A Psalm for the Discontent
Psalms for the Soul

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Happy mother’s day glad to be here this morning on this this day to kick off a new sermon series Psalms for the soul we will be looking at different psalms during the next six weeks and bringing out a theme from each one that we think addresses a need in our church and in our city in our culture today and today, we’ve entitled this sermon, a Psalm for the discontent, and we’re going to be taking on some different issues over the next few weeks, anxiety uncontrolled anger, personal hurt, depression, spiritual doubts, these kinds because these are the kinds of things that the book of psalms addresses, in fact, there’s one hundred fifty of them. And if you can’t find one that matches your emotional state then, i don’t know what to do for you, because there’s one for everybody and as we’re looking at the psalms, we’re going to be looking at six different psalms over the next few weeks and digging in on those, but today we’ll be talking about discontentment now

so i was looking up on google, you know, as i do that every week, right? I look up, and so that was google say about this, and so what is google saying about moms and contentment? And i found this article four reasons why moms are discontent this is from a site called imom.com so here’s what it says just just about everyone struggles with this contentment but since it’s mother’s day i thought i would talk to you about this this is four reasons why moms are discontented

number one here’s the first reason is there ever enough money for most of us no we have such an insatiable desire for stuff that it takes a lot of cash flow to keep buying oddly it seems like the more we consume the more we think we need so that’s the number one reason why moms are discontent there’s not enough money

number two the corporate ladder if you’re in your thirties or forties the article says you were brought up in a post feminist world a world where you were taught that you could and maybe should achieve great things in the workplace but also be a great mom for some women professional achievement is a great source of satisfaction but for others it’s a touchstone for frustration your career just like any other facet of your life can never really fulfill the contentment hole in your soul

number three the non storybook marriage what no white horse no happily ever after what is this it’s real life it’s ah it’s a marriage made up of two imperfect people which mathematically adds up to an imperfect marriage we all have imperfect marriages because we’re imperfect people and by the way we’re an imperfect church people say i can’t go to that church it has too many hypocrites in here well there’s all kind of other sinners in there too not just hypocrites and if you find the perfect church, don’t join it you’ll mess it up

here’s the fourth reason why this article says mom’s are discontent mirror mirror on the wall that’s the fourth reason we talk a lot about the pressure placed upon girls and teens to meet a certain standard for appearance but what is their culture doing? The moms suddenly it’s not ok to age naturally or to look a little different physically after giving birth to your children, the bar is set so high in the beauty category they will spend any amount of money undergo in any type of surgery or invest any type of time any amount of time to achieve a certain look and still, after all that effort, most women aren’t happy with their appearance

so there’s the four top reasons that moms might be discontent in his book why we hate us what a terrible title right dick meyer says why we hate us american discontent in the new millennium he’s gotta theory there that he calls the prosperity paradox he says through the widest lens of history america since the nineteen eighties looks like the most golden of golden ages the peace and prosperity of this era this era is unparalleled compared to the rest of the world into the history of our species, americans became healthier, better fed, longer, lives safer, sent fewer young people off to war and forged one of humankind’s greatest technological revolutions. But through the narrow lenses of our everyday lives, the picture has felt different. Social science shows that americans are on the whole. On the whole, they feel it’s harder to be content to find connection and to be optimistic. During these prosperous years, this fluke of modernity has come to be called the prosperity paradox. Beyond the minimum level of material security and means human contentment and happiness has not increased in proportion to increase material well being income, wealth, consumer options, luxury and stuff. None of this has made americans content. Americans are, by and large the most discontent people on planet earth. Did you know that? What in the world discontentment, it’s, it’s something that’s really contagious in our country today. How about you? Are you content? Are you happy with your life? With your marriage, with your kids, with your house, with the car you drive with the clothes you wear? Or do you spend a considerable amount of every day thinking about I need more or i need to trade this in for something new. I need something different. Is there a constant restlessness in your soul for something new, something better, something more. Are you plagued by this sense of dissatisfaction and discontent well this psalm is for you, because the book of psalms offers not a cure, but a salve a medicine that you can rub into the wound is so today we’re going to look at psalm one thirty one and seek god’s medicine for the soul.

Now, who is the great physician? It’s jesus, right, and he’s, the one who has the ability to heal us and give us the cure. But he uses his word, and here we’re going to ask the lord jesus to use psalm one thirty one to put that in that place where your discontent, i think discontentment is maybe an underlying reason for a whole lot of these other issues, like uncontrolled anger and depression and and things that lead to divorce and discouragement. I think that we’re just all in all hard to satisfy because there’s something wrong at the level of the soul. So as we look at this, you know, if you go to the doctor it’s okay as a christian right it’s okay as a christian to say as my son steven did you saw he’s not playing this big white giant guitar today? He’s he’s got a tamborine because he has to have something he’s got to play something but he had surgery this week and we’re proud of him he he had surgery on tuesday and friday night he was here all night with the youth and now here he is this morning leading worship go stephen praise the lord that you’re here but it’s okay to have surgery on your arm and to show up at church with a big bandage on your arm we accept that as christians but it’s not ok by and large to admit that you’re struggling with depression that’s like that’s like the thing you’re not supposed to admit because especially among men that shows you’re weak you’re not supposed to admit i’m depressed it’s true among women too though isn’t it that’s like the christian thing not to admit and we don’t really want to admit that we’re discontent either but here’s what we’re going to be admitting over the next few weeks we need this medicine and we’re not going to be the kind of church that says we’re not going to talk about that no, we’re going to talk about everything we’re going to bring it out and let god heal it we’re not going to stuff it we’re going to talk about it

so that’s the manner in which we’re going to be moving forward in psalm one thirty one david wrote of how he overcame his discontentment by finding his contentment in the lord and i believe this morning that we can find our contentment in the lord and allow him to apply this salve to our discontented hearts and souls so that we find our contentment in jesus and as we look at these three verses can you believe we’re going to study three verses today? My goodness after doing forty five verses in daniel chapter eleven i don’t know what will happen here i will probably preach this is long who knows i mean give me one verse i get excited but three verses i didn’t know how to act this week

when i was preparing three verses so three verses three points how does that sound that’s what we’re going to do today three ways that we can find our contentment in the lord let me read the scripture i don’t know if i can get my breath to read this many verses let’s see

chapter one thirty one of psalms a song of ascents of david oh lord my heart is not lifted up my eyes are not raised too high i do not occupy myself with things too great and two marvelous for me but i have calmed and quieted my soul like a weaned child with its mother like a weaned child is my soul within me oh israel hope in the lord from this time forth and from ever more. This is god’s word. Amen.

So we’re looking at three ways that we can find our contentment.in the lord hears the first be humble, be humble before the lord take note of a few items here, even even the title, a song of ascents of david. Now david would not have been the one who wrote that a song of a ascents part probably this was probably something, that when they were organizing the one hundred fifty psalms, that they would have organized them in such a way, so that they would have added this title david would have had his autograph on there, that he wrote it of david. But that was in addition, but nonetheless, i believe, led by the spirit, these psalms, that are called a psalm of ascents. There are fifteen of them fifteen songs of ascents, and to ascend means to climb right and so some translations say psalms for pilgrims, and that would be accurate to because here’s what these these fifteen psalms were designed for it was to sing on your way to church as you climbed up. Uh, to mount zion because jerusalem the temple mount it stands up above all of jerusalem except for if you get over here on the mount of olives, it’s a little taller and you can see into the temple mount, but but if you’re going to go for even from the mount of olives , you got to go down in the valley and then climb back up. So if you’re going to go up to mt zion, you’re going to climb some steps and these are songs to sing as you climb fifteen of them. In fact, there are fifteen steps that lead up to the triple doors that are now sealed up. You can’t go there, but the fifteen steps are still there from the time of jesus and on my several trips to israel and some of you have gone with me, we’ve we’ve stood there, we the tour guide is always rushed us so quickly that when we get there, we never get to do it. But maybe the next time we go to israel, if you want to go with me, many people will stand on each of those fifteen steps and they will read aloud one of the fifteen so they will read this one, then they’ll step up to the to the next one, i think it starts with one twenty is that right? Yeah it starts with one twenty psalm twenty and it finishes with psalm thirty for those are the fifteen so that’s what that means and then it says of david david wrote most of the psalms and he indeed wrote this one

oh lord, he says in verse one and he repeats it again in verse three you’ll notice that this is in all caps which tells us that this is yahweh the covenantal l name of the lord he’s calling upon the great i am yahweh he’s saying lord lord god, o lord, my heart is not lifted up my eyes or not raised to high what does it mean to say my heart is not lifted up he’s saying i’m not too proud, i have a humble heart not lifted up my heart’s not lifted up he’s humble there’s one of things about david the bible says that david was a man after god’s own heart and this is a part of david that we we must be attracted to that he was humble in heart is my heart’s not lifted up. You know the heart represents the self, davis says. I’m not self important i don’t think too much of myself that’s what humility is about

rick warren as he was quoting in his book cs lewis says this true humility is not thinking less of yourself it’s thinking of yourself less it’s not that you have a low self esteem it’s that you have a great self esteem to the point that you don’t need to think about yourself anymore you’re not self centered you’re humble your heart is not lifted up he says my heart my heart’s not lifted up lord and then he says my eyes were not raised too high he’s not always comparing himself to other people to try to see if he is as good as they are wait a minute she’s prettier than may i guess i need to find out whatever she’s doing oh wait a minute looks like he’s driving a nicer car than i am and wait a minute i’d love to have his job what about that that’s a beautiful house i wish i had that but david is saying i don’t do that and always compare my i’m not always lift him eyes up to things there too lofty for me is he’s humble in his vision he’s humble in his heart but he also he does not have haughty eyes is not it doesn’t have eyes that are always looking to raise himself up and then he says i do not occupy myself with things too great or too marvelous
i don’t spend all my time thinking about things i can’t fix anyway in other words i don’t stay on cnn and fox news all the time and i don’t know which one you are so i picked both flavors

there’s people that live there with facebook open on their laptop, watching it, i think that this is just occupied with it all the time, like, if i write this on facebook, it will change the world, you know, like things too lofty. David, by the way, david was the king of israel, and he didn’t think of things too lofty he said, there’s stuff that’s in the god category, but i’m not going to worry about i will let god worry about those things, and the more you think about it, like what’s in the god category, everything that belongs in tomorrow boy, that that includes a whole bunch of stuff we’ve been worried about that everything that because we can’t we can’t get out of today while we’re in today we have to wait for tomorrow, but god stands outside of time. He already knows what tomorrow holds he’s in charge tomorrow, he’s in charge yesterday and we can’t even control the moment we’re in right now, so let’s, just give it all to god that’s what david is saying, he said, i’m not going to consider things that are too great for me, i’m not gonna let those occupying my thoughts,

you see here’s what i see that’s leading to some of our discontentment, maybe much of our discontent, just the the polemic, the opposite poles of of our politics today, the way we’re always arguing we can’t seem to get unified, it just creates a discontentment we just we just always and just the way we’re feeling about everything, like we have so much that we just can’t get happy. Because it’s not perfect, like so, you know , i want the church. I want the volume of the worship to be here no, here. I like it when i feel the boom boom boom in my chest. I hate it when i feel the boom boom boom I’m gonna have a heart attack. No, i like it when it so much it no, it is too hot, it’s too cold. By the way, if you sit down closer to the front it’s cooler as you go to the back it’s hot so just keep that in mind. Yeah, you want to cool down, move down here, it’s hot coming from me that i’m in this jacket, and under the lights but that’s, what we care about, we care about our comfort and because we are always focused on that. But if you’re in, if you’re in a third world country you’re never comfortable and you are just happy because you don’t worry about that anymore because you can’t get comfortable. I mean it’s, just not part of it’s, not even something people are trying to achieve there, they are trying to see if they can live another day and so they’re happy. What is that about david he’s not worried about all those things, and i’m not saying those things don’t matter. He doesn’t occupy his mind with this, david he’s not a he’s, not a navel gazer he’s not always looking inward all the time he’s not occupied with things like that.

In james four says, humble yourselves before the lord, and he will exalt you humble yourself. Get your eyes down, get your heart so it’s not so lifted up, james four of six and seven says, speaking of god, and he gives grace generously, as the scripture says, god opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble, so humble yourselves before god. It lacks humility to think that you can be in control, and one of the reasons and i have to i have to say this to you i’m a co struggler with you, if you if you struggle with discontentment , i know what that feels like especially, i think it’s especially true at least this is my observation of those first born kids who want control who want to be in charge and we’re in if we just can’t get control and we’re just frustrated all the time, but as i get older not just biologically but older in the lord more mature in the lord, i’m finding contentment more and more not focused on whether or not i can change things whether or not i can fix things organize things, but just giving it to the lord saying, lord, i’ve spent most of my life trying to organize stuff and people won’t listen to me and i can’t, you know, and kids it’s like herding cats, and then when you pastor a church, the whole church is like a bunch of cats trying to trying to organize them , and you just like after awhile, lord, you handle this, i’m going to continue, and besides the idea that i think i can organize it is a prideful state of mind.

Since we reading a psalm from david, i thought we might tell the story from david and some excuse me in samuel second, samuel, chapter six we know that david wanted to bring the ark of the covenant up to the place where he was going to build the temple upon upon that that mount zion and as he was bringing it up, he was so excited that he was having them stop every six steps. They would stop and they would offer a sacrifice. And he was giving out he was giving out wonderful gifts to all the people that were gathered there there. And he was giving away things to eat in these kinds of things. And they were shouting and they were blowing the trumpet. And then and then it says this it says, david, danced before the lord with all of his might and here’s, the king of israel, and he’s jumping and shouting. And it says he was wearing a linen ephod just this little priestly little gown man and he’s just like jumping around . And then one of his wives, Mechal, who had been Saul’s daughter, she was Saul’s daughter she looked through the window of their house up there and she saw her husband, king david, leaping and whirling before the lord. And in her heart she despised him because he was not only, demeaning himself, the king of israel behaving in such a matter. He was demeaning her too. And the way she saw it in the way he was acting and when he came up to herhe’s so excited They brought the ark of the covenant up and he’s so full of joy and this is david returned to bless his house he went to his house to bless his house. He blessed all of israel is is and michal the daughter of saul came out to meet david. She says, how glorious was the king of israel today, uncovering himself today in the eyes of the maids of his servants, as one of the base fellows shamelessly uncovers himself and david respond replied to her, it was before the lord who chose me instead of your father saul to be king, to appoint me as ruler over all of israel. Therefore i will play music before the lord and i will dance before the lord and he says, and i will be even more undignified than this. And i will be humble even in my own sight. But as for those servant girls they will honor me yeah that’s what he said to his wife, you see, david, was willing to humble himself even in public before the lord so men sing those songs, sing them out. Don’t be afraid to be a little undignified before the lord

you see, if we spend too much time thinking inward thoughts, we always find something to be discontent about don’t we so we need the holy spirit. I’m not saying we shouldn’t think about what’s going on inside of us, but who’s the expert on you you think it’s you it’s, not you, the lords, the expert on you see so ask the holy spirit to help you with that. And then don’t stay there too long because there’s work to be done.

Here’s what the psalmist says in one thirty nine psalm thirty nine search me, o god and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any grievous way in me and lead me in the way everlasting you want to humble yourself before the lord asked him to examine your heart? Just take a moment, say, lord, i just feel like something’s off today like i can’t put my finger on it, am I depressed or is it discontentment? Or maybe there’s A little little bit anger and I am frustrated. Can you help me with this? I can’t even name it sometimes when i pray that kind of prayer, he’ll bring to my mind exactly what it is that my little brain is hanging on to a little thing i’m chewing on it, did you see that right there? You haven’t given that to me that’s what’s troubling you it’s like a little splinter in your soul can you just give it to me ? I’ll get that out t but i could put some medicine on that okay just let me have that so we don’t even know sometimes we just go off into life and we wait we spread the poison of our discontentment with our wife with our husband with our kids with our co workers with our fellow students wherever we’re at we just it’s like a poison of grumbling and discontentment if we just give it to the lord just give it to the lord and say lord look at me and help me clean this up in me humble yourself before the lord will you do it will you be humbled before the lord will you be even more undignified than this as david said

number two be happy don’t worry be happy be happy with the lord listen we looked at these three verses and we saw two phrases that we could use a word that started with H we said you know be humble and then in the minute be hopeful and my son jonathan i were looking this week so we got to find another h word it will be imperfect if we don’t find another h word so how about be happy that you that seems to i don’t know it just seems too shallow be happy shouldn’t we say be joyful and we say i said yeah but joyful starts with a j we can’t say that and so be happy let me let me support this before we finish this point

verse two verse two but i have calmed and quieted my soul david said i took my soul and i started rocking myself this is the day was talking who’s he talking about stuff about himself he said to himself calm down now calm down like a baby calm down i have calm and quiet myself like a weaned child with its mother like like a weaned child is my soul within me a child that still at its mother’s breast and receiving its sustenance from the same is always wanting to be there it frets and worries until it finds mother’s milk that’s where that that age child is but the child that’s been weaned just wants to sit in his mother’s lap and just press his head against his mother’s bosom what peace would joy all of us men and women male and female maybe perhaps you can remember way way back there what it meant to climb up in mother’s lap david remembers maybe he remembers when he sees his own children sitting in his wife’s lap maybe that’s what brings it to his mind but just this scene i found this little painting here and i thought wow that’s it and that that’s what david’s talking about that that that feeling he said i have calmed and quieted my soul man discontentment is loud and it’s it’s like the stormy ocean and it’s just threading ever see a baby when it just gets beyond control like there’s no i just you can’t calm it down and and but the mom and this is what we do as dad’s right where’s your mom where’s your mom come ok this is what i do

this weekend by the way is perfect you know because i’ve been keeping three of our grandkids this weekend while my son jonathan was away in charlotte doing a wedding so all three grandkids and the little was with us when kenzi if she gets to a certain point i’m going robin where are you see what i had to go do something i said no no no you don’t have to go in don’t do anything stay in here with kenzi Robin’s got gifts i don’t have that’s just this mothers they have this thing that can just and david says like a mother i have calmed and quieted my soul you know how to do that you know how to find happiness with the lord

does god does god wants you to be joyful and satisfied with him you better believe even if he does he wants that but man, where we’re just like little babies who just can’t understand you like i like you too you’re rocking a baby this is screaming like we’re waiting for the bottle heat up we’re waiting for the bottle heat up there looking at you like i don’t speak english i don’t know what you’re talking about i can’t wait and that’s how we are god’s just like wait just wait well we hate that word wait and david is saying i’ve learned to just say so calm down and be happy in the lord

you might not be happy in the situation you’re in right now because happiness is always based on a happening and if you have good happenings you’re happy and if you have less than good happenings you’re less than happy and of course in america you have to have perfect happenings in order to be happy because we have raised the standard of what it takes to pursue happiness in america in fact we don’t pursue it anymore we expect it to be guaranteed but here is what will happen to us? What we learned is americans so this face that we’ve learned in this world will not make us happy has no matter how perfect we make it we can’t get happy with it the only way to be happy is to find your happiness to find your joy in the lord he made you for himself

st augustine that famous quote he says thou has made us for thyself oh lord and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee we were made for god therefore we will not be at rest we will be restless we will be discontent until we find our rest in jesus a weaned child that’s hard isn’t it weaning the child it’s hard for the mother and it’s hard for the child she has to deny the child mother’s milk so the child can mature and feed themself but the mother’s heart wants to keep on feeding the child but yet she knows what’s best for the child is to wean the child so the father sometimes in order to mature us when we first become believers we know what it means to be happy in the lord is like woo i’m saved i just got baptized i’m fired up i love jesus and and he’s giving us mother’s milk at that time by the way you just like he just pouring out blessings on us like he’s fixing things in their life man my marriage is better and i’m doing better and and then you’ve been a christian for about a year and you go god where’d you go you know you started you started feeding yourself a little bit you started going to church and here in god’s word and taken notes you started studying and then it’s like and god’s weaning you what so he can grow you so he can grow you so the father weans you off of milk so hei could give you meat in order to do to do that he has to be a good father he has to wean us

david’s, saying, i’ve learned not to look for happiness and in worldly things, but to calm and comfort my soul like it were a child within me and say be weaned from the world the world would not make you happy instead find your joy and happiness in in the lord

psalm thirty seven says seek your happiness in the lord, and he will give you your heart’s desire give yourself to the lord trust in him and he will help you. He will make your righteousness shine like the noonday sun and here here what the apostle paul says about contentment i’ve learned to be content with whatever i have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything i’ve learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty with plenty or little for I can do everything through christ who gives me strength.

So stop saying i can’t and if you’re not if you’re not doing something, just say i won’t because that’s the truth because if you’re a christian you can because it says here i can do everything through christ so don’t say i can’t get up in the morning or i can’t whatever fill in the blank instead just admitted repent of it say lord i’m sorry i just won’t get up in the morning when i’m supposed to or i out won’t stop eating so much cheesecake i just won’t but i can do everything in christ

in first samuel david was living in caves he was anointed king but he wasn’t the king yet he was he was running from king saul who god had removed his calling from and he’d put it on david but that saul is trying to kill david so david’s hiding in caves and running from saul and he’s collected about six hundred mighty men and these are criminals and all kind of bad guys and guys who had gotten sideways with saul and they’re attracted to david they’re all hanging out with david they love david and david didn’t know what to do he was living there one of the philistine areas and he decided that he would sign up and help one of the philistine kings in a battle against king saul now this was a mess he should never been there but that’s where he was he had his men and they got there and god protected him because when he got there the other kings the other philistines said, look isn’t that david the one that they sing those songs about, you know saul killed his thousands and david has killed his ten thousand isn’t that him yeah, but he he says he’ll fight with us now who’s to say that we get on the field of battle and he changes his mind and wipes us out now we’re not letting him

so the king said david i’m sorry i trust you but the other guys don’t go home and so he goes home and when he gets there some people had attacked his little set up there is little settlement and they had taken their wives, their children and all their stuff and disappeared and so the men who had been following david were so frustrated discontent that they threatened to stone him to death david looked around and everybody was against him saul has been trying to kill him and now they have his own people and plus his wives and children have been taken from him and here’s what the bible says and david encouraged himself in the lord wow, if you learned how to do that have you have you learned how when every single circumstance surrounding you and even the people that you care most about seemed to be turning against you? Have you learned as david has learned, to find your happiness in the lord david had learned to encourage himself in the lord

In dr minerth and myers book happiness is a choice. They give you seven ways that that you can have lifelong happiness, there are seven steps or seven pieces of advice. I don’t have time to go through all of it. Let me give you four of them quickly. This is from the book. Happiness is a choice.
Number one change the way you talk to yourself, just just practical application here, stop telling yourself i can’t stop telling yourself you great, you great big dummy! I can’t believe you did that negative self talk whereyou call yourself names and you say, i just can’t do things stop that all you’re doing is joining satan, and his accusations change the way you talk to yourself instead, start saying things like this memorize some scriptures and say things like, i can do all things through christ who gives me strength? God loves me don’t don’t say nobody loves me god loves me that’s number one

number to understand your feelings, but focus on your behavior. In other words, don’t spend so much time going, i feel terrible instead, do something there’s something because here’s the crazy thing about humanity, that about about how we are shaped if you’ll go ahead and take an action, even though you don’t feel like it, your feelings will catch up just do something right put the right behavior out there so focus on behavior more than feelings it’s amazing! You might say i don’t really love my husband but if you act like you love him, you might really start loving him

number three utilize the resource of prayer pray, pray it will help you break out. It’ll help you encourage yourself in the lord number four utilize the resource of the word of god get some scriptures inside of you like this one we keep quoting here philippians four thirteen i can do all things through christ who gives me strength? Ok, some practical applications

number three be hopeful be hopeful in the lord we’ve said be humble before the lord be happy with the lord be hopeful in the lord i told you i found three h’s didn’t I . Now this one was actually in the text. It was low hanging fruit. Look at that verse three oh israel hope in the lord from this time forth and forever more hope what is hope it’s more than wishful thinking, it’s more than saying, i hope it doesn’t rain on mother’s day it’s more than that its like a wish hopes more than that hope biblical hope is made of sterner stuff you’ve heard me talk about it before hope is like a rope it’s anchored in the resurrection of jesus and it passes beyond the veil to where he sits the right hand of the father hopes says you can hang on to it like a rope. You might not be able to see him over there yet. And you might not have been there when he resurrected but you believe it, and soon my faith he believed that in my faith you believe he’s there and he’s coming again and hope is the rope that you hang onto in the interim it’s made of we believe that he’s going keep his promises and he’s going to come again he’s going to take care of us and that’s what hope is biblical hope it means i believe it is going to be good, something good’s coming my way from the lord who is real hope in the lord is funny how david i’ll start off one way and finish another find your hope in the lord be hopeful in the lord and when should you be hopeful? He says this time in other words, right now you should be hopeful right now go ahead right now, but your hope in the lord and aces from this time forth, in other words, in your tomorrows keep on being hopeful be hopeful hopeful is optimistic don’t you agree? Isn’t the hopeful person an optimist? But here, you know, i’m i can’t help it. I can’t i can’t help, but i’m a pessimist. I’m a worry wart well stop sinning because because jesus says, do not worry, stop being a pessimist. How do you stop? I can do all things through christ, who gives me strength? I’m gonna be hopeful. I don’t feel hopeful, you say we will be hopeful anyway and if you’ll be hope for you feel hopeful. It’s funny, it’s, it’s like you have to choose where you’re going to put your hope.

Now if you put your hope in what it looks like in this world, you will be hopeless. If you put your hope in somebody here or some situation here, you’ll get hopeless, but the lord will not disappoint. He keeps his promises be hopeful in the lord today and tomorrow and in case you’re worried about how far in tomorrow, david says forevermore not only be hopeful in your today’s and tomorrow’s in this world, but be hopeful about your future he’s got your future in his hands, be hopeful in the lord regarding your eternity, you don’t have to be one without hope.

John Piper writes this answer to this question here’s the question, what is so important about christian hope? That’s the question here’s, his answer says, if our future is not secured and satisfied by god, then we’re going to be excessively anxious this results either in paralyzing fear or in a self managed, greedy kind of control, we end up thinking about ourselves, our future, our problems and our potential, and that keeps us from loving others. In other words, hope is the birthplace of christian self sacrificing love that’s because we just let god take care of us and we are aren’t preoccupied with having to work to take care of ourselves so they were able to say, lord, i just want to be there for other people because i know you’re there for me, he says, if we don’t have the hope that christ is for us and we will be engaged in self preservation and self enhancement. But if we let ourselves be taken care of by god for the future, whether five minutes or five centuries from now, then we can be free to love others. Then god’s glory will shine more clearly because that’s, how he becomes visible say, god, you take care of that, i’m going to love on some people and you’ll find hope come alive in you,

the psalmist in psalm forty six says happy is he who has the god of jacob for his help whose hope is in the lord his god first peter says blessed be the god and father of our lord jesus christ according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of jesus christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable undefiled and unfailing kept in heaven for you we have a living hope remember i said hopes like a rope up there he is at the right hand of the father he’s alive and he’s coming again and everything listen listen everything you try to keep down here every time everything you try to hang on to you are going to lose i mentioned this recently and in our small group you never see you never see a hearse pulling a uhaul is never see that and people say what you can’t take it with you well that’s partially true you can’t take worldly things with you but you can send it on ahead everything you keep you lose but everything you give away you invest in heaven and you could take people with you you can tell them about jesus and take him with you you can have a living hope
on this particular day i take a white carnation i’ve been taking a white carnation since two thousand one when my dear mother passed away my father passed away at age thirty nine when i was eight years old so my mother raised four children by herself well, not totally by herself she had the help of the lord and i often heard her pray as the scripture led her. I would hear her in her room with the door closed and she didn’t think i heard, but i was often as the oldest child spying upon her to see why she was in the room with the door closed i would hear her in there praying, lord, you promised in your word that you would be a father to the fatherless and a husband to the widow. I need you to be my husband and to be their father. And so he was and so all four of us came to know christ, and all four of us went to college, which was the first thing that no other family in our entire extended family had that, and we were the family led by the widow. I’m thankful that the lord was her husband and my father and i give glory that we found hope in the lord when often in my family , my mom battled depression and discontentment. But then on sunday morning we would get up and i would see her there with her little hanky with the flower stitched in it standing and singing those hymns, and i would look at her and i would look at her face and i would think, what does she see? Because it looked like she was looking into heaven and i would look to see what she saw and i was saying i hope i can see that someday and i think i can see now what she was seeing you put your hope in the lord you can’t see him now but you’ll see him someday soon be humble find your happiness in the lord be humble before the lord can be hopeful how can you overcome your discontent only through the great physician jesus christ allow him to apply this medicine that i preach to you today to yourself and find yourself content in the lord

Dear lord jesus i pray first of all for the person that’s here today that’s come in today and they they have not received jesus as their lord and savior but they’re here and they want to do it right now listen you can’t apply this medicine to your soul yourself you need a doctor and that doctor’s name is jesus if you want help with your discontent with your restlessness you must ask jesus to come and do a work in your life where you do it right now pray with me dear lord jesus right now in your seat pray dear lord jesus i’m a sinner and i need help I believe you died on the cross and rose from the grave and live today come and live in me make me the person you want me to be take away this discontentment this restlessness in my soul and fill me with peace and contentment that comes from you. I want you to be my lord and savior, i want to be a child of god you’re praying that prayer right now believing than jesus will do it that’s why he came, others were here this morning and you know jesus as your lord and savior but you’ve been looking for happiness in the world and you’ve been so discontent and people around you see it and you’ve been trying to be in control, will you repent right now repent right now of trying to lift your eyes up too high and to be too often considering things that are above your pay grade right now just repent to the lord, forgive me for trying to be in control of these things i give everything to you a fresh right now give you my concerns about my house, my car, my stuff, my job, my children, my marriage everything lord that that i’ve been worried about coming in today i give it to you right now lord replace my discontented soul right now just just put that medicine on and give me contentment give me rest, give me peace that passes all understanding in jesus name amen