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Well, I'm going to be speaking from several texts this evening, so you can turn to Philippians 4. I'll be looking at verses 11 through 13. We began this heart study really with a focus largely upon the psalmist in Psalm 119, and I will come back to that, come back to him at the conclusion of this evening.

I have a couple more that I'd like to do in the heart series and then be finished. At least one, perhaps two. Tonight, I want to talk about contentment and really overcoming discontentment. And I can tell you, right off the bat, I'm really not all that happy with my cut it out.

But seriously, yesterday, I mean, things have been busy lately just with a lot of things in ministry and life and church and seminary and teaching. But I had set aside yesterday to really dive in and make sure I pruned down everything that needed to be said about discontentment in one night, which is a challenge, as you can imagine.

And I woke up in the middle of the night and I could hear water running. I thought, oh, I bet somebody there's something. I left the faucet on or something somewhere. And next morning, I could still hear water running. And it turned out to be a major water leak, right, at the foundation.

And a real, you know, we had an event at our house and all that kind of stuff, had to make sure it got taken care of. And so, what I had planned for the day turned out to be something completely different. So, after a big, muddy mess and several hours, I was able to get back into the study.

And so, when I say I feel like I don't have it all the way I'd like for it to be, well, that's a reflection. Maybe you can talk me off the ledge. And oftentimes, when I leave the pulpit, there's this sense of failure and discontentment. So, even as I'm preparing this and put it all together, I realize that I am speaking to my heart about contentment and contentment in adequately covering the material on the issue of contentment in one night.

But the downside is that I didn't, if I don't spend enough time, what happens is I miss that step of pruning it down. So, then what happens is my sermons tend to be longer. Now, you're discontent. So, maybe we can talk each other off the ledge before the night's over.

But I want to talk to you about. This idea of contentment and overcoming this discontenting heart that often so perplexes us. In fact, I would say this is one of the most important skills you need to learn: how to quiet your heart before the Lord. Because if you have a content heart, temptation will not have a place, anxiety will have no hold, depression will not get a standing.

It all comes out of a discontent heart, and anger, and all this will flow out of fundamentally a discontent heart. I want to share with you the Musaif Red Diamond. There is a young man, a Brazilian, named Zay Tattu. He was in a manual digging operation down in Brazil in 1989, and he found this stone.

It caught his eye. It was a rough stone. And what he had discovered, and he didn't know it at the time, he found the largest red diamond that had ever been found. A rare jewel. It's a red diamond, the Musaif red diamond. It's the rarest of all diamond colors.

And he found this diamond. Paul in Philippians 4.11 says, I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am in. I have learned to be content. That was Paul's rare jewel. Contentment. We often read Philippians 4.13, probably a very well-known verse, and probably one of the most misquoted and misunderstood verses in the New Testament.

Philippians 4:13, I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Familiar with that verse? Oftentimes you'll see it on bandanas, you'll see it on bread. And the idea of it is, I can do all things, I can accomplish anything through Christ who strengthens me. But when you're reading Philippians, you realize that Paul's in prison.

And what he is talking about is contentment. A couple verses before, this statement, I can do all things through him who strengthens me, he says, this, I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. Then he goes on to say, I know how to get along with humble means.

I also know how to live in prosperity in any and Every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. Contentment. Paul's jewel of contentment and the message of Philippians 4:13 is learning to be content regardless of the situation.

What is contentment? A word there in Philippians, contentment means sufficiency. It's what the words, the Stoic philosophers used to use the idea of self-sufficiency. And they would use this word. I am self-sufficient. One of the emperors, Marcus Aurelius, talked about his father as one who was a man who was self-sufficient in all things.

He didn't need anything from anybody. Another Seneca, a Roman statesman, used this word to say, you know what? The wise men or people may want friends. I don't need friends because I am self-sufficient. And that's what Paul is saying. Contentment, it's satisfaction. It's being fulfilled. It's all things that you have.

You are in a state of sufficiency, fully supplied. Of course, Paul is not talking about self-sufficiency. He's talking about his sufficiency in Christ. Contentment. Fulfillment, satisfaction, finding sufficiency for all things in Christ, fully met. So you can think about being anxious, obviously, is not a, does not come out of a content heart.

Being angry doesn't come out of a content heart. Being depressed is not coming out of a content heart. But those are kind of those extreme, those extreme expressions of not being content. But more closer to what is discontentment? Well, it's what is being dissatisfied. It's being disgruntled. And obviously, it could involve complaining or grumbling, murmuring.

I think Psalm 37 captures the idea of what being discontent involves. And it uses the word fret, to fret. The opposite of being content is to fret. To grumble, to fret, to complain, but to fret. I love how it says in Psalm 37:1, do not fret because of evildoers.

Do not be envious toward wrongdoers. Do not fret. It goes on in verse 7, rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him. Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way. Psalm 37, 8, cease from anger and forsake wrath. Do not fret. It leads only to evildoing.

So at the bottom part, at the foundation of anger and not waiting, not being patient, is this idea of fretting. Fretting. It leads only to evildoing. If you look up what the word fret means from an English standpoint, it's the idea of something gradually being eroded away. It's like waves on a shore, fretting, just constant rolling of the waves up and over the seashore, just eroding, gnawing away, chipping away, eating away.

It's the idea of fretting. And when you look at the Greek, it's the idea of being provoked to jealousy, indignation. When you look at the Hebrew-related word, it's to burn and then become inflamed. You think this idea of this gnawing, it's this chipping away, this eroding, this constant being provided.

Provoked to jealousy, to murmur, to complain, to burn, to become inflamed. That's, of course, that's going to, that constant eroding, constant motion in your soul is going to lead to evil doing. What does a content heart look like? Well, a content heart, I think a good picture in the New Testament is Jesus.

You remember when the storm was all being blown around? Lord, don't you care if we perish? And Jesus gets up and says, hush, be still. And the sea became perfectly calm. That's a good picture of a heart that's content. Psalm 131, too, gives us a picture. Surely I have composed and quieted my soul like a weaned child rests against his mother.

My soul is like a weaned child within me. What happens after a child is done with dinner? That's the picture. Peace, calm, a soul that is content. What's the state of your soul? Content. Like this. We get there? Well, Jeremiah Burroughs wrote a book back in 1648. It's a pretty good book if several hundred years, 400 years later you're still reading it, still in print.

The rare jewel of Christian Contentment. I would encourage you to pick it up and read it. It's a great, great little book on this, and it's classic Puritan style, really goes in depth. There's a more recent one where it called The Power of Christian Contentment, written by Andrew Davis, and he basically took this book and tried to bring it into a little more modern times.

And so either one is a great, I enjoy, I don't have a problem with reading old English and just really appreciate it in many ways. But in it, in this book, this rare jewel that Christians rarely find, this Christian contentment, he defines Christian contentment as this. It is that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit which freely submits to and delights in God's wise and fatherly disposal in every condition.

Sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit which Freely submits to and delights in God's wise and fatherly disposal in every condition. Wow, if we could learn that, if we could learn that, we would have really put on a Christ-like, we would have put on Christ-likeness, because that is really Christ, His contentment, and His relationship, the Father's will, regardless of situation.

So, what Burroughs does in this book, and I will refer some to it, I'll got a number of ideas. Tonight is kind of an eclectic of ideas that I have accumulated through the years on this topic, and Psalm 119 from Paul, from other places, and from my own experiences, and from Burroughs.

I think it's an excellent book to pick up and read. But in the book, he likens growth in contentment as an academic program. You come to Christ, you learn your ABCs, but then you go on to become a scholar. And as you go through, we might say it today, like from kindergarten to getting a PhD.

Well, if you learn Christian contentment, you get the PhD. It's something that can be learned. As Paul's word says, he says, I have learned, whatever circumstance, to be content. I have learned. Contentment is something we can learn. And remember, Paul is talking about this idea of contentment from prison.

I had a very trivial situation yesterday. I had water under the house, got in the way of what I wanted to do, and a little frustration. And I know that there are some of y'all that are experiencing some really heavy things. And I'm embarrassed to even say water under the house is even a problem comparatively.

But Paul is saying it can be learned. It can be learned in every situation. Paul had to learn it. He was in prison. And wow, if anybody could be in a position to talk about Christian contentment, here's Paul in prison alone, largely alone, and yet content. So if Paul can learn it, so can we.

And really, what chapter five and chapter six of Burroughs' book is a really good section where he's actually dealing with several lessons in Christ's school of contentment that bring about godly contentment. I would like to think of them as a soul's journey to contentment and lessons or a journey or something of the sort.

Seven ways to content your heart. Actually, he mentions nine and he goes into nine lessons and very lengthy lessons, some of them, or some of them pretty lengthy. I intend to only mention seven of them and abbreviate them tonight, but just so that you'll get an idea of Christian contentment.

Seven ways coming out of this, and I've rearranged some material and brought in some stuff. So you've got, if you pick up the book and read it, there may be some in our resource center. I usually like to keep them in there, but they go in a hurry.

But anyway, I'll be looking at several of them tonight. And I want you to see these seven ways to content your heart so that you will be able to overcome or so that you will overcome every thought of discontentment in your life. Because it is something we can learn.

First of all, first way to learn contentment is to get good at denying yourself. Get good at denying yourself. You need to learn that you are nothing. Without God, that is what we are, nothing. Completely dependent. Learn that you deserve nothing. We, because what we have, because of our sin, because of what we have fouled up on God's earth, we deserve nothing.

We are nothing, we are but dust, and we return to dust. We deserve nothing. But also recognize that you can do nothing on your own. Christ tells us you can't do anything. We are completely dependent upon God for everything. So even the ability to do anything is a gift.

The fact that you can't do anything, you are nothing, deserve nothing, and can do nothing. Learn that you can't even receive anything good without defiling it. If you give me something completely pristine, I still have a, you know, you give it to me in my fallen condition, guess what?

I'll just foul it up. Give me another paradise, and guess what I'll do with it? I will foul it up. So if I am nothing and I deserve nothing and I can do nothing and I can't do anything good without defiling it, then I'm postured to find my satisfaction in God because of what He has done.

I deserve nothing, but He has given me everything. I can do nothing, and yet He gives me life. And He wants. Me to do something, something good. So anything becomes great because I am nothing, I deserve nothing, I can do nothing, and I can't receive anything good without defiling it.

So anything that I have is a blessing, a gift, a calculated gift. So if I learn to deny myself, not claim right, really see me for myself, who I am, then when God's ways don't align with my ways, I can deny myself and go with His. See, if you can't be content except when God's ways align with yours, and that's the way we live, right?

If the only time you can be happy is when God's ways align with your own, then your contentment is going to go up and down. Because you're going to find that God's going to do what God's going to do. And if you can learn to deny yourself and look to God's ends and accept His ways, then you'll experience regular contentment.

So get good at denying yourself. You claim no rights, everything's a gift. And when things go wrong in your mind, you have a basis. You deserve nothing. And so. Get good. Also, second way: recognize the vanity of all earthly pursuits. Recognize the vanity of all earthly pursuits. Solomon learned that all worldly pursuits are vanity.

You remember what he said? Vanity of vanities. Ecclesiastes 1:14 says, I have seen all the works which have been done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and striving after the wind. Solomon went after it. Burroughs makes this analogy: if you're really hungry, and I've reworded it, try opening your mouth and swallowing a bunch of air.

Start eating air. If you're really hungry, do you really think air is going to satisfy a hunger pang? Well, it won't. It's not geared for that. Neither are earthly pursuits geared to satisfy the soul. Contentment will not be found in people's affections. It's not going to be found there.

No matter in what station, in what kind of relationship, boss, colleague, friends, heroes, husband, wife, children, whatever. It is. Contentment is not going to be found in other people's affections. It's not going to be found in great wealth either. It's not going to be found in pleasure either.

Solomon tried all of these, and his statement is emptiness. And see, what happens is we lack these things. Oftentimes, you lack these things, and you think that if you had them, they would make you content. And so you pursue them. But just because you lack these things doesn't mean that contentment is found in them.

So don't desire them. Contentment is not going to be found in people's affections, pleasure, or great wealth. And the reason why contentment can't be found in these earthly things is they are incapable of satisfying the appetite of an immortal soul, which you have. Air cannot satisfy hunger any more than earthly things can satisfy an eternal appetite.

You were created with the purpose to relate to God. You must be satisfied with the eternal. You are capable of relationship with. With the eternal, nothing else, everything else in earth cannot satisfy an eternal appetite. You've heard it said before, a God-shaped vacuum. I think there's something to that in saying that nothing of the earthly realm can satisfy the immortal soul.

Only God can. So recognize the vanity of all earthly pursuits. And if you don't have the affections that you want, or the wealth, or the pleasure, or whatever, recognize contentment isn't going to be found in any of those sources anyway. It's going to be found in something, contentment is something much deeper.

Number three, remember what the Bible says you are in this world. Remember what the Bible says you are. What? Not necessarily who, but what you are. 1 Peter 2:11 says this, Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage against the war.

Psalm 119, the psalmist says, I am a stranger in verse 19 in the earth. I am a stranger. I am a traveler passing through. Remember, there's a lot of things in this life you're not going to experience. There's a lot of things, difficulties. You know, sometimes I remember one time on one of my mission trips overseas, I was in a country, and I was given accommodations in a very short bed, very hard, short bed.

But you know what? I was only passing through. I could deal with it. In fact, I expect it. I expect when I go traveling that my accommodations aren't going to be what I'm accustomed to at home. That's the nature of travel. I'm ready to put up with some inconveniences because I am a traveler.

I'm just passing through. That's life. We're just passing through. So get ready for a few inconveniences along the way. We're pilgrims. 2 Timothy 2:3, Paul says, Suffer hardship with me, Timothy, as a good soldier. A soldier doesn't get caught up in civilian affairs. A soldier is ready for hardship.

He expects them. He thinks there's something wrong. If, oh, yeah, go to war over here. We're sending you off to war. You'll be staying at the embassy suites. Your meals will be coming here at this time of day. You know, once you get a good rest, you know, no, that's not the battlefront at all.

No, a soldier is accustomed to sacrifice, and that's what we do. We're like travelers, we're passing through. So that's what the Bible says we are. So, guess what? In this life, it isn't going to always go the way we want. That's okay. Be content. We're passing through. I'm a traveler.

Of course, I don't expect the best accommodations like I would at home. That's coming. I'm going home. And until then, I'm a traveler, thankful for the hard beds that I get along the way and the sacrifices that somebody went through to give me that hard bed. Number four, enjoy honoring God in all the stations of your life, in all the stations that He puts you in.

If you have wealth, influence, or prestige, then honor Him in that condition and enjoy honoring Him. Look, if your goal is to honor Him, enjoy honoring Him, then use your wealth, your influence, your prestige, whatever it is, to honor Him. And then when you see those. Things diminish, honor him in your diminished condition.

You can enjoy honoring him in your rich condition. You can honor him in your diminished condition. But if your joy is honoring him, it's the same. When is it more significant? There's no real change. If tribulation and suffering is your lot, and it inevitably will be, as is promised, Christ Himself promised we're going to experience this in this world, then honor him.

And if your delight is in honoring him, then guess what? You can be content in plenty or in want. And you'll know the secret. Whether I have abundance or whether I'm in suffering, it's the same. I enjoy honoring him. I know you have different situations that you're going through right now.

Let your delight be honoring him in every station. Because you'll always have opportunity. Your contentment will be steadfast. Because if you're You delight and enjoy honoring him in every station, come what way, big, small, whatever it is, it doesn't really matter if your delight is honoring him, then you will always have opportunity every day of your life, in every situation, to honor him and you'll experience contentment.

Number five, you need to understand the burden of prosperity. Understand the burden of prosperity. So Burroughs likens prosperity to a great burden. A burden. And he doesn't just limit the concept to material wealth. Prosperity in the sense it certainly includes it, and he does. But there are many prosperous conditions that we may be desirous of, or have that constant gnawing at envy, being enticed to want that, what he, what she, that place, this affection, this, whatever it is, there could be this constant gnawing.

But he says there's four aspects of prosperity that make it a burden. Number one, prosperity has its trouble. You go after wealth, you are going to. Pierce yourself with many troubles. If you have a pile of money, guess what? People want it. Lawyers figure out how to figure out where the money is and go after it.

If you have wealth, you have to protect it. And you know what? You can spend a lifetime protecting and keeping up with it. Prosperity has its trouble. So don't just automatically long for it. It has trouble. Prosperity also has its danger. There's danger in prosperity. Steve Lawson comes to my mind.

One who had this prosperous, gifted, and yet it came with a danger. And in many other ways, we could think about the danger of prosperity. Prosperity has its duty as well. Not only is there trouble, there can be trouble in prosperity, and danger in prosperity, it has its duty.

If you are prosperous, there's a duty, an obligation that goes along with it. Burroughs said it like this. We often long for the sweetness and Comfort and the honor and respect that comes from a prosperous position. But you need to know that there's a duty that goes along with that.

And that leads into the fourth burden. Not only does prosperity have its trouble, not only does it have its danger, not only does it have its duty, but it has its accountability. Its accountability. We are all stewards, and we must give an account for how we have handled what He has given to us.

Luke 12:48 says this: From everyone who has been given much, much will be required, and to whom they entrusted much of him, they will ask all the more. You see, if you pine away for prosperity in whatever way, shape, or form, understand you're going to have to give an account for how you used that when you stand before God.

Burroughs quotes the king of Spain, king of Spain, who had spent the glory of his kingdom upon himself. And Burroughs quotes him as he lays upon his deathbed, and this is what King of Spain said: open quote: Oh, that I had never been a king. Oh, that I had lived a solitary and private life all my days.

Then I should have died a great deal more securely. I should, with more confidence, have gone before the throne of God to give my account. This is the end result of my kingdom, because I had all the glory of it. It has made my account harder to give God.

What he was saying is, this is the end of my kingdom. I use the glory for myself, and because of that, I am going to be held more accountable. Oh, that I hadn't been entrusted with so much. You see, most of us, that's not our problem. We're not the king of Spain.

Most of us live in humble positions, but we can sure fret over our humble positions. That gnawing, oh, if I had more, oh, if I had this. Listen, there's all the reason, if you understand the burden of prosperity, to be content in our humble station. Don't long for more trouble.

Don't long for more danger. Don't long for more duty or pine away from greater accountability. If God should give these to you, then by all means, pray. Be dutiful. Watch out for the trouble. Avoid the dangers. And prove yourself to be a good steward that you may, with the great abundance he has given you, stand before him and being fully accountable and glorifying to him, having been a good steward.

But if you're in a humble situation, understand there's a burden that comes with prosperity. Don't fret away for it. Number six, embrace God's providence for all things. Embrace God's providence for all things. Listen, God's providence rules the world. When we're talking about providence, we're talking about the big things.

He's guiding human history, but not only the big things, all the little things and the little micro details of the little things that all fit together. It is in his providence that he rules over them all. Nothing that happens to you today, nothing that happens to you tomorrow or has happened to you, nothing befalls you, to use Burroughs' words, but there is a hand of God in it.

This is from God and a great help to contentment. No matter what happens, from morning to noon to night, nothing is going to happen to you. Nothing's going to happen to this country that there isn't a hand of God's providence in it. Fretting doesn't change God's providence, it doesn't change the course of God's providence, nor does fretting bring content.

But embracing God's providence does. You embrace God's providence for all things, recognize He is guiding things, big things, little things, details. I had this little clock. We don't have wind-up clocks anymore. But I had this little wind-up clock when I was little, and it had Snoopy on it.

You'd have to wind it up, and click, click, click, click, click, click, He would go around it. But if you took off the back, you could see all these different kinds of wheels and cogs. And Burroughs uses the analogy of a clock, a wind-up clock, has many pieces, many wheels, many cogs.

And we often just look at like one of the cogs. We may just look at one of the simple little our situation in life is like a little cog, and we don't see its relation to the whole part, and we just look at this little part of it, and we are we miss the greater picture.

Sometimes he says this. Now, notice how this works to contentment after giving this analogy. When a certain passage of providence befalls me, that is one wheel. And it may be if this wheel were stopped, a thousand other things might come to be stopped by this. In a clock, stop but one wheel and you stop every wheel because they are dependent upon one another.

So when God has ordered a thing for the present to be such and such, how do you know how many things depend upon this thing? In other words, you're going through something. How do you know what else is dependent upon you going through your situation? How do you know how this cog is relating to everything around you and the people around you and what God is doing?

So when God has ordered a thing for the present to be such and such, how do you know how many things dependent upon this thing? God may have some work to do 20 years from now that depends on this passage of providence that falls out this day or this week.

In other words, something that may be happening to you this week in God's providence may have a big impact on something 20 years later. God's providence. And if you Hide away and want to stop one. What you're doing, you are at odds with God's providence as a whole.

We are His servants. Discontent over one circumstance may put you at odds with the many ways that God is doing things that you cannot see. And some of those things may be the answers to your own prayers. Sometimes we pray for things. Sometimes things come upon us. And sometimes it's the difficult things or who knows what they may be that comes in our way that God is using in His providence.

But if you trust God's goodness, be content to let God interrupt your happenings in a few things that He may accomplish all the things that He is doing. Don't fret over them. I mean, would you really want God to change the whole course of providence because you want to avoid an unpleasant condition?

God is doing something, and it takes faith to see. Sometimes we don't see, but we can trust. So embrace God's providence in all things and understand that we are His servants, and even things like big things, even small things like Flooded house. Play into it. Last, I just want to mention: identify the one thing that is necessary.

Identify the one thing that is necessary. In Luke 10, we've already looked at the vanity of all earthly pursuits, but there's one thing that's necessary. In Luke 10:41, the Lord answered and said to Mary, I mean, said to Martha, Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things, but only one thing is necessary.

For Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her. It's easy for us to get caught up in many things, isn't it? Burroughs says it like this: I see that it is not necessary for me to be rich, but it is necessary for me to make my peace with God.

It is not necessary that I live a pleasurable life in this world, but it is absolutely necessary that I should have pardon for my sin. It is not necessary that I should have honor and preferment, but it is necessary that I should have God as my portion and have my part in Jesus Christ.

See, sometimes we occupy our minds with that which isn't very important. But we should occupy our minds with that which is most important, not just trivial things. I remember this young man years ago, he was successful in business. And this company said, We want to buy you out.

And this is a young man. And it's like, we'll give you such an amount that you can retire. And he takes it. And he retires way before, you know, really early, young. He's sitting there in the house after I really just set at ease. Every girl's dream, every wife's dream, for the husband to stay at home all day long with nothing to do.

Well, she comes in and she starts vacuuming the living room, carpet. She's going back and forth, and he's sitting there over in his chair. And he says, You know, if you'll start in the corner and you'll go diagonally and you'll turn around and then come right back down that same line, when you're done, you'll have perfect lines going across the carpet floor.

She looks at him and she says, Fat boy, it's time for you to get a job. That wouldn't have bothered him before, but he just put his mind on trivial things. Burroughs says it like this: When the heart of man has nothing to do but to be busy about creature comforts, every little thing troubles him.

But when the heart is taken up with the weighty things of eternity, the things of here below disquieted it before are things now of no consequence to him in comparison to the other. In other words, if you focus your heart upon earthly things and you're fretting over earthly things, that is vanity, that is vanity.

But if you'll put your mind on weighty things and you'll see the one thing that is necessary, then these things of here will be of no comparison at all. Reading through Jeremiah this past week, and this verse came to mind, Jeremiah 29, 23 says this, Thus says the Lord, Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might.

Let not a rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who exercises loving kindness, justice, and righteousness on earth. For I delight in these things, declares the Lord. Identify the one thing that's necessary, understanding and knowing God.

That is. As I said, much of this series has really been focused largely upon the experiences of this psalmist in Psalm 119. And he says this in verse 57 of Psalm 119: The Lord is my portion. I have promised to keep your words. The Lord is my portion.

His love for the Word of God became a love for God Himself. I have promised to keep your words. The Lord is my portion. This is what you have given me. It's the one thing necessary. The Lord is my portion. Can your heart rejoice in that tonight? Can your heart be like that perfectly calmed sea or that weaned child?

The Lord is my portion. That's a content heart. The Lord is my portion. I am dust. That I am. But I am dust that can know God and understand Him. I am dust, but I can make the invisible God visible. Who gets that opportunity? Only those who are made in his image.

I am framed and disposed to knowing him. I am but dust, but I am framed and disposed to knowing him. He is my portion. He is what is given to this dust. Capacity to relate to Almighty God. You need to identify the one thing that is necessary. This psalmist learned that God is good, and that put his fears to flight.

He learned that God is sovereign, and that put his tears to flight. And here he says, The Lord is my portion. That is where he settled his heart. And here is our contentment. I'll close with. Well, I won't close. I want to read you this quote by Thomas Brooks, another Puritan.

I would counsel every Christian to answer all temptations with this short saying: The Lord is my portion. O Christian, when Satan or the world shall tempt you with honors, answer, the Lord is my portion. They shall tempt you with riches, answer, the Lord is my portion. Well, they shall tempt you with advancement and power.

Answer, the Lord is my portion. And when they shall tempt you with the unjust privileges, answer, the Lord is my portion. And yes, when this persecuting world shall threaten you with loss of life, loss of property, answer, the Lord is my portion. And when they shall threaten you with the loss of liberty, answer, the Lord is my portion.

And when they shall threaten you with the loss of friends, answer, the Lord is my portion. And when they shall threaten you with the loss of life, answer, the Lord is my portion. Oh, sirs, ma'ams. If Satan should come to you with an apple, as once he did Eve, tell him that the Lord is your portion.

Or with a grape, as he did to Noah, tell him the Lord is your portion. Or with the change of raiment, as he once did to Gehazi, tell him that the Lord is your portion. Or with a wedge of gold, as he once did to Achan, tell him that the Lord is your portion.

Or with a bag of money, as he once did to Judas, tell him the Lord is your portion. Or with a crown, a kingdom. As once he did to Moses, tell him that the Lord is your portion. Well, there they are. Very abbreviated. Certainly not comprehensive, but a good start.

Seven ways you can learn contentment. Get good at denying yourself. Recognize the vanity of all earthly pursuits. Remember what the Bible says you are in this world. Enjoy honoring God in all stations of life. Understand the burden of prosperity. Embrace God's providence for all things. And identify the one thing that is necessary.

So suppose I'm preparing a sermon about overcoming discontentment and a water pipe bursts. How can you counsel me based on these things from above? Talk to me. Counsel me. Keep me from falling off the edge. Remember that the Lord is your portion. The Lord is my portion. Amen.

Anyone else? You need a dry foundation. I don't need a dry foundation. And that's too much for me. That's more than I ever deserved, a foundation at all. Wow. How good is God? I have a foundation. And there's water. Yeah. Well, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we give you thanks tonight for these truths and help us to be like that winged child, like that settled sea.

Quiet our hearts before you. Father, we thank you that you are mindful of us. Lord, we don't deserve anything, but you've given us so much. And there isn't anything in this world that's worth pursuing but you and the things that you give us to do, the things that you value, the treasures that you give us to delight in.

Father, we thank you for creating us, for giving us a capacity to know you and to understand you. And Father, quiet our hearts. Help us not to be a people of fretting. And I realize, Father, that's often easier said than done. Help us learn this art of contentment and skill.

May we be a people completely at peace, trusting in you. Go with us now in Jesus' name. Amen. Good night, friends.