2020 Interview with Pastor Jim Lovejoy (Seated & Joined)

Check Your Self Before You Wreck Yourself

The Real Leader (2020 Leadership Class)

10 Things About Character

The Rebellious Leader (2020 Leadership Class)

One Handed Blessing

5 Rules Of Gossip & Real Relationships

Praise Him In Your Famine

Under The Influence Of Praise

The Reluctant Leader (2020 Leadership Class)

6 Salvations

From Good To Better

Bundle Up Buttercup! (A look at Contentment)

“Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever STATE I am, therewith to be content.” Philippians 4:11

Obviously, the Apostle Paul is referring to CONTENTMENT & not necessarily an actual STATE. But let’s just suppose he’s referring to geography too. 

What’s with people who are always talking about being somewhere else?

• “It’s too cold in the north, I want to be in the south.”
• “I don’t like it here, I want to be there.”
• “I’ve always dreamed of living in a certain place.”
• “If I could just get out of here.”

They act like where they are at now is so bad. The truth be known, if they move, when they get over “there” they’ll find another set of things that aren’t perfect. 

Adam & Eve were living in PARADISE (The Garden Of Eden) & they still couldn’t be content. They were in utopia & still had issues. 

GEOGRAPHY cannot & will not fix YOU!

A NEW SPOUSE cannot & will not fix YOU!

A NEW CHURCH cannot & will not fix YOU!

The spirit of ESCAPISM is rampantly jumping on folks. The same people who mask their decisions for “happiness, closeness & newness” end up AIMLESS. 

You have to learn how to be CONTENT where you are.  Then & only then can you learn what you need to learn. 

You have to FLOURISH where you’re PLANTED to have the testimony of Jeremiah 17!

“But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit.”

Jeremiah 17:7-8 NLT

I’m thankful for where I’m at. Whatever season it is....Young/Old...Warm/Cold...Etc. 

I’d rather be in the perfect will of God, where he planted me, then be drifting aimless with unsettledness. 

So many people I’ve met & even pastored, have great ambitions but have never mastered this CONTENTMENT issue. They leave a good church & you never hear them talk about being heavily involved in another church. Seems to me that if it was such a “God move” having a spiritual home & a pastoral covering would be top of the priority list & they’d be talking it up!!!

Focus on where God has you. Then & there is where & when you’ll find CONTENTMENT.  

You can be PHYSICALLY warm yet SPIRITUALLY cold.   

DETERMINE TODAY...

• I set the CLIMATE where I am. 
• I’m the THERMOSTAT not the THERMOMETER. 
• I don’t have to have something ELSE when I’ve already been given so much!

If you can master the issue of CONTENTMENT in your life, you won’t be always walking around DISSATISFIED, DISGUSTED or DISGRUNTLED!

You’ll be at PEACE knowing you’re in the PROVIDENCE of God. 

Bundle up buttercup. It’s cold today...but it will be warm soon & SPRING will bring a new perspective!

Until...I’m just gonna keep be FAITHFUL & FRUITFUL where I’m at. 

Selah