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I've entitled my discourse to you this morning "Cultivating Contentment." Let me read the text to you. Hebrews 13, beginning in verse five,

"Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, 'I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU, NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU,'

"so that we confidently say,

"'THE LORD IS MY HELPER, I WILL NOT BE AFRAID. WHAT WILL MAN DO TO ME?'"

Let me ask you a question, and don't answer this out loud, answer it in your own mind and heart. Are you content with what God has given you? Most Christians would answer in the affirmative, "Oh yes, I'm content. I mean, after all, I don't complain about my circumstances. I never whine about my paycheck not being enough. I never do anything like that. I don't grumble about my position at work. I don't fret over the future. I don't obsess over money or my retirement. I never envy other people that have more than me. I don't crave things I don't have. I have no desire to be rich or famous. Lottery tickets have absolutely no appeal to me whatsoever. I never yearn to be in the spotlight. I don't really need a new car. The old ones are just fine, as long as they run. I don't need the new version of the smartphone. The old ones are fine. I don't care about wearing the latest fashion. Sure, I wish things, some things in my life, were different, but overall, I'm very happy and I'm very thankful for all that God has given me."  Is that what we say? Kind of back off a little bit on that affirmative, don't we? Would we really say earthly possessions have no hold on me whatsoever. Therefore, I could lose everything. I could even lose my health, my family, even my life. And although that would be incredibly difficult to deal with, especially if I lost my family or my health, deep down in my heart, I could still sing It Is Well with My Soul, because I know that whatever my lot in life, my sovereign God has ordained it for my good and his glory, and I know that he himself has said, "I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you." So I can, with great confidence, say, "The Lord is my helper. I will not be afraid. What will man do to me?"

Well, I know what you're thinking because I was thinking this myself as I was meditating upon this passage of Scripture. In fact, in my mind, I don't know that I've ever heard a sermon on covetousness. Maybe you have, so let me ask the question again, are you content with what God has given you? You know, none of us can say absolutely, yes. I know. I can't. We all struggle therefore with the sin of covetousness, greed, which will inevitably rob us of contentment. We all have inordinate desires for things that we think will make us happy and secure; and subtly as a result of that kind of heart attitude, God is no longer the supreme object of our soul's delight, the anchor of our security. Instead, we begin to crave and even trust in the things of this world, in the creature, rather than the Creator. So let's look very carefully at what God is telling us here through his inspired author. I want to examine this text under three headings. First, we'll look at the warning against covetousness. Why is it so offensive to God and destructive to believers? Secondly, we're going to look at the pathway to contentment. We're going to examine God's clear instructions on how to uproot covetousness and cultivate contentment, and then finally, I want to give you some practical steps towards contentment. And since none of us are perfectly sanctified in this area, we need to all pay very close attention.

First of all, the warning against covetousness. Why is the love of money, or, frankly, craving anything or anyone other than God, why is that so offensive to God? Why is that so detrimental to believers? So notice what he says, "Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have." Now, first of all, I think it's fascinating that the Holy Spirit exhorts these early saints, and therefore all of us, about the sin of covetousness; how that can begin to rule our heart and shape our life. He does this immediately following his exhortation to honor God's design for marriage and his demand for sexual purity. Don't let that escape your notice. But this makes perfect sense, because covetousness - that is, the love of money - is being dissatisfied with what you have and craving the things of the world. Lusting after things that God hasn't given to you, and at times, longing for things that he has forbidden. Is this not also what drives people to dishonor God's plan for marriage and his demands for sexual purity? Think about it, when a man seeks satisfaction in pornography or some sexual encounter, he proves how dissatisfied he is with what God has provided for him, and he lusts after that which is forbidden. When a woman dresses immodestly and desires to show as much of her body as she can possibly get away with, she rebels against God's demand for sexual purity and proves her dissatisfaction with God by seeking satisfaction from the attention of other men.

As a footnote, someone asked me last week after the exposition that I did on that very issue, God's design for marriage and his demand for sexual purity, a young lady asked me, "Do you think wearing a bikini as a Christian woman dishonors God?" And I said, well, you know, First Timothy 2:9, that we studied last week says, I want a woman to adorn herself with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly. I think the old King James translates it "shamefacedly"; bashfully. There needs to be a sense of honorable shame and propriety. So you're to dress that way and discreetly, which is a term that carries the idea of chastity and decency and self-restraint and sobriety. So I said, you know, "Do you think that wearing something like that in public honors that text?" I went on to add that when women dress immodestly to display their beauty, it inevitably betrays a secret desire to produce envy and attention and inflame lust. Can you imagine standing before God dressed that way, with your body exposed, and asking him, "God, is this, is this, okay? Is this acceptable in your eyes? I mean, does this meet your standard for sexual purity, for modesty, for discrete dress?" Well, obviously the answer is, no, it doesn't.

So back to the point here. Naturally, think about this, the love of money and sexual immorality are two sides of the same coin. That's why they're linked together. Here they are both forms of idolatry. Think about it. Immorality serves the God of self and the God of sex; seeking fulfillment and happiness from that which God forbids. Ephesians five, verse five, "For this you know with certainty that no immoral or impure person or covetous man..." See how they're linked together? "You know this with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God." Colossians 3:5, "Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil, desire…" and here it is, "...greed which amounts to idolatry." It's interesting, wherever we see the sin of covetousness listed, it is typically side by side with immorality, because sex and greed go together. In fact, I have never known an immoral person that was not also a greedy, selfish person. It's fascinating. As we look at the Decalogue, the 10 Commandments, we see the prohibition against adultery. We see that it is followed by a prohibition against theft, bearing false witness and coveting your neighbor's house, wife, servants, animals or anything else; and that's what we see here in Hebrews 13. Notice in verse four,

"Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.

"Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have..."

Of course, fornicators and adulterers covet what they don't have and that which is forbidden so they are never content. That's why I will repeat again, young men, young women, never even date an immoral person. Certainly, never marry them, because you will never satisfy them. Their heart is in the wrong place. Moreover, never marry a greedy person. They're obsessed with material things, always wanting more stuff, and they will never be satisfied. You will never be able to make them content. And the more they get, the more they want. As their desires increase, their satisfaction with the things they have will decrease. It's an amazing thing, isn't it? I mean, we all struggle with this. Think about it. What happens when you get the latest version of the newest smartphone? You have a feeling of ecstasy. Oh, look what all this will do. And you can't wait to start poking all the buttons and go to your children to have them explain how the thing works, right? But within a few weeks, what begins to happen? That ecstasy starts to wane, and before long, they introduce the new model, and suddenly you're no longer content with the one you have, right? You get a new vehicle. Don't you love the smell of that new vehicle. You're so happy with it. What happens? After a while, all of a sudden, you start seeing the 2018 and you start thinking, "Oh, wow, wish mine looked like that. Oh, I wish I had that particular feature." And within a year, certainly a couple years, you're not content with what you have. In fact, I understand that new designs and options for vehicles are determined five years before they put them out, because they know that they have to change them just a little bit to play into our greed so that we will buy more of their vehicles.

Well, the same thing is true in the fashion industry. I remember, this last year, I needed some new sport coats and a suit and I told the guy what the size was. You know, how they measure you up. And he gives me some stuff. I go in, I I change clothes, and I put this thing on and it's so tight. And I went out and I said, "This isn't right. I need a 50 regular, and this isn't right." He said, "No, no, that's the new style." I said, "No, no, you need to understand, I need a dress suit, not a wet suit." And he got a big kick out of it. So they had to go do some stuff to get something, you know? I mean, those, those things are fine, as long as you don't move your arms and you don't sit down or whatever; but the point is, they changed the fashions, right? They changed the shoes. They change the glasses. Some of you young people wear these great big glasses. You don't want to know what we used to think about those when I was a kid. And all of these things, you know. They all change all the time. Marketing experts use our bent toward covetousness in their advertising to make us discontent with what we have. So we will want the newest, latest thing. And there is no real life, dear friends, there's no deep, abiding happiness, no contentment in any of these things.

By the way, I'm not saying don't buy something new and stay up at least somewhere close to the latest fashions and whatever. I'm not saying that, but you must understand that there is no abiding happiness in anything other than an intimate, personal relationship with the living God through faith in Christ. Period, end of discussion. Take it from Solomon, the richest man who ever lived. Ecclesiastes 5:10. He said, "He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves abundance with its income. This too is vanity." "Heḇel" - emptiness, futility, delusion; he would have known. Paul said in First Timothy six, beginning in verse nine, "Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it, have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs."

So again, here, the writer exhorts those early saints, and all of us, to make sure that your character is free from the love of money. Now let's remember the context here, these people were on the brink of yet another wave of persecution as we understand historically; and many of them, as Jewish people that had come to Christ, were tempted to fall back into Judaism, to reject the New Covenant of God's grace and once again lay hold of the old covenant of works righteousness; and so they were discouraged. And you know what it's like whenever you are discouraged, it's easy for you to begin to drift away from trusting God and to start trusting in your own efforts and to trust in the things that you have to find security and comfort. We begin to lose our confidence and our hope in Christ. We start to chase after the things of the world, those things that are so appealing to our flesh. You will recall that these folks were warned in chapter 12, beginning in verse 28 to offer to God, "an acceptable service with reverence and awe for God is a consuming fire." He went on to say, then "let love of the brethren continue." Evidently it was beginning to wane. He went on to say, "Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers.' And then they were admonished to once again, "Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those who were ill-treated." So things were beginning to happen, and they possibly were hoarding money, storing up possessions to weather yet another storm surge of persecution. Perhaps some had even become selfish and stingy. Others had become envious and jealous, lusting after material things that God was not allowing them to have after they had come to Christ. Certainly the thistles of covetousness were beginning to grow in their garden, choking out the fruitful vines of contentment and love for God and other people.

So he is warning them against setting their affections on the wrong things and finding security and confidence in something other than God himself. He is warning them about the danger of becoming consumed with material things. And certainly, that is where we live in our in our affluent Western culture. He knows that the love of money and trust in God is mutually exclusive. The love of money actually breeds selfishness, not sacrifice. It produces a false sense of security, rather than a confident trust in God. In fact, money lovers are not generous people.

Matthew six, that we read earlier, the Lord says "No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other." You cannot serve God and man, or wealth or money. You can't. You'll serve one or the other. That's it. So you want to ask yourself, Am I a lover of money? Do I grumble and complain about my circumstances? Do I focus all the time on money? Am I a sucker for get rich schemes? Am I envious of other people that have a nicer car or a nicer phone or computer or home or whatever it is? Do I spend most of my money on myself and very little, if any, on others who are in need, just look at your bank statement. If you want to get a real picture of this, look at your credit card statement. Jesus said it is more blessed to give than to receive. Is that reflected in your financials? How much of your income is given to those in need? How much do you invest in the kingdom of God? You realize that a third of the people at Calvary Bible Church give basically nothing to the church. Perhaps that is you. That's a clear violation of New Testament principles for Christ- honoring stewardship. And I would humbly submit to you that if that is you, dear friend, you're a lover of money. If this describes you your heart is filled with greed and selfishness, covetousness. It's contrary to loving the body of Christ; and the love of money is a certain proof of idolatry in the heart. And how sad it is to see Christian people worshiping the false god of materialism by spending all of their money on themselves, refusing to obey God's command to give voluntarily, liberally, sacrificially, cheerfully, discretionary - discretionary giving - as God has purposed in your heart, all is an act of worship.

While our giving is to be motivated by God's grace and not self-interest., Paul says, "He who sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully shall also reap bountifully." But you know, lovers of money ignore all of this. They're all about themselves. They're all about money. They're consumed with making it, investing it, hoarding it, spending it, accumulating more possessions. You know, I was thinking about this. Have you ever noticed how many yard sales we have? If there's nice weekend there's a yard sale, and what are people doing? Getting rid of all their extra stuff. And it's like, every year, and I confess we're there too. It's like, every year we look in our rooms and it's like where did all this come from? I mean, it's just stuff that appears all the time. We got so much stuff now, have you noticed everywhere around, even out in this area, people are building these little garage things where you can rent to put more of your stuff. You realize we're the only country in the world that has those kinds of facilities? People laying up treasures on earth, not in heaven.

And by the way, the false prosperity gospel feeds into covetousness. You know, come to Jesus, make your check payable to, and he will bless you. And people fall for that. But you know the real danger with all this is becoming consumed with something other than God. That's the real danger. Trusting in riches, finding security in your possessions. Yeah, I can make it through hard times. I can even make it through persecution, as long as my bank account is where it needs to be, and as long as I've got food in the pantry and house over my head, etc. Have you notice how so many people are selling these survival packs now you can buy this food for $300 and will last so many people for 25 years or whatever. By the way, I'm not saying don't be prepared, but you see where people place their trust in their things. First Timothy six, verse 17, Paul says to young pastor, Timothy,

"Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. 

"Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share,

"storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed."

Folks, we must understand that loving money and trusting in God are mutually exclusive. It breeds selfishness and you end up serving yourself, and serving things, rather than God and others. Think of all of the marriages and all of the families that have been devastated because of out of control spending and out of control debt and the never ending obsession with buying more stuff; and then all of a sudden, a person loses their job, and oh, my goodness, life is over because they trusted in riches rather than God, our helper, who has promised to never leave us nor forsake us.

Over the years, I have studied the Holocaust, knowing that something far worse is going to come for the Jewish people, according to Bible prophecy, and it's so hard to read about wealthy Jewish people who suddenly lost everything, and they were devastated beyond ability to even put into words. And obviously, many of them died. Many of them wanted to die, and many of them were killed. But what's really interesting is, even in the Holocaust, those people that truly knew Christ had a whole different perspective. They may have lost their freedom and all of their earthly goods, but they still had Christ, and they rejoiced in that, amazing stories to that end.

Well, thus we have a warning against covetousness. This is why it's so offensive to God. "Make sure that your character is free from the love of money being content with what you have." Okay, now, how do you do that? Do you just grunt real hard and say, "All right, I'm going to choose to quit. I'm going cold turkey. I'm not going to covet anymore." Good luck, right? No, that's not what we need to do. He gives us the answer here. Here's how to do it. He says,

"For He Himself has said, 'I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU, NO WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU,'

"so that we confidently say,

"'THE LORD IS MY HELPER, I WILL NOT BE AFRAID. WHAT WILL MAN DO TO ME?'"

Folks, here we come to number two in our little outline: the pathway to contentment. Here's God's pathway to uproot covetousness and cultivate contentment. I find it interesting in Scripture; he never gives us a command without giving us a reason for it and a pathway to obey it. My, what an encouragement this must have been to those early saints facing persecution. He's essentially saying, as we're going to see, don't set your affections on the wrong things. You remember Paul said this in Colossians three, verse one, he says, "If then you have been raised up with Christ." In other words, since you have been raised up with Christ, "keep seeking the things above, where Christ is at the right hand of the Father." Set your mind on the things above, not on the things of the earth. Don't put your confidence, and hope, and security, and money in possessions. Proverbs 23 verse four,

"Do not weary yourself to gain wealth. Cease from your consideration of it.

"When you set your eyes on it, it is gone. For Wealth certainly makes itself wings like an eagle that flies toward the heavens."

You see folks, greed or covetousness fuels discontentment, wanting what God hasn't given you; and seeking after things that he has forbidden is a grievous sin that will cause you to forfeit God's blessing in your life. And even when you get what you want, it never satisfies. That's what's amazing about the whole thing.

John D Rockefeller was a multi-billionaire who started Standard Oil. At one time, he was considered to be the world's richest man. One day, a reporter asked him quote, "How much money is enough?" And he responded, "Just a little bit more." You're all familiar with that quote, "Just a little bit more." Richard Easterlin, an economics professor at the University of Southern California, has researched and quote, "Found no significant relationship between happiness and time over a period in which the GDP (the gross domestic product) per capita, grew by 1/3 From 1972 to 1991." He said, "If you follow a single person over time, as they move from lower income to higher income, you find no increase in their happiness." Right? And one of the most remarkable pieces of research is one done between the world's richest and poorest countries. In an article that I read Forbes 400 quote "richest list" was given a survey, and their satisfaction was rated at exactly the same level as did the people of Maasai in Kenya and the Intuit people of northern Greenland who have no electricity or running water. Happiness is the same. And I've been with the Maasai; I've taught some of them. I've got friends that still write me the Maasai in Kenya, I've been in their little huts. They're the ones, they're very tall, and they do the jumping around and all that. They're just some of the happiest people you'd ever want to meet. And they're especially happy when they come to know Christ, and I know some Maasai pastors very well.

Folks, if affluence produced happiness, we ought to be the happiest people in the world, right here in the United States. But according to the ADAA depression is the leading cause of disability in the United States for ages 15 to 44. According to the CDC, from 1999 through 2014 the age adjusted suicide rate in the United States increased by 24% and it's continuing to climb. Drug and alcohol abuse continues to skyrocket in the United States. People are trying to escape from the pain of life where you have everything but you don't have Christ, so life really isn't worth living. An estimated 10% of Americans today are addicted to illegal drugs, and that's increasing. Marijuana use has skyrocketed among teens and adults. I was talking with a businessman in Colorado, you know, they've legalized that there. And he said, I cannot find people to work for me who don't have that quote, "stoned and stupid look on their face" because they're so addicted to marijuana. By the way, they're beginning to discover the detrimental effects of marijuana use over long term usage.

As a footnote here, covetousness extends even beyond just the love of money. I want you to understand this. Again, covetousness is being dissatisfied with what you have and craving anything or anyone other than God that you believe will bring you lasting joy and satisfaction and contentment. It's lusting after what God hasn't given you. It's coveting that which he has forbidden. It's trying to find a life apart from a soul satisfying relationship with the lover of our souls. There are so many examples of this. Let me give you but one that that may be relevant to to some of our young people. Here today, I read a number of articles even this last week about this issue where we see a correlation between smartphone use and depression and suicide in young people. The article, one article that I read, was entitled, "Teen Girls with Smartphones Flirt Most with Depression and Suicide." It went on to say, "A spike in the teen suicide rate parallels almost exactly the rise of smartphone use, especially among teen girls who are the most vulnerable to cyber bullying and alienation."  They went on to explain some things that make sense in terms of their observation, but they certainly don't understand the root cause, because they don't understand the heart and all of those types of issues. Why do you think young girls, and young boys and so many even adults, why do you think they're so addicted to smartphones? And if you don't think they're addicted, just try taking them away for a while and watch what happens. They have an idolatrous slavery to them. Why is that? Because they crave attention and affirmation, and they foolishly believe that they can find it in these relationships that they establish; people that they talk to constantly. They live in a fantasy cyber world where they can create their own reality, where they can act special and be treated special, where they can generate glowing comments that are necessary to boost their fragile self-esteem. They covet the praise of man, not God. They crave human relationships. They give no thought of their relationship to their Creator God. Their sufficiency is not in Christ. It is found in the superficial interaction with other friends. And most of the time they're ungodly friends; and when one of those friends calls them a loser or something like that, and the others begin to pile on or some cyber bully slanders them publicly, their life is over. They have found satisfaction and security in the wrong things. Jesus said, "I came that you might have life, that you might have it abundantly." The idea is, I came to impart life to you at its fullest; spiritual and eternal life that goes beyond the necessity, that exceeds anything that you could ever imagine. That's why I have come. Yet people don't understand that it is Christ who is the mediator of a life with unimaginable blessings. Blessings that we can experience and enjoy, even when all seems lost. Beloved, anytime you try to find lasting joy in anything or anyone other than God, through faith in Christ, you are setting yourself up for debilitating disappointment. And all of this is at the heart of the sin of covetousness.

Now back to the pathway to contentment. It's found in his pledge, notice this in verse five, "For He Himself has said, 'I will never desert you.'" The idea is I'll never loosen my grip on you. I'll never forsake you. I'll never let you go. He goes on to say that "'Nor will I ever forsake you.'" Oh, dear friends, I pray that you will understand what God is saying here. This is so precious to my soul. What God is pledging is his felt presence in our life. That's what he's promising. He's promising us that we can experience that soul satisfying, abiding presence of his person and his power in the core of our being. That's where you find life. Oh, the riches of such a glorious mystery. As Paul said in Colossians one, "Christ in you the hope of glory." The reason we can be freed from the bondage of greed and and seeking life and people and possessions is because God has promised his abiding presence; that he will never leave us or forsake us. So our sufficiency - our satisfaction in life - can be found in the felt presence of the living God.

And will you notice his promise is guaranteed by his very name. It says, "For He Himself has said." in the original language "He " s in the emphatic position. In other words, his very honor is bound up in this guarantee. Remember, in Hebrews six, he said that he could swear by "no one higher than himself." That's the idea here. The infinitely righteous and gracious and faithful and good God is the one who has made this promise. And his very nature, all of his attributes, are bound up in his name. So his oath to never desert us or forsake us is guaranteed by the honor of his name; his faithfulness to his covenant promises.

And it's interesting too, here in the original language, the strongest negatives in the Greek language are used to reinforce the absolute impossibility of any obstacle ever preventing him from fulfilling his promise to us. It's the idea of, I will never, ever, ever, ever desert you, nor will I ever, ever, ever forsake you. It's an absolute impossibility. By the way, this promise is a quote from previous ones that the Lord has made to his servants. May remind you of them; you will remember in the midst of Jacob's crisis in Genesis chapter 28 verse 15, God said, "'Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.'"

Secondly, we see it used when Moses passed the mantle of leadership on to Joshua, and the Israelites were preparing to cross the Jordan into the Promised Land. They could see the mighty fortress of Jericho off in the distance, and they were getting ready to, by God's power and grace, displace these fierce people. And in Deuteronomy, 31 God tells Joshua, through Moses, "'Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the Lord your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you.'" He went on to say, in verse eight of Deuteronomy 31, "Te Lord is the one who goes ahead of you. He will be with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.'" Then he also comforted Joshua when he commissioned him to lead the people saying in Joshua 1:5, "'No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you. I will not fail you or forsake you.'" And then one more, First Chronicles 28:20, we read, "Then David said to his son, Solomon, 'Be strong and courageous and act. Do not fear nor be dismayed for the LORD God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you nor forsake you, until all the work for the service of the house of the Lord is finished.'"

And so now here, with this background, that the Jewish people were well aware of, in Hebrews 13:5, God is warning the saints against placing their security their confidence in money or finding security in possessions or anyone or anything other than God. Instead, place your trust solely in the one who has promised to never desert you nor forsake you. This is what we would call the Emmanuel Principle. God with us. When you lay hold of that great promise, dear friends, when you embrace it with all of your heart, you will be content in whatever circumstance you find yourself. Why? Because you know that God is in it. That's why. Because whatever comes our way - you will know, I will know - whether it's a good thing or a bad thing, you will know that it has first pass through the watchful eye of a sovereign God who is absolutely devoted to your good, to my good, to his glory. Nothing is by chance. And even in the midst of the greatest trial, the greatest sorrow, the greatest pain, because of his promise to us - something that I have experienced down through the years of my life and so many of you as well - we know that come what may we can enjoy the soul-satisfying, soul-exhilarating, soul-comforting, soul,-empowering, felt presence of the living God. That's what he has promised. You will not find that in anything on this earth. He has given us everything we need in life. Everything we crave is ultimately found in our relationship with Him. And folks, when you fail to believe this - when you fail to live consistently with this - your heart will begin to go in silent search of all the wrong things in all of the wrong places, and you will begin to set your affections and your ambitions upon idols that will never, ever satisfy. Oh, they will; there's pleasure in sin. For how long? For a season. Our cravings will increase, but our joy will diminish, and as a result, we will murmur and we will complain and whine and bellyache and be discontent like a junkie craving more dope. We will have an insatiable appetite for that which brings less and less satisfaction. What a tragic thing. While at the same time we crave more and more of the same thing. It's like pouring gas on a fire, or however you want to think about it.

Beloved, the pathway to contentment is learning to embrace the reality of God's promise that he will never, ever desert us, nor ever forsake us. You see, God's call to contentment is anchored in the Gibraltar of his solemn promise to never desert us, to never forsake us; the unfailing promise of his felt presence, his tender care for those that he has purchased with his very blood. O, child of God, set your heart upon this promise. The Apostle Paul did; and it's for this reason that he could say in Philippians 4:11, "I have learned to be content in whatever circumstance I am." Because of this promise. We learn to live by faith, not by sight. We don't enjoy the visible presence of God, but we experience his invisible presence and power. People say, "You Christians live in a fantasy world, a world that you have created, a world of your own making. The real world is what you can see and what you can touch and what you can feel and smell and hear." No dear friends, the real world is the one you cannot see. We studied this in Hebrews 11. "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the confidence the conviction of things not seen." The real world is the world where we can see through the eyes of faith - the living God - and we can experience him. We can see his power. We can feel his presence. Those who cannot see the living God and cannot experience any of this live in a fool's fantasy. The center of gravity around which the real-world orbits is the Triune God of the Bible. And when a man or a woman understands this and embraces this, they will relax in it, and they will seek life and security nowhere else. They find security, hope and contentment in God and all that he has promised.

When the wicked king Aram of Syria was warring against Israel, his plans were constantly being revealed to the Israelites, which led him to believe that he had a spy in the camp. But one of his servants said to him in Second Kings six, beginning in verse 12,

"'No, my lord, O king; but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom.'

"So the king said, 'Go and see where he is, that I may send and take him.' And it was told to him, saying, 'Behold, he is in Dothan.'"

So we read that,

"The king sent horses and chariots and a great army there, and they came by night and surrounded the city.

"When the attendant of the man of God (referring to Elisha) had risen early and gone out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was circling the city. And his servant said to him, 'Alas, my master! What shall we do?'"

"So Elisha answered, 'Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.'

“Then Elisha prayed and said, 'O LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.' And the LORD opened the servant's eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha."

Folks, this is my prayer for you, O, Lord, open their eyes that they might see. For you, yourself, has promised, "I will never desert you. I will never forsake you." And folks, only when you embrace this with all of your heart and live consistently with it, will you begin to be able to uproot covetousness and cultivate contentment. Someone has said, "To have everything without God is to have nothing. To have nothing but God is to have everything." Indeed, he is our greatest treasure. He is our lasting joy. He is our satisfaction; and when we grasp the fullness of God's pledge of his felt presence in our lives, we can confidently say verse six, "'The Lord is my helper. I will not be afraid. What will man do to me?" This beloved is the testimony of those who have learned this lesson from firsthand experience, like Paul who said in Philippians 1:6, "For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." And here in verse six of Hebrews 13, the inspired writer is quoting Psalm 118, actually verse six. Psalm 118 was considered to be the Passover Psalm. This was probably the psalm that Jesus and the disciples sang in the upper room before they went to the Garden of Gethsemane and Jesus went on to the cross. It's a psalm that speaks of persecution, but yet confident faith in the certain hope of ultimate deliverance.

What an amazing promise to know, dear friends, that the Lord, the Creator of heaven and earth, is our helper. I was thinking about this. How many times have I cried out to the Lord and just said, "Oh Lord, please help me." Haven't you done that 1000 times? And what an amazing truth to know that by his very oath, he has promised to do that; that he hears and he responds. And this is why trust in money is so silly, because the Lord is our helper. Why fear man or seek his approval when the Lord is your helper? "What will man do to me?" Well, the point is, nothing.

Well, our time is rapidly leaving us. Let me close with just a few practical steps towards contentment. First of all, I would just challenge you all to examine your life. The way to do that is perhaps begin by asking the question, "What in my life can I not live without?" And if the answer is anything other than the Lord, that's probably what you are coveting. Remember, covetousness is an inordinate desire for anyone or anything other than God. And then little by little, God is no longer the supreme object of our affection, the object of our souls delight, no longer the anchor of our security. We begin to trust in the creature, not the creator. And so we start to lust for money, for power, for wealth, for pleasure and a myriad of other things that our flesh will go after, like a fly drawn to watermelon, right? Like a moth to a flame. That's how we are. Examine your heart, and if God is the object of your worship, the longing of your soul, you will never be disappointed. But if you worship anything other than Him, you will be.

Ask yourself, has acquiring wealth and possessions really become the dominant passion of my soul? Real practically, ask yourself things like, "Do I love to display or even flaunt my wealth? Has greed really captured my heart? Do I spend more than I make? Am I always saving up for the next thing when I haven't even paid off past debts. Is my stewardship responsibility before the Lord, my first priority, or is it my last? Do I love for others to notice me or to notice my children so that they can brag on them and brag on me? Do I crave attention? If so, you probably can't live without your smartphone and Facebook and all of these other things, and if given a choice, sadly, I think many Christian young people, and maybe adults, would rather be deprived of their Bible than their smartphone. So acknowledge anything or anyone that you can't live without, because they have probably become the source of your happiness and security, and ultimately, they will let you down.

Secondly, confess, repent. Go to the Lord and say, "Lord, I see this." Proverbs 4:23, says, "Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life." Ask the Spirit of God to show you ways that you can serve him; ways you can sacrifice for him; ways you can invest for the kingdom. Real, practically, create a budget with your money, and begin by getting out of debt. Do all you can to do that and do something that may be completely foreign to many of you, but put God first in your budget, not last. Give him of your first fruits, not your last fruits, or what's left over. We need to live on what's left over rather than giving what is left over to the Lord, which typically ends up being nothing. Start spending more time with the Lord every day. In fact, could I challenge you, young people, because I know it's going to be hard for you to really put these things into practice, but I would challenge you to figure out how much time you spend texting and doing all that other stuff that you do on your smartphone, and would you just take 10% of that time and get in the Word and talk with the Lord and hear from him. Just 10% of that time. And if you will do that with a sincere heart, I will guarantee you that a time will come when spending all that time on those machines will be tantamount to eating cold, spoiled hot dog when you can have filet mignon. You just won't have an appetite for it anymore.

Most of us don't experience the felt presence of God because we don't know him. But oh, dear friends, when you know him, everything changes. Everything changes. And finally, pray that the Spirit of God will help you to shun covetousness. To uproot it, and to begin to cultivate contentment. Because real life, - abundant life, satisfying life - is only found in the abiding presence of the lover of our soul, and that only comes when we place our faith and our life completely in the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Let's pray together,

Father, thank you for these eternal truths. They speak to each of our hearts. Lord, we're all guilty here. It looks different for all of us, but O, Lord, I I thank you for just the clarity of your word and for your desire to help us understand those things in our life that cause us to forfeit blessing and real joy, real satisfaction. Help us, I pray. And for those that do not know you as Savior, those who hear all of this and it's just kind of overwhelming and confusing, Lord, that's probably an indication they don't really know you. I pray that today they will understand that you have provided a way for them to not only be forgiven of their sins, but to have the righteousness of Christ imputed to them so that they can have eternal life and be reconciled to a holy God. Help them to understand the gospel, to embrace it, to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved this very day. Lord, we commit that to you. We thank you. We give you praise for all of these things in Jesus’ name, Amen.