Why am I discontent? Three diagnostic questions
Going Against the Grain: Cultivating Contentment in a Jaded World • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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We’ve been talking the last three weeks about contentment. We’ve seen that God gives us assurance that we are forgiven and that we are right with Him, and this can brings true happiness, true contentment.
But it may be that you are still discontent. It could be that despite all you know God has done for you in Christ, you are still in a state of unhappiness, frustration, and discontent.
This may be because there are things in your heart that are preventing you fr m experiencing contentment.
Hence the title of the sermon today, “Why am I discontent? Three diagnostic questions. From Mtthew 5:7-9”.
These questions will hopefully help you to discern the issues in your heart that are preventing you from experiencing the contentment God wants and commands you to have.
So three diagnostic questions. And as we go we’ll also look at two guidelines when it comes to reading and living out the Beatitudes.
The first question, if you are discontent, how do you treat those who are worse off than you?
1. How do you treat those worse off than you?
1. How do you treat those worse off than you?
How many of you would say, “I have needed the mercy of God at some point in my life”?
And how many of you would say, “I still need the mercy of God on an ongoing basis?
Ok, here’s the tought one: how many of you struggle to be merciful toward others?
Let’s start by asking the question: what is mercy? What is mercy?
To show mercy is to experience compassion for others in their misery and sin. If you are a merciful person, when you see someone in distress of any kind, your heart goes out to them. You identify with them emotionally. Mercy is empathy, the feeling of compassion.
But mercy is also doing something to relieve their distress. Mercy goes beyond the feeling of compassion and stretches out its hand to offer real help. Mercy happens when we make the suffering person’s cause our own.
The Bible says, “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers”. Jesus showed mercy by not just feeling for us in our sin but coming to resuce us out of it.
And we are to do the same. “...if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?”
Mercy does not see the person, feel sorry for them, and move on.
Mercy sees the person, feels compassion for them, and helps them to the extent that you are able. “Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth” (1Jn 3:16-18 ESV).
But mercy is also forgiveness. The merciful person is happy and content because the merciful person shows mercy to and forgives the other person.
Mercy is forgiveness.
Someone once asked the comedian Bob Hope about this. “Mr. Hope, what is your secret to always being happy?”
Do you know what his answer was? Mercy.
Bob Hope would say what we all know to be true: life is too short to hold on to unforgiveness. Life is too short not to show mercy.
Bot hope shared an example. He said that he made a regular practice of forgiving people who would cut him off on the highway. He did this so much and it became such a habit that he got to the point where he genuinely loved to forgive.
“For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matt 6:14-16).
Ask yourself this: Do I understand that to the extent that I am merciful to others, God will be merciful to me?
If you are not a merciful person, you should get alone with God and pray and ask God to show you whether you have ever truly experienced His mercy.
Because if you have truly grasped the fact that God has shown mercy to you, you will find it to be your duty to show mercy to others people and you will want to do so.
Human-to-human mercy always springs from our own experience of God’s mercy. [Lenski p191]
Contentment is found in showing mercy to others just as God shows you mercy.
But you say, “Pastor Dustin, I am not a merciful person.”
So let’s talk about the first caveat whe it comes to learning and living the Beatitudes.
The Beatitudes are not spiritual gifts. Ok? Everyone has a spiritual gift, but not everyone has the same gifts, right?
Well, the Beatitudes are not spiritual gifts. It’s not like “Oh, I have the gift of meekness.” “I don’t have the gift of showing mercy”. “I am not called upon to help others resolve their difference.” “I don’t have the gift of poverty of spirit.”
For example, the next time you get pulled over for speeding, try this. “Officer, I’m really sorry, but I just have the gift of driving at the speed limit”. He’ll say, “Well I have gift of writing tickets, so here you go.”
The Beatitudes are not spiritual gifts, which some have and some don’t. What they are is a description of every Christian.
It is expected by Christ that we all — everyone of us, whether it comes naturally or not — we are all expected to show mercy. We are all expected to endure whatever persecution God sends our way. We are all called to be peacemakers. We are all called to be pure in heart and poor in spirit.
So, today when your spouse does that one thing that just drives you crazy. Check your initial reaction — rather than becoming frustrated or angry, take a breath. How would you want to be treated in their shoes if you had the kind of day or the kind of childhood or the kind of life they had? Show mercy by forgiving them quickly and never bringing it up again. “How blessed, how happy, how content are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy”.
Or tomorrow morning, at work. Let’s say your colleague makes a really dumb mistake and you or the whole team will suffer because of it. Take a breath. Remember, “How blessed, how happy, how content are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy”.
Don’t point fingers or blame them in front of others. Don’t be the kind of person that must always make sure the party in the wrong knows they are in the wrong. Your job is not that.
Your job is as a Christian employee is to show mercy. “Everyone makes mistakes” - make sure they hear that from you because most likely no one else will say it.
And offer to help them fix the mistake; help them think of things they can put in place to prevent it in the future.
Be one who models mercy. “How blessed, how happy, how content are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy”.
Thanksgiving is coming up. What will dinner table conversation look like in these tense days post-election?
Show mercy. If politics comes up, take the high road and keep your mouth shut.
If you must speak, take Eph 4:29 as your guide: “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear” (ESV).
Watch your tone. Try to de-escalate. Show by your demeanor and your words that there is a higher king than the President and that there are things that are more important even than the election. Be a non-anxious presence.
“How blessed, how happy, how content are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy”.
Are you still discontent? If so, how do you treat those who are worse off than you?
But what if the problem is not so other people but yourself?
And this brings us to the next diagnostic question: if you’re discontent, how are you dealing with ungodly thoughts?
2. How do you deal with ungodly thoughts?
2. How do you deal with ungodly thoughts?
Do you want to _____ God? Are you in turn striving for purity of mind?
How many of you want to see and experience God?
Then, are you striving for purity within?
Jesus pronounces a blessing on the ones who are pure in heart, and attaches a promise: the pure in heart shall see God.
The Bible makes clear that God can have no impurity in His presence. Psalm 24:3-4 expresses this:“Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully.”
And because God can have no impurity in His presence, we are called to pray like David! Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10 ESV).
Every promise in the Bible has a present and a future fulfillment — the present is partial, the future is full.
Pastor Dustin, I am a Christian — I want to follow Christ and I do try to follow Him… But, I look in my heart and I see all kinds of impurity. Does that mean I won’t see God?
Arthur Pink was a Bible teacher and pastor in the 1950s. He wasn’t well-known then, but after his death his notes and his writings have made him very popular. Arthur Pink was his name. Arthur Pink understood that dilemma. I have sin in my heart. How then can I ever be pure in heart?
This is what he said:
“…Christian…the truth is, one of most conclusive evidences that we do possess a pure heart is to be conscious of and burdened with the impurity which still dwells in us.” [Pink p33]
So this, I think, is purity of heart.
Purity of heart says: “I know and feel it to be true that all of my life is lived before God, all of my life is open to Him who sees everything.
“I know and feel it to be true that He scrutinizes not only my outward actions, not only my outward speech, but my inner thoughts as well.
“I know that what He sometimes finds in my inner thoughts cannot possibly please Him. And it grieves me that I displease Him in this way.
Nevertheless, I also know, that He sees that impurity and still loves me and has forgiven that filth because I have confessed it and released it. And I know that in the future, He will help me to please Him both on the outside and on the inside.”
So let me tell you something, believers: you’re already pure!
You have to understand this.
If you are in Christ, if you’ve trusted in Him, you are already pure in God’s eyes.
When you were born again, instantensouly you were no longer spiritually dead but spiritually alive. He cleansed your conscience and wiped away your sin. He has cleansed your heart.
The Bible says “and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith” (Acts 15:9 ESV).
He considers you and sees you as pure, and He treats you as though you are pure.
And yet, we still struggle with impurity. “For we all stumble in many ways” (James 3:2).
We are not yet totally perfected and thus our hearts are not yet totally pure. We are not yet sinless.
“My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1John 2:1 ESV).
Here’s the beauty of this: Even though you are not perfectly pure yet, God can consider you to be pure while He works daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, never giving up on helping you live like you are a pure person.
But this is a process. We call it sanctification. You are considered pure by God, and by God the Holy Spirit you are being shaped and fashioned into someone who knows how to live a pure life.
So we are to use all means to grow in purity — prayer, accountability, confession, encouragement, study. Be sincere with God. Don’t pray to Him orr worship in here on Sunday mornings without first being honest with Him. “I am not yet pure. Thank you that consider me to be pure. And help me to live like a pure person.”
Because, while it is true that God is doing it and will do it, we are called to cooperate and to yield ourselves to His purifying work. “Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God” (2Cor 7:1 ESV).
Contentment is found in purity of heart before God.
Jesus says, “how blessed, how happy, how content, are the pure in spirit”, and then He attaches a promise to it: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God”.
The promise we will see God. What does it mean to see God?
If we work for purity of heart, the promise, for one, that we will see God at work in our lives. Not because he wasn’t at work in your life before. The difference is that but because now impurity which previously was like a smudge on your glasses has now been cleansed and your vision is clear.
The promise is also that you will see God with the eyes of your heart. He will reveal more and more of Himself to you as you read and study His word and listen to preaching and teaching.
The promise is also that you will see Him, I think, in nature and creation. What the unbelieving world sees merely as evidence of a higher power, you will see as evidence of a personal Creator.
What the unbelieving marvels at as the mere result of random process of natural selection and evolution, you will see evidence of the Savior God whom you have come to know personally.
You’ll see every blessing and gift as having come from a good and wise God who wants His children to have joy and contentment.
You’ll see God’s sovereign, powerful, hand at work in the ups and downs of nations and the rising and falling of global political leaders. You’ll have comfort in your heart because you know that whatever this sovereign and good God does in this world and nation, He is doing for His glory and our good.
Most importantly, you will see God in the face of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, where we see the perfect embodiment truth and grace, justice and love, those qualities we find so hard to balance in ourselves.[Charles Simeon with Charles Simeon et al., Spurgeon, “The Bible: Text of the Month,” Christianity Today (Washington, D.C.: Christianity Today, 1957), 32]
THE BEATITUDES ASSUME THAT YOU ARE BORN AGAIN AND THAT AS A RESULT CHRIST LIVES WITHIN YOU AND IS LIVING THROUGH YOU!
3. How do you handle conflict?
3. How do you handle conflict?
Raise your hand if you want to be considered one of God’s very own?
Out of those who raised your hands, how many of you are acetively working for peace in your relationships?
MacArthur says the most important thing to know about peace is that God’s peace is more than the absence of conflict. (ibid), shown by Jesus’ statement “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword” (Matt 10:34). There will opposition before the peace. This is one reason why churches and believers do not truly experience peace. They are unwilling to endure the pain before the peace.
God enjoys perfect peace in heavens and longs and works for peace on earth. Therefore when believers show themselves peacemakers, God says “I love that! This one’s mine!”
Do you love people more than you love your opinions? (106.9)
The idea that a Christian can be in a continual state of hostility with another believer is unfathomable in the NT. We are to be diligent to maintain peace (Eph 4:3), to pursue the things that make for peace (Rom 14:19), there must be peace and order in worship b/c God is a God of peace (1Cor 14:33), we are to pursue peace with all men as we pursue holiness (Heb 12:14).
The first step:
1. Do you have _______ with God?
2). If yes, how are you _________ for peace with others? (Rom 12:18)
3. If yes, how are you ________ others be at peace (Phil 4:3)?
Having come to peace with God through faith in the gospel of peace (Rom 5:1; Eph 6:15), you now enjoy the peace of God (Col 3:15) and it is time to make peace with others and between others (MacArthur p215)
“Truth with God comes first, peace with men second.” (ibid)
You have a unique calling and ability as believers that the rest of the world lacks. You have a mission to help restore peace lost at the fall, and you have the ability to do so because there is peace between you and God. (MacArthur p211) - agents of reconciliation (2Cor 5:18
All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;
The phrase “sons of God” is not a reflection of a hopeless patriarchy. Jesus had a reason for using “sons” rather than “children”. Had Jesus used teknia, it would have communicated tender affection, but “sons” communicates “dignity and high standing” (Lenski p193)
Commend The Peacemaker by Ken Sande
