in a study on the gospel of Mark, as you know if you've been in the class. Today we're taking a little break from Mark. We're gonna go into this topic of contentment for today. You say, why are we doing that? Well, one of the big reasons, I don't know if you've ever been reading along in your Bible and you just come across something and it just kind of strikes you and you want to share that with somebody and bring it to someone's attention. And I wasn't thinking of any person other than really myself, but I thought, man, this would be a great kind of a standalone lesson on contentment. The other reason I was thinking about was thinking about this week in America, right? And we live in this land of the free, home of the brave, but also a land of plenty. When you compare even those that are you know, maybe below the poverty line in the United States with those that are in third world countries and different places like that, we still have it really, I think, the best or at least one of the best countries in the world is America. We have, it is a land of plenty and we are a consumer driven culture, are we not? I mean, every ad, everything tells us if you have this refrigerator, your family is going to get along at dinner. I mean, you've seen those, right? Because they, or you name the product, it shows that we have, if we have this product or this device or whatever, the newest phone, the newest whatever, your life is gonna be exponentially better, people are gonna like you, people are gonna love you more, you're gonna be more handsome, more beautiful, whatever the case. So we're told this constantly, And in this consumer mindset, we can lose our ability to be content with what we have. And I was reading through Hebrews recently, and I came to this passage here that we're gonna look at in Hebrews 13, speaking of contentment, which we'll get to in a moment. One little story to read you first, and it is a story, it's not an account. It's about these two little teardrops. Two little teardrops were floating down the river of life. One teardrop asked the other, who are you? I am a teardrop from a girl who loved a man and lost him. But who are you? The first teardrop replied, I am a teardrop from the girl who got him. Life is like that. We cry over the things we can't have. but we might cry twice as hard if we had received them. We often lose perspective of what we have because we're always being told you never have enough. You always need something more. You always need something better. So what is your enough? That's kind of the theme question that we're going to talk about. I mean, we look at our culture, we look at the spending and the drive and the advertisements and the marketing. You know how much money is put in marketing every year? Millions and millions of dollars in marketing just to tell us that we need these things. So as we consider our freedoms here in America over this last week here, we consider our freedom to choose what to buy, what to sell. We get caught up in the materialism of the age. What does God have to say about it? How should we respond? Does that mean it's wrong to upgrade or buy something that we need? Of course not. But how do we respond to that overwhelming pressure to constantly believe that we need to own more, to buy more, to upgrade, to upscale our stuff? That's what I wanna look at this morning. Let's pray and then we'll get into our outline and into the word of God. Father, thank you, Lord, so much for your word. Lord, you speak to us right at ground level, at street level, Lord. The street level theology is so much of what the Bible's made up of. And it helps us to understand our world through your eyes and through your lens. So please, Lord, help us to do that. Help us, Lord, as we walk through this passage this morning, help it to speak to our hearts, Lord. I know that, I know myself, Lord, discontentment can come on so quickly. Lord, and so I know it can be a struggle for us. So please, Lord, let your word speak to us today. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, so we're gonna be looking at Hebrews 13. So if you're not there yet, Hebrews 13, please turn in your Bible with me to that chapter. We're gonna look at these verses here. Hebrews 13, really just two verses, honestly, but we'll be going other places as well. Hebrews 13, five and six. I've divided the section up into three parts. The outline is number one, content in our conduct, number two, content as a consumer, because the truth is we are still consumers, right? We have to go to the grocery store, right? We have to have clothing and we do have to shop for things, so we are consumers. Nothing wrong with that, but how do we allow God to speak to us through our consuming? And then number three, content with content with Christ. So let's start off with this outline, number one, content in conduct. Look with me at Hebrews 13, and we're just gonna read the first sentence, if you will, the first portion of verse five. So Hebrews 13, five says this, let your conduct be without covetousness. Let your conduct be without covetousness. The word conduct here, it means a way of life. It means one's behavior, the manner in which something is done. So our conduct, our behavior, must be without coveting. And that's the thing, that's kind of the opposite, if you will, of contentment. We want to live this contented life, but along comes coveting. And it says, hey, you don't have something that's good enough. That other person has something, you deserve it, you need it, you've got to have it. Our conduct must be without coveting. The literal translation of that word is not loving money. So it's, and of course anything that money can buy would be considered with that. The discontent Christian will live their life in the pursuit of this world's goods above all else. And man, it's easy to get into that mindset, isn't it? That, wow, I've got to have this. It consumes us, and it drives us in our decisions. So specifically, as we look at coveting, coveting is really a trap that we fall into of comparison. It's not just wanting the shiny new object the advertisement or on the shelf, but it's desiring something that someone else has and believing that you deserve it for yourself and maybe even deserve it more than they do. So the life of a discontented Christian will be characterized by constantly comparing themselves to others, constantly comparing what they own to what others own, and constantly scheming, if you will, thinking, strategizing ways, I've got to upgrade, I've got to, you know the phrase, keeping up with the Joneses, right? And it's just this generic Joneses, or these neighbors of ours, or people in our life that we believe we have to match up, and really, it's not about keeping up. It should be surpassing the Joneses, because that's really the goal of the covetous heart. It's not to be equal with them. it's to have just a little bit more than that, right? A little bit newer, a little bit better, a little bit more upgraded. So when this type of person, this covetous person, is a guest at someone's home, and they're invited there, and they see that their host has that new stove in the kitchen, the new grill, the new vehicle, new furniture, et cetera, new whatever, there's a trigger inside, and they desire that that thing, to have that thing, And they begin to form, I've got to figure out how to own that because they own that and I deserve that too. And I can't let myself fall behind where they are in their belongings, if you will. Even if they have one of the same or a similar at home that's working fine, everything's good. And sometimes when something breaks, we do talk to our friends. Hey, and I see people post on Facebook and places all the time. Hey, I'm looking for a new grill. I'm looking for a new vehicle or a new, you fill in the blank. I'm looking to change phone carriers. What do you guys use? And people will comment on there. And I think we can help each other be wise with how we spend, but that's not the issue with the covetor. The covetor already has these things, or if they don't, it's really maybe not a need. They just have decided it is. And so the covetor sees someone else's property and believes that they themselves deserve it more. The warning against covetous behavior goes all the way back to the 10th commandment in Exodus 20, 17. Notice the connection between the things and who owns them. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You already have a house, you don't need to covet their house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's. So we see the connection there, coveting saying, they have something, someone else has something, my neighbor has something, and I believe that I should have it. Coveting is also portrayed in the tragic account of Achan, If you remember Achan and the spoils of Jericho, when they were told, when they conquered Jericho, the children of Israel come into the land, the walls fall, you're gonna go in, you're gonna kill everyone except for Rahab and her family, but none of the spoils are to go to any person. They're to be put in the treasury of the Lord. They are his by right. Well, Achan decides that he, well, he covets, really is what he does. And whose property is he coveting at this point? God's, right? Because God had said, everything in there is mine. So Achan actually coveted the Lord's property. And he said, I want it for myself. And when he finally gets found out, this is his confession in Joshua 7, 21. When I saw among the spoils a beautiful Babylonian garment, 200 shekels of silver and a wedge of gold weighing 50 shekels, I, what? Coveted them and took them. and there they are hidden in the earth in the midst of my tent with the silver under it. And of course, we all know, hopefully you know what happened to Achan, sad, tragic ending. He and not only him, but his wife and children, everything he had was amassed there in the valley and they were stoned to death with a heap of stones piled over them. And it was a curse because of that, if you remember, the next town they go to conquer, who remembers that? What's the next town? Ai. Does Israel defeat Ai like they do Jericho in the first battle? No, several of their soldiers die and they are sent running for the hills, if you will. And God says, there's sin in the camp. And it was Achan and his sin that caused that. So we see that coveting doesn't just affect the person, it affects their family, it affects their nation, if you will, their community. In the New Testament, The Greek word for coveting means an inordinate desire to have more, to constantly be looking for more, Ephesians 5.3. But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you as fitting for saints. So we are supposed to be walking and that freedom we learned about this morning, or we were reminded of, and walking as saints of God, let not covetousness be named among you. Sometimes coveting can include not just coveting like physical objects, but it can also mean coveting status, coveting what others think of us. Go with me to the book of Acts. for a moment. Acts chapter 5. We're going to see the deadly results. We saw the deadly results of coveting with Achan. We're going to see the deadly results of coveting with these folks here that we meet in Acts chapter 5. Acts 5, starting at verse number 1. But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession. and he kept back part of the proceeds, his wife also being aware of it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? Just pause there for a moment. I've always been struck by that question, how Peter brings Satan into the conversation. Why has Satan, filled your heart to lie? We're gonna see what they were coveting was the status that someone else got when they brought money to lay at the apostles feet. They wanted the accolades that he got. But this tells me then that coveting is a satanic attitude. Why has Satan filled your heart to lie? And who did he lie to actually? The Holy Spirit, God, yeah. Think about Satan's fall. Now it was pride that lifted him up, but what did Satan say that he wanted? He wanted to sit on God's throne. He coveted the throne of God. So when he fell, yes, it was pride, but covetousness and pride are often very, very close friends, if you will. our hearts and certainly that was the case with him Peter said Ananias why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself verse 4 while it remained was it not your own was it not your own choice what to do with the money couldn't you have told us, I sold the land for this, but I'm keeping a part of it for our own profit, but I'm giving this, would have been fine. But that's not what he did. And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? The property was yours to control that you sold, and the proceeds were yours to control. Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God. Whoa. Number, verse five. Then Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and breathed his last. God said, that's enough. I tend to believe Ananias was a believer. I believe God said, enough of your sin, I'm bringing you to heaven now. And so he drops, literally drops dead. Why? Because of the satanic attitude of coveting. Sometimes I think we don't see coveting like we see murder or adultery. But here, God's word tells us it is equal to those in the terms of the seriousness, how God looks at it. It is satanic in his eyes. Verse six, I'm sorry, the rest of verse five says, so great fear came upon all those who heard these things. Well, his wife didn't hear them, as we'll find out, but the fear of God was in the hearts. Verse six, and the young men arose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him. Verse seven, now it was about three hours later when his wife came in, not knowing what had happened, and Peter answered her, tell me whether you sold the land for so much? She said, yes, for so much. Then Peter said to her, it's almost the same question he asked her husband, How is it that you have agreed together to test the spirit of the Lord? Look, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door and they will carry you out. Then immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. And the young men came in and found her dead and carrying her out, buried her by her husband. So great fear came upon all the church and upon all who heard these things. So here we have not just one person like Achan, but a couple, two conspiring against God, conspiring together that were consumed with coveting. And we know what they were coveting. If you look back with me, I'll have this one up here on the screen. If we go back into Acts 4, the last couple of verses, we see what they were actually coveting. Look what happened there at the end of Acts 4. And Joseph, who was also named Barnabas by the apostles, which is translated son of encouragement, that was kind of his nickname because of his character, a Levite of the country of Cyprus, having land, sold it and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet. So Barnabas, this wealthy Jewish man that we call the Son of Encouragement, the apostles called him that, he was a wealthy Jewish man. He had made a generous donation by selling land and bringing the proceeds and laying it at the apostles' feet. He had made this generous offering, this generous donation to the church, and people knew about it. He didn't do it anonymously. And I don't believe he did it pridefully either. It was just simply, he just did it and people knew. And I'm sure he was publicly thanked. I'm sure perhaps there was Peter or somebody had mentioned it at a worship service maybe, or just at a mealtime as they were all eating together. We just want to thank Barnabas for his generous donation, and I believe Ananias and Sapphira saw that accolade, saw that he was being encouraged and publicly recognized, and so they coveted. No, they wanted to have their cake and eat it too. They figured if they sold land like he did, and then kept some of the proceeds and lied about it, they could enjoy the warmth, the basking in the glow, right, of this public recognition for their generosity while still enjoying the proceeds of the land. They coveted Barnabas's fame. They coveted his accolades, which ultimately led to their deaths. Covetous conduct blinds the covetor. to the consequences and drives them to commit sin in order to gain their desires. So that's a good filter, if you will. Am I coveting? Do I want to just bless my family and make sure that we're cared for? Because we do need to upgrade our things. We do need to care for our vehicles and our homes and our families. So am I doing that or am I doing this because I'm coveting? Well, are we willing to sin to do it? And these folks were that we've looked at. So covetous conduct blinds us. 1 Timothy 6, 9 and 10 talks about this. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition, for the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." This is not saying that it's wrong to invest for your retirement or to have a savings account. or to be wise and good stewards with our finances. Of course we need to be doing that. I believe we do that as a church with the finances God has given us. We try to be as wise as possible. The deacons sit and pour over the financial reports and try to make sure that we are being fiscally responsible. That's important. I believe it honors God. But this desire to be rich is a desire above all else. It is a covetousness and it is a temptation and a snare. 1 Timothy 6 is a good passage to go back through and read. We're kind of going out of order. If we go back to verses six and seven, he says, now godliness with what? Contentment. Godliness with contentment is great gain For we brought nothing into this world, it is certain we can carry nothing out. We leave this world with exactly what we came into it with. That's it, nothing else. So the encouragement here is are we going to covet like Achan did, like Ananias and Sapphira, or will we choose contentment and being happy with what God has given to us? So let's go into the second part of the outline. Number two is content as a consumer. So we need to be content in our conduct, and we kind of showed some negative examples of what not to be like, but we also have to consume things. We have to buy, we have to sell, we have to conduct business, if you will. So how do we allow contentment to watch over that and to guide those financial decisions? Look with me back in Hebrews 13. Get back there with myself. Hebrews 13, verse five. We'll go into the next part of the verse. So first of all, let your conduct be without covetousness, but notice, be content with such things as you have. Be content with such things as you have. And we've stated this already, the truth is, We have to be consumers if we're gonna live this life. Everyone does. We are consumers at some level here in this world. We need certain things. We use them. We use them for ministry, for example. We use them for our families. So we have to make these purchases, but how do we balance that out with making sure we're content? Let's look at this in context first, okay? So the book of Hebrews, if we look, if we just step out of Hebrews 13 and look at all 13 chapters, the whole book, it's written to Jewish Christians who were considering returning back to the Mosaic law. They were considering going back to observing all the Sabbaths and all the feasts and all the dietary laws and all the sacrificial system. And the writer of Hebrews is writing to these Christians, and really, the emphasis is on Christ, and the grandeur of Christ, and how he's better than the angels, and he's better than the sacrifices, and he's better than the prophets, and he's better than the tabernacle, he's better than the altar, and the better than phrase repeated over and over and over throughout the book. So the writer, he's trying to convince them to remain in the freedom that Christ brings. And their freedom was freedom from the law. They're free to not practice that and to live in the freedom of Christ, live their lives in Christ. Now, one reason that these Christians were considering, you say, well, why would they wanna go back to Orthodox Judaism? One reason was that they were being heavily persecuted for their faith. So they were trying to live this Christian life, and the Judaizers and others were persecuting them. And we're gonna see the extent. If we go back to Hebrews 10, verse 34, this is the author. Many believe it's the Apostle Paul. There's a lot of debate on who it is. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter what human wrote it, because we know God wrote it, right? And this is what the Holy Spirit inspired the writer to say. For you, you Christians, you Jewish Christians, I'm writing to, you had compassion on me in my chains, notice, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have, here's his word, a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven. You suffered the plundering of your goods. These Christians, had their property taken away because of their faith. They had had their businesses plundered. They had been driven out potentially of their homes. Their material goods were stolen, their property taken because they were Christians. Now let's put ourselves in their place. Imagine, if you will, an America where Christianity is seen as a detriment to society. Kind of getting there. Where anyone identifying as a Christian is considered a second class citizen and less than human. Imagine an America where the laws that once protected everyone now only protect the citizens that are in right standing with the state. Imagine that happening here. You've heard of the social credit score in some countries. That's what they're going for. So that places people of faith at a very strong disadvantage because of their faith. Christians are unable to attain decent jobs, if any. They're unable to own property, unable to run businesses or run for office or vote or carry out transactions in the public square. They're isolated and pushed out of society. That's some of what was happening to these people that the epistle of Hebrews is written to. Now what is the human response to these injustices? What would our response be if we're trying to protect our children and our families and our homes? It would be to naturally cling to the material possessions that we have. It would naturally want us to, I'm gonna do anything it takes to feed my family, put food on my table for my children and my family, right? And so there would be this human response, and I think it'd be a natural response to do this. And the writer's not asking them to not provide for their home. He's simply helping them and encouraging them to not fall into the trap of coveting. Because how easy would it be for them to then covet those that are in right standing with the state, those that are willing to submit to whatever that pressure is and conform to that instead of conforming to the word of God and conforming to Christ. How easy would it be to covet what they have, right? Because they're able to, man, they're able to have that home They're able to run their business and they're able to do all these things. They're able to have the nicest of the nice. And so the writer is encouraging them, he's encouraging them to not fall into that trap of coveting one's neighbors who are living this kind of luxurious life while they're forced to struggle. That's really the warning in Hebrews 13 if we go back Now to our verse here, Hebrews 13, five, be content with such things as you have. Notice the emphasis on things. We've already been talking about that this morning. The things, the objects, the belongings, the possession, the stuff, right, that we have. So in our culture today, in our consumer culture, culture of constant pressure to upgrade, to make better, to upscale. This is a very timely warning. We're not facing exactly what they were, not yet at least, here in America. But what a timely warning for us. Every targeted ad, and there are targeted ads. Have you picked up on that when you have a discussion about something? What's on your feed next time in an ad form? An ad for that thing, right? So you are being targeted by ads. You specifically, because you're going to have different ads on your feed, on your phone, for example, than I'm going to have on mine. So we are being targeted by these advertisements, this constant pressure. Every commercial, everyone looks so happy. They look so wonderfully content because they have that, whatever it is, that device, that object. And they seem to tell us that we simply cannot be happy without that thing. I always laugh, I wasn't thinking of this before, it just came to me. You've seen the infomercials, right, for things? Okay, the person using the old style of whatever kitchen gadget or whatever, it's always in black and white. and they're always struggling so hard to use this knife or kitchen thing, right? And everything's breaking, and they're all angry, and usually their hair's all messy, and it's just like, see, this is your life. They're trying to tell us this is your life without this wonderful new product, right? And then when it goes to the product they're pushing, everything turns to color. And it's all bright and cheerful, and everyone's smiling, and all the children are well-behaved, and all the things are... I mean, it's just this beautiful, heavenly picture over here, and it's all made possible with three easy payments of $19.99, right? I mean, that's what we're being told. But wait, there's more if you act now. When we take inventory of our home's contents, when we actually look at what we have, the Bible is calling us to be content with everything just like it is. Yeah, if it's broken, we need to fix it or replace it. Yes, that's true. But that's not what coveting is about. It's not about fixing broken things or maintaining our vehicles or maintaining our properties in our homes. Coveting is about wanting more, bigger, better, supposedly. The word content means to be satisfied. So again, I ask the question, we'll close with this question a little bit here, but what is enough for you? What is your enough? What is your satisfaction? Back to 1 Timothy 6 again, this time verse eight. And having food, and clothing, food and clothing. With these we shall be content. I've said this verse to my children a few times. When they want something I'm not ready for them to own yet. Having food and clothing, let's be content. And I need to say it to myself too, right? It's not just children that need to hear this. I need to hear this. Having food and clothing with these we shall be content. Here, Paul boils it down to simply the life-sustaining necessities of life. So this tells me that it is proper to have a way, a means to provide, have a job, be able to put food on the table, clothes on our backs, and not have to wear ripped-up rags. We're supposed to have a good testimony and be cleanly and be approachable. Be winsome, right? In a way that we interact with both fellow believers and unbelievers. So we need to have food and clothing, but he says, I'm boiling everything down to these things. Let's be content. So we ask ourselves, am I cared for? Are my most basic needs being met? If the answer is yes to that, then we are to choose satisfaction. Satisfaction is not something that happens to us. It is a choice that we make. It's a choice. It's not depending on circumstances. We are called here to allow satisfaction to have its work in us in an effective way, thereby prohibiting us from coveting. See, that's the protection. If we struggle to covet, if you're struggling with coveting, satisfaction is the antidote, if you will, for that. We choose to allow our current circumstances to be enough. What is your enough? That brings us to this third section, final section of our outline, number three, content with Christ, content with Christ. Back into our text here. The last, I'll just read verses five and six. Let your conduct be without covetousness. We looked at that first. Be content with such things as you have. That's number two. Now we get into the third one, content with Christ. For he himself, God himself, has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. So we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper. I will not fear, what can man do to me? The implied answer to that question is nothing, nothing. When will we have enough? How much money is enough? This has been used in so many sermons. It was the only thing I could find. The old J.D. Rockefeller quote, he's the world's first billionaire, and they said, well, how much money is enough? And what was his reply? Just a little more, just a little more. If you haven't heard that, I hope it was new for at least someone in the room, but that was his answer, just a little more. And what is he saying? Nothing, it's never enough, right? There's never an amount that I'm gonna be happy with, because I've always got to have a little bit more. Scripture gives us this different perspective. focusing in on the end of verse five. For he himself has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. He doesn't say I'm gonna provide houses and cars and huge bank accounts. Does he say that? He doesn't say I'm gonna prosper you. If you plant this seed, if you give this little bit of money, God's gonna grow that and it's gonna come back to you tenfold. The, what I'll call, heresy of the prosperity gospel will tell us that. But God doesn't say that. He says, be content with what you have, and then he offers us not more goods, not bigger bank accounts, he offers us himself. He says, my presence with you is the highest priority. It is the greatest blessing. It is the richest treasure. It is His constant abiding presence that He's calling us to embrace and let go of the desire for yearning for more material goods. What is God saying here? He's saying, I'm enough for you. I'm enough. I'm enough. I'm here. Now we look at coveting and we looked at the way Achan coveted and the way Ananias and Sapphira coveted, and we believe that it's a satanic attitude of coveting. And we go back and we think about coveting versus contentment. What are we saying when we covet based on this verse? We're actually saying, God, you're not enough for me. You're not enough. We're saying when we covet, I don't trust God to stay with me. So I've got to pursue financial wealth. I've got to pursue more belongings so that I can create my own security. I can build my own little kingdom here on earth. God's constant abiding presence is our enough. That's what he's saying to us. His hands are outstretched to us. He's saying my presence with you That is your enough. That is your enough. I am enough for you. And when anything else, anything, whether it is a material thing, a financial thing, a cultural thing, a status thing, when anything takes that place, and it becomes our enough in our hearts, we have rejected God. And it is, in fact, idolatry. And we are, at that point, worshiping whatever that thing is, whatever that pursuit is. Colossians 3.5, notice what he says. Therefore, put to death your members, which are on the earth, fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and what's the last one? Covetousness, which is what? Idolatry. Coveting, that satanic attitude takes God off the throne of our hearts and puts ourselves or whatever it is we're pursuing in his place. that takes God's place in our lives is actually an idol. It is an altar that we set up in our hearts and we worship and we make sacrifices to. And the thing is, when someone is worshiping an idol in their heart, not only do they worship that idol, but they expect everyone else around them to worship that idol as well and to sacrifice themselves to the idol just like they are. Sometimes this idol is simply the money in our accounts, the spending power. What's in your wallet? The question that I just saw the ad last night, what's in your wallet? What's that? What's in your wallet? Yeah. So that question's being asked. And so we often put that, the spending power that we consume, more and more stuff. Jesus warned us about this as well in Luke 12, 15. And he said to them, take heed and beware of covetousness. For one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses. Someone else is gonna own your house at some point in the future. They're probably gonna own your car, your clothes, all your stuff. Someone else is gonna own it, right? It's important to have that kind of eternal perspective on what we have. because we get so focused and think this is my whatever and it is and we should enjoy our homes and we should enjoy what God has given to us and use it for his glory. But our life does not consist of what's in our wallet. Our life does not consist of what's in our accounts or in our homes. Our life consists of our relationship with Jesus Christ. Everything else is secondary and beyond, below that. Getting back to our text here, verse six, as we conclude. So we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper, I will not fear, what can man do to me? When our life is bound up in our material goods and possessions, what happens to us then when those possessions are stolen, or there's a tragedy of a house fire, and all is lost, and we've bound up our life in that thing, or something breaks, or something is stolen, It becomes obsolete. Yeah, you had the greatest tech or whatever, but it's not long before the computer, the phone, the tablet, whatever, it quickly goes obsolete, right? Because technology just exponentially increases in its complexity. But if we've bound our life to those things, our world just crashes if we lose them. But when we see Jesus as our enough, the things of this life, they can come and go. Yes, we have to be good stewards. Yes, we should have things and use them, but at the end of it all... They can come and go as long as we have Jesus, as long as He is our enough. These words that we just read are quotes from the Psalms, Psalm 27.1, the Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? So the coveting is really rooted in fear. It's really where it's rooted. We're afraid. We live in fear of the stock market crashing, let's say, or we live in fear of financial difficulty. We live in fear of falling behind the social status, whoever designed that. And we desire to meet up to that standard that the world has given to us. Do we have to live in fear of these things? No, we don't. What can man do to me? A reliance on material goods always results in fear, fear of loss, fear of not having enough, fear of someone else taking it. As we conclude, I couldn't help but think of this character. The author Charles Dickens described his main protagonist, Ebenezer Scrooge, in a Christmas carol this way. Let me read to you. the opening lines of A Christmas Carol. Oh, but he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge, a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner, hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire, secret and self-contained and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shriveled his cheek, stiffened his gait, made his eyes red, his thin lips blue, and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A frosty rhyme was on his head and on his eyebrows and his wiry chin. He carried his own low temperature always about with him. He iced his office in the dog days and didn't thaw it one degree at Christmas. Why was Ebenezer Scrooge, I know he's a fictitious character, why was he so angry all the time? I believe he was living a life of fear, fear of loss. That's why he was clutching and grasping and squeezing, misering over his wealth. But when the Lord is our light and our salvation and our strength, it renders money and the goods it buys powerless over us. We lose all of that fear when we say in Psalm 118.6, the Lord is on my side. I will not fear. What can man do to me? Now we're out of time. I was gonna read Philippians 4, 10 through 13. So that's your assignment today. Go home and read Philippians 4, 10 through 13. We're familiar with verse 13, but it's important to get the context We can do all the things that God's asked us to do through Christ who strengthens us, right? And we can use that verse, so there's a lot of applications. But in its original context, Paul was talking about dealing with life at the high end of material goods and at the low end. He says, I have learned to abound and to be abased. When the cup is full, There's a challenge in not spilling it. When the cup is empty, the challenge is not being in despair, but trusting in the Lord. When Jesus is our enough, we are free to do whatever he's called us to do. It's freedom. The verse this morning ties right in. The truth shall set us free. We're free now to serve. We're free to follow his call on our life. because we're not bound up with our finances and our material goods. Let's let Jesus be our enough. Heavenly Father, thank you, Lord, for your word. I thank you for this little lesson on contentment. I thank you for the way that you've been working in my own heart in this area. I thank you for bringing the text to our attention today. I pray, Lord, that you'd help us. Lord, the pressure is on, Lord, in this culture we live in to consume and to upscale and upgrade and to always be grasping and clutching and clawing. I pray, Lord, that you'd help us to lay these things at your feet the way that Barnabas did. Help us to just be willing to let those things not have control over us. Lord, may we not live lives of fear and covetousness, but Lord, teach us how to be content. Teach us how to be satisfied with you, Lord. Help you to be our enough. Lord, we can't do that without your strength, so we're asking for that. Please bless us, Lord. Help us to enjoy our day with our families and loved ones. And may we be continuing to serve you and be faithful in what you've called us to do. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you, everyone. Have a good day.