Jubilee Church
Guest Speaker - Cedric Taylor
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  • Because He Lives (Amen)
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  • You Are Holy (Isaiah 6)
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  • Contentment in Covenant

    I want to build on a concept that was revealed to me in Scripture while presenting a message at Jubilee Church in Pensacola, Florida. In Genesis the serpent asks Eve a question.
    Genesis 3:1 ESV
    Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”
    So, up until this point, Adam and Eve saw God as good and a great provider. They viewed Him as a loving Father who only had their best interest in mind. They had no reason to believe anything contrary about God. As well, they viewed the Garden of Eden as a wonderful place where God had provided everything they would ever need in life. They loved every tree and all the trees given were more than enough. They viewed it as a place where they could grow and commune with God without any reservation or hesitation. This place was a paradise and they had desire for nothing else as nothing else could compare to the wonder of this place in the center of God’s holy presence. Additionally, Adam viewed Eve as the perfect spouse. In his eyes she was the most beautiful creature created by the hands of God in all of creation. She was amazing in every way and his desire for her was eternal, unending, untainted, unrestrained, pure and holy. He had no reason to ever desire any other. God had chosen her for him and no one or nothing else was ever needed to satisfy him in companionship or desire.
    But as soon as these words entered the ears of Adam and Eve, a seed was sown and it grew extremely fast. The serpent sewed the seed of “discontentment”. Once it entered their ears and they considered it, it went into their souls causing them to have a desire they had not known. It was a desire of comparison between what God had given them and the possibility that they were missing something God had not given them or that they might be missing out on something better than what God could give.
    They became discontent with not just the garden and what was in it, but each other and God Himself. As a result, it became very easy to lie to God, hide from God and throw each other under the blame bus.
    This became a pattern with mankind all the way up to the days of Noah as man’s fleshly appetites fed on this fruit of discontentment and sin prevailed. Men grew wicked, perverse, godless, lawless, and vile. This is what it means when God says in Genesis 6:5
    Genesis 6:5 ESV
    The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
    And look what God had said in Genesis 6:3
    Genesis 6:3 ESV
    Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.”
    The 120 years here refers to the 120 years from the time God made this announcement of the flood allowing for repentance and the day the rains began to fall. However, God points out that His Spirit no longer dwelt within man. Man had given himself over to another spirit.
    I have watched this happen through my years of ministry. I have watched the spirit of discontentment veil the hearts of man to God, the church and even their marriages and families. I have seen it cause people to not be able to keep jobs and continue to live in financial poverty. I have watched it cause people to destroy themselves physically and live in poor health. I have watched it drive people into isolation and deep depression. I have watched it cause people to walk away from their gifts, callings, and identity in Christ. I have watched it drive people into false religions, sexual compromise and all kinds of depravity and lifestyles.
    This became the pattern of Israel over and over again. We see it, not only in the wilderness, but continuing through their generations. (Ezekiel 22:4-12)
    Ezekiel 22:4–12 ESV
    You have become guilty by the blood that you have shed, and defiled by the idols that you have made, and you have brought your days near, the appointed time of your years has come. Therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations, and a mockery to all the countries. Those who are near and those who are far from you will mock you; your name is defiled; you are full of tumult. “Behold, the princes of Israel in you, every one according to his power, have been bent on shedding blood. Father and mother are treated with contempt in you; the sojourner suffers extortion in your midst; the fatherless and the widow are wronged in you. You have despised my holy things and profaned my Sabbaths. There are men in you who slander to shed blood, and people in you who eat on the mountains; they commit lewdness in your midst. In you men uncover their fathers’ nakedness; in you they violate women who are unclean in their menstrual impurity. One commits abomination with his neighbor’s wife; another lewdly defiles his daughter-in-law; another in you violates his sister, his father’s daughter. In you they take bribes to shed blood; you take interest and profit and make gain of your neighbors by extortion; but me you have forgotten, declares the Lord God.
    Israel had the Torah. Israel had the Feasts and all things religion. But Israel was blind to God, blind to their own depravity and blind to their nakedness. Their sin had become such a veil that could not see and live by nothing but darkness.
    Hear what Jesus says to you church in Revelation 3:14-22
    Revelation 3:14–22 ESV
    “And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation. “ ‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’ ”
    We all desire to be enough. But when we are discontent in our marriage we are saying to our spouse, you are not enough. When we are discontent with our children, we are telling them they are not enough. Discontentment says to Christ, you are are not enough. When we are discontent we have lost sight of the value of relationship and those in it. We have forgotten the cost of covenant. We have lost the gratitude in our attitude.
    1 Timothy 6:6–7 ESV
    But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world.
    Lust for something else will always breed discontentment with what you have. Remember that everything you are and have, to include the breath you are breathing this moment is borrowed. Breath each breathe with gratitude and contentment. Yet, you have more than the Children of God of old.
    These are the days when we have the Word of God, we have the redemption of Christ, He has shed His blood and conquered the grave, the power of sin no longer has to reign in your hearts. You can be the new creation in Christ. You can know and live in the power of the Holy Spirit that worked in the Apostle Peter to heal the sick, cast out devils and raise the dead, yet even face death with full contentment of the work of Christ in and through him. God has removed this veil that once covered our eyes in blindness and darkness.
    Jesus said in Luke 4:18
    Luke 4:18 ESV
    “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
    Notice He declares that He has come to give “recovering of sight to the blind.” This is the removing of the veil by and only by the Spirit of the Lord. This is so that the Spirit of the Lord once again could dwell in man and man no longer be nothing but “flesh”.
    In Genesis 6:3 the word God uses for “flesh” is the word basar בָּשָׂר meaning frail and naked like an animal. But it comes from a root that means to receive good news.
    So, where in the beginning man became naked and helpless, Christ brings the good news as the Second Adam and clothes us, not with the blood and skin of animals but with robes of righteousness by His atoning blood for His name sake. As such, the veil that separated us is removed and we can see God. We can know God. We can once again know God’s goodness, know His voice, and love as He loved us. We can find eternal contentment in Him.
    2 Corinthians 3:18 ESV
    And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
    Keep in mind that a person can have everything, a large home, expensive cars, great success, a beautiful family, and still grow just as discontent as the man or woman who has nothing. Do not be that couple in the Garden of Eden. Do not be like the people of Israel. Do not be that church in Revelation. But search your heart thoroughly and diligently today for any discontentment. Are you discontent with your spouse, your job, your church, your automobile situation, your home? I am not talking about becoming apathetic with living in poverty or joblessness. I am talking about discontentment. I am talking about a desire that drives lust, carnal appetites, or grieves your soul for that which you feel God has not provided or done. Are you discontent because you are single or maybe because you compare yourself to others? Does discontentment cause you to withdraw, isolate yourself, label yourself or drive you into depression? Does your discontentment cause you to be angry with your spouse, lust, disregard church, refuse to serve, or any other sin against God, your brothers and sisters or your family? Does it cause you to jump into relationships, compromise, poorly steward your finances or make other bad decisions? What discontentment is lurking in your heart?
    Hear what God said to Cain in his discontentment that was evident from his heart to his face.
    Genesis 4:7 ESV
    If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”
    This is a seed that was sown in the beginning and whose roots have reached even into our hearts. It is a root that must be confronted now for the Bride of Christ to mature for His coming. Maturity does not come without measuring. If you don’t know where you are you don’t know where you need to be. Where do you need to grow? What are you discontent with that you are blaming yourself, others, or God? Repent and rule over it today. Be content in Christ Jesus and the covenant He has brought you into.
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Jubilee Church
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