Contentment vs. Discontentment

Woodland Hills Church of Christ

Contentment vs. Discontentment

Introduction: Dangers of Discontentment

• As we engage in this study we need to talk about the necessity of living a contented life. This is not a matter of contentment being a better life than discontentment. It is a matter of a life that is sinful and a life that isn’t. It is a matter of fully trusting God to provide for us as he pleases or living with lustful desires and thus being frustrated that we can’t have what we want when we want it.
• Not being content is the root of idolatry. Colossians 3:5, “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.” Desiring what we cannot have or should not have and allowing those desires to affect how we use our time for God, how we spend our money, and be able to live with mental peacefulness, is idolatry.
• Jesus said that “thorny ground” in the Parable of the Sower referred to, “the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful” (Mark 4:19).
• God, through Jeremiah said, “Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly dumbfounded, declares the Lord, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water” (Jeremiah 2:12-13)
• If we will admit it, we know that we easily fit that description without giving it a second thought. Why? Because it is so commonplace both in and out of the church that we excuse it.

1. The Causes of Dissatisfaction (Ecclesiastes)
   1. The context is Solomon’s search (1:13). It is a search to discover “what is good for man to do under heaven during the few days of their life” (2:3). This search is typical of all people, and is considered by Solomon as “an unhappy business that God has given the children of man to be busy with” (1:13). Please keep that statement in mind: it is an unhappy business. Run away!
   2. Therefore, in 2:3-11 Solomon goes on a search to “find out what is good for man to do during the days of their life.” In order to illustrate the frustration and vanity, Solomon proclaims: “Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil” (2:10). However, in 2:11 he proclaimed that once he had finished his efforts, “behold all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained [no profit] under the sun.” Do not quickly pass over the phrase, striving after wind, or other versions, chasing the wind. The implication is, it is the dumbest thing a person could do.
   3. As a result, Solomon said, “I hated life…” (2:17). Question: What caused Solomon to end his experiment in finding what is good by saying he hated life? Solomon, what caused you to hate life after all you were able to enjoy and accomplish? The answer is simply his expectations. Everyone’s expectation is that doing what Solomon did would provide the best life ever! But no! He hated the outcome! It wasn’t the answer to contentment and joy.
2. Expectations and Discontentment
   1. Job 3:1-13 Any doubt about Job’s level of contentment? It is obvious that Job expected his life to be different than it was, and who can blame him!
   2. Consider an opposite situation with the apostle Paul in Philippians. He has been unjustly imprisoned for about four years. Even though he is in chains (Eph. 6:20) and is facing possible death by the hands of Caesar, does Paul hate life or love life? Is Paul content with his life or discontent? Is Paul joyful or and angry and disappointed with the hand he has been dealt?
   3. Test yourself for the likelihood of discontentment and disappointment:
      1. Do you have expectations for your life? If you do, you are not only sinning, your are doomed to a life of disappointments and ultimate discontentment.
      2. Do you get angry and frustrated when life does not fulfill your expectations?
      3. Deep down, do you believe that if you do “all the right things” in life, that life will reward you with contentment and joy? In other words, if I “check all the boxes” in the way I live my life – with wisdom and moral uprightness – will I be rewarded with a “good life?”
      4. Do you expect that “crooked things in life” ought to be fixed so you do not have to deal with them? In other words, do crooked things drive you nuts?
   4. The above questions are a good test on whether you are living life under the sun, and therefore striving for the wind. Please consider that striving for the wind is another way of saying living the dumbest life possible!
3. Finding Joy and Contentment to Defeat Discontentment
   1. Remember that in Ecclesiastes 2:1-11), we saw the pronouns “I” used repeatedly as Solomon extols his efforts to find profit under the sun. But in the end, there was nothing to be gained.
   2. However, in 2:24-26 we see a marked contrast.
      1. The approach in this text is quite different from the description of Solomon’s life. This person realizes that “apart from God” no one can eat or have enjoyment.
      2. And again, twice in verse 26 the emphasis is on the “one who pleases God.” It is to this person that God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy. Instead of trying to attain profit under the sun by one’s personal efforts, this person trusts God, puts God first, and is content with what God provides.
      3. This person recognizes that wisdom, knowledge, and joy are not attained by one’s ingenuity, but is a gift from God. If we pursue contentment, we will lose contentment. Matthew 16:24-25 “Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” LIFE! How is it found? How is it lost?
   3. To prove this point, 3:1-9 lists 14 pairs of contrasting events in the lives of humans. This is an excellent description of life following the fall from the Garden. As we read these events we quickly realize that we have no control over any of these, whether they will happen or when they will happen. We simply know that they will happen, and there is no profit for the worker to stop or manipulate these events for ones own benefit. Is that a key reason for discontentment? Certainly.
   4. Therefore, in 3:12-13, the Preacher again asserts that there is nothing better than to be joyful and do good as long as we live. The preacher repeats the principle that joy and pleasure is “God’s gift to man.”
   5. In 3:14, the Preacher gives the reason for God ordering life in this fashion: “Whatever God has done endures forever…so that people fear before him.” In other words, God has created us in a world in which we cannot change the major events of life that would affect our happiness on this earth. The expectation is that a wise person will come to realize the vanity of such a search and instead turn and fear God, knowing that he is the only one who has ultimate control.
   6. The Preacher ends this section of his sermon in 3:22 by repeating the principle a third time. Therefore, consider, why is joy and contentment found in knowing that we cannot manipulate the bad things in life and that we have no idea what will happen tomorrow? The answer to that should be fairly obvious! There is nothing left to do but let God handle it. That is truly what it means to trust!
   7. To understand, consider God’s “answer” to Job. What was the answer? Let’s take a quick look:
      1. Job 38:1-11
      2. Job 40:1-2, 6-14
      3. Therefore, what is God’s answer? Job, you don’t know anything about what is going on and what and why I’m doing what I’m doing! As in the case of Job, trust means that if God does not grant me some earthly desire, that is perfectly okay! After all, this is not my life; he can do whatever he wants with it! We were “bought with a price…” Your greatest joy will come when you accept whatever comes your way that is beyond your control.
   8. Therefore notice that three times in the text the Preacher stated, “There is nothing better…” (2:24; 3:12; 3:22). These words should be a huge motivation for us to quit thinking that there is some possession, some pleasure, some experience that is eluding us and therefore keeping us from the ultimate joy. No person has or will find any greater enjoyment or anything better than what is found by one who devotes his life to pleasing God.
4. The Greatest Joy and Contentment Comes Knowing God
   1. When Paul in Philippians says, “Rejoice in the Lord, and again I say rejoice,” to what is he referring? Is he saying, “Christian, you should be happy?” Or, “don’t let bad things in life make you sad?” No! The idea is that our focus is to be what the Lord has done for us so that our rejoicing happens whether in trials or in good times.
   2. Paul follows with the command: “Be anxious for nothing…”
   3. Trust requires that we know God and pursue him:
      1. What keeps us from it? Cares, riches, and desires. He followed this statement with these words: “…the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.” Did you see that? What is being choked?
      2. Knowing all scripture is critical because it is the means of knowing God: 2 Timothy 3:14-17.
      3. Could you have a conversation about Isaiah? Chronicles? 2 Corinthians? Is knowing Isaiah or the other prophets as important as knowing Matthew or Acts? It certainly is, and more! Without the prophets, and especially Isaiah we cannot see and know God nor know the full message of the Gospels or Acts.
   4. We need to understand that true pursuit of God is time-consuming and requires us to put away pursuits that compete with God. the amount of time we spend on worldly pursuits usually far outweigh the efforts we put in to truly knowing “all scripture”, and thus the fulness of God.
   5. Even more dangerous is teaching our children that the primary goal of living is fun, recreation, and possessions, without which they will be discontent. Are our children regularly complaining that we haven’t given them the next level of fun? Are we teaching them where true joy is found by what we say and how we live?

Conclusion: If you had enough to eat & drink and a place to live, but didn’t have the money to do anything else, would you have enough time? (1 Tim. 6:6-8)

What is it that you are pursuing in life that is better?

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