“Godliness with Contentment” 1st Timothy 6:6-10; Hebrews 13:5-6; Philippians 4:11-13

1st Timothy 6:6-10 6 - 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.

Hebrews 13:5-6 5 - Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." 6 - So we say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?"

Philippians 4:11-13 11 - I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12 - I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 - I can do everything through Him Who gives me strength.

James 4:2 “We want something but don't get it James 4:2 “We want something but don't get it. We kill and covet but we cannot have what we want so we quarrel and fight.”

“discontent”

Dr. Marty Seligman Professor of Psychology University of Pennsylvania “Mental Illness since WW 2”

Statistics: people born after 1945 are 10 times more likely to suffer depression than people born earlier

Dr. Seligman discovers: “on the whole, you don't find much depression, in non-Westernized cultures before they were modernized… most primitive cultures show almost no cases of depression.”

Dr. Seligman concludes: “most people in our culture today are caught up in the middle of almost complete self-centeredness – their discontented state causes them to be focused on getting what they want that leads to unhappiness and un-fulfillment… … the more we have; the more we want; and all the more, unhappy we become… discontent is an endless cycle that gets us nothing but more misery.”

"Authentic Faith“ (by, Gary Thomas): “Contentment is nothing more than 'soul rest.' It is satisfaction, peace, assurance, and a sense of well-being that is cultivated by pursuing the right things. Instead of more power, more money, more pleasure and more control,... we seek an 'abundance' of grace and peace... contentment is the opposite of striving, aching, restlessness, and worry.”

Two Facts on Contentment: I. A Developed Attitude

= “to be independent or self-sufficient” “contentment” = “to be independent or self-sufficient”

with focus than finances.” Bill Hybels: “Contentment has more to do with focus than finances.”

Dr. John Rosemond (Columnist & Psychologist) “the epidemic of boredom in our culture among suburban affluent American kids.”

Three polls on “boredom”: (1) Do your kids complain about boredom? (2) When you were raising your kids, did you hear them complain about boredom? (3) How many toys did you have growing up?

American kid, 5 years of age, 250 toys Statistics: the typical on average, 5 years of age, has 250 toys

II. A Learned Lesson Philippians 4:11-12 “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.”

Three Principles of Contentment: A. Right Expectations

C. S. Lewis: “If you think of this world as a place intended simply for your happiness, you find it quite intolerable. But if you think of this world as a place of training and correction, it's not too bad.”

C.S. Lewis: “this is just the training ground; This is where we prepare for the real world by accepting Jesus as Savior and learning to follow Him as Lord, spending our temporary lives to do His will and purposes.”

1st Corinthians 2:9 “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him.”

B. Right Thinking Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Eugene Peterson (on Romans 12:2) “Don't become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God; you'll be changed from the inside out. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you and develops a well-formed maturity in you.”

Ecclesiastes 1:14 “All the things that are done under the sun are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.”

against all kinds of greed; Luke 12:15 “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

whether he eats little or much, Ecclesiastes 5:12 “The sleep of a laborer is sweet, whether he eats little or much, but the abundance of a rich man permits him no sleep.”

B. Right Desires

of the discontentment blues: Anonymous: "There are 10 rules for getting rid of the discontentment blues: Go out and do something for someone else and repeat it nine times!!!"

Ecclesiastes 3:11 God has “...set eternity in the hearts of men.”

Godliness with Contentment is Great Gain!!!