I am going to give you a message kind of in in our series that
we've been doing and it's not, I don't know if it's a series, I
will. There's not really any specific
length or anything like that, but just the topic of the
family. But there this is this is
something that applies to everyone, not just those who
have kids, not just those who are have kids in the home or
grandkids or whatever this is. This is honestly something that
all of us can take tonight and use in our lives.
But I'm going to apply it particularly to those with
families because it's important for us to understand that we've
got to teach these things to our kids as well.
But obviously the the way that we teach it to our kids is by
modeling it ourselves. And obviously we've got a lot of
people in our church that that either don't have kids or your
kids are grown or you're, you know, that your family doesn't
live here and you are a testimony.
You're an example to the young people in our church.
And even even more than just the young people, you're example to
the younger people, right? There's, there's plenty of
people who are in that, that, that age where they've got
younger kids. And you're an example to help
with those things as well. I, I, I'm sure you've heard of
this before, but every year on the 4th of July, Nathan's Hot
Dogs has their, their famous hot dog eating contest.
Right. And if, if I were to ask you,
who is the guy that always wins the hot dog contest?
Yeah. Well, yeah, the guy that eats
the most. But there's a person, there is a
specific person that eats the most every time.
Joey Chestnut. Does that ring a bell?
All right, so Joey Chestnut has he's he holds the record.
It's 10 minutes. All right, this hot dog eating
contest last for 10 minutes. He set the record at Joey's hot
dog eating contest with 76 hot dogs.
And it's not just hot dogs, it's 76 hot dogs and buns.
You have to eat all of them in 10 minutes, 76 hot dogs.
Now he's that's the record that he said he actually won.
He won the event for the 17th time.
OK, He's, he's done it 20 * 20 years in a row.
He, he was not in it in 2024 because in 2024 there was
actually a sponsorship dispute. So he didn't, he didn't go into
the hot dog eating contest in 2024, but he's been, he's
entered 20 times, he's won 17 out of those 20 times.
He won. He won in 2025.
On July 4th, he ate 7070 hot dogs in 10 minutes.
His actual record, his record, apparently Netflix did some kind
of hot dog eating contest for some special and he ate 83 hot
dogs in 10 minutes. Could you imagine that?
I have no idea how you, how you do all that.
But they say that in the course of those of, of his years of
eating and just in that, that, and he's a he's what they call a
competitive eater. By the way, I looked it up
because I was interested. He makes 5 to $6 million doing
this a year because of, because of appearances and because, you
know, I mean, he's the, the world champion eater.
And, and by the way, he's not £500.
He's like my size, you know, he's not a big guy at all.
I have no idea where you put 80 hot dogs and you know, in 10
minutes and then get rid of it. But he does.
And anyway, in those, in just in those competitions that he's
been involved in the last 20 years, he's eaten 12112 hundred
hot dogs in what, 200 minutes, 1200 hot dogs.
That's that's unbelievable to me.
But anyway, I say all that to say that that hopefully you're
not, your children are not in danger of eating 73 hot dogs at
1 sitting and you know, in or even in one day, let alone 7 a
minute for 10 minutes straight. But they are most certainly in
danger, as we all are, of falling prey to the
materialistic values of a consumerist culture, right?
That's what the world is trying to tell us now.
You've got to have more. If you're going to get ahead,
you've got to go out there and make it happen.
We live in a consumerist culture.
Everything about it means I've got to have more, right?
Amazon came along and it changed everything.
I don't know what life is like without Amazon.
I mean, you know, it used to be that you would order something
through a catalog. You'd have to call them up.
And, you know, hey, I'm looking at order number, such and such,
and I'd like to place this order, OK?
It should be there in about 12 to 14 days.
And we're like, oh, yes, that's going to get here quick.
You know, now it's like if it's not overnight between 4:00 AM
and 8:00 AM, what's what's wrong with this?
You know what's wrong with this picture?
You know, I just, I ordered something and I didn't even, I
didn't even need it, but the only option was to get it
overnight between 4:00 AM and 8:00 AM.
And I was like, all right, click, I guess I'll get it at
4:00 AM. And sure enough, the ring goes
off at like 6:00 and there's the box sitting on my porch, you
know, and but that's, that's what we live in a world where
enough is never enough anymore. And a lot of people devote their
entire lives to acquiring wealth and possessions.
And like I talked about this morning that the problem with
all of that is that's going to go away, right?
You can acquire everything. You leave it behind when you go,
somebody else is going to be enjoying that beautiful house
that you built. Somebody else is going to have
all that money that you stashed away in that bank account for
all of those years. Somebody else is going to drive
that car or it's going to be sitting in the junkyard
somewhere, right? Enough is never enough.
When is enough enough? When have you when do you have
enough? That's that's the question for a
lot of people. But living with a focus on the
temporal doesn't begin when a person hits a a certain age,
right? You don't all the sudden switch
to a mindset of I've got to have more when you turn 23 years old
or 30 years old. You know, some kid sets his
sights at 20 years old on a career, on career success or 40
when you hit a midlife crisis and then all of a sudden you're
worried about money. No, it starts way, way, way, way
before that. It begins at a very young age
when a child believes in his heart that happiness and
identity are found in possessions.
When, when happiness and identity are found in things or
in the acceptance that comes by having those things, you know
that a lot of marketing is actually done to children.
A lot of your commercials on TV are actually marketed to kids
because the kids have such a powerful influence over the
parents in deciding what the parents buy.
So they're, they, you know, just children ages 2 to 5.
And now I hope this is different for you and your house.
But children ages 2 to 5 watch more than 32 hours of television
a week and they see more than 40,000 commercials a year.
40,000 commercials. Turns out the kids watch
commercials and television programs with attention to the
point that they they can't even, they don't even know exactly
what those commercials are about.
But they are starting to establish brand loyalties at a
very, very early age. By first grade, most children
can recognize 200 brand logos. They don't have to see.
They can't even read. I remember, I remember when
Jackson was like 3 years old and we're driving by and he said
there's McDonald's. And I was like, how does he know
that that's McDonald's? He can't even read, right?
But you see the big M and they know what it is, right?
It's just the logo. And by by first grade, they can
recognize 200 logos, which is why, OK, when I was growing up,
we got our shoes that payless. But you know what I always
wanted? I just wanted a shoe that had a
big swoosh on it. That's all I wanted, right?
Because those kids had Nikes and I was buying my shoes at
Payless. And they're probably the same
shoes. They're probably made in the
same factory. One of them goes one way and
gets a swoosh on it. The other one goes the other way
and gets nothing on it. And that's what I got was the
nothings, right? There was no difference, right?
And as I got older and I finally was what, you know, had enough
money to buy my own pair of Nikes and I wore them and they
broke down faster than the Payless shoes did, or maybe not
quite as fast. But you understand, I, I, I
thought this was pretty funny because I saw this, they did a
social experiment and in Hollywood or somewhere like
that, they took Payless shoes and they, and they took all of
them and put them in this really fancy store and, and set them up
on the shelf with a light shining on it, mirrors all the
way around it. And they brought all these
elites, all these Hollywood elites in there.
And they were like, Hey, we're starting a new brand.
We just want you to try these shoes on, wear them and let let
us know what you think about them from Payless.
And they're putting these things on and they're asking, what do
you think about this? Oh, I mean, this feels like, I
mean, this feels like a $600.00 pair of shoes.
These are, these are so nice. You like them?
Yeah, these are great, man. How much are these?
Well, these are on sale for $400.00.
Oh, I'd pay $400.00 for those things in a heartbeat.
Wow, this is really nice. And at the end, they revealed it
to them and they were like, what?
Those are from Payless. You know, it's because it's, it
doesn't have anything to do with the quality.
It has everything to do with the consumerist mindset.
If I think that I am buying something that's going to give
me status, then I want it, right?
And we've been trained because of commercials and because of
everything else, that that consumerist mindset is what I
have to have. I'm not successful unless I have
a huge house. I'm not successful unless I
drive. What kind of car?
Cadillac, Mercedes, you know, Lamborghini, if you drive a
Lamborghini, well, man, you've hit the top of the line, right?
I mean, that's, that's what they, that's what they make you
think. I was just telling my boys the
other day, I wouldn't even want a Lamborghini, right?
Because you can't drive it fast. It's, it's from everything I've
read, one of the most uncomfortable cars in the world,
right? Because it's, it's made to go
fast and you can't even use it, right.
And not only that, but how many times are you tempted to just go
flying down the road and get a ticket because you're driving
faster than you should with a Lamborghini, right?
Doesn't it's a status symbol and that's it.
But that's what we're training our young people to do, right?
11 research. They did it, done a ton of
research on this. But one of them said kids
represent an important demographic to marketers because
in addition to their own purchasing power, they influence
their parents buying decisions and are the adult consumers of
the future. So according to this marketing
report, kids have a very heavy influence on their parents
spending choices in these areas. And I've got some, I've got some
statistics that I'm going to give you in a second, but that's
exactly that. They are, they are, they are
marketing to your kids. Because if they get a kid early
on to make them feel like at 3rd grade you got to go to Starbucks
every morning and get a coffee, guess what they're going to be
doing for the rest of their life.
If it's not Starbucks, I don't want it, right?
Early age Nike, if it's not Nike, I don't want it.
If it's not fill in the blank, I don't want it.
So not only are they marketing it the kids because the kids are
like, no, I don't want that store brand.
I want this one. And the parents are like, OK,
fine, whatever. You know, that's that's what
that's what they're, you know, training kids to do, but then
also their customers for life because they recognize that
brand and that's what they want, right?
So when it comes to breakfast choices, they say that 97% of
the time the kids are the ones who decide or or or convince
their parents what to get for breakfast. 95% of the time for
lunch choices where where to go for casual family meals. 98% of
the time the kids are the ones that influence that.
My poor kids are in the 2%. But anyway 34% of the kids
always having a say on the choice of casual restaurant
clothing purchases. 95% of the time the kids have the have the
at the very least the influence on the parents.
Software purchases 76% of the time.
Computer purchases 60% of the time family entertainment
choices 98% family trips and excursions 94% of the time.
I tell you this, a home should not be kid driven, right?
It's it's not, it's not the kids responsibility to decide what is
going to happen in the house. But the problem is we've allowed
our kids to become so consumerist focused that that
that's why those numbers are so high, right?
My kids like, hey, I want, you know, Captain Crunch.
I'm like, whatever the store brand of Captain Crunch is,
that's what you can have, you know, comes in a big dog food
bag at Walmart. You ever seen those?
That's what they get. And we're looking at like, all
right, how much is that is the cents per oz?
All right, this one's 15.1 cents per oz.
You can have that one. I don't know what it is, but you
can have it, right? And that's what you get because
it's, you know, it's about, about, I don't care about brands
and everything else, but that's why that's what marketing is all
about, right? You ever go into a store, you
know the, that, that retail or, or certain brands buy shelf
space, right? Because what are you looking at?
First you walk up there and you're like, OK, here's all the,
you know, cereal, whatever is that eye level is usually what
you're going to buy first. So, so those those companies
will pay for that shelf space because they know that most
people are just going to see it, recognize it and grab it, right.
You want the great value, you got to go dig down in the bottom
and crawl behind everything and grab it and get that if that's
what you want. But that's what it is.
And it's because we live in a consumerist culture, right from
our children's early ages. We are teaching them when we
are, when we go along with that thinking, we're teaching them
that happiness comes from things and that identity is found in
brand names, current fads, whatever it happens to be.
And so I guess the question for us tonight is how can we
cultivate an attitude of contentment in our children's
hearts, right? Instead of, instead of, instead
of cultivating this mindset of I've got to have, I've got to
have, I've got to have, how can we cultivate this attitude of
contentment? How can we break the, the
materialistic influence that's grabbing for their attention and
teach them the joy of having enough?
And I'll tell you exactly what I said at the very beginning.
For starters, we have to model that ourselves.
We have to model that ourselves. I know as you get older and as
you have a little bit more money available to you, you want to
buy things that are a little bit nicer brands.
I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with that there.
There is a difference sometimes in the brand choice, right?
There are brands that are more expensive because they are
better quality, not just because they have a name on it.
Many times you are paying for the name, right?
But there are times when my wife will bring something home from
the grocery store and I'll eat it and I'll say what?
That's got to be a store brand. What is that?
She said, yeah, it's a store brand.
I said don't buy the store brand anymore.
Does not taste the same, right? There's a difference sometimes
between those things. But but the whole point is it's
not. It's not just marketers that
teach us that consumerist discontent.
It's the natural tendency of our hearts.
And it's exactly what we find in First Timothy chapter 6 and
verse #6 But godliness with contentment is great gain.
For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can
carry nothing out. And having food and raiment, let
us be there with content. Boy, that's it.
That's a big statement right there, isn't it?
Verse 8, having food and raiment, let us be there with
content. You have food and you got
clothes, that's enough. What are you saying?
But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and
into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in
destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the
root of all evil, which while some coveted after they have
erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many
sorrows. So if we as parents are going to
teach our children contentment, we have to have a firm grasp on
that idea of contentment ourselves.
And that's why I say, yes, this is for parents who have kids,
but this is for all of us. Contentment is something that
all of us need to work on. A lot of Christian adults have
bought into this subtle and sometimes not so subtle myths
concerning money and possessions.
And I think sometimes it's subconscious, but we actually
then go on and perpetuate these false philosophies to the next
generation. I want to give you 3 myths
before we jump into our message tonight.
And I'm, we're not going to finish this.
I'm going to, I'm going to do it over the, over a couple weeks
here. But, but here's a few myths and
I want you to turn to a couple of passages.
Go to Job chapter 34. Here's myth #1 prosperity is a
divine right. Prosperity is a divine right.
And not only is this being perpetuated by media, right?
Where you watch commercials on TV and they're telling you, you
have to buy this. And if you don't, what's wrong
with you, right? This is this is the, the
prosperity gospel that's being promoted by all kinds of
churches. God wants you to be wealthy.
And if you're a living right, if you're doing what God wants you
to do, then you'll have all the money in the world right now.
Most of it is plant this little seed of money in my pocket and
God will grow you a great wealthy fortune.
And it never happens except for the person who is getting all
the seeds, right? That's who I want to be.
I want to be the one getting all the seeds.
But call it the American dream, call it the, the, the health and
wealth gospel, getting what I deserve.
Whatever you call it, it's a lie.
Prosperity is not a divine right.
It's a divine gift. There were godly men in the
Bible who were wealthy. You think about Abraham, think
about Job, you think about David, you think about Solomon.
But they were also godly men who were poor.
I think the, the probably the prime example is Jesus, right?
He, the son of man hath not where to lay his head.
He didn't even have a house. He didn't have anything right.
You, you think about Paul, Paul was a tent maker and he had to
he had to work to make ends meet as he traveled on his missionary
journeys. Obviously they depended on other
people for their basic sustenance, but they were they
were godly. I mean, there's nobody more
godly than Jesus, right? Paul is one of the greatest
missionaries that ever lived. Neither one of them were wealthy
and there's others in the Bible that we can point to that they,
they didn't have a lot of money. So wealth that's gained by
wisdom and diligence and, and, and God's favor is a blessing to
enjoy, But it's there to invest in eternal things, right?
It's, it's not so we can hoard it all to ourselves and say,
look at everything I have. It's there so we can say God
gave this to me so I can give it back out and I can use it for
things that are going to last for eternity.
Now, I'm not saying, because the Bible does say that, that, you
know, we ought to be leaving something to the next
generation. We ought to leave something to
our family, right? So it's, it's certainly not
wrong to have money. It's certainly not even wrong to
have generational wealth, but it's a matter of what are you
doing with that wealth? The myth is that that prosperity
is a divine right and it's not, it's not owed to us by God.
God doesn't owe us money because we're living for him, because
we're serving him, right? There's millions of Christians
around the world living godly lives who are barely making it
by, especially in some of these third world countries, right?
They have nothing. They don't even know where
they're literally OK. They say this in America.
Oh, there's so many people that don't even know where their next
meal is going to come from. And that may be true, but that's
that that is not because that's because of a lot of other very,
very poor choices, right? In America, you have no excuse
to not know where your next meal is going to come from.
But literally around the world, there are many, there are
billions of people who don't know where their next meal is
going to come from. And many times they have to skip
it because there is no food for them to eat, right?
We have to be careful not to assume that wealth is a sign of
God's pleasure or that lean times are a sign of God's
displeasure, right? We can have both.
Doesn't mean that God, God is looking down on the person that
doesn't have wealth or he's looking looking up to or you
know the person that does you know that the truth is that God
doesn't view the rich any differently than he views the
poor. He's no respecter of persons.
Job chapter 34 and verse 19. How much less to him that
accepteth not the persons of Princess, no regardeth the rich
more than the poor, for they all are the work of his hands.
Acts chapter 10 and verse 34, Peter opened his mouth and said
of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons.
He promises to provide for our needs, not necessarily our
wants. We honor him, we put Him first,
He'll take care of our needs, and that's what he says in
Philippians chapter 4 and verse 19.
But my God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in
Christ Jesus, right? In America, we've been trained
to have a lot of wants. Most of them are not needs,
their wants. They're things that I have to
have. Matthew 633 But seek ye first
the Kingdom of God in his righteousness.
And all these things shall be added unto you.
That's not wealth. What's the all these things?
Food raiment. Therewith you can be be content,
right? You seek him first.
He'll make sure you're taken care of.
He doesn't promise that he's going to make you wealthy.
That's a myth. Prosperity is a divine, right?
No, it's a divine gift #2 myth. It's my money.
Turn over to James chapter 1. You worked hard for it, so it's
yours, right? Actually wrong.
We are stewards. We are managers of our own
money, not owners. Everything that we have comes
from the hand of God, right? And God could take that away
from you in a heartbeat, right? Oh, you got a billion dollars in
the bank? Go get sick with cancer.
See how fast that money goes away.
All right, Have a business deal go the wrong direction and see
how fast that money goes away. God can take it away in a
heartbeat because it's not yours.
He's lending it to you to be a steward of what He has given you
for the time that you have it. Everything that we have comes
from the hand of God. Verse James chapter 1 and verse
#17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and
cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no
variableness either. Shadow of turning.
It's God who gave us the ability and the opportunity to work and
earn that money in the 1st place.
It's it's God that calls us to steward our resources for Him.
It's not yours. It's not my money.
It's money that He's let me borrow for the time being.
And I think the way that we handle it in the way that we use
it for His service is how He determines whether or not He's
going to keep giving it to us or not.
Here's the third myth that a lot of people have.
And back in First Timothy chapter 6, if you'll turn over
there, money is evil. Money is evil.
That's a myth, right? It's a tricky one because it's
close to the truth. Possessing money is not a sin.
What is a sin is being possessed by that money, right?
First Timothy chapter 6 and verse #10 says for the love of
money is the root of all evil, right?
Oh, you've heard people say that all the time.
Well, you know that money is the root of all evil.
And that's not what the Bible says.
The love of money is the root of all evil.
They say that because they want to get at the rich.
Money is the root of all evil. And, and, and, and it, and it's,
I mean there's, there's a lot of truth to that when it comes to
some of those things, especially, I mean, especially
now you look at everything that's coming out in the Epstein
files and all of those kind of things that money is money
corrupts, right? Money really corrupts, and the
people who have a lot of it have used it in a lot of wrong ways
for a lot of wrong things. But money is not evil.
We can use money for the glory of God.
We can use money to accomplish a lot of things that God wants us
to accomplish, right? It's not money that's the root
of all evil. It's the love of money.
And that could go from the person who has the most money in
the entire world to the person who has the least money in the
entire world, right? The love of money can be from
can somebody who's poor can love money.
You don't have a lot of it, but you love it and everything in
your life is about how can I get more?
Same way that people who are rich can have a love of money
and everything in their life is about how can I get more, right?
It's the love of money that's the root of all evil.
So learning contentment isn't about hating money.
It's about learning what matters most.
It's about putting those things in the right place and having
the right priority. So how do we teach that to our
children? How do we help them to have a
proper perspective on money and a material things?
I want to, I want to give you probably just two points tonight
and I'll probably give you 2 points next week.
Well, next week we have our young men's service.
But after that, I want to look at some of God's instructions to
parents for teaching our children to be content.
And as I said before, a lot of it hinges on us making sure that
we are content so we can model those things to our children if
we want to be, if we want our children to be content with what
they have. I think there's there's some
scriptural practices that we have to follow in our homes.
Let's pray and then we'll jump into this.
Father, again, we thank you for an opportunity tonight to go
through some of these things. I pray that it will be a help to
not only our families, but to us as individuals and to our
church. God, I pray that you bless our
time together in Jesus name, Amen.
Number one, I want you to see this, and I've already kind of
alluded to this, but model contentment in the home.
How do we teach our children? How do we cultivate contentment
in a consumerist culture? Number one, we have to model
that contentment in the home. Well, what is contentment?
Contentment is having enough, right?
That's that's what contentment is having enough.
It's the opposite of covetousness, always calling for
more. I've got to have more.
Just just one more dollar, just one more thing, just a little
bit bigger house, just a little bit nicer car, just just a
little bit higher up that rung, just a little bit higher up that
ladder of success. And then I'll be OK.
But contentment is where we recognize that what I have is
enough, right? First Timothy chapter 6 and
verse 6. But godliness with contentment
is great gain. That's what everybody wants.
I want to gain. I want things.
Godliness with contentment is great gain.
Charles Spurgeon wrote this. You say if I had a little more I
should be very satisfied. But you make a mistake.
If you're not content with what you have, you would not be
satisfied if it were doubled. And that's exactly the truth.
How many people have fit into that exact category?
Millionaires, billionaires. How much is enough?
One is enough. Enough.
Just one more dollar, just one more deal and I'm done.
All right? I just got to have a little bit
more. And could you imagine what I
don't want to get off track, but you think about how much money a
billion dollars is. A billion dollars is $999
million plus another millionaire on top of it.
That's a lot of money. And yet these billionaires I've
got to have, you know, I got to be the first trillionaire in the
world, you know, I mean, and, and it's just, it's just not
enough. It's not enough.
I got to have more. That's amazing to me.
But Charles Spurgeon has a good point.
How many people do you know who have more money than they need,
but they never feel like they have enough.
And I'll be honest with you, you go around to the different we,
we knock doors in the in the neighborhoods around here and
some of these houses are massive.
And you know how many people we get home?
Almost none because they don't even live there because they're
out there working to pay for the house that they don't even live
in, right? And they're, they're sitting in
the office because they, you know, they're not, they're not
in the fancy car that they're driving because they're sitting
in the office trying to pay for the car that they're driving to
get to the house that they don't live in, that they, that they're
trying to pay for, right? And, and you knock on their
doors and you try to give them the gospel and they're not home.
They leave at 6:00 in the morning.
They get home at 8:00 at night because they're making that
money. Got to have it.
And they get one day a week just to to spend their money and to
enjoy it, right? And they have nice things, but
you can't even enjoy it, let alone to have your family,
right? Most of these people put their
kids in a daycare for 60 hours a week.
They're not. They don't even know who their
kids are. Kids don't even know who their
parents are. That's not teaching contentment
to our kids. And I'm not saying that we have
that in here. I know that nobody, nobody keeps
their kids in daycare for 60 hours a week here, right?
But but that's the that's the danger that if we pass that off
to somebody else and let them raise our kids because we're
trying to make money, it's going to be hollow.
It's going to be empty. And you're going to wish that
you hadn't done that right. You are what you're cultivating
in the home. You you are raising your
teenage. Your teenagers are almost
completely raised by the time they're five years old.
Let that sink in. Your teenagers are who they are
going to be by the time they're 3456 years old.
Who they are when they're little and what you teach them when
they're little is what's ingrained in them for most of
the rest of their life. All right.
And not that God can't get a hold of their heart and not that
you know, they can't go to a youth conference and God can get
a hold of them. God got a hold of my heart when
I was in when I was a teenager. But barring that, your kids are
who they're going to be by the time they're 567 years old.
It is so important. It is so important that you be
involved in their life when they're young.
Don't give that to a daycare person who does not care about
your kids. Don't give it to a babysitter
who doesn't have the same desires for your kids that you
have for your kids, right. You give that to somebody else,
they are going to turn. They are going to be raising
your teenagers. What you, what you want them to
be when they're teenagers is who you train them to be by the time
they're young. And that's what I'm saying, it's
so important. You know, most parents, even if
even if they're home with them, what do they stick them front of
ATV, Let the kid, let the let the TV be the babysitter, shove
an iPad in their face and let them just play games all day
long and watch all those commercials that come across in
the games and all the advertisements and all of those
things. That is what's raising your
children and that is what is training your kids to be a
teenager because that's who they're going to be.
It's very hard to turn. You get a big ship moving in One
Direction. It's very hard to turn it.
And that's exactly what's happening.
You are training your young people from the time that
they're very, very little to who they're going to be when they're
teenagers. And that's not exactly what my
point is tonight. But my point is that if we're
trained, if we're going to train our kids to be content, it
starts when they're little kids, it starts when they're little.
And it's going to it's, it's going to continue on.
But what does enough look like in plain terms?
It's, it's many times it's living below your means, right?
What, what caused that huge bubble to break in 2008 when all
these people lost their houses and their house went into
foreclosure and everything else? How did that happen?
Because they were living way above their means.
They were living on that edge of disaster and the bubble popped
and they lost everything, right? And, and, and people who had
really good jobs lost their house, went into foreclosure
because they were living way above their means.
Everything was on credit, all of those other things.
But spending less than you bring in too many parents are modeling
discontentment. In fact, turn over to Proverbs
chapter 22. I think too many parents and,
and, and the and The thing is, maybe not all of your kids know
everything about your finances and everything else.
Not like I sit down and talk to my kids about my financial
situation and ask them what I should do about it, right?
They don't know, you know what, what credit cards we have and
what our bank accounts look like and everything else.
But they hear the discussions and they know the things that
are going on in your family. And too many parents are
modeling discontentment for their children by accumulating
debt over non necessities and then having to take on extra
hours at work to to, you know, or extra jobs to pay for their
undisciplined spending. And in our culture of plenty, we
live by the assumption that if we want it, we should have it.
By the way, by the way, that's a mistake that a lot of young
people make too. They they get out of high
school, they get out of college, they get married, and they think
they should have everything that their parents had when they were
growing up. It took your parents 30 years to
get that. OK, you're not going to drive a
fancy car. OK, you, you should drive a
beater around for a while and learn what it's like, right?
It'll teach you how to fix a car.
I can tell you that much, right? Drive a beater, right?
Live in a tiny little cracker box of a house.
Everybody expects that the day they graduate, they should be
able to go buy a $500,000 house. And both the husband and the
wife have a, a fancy car that they're driving and, and it, you
know, if it's not brand new, it should only be a year or two
old, right? It took your parents years to
get that. The problem is parents are
teaching their kids that it's OK to have that mindset, right?
Jackson just got his license a couple weeks ago.
You know what he's driving? Well, he's not even driving it
yet because it doesn't run. We're trying to get it running.
A 2007 Toyota 4 Runner with 325,000 miles on it.
Guess what he's going to learn how to do?
He ain't going to be squealing the tires in that thing.
I can promise you that because #1 the tires probably aren't
even going to squeal. But #2 if he does, he's not
going to have a car to drive, right?
It teaches you how to learn those things.
It, it, it forces you to be content.
He can go buy a car if he wants to, but he doesn't have the
money to buy a car. So he's going to drive what's
there, right? And, and, and honestly, I don't
even think it's a wise thing for parents to allow your kids to go
buy a Mustang, even if they're working and they have the money
to buy it, right? Save it and use it for something
else. Learn how to get by on living
below your means, right. Well, this, this kid is working
a job and he saved up his money over the summer.
And so he wants to spend every last dime that he has on a brand
new Mustang. It's his money.
Let him go spend it. No, man, I, I was riding with
the police officer just three or four months ago and we pulled
this kid over. He was 17 years old and he had
15 points on his driving record. He was driving a, a Mustang,
driving a Mustang and he was going 60 miles an hour in a 35
when we pulled him over with 15 points on his driving record.
Do you think he'd be doing that if he was driving a little
beater that barely got to 35 miles an hour, let alone be able
to go 60 in a Mustang? Right.
And, and, and it turned out that his, his dad was on the title
with him and everything else. So it's the worst thing you
could do for your kid. Doesn't matter if you have
money, let him start at the bottom.
Some of the some of the guys who were the most successful have
taught that lesson to their kids by making them start at the
bottom and work their way up, right.
Some of the worst things that could happen is I'm the CEO or
I'm the president or I'm the owner of this big company.
And so your kid graduates from college and now he's the vice
president and he's going to be the president next day.
Soon as I decide to retire, he's going to be the president of
this company. No, he should start off as a day
laborer and work his way up and prove that he can do it.
And all I'm saying is that's that's the mindset that we
should be teaching to our children, right?
It doesn't matter if you can afford it.
Live below your means. Show them what contentment is,
right? It doesn't mean that you can't
enjoy things. But all I'm saying is in this,
in this culture of of plenty, we shouldn't just have this mindset
that I want it, so I should be able to have it right?
Sometimes it's good for us not to have.
And that's that's especially true if it's going to put us
into debt. This guy was a journalist, Earl
Wilson. He lived from 19 O 7 to 1987.
He died a long time ago. He said this nowadays people can
be divided into three classes. And that was nowadays a long
time ago, the haves, the have nots and the have not paid for
what they haves. And he said in his article, it's
better to be in the second group than the third, right?
It's better to be in the have nots than to be in the have not
paid for what you have, right? Proverbs 22 seven, the Bible
says this, the rich ruleth over the poor and the borrower is
servant to the lender. One of the most important
lessons that a kid can learn and one of the most important things
that a parent can teach to their children when it comes to this
idea is to learn to differentiate between needs,
wants and desires, right? There are, there are some things
as a parent, you should provide for your children's needs,
right? Well, son, you're in 7th grade
now. So if you want a place to live,
you're going to have to pay me $500 a month for that bedroom,
right? And if you can't afford it, I
guess you can go find a place in the woods to stay, right?
No, you should provide a place for them to, to, to, to sleep.
You should provide food and, and, and the basic necessities
when it comes to clothes and those kind of things, OK.
But when it comes to wants and desires, there are times when
that restraint is good for us, right?
OK, I'll, I'll buy you a pair of basketball shoes from Payless.
But if you want a pair of of shoes that says Nike on it, I'm
not paying $150.00 for those shoes.
You go buy it if you want it, right?
I remember growing up with those same thing.
I had a pair of shoes. Kmart doesn't even exist
anymore. Actually it does, it's in
Australia. We saw Kmart in Australia, same
logo and everything, but here in the US it doesn't exist anymore.
When I was in 7th grade, when I got into 7th grade, my dad said,
I'll give you a place to sleep and I'll put food on the table.
You want anything else, you're paying for it.
And then he paid me $2.00 an hour to go work for him.
There's a lot of, you know what I learned how to do?
I shopped at Goodwill. I took care of my stuff.
I didn't, I didn't leave it laying all over the place.
I, you know, no, no longer did I run around and slide on my knees
and put holes in my pants. Of course, now you could sell it
for a lot more if you did that, but that wasn't cool.
Back then you had holes in your jeans.
There was something wrong with you.
Now it wasn't cool. You know, it'll RIP them up on
purpose and sell them for twice as much.
But I went to Kmart when I got into 7th grade.
I went to Kmart because I needed a pair of shoes for basketball.
Actually, this was ninth grade. We wrestled all the way up until
9th grade, and then our school switched from wrestling to
basketball and so we'd I'd never bought a pair of basketball
shoes before. I went to Kmart and I found a
pair of Warner Brothers basketball shoes.
Never even heard of it before, and I've never seen them since.
But they were on clearance at Kmart for $16 and I took such
good care of those things that, you know, by the time I was in
9th grade at my feet had grown to kind of the size that they
were going to be. I think I grew a little bit
after that. But I kept those things from 9th
grade all the way until the end of my 11th grade basketball
season. I had to buy a new pair when I
got it into my senior year. I didn't wear them outside.
I didn't wear them anywhere except on the basketball court.
I took care of those things like they were a baby because I spent
$16.00 on those basketball shoes and I was not going to spend
more money on that than I needed to.
It taught me responsibility because I was paying for it,
right? I had to pay for those things.
Now it's not just oh, well that broke, buy me another one,
right? Most parents are like, oh, OK,
well here here's some money, go buy another one, right?
No, we'll, we'll provide for your needs, but your wants, you
go pay for it, your desires, save up the money and go buy it,
right. Teach your kids and we'll talk
about this later. Teach them how to have a budget,
right? You want to, you want to buy
something, save up for it, put it in that envelope and and
keep, keep saving up until you can actually afford to buy it.
And, and here's what happens. They see something in a magazine
or what not magazine, I don't know, wherever you see it.
Oh, I really want that. All right, save up your money
and go buy it. Guess what happens?
They start saving up their money and eventually they're like,
that's a lot of money. I don't think I need that
anymore, right? That's what happens.
You teach them that responsibility and it's teaching
them that contentment at the same time.
Turn over to Hebrews chapter 13. So you'll many you'll often be
able to provide for your beyond your children's needs.
But there should be a time when you just say no, as well as
times you allow them to earn and save and understand the value of
what they have, right? I I'm not.
I mean I'm not. Dirt poor where I have nothing
in a bank account, I could probably afford to buy my kids a
pair of basketball shoes once every other year, right?
But it's the it's the importance of teaching them the value of
it's not a need, it's a one, right?
You got to have Under Armour basketball shoes then guess
what? Go find them on sale at the
outlet, right? Alex just learned that lesson
the other day. We were at the outlets and we
found the they had the basketball shoes.
We were, we were down in well, oh, and it was up in Lancaster
when we went up there for the marriage conference.
And so Saturday afternoon after everything was finished, we
decided to swing by the outlets and just see we were looking for
a couple different things. And we went into, we went into
the Under Armour store and they had their basketball shoes on
clearance for 30 bucks. So my wife called Alex.
Alex, I know you got a pair of shoes for basketball season
right now, but do you want to spend money to buy a pair of
shoes right now that you can have for next year if we buy the
bigger size and you're only spending 30 bucks, He said buy
them, I'll get them $30.00, right?
I mean, it's, it's teaching them the value of those things.
And when you have to pay for your needs, I mean, sorry, your
wants, then you're they're going to be they're going to be a lot
more pay a lot more careful attention to those things.
And so as you as a parent live below your means, you're going
to model to your children the the essence of contentment.
And you need to teach them that you don't need more stuff to be
happy. You only need what God provides.
All right, even more accurately, you only need God himself.
Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 5. Let your conversation be without
covetousness. What does conversation mean?
Your lifestyle. Let your lifestyle be without
covetousness and be content with such things as you have.
For he has said I will never leave you.
I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.
You have God. That's enough, right?
We talked about that a couple weeks ago and the message that I
preached stay at the top of the righteous list.
I've never seen the righteous forsaken nor seed begging bread
and say I've never seen the righteous forsaken, nor not in a
name brand pair of basketball shoes, right?
It says your needs are going to be taken care of.
And I'm here to provide those those for you because I'm your
father. But how do we teach that
contentment? How do we model contentment in
the home? Well, first of all, by living
below your means, but secondly, by providing for basic
necessities. And we kind of touched on this
already, but First Timothy chapter 6, the Bible says this
in verse #7 For we brought nothing into this world, and it
is certain we can carry nothing out.
And having food and raiment, let us be there with content.
Turn over to Proverbs 23. What exactly do we need to be
content according to this verse? We already kind of highlighted
it a little bit. But the point here is not so
much that we need only food and clothing as much as it is
contrasting contentment with covetousness.
Right. The goal of life and work is not
to just amass things, but to be able to meet our family's needs
and then to give to others. Proverbs chapter 23 and verse #4
Labor not to be rich. Cease from thine own wisdom.
Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not?
For riches certainly make themselves wings.
They fly away as an eagle toward heaven.
One of the ways that you can help cultivate contentment in
the heart of your children is by assuring them that you're going
to provide for their basic necessities.
First Timothy 5 and verse #8 But if any provide not for his for
his own and especially for those of his own house hath denied the
faith and is worse than an infidel.
Well, unfortunately, children, we're we're learning
contentment. So I'm just quitting my job and
we're not going to have anything right.
That's not what he's saying. Which means then you can work,
you can, you can make money, you can provide for your house.
And not only that you can, but you should.
Your job as a parent, especially as a father, is to provide for
your children's basic needs, right?
First Timothy 5 says that very plainly.
What are those basic needs? Well, let's turn over to
Proverbs 31. Shelter, obviously, that's one
of them. Your children need a roof over
their heads, right? A place to sleep.
It doesn't have to be a palace, but it should be a place to call
home. We didn't, we didn't, we didn't
grow up in a mansion. In fact, you know, the older you
get, you go back there and you see it again and you're like,
wow, that was that's way smaller than I remember it, right.
It's the way it always goes, it seems like.
But shelter, food. Consider what Proverbs 31 says
about the virtuous woman, verse 16.
She considereth a field and buyeth it with the fruit of her
hands. She planted the vineyard.
So you should provide for them shelter, food, clothing, OK,
having, having name brand clothing is not a a need, right?
But having clothing is you should provide for your kids
when it comes to wearing clothes.
Obviously education, your child's education is a necessity
in the day that we live in. You know, think beyond high
school and doing what you can to help them through college.
But at the same time, look, my, my parents didn't spend a dime
for my college. I had to work my way through.
And you know what, by the time I graduated, the the day that I
graduated, I paid the final amount that I owed on my bill.
And I tell you one thing, I didn't, I didn't Slough off
through college. I did not care what grades I
got. I was paying for it.
I certainly wasn't going to pay for a second time through that
class, right? But I was in college with people
whose parents were paying for it and they didn't care.
They never studied. They laid around and slept all
day and did nothing and then failed the class.
And they're like, oh, well, I failed again.
Well, my parents will pay for it, right?
It's, you know, there ought to be some incentives and things
like that's not the point tonight.
But but I think the other thing that that would kind of be a
basic need for our children is recreation.
You can have family time very inexpensively, right?
Use the use the opportunities for Christmas and birthdays and
things like that to buy them things that they can use for
recreation. And my kids got a pickleball set
for Christmas and we went down to Florida with my parents over,
over the Christmas, after Christmas.
And we played pickleball a lot, right.
I think the other thing is too, your kids don't need more stuff.
I did this with my kids and I, they're, they're getting picked
on tonight a lot. But I asked them, what did you,
what did you get for Christmas last year?
And they couldn't remember. I said, what did we do for
Christmas last year? What was the gift that we bought
you to do for Christmas? And they remembered everything,
all about it last, I don't know, 3-4, five years.
Instead of buying them stuff, we've been buying them.
A trip or an experience doesn't have to be that expensive.
Hey, last year we went and stayed at the Drury Hotel and
went to the trampoline park. But they loved it and they
remembered everything about it, right?
The Drury Plaza right here has a pool that's inside and outside,
and they have free popcorn 24 hours a day and free soda 24
hours a day. They would rather have that than
a $500 something, you know, because you can, you can eat all
the popcorn you want. You can drink all the, the, the
Mountain Dew you want anytime you want it, right?
This one actually has dinner too, which is even a, a bigger
bonus, right? We went down and ate dinner
twice that night because they had hot dogs and everything
else. And they went back down and got
nachos and cheese and everything else later, right?
It doesn't have to be anything crazy expensive, but it's, it's
the things that are making memories and it's, it's, it's,
you know, especially when your children are young, especially
if you're enthusiastic about what you're doing.
But it's a great idea to plan a family budget that has some
extra savings in it to be able to do things with your family.
Right? Doesn't cost, it doesn't cost
anything to go out and hike in the woods.
Right? Doesn't, doesn't cost anything
to, to, to go out and and play tennis or go play a pickleball
chord, other than the cost of some of the materials.
And if you had to, you can probably borrow it from
somebody, right? Investing in recreation as a
family tells your children that family time is more important
than anything else, right? And, and so many people think
that family time is sitting around the TV watching a movie
or something like that. That's, I mean, yes, you're,
you're, you're together, but that's, that's really not family
time, right? Go spend some time outside, get
them away from all the consumerist mindset and all the
all the things that are trying to tell your kids not to be
content with what they have and just go out and do do some
things together as a family. When it comes to providing for
your family's needs. You have to remember that your
children want you more than they want stuff.
And they may not think of it that way right now.
I mean, my parents are going to be there no matter what.
Give me give me the thing that I want, right?
I've got a whole list of all the things that I want.
I'd rather have that. And you're going to be here
anyway, right? But you look back and, and, and
the thing, I'll be honest with you, I remember some of the
gifts that my parents gave us growing up.
We got a lot of books. We got a lot of things, you
know, that were kind of necessities.
They gave those things to us for gifts for Christmas and
everything else. But you know what I remember the
most when I was growing up and it and it, and it almost makes
me a little bit emotional thinking about it because it,
it's, it's one of those things. My dad owned his own business
and he was so nice that he didn't charge anybody anything
for it. So he didn't, he, he wasn't
wealthy, but we had a soccer game, had soccer games and, and
some of the things that have burned into my mind the most is
seeing my dad walking up the track.
The game's getting ready to start.
I don't see my dad in the in the crowd, but there he comes.
The game starts at 3:00. There he is at 3:00, walking
over there and standing along the sideline watching the game,
being there for the basketball games, being there at the
wrestling tournaments, right? We go way in early in the
morning and my dad can't be there because he's got to go to
work and everything else. And I'm not expecting to be, He
comes walking in the door, right that I remember that he was
there for almost all of the, the sports events that we had.
And, and that has burned into my mind far more than any of the
things that they ever gave us. I, I couldn't, I mean, I could
probably, if I sat here and thought about, I could tell you
a few of the gifts that I got over all of those years.
But I remember it like it was yesterday, seeing him walk into
that gym, seeing him walk up up to the soccer field to watch us
play the games. And man, we used to do stuff
growing up. I mean the run across game, I'm
just my brother. Remember we had a, we had a Tri
level house and we, we had a, we had an upstairs that went into a
downstairs living room kitchen and then it went down into the
basement. And so the, there was two
stories, but one of them was half buried because it was the
basement, right? We, we played this game
non-stop. It was a little soft that like
stuffed soccer ball and at the top of the steps you had to run
across and if and if he threw the ball and you got hit, you
were out. And we played that game for
hours. We used to love it.
I mean, we had we had foosball and we played foosball every
night for I don't know how many years.
My mom's like, all right, everybody get up.
It's time to clear the table. My dad was like foosball.
We're like, yes, we went over there and played.
So he was done playing. And then we had to clean
everything up. We had a dartboard that was on
the back of the door that led out to the garage.
It was a wooden door and there was a giant hole with nothing in
it. And then all the way around it,
holes on that dart board, right? I'm sure it drove my mom crazy,
but but we, we played darts just standing there next to the
kitchen table throwing darts after dinner.
I mean, those are the things we wrestled in the living room.
My dad would get down on the floor with us and wrestle.
I mean, all kinds of those things.
We had, we had a football game that we played outside.
Of course there was, there was enough for three football teams
in our family. So it was, it was a lot of fun,
but we played the interception game.
It was somebody's turn to catch the ball and my dad would throw
it and you had to get 10 first one to get ten wins, but you had
to try to intercept it. If you intercepted, it was your
turn. I think it was a game that he
made-up, but we loved it and we still do it.
We do it. We play it now.
I mean all of those things are things that that I remember
because we most of those things didn't cost anything, right?
I mean, how much is a dart board?
It wasn't very much, right. How much does it cost for a
foosball table? We got it.
We got it used somewhere. How much does it cost for a
little nerf ball that you're throwing up against the wall?
But those are the things that that that I remember and those
are the things that mattered, right?
And, and, and honestly, I would say that those things are
necessities, right? Your kids need those things far
more than they need you to go buy them a brand new car and let
them squeal the tires and get tickets, all right?
They need those things. They need food, they need
clothing, they need shelter, but they need you to be there for
them. And that those are the things
they're going to teach them that contentment.
We're out of time, so I'm going to stop there.
I didn't even get to the second point tonight, but if they're
going to learn contentment, they need to understand the
importance of working for something rather than just
having it simply given to them, right?
The easiest thing for you to do is to just give it to your kids,
right? Because you want to you, you
want to give to your kids. You love them and you and you
care for them and you want to take care of them.
I guess you're done listening. I shouldn't have said I'm done
because I'm really not, but I'm, I'm close.
But The thing is, you want your
kids to have more than what you had, right?
I think that's a desire for all of us.
I want to give my kids more. I want to do better for them
than, than what I had growing up because we we missed out.
I mean, we didn't have the name brand stuff, right?
We didn't have everything given to us.
But I look back and I realized, you know what, that was one of
the best things for me, me having to go find work in 7th
grade. You know what happened?
My dad paid me $2.00 an hour to work with him.
We went to a we, we put it, he did invisible fence.
It's, it's bearing the line for the dogs, you know, and that dog
wears the collar and everything else.
That's what he did and he owned his own business doing.
They paid me $2.00 an hour to help him.
It was like pulling teeth to try to get my $2.00 an hour from
him. But I mean, once a summer we got
paid, you know, and he's like, you know, I said, Dad, I got, I
got 300 hours that I worked for with you this summer, 300 hours.
No, I was like all day, every day for the entire summer, you
know, I mean, it's, that is $2.00 an hour, you know.
But all that to say that I, I was working at somebody's house
and they were like, hey, do you know of anybody that could do
landscaping? I was like, yeah, me, we'll pay
you $8 an hour. I was like $8 an hour.
When do you want me to start? I started doing landscaping for
them and they told somebody else and they told somebody else.
The next thing you know, I was doing all this landscaping and,
and my dad was like, Hey, I'm paying you $2 an hour.
How come, you know, I said, I'm making $8 an hour over here,
right? But I learned how to do it
right. And, and, and I learned how to
work. That's what it, that's what it
taught me. If I just got to sit at home and
play video games all day every day, guess what I would not be
doing. Why should I work?
I don't have any motivation to do it.
All right, So I know you want to give, give, give, give, give to
your kids, but many times the best thing is to say no.
If you want that, go work for it, right?
You don't have to go get a job, you know, working 9:00 to 5:00
to be able to pay for some of the things you want.
Go out and you know, you know what we did during the winter,
man, we loved it when it snowed. We'd go out and shovel driveways
for 20 bucks a driveway and everybody is like take my money,
right? Cost.
It took took us an hour, 20 dollars, $20 was pretty good for
an hour back back in the 90s, right or the early to the well,
yeah, it was the nineties, $20.00 for a driveway was pretty
good, especially if you if you had two guys and you're just
going from house to house with a couple of shovels.
I mean, that was we were entrepreneurs because my parents
didn't just give me everything. If I wanted it, I had to work
for it. And they were teaching me
contentment. They never sat down and said I'm
going to teach you contentment. So if you want to learn how to
be content, then you got to go do this.
But they taught, they modeled that, right?
My parents probably could have, could have lived very well.
I don't know what kind of money they made, but I know how many,
how much a job cost and I know how many fences they put in and
I know how much course they had 10 kids.
So they probably all went pretty quick, but at the same time,
they could have lived really, really well if they wanted to.
They lived below their means. They were modeling contentment
to us. And I learned how to be content
with way less than probably I could have had, right.
My dad didn't buy my first car for me.
I bought it was a 1991 Ford Crown Victoria.
I paid $500 in a case of Mountain Dew for that thing.
I had a friend of mine who knew there was a used car dealership
and he was like, hey, 500 bucks and I was like, man 5, he can't
come down any lower. He said, I'll, I'll talk to him
for you. He comes back and he said I told
him you'd throw in a case of Mountain Dew and he, he had
agreed to it. I was like, all right, paid $500
in a case of Mountain Dew for my first car, Man, I took care of
that thing, right? I, I, it had a 5 point O is AV8
had a 5 point O. And it was like one of those old
police cars. I could squeal the tires in
there, but I didn't because I knew I was going to have to pay
for them if I squealed the tires in those things.
Did it once just to see if I could, but I took care of it,
right? And, and my parents modeled that
contentment. They taught me what contentment
was by not just giving me everything right.
And, and so that, that's the point that we're going to spend
the most time on. It's it's the importance of it
is that we have to model contentment in the home, right?
You might be able to afford more than what you have, but it's
good, right? You don't need it just because
you want it. You don't need it just because
you can have it. Sometimes it's good to tell
yourself no. All right, I want that piece of
cake. No, it's good to tell yourself
no, right? I want to go buy that.
Man, look at that. Oh, could you imagine if I had
that? You know what?
I know I could afford it, but no, I'm content with what I
have. I don't have to have that,
right? Let's, let's give it to missions
or let's give it to whatever, right?
There's a lot of things that we can do it.
We'll talk some more about that. But the important thing tonight
for us to understand is that if we want our kids to grow up and
be content, if we want our kids to grow up and not then not be
so consumed with things, then we can't, we have to be content and
we cannot be consumed with things.
How do you think you're going to pass that on to your kids if
that's the only mindset that you have?
This is not just, this is not just some abstract that we find
this all the way throughout the Bible, right?
Be content, be content. What do you think Be content
means I've got enough. I don't need more.
And we should be modeling that for our kids if we expect them
to grow up and be content the way the Bible commands them to
do as well. The love of money is the root of
all evil, which while some coveted after, they have erred
from the faith and pierced themselves through with many
sorrows. You got what you wanted, but you
lost what you had. I'd rather have what I have than
get what I want sometimes. Let's pray.
Father, again, we thank you so much for Your goodness to us.
I thank You for the opportunity to dig into God's word about
this idea of contentment. God, may we, may we be content
in our own lives. May we model that and teach that
to our kids as well. And may they grow up with the
mindset of doing everything they can, not to hoard and to be
wealthy, to have all the money that they want to at their
disposal, but that we'd be able to teach them to give and we'd
be able to teach them to. Serve you with the money that
you allow them to have, that you allow us to have God.
May we use that money for your service and may you use us in a
great way because of it. We thank you again for all that
you do for us in Jesus name, Amen.