PASTOR’S NOTES
Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
The Ten Commandments end with a call to contentment, truly the other side of the bookends to where we started. The Lord begins His commandments calling His people to love and worship only Him. The Lord now ends His commandments calling His people to be content with everything that their love and worship brings with it.
This is a call to be thankful and content with the life that God has given you; To not crave or desire what others have or despise what you have been given, but to be thankful for the life that God designed for you.
Consumption has become a way of life and no matter how much we obtain or have, it is never enough. We obtain the job and quickly are dissatisfied until we get the promotion. We buy the house to only desire one bigger and nicer. There is not one aspect of our life that we don’t desire more in. Even in ministry we desire different gifts, a greater platform, or for God to bless more than He has chosen to do so.
With all of this desire that is never quenched, we often become frustrated and ungrateful. It’s hard to live in peace and thanksgiving when you never have what you actually desire. In this frustration, sin takes root. We begin to miss all the great blessings that God has blessed us with because we are always focused on what others have or what we don’t have.
In the tenth commandment God calls us to peace in contentment. If God wanted us to have more, we would have it. If we needed different circumstances or abilities, we would have them. Instead of always saying “if only this” and “if only that,” God calls us to rest in all that He has done in and through our life.
There will always be someone who has more, is blessed differently, or is experiencing life from different angles than you. However, there is only one you. Only one you that He walks with daily in the exact way that He does.
God chose you from the beginning of time. God desired you into existence. God sent His son to die so that you one day would not. He knows the hairs on your head and gave you air to breathe today simply because He wants you live. Everything you have, no matter how much or little, is because God loves and cares for you. That should be enough.
The world will always disappointment and leave you thirsty. It will never provide you what you are looking for, even if you find it. They only part of life that truly offers peace is Christ! Jesus is where all of our joy comes from. That is why as believers we can smile while poor or rich, sick or healthy. We praise His name in all seasons because He is the only one that is worthy of praise. The only One that offers contentment.
SCRIPTURE TO GO ALONG WITH THE MESSAGE
Read John 4 as this is the text that we will teach through on Sunday morning.
HIGHLIGHT IN YOU BIBLES
Highlight all of 20:17 in Exodus.
