Contentment In The Lord’s Churches.

Philippians 4:11 - 12 "Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. (12.) I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need." I know this is really to us the believer’s however today I would like to point this to the Lord’s churches. We are living in a time of apostasy where many have left the Lord’s churches for a good time and feeling in the religious places of worship. I am a firm believer that we are living in the last days and the Lords return is not so far away. However the reason, it is a fact that the Lord’s churches are all feeling the pains of smaller membership, less money, fewer visitors, and even less people being saved. But as churches we all must remain CONTENT at all times in the churches as we must in our personal life. Being content means to be satisfied, and the reason for this is because we cannot change any of it on our own. Everything to the churches are in the Lord’s hands and He will do as He pleases in them all. We must all (as Paul said) learn that whatsoever state we are in to be content and remain happy in the Lord. Your Pastor is God’s servant to the church; in Revelations the Pastors are called “Angels” which means messengers. They neither are church builders nor are they money raisers, nor are they saviour’s, they are simply servants of Jesus Christ to the Lord’s churches. The Lord blesses the churches that are content in whatever state they are in and He never said it would be easy, but He did promise not to put more bad on us than we could handle. Paul said he had experienced both “abased” (that is to be trampled upon by man, to suffer hardships) and to “abound” (that is to excel) and whether the times were good or bad we are all to be content. Paul went on to say “…in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need." We are to both be full and hungry and both to excel and to suffer hardships. In my 9 years as Pastor here in Texarkana we have been through all these thing and as of right now we are being richly blessed but who knows tomorrow it may all fall apart, but whatever the Lord gives us we will certainly learn to be content. Please dear brethren do not fret if things are not going so well in your church because God is in charge and all things are His blessed will. Churches get into trouble when they fret and start attempting to make things happen; we simply cannot do Gods work for Him because if we mess up He may remove the candlestick. All we can do brethren is to continue to teach and walk in truth and trust God to do all the other. He is in charge and He is the only one who can make the bad times better. Paul went on to say in Philippians 3:8 “Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,” I would not trade the knowledge that Christ has given me for a church full of people because if I did it would be all for loss. We must count all things as dung rather than to change who we are or what we teach for gain on the other side. The sovereign grace of God is worth more than a hundred new members any old day. Folks stay true to Gods word and He will stay true to you, what have you gained, if you gain the whole world and lost your own soul. That is exactly what churches give up when they change for gain. Times and likes may change but God never changes. Let us all continue to pray and for one another that Jesus will return soon and take us all home so that the Bride can be joined with her Groom.