WEBVTT 00:00:18.879 --> 00:00:24.719 Today's reading is Proverbs chapter twenty-two, verse one to sixteen. 00:00:25.920 --> 00:00:34.079 A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favorite favor is better than silver or gold. 00:00:34.399 --> 00:00:37.119 The rich and the poor meet together. 00:00:37.359 --> 00:00:40.000 The Lord is the maker of them all. 00:00:40.399 --> 00:00:47.600 The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it. 00:00:47.920 --> 00:00:54.799 The reward for humility and fear of the Lord, its riches and honor and life. 00:00:55.119 --> 00:00:58.640 Thorns and snares are in the way of the crooked. 00:00:58.880 --> 00:01:02.960 Whoever guards his soul will keep far from them. 00:01:03.600 --> 00:01:06.879 Train up a child in the way he should go. 00:01:07.200 --> 00:01:10.879 Even when he is old, he will not depart from it. 00:01:11.120 --> 00:01:16.799 The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender. 00:01:17.040 --> 00:01:23.599 Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity, and the rod of his fairy will fail. 00:01:23.920 --> 00:01:30.879 Whoever has a bountiful eye will be blessed, for he shares his bread with the poor. 00:01:31.120 --> 00:01:37.920 Drive out a scoffer, and strife will go out, and quarreling and abuse will cease. 00:01:38.159 --> 00:01:45.519 He who loves purity of heart and whose speech is gracious will have the king as his friend. 00:01:45.840 --> 00:01:55.359 The eyes of the Lord keep watch over knowledge, but he overthrows the words of the traitor. 00:01:56.400 --> 00:02:02.640 And the slugget says, There is a lion outside, I shall be killed in the streets. 00:02:02.879 --> 00:02:06.319 The mouth of forbidden woman, it's a deep pit. 00:02:06.879 --> 00:02:10.639 He with whom the Lord is angry will fall into it. 00:02:11.039 --> 00:02:18.000 Folly, it's bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him. 00:02:18.319 --> 00:02:25.919 Whoever oppresses the poor to increase his own wealth or give to the rich will only come to poverty. 00:02:26.080 --> 00:02:27.360 And this is the word of God. 00:02:40.240 --> 00:02:46.159 And if you're part of our current leadership cohort, you maybe know or remember something of this story. 00:02:46.319 --> 00:02:59.840 We went to the south of Spain uh to to switch off, to unplug from ministry, spend time together as a as a family, went to uh a hotel there for uh about a week or 10 days. 00:03:00.080 --> 00:03:06.800 And uh when we arrived, the um the weather wasn't as nice as I expected it to be. 00:03:06.960 --> 00:03:12.159 Uh it was colder, it was windier uh than I wanted it to be. 00:03:12.400 --> 00:03:17.919 We walked out of the hotel, uh, and the hotel was right on the on the beach. 00:03:18.080 --> 00:03:21.520 But the beach wasn't the type of sand that I expected it to be. 00:03:21.680 --> 00:03:24.000 Uh it wasn't the type of sand that I wanted it to be. 00:03:24.080 --> 00:03:30.960 It was much more shaley or it was kind of that that kind of razor sharp sand that actually kind of cuts your feet slightly. 00:03:31.039 --> 00:03:43.199 It wasn't good sandcastle sand, and I was uh I was a bit grumpy uh about that, and um because you know the beach hadn't put the right sort of sand there for for me. 00:03:43.520 --> 00:03:46.639 Um uh there was various other things about it. 00:03:46.719 --> 00:03:53.120 The the pictures maybe didn't kind of match how it actually was, what I expected it to be. 00:03:53.199 --> 00:04:04.879 And so I spent the first few days, and Philippa can confirm all of this, uh, literally sitting under a parasol wearing a hoodie, trying to read a book, just feeling fairly grumpy about everything. 00:04:05.120 --> 00:04:10.879 Uh, and not being the nicest holiday companion, um, shall we say. 00:04:11.039 --> 00:04:23.839 Uh, you know, the Philippa being very gracious would uh would take the kids off to go and get ice cream to try and give me some space in the fervent uh and often futile hope that she might return to a happier husband. 00:04:24.079 --> 00:04:34.079 Uh and after three days, uh she took me to one side and she said, Everybody here is having fun except for you. 00:04:34.879 --> 00:04:37.279 Everyone here is having fun except for you. 00:04:38.240 --> 00:04:46.480 If you change your expectations and just enjoy what is around you, you'll be much happier. 00:04:48.639 --> 00:04:56.800 I don't know about you, although I suspect that I'm not alone in this, but I struggle with uh contentment. 00:04:57.680 --> 00:05:01.360 I get discontented uh very quickly. 00:05:01.519 --> 00:05:06.959 In part that comes from, you know, a sense of I like things to be a certain way. 00:05:07.120 --> 00:05:15.120 There's maybe kind of a, you know, uh these topical weeks in um uh in Proverbs feel like Mark's confession time. 00:05:15.360 --> 00:05:16.639 Um I don't know. 00:05:17.600 --> 00:05:21.279 Uh you know, people were talking about the emails that I don't send, like, really? 00:05:21.360 --> 00:05:22.000 Do you write those? 00:05:22.160 --> 00:05:22.720 Yes. 00:05:22.959 --> 00:05:32.240 Um, you know, there's uh there's in part a kind of uh a restlessness in me, maybe an entitlement as well. 00:05:32.959 --> 00:05:36.000 And so I struggle with with contentment. 00:05:36.160 --> 00:05:44.879 I compare myself to to other people and to what they've got, and uh that kind of gnaws at me in a way that it doesn't for Philippa. 00:05:45.040 --> 00:05:51.759 It bothers me in a way that it doesn't maybe for for you, but maybe one or two of you here feel that as well. 00:05:51.920 --> 00:05:54.959 You find yourself comparing to others. 00:05:55.279 --> 00:06:01.120 You get a bit grumbly and a bit grumpy because you're discontented. 00:06:01.920 --> 00:06:12.720 And for the longest time I used to think that um that contentment was like the British stiff upper lip. 00:06:13.040 --> 00:06:20.800 It's acknowledging that what we have is kind of rubbish, but gosh darn it, I've just got to muscle through. 00:06:21.040 --> 00:06:21.360 Okay? 00:06:21.680 --> 00:06:26.079 I just gotta just gotta, you know, keep calm and carry on. 00:06:26.319 --> 00:06:32.879 Um and it's an acknowledgement, this is this is this is crap, uh, but I've just got a barrel on a head. 00:06:32.959 --> 00:06:37.360 That's what I thought contentment was uh for a long time. 00:06:40.160 --> 00:06:45.920 Sometimes you can also think that contentment is well, I mustn't have any desires. 00:06:46.160 --> 00:06:54.720 You know, in order to be content, I need to kind of get rid of all ambition and all drive. 00:06:55.680 --> 00:06:57.839 That's much more of a kind of an Eastern idea. 00:06:58.000 --> 00:07:06.319 You know, the the enlightenment that the Buddha finds is that he frees himself from all earthly desire, and so he finds peace. 00:07:06.720 --> 00:07:10.720 Maybe you think, well, that that's that's the biblical encouragement. 00:07:10.959 --> 00:07:15.360 But you read the rest of the book of Proverbs and you read things like, Go to the ant, you sluggard. 00:07:15.759 --> 00:07:22.240 You know, there's lots of commendations of hard work and ambition and drive and all of those things. 00:07:22.560 --> 00:07:27.680 So where does where does my discontented heart go? 00:07:30.560 --> 00:07:49.279 Well, one of the things that I've realized through our study in the book of Proverbs is that biblical contentment doesn't seek to remove our desires, it seeks to reorder them, to give us different, better, more life-giving, more joyful priorities. 00:07:50.000 --> 00:08:00.879 And that it's less about just muscling through, but resting in who God is and what he's doing in our life. 00:08:02.800 --> 00:08:17.279 This passage picks up a few ideas that I think help us, a few principles that help those of us who struggle with contentment, to see what biblical contentment looks like. 00:08:18.079 --> 00:08:20.720 And the first is right there in verse one. 00:08:21.600 --> 00:08:26.319 And it's that contentment seeks integrity over image. 00:08:26.720 --> 00:08:28.079 Look at it with me. 00:08:28.319 --> 00:08:30.480 Proverbs 22, verse 1. 00:08:30.800 --> 00:08:40.159 A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold. 00:08:41.039 --> 00:08:46.080 At various points through the book of Proverbs, you get the you get the it is better comparisons. 00:08:46.159 --> 00:08:48.720 It is better to do this than to do that. 00:08:49.120 --> 00:08:52.559 And sometimes it's a choice between two good things. 00:08:54.000 --> 00:08:55.759 Which is better, good name or gold. 00:08:55.840 --> 00:09:05.120 And the Proverbs kind of said, well, both are good, but if you've got to choose between one of them, choose the choose the good name, choose integrity over riches. 00:09:06.399 --> 00:09:09.039 Choose integrity over over image. 00:09:10.559 --> 00:09:19.519 Because the biggest species of discontentment that exists in our hearts is this hunger, the uh the desire for more. 00:09:20.080 --> 00:09:27.919 I need more, more success, more stuff, more money, more followers, more influence. 00:09:31.679 --> 00:09:34.240 And it gnaws away at us, doesn't it? 00:09:35.279 --> 00:09:41.519 Not getting what we think that we deserve, and that can lead us to resentment. 00:09:41.600 --> 00:09:44.559 It can lead us to resentment of the others who have. 00:09:45.840 --> 00:09:51.440 But goodness me, you think that you're entitled to something, you think you deserve something and you don't get it? 00:09:52.320 --> 00:09:55.840 You know, do you know just who that can lead you to resent? 00:09:56.720 --> 00:09:56.879 God. 00:09:59.200 --> 00:10:04.720 Thinking he hasn't given me this thing that I have worked so hard for. 00:10:04.799 --> 00:10:06.960 I have sacrificed so much for this. 00:10:07.919 --> 00:10:09.440 And he hasn't given me that. 00:10:09.679 --> 00:10:10.799 Like the older brother. 00:10:11.039 --> 00:10:18.720 Remember the older brother in uh in Luke 15 where uh Jesus tells a story of it's commonly called the prodigal son, but really it's about two sons. 00:10:19.440 --> 00:10:23.919 And the prodigal son gets welcomed back after squandering all of his wealth. 00:10:24.159 --> 00:10:37.679 And the father embraces him and throws a great party, has a huge celebration, and the older brother, the older brother stayed at home the whole time, working his backside off, sacrificing everything for the father. 00:10:37.840 --> 00:10:42.080 And he sees how the younger brother's being treated and he resents him for it. 00:10:42.159 --> 00:10:44.639 And what's worse, he resents the father. 00:10:44.879 --> 00:10:50.480 And so the father goes out from the party and says to the older brother, why won't you come in? 00:10:51.039 --> 00:10:52.720 Remember the older brother's response? 00:10:52.879 --> 00:11:02.879 The older brother looks at him and says, All these long years I've worked for you, and you haven't even given me a small goat that I might celebrate with my friends. 00:11:03.600 --> 00:11:05.039 Do you hear the entitlement? 00:11:05.200 --> 00:11:06.799 Do you hear the resentment? 00:11:07.840 --> 00:11:20.879 A discontented heart can lead you to hating others, resenting others, being bitter towards others, but goodness me, it can gnaw at us in a way that makes us resentful towards God, can't it? 00:11:23.279 --> 00:11:33.919 And so what we do is we become tempted to sacrifice our character, our integrity, our faith for the gain that we want, for the thing that we desire. 00:11:36.320 --> 00:11:48.879 We begin to locate our identity, who we are, in what we can achieve, what we can earn, where we live, who we're in a relationship with. 00:11:51.840 --> 00:11:56.720 But verse one reorders our priorities. 00:11:57.200 --> 00:12:03.039 It still wants us to pursue things, it still wants us to pursue something. 00:12:03.360 --> 00:12:10.240 But the wise person seeks integrity over image, character, over status. 00:12:12.399 --> 00:12:14.720 You might compare this with Proverbs 16. 00:12:14.799 --> 00:12:18.000 If you take a note shot down Proverbs 16, verse 8, let me read it to you. 00:12:18.240 --> 00:12:23.759 Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues with injustice. 00:12:24.080 --> 00:12:25.440 Let me read it again. 00:12:25.919 --> 00:12:32.720 Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues with injustice. 00:12:35.440 --> 00:12:43.759 These better comparisons show us how we ought to reorder our priorities. 00:12:44.799 --> 00:12:50.639 That there is more to life than riches. 00:12:50.799 --> 00:12:53.600 There is a deeper contentment to be found. 00:12:54.879 --> 00:12:57.679 Again, does this mean that riches or gain are bad? 00:12:57.840 --> 00:13:05.600 No, in fact, Proverbs actually speaks quite positively about riches and gain and money. 00:13:06.159 --> 00:13:13.279 In fact, uh it says that really kind of material gain is part of the reward for righteous living. 00:13:13.600 --> 00:13:22.559 Again, this is we're in the realm of principle for life rather than absolute cast-iron promise, because we live in a world that's tainted by sin. 00:13:22.799 --> 00:13:24.960 Jesus says, in this world you will have trouble. 00:13:25.039 --> 00:13:35.039 And there's plenty of very poor Christians who are rich beyond measure in terms of their character and godliness. 00:13:37.840 --> 00:13:51.039 Where wisdom is challenging us here is to say that if you have a choice between these two things, on one side there's there's character, integrity, godliness, and on the other, there's gain, but it's going to cost you some of this. 00:13:51.279 --> 00:13:52.639 Proverbs says, no, no, no. 00:13:53.200 --> 00:13:59.679 Don't sacrifice godly character for worldly gain. 00:14:00.720 --> 00:14:02.080 You remember the words of Jesus? 00:14:02.799 --> 00:14:08.320 What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and yet forfeit his soul? 00:14:10.080 --> 00:14:13.840 It's the fool who sacrifices those things for gain. 00:14:15.840 --> 00:14:23.679 To be contented then is to prioritize growing in godliness over gain of gold. 00:14:23.759 --> 00:14:29.200 It's to prioritize a deepening of character rather than of wealth. 00:14:30.480 --> 00:14:50.399 To prioritize integrity will be an anchor to our souls in those decision moments, in those forks of the road that have stood behind us in the graphic all these weeks, when we have the opportunity to gain something at someone else's expense, or in an unjust way, or in a secretly deceitful way. 00:14:51.120 --> 00:14:59.600 And we think, actually, though no one will see, I'm not going to harm my own soul. 00:15:00.320 --> 00:15:05.919 I'm not going to harm my own integrity, my own character by going this way. 00:15:07.679 --> 00:15:11.840 Moreover, it reframes for us what success really is. 00:15:14.480 --> 00:15:20.320 We do not build a legacy through stacking up of achievements. 00:15:21.440 --> 00:15:24.000 We build a legacy that's worth remembering. 00:15:24.159 --> 00:15:27.519 We build a legacy that will echo down through the generations. 00:15:27.840 --> 00:15:36.080 We build a legacy that will outlast us by prioritizing faithfulness. 00:15:38.000 --> 00:15:49.840 Eugene Peterson, uh the guy who actually translated the message version of the Bible, a guy called Eugene Peterson, he's since gone to glory, but he described uh he described the Christian life this way. 00:15:49.919 --> 00:15:55.360 He said that the Christian life is long obedience in the same direction. 00:15:59.200 --> 00:16:03.279 The world doesn't value that, the world doesn't prize that, but that's what you want to aspire to. 00:16:04.159 --> 00:16:06.159 Long obedience in the same direction. 00:16:09.039 --> 00:16:15.120 That's what will reverberate through your children and your grandchildren. 00:16:15.360 --> 00:16:17.919 That's what will impact the people around you and your friends. 00:16:18.720 --> 00:16:27.759 That at those decision points when you can sacrifice integrity, when you can just give up a little bit of your honesty, a little bit of your character, that you won't do it. 00:16:27.840 --> 00:16:30.639 You won't hawks yourself in those ways. 00:16:31.759 --> 00:16:33.919 That's a Harry Potter reference, by the way. 00:16:40.639 --> 00:16:41.039 C.S. 00:16:41.200 --> 00:16:45.600 Lewis says this, he says, Aim at heaven, and you'll get earth thrown in. 00:16:46.080 --> 00:16:49.200 Aim at earth, and you'll get neither. 00:16:51.440 --> 00:16:53.919 Aim at heaven, aim at godliness, aim at integrity. 00:16:54.000 --> 00:16:58.000 And Proverbs says that the likelihood is that actually you will be blessed. 00:16:58.240 --> 00:17:05.039 That God will see your stewardship of the things that you have, and he will bless you. 00:17:05.200 --> 00:17:06.160 Look at verse 9. 00:17:06.319 --> 00:17:10.160 Whoever has a bountiful eye, that's whoever has a generous eye, will be blessed. 00:17:10.240 --> 00:17:10.559 Why? 00:17:10.720 --> 00:17:13.200 Because he shares his bread with the poor. 00:17:14.319 --> 00:17:17.920 Aim at heaven, and you'll get earth thrown in. 00:17:19.519 --> 00:17:24.079 How can we invest in character over our image? 00:17:25.440 --> 00:17:32.799 Let me give you a couple of little ways to kind of begin working this kind of character muscle a little bit. 00:17:33.599 --> 00:17:38.240 First, seek to be honest in small things. 00:17:39.839 --> 00:17:50.400 You know, we we all know to kind of avoid the big black lie, but we often kind of explain away and kind of dismiss the kind of little white line. 00:17:50.720 --> 00:18:04.240 So we we just kind of work uh an invoice in our favor just a little bit more, and or we kind of we zhuzh up our our our C V, kind of fudge a work report a little bit. 00:18:04.559 --> 00:18:14.240 We aren't as diligent with our citations, you know, we've read an idea and we're like, no, look, it'll be fine. 00:18:14.559 --> 00:18:17.119 You practice honesty in small things. 00:18:19.279 --> 00:18:20.559 Or how about this? 00:18:20.720 --> 00:18:28.240 How about to kind of do an audit and ask yourself, how closely does your online persona align with who you are really? 00:18:30.880 --> 00:18:32.880 Or are they two different people? 00:18:35.039 --> 00:18:41.039 Or third way might be why don't you try practicing some unseen kindness? 00:18:42.480 --> 00:18:43.920 That's secret service. 00:18:44.079 --> 00:18:45.359 Not secret service. 00:18:45.519 --> 00:18:47.759 Uh don't know why I wrote it down like that. 00:18:48.240 --> 00:18:56.480 Uh it's funny how things sound weirder coming out uh than they are writing them on a Friday afternoon uh while you're seeing all the sunshine outside. 00:18:56.640 --> 00:18:58.400 Don't join the you can join the secret service if you want. 00:18:58.480 --> 00:18:59.119 Maybe you are part of it. 00:18:59.200 --> 00:19:00.960 Maybe there's a spy in here, who knows? 00:19:01.279 --> 00:19:04.160 Uh unseen service. 00:19:06.240 --> 00:19:12.079 Or the quiet encouragement that only the person that you're encouraging knows about. 00:19:14.799 --> 00:19:23.839 Those things begin to deepen and cultivate our character and grow in us a contentment that prioritizes integrity over image. 00:19:24.960 --> 00:19:31.200 Second, contentment rests in the sovereignty of God. 00:19:32.240 --> 00:19:33.200 Have a look at verse two. 00:19:33.519 --> 00:19:35.680 Don't worry, we're not there isn't sixteen points. 00:19:36.240 --> 00:19:38.319 Uh don't worry. 00:19:39.599 --> 00:19:44.640 Verse two the rich and the poor meet together. 00:19:45.599 --> 00:19:48.799 The Lord is the maker of them all. 00:19:50.240 --> 00:20:04.319 In a world that's obsessed with status and comparison, this verse really, you dwell on it, it brings a real kind of centering wisdom to our hearts. 00:20:04.559 --> 00:20:12.559 You know, the phrase meet together means something like, here's what the rich and poor have in common. 00:20:12.799 --> 00:20:15.119 So that's what meet together means, so have that in your mind. 00:20:15.279 --> 00:20:17.440 Here's what the rich and poor have in common. 00:20:17.599 --> 00:20:18.559 What is it? 00:20:19.039 --> 00:20:20.960 The Lord's the maker of them all. 00:20:22.319 --> 00:20:28.880 Those who have less are not less because they are image bearers. 00:20:29.440 --> 00:20:35.839 Those who have great gain are not greater because they are image bearers. 00:20:37.039 --> 00:20:45.359 Our degrees, our achievements, our career, our house, our bank balance, the car that we drive, none of these determine our worth before God. 00:20:46.160 --> 00:21:01.279 Both rich and poor have dignity because they are made with the dignity, honor, value, significance, worth that He bestows on every human being by nature of our creation and birth. 00:21:06.559 --> 00:21:23.920 One of the things that centering ourselves on a verse like this does for us, if you can really think that I am no better than this person who has less than me, I am no worse than this person who has more than me. 00:21:24.319 --> 00:21:34.079 One of the things that this does for us practically in your day-to-day, because you'll go through seasons of success and you'll go through seasons of failure. 00:21:34.720 --> 00:21:40.000 Some of you have experienced what it is to fail, pick yourself up off the mat. 00:21:40.880 --> 00:21:44.240 Some of you have experienced great high successes. 00:21:45.039 --> 00:21:54.480 But realizing that God's the God's the architect of both of those things, that whether you're rich or you're poor, God you have this in common. 00:21:54.720 --> 00:21:56.480 You're made in his image. 00:21:57.039 --> 00:21:58.480 Here's what this does for you. 00:21:58.640 --> 00:21:59.759 Here's what's centering yourself. 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:00.799 In verse 3 does. 00:22:01.039 --> 00:22:01.440 Ready? 00:22:01.599 --> 00:22:02.400 I'm going to cite it. 00:22:02.720 --> 00:22:03.359 Tim Keller said it. 00:22:03.440 --> 00:22:04.960 Tim Keller is a pastor in New York. 00:22:05.039 --> 00:22:06.960 I love what he says here. 00:22:07.519 --> 00:22:17.200 He says that if you center yourself on this, it means that you won't let success go to your head and you won't let failure go to your heart. 00:22:18.799 --> 00:22:20.960 Because failure goes to our hearts, right? 00:22:21.200 --> 00:22:23.839 It makes us, it just devastates us. 00:22:24.319 --> 00:22:28.799 It makes us rethink all our choices and who we are and what we've done. 00:22:28.880 --> 00:22:30.880 And I'm such a fool and I'm such an idiot. 00:22:31.039 --> 00:22:34.559 Success, sorry, failure goes straight to our hearts, doesn't it? 00:22:35.119 --> 00:22:36.799 Success can go to our heads. 00:22:36.960 --> 00:22:38.160 Look what I have done. 00:22:38.319 --> 00:22:39.680 Look what I have achieved. 00:22:39.920 --> 00:22:47.440 But actually, if you have verse two, deeply embedded in your psyche, the rich and poor meet together. 00:22:47.599 --> 00:22:50.160 The Lord is the maker of them all. 00:22:51.119 --> 00:22:53.279 God is sovereign over the rich and the poor. 00:22:53.440 --> 00:22:55.359 He made them both in his image. 00:22:55.920 --> 00:23:00.559 That means that you're not the sole architect of your achievements. 00:23:01.599 --> 00:23:04.880 Nor are you defined by your losses. 00:23:07.359 --> 00:23:13.680 God is neither impressed by your CV, nor is he shocked by your setbacks. 00:23:17.440 --> 00:23:19.759 But finding this rest is hard, isn't it? 00:23:21.920 --> 00:23:28.559 This is perhaps one of those cases where in our heads we know this to be true. 00:23:29.920 --> 00:23:33.680 But it's hard to kind of make that distance. 00:23:33.920 --> 00:23:38.480 The distance between our heads and our hearts can seem very, very long, can't it? 00:23:39.759 --> 00:23:39.920 Yeah. 00:23:40.240 --> 00:23:45.759 Remember another pastor talking about how human beings are like broken vending machines. 00:23:46.000 --> 00:23:50.000 You know you go to a vending machine back before you just press the green button and tapped. 00:23:50.160 --> 00:24:06.000 When you had things in your pockets called coins, uh, you put a coin in the vending machine and you know that, you know that that disheartening sound when when you put a coin in and you know that it hasn't clunked down in, just that kind of dead sort of click. 00:24:06.160 --> 00:24:07.519 Oh, okay, it hasn't gone. 00:24:07.759 --> 00:24:08.720 And so what do you do? 00:24:09.039 --> 00:24:18.400 Hasn't gone all the way down, and uh that uh that that chill bottle of Coke Zero or or Club Rock Shandy, it's far better, right? 00:24:18.480 --> 00:24:20.079 Uh club rock, it's right there. 00:24:20.240 --> 00:24:22.799 You're thirsty, and the coin hasn't gone down in. 00:24:22.960 --> 00:24:23.920 What do you do? 00:24:24.240 --> 00:24:24.720 Poof. 00:24:25.359 --> 00:24:27.599 You slap it on the side, right? 00:24:28.640 --> 00:24:32.079 Give it a give it a dunt, give it a nudge, give it a give it a bash. 00:24:32.960 --> 00:24:34.160 We're like that. 00:24:34.960 --> 00:24:51.599 Sometimes, actually, what failure does, what suffering does, what trial does, is it's God's way of plunking us on the side to get the truths that He's taught us on our heads to clatter down under our hearts. 00:24:54.559 --> 00:25:08.799 Here's some practical ways that you might be able to grow in this rest, in God's sovereign care of you, of your family. 00:25:10.160 --> 00:25:11.119 Here's some ideas. 00:25:11.200 --> 00:25:14.319 Some of them might resonate with you, some of them might not. 00:25:14.720 --> 00:25:18.799 Here's one take an actual day off. 00:25:20.559 --> 00:25:21.920 Take a day off. 00:25:23.200 --> 00:25:32.640 Where you switch off, where you don't work, where you get out of context that make you think about work. 00:25:34.240 --> 00:25:37.519 Take 24 hours to rest. 00:25:38.799 --> 00:25:45.440 You don't check emails, lock up your phone if you need to, give it to somebody else, leave it behind. 00:25:45.920 --> 00:25:47.200 Take a day off. 00:25:47.519 --> 00:25:50.640 You were not made to work seven days a week. 00:25:51.200 --> 00:25:52.640 Six and one. 00:25:54.319 --> 00:25:55.680 Take a day off. 00:25:56.240 --> 00:26:05.519 Because it shows actually that you are depending on God that not everything rests on your shoulders. 00:26:06.480 --> 00:26:08.160 Here's another idea. 00:26:08.960 --> 00:26:14.079 Why not fast from those apps that fuel comparison? 00:26:16.000 --> 00:26:22.400 Take a week where you're going to not check your LinkedIn profile or the LinkedIn profile of others. 00:26:23.279 --> 00:26:26.240 Take a week where you're actually going to delete Instagram from your phone. 00:26:29.279 --> 00:26:32.400 Gosh, it wounded me even to say the words out loud. 00:26:34.000 --> 00:26:35.359 Maybe we should try it. 00:26:37.440 --> 00:26:39.839 Because it feels so much comparison, doesn't it? 00:26:40.079 --> 00:26:49.839 And to take that time to think, okay, I'm not going to sit here and doom scroll through what God is doing in other people's lives, but I'm going to reflect on what's God forming in me. 00:26:50.079 --> 00:26:52.000 What's He doing in my life? 00:26:52.240 --> 00:27:01.200 And if it's if you're basically after an hour rocking back and forward, you've got an idea of kind of things you need to work on. 00:27:01.759 --> 00:27:05.440 Oh, okay, that has more of a hold on me than I thought. 00:27:05.680 --> 00:27:08.720 I'm more restless than I thought. 00:27:09.039 --> 00:27:14.960 Here's another way to rest in God's sovereignty over your life right now and what he is doing in your life. 00:27:15.279 --> 00:27:15.920 Ready? 00:27:16.319 --> 00:27:18.079 Practice gratitude. 00:27:19.599 --> 00:27:22.000 Reflect on things that you can be thankful for. 00:27:22.160 --> 00:27:25.920 Even if your life is really hard right now, work sucks. 00:27:26.079 --> 00:27:27.680 Your relationship sucks. 00:27:27.920 --> 00:27:29.680 Everything's terrible. 00:27:30.799 --> 00:27:38.720 You've got to sit down, center yourself in verse 2, Lord is the maker of them all. 00:27:38.880 --> 00:27:40.799 Where can I see his fingerprints? 00:27:41.039 --> 00:27:43.519 What can I thank him for? 00:27:45.119 --> 00:27:48.000 Practice a little bit of gratitude, my friends. 00:27:48.319 --> 00:27:51.119 That will grow your ability to rest. 00:27:51.279 --> 00:27:57.599 Not only to say that it affects verse one, it'll grow your character, your dependency, your godliness. 00:27:59.359 --> 00:28:02.640 Force yourself to think, okay, what can I be grateful for today? 00:28:03.759 --> 00:28:06.559 And maybe there are ways in which you express that gratitude to other people. 00:28:06.720 --> 00:28:10.480 Maybe there are things there are there somebody has done something for you. 00:28:11.440 --> 00:28:15.759 But because you're in a bad place, you haven't really even kind of got back to them, you haven't really even considered it. 00:28:16.000 --> 00:28:19.839 You go back to you send them a text and say, I really appreciate that you did that for me. 00:28:20.079 --> 00:28:21.839 Really appreciated that you said that. 00:28:22.079 --> 00:28:24.160 Thanks to that that gift. 00:28:24.319 --> 00:28:25.359 That was really kind. 00:28:27.119 --> 00:28:32.240 It begins to reframe the disposition, the priorities of our hearts. 00:28:34.000 --> 00:28:39.200 Fourth and finally to not finally in the whole sermon, finally in point two. 00:28:39.359 --> 00:28:40.160 There are four. 00:28:44.720 --> 00:29:00.559 Try maybe with a trusted friend or with a pastor, that'd that'd be me, or Ben or Peter, to seek to reframe setbacks with the eyes of faith. 00:29:02.240 --> 00:29:05.119 Sometimes what one of the things that suffering does is it blinkers us. 00:29:05.279 --> 00:29:11.920 So all we can see is the suffering that's before us, and all we can see is how hard things are and how miserable we are. 00:29:12.160 --> 00:29:20.799 And we need an outside pair of eyes to help kind of expand our perspective so that we can see what it is that God is doing. 00:29:21.759 --> 00:29:32.480 We can see something of his fingerprints, and that'll help us to rest in his sovereign care of us and grow a contented heart. 00:29:32.960 --> 00:29:38.880 Thirdly, contentment prepares without panicking. 00:29:39.920 --> 00:29:43.599 Contentment prepares without panicking. 00:29:43.920 --> 00:29:49.920 Verse three, the prudent sees danger and hides himself. 00:29:50.720 --> 00:29:54.240 But the simple go on and suffer for it. 00:29:56.079 --> 00:30:02.880 You might think again that all of this talk of contentment, what that means is, well, I've just got to let go and let God, right? 00:30:03.599 --> 00:30:04.880 Just gotta chill out. 00:30:05.119 --> 00:30:06.880 God's gonna do what he's gonna do. 00:30:07.119 --> 00:30:12.000 I don't plan, I just chill, and whatever comes, he'll see me through. 00:30:12.160 --> 00:30:12.799 Uh no, no. 00:30:14.000 --> 00:30:16.160 That's not biblical wisdom. 00:30:16.400 --> 00:30:20.559 Biblical wisdom commends planning, preparation, saving, investment. 00:30:20.720 --> 00:30:22.880 Again, remember when we talked about the ant? 00:30:23.039 --> 00:30:23.839 What does the ant do? 00:30:23.920 --> 00:30:28.240 Well, the ant she she beavers away to mix our animal metaphors, right? 00:30:28.400 --> 00:30:30.240 Um, the ant's beavering there. 00:30:30.400 --> 00:30:31.920 And uh what does she do? 00:30:32.079 --> 00:30:40.559 She she makes hay while the sun shines, she does her harvesting in summertime, she stores up for the winter, she does all of these things. 00:30:41.279 --> 00:30:43.200 She gathers and works. 00:30:43.680 --> 00:30:46.480 And here in this verse, it talks about the prudent. 00:30:46.799 --> 00:30:47.920 The prudent are like that. 00:30:48.000 --> 00:30:55.599 They're the people who have a degree of foresight, they kind of know what way the wind is blowing, and they know how to act. 00:30:56.319 --> 00:31:01.279 The simple, by contrast, are those who are, by contrast, are those who are caught off guard. 00:31:02.480 --> 00:31:09.359 But where contentment comes into this is it challenges us and it equips us at the level of motive. 00:31:10.799 --> 00:31:17.200 You see, without contentment, our planning becomes a way of controlling. 00:31:19.279 --> 00:31:25.599 Budgeting becomes a way of hoarding or greed. 00:31:26.720 --> 00:31:33.200 And our diligence, our hard work, our ant like beavering away, without contentment, what happens to that? 00:31:33.359 --> 00:31:36.079 It becomes laced with anxiety. 00:31:38.720 --> 00:31:50.640 To prepare in a way that rests in God's care of you is about stewarding what he has given you, what he has entrusted with you. 00:31:51.200 --> 00:32:03.279 Not seeing your wealth as a means of self-reliance, but as a means of acting wisely in the world and being a blessing to others. 00:32:04.240 --> 00:32:16.480 The content person plans not out of fear of lack, but out of a desire to honor God with what he has given him or her, out of a desire to bless others. 00:32:17.759 --> 00:32:26.799 So contentment doesn't just mean passivity, sitting back and uh and letting your life pan out whatever way. 00:32:27.759 --> 00:32:33.279 It means planning for your future without being mastered by your future. 00:32:33.519 --> 00:32:37.680 It means planning for your future without being mastered by the anxiety of what if. 00:32:41.119 --> 00:32:44.160 Again, what does this mean practically? 00:32:45.359 --> 00:32:46.960 You should look ahead. 00:32:47.279 --> 00:32:57.359 The wise person thinks about his future, her future, plans ahead, sees danger coming, and makes plans to avoid it. 00:32:59.039 --> 00:33:04.559 This might mean that actually one of the things you need to do is just slow down slightly in your decision making. 00:33:05.680 --> 00:33:14.000 Maybe you've been a little bit hasty in the past and made some decisions that have not gone as well as they might have. 00:33:14.400 --> 00:33:16.000 Because you've rushed. 00:33:16.720 --> 00:33:18.720 Maybe you need to slow down your decision making. 00:33:18.799 --> 00:33:21.359 Maybe take take some wise counsel. 00:33:21.839 --> 00:33:24.880 Get help to discern before moving forward. 00:33:29.440 --> 00:33:55.599 Maybe it means that what you need to do is you need to create some margin in your life, to leave time in your schedule for interruptions, for rest, for others, to leave margin in your budget for emergencies, or to be a blessing. 00:33:57.359 --> 00:34:30.480 The contented heart sees all that you have, all that you possess from your time, your gifting, your treasure, your wealth, sees all of it as something to be stewarded, to be kept in trust, as a way of honoring God and blessing others, rather than as something to hoard and that we have achieved and now possess by our own strength. 00:34:33.039 --> 00:34:44.400 The contented heart, or in the contented heart, our monthly spend is shaped not by comparison, but by your faith, by your values. 00:34:48.400 --> 00:34:56.159 We must pray for wisdom and a contented heart as we manage what God has entrusted us with. 00:34:59.199 --> 00:35:10.559 And then fourthly, and finally, contentment fuels generosity, but discontentment breeds injustice. 00:35:19.760 --> 00:35:24.639 Verse nine, whoever has a bountiful eye is blessed, for he shares his bread with the poor. 00:35:25.199 --> 00:35:36.320 Verse 16, whoever impresses the poor to increase his own wealth or gives to the rich will only come to poverty. 00:35:43.039 --> 00:35:45.039 How do you begin to be a generous person? 00:35:46.239 --> 00:35:48.079 Does it begin with your balance? 00:35:49.119 --> 00:35:49.440 No. 00:35:50.320 --> 00:35:51.760 It begins with your heart. 00:35:52.639 --> 00:35:58.239 Generosity doesn't begin with abundance, it begins with contentment. 00:35:58.880 --> 00:36:09.119 That if you are content in who you are and who God has made you, if you're content in what He has given you, then all the things that He has given you, you'll hold with a more open hand. 00:36:09.440 --> 00:36:15.360 It's the discontented heart that closes our hands tightly. 00:36:16.880 --> 00:36:24.559 The reason we can be generous is because we are content with what we've been given, that it isn't ours to begin with. 00:36:25.199 --> 00:36:31.280 We're called to manage it for a time and be a blessing to others. 00:36:32.800 --> 00:36:40.000 What's more, our our wealth, the things that God has given us, they don't achieve our identity. 00:36:42.000 --> 00:36:54.320 Rather, as believers in Jesus, one of the things that happens when we come to faith in Jesus is that he gives us the gift of a new identity that can never be shaken, never be taken away. 00:36:54.400 --> 00:37:07.199 It's given us a it's a it's a great gift, it's an undeserved kindness to us by our loving Heavenly Father who says, You are my son, you are my daughter. 00:37:07.440 --> 00:37:11.760 I'm throwing a party for you, prodigal, but the fattened calf has been killed. 00:37:11.840 --> 00:37:12.639 Come on in. 00:37:12.800 --> 00:37:15.119 We are going to celebrate. 00:37:15.440 --> 00:37:16.960 That's who you are. 00:37:17.119 --> 00:37:19.360 You're not a slave, you're a son. 00:37:19.519 --> 00:37:20.480 Do you know that? 00:37:20.719 --> 00:37:22.639 That's what the gospel offers you. 00:37:22.880 --> 00:37:29.360 Some of you here this morning think that if I became a Christian, that would mean slavery and oppression for me, that I'd have to give up the things that I prefer. 00:37:29.519 --> 00:37:30.079 No, no, no. 00:37:30.639 --> 00:37:33.760 We're moving from slaveship to sonship. 00:37:33.920 --> 00:37:36.000 You're given a new identity. 00:37:37.039 --> 00:37:42.400 One where you're adopted forever into the family and the household of God. 00:37:42.800 --> 00:37:53.599 And so that means that you don't need to work to achieve some new identity, because what can be better and more life-giving than living into who God has declared you to be? 00:37:54.800 --> 00:37:57.119 Because of what Jesus has done for you. 00:37:58.000 --> 00:38:05.599 Because he has taken away that sin that alienates you from your heavenly Father, and he has brought you close. 00:38:07.440 --> 00:38:10.320 Though he was rich, Paul says, he became poor. 00:38:11.920 --> 00:38:19.039 He became poor, and in his poverty on the cross, he made us the richest people in all of the cosmos. 00:38:20.480 --> 00:38:23.280 In a way that can never be taken away from us. 00:38:24.960 --> 00:38:28.480 That's what transforms our hearts. 00:38:30.320 --> 00:38:34.320 That's what makes us the most contented, joyful people in the whole planet. 00:38:35.840 --> 00:38:38.159 That we can look at the things that we have. 00:38:39.440 --> 00:38:46.000 That we can look at our wealth, that we can look at our time and see the needs of others. 00:38:47.280 --> 00:38:51.440 Because our hearts are full, our hands can be open. 00:38:53.039 --> 00:38:59.119 By contrast, when we feel that that empty, gnawing restlessness. 00:39:01.280 --> 00:39:07.119 When we feel that in our hearts, it makes us close our hands and we lose sight of others. 00:39:10.239 --> 00:39:17.679 Sometimes it can even make us wish to see others fail so that we could succeed. 00:39:18.800 --> 00:39:24.239 Or to exploit the weakness and ignorance of others in order to get what we want. 00:39:25.440 --> 00:39:32.400 Whoever oppresses the poor to increase his own wealth will only come to poverty. 00:39:55.679 --> 00:39:59.760 And because the weather the weather hasn't been what I ordered. 00:40:03.440 --> 00:40:05.599 I have so much going to do, don't I? 00:40:06.559 --> 00:40:10.079 To have that gnawing away in your heart. 00:40:13.119 --> 00:40:21.920 You need to know that that discontentment is believing the oldest lie. 00:40:23.679 --> 00:40:25.599 It's believing the first lie. 00:40:27.199 --> 00:40:31.119 It was told by a snake in a garden. 00:40:32.400 --> 00:40:35.840 And it was the lie of discontentment. 00:40:36.719 --> 00:40:45.280 It was the lie of the serpent going to Adam and Eve and saying, God's holding you back. 00:40:46.480 --> 00:40:51.039 If God was really good, he'd let you eat of everything. 00:40:51.440 --> 00:40:57.280 I can't believe that he would keep you under his heel like that. 00:40:57.760 --> 00:41:00.960 I can't believe that he would want to hold you down. 00:41:02.639 --> 00:41:06.960 If you only had this, you'd be happy then. 00:41:07.440 --> 00:41:11.440