MAY 26 2019 | Accelerate S1E9 | The Secret Sauce of Contentment

Sea Change Church · Accelerate · "The Secret Sauce of Contentment" Pastor Adam Stadtmiller · May 26, 2019
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

Hello, church. I'm Molly. My fiance, Bryce and I are involved in the couple small group that Deb and Garrett leave with Devin and Eden and some other couples from the church. Today, I'm going to be reading the scripture from Philippians 4, 4 through 13. Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again. Rejoice. Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God.

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your heart and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me, put it into practice, and the God of peace will be with you.

I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that at last you renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well-fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.

I can do all this through him who gives me strength. The word of the Lord. Thanks, Molly. You're getting married soon, right? Yeah, excited. You and Bryce, stoked for you guys. Super excited. Well, hey, good morning. We are moving the final message in the Accelerate series and kind of bringing back a message that I spoke in 2015 on contentment. Before we do that, though, I wanted to let you know that as soon as I get back, we have a Father's Day is coming, and it is an invitation Sunday, and we have a brand new series starting on David and Bathsheba.

Wait for it. Shame of Thrones. Check it out. We were talking about it, and it's kind of got that Marvel Comics thing going on there and the whole deal. I thought Jeff really outdid himself this time, but yeah, right on. I mean, literally, he does some amazing work, and I'm excited about this series. You know, I think the struggle, you know, it's interesting. The lowest rates for suicide are in the inner city, and sometimes when you're in the struggle, it gives us a reason to fight.

The highest rates of suicide are out in rural communities, especially in Native American communities. The further you get away, sometimes from community, the harder life is, and David got away from community. David got in a season where he was pretty fat, so to speak, and he quit going to war, and he started doing things like just staying home and being on the top of his roof. And one day he looked out, and he saw this beautiful woman, and he took matters into his own hands, and we're going to hear a little bit more about the story.

But everything God gives you can be gone in an instant. And we're going to talk a little bit about that decision. We're going to talk about the entire story, and one of the things that's really tragic that happens to David is God doesn't take the throne away from David. And we're going to talk about repentance and grace and all those things, but God does this. There is a consequence, and a sword will be in your house, in your line, in perpetuity.

And so you see that happen as Absalom, his son, comes, and different things happen. That's a result of David making that decision. It's going to be a powerful series. We're going to talk about human sexuality a little bit. We're going to talk about grace. We're going to talk about sin, shame, male-female relationships, power. It's going to be a phenomenal series. I will be writing it in Israel, and I'm excited about that.

I think God's going to give me some awesome insights. Let me pray. Lord Jesus, bless this sermon. Bless this time as we look into the word of God. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, I wanted to leave you. I'm leaving you in really good hands with Harry and the pulpit. But I wanted to leave you with a word that would sustain you for a couple weeks. I love being in the pulpit. Last night, it's like game day for me. I literally am excited to get into the pulpit as I was as a kid when I was a pitcher in elementary school and Little League.

And I remember putting the uniform on and the whole deal. Well, I love preaching the word of God. And I do realize that, you know, you have to make, like David, really good decisions to maintain positions like this where you have the ability to live in your love, in the thing that you love. And hopefully you're getting an ability to do that. One of the things I wanted to leave you with was a word about contentment. And I believe that we really are living in an age of massive discontent.

Everywhere you look, there is a message to be discontent. The headlines are full of discontentment. Stories about puppies and rainbows and unicorns, unless they found a real unicorn, are not the ones that get the clicks. The clicks usually are the stories of discontent, anger, outrage. You go online and they talk about how mental illness and emotion, I would say emotional illness, because I believe emotional illness is what leads to mental illness.

That is my own personal opinion, that when the heart is broke, the heart and the mind are supposed to work together like two oxen pulling on a yoke. And when the heart becomes broke, the mind has to go into overtime and it starts leading you off the path. And so I believe when you have broken homes, broken families, kids that get broke, kids that get damaged along the way, marriages, wives and husbands, you have broken hearts.

And if you don't have a way back to see that heart healed, you tend to have broken minds that follow that. And so I believe that a lot of our mental illness we see today is caused by emotional illness that comes from the breakdown in some of the breakdown we see in society. As you look online, one of the things you're going to see that the meteoric rise of a lot of depression, anxiety happened really with the onset of social media.

Now, I know that's an easy scapegoat, but it's actually true. You just go look. And now you immediately have the ability, which you didn't have before, to actually judge, and I said this about six months ago, to actually judge your state of being on someone else's. So if you look at someone and they're, hey, we're in Italy again, here we are, just thought we'd jump on over to Italy, and there they are. And, you know, 246 likes with happy faces.

And then you're like, hey, I'm at In-N-Out Burger. And you're like, two likes and one like, meh, you know, mood face with, you know. You can easily, I mean, now you literally can make an algorithm on a spreadsheet to show how good your life is. You can get a real sense of how good your life is and how it compares to somebody else's. And then we have these false selves that are happening. And a lot of it, a lot of the angst that rises up, and I believe that a lot of the emotional illness that we see comes from being discontent.

Wanting something that you do not have. And if you can get your wanter in check, it's going to make your life better. I would say one of the most important tools for living, to live a very stable life, is to want less. To have less desires, to want less, to be willing to have less and have it be okay. I drive the 2002 Toyota Tacoma with 286,000 miles on it. It was a ugly yellow, if you remember. My mom made me paint it when I got the job here because it was so ugly.

I bought it from a delivery place. What is really interesting is we called it the Humble Wagon for a long time. And the amount of men who come up to me with amazing trucks, like amazing trucks, and they'll get out of the truck. This is no hyperbole. This has happened 10 to 15 times. And it happened yesterday. And come to me and say, man, that's all I need. That's the truck I want. They're right there, right? That's all you need, right?

And I'm like, that's all you need. You're right. To just come be content. Now, I've got to say, about every six months, I've got to rent myself an F-150 from Enterprise Rent-A-Car. You can do it for $38, a 4x4. I just did it for seven days recently when we had to move and we needed to rent that instead of a U-Haul. And I've just got to feel that. But then I go back to the Humble Wagon. And I find, not having a car payment, all these things, that there is a joy and a peace that comes with driving a jalopy and the Humble Wagon.

And I say all this to say that, you know, I haven't died by not buying the truck of my dreams. My dream, and I won't get it just because environmentally I wouldn't get it, but I want the Dually. You know, the double, that's not going to work in the Hoya, right? The F-350 Dually, like super cab, comes with like a mermaid in it that sits by you when you drive, she rides shotgun. Contentment. Are you content? Or are you constantly finding yourself wanting more?

I have to say, something interesting about contentment. It's one of the few things that is completely up to you. No one, no one has a ability to affect your contentment. Contentment is completely on your side of the court. How much you want, what you want, what you're satisfied with. And what I'm not talking about is apathy. We're not, I'm not talking about apathy. Ah, you know, meh, the world, meh. I'm not saying that.

You want to have a hunger for things. I am not content with the amount of emotional intimacy I have with my family. I want more. I believe that there is unlimited amounts of God's grace and goodness. And there are things that we pursue, but we don't want to strive after to the point where it kills us. But are you content? And so the first thing I want to say is that contentment is in your court. Are you content? And the other thing to say is that contentment is really not an act of willpower.

And we'll see this in a moment where at the end of this verse on contentment, because he's speaking about, he gives a poultice, a recipe for contentment. We'll see that in a moment. But at the end of it, he finishes it by saying, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, which is a really interesting point. Now, we use that verse a lot. You've heard about it. It's a bumper sticker verse. It's one of the ones that we talk about all the time.

You would think it would say, When you are fighting against an enemy and a Goliath comes up to you and you are slaying giants and taking nations, you can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. It's not what it says. It's not where it is contextually. Where it is, is after a passage, it talks about finding the secret of just being content and okay where you are, not having to have more. It is really interesting that you would have such a powerful verse found in the context there.

And maybe the writer understood how difficult contentment is. And if you are discontent, some things need to be changed. Relationships, you're discontent or whatever. But you're discontent with certain things that you want more of. You want a different job, a better house, whatever these things are. It is going to have a way to knock you off your rails. It has a way to cause you to live an erratic, sporadic life. And I have to say the enemy, Satan, is a master of discontent.

And he loves using discontent in your life to create a chain reaction of chaos. You will go and extend yourself too much on credit. Or you will extend yourself too much wherever it is in some way that he will give you something that you don't have. This was the original Adam and Eve temptation. He offered them something they didn't have. And what happened was a chain reaction of chaos. I wrote this down in my notes. It's not in your notes.

It says, contentment is a choice. It is a choice. That allows you to strategically, strategically, place a hedge of protection around your heart, mind, and soul. It is a tool. It is a weapon of God. You can do all things through Christ who strengthens me by letting go of these things. AA even knows this. And the serenity prayer. It is giving up. It is control. It is surrender. I don't have to have that thing. Or he loves, the enemy loves, catastrophe thinking.

Now, I have been a master at catastrophe thinking. He will take the smallest, for somebody that has some kind of abandonment wound, he will take the smallest, you know, disagreement with a co-worker or a spouse or a child and take the smallest little seed and plant it in your mind and take it out to catastrophe thinking. That means that everything is going to collapse. And maybe you are good at catastrophe thinking. Being able to call on the Holy Spirit, to live in contentment, to say whatever happens, whatever may be, God, it is well with my soul, is a spiritual, strategic weapon.

It is a ball that is in your side of the court. The question is, do you want less and can you take less? Paul is giving a poultice here in the notes of power-filled spiritual weapons that will provide you peace and contentment no matter what this age brings. Paul gives a recipe in the scripture. We want the scripture to be the star. And we are going to look at it here. I am going to read through it. And I want you to circle, as we read through this, six different ingredients.

If you think about making a cake. I was making pancakes with my daughter the other day. And I don't know if you have ever accidentally used salt instead of the sugar. But it does not come out great. Paul has a recipe here. And this is a recipe. And this is your homework for the next couple of weeks while I am in Israel. is having contentment that you have to deal with Harry. Just kidding, dude. Oh, wah, wah, wah. Let me read through this.

And the question is to ask yourself. Now, on the beside of these, I want you to put a one to ten. Ten being the greatest. Like you're doing really well at it. And just kind of figure out where you are in each of these. Like rejoicing. Where am I as we go through this? First says rejoice in the Lord always. How are you at that? How are you? It doesn't say rejoice in the Lord sometimes. It says rejoice in the Lord always.

Give yourself a little rating. How you doing? How's that going for you? How's it go as you're falling asleep, when you wake up in the middle of the night, middle of work? Rejoice. Another question is rejoice is a form of joy. Joy. And I said a few months ago that I don't believe the world is experiencing joy. I think they sell a lot of happiness. I don't think that they sell a lot of joy. They sell things that are fading.

But joy is something that can emanate from within you. That can bowl you over like a storm. Like a tidal wave of God's consolation and love and peace and care. It is a joy that is footloose and, as they would say, fancy free. Think of Kevin Bacon. Again, that is joy. Jumping, dancing around in footloose back in the 80s. Rejoice. You know, again, when was the last time you feel you experienced joy? Like you had joy. I would say, it's something that you practice.

And he talks about working at it and practicing. Joy is something you practice. It is something you learn. You can be overwhelmed with joy, but those moments in your life are very rare. You know, you have this amazing surprise. That happens. And you're like, whoa. And you're bowled over with joy. But joy is also something that you can create. And one of the things I try to do on campus here is when I walk around is thank God regularly.

And thank him for what we have, not what we don't have. And practice joy. And I find more and more I am having moments, bus stops along the journey of my life where joy shows up. I say, does joy just show up? Because if you practice joy, it'll begin to just show up on its own. Okay? It becomes like when you're, you know, like in a sports analogy. You have muscle memory. All of a sudden you can do something that you don't need to think about anymore.

It just shows up. Do you want joy in your life? Practice joy. I have a friend that regularly stops and we'll be talking, we'll be walking, and he'll stop and say, look at these flowers. Let's smell these, you know. Or he'll say, isn't this coffee amazing? Just little things. Or isn't that person awesome? Just these little things. Practice joy. Where are you? Be gentle for the Lord is near. I would say a lack of gentleness usually comes because you're impatient.

Usually comes from pride. Gentleness is something we all want to work on. Not being so you're bowled over all the time, but being gentle. Being humble of heart. This is part of being content. You don't have to have more than you were created for. Enemy wants to give you more than you were created for. This is what addiction does. It's offering you more. This is what all classic addiction is. Offering more than you were created for.

Do you have that? Be gentle for the Lord is near. This is another one. Be anxious for nothing. I think one of the things that, one of the ways that, you know, I've had victory over anxiety. I talk about it a lot. I think it's important in our society is why I talk about it a lot. And I think it helps me relate to many of you that have other things like loneliness. And that's why we're doing the thing this summer on faith, facts, and feelings.

So don't miss that. But one of the things that helped me get over anxiety is just accepting the worst catastrophic thought I could have. Okay, well, this is going to happen. Well, then that will happen. Well, then this will happen. Then that will make this happen. Then that will happen. And it would go all the way to like you've lost everyone. You're alone on an island. No one's there. There's only a monkey and one coconut to live.

And he's up in the tree and he's eating the coconut in front of you and drinking the water. You know, I am way out on catastrophic island. Like a pirate that has been lost at sea. I like that analogy. Harry will bring that up later. He'll be like, hey, I like that one. That was good. We always talk afterwards. I've just, I've gotten really good. Really, really good. It's been amazing. And it's part of contentment. It's just going, no, then that'll happen.

Well, you'll be poor. You'll lose everything. You're going to, you're going to, this will happen. Oh, you're going to get really sick and then it's going to be miserable. Well, I guess it'll happen. The Lord's going to have to be there. Now I am saying that it is not a, it is a thing of willpower until God tests you in it. And then he takes you to another level of trust and faith. But the ability, I want to say this is a great weapon team.

This is a great weapon. Oh, I'm going out with this guy. He might get upset and leave me and not want to date me anymore. And he might, yeah, other dudes in the world, you know. Just getting to the point where you can just accept things. Not that you give things up or whatever it is. And I'm not talking about marriage in that situation, but a dating relationship. You have these catastrophic thoughts. Do you have the ability to say whatever, whatever comes, comes and it's okay.

The ability, otherwise we tie ourselves to things. How tied are you to your position? How tied are you to your things? How tied are you to your opinions? How tied are you to whatever? These are things that become bondage. It is for freedom, the scripture says, that you are what? Set free. Are you free? One of the best ways to be free. And I'm not saying apathy. I'm not saying meh. I am saying in the name of the Lord, if that comes, we'll deal with it when we get there.

That is a problem, as Homer Simpson says, for future Adam. On my to-do list. Sometimes I write things that are concerns and I write future Adam. Because future Adam can deal with that. He was eating mayonnaise and donuts. I don't know if you ever saw that one. And drinking vodka. And his wife said, Homer, you're going to die. You're going to die. That's going to kill you one day. That's horrible. And he goes, that's okay.

That's a problem for future Homer. And I was like, that is awesome. Mayonnaise, vodka, and donuts. What a diet. Be anxious for nothing. Let it go. Sometimes that has to be supernatural. We'll see about that in a moment. It says, let your gentleness be able to do all. The Lord is near. Be anxious about nothing. But in every situation, do what? Pray. Prayer is an awesome weapon. Prayer is the initiation of faith. Prayer is a bulwark of God's grace in your life.

Prayer is a tool. Prayer is your answer in all situations. My mom said all the time, and I wrote it above my bed, and she had it in the house. Prayer is always the answer. Pray. In every situation. Pray, pray, pray. And when you pray, stop thinking about it. And when you start thinking about it, start working through this list again. If you want freedom, this is a list for contentment. Present your request to God. What do you want?

Ask God. Say, God, I want this. Be bold. Be incredibly bold. It says, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving. So thankfulness. That's a great thing. How thankful are you? You know what? A great way to build relationships. Five times a week. Just write it down. I try to be very practical. Five times this week. Go up to somebody and say, I just want you to know how thankful I am for you. I'm super thankful for you. You are awesome.

You provide so much help for me. Say it to your wife. Say it to your coworkers. Say it to a neighbor. Say it to the mail carrier. Say it to whoever. But let them know that you're thankful. Thankfulness, if practice, will become second nature to you. Where it'll overwhelm you. This is a recipe to change who you are. Or actually not change who you are. To become who you actually are. Because we are all built for this. This is the life that we are built for.

And if you take this in the reverse. If you write the reverse of all these characteristics. Which we see in the world often times. It is going to lead to the brokenness we see in the world. Don't be thankful. Compete. Compare yourself. Don't be happy. Don't be content. Don't pray. Work in your own ability all the time. Work a little harder. You can get her done. All of those are opposites. The question the scripture says is, are you going to submit yourself to God?

And let God be in charge of a supernatural peace. And I love verse 7. Verse 7. I just love it. And there are, you know, I found my seminary journals recently. And I realized I'm preaching the same stuff I've been preaching for 26 years. And I will repeat myself over and over. But there are some core things. One of the core is Proverbs 17.1, I believe. It says, better a dry crust of bread than feasting with strife. One of the verses I live my life according to.

Better a dry crust of bread than feasting with strife. One of the things I'm trying to hear on a regular basis at the church is all these things we can do. It's a whole bunch of projects in front of us. It's a whole bunch of opportunities. And a lot of times, you know, by Wednesday I'll be tripping. And I'll be thinking, okay, how are we going to get all this done? And a lot of times I just got to go, that's for future church.

That's a problem for future church. We need to settle down and rest and accept just a dry crust of bread sometimes. A dry crust of bread is really good when you're hungry. We went out yesterday, my family, and we were eating. We had worked all day getting ready for the trip. And I was cleaning carpets. And we were all doing it. And Lucy ate a burrito at Rubio's. And actually the quesadilla kids' meal she's still getting.

She'll be 28 years old. She'll still be getting the quesadilla kids' meal with the churro and the applesauce. And she goes, oh. And it's just a regular quesadilla. She's like, oh, this is so amazing. And I'm like, did they get an executive chef at Rubio's? Like, what happened? And I'm like, I like me some Rubio's. A consistency. Just bang every time. And she goes, it's amazing how good food is when you're hungry. And I thought, that's true.

You ever eat food when you're hungry? It is so good. Better a dry crust of bread than chaos. I hate chaos. I grew up with a family of chaos. Alcohol caused chaos. Emotional chaos. Drama. I hate chaos. I hate chaos on a church staff. I hate chaos in the world. I hate chaos. Dislike it. I don't want it in my body, in my emotions, anywhere I go. And if I have relationships that can constantly have chaos, I will remove myself from the relationships.

I will remove the church from any kind of thing that causes us chaos. I want peace. And one of the signs that is going to let the world know that the church has an inside track on God is being able to show peace in the midst of chaos. Jesus was so good at this. Do you have crazy makers? You know, I was a person that couldn't have peace unless I had chaos. I was like that for a very long time. In relationships. As soon as the relationship was going pretty well, I got to screw it up.

I was really good at, you know, self-destruction. At seizing over my own relationship. Things would be going well and I just couldn't handle it. I needed some action. Just had to make something happen. I had to cause an argument. I was constantly living in, you know, like bull with horns. Finding the next person I could get, you know, in something with or create chaos. I don't want chaos. I want peace. And if I smell chaos, I'm going to walk.

And so one of the things we try to do in our family is do everything we can to look at our calendar. Calendars can create chaos. Even good stuff. You can create chaos. This is a measure for content. Are you happy with what you have? That's why I haven't sought to write another book. Not that I wouldn't. It's just not the season. Got too much going on. It creates chaos. You know, radio interviews are awesome until they're not.

All that stuff was so alluring. And being on TV. And getting asked to speak in different countries. And these things I always dreamed of until I realized, you know what? I just want to ride my bike around La Jolla and pastor my people. I'm serious. And there's nothing wrong with that. And especially in the church, there's this constant thought that you've got to get to that next level. There is another. You've got to build your platform, girl.

You've got to build. You've got to build that. Build, build, build, build, build to the next thing, to the next thing, to the next thing. And I have met so many people that have been to the top of the mountain when they get there. You know what they ask? What's next? A dry crust of bread with peace. I've got to tell you, if you could sell peace, they do sell it. It's on the aisles in the liquor stores. It's at the cannabis dealerships.

They sell it. It's at Xanax at the prescriptions. They sell it. They sell you peace. It's just not the kind you want. Do you have peace? Coming in for a landing here. Let God be in charge. And it says right here, and I love this verse. It says, verse 7, And the peace of God. Not the peace of you. The peace of God. Right? That's the one you want. Not the self-created peace that comes because you booked a trip, you know, to wherever.

Or because you find out that some, you know, woman or man that you like, likes you. You know, in junior high they said, go with you. I never knew where we were going. But nonetheless. All of a sudden you have a peace. The peace of God. Which what? Transcends what? All understanding. How much of your peace is dependent upon your understanding? If I get that contract, whew, I got some peace. And I understand that our bodies are created to when things are not, you know, are taken care of.

You're not in survival mode. You don't want to live in survival mode either. But you have this peace that comes. But this is a peace of God that transcends understanding. So you get the report of the bad health report. You get something that you can't understand. And the whole point of worry and stress is you're wrestling like Jacob with God with a topic. And the whole point is to get yourself mentally to be able to win the tussle you are having with your mind about what you're afraid about.

That's the whole thing. That's what anxiety is. That's what depression is. It is this wrestling until you can get out of its bondage and take ownership over it. But oftentimes that comes because you understand it better. Oh, okay, well, I misread. I just had this recently. I had this bill. And it was a really big bill. But they had made a mistake. And once I found out they made the mistake, then I felt peace. I was like, oh, I knew there was a peace.

Oh, now I have peace. But what is the peace that transcends understanding? That's the peace you want. That's the peace of God. That's the one that you don't need to understand. And you say, it's well with my soul. It's all good. Better a dry crust of bread and peace. Final thing on the back. We'll come to the very, very end of the page. Verse 4, 13. And I already teased this a little bit. It says, I can do all things through him who gives me strength.

I can do all things. The context and focus of this amazing verse is on contentment. Rather than focusing on contentment. Rather than submitting, summiting is what it should say. Some mountain in your life are vanquishing a giant. It is about completely giving yourself over to God. And being content. And saying, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Will you let Christ strengthen you this week? That's the word.

That's the recipe. So for two weeks, work on contentment. Go home. Rest. Be at peace with thanksgiving in God's name. Amen. Let's stand if we would for a blessing. Chris, could you come forward? If you need prayer today, Pastor Harry will be at the front. And I think we have some other people on the prayer team today that will pray for you. We want to pray for you and release you. One of the things we do is love to bless you.

We live in a world full of curses. And I love to bless you. So if you extend your hand, we want to bless you today. Lord God, I thank you, God, for the gift of contentment. That comes, God, from knowing you in a deep way. To be able to do all things through Christ who strengthens me. To be able to live a new algorithm, God. One of peace. Letting things go. Accepting whatever comes in the name of Jesus. Lord Jesus, I bless these people, Lord God.

We send them out, God, now. To live new lives, God. To be happy where they are. To find joy where they are. But, God, to continue to move after you and follow the leading of the Spirit. To be released from bondage. And, God, to know you more in a deep way. So we send you out today as an army of God's love, of hope. The ability with wisdom. And I pray for the wisdom of the book of James to edit your calendar. To edit your relationships.

To edit the things you do. To edit yourself. To edit your addictions. To edit the wisdom where God says, do this change. And it will make all the difference. That you may have peace. And be a person of peace. That's what Jesus was. In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.