord Jesus and I just hear his audible voice I'm barely saved at 5:00 in the morning I'm and alright I'm not away I'm not one of those I wake up at 5:00 and go work out I'm not that person I get my best prayer time done in the car and that's not just praying blessings over people in Charlotte traffic it's it's actually I can be still and quiet and alone and actually talk to God because prayer for me right now is it's kind of messy and it doesn't feel very churchy and it starts with trying to be brutally honest with God so I'll just try to get all my feelings out they'll say okay God I'm I'm really really nervous about this meeting today I feel like everyone's gonna finally realize that I'm not that smart and I don't have what it takes or I'm nervous about this conversation because I really want this person to like me but I know you want me to say this you know I feel like no one understands me I'm still that second grade kid you know mad about the bike and I just get all the emotions out all of it and then I try to move past the emotion to truth and say God but I do know no matter how I feel that you are for me that you've called me that you've equipped me and so I try to say it out loud so I actually like get that in my heart and then I make the petition and the petition doesn't have to be very big in fact just you know month or two ago I was driving home from work and that had a day where I felt like just one of those days I didn't feel like I was winning and I remember just praying to God and telling him all that so you know Lord I know that you're supposed to be the source of my encouragement and my validation and I'm not supposed to need other people's encouragement but just this once if just if just I could hear your approval of me through the lips of another that would be awesome but if you say no I get it you're probably trying to teach me that I don't need dad and then I just kind of threw the prayer out kind of like a Genghis it's right over there and I didn't think about it well that night I get home and I get two unsolicited texts from from two people who are not prone to give me encouragement but it was very specific it was very timely and it was almost like God heard my prayer and answered it and it started to like stir up faith in my heart and you might call it coincidence and maybe it was but that doesn't change the fact that it made me think okay God does listen to me and maybe I'm starting to look over here and say well maybe that's God working there and maybe that's God working here and I started to begin to make bolder petitions about bigger things and I remember that yes my daughter Sydney has cystic fibrosis and she's healthy now but I kind of gotten complacent and praying for her healing and in life expectancy for that is age 40 and so God was like stop stop just accepting that but like be bold in your petition be bold in your faith start hoping again and I wonder if there are things in your life where you've given up hope and God has sent a five foot six inch blonde man to tell you to hope again that God he's an authority over your life he has the power to act but we've got to bring our whole heart our whole self to him we have to stop hiding from God start hoping in God that's the only way we're ever gonna be able to cultivate a heart that's content because even when the answer is no the posture forgiveness is just submitting to our authority and saying God I trust you I love you I know even if your answer is no now that you can work all things together for good so we've got to practice the petition here's the second skill to practice and that is practice the pivot practice the pivot so here's Paul in prison not denying the reality of the situation but he's trying to teach the church that even in the worst situation possible you can still choose your focus so you can say either I'm gonna focus on the thing that that feeds my fear or I'm gonna pivot my heart and my focus to the thing that fuels my faith I can focus on the source of my worry and I could obsess over that or I can pivot my heart to the whatever and this is the whatever that he's talking about verse 8 I love this verse it says whatever is true whatever is noble whatever is right whatever is pure whatever is lovely whatever is admirable if anything is excellent or praiseworthy think about such things Paul is saying that there is a whatever in any season in any circumstance no matter how bad it is we can find a whatever if we learn to pivot one of my favorite series Pastor Steven ever taught is God's will is whatever any of y'all around for that it's amazing series and I would like to humbly just suggest and propose that maybe this could be a sequel and that is your contentment is whatever it's whatever you feed whatever you focus on whatever you gaze at with your heart we have to learn the art of the whatever of the pivot because it's not whatever feels true or feels right it's whatever is true whatever is right there's a big difference contentment is not a feeling it's a focus and that heart pivot is not natural it takes practice so you know Paul saying don't just say this situation isn't good pivot your heart to say but I know God is good he's not just saying you know obsess over the the betrayal he's saying pivot your heart to say I'm gonna actually act on and move on forgiveness yes you can recognize this is the hardest thing I've ever been through but learn to pivot your heart to remember that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me it's the art of the pivot and that's why what we're doing in here right now and what we do every single weekend is so so important because your greatest weapon in the fight for contentment is worship because there's no greater thing to help you pivot your eyes off of yourself your eyes off of your circumstances and on to Jesus and on to God and on to the higher authority then worship this atmosphere of faith we have to make sure we prioritize that because this is its pivot practice it's contentment practice every time we're in the house of God so Friday I came in here to practice my message because this is not my default setting and so I wanted to run it I was hoping there'd be nobody in here so I could you know work out some things and I started the message and then all of a sudden somebody walks in and they were hired to fix some things in the auditorium and at first I was pretty bummed out because I said God it's gonna be awkward now I'm gonna have to like mumble and I'm over here kind of whispering the message to myself and so halfway through the message he raises his hand he says excuse me sir are you are you practicing the word for this weekend and I thought if I told him yes then maybe he'd actually leave and so I just honesty and I said yes I am and he's like well you don't have to mumble to yourself I love a good word I'd love to hear it it's like okay change of plans so then he comes down and he sits right here we're Philip is and so he's right here looking at me right there empty auditorium imagine how awkward it is this whole sermon is just you and me it's great so I look down at my notes and it says practice the pivot I'm like of course you would God thank you so in that moment practice what you preach I had to pivot away from frustration to this new assignment God had given me so I finished the message and I ended up talking to him when we pray together and he said you know watch Pastor Steven on TV every week but I feel like God said you know it's time for you to get back in church and we had a good conversation about how important it is to surround yourself with the right people because people help you pivot to one way or the other and I realize I realized if I just stayed focused on my frustration I would have missed that moment and so many of us were missing opportunities for contentment and opportunities for purpose because we're so busy focused on the frustration we have to practice the pivot and here's the final thing here's the final thing we're gonna practice together and that is practice the present practice the present so I think one of my greatest struggles every day is just being present in this moment and the season God has me in and if I'm honest I think it's probably one of the biggest struggles of our generation because we're just staring at this all day looking at everybody else's moment everybody else's season just standing at the stop sign just scrolling oh I didn't know there was a party this weekend I guess I wasn't guess I wasn't invited nobody understand me oh man I we couldn't go on a vacation this year that Disney Cruise must have been nice nobody understands me oh she got a ring man am I ever gonna this has become my new stop sign and if I could just get through this screen to their life to their job to their family to their situation then just maybe I could be content but I think God is telling us today contentment is never in the next season if we can't cultivate it in the present one contentment is not in the next it's in the now and so we've got to practice being present which is so hard because there are some legitimate situations that are hurtful and they're painful and we wan't to escape from them but Paul's riding from one of those right here in Philippians 4 because Paul is not some super Christian who was immune from struggles I mean if you've read Paul's writings a lot of times it looks like he actually struggled with depression and he was you know it was hard for him to believe the things he was writing but I have to think as he's in his prison cell and he begins to stop chasing and stop scrolling and and really quiet as minded pivot his heart to Jesus and just be present because he had to he's in a prison cell there's nowhere you could go and as he quieted his heart I wonder if he started to recognize that there was another presence that was with him in that prison cell and had been with him in every part of his life cause he writes about it in verse 9 and these are just it's a couple words that you could miss if you're not careful but this I think is the hinge that contentment swings on verse 9 says the God of peace will be with you Paul sang as I look back over my life if I look at when I was on the platform when I was being persecuted when I was being celebrated when I'm in the prison cell in every single season God was there God never left me his presence was there with me and I believe that part of being present and practicing being present is not trying to bypass how we feel because sometimes all you can feel is hurt all you can feel is pain there are some horrible things that you may be walking through and and the Bible says mourn with those who mourn weep with those who weep sometimes you just have to feel it and there's no other response but crying out to God saying God I do not understand this but I think contentment is realizing that even when I don't feel peace the God of peace is with you and he's with you in your situation and there was nobody who knew the Old Testament better than Paul so I have to believe he was he was thinking somewhere in the back of his mind Psalm 139 and I want you to get this truth deep in your spirit today says where can I go from your spirit where can I flee from your presence if I go up to the heavens you were there if I make my bed in the depths you were there I rise on the wings of the dawn if I settle on the far side of the sea even there your hand will guide me your right hand will hold me fast if I say surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me even the darkness will not be dark to you the night will shine like the day for darkness is as light to you in your story you're not the only one who's been doing the chasing I think God is wanting to remind us that even in the seasons we are chasing after contentment in someone else you're chasing after contentment in a new job in a new relationship in every season God has been chasing after you you have never once escaped his spirit you have never once escaped his presence and you can stop chasing contentment because contentment has been chasing you in the person of Jesus Christ and he is offering that up to you today you don't have to like your situation to recognize that Christ will never leave you in it he's always there you don't have to be good with it to recognize that there is good in it and if you were having trouble finding your whatever Christ is your whatever he's whatever is good whatever is pure whatever is noble and he is there with you and even if you were in a dark season right now the word of the Lord for you today is this he sees you he knows you he is for you his grace covers you and he is with you and He loves you so I want us to stand together we're gonna close with a little contentment practice I want to give you just a short prayer two sentences that you can pray every day this week you can pray it multiple times a day you can pray in your car you can pray it in your cubicle but this is just a tangible way that we can pivot our hearts to God so this is what you say to him this week I want you to say you are good and you are with me say it like you believe it you are good and you are with me you can say this even under your breath and the cubicle so people don't look at you weird say you are good you are with me you can say that even after you leave that meeting and you just lost your job and you have no idea how God's gonna provide you just need to remind yourself so you are good you are with me even if you have to say it through tears say it out in faith that's not faking it it's faith just believe it in your heart come on you are good you are with me you're good in this in the valley you're with me on the mountaintop come on you are good you are with me thank you for watching the Elevation Church YouTube channel don't stop here join the EFM our online extended family and join us live 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Channel: Elevation Church

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Keywords: elevation church, pastor steven furtick, pastor wade joye, wade joye, elevation church chasing contentment, chasing contentment pastor wade joye elevation church, chasing contentment pastor wade joye, chasing contentment, fighting complacency, practice the pivot, practice the petition, practice the present, Philippians, I have learned to be content, Finding contentment, contentment, contentment sermon

Id: QjBSksFSIyU

Length: 36min 54sec (2214 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 14 2019