Godliness with Contentment

Years ago, Russell Conwell told of an ancient Persian, Ali Hafed, who "owned a very large farm that had orchards, grain fields, and gardens... and was a wealthy contented man." One day a wise man from the East told the farmer all about diamonds and how wealthy he would be if he owned a diamond mine. Ali Hafed went to bed that night a poor man--poor because he was discontented. Craving a mine of diamonds, he sold his farm to search for the rare stones. He traveled the world over, finally becoming so poor, broken, and defeated that he committed suicide. One day the man who purchased Ali Hafed's farm led his camel into the garden to drink. As his camel put its nose into the brook, the man saw a flash of light from the sands of the stream. He pulled out a stone that reflected all the hues of the rainbow. The man had discovered the diamond mine of Golcanda, the most magnificent mine in all history. Had Ali Hafed remained at home and dug in his own garden, then instead of death in a strange land, he would have had acres of diamonds.   (G. Sweeting, in Moody Monthly, May, 1988,  p. 95.)

True story.  And we look at Ali Hafed and we say, “Dude, you should have stayed put!”  but almost everyone of us is infected with the same thing.  A lack of contentment with what we have.

If I were to ask you to name three things you wish you had, what would you tell me?  

Now…if I were to ask you for three things you are thankful for, what would you tell me?

Which was easier to come up with?  Why?  Did you know we spend far more time thinking about the things we wish we had than we do being thankful for the things we do have.

Benjamin Franklin once wrote "Being content makes poor men rich; discontent makes rich men poor." 

It isn’t about how much you have.  It’s about how you view your circumstances.  The apostle Paul tells us the same thing in his first letter to Timothy and he’s talking to him about people who call themselves Christian teachers who do so for financial gain. 1Timothy ch. 6.  These are men who stirred up debates and controversies, criticizing what they saw, arousing suspicions against ones that called them out, going so far as to talk maliciously about them and trash their characters.  Why?  To seek to show themselves more godly and perhaps even more conservative in order to pull down the big dollars.  Of course that doesn’t happen in our day.  Let’s look at what Paul says. 

1Tim 6:3-11   If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching,  4 he is conceited and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions 5 and constant friction between men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.  6   But godliness with contentment is great gain.  7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.  8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.  9 People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction.  10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.  11   But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.

Did you notice verse 6?  He’s been talking about all of these things and how men who have been robbed of the truth think that godliness is a means to financial gain.  And then he says: .  6   But godliness with contentment is great gain.

Did he say more stuff was the way to great gain?  Owning more land?  Better cars?  Bigger houses?  No… godliness with contentment.  Let’s take that apart for a minute.

In the original language, the word for godliness is actually two words meaning literally to worship, to be god-fearing and devout, well,well done.  In other words Paul is telling us that the first component to true gain is to worship, be god-fearing and devout, beyond the best of our abilities—that is, we can’t even do it on our own.  It has to be done in us by God.  So we are seeking God continually and seeking to worship Him and follow His ways.   And the second word, contentment, is translated, sufficiency or to be sufficient.  

So Paul says great gain is not found in wordly wealth, but in seeking to worship God and follow His ways while we find our sufficiency in Him.  

Put another way, when we finally understand and believe that God can and will take care of what we need, we will be content and that will show in our worship.  It won’t be about money and things money can buy.  It will be about knowing that God knows you, sees you and hears you and will take care of your needs.  That’s sufficiency.  That’s enough.  That’s contentment.

Tell me: Are you content?

Making Your Theology Your Biography- Lifestyles of the Humble and Holy

There used to be a show on TV called, "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous."  People loved to watch it because it showed off all of the things the wealthy have that everyone else wanted.  We've fallen for this same ideology in the church as well.  We seek to have a lifestyle of the Rich and Famous rather than what Jesus called us to: Lifestyles of the Humble and Holy.

I received an e-mail last week that I think may sum up what we are talking about.  It was titled “The way we might sing some well-known hymns if we were being honest.

I surrender Some.   There shall be sprinkles of blessings.  Fill my...spoon, Lord.   Oh, how I like Jesus.   He’s quite a bit to me.   I love to talk about telling the story.   Take my life and let me be!   It is my   secret what God can do.   There is scattered cloudiness in my soul today.   Onward, Christian Reserves.   Where He leads me, I will consider following.   Just as I ...pretend to be.   When the Saints go Sneaking in.

When will the church get honest about its intentions?  When will we get honest about our individual intentions?   There comes a time when we must stop playing church and start praying, church!   When we must stop kidding ourselves into thinking that we are praying saints when we have never really stopped being selfish.   We still want what we want, when we want it, how we want it, why we want it, and who gives two full-blown hoots about what God is asking of us.   In short, we like the idea of being God too much to relinquish the throne.    He asks for our time...we’re too busy.  He asks for our money... can’t afford it, don’t want to give it, and  don’t agree with what they want to do with it anyway.   He asks for our talents...I can’t be bothered with that, I have to use mine in making sure that I have enough in my house.  Someone else can work on filling His house.

If your time, talents and money aren’t spent on leading others to the kingdom, you just wasted your time, talents and money.   If you can’t see past meeting your own wants to a see a world that is dying, you are more philosophically aligned with the Rich and Famous than with the Humble and Holy.   Can you not lift your sights above the here and now?  Is there no recognition that all of this stuff will burn? 

Many of us have a proper theology, but it has not yet become our biography.  Many of us know the texts, but we hold too tightly to the things of this earth for the texts to mean much to us.   Many of us know what we should be doing, but we have gotten good at holding on to wordly policy plans.  Think about this though: It isn’t a huge outbreaking of sin in our lives, but rather, the selfish, greedy spirit that takes possession of us, which will finally lead us, like Judas,  to sell out our Master.  How much are you willing to sell Him for?  Unfortunately, I have often sold Him out for far less than Judas.

So how do we turn our Theology into our Biography?  How do we take what we say we believe and live it out?  Well, there’s good news and bad news.  

First the bad news...We can’t.  There is no way that we can live out our theology. You may be able to accomplish a few things on the list by yourself, but Jesus said that apart from Him  we can do nothing.   So put away your how-to notebooks and forget about trying to be good.  You won’t be able to do it.   Bury the idea that you have a strong will and can do anything you put your mind to.  Sink the ship of self-sufficiency and recognize that you, nor I, have what it takes to make it across the ocean of life.   Try as hard as you will, you cannot  live out your theology.  You are doomed to failure!   Your theology is too demanding.  It is too formidable.  Too hard.  Anyone seeking to make it on their own will find themselves sinking into a sea of discouragement and hoplessness.   They will grow bitter over the disappointments in life.  Eventually, they will seek any other way, and end up selling their Master out.  So the bad news  is....you can’t live your theology.   So if we can’t do it, then why talk about it....

Because our theology must be lived!

But wait...remember, there's also good news!  Here it is.   While I can’t do it, Jesus already did.   And He has promised to ascribe His life to me if I will just accept it.  He has promised that He will come in and change me if I will let Him.   He has promised that He will work His theology into my biography.  Not because of what I do...but because of what He does in and through me.  

Jesus said in John 15:5    “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.

So what is my part?  I must let go of the world and allow myself to be grafted into the Vine.  Then his Spirit will flow through my branches and produce fruit.  Not because of me...but because I’m living in Him.  It is a natural progression.  I’m grafted in, the fresh sap of the Vine begins to give me nourishment.  I grow and change and produce fruit.   If your not growing, check out your connection to the Vine.   If you have a connection, your time, talents, money and everything else will be freely given to Him.   You can’t help it.   Jesus inspires us to grow outward, giving of what we have to help His kingdom grow.

If you find yourself struggling with selfishness, greed and gain in the material world with little thought of the eternal,  stop and check your connection to the Vine.   Recognize that all of this is just going to burn.  It won’t last.  When Jesus comes, all that you worked for in the material world will be gone.  You can’t take it with you.   Check out your connection to the Vine.  Make sure that you are grafted in.  Which brings me to my last point.

In order for the church to stay a part of the Vine, we must daily feed on Jesus.  Daily draw our source of life from Him.   This is vital if we are to survive.  How do we do that?  Through prayer and the ministry of the Word.   We must once again go back to His Word and find our nourishment there.  We must hold each other up in prayer as the devil attacks and tries to rip us away from the Vine.  We must become intercessors, not only for ourselves and our families, but for each other in the church family as well.   We must fight against our natural instinct to put self first, and instead, let Jesus replace us on the throne of our hearts. 

Prayer and the Word.  Imperative to the spiritual battle.  If we recognize that we must have a lifestyle of the Humble and Holy, we must also recognize that it must start with us.  No one else can make that choice for you or me.   If we remain in the Vine, and the Vine in us, we will find that, by and by, our Theology has grown very naturally, into our Biography.   Not because of what we do, but because we have fed from the True Vine.  We have lived in Him and allowed Him to live and work in us.

May you allow Him to live in you today.

What If?

John 4:23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.  24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”

Have you ever wondered what that meant?  What does it mean to worship in spirit and in truth? In his book The Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren notes, "Since worship is delighting in and enjoying God, it engages your emotions. God gave you emotions so you could worship him with deep feeling -- but those emotions must be genuine, not faked. God hates hypocrisy. He doesn't want a show, or pretense, or phoniness in worship. He wants your honest, real love. We can worship God imperfectly, but we cannot worship him insincerely.

"Of course, sincerity alone is not enough; you can be sincerely wrong. That's why both spirit and truth are required. Worship must be both authentic and accurate. God-pleasing worship is deeply emotional and deeply doctrinal. We use both our hearts and our heads.

In another place, in the same book, he says: “In our competitive world we’re taught to never quit trying, never give up, and never give in - so we don’t hear much about surrendering. If winning is everything, surrendering is unthinkable. Even Christians would rather talk about winning, succeeding, overcoming, and conquering than yielding, submitting, obeying, and surrendering. But surrendering to God is the heart of worship.

“Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service and pleasing to him. This is the true worship that you should offer.

“True worship -- bringing God pleasure -- happens when you give yourself completely to God.” (from Rick Warren’s book The Purpose Driven Life)

Inspired author Ellen White, in her book The Desire of Ages, page 189 writing about this story says: He (Jesus) desired to lift the thoughts of His hearer above matters of form and ceremony, and questions of controversy. "The hour cometh," He said, "and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth."  {DA 189.1}

Here is declared the same truth that Jesus had revealed to Nicodemus when He said, "Except a man be born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God." John 3:3, margin. Not by seeking a holy mountain or a sacred temple are men brought into communion with heaven. Religion is not to be confined to external forms and ceremonies. The religion that comes from God is the only religion that will lead to God. In order to serve Him aright, we must be born of the divine Spirit. This will purify the heart and renew the mind, giving us a new capacity for knowing and loving God. It will give us a willing obedience to all His requirements. This is true worship. It is the fruit of the working of the Holy Spirit. By the Spirit every sincere prayer is indicted, and such prayer is acceptable to God. Wherever a soul reaches out after God, there the Spirit's working is manifest, and God will reveal Himself to that soul. For such worshipers He is seeking. He waits to receive them, and to make them His sons and daughters. {DA 189.2}

God longs for us to seek Him and be born of His divine spirit.  It is only in this that we have a new capacity for knowing and loving God.  It will give us a willing obedience to all His requirements.  

Romans 12: 1,2 says: 1   Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God — this is your spiritual act of worship.  2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will.

True worshippers are those who don’t just offer a praise song.  They don’t just throw a buck at the offering plate.  They offer themselves a spiritual act of worship.  They become consumed with a passion for God.  They are ones who are no longer being squeezed into the world’s mold.  They don’t allow Satan to mar their picture of God through looking at the things of the world.  Instead, they are being transformed through worship that renews their minds.  How do you know if that’s you?

Pastor, author and speaker, Louie Giglio writes: "Follow the trail of your time, your affection, your energy, your money and your allegiance. At the end of that trail, you'll find a throne; and whatever, or whomever, is on that throne is what's of highest value to you. On that throne is what you worship." (Louie Giglio, The Air I Breathe)

What if God were really the only Object worth focusing on?  What if our focus on His beauty made our problems pale in comparison?  What if we were never meant to be the actors on center stage?  What if we were meant to be the audience members, watching Jesus on center stage?  What if?