Contentment
Speaker
Guest speaker Christian Hardin. Juniper Church - Knoxville, TN.
Scripture References
1 Thessalonians 2:8, 1 Kings 19:1-8,9-16, John 21:1-19, Matthew 11:28-30
Key Takeaways
Our ANAVAH* is to simply Follow Jesus. (*The Hebrew word anavah is what we translate as “humility,” but the literal definition of anavah is to occupy your God-given space in the world—to not overestimate yourself or your abilities, but to not underestimate them either.)
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Good morning, guys. How are you guys doing? I think my wife's more nervous for me than I am. She was over there shaking and like checking in on me. And what's cool is I get to just share what God's been doing in my life.
and so it's it's pretty easy sharing to my friends race was asking me on Wednesday at a rehearsal if I was nervous how I was feeling I was like honestly I feel like I'm just talking to my friends and family here so yeah so I'm excited so if you don't know me my name is Christian there's another Christian here so if you yell Christian we may both look at you guys but my wife is Dessley she's in the pink dress and we have a daughter named Penny and you probably know Penny more than you know me but I'm a movie buff just some things about me I love game nights I love Lord of the Rings I love breakfast even if I can't eat eggs anymore but I can't have dairy again so I can drink chocolate milk for 11 years I was lactose intolerant so I say that because it's kind of a big deal for me to be able to drink milk eat cheese have pizza again cuz I feel like I missed out on a huge part of college when I couldn't have dairy it was a cookout milkshake that I discovered that I cannot eat there anymore but I work at Kiko and so I want to share a little bit about Kiko because you guys faithfully when you support Juniper you support Kiko and so I'm the youth director at Kiko which means I flush toilets when the kids clog them and I also teach them about Jesus so it's a little bit of both worlds I also run our vehicles and maintenance and I get to work with this lady named Susan at Fred's and Nathan knows who she is very abrasive but sweet and gentle when you kind of get to know her and that's what I tend to do is just put myself in places where I try to get to know the person and get to know what their needs are who they are as a person their family and that's what I get to do at Kiko I get to know their families we go door -to -door for our kids ministry door -to -door inviting kids every week to experience what we call the best week of their life and then as they grow up then they get to come to me and Nolan faithfully served with us for for so long you help me relaunch it you help me grow it it started off is literally so small and tiny and we were like what are we doing I've been in youth ministry for 13 years now and that's why my hair looks the way it is it's for seeking more than than what my genetics even allow for it I have some pictures to kind of give you a glimpse too and so this is to Mon Morgan and internet to the two students are emerging leaders we're actually taking the Puerto Rico here in a few weeks in summer so in June we're taking them to just do what they get to what our kids ministry does so every summer we employ them but T on's been with us since he was five years old five years old and I got him we got him with sixth grade seventh grade nothing's changed she's gotten taller and bigger he's still energetic and internet I'm worried about my inflatable gaga pit every time she steps up into it because she's always falling and slipping around and then I have to mom to mom's my movie buddy I just took him to see Interstellar two weeks ago and he was on the edge of a seat I was so nervous he was not gonna like it he loved the movie and it's one of my favorites but tomorrow's my movie buddy we go all the places and do all the things together and he's quiet he's shy you would not know he's there unless you sit down and have a conversation with Timon and then this is kind of what a Thursday night looks like this is our dodgeball tournament winners those are a bunch of punks the rig the team so they could win a night out at Zaxby's with their leader Tyler and so really it it boils down to first Thessalonians two -way and I think this is the call for all ministry I think this is also the call for all of us and it really is that we love you so much that we share not only God's good news the gospel but our lives as well and so that's really how I try to live my life I try and everything I do to share my life with you and in that that is where the gospel comes and at that moment I just I just kind of want to pray for the rest of our time together as I share about contentment and that so Lord I thank you so much just for this morning I thank you for my friends in this room and I just pray that yours are open hearts are ready to receive what you will speak through me father I pray that the nerves are calm and that I can eloquently say just what you have done in my life to help me discover contentment in you,
Father, in your name I pray, amen. So you saw some great moments in ministry. When ministry's going well, it's the best thing ever. It's like Tennessee going 10 and 0 to start the season. Unfortunately, there's a couple of L's along the way when you play Georgia or something.
And it also seems like that's just the characteristics of life. So when ministry goes well, when life goes well, it's delightful, when ministry gets hard, it's usually something happens in your own life or inside the church, inside the organization.
Maybe it's a firing, maybe it's a transition. But in the season that I went through in 2022, which I asked the Lord to give me a word that year, I landed on contentment. I really wish he would have given me something else because when you pick a word, you're gonna learn the hard way of, usually, what that means.
But here's just a general description of contentment from Webster's. It's happiness and satisfaction, often because you have everything you need. Happiness and satisfaction, often because you have...
of everything you need. And so when I think of that, I'm like, well, it's kind of missing a few things. It's the worldly definition, maybe. I think contentment goes a little bit deeper. I would probably substitute happiness for joy here.
But even in the midst of that, you may not always feel joy when you wanna feel contentment. And that brings us to Elijah. So, everybody say Elijah. Anybody know who Elijah was? Private, thank you. I work with kids, so I always try to get them to interact with me, make fun, and it was like, oh, I'm gonna throw stuff at you, laser pointer, I'm like, bro, I'm used to that.
I'm gonna take your phone and throw it against the wall, because that's what I have to do. So, Elijah was a prophet. Elijah did some incredible things. He really was a person of God. He was the voice of him to the people of Israel.
And so here's just some general things he did. He stops rain, he multiplies this oil, he brought a boy back to life, he brings down rain, he brought down fire on an altar and on Ahab soldiers, and he split the Jordan.
So, he did some incredible things, but it was all to point the Israelites' attention back to God, back to God, back to God, because if you know anything about the Israelites, so often they're doing what we do, essentially.
They get distracted. They miss the point. They miss what God's trying to do for them. And so, in 1 Kings 18, Elijah goes and defends really God's name to the people of Israel, because they're getting invaded.
And really, to just summarize it short, the Palestinians, or sorry, the Canaanites, are really trying to force their deity, their false God, Baal, on them. And so, Elijah's sent. He's like, hey, we're not gonna do this.
I'm shutting it down really quick, but God. And so, I'm gonna pick up in chapter 19. So, Ahab told Jezebel, Ahab, who we just referenced, told Jezebel all that Elijah had done and how he killed all the prophets with the sword, the prophets of Baal.
Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, so may the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow. Basically, she says, I'm gonna kill you.
What you did to my prophets, I'm gonna do to God's prophet. And then he was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servants there. But he made himself win a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down.
And I'm reading from the ESV, so if it's a little bit different, I apologize. And he laid down and slept under a broom tree. Saying, asking that he might die, saying that it is enough. Now, oh Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my father's.
And he laid down and slept under the broom tree. And in some translations, it says Juniper, which is really, really cool. And so I really relate to the story in more ways than not. I'm gonna pause there.
It continues on for a little bit longer. But we see this prophet, this person who trusted God, that presently trusts God, has done miracles, has seen God's provenance, his correction, his ways. He's so into the word, but he's scared of death.
He's scared of being hunted down and killed. And it's a hard thing to have this whole army come after this one person. So how often do we allow ourselves to feel burdened, defeated by something that the enemy's trying to do in our own lives?
And in this or that though, God does see his heart and he brings his tree. And I'll go on saying this. And so as he laid down under the tree, behold an angel touched him and said to him, Arise and eat.
And he looked and behold, there at the head was a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank and laid, but he laid down again. And the angel of Lord came a second time. You know it's important if it's a second time.
And touched him and said, Arise and eat for the journey. It's like, to me I'm like, this is like, Mom, hey, get up for school, come on. You come back, she's still asleep. I'm thinking of Penny right now because she's been sleeping in on school days, but he gets up really early on other days.
And the angel of Lord came a second time and touched him and said, Arise and eat for the journey is too great for you. Finally he arose, ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food. 40 days and 40 nights to Horeb the mount of God.
And so God sees his heart, he sees he's hurting. He brings this tree where he leads him to a juniper tree. And he feeds him and he waters him. And Elijah's like, thanks, but I still wanna die. And so he feeds him and he gives him more nourishment.
And Elijah gets the picture and he gets up and goes. But what sends us into some dismay like this? What causes us to want to really just fall, collapse, and not want anything for us? Is it a family illness?
Is it a job loss? A transition of some sort? A huge unexpected bill? These are things that cause like rivets in our ordinary daily life. Maybe it's hard conversations, convicting ones that really shake our world.
But how often do we have certain expectations of how God should show up in those moments? So I told you earlier about Kiko and my love for my students. In that same year that I picked contentment, we were having a great summer.
We, you know, where kids are making steps to, they want to learn more about Jesus. If you know their neighborhoods, it's anything but a godly place. It's full of just evil, oppressive spirits that really want to bring you down and not let you out.
And they see it on a daily basis. They see violence, they see violence in their homes, they see gun violence, they see drugs, they see alcohol. The power they want is gang violence because it's promised to them.
And that's promised as a way out or it's at least powers you can control the streets. But we're seeing their lives change through the summer. Me and my coworker at the time, Dana, we did something called Real Life where we really just share a testimony of where God, it's, I call them fence posts, of where God has showed up for us throughout our life.
And how do we react from that? And so we're seeing growth. And I'm gonna talk specifically about one of our students. Her name was Jacqueline, but we knew her as chocolate. And it's a strange nickname.
I don't know why she picked that or why maybe it's a family name, but that's what she went by. And she was the sweetest girl. She was so quiet, but you could see God softening her heart. And she was asking questions.
She was meeting with Dana. They were having discussions. She went to camp in Missouri and had this crazy experience where she like saw herself in a dress, dancing in fields with God. And so it was just this beautiful moments for her.
And then she kind of started to pull back and we would reach out and she would come still but be really like reserved and not very open. In October of 2022, she committed suicide. And it's still a shock to me to this day because we just, we have no idea like what she was going through.
She wouldn't open, she wouldn't share. And it really, it was a moment for me of like, okay, I had all these expectations. I saw all of this like movement of God. But either I didn't see this or I didn't posture the ministry in this way for emotional health.
And so I start going through this list of things that I didn't do. And the minute like our high school girls group kind of just exploded and like went up the map, it felt like we were rebuilding program wise.
But really it was shifted our focus to caring for this mother, caring for this family. But I had expectations of God to show up and I'm like okay, like God, like I've seen you do it, I've seen you do it, you're going to do this, you're going to do this.
But I was too caught up in the practicality of it all, of how to fix this mess and it is tragic, it's so tragic. I miss this girl, I miss seeing her and I miss the girls that stopped coming because it's just too hard, I get it.
Elijah had also expectations and so there he came to a cave and he lodged in it and behold the word of the Lord. and he said to him, what are you doing Elijah? He said, I've been very jealous for the Lord and the God of hosts.
For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with a sword. And I, even I, only am left, and they seek my life to take it away. He said, Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord.
And behold, the Lord passed by a great and strong wind before the mountains and broke pieces of rock, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind, an earthquake came, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.
After the earthquake, a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire, and after the fire, the sound of a low whisper. And when he heard it, he wrapped his face in a cloak and went out and stood at the entrance And he said, Go out and stand on the mount before the mountains and break pieces of rock.
of the cave, and the hold of voice came to him and said, what are you? doing Elijah and I feel I felt that what are you doing what are you doing Christian it's like you you speak this faith you this trust these kids but do you not trust me you're avoiding me I spent a whole year avoiding avoiding moving into the heaviness which was preached us in college you know you we were we had a small group leader who taught us to move into the heaviness because that is where like the root is and where God wants to meet us but I spent a whole year avoiding it but a month after chocolate passed we found ourselves come to Juniper and I really related to Elijah who just laid under a Juniper tree and I didn't see death but I was ready to quit I was ready to die to ministry to just move on I felt like I felt like I was being chased away but God sees the heart he knows where we are and he wants us to see contentment and so in this moment I learned this word a nova ever say a nova it's a Hebrew word that translates into humility so I know we're talking about contentment but I don't think you can have contentment without humility the literal definition of a nova is to occupy your God -given space in the world to not overestimate yourself or your abilities to not underestimate them as well I'm gonna read that again to occupy your God -given space in the world to not overestimate yourself it's not underestimate either so basically it is to be where God wants you to be where he has you.
Has God given space? And so, as I'm coming to Juniper, I'm literally like, okay, I'm in a season of restore, okay, so what is contentment? It really is all of this. It's occupying the space which God has put you in.
And I tell you about Elijah and my stories because the enemy wants to do anything but find this contentment for you to occupy the space. out of space. And so my space looked like for so long avoiding the hard things.
But I was sitting on the porch at Maple Grove Estate for a, our staff does, half days away. And it was just a day of silence and prayer, and I just rocked. And we had some devotionals we could have done, but I couldn't get past this, what are you doing?
And so I spent six hours of just, sorry about that, six hours of just answering that question, what am I doing? And I honestly let God have it. I was angry, I was upset, I was frustrated. I was angry, I was confused.
Like why God did I not have the opportunity to, or my coworkers have the opportunity to speak into this girl's life one more time? Why did it just go silent and then I get a call at 11 .30 at night? But my, but he didn't call me to fix problems, he called me to occupy space.
And so from that moment on, that's what I did. I just presented myself and I occupied space. And I still try to do that, I still try to embody this anava, this journey of what is contentment. And that's why I feel most content, is just to not do more than what I know I'm called to, but not to do less and underestimate myself.
So as we close, I wanna go to another story. if you read it last week. with Hammingon up. She read this story, and I love this story, mainly because it ends with breakfast. But it's out of John 21, and a little background of this is the disciples had just saw their best friend, the one who they traveled three years with, be crucified and buried, but then he rose again, like it did happen.
And then they got to visit with him and hang out with him and continue talking with him. And then Jesus has a lot of people to see, and so he goes on to see other disciples, other friends, even family members.
And the 12, well really now seven, are kind of just left with, well, what do we do? Our best friend is gone. We don't really know where we're going, what we're doing. And I think so often we can relate with this.
We just go back to what is... You know, they're fishermen, what is known, what is the easy thing to do. So after this, Jesus revealed Himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and He revealed Himself in this way, so this is an account.
Simon Peter, Thomas, Nathaniel, the sons of Zebedee, and two others were together. Simon Peter said, I'm going. fishing and it's such a simple line but it's I think it's so relatable that it's See, what is that for us?
What is that thing that we just go to when it feels like the enemy is pressing down on us when the armies of Valhalla are just storming in? And they said to him, we will go with you. You're not going alone.
And they went out and they got on the boat, but that night they caught nothing. The comfortable sometimes does lead to nothing. But just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.
And he said to them, children, do you have any fish? And they answered, no. They didn't know it was Jesus. It had been, we don't know how long it was, days, weeks maybe, but how quickly they forgot the voice of their father.
And they go back to what's normal. But he says, cast the net on the right side of the bow, and you will find some. And so they did, and now they were not able to haul it in because of the quantity of fish.
The disciple whom Jesus lived, therefore, which is John, therefore said to Peter, it is the Lord. And he probably said, bro, it's the Lord. Like, holy crap. When Simon Peter heard, he put on his outer garment, where he was stripped for work, and then threw himself in the sea.
Honestly, I probably wouldn't even put on that. I'm just, I'm going for it. He threw himself in the sea, and the other disciples came in a boat. I just love that. And Jackie, you know, honed in on that.
It is huge. jump out of that boat when you hear the father's voice you're like aching they're aching for this it took them a while because they had so much fish but when they finally got there they saw a charcoal fire in place with fish laid on it and bread and Jesus said to them bring some of the fish that you have just caught.
So Simon Peter went on, got some fish, brought it back to them. They had 153 for what it's worth. And although there were so many, their net was not torn. Jesus said to them, come and have breakfast.
And now none of the disciples of this part gives me chills. Now none of the disciples dare to ask him. Who are you? For they knew who it was. That's contentment. That's sitting there in the most simple of places.
places on the side of a sea. Just in full delight, not caring what's happening after. and what's happened before Peter Totally, you know, curses his name a couple of chapters before, but he's not thinking about that.
I wasn't on my notes to read it, but I didn't want to read it because God was thinking about that and he wanted to remove that conviction. And so he says to him later on, he says, Peter, do you love me?
Yes, yes, Lord, I do. I'm going to go feed my sheep. And then he asks him again, Peter, do you love me? Yes, I do, Lord. I intend to my flock. And he asks him a third time. And at this point, Peter was like a little irritated.
Like, whoof. He's like, really, dude? Like, what game were we playing? But it's three times. And how many times does Peter deny him? Three. So, well, maybe Simon, maybe why Peter wasn't thinking of that, God knew that he had to deal with that to send Peter off of what he was going to do.
To build his church. But that's contentment. That's occupying the space. And I love that story because that's exactly what they were doing. They were literally just being there with God. Having some eggs and bacon and all the good stuff.
stuff and you can come up So to summarize kind of a novice to simply just follow Jesus it's to occupy the space for which God is. It has a send. I can just read on the screen. It's... It's not discounting ourselves.
And all of us, you know, are probably thinking, or could have thought of some things that we are struggling with, that we are going through, that is life, that is the reality of it, is things are always going to be against us.
And if we're not making time to sit and have breakfast with the Lord, we, you know, won't grow, or if we need to restore, we won't restore, and if maybe it's sharing our lives with others, we won't make a difference, because we will be, the place we are occupying is not our God -given space, and we won't be content, because we're not really doing what God has put us in this world for.
So, I have kind of a benediction before where, so if you guys just want to stand, you can put Matthew 11 up on the screen, I just want everybody to close their eyes, if you don't have it, I can flip to it really quick, there it is, okay, close your eyes, and I want you to make two fists, and have them facing upwards, and I'm going to read this twice, and have you guys do two different things, and then Jesus said to them,
come to me, all who are weary, and carry heavy, heavy burden. and I will give you rest, and then open your fist. But nothing falls out of your fist. We can easily grab it. back to it. So close them again and turn them over.
And Jesus said come to me all who are weary carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest for the... take my yoke upon you, let me teach you because I am humble and gentle. and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you isn't light, now open. And it falls to the ground, and it goes. Laura, thank you just so much for this morning. I'm very good at just thinking about where we put...
ourselves in this space of yours are we overestimating and trying do too much. We are underestimating ourselves and not really doing what you want us to. avoiding it altogether because the burden is just too heavy to carry.
alone. And for those we go this next week, we just, we make some time to be honest with ourselves and honest with you. I pray that we will begin to sense moments of contentment and be able to see where you show up in our our lives on a daily basis, allowing us to taste and see your love for us.