If you want to be turning to Hebrews 13, I think we'll only read one verse there. And it be the thought for the day. Got two other places. shortly, one in Psalm, 16th Psalm, and then we come back to Paul writing to Timothy. In Hebrews 13, it talks about content or contentment. And that's the thought for the day. Contentment, a priceless treasure. A priceless treasure. If you're here, would you join as we all unite our hearts to call upon the Lord? Our Father, it is very peaceful and quiet within when we begin to know the Lord of all. Storm clouds might gather, Our supposedly friends might depart, and we go through valleys, one after the other, but all is in thy hands. And when we come to grips with that reality, not in our head, but in our hearts, we can rest peacefully when we know Christ in whom all things have been placed in His hands. And what greater hands! It's not from a king that likes to used the sword to destroy his enemies is from a savior whose love we will never come to the end as far as understanding and its effects upon us. Changing in time, changing throughout eternity as we grow more and more in the love of Christ, of God, and in his likeness. We will not be hindered there. No sin, no dark valleys, no days where the sun does not shine, or where The sun of our righteousness is eclipsed, oftentimes, by our own person. Thank you, Father, for your word. Thank you for your Holy Spirit. And it's not one or the other of these, but both. Both working together to bring us into a greater, greater knowledge of our savior, great God of all creation. Bring us to a place where we can sit at his feet. with nothing between my Savior and me. Father, help these dear souls. Help your people. Raise them up if they're in a valley. Cure their hearts if there's grief there. And if the Lord Jesus is not known, Father, grant that the Holy Spirit of God might draw him, his picture, his being upon such hearts. Raise all your children here into a time of worship and the hearing and the obeying of thy word. Give help, wisdom, anointing, and declaring, and ears, and hearing, and a good heart in receiving all for the glory of our blessed Redeemer. In his name we pray, amen. Hebrews chapter five, I mean sorry, 13, verse five. Let your conversation, that is, your manner or way of doing life, be without covetousness, and be content. And I like the different words that are used there, be sufficient. Be enough or suffice. What you have is what God gave you, and it will last until the next time that He feeds you again. Be content. It also means to be possessed of unfailing strength. And all of us know we go through periods when we are very weak, and it seems as though we have no strength to put forth another step. For we, within our own beings, we will go through life at times feeling that we have weakness and then at other times unfailing strength. But it is only in Christ that you can have these things. So let your manner or the way of doing your life below be without covetousness, not loving money, not greedy, not desirous of wealth or desirous of gain. Be content with such things as you have, for all of it is based upon the last phrase in this verse. For he hath said, O mighty God, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. Do I believe that you will go through weeks, days, with a reality or an awareness, God is with me? You will not. But you've got this to place your feet upon. God said He would not. I will not leave thee, nor forsake thee. Do you remember in Genesis 33 when Esau has come, first come to destroy Jacob and all that he has, his family, families, and yet when they meet, there is peace within. And Esau wants Jacob to come home and go with me. Jacob has sent before that time different herds, put them out in front, go give these to Esau and tell him that his servant is on the way to meet him. And when they met, And Esau said, what meaneth all these herds? They're yours. I give them to you. And Esau said, I have enough. I have much. I have multitudes. I have might, all pertaining to the world below. You be content with such things as you have. But Jacob said, I have enough. No, you take them. But Jacob uses a different word than what Esau did. Jacob said, I have everything. I have all. The totality of all things I have. And that could only be because he's met Christ, and he is dependent upon Him. Now, Paul said, Be content, but it only has to do with things below, just whatever you have. IS LEARNED BY DEGREES, LINE UPON LINE, PRECEPT UPON PRECEPT, PERSONALLY FINDING THAT GOD IS SUFFICIENT TO SUPPLY YOUR EVERY NEED. BUT I DON'T WANT ANYONE HERE TODAY TO WALK OUT AND THINK, BECAUSE I AM NOT CONTENT, THEN I'M NOT RIGHT WITH GOD. THAT MIGHT BE TRUE, BUT IN SOME CASE IT IS NOT TRUE. Paul said in Philippians 4, 11, I have learned. I have learned to be content. In whatsoever state that I am therewith, be content. I learned that, Paul said. Was he content in the storm there on the sea when he and the others were in the ship? No. He found contentment that day when he got away, and the angel of the Lord said, I'll give you your life and all that's held with you. There was that contentment once again. It is found only in the true God as he is in the book. Not this so-called being that is published today in writings and declared behind pulpits and taught in Sunday school classes. The God that is presented only resembles slightly this God. So man has taken some of the attributes that are agreeable to him. Then he's added his own distorted views, and he's fixed a God that he likes, one that is palatable to the taste of all that might hear him. That's the God presented today. Folks, even to you, We're coming to know the true God, His power, His eternality, His sufficiency, His love, His great heart, wherein He will provide all your needs, and you will never go lacking. Some of you are saying, well, I have this, it's not met. In His time, He will provide everything you need. But I doubt that less than 10 in 100, that could be much higher, I'm convinced. Know anything about contentment? Now before we press on in this, go back with me and let's read again heart of it. Let your conversation be without covetousness, things below. My God shall supply all your needs. And B, now just stop there. B, that is you existing in a certain manner. Sometimes it's just a moment. How you act. Be still. Exist in stillness. And know the Lord. Stand in awe, Psalm 4-4. Sin not. Commune with your own heart upon your own bed and be. Nothing about tomorrow, nothing about things that you didn't get done today that you had to leave, nothing about next week. Stand in awe. and sin not, and commune with your own heart upon your own bed, and be still. You exist in that moment. Be, how, Lord, still, quiet. Why do we have trouble in existing in stillness and quietness? Why? Why do we have trouble finding contentment? I can't answer that for you. I can only answer it for me. But you've got to answer it. Why? Has life become so burdensome that it's just It's destroying your personality. It's destroying your Christ-likeness if you're a child of God. And we look at the clock on the wall and we say, I've not gotten to this which should have been done two hours ago. I didn't finish this today. and it was due a week ago. Sometimes our presumed needs have become so great, we just live at this frantic pace. Gotta get this done, I've gotta get it done today. Why don't we all just slow down every little bit, if it's only 30 seconds in the day and just be. What's taking life out of you? What's eating up your life? Why have you lost contentment? Is God not able to supply our needs? Is he not sufficient in himself? to give us daily what we need. Is he? Is he not? Are my needs so great and so numerous that it would drain heaven's supply if God just granted to me this day all that I need? And then you just I have a moment of just being. He said, no, the world's not coming to an end today. All that I don't accomplish today, if the Lord spares, I will. Because I did not receive this today that I thought I needed, evidently you didn't. but it will be supplied when you need it, really need it. Has the storehouse of God's blessings been depleted? And you're quick to answer all the questions that I asked there with an emphatic no. Yet we do not live or exist in the moment as though God is able, as though God is sufficient or capable. I know He's capable, but He may not be willing. He's willing to meet every, every need you have in your heart, every need. Now, children, one word—there are many words—but one little word that you and I cannot wrap our little finite minds around is the INFINITY or INFINITE. Can you tell me what that is? Some say that the universe is infinite. Some say that the number of the stars are infinite. I won't argue with either. I don't know. But this I know with certainty. God is outside the bounds of the universe. And if the stars are too numerous to be numbered, God is outside all that. And if my God is that large and that great and that powerful, why am I worrying about a crumb of bread I didn't get this morning? And you will have those mornings. You just get up and you go on. And you do what you are capable of doing and you come back and maybe at night you look for a crumb, if not, the next morning. Because God has it. And His supply cannot, cannot be emptied. You've learned. that by the end of the day, if you have a physical job, that your energy is depleted. If you've got a mental job, which will take more out of you than a physical, you're depleted at the end of the day. So you come in from work, and you sit down sometime, and you get food. And that food replenishes the breakdown of the food this morning, and the energy that it put forth for you, and you find rest. Now, I say God is self-sufficient. And I ask you, if God is not, then where does He get that which is lacking? If He has to go somewhere else, like you and I, to the table, to a night of red, if God has to go somewhere else, He ceases to be God. Now, if you limit God and His power and His mercy, grace, sufficiency, heart, always willing to ever provide for you all your needs, if you limit God, you'll never know contentment. You're doing in mind right now what you are planning on tomorrow. How can I tomorrow get this done that I did not get done Friday? But if God is sufficient, if the storehouse of God's riches can never, can never run out for His children, then why can you not just in a moment just be? You don't need anything else. And then when the need arises and you can't be because of the need, then you seek your Lord. Now turn with me to Psalm 16. Psalm 16, beginning with verse 7. I will bless the Lord who hath given me counsel. My rains also instruct me in the night season. Now many times in the Old Testament, when you read the little word rains, it's used more as kidneys. than rains. I don't know all the functions of the kidneys, but I know if they ever shut down, you're in trouble. I know that they filter. Take out of your blood that which might be poisonous. My reigns also instruct me in the night seasons. I have set the Lord always before me because he, can we put he, my God, is at my right hand. I shall not be moved. because of where God is, and because the way that God has built this old body physically to represent how I ought to be in my new man spiritually, my flesh also shall rest in hope. Now this psalm, as all psalms, it speaks of the Lord Jesus, but you can benefit from all. Verse 10, for thou will not leave my soul in hell, neither will thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. That's my Lord. I hope yours. I hope that He's the greatest being in your life. I hope the Lord Jesus has the greatest portion of your heart. Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell. For you, child of God, he suffered your eternal wrath. Verse 11, thou wilt show me the path of life. In thy presence is fullness of joy. At thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore. Children, sometimes there will be such a pressing need on your heart that it must spill out in talking with the Lord. You need help. You need it now. You think, I can't go on if I don't. And it might be true. And if it is true, then the Lord will provide that in thy presence. Are we still and quiet long enough to ever find out, begin to find out the fullness of joy at the right hand of God that he has for you? I don't know. But I know you've got to get here to ever know anything about contentment. In this old world that you can find with the children of Israel in Egypt, their workload has been increased because they want to go worship God. And Pharaoh said, that's foolishness. Now they not only have to go gather straw that had been given to them to make bricks, they've got to go gather their own straw, make bricks, and the toil of bricks must equal that which they did yesterday when they were given straw. Cruel taskmasters, get this done. adding more and more. This is our world. Make bricks. Satisfy your ruler. The world, somebody, just make bricks. And it's more than we can make. And there's no rest at night. For we lay down, we try to rest, and we know it is impossible, it is impossible for us to keep up this frantic pace of getting our own straw and making the toil of brick as before. It can't be done. And often, often your whole nature is your taskmaster. A friend, he was living and working in the north. I did not know him then. But he came, moved into Alabama, to Alabama, about an hour and a half, maybe less than two hours away. And he bought a house. And the times that I visited with him, he would take me outside and show what all he had cleared. And the lot there was probably an acre or two. He got all cleared behind the back of his house, headed up into the woods. And I tried to encourage him, take time to pray, take time to read. You've got a lot of good books in your study, don't let them continue to lie there, sit there on the shelf. I couldn't convince him. When I get this done, all this done, Then I'll have time for my closet and reading." And something came up about the jobs, and he had to move back to one of the farthest states in the South. And they rented a house while they began building on a little piece of land they owned there. And he worked, and he worked, and he worked. Got the house built, got the library built. Got all of his books lined up, but there was always something else that needed doing. Now I've got to get that. Every day throughout his life, it was always got to get this done. And when I get this done, then I'll have plenty of time to devote to prayer. and the study, and now he physically is not able to get to his study. And the last we talked, he said, I cannot, for the life of me, I cannot stay awake five minutes to pray. And someday the home there, beautiful home, may look like that one that he lived here. Drove by it a few years back, headed somewhere, just wanted to see it. Old cars in the front, grass knee-high. I thought about all the time that he put in to get that like that and the time that he missed. He couldn't pray, he couldn't read because things that needed doing, it just, it was such a taskmaster. He was glued to, it was himself. Don't, don't get there. Take the day. Benefit somehow in the day. Find contentment within concerning life, doing, being. Learn to be content. You younger Christians don't walk out and say, well, I never have had contentment and I never will. Probably that may mean I'm not a Christian. It does not mean any such thing. I'm just encouraging you, press on to find a degree of contentment in the day. The folk, the sad thing that God declared today, far less than the one that freed Israel from Egypt, far less. It won't even come close to the God that Moses knew him to be. The God that daily provided manna saw them through the battles with Amalek and others. And when they were thirsty and complaining, God showed him a rock, said, smite that rock and water will flow. And then they began complaining about a lack of flesh to eat. And the Lord said, they'll have flesh to eat until it runs out of their mouths. It'll be for a month. And as big as Moses' God was, the true God of Israel, and as powerful as he had seen him work, when the Lord told him that, He said, Lord, the people among whom I am are over 600,000 footmen, well over a million, well over a million, million and a half of people. Shall all the herds be slain, he asked the Lord, Are all the fish in the sea be gathered up? And the Lord asked, is the Lord's hand shortened that he cannot provide? They walk out and the ground's covered with edible bird, birds. And God in that instant was above what Moses knew him to be. But Moses knew him to be all that he had been up to that point and very powerful because of the provisions. But that meat for a month, that's a little too much. And then one other time when the people had We say down here ruffled his feathers. They got him out of sorts. And he was ill. Though the meekest man in all the earth, he got ill because they again are demanding water. And God said, go speak to the rock. And Moses in an ill-tempered move, he went over and he struck the rock and that barred him from entering Canaan. One desire that he had. God said no. Now for that, and it was to the degree that Moses knew, but he failed. What about me? On a lot lesser scale. Shall I commit that sin? where I lose God forever in this life. Go to heaven, I believe, but it'd be a miserable existence to have to live without fellowship with the living God. Children, the value of being content with things below increases the value of things above. When my heart is still, my heart gets quiet just for a little, the things lay up for the children become not only precious, but of greater value. And when you find contentment and your mind can rest from the pursuit of temporal things, You do not have these things below constantly robbing you of time. And you just seek those things which are above and you just be. Existing in that moment, you are content. For you found God more than sufficient. more than able and more than willing. Now one last, I Timothy 6.6. Paul, I Timothy 6, Verse 6. All of you there? Okay. But godliness with contentment. Folk, I've known a few in life, they're just a happy-go-lucky person. Every time you see them, they're the same. They're not Christians, but they're satisfied with their lot in life. Godliness with contentment is great gain. I like the way the Amplified has this, that contentment which comes from a sense inner confidence based on the sufficiency of God. Contentment. Sufficiency. A perfect condition in life. Contentment. I need no aid. I need no support. Right now I don't need I might change in an hour from now, but right now, I don't need. That's contentment. Now all of you have responsibilities, I'm well aware of that, and you are to fill your role, work, business, home, be good stewards of everything that God has required of you, as a husband, as a wife, as a mother, everything God's required. But when the day's over, Leave it. Park the vehicle, shut the door, have your meal, and leave everything alone outside. Some folk can't rest because of tomorrow's anxiety and worries. You're gonna end up in a bad physical condition told us this for your own benefit, physically and spiritually. Just leave everything. A lack of contentment in your mind is a distrust of God. And it creates a restless mind. And you try to see God as ever sufficient, ever kind, always gracious, and always supplying all my needs. Some don't come as quickly as others, but He's always met them all. And you strive for contentment because you found a God to be very faithful. My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Whatever you need, it'll be provided. Samuel told Saul, you go, I'll meet you over there. I think it was seven days. And in the meantime of Samuel getting there, the enemy had gathered all their forces together, and here Saul's looking at all those, and Samuel's not there, and Saul had put a time on the clock when he was to be there. So Saul entered into the priest's office, and he offered a sacrifice. And by the time that that is offered, there's Samuel. I offered this because I see the enemies. And I couldn't wait on you any longer because they'd grown too numerous to count. And the thing, Samuel told him, you go slay all those people. Everybody in that country, in that land, slay them all. And Saul saved the best of the flock, and he saved the king. And he sees Samuel coming, and he said, Blessed be thou of the Lord, I've been obedient to the Lord. Samuel said, What means the bleeding of the sheep then? They just told on you, Saul. Oh, we spared them to sacrifice to God. Doth God, would God have you do that? To obey is better than sacrifice. In due time, God will meet your needs, and I argue here from the greater to the less. Romans 8, I think it's 32, he that spared not his own son, but freely gave him for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? If God gave me Christ, then I may not have bread, physical or spiritual, for the day, but before the day's over, I will. And I'll close with this. You're getting weary. It's the last, last point. Contentment, you are to seek in the physical realm and never let the physical outweigh the spiritual. But contentment in the spiritual realm is deadly as any enemy out there for your soul. If you ever become content with where you are as a the knowledge that you've gained as a Christian, or the faithfulness that you've been over the years, if you ever become content in that, then there has built up in your mind, I've paid my debt to God. There were 10 virgins that went out because they heard the bridegroom was coming. And they all took their lamps. But the five foolish virgins, though in the camp with the true, they were content with their lamp, their outward profession. And when they looked at everybody else, like me looking at you, I've got as much as you have. I don't need anything more. That's the way they looked at the other five virgins. They've got a lamp, we've got a lamp. All associated with the visible church. have lamps. But Jesus said that the foolish took no oil with them. The wise took their lamp and a vessel with oil. Maybe someday I will change my mind about this, but what is our vessel? that holds the oil to keep our lamps burning. The best I can do with it, it's only the heart in a believer. In his heart, he has sufficient. My God will supply today. My God will give me bread today. My God will. All the activities that my heart must be in pursuit of, I have sufficient oil in my lamp when I pray. I have the Spirit's aid. When I read the book, I have the Spirit's aid. When I attend the preaching, I have the Spirit's aid. But an active heart with God and spiritual duties, now you under me, you probably won't know anything about this, but when we were growing up, The old, the automobiles, automobiles, they had a dipstick. I don't know if they still, I'm sure some models probably do. And that dipstick indicated the amount of oil. And the old saying was, you just, you take care of the oil in the engine and the gas will take care of itself. And we checked that by the dipstick. And I believe, I believe that the dipstick you hold is your spiritual duties toward God. And when the old heart grows weary of the battle, not, grows weary, And the mind begins to get dull. And the heart less active. I'm not running after the Lord today like I was yesterday. Child of God, that's your lamp beginning to flicker. Pay attention to it, take care of it. And don't let your lamp run out of oil. You get to God. And you settle against, or you fight against your heart settling down too. Well, I've gained this much knowledge in the Lord, that's sufficient. I've prayed this much, that's sufficient. I go to church, that's sufficient. Folks, your presence here means nothing, nothing, unless your heart is here. So you be content with the things in the lower realm that you and I live in, work in, face many of our problems in, but never become content. in heavenly things. It's a deadly pan.