Gateway Church's Podcast
Living A Satisfied Life
And lots of Jewish leaders thought that when Jesus came that he was suddenly, it was really a popular thought during the time that Jesus would somehow just appear out of nowhere, come walking out of the desert one day, walking into Jerusalem as a grown man. He would just kind of mystically appear. He would be a military ruler. He would rid them of Roman slavery. He would re-establish the temple. He would do all these things. Yet Jesus clearly says, prophetically in scripture, that he would come as a baby. He came as a little baby. Now, I have a three-year-old and a one-year-old, and one of the most fun things that my wife and I do is we like to go look at them at night while they're asleep. Because number one, it's the only time they're quiet all day, you know, as a parent, you know, I can't say that if you're a parent, you know this, that they're not always quiet. But there are times where we'll just open the door and look in on them. And the most content-satisfied person in the world is a sleeping baby. They don't have a care in the world. They're just glad to be home with mom and dad. They're sleeping. They're quiet. And think about Mary and Joseph now in the manger. Looking down at the Messiah, God's son and looking at this baby, he wasn't prophesying when he was a baby. He ate, he slept, and he did those things that babies do. And so they're looking at him. And this is the Messiah. This is the baby that's come who will one day bring all of us out of captivity. He came as a content child. He came to bring us satisfaction. I want you to turn to 1 Timothy, chapter 6, if you're there now, look in verse 6. And I want to read this scripture. It says, "The godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that." Now if there's any country in the world today that should be satisfied and content, it should be the United States. We're the wealthiest country in the world. Up until September 11th, we were the most peaceful country in the world. We had never been invaded by foreign forces. We've never, in the 200-year history, we've never been captured. We've never been held in slavery. We are looked upon from the rest of the world as the wealthiest homes. In other words, the homes that all of you live in, do you know that two-thirds of the world would think that the homes you live in were palaces? That two-thirds of the world would look at any home, regardless of what size home you live in. They would look at your house and think that you were royalty, that you were born out of royal birth because you are considered wealthy, privileged, you're absolutely considered from everyone else in the world. You're the despised or admired for the wealth that we have in the country. And if there was any other city in America that should be content, it should be the Dallas Fort Worth area. Because we're blessed. This whole region has the blessing of the Lord on it. There's tremendous financial prosperity. And if there's any part of the Dallas Fort Worth area that should be content, it should be the mid-city, it's Colleyville, South Lake, it should be this area. However, I find very few people who say they're absolutely satisfied and content. In fact, it's throughout my life, I have never met many people who say I'm absolutely satisfied and I'm absolutely content. And up until three weeks ago, I would have said the same thing, I'm not content. I was dissatisfied. You see, I married the woman of my dreams and I have the job of my dreams right now. It's the best job, the best place I've ever worked, it's the job of my dreams. It's a woman of my dreams. I have two beautiful children. I have no nothing, no sickness, no debt, nothing that would make me think that I should not be content. And yet, three weeks ago, sitting right there in that chair, I said, "Lord, why is it that my heart is so empty? Why is it that times, there are seasons of times where I'm not content, where I'm restless in my heart?" And so, for the last three weeks, the Lord's been taking me through Scripture, telling me, showing me things about contentment. So I'm just going to share those things with you tonight because I think it's a great Christmas message about being satisfied and content. You know that I believe that a life of contentment that you live before your children, I'm going to speak to parents for a second, you know the parent that children are watching you and that you know what they're really looking for in your life, they're trying to find out what satisfies you because that's what they need to satisfy themselves. Children are watching your lives, trying to decide what is it that makes mom and dad content? What is it that satisfies my mom and dad because there's a growing hunger in our children, the older your children get, the more they understand about material things, the more they understand about who's got what and who's got nothing. They go to school, they see the haves and the have nots, they see all of these things that are being, they see it on television, they see things that make people happy on TV and they're looking at their parents right now and saying, "What's making mom and dad content?" I believe the greatest testimony we can live before our children is a life of contentment and satisfaction. You know what it tells people? It tells not only our children, it tells people that we work with, it tells people that are around us, the reason that we're content is that at all times, in all situations, in all circumstances, the hand of the Lord is upon me and my life belongs to Him and it's because I belong to Him and it's because His hand is upon me, I am satisfied. It's not based upon my circumstances, it's not based upon the titles or positions that I hold, it's not based upon my account summary that I find online, it's not based on any of those things, it's based on the fact that I know the Lord, the Lord knows me and His hand is upon me. However, our ability to be content is under attack, for those of you who don't know this, for a lot of years, for six years, I spent as an advertising, an advertising, television, radio advertising, I created ads, I did voices for ads, I did lots of stuff, that was my job, advertising was my job, for six years between ministry. And you know how I could sell things to people? You know the number one way that all of you, and by the way, I know all of you probably went shopping and all of you are looking right now, in fact there's about half the time in our life, about 50% of our adult life is spent looking for a new home, looking for a new car, or looking for a new major possessions in our lives. And do you know why that you're always looking because you're not satisfied with what you have? In other words, advertising agencies sit around in large corporate rooms like I used to do and we would say, what is it, how is it that we can sell our product? Do you know what people have discovered over the last 100 years of multimedia advertising, the number one way to get you to buy something is to create a current dissatisfaction with what you have right now. If we can cause you to be dissatisfied with what you have now, you will go and buy something to replace it. Billions are dollars are being spent right now to cause you to be dissatisfied. In other words, I'm honestly, you watch TV, you see the new 2002 vehicles being rolled out and you suddenly become dissatisfied with the 2001 you're driving out cause it's new and improved. You see the word new and improved, I mean look across the grocery store and everything is new and improved, everything is updated, everything is better tasting. Have you ever wondered who determines if the dog food really is better tasting or not? I mean do they hire somebody, I mean do they have what kind of feedback do they get? Because everybody is saying it's new and improved, it's better tasting, it's better now than ever. And so obviously it will be foolish for you to stay with something when there's something better to be bought. Billions of dollars are being spent to cause you to be dissatisfied, discontent, not happy with what you have. A heart that is not satisfied though causes us to make constant unnecessary changes in our life, constantly making changes for the sake of change, looking for something to feel the void. A heart that is something that never produces because you know why everything we have doesn't produce the benefits that we thought it would produce. We become constantly, it's a constant cycle of disappointment. So I want to clarify something right now because I know there's lots of you out here, guys and ladies, all of you, that you say well hold it, I thought God wanted me to dream big dreams. I think I thought God wanted me, He created me with an ambitious heart. He gave me a Taipei personality. He gave me these abilities to drive this constant need for more. Let me give you some clarifies to things tonight. Number one is ambition, dreams and vision are from God. They are absolutely from God. Ambition, dreams and vision are all from God. God is not the source though of striving. He's not the source of unhealthy stress. He's not the source of worry, fear and doubt. He's not the source of discontentment. So what's motivating your ambition tonight? If you're ambitious, if you have big dreams, if you have great desires in your heart for your family and for your finances, let me ask you some questions and let me ask you five questions. Number one is what's motivating your ambition? The first question is it to please people? Is a whole reason you're doing what you're doing, just to please people, to make people proud of you? Is it to live up to someone else's standards that they placed in your life? Have someone spoken, given you a verbal challenge, maybe cursed you as a child and you spent the rest of your life trying to prove them wrong? Is it to prove someone else wrong? Is to prove them wrong? I'll show you that I'll make it. I'll show you that I won't be poor. I'll show you that I'll have these things. I'll show you that I live in the best neighborhood. The fourth question is simply to fulfill an inner vow. All these are tied up. You'll see all these questions I'm asking. The fifth question is it just to satisfy your flesh. The number one reason that people are not content is just because of their flesh is out of control. So tonight I'm going to give you five things. I'm going to spend a few minutes giving you five things that I've seen in every satisfied person I've met. These five things, every person that I see in my life today, the people around it, I consider satisfied and content, I see these five common characteristics. Are you ready for them? Okay, number one. Satisfied people have learned to be content. It's not a state of mind that we're born with. Now, turn with me to Philippians, chapter four, it'll come up on the PowerPoint here. But if you like to turn, then you're welcome to do that. In Philippians, chapter four, verse 11, it says this. This is Paul talking. It says, "I'm not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well-fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or want, I can do everything through him who gives me strength." In other words, Paul was saying, "My possessions do not define me. My birth defines me." If you've been born again, the minute that you became born again, your identity, the way you should define yourself, changes at that minute. Second Corinthians 5, 17 says, "When we were born again, the old has gone, and the new has come." We hold old things have been passed away and the new has come. In other words, from that point on, your identity has totally changed. Your identity is not based on your titles, on your positions, on your account statement. Your identity from that point on is based on your birth, not on your performance, not on what you have done, what you will do. Your identity has been settled. My identity, as I was sitting here the other day, the first thing the Lord said to me, is, "Brady, you cannot be any more saved than you are right now, and, Brady, I cannot be any more in love with you than I am right now." And suddenly, a peace and a contentment come over my heart because the first thing it had to stop in my heart was just trying to please God. When I was pleasing Him the whole time, wouldn't it be fruitless to find out as you stand before the Lord one day, say, "Lord, I work so hard for you to love me." He said, "I never loved you any more than the first day I met you." Wouldn't that be such an empty feeling to think that we work so hard just to get God to love us? And He loves us as much now as He ever will and it's with all His heart. He can't love us anymore. He gave us all of us Himself. Now, in other words, Paul was saying in Philippians chapter 4 that you have to learn to be content that I believe, this is just my personal opinion, that people learn to be content and satisfied during times of need or in times of crisis. And during times of need or times of crisis, in fact, I tell people that many times the reason things come in and out of our lives, while we have times of need or times of crisis in our lives, is God is testing our contentment. He's testing our ability to be content. He's testing us to, He's saying, "Is your contentment based on your circumstances?" Because listen, how many times in your life have everything lined up exactly right in your life? The big area. Your relationships with your husband and your wife, your relationships with your in-laws and outlaws and your mom and dad, your outside family, how many times have you been perfectly satisfied and pleased with your job and all of your finances are in complete order, how many times with all those three things that have happened and how many times has everyone in your immediate family been completely healthy and when all those things going on, when is it that you're hearing the Lord's voice every day? And when have all five of those things lined up in your life all the time? I mean, maybe a third of the time, if you're really lucky, really blessed, maybe 20% of the time, when all those things are in order, when you, when you, when everything is lined up one after the other and everything is just in order, you see, that's based on worldly circumstances. Jesus said, "I didn't come to give you peace as the world gives you." See, the world gives us peace based on all those circumstances lining up. Jesus said, "I came to give you peace regardless if those things are lined up or not." And that's the benefit of serving Christ. Now you know how you'll learn something? I'm going to give you, if you're writing notes down, I want you to write this down because this is a life lesson that I find in my heart. These are things that I live by. One is, in order to learn something, I have to hear the truth, I have to hear the truth. Someone has to tell me the right thing. Tonight, I believe I'm giving you truth tonight. The second thing that has to happen is when you hear it, you have to believe that it is true, and that's the big step. You know that? Because I mean, I'm telling you, the enemy, have you ever read the parable of the sower? You know that there is a spiritual warfare going on any time you hear God's truth, whether it's on a cassette tape in your car, whether you are listening to it out of the pulpit, whether it's just a friend talking to you over a cup of coffee. Any time you hear biblical truth, you immediately enter into spiritual warfare. So not only do you have to hear the truth, you have to believe that what you're hearing is true, absolute, unchangeable truth. Then the third thing that has to happen, you have to practice that truth, you have to put it into practice immediately. If someone, if you know that you're hearing truth and you do not put it into practice, you will always lose it. It will not become a part of who you are. So you have to hear the truth, believe that it is true, practice the truth, and then the fourth thing, and there's five things, the fourth thing is this truth becomes the norm in my life. In other words, not only did I try it one time, now I'm going to try it all the time. I'm going to make this a part of my normal part of my life. For example, when you were born again and you realized that the power of prayer, when someone said, "By the way, now that you're born again," let me share a secret with you about talking with the Lord. Prayer is so simple, just talking to God, hearing God, talking to Him, telling Him everything on your heart. You heard that and you said, "You know, that's probably the truth," because I see a lot of that in the Bible. So I said, "You know, that is truth." The next day, you get up and you say, "No, I'm going to try that." I'm going to practice that and you do it one day and you never do it again, then has the truth become a part of your life. No, it hasn't. But if you do it on a consistent basis, once someone told you, "This is discipleship, this is all discipleship is," mentoring and discipleship are based on these five things. So now I'm hearing the truth, I make it a normal part of my life, and then the fifth part is the part that we never get. The fifth thing is I start teaching it to other people. I start giving away what I have. Everything that becomes effective. When you start reproducing the truth that is in you, that's when, for example, you need to be teaching other people eventually how to be satisfied, how to be content, how to pray, how to have a healthy marriage, how to raise their children, how to handle their money, how to pray for sickness, all these things that you've learned, if you're not teaching other people, it has not become a part of a valid truth in your life. Number two, satisfied people have a thankful heart. In Job 1, verse 21, Job had gotten three knocks at the door this day. In the first chapter of Job, we know that the first knock at the door comes. Job, some raiders have come out of the east and have taken half of your livestock and killed all the people that were watching them for you a minute later. Job, I'm sorry to tell you, but some raiders came out of the west, took all of your camels and killed all the people that were watching them for you. I was the only one that survived. A minute later, Job, I'm sorry to tell you, but all ten of your children were having a birthday party for one of your sons and a win came out of the north and blew your house down and killed all ten of them. I was the only one that survived. Those are three pretty powerful knocks at the door and I can guarantee you that there's been people here that have gone through difficult times this year, but Job had gone through a difficult 15 minutes or an hour or 24 hours, whenever it happened, it all happened in one day according to the way I read it. And Job says this in verse 21, after he finally hears the report, here's what he says, it's a powerful thing, he said, I came naked from a mother's womb and I'll be stripped of everything when I die. The Lord gave me everything I had and the Lord has taken it away, praise the name of the Lord. Let me ask you a question, this is always bothered me. I mean, doesn't that bother you? Does it supply to react like that? That's not normal. I mean, would you react that way? I mean, most of us would spend about ten years cursing God and maybe through heavy counseling and deliverance to get back to the form where we would come back to church, maybe. Is Job just an extreme example? Is Job in the Bible? Let me ask you this, does the God we know, the God we've heard about in the ten part series God is? Does it sound like to us that God just put Job in the Bible to tell us, give us an extreme example of someone who could overlook the details of their life? Or, is Job just simply putting the Bible to condemn us and to frustrate us? Is that why God put Job in the Bible? Is that why his story is a big part, 32 chapters or things? I believe this. I believe God was saying, it's in all of your ability to learn to be that content and be satisfied. It's in all of our abilities to be thankful in the times of that circumstances. See, I don't believe that Job is just an extreme example. I believe that God was saying that I want to show you the power of a thankful heart. You know, in fact, in 2 Timothy 3, it says that one of the signs of the last days, can I tell you what one of the signs of the last days in 2 Timothy 3, it says that there will be large masses of people who have forgotten to be thankful. In the last days, it says there will be many, many, many who will be unthankful and ungrateful. 2 Timothy 3 tells you a list of all kinds of people, but right in the middle of it, and I've got it underlined. The only word I have underlined is the ungrateful part, because I find it in my heart, it's very hard for me to be grateful, very hard for me just to say, "Lord, I'm used to living in the United States. I am used to living in Texas, and I'm getting used to living here." But it's easy as we drive up and down South Lake Boulevard every day, or it's easy when we're in the Keller Town Center, it's easy to say, "This is normal, this is what everybody's doing. Everybody has a place like this to live, everybody has a home like this, everybody's families like this." Instead of just saying, "Lord, I am so thankful for where I live, I am so thankful that you place me here. I am so thankful for the people you've put around me, so thankful for the friends you give me, so thankful for the church I attend, so thankful for your word, so thankful for your Holy Spirit that comes every day when I ask for it, so thankful that I can read the Bible without political persecution, so thankful that I didn't spend the night in jail for going to church last night, so thankful, Lord, I'm thankful. How many of us just pause and say, "Thank you, Lord, thank you, Lord, for all of this. Thank you for my new car, thank you for what you're doing in me." Psalm 17, the last part of verse 15 says, "This is a new living translation, by the way. When I awake, I will be fully satisfied." Now, according to David, when he says, "When I awake, no matter what the morning brings me, I will be fully satisfied. When I awake, I will be fully satisfied, for I will see you face to face." You know that in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit did not come and linger with people. It came, settled for a moment, and left. The Holy Spirit did not come and linger with people for all of their lives. The Holy Spirit came for specific times and purposes, and then left. David had no idea what you and I can experience with the Holy Spirit today. Do you know that? If David, think of the songs David would have wrote, if he could have come and set in our worship service and had the full anointing of the Holy Spirit that we have, think of the Psalms that David would have wrote, think of the worshiper David would have been. If the Holy Spirit would have came and lingered with him at all times, at any time he asked for it. David lived under a partial anointing. We have the full anointing, yet he was able to say, "When I awake, I will be fully satisfied." Psalm 63.5 says, "You satisfy me more than the richest of foods, and I will praise you with songs of joy." You see, every satisfied person that I've ever met is a thankful person. It's a person that knows how to worship, regardless of their circumstances. It's a person, when you're around them, tells you how thankful they are for what the Lord has done. It's regardless if they're wealthy or poor, I've met contented people who were wealthy, I've met contented people who were poor, and the thing that I see in their heart is their thankful people. They're grateful, just so grateful for the Lord, so grateful for knowing him. They're satisfied, and they're content. You know, I always see this. I've done a lot of funerals in my time, and I know people who are content when funerals happen. I look in people's faces, and I'm so amazed at the contentment and the satisfaction of the Lord that comes upon people in times of great loss, great despair, close people have gone, and I look in their eyes, and yes, they're mourning, yes, they're weeping, yes, they miss their family, yes, they miss the person that passed away, but something supernatural is in their heart. It was there before the funeral, and it's there during the funeral. It's satisfaction, it's contentment. The third thing is that I found in every satisfied person I've ever met is that satisfied people have a right understanding about success and money. I found that God only gives us money for three reasons. You ready for these? He gives us money for three reasons. One, He wants to meet all of our needs and some of our wants. Number two, He wants you to use your money to support the ministries of the church. And number three, He wants you to use your money to invest in other people. Outside of that, I can't find why God gives us money. That's the reason He gives us money, and so we're supposed to be good stewards of what it gives us. Now, listen, God is never more interested in developing Christ-like character than in meeting all of our needs and wants. In other words, the reason God gives us money is a character test, do you know that? That God honestly uses money as simply as a tool to meet our character, to develop character in this. Christian, I want you to write this down because this is going to mess up a lot of theology in the room, maybe. Did you know that Christian maturity does not equal prosperity? I can't find that in Scripture. That the more material you come and become in Christ, the more prosperous you become. God just says, look, money, I'm going to give you money as a tool. It's not based on our work. You see, we can't equate with the money we have with our worth to the kingdom. We can't equate the money we have with our worth to the Lord. It's just a tool. God gives some of His tools. He gives us other tools. He wants to meet all our needs and wants, but the reason we all have money is for those three things, to meet our needs and wants, to invest in the ministries of the church and just simply to invest in other people. Proverbs 11.25, this is a new living translation, says it, "The generous prosper and are satisfied." Did it say, listen, listen to this again, "The generous, those who give things away." In other words, those who believe that what I have is not mine to begin with. I'm simply, I have a tool in my hand. I just have this tool that God's given me, and so I'm going to look. Starting right now, I'm going to look for ways to just give it away. The generous, those who have things that they want to give away, that's generosity. The generous prosper and they are satisfied. You see, generous people have a right understanding about success and money. That's why when you look in people's eyes, you see, the most discontent people I've ever met are wealthy people. Just last year in People magazine, I was going to quote this to you, I'm going to read this to you. Bill Gates, by the way, is worth about a hundred billion dollars. Ted Turner's worth only ten billion dollars, and I don't know how he's making it day to day. I mean, that's just a tight budget for him, but Ted Turner said this. He said, "When I looked at the net worth of Bill Gates and realized that he had a hundred billion dollars and I only had ten for a week, I felt like a complete failure in my life." Now, personally, spiritually, I think he is a failure, but ten billion dollars is a sign of most of us would consider a sign of success, wouldn't you believe? Earthly success, ten billion dollars is pretty good, earthly success. Yet when he started comparing himself to other people immediately, he felt like a failure. He lost the contentment, see the things he had, he doesn't make him content. We know that most of us believe that the American dream is twice as much as what we make. Most of Americans in a recent poll by George Barna said, "People that make twenty-five thousand dollars believe that the American dream cost fifty thousand dollars." People that make a hundred thousand dollars believe that it's two hundred thousand dollars to buy the American dream. People that make a half million dollars a year think it's a million dollars to buy the American dream. We know why, because there's a growing sense in Americans that it's never enough. We're never content. We're never satisfied. It's always someone else who's got things that I don't have. That's amazing, isn't it? Luke 12, 15 says, Jesus said this, then he said to them, "Watch out." Anytime you see, "Watch out" with a big mark there, Jesus was probably raising his voice. He said, "Watch out, watch out here." He said, "Be on your guard against all kinds of greed." Let me add something to this. I'm not adding the scripture. I'm just believing this is the way I look at it. Can greed be disguised? Can we be chasing after greed and thinking we're chasing after proper doctrine? Can we be deceived by our something? Can we be deceived by greed? Can we be greedy and not think, "Know it?" Can we have an unhealthy view of money and not even realize it, thinking we're doing the Lord of service when in actually we're in error? Is it possible, just from reading this scripture, when Jesus says, "Watch out, be on your guard against all kinds of greed. A man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." You see, I believe it's possible to be content with what you have, but I don't think we're ever supposed to be content with what we are. Does that make sense? Not who you are. I didn't say who you are. I'm not content with who I am, but I'm not content with what I am because the Holy Spirit every day reminds me of an area of my life that needs to look more like Christ, reminds me of a part of my vocabulary that needs to sound more like Jesus, reminds me of an attitude that needs to have look and more like Jesus. I'm not satisfied with what I am, but I'm satisfied and content with what I have and who I am. But you know what, a covetous heart, though, is never satisfied. A covetous heart, when we covet someone else's job, when we covet someone else's spouse, you notice that that is a hidden sin in most marriages, they were always looking at someone else's husband or wife and going, "Wow, man, did I really make a mistake? I could have been married to them or someone like them and been a lot happier. I do a lot of marriage counseling. I hear that come up all the time, "Boy, I have someone telling me, I said, "Bray ya, you're married to Pam." "Yeah, I am married to Pam and I'm really blessed." So what? I mean, all of us have to work through marriage issues. We all have to work through marriage. But you can covet someone else's job, their spouse, their income, their house, their car, and you know what you're saying when you covet those things? Here's what you're really saying. You have not been fair with me, God. You have not been fair with me. I deserve more. You owe me something, God. That's what we're really saying when we're coveting someone else's stuff. We're saying to God, "This is why God hates it. This is why it's one of the 10 commandments." Because you say, "God, you owe me something. God, you haven't been fair with me. You've held back on me, God. You don't love me like you love them." But I believe there's a sin of comparison that we've got to confront and realize that the sin of comparison is a deadly sin in our lives. Just die to it. Just repent of it. Realize it. I mean, the enemy always wants you to compare yourself with other people. All right, number four, satisfied people are using their spiritual gifts. You know that the most stressful people I know are people who are doing ministry in areas where they're not called. Now, turn with me to second Timothy chapter one. Satisfied people are doing what God equipped them and gifted them to do. Second Timothy chapter one, I'm about to read two scriptures. I bet most of you have used, have quoted one of these scriptures or the other, but have never combined them. And yet there are verses six and verses seven. Second Timothy chapter one, verse six and seven says, "For this reason, I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands." Now, many of us have prayed that. We have said that. We believe that that there is a fanning into flame. We've prayed that over people that we counsel. We pray that over people that we're discipling. We pray that over our children, hopefully. Now, here's the second part, read this, "For God did not give us the spirit of timidity, which is fear, but the spirit of power, of love, and of self-discipline." Now, do you know those two scriptures were back to back? Is it possible that if our gifts are dormant, our lives could be controlled by fear, the void of power, and lacking discipline? And it's amazing that the reason we think we have fear and that we have a lack of discipline and no power is that some kind of demonic scheme when, in fact, verse six says, "fan into flame, the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands." It's impossible to be, it's impossible to be content and also be fearful and powerless and undisciplined. You see, I believe once you discover your gifts and you're operating in your gifts, doing what God's equipped you to do, there is a season of contentment that comes with that. It's an absolute contentment and satisfaction that comes just from doing what you recall to do. Corinthians 9, 8 says, "God is able to make all grace abound to you so that in all things and at all times having all that you need, you will abound." That word abound means to exceed, to increase, to have abundance in every good work. God's calling us today, in year 2002, you discover what your spiritual gifts are. Do you know, let me ask you a question, do you know what your life's destiny is? Do you know what the purpose for your life is? And some of your most of you are saying, "Yeah, to glorify God." That's true. Basically, what God's called you to do, do you know why you're here? Someone asked me to ask this week. He asked me the two questions in five minutes, "What's God saying to you and what's your life's purpose?" Well, I wasn't thinking about that and so I'm scrambling with an answer. You know, I've thought about it ever since he's asked me though. It has been the most challenging thing someone's ever asked me. What is the purpose for your life? Have you ever heard God tell you clearly what the purpose for your life is and or the decisions you make in today, right now, at this hour, all leading to the culmination of that purpose? Wow. It's all I've thought about since he's asked me three or four days ago, I've got to ask this question. And yet, I'm reading this that satisfied people are using their gifts. Maybe I'm... If I'm not satisfied and obviously there's something there and so I'm challenging you with the same question. Do you know what the purpose is? Is every decision you're making today leading to the culmination of that purpose? Because if you are, I'm telling you're the most satisfied person in this crowd today. You're the most content person in this audience today. If you know the purpose for your life and you're making quality decisions that lead to the culmination of that decision, you are a satisfied person because God gives you contentment. Number five, satisfied people are winning the war against their flesh. I want to read the scripture to you that you may have never read in this sense. It's the King James Version, Proverbs 27, verse 20, listen to this, "Hell and destruction are never full, so the eyes of man are never satisfied." Wow. In other words, it's the word there means never full, never plenty, it's never enough. In other words, according to the writer, Proverbs Solomon, there was a curse on mankind that our eyes are flesh, our desires. He's not talking about spiritualize, He's talking about fleshly eyes, no matter what we do, no matter how hard we strive, they'll never be satisfied. Hell and destruction are never full. However, Jesus came, now here's the good news, all right? You know that your flesh, by the way, can never be satisfied, period, you can never be satisfied. And in Matthew chapter five, Jesus came to break this curse though, and this is the good news. Verse five, verse six, one of the attitudes, "Blessed," which means happy, "are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." They will be satisfied. They will be full. They will be content. You see, Jesus came to break every curse that the old covenant brought into our lives. Jesus came to break it and said, "Listen, hold it. I know what the word says in Proverbs 27, 20, "The hell and destruction are never full, so are the eyes of man, that the eyes of man are never satisfied." He said, "But Matthew five, six says, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. For example, do you know that unless you're chasing God, you're never just going to be satisfied. Your satisfaction is going to be based on what you're chasing tonight, and I've come tonight just to challenge you in your thinking. I've come tonight to find out God's come tonight to challenge you. Why are you chasing me? Why are you spending all your time running after tonight? Because what you're running after is going to determine whether you're satisfied or not. We can go through this season. We can go through this Christmas season with all of our family and all of our friends around us, exchanging gifts, eating food, being with people we love, and sit there the whole time, unhappy, unsatisfied, and discontent. Are we can say tonight, right now, Lord, you are the source of my satisfaction, and regardless of my present circumstances, regardless of those five areas of my life are lined up or not, I choose tonight, I learn tonight, I begin the learning process tonight of being satisfied and content. You see, maybe Mick Jagger was right. I can't get no satisfaction. Maybe he was right. I think he was wrong. I believe I can be satisfied. I believe that I can be content. You see, sitting on that front row three weeks ago, the Lord challenged me. He said, "Brady, why aren't you not satisfied? Why aren't you so discontent? I had nothing to do with anything presently going on in my life. It was simply a heart issue between me and the Lord. I had nothing to do with what someone had said to me. I had nothing to do with that. It was simply a scheme of the enemy to keep me from being satisfied and content. So, until I'm satisfied, the Lord cannot release a new morning in my life. Can't trust me with it." The Lord dealt with me, and I said to him, "For the last three weeks, Lord, help me. Help me, Lord. Learn." If it was possible for Paul to learn, it's possible for Brady to learn. If he could learn to be satisfied, Lord, can you help me to be satisfied? We just dial your head with me tonight. Okay, I'm here.