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HopeUC Secunderabad
Tune in each week to the HopeUC Secunderabad podcast for insightful teachings from our pastors and guest speakers featured in our weekend services. Delve into practical and relevant biblical insights on topics that resonate with your daily life. New audio sermons are released every Tuesday, helping you stay connected and grow in your faith.
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HopeUC Secunderabad
Finding True Contentment
Have you noticed how chasing “more” often leaves us feeling emptier? This message on the tenth commandment—“You shall not covet”—reveals how comparison, craving, and entitlement rob us of peace. Like drinking salt water, the more we chase what others have, the thirstier we become. Social media only fuels this, showing us filtered highlights instead of real life. But true contentment, as Paul writes in Philippians 4, comes from trusting God, not changing our circumstances. By shifting from comparison to gratitude, possessions to purpose, and scarcity to abundance, we begin to see life through the Father’s heart—not through what we lack.
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amen and amen. All right, so this is the sermon adaptation of the of one of the sessions from the series that we are doing in our live group, and if you have missed any of the live groups, I would recommend that you go back, get the material, look through the session video and ponder upon it. But also, if you're not part of any live group, I would recommend that you join one close to you or whatever fits your schedule, because it is very important that you are connected to the charger, because we are just like any other battery unless we connect and charge, we cannot give out. God you know, give out into the world as we go out and live as the light of the world. Amen. And the speaker of this series happened to be one of my favorite speakers, mr K Cannon J John. He almost resembles like Mr Bean, but he brings great, you know, comicality and stories and illustrations and the. The words that he uses are very easy to understand, and so I had I had lot of uh, you know, fun and learning while listening to him. So let's see, uh, let's see if I can stand, you know, live up to uh, him, uh, but uh, if you did not like my sermon. There's always uh, canon j john at our live group series, so you can go there, uh, but we will look to god and we will see the.
Speaker 1:The sermon title for today is finding true contentment. The series is called just 10 and this is reflection of the 10 commandments that were given by god to moses, and we are coming in reverse order. Okay, we are. We are looking at the 10th commandment. All right, so, finding true contentment, the freedom of enough In a world that we live in, we want more and more, and it doesn't stop there. We want more Amen, like more stuff, stuff, more scrolling, more striving. But in the pursuit of more, we have often lost the secret of peace. We kept running, we kept running, we kept running, we kept on running after something, after something that this world has to offer, and you, we lost peace while running for it, and the secret of peace is contentment.
Speaker 1:Okay, let's look at the anchor scripture for today, which is the commandment of God. It says Exodus, chapter 20, verse 17. It says you shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant, or his ox or his donkey or anything that is your neighbor's. Let's modernize it a little bit. You shall not covet your neighbor's house, his smartphone, his luxury car, whatever he has, including his wife or the maids or his possessions, his land or his smart looking handsomeness or, you know, whatever it might, whatever good attributes that you are looking at, you shall not covet.
Speaker 1:And within this scripture it talks about. You know, hey, don't compare, don't put your eyes on the things that you are loving around you. It says put your eyes on the things that are above the spiritual things, godly things. If we have to look and you know, if we want to be inspired, look at how they are handling their life. If there is something that we can learn, you know, look at how God is working in their life. Even if the, even if you are looking at people who are successful in life, but still, even if they are not believers, look at how God's biblical principles are working in their lives and praise God. And praise God and glorify God. Learn from them, but do not covet for what they already possess.
Speaker 1:Not just about not wanting what others have. It's about learning the secret of being full even when the cup looks half empty. You know, if I bring a glass of water a see-through glass of water and if it is half filled, we would always concentrate on the top half, which is not filled yet. But God is asking us to look at the bottom half of what he has already filled us with those. Those who are faithful in little, god will give the responsibility of taking care of more things. If we do not appreciate what we have, we will begin to depreciate what we have. If we do not appreciate what we have already, the value of what we have automatically goes down.
Speaker 1:The problem of coveting Coveting is comparison with a little bit of craving and a whole lot of chaos. Have you craved for anything? Lot of chaos, have you craved for anything? Yeah, whenever you see some good ad, I keep seeing a lot of ads and click on the button and see the prize and go back home. But I'm sure you know the easiest is the ice cream that looks delicious, delicious and then a sore throat later.
Speaker 1:Coveting is not just desiring something, it's desiring what belongs to someone else. There's the problem. There's the problem. Coveting is not just desiring something. Desire is good. God blesses that, you know, releases the promises that I will fulfill your heart's desire. So the desire is not bad in itself, but whom we are desiring? What we are desiring, you know, holds importance and gives the character to our desire. It's desiring what belongs to someone else is the problem, and believing we deserve it more. Look at, I am supposed to have that car I am supposed to have, I take care, I.
Speaker 1:Whenever we are comparing with others, whenever we are coveting, we think that we are more, you know, deserving than other people. Some examples social media envy their life looks so perfect, they look so successful. You know, it's just the tip of the iceberg, by the way, we don't see the 90 percent of what they are posting. Yeah, look at my life anyways. Uh, the dad that you know. The second, second example the dad next door seems more successful, fitter, cooler. Yeah, comparison, coveting, all right. Children comparing gadgets or families why can't we be like them? Any kids like that? I grew up like that funny story. We didn't have tv because we were christian, uh, so we had to sneak out of our Christian house to another neighboring Christian house just to watch some kid show Cartoon network.
Speaker 1:It's coveting, it's desiring for something that we don't have. And we, you know, self-appreciating that we deserve more than them. James, chapter 3, verse 16. It says where you have envy and self-ambition, where you have envy and self-ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. If we make things about ourselves my ambition, my things, my possessions, my, my, I phone, no, I my if we make it selfish, it's all about me then we find things falling out of order.
Speaker 1:You might have seen in many movies, great biographies. They start off great, they, you know, they are very focused, and then they lose control of over their family because they are too dedicated on something. They achieve so much but lose something which is much more important than the success that they have gained and they come back to their senses. They go back, build again, still the same success, but now the family is with them. Isn't it great that our God does not want us to be just successful. He wants us to be successful in every area of our life and that's why, in very, even in the tiniest little thing, he makes sure that we are in par with heaven standards in every area of our lives. Amen, amen, amen.
Speaker 1:Coveting is like drinking salt water the more you drink it, the more thirsty you become. Have you ever one day when I was, I think, four years or five years old, I drank a lot of salt water while I was swimming in the shallow waters of sea. I thought I was in the deep sea. I started screaming sister, sister, sister. She did not come, just that the waters went back into the sea. I thought it was the answer for my prayer, but it's not. It's just that's how the sea works. All right, here's a quote.
Speaker 1:Contentment is not the fulfillment of what you want, not the fulfillment of what you want, but the realization of how much you already have. Isn't that beautiful? Instead of concentrating of how much we are empty. All that God is saying is that realign and fix your eyes on what I have already given, because the power of multiplication works, on what I have already given, because what happens is that if we fix our eyes on what we do not have, those things keep multiplying. You see more of that stuff. The list gets bigger and bigger. But the only way that we can, you know, increase by ourselves, increase in our life, is to look at what we already have from God and implement there the power of multiplication. That's why God made a principle to tithe, so that it can bring us the power of multiplication into our lives, and he is not asking us to give something out of what we do not have. He is asking us to give us from what we already have so that that can fill in the empty and the void, the things that we do not have, so that we can be living in abundance. Here's a short video.
Speaker 1:Many of you have credit credit cards. Yeah, okay, I, I would recommend you to have credit card, but along with that, much more prerequisite is the discipline. Uh, that comes only from god. Right, I didn't had discipline, but I'm getting there, all right. So here's what I would say Whenever you buy something like a smartphone or anything, any asset right, you know, you say that you are buying the smartphone. This smartphone is mine, but if you are buying it on EMI, you know who is paying for it. Right, we are in debt. Basically, our father, called bank, is funding. Right, okay, think of this way. I would if. If you ask me, uh, and an advice, I would ask you, I would recommend you to save enough money and then buy, and then by yeah, I am already getting some. I know the world has made it very easy. I was watching a TED talk and he said that the main reason e-commerce became such a big platform and successful was that they removed every kind of friction that we used to have in the old legacy systems.
Speaker 1:For example, if we had to take a loan from a bank back in those days, we would stand in a queue Okay, after we reach third or second position, we would already lose interest. And then they would ask the documents which we would not have. We would go back home, get them, and then there would be the green, green pen signature, all those proofs, bring them, stand in the line. There would not be AC, normal fan Okay, we would stand sweat Depending on the intensity of the situation.
Speaker 1:We would last longer and longer and then they will not release the funds immediately. We will have to wait. They will not understand the emergency that we have. We will wait. We will wait, wait. They will not understand the emergency that we have. We will wait, we will wait.
Speaker 1:One week passes, you know, even to check the bank balance if it has deposited or not. We will have to go back and stand in the same queue Because there was nothing, no internet. But today, within 24 hours, the money will be in your bank account, everything digitized. Now it is even more easy for us to place an order. Back in those days, you would go on your knicker, go to the nearest general store to buy a milk packet, but now, swiggy Instamart one click, click. He will only come in knicker and give the deliver the goods.
Speaker 1:Everything became so easy for us to multiply the indisciplined nature. That's what I am getting at. All this technology is great, all this technology, great advancement, science technology. They are helping us become more comfortable, but the most important prerequisite of all that comes from god is discipline. All right, and we crave for more and more. Something that I cannot do right now is to cut my credit cards, but someone has already done it and it's extracted from the session video, okay, so let's fix our eyes on the screen and let's see what canon j john is going to do.
Speaker 2:Some of us may even need plastic surgery. I think some of us need plastic surgery. I've got my wife's credit card here. Some of us need plastic surgery. Some of us need to cut up our credit cards. Cut them up, cut the mop. Some of us may need to do that.
Speaker 1:Okay, I could not do that because my wife was not letting me have it. Well, I did not ask. And you know what, these days, even if you cut the credit card, it doesn't make any sense because everything is on the memory, right, yeah, but the most important thing that we miss out is discipline in every, any area of our life, because that's where the enemy is getting us. At Paul's revelation, philippians, chapter four, verses 11 to 13,. It says I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. Now, if you modernize it, paul would say something like this hey, I used to have biryani at the most expensive hotels. I used to, you know, dine at Falaknama Palace, and I used to have meetings in Trident Hotel, and I used to meet the delegates and give speeches in the most you know elite, premium places, and I used to enjoy the benefits. But now, even if I do not have, even if I have to have pani puri on a street side, I'm still content. I'm still content with my circumstances. If you have to modernize it and bring it to our context, that's what Paul is saying, that I am content with whatever. Like if the circumstance throws me into a jail, I'm content. Now, where is this contentment coming from? For Pastor Paul, it is definitely coming from his own scripture. That fix your eyes on the things above and not on the circumstances, because contentment comes from heaven, from the character of God, amen. True contentment is not in getting what you want, but in trusting the one who provides what you need. It's very important to distinguish between these two words want and need. God provides us what we need to secure what we might want. If you ask Jesus to give you chairs, he will not give you a chair. He will give you wood so that you can make chairs out of it. What you need is the wood. What we need is the air to breathe. What we need is the salary. Of course, right, we want to survive, but what we want is what we need to get out of what has has been providing for us. You know which is what we need.
Speaker 1:A father may not be able to buy the latest iphone for his child. Listen to this very carefully, which is missing from a lot of our families. A father may not be able to buy the latest iPhone for his child, but his presence at the dinner table every night is more valuable. Ask the son when he misses his father, then he will understand that the presence of the father is more important and much more valuable than the latest iPhone or Android phone. It doesn't matter.
Speaker 1:But you know, jesus didn't own a home, he did not ride a chariot or wear designer robes, yet he lacked nothing he walked. We have only one record, that he rode a donkey, which was for a different purpose. It's very interesting, I mean, I would expect God to you know this, highly acclaimed when he comes to the earth. But he, he dwelt among us. He dwelt among us, he dwelt among us. I believe that you know, though he was a son, he still carried the heart of the father, and that's why jesus was able to say that I cannot do anything on my own. I carry the heart of the father and if my desire, if you ask me, the desire of my heart today, on this Father's Day special, that's what we have to run after, that's what. If there is one thing that we need more and more and more and more, is the heart of the father. In everything that we do. If we carry his heart, we will see the fruit of the heaven. In everything that we do, if we carry his heart, we will see the you know, the fruit of the heaven on earth, amen.
Speaker 1:How to grow in contentment? It's not easy, but I have some four practical, uh, you know, shifts. I would say shifts, okay, not points, for not points, okay, shifts, okay, all right. So here's the first one shift from comparison to gratitude. Shift, come, you know, from comparison to gratitude. Shift from looking at the second half full, all right, okay. So for the content heart, it's not about the quantity, it's about the provider. Is your heart content, are you sure? It's okay. We are here to learn and become more like our father, more like Jesus Christ. Okay, it's not about the quantity, it's about the provider. The shepherd determines the satisfaction, not the glass.
Speaker 1:Can I help you visualize something? Okay, imagine that I have a tumbler here, a glass which is filled with water. All right, maybe half filled, okay, all right. That's what the example. Let's take it forward. Okay, all right, I have a half filled glass. And I keep whining and whining and whining and whining.
Speaker 1:And then one day I listened to the sermon which is being preached today and then I realized that I need to focus on the bottom half. All right, okay. And then what God tells is that, from what you have give to others, because you heard the sermon, god's voice. Now you begin to give. But god, if I am full, I can give the top half so that whatever I am giving away will be a blessing to others. And God said no, bottom half is what I want. And when I begin to pour into other glasses which are smaller than me, I mean I can give to elon musk my 100 rupees bottom half. It would not amount to anything. So instead I would pour out the bottom half of the resources that god has provided into smaller, smaller glasses, and then they would say a prayer bless that brother.
Speaker 1:And then god would slowly increase, because I have been faithful in the little thing. He didn't talk about anything, about overflow, faithful in little things. Now, now that whatever we had, although we gave it away, we still had multiplication happening. Now what we started off with was half filled glass. Started off with once half filled glass, how we influenced and affected and impacted four different families to which we have given from the little that we had. And yet we are still at the same state where we are content that whatever God has given to us, we have impacted other families by giving away. Now God sees that faithfulness and, according to his own promise, he says you have been faithful in little things, so I will make you a steward of bigger things. So your rise, it will rise.
Speaker 1:Now there is another scripture that says enlarge your territories. What's god? What god is saying is that you are not a glass, you are not a rigid substance, but you have to enlarge your territories now. But god, if I enlarge my territory, then I would be even more less. I used to be 50 filled, now I would be 10 filled. But god says no, no, no. Enlarge your territories so that I can fill, so that you will overflow. See how god's promises are actually helping us to shift our mindset from the top half to the bottom half, and not only from the bottom half, to the families and the bless and and the ways that we can still be a blessing from the little that we have.
Speaker 1:Okay, just imagine a glass and a balloon. Balloon when it is not filled. It looks very small before the glass, but if you are stretching and stretching and enlarging your territory, you can see that God can fill you more and more and more and you will, you know, surpass the amount that even the rigid glass that you are looking up to is now can be overflown by what God has been filling you, you know, while you expand and obey his commandments and his principles, and that's why I love the word of God. It's very, you know, it's, it's very. If you think this, god says think that way if we are going. God says think that way If we are going there. God says you turn. He will never reroute, by the way, like our Google assistant.
Speaker 1:1 Thessalonians 5.18. It says give thanks in all circumstances. When you are overflowing, when you are about to overflow, when you are thinking about the overflow, forget about the overflow. Even if you have little, even if it is the last meal that you can have for your family, give thanks in all circumstances. Now the second one shift from possessions to purpose. Shift from possessions to purpose. Okay, how many of you have assets? Bank balance Negative.
Speaker 1:Okay, if I pick one asset that you have, okay, one possession that you have, if you have to give purpose to it, what would that be Like? If you have a smartphone, which is an asset, depending on how many EMIs we paid, what purpose would you give to the iPhone? Is it to scratch the scratchless screen guard or no? Is it just swiping? Or would you actually give purpose that I will use iphone to connect onto the internet and go onto the youtube to upskill myself so that I can earn more and help others? Or, you know, message my friends, call them, keep a constant connect with them so that they will not be feeling alone. Those are all good purposes, unlike the purposes that we actually have. Or if you have a land, okay, if you have a land as an asset, what purpose would you give? I want you to think, if you give permission to the father who actually gave you the asset and the possession, what purpose would he give to that possession? Now, that will change your entire perspective. You know, if you have a land and if there is a church nearby who are struggling to build a building, probably the purpose that father would give is to lease the land or do something with it. Putting purpose, good purpose, fatherly purpose, the heart of the father kind of a purpose to that possession. Because when we do that, we are giving it away so that the same glass can be filled. Amen.
Speaker 1:There is a principle of multiplication that gets into effect. The third one shift from scarcity to abundance. Thinking the lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. The lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. The Lord is my shepherd. I don't need anything else.
Speaker 1:But the first phrase is sometimes missing. We change the scripture to I don't have anything and that's it. I don't have anything. Lord help me. I mean, that's it, I don't have anything. Lord, help me. The Lord is. You know all the scriptures start and you know they hyperlink each other and come to one point where it says love your Lord first and, along with that, love your neighbor. It all hyperlinks and you know, know, comes to a singleton point where it says that you know the lord is first. Worship your god with all your heart, mind and soul, with everything that you got. You know that's what. That is where we are. You know are drawing our strength from.
Speaker 1:The fourth one is shift from me to we.
Speaker 1:Think about your friends, your family. If you had possessions, how would you help the community that God has placed you in? One of the most impactful things that the early church did is they shifted their mindset from me to we, and that's why we see in acts where the early church would come together all of their possessions. They sold everything, brought everything together and said hey, is there anyone needy here? Because this is all yours, this is everyone's. Whenever you need it, take it. Okay. Whenever you get it back, bring it back so that we will all live off of this. Assets and possessions that God has given to us shift from me to we. May I request the worship team here, please?
Speaker 1:But on this Father's Day, if there is something that we can draw that I have been reiterating from the beginning Is the heart of the Father. Because when we have the heart of the Father, all these mindset shifts and the practical shifts that I was talking about, it would be super easy, because we will not be trusting on our circumstances, trusting on the things of this world, but we will begin to look from the lens of the heart of the father and then begin begins the transformation. The transformation that we were talking, that we are talking about, is not about praying always and praying for 48 hours, fasting and praying. It's not all about the spiritual aspects. It's about the spiritual aspects coming and helping us in the practical ways, and that's why these four practical shifts that we were talking about will rise when we put God first, when we put the heart of the father first. So I want to ask one question Are you content? Because as long as we covet for something else or someone else's, we will never be content.