Okay, perhaps some car is very best on the road, but does that mean that you need that car? Is a built in GPS a necessity and a determining factor on your purchase of a new car? Is a drop down DVD player essential for a new car? Are leather seats absolutely necessary? Must there be twelve cup holders to make a new car a great new car? Every few months I get a letter from the Hyundai dealer telling me that he really wants my 100,000 mile Sonata, and that I need a new one. Should I make trade in a perfectly good car, simply to have the luxury of a new one?
I’m going to come back to the issue of cars in a moment, but follow me for a while. That car salesman believes his car is the very best for the money – at least that is what he says. That statement gives enthusiasm and energy to his salesmanship; it draws people. It is impossible for honest people to appear excited about something that is a lie, so this is a really good car. And now we come to the question of the evening –
Why should people be drawn to your faith and your Saviour? What makes your Christianity better than the Mormon’s cult or the Roman’s Catholicism? Thursday afternoon, before our visitors left for the airport, we were in Hunters Restaurant. And in the booth behind Kathy and Sandy was a Roman Catholic priest in his long black dress. He was enthusiastically talking to another man about theology and the state of religion in the world. He was like the car salesman – all excited about the latest Japanese or the German car. To be honest, his enthusiasm was attractive and somewhat infectious. What is there in your faith, your religion or your spiritual life, which is attractive and infectious? What do you possess which can match the enthusiasm of that religious salesman? What are some of the practical things that ought to be found in us which make living the Christian life worth the price?
As we looked at the first verses of this scripture last week, I mentioned that it was a part of the Lord’s message on contentment. This part of the Sermon on the Mount deals with contentment and then concludes with commitment. If we possess these two things, and really lived these two, we’d draw the attention of the car-buying public like a beautiful rose draws noses and butterflies.
You and I are exhorted by the Lord to be CONTENT.
Genuine contentment is a rare commodity in this greed-driven world of ours. Even in the most spiritual saints of God, we rarely find complete contentment. I am satisfied driving my ivory-colored, Jaguarish-looking Hyundai. But it would be nice if it got just a little better gas-mileage. And perhaps a built in computer might make it a little more appealing. And what do you think about this weather? Isn’t it just a little less than perfect? You say that you like your job, but wouldn’t a raise in salary make it better? Are you really satisfied with your car, your salary and the weather?
This is a very old story, but it is probably repeated a thousand times a day in some form. A rich Christian Englishman over-heard one his maids saying how happy she’d be if she had five pounds. He decided to find out happy she really would be, so he gave it to her. Later she told someone, “Oh, why didn’t I say ten pounds instead of five?” She illustrates the fact that most of us are never completely satisfied. When a friend asks about your health, and you have opportunity to really answer, do you ever reply, “I am well enough?” Aren’t there usually improvements in our health or bodies that we’d really like. But isn’t it also a fact that you are well enough? I think that Spurgeon must have smiled at his own humor when he said, “No one needs to worry about losing his money, if he offers a 1,000 pound reward to a truly contented man. If anyone came forward to claim the reward he’d prove his discontent.”
Why do people generally want more than what they currently possess? As I was pondering that, my first answer was: “Our depravity makes us discontent.” And then it occurred to me that discontentment was found in our parents even before their first sin. “Wouldn’t you really like to be as gods, knowing good and evil?” Eve was not content with the best husband, the best home and the best food that the world has ever known. Remember, that was before she ate the fruit of the forbidden tree. Would it be incorrect to say that hunger is a natural thing created by God? I’m not exactly sure. Would it be incorrect to say a lack of contentment is not necessarily sin? I’m not sure about that either. Perhaps the question is not, “Why are you discontent,” but “about what are discontent?” We are exhorted to “covet the best gifts.” We are encouraged to “hunger and thirst after righteousness.” We are commanded to “set our affections on things above.” But we are commanded to not “love and yearn for world, neither the things that are in the world.” In one way, when we are dissatisfied with our portion of this Satanic-controlled world, then we are getting into an area that displeases the Lord. When we are content with our few worldly necessities, we have something that the lost world around us can recognize. Some will even be curious as to the source of our contentment. There may be a feature on this old jalopy which gives excitement to the most jaded salesman.
When do we really have enough? The simple answer is: “When we are possessed by the all-sufficient God.” “Having food and raiment and the Lord, let us be therewith content” – I Timothy 6:8. More specifically, we have enough when we have deliverance from our sin. And when we have an all-knowing, all-possessing, loving Heavenly Father.
For a lot of people, once they have the husband or wife of their dreams, the next big target of their lives is a comfortable retirement. So they strive for the best paying job, good investments, Social Security and a retirement program that works. But problems arise when they try to define the word “comfortable.” Most people define it with some sort of dollar sign in front. $250,000 in investments should mean a comfortable retirement. Oh? Perhaps $500,000 is more practical, or perhaps $2,000,000 is more realistic. Even sociologists are agreeing with the adage that “Money can’t buy happiness.” In a huge study, spanning 39 different countries, thousands of participants and published in the journal of the “Social Indicators Research Group”… “The more money people make, the more they want, and so happiness keeps eluding them.” “Neither an increasing income at the individual level, nor country level, were accompanied by increases in subjective well-being.” In fact the researchers found that rapid increases in wealth resulted in less, not more, happiness. Part of the problem is the hope and expectation of retirement In this world.
Christian, we have no business planning to retire in a world slated for destruction. Our retirement goals should be with the Lord, not with Smith Barney or Charles Schwab. I haven’t checked lately, but perhaps those two companies, like so many others, no longer exist, illustrating the foolishness of earthly retirement plans. Our primary investments should be in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt. When the Lord in His grace has given us His eternal life, it doesn’t matter how much or how little we possess in Satan’s domain. When we are convinced that the Lord is loving and wise towards us, we should learn to be content with what we possess, knowing that one day we shall rule and reign as princes and princesses with Him.
In other words, our contentment is rooted in our thanksgiving. Are you truly thankful for your salvation from sin? Perhaps another related question ought to be: “Do you know that you’ve been born again?” And secondly can you say, “The Lord giveth and Lord taketh away, blessed be name of the Lord”?
Contentment is one of the truly valuable characteristics of the saint of God.
And a second is COMMITMENT.
“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.”
I think that true contentment may be a uniquely Christian trait. I’m not sure that anyone besides a true saint of God can know anything about contentment. But commitment can perhaps be found in others, depending on their nature and goals. A politician may have commitment, and so might any number of social activists. And that makes the necessity of commitment in the Christian all the more important. This variety of car may not be the only car to have side panel airbags. But my car does, and I’m going to sell it as loudly as I possibly can.
Just like contentment, commitment is rooted in thanksgiving. Has the Lord given you eternal life? Are you absolutely sure, based upon the Word of God? Have you been washed from the filth of your sins in the blood of the Saviour? Is there no doubt about your sonship in the family of God? Wonderful, I am delighted for you. And now I ask how that blessing is expressed in your day to day life? Among other things, it should be seen in your contentment and commitment.
By “commitment” I refer to being sold out for the Lord, “a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” I have four dictionaries that I use in my study, depending on the need of the moment. There is my computer which I often use as a thesaurus, looking for synonyms. There is a cross-word puzzle dictionary, which can be very helpful for things beyond puzzles. I have a large, 20 pound dictionary, which I have had for nearly fifty years. That one used to be my primary dictionary, and it still has its purpose. And then there is a small volume called an etymological dictionary, which I bought for the purpose of looking up the origins of words. Out of habit I wanted to look up the word “commitment,” but being tired and not sitting close to my big arm-dislocating dictionary I pulled out the littlest one. My etymological dictionary is very old, and very English. It is not designed to give definitions, but other kinds of information about words. And its only definition for the word “commitment” was thought-provoking: It doesn’t have all the definitions of my big dictionary, and it doesn’t have all the new definitions of the computer dictionary. It had only one comment – “Commitment is an order to send to prison; imprisonment.” As far as I know none of us are lawyers or judges, so we don’t often use the word in that way today. Rather we use it in the sense of a pledge or trust; to entrust. But I can see where “imprisonment” and “entrusting” can be related. Think about that original use of the word: “commitment.” The Bible doesn’t picture the Christian life as an imprisonment, but rather as a freedom. “If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” But what are we free to do? Are we free to sin that the grace of God may abound? God forbid – Romans 6. Are we free to love the world, and thus put ourselves in the position of enemies of God? God forbid. As Christians we are freed from sin to love and serve the Saviour who freed us. As we grow in faith, we are made more and more free from the world in order to be content and committed to His glory.
As I meditated upon this theme, the more I saw “contentment” and “commitment” blending together. They aren’t just tied together in these verses, they are tied together in life and in faith. James says, “Of (God’s) own will begat he us with the word of Truth that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures.” To be a “first fruit” is to be an offering to the Lord. The Lord sovereignly saved us in order that we might be living offerings.
Contentment in this world is possible if we are daily living in sacrifice and surrender to the Lord who saved us. Genuine contentment is possible only as we are committed to the Saviour. We have been called to be ambassadors and daily stewards of the Lord’s blessings. We cannot find scriptural authority to stock-pile or hoard things for earthly retirement. Don’t misunderstand me to say that I want you to give away all your savings. I am not saying that. Don’t misunderstand me to say that you shouldn’t have a small retirement plan. That is not my intention either. But I do want you to understand that Christians should live for eternity not for serenity. Commitment to Christ as a thank-offering for saving our sinful souls. It means a willingness to not only spend for His glory, but to be spent for His glory. Stewardship is a form of worship; committal to Christ is an act of veneration.
Voluntary commitment requires sacrifice and surrender. Contentment and commitment require an heaven-administered faith in the Sovereign Lord. And together they are seen in an ever increasing sacrifice. Aren’t most us just floating along life’s daily stream, reacting more than acting? If we find an extra $5.00 in our pocket, forgotten from two weeks ago, do we drop it in the missions offering? We give little to missions because extras are hard to find. Don’t most of us simply attend church and call that serving God? That hardly costs us a thing. Don’t we tithe because it is a habit, or a part of our budget, rather than an expression of our thanksgiving for the Lord’s bountiful care? And when that strange week comes around when our tithe is several hundred dollars isn’t it painful to write that really large check? Why is it that we think we have honored God in giving Him an hour and a half a week? Is living a relatively sin-free life really the kind of evangelism the Lord wants? Where is the offering aspect of that?
When we are truly content and committed, we have features to show to the world that cannot be found in any other car-dealership in town. Maybe the world is not shopping for these things, but perhaps it should be. The world needs to know, at the very least, that we are excited about such things. Christians have the grounds for peace and contentment in the saving grace of God. These are things that our neighbors desperately need.