This transcript was generated by whisper.ai. (upbeat music) - Welcome to day two of our look through Hebrews chapter 13. We're going to focus in on verses five and six today. Yesterday we began to look at some practical actions that you and I take because of who Jesus is, because of all the rest of the book of Hebrews, because of the faith that we have, and we know that he's on his throne, and we want to run the race that he set for us. What do we do? How do I begin to do that? Many people struggle with that. How do I run his race? You begin with these simple practical things that we're talking about. You love other people in your life. You be kind to strangers in your life. When you start with these simple practical things, God builds upon that, the calling for your life, the direction for your life, everything else for your life. Love each other, be hospitable to strangers, care for those in prison, honor marriage. We talked about that yesterday. And then today we add, we add a fifth thing in verses five and six. Be content. Listen to these verses. Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you. "Never will I forsake you. " So we say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper. "I will not be afraid. "What can man do to me? " Be content, these verses say. You always reject the negative by choosing the positive. It's not enough just to reject the negative. You have to choose the positive. You reject the sin by choosing the truth. So to keep away from the love of money, you have to choose contentment. That's the positive. Now when you think about contentment and what it means in your life, there's a lot I could say about that. Just thinking through some of the thoughts about contentment, your contentment level is lower than you think. You can learn a lot of these in the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus taught about money, and he taught about the birds, and look how God feeds them. And if God takes care of them, he's going to take care of you. If you've got food and clothes, and if you've got a shelter, that's enough. Our contentment level is lower than we think. You probably know, and I certainly have known, people who live in very poor parts of the world who are much more content with people who have much more than they have. Your contentment level is lower than you think. Contentment is centered not in riches. It's centered in relationship, and specifically in relationship to God. Contentment is found not in circumstances, but it's found in Christ. If I try to find my contentment in my circumstances, I'm going to be chasing it the rest of my life, like a dog chasing its tail around and around and around. There's a lot of people living that kind of life. Contentment comes not from how much I have, it actually comes from how much I give in this world. When I give, recognizing that what I have is meant for more than just this world, I can invest it in things that last forever, people, prayers, character, salvations. When I invest it in that kind of way, the contentment level goes up. Contentment is determined by what I choose to pursue. What am I chasing after in life? Here in these verses, we see the truth about contentment. The contentment is built on my source of security. If you're going to have contentment in your life, you have to have the right source of security in your life. If your source of security is things, if it's money, if it's houses, you're never going to be content 'cause you're never going to have enough. These verses tell us, keep your lives free from the love of money, be content with what you have because God has said, never will I leave you. Never will I forsake you. You can be content with what you have not because of what you have, but because God will never leave you. It's interesting that one of the most quoted verses in the New Testament, God's saying, I will never leave you, I will never forsake you. It is spoken in this context of money, of contentment. The truth is we often let our fear destroy our contentment, our fear of losing everything. And this verse reminds us you cannot lose everything. You can't lose the most important thing. You have a God who loves you. We get ourselves in these traps where we save and we hoard more and more than we could possibly even need in a lifetime because we're afraid of a financial collapse. We're not thinking about how we might use those things. We're holding onto them like some teddy bear to give us comfort, to give us security. There are some mighty expensive teddy bears in this world that people are holding onto. And we have to outgrow that in our lives. Now, I believe in financial planning. We should plan financially, but too often our financial planning is simply a thin disguise for a lack of trust in God, in God's presence. I believe in financial success. I don't believe in it for everyone in the way that you would say we would count it up in terms of dollars in a bank account. There's different kinds of financial success. But I do believe God gives some people financial success and he can use that. I believe in financial growth, but not when the motivation is pride or greed. It's just going to get you deeper and deeper in a hole, further and further away from God. God may want to hand you a lot of material things. He may want to give you a little. Contentment allows you to be ready for whatever God's plan is in your life. So these verses we're looking at, there are two decisions that God challenges in these verses we've read a couple of times. Decision number one, keep your life free. Decision number two, be content. Keep your life free from the love of money. Be content with what you have. Those are decisions you and I have to make. They don't happen automatically. It is easy to get your life caught up in the love of money. You might be caught up in it right now. It's easy to be caught up in discontent in your life, looking around at what you don't have instead of being content with what you do have. So the question is, how do you decide to do this? How do you choose? How do you decide to keep your life free from the love of money? Well, fellowship with those who are trying to do the same thing is very important. When you surround yourself with people who love money, who think that that's the only way to be content, you're going to compare with them and you're going to end up loving money just like they do. So you gotta surround yourself with people who have higher values, but even more deeply than that, it's the source of security that you have to go back to. You have to see God as the source from which all your needs are met, not money, not your job. God is the source. Now, I'm like you, I confuse the supply with the source. God's supplying my needs through this job. He's supplying my needs 'cause I have this house. So if I lose those things, I think I cannot be content. But if you've been through circumstances where you've lost a job or you've lost a house, you've lost a house through a flood in our lives, you learn through those circumstances that you can still be content because the source is still there, the source of your security. These verses are telling you and I we have to choose because if you don't manage your money, your money will manage you. And too many people end up serving their money. Are you serving your money? If you're serving your money, you're not serving God, it's that simple. You can't serve God and money, Jesus said. And it doesn't take, let's just be honest, large quantities of money to come between us and God. It just takes a little. Placed in the wrong position between us and God and that obscures your view. You could take a small, thin dime and put it right in front of your eye. It would obscure your view of what's around you. And if you put money between you and God, it obscures your view. Now, contentment. Contentment does not mean, this may be a new thought for you. Contentment does not mean you just settle for what you have. Okay, I'm content, I'll settle for what I have. God, other people have more. I'll just settle for what I have. Contentment means you have to enjoy what you have. How can you be content unless you enjoy what you have? And if you don't take the time to enjoy what you have, you will always be wanting something more. And that desire will constantly torpedo your financial discipline. It'll constantly torpedo the contentment in your life. So I'd say right now in your mind, take some time to enjoy the things that you already have by thanking God. I know what you don't have or you know what you don't have and I know how easy your mind can go to that. But take some time to think about what you do have. We live in a pretty materialistic world. Wouldn't you say we live in a pretty materialistic world? So it's easy to get caught up in materialism attacks to think about what you don't have. How do you keep your life free from loving money? How do you be content in this world that we live in? Once again, you realize your ultimate security is not in the things. It's in the one who made those things. You stop relying on the supply and you start relying on the supplier. And you realize how much greater he is than the supply and how much you can enjoy him no matter what. The greatness of the supply or the little of the supply that you feel you have in your life right now. I've always loved what C. S. Lewis said about God as a supplier in our lives when it comes to finances. C. S. Lewis once said, he who has God and everything has no more than he who has God alone. What a thought. He who has God and all the riches that this world could offer has no more than he who has God alone. Because the truth is those riches aren't going to last. Those riches aren't going to last. God alone is the one that's going to last. My character in him, my relationship with him. It's a new way of thinking in this materialistic world. If I'm going to think that way, if you're going to think that way in this world, we need the mind of Christ. We need to see things through his perspective. So let's ask for that right now. Would you pray with me? Our Father, all of us, when it comes to materialism and money and the things that are around us, we look at those things and we see how they might make life more comfortable or make life easier. But Lord, what we really want is what you want for our lives. We don't want one thing in our lives that would make our lives more comfortable that would keep us away from serving you. Well, we might think we want it in the moment. We do think we want it in the moment. But Lord, when it comes right down to it, we want you. We want what you can do in our lives now and all the way into eternity. So give us that perspective. Help us to see the things in our lives in that way. They are the things, but you're the supplier. You're the creator. You're our Father. You're the one who's taking care of us. So we look to you right now. Help us to enjoy what you've given us today. We pray this in your name. Amen. Tomorrow, we're going to talk together about the value of a good relationship with your spiritual leaders.