The Way of Contentment

Well, good morning. Good to be here. God is good, and we we want to thank Him for His presence here this morning already. I appreciate it, all that was said and done this morning here already. This morning, for this week, it seemed like the Lord was laying a subject on my heart. A lot of times when I'm trying to come up with a subject, I have to fish and pray and ask and wait and work, study, and prepare for it. And it seemed there was this this one word that just came to me over and over, and I decided to preach on it. It's contentment, and maybe it's partly because it's a struggle that I have at times.

And I think when it comes to contentment and discontentment and so on, it's a subject that every one of us, one way or the other, in different levels, maybe face the challenge of. And and this is for children. I'm going to try to keep the feeders low this morning. So children, let's stay at the trough and pay attention.

Contentment. But we live in a in a time that in a in a time in a world which material values are constantly pressuring us to make a choice.

We only have so much time to invest, and we are pushed to grab for the best for ourselves while we can. Does that sound familiar? That's what we are surrounded with. And America likes to sort of brag on it, that the very founders, the very foundings of America were based on the on the whole discontent drive of of of the early founders. And, you know, if we think of the the whole economic system of America, isn't it not sort of built on the discontentment of the human heart?

Advertisers have an advantage because they can make an appeal to our human heart that's already right on the edge of struggling with being content. So for a text this morning, I chose to go to Genesis chapter 13. Familiar Old Testament story, and we'll be referring to some New Testament passages.

Genesis 13, Abraham and Lot. Let's read the chapter. And Abraham Abram went up out of Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and lot with him into the south. And Abram was very rich in cattle and silver and in gold. And he went on his journeys for the south, from the south, even to Bethel, unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Hai, unto the place of the altar which he had made there at the first. And there Abram called on the name of the Lord. And Lot also, which went with Abram, had flocks and herds and tents, and the land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together, for their substance was great, so that they could not dwell together.

And there was strife between the herdmen of Abram's cattle and the herdmen of Lot's cattle, and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled in that land. And Abram said unto Lot, "Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee and between my herdmen and thy herdmen, for we be brethren.

Is not the whole land before thee? Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me. If thou wilt take the the left hand, then I will go to the right, or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left." And Lot lifted up his eyes, and behold, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest into Zorah.

Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east, and they separated themselves the one from the other. Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent toward Sodom.

But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly. And the Lord said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, "Lift up now thine eyes and look from the place where thou art, northward, southward, eastward, and westward, for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth, so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall he shall thy seed also be numbered. Arise, walk through the land and the length of it and in the breadth of it, for I will give it unto thee." Then Abram removed his tent and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the Lord.

A little bit of background here.

It says here that Abram went up out of Egypt. Let's think a little bit about how Abram got into Egypt. If we back up, we'll just refer to chapter 12 a little bit to get the context of this chapter 13, the story there.

So if we back up, we see that the beginnings of Abram, his background, his forefather, it goes back to to Shem. And Shem was Noah's son, one of Noah's sons. I think there's, I don't know, ten generations or so that we have. Not much happening. Just listed here the genealogy in chapter 11.

And then at the end of chapter 11, we see that out of this lineage, here comes a boy named Abram. And he had a brother. His brother had a son, which is Lot. And Lot's father died when Lot was young.

So it seems like Abram maybe the reasons Lot is traveling with Abram is because Uncle Abram sort of felt obligated to to care for his young nephew there. I don't know. It doesn't really give us all those reasons. We're assuming here a little bit. But in chapter 12, we come now. So they're all living there together in Haran. In verse 31 of chapter 11, chapter 12, verse one, all of a sudden comes this great call to Abram from God. And he says, "Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house unto a land that I will show thee promise." Verse two, "I will make thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing."

Well, Abram obeys. I believe Hebrews tells us that he obeyed God by faith, going out to a land not knowing where he's going. And we see this journey. He packs up all that he had, it says, and we don't know for sure what all that was, but we take he had a family, Sarah, his wife. He had workers, servants. He had animals and so on. Possibly. It says they had souls that they gathered there in that land that they took along. And I'm not sure what all that means.

And they begin this travel. And I believe, if I'm correct, it's about a 450 mile journey. They finally.

If we look at verse 12, they came to a certain place. Now remember, Abraham is going not knowing where he's going. He's going by faith. All he knows at this point is, "Get thee out of your land and away from your fathers and go to a land that I'm going to show you. But how is God going to show me?" We find in chapter 12.

Verse six, Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem. Is that Shechem? Maybe unto the plain of Morah. And the Canaanite was then in the land. Verse seven, "And the Lord appeared unto Abram and said unto thys and said, Unto thy seed will I give you this land."

And there it says in verse seven of chapter 12 that he built an altar unto the Lord. I love that. It says, "Unto the Lord who appeared unto him." So out of the long journey and the hard work and all the labors, traveling all those miles, finally they arrive to a spot. I don't know. It just seems to me, maybe they're so tired and they're worn out and they're ready to just take a break.

Where from here? And their God appears to him. And I don't know what that would have been like. Just having God come and tell him, "Here's the land." Remember, the promise was, "I'm going to show you." And I believe he showed him. Right here is the land. Verse eight, he moved from thence unto the mountain just east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent. It seems to me right here is the perfect spot.

So he was given the promise. He was given the blessing or promise of a blessing. He said, "I'm going to show you the land." And here, that is all happening, isn't it? But, you know, Abram does an amazing thing.

The next verse tells us. In verse nine, it says, "And Abram journeyed going on toward the south." And then we come into verse ten, and it says there was a famine in the land, this land that God just met him on. And he said, "Here it is." And there's a famine. And Abram's being very human now. He's being just like we are. What does he do?

He says, "Let's go to Egypt." And he packs and he continues his journey. And, you know, from this point on, until Abram turns, we see nothing about altars unto the Lord anymore. What can we learn from Abram this morning? He went and he took, and I think, little young Lot and his whole clan traveled right with him, and they head toward Egypt.

And what do they find before they're even in Egypt? Now, fear is settling in on Abram. And he said, "Sarah, because you're so attractive, you're so pretty, I know what's going to happen. We're going to get into Egypt. And the first thing, I know enough about the Egyptians.

It must have been a bunch of carnal men because they're going to covet and lust after you. And let's let's get up a plan." And we know the story. He told his wife, "If they see you and your attraction and so on, these men are going to want to marry you. And of course, their culture is before they marry you, they're going to have to deal with me.

So they're going to kill me and marry you." I mean, that's a picture we get. So let's come up with a plan. We get into there. You're going to tell these folks that you're my sister.

And they agreed to do that. We know the story. Now, I've I've I've scratched for a little more detail about this. I went to Joseph Josephus. Now, he's a historian writer. I know it's not the Bible, but he gave us a little more detail about all this. Commentators, it's interesting. Commentators are sort of back and forth on, did Abram should have he even gone with the one commentator said, "Well, sure, he was just avoiding a a a famine, a drought in Canaan." And rightfully so, he was okay to go to Egypt.

I I tend to doubt that because of the of the the fear that came on him before he even enters in. He's pressured to lie and be deceitful. Josephus says that there was another part. How does Josephus know? I don't know. I guess he's alongside historian of the happening times, but he had a little more detail. He said there was a dual reason that Abram went up to Egypt is because he was already. Now, he said, for one thing, they had plenty. It was a land of plenty. And here we are in Canaan struggling with a drought. And another thing, he was already grappling with this whole idea of trusting God. Now, this is Josephus.

This is not in the Bible. But Josephus says that Abram was somewhat impressed with the Egyptian gods, and he was going to go to Egypt not only because he's running from a famine, but also to learn from the Egyptian gods. And if their gods had more to offer than his God, he might join them. If not, he's going to try to convince those to come to his God. Now, that's Josephus. I don't know. Is that for sure or not? I thought that was interesting. Now, commentators also say, some of them say that he came back basically at the time. But the Bible here tells us in verse 20. That and Josephus would say this, that he got in trouble there.

He really made King Pharaoh angry when King Pharaoh found out that Sarah was his wife and not his sister. It really ticked him off. And now Josephus says that he was just preparing to commit adultery or an immoral act with her. Then he finds out that it's Abram's wife. She's Abram's wife. And he got upset. Well, their God put a stop to it because there were plagues. Pharaoh got sick. He had some sort of a disease come on him, according to Josephus. And the Bible bears some of that out. And also there was a political unrest or whatever into their in their in his his clan as well. So we get the picture from Scripture and from Josephus that Abraham got Abram got sent back out of Egypt.

And Josephus says that he was given a whole bunch of wealth by Pharaoh just to get rid of him, just get out of here. Well, chapter 13 begins this way, and he was very rich.

In cattle and in silver and in gold. You know, people look at that and say, "Oh, God blessed Abraham with silver and gold and all those possessions." Not really. That silver and gold, a lot of that silver and gold had its roots in discontentment and not trusting God. Pharaoh says, "Get out of here and take this with you." And now he finds himself coming back to Egypt. Now, I don't know what happened to Lot there. Was he given a sum of wealth to get rid of him as well? So now we're coming into Egypt. I mean, back to Canaan. And we have all this stuff. We have all this stuff. You know, there are some things we want to learn from Abram this morning and things we want to learn from Lot.

And we want to make application in our own life and where we live. So. You know, one thing I see that's so wrong with discontentment, and we see that some of the troubles arising here.

From. You know, one thing would be compromise the truth. When a person is driven by discontentment, what is Abram willing to do? Sell his wife? I mean, did he love Sarah? Did he care about her? Now, he knew that if I would if he would give her as a sister, chances for him to save his life were much greater.

But what would happen to his sister? His sister, his wife.

You know, he's willing to trade, to give. And that's how we are when we're driven by discontentment, compromise. We take away the most important values of life, and we trade them so many times when we're driven. There's so many troubles with discontentment. We live in a world of discontented people all around us. It's who we do business with for the most part, do we not?

How are we going to come out right? You know, another important thing we want to look about discontentment, let's call it what it is this morning. It's sin. Do we believe that? Do we believe that when we operate under discontentment and we live our life that way, we're living in sin? How can we say that?

If you know a discontented person or you've been discontented, are you happy? Are you joyful? Well, do you will you do what Radford told us to do in Sunday school? I mean, in yes, in his Bible reading this morning. Do you feel like doing good to others when you're discontented? It's usually geared toward what I can get and do for myself and make myself happy. Does it work? Did it work for Abram? No.

You know, I like what Abram did when he came back. Well, maybe look at that a little bit later. But most discontented people in the world are complainers. They're murmuring. They're grumpy. You know, in the Old Testament Israel history, we see that one of the first sins or greater sins was when the children of Israel would rise up against God and Moses and begin complaining with their mouth full. What was it? Discontentment. They were not content with God's provisions.

They were just time and time again. We see that cycle repeat over and over. They become discontented, unhappy, envious, unthankful, and ungodly.

You know, in discontentment, we might get what we want, but we're going to miss the true riches. This we see in our text.

We'll see that especially when we look at Lot. Have you ever watched a child, children? Some of you may be can testify to this. A young child playing when he or she had too many toys.

That can get interesting. There's just a restlessness from one to the next. Maybe if I try this one, now that one's not cutting it. Go over here and try this one. Hold this doll, baby. Oh, I think there's a pretty one over here. Have we watched that? It's weird. You know, we adults do that, don't we? It's from one to the next. You know what? We're trying to settle something that will never be settled outside of Jesus.

And we're going to see that as we go on.

In discontentment, we never really get what we're looking for. An employee once told his employer, well, his employer was was wondering why this one employee is is always complaining. Just always something's wrong. It's it's another worker or a coworker or or or it's the wages or it's something is never anything quite right. And his employer approached him one day. He said, "I'd like to ask you why you're always so unhappy and complaining."

And he said, "Well, I tell you what." He told his employer. He said, "If I'd have one more $1,000," he said, "I think it would do it. I'd be I'd be fulfilled. I'd be happy. That would go away."

So his boss decided, "Well, this is simple." He cut him a check of $1,000. Just, you know, be happy. Change your attitude. And, you know, as soon as he had that $1,000 check, he told his wife, "Oh, I wish I would have made it 2,000."

Isn't that how it works? The Bible Proverbs tells us that death and hell are never satisfied. And so is the how does it say that? I have it written down here. Hell and destruction are never full. So the eyes of man are never satisfied. Do we believe that?

The eyes of man, the eyes of the human nature, the eyes of discontentment, the Bible tells us, are never satisfied.

James says, "You lust and you have not. You kill and desire to have and cannot attain. You fight and war, yet you have not because you ask not. You ask, you receive not because you ask amiss that you may consume it upon your loss." There's that thought. Discontentment. Oh, I want this thing. I'm going to chase it. I'm going to fight for it. I'm going to do whatever it takes to get it. James says, "In the end, you don't have it anyway." Why not? Because it was tried to be gotten out of discontentment.

Well, Lot learned that the hard way. If we study Lot's life and his future, and when he saw that watered, how does it say? A green, lush plain of Jordan. He made a choice in verse 11.

And he went that way. It says he went toward the east and he separated himself.

But if you look at Lot's story, it's a very sad story. Was that grass over there really greener?

Not really.

The title of the message this morning is The Way of Contentment. We could talk all morning about discontentment. I want to shift the focus a little bit more onto contentment. Contentment is a choice. We see that in the New Testament over and over. Contentment is a choice.

And I just love the spirit of Abram when they come back into Egypt. Not sure quite when I read his story in chapter 11 or 12, when there was fear, there was deception. But remember, he had set up two altar or one altar so far, I believe. I believe that was the first altar he had set up. We read in in chapter 12, and he found a beautiful spot there, and he he set up altar and he talked to the Lord. Now, in verse 13, they're coming back. And I just I just can't help but believe that somewhere here between chapter 12 and 13, that Abram had a complete repentance experience. Because you notice here, as soon as they get back into Canaan.

Now they're coming into Canaan for the second time. Remember, he goes immediately. He goes to that same spot where it says at first he set set up a tent and altar, and he goes to that spot. And it says in verse four that Abram called on the name of the Lord.

I'm very interested in what happened there. What happened when he came to the same spot where he left earlier and he set up an altar and he talked with God? He called on the name of God. There's something drastically changed in his heart and his attitude about protection, trusting, casting his care upon the Lord, believing his promises. He learned some things the hard way over in Egypt. Now he's coming back to the same spot, and and there he is before the Lord. Something changed. Oh, what a change.

You know what did he do when he when he when he in verse eight and nine.

We see the problems that all this stuff brought, and it says that they could not dwell together in verse six, that all of them at the same spot. Now, I wonder. I mean, we can read a little between the lines here. We can say, well, it's because they had too many cattle for the acreage they were grazing and so on and so forth. But I like to think of it. They just had too much stuff that they got in each other's way, and they began quarreling about this stuff and how we're going to take care of all this possession silver, gold, cattle, and all this stuff. It says they could not dwell together, and that's sobering today.

It's what our world is facing. We can't dwell together because not in America, because we don't have enough, but it's because we have too much. And we get in each other's way, and we become selfish, and we become more discontent.

It's a real challenge in America for us to dwell together as brethren with too much stuff.

Well, Abraham chooses the way of contentment. He chooses the way that he said, "I'm going to trust God for the outcome." And he said a lot. You look to the right. You look to the left. You make the choice.

Yeah, the picture looks like Lot did make the choice, but I'm going to say Abram made the choice because he gave it over to his great God that he chose to trust the outcome. We don't know in his case. What is the outcome? If Lot does what he does, Abram, human nature says, "I'm going to be I'm going to be stuck with what's left.

All I'm going to have is the leftovers." You know, he waved his rights. He was the one. It was the promise wasn't given to Lot. The promise was given to Abram. Abram could have said, "Guess what, Lot? We can't get along. We have too much stuff here. You're the one that's going to have to pack up and scoot it."

But he said, "You choose, and I'll scoot," if that's what it means. You know what? He was beginning to trust his great God for the outcome, and that's what we must learn to do. He took the low road.

He waved all his rights as an elder brother. He could have said, "I'm the oldest. I got it. Move on, Lot."

And, you know, he had a deep concern about their testimony of relationship and the community. We'd be brethren. Let's get along. You know, he placed his priorities. He he said, "You know, I take from what he's saying here that our relationship, the relationship between us, is worth so much more than all this nice land. Let's get along. Let's do something about this."

You know, Jesus once said or told his disciples about following him. He said, "The birds of the air have nests, and the foxes have dens, but I don't have a place to rest my head." Are you really sure you want to follow me? You know, Jesus what Jesus was doing to the disciples, he's asking them to trust him. And that's what Abram's doing here. He's going to trust God.

You know, if our contentment maybe maybe some of us this morning are trust are are are struggling with discontentment. Maybe for years we've been trying to reach out to contentment, and we never quite got a hold of it where I can just live my life in a contented, happy, joyful, peaceful way.

Paul told Timothy, he said, "Godliness with contentment is great gain." Well, we want the great gain, and we want the godliness. But do we really realize that godliness and contentment go hand in hand? If we try to manufacture our own contentment, it's not real contentment, and it's not going to last. It has to be rooted in godliness. And we see that with Abram. He chose to trust God. True contentment has its roots in a true God.

Paul says in Hebrews 13 or excuse me.

Whoever wrote the book of Hebrews, the writer says.

He says it this way: "Let your conversation," or that means your life or your testimony, "be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have. For he hath said, 'I will never leave thee nor forsake you.'" So for we discussed that this morning, I believe. I believe Radford brought that out. You know, the for or the therefore, that refers back to the previous just what what he just said. So there again, we see in Hebrews.

The being content with the things that we have. How can we do that? For he has promised that he will never leave you nor forsake you. So the true contentment there again has its roots and goes right back to godliness and trusting in him.

Trusting his ways.

Philippians 4:11, verse 11 through 13, Paul says it this way: "I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know how to be obeyed, and I know how to abound everywhere in all things. I am instructed, both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.

I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me." That's a powerful passage.

Now, it's also a very telling passage. Paul is telling us that he had to learn this, and that word learn is a strong word. In the Greek, it has the idea of attaining or accomplishing. Like, for example, if I learn to ride a bicycle, it's a learning process. But the day comes where I got it. Now I can ride bicycle. Now, does that mean I'll never fall over or stumble or or or or no? But it means I got all the the whole concept, all the principles behind what it means to ride a bicycle. Got it. That's the idea of this. I have learned.

I've worked at it. I've failed. I stumbled. I fell over. But the day came where I finally got it. And he's rejoicing about that. He said, "I was instructed in this." So Paul went through school to learn contentment. Very telling, folks. If Paul had to learn it, children today, you have to learn it. Adults, we have to learn it. If Paul had to learn it, the good news is it comes a point in time we can say, "I got it."

Now I know I can face. And then he goes on to say, "I can do all things through Christ." I think that's another way of saying, "I can face every challenge that's going to challenge my discontentment from now on. And I got it because I found my contentment in Jesus Christ, and I've accepted the fact that there are just some sure things in life." He said, "In in in all my state or in every state." Some of the translations might say it this way: "In all my circumstances." So whatever I face. So, folks, are you facing circumstances today that you'd like to change?

See, that's our approach so many times. I don't like the situation I'm in, so I'm going to instead of doing what Paul said, I'm going to learn to be content in it. We, as humans, tend to go after the circumstances and try to change them and adjust them, and we wear ourselves skinny, trying to change our circumstances. And guess what? It's like chasing the wind for the most part. We're not really going to change our circumstances. There are some things in life. In fact, I'd say most of my circumstances I can't even change. I can try. I can make adjustments, but I can choose to somehow, with Christ, accept my circumstances. And guess what? There's going to be joy.

There's going to be peace. There's going to be a radiance coming out of my life because now I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me because I've learned the art of being content.

He says, "In a situation where I'm hungry, I needed instruction in this." Now, I think he's in prison when he's writing this to the church. You know, Paul and we could talk maybe about his life and how he learned this and different experiences he went through. There was one time that Paul said, "Woe is me if I preach not the gospel of Christ."

And I don't even I'd have to go back. What was the context? What made him say that? I'm just wondering if that was in his learning process where he's struggling. So everywhere I go and I preach the gospel, guess what? I'm in trouble.

People hate me for it. There's persecution. I end up in another prison cell eventually. And was he grappling with the idea of just stopping to preach the gospel? I don't know. But he corrects himself, and he says, "Woe is me if I preach not the gospel." He accepted the fact that if I go out and preach the gospel, I'm going to face some opposition, and it's probably going to put me in a prison cell again. If I end up in the next prison cell, guess what? That's a circumstance I can't change. If I'm going to be obedient to Jesus, I can't change it. So I'm going to be in the next prison cell writing a letter of encouragement to be content with whatever your lot is in life.

Accepting our circumstances.

Excuse me.

You know, another telling thing is about when he says, "I learned." That's telling us that it's not natural for us. None of us come into this world already having that learn. In fact, every one of our children came into this world screaming and hollering, completely discontent.

We cover them. We wrap a nice blanket around them, and they sort of relax. And it seems like they're content, but it only lasts for about an hour, right? Then they're hungry, and they wag, and they cry. And children, I want to tell you this morning, the good news is now you can use a lot of discipline in your life and learn with Paul with the situations we have to be content and thankful and happy in that. A little baby doesn't know that yet, but we can learn from a baby and see that's how we all come into this world. And adults, until we get a hold of and make a choice how we're going to deal with this, we're going to go to our grave that way as well, completely discontent.

Oh, I've sat in at old people's rest homes and listened to people's story with my head hanging when they begin to complain about their life and what it meant. I had an old man on his deathbed one time. I was trying to help him find Jesus.

And he said, "I don't know why what life is all about. I have no clue. What was the purpose of coming to this world?" You know what? That is a really sad way to die. As far as I know, that's how he died, having no clue as to why he was born and why he lived to be a ripe old man and then why he has to die. What's the point, folks? We have a point, a purpose of being born and being alive. And it's not until we really find our contentment in God and in holiness that we're going to have that question answered.

Story of an older woman that was found this happen years ago in California. There was a tremendous earthquake. The houses basically all the buildings shattered in that particular area. She was found sitting in her front yard, and she was singing a song. And a passerby stopped and wondered, "Why can you be so joyful in the midst of all this?" And here was her response.

She said, "I'm rejoicing to see how my God can change things."

Do you know when we think of changing circumstances? When we take our circumstances to God, He is the one that can change them according to His will and His time. The Bible says He does all things beautiful in His time. My plea is let's trust our circumstances into His hand and rejoice anyway, even if we don't understand why. If life has more questions than answers for you right now in your circumstance, just trust it to God. And guess what? He's going to meet you like He did Abram. And there and He came, it says, and He met him there.

Now, this is a question for all of us thinking a little more about Lot when the choice was his. Now, Abraham made his choice, and it was a good choice. He trusted the whole situation to God. Now we want to look at Lot. Lot also has a choice.

And the Bible says he lifted up his eyes, and he saw in the east the well-watered Jordan land. And then the next verse tells us he chose that way. He chose that land.

Folks, today I'm a farmer. I have cattle, and I can relate to Lot. It would only make sense to look around and find the best green pasture to move to. That would only make human sense. So that's where we go.

But what Lot didn't realize and what we don't realize so many times I mean, they tell me today this very spot that Lot saw is is dead. It's pretty close to the Dead Sea, and it's dead. It looks barren.

Why it was watered so well then? Maybe they just had five inches of rain two weeks before, but it looked well-watered to him. And, you know, let's learn from Lot and from his experience and his life.

Excuse me.

Lot made his choice based on what he saw. The challenge is for you and me today, when we go through life making our choices based on what we see, we're going to be deceived many times.

Just because it looks well-watered doesn't say it's well-watered.

And we live in a time where colors mean so much. I mean, we have hot pink, and we have all the artificial colors that appeal to the human eye, and it grabs for attention, whether it's billboard, whether it's advertising magazines. It is geared to catch our eye. And so many people make their choices based on the colors and what it looks like.

A little experience I had in the past back this was a number of years ago. I had an older manure spreader that worked quite well. I thought it could do a little better job than it did. It was an older machine. And I get these New Holland magazines with with a nice brand new New Holland 195 manure spreader hooked to a tractor going down the road. The driver looks very happy and contented, and the manure is spreading on the field so nice and thin, and oh, it just looks so appealing.

I really struggle with now you folks laugh. You're not a farmer. You don't spread manure. But when I spread manure in the field, I like when it's spread consistently and even, and you don't see big chunks sitting here and a big chunk there. That's not consistent.

And they brag on their web system and how it just spreads it so fine and even. Oh, that color of that thing is nice and red with some blue marks on it. And, you know, I one day I just said, "Well, I'm going to go out and look at one of these things. I can't afford a new one, but what about a good used one?"

I went to a local dealer, and he said, "Yep, we just got what you're looking for. It's not new. It doesn't have a new price, but it's been completely rebuilt, refurbished, and it looks like new." And he was right. We went and looked at it. It had a new polyfloor put in it. It had a new paint job. It had new decals. It had new tires. And as far as I'm concerned, I'm buying a new spreader with a used price.

Wow, this is a great deal. I can go home and have this nice, bright, new red and blue New Holland 195, just what all the magazines have on. I'm going to really be in style. Well, guess what? The first load I hauled to the field, the thing broke in a pretty major way.

Well, here I learned later that this spreader went through a fire. Okay, so somebody did all the hard work, put a new floor, put new tires, put new everything, new paint job. The sides were there yet, original steel sides, but all the bearings I don't think the bearings were replaced or any of the chain or any of the mechanical things. Well, put that through a fire and put it to work. That thing was problems from day one. And I was more angry at that spreader than I ever was probably at any other piece of equipment. It just was trouble and pain.

The point is this morning, just because it looks really classy and colorful, it's not always the true story. And Lot had to learn that as well. It's just because it's flashing, just because it's appealing to that eye doesn't say that it's genuine. That was my experience with that.

Now, the Bible tells us that we are to be content with such things as you have. Have you ever seen a child in a room? And maybe some of you really young children can relate to this. So you're sitting in the room here perfectly content with this piece of toy, whether it's a doll baby for the little girls. It's just that, oh, I'm just so content right now. I love my little tractor or my little truck or trailer. And then somebody comes in the same room with a toy that's a little nicer and newer.

It's different, at least. I have seen little boys already, especially I think little boys do this quicker than the little girls, but I think girls do it with doll babies. All of a sudden, they take the toy that they were so enjoying, and they throw it across the floor, and they take off and get the other toy. You know what that is?

The child has just devalued that toy that was filling the spot. We do that as adults, don't we? Just devalue. You know, we have this tool or these tools or this something in our house that serves really well. We go out and about, and we see something that's a newer model, and it's better and has this option. We come back home, and we look at ours, and all of a sudden it looks like junk and outdated. And we feel like doing what the child did. Just take the thing and throw it, devalue it, and upgrade. You see what we're facing? You know what that is?

I think we all grabble with this in one way or the other. It's interesting when the Bible talks about contentment. Many times it has to do with things. Be content with the things that you have. And I think it's in Timothy, maybe First Timothy six, where Paul Paul tells Timothy that when he talks on the subject, he said, "For it is sure we will take no thing with us." We brought nothing, and we'll take nothing with us. Again, contentment he's teaching. And we see that throughout Scripture. So many times it has to do not always. Sometimes it has to do with just simply who we are. We're not content with who we are, so we try to change our gender or whatever we're facing in our society today.

Let's find our contentment in who we are. Back to things again.

What about those of you that spent time on social media? I read somewhere that social media is one of the greatest enemies to contentment that there is.

You know, I read I read I came across an article of two women that were Facebook or some media friends. I don't think they had ever met each other personally up until this point. So now they meet face to face, and they sit down, and they become real friends, and they talk about all the years that they interacted with each other on on the virtual way.

And here's what they said about each other. And it was partly a confession, but it really opened opens our eyes. The one one woman was a stay-at-home mom, so she had a number of children there. So she would send these pictures and stories to the other friend that was who was a career woman. She's out in the working world, earning a living that way and working and so on. So they would be doing this back and forth just and they said the one said to the other, "You always made me so angry. I was really envious and jealous and upset at you all those years." And the other one said, "That's the same thing I was going through about you because, well, the stay-at-home mom, she'd dress up all her children, sit them in a row and give the schedule for the day and take pictures of the very best and and all the best stories were on there."

And and and this career woman said, "I was so jealous. I felt I'm losing out in life because here you were at home with your children and enjoying life, and you had real purposes, and I'm out there working and slaving away in that system." And the other woman said, "You know, I looked at you, and I said, 'You have all this going for you. You have meetings out there with adults.'" And then the mom at home, I think, said, "There's times I didn't see adults for a long time. And it's just me and my children, just this boring, low-key life that has no excitement. And they're fighting each other all these years. You know, that makes me tired.

How much of that do we do as adults to each other?" Now they sit together as real face-to-face friends, and they got to know each other in a whole new way, and it's different. You know, one husband told me, "Since my wife is on social media, she has a lot more discontentment. It seems we always have to be buying a new piece of furniture or adding this or adding that to sort of keep up with all the friends." You know what I say? I say if that if that's the friends you're socializing with, they're not true friends.

They're not really true friends. The true friends let's think about hospitality. When we come to each other's houses, and we've all been to homes where everything is so set in place, you hardly dare walk in and and rest or breathe. Everything's in order. Everything's just so perfectly put in space, and that's okay in its place.

But if there's a family and they have children, it's going to be okay to have some things on the floor, isn't it? I mean, we've been to homes like that and felt comfortable and at rest, and it felt like this is home.

You know, contentment in our homes. We're teaching our children from a young age what it means to be content or discontent. So in a home where there's activity, there's hospitality, there's people that live, there's a carpet that's going to have a little stain to it, maybe here and there. That's okay.