Faithful and True: Hebrews 13:5-6, Christian Sermon by Pastor Jason Lockard

Life can be full of disappointments, but God cares for you.

Living a life without covetousness is key to contentment.

Paul's example of being content in any state shows us how to live with God's presence.

We must learn to be content with what we have and trust God's plan.

And today I want to talk to you about faithful and true. Life is full of disappointments, right? There's physical ailments, okay? There's, we can have disagreements with family and friends. We can have failures in our life. Things we want to do that we end up failing at or whatever. These can often shatter our hopes. And we can seem like sometimes we're just like a broken, fragile vessel. But when the world seems like it's closing in, we don't have any hope. There is someone who cares for you. Today I want to share with you what Paul said in Hebrews chapter 13, starting in verse 5. It says this. Let your conversation be without covetousness. Now, this is an interesting statement here. What he's saying is we must live a life without being jealous. Sometimes that's hard. Especially as Christians, sometimes it can be hard because we have this thing. We see someone get blessed, right? And sometimes we can be very happy for that person that gets a blessing. But then there's that other side of us that when we see somebody get a blessing, we say, well, why them? Why not me? Right? They got a healing, but I didn't get my healing. They got a financial blessing, but I didn't get one. Okay? Their family is thriving, and mine is falling apart. Right? I mean, this is all going. why them and not me? Right? So often we can have that. We can find ourselves being a little jealous, a little covetous, if you will, about somebody else's blessing. And we can sit there and we can say, but why not me, Lord? Right? Have you ever been that way? You know? There have been times I've been that way. I'll be honest with you. I've been that way. I was that way when my dad passed away. Good Bible-believing preacher. When my dad passed away, I did. Me and God had some arguments. I mean, because when my dad passed away, I did. I sat there for many months sitting here saying, God, why did you sit there and heal other people, and yet my dad had to die? Why? You know? I had a difficult time with that. And there were times that I found myself maybe a little jealous. You know? Because I would see somebody get healed. Somebody get blessed of cancer or whatever. Or heart disease or whatever. And I would see somebody get that blessing. And I would sit and I would go, yeah, but why my dad? Why? my dad served the church so many years that was one thing I would say about my dad my dad was a faithful person when it came to being a pastor of a church I will say that, my dad never never, in all his years of being a pastor never took a vacation. Never. Not one Sunday did he take off. The only time that he wasn't preaching on a Sunday was if we had a snowstorm or something and they had a cancer church. That was the only time he didn't preach on a Sunday morning. My dad, even when he had a triple bypass in Louisville, Kentucky, and they said, we want you to take off for a full month and not do anything for a full entire month. My dad's doctor, Dr. Itash, great doctor, told me. He said, you need an entire month off. Don't go back to work. He went back for a checkup in two weeks and he said, you're doing pretty good, but I want you to take the rest of the thing off. And he came in and he said, you know what? I'm doing pretty good. I'm going back to preaching. He wasn't the doctor, of course. He went back to preach. But that was my dad. My dad was that type of person. He followed and he did. We were always a little disgusted about it. Because it was like, why can't we take a vacation once in a while, man? Why can't we go somewhere once in a while? But that was my dad. My dad was a preacher first and everything else next. Because to my dad, God was first above everything else. and I had that time when my dad passed I did, I sat there and I said I don't understand this Lord I don't understand why some people live and you heal some people and my dad didn't get a healing, why? people were praying, why? yeah, I probably was a little jealous maybe I did have that but I learned to move on from that of course now this when I talk about it it is a learning experience I want you to understand that we all go through these things Every Christian every person goes through these things where we have conversations with God and we go, God, I don't understand this. I don't understand why. But we've got to move on from that. We've got to live a life that is beyond covetousness. See, we've got to remember what the psalmist wrote in Psalm 34 and verse 18 when he said, the Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart. Maybe when you feel broken, maybe when you've gone through so much bad stuff, physical, financial, family problems, whatever the case may be, you're going through and you're sitting there and you're saying, I don't understand this, God. I'm broken. God is saying, I'm here. I'm here. Reach out. I'm here for you. And that's what we've got to do. All of a Paul continues here in this verse and he says these words. And be content with such things as you have. Wow. Now that is difficult. Amen. That's difficult. that's difficult to be content with what we have, right? Because sometimes we always want just a little bit more, right? It's always the thing, just a little bit more. Lord, just a little bit more and I'll be happy. But the point is, if we have a little bit more, we always want a little bit more, right? It's just a little bit more, just a little bit more, Lord, just a little bit, right? It's too much of a good thing. You ever heard of that? Too much of a good thing? See, sometimes we sit there and we go, oh, anybody love pizza? Okay, I've got a couple here that love pizza. Okay. Everybody else is either tired or I don't know. But anyway, now see, I'm a pizza fanat. Okay. I'm trying to stay away from it as much as I can now because I'm trying to be a little more healthy. Okay. But the idea is, you get a pizza, man, and it's like, one piece, oh, that was good. So I'll have another piece. And then, oh, but that second piece was so good, try another one, right? And then if you just keep doing that, what ends up happening? You get a stomachache, right? Because too much of a good thing, right? That's the idea. We need to learn to be content. See, Paul was interesting in his book when he said, I've learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. You remember that? See, what Paul was saying was, no matter where I am, I'm content because God is with me. See, Paul could be in a jail cell chained up to a wall and he was content because he knew God was with him. See, Paul could be on the road traveling to another church to preach a meeting and Paul was content because he knew he rode with the Lord. Hallelujah. See, he could be in the church service preaching. He was content because he knew God was with him. No matter what, that's what Paul was. Paul had a state of contentment. That is the best state to live in. We talk about the best state. Some people say, oh, it's California. I personally wouldn't want to live in California. That's me because there's too much going on here and there's too much of earthquakes. I can't stand earthquakes. We were in one earthquake. I was too small to remember. But I remember my parents talking about that we lived in New York and there was an earthquake. It was a pretty bad earthquake. But I was so small I don't remember that. But to me, okay, if I'm in the house and the house starts shaking, I'm panicking, okay? Because that's a scary thing. So that's why I don't want to live in California, right? And other reasons too. But that's one of the major reasons, right? There's a lot of beautiful states. I love the state of Virginia in a lot of ways. I think it's a beautiful state. We've got the beautiful mountains. It's just beautiful. It's a beautiful place, right? Okay? But in all the states I've lived in, and I can go through them and I can tell you, I've lived in a lot of states. North Carolina, Virginia, Indiana, Kentucky. I mean, I've lived all over the place, right? the best state that I want to live in is a state of contentment. I want to live in a state of contentment. I want to live that I'm content with Jesus. I'm content with Jesus. I'm satisfied with Jesus. I'm satisfied with Him if He's satisfied with me. Right? As long as I'm making the Lord happy, I'm happy as well. And that's all I want to do. See, that's what Paul said. I've learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. That's beautiful. Learn in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. Beautiful. See, Paul says content. Be content with the things you have. For he has said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Isn't that beautiful? now when I think about that I think of simply a couple people in the Bible I really do I think when people are content even in the hardest of trials there two people that come to my mind Of course the most iconic one of course is Job Job was content. That doesn't mean Job was happy. But Job was content. You read the account when Job lost everything. Wealth, health, family, the whole nine yards lost everything. and he found himself they found him on the ash pile with a piece of broken pottery there's another message for you we're talking about broken pieces there's a piece of pottery he's scraping the boils let me tell you there ain't nothing more itchy in the world than a boil I had one I never wanted another okay I never wanted another boil as long as I lived the most disgusting and painful and itchy thing you will ever have in your entire life. And like I told the story, but it's true. I went to the doctor after having this boil for quite a while, and she went to the doctor, and she sat there and looked at it, and she said, well, let's pop that. And I was like, what? And she said, yeah, let's pop it. So she grabbed it, and she starts going like this, and it won't pop. And I'm sitting here screaming, okay? I mean, I'm literally screaming because she's going like this. And I'm going, ow, ow, nothing. She just keeps on pushing this thing. And I'm like, ah, I'm saying ow. That means I'm hurting here. Nothing. She's still. And finally, I go, I can't take much more of this. So she stopped and she says, well, maybe we'll just give you a pill that will dissolve it. Pardon me. There's a pill to dissolve this. there's a pill that you can give me to dissolve this and you're sitting here putting me through this pain why didn't you give me the pill a long time ago but I mean she was wanting the instantaneous but it didn't work so she put me all through that pain and I have to take the pill anyway I don't want another boil that's what I'm getting down to it's painful Job had boils from the top of his head or the soles of his feet I can only imagine how much pain this man was in Okay? Emotionally and physically. He had so much pain from all the boils, and he had the emotional pain from losing all of his children and all of his money. Everything was gone. So Job's on the ash pile, sitting here, scraping the boils, trying to get a little relief. everybody comes to him and sitting there starting to make him feel real good by sitting here saying hey what did you do Job to getting God mad at you of course Job didn't do anything it was a trial from Satan and even Job's wife at a point of utter and complete distraction she was not a bad person The grief had gotten to her so bad that she, like many of us, if the grief gets so bad, sometimes we can turn our back on God because of grief. And that's kind of what she had done at that point. The grief had gotten so bad, she said to her husband, she said, Job, God is forsaking us. It's just time that we curse God and die. And Job looked at her and said, you're not thinking clearly. are we supposed to accept all good and not expect to have anything bad happen? Bad things are going to happen but it's how we respond to them and the Lord knows the way that I take and when I'm tried I'm coming forth as gold and Joe did all the things that happened Joe never charged God and the latter end of Job was better than the beginning because he learned that in whatsoever state he was in there was to be content. My favorite account is of a man named Joseph. Joseph, not the stepfather of Jesus but Joseph who was part of the children of Israel if you will he had 12 brothers and they sold him into slavery right? Joseph found himself in prison and he sat there and he thought, why have you forsaken me God? God hadn't forsaken him but he was putting Joseph in the right position for the right time. You can go through the Bible and you can see all the different accounts of people that have gone through tough situations but it was all for a purpose. Maybe your tough situation that you're going through is for a purpose. We never know. I love what it says in verse 6. It says, so that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper. I love that. The Lord is my helper. Friends and family and even doctors sometimes can't help us. But where they fail, God never fails. Hallelujah. God never fails. That is beautiful. And then he says, I will not fear what man shall do unto me. And why should we not fear what man can do to us? Simply because of what it says in Romans 8.31 when it says, if God be for us who can be against us I love it Who can be against us That is so beautiful you know as I read these words and I thought about brokenness I thought about breaking things right in my life I've broken a lot of things right I got a lot of one thing that I have that I I'm a film fan, and I love classic old films, right? So I got a lot of statues, like little statues of some of my favorite comedians and different things, right? So I got little Laurel and Hardy statues, right? Some of you know Laurel and Hardy. Little Laurel and Hardy statues, right? So what I had, there was a little Hardy, Oliver Hardy statue that I had, and it fell off of my stand and fell on the ground and it broke. And I looked at it and it literally broke in half, right? And I looked at it and I was like, wow. So what I did was I took some glue and I glued it back together and tried to make it look right. Okay? But you can tell it was broken. you can tell it's broken. When we break something, when something is broken and we put it back together, you can always tell it's broken. But when we're broken and God takes those pieces and put them back together, you can't tell it's been broken. It looks and is better than it was before it was broken. Hallelujah. See, when God puts you back together, you're better than you were when you were broken. Hallelujah. That's the point. Hallelujah. I love that. I love that. And that's the point today. So maybe today you've got these broken pieces. And you're saying, Lord, this part of my life is broken. I don't know what to do. Bring those broken pieces to the master and let him put them back together. because the Redeemer is always faithful and true. Father God, this morning as we just focus on you for just a moment, maybe we look at our hearts and our lives and we say, there are broken pieces, Father. Maybe it's just one little broken piece, or maybe it's a multiple amount of pieces. maybe were just shattered but Father God you are here today to pick up those broken pieces and put us back together again better than we were before would there be someone honest to God today and say Father I'm broken there's little pieces of me that's broken and I need you to mend me I need you to fix me would you be honest to God and say God help me this morning raise up the hand Father God help me this morning Hands going up today That's beautiful Oh hallelujah Maybe you're watching the video And you're saying I'm broken Just raise your hand to God today And say I'm broken Father I need you Father God If you saw these hands In this church those that are watching the video Those people that are saying I'm broken Father Father God right now today I ask you to pick up all those broken pieces and put them back together again. Put those ones back together again, Father God, that they will be completely whole, completely made new, completely fixed. That, Father God, they will be better than they were before. For, Father, you will have put them back together again. I pray that right now in Jesus' name. Father God, I pray that you will mend broken hearts, that you will mend broken lives, and that, Father God, these ones that have raised their hand, admitting they need you, will receive that blessing from you. Father God, I pray that right now in Jesus' name. I thank you, Father God, that you always hear and answer our prayers. and I thank you God for the miracle that is coming to these lives that they will be put back together again mended and be better than they were before. I thank you for that and I praise you for it all in Jesus name. Now Father God for today we just want to thank you for this time together that we've been able to be in your house and be able to worship you. Father God this has been a blessing of a day and we never ever ever want to take these days for granted. But Father God, today, as we dismiss today, we want to first off thank you for the opportunity to be together, to worship together. And now, Father, as we dismiss, Father, don't dismiss us. But Father God, go with us this week. Keep us safe, Father God, and bring us back safe into your house the next time that we might be able to worship you again. And Father, for all that you are, for all that you do, we give you all praise and all the honor and all the glory for it all. For you're worthy of our praise. We thank you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. you

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