Canaan Bible Church: Recent Episodes
Pastor Jeff Mullins
When we know have experienced the great blessing of contentment we will want others to enjoy that blessing also.
People who are content in life have an outlook on life that sets them apart from people who do know have contentment.
Or should we say that people who see things from God's perspective find contentment in life that makes them different from people who do not know God.
Contentment is having a level of satisfaction with the details of life that alleviate distress, distraction, and depression. Contentment comes when we experience what we expect from life. We can be content with material things. We can be content with people. We can be content with our service to God. In all these areas contentment comes when we adjust our attitudes so that we believe what God says; In faith we expect what God says to expect.
We are not by nature content because we have natural expectations contrary to the truth of God. Contentment is something that we must learn as we grow in faith.
There are people who think that God does not want them to have any fun or enjoyment in life.
It is common for someone to seriously consider turning from their sin to follow Jesus, only to postpone the decision because they want to have a fun life first. They think that they will turn to Jesus, get their ticket to heaven after they have lived the fun life.
This perspective, “that sin is fun and following God is no fun” could not be farther from the truth.
God is the giver of all good things. God is also the giver of the ability to enjoy the good things that He gives to us. There are many, who have a great abundance of good things that could be enjoyed, but they lack the ability to enjoy them.
Contentment, like every other blessing God gives us, can be distorted and become something bad.
It is a pseudo-contentment that displays itself as apathy, laziness, cynicism, despair, hopelessness, or depression. There is also the false contentment in being content with sins in our life's – it is a type of idolatry.
Yet, even the truths of God that lead God's people into the happy place of joy, peace, and contentment are the same truths that make the world a very meaningless and empty place if we leave God out of the picture. Without God life is a frantic striving after the wind. Without God, all of life's pursuits are futile, empty, vain.
Without a relationship with God, there is no storing up treasure in heaven . . . there is only the expectation that we will die and we will leave this world as naked as we entered it.
Without God, our relationships are short lived and punctuated with difficulties.
Even for followers of Jesus, contentment is sort of a package deal in which we either have all the package, or we are left with some level of discontent.
When you have contentment, what other traits are present in your life?
When you are discontent, what other traits are present in your life?
How does obeying the command to store up treasure in heaven rather than on earth produce contentment?
How does obeying the command to store up treasure in heaven rather than on earth potentially evoke a discontentment?
We understand that our discontent is associated with the things of this world. We have seen that God says to store up treasure in heaven and we understand that developing a heart affection toward treasure in heaven is an important stride in attaining to a content life.
However, storing up treasure in heaven creates for us another challenge to contentment. Often it is even a greater challenge that being content with the material things.
Treasure in heaven. What is that? Treasure in heaven is something that cannot be stolen, or destroyed, or taken with us. It is something that we, during the limited days of our earthly life, can put on deposit in heaven. Treasure in heaven is completely, an eternally secure.
Treasure in heaven is people. God has called us to make disciples. To preach the gospel to people that they may be reconciled to God and spend eternity with God. Seeking God;'s kingdom and righteousness is devoting ourselves to being disciples of Jesus who make disciples of Jesus. Those who are saved, who grow to be like Jesus, who glorify God in their lives . . . they are treasure in heaven.
We store up treasure in heaven by loving people, by investing in people, by giving to people, by sacrificing for people. This investment is not just for the earthly and material benefit we may provide, but for the spiritual and eternal benefit. When we invest in people, our heart affections are in people.
What are people afraid of regarding COVID?
What does God think of viruses like COVID?
Should Christians view COVID differently than unbelievers?
There is a question that we should be asking about COVID that I am not hearing many people ask.
It seems that almost has questions and almost everyone is afraid of something...
Some people are afraid of getting COVID; others are afraid of spreading it to someone they love.
Some are afraid of losing their freedom; others are afraid that those demanding freedom will propagate the disease.
Some are afraid of losing their business; others are afraid of losing their jobs and homes.
Some are afraid of dying from a virus; others are afraid of dying from a vaccine.
And there are more questions than answers it seems. But there is a basic big picture question that we should be asking that will not only alleviate fear, but will lead to being able to be content in our lives: “How should COVID, and all the associated issues, be viewed by those who believe in God?” Or we could ask, “Where does COVID fit within a Biblical world view?”
If the people in your life had contentment, would your life be different? If everyone in the church had contentment, would the church be different? How would your life be different if you had complete contentment?
Last time we sought to understand the concept of contentment from the pages of God's Word. We put forth several aspects of contentment.
- Contentment is a by-product of faith. Being discontent is thus the result a lack of faith; we know that whatever is not of faith is sin.
- We have contentment when we get what we expect in life. Contentment comes when our experience (what we get) matches our expectations. When we know and believe what God says, then we will expect what God says . . . and our experience will match our expectation – viola – contentment.
- We also pointed out that contentment is a measure of satisfaction with our experience. It is not 100% satisfaction but it is a level of satisfaction that allows us to have peace and joy. Contentment dispels distress, distraction, and depression.
- We also noted that our discontent is related to the earthly, material, and temporal aspects of our lives.
Now we want to look more carefully about contentment; specifically to identify the ways we can be content in this world because we have salvation.
How significant is being content in our life and our relationship with God? To begin by thinking about the importance of contentment let's ask some questions.
In your experience, have you ever known someone who could be labeled as an addict to be content with their life? Is it a sin to be discontent? Does God command us to be content? Does God expect us to be content? If being discontent is sin what can we do to become content?
As we seek to understand contentment we will find that there is a direct correlation between our level of contentment and the closeness of our walk with the Lord.
Brad Ketterling fills in for Jeff, giving a sermon on what Jesus says about hypocrites.
To be faithful is to be reliable, trustworthy, constant – When we say something is faithful we mean that it can be counted on within certain parameters.
Faithful is a word that describes God. God is faithful in an absolute sense without variation and without fail.
Today we want to remind ourselves of God's faithfulness and what that looks like. In this world there is nothing that compares to God's faithfulness. We will look at three places where the Bible states “God is faithful” as a reminder that we can trust God and to encourage us to be faithful in response.
Pastor Brad Ketterling fills in for Jeff and gives a sermon on what it means to be a true disciple.
We sometimes think if we saw God, if we witnessed just one teeny-weeny
miracle of God, that we would be strengthened to be more faithful . . . but it
is not likely. Either we have heart of faith or we have an unbelieving heart.
77% of the Bible is the OT (Old Testament). The OT is largely a description of God's
faithfulness to people who were unfaithful because they did not believe the
revealed truth about God.
Today, as then, God has revealed Himself to the people in many ways.
Yet for the most part, people do not have a heart to believe God.
A classic example is recorded in the book of Numbers when the time came
for the Israelites to enter the land of promise. For more than a year they had
experienced first hand the great faithfulness of God as He kept His promises.
They had seen with their own eyes the power of God in the plagues in
Egypt, the parting of the Red sea, the presence of God in the thunder on Mt.
Sinai. They had been eating the manna, bread from heaven and drank water
from the rock. They had no lack of evidence to convince them to trust God.
God had set them free, but they were still slaves of their unbelief.
We began by looking at the emphasis, in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, on loving God with all our heart. To love God in this way requires that we overcome the natural inclinations of our heart away from God and to avoid a heart that puts even more distance between God and us.
We have seen that we are prone to a deceptive heart, a hard heart, a distant heart, a foolish heart, and an unbelieving heart. We have also seen that it is possible to have a good heart, an enlightened heart, and a believing heart.
Today we complete this series on our heart by looking at a text in 1 Peter chapter 3 that speaks about the Lord of our heart. Actually, it is a command regarding us having Christ as Lord of our hearts . . . which means that Christ is Lord of our lives.
Whatever rules as master of our heart determines the kind of heart we have. It has been said that we are like tubes of tooth paste; when we are put under pressure, whatever is on the inside comes out. Trials and troubles do not change us, they just squeeze us. When we are tired, stressed, afflicted, or suffering our true colors are what comes out.
The people to whom Peter is writing are suffering severe persecution. Many had been forced to flee because of persecution for being a follower of Christ. This is why Peter addresses his letter (1:1) “to those who reside as aliens, scattered . . .” Central to Peter's instruction to the believers facing persecution are the words found in the middle of the book,
READ 1 Peter 3:13-17
Conversations about the Holy Spirit are often clouded with a good dose
of mysticism, magic, or emotions. And sadly, they are frequently divisive.
Throughout church history there have been times when the Bible's
teaching about the Holy Spirit has been minimized, or altogether ignored.
Other times the role of the Holy Spirit has been distorted, misappropriated,
or elevated even replacing worship of God the Father and diminishing the
death of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.
Frequently there is focus on some small detail of the work and role of the
Holy Spirit rather than embracing the part He plays in the big picture of
God's redemption of the world.
There is also a curiosity factor. Questions remain unanswered. We are
curious about what we are not told in the Scriptures about the Holy Spirit. It
is common to try to read between the lines leading to speculations beyond
what the Bible supports.