Unpacking Discontent

Hello, and welcome to the Salt Church Podcast. Thank you for tuning in to this week's message. Join us as we explore God's Word providing practical teaching for day-to-day living. The message you are about to hear was recorded live at our Sunday morning worship experience. If you would like to learn more about Salt Church, please visit us at saltchurch.

org. We hope that you are encouraged by today's message. Happy Thanksgiving weekend. Glad you're here. I see Nick has showed up in the house, my sound man, my old sound man.

Let him know that we got a job for him when he comes back. I've been looking for him another job too, so I'm looking hard for you, man. We need to talk, okay? Great to have you guys here today. So thankful that you chose to worship with us today.

If you are a guest, if you are visiting with us today, we're so thrilled to have you. We're so thankful that you're here with us. And feel free to fill out one of those cards and put it in the box and we'll follow up with you. And we'd love to give you some more information about the church and who we are and where we're going and things like that. So anyway, today I'm excited to begin a new series.

But before I begin a new series, this new series, I just want to say that Lunch with Leon is after church. So if any of you want to have lunch with me and find out more about our church and get with me, it's just a time to get to know you a little bit if you're new with us or perhaps you haven't connected with us or taken the next step, it's an opportunity to do that. But that happens directly after the church service. So you can connect with me over in the Welcome Center and I'd love to have you. Also, Christmas is coming quickly, right?

I don't know if you're nervous or if you're excited or what, but it's not far away. And our Christmas service is right around the corner and I'm super excited about that. So I need everybody in here to get their inviting caps on. Do you hear me? You're inviting caps on.

Do you know that people will say yes to a Christmas service quicker than any other type of service? Amen. They will. They will. They will say yes because you know what?

They're looking for a church to go to. You know what? This is the time of year where people are thinking about the people they have lost in the past. They're thinking about their lives. Did you know that statistically this time of year, and I say this every year, is the most depressing time of year for a lot of people.

It's a really hard time of year because people are thinking about family and maybe they don't have family or maybe they're just going through some things. So this is a great opportunity. So the greatest way to bring somebody to church for life change to happen in their hearts is for you to invite them. Your neighbors, your co-workers, or whoever it may be. You've got somebody in your head.

In fact, I want you to take some time this week. In fact, I might even do this next week. I know this is impromptu. And I want you to write down five people that you know that you want to minister to this Christmas season. And your goal and your duty is to invite them to a Christmas service on the 22nd to be a part of our Christmas service.

And if you do your part, bring people here, I'll do my part. And our lead team will do our part to make and create the greatest environment, the best environment possible for them to experience Jesus Christ. Amen? So let's just meet in the middle on that, okay? The announcement will go out later today, our social media announcement.

Click on that, click going, share, do everything you can to get people to church on Christmas on the 22nd. And it's going to be a crazy time. I'll give you more information about that. We always have a great year, a packed house. People love candlelight services.

I know you guys do. And it's just a fun time. We'll sing Christmas songs and things like that. So I'm excited about it. I don't know about you, right?

I love Christmas. I love Christmas, especially that we get to honor Jesus Christ. And the advent begins today. And we're heading into that Christmas season. So with that, we are beginning a new series called Travel Light.

Travel Light. And if you saw that video, I think it's interesting. I know for myself, when I pack, I always pack too much. And some of you are minimalist, and you're able to do that well. But it's really hard for me because I'm always thinking about the things that I might need if I get stranded or I get stuck.

I'm pulling open my suitcase, and I put shirts in there, you know, a few shirts. Oh, I'm going to pack really light this time. I'm going to pack really light. And then you put a few t-shirts in there and put a few pair of jeans, you know. And you're like, well, and then you put the underwear in there and the socks.

Well, I might need some more socks because it might be colder. Or, you know, it's always good to have extra underwear, right? I mean, you never know what's going to happen, right? So put more underwear in there. And then next thing you know, you're putting more clothes.

What if I get stranded? What if I, you know, and then you look at your suitcase. And, well, I want to take this and that with me because I want to show sister so-and-so or aunt so-and-so and cousin so-and-so. And then the kids are adding stuff in there. And before you know it, you've got a suitcase full of stuff, a suitcase full of things.

And it's hard to travel that way, right? So we're beginning a new series today called Travel Light. And my hope in this series is that that will help you unpack some of that luggage. Because spiritually, physically, yes, we may pack kind of crazy. But spiritually, there's a lot of luggage that we may be holding on to.

And if we can unpack that luggage and travel a bit lighter, we could perhaps experience the life that is truly life, the joy that is available for us. I was with my family over Thanksgiving. And my cousin, or not my cousin, my brother-in-law and his brother were there. And they're both from Brazil. My brother-in-law is a Brazilian.

He's a really funny guy. Just there's something about Brazilians just so happy and so jolly all the time. And his brother, Jotter, his name is Jotter, and he was there with us. And he had this like, I don't know, there was something about him. He just didn't care about stuff.

And he didn't care about all the things that we might care about, maybe because he's from another country and he doesn't think the way we do. But he was a minimalist if I've ever seen one. In fact, he showed up there with one pair of clothes, the clothes that he had on, and he left the next day in his pajamas. And he got into the car, and he's in his pajamas, and he says, you know, see you later. He's staying with my sister, and they're going back to Charlotte.

And he's getting in the car, and he shows me, he says, this is all I brought. And it was literally his clothes, and a few things he put in his clothes. He tied it up. In a little bag, and he had his little headset on top, and he says, this is it. This is all I need.

This is all I need. This is it. This is it. And he gets in the car, and he's just the happiest guy I've probably ever met. I mean, there was just something joyful.

There was a spirit of joy about him that most people I don't experience with. And I find it interesting that those who are content in life and don't require as much tend to be more joyful, tend to be more relaxed, tend to appreciate life a little more. So I've heard it said like this, it's better to have less of what doesn't matter and more of what does. But culture tells us the exact opposite, right? It tells us that we need more to be happy.

And never in history have we had more than now, but less of joy. Never in history as Americans have we had that. They say the iPhone and the smartphone has replaced 50 plus items that we would carry around on a normal basis 15, 20, 25 years ago. You know, with the advent of smartphones and things like that, we don't have to carry around as more. Think about it.

A camera, a calculator, a, you know, the calendar, camcorders, all that thing is now packed in a phone. We don't need a planner anymore. We've got everything right there in a phone, and we've got everything before us. So we have so many things that we can have right in our hand. Think about Amazon, Prime Now, the same day shipping.

I mean, we are so blessed, and we have so many things happening. You know, we have an on-demand culture, right? It's easy for us to be on demand, on demand. And now we have Disney Plus, and some of you are super excited about Disney Plus. Now I can access the vault anytime I want to and pull up my own cartoons, right?

Amen? Okay. There's not a lot of Disney fans in here. Okay. Can I hear a good Disney?

All right. All right. We've got some Disney fans up there. So Disney Plus, and we have Netflix, and we have Amazon, and we have all these things. And I can just remember the day when you actually had to rent a video from the video store.

And back then, it was Blockbuster. And think about how much was involved then, right? Like, okay, I want to rent a movie, say, Jurassic Park, you know, when it came out. Oh, Jurassic Park. We've got to go see Jurassic Park.

So you go to Blockbuster, because that was the most popular one. You have to drive about 20, 15, 20 minutes to get there. And then when you get into the store, you go to the guy up in the counter. You ask him where Jurassic Park. He has no clue, you know.

I think it's over there somewhere, and you can go check over there. And so then you find it. You finally find it. And then you see, like, a number of new copies up there, but all the little cards are out of it, you know. So it's out.

They don't even have it in stock. So what do you do? You get in the car, and you go down the road to Movie Gallery, because nobody really went to Movie Gallery, because Blockbuster was the one to go to. And they had one more copy left, so you get that copy. You take it home.

You drive 20, 15, 20 minutes back home, right? And then you go over to the VCR player, videocassette. You know, any of you remember those? My dad has one in his garage. I saw it this weekend.

I said, Dad, you're a dinosaur. You still have this? What do you still have this for, right? But you put in that cassette, and what do you have to do? You have to fast-forward through the previews.

So the previews are there. You get through that. Finally, you get to the movie, and you finish your movie. And what an enjoyable movie it is, but guess what? We're not through yet, are we?

Because... Please be kind. And rewind. Exactly. So we've got to rewind it, and then we've got to get it back to the video store before the time is out, or they're going to send the FBI after you to get those videos, or they're going to just charge you a lot of money and late fees.

And I can't tell you how many late fees I probably had with Blockbuster, but Blockbuster's out of business now, so, you know, I probably got by with some of those late fees. But anyway, as you can see, times have changed a lot. We live in an on-demand culture, and we have everything today, yet we are unhappy about everything. We are happy. And then the lie is, what you don't have will make you happy and complete, and it's always better to have what?

To have more. And that's the lie that's put out there. But King Solomon was a man who had everything. He prayed for wisdom from God. God asked him, what do you want, Solomon?

I'll give you whatever you need, whatever you want. He asked for wisdom. And he was one of the wealthiest men ever to live as a result of his wisdom. And he had insight into this very thing. He said in Ecclesiastes 4, 6, if you're following, you can turn in your Bibles or turn in your apps or whatever you're looking at.

It says, better one handful with tranquility or peace, if you want to say it like that, than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind. Better is one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind. It's better to have less. And your life is too valuable, you're calling too great, and God is too good for you to be held down by things that don't last in this life. And that's what God's getting at here.

So today I want to talk about contentment, being content, unpacking content. And if I can be content, I will be able to let go of the things that don't really matter in this life and then fill my life because what happens, we have the things that don't really matter, that fill our lives, and we miss out on the most important things. And we'll be able to open up our suitcase a bit, our spiritual suitcase, and put things in our lives that are actually satisfying, actually beneficial, and actually move us to greater things. So my hope here today is to try to help you understand that a little bit. But why are we so unhappy with everything?

Why? Well, the enemy of contentment, I think it comes down to one thing. The enemy of contentment is comparison. And I've preached this in a message before. I've talked about comparison and how it really does ruin our life.

But I think the greatest enemy to contentment is comparison. Proverbs 14.30 says this, A heart at peace gives life to the body. A heart at peace gives life to the body. But envy rots the bones.

So envy, what somebody else has is... It deteriorates us. It's sickening. It's a poison that rots our bones, but if we have peace, we give life. Our body has life, and how many of you want life today?

How many of you want life? So we're going to beat comparison. We're going to work on this thing called comparison. Comparison gives us, and I want to mention a few things here. Comparison gives us, and if you're following your notes, you can write this down, comparison gives us the wrong perspective, first of all.

We see things in the wrong way, and what we have is not good enough, and I think this partly is the rise of social media, right? I mean, social media kind of forms this idea of comparison. When we're online, when we're going through our Facebook and our Instagram, we see these pictures of people, and we see these things, and we see stuff, right? They've got stuff, and I want that stuff. Why do they have that stuff?

They seem happy, they seem content, they seem joyful, or maybe it's a vacation. And wow, they get to go, you know, you go to, you know, the Outer Banks, and then you see somebody post something about being in the Caribbean, and you're like, well, I want that. That's better, you know? And you feel like your little vacation isn't really that great of a vacation because we compare ourselves to others, or maybe even relationships. We look at the pictures online.

We see these wonderful marriages. Maybe you're struggling in your marriage or struggling in a relationship, and you look online, and you see Miranda and I, you know, like hugging, and we've got our filter on, and everything's wonderful. And you see the highlight reel of our life, right? But you don't know what's going on in between those things, and we tend to compare ourselves to relationships and judge our relationship based on somebody else's relationship because it's so available to us. Or maybe it's fitness goals.

How many of you see the fitness goals all over the place on social media, right? I mean, oh, look at this. If you can look like me, you can be like me. And those things always seem to pop up right when I'm chomping on a piece of pizza, you know? Like, and it makes me feel bad.

Like, I need this. I need to be doing this more. And we see this on social media. And it's creating a culture that we, what we have is not good enough. And that's how we see it.

What I have isn't good enough. And every stat shows that 10 minutes on social media a day has made us less happy. Less happy. We're less happy people because we have the wrong perspective. We're seeing it the wrong way.

The second thing is we have the wrong presumptions. We have the wrong presumptions. The wrong presumption. And if I hate what I don't have, I would, or if I have what I don't have or what I'm not, I don't have in hand, I would not be happy. So we look at ourselves and say, if only I could get this, if only I had this, then I would be a lot more happy.

And marketing loves that. Did you know that? I remember back when I was working on my marketing degree, it was probably one of my favorite classes and favorite studies is advertising and marketing and visual marketing and things like that. And how we entice people through that idea of, I've got to have that. You know, you've got the commercial that says, if you just get this, it will change your life, right?

And we believe it, you know? It changes our life. I mean, it even does small things. Like, think about a toothpaste commercial. They put that big thing of paste on your toothbrush.

You know, look at that. Look at that Colgate. Look at that Crest. And all you need is really just that much. But you know what they want you to do?

They want you to use a lot more so you'll buy more, right? That you need to do this because they're playing with your psychology, your psyche. It's about having more and wanting more. And I just love consumer behavior for that reason. It will change your life if you get this, right?

If you get this pill, if you have this pot, it's just going to make everything so much. Look at this. And not only that, look how I do this. And look how I do this. And look at that.

And you're like, I want that. And some of us are like, I've got to get that. And we get it. And we enjoy it for a little while. And then we want the next big thing.

We want the next iPhone, right? iPhone 11 Pro just came out. And everybody's like, oh, I've got to have that one when you just bought an iPhone 10, okay? And a few months they're going to come out with an S model. And it's going to go on and on and on and on.

And we never have enough. We've got to have enough. We've got to have more because we think it will make us happy. I love what Jim Carrey said, actor, comedian Jim Carrey says this many years ago. I heard this quote.

I think everyone should get rich and famous and do everything they dreamed of doing so that they can see that it's not the answer. Some of you are like, well, I wish I could be rich and famous. I'll give it a try and see if that's true, right? But the truth is not enough things will make you happy. Studies even show that those with $25 million or more in wealth are more dissatisfied or discontent.

They had deep anxieties when it comes to love and work and family. And happiness requires to them one quarter more of wealth. So it's a moving target, right? It's a moving line. And I talked a little bit about that a few weeks ago about being rich and having us realize how rich we really are.

It's a moving target. And the more we get, the more we want. And that's what comparison does. We look at others and we think, well, they're happy. I've got to have what they have.

And then comparison makes us or has us to live for the wrong people, the wrong person. Because when we look at that person, when we look at those people, we compare ourselves to them. Well, I want to be where they are. I want to be with them. I want to do what they're doing.

There's actually this thing that was coined in, it's a social anxiety disorder that was actually coined in 2013. So it's a fairly new disorder and it's called FOMO, if I would pronounce that right. It's F-O-M-O. And it's the fear of missing out. And obviously the technology, social media generation has created this, you know, that people now have access to everything that everybody's doing, that they have anxiety and fear of missing out.

Like, they're doing something, they're at the club or at a restaurant or they're here or they're there. There's this event going on. And my goodness, y'all know Virginia Beach has an event going on every weekend, right? I mean, you've got stuff going on all over the place. There's stuff going on in Williamsburg and Norfolk and Virginia Beach and we've got shows.

And we're always seeing people go to these places and you kind of almost feel like what am I missing out is giving people. A false sense of security because of that, and anxiety and fear of missing out. I want to be where they are. I want to go. Am I being left out?

Are most people, so it comes down to this, are most people in this disorder, are most people experiencing joy and I'm not, right? That's what it feels like. Most people are experiencing joy, and it's a real condition, and it's about the experiences that people are engaging in. They don't feel like they are experiencing what others are experiencing. Well, some of you might say, well, you know, text and email, that's all I do.

You know, I don't do social media. I just do text and email and things like that. Well, it happens there, too. It happens there, too, and it can be very distracting. In fact, I catch myself all the time answering, you know, I can be with my family having a great night.

We have, like, all phones off, you know, kind of nights. And we'll get together and we'll just enjoy each other and really enjoy some good quality family time. And I can tell you, one text coming in can ruin the whole night. And that happened to me one time, and I saw a text came in. I've got to handle this.

I've got to get on the phone. I've got to figure this out. And you go and do it. And I'll never forget, you know, my son coming up to me and saying, Dad, you said there were no phones. I said, Son, yeah, you're right.

You know, are you working again? Are you doing something again? I thought it was family night. You know, they know that. They know what's going on.

And we're so caught up in pleasing people that we don't even please the people that really matter or help, you know, create an environment for the people that really matter. So we live for the wrong person, the wrong people. But Paul answers this question about contentment. And I love Paul because he talks about the secret of contentment in Philippians 4, 11 through 13, if you'll follow with me here. It says, I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances, right?

So he says, I'm not in need. I'm content. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. So Paul says, I know what it is to be without. I know what it is to have everything I want.

And I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation. I love that word. He uses secret, the secret of being content, because it seemed to be a secret even in that day. People were not content. Whether well, fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want, I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

So we can't do it without him, but it can be done. He tells us the secret of contentment. Through his strength, we can be content. We have everything available to us to learn to be content. So I want to give you five things real quick this morning that I think will help you learn to be content, the secrets of being content.

First of all, we have to realize what we have. First of all, we've got to stop for a second and realize how blessed we are and what we have. Because it's easy to get caught up with what we don't have, right? When we're focused in comparing our lives to others and what they have, it's easy to get caught up and focused on what we don't have. And make it a thing that we need.

But if we stop for a second and realize everything that we have and how blessed we are. For me, that with practice has come easier and easier for me. Sometimes you're dealing, you're short on money or you're short on, but I have to stop. And I look around me and I realize, man, I've got two wonderful kids. I've got a wife that dearly loves me.

I've got, I don't have a large house, but I have a house. And it's a great house. Got a piece of land. I mean, just the things that I have, I'm blessed with that I probably even shouldn't even have. And I don't even deserve.

And most importantly, my relationship with God, that God sent his son to die for me. And that we didn't deserve it, but he did it anyway. And we are the head and not the tail, right? He's put us above. And we have a hope and a future.

And there's no way I deserve any of this because of what God has done. For me, I love how Paul says this in 1 Timothy. He says, here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance. So he's saying, here's something I want to say to you, and you open your ears and listen because you need to know this. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the worst.

He says, I am the worst. I don't deserve it. But for that very reason, I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life. Now to the king, eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

Amen. So he says, I look to Jesus, and I realize and I assess my life. And as we know that Paul went through some pretty brutal things. He was shipwrecked. He was without food.

He was beaten and thrown out of cities. I mean, he went through some pretty heavy things. And on the flip side, he was probably the Sanhedrin's best friend. And he had everything he ever wanted. He was highly educated.

He was a who's who of his culture. And so he knew everything. But this is the thing that he looked at most is that I don't even deserve what I have. I may have nothing. I may have everything.

But as I look to Christ and what he's done and the immense patience as an example for those who believe in him and receive eternal life, it's just incredible. Paul never forgot what he had been given. So some practicality to that. What do we do with that? What do we do with that when we don't realize what we have?

Well, sit down for a while. Take some time. Maybe in your quiet time is a good time to do that as you're praying and as you're seeking God and as you're growing closer to God. Just write down some of the things about your life that God has blessed you with. Just make a list.

Set it in front of you. Keep it there. Keep it nearby. And any time you start going into that comparison and discontentment route, start looking at that and just, I'm blessed. I really am blessed, Lord.

And reflect on that. I'm blessed. The second thing we need to do is eliminate what we don't need. I need to eliminate what I don't need. This is a hard one.

One for a lot of people, right? There's a rich young ruler that Jesus came in contact with in Matthew, and most of you probably know the story of the rich young ruler. He was very wealthy and he wanted so badly to follow Jesus and be one of his disciples. He says, Lord, you know, what do I have to do to follow you? What do I have to give up?

What do I have to do? Jesus tells him to sell everything that he has and give it to the poor and come and follow me. And the rich young ruler's response was, it says, the rich young ruler treasured, when the young man heard this, he went away because he had great wealth. He had great wealth. Disciples were told to leave everything and follow him.

But we don't like to do that. We don't like to let go. It's hard to let go. You may have that VHS my dad has in the garage, you know, and you just can't let go of that. But come on, man, those MC hammer pants you have in your closet, why is it so hard to let go of that?

Well, they might come back in style one day and I want to wear them again, right? Who knows? But we hold on to things. There's two reasons we do that. First of all, I think it's because of fear.

We might need it in the future. We think, well, I might need this in the future. How many of you have had that response? I don't want to really get rid of this because it might come in handy for something else. It might come back in style.

You know, those MC hammer pants might come back in style. I don't know. The jams might come back in style. You know, the mullet might come back in style. Some of you are still holding on to mullets, right?

Need to let that thing go. Trim it off. Come on. Amen. But when I get rid of, when I give away, when I eliminate some things in my life, it helps me trust in God and not things.

When I don't hold on to things. When I don't hold on to things, to know that God will provide what I need is more important than me holding on to the things that I think bring me joy and bring me hope. And it opens up. What it does is when I eliminate, when I get rid of, it opens up more avenues of giving. It's like unpacking the suitcase so that you have more generosity in your heart.

Maybe you need to go to your closet, and maybe you have some clothes that you like or don't like, or maybe they're new and you haven't worn them for three or four months because you don't really wear them a whole lot. Maybe it's time to bless somebody. Maybe it's time to give something to somebody. You know, it opens up avenues of giving when we eliminate, when we pare down. And that's something I've been really working on with myself lately.

I know it's a real popular thing today when you look on TV, you see a lot of shows about paring down and stuff. But it's really hard, you know, because you like to hold on to stuff. But I've started eliminating even the amount of clothes I have, the amount of things I have, just trying to get rid of them and bless somebody. And another reason that we find it hard to let go of things is because of sentiment, right? Sentiment.

That's really hard for me. I think I struggle with that more than anything because, you know, you want to keep the first ribbon of your first child's award, you know, and then the second ribbon and the fifth ribbon and the seventh ribbon and then all the photos and every single moment you just kind of have them there and you're looking at them. And they bring sentiment to your heart, right? And that's a struggle. But if any of you are familiar with Mari Kondo, she had a TV show.

She wrote a book. It was really popular a few years back. And she had a TV show actually at the beginning of the year last year. Miranda and I watched it. And it was about Tidy.

It was called Tidy Up. And her book's called Tidy Up. And she said this, and I thought it was really interesting. She said, think the things that you're looking at when you're getting rid of things. Think them for their purpose they served in the past and bless someone else with it.

Thank them. She actually literally thinks them. She's, you know, she's got that sense. Thank you. She kind of kneels down and does her thing.

I know that's weird. And maybe to you, interculture, that may not be so weird. But there is a practical application to that is that we thank them for what they were used for and when we had them. And then we get rid of them. You know, we bless somebody else with them.

So what things do we have in our closet that we're holding on to? We need to get rid of some things. We need to get rid of some things. Pair down. Eliminate what I don't need.

Eliminate what I don't need. And when I eliminate what I don't need, I do the third thing. I watch what I spend. So don't go out and start filling up your closet again once you get rid of some things. And that's what we do.

We think that more things bring us happiness. I love how the message says this in Hebrews 13.5. It says, don't be obsessed with getting more material things. Be relaxed with what you have, since God assured us, I'll never let you down and never walk off and leave you.

The original versions would say, I will never leave you and will never forsake you. And so don't spend more when you pare down, right? Some of you are like, well, I just got through a Black Friday. I've already messed up, Pastor. But 62% admit to shopping to cheer themselves up.

62% of people admit to that in their statistics. And in statistics, they see it as a form of entertainment. They like new. They like the power it gives them. It's dopamine.

It's a thing that brings them some kind of significance, significance in life. I buy so that I don't, you know, we buy things to impress people. And it goes back to that comparison trap. But we buy these things and we do these things for people who don't really even care anyway. And we spend all this money and we do these things.

But ultimately, it does nothing but just drain your bank account. And there you are with a lot of stuff again. We're so many. It's a form of therapy. If I buy, I feel better.

So I go in debt and spend way more money than I should spend to fill up that need. But I like to think of things like this, experience over things. I'm more focused on experiences over things. Because if you go back, I just think about my own life. I'm not thinking about the way I was raised when I look back at my father and mother who are incredible people.

And we never had a whole lot. We grew up very poor. My dad was in the ministry. Back then, you know, ministry was hard. Nowadays, you know, the church focuses on taking care of the pastor a little more.

But back then, they were pretty harsh. And maybe there's still those ministries out there. But we gave up a lot. And you give up a lot when you do ministry, you know. And we didn't have a whole lot.

And the memories that I cherish most is those times with my parents and my dad and playing games with them, him cutting up with me, waking me up in the morning, singing silly songs and making up songs and things like that as I was waking up in the morning. I mean, those are the things that I remember most. It wasn't the brand new PlayStation or anything like that, you know, that toy. Those things are just not it. It's really about the experiences we have.

And my hope is my legacy will be that my children will have those same experiences. It won't be about that toy or that gift. It will be more about how we shared life together, how we did things together, those moments where we had daddy-daughter time. You know, my daughter loves daddy-daughter time. You know, she's like, can we have some daddy-daughter time?

We can go out to somewhere and have a burger somewhere. She loves those little experiences. So we need to have experiences over things. Experiences over things. And fourthly, we need to make God our source.

Make God my source. So instead of filling it up with stuff, make God your source. Philippians 2, 12 and 13. Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence. Continue to work out.

Underline that word, work out. Your salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in you and will and to act according to his good will. So the Greek word for working out literally means to gold dig, to dig for gold, gold mining, gold mining. And the deeper we dig, the deeper we dig. If you know anything about mining, it's the deeper you dig, the deeper you dig.

There's a lot of rocks. There's a lot of dirt there. But good things come from it. Once you find the gold, you dig for it. And the question is, how do we dig for the deeper things of God?

How do we dig for those things? How do we dig for the things that really matter? Working out our salvation with fear and trembling. It's all about our time with God, about putting our trust and hope in God. It's through his word.

It's through prayer. It's through getting along with him and really just developing that relationship, just digging a little deeper in our relationship with God through prayer and allowing him to speak. And I can't wait till the turn of the year because I'm going to talk about hearing God's voice. So many people have questions about how to hear God's voice. And I keep wanting to go back to that.

I mean, a couple of messages ago, I wanted to hit on that. And I'm going to hold off. But you really need, we need a people who hears God's voice. We need a people who has such a deep relationship with God that we know what he wants for us. And we know what he wants for others.

And we know what he wants for this world. And we are willing to do the next step because of it. That we make God my source and that I live life on mission. That I live life on mission. Philippians 3, 12 and 14 says, Not that I have already obtained all this or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Jesus Christ took hold of me.

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and straining for what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize that is with that for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Live with purpose. Forgetting my past. Knowing who I am.

And walking forward in boldness and strength into my future. Knowing what God has for me. Living on purpose. Living with purpose. Living in God's purpose.

Living life on mission that every day is a calling. Every day is about what he wants for my life and what he wants to do through me. Making God not just first, but the center of my life. Making him, and I will serve more, and I will give more, because my life is too valuable, my calling is too great, and our God is just way too good for us to miss out on things because we're so consumed in the things of this world. Our God is so good, he wants so much more for us, and he's got so many things prepared for us.

Yet we hold on to things, so we need to let go. We need to unpack, unpack discontentment. Take it out of our suitcase so that we can travel lighter, so that we can live with joy, so that we can live with a fullness. Contentment fills me with life and fortifies me from my circumstances. It keeps me from the things that drag me down because I am focused on contentment.

It fills my life. It fills my hope. It fills my purpose. For some of you today, maybe that's hard for you. And here in closing, I just want to take an opportunity to just pray for you for a second.

And for some of you here, it might just be taking the next step with Christ. Maybe you've never really been all in. Maybe you've never really given your life or your heart to Jesus. Maybe you've never surrendered it. Maybe that's the first step, like unpacking that and handing it to Jesus.

It says his yoke is easy and his burden is light. He wears our pain. He wore our scars, our pain, our hurt on the cross. And that's really what it's about. That's why we celebrate this Christmas season.

That's why we're coming into this, the advent of Jesus and him coming to earth as a child. God taking his son and reducing him to man so that he could die for us for our sin and that we could have a life with him. That's really the most contentment that we need is a relationship and a life with Jesus. So with all heads bowed and all eyes closed, if you're here today, you're here today. Maybe you have a strong walk with Jesus, a life with Jesus, but you're struggling with discontentment.

Maybe it's keeping you from really digging the goal, you're working out your salvation, you're digging. If that's you today, let me just pray for you. Maybe you need to be freed from that. Lord, I pray in the name of Jesus, the power of the Holy Spirit today. God, Jesus, that you would deliver some people today from the bondage of discontentment, that they would let go of some things, that they would let go of some hurts, they would let go of some past things, they would let go of some failures, they would let go of the physical things in their life that have held them back, that I want more, I want more, I want more, when they need to realize that you are it, and you are the substance, and you are more than enough.

Lord, I pray in the name of Jesus that you would deliver some people today. And if there are those here that have not received you as Savior and King, I pray. And if you're here today, I'm not asking you to raise your hand even today. I'm not asking you to come to the front. None of that.

All God cares about is that you make a personal confession to Him and let Him know that you're in. There's no magic in a prayer. It's just your heart surrendering. It's about surrendering. It's about turning from one direction and going another.

So if you will pray that with me. If that's you today, Father, in the name of Jesus, I believe that you are the Son of God, that you died on the cross for my sin. And today, I give my life to you. Come into my life. Change me from the inside out.

Make me new. Make me yours. We ask this in your name. Amen. Amen.

Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Can y'all give God a hand clap of praise? If everybody would just stand with me for a minute. The Dream Team is going to take up our offering here in a second.

I pray for you to really just be all in this week and all in this season as God carries us through this series. We'll be dealing with, you know, bitterness one week and we'll be dealing with some other things, you know, kind of walking through some things. But we're going to take an opportunity to worship God just for a few seconds as the buckets are coming around. And you can give online. I think we have our, do we have our giving online here?

You can text to give. There's all kinds of opportunities to give. And thank you so much for what you're doing. I'm excited about this coming up year and God wants to do some amazing things. But I want us to, first of all, let go of discontentment, be content so that we can aim towards what God's doing.

We are in the process, just kind of sharing with you, looking for a different place to meet. And we think we might have landed one, so we won't want to put the cart before the horse. But those are things that we're giving to. We're helping to get to reach more people, repositioning ourselves and doing things for the glory of God. So your giving is, but most importantly, you're not just giving just to help the church or anything.

It's for you because God doesn't want something from you. He wants something for you. And I believe that God's going to bless every one of you as you give faithfully and with the heart of gratefulness. Because where your heart is or your treasure is, your heart is also. Amen.

Amen. Let go of some discontent today, Lord. So let's pray as we let you out today. Father, in the name of Jesus, we just thank you for once again gathering together here. And we're so thankful this season.

And we give you the praise and glory. God, as we leave here, let all we do give you glory and give you praise. And we ask this in your name. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen.