Sermons1

Text Box: Every year the Illinois Department of Child and Family Services comes across all sorts of abuse that children go through. We hear reports of children who were left alone, or beaten. We hear of children who were malnourished, whose diapers weren’t changed and on and on go the horror stories. What kind of people could do such gruesome things to their own children? We reflexively recoil at such awful thoughts.
Could you imagine what the DCFS would do to Abraham if they had had jurisdiction over him? Talk about cruel and unusual punishment! Abraham was just about to stab his son to death! The DCFS workers would have been incredulous to hear Abraham say that he loved his son dearly. They would never have believed it. Yet, that is the truth. Abraham loved his son dearly. It was the son God had promised him. Abraham had to wait a long time for a child. He was a hundred years old when Isaac was born. That’s a long wait. His precious son meant the world to Abraham. All the promises God made to Abraham were through his son Isaac. Abraham truly loved his only son Isaac dearly.
So how could Abraham do such a terrible thing that even a governmental agency like the DCFS would condemn? He did it because God asked. It would seem strange to Abraham that God would ask something like that. But Abraham had complete trust in God. He was completely content to do whatever God had asked. Abraham had learned a thing or two about God in his hundred plus years. When he was younger, just in his nineties, Abraham had taken things into his own hands to beget a son. He did it not according to God’s wishes. God had made it very clear Abraham’s sin was not the way God would fulfill His promise to Abraham to have a child. No, Abraham and Sarah would have a child together. Sarah being in her nineties herself, thought that was hilarious. As a matter of fact, Isaac’s name, which means laughter, was probably in response to her laughter. God showed Himself faithful. He gave a healthy baby boy to be born to two senior citizens.
Abraham had learned to trust God through that experience. He had seen how God had blessed him with physical blessings, and with a son, even though it seemed impossible. Certainly, Abraham reasoned, if God tells me to sacrifice my son, He can surely raise him from the dead. Abraham was completely content to lay himself in God’s hands, to follow what God told him to do. He was content. He was satisfied. He knew God would care for him. He knew God would provide for him. He knew God would do wonderful things for him and for his family. He only needed to follow God’s will. He was content.
The Bible tells us that “godliness with contentment is great gain.” As long as we stay within God’s will, and are content with what God gives us, we will have a happy, even joyful experience.
So what would it take for you to be content? One person says, if only I had a new car, I’d be content. Another person says, if only I found the right person to marry, I’d be content. If only I had a decent job that pays well, I’d be content. If only I could retire... If only I had my health... If only I was the best in my sport... If only I had 10 million dollars. What would it take for you to be content?
St. Paul said “I have learned to be content no matter what circumstance I’m in whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.” (Phil. 4:12) But like spoiled children we have not always been satisfied with what God has given us. We want more. We’re not satisfied. We should have more, better. I shouldn’t have to go through these hardships, these difficulties. God has given us forgiveness, a huge gift. He has made it possible for us to be brought into His royal family, to receive the inheritance of everlasting life at a great cost to himself: His suffering and death.
It’s not that we have to be content with a sub-par life. It’s not that we have to settle for the least or the worst. God encourages us to be content with what we have, for He has given us such great things. Forgiveness. Everlasting life. God’s unbounded love. Peace. Joy. Blessings in this life, and in the life to come. Be content says God. That ought to be easy because God has given us the best.
But there are such difficulties, such hardships that some of us must endure. St. Paul knew what terrible things happen. He wrote, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble, or hardship, or persecution, or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”” (Rom. 8:35, 36) Paul knew difficulties, that’s for sure. But he also knew how to be content through them all. “We are hyper-conquerors through Him who loved us.” (v. 37) Literally, God’s word calls us hyper-conquerors. Someone who is hypersensitive to certain things is extremely sensitive. Then we have hyperactive children. Parents and teachers describe hyperactive children as those who are bouncing off the walls. They have many other interesting descriptions of hyperactive children. They are extremely active, to say the least. We are hyper-conquerors. We’re not just barely conquerors. We’re hyper-conquerors through our Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
When God encourages us to be content, you have to see that as almost understatement. Content? We should not only be content, we ought to be overjoyed with all the ways God has blessed us. Yes, we may go through hardship, through difficulty. But even so we are hyper-conquerors, we are supremely blessed by our Lord in all that He has done and will do for us. We are hyper-blessed by God in every way. Be content with what you have, with what God has done for you.
Will such contentment lead us to hoarding what we have? Abraham learned better. The most important thing he had was his son. He was willing to sacrifice what was most precious to him, knowing that as he followed what God told him to do, he would be blessed beyond his own imagination.
Follow what God is calling you to do with what is yours. Listen to what He says. Be content with what you have, being assured that God will certainly bless you as you follow Him. Let your trust in God, motivate you to follow boldly as God leads you to be generous with all that you have and all that you are. Be content!

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