00:00:00.000Welcome to Real Christianity. Today, we are talking about how to be content in a world of0.96
00:00:04.720complainers. Oh, snap. Yeah, we're going there. We're going to have that discussion. Right before
00:00:10.780we started this episode, Veronica was talking about my eyebrows, saying that my eyebrow hairs
00:00:16.720are... He just always has these like five eyebrow hairs in each eyebrow that are like three times
00:00:23.760as long as your other eyebrow hairs. And then when I'm sitting here doing podcasts, I feel like
00:00:28.680they're just like waving at me you're just like sticking out looking you know the old people the0.75
00:00:33.160old guys you know what i should have got you for christmas is one of those like trimmers and put
00:00:36.900it in your stocking like the nose hair hair nose hair eyebrow hair trimmers this could have been
00:00:43.140a thing well um on that note anyway anyway speaking of complaining yeah so let's talk about um yeah
00:00:51.360contentment um but before we begin i wanted to ask you guys if you guys haven't left a review
00:00:56.700to leave a review on the podcast you don't even need to write anything you could just tap the
00:01:00.960stars um if you're new to the show welcome if you're not new to the show and you've been here
00:01:05.140for you know 40 episodes and you haven't left a review yet we'd really appreciate that um the
00:01:11.100other thing we'll talk about is the ultimate marriage program um we said it in our last
00:01:16.640episode we're gonna say it again if your marriage uh just needs a kind of a tune-up a tune-up that's
00:01:23.860a good word go to ultimate marriage.com we have a six-week marriage mentor program we we walk you
00:01:30.800guys through all the stuff about having a biblical marriage and I'll tell you this you don't want to
00:01:37.560work on your marriage after it's already started taking a nosedive you want to be proactive yes0.60
00:01:44.420proactive about it because when otherwise the conversation about pouring in your marriage
00:01:50.140becomes like, if you're already in the midst of a fight and then going downhill, it becomes
00:01:55.200difficult. We've seen this over and over again. So we just say, Hey, get proactive, strengthen
00:02:00.180your marriage. Um, it's a great way to support our ministry. Um, if you're, you know, instead
00:02:05.340of making a donation, you can enroll and it's, it's really affordable. So, um, check that out
00:02:10.780ultimate marriage. So why are we doing this show on contentment? Well, um, I think it's pretty
00:02:19.560obvious as veronica said we live in a world of complainers and a covet culture and um we
00:02:27.180as christians fall prey to this stuff quite often um all of us do and we need to discuss
00:02:34.320what the bible says about this need to be on guard have our eyes open to it yeah it's sad
00:02:39.200because often i'll get on instagram or social media platform most often it's generally instagram
00:02:45.080and i'll open it and all of a sudden you'll just see like this steady stream of insta stories
00:02:52.120from stay-at-home moms or just what i mean i follow mostly women so i'm talking about them
00:02:59.400in this regard um of them just complaining about their children or their health or how tired they
00:03:07.120are or their current circumstances and why everything sucks basically um and i mean if
00:03:15.080you're like me you know i'm no saint i'm sure i i've had my fair share of doing stuff like that
00:03:19.020i've struggled with contentment um quite a bit and i've actually known for a while that it's
00:03:23.780something that i need to revisit um and start working on in my spirit and my character um
00:03:30.540And for most people, that simply means struggling with coveting, meaning we live in a comparison culture, especially with social media today.
00:03:41.060We're constantly measuring ourselves against the highlight reels of other people's lives that we see online.
00:03:48.400Little do you know, you know, the same person that's posting a video of them like laughing and tickling their kid was that same mom was probably like sobbing and bawling her eyes out earlier that morning.
00:03:57.460You know, yeah, but we're just so nobody's going to post that.
00:04:00.540on social media. Um, yeah, we get caught up in the, they have this and I don't, or their marriage
00:04:07.100is good and mine isn't. How come my husband doesn't talk to talk about me that way? Um,
00:04:12.360or their house is nice and mine's not, they, they built their house. We have to go build a house
00:04:17.200or, you know, all of these different comparison things that we see online. Um, their, their health
00:04:23.280is strong mine is weak things like that and so um for others uh learning contentment is a much
00:04:30.960deeper duty um i want you to think about those brothers and sisters in christ who are learning
00:04:36.800to be content and having to learn to be content in the midst of suffering or disease or in death
00:04:44.820or the loss of a friend you know i've been recently seeing on social media there's this
00:04:50.340um big youtube woman star i guess um whose son just passed away suddenly and it it's it's
00:04:58.900devastating um so contentment can be applied to things that are shallow and to things that are
00:05:06.340deep um and so we're going to start the conversation today um i'm going to use my
00:05:11.540friend nancy wilson's definition of contentment that she used in her book titled learning contentment
00:05:16.980which states contentment is the ability to remain satisfied with god's will in all circumstances
00:05:23.140whether easy or difficult and i just i loved that definition i know dale and i have over the years
00:05:29.160have had many conversations about contentment mostly me struggling with it um and you worded
00:05:34.880it to me and walked me through that and i you know i've known what the truth says but for some
00:05:38.440reason her definition just like made sense hit the nail on the head for me and i was just like
00:05:43.300i was really convicted by it yeah and so she wrote this book it's a it's a book for women
00:05:47.260um i actually looked at it quite a bit while i was writing some notes for this podcast
00:05:52.700um nancy wilson is yeah it's doug wilson's wife um we actually just got a chance to spend a little
00:05:58.380bit of time with them veronica got to sit down with nancy um and just chat with her but gave
00:06:04.280her a copy of this book and you got a chance to go through it so we're doing this podcast it's a
00:06:07.640short book it's a short book like 100 pages yeah it's really thin and it's really good learning
00:06:12.380contentment um so when i think about the opposite of contentment i think about the term stressed out
00:06:20.940or overwhelmed discontent yeah and you know i've been historically um not so much over the last
00:06:29.260couple years but when i was in the business world for sure like that term stressed out was a
00:06:35.020identifier life yeah it was an identifier of how I how I thought and now you know we've all been0.99
00:06:42.980there but what I'm saying is that there's no valid reason for a Christian to be stressed out0.99
00:06:49.060okay that's a really big statement but just stay along with me here for a second0.73
00:06:54.720I would say that every time you actually say the phrase I'm stressed out you're basically
00:07:02.700advertising that god's you know i would say advertising god's inability to satisfy you
00:07:08.640that's what you're saying to to to whoever's listening to you like i'm stressed out right
00:07:13.360you're saying like i don't like where god has me right now these circumstances are not what i
00:07:17.980deserve um you know god is failing to meet my expectations that's basically what's being
00:07:23.240displayed through through that phrase uh over and over again you're you're discontent with where
00:07:30.760you're at that's what's causing that stress and you know we think that being stressed out is some
00:07:37.020like neutral territory to god but the bible would call this posture sinful there's there's actually
00:07:44.820a lot about contentment more than you would think and i i started diving into the scriptures and
00:07:49.940wow there's like this podcast could be four times as long um but we're going to try to you know keep
00:07:55.760it short. Being stressed out is basically the manifestation of a heart that's not satisfied
00:08:01.480with God's will in their life. It's like saying, God, you have me here, but I want to be there.
00:08:10.820And that's not a yielded heart to the Lord and his will. And I think Nancy said it really good
00:08:18.540in her book. She said this quote, just because a situation is stressful doesn't mean we need to be
00:08:24.620stressed out and i thought that was a really good just because something stressful doesn't
00:08:30.360mean you need to be stressed out and there's all types of stressful situations we have three kids
00:08:34.340people okay there's some stressful situations not to like make myself sound like really incredible
00:08:40.760or anything but um i the situation that just got brought up to mind was when aria had surgery
00:08:46.860oh yeah almost it's a great two and a half years ago i was the i was the failure here
00:08:51.380you were incredibly stressed out i was i mean i i get it it's our daughter she's having surgery
00:08:57.020um but you're you know walking around pacing the halls the entire surgery crying i was totally
00:09:02.740crying and i was sitting in the waiting room putting a puzzle together and you're like how
00:09:07.860are you doing this right now what's right i'm just like it's out of my hands like there's nothing i
00:09:12.000can do it's just a different situation there's definitely other situations where i get way more
00:09:17.500stressed out than you would for sure we call those dale fails you call them that i don't call it that
00:09:23.780i wouldn't i don't think i'd react that way anymore no that was but a while ago i was a mess
00:09:29.260i was a mess have your how old was she two she was two two and a half maybe three two and a half
00:09:35.260year old going to surgery oh that was terrible um okay jesus was never stressed out and just
00:09:44.180let's just look at this for a second. He was angry. He was distraught. He mourned. He experienced
00:09:49.460anguish, but he was never overwhelmed. He was never worried. He was never fearful or anxious.
00:09:58.560He sweat blood, but you might say he's overwhelmed. No, he's not overwhelmed.
00:10:04.440Just because the situation is stressful doesn't mean that he's stressed out.
00:10:08.340And in fact, Hebrews 12, 2 says, look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith,
00:10:14.180Who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross.
00:10:19.020See, because Jesus wasn't forced to go to the cross.
00:10:21.640He chose the cross with joy because he's God, right?
00:19:49.680And when you combine that objective with contentment or accepting God's will in your life, you will be, in my opinion, the most joyful person that you possibly could be.
00:20:03.280Is that godliness with contentment is great gain in comparison to like you think being rich is great gain.