With These We Shall Be Content

Now, Pastor Bailey, some of you guys know, some of you guys don't. And I've realized in our church that the longer our church exists, which is a little over 13 years now, actually January will be 14 years, that less and less of you know where we came from or who trained us or who our fathers in the faith are. And so Pastor Bailey is very much my father and my wife's father in the faith. We wouldn't be... where we are if God hadn't used him and his church and his wife to minister to us. I could tell you stories and stories about their love for the Lord and their love for us. And so all I would say to you by way of exhortation as he comes to preach to us is to open your hearts wide to him and to listen to him because he's been faithful for decades and decades, longer than most of us have been alive, and has loved the Lord and led many of us. So give your heart to him. I love getting hugged by that. It's very sweet to be here.

when you preach every week, you don't realize how much you will miss it. And when we were in Taiwan, we were able to preach and to teach and to counsel. Actually, it was a student from our church in Bloomington who's now a missionary's wife, PCA pastor, and his wife that we stayed with and that we worked with while we were there when I was teaching at the seminary. Taipei, but now being back, it's kind of weird not having a home. And so Mary Lee and I have been bouncing around, and we've bounced here by invitation of your elders and pastor, and happy to be here. So let us begin by hearing the sacred scriptures which are written for us in 1 Timothy 6, verses 6 to 8. This is the word of God, and it is eternally true. But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this word which searches our hearts.

And we're so grateful, Father, that you purify us and make us holy. Now will you work through my mouth and in every one of our hearts so that they may be pleasing in your sight, you who are our strength and our redeemer. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Now first, a couple of comments about the text. I don't know whether what you have up there now... This is often the case that when the scriptures are put up on overheads, they don't put in the markings of the text because it's hard to get them right. The word actually in the printed version of these Bibles is in italics. And so, Mr. Smarty Pants, Micah, what does that mean? Good answer, but what does it mean when...

A specific word in the Bible is italicized, slanted. Now, although that's a good guess, often italics is used to emphasize something. Any of the young men? So your father has left you ignorant, right? Any child here want to take a guess at what it means when in your Bibles a word is italicized? Yes, sweetie. Oh, yeah, buddy. Very good. That's exactly what it means. When a word is italicized in the Bible, that indicates the word is not there in the original Greek and Hebrew. And so the translators have supplied the word. Now, if you know that the word up there actually is not in the text, I want a show of hands. You are perfectly free to vote it up or to vote it down.

So everybody that thinks that's helpful, raise your hand. Okay, we have a gentleman back there named Aaron and a child and anybody else. Oh, I don't know you, but that's good. All right, those of you who are opposed to it, raise your hand. You don't think it's helpful. Okay, I don't think it's helpful because I remember a child born into our home. who, from a very young age, would always be qualifying himself by saying, well, actually, and it just set my teeth on edge, actually, you know, first of all, it's an adverb, you know it's an adverb because it has an L-Y, but also, if it's actually, don't you feel like it's getting an extra push?

You know, it's a pushy word. Actually. You know, if you're talking to a used car salesman, he says actually or truthfully or to be honest with you, you immediately know he's lying. Okay? And so I don't appreciate the pressure that word puts on me because I'm wondering, okay, godliness actually is a means of great contentment. Godliness is a means of great gain. Actually is a means, is a means. Almost always when you have a word that's supplied in a Bible, it's in italics, you should read it again without that word in there and think about it. Okay? Now I don't care if you disagree with me on the word actually, but I wanted to make a note that it is important to keep track of what the original Hebrew and Greek say. And it's becoming increasingly...

true of churches that we don't care. We just don't care what the Holy Spirit inspired. We're getting very lazy in the consumption of Scripture. You can't do that with Bibles today. So that word actually, you ready? That word actually, actually is not in the Bible. Okay, all right. Now, one other thing. I want you to note it says, cannot take anything out of it either. I want to tell you a little story because anytime I read that text, I think of this story. Some of you may remember that late night had a TV talk show host named Johnny Carson. I probably watched him 20 times in my life, maybe 10. One night I was watching, and there was the director of a choir in some television show I'd never seen. He was African American, he was elderly, and the show was something like Say Hallelujah or Say Amen or something. I don't remember what the show was. But Johnny Carson was doing what he often did, which was try to pull his guests down to his level.

Very subtly, he'd try to degrade them. And so Johnny Carson was doing this with this elderly African-American gentleman. And if I recollect, he was actually a pastor and a choir director in a church in L.A. And so Johnny Carson is talking to him, and Johnny says, I guess this show has been very profitable for you. And the man's like, yes, yes, it has been profitable. God be praised. And Johnny Carson says, well, I guess you know pastors need money, don't they? Yes, churches need money. I guess, so it's been a lot of money, hasn't it? Well, yes, it's been a lot of money. And Johnny Carson says to him, so what are you doing with the money? And he says, well, I'm putting the money.

back into the Lord's work or something like this. And Johnny Carson, of course, doesn't like that. Come on, show me your humanity, dude. Don't be prissy, you know. And so he says to him, well, yeah, but, you know, surely you, you know, do you party? I don't remember the words, but do you party with it, you know? Do you take out any young women? Do you eat well? Do you go to restaurants? Do you have a second house? You know, he's probing and probing and probing for this man to admit that he's not actually giving God his wealth. And the man is, he just doesn't give in.

He just continues to be sweet, not taking any offense at what Carson is trying to do to him, just giving straightforward answers. It's beautiful. And I just sat there loving Jesus, putting that man on the Johnny Carson show to show godliness. Finally, Johnny's just irritated. I don't remember how he brought it to an end, but he kept probing and probing and probing. And finally, this man says to Johnny something like, well, you know, Johnny, I think Carson made a joke about how he wouldn't have had that money left because his six or seven wives would have taken it in all the divorce settlements. I think Carson made a comment about that. Finally, he says to him, you know, Johnny, what would you do with it? You know, Johnny, you can't take it with you. And it was an inspiring moment.

where on national television a Christian confessed his faith. It's just beautiful. And so I can't ever read this text without thinking of that godly pastor on the Johnny. You can't take anything out of it either. Now, in this text we have one of the definitive statements of Scripture concerning that elusive blessing so rare in the world in church today. which is contentment. What is contentment? Well, contentment is often defined, if you look it up in dictionaries, it's happiness. But contentment is not happiness. You can achieve happiness just by getting drunk or wasted. But such happiness has nothing to do with the contentment that Scripture commends.

Christian contentment bears no resemblance to the whirlwind satisfaction of the lusts of his flesh, the lust of his eyes, and the prides of his life. When the rich man surveyed his wealth and built larger barns and silos to store his wealth in, as Jesus told the parable, note how happy he was when he smugly said to himself, Jesus put it this way in Luke 12, 19, and I will say to my soul, You have many goods laid up for many years. And they add the word, it's in italics, to come, many years to come. For many years, take your ease, eat, drink, be merry. So this guy's happy, yes. As a matter of fact, he's rich and fat and happy, yes. But no one would say that this rich man had the contentment that comes with godliness.

Christian contentment is often, counterintuitively, it's often greatest in the midst of poverty, sickness, the suffering of persecution, and approaching death. I'll never ever forget Curtis Cook. Some of you know Curtis. Described to me what it was like as a young man to have cancer. And being in the hospital room on the edge of death, I think twice if I remember correctly, But I remember him saying to me that when he was in the hospital room, very close to death, that he was never more content in his life in the presence of God. I've never forgotten that. Christian contentment is often greatest in such circumstances because Christian contentment is not the product of earthly goods such as safety, health, wealth, good food, and warm companionship.

Christian contentment can be held by the man who lives in safety, the man who has good health, even by the man who is wealthy. But Christian contentment is never the product of health or wealth. Never. Godliness accompanied by contentment is great gain. Great gain requires both godliness and contentment. Contentment without godliness doesn't cut it. Many worldlings who are godless seem quite content. But what about Christians? And this is the more important point for us this morning. Are there godly men and women who are not content? Now, that's the nub of where I want us to go this morning. Are there godly men and women who are not content? Are there godly men and women who are discontent or malcontent?

It's a tough question, isn't it? How can a godly man or woman live in a state of discontent? Well, sadly, this question is easy to answer. Many Christians today live in a state of discontent. Many who name the name of Jesus today live as malcontents. And really, if we read the accounts of the different churches receiving the epistles of the New Testament, this shouldn't surprise us. Consider the Corinthians, for instance. We read in 1 and 2 Corinthians that the Apostle Paul condemned and warned the Christians of Corinth against the sins that were prevalent in their city. Like their neighbors in the city, the Corinthians were proud. Like their neighbors, they took each other to court. They were litigious. They committed sexual sins. They were immoral. They fell into the sins that surrounded them.

have read the Old Testament, you know that this is true of the Old Testament Christians also, the Hebrews, the children of Israel. When they entered the promised land, they were warned against it, but the sons of Israel practiced the same idolatry, including the same child sacrifice of their neighboring Canaanites during the reigns of many of their kings. The people of God often gives ourselves to the sins of those we live among. Now, at this point, I'm going to exercise great restraint and not go off into discussing how often we give ourselves to the sins of the Canaanites today, but if you know anything about the warnings that God gave the Israelites when they went in the Promised Land and what would happen.

if they committed the same sins of the Canaanites, then you're acutely aware of the fact that the church today is like the Hebrews in the land of Canaan after they cleaned out the Hebrews, or the Canaanites. Well, this is the reason that you and I and the people of the churches that we go to and that we associate, this is the reason that we are discontent. It is the sin of our age. Okay? Now, computers keeping track of word usage in printed sources across the past couple centuries can help us to know our sins. If you search for the change in frequency of the use of this and that word and our sins, will become visible through those graphs, particularly the sin of discontentment. I want to prove this to you by going through a series of graphs. For instance, the first one is... Now, I should... Well, okay. Over on the left is 1800. On the left, on the left, use your cursor. You can do it. Right there is 1800. Take it to the right.

And it's 2000, and so it's 2019, and the word is gender. Do you see this? Nobody used to talk about gender. It was a grammatical term. But now gender has replaced sex. So everybody's talking about gender because it's plastic. It shows the sins of our culture. Let's go to the next one. Now this one again, 1800 on the left, 2019 on the right. Can you read the word? Robust! I get such a kick out of that word because the one sure thing is that anything that somebody calls robust is actually a feat. It's actually gay. It's actually effeminate. And inevitably, it's a philosopher. You know, the philosophers are always talking about the theory is, it's a robust theory, it's a robust study, it's a book with a robust presentation of, you know, and it's just robust, robust, robust, robust. Well, are we, any of us today, robust? I mean, maybe David Abbasar, you know, maybe Max, but certainly...

Certainly not the rest of us. I mean, you know, honey, would you like a robust... Well, anyhow. The next one. Now, this is the word effeminate. From 1800 to 2019. Now, why would the word effeminate die? Well, because nobody wants to use a word that's pejorative. That's a negative word. And so people that are always calling themselves robust don't recognize effeminacy. It's not a category of thinking for them. All right, let's go to the next one. Now this is the word authoritarian. Completely dead. And then all of a sudden, it starts getting traction. Now why would authoritarian go up? Why would it come alive? Well, because everybody is a rebel.

And so everybody starts talking about authoritarianism. It's the great evil, you know. We used to talk about colonization. Now we talk about authoritarian, right? I mean, where would Julie Roys be without the word authoritarian, you know? Okay, next one. This is the word holy. I mean, guys, where is the ambiguity? There's absolutely no concern for holiness today. It's dead. Trot out the J.C. Ryle's book. That's about as close as we come. Next. This is the word victim. It's interesting, isn't it? All right, let's have the next one. This is the word mom did not love me. Okay, next one. This is dad did not love me. Okay, next one. This is she hurt me. Okay, next one.

He hurt me. Okay, next one. I want. Okay, next one. I gotta help. Next one. I need. Okay, next one. I need, need, need. Okay, next one. Contentment. Okay, next one. Contented. Next one. I am content. And finally. I am contented. Isn't that interesting? I put them in the order, and I think it's good to end with this one, because when you say, I am contented, and when you speak of contentment, you're talking about a state of being. Do you understand that? I tried to search for content. But, I mean, it's alive and well because it's also content on a website, right? And so you can't really do a good job with just the word. But when you start talking about a state of being, all of a sudden you see that we are not a contented generation, are we? And word usage is a very, very important thing.

Like all statistics, engrams can be, that's what these things are called, engrams. You can do it on Google for yourself. It's fascinating. Like all statistics, engrams can be played and they can be manipulated, but no one would question the frequency of usage of words connected with whining, with victimhood, with discontentment, and contentment are an accurate picture of the Western world today. We are a generation of discontentment. Inside the church, just as outside the church. This truth is sad, but this truth is true. And for this reason, we need what the Apostle Paul wrote here to Timothy. But godliness is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content.

In the verse immediately before our text this morning, the Apostle Paul described the false shepherds causing division in the church. He said that they were men, quote, men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth who suppose that godliness, and it can also be translated religion, is a means of gain. So these are false shepherds, false pastors, false celebrity religious leaders who are harming the church for their own purposes. I remember as I wrote this, I just remember so clearly my dad. And my dad and my father-in-law ran with the wolves. They were the cream of the cream of the celebrities. But they were completely different because both of them were humble and gave their money away.

And I'll never forget my father saying to me many times in his last few years of life, Tim, every man is out to build his kingdom, including James Dobson. That's what he would say, including James, because he knew I loved Dobson. And he'd just say, every man's out to build his kingdom. And so here we see the Apostle Paul warning Timothy as a pastor. to guard the church against evil men who suppose that godliness is a means of gain, that religion is a means of gain. It infuriates me how Christians today, especially pastors and elders, refuse to warn their people against the merchants of religion that permeate the web, the radio waves, the television waves, the publishers. It's so obvious.

And yet we don't warn our people. Well, the Apostle Paul said to Timothy, guard your people against these men. And they knew who they were. And the Apostle Paul named them by name. And so having warned against these men and their evil methods and motivations in our text, the Apostle Paul turns to commend the true religion, the true godliness that is associated with contentment. He says, but godliness is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. Now, we could make an error. We could think that since the evil men of the church, the false shepherds are seeking gain, that seeking gain is wrong. There are often men who are very proud of the fact that they're poor. Honestly, church is filled with such men. They take it as a point of pride. There are also men.

I remember a guy, Reformed Baptist from over in England, who came to speak at a conference, and he was so proud that all the biblical churches in England had nobody in them. I mean, literally, he was so proud of the poverty of the church. Well, don't make the mistake of thinking that gain is wrong, and it's wrong to seek it. Jesus commanded us, don't worry then saying what we eat or what we drink or what we wear for clothing. For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But, and then this is a command, seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. We want to think that God is demanding perfect obedience and worship from us.

And then we say, and you can't have perfect obedience without your motivation being perfect. And then we say, you can't ever be motivated by a desire for gain or demotivated, okay, scared off, warned by fear of what will happen to you, say, for instance, God's judgment in hell. No, no, no, no, no. You have to have pristine motives, and all of them have to be perfectly selfless. No, no, no. Look at what Jesus says here. He says, don't worry, and then he says, seek first his kingdom, his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. And so if you want to be clothed, to have food, if you want love, it is right for you to seek God in his kingdom, knowing that he will give you the desires of your heart. Okay?

Seeking is commanded by our Lord, but we are to seek first the kingdom of God, not our own kingdom, not any earthly kingdom. Now, we're very good at making others and ourselves think that the earthly kingdom we wish to preside over and grow is not about us. Did you hear me? All of us are very good at making others, convincing others, that the earthly kingdom we wish to preside over and grow, it's not about us. It's about God. Okay? Like the false shepherds the Apostle Paul just warned Timothy against, elders and pastors, fathers and mothers, are very good at using religion and scripture for earthly gain.

Now let me speak of a few things all of the churches of Evangel Presbytery are committed to as acts of godliness, as religious acts that honor God. Take, for instance, the command God gave in the Garden of Eden during man's state of perfection. Before the fall, God made us male and female and commanded us, Genesis 1.28, he blessed them and said to them, Adam and Eve, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it. All men have been commanded by God to be fruitful, to multiply, and to fill the earth. But man rebels against God's command and uses chemicals and surgery to avoid being fruitful and multiplying. This is why there are many billions of murders of unborn babies that make today the child sacrifices to Moloch of the Old Testament look insignificant by comparison.

Well, it is right then for us to share a commitment to restore obedience to this command of fruitfulness and multiplication, and to restore it in the Christian church. It's a command that God gave to all creation. We don't have that category in our brain as Christians anymore. God commanded it in the state of perfection to all men, not just Christians. But God did command it, and so we obey it. But those of you that God has blessed with children, who are the fruitfulness he commanded of us, know how very easily obedience of this command can turn from godliness to selfishness. What started out as simple submission to God's command of fruitfulness in a few years turns into pride. Pride in fruitfulness. Cultivation of our own reputation for great religiosity. How easily we twist God's kingdom into my kingdom or into my wife's kingdom? How easily we abuse evangelism and fellowship and potlucks and worship and music into self-seeking and kingdom building that strokes our greed and pride. How many large families have been turned from their initial desire to glorify God to glorifying the family and then glorifying the Father?

And finally, glorifying the mother. But, says God, godliness is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. The many children of such a home and family are not the great gain being promised as a blessing here because this fruitfulness is not done for God's glory. It's done for the glory of father and mother. And such self-seeking never produces contentment. Because idolatry has a voracious appetite. If there's one thing I've noticed in the last 40 years, almost a month shy, 40 years of ministry, it is that the whole family values movement, starting in the Republican Party and working its way even down into conservative reform churches, has been a movement of idolatry of the family. It's just so obvious.

So obvious. God did not make the family to be an idol. And I'm going to tell you one way to learn whether or not what you're doing in your home is idolatry or godliness with contentment is to see whether or not your home is a center of healing and ministry and feeding and hospitality. The home is not supposed to be a man's castle where he gets smug and fat. It's supposed to be a center of ministry with Christians. It's supposed to be a place where you and other people see your sins and failures. The home is a center of evangelism. Not just of your children, but of other people's children. A place where you have a couple come in and stay with you for a few weeks that are fighting so constantly in their marriage. And you think, well, that won't be helpful to my children. And my response to you is, it's probably the most helpful thing you could do to your children. One of two things. Either they recognize in the other couple what you and your wife are like when the other couple isn't there and you're not helping them.

Or they recognize what a gift God's given to them in having a mother and father that aren't fighting all the time. Those of you God has blessed with children who are the fruitfulness he commanded us know how easily it is, how easy it is to obey this command from selfishness and not godliness. You started out with simple submission to his commands, but then you began to... you began to buff and stroke and highlight your great, great faith. Oh, my goodness. I have watched this my whole life. And I'm going to tell you, the higher you climb, the harder you fall. Don't you ever think that because so far your children have not shamed you that it won't happen. Don't ever take pride in your children.

Some of the most sinful things that I have watched, you know, highly vaunted, highly respected Christian families, some of the greatest sins are because of their desire to protect their reputation and hide sin. And it never goes well, you know. God is merciful to us. How easily we abuse evangelism and fellowship and potlucks and worship and music into self-seeking and building our own kingdoms. The many children of such homes and families are not the great gain being promised as a blessing. Fruitfulness, such self-seeking never produces contentment because as I said, idolatry has a voracious appetite. Have you ever watched John Crumb eat? We'd get done. He lived with us for a year or two. We'd get done eating dinner. You know, a large table of people. And John would sit there like a dog that knows the stick is about to be thrown. We actually gave him milk, too, every single night. And he'd sit there, and we'd get to the end of the meal, and there'd still be food in the serving dishes. And then I would turn to John and say, John, would you like some more?

If I may. And then we would all of us get around on the opposite side of the table from John, lift up that side, and John would get down and open his mouth on this side of it, and all the food would just go into John Crumb's mouth. It would all be gone. We never had a dirty, what do you call it, love? Clean? Our table was always clean when we were done with John at the table. Okay? That's what I mean by a voracious appetite. And if we turn our homes into idols, our children, our reputation, it ruins our homes because we demand that others approve of our and recognize our excellence. And we demand that our children fulfill our endless aspirations. Okay? In their playing of a musical instrument.

in their playing of baseball, in their appearance, in their grades, in their making it into a lucrative trade and learning that trade, in the breeding and the appearance and the wealth of the wife or husband that they choose and marry. Religious deeds done for one's own glory and kingdom are never accompanied by contentment because selfishness has no governor. Its RPMs just keep going higher and higher and higher. until the engine blows. In a university community, churches see this as Christian children are away from their mothers and fathers for the first time. And those mothers keep their claws sunk in their precious children. They call them, they text them.

They ask them when they're coming back home for a visit. They pry into their eating habits. They pry into their washing, their study habits, their friendships, and even their conversations. Quite predictably, such mothers alienate the very children they're so desperate to hold on to. And they drive their children away. Sometimes across the country to a school as far away as possible. Sometimes away from the Christian faith and sometimes into a marriage that is unbiblical and cannot be blessed by God. What is the warning needed to avoid such discontent, idolatry, and destruction of what started out as a husband and wife seeking to honor and obey God by being fruitful, multiplying, and filling the earth? We must learn and watch against that godliness that is not true godliness. Okay?

It is only a form of godliness. Be on guard against that false godliness that has turned into building our own kingdom instead of God's kingdom. And how do we know our righteousness has become perverted into idolatry? One indication is that we are no longer content. Our godliness or religion is not accompanied by contentment, but rather by... Whining, complaining, bickering, fighting, envy, jealousy, and a voracious appetite for others' approval and for our children's expressions of affection and intimacy. This appetite is never satisfied and it never says enough. You know, it's not in the manuscript, but I'm going to say it. Mothers, do not manipulate your children. Do not discipline them by guilt-tripping them. Spank them. And then it's not about you and your feelings and your insecurities and your this and that and the other thing. Make it about God and give a judgment and give a punishment. It's helpful.

You know? Don't try to get your emotional needs met by your children. I guarantee you, if you do that, you will lose your children. I see it constantly. I counsel it constantly. Don't do that. It's natural to do it. Especially if you've had a mother who's done it. Don't do it. All right, all right. I'll go back to my manuscript now. All right. It might appear to be true religion to everyone that's looking in from the outside, but deep within... Our own hearts, we know we are proud and self-seeking and greedy and jealous. The thing is, we might be pulling it off as someone just keeps track of our appearance, or the appearance of our wife and children, the appearance of our business, our home, and our yard. The appearance of our row during Lord's Day worship, but looking deeper and listening more closely.

They will see and hear our discontent because discontent always comes out, doesn't it? No proud man is discontent or is content. No smug woman is content. No bragger is content. No prissy high school girl or vain high school boy is content. Not saying you are, just helpful to think about it. I mean, you're good looking enough to be vain. I already told you that in the bathroom. But what a waste of your parents to have a vain son. Stephen and Seba almost had one. But fortunately, he repented. I think. I'll leave it up to you. You're his church. Now let me ask you a question. Are you content? Do you have godliness? Do you have the contentment that flows from godliness?

Contentment does not come from getting married and having children. Contentment comes from getting married and having children in obedience to God and for his glory. Not our own. For his kingdom, not for our own. For we have brought nothing into the world, and so we can't take anything out of it either. If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. In other words, everything we have and everything we are is from God. He created the world and the universe. He created each of us as well as our children. Fathers, you have brought nothing into the world. Not your marriage, not your wife, and not your sons, and not your daughters, and not your business, and not your church. You did not bring the United States and its Constitution and Bill of Rights into the world, Tim. Just wanted to let you know that, you know.

Think about that and humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. Mothers, you have given your children birth, but you did not bring them into the world. They came from God, and they belong to God. And he may call them back to himself however and whenever he pleases. You have no right to them. no right to their success or health or life. God has all rights to them, and the Christian mother is not that mother who cedes those rights to God, but rather that mother who acknowledges that right of God. Children, you must learn this also. You brought nothing into this world, and you're going to take nothing out of this world. All of it, everything you have and are, is of God.

and from God, and therefore anything you lack or suffer and complain about is his sovereign will. When we claim we've been done wrong and we whine about it, we are declaring that God has done us wrong, and we are whining against him. Now, I'm not saying there's no such thing as injustice and oppression and failure on the part of men and women which harms other men and women. Of course we know Scripture is filled with accounts of such injustice and oppression, and the harm done others by that injustice and oppression. Yet the message of Scripture is not that we whine and complain about it, excusing our sins by saying that the people who did us wrong, our father, our mother, our best friend, they made us do it.

This is incessant in pastoral ministry today, that you have people coming to you with a problem. Often it's a sin of theirs. And of course you know immediately that they learned it from their father and mother or some uncle or some youth pastor. You always know that there's a trail of tears that goes back to the Garden of Eden. And so if you think that you are unique, that you're the sore thumb of the universe, you're actually not. The universe is filled with sore thumbs. And every single person who has ever existed, if they wanted, could absolve all of their sins by pointing at Adam. So where does it stop? I just get so tired. I'm reading these books of...

largely intellectual history now that Juergen von Hagen is giving me. And every time I get together with him, I just complain. I say, Juergen, every single thing you give me to read is filled with scholars who are constantly virtue signaling. I'm reading a book now called The Year 1000 or something like that. It's a history of the globalization of the world in the year 1000, okay? And this woman, I think she's a historian at Princeton, or Yale, I don't know. She goes on and on, and there's this constant theme of the benighted people. Hey, that, I like that picture. I'd never seen that before. She has her face perfectly in the hole between the chairs. I'm looking along, there's nobody. Oh! And so...

Whatever book you read by people today, do you notice, even if it's an article, do you notice how they're constantly saying that they wouldn't have been a Nazi? They would never, ever have colonized anybody. They would always have had the highest respect for indigenous people groups. And it's like, meanwhile we're killing billions of unborn children. The hypocrisy of... Of our modern generation looking down on anybody that came before us, it's repulsive to me. And so if we think that we have a good complaint to make, and so we go to the elder, we go to our friends, or we go online, or we do something, we start our complaints, would you please realize that there's a difference between complaining and asking a pastor, an elder, an older woman in the church to help?

One has no faith and the other is all of faith. And so if you have been abused, if you have had oppression in your home from your siblings, you go to the elders. You go to the older women of the church and say, would you help me? Do you realize what a statement of faith that is as opposed to complaining? As opposed to going around thinking you're the sore thumb of the universe. You're not. I'm a sore thumb too. Okay. Now, I want to end by reading something. Because there is a nasty rattler at the end of discontent. You know, you'd think we've done it all by just warning against discontent. You want to be content. Do what you do for God and leave him.

To determine what he puts in your life and trust him with what he puts in your life. But I want to warn you about one other thing. In Hebrews 10, it says this. It says, verse 30, for we, Christians, we know him who said what? Come on, you know it. We know him who said, come on, you should know this. Vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. Now let's give you another chance. For we know him who said, says the Lord. Good, yeah. And again, the Lord will judge his people. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. This is my final warning. If you want contentment, don't try to get vengeance. Don't try.

Vengeance is a plate that's best never eaten by anybody but God. You will never get satisfaction by prosecuting those who have failed you in your life. You will never get it. But you may be given it. Okay? But if you... Try to get it. God will turn his wrath away from the focus of your vengeance. That's what it says in Proverbs. It was one of Rita Cuffee's favorite verses. She'd copy it over and over when she came in with her verses for me. Now listen. You may say, well, I'm not pursuing vengeance. I'm not learning to shoot or sword play or do jujitsu or, you know, I'm not writing nasty spiels on social media. Let me say this to you. As I've gotten older, I've realized something about myself. And that is, do you know how I get my vengeance? I get my vengeance with my mouth.

By describing perfectly the motivations of the people who have hurt me or hurt my loved ones. And I've had trouble thinking of that as vengeance. To state the truth is not vengeance. You know, it's just me demonstrating my perceptivity. You know, it's me declaring the truth. And I think that a lot of us need to realize that when we go on with our mouths, what we're doing is taking vengeance. I know it doesn't seem that way, but that's what we're doing. And so what I'm saying to you this morning is, trust God, give in to his commands, do them for his glory. Do not keep track of wrongs that are done you. If you have a wrong that's being done you, go to the elders, the older women in the church. Don't take vengeance. And then you will be able to be the fathers and mothers that I know you want to be, and the husbands and the wives that I know you want to be, the church members that I know you want to be. All right, let's pray.