Learn To Be Content
Tom Shrader explores Paul's declaration in Philippians 4:11-13 that he has learned the secret of contentment in all circumstances. Drawing from 1 Timothy 6:6-8, Tom teaches that godliness plus contentment equals great gain in God's economy. He challenges believers to find satisfaction in Christ rather than material possessions, addressing contentment with one's spouse, children, and spiritual gifts while warning against the love of money that leads to spiritual ruin.
“I know very few people who are successful in man's economy and equally successful in God's economy.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: How Do I Stay Straight in a Crooked World (2006)
Recorded: 2006 at Cannon Beach Conference Center
Duration: 55 min
Themes: contentment, satisfaction, materialism, money, gratitude, simplicity, godliness, circumstances, struggling with materialism, facing financial pressure, dissatisfied with circumstances, parent, spouse, middle age, seeking purpose, consumer culture
Scripture: Philippians 4:11-13, 1 Timothy 6:6-8, 1 Timothy 6:9-10, 1 Timothy 6:17-18, Ecclesiastes 5:10, Matthew 6:19-21, Luke 5
Theological Themes: sanctification, spiritual maturity, stewardship, providence, biblical contentment, godly living, spiritual discipline, christian lifestyle
Full Transcript
Johnnie, thank you very much. What is amazing is that idea to think about a first day or an encounter with Christ. What is almost equally amazing to me is that we can sit here today and know that one day we will be there. There's a certainty, there's an absoluteness to that and we can know it. What a wonderful gift and privilege that is.
In a week like this, there are a lot of things that go on that you don't even see. There are people who spend a lot of time doing a lot of things and planning. There's a whole staff here and you get to see Janet and Jeff and some of the others around. Marty's back there in the sound booth and he just does a wonderful job. Yesterday at the end of the day he said, "I'm not going to see you tomorrow, tomorrow's my day off. So I'll pick it up on the next day." And the guy, Mike, who's normally in here on this day is sick today. So here's Marty in on his day off and you know what, you can come back to work with a lot of attitude. "I wouldn't like that. It's my day off. What am I doing here?" And he's there smiling with a servant's heart. So it would be absolutely appropriate for you to thank Marty for being here today.
When the week starts, you're driving in, you may go, "I'm not exactly sure why we're going. What is this? What's our goal?" It's important, I think, for you to know what the goal of the Conference Center is. I finished the Evangeline book yesterday and at the very end, next to the last page, just a little paragraph: "At Cannon Beach Christian Conference Center, God still works in the lives of people. He continues to heal marriages, save souls, encourage, challenge, and mature believers. He continues to call ordinary men and women into full-time ministry. He continues to mend broken hearts. These stories, which continue day in and day out at the Conference Center, cannot be contained within the pages of this single book."
That is the hope of this week, that you'll be encouraged, grow to maturity, maybe some of you who are hurting individually or maybe as a couple, that your hearts would be melded together and be a time of refreshment and renewal, and for some, perhaps, for the very first time to understand who Jesus is. That's our goal for the week, and let's pray and ask God to continue to do that work in our life.
Father, thank you for the gifts that you have given us for eternal life that we find in your Son Jesus and in Him alone. We thank you for a wonderful place, physical place like Cannon Beach Christian Conference Center, and for people like Marty who serve willingly with a joyful heart, so that we can indeed come and get away from the ordinariness of life and ask your Spirit to do a wonderful work in our life. God, thank you for what you are doing in our life. We praise you for it. In Jesus' name, amen.
Building Upon Our Foundation
Let me invite you to grab those outlines that you had, and we continue to build and grow. We began with the idea of establishing the Bible as the final authority in our life. Obviously, from there, developing a passion for learning and making godly decisions. We talked about living life confidently and taking our faith and integrating it into every area of our life. We said yesterday, we took these two things: we need to make the invisible God visible, and we need to speak the truth boldly.
If all we do is make the invisible God visible, but fail to speak the truth boldly, we are cowards. If we speak the truth boldly, but fail to make the invisible God visible, we become hypocrites. So, we tend to string all of those together, and we land at something very important tonight. If I had the opportunity to speak to most groups, and I had just one message, and I had to move away from salvation itself, if I had to talk about lifestyle issue, this would be my topic right here. This would be the thing I'd talk about.
The Secret That Captures Our Attention
Imagine you're sitting at home, and you're just flipping through the television channels, channel surfing, and all of a sudden, you come upon a guy, and he is there, and he said, "I've discovered the secret." Now, it really doesn't even matter what comes next. The minute we hear the word, "I've discovered the secret," we stop, whether it's the secret to weight loss, the secret to health, the secret to buying real estate with no money down. Once I've got that secret, that's the hook, isn't it? I want to know the secret. Well, you've got the secret. I want to hear it.
Open your Bibles, please, to Philippians chapter 4, and Paul is going to tell us that he has found the secret. Philippians chapter 4, we'll start at verse 11: "not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstance I am. I know how to get along with humble means. I know how to live in prosperity. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret. It's the secret of being filled, the secret of going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me."
We're going to start there. We're going to spend some time just setting the table for tonight. Paul said, "I've learned," in fact, look in verse 11 and in verse 12, he uses that same word, learned.
Learning to Mark Your Bible
Now, I don't know how you handle your Bible. Some of you, I've seen people who are afraid to write in them, and that's fine. But mine, I'm bringing in a new one this week, but mine is typically all marked up, written up. When I see words that are important to me, when I see in verse 11 the word learned, verse 12 the word learned, I like to draw a little line between them. The reason for that is so that when
My eye hits that page, I kind of immediately understand there's something there. I've been there. I've experienced this once before. I understand there's something going on. It's connecting this.
Here's what Paul's saying: I've learned something. And here's what he says: I've learned to be content. I have understood. I didn't understand it naturally. I'm not naturally content. I've had to learn to be content.
The great news there is that it's something that is attainable, apparently, for you and me. We can learn this. He says, I've learned to be content. I've learned to get along with a whole bunch of stuff. I've learned to get along with not much at all.
Paul's True Message About Strength
Verse 13, he says, I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. I was watching television the other night, and there was a guy on there, and he was talking about living life and living life joyfully and encountering various things. And if you just set your mind to it, you can do it. If you can conceive it, believe it, you can do it. And then he quotes Philippians chapter 4, verse 13, which has absolutely nothing to do with that.
Paul's not saying I can succeed in everything there. Here's what Paul's saying: I've learned in my life that at times I don't have much materially. At times I have more than enough. At times I'm really hurting and suffering, and times are times of great joy. But Paul says, I've learned the secret. I have found in this life contentment.
The word literally has the idea here of sufficiency. Paul said, I have found how to be sufficient in this present world.
The Partnership of Godliness and Contentment
You're in Philippians chapter 4. Turn to the right, and we'll spend our time now to the right, 1 Timothy. So you're going through Colossians and 1 and 2 Thessalonians. You'll come to 1 Timothy. Paul writing to the guy he loves. He's writing to him, and he has a similar thought that he communicates here.
1 Timothy chapter 6, verse 6: "Godliness is actually a means of great gain when it's accompanied by"—there's our word again—"contentment. For I brought nothing into the world, so I can't take anything out of it either. If I have food and covering, with these I should be content."
Let me just fly over this with you, and then we'll come back and break it apart. Paul said, here's this idea: There are these things that I join together. They're godliness and contentment. In godliness, in a relationship with Christ, I find that contentment. I came into the world with nothing. I'm leaving with nothing. And he's talking about this material world. He said, if I have food and covering—the idea there is just the basic necessities of life—if I have just food and covering, I ought to be content.
Not Anti-Material, But Anti-Materialism
Paul is not, by the way, saying there's something wrong with having abundance. Paul is not communicating to you and me a message that's anti-material. He's not saying that, is he? When I listen to Jeff talk about the conference center and talk about the needs and talk about a building and present to me what seems to be a very logical reason for why it's there and why it's important and how God can use it—a key part in getting that done is money. A key part in getting that done is the resource.
God is not delivering to us an anti-material message. This is really important. But He is developing and delivering to us a message of anti-materialism—big difference. He said, if you're finding your meaning and your purpose in stuff, then that's wrong.
The Equation for Great Gain
Break it apart here. Here you go. Verse 6: godliness and contentment equals great gain. Let me define those two words for you as we kind of attack it tonight.
Godliness is a consistent, genuine, authentic walk with God. Godliness is walking with Him. Seek first His kingdom, all these things will be added unto you. Godliness is that idea of a consistent, genuine, authentic walk with God.
Contentment—and we'll use Webster's definition—is happy enough when one has what he has without desiring something more different. I'm content, synonym satisfied.
Now this becomes really important to me and to understanding this. Let's take these two things and put them in the form of an equation: Godliness plus contentment equals great gain. This is in God's economy.
The Missing Ingredient
This is really key, I think, for me. What I need to understand is though we may value godliness way more than contentment—and that may be appropriate—both are essential if I'm to get to great gain. So I may go to any church on a Sunday and hear a message on godliness. If you're going to a relatively decent church on a Sunday, you will almost assuredly hear a message on godliness, right? But you will rarely hear a message, I think, on contentment.
And yet Paul says, I've learned the secret to life. To me, this is the missing ingredient in our lives.
I watch young men and women starting off with these dreams and these ideas. And in a matter of years, they are steeped in bondage to the Bank of America. Their lives have no freedom anymore. I watch people and deal with people all week long who say, I hate what I'm doing. I don't like my job. I don't like doing it. I don't like anything about it.
And I'll say to them, if you don't like it and you hate it that much, why would you do it? And they'll say, what? I need the dough. I need the dough to support the lifestyle that I've grown accustomed to—a lifestyle, my sense would be, that's beyond just the basics of food and clothing.
The Reality of Financial Dissatisfaction
I'm going to give you some stats, and I don't expect you to remember them, but just kind of get the picture here. There's a book that was written called The Overspent American, and they did a survey in there, and they broke people into five categories: people making $25,000 to $35,000, $35,000 to $50,000, $50,000 to $75,000, $75,000 to $100,000, and $100,000 and above.
They asked this question: Agree or disagree? I cannot afford to buy everything I need. $25,000 to $35,000—50% said, I can't afford to buy what I need. $35,000 to $50,000—43%. $50,000 to $75,000—42%. Didn't go down hardly at all. $75,000 to $100,000 a year—39%, or almost 40% of them
said, "I can't afford to buy what I need." Those making more than $100,000 a year, 27% said, "I can't afford to buy what I really need."
The Orange County Registry did a survey and found exactly the same thing. They asked the question, "How much money do you need to make?" Those making $35,000 said $50,000. Those making $50,000 said $75,000. Those making $75,000 said $100,000. Those making $100,000 said $125,000.
Here's another statement: "I spend nearly all my money on the necessities of life." Those making $25,000 to $35,000 a year said 62%. Those making $35,000 to $50,000 said 46%. Those making $50,000 to $75,000 a year said 35%. Those making $100,000 or more said almost 20% of their money is spent just on the basics of life.
The Shifting Definition of Necessity
I'm going to give you what to me is a fabulous statistic. In the year 1900, 43% of a family's income was spent on food. In the year 1998, 15% of a family income was spent on food. And yet we're spending all this money on what we say is the necessity of life. We have somehow lost perspective on the necessity of life.
In an NFL game a couple years ago, there's a Radio Shack ad that comes on. Here's their tagline - I could not get a pen and pencil fast enough to write this down. Here's what Radio Shack said: "We have thousands of things you never knew you needed." We have thousands of things you didn't even know you needed. Isn't that how we live? We've lost this perspective.
The Wealth and Happiness Paradox
There's a book that was written by a gentleman by the last name of Myers. Here's what he reports: "If we're so rich, why are we not so happy?" His research from the years 1960 to 1993 found that the average American saw real income double, yet we have less happiness, more depression, more fragile relationships, less communal commitment, less vocational security, more crime, more demoralized children. He found that money is very modestly connected with happiness. The link between wealth and well-being is very loose.
Here's what he reports: "In every country that we looked at, as wealth increased over the years, the well-being or happiness or life satisfaction of the people in those countries did not increase." He goes on, and he quotes from Ronald Reagan's famous question in his debate with Jimmy Carter: "Are you better off than you were four years ago?" He said we paraphrase this: Are we better off than we were 40 years ago? The answer would have to be materially yes, morally no. Therein lies the American paradox.
We now have, as average Americans, doubled our income, doubled what money buys. We have espresso coffee, the World Wide Web, SUVs, caller ID. We have less happiness, more depression, more demoralized children. It's an amazing situation.
A Personal Experience with Contentment
I experienced this really early in my life as a Christian, and I started to listen to people. Susan and I encountered that in our life. All of a sudden, after God saved us, we began to do some different things, and He began to maybe change our hearts, and we thought maybe someday He'd use us in a way. We didn't know how, but here's what we understood: though we didn't know what God was going to do, we knew we had to be available for what He might do.
Here's what happened to us. We lived in this house. We really liked this house we were in. But everybody who made what we made lived in other neighborhoods. So we started looking around. One day, we went out looking at model homes. Let me give you a tip: don't do that. That's not sowing seeds of contentment.
We go out looking at model homes, and now we're talking about moving. Finally, one day, we're driving home, and Susan and I are talking. Here's what we said: "We are not going to move." She said, "It feels like 100 pounds has been lifted off my back." Indeed, God came along then, opened the doors, brought us into the teaching ministry we're doing, and there's no way we could have done that if we had the debt that was associated with that house. It couldn't have happened.
Let me say it again: not anti-material, but anti-materialism.
The Key to Finding Satisfaction
How is it in the midst of this that I find satisfaction? I'm going to give you a tip here. This is really important. If you do this, I've discovered you can grab this idea of contentment. Here's what you need to do: You need to put some definition into your life. You need to answer that question: How much is enough? You need to answer that idea: How much do I really need?
A Vegas Lesson
In the old days, when I was doing a little partying, I would go to Vegas a lot. Every time, without exception, on the way up, somebody would say to me, "When I lose $1,000, I'll quit." Oftentimes, I'd see that person. I remember one time specifically, I saw this guy, and he's shooting craps, and he's got this stack of chips in front of him. He's up $3,500.
I see him a little bit later. I said, "How'd it go?" He said, "Well, I'm still playing." We're on the plane coming back. I said, "What happened?" He said, "Well, I had a goal." What was his goal? To lose $1,000. He was determined to throw those dice until he lost them. He said, "I lost a grand, and then I stopped."
It was a key moment. Look at this. I want you to see it. If on the way up, I would have said to him, "What would make you happy? If you were up $1,000, would you be happy?" "Absolutely." "If you were up $2,000, would you be happy?" "Absolutely." "If you were up $3,000?" He said, "I've never been up $3,000." Why? Because he had a goal to lose $1,000.
If I said to him, "Would you be happy if you were up $3,000?" he would have said, "I would have been ecstatic." Do you see this? He had what he said would make him happy, but he'd never defined it. He didn't even know it. He had what he said would make him happy - "if I just had that, I'd be happy" - but because it was never defined,
He never achieved it. He arrived, wasn't there, didn't realize it. I can't tell you how many times I've sat with couples. They've moved into the house, freshly painted, smell the carpet. We're getting a little order of pizza and some Diet Coke. They're getting ready to move in. The husband and wife will sit down, and here's what they'll say. They'll say, "Oh, this is so exciting. I could live here forever." Two years later, they'll call and say, "Will you help us move?" Moving down? No, we're moving up.
Sheryl Crow had a wonderful line in a song that she sang a couple years ago. She said, "It's not having what you want, it's wanting what you have."
I'm sitting with a group of guys one day, and they are all whining about their work. One guy says this: "People are calling me all times of day and night. It's like I'm on call 24 hours a day." I said to him, "You're a doctor. That's what they do. You're a doctor. You knew this when you signed up, didn't you? You knew before you went to med school this is what you did. You knew before you did your residency this is how it shakes out."
I'm with guys all the time that are whining about where they are, and when we unpack it, they are exactly where they dreamed about being 10 years ago. But it was never defined as, "Oh, that's enough, that's success." I'm taking every move, every promotion, every transfer under the guise of supplying for my family, and it simply doesn't work.
The Wisdom of Jim Elliott
Jim Elliott, what's interesting, Jim Elliott lived his life. Many of you know his story, really not because so much of him, but because of Elizabeth Elliott. Jim Elliott is a young man at Wheaton, kept a journal, about 22 years old when he writes this. Listen to this entry. Think about it. It's amazing when you think about a 22-year-old man writing this.
"I've been musing lately on the extremely dangerous human effect of earthly things. One may have good reason, for example, to want a wife, and he may have one legitimately, but with a wife comes Peter the pumpkin eater's proverbial dilemma. He must find a place to keep her. Most wives will not stay on such terms as Peter proposes, so a wife demands a house, a house in turn requires curtains, curtains, rugs, rugs, washing machines, etc. A house with these things must soon become a home, and children are the intended outcome."
Now listen to this, this is an incredible phrase: "Needs multiply as they're met." See here's what we think. I've got a need, I need it, I'm done. He's saying no, no, no, no, no. Needs multiply as they're met. I meet a need and I create another. I need a place to live so I get a house. That's his whole logic there. And the house needs to be painted and rugs and curtains and all the stuff that goes with it. Needs multiply as they are met.
"A car demands a garage, a garage land, land a garden, a garden tools, and tools need to be sharpened. Woe, woe, woe to the man who would live a disentangled life in my century. I have learned from this that the wisest life is the simplest one. Lived in the fulfillment only of the basic requirements of life, shelter, food, covering a bed. Even these can become productive of other needs if one does not heed. Be on guard, oh my soul, of complicating your environment so that you neither have time nor room for growth."
Isn't that wonderful? Let me tell you something. Do you know how Jim Elliott's life ended? Jim Elliott kind of making that first missionary trip down into South America, reaching into a group of Indians that had never been reached before and they are killed. Understanding that, here's this next paragraph that's just tucked in. It's got nothing to do with our lesson. But the next paragraph tucked in there. It's almost eerie. Here's what he writes: "I must not think it strange if God takes in youth those who I would have kept on earth till they were older. God is peopling eternity and I must not restrict Him to old men and old women." That's a pretty interesting phrase.
The Key to Contentment
Godliness plus contentment equals great gain. I want to talk about what is the key in that. Do you see verse 7? Verse 7 to me kind of breaks the flow. I always thought this passage read much better if it went from verse 6 to verse 8. Let's read it that way: "Godliness actually means a great gain when it's accompanied by contentment." Verse 8: "If we have food and covering with those we should be content." Now doesn't that flow better? It has a rhythm to it. It kind of moves.
Here's the problem. God wrote it and He put verse 7 in there. Why would He put verse 7 in there? Verse 7 seems to screw the whole thing up. And then one day all of a sudden it dawned on me. The only way I'm going to learn to be content is to understand the truth that's hidden here in verse 7.
We brought nothing into the world. We can't take anything out of it. We came in with nothing. We're leaving with nothing. If all of a sudden I see this world from an eternal perspective, I understand that getting more, grabbing this, doing new, having bigger, having better isn't where I find the essence of life. I came into this world with nothing and I'm leaving with nothing. And when I understand that, all of a sudden the accumulation of stuff doesn't become as important.
Finding Life's True Essence
It's a wonderful message. He's saying, look it, begin to see the world as God sees the world. See the things as God sees them. Those to use to develop and to advance His agenda and for you to enjoy. God gave us these things to enjoy. God put us in this world, put this environment around it for us to enjoy. He said enjoy it. But we don't find the essence of life in stuff. We find the essence of life in an intimate relationship with Him.
Godliness, a consistent, genuine, authentic walk with Him encompassed in that is following His law, doing what He says to do, avoiding what He says to avoid, being witnesses, all the things we've talked about, sharing the truth, understand that He's given you a unique life experience, He's placed you here.
for a reason. He'll use you — be that witness, be that tool, be that evangelist, be that teacher, show that mercy, show the grace however God has wired you, wherever He has placed you. And the enemy to that, the thing that will stifle that, stop that is the continual unending pursuit of stuff.
I make this statement all the time and I'm rarely challenged, and that's because I think it's pretty true. I know very few people who are successful in man's economy and equally successful in God's economy. Are there some? Sure. But not many.
We shouldn't be surprised, right? We read it last night. Jesus said you can't serve two masters. You can't hit a home run here and here — something has to trump. Because both of these take time. I will meet a lot of successful people, and I think most of us really underestimate how difficult it is to achieve success in the world's economy. It takes a lot of time, a lot of energy, a lot of hours. And to be successful in God's economy takes my whole life. They almost become mutually exclusive. Are there exceptions? Sure. And I'm sure you're the exception. But other than you, there aren't many exceptions running around in this.
That's the whole point. It's contentment.
Contentment Beyond Material Things
When we think of contentment now, we think of the material world. What I want to do is expand that out just a little bit. It's contentment in other areas of your life. For example, being content with the spouse that God has given you.
Ladies, we'll talk to you first. 3.5 billion fish in the sea. This is the tuna you have selected sitting right there next to you. You picked him. You could have done catch and release, but no, you had to have a trophy on your wall, and there he is. You picked him. You dated. You thought.
I used to say this. I don't do any counseling anymore, but I remember sitting there one day with a couple and they weren't getting anywhere, and one of the questions I used to always ask was, "How did you first meet?" Because almost always there's a story and it's cute and it kind of softens things a little bit. I said to the couple, "How did you meet? You just didn't wake up one morning and you were married." And the guy said, "That's exactly what happened." So I don't throw that question out anymore. But generally speaking, you dated and this is the guy you picked.
The Destructive Power of Comparison
There's a satisfaction. When we talked about it last night, you can emotionally castrate these guys with just those comments in those settings. Guys, 3.5 billion ladies in the sea and this is the lady you chose. And you cannot hold her to a standard that the world holds up. You can't be flipping through and coming on the making of the 2006 Dallas Cowboy cheerleader calendar and think that your wife can compete with that. She isn't going to, physically.
Somebody has said that women marry men hoping they'll change and they don't. Men marry women hoping they'll never change and they do. That's just what nature does to us. It's the satisfaction with the person God's given you.
You don't need to go to the scripture, though the scripture would tell you this. You can go to Atlanta to the statistics bureau and you can get these statistics. In the United States of America, second marriages fail at a higher rate than first marriages. Third marriages at a higher rate than second. Fourth is higher than third. Statistically it just goes up. And in my mind I understand that. If I just get rid of this, then all of a sudden I'll be happy. I've grown. I've matured. It's contentment with the spouse God's given you.
Contentment with Our Children
This is one, and I'm not at all shy talking about this. Contentment with the kids God's given you. Every time that I talk to somebody who has just discovered that they're pregnant, I'll say, "Well, what are you hoping for?" And they'll say, "Ten fingers, ten toes, that's all. Just a healthy baby." But within a couple of years they're dissatisfied with that. It's not just ten fingers and ten toes anymore. All of a sudden I want a certain type of kid, a special kind of kid.
Let me be autobiographical here. My daughter Sarah had graduated from the first grade. That summer we received in the mail an envelope, and we opened it and in that envelope were her Iowa Basic Skills scores. So I opened them, I read them, and what the Iowa Basic Skills test said is that essentially Sarah was an average kid.
I remember getting these tests and thinking, she's average, she's average. And I had this moment where I'm saying, "Why do I care?" I'll tell you why. Maybe you can associate with this. I kind of wanted her to be a little bit Margaret Thatcher and Elizabeth Elliott and Jennifer Aniston all rolled into one. You know why? Not for her own good. So that people would meet her and say, "She must have a heck of a dad." Pride and arrogance. Not about her.
I want the best for my kid. Why? I don't want the best for them, even for them. For me. And these kids get that message pretty quickly.
The Pressure We Put on Our Children
My girls were cheerleaders. And one Friday night, I have to go to a basketball game. Let me give you — I wrote it down. I keep it with me. The halftime score was 34 to 4. Final was 64 to 4. Kid missed a free throw. In the last five seconds, it could have been 64 to 5. 64 to 4 is the score.
Now, here's what makes this doubly painful. That's not the game I came to see. I'm waiting for the game after. I'm walking out to take a break before the next game happens. And I see this kid walking out to the car with his dad.
Dad is saying, "Hey, that Billy on your team, that Billy's a heck of a player. That Billy can really run. That Billy can really shoot. That Billy's kind of the quarterback out there on the court. That Billy can really play defense." You know what that kid hears? "I wish you were Billy."
Now, I believe that children ought to obey their parents. But this is one time where I would have loved to have the kid say, "You know what, Dad? That Billy can really run, Dad. That Billy can really shoot, Dad. That Billy is the quarterback on the court, Dad. That Billy can really play defense, Dad. You know why, Dad? Because he got his dad's genes, not yours. That's why, Dad. Because you aren't his dad—that's why he's good, Dad."
Isn't that amazing? Hey, what was it? Ten fingers, ten toes. Oh, no, no, no. Now you've got to know this and shoot this, dribble this, instinct that, play that. What happened to ten fingers and ten toes?
Content with What God Has Given
See, content. Content with what God's given you. Content with the spouse that God's given you. Content with the kids that God's given you.
Again, not a message to be apathetic. I understand. I know the questions. You don't even have to write them down. I know what the questions are. "Are you telling me that mediocrity is okay?" No, I'm not. But here's what I am telling you: Your best may be average. You've got to get a hold of that. Somebody's got to be average. I presume most people are.
There was a survey a couple of years ago. I forget what the category was. Ninety percent of the American public thought they were above average. Susan and I will frequently spend Monday in bookstores. And I'm in a bookstore, and there's a Christian author. It doesn't matter who he is. And he writes a sentence about, "This guy had done this job. It was a wonderful job, but he needs to do his best." And I wrote down, "What if my best is average?" It's okay. It's okay to be average.
Meeting a Legend
I had a wonderful thing happen to me. Two wonderful things happened to me this spring. I have four things in my life that I will never see anything equal to them again: The Beatles, Secretariat, UCLA basketball under John Wooden, and Muhammad Ali. Four things I'm never going to see.
There'll never be another horse like Secretariat. Secretariat was an unbelievable horse. When they did the autopsy on Secretariat, they discovered his heart was twice the size of a normal heart of a horse. Secretariat was an incredible animal.
A friend of mine calls one day, and we're talking back and forth. He's asking about Susan. And this guy played on the 1964 UCLA National Championship team. His name was Keith Erickson. And Keith, we're talking back and forth, and he said, "How's Susan?" We're going back and forth. I said, "Do you ever see the Wizard? Do you ever see John Wooden?" And he said, "You know what? Why don't you come over, and I'll take you up to see the coach?" I got goosebumps. I got goosebumps thinking about it. I said, "Tell me when." He said, "Give me a date."
He called back. He said, "I talked to coach. March 13th, 1 o'clock. He's got us booked in from 1 to 3." And over we went.
The Story of John Wooden
I don't know how much you know about John Wooden. John Wooden was born in 1910. He's 95 years old. John Wooden was the college basketball player of the year in 1932. John Wooden only dated one girl in his whole life, Nellie. Wonderful story.
When you hear John Wooden's story, not unique really to him, they just had nothing. They had absolutely nothing. He's out one year, his sophomore year of high school, and he's plowing the field behind a donkey. And up some kids come in a car. Nellie happened to be one of them. They're yelling at John, "John, John, John, John." He ignored them. That fall as they went into school, he's coming out of homeroom. There's Nellie. And she said, "How come you didn't come over and talk to us?" And he said, "Because you would have made fun of me." And she said, "John, I'd never make fun of you."
Saved up $252.50 so he could marry Nellie. They got married August 10, 1932. On August 8, 1932, the banks all lost their money, and he lost every penny.
The Icon and His Simple Life
When I think of Wooden, what do I think of? I think of the icon. I think of 10 national titles in 12 years. Most money he ever made coaching at UCLA: $35,500. Still lives in the same house he moved into in 1973. It was an amazing, it was an absolutely amazing experience for me.
He treated me—because he has a little reputation for not liking longer hair. I don't know if you remember the story, but Bill Walton came in one year, and he came back, and his hair was not quite this long. And he said, "Great to be back, coach." And Wooden said, "Bill, it's good to have you back. And he said, practice starts today, and you're not going to be able to play with that hair. You're going to have to get that haircut." And Walton said, "I believe that I have the right to wear my hair any length I want." And Wooden said, "I believe you do too, and I have the right to determine who's going to play center at UCLA, and it won't be you with the hair at that length."
So when I met him, I thought, "Oh my gosh." So I told my brother, "Maybe he's mellowed." He said, "Tom, he's 95. He hasn't mellowed." And I'm watching to see if he's got a problem. He treated me like I was his kid and we'd been meeting forever. He said, "Tom, can I read you some poems?"
The Wisdom of Doing Your Best
And all in the midst of this, we're trying to get to this point. He said, "I never asked my teams to be the best. I only ask my players to do their best."
You are really missing the boat if you're out there pushing your kids to be the best but to be their best. And their best may be average. After all, you're not so hot yourself.
The kids God's given you. The spiritual gift God's given you. Just the spiritual gifts God's given you. I tend to look kind of beyond and around and see what's hiding. Have you watched Eric? Eric's sitting over here. Eric hides back here, way back in here. You don't even know he's here. And that screen comes down. And when John does that first—
solo, the band leaves but Eric doesn't. Did you notice that? Eric just sits back here. You don't really see Him. Then all of a sudden, He's playing a box or He's playing an accordion or He's playing another instrument back here. He's got all of these things.
I look at that and I say, I wish I had that talent but you know what? I don't. It's being content with the person God's created you to be. It's not a license to be mediocre but it's to understand that your best may not be the best.
You got ten things you need to do in your job. You do three of them really well. You do seven of them really poorly. You know what our tendency is? To go take lessons on these seven. Why do you want to spend the rest of your life trying to get better at something you'll never be good at? Get yourself in a place where you're working on these three. Content with the gateway God's wired you.
The Core Truth About Possessions
Let me give you the core again. Verse 7, we brought nothing into the world. We can't take anything out of it. With food and covering, we should be content.
The greatest illustration I heard of this is from Ray Stedman. You know Ray Stedman? By the way, let me give you a great website, pbc.org, peninsulabiblechurch.org. If you get in there, there's all Ray Stedman's teaching and outlines and notes.
Stedman was flying to Boston to do a Bible conference. He lands. He lands in Boston. His luggage apparently goes somewhere else. Checks into the hotel. He's going for a walk.
The Mortuary Suits
He's lamenting because in that day and age, you wore a coat and tie to do the teaching. He's walking around. He doesn't have anything. And He's thinking, you know, I'm going to look bad.
All of a sudden, He sees this navy suit in a window. Then He looks at it. It's not a clothing store. It's a pawn shop. He goes in and He said, hey, I saw that navy suit and that white shirt and that tie in that window. Is there any chance you have one of those? And what size is that? And He said, oh, that's a 44 long. He said, I'm a 42 regular.
He said, well, come on in the back. I got a whole rack of them. And they go in the back of the pawn shop and here are all these white shirts, these ties, and this rack of suits. He said, how come you have these suits in here? He said, there was a mortuary down the road that just went out of business. And I guess apparently sometimes you don't have. This always makes me, if you didn't have a suit when you're alive, why would you want to be buried in one of these? But whatever. So they had these suits. So if a guy didn't have a suit, they'd sell Him one.
So Stedman says, you got a 42? He said, I do have a 42. And He said, now what's the deal? And He said, well, I need it for tomorrow. And He said, my friend runs a tailor store right around the corner. Let me hang on. Calls over. I'm going to send Him over and get Him all marked up, get Him set up, take the suit, take it back.
Here He is the next morning getting ready to go to the Bible conference. He puts on His pants, shirt, tie. Now He's at the dresser grabbing the things that He needs, His wallet, His money. And all of a sudden, no pockets.
The suits were made for the mortuary. You don't need to take your credit card with you. Isn't that just a wonderful picture? I'm not going to make this transition. My stuff's not going to make this transition with me. And I'm killing myself to get all of this stuff. And all I'm going to take to heaven is my heart, my soul, honor to His word, maybe those people whose lives I've touched.
A Life-Changing Perspective
Doesn't that change? Now, I know the change is only going to be for a minute or two. But doesn't that change the way you look at life? And if you could just get that. You know when you'll get that most of you? When you're old. Which means some of you have got it.
But, you know, you're only going to get that when you're old. It's a shame. I wish I could get that group. That group way in the back looks to me like staff and kids. I wish I could drill this into their head. Because if I can get this now, I've got 40 or 50 years of unbelievable success in God's economy, not man's economy.
Another stinking trophy. It doesn't matter. Another pen. Another plaque. Another bonus. It isn't going to make any difference.
The Warning Against Greed
Now, here's a warning. Look at this. You've got food and covering. You should be content. Verse 9. But those who want to get rich, their desire is for material things. Those who want to get rich fall into a temptation and a snare. Many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin.
That word plunge is used only one other time in the New Testament to describe. I think it's by Luke in Luke chapter 5, I think, to describe a boat that's sinking to the sea.
Listen to this. Make a note of this because this is a passage you ought to turn to. We won't. Ecclesiastes chapter 5, verse 10. Whoever loves money never has money enough. Whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with His income. As goods increase, so do those who consume them. And what benefit are they to the owner except to feast His eyes on them? The sleep of the laborer is sweet whether He eats little or much, but the abundance of a rich man permits Him no sleep.
The Cycle of Never Enough
Whoever loves money never has money enough. Always a little bit more. Always more dollars. Always more stuff. As goods increase, so does consumption. The more you have, the more you spend. The more you get, the more you want. That's what He's saying.
Because you were not made to be satisfied by something that's a person, place, or thing. You have certain needs that are satisfied that way. I was hungry this morning. We went to the pig and pancake. Ordered pigs in a blanket. Every time I order that, it flashes into my mind, you are what you eat. Pigs in a blanket. There I am. I was hungry. I walk out of there. I feel better. There's a person. There's a place. There's a thing. I have certain needs that are met like that. I have relational
needs. Susan is important to that relational side of me. Hopefully me to her as well. But you have a crucial longing. You have a longing in you that, again, Volterra, God-shaped vacuum. You have a longing in you that can never be satisfied with a person, place, or thing other than the person of Jesus Christ.
So the more I get, if I've got this need that can only be met by Christ, the more stuff I put in there, the more it just sucks it in there. It's a vacuum. And the more I put in there, the more unhappy I am ultimately. Because I've tried it and tried it and tried it, and I just can't get over the hump. I don't understand it.
All you've got to do is look with listening ears. Listen. Watch with eyes. Listen to the athletes. Listen to the stars. Listen to the musicians. Listen to the comics. Listen to the successful people. Listen to the people who are there. And there's always a strain of unhappiness. There's always something missing. If I just have Angelina Jolene, I'll be happy. Apparently not, because several guys have tried it. If I just have this, I'll be happy. No, you won't.
The Problem with Loving Money
Whoever loves money never has enough. If you want to get rich, it falls into temptation. Verse 10. For the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil. Not money. Money's not evil. Money's good. Money does great things. Money builds buildings at Cannon Beach Christian Conference Center. Money does great things. It's not the money that's the problem. It's the love of money.
Instructions for the Rich
So, what do you do? Look at verse 17. Instruct those who are rich in this present world. Now, I'm going to stop there, because I've learned over the years there's a problem with that. The minute we talk about rich, here's your definition of rich. Anybody who has more money than me. That's how you define it.
I've sat with a lot of guys. I sat with a guy one time, had a statement, I think 10, 11 million dollars, and he said, I'm not rich. Now, that seems rich to me. But the guys he hung with had more, so he said, No, I'm not rich. Let me see if I can make this easier for you. Instruct those who are rich in this present world. That's pretty much everybody in this room.
Two Things Not to Do
Instruct those who are rich in this present world. Here's a couple of ways. Not to be conceited, and not to fix your hope on the uncertainty of riches. He says, here's two things not to do. Don't be conceited.
There's a tendency when you have stuff to somehow take the credit for earning them. When they march you onto the platform and they say, You're the salesperson of the year. Tell us all how you did it. All of a sudden, you really think you're something. If I'm invited, and I used to do a lot of this in a sales meeting. And you've got 30 salesmen there. And here's the top five men and women. Here's the bottom five men and women. And as I'm talking, the top five barely listen. The bottom five are writing everything down. When you have this level of richness, you tend to think you're really something.
He said, don't be conceited or fix your hope on the uncertainty of riches. Two implications there. Uncertainty of riches meaning this. They're like a greased pig. I've got Him and then I'm gone. There were many of us who in the year 2001 saw retirement plans and those things that we were trusting are secure. They're safe. We saw Him just be cut in half. The uncertainty of riches.
It's not just the uncertainty of riches by that meaning that they're there and gone. It's the uncertainty of riches trusting them to make you happy. He said, listen, instruct those were rich. You and me not to be conceited or put your hope in the uncertainty of riches, but on God who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy.
The Call to Generosity
Instruct them to do good. Instruct them to be generous. A couple more stats. Giving as a percentage of income is lower now than at the heart of the Great Depression. 3% of American Christians are tithing. 37% of people who regularly attend church give nothing at all. Christians on average give 2.5% of their income as compared to the world, which gives 2.4%. Makes you kind of wonder, doesn't it?
Here's what Jesus said. Don't store up for yourselves treasure on earth where moth and rust will destroy them. Thieves will break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Where's your treasure?
Instruct them to do good, verse 18, to be rich in good works, to be generous. We need to stop. I want to pick up right there tomorrow, and then we'll head into the next point as well.
Let's pray together. Gentlemen, I'll see you tomorrow morning, by the way, at 7. Let's pray together. Father, we're looking at these things in our life that you've given us. Let us be good stewards. We've talked a lot about stuff today, but let us be good stewards of our time and our energy and our effort.
God, help us be content. Help us learn to be content, to be satisfied. Not mediocre, not apathetic. In fact, God, we even pray tonight for a spiritual discontent, that we would never have enough of you. We understand that no matter how much of this world we get, we'll never fill that void that is meant to be filled with only you, and so, God, we love you. We turn to you.
God, we know that you're going to judge us as followers of your son, Jesus, based on how we handle the life you've given us, the time, the energy, the effort, the money. God, help us be rich in your economy. Instruct those of us who are rich to not be conceited, not fix our hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on you. God, take this message and apply it to our heart. We pray that to you in Jesus' name, amen.