This message is one of the Times Square
Church pulpit series.
It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times
Square Church in Manhattan, New York City.
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Philippians, the fourth chapter, read two verses.
Philippians fourth chapter, verse 11 and verse 12.
Not that I speak in respect of one,
for I have learned in whatsoever state I
am therewith to be content.
I know how to be abased.
I know how to abound.
Everywhere in all things, I'm instructed both to
be full and to be hungry, both to
abound and to suffer need.
I can do all things through Christ, which
strengtheneth me.
My message this morning, learning how to be
contented in every situation.
Learning how to be contented.
I have learned in respect of one, I
have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith
to be content.
Heavenly Father, I need you.
Holy Spirit, I pray for unction and anointing
from heaven.
I can't begin to deliver my heart unless
you help me.
Spirit of the Living God, I've not come
to scream a message.
I've not come to accomplish anything other than
to get deep into the hearts by your
living Word.
Lord, we want to see a people that
are brought into this realm of contentment in
Christ, fully contented in these troubled days.
So anoint me, give me fresh oil from
heaven, give us ears to hear what the
Spirit has to say.
In Jesus name, Amen.
Learning how to be contented in every situation.
Let me share with you a prophecy of
Jeremiah Burroughs.
And I quote him, the hour of temptation
has already come upon all the world to
try the inhabitants of the earth.
In particular, this is the day of Jacob's
trouble in our bowels.
These are sad and sinking times.
Now that prophecy was made 350 years ago
by Jeremiah Burroughs in 1645 or thereabouts, by
a very godly pious Puritan preacher, Jeremiah Burroughs.
In fact, in 1645 to 1650 especially, it
was a very troubled time, a time of
bloodshed.
There was economic chaos in England and around
the world.
Multitudes were dying of plagues.
The rich were becoming poor overnight as states
were being lost.
Suddenly, Christians were losing their homes on all
sides.
All their assets were being diminished.
There was grievous poverty and unrest everywhere, especially
among Christians.
In fact, it was so bad and things
were sinking so fast, most of the prophetic
preachers in those times, like Jeremiah, believed that
they were entering the time of the end,
that they were truly in the beginning of
Jacob's trouble, the beginning of the tribulation.
Even though it was against some of their
theology, they believed that it had come, that
they were in that last time.
In such times, the Christians in Jeremiah Burroughs'
time were in panic.
They were being swept away by despair.
There was fear, discontent.
Christians were in total disarray, and it was
in such troubled times that Jeremiah Burroughs, in
prayer, said, I've got to hear from God.
And he brought forth a series of sermons
in two of the churches that he pastored
in England, Stepney and Cripplegate.
And out of this came a book, The
Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment.
And some of my thoughts this morning have
been borrowed from Jeremiah Burroughs' book because it's
one of the most powerful revelations on contentment
that I've ever read in my lifetime.
And it came to me just at the
right time.
Now, believe me, please, folks, that a revelation
of contentment is needed in these days.
A revelation to the Church of Jesus Christ,
what it means to learn how to be
contented in troubled times and in every situation.
If Jeremiah Burroughs believed that he was in
a time of Jacob troubles, what would he
think if he lived today?
What would go through his mind?
I think one thing he would recognize that
Christians haven't changed, that we still panic.
There is still fear.
We still respond to crisis like they did
350 years ago in 1645.
Now, folks, I'll tell you something.
It's not going to get any better.
It's going to get worse.
The economic condition is going to worsen.
Crisis will worsen.
There are going to be Christians all over
the United States, just as they are now.
They're losing their businesses.
We have Christians losing their homes.
We have Christians that are in despair.
There is fear.
When you look into the future, there's nothing
but anxiety for many, many Christians.
Not just those that are heathen, but those
that are Christians.
And just like the New Testament Christians, we
too are going to suffer the loss, many
of us, of all things.
And I wonder if we're going to take
joyfully the spoiling of our goods as they
did in the New Testament Church.
Have you yet learned to be contented in
Jesus Christ, so that you can face any
situation that comes down your pathway?
Or are you going to be in panic,
fear, unrest, disquietness, especially restlessness, emptiness, and
restlessness?
Paul said it is possible, and he set
the standard, it's possible to be contented in
any and all situations that you face in
your life.
He said, I have learned in whatsoever state
or condition I am in, therewith to be
content.
He said, I know how to be abased.
I know how to abound.
Everywhere and all, I'm instructed.
Now you hear this, I've learned, I've been
instructed.
Contentment is not something that God drops to
you in your sleep.
It's not something he gives to lazy Christians.
Contentment is something you learn.
It's something you go after.
It is a rare jewel.
It's something you have to hunger for and
desire as much as anything in your Christian
experience.
Lord, I want to be contented.
I want to have this quiet inner peace
that I can face any and all situations
that come into my life.
It's something that you must learn.
In fact, the word that Paul used here,
instructed, has a connotation of mystery.
It's a mystery.
And folks, this mystery is not revealed to
the carnal Christian.
It's not revealed to the lazy believers, those
who seek after it with all their heart.
God will teach you.
God will instruct you.
And folks, I've been learning the hard way,
and I think I've learned a few things
I want to share with you this morning.
Now Paul infers that you can be holy
and still not be contented.
Because he said, godliness with contentment is great
gain.
And if you follow his logic through, what
he's saying, if you have sought godliness and
holiness, and you have not come into the
realm of contentment, then you've missed the mark.
There's something missing.
Godliness with contentment is your goal, or your
great gain.
Paul said, I gained something in my walk
of holiness.
I have learned something with my walk with
God.
When I have learned the heart of Jesus,
and I know what his heart is like,
I have come in to a spirit of
contentment.
I am a contented man.
Paul was contented.
Now Paul's godliness brought his soul great gain.
Now in the original Greek, it does not
say, in whatever state I'm in.
It just says, in whatever I am.
In whatever I am.
In other words, any condition, anything that concerns
me, any situation I find myself in, whether
I'm being blessed, or whether I'm suffering, whether
I'm bound, or whether I'm abased, it doesn't
matter to me.
My emotions don't change.
I am a contented believer.
Hallelujah.
Now, the contentment Paul is speaking of here
has the meaning, it's interpreted really as self
-sufficiency.
Now, I know the Bible says that we
are not sufficient of ourselves to think anything
is of ourselves.
We're not sufficient in ourselves.
But the word here really means independence or
self-sufficiency.
And what Paul is saying is, when you
have learned to be wholly dependent on the
Lord Jesus for every source, every resource, to
meet your crisis, you become wholly independent of
man.
You don't look to man to meet your
need.
You don't look to conditions to meet your
need.
And this is what Paul's saying.
I have become satisfied in myself.
In fact, there's a scripture that I found
in Proverbs 14, 14.
A good man is satisfied from himself.
It doesn't mean that, that he has anything
of himself that satisfies, but he has a
measure of Christ in him.
He knows so much of the heart of
Jesus.
The Lord has become so much everything to
him.
He says that I don't really have to
look to man anymore.
I am satisfied with this relationship I have
with Jesus.
I am truly satisfied in my soul.
I have peace with God.
I'm contented because of what I know Jesus
has done in me and through me and
for me.
I know Christ.
I know his heart and I'm satisfied with
it.
Now, I'm not talking about Stoicism.
Now, the Stoics, this was a philosophy that
stated that man should be free of all
passion and calmly accept everything impassionately as the
divine will of God.
In other words, you don't show any emotion
whatsoever.
In fact, this philosopher Socrates was said to
have shown no emotion, whether it was good
news or bad news.
His face was expressionless.
He never changed expressions.
In fact, someone asked him where he got
such power, and he said that's the power
of over my emotion is the power of
my morality.
I'm a moral man.
I'm a clean man.
I have nothing to hide, so I show
no emotion.
It was Stoicism.
There are other Christians, there are other people
that are not Christians who have a good
strong constitution.
They're just cool.
Nothing bothers them outwardly.
I mean, you can you can tell them
the worst news and they just stand there
and nod their head and you get to
thinking, wow, what a cool person.
Cool, calm, and collected.
That's their nature.
My mother would tell you when I was
a boy, I'm very emotional except when there's
a crisis and then I was able to
act and move in that crisis.
But then when the crisis was over, I
fell apart.
But there are some people that are that
are able to look at almost any crisis
and they can handle it on the outside.
The only trouble with it is cool as
they are with their crisis, that's how cool
they are with God.
They could look into the very bowels of
hell with that same coolness, that same emptiness.
That's not what I'm talking about.
That's not what the kind of contentment I
am trying to bring to your attention this
morning.
The contentment Paul is speaking of is a
sweet quiet attitude and it's birthed out of
an assurance that no matter what trouble, no
matter what comes into your pathway, somewhere God
has his hand in it.
Somewhere God is at work.
And that it brings this great calm and
peace because you know that God has not
forsaken you and it brings a quiet calm
peace to your soul.
Now in the school of contentment, I'm still
in the first grade.
Some of you are still in kindergarten, some
of you haven't even tried to go to
school yet.
How many of you sitting here this morning,
balcony downstairs, would like to learn how to
be truly contented in every crisis?
Everything that comes to your life.
So it doesn't sweep you away.
You don't panic, you don't fear, but you're
contented.
There's a calm, quiet attitude and spirit from
the Lord in you.
All right, let me share with you just
three or four things the Holy Spirit's been
teaching me and it's really been helping me.
First of all, godly contentment is totally an
inner spiritual work and does not depend on
any outward thing whatsoever.
Now let me put my finger right on
the cause of most of our discontent.
We've overlooked some very special commandments of the
Lord and I give you two of them.
One of them, having food and raiment, let
us therewith be content.
Having something to eat and something to wear
to protect us from the elements, be contented.
How many of us have learned to be
content with just food and clothes and shelter?
The scripture says, furthermore, let your conversation be
without covetousness and be content with such things
as you have.
Oh, we're never content.
We never have enough because we're all into
the American dream.
The American dream is the cornucopia of more
and more and more.
That's the dream.
People come from all over the world to
partake of the American dream of getting more
things, adding more things, because the concept is
the more you have, the happier you will
be.
There are hardly any Americans, especially even in
the church today or in the church, that
have ever learned what enough means.
Enough has never been enough.
We've always wanted more.
You dear wives, you look at your furniture,
then you go to somebody else's house, and
then you go home and compare, and you
look at those ward marks, and then you
start talking to your hubby about it and
the friction.
You know, it's always this desire.
I need to mention the men also, the
hunting equipment, the fishing equipment.
You know, men who hunt and fish, you
know what a fish costs a fisherman by
the time?
He's paying a hundred dollars a fish.
I know my wife likes to have a
little garden, and we get any tomatoes.
It's ten dollars a tomato by the time
you figure it out all.
You see, we have two presidential candidates, and
they both, I've heard them both be among
the fact that our children are not going
to be able to live according to the
lifestyle of this present generation, and they say
our children are going to have less and
less and less.
And the implication is they're going to be
less happy and less contented because they're not
going to share the great American dream of
being saturated with all kinds of stuff.
Houses and cars and lands and estates and
everything else because our kids can't have it.
They're not going to be happy.
Poor future generations.
They forget that past generations that had far
less than we do were far happier and
contented than this generation.
This generation has more garbage, more junk, more
stuff than any other generation in history, and
we're the most restless, uncontented, discontented generation in
all of history.
Right or wrong?
You know that it's right.
Total discontentment in the land, even though we're
baptized with things.
We've got teenagers right now in this city,
even pre-teeners that are stabbing and even
killing, murdering for jackets that they see on
somebody else that they can't afford, and gym
shoes that are overpriced, $150 pump shoes or
whatever they call them.
They're killing for gym shoes.
Why?
Because this thing has been planted in their
mind.
I'll be happy.
I'll be contented if I get that.
And that's been implanted in all of our
mind, whereas the Holy Spirit says it's not
by addition that you learn contentment, but by
subtraction.
It is by being weaned from the things
of this world.
It is by desiring the things of this
world less and less.
It's becoming disentangled, disattached to the things of
this world.
Folks, I look back over my wife and
I, over our marriage and our time together,
and we have moved quite a few times.
Probably the happiest time in our life was
when we moved down to East Texas into
a trailer.
From a big house in Dallas to a
little trailer.
It wasn't a little trailer, but it was
a trailer.
A mobile home and just a dirt road,
and we were probably the happiest there.
We had the least of material things, but
we were happier there with that.
And you see, we have this idea that
if I can just reach this financial goal,
if God will just open this door, if
God will just do this for me, and
I can get this career, I get this
job, I get this raise, I'll be happy.
I'll be contented.
But when you get there, and it's like
you put a stake out in the future,
and you lasso it with the rope, and
you pull yourself up to that stake.
And if I get to that stake, that's
my goal.
I'll be happy.
And when you get there, it's empty.
So you drive another stake for that.
You're always pulling yourself farther and farther out,
reaching, and you get more and more empty.
Because true contentment has nothing to do with
anything outward.
Has nothing to do with things, with material.
It has to do with the work of
the Holy Spirit, the work of Jesus Christ
inside your soul.
It's in here.
It's an inner work of the Holy Spirit.
Hallelujah.
I'm beginning to see that more and more.
You know, Hebrews 10 32 says, you endured,
speaking of Christians, you endured a great fight
of afflictions.
You were reproached.
But you took joyfully the spoiling or the
losing of all your goods, knowing in yourself
that you have in heaven a better and
enduring substance.
Listen, a truly contented Christian is one who
is learning to become satisfied with less and
less of the things of this world, and
more and more of the heart of Jesus.
And I'll tell you what, the more you
are weaned from worldly things, and the more
you become disentangled with your possessions, and the
more you turn to seeking the heart of
Jesus, the more contented you're going to become.
That's the pathway.
That's how you learn contentment, to disengage yourself,
where you draw a line, say, that's enough.
I don't need any more of these earthly
things, and be ready to lay them all
down.
And I'm telling you there's some of you
don't realize it, but you could live in
a tent.
If you had love with one another, you
truly loved one another as a husband and
wife, and you had the love of your
children, and your heart was full of the
love of Jesus, you could be just as
happy in a tent as you are in
a palace.
Now some of you don't believe that, and
you just as soon opt for the palace.
But you go to the palaces and see
how many happy people you find.
Paul was contented because he was no slave
to anything of this world, anything that was
material.
He didn't even have a place to live.
Even to this present hour, we hunger, he
said, and thirst, and we're naked, and we're
buffeted, and we have no certain dwelling place.
He said, I don't have a certain dwelling
place.
He said, in hunger and thirst, and fastings
often, in cold and nakedness, whatever estate, whatever
condition I'm in, I'm contented.
Paul, in fact, was in prison when he
penned these words to the Philippians.
I have learned in whatever condition I am
therewith to be contented.
He was in prison!
I wonder how you're reacting to your present
condition.
Some of you here are in a dire
crisis.
Some of you here this morning are just
barely making it.
You seem to be stuck in the middle
of some kind of a delay, and you
cry out to God, Lord, when are you
going to answer?
And others of you have had your hopes
so high, and they've been dashed.
You have a letdown.
And some of you are thinking, if I
can only get through this one crisis, if
God could just answer this one prayer, this
one desire, if just this one thing would
happen or change, if God would just do
this one thing for me, I'd really be
happy.
I'd really be contented.
No, my friend, you wouldn't, because you're depending
on something outside of your soul.
You're depending on something other than your spirit
to bring you happiness and bring contentment.
I tell you, if you reached it and
God did it, he answered every prayer, he
moved every mountain, it would still be you.
You'd still have that discontent.
Because there has not been that change, that
total dependency on the Lord, that self-sufficiency
in Christ.
Take loneliness, for example.
Many of you here are Christians that are
alone, and you're alone, and you say, I
really believe if God just sends somebody in
my life, God just give me somebody to
talk to.
Just somebody to share my heart.
And so what do you do?
You get on the telephone.
When you're lonely, and you call somebody, you
talk to them for an hour and then
two hours, trying to scratch an itch in
you, you can't even find.
And after two hours of talking to a
friend or somebody else, you hang up, it's
still there.
And often it's worse.
Because you're looking for some person.
You're looking for somebody to heal that hurt
in you, to bring contentment and peace to
your heart.
And I'm going to tell you, some of
the loneliest people in the world are married.
I know many of you are afraid to
say amen, because your wife is sitting next
to you, your husband's sitting next to you.
I didn't expect any amens there.
This city is filled with married people who
are lonely.
They go home lonely.
They look at each other, and they feel
an emptiness.
They've talked it all out.
Folks, talking it out doesn't meet it.
Only Jesus can meet that need.
He's the only resource.
No other power.
You know, this, talking about this independence that,
this self-sufficiency, this independence that God gives
the person who leans wholly on Him, I
find it difficult to help those kind of
people.
I've known people so given to Jesus, so
full of Christ, Jesus has become their whole
life, and, and I find out they're in
need, and I, I send them an offering,
or I, they come to my office, and
I said, God's moved on my heart.
You know, here's a gift, and, and I
get hurt sometimes, because they, I'm expecting thanks,
you know.
I want to be thanked.
And, and, they're kind, but they turn around
and thank the Lord, and they give Him
all the love.
Glory to Jesus!
Glory to God!
And it's almost, they, they say to you
almost as if, well, God used you.
What do you expect?
God used you.
And, and you get the idea, if, if
you hadn't met it, somebody else would meet
it, because they're dependent on the Lord.
They're not dependent on you.
They're not dependent on any man.
They found something.
And so when you do give, just like
the Philippians gave to Paul, he said, this
is a sweet savor unto God.
He went thanking the Philippians.
He said, God used you to meet my
need.
And really saying, I'm happy anyhow, but thank
you for what you did.
You get the idea.
They could have gotten along without it.
I find it hard to give to those
kind of people.
They're so independent.
That's what Paul said.
They're so contented.
And here comes the, I, I'm like the,
the man in a, this white horse, his
shiny white armor.
I've come to deliver you.
And they're thinking, God bless you, but I've
prayed this to pass.
You're just a vessel in his, I give
glory to you.
Thank you, Jesus!
And that knocks me off my white horse
very fast.
Now secondly, contentment springs from the assurance that
God has his hand in everything that comes
into your life.
God has his hand in it somewhere.
How can a Christian ever be contented if
he thinks the devil is at work in
his life and not God?
How can you ever be contented if you
think that the trouble you're going through now,
the difficulty, is that God somehow let go
of your hand and he's turned you over
to the wolf and the lion?
Folks, this is the trick of the devil
to bring this, to just bring distrust, to
bring discontentment and turmoil into the life of
the Christian, that when trouble or difficulty comes
into your life, it's some strange thing that's
happened.
And folks, we have a patient father.
He'll stand by when you get in trouble
or in a crisis or a hard time
or there's something comes into your life you
don't understand and you say, it's not because
you were sinning.
Job's counselors were wrong.
They told him, Job, you're going through all
this because God's mad at you.
You sinned!
And God's getting even with you, man.
He's had to spank you all the hard
because you were so blind, you were so
dumb, so stupid.
God had to do this to you.
God said, no, that's not so.
They've given you the wrong advice.
And when trouble comes, the enemy comes, and
the first lie from the accuser is, I'm,
you're going through this because there's some innate
sin in you.
There's something so hidden, so deep, that God
is getting, he's trying to get your attention.
Now, folks, there, the Bible said, you sow
what you reap.
There is a consequence for sin.
There are consequences for sin.
But I'm talking about a repentant Christian.
I'm talking about someone who loves the Lord.
Someone who's not out flirting with the devil.
Someone who has their heart set on the
Lord.
Now, they're not perfect, but they really, if
you really talk to them, you see them,
they're faithful to God.
They pray, they seek His face, they love
Him with everything that's in their heart, but
suddenly something comes in their pathway.
They don't understand, and the first question is
why?
What did I do, Lord?
Where did I go wrong?
Sickness, disease.
We have a young man in this church
that was walking through Central Park, and he
was beaten, taken into the hospital.
I don't think he asked the question, but
the question, the natural question is, Lord, why?
Here's a young man just giving everything he
has to the Lord.
Why?
Why did it happen?
And it, there's no way you can be
contented if you think that suddenly God, what
would you think if, for example, if I,
I've used this example before, I'm walking through
Times Square with, with, say, 42nd Street, and
there are pushers and rapists and mad men
everywhere, and I've got my little granddaughter by
the hand, and I just let her go
to find her own way.
How can we accuse God of doing something
that no godly, earthly father would ever do?
How can we accuse God of letting go
of our hand?
How can we accuse God of not being
involved in these things in our life, that
God sometimes, yes, there's a rod he allows.
There is correction.
That's true.
But folks, I'm talking about those who examine
their heart, and you say, I know I
love the Lord.
I know with all my heart I seek
him, and I don't understand why this is
in my life.
I don't understand.
Now, the Lord will, is patient.
Do you believe it?
I thank God for what he said.
I will never leave you.
I'll never forsake you.
I'm with you to the end.
You've got to tell, you, you have got
to pass judgment.
Listen to me closely.
You have got to judge your situation and
pass judgment on it immediately.
I'm a child of God.
I am under the blood of Jesus Christ.
I've confessed my sins.
He said he would never leave me.
He would never forsake me.
He said he's my keeper.
He said he's my shelter.
He's my rock, and you can go every
one over, over hundreds and hundreds of promises
in this book how God keeps, how he
loves his children.
And then after you have done all that,
pass judgment on your condition and say, no,
I don't understand it.
I didn't expect it.
I don't know where it came from.
I don't, I don't know anything about it.
But I know that God is with me.
God has his hand and his time and
his way.
He will deliver me.
But in the meantime, I'm going to be
contented.
Take it all if you have to, Jesus.
Nobody can take from me what you have
done unrevealed in my heart.
It takes away bitterness, because that's what the
devil is trying to put into your heart,
bitterness toward the Lord.
So that your heart will always be in
turmoil.
So that you get angry in your home
with your mate, with children, your friends, and
then finally get mad at God.
But you see, sometimes God permits these things
to simply drive us to him, to open
up our hearts.
Really, almost everything that's happened in my life
has been a magnet of God trying to
draw me to himself.
And when I run to him, and I
burden my soul, and the the Puritans called
it unboosoming.
I unboosom my heart.
I just give him my heart.
I tell him everything that's there.
I go out in the woods, and I
cry.
Sometimes I scream at God.
I'm not mad at him, but I scream,
Oh God, show me!
And finally God says, I'm not going to
show you anything, but I'm going to give
you peace.
And folks, it's the peace of God that
is the assurance that he's there, that he's
at work.
Now I've been directed by the Holy Spirit
to do something this morning.
God made it very clear to me last
night in prayer that I had to stand
here this morning, try to speak directly through
the Holy Spirit, right into your inner man,
right into your soul.
Because I believe that there are people here
this morning that are greatly confused by your
present situation.
Now, I don't know who this message is
for.
I just obey him.
You don't understand the why, or the wherefore,
the reason for your present trial.
But I'm telling you now what I hear
from the Lord.
It's not because you have failed him.
It's not because you were doing something very
evil.
In fact, your heart's been open to God,
but you've been asking, Lord, what did I
do to deserve this?
All I've wanted to do is please you.
I can't stand the thought of failing you,
so why this great trial?
Here's what God has spoken to my heart.
Be careful.
Be very careful at this point.
You don't accuse God of forsaking you.
He has not turned you over to the
mouth of the lion.
He's not turned you into the hands of
the devil.
God has a wall of fire around about
you, and he's still the glory therein to
you.
And I'm telling you right now, in the
name of the Lord Jesus, in the power
of the Holy Ghost, that God sent me
here this morning and put me in this
pulpit to tell you that God knows what
you're going through.
He sees your trial.
He knows every move, and he said the
steps of a righteous man, that's mankind, are
ordered by the Lord.
He has ordered your steps.
Rest in him and say, thank you, Jesus.
I don't understand, but no more questions.
No, there's no strange thing happening to you.
God still loves you.
I'm going to give you just one more
truth that God's been speaking to my heart.
To help bring contentment.
Contentment can be learned only during your trials
and not after.
During your trials.
It's got to be gotten while the affliction
or trouble is still at its worst.
The carnal heart says, Lord, I can only
be contented when you get me out of
this mess.
I'll never know peace.
I'll never know joy and rest until everything's
settled, until it's all over.
And we want God to remove all the
difficulty.
Then after everything is settled, then I'll have
peace.
And we're waiting for God to deliver us
so that we can be contended.
Where God's plan is not that you run,
not that you hide, because that's what most
Christians do.
They run, they hide, they panic.
But the Lord is looking for these last
days, or Christians who can stand up against
anything, because folks, I tell you, I'll say
it again, it's going to get worse.
You and I've got to have to learn
to come into this place in the Lord
where we start subtracting the things of this
world.
Where we quit looking for something outward to
bring that inward peace and contentment.
And to learn this contentment while the battle
is still raging.
Not until it's over.
Because there'll be another battle come along after
that.
And then where will you be?
You haven't learned your lesson.
You haven't learned how to be contended.
David said, Whom have I in heaven but
thee?
There's none upon earth that I desire beside
thee.
My flesh and my heart faileth, but God
is the strength of my heart and my
portion forever.
And what David is saying is when my
flesh and heart is trembling, and I don't
understand what's happening in my life, I don't
know why this has come into my pathway,
you alone, Lord, have become the source of
my strength.
You alone are everything that I need.
Who have I on earth?
There's no human being I can turn to.
And folks, that's the bottom line, pardon the
expression, but that's where it ends.
Where you no longer look to man.
You no longer look to people.
You no longer look to material things.
You no longer look at anything in this
world.
But Jesus Christ has become your all in
all.
You look no farther, no other place you
run to him.
Christ becomes as he has promised to be
your all in all.
He's the answer to loneliness.
He's the answer to fear.
He's the answer to the spoiling of your
goods.
He's the answer to everything.
But folks, that strength that he has promised
is not given to those who don't ask
it and seek it.
We can claim those scriptures, through Christ I
can do all things.
No, not unless you're seeking him.
Not unless you're pouring your heart out to
him.
He does not give it promiscuously.
It doesn't just drop into you in your
sleep.
You don't wake up in the morning quoting
scriptures saying, I've got his strength.
Did you seek his strength?
Did you call upon him?
Have you trusted him as the source and
the resource?
Folks, I'm going to tell you something that
I am learning and I'm learning it fast,
and I hope I learned it for eternity.
That when you go through a hard place,
our first thing we do is run to
somebody.
We've been trained that we've learned that.
We run to somebody.
We look for somebody.
Financial need, we're looking for that miracle.
We're looking for something that, listen, God wants
to do something first before the miracle comes,
and you can't have contentment until you want
him more than you want deliverance.
You want to know him more than you
want to be delivered from your problem.
Are you hearing that in the Spirit?
Until you have learned Jesus, I'm after your
heart.
Because when you get to know his heart,
the outbreak or the birthing, it bursts in
you this great, quiet, peaceful contentment that I'm
speaking about right now.
You can look your troubles in the eye
and you can say with faith, God, you're
with me all through this.
You're doing something in me.
You're preparing me for something greater.
It's been no accident because you said my
steps are ordered.
You brought me this far by faith.
No more tears, Lord.
I'm going to rejoice in your faithfulness to
me.
Hallelujah.
You see, in closing, we get restless because
we try to dictate to God how and
when to deliver us from all our troubles.
We give him dates and deadlines.
Lord, by next week.
Lord, I've had all I can take.
No, he knows how much you can take
and he said he won't let you bear
more than you're able to bear.
But he will with the trial, the temptation,
make a way to escape that you may
be able to bear it.
To stay with it till all the lessons
are learned.
Hallelujah.
Somebody came up to me before the service
and said, Pastor Dave, there seems to be
a greater calmness in you.
Worse to that effect.
I would hope that the whole body of
Jesus Christ here at Times Square Church would
come into that sweet assurance that no matter
what happens to this city, no matter what
judgments are made against this city, no matter
what judgments fall on America, no matter what
financial crisis that you're going to face, that
Jesus is everything he said he is.
That it's possible to give him everything that
you have.
And say, Jesus, I'm going to cast myself
on your care.
Casting all your care upon him because he
what?
He cares for you.
He's a loving father.
He's not mad at you.
And he's there.
You may not be able to see him,
but just as I preached the other week,
as soon as you step into the furnace,
you turn around, there he is.
And that fire is not going to scorch
you.
It's not going to burn you.
You're not going down.
You're not going to fall.
You're going to stand because he's going to
bring you through.
Will you stand, please?
Beloved, I have no way of knowing who
this message is for this morning.
I'm not a mind reader.
But if you had turmoil in your heart
recently, if you've been troubled, if your heart,
are you asking like David, Lord, why is
my heart disquieted within me?
Why is this turmoil inside of me?
Bring it to him this morning.
Lay it at his feet and say, Jesus,
teach me, instruct me how to be contented
with such things as I have.
Is there anybody in this building that could
come to the place and say, Lord, help
me be contented that I've got something to
eat, a place to sleep, and something to
wear.
Lord, take the covetousness out of my heart.
Take all worldly desires out of me.
Hallelujah.
Lord, bring us to that place today of
contentment.
Lord, I'm contented in Christ this morning because
more and more you're becoming all my resource.
More and more we're not looking to man,
we're looking only to you, Lord, for you're
our strength, and you're our helper, you're our
keeper, you're everything that we need.
Lord, it has to be more than just
a cliche, more than theology.
It's got to be a practical truth that
has to be worked out in our lives.
Jesus has to be everything.
He's got to be our resource this morning.
Now our heads about, let me ask, here's
the invitation, please, to those who heard something
from God this morning.
You heard from God.
You're in a crisis.
You're in a situation that you don't understand,
and it's caused turmoil, and it's caused great
turning and striving in your heart, and God
wants that settled today.
Up in the balcony in the main floor,
if that's you, if God spoke in your
heart, I want you to get out of
your seat and come and bring it to
the Lord right now.
I'm going to ask God to baptize you
with the knowledge that will begin this instruction
on how to be contented in the Lord.
It just won't be dropped into you now,
but you'll begin to seek God learning how
to be contented with him.
Up in the balcony and here in the
main floor, wherever you may be.
Do you believe it?
He's all that I need.
All of you that are forward, raise both
hands and sing it with us right now.
Jesus, you're all I need.
My steps for directing Lord.
Hallelujah.
We're going to sing just a moment, the
steps of a righteous man, the steps of
a righteous man.
Look at me, please, all of you that
came forward.
We serve a God who is so powerful.
He's so loving that the moment your heart
opens up, he comes rushing in.
The Holy Spirit just rushes in.
He's here to lift the burden from you.
Look at me, please.
If I feel your burden, how much more
does he feel your burden?
Will you lay it on him right now?
Will you not walk away from this area
carrying that burden anymore?
Just lay it down right now by an
act of faith.
Say, Jesus, take, you can take the whole
world.
You can have everything I have.
Do you mean that?
Paul said it.
I consider the whole world as dung, everything
as refuse.
It's garbage.
That I may win Christ.
If I have you, Jesus, I have it
all.
Hallelujah.
Lord, help us to subtract.
Not add.
We're going to learn subtraction.
Hallelujah.
Lord, help us to let go of things.
Lord, they're all going to burn anyhow.
We're not going to take them to heaven.
They're not going with us.
None of these things are going with us.
That's all going to burn.
The only thing that we have that will
last is our relationship with you, Jesus.
Hallelujah.
Oh, I believe you, Lord, and I trust
you.
You're doing some healing here now.
Folks, I believe Lord's healing all through the
audience, up to the balcony and here.
Will you sing this song with me?
The steps of righteous man are ordered by
the Lord.
How many that are up here have come
forward for the first time in this church?
You've never come forward before.
Raise your hand, please.
It's your first time to come forward.
Would you go to exit 7, backstage, downstairs,
so we can pray.
You don't join anything.
We don't give you a sales pitch.
We pray with you.
Just right this way, please.
Right through the door and backstage, down into
the prayer room.
All first-timers.
Lord bless you.
Come, make a way for these that are
coming through.
We need all our counselors here this morning,
please.
All of our counselors, if you will, please.
Lord bless you.
Amen.
The Lord's going to do a very special
work in the lives of every one of
these who've come forward, these that are going
down for prayer.
Praise the Lord.
All of you that come forward for the
first time, God bless you and touch you
in a very special way this morning.
Hallelujah.
This is the conclusion of the tape.