Scripture Passage

1 Timothy 6:6-10

Sermon Text

Introduction

Blessed we are to have a choir and every week we come and have a time of reflection and have some time with God and you know, once a week coming here and reflecting upon our lives and about God and worshiping God, it’s just such a blessing. You know, God made such a good system, once a week we gather together, the people, believers, gathered together and then just forget about everything else. Just let the world be out there. Just forget about everything else. Just sit down and enjoy the presence. Enjoy this moment, enjoy the moment of God, the presence of God. And, I mean this is really healthy for our existence to be able to do that. Sometimes we really let down all the garbage within our consciousness, all the worries, anger, hatred and all that stuff in, in our brain is constantly going on.

 

Empty Yourself

We just need to empty ourselves and just purify, empty your thoughts and minds and just focus on God. Focus on beautiful things. Focus on the good things in life. At least once a week. We need to have this cycle of continuously cleaning up and then be filled again. I mean, every week you go clean your room. Don’t, don’t you just maybe not. I mean, you gotta do that. You’re supposed to, every week we got to clean up and then dust and then fill that place with a good fragrance and joy. And I used to do that with your consciousness to your existence. Just empty out and then worship God.

 

We Should Be Content

Today’s Thanksgiving Sunday and Happy Thanksgiving and God has blessed you with many, many blessings and God has blessed me with many, many blessings. I’m really thankful for that. St Paul said, if we have food and clothing, there is nothing else to complain about. We should be content. He said, if we have food and clothing will be content with these. You will be content, you should be content. That we all should be content because we have enough food and clothing and maybe too many clothes. But that is not the case. There are so many people around us who are not very content. Even though they have enough food and clothing. Look at ourselves. We all have lots of food and lots of clothing. But we are not at always content. So I realized that Ah, contentment does not come from food and clothing. Food and clothing do not give you contentment along the same line of thought. Contentment does not come from lots of food and lots of clothing. Containment does not come from things like that. What we have does not give us contentment. What we have does not give us contentment. Even money cannot do that. Money, gifts as a lot. It gives us not only for food and clothing but also it gives us a good car, a good house, and many good luxuries. Money is very useful but cannot, cannot give us contentment. It is useful, but cannot give us contentment?

 

Discontentment With Money

Money, money can rather give us discontentment when our desire for money is too strong. When you like money too much and instead of giving you contentment, it gives you discontentment. In that sense, I think money can be very dangerous. I think money is the most dangerous thing. Money can truly destroy a person’s life. St. Paul warns us about the danger of money. He said, “those who want to be rich, fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction”. Very strong worry about wanting to be rich. Paul saw the danger of the love of money. He even said for the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil and in their eagerness to be rich. Some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains. Money is very useful but it is very dangerous. You know it is like a very sharp knife. A sharp knife is very useful because it is so sharp. It can cut through anything but since it is so sharp it can hurt you and others very easily. You don’t want to give that sharp knife to children because they may harm themselves. You don’t want to give it to those who are planning to harm other people. Then that useful knife becomes a very dangerous weapon. So money can be quite dangerous depending on who has it, depending on who has it. Money itself is not evil. The love of money is, love of money can cause so many evil things. He can hurt you badly. It can take over your sense of priority and judgment. It can take away humility. It can destroy human decency. Often because of money, people become divided. People fight with each other. People hate each other. Brothers against brothers, children against their parents. Why many times when money is involved. When money’s involved, everything becomes so serious. The love of money creates all kinds of problems. So don’t try to find satisfaction in money. It will never give you the satisfaction you want. Don’t even try to find satisfaction in money. It will never give you the satisfaction you desire. Being content has nothing to do with what you have. People who are content doesn’t matter whether they have anything or not. But people who are not content doesn’t matter what you give, they still are discontent. They’ll never be content.

 

Be Content

If you are content you are just content, that’s what I realized. If you’re discontent, you’re just discontent. Nothing to do with what you have or with what you don’t have. If you’re content, you are just content. You’re content not because of what, you’re content no matter what. That’s what contentment is like. I like to be a person who is content and I want you to be a person to be content too.

 

Rejoice In All Situations

Habakkuk prophet realized this secret about being content. He said this, “though the fig tree does not blossom and no fruit is on the vines. Though the produce of the olive fields and the fields yield no food, though the flock is cut off from the fold and there is no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord.”. That’s what contentment is like. If you can rejoice even when the fig tree does not blossom and no fruit is on the vine, you are a very special person. If I see people like that, I respect them and you should respect them too because they are very special people. Being content is a tremendous power in life. To me, being content is confidence, the confidence that you can deal with all kinds of situations. That’s what content people are like. I can deal with all kinds of situations. That’s why they are content. The people who complain all the time because they are filled with fear and lack of confidence. That’s why they complain, but people who are content they have confidence because they have confidence they’re content in any situation because they can deal with all kinds of situations like Habakkuk profit. Even though I don’t have anything, no fruit on the vine or olives, I still rejoice in the Lord because he can handle the situation. That is what St. Paul taught us. This is what he said, “For I have learned to be content with whatever I have, I know what it is to have little and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”. He said I’ve learned to be content. He didn’t say, oh, because I have this, I’m content. He didn’t say that, He said he has learned to be content in any situation. What is the secret? The last verse. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. I smell confidence here. I hear confidence here. I can do all things who through whom, who strengthens me. I can do all things, I can survive all circumstances, I can deal with all situations. That is confidence and that confidence gives you contentment. So, people who are content, they are strong people. People who are constantly complaining, they are weak people. You don’t need to respect them. You don’t even need to hear them. But people who are content in all situations, you should pay attention to them. You should respect them.

 

Thankfulness

Being content means also to be thankful, to be thankful. A Thankful Heart is the heart of contentment. Be thankful in all circumstances. I’m leaving for Madagascar. Next Monday, I’ve been there. I’m in South Africa, there are rich people and poor people. Madagascar, everybody’s so poor. It’s incredible the kind of poverty you witness when I go it is just incredible. If you are not satisfied with what you have, nothing in the world can satisfy you. If you are not satisfied with what you have here, nothing in the world can satisfy you. Just be thankful, you will be alright, everything will be alright. Thankfulness gives you life’s protection.

 

Use Money Wisely

About money, don’t try to get satisfaction from it. Money is given to you, to use it wisely. That’s all money is. Money is not given to you so that you can have satisfaction. No, money is given to you so that you can use it wisely. So learn to be generous with money. Give out a lot, that’s what money is for. For a good purpose. Spend your money generously. Build that heart of generosity is important to learn to make money. Yes, it is important to learn to make money, but it is more important to learn how to spend money. I don’t mean to waste your money, but for good works. Show your generosity. People who are generous in giving out the money are the people who value other more important things than money. They know what is more valuable than money. Money is only a tool, not a value. I learned that when I use money for a good purpose, somehow, miraculously, it never gets exhausted. It never gets exhausting. I don’t know-how, it always gets filled up. That’s a miracle to me. A lot of people think that if I spend the money, money’s gone. No money is not gone, in that empty space, it gets filled up again somehow. That is what blessing is.

 

Money Is a Blessing

I believe that money is a blessing. I want to make that money as a blessing. The blessing you give away gets filled. Elijah met this widow and then she had her last meal because there was starvation there and a famine shared last meal and Elijah said, give that to me and out of generosity, she gave her last meal. She was going to die after that with her son, but she gave her last meal to Elijah. You know, her jar of meal was not, never emptied. Neither did the jug of oil. Never failed. Always filled up again. That’s a miracle. That’s a miracle of life. God will remember a cup of water you share with the least of these. We’ll soon do a special offering of tsunami victims in Indonesia. 1600 people died. It’s terrible. The devastation, the families, children, I feel for them. The love you share with them. God never forget. I hope that you can do the donation generously.

 

Conclusion

The only way money can give you contentment is not when you use it for yourself, but when you use it for other people, then you can experience contentment from money. Trying to get satisfaction by spending money for yourself is like drinking salty seawater to quench your thirst. It’ll make you only thirstier. But when you use that money for other people, that seawater somehow comes back to you as freshwater and it will quench your thirst. This is thanksgiving. We are very thankful for what we have, but also at the same time, we have responsibilities to share with others who are less fortunate than us. Have confidence, have contentment, have generosity and be satisfied.