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The PowerPoint sermon can be downloaded here.
I. INTRODUCTION.A.
Michael
Phelps is pure gold.
1.
If
you have lived on a different planet this past week & did not know,
Phelps surpassed Mark Spitz to become the most decoarated Olympian in
history.
a)
In
1972, Spitz won seven gold medals at the Olympic Games in Munich.
b)
Phelps
won eight medals at the Beijing Olympics.
c)
Spitz
won a total of nine Olympic gold medals over his career; Phelps has won
14 Olympic gold medals.
2.
Can you
imagine the determination it has taken Phelps to win “Pure Gold”?
a)
Phelps
has been described as a man of “rigid focus” when he’s at the pool.
b)
Outside
the pool, Phelps must train constantly.
i.
In
fact, he eats about 12,000 calories a day in order to keep up with his
regimine.
ii.
For
breakfast, Phelps eats the following: “Three sandwiches of fried eggs,
cheese, lettucs, tomato, fried onions and mayonnaise,” plus “one
omelet, a bowl of grits, and three slices of french toast with powdered
sugar,” and then “three chocolate chip pancakes.”
B.
Phelps
has achieved much because of his single determination for gold. We live in a world today where many have a
single determination for gold.
1.
What
would you be willing to do for 10 million dollars?
Two-thirds of Americans polled would be willing to do at least
one of the following:
a)
Abandon
their entire family;
b)
Abandon
their church;
c)
Become
prostitutes for a week or more;
d)
Give up
their American citizenship;
e)
Leave
their spouses;
f)
Withhold
testimony
& let a murderer go free;
g)
Kill a
stranger;
h)
Put
their children up for adoption.
2.
In
tonight’s text, the author of Hebrews cautions against a life of pure
gold.
a)
He
writes, “Keep your life free from the love of money.”
b)
The
author of Hebrews is not at all the first to speak against the love of
money.
i.
Jesus
speaks against the love of money.
a.
“Out
of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft,
murder, adultery, coveting, wicedkenss, deceit, sansuality, envy,
slader, pride, foolishness. All these evil
things come fromw ithin, and they defile a person” (Mk 7:21-23).
b.
“Take
care, and be on your guard against all covetouswness, for one’s life
does not consist n the abundance of his possessions” (Lk 12:15).
ii.
“Put
to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity,
passin, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry” (Col 3:5).
C.
We find
the antitode to covetousness in our text.
1.
“Keep
your life free from the love of money, and be content with what you
have, for he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we
can confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can
man do to me?’” (Heb 13:5-6).
2.
If we
are content, we will not be covetous.
a)
Contentment
is,
therefore, a very important virtue for the Christian.
b)
As
we speak of the opposite of “pure gold” we want to answer two
questions: (a) “What is contentment?” & (b) “What is the key to
being content”?
II.
WHAT IS
CONTENTMENT?
A.
The
term the author uses here means to be satisfied, to have enough.
1.
Thus,
being content means that we see ourselves as having enough.
2.
Notice
how Paul speaks of contentment: “There is great gain in godliness with
contentment, for we brought ntohing into the world, and we cannot take
anything out of the world. But if we have
food and clothing, with these we will be content” (1 Tm 6:6-8).
a)
Paul
only speaks of the need for “food and clothing” to make one content.
i.
In
today’s world, we think we absolutely need so much: a big house, nice
clothes, a cell phone, TV & satellite, and so much more.
ii.
We have
so much more than food & clothing, but how content are we?
b)
Notice
that Paul doesn’t simply speak of contentment, but he speaks of
godliness with contentment. Contentment is
part of godliness.
i.
An
elder, the highest example in the church, cannot be “a lover of money”
(1 Tm 3:3).
ii.
“No
one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the
other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money” (Mt 6:24).
B.
Uninspired
men
have also spoken highly of contentment.
1.
Socrates:
“He
is richest who is content with the least.”
2.
Shakespeare:
“He
is well paid that is well satisfied.”
3.
Chinese
Proverb: “He who is content can never be ruined.”
4.
Johann
Georg Zimmerman: “He who wants little always has enough.”
5.
Unknown:
“If
you are not satisfied with a little, you will not be satisfied with
much.”
6.
George
Eliot: “The contented man is never poor, the discontented never rich.”
C.
We find
several biblical characters who were content with what they had:
1.
John
the Baptist:
a)
“Now
John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his
waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey” (Mt 3:4).
b)
We read
not a word of John’s complaining or of his wanting more—we simply find
that he was preparing the way of the Lord.
2.
The
poor widow:
a)
Mk
12:41-44.
b)
There
is no way to describe this woman except to say that she was content.
i.
While
rich people came & put in large sums of money, this poor wido two
small copper coins.
ii.
Remember,
this
is first-century Palestine—as a woman, this lady couldn’t really
go out & find a job.
iii.
This
lady put in everything she had to live on. She
was
more concerned with godliness than with riches.
She combined godliness with contentment.
3.
Paul:
a)
Phil
4:10-13.
b)
Because
Paul knew what it was like to be in riches & want, he had learned
contentment.
D.
Others
learned to be content:
1.
Fanny
Crosby (1820-1925), a blind songwriter wrote, “O what a happy soul am I! Although I cannot see, I am resolved that in
this world Contented I will be; How many blessings I enjoy That other
people don’t! To weep and sigh because I’m
blind, I cannot, and I won’t.”
2.
Helen
Keller (1880-1968): “They took away what should have been my eyes, (But
I remembered Milton’s Paradise) They took away what should have been my
ears, (Beethoven came and wiped away my tears) They took away what
should have been my tongue, (But I talked with God when I was young) He
would not let themtake away my soul, Possessing that, I still possess
the whole.”
III.
THE KEY
TO CONTENTMENT.
A.
We must
trust in God’s providential care.
1.
This is
the reason the author gives in our text:
a)
“Keep
your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have,
for he has said, ‘I will never leave you or forsake you.’ So we can
confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man
do to me?’” (Heb 13:5).
b)
God has
promised that he will never leave us. If
we have God as our helper, why get concerned about the things of this
world?
2.
That is
the exact reason Jesus gave for not being concerned about the things of
this world (Mt 6:25-32).
a)
God
takes care of the birds of the air, and we are much more valuable than
they.
b)
God
clothes the grass of the field that tomorrow is thrown in the oven; we
are much more valuable than they.
3.
I know
you might be thinking, “Justin, that’s so easy for you to say.”
a)
I know
it is; I also know how hard it is to live.
b)
I also
know that the One who originally said these things lived by them:
i.
“Foxes
have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has
nowhere to lay his head” (Mt 8:20).
ii.
“You
know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet
for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become
rich” (2 Cor 8:9).
a.
Can you
really imagine how rich the Lord Jesus was? He
was
in heaven, surrounded by the praise of the angels, living in
perfection.
b.
Yet, he
gave that up for us!
iii.
If
Jesus could call upon us to trust in God when he knew that trust so
very well, can we not live in that trust?
B.
We must
also recognize that we can take nothing out of this world.
1.
“We
brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anythough out of the
world” (1 Tm 3:7).
2.
Nothing
for which we are so anxious is going to go with us when we go to the
grave. Have you ever seen a hearse pulling
a U-Haul?
3.
Therefore,
why
do we get so caught up in worrying about the things of the world?
a)
Someone
has said, “Greed is the logical result of the belief that there is no
life after death. We grab what we can
while we can however we can and then hold on to it hard.”
b)
Not
long ago, there were terrible forrest fires out West.
i.
I was
in my car & heard a reporter speaking to someone who refused to
leave his property. He said, “I’ve worked
too hard for the things I have to let a fire come and take them away.”
ii.
The
truth is that no matter how hard we work a fire is coming to take
everything away: “The day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then
the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be
burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on
it will be exposed” (2 Pt 3:10).
c)
It is
so foolish to forget that we can take nothing from this world.
i.
Jesus
told about a man who forgot altogether that he could take nothing with
him when he left this world. He had so
much that he was tearing down his barns to build bigger ones &
planning a big life of partying.
ii.
God
comes and says, “Fool! This night your
soul is required of you, and things you have prepared, whose will they
be?” (Lk 12:20).
C.
We must
also realize what is truly “essential” in life.
1.
“If we
have food and clothing, with these we will be content” (1 Tm 6:8).
a)
Notice
that Paul says if we have food & clothing we will be content.
b)
The
apostle doesn’t say that if we have an iPod, a plasma TV, a Mustang
convertible, and a beach house we’ll be content.
c)
I fear
that far too often we fail to distinguish between what we really need
& what we really want. Our
consumer-driven economy has taught us that we “need” everything, when
we honestly need so very little!
2.
We
know that God has promised to provide the necessities of life: “Seek
first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things
will be added to you” (Mt 6:33).
3.
Pro
football star Sean Gilbert sat out the 1997 season because the
Washington Redskins had offered him only $20 million oer the next five
years.
a)
He sat
out because his contract was one million dollars less than what God
told him to sign on for.
b)
God’s
going to do no such thing! God will take
care of our needs, not our wants. We must
distinguish the difference.
4.
Along
these lines, we must recognize how very rich we are:
a)
If
you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over
your head, & a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% in this
world.
b)
If you
have money in the bank, in your wallet, & spare change in a dish
somewhere, you are among the world’s wealthiest 8%.
c)
In the
political arena, we constantly hear about the wealthiest 1% in this
country. While not a one of us fits that
description, we are all in the top 10% of the world.
D.
We must
also recognize that material things do not satisfy.
1.
Solomon
realized this: “He who loves money will not be satisfied with money,
nor he who loves wealth with his income” (Eccl 5:10).
2.
Material
things
cannot meet the true needs of the soul.
a)
“All
the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied”
(Eccl 6:7).
b)
A woman
by the name of Evelyn Adams won the New Jersey lottery in 1985 &
again in 1986. Her winnings totaled $5.4
million.
i.
Now,
all her money is gone & she lives in poverty.
ii.
Why? Because she went to Atlantic City &
gambled her money away in the slot machines. She
wasn’t
satisfied with what she had & now she has nothing.
iii.
She
says, “I won the American dream but I lost it, too.
It was a very hard fall.”
IV.
CONCLUSION.
A.
Michael
Phelps did quite well at the Olympic Games; he is pure gold.
1.
Now, he
has a real opportunity to go for gold.
2.
He has
signed a book deal for a work to be published in December; however, the
publisher refuses to discuss the financial terms.
3.
He has
recently signed endorsements with Frosted Flakes & McDonald’s as
well as all the other endorsements he already had.
B.
How
much do we want gold in our lives?
1.
Are we
content with what we have, or are we always wanting more?
2. Are we content with our spiritual lives, or do we have changes to make?