Hebrews chapter 13. Somebody asked me, it's hard to keep up with all the announcements, everything going on, and it's exciting, I'll say that. We do have the children's lighthouse coin, if you would like to give to the orphanages, we do every year. They're here in the main auditorium, in the back on the table, and in the vestibule, or the front, room there, there's some on the table in there as well. And so if you'd like to take part in that, I know some of you do religiously every year. It's here and they're there. I keep missing to announce that we have them. So we've had them for several weeks now, so. All right, Hebrews chapter 13. Now we have been coming along on a series or on a path, and it's foundational building blocks for the Christian life. And it is It's building blocks that you're going to need. They're essential. It's like a foundation when you go to build, let's say, a home or a house, and you want to make sure that you have correctly put in the foundation. Let me grab the right microphone here. Brother David, I forgot. Thank you for reminding me. I told myself not to forget, and I forgot. All right, so back to this foundation that we were just building. We want to make sure that the foundation is solid, it's strong, and you haven't compromised the building materials when you go to put that foundation in. The reason why is because when you go to build on that foundation, the walls and the rest of the structure, the building, the home, that if it has been compromised or not been built correctly or right to specs, it's going to come apart. You're going to have trouble, and so it affects the rest of the building. To the spiritual end, looking at it spiritually, the spiritual application to us, our foundation in Christ is very important. Things like having a relationship with God, trusting God, knowing something about repentance, how God views repentance, knowing something about humility, having, knowing that as a Christian, you're going to need humility. And then we go through a whole list of them, being spirit-filled. And so we looked at being faithful now, Tonight, which is one of our last one on this series is contentment, having contentment. And I do have handouts and I'd put them out here or I had a helper put them out here earlier. And I have I have a mate. So if you'd like a handout, Brother Samuel, would you help me with that, my friend or have one of the young ones? I have handouts here somewhere. I'm looking at them, Esther. in the front right there underneath that hat there. All right. And so this is for tonight, a handout if you'd like that. It'll have the verses, the references, and then for my fumble through my outline, you won't have to fumble. You can read. And I don't guarantee or put a thing on not having any typos. I'm not the best type. So bear with me there, have some grace with me there. But tonight, contentment, that's one of the last building blocks that we'll look at. And in Hebrews chapter 13, Hebrews chapter 13, I'm going to read verses one through six, but I'm gonna primary look with verses five and six. All right, and then we will do some turning tonight, or just let me turn and read to you. I know sometimes I move a little fast and I don't do that to, I don't do that to not get you to where you need to be, but I do it for the sake of time and moving ahead. And so sometimes I'll hand a handout And then you can look at that handout a little bit later or do a devotion on it. So tonight, if you found your place, Hebrews chapter 13. I'll begin reading verse one. It says, let brotherly love continue. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember them that are in bonds as bound with them. And it says in them which suffer adversity as being yourselves also in the body. Marriage is honorable in all. and the bed undefiled, but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. Verse five down, verse six is gonna be my key verses here, and I've just read the others to give some context. Let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with such things as you have, for he has said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee, so that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do. unto me. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we ask tonight for your help. I ask for the Holy Spirit. Fill me with your Holy Spirit. I pray that you would guide me through this lesson. Father, feed me and Father, teach me to grow in this area, that I might have a strong foundation, Father, that I might be a vessel fit for use and for your honor. Be with the hearts of the people that have come out and those that are watching or listening. I pray that you would bless them and encourage them, but most importantly, teach them and, Father, instruct them in your ways. Now, Father, we ask these things. In Jesus Christ's name we pray, amen. Let me say by way of introduction, discontentment plagues our society today. And it is a me first mindset. And you've heard me say this again, and other preachers say it, and it won't be the last time we'll say it. More for me is better for me, as the culture says, but it is this me first mindset that is sending our society and it's internally collapsing our And perversion, violence, political scandal, you name it, and families are breaking up and all the symptoms of our modern obsession of this mindset of me first or self. And so this country has a self-problem. That's one of the problems. It's not the only problem, but dealing with our subject tonight on contentment, it definitely boils down to a self-issue. Now, number one, if you're looking and if you have the handout, I'm gonna say build contentment by rejoicing, I'm sorry, rejecting covetousness. Build contentment by rejecting covetousness. And we say this, covetousness comes so easily. often without our even realizing it in our life. Even when we do notice it, we have a tendency to excuse it. Even when we identify it in our lives, we have a tendency to excuse it because we're the individual that goes the lightest on us. We're the least critical of ourself, hence why we have a self problem. Yet God calls us here in the scriptures to reject it. He calls us to reject it, let's look at it. And there's gonna be two areas where he has us reject it, and we'll look at the sub-point here in our lifestyles. And the Bible uses the word here, look at verse five again. Now we'll zero in on these verses and the words. He says, let your conversation be without covetousness. Our conversation, that conversation is not what you're saying. That word there is used for your lifestyle, how you go about living your life. And not necessarily for self, we're dealing with that too, but how our lifestyle is before other people, and especially, most importantly, before God. And so a lot of times we'll look at a Christian, we'll look at a beggar and say, well, how do I look before people? How does this view me in front of people? Look, that's not the most important. Man's going to look at you. He's going to be critical with you anyway. It's just that way. Humans are that way. But God, it's more important. how you look before God. So let's look at the vertical relationship between you and God first, and your horizontal relationship before man will be well. And so we're gonna say, first of all, in our lifestyles, we wanna make sure that we understand this. Now, the last of the 10 commandments gives this same principle, and it says this in Exodus 20, verse 17. It says, thou shalt not covet. Pretty simple, pretty straightforward. If you look at 1 Timothy, now this is where we begin to move a little bit. I'm gonna draw you back to the left there, 1 Timothy. And if you're not able to turn, that's all right, let me read them. And we're gonna be in verse Timothy now to make the second point. But 1 Timothy chapter six, notice with me verses 17, the verse 17. And we're talking about rejecting covetousness in our lifestyle. And so here, this is a building block that is a child of God. You're not going to fare very well if you're not content. And man, I know when you say that, here in America, just nobody's content with anything. And so we should be. Verse 17, notice what the Bible says here. 1 Timothy 6, verse 17, charge them, that means go, I always use that for our business, verse, laughingly, knowing that that didn't mean charge them, like write them an invoice, or bill, or invoice them. But that's how I looked at it when I was in my teens. This is great, charge the ones that are rich. No, that's not what it's talking about. The charge there is hold them accountable. Make sure that they know what they're doing is incorrect or right. Now watch this, charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high-minded. That's what you're going after. Look, those that are rich, a lot of them, and I've worked for a lot of rich people, A lot of them are high-minded, high-rollers, work for people that you didn't even get to see. You knew who they were, but they had agents that you worked through that managed their account or their estate or their money or whatever have you. But here they get high-minded and it's very true. Now watch what he goes on to say, nor trust in uncertain riches. but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy." Wow. All right, so verse 17, we're looking at our lifestyle. We need to understand that this is not how God wants us to be, just full of covetousness and to covet. He sends this signal all the way through Scripture that a covetous mind, a covetous heart is not healthy. It's not healthy for anybody. And so as we look at these verses, number one, we're seeing that we want to reject covetousness in our lifestyles. Secondly, here, we say in our hearts. All right, so a lot of this stuff stems from the heart. It starts from the heart and works its way out. But here's what I want to say about in our hearts rejecting covetousness. Contentment isn't a matter of possessions. It is a matter of the heart. A contented Christian can rest knowing that God is sovereign and that he is in control. Now, we're here in 1 Timothy. I'm going to look at verses, I believe I want to look at 9 and 10. 1 Timothy chapter 6, in the same chapter, but look, notice with me if you're still in Timothy, look at verses 9 and 10. Now, we're talking about our hearts and about rejecting covetousness. All right, but they, verse 9, but they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare. and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition." Wow, now watch verse 10. for the love of money, didn't say money now. There's a lot of people that have money and they do good with it, God's blessed them with it, and there's nothing wrong with that. But just because you have money doesn't mean that, it's like Job, remember Job went through everything, God took everything, or the devil, Satan took everything he had. He still said, bless the Lord, God, my soul. He would not curse God. And so he had a right heart perspective. Here, verse 10, he says here, for the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some covet after, there it is, they have erred from the faith. They're going to go after, they're going to go after money because they love it. And so what happens is it makes them, it forces them to err We're speaking of the heart of this. I'm going to move and I'm going to go to Luke. On Sunday mornings, if you've been coming Sunday mornings, If you've noticed, we've been kind of slowly walking through the chapters of Luke, and in Luke chapter 12, which was a couple weeks ago, Luke chapter 12 and verse 15, there's a verse here that speaks on this subject, and it speaks of a man's possession, and he says in verse 15, Luke chapter 12, and he said unto them, Take heed and beware of covetousness, for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of things which he possesseth. I'm very leery of a Christian who says, well, God's blessed me with this, blessed me with that, so I must be right with God because I have all this. Be careful, because there's people who don't have anything but love God, and God loves them, and He wouldn't let anything happen to them. So a lot of times, What I'm saying is Christians will measure their spiritual level or strength or their blessing from God by what they have. You say, is that right? That's not right. And now religion will run that gauntlet and teach you that, but that's not what the Bible teaches. And so here the Bible says in Luke that a man's possessions doesn't consist of the things that he has. All right, so in our hearts. Now let's move on. I want to say secondly about contentment, and we're on covetousness. Build contentment by remaining content. Notice verse five again. Now I'm back in Hebrews chapter 13, and I'm gonna look at verse five again, and we're gonna look at this second main point. All right, so he says here, let your conversation, remember, that's how you live your life, be without covetousness, and be content with such things as you have. This may sound simple, and be content, the Bible says, but the truth of it is, it is simple. It is a choice. Be content means to be possessed of unfailing strength to be satisfied. Now there's a verse that we'll read. Let me read this verse before I get into my sub points. It's going to be in Philippians. Let me run over there and I'll read it. I should be able to quote it, but I always think that, but then I get scared because I'll mess it up. So let me run over there. Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians. And it's Philippians chapter four, verse 11. He says this. Not that I speak in respect of want, for I have learned. This is the Apostle Paul, and we're speaking on remaining content. Just build contentment by remaining content. So watch what he says here. This'll build on this. Not that I speak in respect of want, for I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. That's hard, because there's a lot of different states that we find ourselves in in this life, in this world, in the people that we, we interact with. You know, well, I won't go too far there and get too far in the weeds, but there's a lot of people out there it's hard to deal with. And so, but we must learn to be content in whatever circumstances that we're in. Let's look at these sub points under this. Build contentment by remaining content, number one, because God has provided in the past. Why we're able to remain content no matter come what may in our life is because in the past, when you look back in your life, I'm sure as a Christian, you can see God has provided in the past. I have a verse, I have Psalms 37. I'm gonna go over there and I'm gonna read it. Psalms 37. These are good verses to have down dealing with this building block, this foundational building block that we need. Psalms 37, and notice with me verse 25, and it says this. I have been young, and now am I old. Yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. There's been some times I'm not from a wealthy family by no means. Matter of fact, I would consider ourselves poor in the eyes of maybe another American, average American. It didn't matter whether he was poor or rich, but growing up in that home, it was never frowned on for not having a lot. My parents both were hard workers and they taught us how to work. And that was one of the most important things of my life is learn how to work. And so growing up, you look at that to be content with what we had. And it was ironic when we grew up and got older and got out and got around other people, they were just amazed at the people who were not content with what they had. And they had way more than I ever thought about having or growing up with. And I thought, man, did I miss something? No, what you missed was growing up in an environment where they're never happy with what they have, never content with what they had. And then I think it's important that you grow up being content with what God has given you and what you have. There's nothing wrong with that, nothing wrong with that. So God, you say why? It's because God provided even in those rough times. When we say rough times, I don't even know that they were rough, but mom and dad didn't have a lot of money, there's not a lot going on, but we still were fed, we still were clothed, we still were taken care of, we still had a roof over our heads, and we loved God. And so that's all that mattered. He said, what was going on? God was providing. And I can look back in my life, God is providing. Now, God has provided way more than that. And some of them I've asked for and he's answered those prayer. And some of them I hadn't asked for and don't deserve them at all, but he give them and allow me to live with these blessings. And I'm thankful for, but I can look back. There's stones of remembrance in my mind, in my memory, that I can look back and say, God definitely has provided in the past. And so looking at that, that gives me some confidence. It gives me confidence that God is able to provide Definitely. So he provided in the past. Sometimes we worry about tomorrow's problems. But when we look back, we are reminded that God has always provided for us in the past. Don't let worry rob you of your contentment, is what I'm saying tonight. Worry will rob you of godly contentment. Let me say secondly, sub-point B, because God will provide for our future. So he's provided in the past, and we can remember those, and God does that. Presently we're here, and then in the future, man, the future now we haven't lived in. We don't know come what may tomorrow. A man knoweth not what tomorrow bringeth, but we know that God's able to provide in the future. Now look at verse five, and we'll notice again, I'm back in Hebrews now, verse 13. Let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with such things as you have, for he has said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Now he's quoting, and he's quoting God. And God is a God who keeps his promises. The greatest provision God could give us is his presence. Think about it. One of the greatest things that you and I enjoy as Christians is God's presence in our life and in our heart. He's never going to leave you, and he's never gonna forsake you. You say, but what if I do such and such, do this, this, this, and that, or don't do this and that? God's never gonna leave you, and he's never gonna forsake you. His power is way greater than anything we can ever mess up. And I'm not a proponent of going out and messing something up. I'm saying be content with what God is able to provide. He's able to provide in our past. He's able to provide in our future. I'm gonna read Matthew chapter six. I read this before coming. I like this, and notice what he says here, and I like this. I like how he puts this out. Now notice that when I start reading, you'll remember it. Matthew chapter six, I'm going to read verses 30 on down to about verse 33, and here's what he says. Matthew chapter 6 verse 30, he says, Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Is the question. Verse 31, Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? Or what shall we drink? Or wherewith shall we be clothed? Verse 32, for after all these things do the Gentiles seek for a year. He said, for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. God is not somebody who forgets. God never forgets. Man forgets. Man will disappoint. Man will let you down. But God is never going to forget. That's why we're able to have this contentment. So the past, God's able to provide and have. The future, God will provide in the future. We can live with contentment because God promises to provide for our future and God always keeps his promises. God always keeps his promises. So let's move on. Number three, we're gonna say, and I'm watching the clock here. Number three, I wanna say this. Build contentment by renewing confidence. Build contentment, this building block, this foundational building block, you want to build it by renewing confidence, confidence in God. God wants us to experience the confidence of being content in Him. And He wants us to be able to boldly claim His help. Now let me say this about our adversary, and I bring him up almost every service, not by mishap, but just because he's here. And he's going to make sure he's going to muddy up the waters for us. He's going to make sure that your connection or relationship with God is not going to be strong. That's what he's about. So when you get into those emotions, you get into those thoughts and those things that exalt itself against the knowledge of God, You need to pull him down, bring him into captivity, and God is able, he gives you the strength to do that. But Satan, your adversary, is a liar. Satan doesn't want you to experience peace, or forgiveness, or the confidence of God's presence. He wants you to live your life with a defeated attitude. Now the Bible speaks, now watch, I'm gonna read 1 John. I'm gonna slip over there to 1 John. I wanna read a verse to ya. It's fitting for right here. 1 John, I'm gonna go to chapter four. 1 John chapter four, I'm gonna look at verse four. And he says this, the writer, this is John. He says, year of God, little children. He's speaking to the saved people there. and maybe doctrinally even in the context of young converts, somebody that's learning. And so you'll find classes here, you'll find young men, older men, and young, he calls them children, ye little children. And so it's kind of here, now watch verse four. Year of God, little children, and have overcome them. because greater is he that is in you. This is where he said, how powerful is God? He's this powerful, and he's able to state this in this verse. Greater is he that is in you. Who's in you? If you're saved tonight, it's the Holy Spirit of God. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. He is in you. Then he that is in the world. Who's in the world? Satan is in the world. Satan uses the world and the tactics to blind blind the lost and try to blind the saved. So Satan doesn't want you living with any confidence in God. None whatsoever. And he wants you to feel that, well, I can't be forgiven. That's what Satan wants you to feel and think. God said, I'm not willing that any should perish. Because after all, it's not how bad you've done, what you've done, it's how bad off the whole human race was born. We were born into condemnation, every one of us. That's why every one of us is gonna face death one day. Sooner or later, every one of us is gonna face that day. Now, if you're a child of God saved, then God owns you and keeps you and protects you. He has a home in heaven waiting for you. I think we were talking about the earnest of our salvation, the inheritance that we have. It says it's uncorruptible, undefiled, and fadeth not away. He said, well, I think man can take that. Well, the Bible is stating, God is stating that, look my power, I'm greater than anything that you can come up against in this world. And so here we're seeing that Satan, man, he doesn't want you to have this confidence. He definitely doesn't want you to have any contentment in the things of God. And so it's a struggle, and we need to see this as we strengthen ourselves and grow in God, in our relationship with God. We need to learn to build with confidence, and our confidence is in the sufficiency of Christ. Not us, not this church, not a work that we can do, not something that we can muster up ourselves. It's in the sufficiency of God. That power comes from God. Those promises come from God and they're conditioned on Jesus Christ's blood. The death and burial and resurrection of Christ. Let me say this by way of illustration. We're building this this house and we have this foundation. We have a strong foundation, but imagine hiring maybe a carpenter or a builder. You start with a builder, you need a good builder. But if you didn't have competence or confidence in a builder, you begin to struggle because maybe the builder, I'm thinking what runs through my mind is years ago, we worked in a litigation case. And this litigation case was, it was a lawsuit. There was a number of people that were sued. They called it a shotgun lawsuit. And one of the things that come into play in depositions was the builder. because ultimately he shares that brunt of things. So they get the builder up on the witness stand there and the lawyers of these different people that were being sued begin to question him. Well, in that series of questions, what come out is that this man had zero, zero background in being taught or learning a trade of maybe a carpenter or something and coming up through the ranks and knowing something about building. He referenced where his experience come from was a Bob Vila video that he watched on how to build houses. And that's what his experience was, watching a video. Imagine hiring that guy for a GC or a builder. You wouldn't have a lot of confidence in him at all. Same with maybe like a plaster, I can speak to a plaster, because that's my trade. You hire somebody, yeah, no, it's fine. You hang that drywall on that house over them studs, you don't need any heat. You don't need any heat at all. You hang that drywall, I'll slap some mud on it, we'll tape it, we'll double it, we'll triple it, we'll fourth coat it, and we'll give you a level five finish. Sand it all out, walk away, you guys paint it, and when you do get the heat in it, it begins to dry out, Then comes all these cracks and paper starts to come off, tape starts to come down, the material, the spackling comes off the wall. What is going on? What's going on is you hired an incompetent sub. a worker who thought they knew what they were doing, but they didn't. You need confidence, because if you don't have confidence, you're gonna have trouble. You're gonna worry. You're gonna do a lot of worrying. Same with mechanic and anything else. You wanna make sure you have somebody that's competent in what they do. I'm saying tonight, here's what I'm saying for us, the child of God, the Christian, you can have confidence in Christ. you can have confidence in God. And so when we do not have confidence in the competence of someone we depend on, we worry. When it comes to God, however, we can always have complete confidence in his ability. And then this confidence gives us contentment. This is our building block tonight, contentment. This is where contentment comes from. Here back in Hebrews chapter 13, five and six gives us two characters, two characters of God that we ought to give that will give us confidence in his sufficiency. And I need to move over there, we're running out of time. Hebrews chapter 13, now back to our text, back to our two verses, five and six. Now notice here, I wanna read verse five again, we'll get to six here, but there's a lot in this. And here's what I want to say, the two characters that God gives us confidence in his sufficiency. Number one, I want you to notice that he says, let your conversation, I'm in Hebrews chapter 13 verse five, let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have for he has said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. Number one, the character of his presence. the character of his presence. God's promises are so good as his character, God cannot lie, the Bible states, and his promises are sure. Now, if you look at Titus, I'm gonna run over to Titus. I think it's important to read these verses. Just bear with me, I'll run over there for us. Titus chapter one, notice with me in verse two. It says, in hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began. So you say, well, how important does God take promises? Pretty important because before the world began, he promised that you're gonna have eternal life. That's a long way back. That's a long way back. You see what's going on? His presence. God's promises are good. The world boldly means to be confident, cheerful, and courageous. Boldly. All right, now watch this, verse six. I'm keen on verse six, let me read it. So that we may boldly, there it is, say, the Lord is my helper. I'm in Hebrews chapter 13, verse six. The Lord is my helper and I will not fear what man shall do unto me. There was a song that was, I believe, penned by Pastor Tom some years ago. Quite a few people, groups have sang it and recorded it. And it's from this verse, I do believe, if I'm not mistaken, right here. It's a wonderful song, and we sang it and did the arrangements to it, and I didn't know he had written that. There's a lot of songs I probably didn't know that he had written, but he's a songwriter. And so this verse is very powerful, and it speaks not only of his presence, but his provision. All right, that's the second character that he gives us in verse six, his provision. We do not fear, we do not need to fear, for God has not only promised his presence, but he has promised to exercise his power on our behalf. And Psalms speaks of this in Psalms 61, two and three, and Romans, I want to go to Romans chapter eight, because we're about done. Romans chapter eight. Romans chapter eight, and let me read this. This is the verse that I go to. People say, what is one of your favorite verses? This is a verse, this is right where I go, Romans chapter eight. Romans chapter eight, now notice with me the latter part of Romans, and it's gonna be verses 31 and on down. But I'm speaking of His provision in His presence because we want this contentment. Romans 8, verse 31 says, What shall we say to these things? I guess this is the question. If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Now he goes on down in through verse 8, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather is risen again. Who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us? It goes down through a list of things that he does. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Verse 35. Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword, as it is written, for thy sake. We are killed all the day long. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. That's the verse, that's the phrase, and I'm saying tonight, he has his presence, he has his provisions that he gives us, and let me say this, Paul, Paul, as he's penning this, the writer indicated that the contentment is a learned trait, according to Philippians chapter four, verse 11. I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. It's just simply yielding to that, being content with what God has given us. It might not be a lot, but God has given it to you. Are you building contentment in your life tonight? So I haven't even thought about that. I'm not really a contented type person. As a child of God or a Christian, it's gonna be essential that you learn to be content with such things as you have. You can live in contentment if you remember Hebrews chapter 13. Reject covetousness, choose contentment, and renew confidence in the God that you love. Let's all stand tonight. We kind of got through our lesson, but that's gonna be the last one in that series. And so we'll get on to something else, but contentment, the building block, the building block that you need for a good foundation. If you have a need this evening, this is your time. If you would like, you can come forward. You can stay right where you're at. That's up to you. It's your time to respond to the Holy Spirit. What are we going to sing tonight, Pastor? Page 280, Softly and Tenderly. 280, Softly and Tenderly. Softly and tenderly, Jesus is born.