Day 1
If they obey and serve him, they will spend the rest of their days in prosperity and their years in contentment
But the topic we have today is a very important topic for three reasons. Number one, the reason why Christ came, the first coming, because He is coming again, was so that He will rescue us from a life of discontentment. Our topic is contentment. In fact, in the book of Hebrews2:15 He says that He came to rescue us who all our lives lived under the fear of death.
14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death
And the basic Christian message is that when you come to Christ you no longer fear death. In other words, you enjoy living because you are not afraid of death which is the worst-case scenario. Nobody enjoys living until they stop fearing death. When we were young boys, we used to say a coward dies many times. That if you are a coward, there are so many things to fear, that you picture yourself dying many times. Your toe has a problem, you start thinking you have cancer. Not until the doctor tells you, you have no cancer, you are living dead alive. Are you getting the point?
So, when you come to Christ, He says He rescues you from that fear…although not from death itself. In other words, it is a very serious problem when you live under fear, you are living in a continuous problem. And there are people reading this who for example are so afraid of failing exams that they never enjoy being in campus because they always picture themselves failing. Yet first year they never failed, second year they never failed, again third year, now in fourth year they believe they will truly fail. They are still afraid of failing yet they are fourth years.
Now, the topic today is that you can enjoy every year; enjoy first year, enjoy second year, enjoy third year, and even fourth year enjoy. That you should not endure, instead you should enjoy life. Many people are enduring yet the others are enjoying. That is our topic today.
And so, the first reason why it is an important topic is because coming to Christ is to come to a life of joy. In the gospel of John chapter ten, verse ten He is saying, He came that you may have life and have it in abundance. In other words, real joy, real contentment is for those who come to Christ.
Unfortunately, we have to admit many of us do not experience that. We are born again but we are always living under fear. You need to check your Christianity if you are afraid of the future so much you cannot enjoy to live today. You know there are people who cannot propose to any girl because they fear being told no. Now, that is their fear and they keep thinking that they will be single all their lives because of their inability to propose. Now, others fear being asked to marry. Now, you need to understand everyday a brother looks like they are likely to ask, they are dumped before so that they don’t propose. Now, you need to understand when you live under such fear you are not enjoying.
You need to find out, if , I belong to God, God is the same yesterday, today and forever why do I fear? And it therefore means that if the Lord wants me to marry, I will certainly get married. And I don’t have to struggle; it is his responsibility to show me someone. So, if he comes and he is the type I should say no, I have no difficulty saying no. Why? A no does not become no until then. There will be a time to say yes.In the meanwhile you don’t feel under obligation to say yes. Because a lot of sisters are quick to say yes because a bird in hand is better than ten in the bush.They say yes to a guy but they have no intention of marrying them. It is so that when you ask, do you have a boyfriend? They say Yes. But what you don’t finish is, but just a holding type of boyfriend.
Day 2
yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us
Now, you need to understand when Christ comes into your life, He gives you the confidence to face the future and you don’t live under fear. You don’t live under fear because you know that’s He is dependable. That the Lord will be faithful. I still remember in 1975 I was asked to be the chairman of the University Christian Union and in our days you were not asked which university, there was only one in kenya. When you became the chairman of the University Christian Union you were not asked which one. In East Africa there also were only Makerere or Dar es Salaam. They were three universities. When you finished A level you could either end up in Makerere or Dar es Salaam or Nairobi. Me I ended up in Nairobi.
But when I became chairman in 1975, what I understood, because I was going to go to my final year after that, what I understood from God is that He was not going to show me whom I am going to get married to as long as I was chairman. Why? I knew you cannot be a good chairman when you are both chairman and hunting. Are you getting the point? If you are not satisfied and you are thinking that the CU chairmanship is the one that will give you opportunity to get a girl, you will end up losing in both areas. Because once people discover you are not ministering to them, you are trying to woo them, will you continue ministering? Nor will you woo them. So, you lose in both camps.
So,I told God, I understand my position. As long as I am chairman do not show me who I will marry. And initially it sounded like a sacrifice because everybody else seemed to enjoy relationships. But I can tell you, that by releasing that thing to say, God is capable of giving me somebody to marry after my chairmanship and it doesn’t have to be now because even if He gave me now I am not ready to get married. So why must I know now? I can wait until it is time to marry.
You know later, now I can give it as a testimony. I discovered how foolish it would have been if I was struggling to find out who I was going to marry when chairing cu. Why? The person I was going to marry was not in the University of Nairobi. So, I would have been wasting my time. We are not even from the same province. She comes from Eastern province, I come from Central province, we have never met and we were not going to meet, until in 1976 Idi Amin and Kenyatta quarreled. And the quarrel was so big, it broke the East African Community. One of the consequences was, Jomo Kenyatta issued a presidential decree that all Kenyan students were going to be removed out of Makerere to the University of Nairobi or if the courses are not available in the University of Nairobi, the government would give them a course somewhere. Some went to Canada, some to America, but they were not to go back to Makerere.
And so beginning my third year, one of my former classmates at Alliance said, I hear you are the chairman of the CU. Yes, I am. I want you to understand we are coming there, and we are coming from a better university than yours. Makerere in East Africa was the best university. People came even from Zambia, Malawi, all of them used to go to Makerere. Nairobi was young university that only started in 1957. So Makerere was there in the 1940s and 1930s. So, it was a big demotion for Makerere students to come to Nairobi. So he said, you must be aware we are coming from a better university. Don’t treat us like first years when we join the Christian Union. I promised him I understand.
So, when the Makerere people had to come for orientation like first years, I always said, welcome our dear freshers and the great brethren from Makerere, like I had promised my former classmate at Alliance high , in a special way. That’s how I welcomed one of the girls who came from Makerere. I used to ask, are you a fresher or a Makerere? A Makerere. Welcome, in a special welcome for Makerere. She is still in my house today. I want you to understand I would have been wasting my time when I was chairman because the girl was not in Nairobi. I got a wife by presidential decree. You need to understand when the Lord wants you to marry someone, they can use the president. Maybe as we talk the person you are marrying is currently in Russia, Putin may have to give a presidential decree since you cannot marry someone you can physically meet. It is not a spiritual affair; you must physically move. So somebody, either you move or she comes. So instead of living worried, I am a third year and nobody has even been tempted to ask. Don’t get worried. When it is a time you have a God in heaven, and either will relocate you or relocate him to meet you.
Remember our topic is contentment. You can live a contented girl yet you have never had a boyfriend. Never had one, and even so far no boy has been tempted to come to your direction. You don’t know how to say no because you never have had to say no. yet , you can be fully contented in God’s hands. Why do you need to be contented? Because you believe in God’s time, He will give you the person you are going to marry.
And I know that is the only area that causes fear. I am just giving an example of an area of discontentment. I don’t know what your area is. But our message is, it is possible to have contentment in every area. In fact, to be born again means to enjoy life not to endure. It means you learn how to be at peace irrespective of the circumstances that are surrounding you.
I want us to start by reading the portion of scripture that is guiding us in this discussion in Philippians 4:11.
11 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances
When boys are all proposing to you, the first one applies on Monday , the second one applies on Wednesday. Then another one applies on Friday. They are so many, I feel, there must be something special about me. Remain contented. I am also contented when nobody is applying. Because the Word of God is saying I have learnt to be content whatever the circumstances.
Day 3
He settles the childless woman in her home as a happy mother of children. Praise the Lord
Then verse twelve even explains more;
12 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 in want.
In other words, you can always tell whether you are a Christian by your sense of contentment in every situation. If you are not contented you will be defined reasons, the reason I am not contented is because I got a C in class. That’s not a reason for you not to be contented, because he is saying I have learnt to be contented in every circumstance. So, you need to come to where you understand this message, that contentment is not external, contentment is internal. The reason why you are contented is not because of the things happening, it is because of who owns you. I belong to God, He is the same yesterday, today and forever, He is able to provide, so I am contented although externally you can’t see the reason to be contented. If you are contented because of the marks you are getting, that’s not contentment from above.
Philippians 4:6 is saying,
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God
7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
And the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will keep your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. If you have peace because your parents are healthy, they have even been sending you extra money even when you don’t need it, so you feel so happy. That is not peace beyond understanding. We understand where your peace is from…. The reason why you are so peaceful and contented is because your boyfriend has told you several times this week how much he loves you and he is such a nice guy in the Lord, and you feel so nice to be having such a boyfriend. That’s not peace beyond understanding. We know why you are contented. Peace beyond understanding is when you have good reason to lack contentment yet you are contented.
Our topic is learning to be contented even when the needs are not met … Somewhere in the 1990s I went to see the doctor and the doctor says, I don’t like what I am seeing. He said, what you have could be fatal. So the first feeling was , aaaah! I am dying, which could be true because the doctor knows better than me. It is a pity that the doctors know your body more than you know it. It can be very frightening. And as I was dealing with that matter of the fact I might die not too long from then, all the same I remembered, the Bible is clear that, Jesus came to rescue those of us who lived under the fear of death. Hebrews 2:15. Now, if I was seen worried my wife will understand,which means if I am not worried it will mean I have peace beyond understanding. And that is the way I dealt with the initial fear, that if the Lord wants me to serve him long term,I will not die. Paul said for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. So, I thought, waaah! That means if the Lord wants me to serve him, even this the doctor is saying is big, He is God the healer. He healed before; He is still healing today. Because He is the same yesterday, today and forever.
Decades later, I am still writing this for you and so you can see I am not dead, I am not a ghost. The Lord has kept me. And you know I could still have lived up to today, but instead of enjoying I would be enduring. But the minute I felt, aaa, that I cannot die one day earlier than God wants me to die, I relaxed. I was now ready to do whatever the Lord had said, and I did not have to believe I must die. But at the same time I was ready to die if that was his will therefore I lived in peace.
I can tell you if you are not ready to die you cannot enjoy living. Similarly, if you don’t know how to enjoy failing an exam, you cannot enjoy studying. You need to be where you are at peace with God’s will. Your responsibility is to study, do your best and then leave the results to God. So as long as you know you did your best, irrespective of the results you get you say, hallelluyah! People still see you smiling, after they have heard you have failed with crawling colours. You know, others pass with flying ones, you, but you failed with crawling ones. And then you are smiling. They say, haiya, this guy, he better see a psychiatrist. No, you don’t require a psychiatrist, you have peace beyond understanding.
So , they don’t understand because it is what you are having is not normal peace, it is beyond understanding. That’s the contentment we are discussing, not the kind of contentment where you can understand why you are contented. So, the Word of God is emphasizing to us, we must look at that from God’s perspective.
You know, lack of contentment drives us to materialism and materialism in turn removes contentment, a vicious circle. What is materialism? But materialism is being driven by the things you see. You see a beautiful girl and you say, God,give me no other. Just get me that one. That’s what Samson told the parents. He said, I have seen a girl. They said, is there no girl in Israel? No, no, no. Don’t worry, I only want this one. Now, if you have worldview then you are materialistic. You are creating dreams only from the things you see. You are told that if you come and join our group you will be rich. You say, ah, rich? I want to be rich. I am coming. You are being materialistic because you are driven by the things you see. That’s what we mean by materialism. The moment you are driven by the things you see, automatically your contentment is gone.
Why? Like I was saying earlier, once you get what you have, you want more, isn’t it? I was telling them how when you have … system, you wish you could get enough money to get a bicycle so that you will be coming from where you are staying to campus. The bicycle would help, isn’t it? But as soon as you get a bicycle, somebody comes passing you driving. You feel like it is too embarrassing to be on a bicycle, yet you were very excited earlier about the bicycle, isn’t it? Then you are driving and after sometime you come and park your ramshackle to go to class. Then somebody parks a Mercedes. Then all over sudden, eeh eeh, I can’t park my car here. So, you will be leaving it outside the gate so that it is not seen that you are driving such a car.
Can you see the trouble? Once you are materialistic, rest assured you will never be contented. Materialistic people by nature never get contented because the more you get the more you want. So, it is important to ask, am I materialistic? You know, it is very important to understand the reason why you will not be contented. You need to understand that God owns all material wealth, absolutely all of it. Biblical worldview is God rules over wealth and requires our obedience to his will in how we use it. It is how we use the wealth that makes us materialistic.
Day 4
A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit.
This is very much an Old Testament view as well. Leviticus twenty-five for example asserts that the land and the people, both, belong to God. This fact put the Israelites in the position of tenants on their own land rather than owners, Leviticus 25:23.
23 “‘The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you reside in my land as foreigners and strangers.
They were obligated not to take advantage of each other and to enslave each other. In Verse seventeen to forty two, they were to follow instead admonition, fear your God. In other words, Israel you will be on my land. When you get very poor you sell part of the land but once seven years were over the land returned back to the original owner. Are you getting the point? That’s where even the Kenyan concept of land lease came from, that you do not own and, land belongs to the government. So they can give you a lease of nine years, ninety years, and some wazungus had nine hundred and ninety years, but it is not permanently yours and your children.
This way it is important to understand that God is giving us a concept that allows us to enjoy contentment. Why? He wants us to know that we are not owners, God is the owner and anything we have, we have in possession and not ownership. You know, I have a car that I drive but the possibility is that I possess the car but the title belongs to somebody else. So you can be possessing something which you don’t own. And the one who owns is not enjoying the car, the one who possesses is the one who is enjoying the car. The day you say you are born again is the day when you surrender everything to God. From then onwards you are a tenant on God’s property. You no longer have, you are no longer an owner. The ownership is not a Christian word. It belongs to God, you only are holding in possession what belongs to God. So what do you become proud with every additional possession.
One of my books, is called A Leader as a Steward. In the book I am trying to explain that we need to come out of materialism to where we start accepting that God owns everything, and because He owns everything we are stewards. Who is a steward? Just Google it up. A steward is a person who managers another’s property. You are a steward if you are managing another person’s property. Christians believe that everything they have is actually not theirs, it belongs to God, they are managing what belongs to God.
Some time back I was speaking to a church that called me to discuss with them. And I told them, they need to understand if you have a wife, she is not really yours, she is God’s property, in your marriage you are managing God’s property. So a husband, the wedding day is a day of accepting responsibility that from now onwards I am responsible to manage this girl. If you don’t manage the girl well, the parents will not even care but there is God who owns thus way you manage or look after your wife, one day you will stand in account.
Do you remember the book of Matthew chapter twenty five talks about the talents? Do you remember there was a day of accountability for those who got the talents? Every husband, one day will give an answer to how he managed that gift of a wife. And it is the same thing with you sisters, isn’t it? The wedding day you are given a a man, ten years later, look at the man, is he healthier or terrible? Now, you need to know God holds you accountable for how you look after that man. You need to understand sometimes you find a man, married yes, he is improving himself professionally, doing courses, and the wife is still having her diploma, never improved. So, at the day of reckoning, God will ask the woman, what did you do? She says, look at him now a professor. I found him when he only had one degree. I have worked on him, now he is doctor so and so. Well done, good and faithful servant. Then the man will be asked, what did I give you? You gave me a diploma girl, she is still that. I knew you are a harsh … so I never did anything about her. You remember what the girl who had only talent was told? It is important to understand that whatever you have God will hold you accountable. Doing your best with whatever God has given you will give you contentment
Day 5
Moreover, when God gives someone wealth and possessions, and the ability to enjoy them, to accept their lot and be happy in their toil—this is a gift of God
To speak or write in God’s name is a gift. To be admitted to study in a university is also a gift .Many people wanted to come to university.You are a first year here, it is a gift God has given you. It doesn’t belong to you. Do you know all it needed for you to fail is to diarrhea during exams and you would not have gotten C plus. You would not have come to university. You are not here because you are clever, you are here because you never diarrhea-ad. Am I right? Do you know someone who got sick people during exams? Did they pass? You are not here because you are clever, there are clever people who never made it to campus. You are here because you did not diarrhea. The Lord held your stomach so you did not diarrhea. So, you need to understand to be a university student is a gift from God.
And you know something? By the time you leave this campus, God will hold you accountable for what you did with the opportunity. The opportunity I gave you to study at University, how did you use it? Maybe you are A material and you are ending up with Bs. Will God be happy with you? And you are here with people who came with C plus and they are living to be Bs. Why? They made use of the opportunity God gave them; they were good stewards.
Now, I want to tell you the reason why I have moved to stewardship as a source of contentment. It is because it is connected to contentment. The moment you understand stewardship, it makes you a contented person. For example, these friends of mine. Now, let’s say I have about four million shillings in my pocket. I want to give you the money to keep it until six o’clock. Okay? So, I am giving one of you two million. The other one I will give you one and a half million. So what will I give the last? Half a million. But remember, work on it but you must me give it back to me at six. If they walk outside and you hear her being proud, and laughing at the last one …hehehe, you are poor people, you don’t have a million. What will you think of her? Very clever. No. You will know you overheard Mr. Ng’ang’a say, it is not their money, they are keeping it for Ng’ang’a at six o’clock. So, is he richer than her? Both of them are equally poor. All they have does not belong to them. That is the concept of stewardship
To understand the guy who gets an A in class is not better than the one who gets a B, it is only they are allocated an A and you are allocated a B as long as both worked equally hard. So it doesn’t matter. It is God who allocates. The critical thing is you do your best, and as long as you do your best, whether you get a C or a B or an A,you are contented. The critical thing is God will not consider the grade . He measures whether you did your best. And in case I am creating it, go back to the book of Matthew chapter twenty-five and you will see out of the three, one guy who had five he finally brought back ten. The other one had two, he brought back four. Do you know in verse twenty-one is the reward for the person who got five. It says, well done good and faithful servant, enter into your Master’s rest. In verse twenty three is now the reward for the servant who only brought four. You would have expected a worse reward because he had not done as much. But unfortunately, it is a repeat, word for word. Verse twenty-three is a repeat of verse twenty one. Well, done good and faithful servant.
Why same reward for different outputs ? God wants us to learn He does not reward us for quantity; He rewards us for faithfulness. What He was interested is, did they do their best? One did their best and brought four, the other one did their best and brought ten, both of them were equally rewarded. So you understand that you are contented with whatever the results for the critical thing is :are you faithful in being steward of what God has given you?
If He has given you little, are you faithful in it? Because the reward is not based on the output, it is based on faithfulness. Machiavelli is reported to have said that the end justifies the means, but God says the opposite. God is more interested in the means than in the end. That’s why we can be witnessing all over campus, nobody gets saved and yet we are still continuing to witness because God will not look at how people you brought to the Lord, God will look at how many people you witnessed to. Are you getting the difference? Because salvation is not your job, it is the Holy Spirit that saves but witnessing is our job. Are you getting the point?
When you understand that, it means that my friend with more wealth will not feel proudly rich, because she has more. She just knows she is allocated more but not that she is richer than the one who output is less. Similarly, the one whose output is less will not feel poor, the richer will not be proud. The one with lower output will never be jealous against the one with more just like you will never be proud against her.
This allows you to have contentment when you start understanding we are different people so we don’t compare ourselves with others, we work on ourselves to be good stewards of the gifts God has given us. If you got a D minus, if God knew He has given you the capacity for a straight A, God will be unhappy with you. Even if you got a B minus when God knows you are C plus material but you are such a good worker you got a B minus, you will get a bigger reward than the one who had A. Only God knows whether you did your best. Your mother doesn’t, your father doesn’t, the lecturer doesn’t, but you know you did your best. If you did your best, the grade will not worry you.
So, you will be contented whatever the results because you know you did your best. That’s what we are talking about when we talk about contentment. It is understanding the concept of stewardship. But materialism is what I am saying is going to give us a lot of frustration. You know Christians, more so than anyone else, should be the first to point out the dangers of materialism. And when we talk about materialism, we are talking about fixation with material goods. We are also talking about temporal pleasures. We are also talking about fixation with right image, what do people think about me. What they think about you is irrelevant because the people do not know you really.
By the way God told Samuel when he was appointing a king, and he was not picking up on the big guys but a small boy, he was told, man looks on the outside but God looks at the inside. So,when it comes to what people think about me, it does not matter.Only look at the outside but God looks at the inside. So, people may not be thinking you are a very good Christian. Don’t worry about them. What does God who looks at the inside see?
Day 6
But all this gives me no satisfaction as long as I see that Jew Mordecai sitting at the king’s gate.
You know, you need to understand materialism can never be the objective of a truly human existence. Complicity in the world’s way of life will practically undermines your devotion to God. And it will be important to escape materialism.
M.S. Warner, in addressing the systematic destruction of the barrier between the demands of the market place or career, and the obligations to family life balance.He says, the shield which one existed between the market place and the family has gone. The market place now reigns supreme and therefore if family and market place come into conflict, the family is clearly overrun because that’s the way the new things are.
But we are suggesting you will not live a contented life with that philosophy of life. Why? The professional life is overriding the family one, yet that employer you are working so hard for, if he just goes bankrupt, you are jobless, isn’t it? You go back to the wife whom you have ignored for several years. Now, even if she is willing to accept you because she is a Christian, you are embarrassed, isn’t it? Now, you need to understand if you are driven by materialism, you will not have a work life balance. Because you feel like to be a success is to become CEO. So you put all your effort to becoming a CEO of a company which is later collapsing.
You need to understand you have several responsibilities. You must do well in the family just as you do well at work, just as you do well in the church. All of them are part of your accountability areas. And you cannot do well in one without doing well in the other and you be a success. Some student do about ten papers for the exam. You can do many. Now, do you know if you pass one in A and all the others are Es, what is your average grade? Will you go to the next semester? No. So you must understand if you are driven by materialism, you are going to be one-sided and you will not be able to balance your life.
You know materialism and consumerism has really brought trouble. Unfortunately, within a culture so driven by consumerism, materialism is just natural. It is what we do. Consumerism is a philosophical juggernaut of our culture. It produces cultural mindset which a bad lifestyle. What car is he driving? Where does he live in Nairobi? Is he in Muthaiga or Mathare? The obsession is with appearance and style as a prevailing value that we rely on to judge people. And once you accept that as judgment, as long as you are not where other people are saying it is good, will you be contented? So you are living in a good house, but it is located in the wrong place you have no joy. Where the consumerist vision is adopted as principle, measurement of life, satisfaction and meaning bring trouble. Career will always supersede the family.
Even after being employed, when situations with critical client deadlines arose, you should stick to your guns of never giving up the worship days. You know when you are driven simply by professional life, material things, you ask yourself, whether I go to Sunday service or not. What will it add in my bank account? Instead, I have to give a tithe. So, it will reduce my bank account. So, you feel like even if it is a Sunday I must report at work. You will be respected by employers for doing so, and peers for holding principled eyes and not bending.
You feel you should always meet deadlines in the long run. If you are meeting deadlines in the long run,where will children be? What I am trying to say is, you need to come to where you are not driven by one thing. Exams do not make you stop attending the CU meeting. Why? You must be both a good student and a good Christian, all at the same time. So, it means it helps you to be balanced. And we are saying contentment will allow you to be able to say no to what you must say no to. Suggesting the Christians who by living in a way that prioritizes family, will necessarily hinder economic growth and as a result lose their place in the economy cannot be true. So, you say, aaaa, if you don’t push time to work you will not do well. This seems rather presumptuous in that they are and have been Christians who have been successful in business without embracing the values of the secular culture. You don’t have to embrace materialism to do well in business or professionally.
I read of the president and CEO of a rather large company and have had no problem holding to those values and still managed to climb to corporate ladder. And there are many in Kenya. The current head of Cooperative Bank is a brother in the Lord, is a friend of mine. The deputy head of KCB is a brother in the Lord and friend of mine. The former head of Family Bank is a brother in the Lord. They are so many that to start assuming that you have to compromise to go to the top now is no longer reasonable.
Some of the best architects that we know in Kenya are people who still are very active in their church in worship and serving the Lord in other ways. What we are saying is,your balance allows you to do well at home and even professionally. So, you should not allow one sidedness. In fact, your approach in living a balanced life contributes to your success. It is not true that success is ultimately rooted in our efforts alone. You need to remember that the providence of God gives us success. See Deuteronomy 8
18 But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.
Are you getting the point? That you need God’s favour for you to do well professionally. Working hard alone is not adequate. And that’s why you will need to have balance.
I need you to see that materialism is the basis of corruption. I have said so far that materialism is living only for what you get, not realizing you are not your own. Materialistic people think that the things they have define them. They hold tight to them because they think that makes them different.
But as God’s instruments for God’s chosen mission, you are wired to achieve. It is not necessarily connected with the things you own. If you can do anything to reach your material mission, shows that you are not dependent on God, you live by the view, the end justifies the means. You are mistaking money for a mission rather than a tool for a mission. It is tool. God will give you money for mission.
Some weekends I have so many invitations to speak I wonder how I make it. If I didn’t have a car, if God had not given me a car, it would not work.One week on a Friday night I was speaking in a professional dinner in Nyeri. I had to come back to Nairobi, drop my wife in Nairobi. Then on Saturday speak in the couples’ meeting. I had to finish in the couples’ meeting early because I was speaking in an evening meeting in Nairobi called Saturday PM. I arrived home late. And I had to wake up very early to be at Jomo Kenyatta University Sunday service on Sunday. If I didn’t have a car, it would not have been possible. However, I do not live for the car. The car is an instrument to do Gods work.
So, we are not playing down on the gifts of God, but we are saying if He wants me to cover four missions in one weekend, He had better give me a car. If He refuses to give me a car, it is because He wants me to drop some of the missions. Are you getting the point? Sometimes I am invited in Nairobi, and I am told by the next weekend I am speaking in Eldoret University, and I have a meeting in Nairobi Saturday morning, I will not be able to drive all the way to Eldoret after that unless I drive at night. Then God must give me enough money to buy an air ticket. Are you getting my point? During one Easter weekend I was speaking in a retreat in Kirinyaga and a focus retreat in Malindi. Which is only possible if God give money for flight. Another week on a Tuesday and Wednesday I was speaking in KSCF in Mombasa, yet on Thursday I am needed in a church in Nairobi. For that to happen God must give me money to fly to Mombasa.
Day 7
That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God
So, we are not suggesting money is not important. We are only saying, you don’t need it itself. You only need what God gives you because then you will be able to do what God wants you to do. The reason He gives you more money is because He wants you to achieve something more.
Please some of us don’t realize that greed is idolatry. They worship things rather than the owner of the things. You are driven; you are not driving your life. When you say you are driven, it means there is something causing you to do things. Instead of being driven you should be driving. That means you choose what to do and when to do it, and choose not to do it when you don’t have to do it.
So, the spirit of contentment allows you to sleep when you must sleep. Do you know rest is compulsory? That’s why God made a Sabbath. He worked for six days, on the seventh day He said we must rest. But you know when you are driven by materialism, you feel like resting you need to apologize. I tell you …Oh, John you are resting? No, no, no. I was only dozing. Because people don’t want to rest, they feel like something wrong when they rest. But when you have contentment, you can rest because you know God is the provider and as long as you are doing your best, you know God will provide.
I can say that, about fifty years after university. I can give testimony that the Lord has looked after me through my years of working until I retired. And I did not retire to rest, I retired to get new tyres. And when you get new tyres is because there is a new journey. So, I have not retired, I have retyred, I have new tyres.
Although I am a pensioner, the Lord has given me many things to do. It is important to understand clearly that the Lord is able to provide for me because I used to do a regional job and travelling to many countries, I got the impression that as soon as, I am now a pensioner, I will stop flying. I have been to many countries after I have retired, countries that were never my area under Shell, because it is Shell that was making me travel. The countries that Shell was not represented I didn’t go, but, since I retired, I have got to many others. I have been to countries that I never went to earlier. I never imagined that I can be in Chad. Went to central Africa. I could not imagine I would be in central Africa. One year I was in Zambia two times. God opens doors and finances them. That He himself is able to provide.
It is important to understand you should not look at material things as the objective. God will give you when you need them even when you don’t have them now, just like He can relocate Rebecca from Makerere to Nairobi just before I graduate so I meet her and later marry her. He is able to organize those.
Colossians 3:5 says,
put to death therefore whatever belongs to your earthly nature, sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.
That, that being driven by material things is actually idol worship. When you feel like, I must have it, if I don’t have it, what happens to me?That tells you, you have stopped worshipping God and worshipping things. You need to relax to where you know God the provider and you know although there is no evidence currently, He will provide in time. He is not limited. Remember He created the earth out of nothing. So, you don’t have to see signs of a boy who is looking interested in you yet. He will give you a husband exactly when you need a husband, and there needs not to be evidence in advance, because He can create something out of nothing.
The only important thing, and I want you to understand this so that you don’t miss my point, contentment, does not mean laziness. You cannot be lazy and be a Christian. Christians do their best always on order to honor God. In whatever it is you give them; they are always doing their best. However, they are not worried about the results, they leave the results to God.
So, you should not ever get the impression that contentment makes you not work hard, but it just means at every position you happen to be in you are happy to be there even if you know God can give you better into the future. That you are in joy here but you don’t close to the doors for the future. The trouble is because you are so ambitious about the future, not to enjoy what you are doing today. You are saying, enjoy singlehood, but that does not mean one day you will not get married. By not enjoying your singlehood, it will not make you enjoy marriage more. So, you can enjoy your singlehood and still enjoy your marriage.
Enjoy your days of poverty. Not enjoying your days of poverty will not make you enjoy your days of wealth more. Enjoy your one dress. You know, the one you have to have wear on Sundays. Now, enjoy those days. There will come days when you stand there amazed with your wardrobe wondering, which one? This one or this one? Husband, please come and help me. Do you want the red one or the green one? Those days are coming, but if you are not enjoying your single dress time, when you don’t have a lot of work in choosing, you lose the opportunity. … Now, enjoy those days. Enjoy those days fully.
So that it means you will enjoy the journey and still enjoy the destination. A lot of people only wait to enjoy the destination; they don’t want to enjoy the journey. Contentment is enjoying the journey and still enjoy the destination.
The question is, as you go before God, are you really contented? In the things we are discussing, can you discover why you are not contented? We have emphasized that it is important you come to where you truly enjoy your life irrespective of the circumstance you happen to be in. You accept it and live to enjoy it. So the question mark, are you enjoying it? The Word of God is saying, you can enjoy it but it all begins by surrendering your life to the Lord, allowing Him to take you over. You you will not be worried about tomorrow because you are sure God has taken care of it hence you enjoy today without worrying about tomorrow. But that begins when you surrender your life to the Lord.
The Lord said that he came to give us life and give us life with abundance. I want to enjoy life with abundance, whatever I have, whatever I don’t have, I want to live a life of joy.
So may God take over the running of our lives so that we will be stewards rather than owners of the things around us so that we will only manage them to please Him. And we will be at peace with whatever we have for we know whether it is much or little it is not ours, it belongs to God.