Episode Transcript
Jesus said in Matthew 28:19, Go, therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Welcome to Go Teach all nations, bringing you Christ's teachings through Australian and international speakers.
And here is today, today's presenter, Pastor Ashley Smith. Before we open God's Word here this morning, I'd like to bow and have a word of prayer before we start. Father in heaven, we want to thank you for the blessing that it is to be here this morning on your Sabbath to worship you and to study the Scriptures. Father, spiritual things are spiritually discerned. So, Father, we ask and pray that your word may speak to us, that we might hear your voice. And that, Father, your voice may guide us nearer to you. Father, we ask and pray that you may shut out all distractions. That, Father, would hinder us from receiving the words that you would have us receive. And that, Father, we may simply see Jesus. Father, we ask and pray all this in his precious name. Our sermon today is on contentment. If I could get the slide up for my sermon. So today's sermon is looking at the idea of contentment, what contentment is. As a pastor, there's a real privilege that I have, and my favourite thing in being a pastor is actually experiencing or journeying with people on their journey to see people go from point A to point B. And some people take a little bit longer, some people, it happens quicker. But I just love seeing the work of God in people's lives. For me, it's truly the most enriching thing. And one thing that I particularly love that's so exciting for me is when I see the transformation in people's lives where I see people no longer love the things that they once loved, no longer doing the things that they were once doing. And it's not because it's like they're trying to, I guess, clean up their act for the sake of cleaning up their act, but it's because that they found something better. And what they've discovered is they discovered what truly living actually is. Because what this world portrays as truly living, well, in all reality, it's not actually what it means to truly live. And so when somebody comes from the world and living according to the way the world says is living, and they come to a knowledge of Jesus, what they begin to taste and see for themselves is what it means to truly live, to actually live. And it's a good reminder for me that's why I love it so much. Not only is it exciting because I see the work of God in that moment. But it's a good reminder for me as well, because for those who have been on the journey for a while, it's very easy to drift, is it not, where you lose that excitement, where you don't see God as you once did, where you lose that sense of contentment in Jesus, and your eyes shift from the Lord to other things. John Piper has this profound quote where he says, God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. Isn't that a powerful thought? God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. And what he's getting at the point that he's striking at is that contentment or satisfaction is independent to my circumstance, and it is independent to my experience. You can be content in Jesus and be going through the worst of it. You can be going through significant hardships, but there is a contentment to be found in Jesus that can be found nowhere else. There is a contentment to be had, whether you have much or whether you have little. Just the same, because at the end of the day, contentment is not found in what you have, but in who you have. Contentment is not who you are, but whose you are. Because the object of your contentment is not the fleeting things of this world. The object of your contentment is Jesus Christ. Jesus shares a parable of the rich fool in Luke chapter 12. And it's an interesting parable. In this parable, there's a man who has a field, and in this field he has a great yield. In other words, he sows the seed in the field. And each and every year he gets more of an increase. And the increase that he gathers this year is so great that he actually can't store all the yield, all the increase, into his barn. So what does he do? Church? Well, he thinks, well, if my barn cannot store the increase, then what I will do is I will build a bigger barn. And so he builds a bigger barn to store the yield. Because the thought for him is he's pursuing security. And so where is he finding security? He's finding security in the accumulation of wealth. But then in the story, what happens to him? He dies and he loses it all. And so the point that I really want to get at today is that contentment from this world's perspective is significantly different to contentment from the biblical Christian perspective. If we are trying to find our contentment in the things that we have or the things that we possess, then it is a contentment that will never be found. But if we are seeking the true source of contentment, Jesus Christ himself, then we will have a contentment that is not dependent upon the things that we have or the things that we don't have. We will have a contentment that is not dependent upon the job promotion that we would desire to have, that we don't have. But we will have a contentment that is lasting, true, and that does not fluctuate with the seasons or what we possess or what we don't possess. In fact, in the book of Luke, when Jesus is describing this story, this is what he says about humanity. He says, one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses. Would we say, amen to that church? But yet is it hard to live that life? A story that I really struggle with in Scripture is the story of the rich young ruler. Because he was rich. Not that I'm rich. He was young. Well, I'm not young anymore. 33. Found a white hair or a few white hairs the other day. But it wasn't just an ordinary white hair. It was a white hair that sticked out and was curly. I'm like, this hair is thicker than my other hair. What is going on here anyways? So I'm getting old. I'm not rich. I'm getting old, so I'm not young. And he was a ruler. When you're young, you imagine being rich and a ruler, having all of those things at your fingertips as a young person and what you would have done with it. And what did Jesus tell the rich young ruler to do? To sell everything? You imagine Jesus, this Sabbath, he came to you and said, david helped. I want you to sell everything that you have. Now, just let that kind of resonate with you for a moment. Would that be a tough request? See, the thing with scripture is, I'm not saying that Jesus is calling you to do that. Maybe he is. I don't know. But the reality is this. He did ask somebody to do that. And he went away very sorrowful, for he was very rich. Why? Because his life consisted in the abundance of the things that he possessed. The more we have, the more we want. The more we see others have, the more we want. Life is not found in the abundance of the things that he possesses. There is always more to be had. King Solomon. King Solomon climbed a mountain that none of us will climb. And when I say mountain, I speak of, I use the word mountain metaphorically. He climbed this mountain. Success that none of us will ever reach the summit of. I mean, in Terms of wealth and possessions. When King David died, it actually says that he left him such a large amount of talents of gold and silver that if you actually do all the figures, it was $350 billion for the temple. And that was just for the temple. And we've got an accountant here. That's a lot of money, isn't it? Imagine your dad leaving you that much, and then you had the treasury of David for himself, and then what he was receiving each and every year. So in terms of wealth, he reached the very zenith in terms of relationships. Well, he had a few relationships, had 700 wives, 300 concubines. And he would go through the land and he would choose the best of the best. And he wouldn't just go amongst the land of the Israelites, he would go throughout all the lands and he would choose what he wanted. Whatever he wanted was his. When it comes to power and authority, the scripture says that he surpassed. This is quoting from the Word. He surpassed all the kings of the earth. But was he content? More money he had. Was he content or did he want more the more wives he had? Was he content in that or did he want more the more power he had? Was he content in that or did he want more? He comes to the end of his life and he writes the book Ecclesiastes. It's a powerful book. It's a phenomenal book. And what he says in Ecclesiastes exposes the lie that our materialist society would promote or suggest that we should believe. And this is what he says, you know, three, 3,000 years ago or whatever. This is what he really hits the nail of the head. It's as if he's looking at our time here and now, and he's speaking into this modern culture. He's talking about what life is like outside of God, if you were to live for yourself. He says, everything is wearisome, beyond description. No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content outside of God. If you are left your own resources, if you came from nothing and you go to nothing and you get one sh of life, what's the point? What's the meaning? Go and make hay while the sun shines. Live for yourself. Live and let live. And he lived that life. Church. There was a period of time that he lived for God. But as his wealth increased, as his power increased, the more he began to set his affections on the things of the world, that he began to pursue those things more than God. And he. He had it to the. To the. To the absolute excesses. And he tasted the hedonistic lifestyle, the pleasures that we will never taste to the fullest extent. And he gets to the top of this mountain, and do you know what he says? There is nothing there. Nothing. He goes on in chapter six, and he says he's like, recounting his life, and he says, you know, he might live a thousand years, twice over. In other words, you could live for 2000 years but still not find contentment. Isn't that, like, really deep and profound? You could live for 2000 years, for 20 generations or there. So. And you still are not content. And since he must die like everyone else, well, what's the use of. There is nothing at the top. No wealth can permanently satisfy. There's always someone with more. No relationship can permanently satisfy. No power can permanently satisfy. Nothing can give lasting contentment because you always need more. I met this guy in 2012 in Lismore. I was knocking on the doors, and I was in Goonellabar, and I knocked on his door, and he came to the door, and as he was talking to me and I was talking to him, he was sharing with me some struggles. He lost a lot of his teeth because he was addicted to heroin. And he'd gone down that rabbit hole, and we were talking and he was sharing with me the first time. The first time he took heroin. And he said that it was the most amazing experience that he's ever had. And he said from that moment on, he's tried to recapture that experience. But guess what? It's never as good as the first time, he says. And so I keep trying to recapture it and trying to recapture it, but I just can't. And do you know what he said it was called? It's called Chasing the Dragon. You just can't catch it again. Isn't that just life? It's like the mist and then the sun burns it off, metaphorically. It's like that mountain. It's like at the top of this mountain, I climb this mountain. I'll strive really hard, I'll get to the top, and then I will find satisfaction and value. Then I will find contentment. If I just have a little bit more money, if I just have this job, if I just have this relationship, this spouse, if I just have kids, if I just have this, then I will be happy. And you strive and you strive and you strive and you climb this mountain. Thank you for your children's story. Blake, I'm going to sign you up for our hike next Year, by the end of this year, mate. And you get to the top of that mountain and you're huffing and you're puffing and there is, I guess you could say, a momentary satisfaction. It's kind of like when you do a bit of retail therapy where you go and buy something and you feel good for that moment. But guess what you have to do? You have to go buy something else at another time. I'm the type of person that orders things online just so they deliver it to me and I get to unpack. It comes to my doorstep, I don't know when it's coming. It's really exciting. And there's a real kind of, I guess you could say satisfaction in that moment. But guess what? It's not a lasting satisfaction. You get a phone, it's the, it's got all the bells and whistles, it's the most current model. And then guess what happens a year later? Oh, there's a new one out. And then a new one comes out. And so we're climbing these mountains and we get to the top and just when we think that we've arrived or we found the satisfaction, guess what we find? We find that there's another mountain beyond the mountain. Well, I'm not happy or content because there's that mountain now I need to climb. And so then you climb that mountain and you realize, oh, there's another mountain behind that one. And this kind of cycle will continue and continue and continue. There is always a mountain beyond the mountain and you never get to the place where you find complete contentment with the things that you have. Yes, it may make life easier, but not necessarily. It can also make life a whole lot more complicated. Money doesn't answer the problems. Dream jobs don't answer the problems. Solomon says we might live for 2000 years the utter excesses of life at our fingertips. But yet at the end of the day, you could live that life and still not be content. So the question is, well, what is the purpose of it all then? Is contentment unattainable? My answer is yes, it is. From a materialist perspective. Materialism, according to the American Heritage Dictionary, is the theory or attitude that physical well being and worldly possessions constitute the great and the highest value in life. What a materialist perspective is simply this. There is no God. There is no really true inherent meaning in life. We came from nothing, we go to nothing. And so what is the purpose of life? Well, the purpose of life is, you know, that physical well being and worldly possessions of the greatest Good and the highest value. And so we seek after that. We strive for it to always have the best toys, the nicest car, the plushest bank account, the nicest clothes. But what happens if your health isn't good? What does that communicate to you about your value? If we invert this definition? Because if value is found in your health and if value is found in your possessions, then what happens if you don't have health? If that's determining your value, your value now is somehow less. Or if you don't have the possessions that somebody else has, what does that communicate to you about your value? It communicates that your value is somehow less. And so the question is, what is the object of life for the materialist was to work hard. And there's nothing wrong with working hard. There's everything good with working hard. But there is a real redundancy in it, isn't there? Because in the end, as Solomon says, we all die and it's gone. There's this ancient Greek story, and it's a mythological story. It's of a guy by the name of Sisyphus. Has anyone heard of the story of Sisyphus? Sisyphus was an ancient Greek king or mythological, and he upset the Greek gods, particularly Zeus. Zeus didn't like him because what he was doing is he was quite a deceitful and cunning king. And he was betraying the gods by revealing their secrets to mortals. Anyways, the gods didn't like this. And so what they subjected Sisyphus to is that he would have a boulder and a steep hill. And Sisyphus life would consist of getting this boulder and pushing it to the top of this hill. And just when it almost reached the top of the hill, it would roll back down to the bottom and he'd have to push it back up to the top of the hill again. Do you know how long he did this for? Forever. That was his punishment. Now you're probably thinking, what does this have to do with anything? Well, if our value is determined by the abundance of the things that we possess, and we chase after these things, chase after these things, and we're truly chasing after vapor. But isn't that the story of Sisyp? We wake up at 5, 6, 7, 8 o', clock, 10 o'. Clock, I don't know. Whenever you wake up, you get ready for work, you have your breakfast, you hop in the car, you go to work, you work eight till five, then you clock off for the day and you drive home, you make dinner, you waste a bit of time on Facebook and Then you go to bed, you set your alarm, and you wake up and you do it all again. What story does that sound like? Church. This one. Chasing the dragon, so to speak. Because if life is truly life without God, then this is the reality, and it's a really depressing reality, but it's true nonetheless. This is what Philip Adams, when he takes this philosophy or this ideology and he boils it down to its absolute basis, meaning the idea that we came from nothing, we go to nothing. This materialist perspective, he says we're as significant as the 8th billionth grain of sand beyond the final palm tree in the most distant oasis in the Sahara. Life is totally meaningless, and we have no destiny, no purpose, no author. We just are for a little while anyway, then we aren't. Could you ever be content with that? No, you couldn't. So where is contentment found? Jesus gives us a clue. You've got your Bibles. Open with me to Matthew, chapter 6, Matthew 6:25. The study from this point onwards for me is my favorite part of the study that we're doing this morning. It's what the Bible says about contentment and where contentment is found. We certainly have already found this morning where contentment isn't found. But where is contentment truly found? In Matthew, chapter 6 and verses 25 and 26, Jesus is speaking the Sermon on the Mount, and he's talking about value. He says, therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than clothing in the body? Is not life. Sorry. More than food, in the body, more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Jesus is emphasizing a bunch of things here that are really profound. And Jesus is giving us a clue here as to where contentment is found. Jesus emphasizes here that your heavenly Father cares for the basest of your needs, food and clothing. And so if God cares for your food and cares for your clothing, well, won't he certainly look after all the other areas in your life? That means that your life does not need to be one of a continual rat race, like you were saying, Mark. It means that we can stop, we can pause, we can spend time with God, we can figure out what the purpose is that he has for my life, and we can pursue it heartily. What Satan wants us to do is to become so consumed with all These other things. And yes, it's important to take responsibility, it's important for us to work. But at the end of the day, your life does not consist with the abundance that you have. It is much better to be poor and spiritually rich than to be rich and spiritually poor. God forbid that we would emphasize and lift up an idol to wealth and we would lack the spiritual treasures that God would want us to have. If God is caring for your food and your clothing and those basic needs, won't he also look after the rest? Contentment and value is not found in things that are external from you. Contentment and value is found in somebody who declares the value upon you. What Jesus is emphasizing is this value is declared, it's not earned. Because notice in the text, in verse 26, what does Jesus say? He says, are you not of more value than they? This is a really profound point that I think Jesus is really emphasizing here. Your value is declared, you are valuable because I say you are valuable. You don't bring yourself to the spiritual table here and say, God, look who I am. I'm a fourth generation Adventist, look what I've done. Look how much tithe I've paid, therefore I am valuable. No, God says, you are valuable because I have declared you to be so. Because you were made in the image of God. And if your value is found in him, that also means that your value does not fluctuate based upon how much you have or how much you don't have. Does that make sense? I want to share some biblical stories here of somebody who found contentment in Jesus. And I think it's quite a powerful one considering where they came from and what they found in Jesus. Because materialism says that you pursue value. Christianity says that you have value. So if you've got your Bibles, I invite you to open with me to Philippians. Philippians, chapter three, verses five and six. This is a story of Paul the Apostle Paul. Now, Paul was a legalist before he found Jesus. Legalism, materialism are very similar concepts. It's both. I'm striving for something in order to get something. For the materialist, it's possessions. For Paul, it was favor with God. And both of those things are mountains that you can climb that you never really reach the summit. And you can deceive yourself thinking that you're almost there, but you still haven't found what you're looking for. And so Paul and materials have very similar on a very similar trajectory here. And Paul lists the legalistic things that he found value In I find value in X, Y and Z. And you can fill in the blank for yourself here, but this is kind of what he once found value in. First thing, circumcised the eighth day. I don't really know why that's so exciting to boast about, but he was circumcised on the eighth day. In other words, he's communicating. I am a Hebrew of the Hebrews. I crossed every T and I dotted every I. I was faithful to the text and what God required of me. He was born of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin. He wasn't from the tribe of Asher, he wasn't from the tribe of Manasseh. He was from the tribe of Benjamin. He was from the southern kingdom of Judah, one of the pure stocks. He was a Hebrew of the Hebrews. Concerning the law of Pharisee, concerning zeal, persecuting the church, concerning the righteousness which is in the law blameless. If the word said it. If the law said it, he did it. And he found value in these things. And I tell you, he didn't just find value in these things, but he would have been everything that Jesus said. The Pharisees were in the first century, where they make the phylacteries on their foreheads to make themselves appear to be righteous. They would stand on the corners of the street and say, thank you, God, I'm not like this person. Because he found value in that. Not just value. He was a member of the Sanhedrin, the high court in the nation. He had fame and fortune before him. He was trained under Gamaliel, one of the great teachers of the law. When Stephen was stoned, he was there, responsible, holding the robes, looking after the garments of the men who were stoning Stephen. And after Stephen. Stephen's death, he was the guy that was given the charge to go out to persecute the Christians. This was Paul, and he gave all of that up. And what did he exchange? The promise of fortune, of privilege, of reward. For what did he exchange all that for? You turn with me to Second Corinthians, chapter 11. If I get the next slide up on the screen, my click is not working at the moment. Second Corinthians, chapter 11, verses 23 to 27. He exchanged all these privileges and all these blessings for what? Let me read it to you. Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool. I am more in labours, more abundant in stripes above measure, in prisons, more frequently in deaths, and often from the Jews. Five times I received 40 stripes, minus one now, the reason it says 40 stripes minus one, 39 stripes, because if you receive 40, you would be dead. So in other words, he is whipped to the point of death. Five times. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned three nights, three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I've been in the deep. You know, it's interesting that some scholars have actually said that when Paul wrote a lot of his letters, he didn't actually write them himself. He had a scribe who he would actually dictate to and who would write. And you can actually see that at the end of some of his letters, because the person who's actually dictating it for him or actually so recording what he's dictating is actually identified by Paul. But in some of his letters, he actually writes it with his own hands and he says with big letters. And some scholars actually say that the reason that he wrote with big letters is because his hands were so deformed because of the beatings that he received that he couldn't actually write. A night and a day in the deep, in verse 26, in journeys, often in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness, in toil and sleeplessness, often in hunger and thirst, in fastings, often in cold and nakedness. The idea now, when you contrast that from what he once had or what was once in front of him to what he exchanged it for, there's only one conclusion you can come to that what he once had didn't actually fulfill him. He was rich in this world's eyes, but he wasn't fulfilled. And then he comes over here and he's poor in the world's eyes, but he's fulfilled. And it's not just his story. Church, but there's a number of stories in Scripture where somebody's gone from leaving those things that they once found value in and going on this journey with Jesus, and in the process, they find true satisfaction and contentment. Matthew, the tax collector. Yes, he probably didn't have many friends being a tax collector, but at least he was wealthy. He considered that loss that he might have. Jesus, Peter, Andrew, James and John, their fathers had a lucrative fishing business. They left all of that to follow. Jesus, an itinerant preacher, didn't have anywhere to lay his head. Saul was one of them. What about Elisha, who leaves his wealthy father and follows the most hated man in Israel, Elijah, who has a death warrant against his name by the wicked queen Jezebel? What about Abraham, who leaves his father from Ur of the Chaldeans and who ventures out into the unknown, not knowing where he is going, but knowing that God is calling him? And God has made these great and wonderful promises to him that he would inherit the land and he become a father of a great nation. But at the end of the day, he dies, not seeing the realization of this promise, but seeing it from afar, far. Or what about the martyrs at the Coliseum on the Anabaptists who were baptized to death? Or the people who were burned at the stake throughout the centuries? Why would they be willing to give up fame and fortune and their lives itself for Jesus? There is only one conclusion church that you can come to. It's because they found something more valuable and more wonderful in Jesus than what they found in all those other things. And that's because contentment can only be found in Him. For who better to satisfy the desires of your heart than he who's made your heart to desire? And you can climb the mountain. And you can try. You can spin your wheels thinking that maybe, maybe this is the time. I'll climb this mountain. I'll find satisfaction and happiness. But I want to let you know, here, this morning, it's like the morning fog. As the sun rises, it dissipates and there's nothing left. It's a mirage. You can never truly capture it. Take it from he who has been there, Solomon. He had everything at his fingertips. He gets to the top and he says, there's nothing there. Because at the end of the day. Go to the next slide, please. Contentment is not found in what you have, but in who you have. Next slide as well, Hamish. Contentment is not who you are, but whose you are. Which means that contentment is external from you. It's not found in you. It's not inherently yours. It's external from you in its entirety. Go to the next slide, Hamish, as we close, there's a Greek word called logos. Has anyone ever heard of that word before? Logos. And the word logos. There's a few words that I guess are synonyms of the Greek word logos and reason, order, knowledge, word, and speech. And there's a few others that you could throw in there as well. But the main. I guess the main word that captures the Greek word logos is that first one, reason. And Greek philosophers throughout the centuries will come and debate this Word logos and what logos means. Don't worry, I'm not going to get into a really deep kind of philosophical kind of. Yeah, I'm not a philosopher, but I did read some things. So I'm going to kind of give you a bit of a snapshot. I'm not trying to make myself sound smart, because I'm not, but I'm just going to kind of have a go. There's a point at the end of it. I really want you to pay attention and focus because this point is powerful. Logos. What, out of all those synonyms there, which word fully captures, more so than the others, the idea of logos? Which one was it? It's reason. And Greek philosophers, throughout the centuries before Jesus would come and they would discuss Logos, what was logos? And you would have some in the fifth and the sixth century. We'll go to the next slide. Heraclitus and parmenides in the 5th and 6th centuries. And they would define logos as the principle of order. In other words, order, the structure of the universe. This is what the logos is. It's the structure of the universe. Another century later, in the fourth century, you have Plato and Aristotle. They had different nuances as to what they believed the Logos was, but it was still quite similar in a sense. They believed that Logos was the reason. It was the intelligent order of the universe. The third century, you had the Stoics. The Stoics should be familiar to you because Paul debated the Stoics on the Areopagus in Acts, chapter 17. What did the Stoics believe? Well, they believed that Logos was all encompassing divine reason. We're getting a little. It's getting different and different each century. Isn't it divine reason that governs the universe and the human affairs? And then finally, we have Philo of Alexandria, who was a Jew in the first century. So we've gone from the fifth and the sixth century to the fourth century to the third century with the Stoics, to the first century, a hundred years before Jesus. Philo of Alexandria. And what does he define the Logos as? The intermediary between God and the world. This is the Logos. This is the reason, the purpose, why all things are and exist. And each and every philosopher throughout the centuries would debate the Logos. They would debate this reason. And each and every century, I believe they got closer and closer and closer to what the Word actually was. And then the final and the most complete expression of Logos came, and it was altogether different and altogether better than everything that they had debated or surmised up to that point. The Apostle John writes the Gospel of John and he answers the question that none of the philosophers could truly answer. He writes this. In the beginning was the word, the word for word. There is Logos. John is saying, in the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God, and the Logos was God. Now, what's that synonym that I said that fully captured what Logos was? What was it again? But substitute that in the beginning was the reason, and the reason was with God, and the reason was God. That's profound. And I just love this concept, because when Paul goes to the Areopagus, he says that God has placed you where he's placed you, that you might grope after him and find him. And here you are in these halls of academia and you're debating what the Logos is or the reason is. And what you don't realize is that you're not just debating a philosophy, you're debating a person that you don't know yet. And then the Logos, if the Logos is God, look what the Logos does. And the Word, the Logos, the reason became flesh, became human, and he dwelt amongst us, and we beheld his glory, the glories of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. In other words, the reason for everything. The Logos became a human being and he lived with us. And it was no longer these theological philosophical abstractions. It was no longer this nebulous kind of idea in philosophy that no one could. Everyone, they just couldn't fully grasp. But as John says, we saw, we heard, we touched it. And the most wonderful reality is the reason for everything is not an idea. It is not a philosophy, nor is it a creed. But it is a person. It is the person of Jesus. That's how you live, you move, and you have your being. It's not in the things that you possess, things that you have, or the things that you don't have. But it's in Jesus Christ himself. Isn't that wonderful news, Church? The reason is Jesus. And if the reason is Jesus, it means that your reason is Jesus. You will never find contentment, you will never find fulfillment, and you will never find satisfaction until you find it in Jesus. Paul says in Philippians, chapter 4, verses 11 through to 13, and we know verse 13 quite well because it says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. But verses 11 and 12 are very interesting. Paul says, not that I speak in respect of want, for I have learned to be content in all things, whether I am abased or brought low, or whether I abound Whether I am hungry or whether I am full, I am content. For I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. The reason for life is Jesus, which means your reason for life is Jesus, which means contentment is not found in what you have, but in who you have. Contentment is not who you are, but whose you are. Are you Jesus? Have you set your eyes and your affections upon Christ? Or are you pursuing the abundance of possessions, the mist, the mirage, the dragon, so to speak, that you could never, ever catch? I want to tell you something. Jesus is no mirage. He's no early morning mist. He's not running away, but he's running to you. Like that Father in that wonderful parable, the Prodigal Son. When he sees his son coming home, what does he do? Church he does not run from, but he runs to. What Satan will deceive you to believe is that you're almost there. You've almost found it. You've almost found it. But look at the mess Hollywood is in. Do you think they're happy? But what you find in Jesus is truly lasting. And he comes to you, and what he gives you is not just more, it is infinitely more. Not just in the life to come, but in the life. Now, this year, I pray that you will experience contentment. That we will experience contentment as a church. It's my prayer for you. I pray that it will be your prayer for yourself. And when I say I pray for contentment, I'm not praying for riches in the worldly sense, but I'm praying for spiritual riches. Because the reality is, often the wealthier we become, the more distracted we can become. And it can be to the detriment of our spiritual lives. Today I want to pray for spiritual wealth for you, that you might be rich in him. And as John pens in the Book of Revelation the words of Jesus to the Church of Laodicea that you may exchange your poverty for the riches of his grace. That you may anoint your eyes with eye salve. That you may truly see things as God sees them, not as this world portrays they ought to be, but as God sees them. That you may buy from him gold refined in the fire, true spiritual wealth. The purest gold that you could receive is not from ABC Bullion or the Perth Mint or wherever it is you buy your gold is from Him. And that you may receive from him the white raiment of his own character that is woven in the loom of heaven without spot or without defects. And that you would cease to strive for contentment in this world and instead not settle, but surrender. Surrender to the contentment that is only found in the Logos, the reason for Christ. This message was made available by the Muwallumbah Seventh Day Adventist Church. For more resources like this, visit their Facebook page. Buwillumbah Seventh Day Adventist Church. It's been a pleasure bringing you this program here on 3 ABN Australia Radio.
