In this sermon, the speaker addresses a group of young people and emphasizes the importance of finding rest in Jesus. He quotes Matthew 11:28, where Jesus invites those who are weary and burdened to come to Him for rest. The speaker also highlights the need to seek the old paths and follow God's ways, even when the world may not see the relevance. He warns against seeking satisfaction in worldly pursuits and encourages contentment in Christ. The sermon emphasizes the importance of discipline and finding true contentment in God rather than seeking entertainment from the world.

Hello, this is Brother Denny. Welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold. You are welcome to make copies for your friends and neighbors. If you would like additional messages, please go to our website for a complete listing at www.charityministries.org. If you would like a catalog of other sermons, please call 1-800-227-7902 or write to Charity Ministries, 400 West Main Street, Suite 1, EFRA, PA 17522. These messages are offered to all without charge by the freewill offerings of God's people. A special thank you to all who support this ministry. Good morning to all of you. I never saw so many young people from the front at one time. It's good to see your faces. Some of you I know, some I don't. But I trust this morning that God's been working this week in your lives. Young people with lots of energy, with zeal and courage. The world needs some like you. The world needs you. God needs you in this world. Sure does. I was meditating and thinking about what I would share with you all in this time. And a number of subjects came to my mind, but there's one that kept coming back to me. And it's one that I suppose you would think that it doesn't apply to this age. At least the world today doesn't think so. But I really believe that it's important for our Christian life. Jesus said in Matthew 11, 28, Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, which I trust that that's what you were doing this week. You were learning of Him. Did you learn something about Jesus this week? Amen. Anybody tells us to take that yoke. You know what a yoke is? A yoke is that thing that hooks you together. It hooks you together with something. If you take a yoke, it kind of connects you with something else and you have to walk with it. I remember years ago, raised on an Amish farm where we used to farm with horses. And we would sometimes take a young colt that was very untrained and undisciplined, and we would throw a harness on him and we would hitch him on side of this team of horses and put a stick, we called it a jockey stick. And that would yoke that horse to the team, that colt. And as he'd drive this team, this colt would take off. He'd run ahead and then the stick would jerk him back. Then he'd fly back and then the stick would pull him up and he'd just be rocking back and forth there for a while until finally he learned a secret of just walking along with the team. He just kept pace, finally learned to just keep pace. And in doing that, he would also learn to pull his share of the load. And so it is, when we take the yoke upon us, walking with Jesus, sometimes we're just like that young colt, you know. We fly ahead and then we have to come back. We lag behind and we get pulled up. And we have to learn to walk in stride with the Lord. As young people, I believe that all of us have things like that to learn in life, because I know I did in my life. I've had to learn some of those things. Learning to walk together with God. But the title of my message this morning is Contentment and Youth. Contentment. Now, I don't mean to put a fire hose on your zeal this morning. I really don't believe that real godly contentment will do that. It won't put a fire hose on your zeal. If you have a zeal and a fire burning in your soul for the Lord, I encourage you to let it burn and to keep going with that. But, learn the secret of contentment. And you might think, well, contentment sounds like an old man's subject, doesn't it? Sounds like it ought to be an old man's subject that sits in a rocking chair and doesn't have much to do with contentment. Well, it is probably something that old men seem to reflect on more than young people. But, contentment has many blessings to it if you learn the secret of it. Let's turn our Bibles to Lamentations, chapter 3. This morning we look at Jeremiah who learned some secrets of contentment here, I believe. Lamentations, chapter 3. He says here, I am a man that has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. He hath led me and brought me into darkness, but not into light. Surely against me is he turned. He turneth his hand against me all the day. My flesh and my skin hath he made old. He hath broken my bones. He hath builded against me and compassed me with gall and travail. He hath set me in dark places as they that be dead of old. He hath hedged me about that I cannot get out. He hath made my chain heavy. Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer. He hath enclosed my ways with hewn stone. He hath made my paths crooked. He was unto me as a bear lying in wait and as a lion in secret places. He hath turned aside my ways and pulled me in pieces. He hath made me desolate. He hath bent his bow and set me as a mark for the arrow. He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins. I was a derision to all my people and their song all the day. He hath filled me with bitterness. He hath made me drunken with wormwood. He hath also broken my teeth with gravel and stones. He has covered me with ashes. Thou hast removed my soul far off from peace. I forgot prosperity. I said, my strength and my hope is perished from the Lord, remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. My soul hath them still in remembrance and is humbled in me. I don't know if you all have ever experienced anything of this nature, but we hear sometimes terms like, he brought me into darkness or he turned, it seems like everything is against me. His hand is turned against me and I'm just all hedged in. I can't do anything. He enclosed my ways and I feel like I'm just being pulled to pieces. Did you ever hear that? That's the way Jeremiah was feeling here at this time. And then he goes on and he says in verse 21, This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. Then he starts thinking of something else. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. Do you realize that this morning? Though all the things that you may encounter in your life that may seem so hard and so difficult, it's of God's mercies that we're not consumed. We're not consumed because God has compassion upon us. It doesn't seem like compassion right when you're going through things like that, but he does have compassion. Recall this in your mind at times like this and remember that his mercies are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness, he says. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul. Therefore will I hope in him. The Lord is my portion. Is he your portion this morning? Is the Lord the portion of your life this morning? The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he has borne it upon him. He puts his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope. He gives his cheek to him that smiteth him. He is filled full of reproach, for the Lord will not cast off forever, but though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion, according to the multitude of his mercies. He does not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of man to crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth, to turn aside the right of a man before the face of the Most High, to subvert a man in his cause the Lord approves not. Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not, out of the mouth of the Most High proceedeth not evil and good? Wherefore does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? Let us, let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord. And let us lift up our hearts with our hands unto the God in the heavens. Let us do that this morning. Let us do that. God has purpose for us, and we have, don't forget this, as Christians, as believers, we have blessed promises. We have a blessed heritage. When God is a portion of our life, and it's good, as it says in verse 27, for a man to bear the yoke, that yoke of divine or godly discipline, godly discipline in your own life. That discipline of contentment is one of those godly disciplines. Contentment. To quietly wait and hope. While you wait, while you are content and you wait, you've got time, don't you? You've got time to reflect. You've got time to meditate and reflect. You've got time to pray. You've got time to rest. America is a very restless nation. This USA that we live in is a very restless nation. And God needs some people that are resting in Him. But the part I would like to share this morning, one of the first things, and if you forget everything else, then remember this. Contentment is only found in Jesus Christ. It's only found in Jesus Christ. All that life brings us, that comes our way in life, is meant for our good. It's meant to make us fit for heaven. Do you believe that? Everything that God brings our way, troubles, trials, difficulties, rules, anything, moms and dads that don't understand us, and all this kind of thing. Do you know? All these things that you think are so hard are really meant for your good. They're meant to bring you to heaven. They're meant to bring you to know Jesus. And maybe this morning, this thing of contentment looks like a big mountain to you. And like I said, you may think that it's for some old grandpa and grandma that just sits in their rocking chair and has plenty of time to rock away. And it's not for this new technology society, this space age that we live in where everything goes zoom. Contentment. You might think that it's just not made for this. And maybe you say that mom and dad just don't understand me. And you may say, Preacher, you don't understand me either. Nobody lets me do anything. I'm just hedged in. I can't do anything. And all my friends, they get to do stuff, but I'm not allowed to. Mom and dad don't let me do stuff. You young people, you might say, well, you old folks, you just don't know what's all out there. You know, there's so much stuff out there for us to do. Yeah, there is. You might bemoan the fact that you can't do it. That you're not allowed to. Times have changed. But with all the new entertainments, the gadgets, and all this high tech computer age stuff that we have, the inventions, Americans are more dissatisfied than they ever were before. They are not happy. They are not satisfied. A hundred years ago, there was a survey taken and it revealed that the average American had 70 wants. And recently, a similar survey was taken and it showed that the grandson of these Americans had 500 wants on their list. I wonder, and that was some time back, so I'm guessing it's more like a thousand wants now. Americans are almost everything else but content. But you know, these things are penetrating into the churches too. They're coming right in. And you young people are targets. You are the targets that they're aiming for to make you discontent. There's probably no other nation in the whole world that is as discontent as America. If you go to the Walmarts in the evening, they're loaded with young people. You know where they're at? They're back in the entertainment sections and the places where they're looking for videos and movies and this type of stuff. I was here recently. I was in a Walmart up home and I was surprised who I saw back in that section looking at the movies and looking at stuff that is very questionable. Everything is set up too for you to buy it. You know, you make money. You've got your money full of pockets. You've just got your paycheck on Friday evening and let's go to the Walmart. This money has got to be spent. It's burning a hole in your pocket. And off you go to the Walmart and first thing you know, you've bloated it all away on frivolous stuff that really doesn't benefit you. It will not make you content because the next time you come in there, they'll have something new for you to buy and they want you to try everything that they've got. So it won't entertain you. By the way, do you really want the world to entertain you? Is that what you want? Do you think that's the right entertainment we need? But if you even don't have the money, you don't need to. You can use your credit card and you can get it on an easy payment plan of maybe $5.95 for a month for the next five years. They've got it all set up that you can buy without money. Long ago, the old folks used to say, we were taught to live within our means. And long ago, we'd do with what we had. If we didn't have money to buy it, we didn't buy it. We made do with what we had. And we learned that you could be happy without it. You really can. You can be happy without things. You don't really need a lot of things to make you happy because things won't make you happy. Today, what the people in the US call emergencies or necessities, most people in the world live that way all the time. They live without this stuff that we think we have to have. Most of the people, if you wouldn't have a refrigerator at home, you would probably say, boy, this is kind of like living in an emergency, right? Or maybe if the electric goes off for a whole day, what do you do? You know, this is real emergency living. But most of the people in the world don't have electricity. Do you know that? Most of the people in the world don't have a refrigerator. Most of the people in the world don't even have a stove to cook on. Now, if you didn't have no stove to cook on, they'd cook outside maybe with a few sticks. They cook what little they have to eat. Now, if you had a refrigerator and all you had in it was one little bowl of corn and that was your provision for the day for you and your whole family, you'd say that's a state of emergency. But you know, there's a lot of people in the world that don't have more than that in their possession. Not in a refrigerator. But they don't have more than that in their possession. I always think it'd be good for every young person to go to a place like Haiti or some place like that and just really see what other people live like. I know what it did to me when I went. I went into this one... We went to see this one man that had cut his foot. He lived in a little hut that was probably... Well, the bed took up most of it. And he had a little curtain through it and had a little table about, oh, maybe three foot by three foot, something like that, sitting in there. Just a rough, very rough table. And he had one bowl on there with some corn, field corn. I didn't see anything in the whole house that he could have eaten other than that. But there he was, him and his wife. Young man. And the roof, it wouldn't have kept the water off very much. The water would run through the bottom of his little house that he lived in. I think maybe he had two chairs that were outside. But you know, a lot of people in the world don't have any more than that. And I'm not saying that they're necessarily content. Not all of them are content either. But we as Americans, we forget what we really do have. We really should learn to be more content than we are. Learn to be satisfied. Learn to live within your means. Just because mom and dad have a nice house and all the fine furniture, it doesn't mean that you have to have the same thing when you start off. But if you can learn to live within your means, you'll be a much happier person. In Jeremiah 6.16, I'd like to turn to that. There we see, it was a time here when Jerusalem or the children of Israel were prospering. And it talks about the prosperity there. And Jeremiah was instructed to blow the trumpet and sound a warning because there was a great destruction coming upon the country. And it tells us there that the people were given to covetousness from the least to the greatest, from the youngest to the oldest. Everybody's heart was going after covetousness. And the prophet and a priest, it says, dealt falsely. They healed the people slightly by saying, peace, peace, it's okay. It's okay. Peace, peace. When there was no peace. There was no contentment. There was nothing peaceful there. They were not ashamed of their covetous hearts. And the Lord warned them that He would cast them down. Things are going to change. The Lord was going to cast them down. And then He tells us in verse 16 of chapter 6, Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and the walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, we will not walk therein. Also I sent watchmen over you, saying hear, or hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, we won't listen to the trumpet. A stubborn people, a people that wouldn't listen to what God was trying to tell them. But He said, stand in the way, and ask again for the old paths, the good way, and walk therein. Now we can't go back to the old paths as far as time is concerned, but we can ask for the old paths today. We can go back to the old principles of God that are still solid and right and good, and live therein. Young people, I want to encourage you in that. Ask for those old ways, those truths, the old truths that held your forefathers and held your parents and guided them the right way. Ask for those old truths. You want to learn those truths that will show you the right way to go. He said, He says here, those old paths, those good ways, therein you'll find rest for your souls. There you'll find contentment. There you won't find that contentment in the new society, in the new way of thinking, in the new age movement. You won't find that contentment. You won't find that contentment in technology, modern society. You won't find it, but you will find it when you go back to the old ways, God's ways. Those are the old ways he's talking about. Going back to God's principles and living a life that is free from covetousness. Rest and contentment. That's the reward for walking in God's ways. Unrest. Murmuring. Grumla. In Dutch. Grumla veer des, and grumla veer sel. Grumbling about this, and grumbling about that. Complaining. Nie net gesatisfied. Never satisfied. But those are all the results of no contentment. My dad used to have a saying when I was a boy. He'd repeat this often to me, to us children, but he'd say, man's a fool. When it's hot, he wants it cool. When it's cool, he wants it hot. Always wanting what is not, and never pleased with what is God. Well, in the New Testament, we want to look at contentment in the New Testament. Let's turn our Bibles to... I don't have that Scripture down. I think it's in Luke, where John the Baptist was preaching. Yes. And John the Baptist was preaching here in chapter 3 of Luke. He was this old man that came out of the wilderness and people asked him, who you are? And he said, I'm just a voice crying in the wilderness, preparing you the way of the Lord and make His path straight, he says in verse 4. But anyhow, while he was there preaching and telling and warning the people to repent, then there were some soldiers that came to him and they asked him, what shall we do? And John said to them, do violence to no man. Neither accuse any falsely. And be content with your wages. That was interesting. Be content with your wages. A sign of repentant hearts. Be content with your wages. Are you content with your wages? That would be a new doctrine for Americans, wouldn't it? Being content with your wages. Philippians 4, verse 11. Paul writes here, not that I speak in respect of want, for I have learned that whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. Paul said, I've learned to live both ways. I've learned to live full and I've learned to live empty. I've learned to be satisfied. I've learned to be content however God brings it to me. Whatever my lot in life is, I've learned to be content. That's a great secret to learn. That's a great blessing to learn. Learning to be content. In 1 Timothy 6, verse 6, it says, maybe I should even read verse 5. It says, Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds destined to the truth, supposing that gain is godliness, from such withdraw thyself, but godliness with contentment is great gain. It's not gain that is godliness, he's saying here, but he says, godliness with contentment is great gain. And then go on down, verse 8 says, For we brought nothing into this world, it's certain we can carry nothing out, and having food and raiment, let us be there with content. In Hebrews 13, verse 5, let your conversation, let your walk of life, be without covetousness, and be content with such things as ye have. For he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. What a promise! And you stop and think, contentment is the only way we can have that, is really when we're settled at peace with Jesus Christ. When we're satisfied with Him, we are content. And then He gives us that promise, I will never leave you, nor forsake you. He said, I will be with you even unto the end of the world. He will always be with us. We've got a reason to be content. We really do. We have much reason to be content. And the meaning of contentment this is interesting, but it means to be completely sufficient. Completely sufficient. Fulfilled. Satisfied. Complete. Are you complete? Are you completely fulfilled? Are you satisfied? Is He enough? Are you sufficient this morning? Completely sufficient in Christ. How do we reach that Jehi calling? Well, it tells us in Colossians 2.10 that ye are complete in Him. You're not all there if you're not complete in Him. If you don't have Christ, you're just not all there. That's the fact. There's something missing. You're not all there. But with Him, you're all there. You're complete. And you're completely sufficient. Godliness, which means God-likeness, and contentment, which means complete sufficiency in Christ. So if you have God-likeness and complete sufficiency in Christ, you've got great gain, the Bible says. That's great gain. That's the best interest you could ever get. Long ago, when I was a little boy, I remember seeing this little slogan on carnation milk cans. They used to have this slogan. It had a picture of a cow laying in the green pasture. And she was just laying there chewing her cud. And the slogan was milk from contented cows. The one secret that comes from... There's a secret to milking. A dairy farmer knows that if he can keep his cows contented, he'll get more milk. Do you know that? He'll have better milk and more milk from a cow that is contented. And a cow that's under stress, that is under heavy stress and isn't relaxed while she's being milked will not give much milk. Matter of fact, if a cow is too stressed out, she'll hold her milk and she won't give milk. I don't know how many of you are raised on a dairy farm or know much about milking, but that's one of the secrets about getting milk out of a cow is to get her relaxed. And so she's not under stress. So are you finding that complete satisfaction in Jesus? Are you contented to be in His presence or does it make you a little uneasy to be in His presence? Or do you get uneasy being around people that like to talk about Jesus and about spiritual things? Do you get uneasy about things like that when people talk about peace? That's a good question. I had a picture here. Somebody drew this on here. I don't know how to get this up for sure. Okay. I don't know what it did. Somebody else did it I think. But that's a common thing for people today. The grass looks always greener on the other side, doesn't it? It's two mules. One is stretching over this way, pushing on the fence to eat the grass over here. And he's pushing so hard because the grass looks greener over here. One time I saw this cartoon. It had a picture of a cow that was reaching through the fence and around the post and was eating the grass on this side. How about us? Are we stretching? Do we always think the grass is so much greener over there on the other side? Everybody else has it so much nicer than we do. Other young people, they can just do stuff that I can't do. We're always looking for something greener, something out there. And in the meantime, you know what we're doing? We're stomping down the grass. We're stomping down the grass that could be ours. The green grass that's on our side of the fence. All the blessings we could have if we were just content to stay on our side of the fence. Are you coveting things you're not allowed to have? Oh, if mom and dad wouldn't be so strict, what would I do? Are you? Is the fence holding you back? Are the rules that mom and dad... You can be thankful if they're holding you, but you really don't have to be a fence rider. You don't have to. Life is much more a blessing if you don't have to be pushing that fence all the time. And one of the things that you can do when you're content is count your blessings. When you're content, you can count your blessings. You can just stop and reflect and say, mine. God's mercies are new to me every day. I have so much to thank God for. I'm so glad I have a mom and dad that really do care enough about me to keep me from doing things I shouldn't do. I'm just so glad that I have a mom and dad that don't let me go to the Walmart and say, what do you want there, son or daughter? They ask questions. They say, why do you want to go there? What is it that you really need? Or maybe you have a mom and dad that's concerned about you and would like to help you save your money rather than just spend it all and they're trying to guide you in that. You can just be thankful maybe you have some money in the bank now because mom and dad helped you to save that. I think those are things that children need to learn, even from a little child up. There's so many little children grow up today and they have all the toys they want. Do you ever go into a room where the little children were playing with their toys and they'd go through the box and they'd pull this out and throw it here, throw it there, throw another one over there, throw them. Very soon, the basket was empty and their toys were everywhere across the room, but they still weren't satisfied. They want something, so they go crying and they're looking for something else to pull off of the shelf and throw around. They're not learning contentment. They're not learning contentment. I remember seeing little children that didn't have toys at all and they would be pushing a stick through the dirt or maybe have a stick with a little round thing on the end and they'd be pushing that around. That's all the toy they had and they were happy. They were happy. I think we do... If you ever get married, we'll talk about that later, but if you ever get married, that's something you want to try to teach your children, something about contentment, being content. Start them young in that because I think you won't regret it. There was an old Quaker who advertised that he'd give 40 acres of rich farmland to anyone who was perfectly satisfied with that which he had. And one day, a seeker came to him and the old Quaker asked, are thee perfectly satisfied with what thou hast? And hopefully he said, yes. He was hoping for this land. Then why dost thou want this land? If you're perfectly satisfied, why do you want this land? Are thou perfectly satisfied? Young man, young lady, are thou perfectly satisfied? Why do you want more than that? Godliness with contentment is great gain. Are you satisfied? I'm going to ask you a bunch of questions. Are you satisfied with yourself? You look in the mirror and you say, oh, my ears stick out so bad. So you try to make your ears stand back and you try to make your nose turn straight. You're not satisfied. Are you content with the way God made you? Or do you have to, especially for ladies, do you have to try to wear high heels to try to make you a little cupid taller than what you are? Can you add a cupid more to your statue that way? Are you satisfied with how tall you are? Are you satisfied with the way you look? Or do you think you could paint yourself up a little bit? That would make you look different? And when the rain comes and washes the paint off, you're still going to be the same. Are you satisfied with yourself? Do you need to have a new dress because Susie's got a new dress? Or maybe she has some new material and you just need a new dress too because she has one. Or maybe, young man, maybe you need a new shirt. You don't have the right brand. I don't know where you look for the brand, but anyhow, you've got to have the right brand shirt or it just won't wear well. So you want to go to Cabela's and get a shirt that is just right, the right kind. Or the pants you wear, maybe they're not Levi's. Levi's, I guess those are supposed to be the good ones. I don't know. Are you content with just wearing save and serve clothes? Would you be content with just buying some shirts that say save and serve? Or the Goodwill store down the street. When you can buy them for 50 cents or a dollar and you can wear them and they're good, why would you go spend $10 for one and put the rest of it in savings? Or maybe you struggle with showing off. Maybe you struggle with showing off. You'd like to be attractive and you want to show off. You get attracted to those hot wheels that are on that new Corvette that the neighbor boy has. You think that looks really neat. That's cool, you know, they say. Godliness with contentment is great gain. Watch your eyes. Watch your eyes. Only look at those things that are what God really wants you to see and you'll be content. If you look on things from a real standpoint, do you ever stop to think those Corvettes or those really slick looking cars that they have, they really don't have any more to get you down the road than an old Ford does. They really don't. And maybe you can drive the thing and it would lay some black rubber marks on the road, but you're just wasting your rubber. You are. And there's young boys that think that, oh, this is really a thrill, you know, to do this. It really doesn't help you one bit. Don't be attracted by such foolish stuff. I sometimes, well, I guess I'm an old man, but I really just think it's foolish. I think it's foolish for young men to waste their money away, burning their rubber on the road, leaving it there when they could be wearing those tires out for the Lord instead of wearing them out for themselves trying to get some attention. Maybe you're attracted by these oily hairstyles that people have today too. I don't know. You know, godliness with contentment is great gain. I'll tell you, it's not godly. That's not godly. Is it? To be all frizzled up and frazzled up. Is that godliness? What is godliness? What is contentment? It's being sufficient in Christ. Are you sufficient in Christ? It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if your hair are dry or wet. That doesn't help you one bit. Well, are you satisfied? Are you content with your parents? Are you satisfied with your parents? Do you like to be around mom and dad? Or do you try to... you just can't hardly stand being around them too long. Would you rather maybe move out and live by yourself? They're so old-fashioned. They're so strict and they're slow and they don't understand. And maybe you live in a home that is not quite ideal. Maybe it's not ideal. Maybe your mom and dad aren't Christians and maybe there are things like that. There are some of you here that probably that is the situation. But let me tell you, you can still honor your mom and dad even if they're not Christians. If they don't ask you to do something that's wrong, you can obey them. You can obey them. If they don't ask you to do something that's absolutely against the Bible, you can go by the Bible. If it's not against the Bible, you can obey them. And even if they do ask you to do something wrong, you don't have to obey them in doing something wrong, but you can still honor them. You can respect them. You can show respect to them. Are you contented with your parents? Are you satisfied? Are you glad that God gave you parents like you have? I think it's something that every young person should thank God for. If they're believers or not, you need to thank God for the parents that God gave you. Are you content? Now, this is where we're coming into some real serious things. Are you content to wait on God to lead you in courtship? Are you content or are you anxious? Are you like 13 years old, 14 years old, they're already saying, why? I've got to get out with the young people. I'm a teenager now. I've got to go because I want to get married. 13 years old, 14 years old. There's those young ones in the world today that think they have to have a boyfriend already when they're that young. Shame on you. Learn to be content. Even if you're 30 years old, can you still wait on God? I don't think there's anybody in here. Is there anybody in here that's 30 years old of you young people? I don't think you're supposed to be here if you are. Okay, you're allowed to be here. But, there's so many times young daughters or girls especially, they get older and they say, well, I'm just a plain Jane and nobody notices me and I don't know if I'll get married. I'd like to get married. And so you start maybe trying to do things to attract attention and things like that. Or maybe you jump for the first opportunity that you have even if it's not a good opportunity. Maybe it's not really the ideal. Maybe your parents would not approve of it or something like that. And you just can't wait. And so you take a leap in the dark and you regret it the rest of your life. That has happened so many times. That's why I say, courtship, don't be in a hurry. Let God lead you. Let God bring you together. Are you content to be at home in the evenings? America has a big problem with that. Young people are not content. Let's go somewhere. Life is so boring. We can't go anywhere. I've got to do something. I remember as a teenage boy myself, weekends was what I lived for. I lived all week for the weekends and then I would go to my friends and come home and then I was miserable and really wasn't satisfied. Without Christ, I wasn't satisfied. And you will not be satisfied without Christ. You will not be content without Christ. You can waste your time away playing games. You can play ball every day of the week and you will not be satisfied without Christ. So many times young people are so bored they can't do anything. If they don't have something to do, they get bored and they want to go to town. They want to go shopping. They go out down to the mall or whatever. Go to the games. It's discontentment. It's not going to make them happy. Are you content? Are you going to be content? Do you think you could discipline yourself? Have some divine discipline and just discipline yourself to learn this secret of contentment. To be satisfied with mom and dad. Sit in the living room with mom and dad and appreciate their presence. Can you content yourself to drive behind a car that's driving the speed limit? In Paraguay, we lived down there a while and down there it seemed like every time you'd come up behind a truck, you had to pass the thing. I mean, there was no thing like following behind a truck or a car. You always passed that one and you saw the next one way out ahead and you'd race up to that one and try to pass it too. That's the mentality that they had. Speed limits didn't matter. You had to pass the next vehicle ahead of you. Well, that don't work here in the USA, that I will say. But can we content ourselves when someone is going the speed limit or do we have to pass them? Do you spend your allowance or paycheck as soon as you get it? Does it have to be spent? Or can you save some up? Would you be contented to just try to save some up? This is a good discipline for you to learn. And like I shared earlier, when you get married, do you think you can live within your means even if it's on the poverty level of the USA? The USA has a standard of poverty level. They consider a certain amount of income as poverty level. Even if you're living in poverty level, are you still willing to live within your means? Contentment produces patience. It produces that beautiful golden virtue of patience. You want some of that? You like to be around people that are patient. You want to have that in your own life. Learn the secret of contentment. Contentment produces prudence. Prudence is looking ahead, foresight, able to understand what's ahead. Not jumping, making jumps in the dark, but looking ahead and understanding what's ahead. When you're content, you have time to reflect on such things. And you're happy. You know that God's leading you. You know that the Lord is going to be right with you if you can learn that secret of contentment. And it builds trust. It builds faith. Contentment builds trust and faith because you know that everything's alright. I'm where God wants me. I'm walking with God. I'm walking in stride with God. And everything will work out when I walk with God. And there's happiness in contentment. Happiness. You can be happy. You can be happy. You can be overflowing with joy as you sit, as you're in contentment, and you're reflecting on the goodness of God and on His mercies and on His compassions and all those things that fail not from heaven. You can be content and happy. Praise God. And peace. You'll be peaceful. Peace that passes all understanding. Peace that passes all understanding comes from being contented. Contented in Christ. Let patience have her perfect work, the Bible tells us. Let it work something that's perfect in your life. Contentment. Jesus said, come apart and rest a while. Come apart and rest a while. Americans don't know much about rest. We go to bed at 11, 12 o'clock and get up at 5, 6 o'clock in the morning. And we walk around dreary-eyed. We live on coffee and try to get us perked up enough so we can function. I don't think God wants that for our Christian life. Come apart and rest a while. Can you and I walk in stride with God? Walk in stride with God. Like the old jockey horse, we learn to walk with God in contentment. That's my encouragement for all of us this morning. May God bless you.