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Colin Smith: The world is always saying to us, you will be content by addition. When your possessions come up to what you desire, then you'll be content. But the Christian message is entirely different. It says you will find contentment when your desires come down to the level of your possessions.

Steve Hiller: Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. Today we begin a message taking a look at contentment. Colin, it sounds like part of what you're saying here is that for some of us who struggle with it, we just might need to get a right mindset.

Colin Smith: Yeah, that's right. And I think the place to begin is by realizing that this is actually a serious issue. I'll never forget the first time that really came home to me. I was reading a sermon by one of my old Scottish heroes, Thomas Boston, and its title was "The Hellish Sin of Discontent." And I remember thinking, really? The hellish sin of murder, I can imagine.

Steve Hiller: That's a bold title.

Colin Smith: It's a very strong title. But from the book of Jude, he really laid out that this is something that is deeply insulting to God. So what does it mean to be content? What does it mean for me to be content when I have less, and what does it mean for me to be content when I have more?

That's what we're going to look at in the scripture today. It's a wonderful theme, because if we can find contentment in our hearts, we're going to know more of the peace of Christ that passes understanding. We're not going to be tossed around by changes in circumstances, but we're going to be able to have a poise about our lives, a peace about our lives, because godliness with contentment is great gain.

Steve Hiller: Well, let's look at what God says about this from the book of 1 Timothy chapter 6, as we begin a message called "Gospel Lifestyle." Here is Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: I want you to notice that the message here comes in two parts. Paul speaks in verse 17 to those who are rich, and he speaks in verse 9 to those who want to get rich. So you put these two together, that's covering an awful lot of people: those who are rich and those who want to get rich—verse 9 and verse 17. In other words, there is something here in 1 Timothy chapter 6 for those who have less, and there is something here in 1 Timothy chapter 6 for those who have more.

Now the problem with this, of course, is that most of us will instinctively and immediately decide where we belong. Do I belong with those who have less, or do I belong with those who have more? And if we decide where we belong and we pigeonhole ourselves that way, what will happen is that we will only hear half of what God has to say to us today.

So I want to remind you that however much you have, there are others who have more. And however little you have, there are others who have less. And however much or little you have, there will be seasons in your life when you have more and there will be seasons in your life when you have less. So all of us, then, need to hear what God has to say to us when we have more and when we have less.

So I want to ask you to do something with me today. Will you make with me a self-conscious effort to place yourself under the word of God both to those who have less—because plenty of people have more than you do—and also to those who have more? Will you place yourself under the word of God to those who have more? Because there are millions of people who have much, much less than any of us here in the sanctuary today, however little we have.

So let's try and hear the full word of God today and not simply a half of it. And we're going to begin with situations where we have less. When you have less, what is God's word to us when you have less? Simply this: when you have less, learn the art of contentment. Now I want you to notice especially verse 6 and what follows. Paul says, "Godliness with contentment is great gain."

Now we've already learned a bit about godliness. Godliness is a God-centered life. And you remember we saw from chapter 3 and verse 16 that it does not come through the pursuit of a process, but godliness comes through the presence of a person—Jesus Christ and his life in us. That is the mystery of godliness, and our hope of living the life that God calls us to lead comes through the presence of Jesus Christ, he being the vine, we being the branches and his life truly flowing in us. That's what we learned about godliness.

But now Paul adds something else. He says there's great gain in godliness with contentment. So contentment is the new piece here. And contentment is very simply finding joy in what God has given to you. It is the opposite of greed. Luther points out that the problem with greed is that it destroys your capacity to enjoy what God has given because you're so concerned with what he has not given. Contentment is the Christian grace of enjoying what God has given to you.

And it is a grace that grows over time. Contentment does not come quickly, easily, or naturally even to a Christian believer. We know that because the Apostle Paul says in Philippians—remember Philippians 4 and verse 12—he says, "I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content." In other words, even as an apostle, Paul recognized that this is a mature grace. It is a fruit of the spirit that develops over time. Paul says, "I had to learn it."

And how did he learn it? Well, he tells us. He says, "I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty, and I have learned the secret of being content." In other words, he's saying this: look, there have been times in my life when I had plenty. But then there were times when God brought me into a situation where I really was in need. And it was through that that God taught me something I would not otherwise have learned. It was right there that I learned what it is to be content.

In other words, God will often use the experience of loss to cultivate this rare and valuable gift, this fruit of the spirit that is not often possessed and is not quickly or easily developed in our lives. A man by the name of Jeremiah Burroughs, who a long time ago wrote a book on this subject, described contentment as a rare jewel. It's a lovely phrase, that. His book was "The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment."

And he has great biblical wisdom in how we can attain this rare jewel. When we have less, how do we cultivate contentment? Well, this is what he says. A Christian comes to contentment not so much by way of addition but by way of subtraction. He explains: the world says that you will find contentment when your possessions rise to the level of your desires. But the Christian way of contentment, he says, is when your desires come down to the level of your possessions. That's beautiful, isn't it?

The world is always saying to us, you will be content by addition. When your possessions come up to what you desire, then you'll be content. But the Christian message is entirely different. It says you will find contentment when your desires come down to the level of your possessions. The way of Christian contentment is not by addition but by subtraction. Not by addition to what you have, but by subtraction from what you desire.

Now Paul says here that godliness with this contentment is great gain. It is a wonderful thing in a season of life where you have less. If you can cultivate this rare jewel, not by living in the desperation of how and when am I going to get my possessions up to the level of my desires, but bringing my desires down to the level of my possessions, Paul says godliness with contentment is great gain. Not just gain—great gain. Great gain!

It will be, he says, a huge advantage to you in your life if you can cultivate this rare jewel, this very precious fruit of Christian contentment. Now, why is it so important? Why does he place this emphasis? Why does he say it's great gain to have contentment? Well, very simply because the opposite is so destructive. Notice what he says here about those who want to get rich—verse 9.

If getting rich is your goal—which is the opposite, obviously, of contentment—if you've set your heart on accumulating the things that this world offers, here is what is in store for you. Paul gives us four reasons not to go this way. Number one: if getting rich is your goal, you cannot keep what you gain. That's verse 7. We brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. Nothing in, nothing out.

You may be able to get rich, but what Paul is saying is you cannot stay rich. You cannot keep anything that you gain in this world. It's a good thing for every Christian to go to at least one funeral every year and to say as you leave, "One day that will be me." We have to live in the light of this reality.

Second: if getting rich is your goal, you will encounter powerful temptations. Verse 9: people who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. And then he goes on to say the verse that we know well, I think, that the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. So you see what he's saying: if you set your heart on becoming rich, if that really is the trajectory of your life, you are opening your soul up to dark spiritual forces.

If that's your goal, there are temptations that will flood in upon you, and they are the kind of temptations that bring other men to destruction. So you need to know what you're opening yourself up to if you go down this path. Third: if getting rich is your goal, you may wander from the faith. Some people—verse 10—eager for money have wandered from the faith.

Now he's making simply the very same point that the Lord Jesus made in the parable of the sower. You remember Jesus said the seed is thrown into the ground, and then he said in some cases weeds, thorns, thistles, they grow up and they choke the life of the seed. And then he explained the seed is the word of God. And what are the thorns and thistles? Well, they're the worries of this life and they're the deceitfulness of wealth. That's what Jesus said.

In other words, either worrying about not having money or what comes with the relentless pursuit of acquiring it can choke the fruitfulness of the word of God in a person's life. That's what the Lord Jesus is saying. And Paul is taking up the very same point here. He is saying that where people set their hearts on getting rich, it is sometimes the case that the effect of this is that they end up wandering away from the faith.

And if that was not enough, he says fourthly that if getting rich is your goal, you will experience great sorrow. Look at verse 10. He says some people eager for money have pierced themselves with many griefs. In other words, if you set your heart on the things of this world, you inflict wounds on yourself. Look at the word pierced, like driving a nail into your own hand. That's what he's saying. You inflict sorrow on yourself if you go down this path.

And so for these four reasons, the Apostle Paul is saying, do not set your heart on money. Remember, Christian brothers and sisters, money is a great servant but a terrible master. And if you set your heart on money, money will break your heart. That is what he is saying here. It will break your heart because you cannot keep what you gain. It will break your heart because you will fall into powerful temptations if you set your heart on this. It will break your heart because you may well wander from the faith and you will pierce yourself with all kinds of griefs and sorrows.

So, here is why godliness with contentment, the other path, is going to be great gain for you. It's going to be a marvelous blessing in your life. For if you go down the other road—the road of getting rich being your goal—you will find untold sorrows on that path.

Steve Hiller: You're listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and what it looks like to live when you have less, how we can learn to be content. Our message is called "Gospel Lifestyle," and it's part of a larger series, "10 Distinctives of a Gospel-Centered Church."

If you missed any of the programs in the series, I hope you'll come to our website. You can listen online at openthebible.org. You can stream the program or download an MP3 for free. You can also listen if you have the Open the Bible app, which you'll find for free at your app store. Back to the message. Here is Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: So, here is simply the message in the first part: when you have less—some of us have less than a year ago, two years ago—when you have less, what is God's word to us? God's word to you when you have less is: learn the art of contentment. It's a rare jewel, and it's not found when you have more, but it can be cultivated when you have less. Bring your desires down to the level of your possessions.

Understand that Christian contentment is not by addition but by subtraction. Learn to enjoy what God has given more than you grieve what he has taken away and practice the art of godly contentment. You will find that it is for you great gain. Now, that's biblical wisdom for all of us when we have less.

Now I want us to stand in the second position here for a few moments. We've all listened to God's word that comes to us when we have less. But what about God's word to us when we have more? And again, please will you stand with me together under the word of God? There are millions and millions of people in this world and you have much more than them. We have much more. And we do have to hear what God has to say to us, blessed in so many ways, who have so much more than so many others.

When you have more, what is God's word to us when we have more? Simply this—can I describe it this way?—when you have more, learn the art of discontent. The art of discontent. The more that God gives you, the more you need to learn a holy discontent with the things of this world. It becomes increasingly important as we have more. Jesus said a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions, but of course the more that God gives to us, the more easy it is for us to begin to think that our life does consist in the abundance of our possessions.

So when you have more, learn the art of discontent. Notice how in verse 17 here Paul describes those who put their hope in wealth, and then he describes those who put their hope in God. Some people put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain—verse 17. Others put their hope in God, who richly provides everything for our enjoyment. These are two very, very different kinds of hope.

And when God gives you more, here's what's so important: not to put your hope, not to put your joy in the abundance that he has given to you, but rather to put your hope and to put your joy in God who is the giver and provides all things richly for our enjoyment. In other words, when God gives you more, develop a holy discontent with all that this world can give you. Now again, Jeremiah Burroughs makes this point really well. Let me just quote to you from him.

He says, "It may be said of the one who is contented in a Christian way that he is both the most contented man in the world and yet at the same time the most dissatisfied man in the world." And he says to join these two together is a great art and a great mystery. Because though he is contented with God in a little, yet those things that would content other men in the world will not content him.

And then he describes how in the world men seek after wealth and he says—and I'm paraphrasing him now—he says a man will say, "If I had a hundred a year, I would be content." Now, that proves to you he was writing in the year 1648, because I don't hear anybody saying today if I had a hundred a year, but apparently in 1648, if guys said I had a hundred a year, they thought they would be content. It just dawned on me that probably was pounds, not dollars, but that's another issue. I'm going back to Jeremiah Burroughs here, okay?

"If I had a hundred a year," or another man says, "If I had a thousand a year, then I would be satisfied." But the godly heart says, "If I had ten hundred thousand times as much a year, it would not satisfy me." You see his point? Because the godly heart has learned that nothing or even everything in this world cannot satisfy the heart that is set on God.

So godliness teaches us this extraordinary mystery: not to be satisfied even if we had all the world as our portion. For a man's life does not lie in the abundance of his possessions. Now this is, of course, the complete opposite of what you would expect. The world says that you will be discontent when you have less and when you have more then you will find contentment. But God says learn to be content when you have less, and when you have more develop a holy discontent, lest you should slide into thinking that your life consists in the abundance of your possessions.

And you remember how our Lord Jesus told a powerful story to illustrate this point. Jesus told a story about a man who made a lot of money. And Jesus said the man stored it up. And he said to himself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years, so take life easy, eat, drink, and be merry." Now, what was the problem with this man? What did he do wrong?

Well, the answer surely is that the great mistake this man made was he became comfortable with the pile of what he had made. He felt good about sitting on it. And Jesus said that this man was a—okay, come on, say it a little more strongly. Let's agree with the Lord Jesus. Jesus said that this man was a fool. Okay, he was a fool—very strong word that Jesus used.

Do you remember what Jesus said afterwards? He said, "This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself and is not rich towards God." In other words, Jesus is saying, "Look, anyone who knows that they're headed for eternity and who feels comfortable about sitting on a pile of what's been acquired rather than thinking, 'Here's what I have, how can I be rich towards God?'' That's a path of foolishness that we ought to avoid.

Steve Hiller: Pastor Colin Smith with part of our message called "Gospel Lifestyle." It's part of a series on the book of 1 Timothy called "10 Distinctives of a Gospel-Centered Church." And if you've missed any of the programs in the series, you can always come and listen online at openthebible.org. You can stream the program or download an MP3 for free. Again, that's at openthebible.org.

Well, whether you listen to Open the Bible on the radio, online, through the podcast, or however you've connected, it's all made possible through your generosity. And as you give a gift of any amount this month, we'd love to send you a copy of a book by John Stott called "The Incomparable Christ." Colin, what's the one thing that you'd like people to take away from this book?

Colin Smith: Well, Jesus once asked his disciples, "Who do you say that I am?" And that is the most important question, I think, that any of us could ever answer. When you settle in your mind and your heart who Jesus is, you really lay a foundation for your life and for everything else. You can rest the weight of your life, your death, and your eternity on him. And Peter's answer to that question, when Jesus said, "Who do you say that I am?" Peter said, "You are the Christ."

Now this book, "The Incomparable Christ," really lifts up who Jesus is, how he's presented to us in the New Testament, how he has been understood throughout the history of the church, how he's inspired people through the centuries, and how he will be when we see him in his power and his glory when he returns. It's a marvelous book. I think it's the best book you can read about Jesus, "The Incomparable Christ," and I think that people will be greatly blessed by this book.

Steve Hiller: Well, we'd love to send you a copy as our way of saying thank you for financially supporting Open the Bible this month. You can call and give over the phone. The number is 1-877-673-6365. That might be easier to remember as 1-877-OPEN-365. And our website is openthebible.org. For Pastor Colin Smith, I'm Steve Hiller. Thanks for listening, and I hope you'll join us next time. This program is a listener-supported production of Open the Bible.

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