Coming Home to Contentment

Sin, grace and contentment from Dr. Michael Yousaf. You can pursue all kinds of answers.

You can accumulate truckloads of things. You can try to pursue one failed relationship after the other. You can do all you want, but until you come to grips with those two components of sin and grace, you will not experience inner contentment. Welcome to Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Yousaf. Have you lost joy in your life?

Maybe past choices or current circumstances have you feeling discontented? Well today, be motivated to dig deeper and to grow through your discontent. Today on Leading the Way, Dr. Michael Yousaf challenges you with a message called The Detours to Contentment. Please do keep in mind that Leading the Way is a listener supported media ministry relying on your prayers and your generous financial support. You can learn more at ltw.org.

And you can call 866-626-4356. Right now though, listen with me as Dr. Michael Yousaf begins today's teaching. I believe every one of us, without exception, at some point in our lives, somehow, somewhere, we have been conscious of what I call the dull hum in the back of our minds of the satisfaction of discontentment in our life. Somehow in the back of our mind, there's a deep-seated discontentment that most of us feel at some point or another in our lives.

We just sense it. The dull hum of discontentment, the dull hum in the background of dissatisfaction with life is not limited to those who are suffering or going through a great deal of pain. It's not limited to those who are experiencing life's hurts. It's not limited to those who are experiencing life's tragedies.

It's not just limited to those folks. I think many believers are discontented, whether they are discontented and their discontentment stems from disappointment with God, disappointment with church, disappointment with other believers, disappointment with family members, whatever the disappointment stems from. But there is that discontentment. There's that nagging feeling that says, there's more to life. I know there's more to life than this. Something is still missing in my life, and I'm not fulfilled in what I'm doing, and I'm still missing out on something.

This can't be all there is. Surely that dull hum that I call keeps on humming, keeps on humming. We try to quieten it by making some changes in our lives, but end up being surfacy changes anyway. We try to quieten it by acquiring some things, and then we try to quieten it by going from one unhealthy relationship to the next, but nothing seems to be working. Have you ever asked yourself, what really lies behind this drive for contentment?

What really is the main cause? Why are we all looking for that contentment? Have you ever asked that question and tried to come up with some answers? Well, I have. I've asked myself that question on numerous occasions, and then when I found the answer, I decided to put it in a book, Divine Discontent.

A friend of mine said, what kind of a title is that? Well, let me explain it to you, why the book is called Divine Discontent. You see, there are two components to discontentment. The first component is the fact of sin, sin with which we are born.

The second component is the grace of God and the mercy of God and the hope that Christ gives us, hence the word Divine Discontent. Those who focus mainly on one component, and that is the component of sin, they live a morbid life. They live a discouraged life. They live a guilt-stricken life. Those who focus only on the mercy of God and the grace of God and ignore sin live a shallow life. They live a mercurial life.

They are up one day and down the next and up one day and down the next. Because in reality, until you come to grips with the two components of discontentment in life, until you come to grips of understanding that those two go together, you will not find contentment. I am absolutely convinced of one thing, and it is this.

Failure to understand these two components that make up discontentment in our lives is the reason why five out of six Americans say that they are discontented and dissatisfied in life. I'm convinced of that. Listen, you can pursue all kinds of answers. I mean you can go to the end of the earth. You can accumulate truckloads of things. You can play hard.

You can try to drown yourself in a pool of Jack Daniels. You can try to pursue one failed relationship after the other. You can go from church to church to church to church. You can do all you want, but until you come to grips with those two components of sin and grace, you will not experience inner contentment. And today I want to contrast two individuals, two biblical examples that the Bible gives us. And I want to contrast them because if you read the scripture from Genesis to Revelation, probably there are no two greater contrasts. And of course the Bible is not written so that they can give us those people as a contrast, but as the Word of God being authored by God from beginning to end, it just makes it very clear as you read the Word of God. Two men stand in contrast to each other.

They are thousands and thousands of years apart, but they stand in contrast with each other. One of them kept on pursuing human solution to his discontentment. One of them kept on applying earthly answers to his spiritual problem, and he failed. And he lived in discontentment a miserable life until he died. The other one allowed his discontentment to be an opportunity to drive him to God and receive the grace of God. One is Cain, and the second one is the prodigal son. I want you to focus with me just for a little bit between those two guys. Cain's restlessness began with jealousy.

I want to tell you something. If jealousy is eating you up, it's going to destroy your life eventually unless you deal with it. Jealousy is like this strong nail in your shoe that is going to keep absolutely nagging you until you remove it. Until you deal with that issue, it can destroy your life as we see in the case of Cain. Because Cain's jealousy of his brother Abel, the obedient one, he in a fit of anger killed him.

How? Let me contrast the two for you. Two brothers, same mommy, same daddy.

Isn't that always amazing? Kids are all different. Same genes, but they're so different. Abel learned from mommy Eve and daddy Adam of their failures. He learned from their mistakes. He learned from their sin. Abel learned from mommy and daddy that the root of discontentment is disobedience. Abel learned from his parents that failure to please God, God's way, causes disaster. Abel responded to his parents teaching.

He learned from their teaching. He listens to their instructions and he listened to the importance of obedience to God. Abel understood that living in defiance to God's directions, in defiance to God's instruction is not worth it.

Abel sought to live his life God's way, not his own. And so he offered to God the sacrifice that is pleasing to God. He offered to God a lamb. He shed the blood of an innocent lamb because that's exactly what God taught his mommy and daddy.

When God took him out of the Garden of Eden, he shed the blood of an innocent lamb, which is of course a foreshadowing of the perfect Son of God, the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, dying on the cross of Calvary. And by the shedding of that innocent blood and putting the covers, the skin of the lamb to cover them, they learned the lesson of atonement. And Abel learned that lesson.

He learned it well. And so he sacrificed to God an animal. An innocent blood was shed to sacrifice for his sin. And that sacrifice was accepted by God. Cain, on the other hand, decided that he is going to give God what he thinks God should have, not what God wanted, not what God asked for.

So he offers grains. Now I want you to listen carefully to this one because there is a possibility, I have no evidence of that, but there's a possibility that Cain's sacrifice was just as costly as Abel's. There's a distinct possibility that Cain's sacrifice was just as sacrificial as Abel's.

But that's not the problem. That's not the issue, not the value of the sacrifice. The problem was the problem of the heart, not the value of the sacrifice. The problem was that Cain did it his way, not God's way. The problem was that he did it with the wrong motive and for the wrong reason. And therefore, his sacrifice was rejected by God. And so in a fit of anger and jealousy, he killed his brother, his obedient brother. He killed his obedient brother and then he lived in restlessness for the rest of his life.

Listen to what the Bible said. The Bible said Cain went out and built a city and became a restless wanderer. You know, I am convinced in my own heart, knowing the revelation of the character of God and the Word of God, that even at this point in his life, after killing his brother, had Cain asked for forgiveness, God's grace would have given it to him.

I'm convinced of that. Listen carefully to what I'm going to tell you, my beloved friends, because like Cain, there are so many people running away from God looking for answer to the discontentment. Like Cain, there are so many people take refuge in all kinds of cities that are built of their own image in an attempt to quieten that restlessness in their heart, the discontentment in their heart. Like Cain, many people are running away from their past instead of confronting their past.

There are many people like Cain who are looking for something or someone to fill their inner void that only God can fill. There are so many people like Cain who are running away from God instead of letting their discontentment drive them to God. He's the only one who has the answer because by running away from God never alleviates the problem. Running away from God never quells the guilt. Running away from God never quietens the conscience. Running away from God never cures the restlessness and the discontentment. Running away from God never heals your memory. Only running to God will find healing, restoration, joy and peace.

But you know what the sad part is? Cain never went to the one, the only one, who could have given him rest and refreshment. Now if you're here today and you like Cain, if you are where Cain was, let me plead with you.

Come to the only one, the only one who can give you rest and rest your heart and give you true contentment. But then Jesus gives us an example of a man in Luke chapter 15 if you want to follow it, the second example. It's in Luke 15, I think most of you are familiar with it, a young man. We don't know much about him really. We don't know his age.

We don't know his name. We really know very little about him, but we know it's a true story because Jesus told it. It's not a parable. It's a true story.

It's a true story. And we know him as the prodigal son. But you see, he too was restless in his daddy's home. He too was discontented with his family's life. He too wanted to go to the far city where he could find himself. When people come to me and say, I'm just going to go and try to find myself, I said, don't waste your time and energy and money.

I can tell you where you find yourself. He too was looking for answers away from God. He's looking for solutions away from the word of God. He too thought that his contentment was to be found in doing his own thing. But he soon discovered as soon as he ran out of money, his fair weather friends dumped him. As soon as he ran out of money, his fair weather friends whom he thought to give him contentment, they ditched him. The people whom he thought could fulfill him disappointed him. Are you surprised by that?

No. That's how it is. The very people whom you thought that they can meet your needs, they'll turn your back on you in the times of trouble. Until this man found himself eating from the trough of pigs. And that is the worst condition that a Jew can find himself.

Not just eating pigs, but eating the food of the pigs. That's worse. Now beloved, I want to tell you there is a world of difference between Cain and the parodical son. Let me tell you about that difference.

It's very important that you get it and that you learn it. Unlike Cain, the parodical son came to his senses. Unlike Cain, the parodical son did not allow his pride to get the most of him.

Unlike Cain, the parodical son began to deal with his spiritual problem of dissatisfaction and discontentment spiritually. Let me tell you something that may be new to some of you. It may not be new to a lot of you, but it may be new to some of you. Listen carefully. It takes more courage to come to God in repentance than persist in foolishness. It takes more courage to admit and confess than pretend that everything is fine. It takes more courage to acknowledge sin than trying to explain it away. Only courageous people can say to God, God, I've sinned. God, I was wrong in foolishly thinking that I can make it in life without you. You know, it's impossible for me to read the story of the parodical son in Luke 15 without a lump in my throat.

And you know what? It has nothing to do about the boy finally faced up to his, the errors of his way and the fact that he repented of his sins. I don't get a lump in my throat because finally the boy came to his senses and returned to his father. I don't get a lump in my throat as much about even the story of the boy.

As much as I get a lump in my throat when I think of the father. In fact, the whole story that Jesus tells is not the emphasis. It's not on the parodical. It's not on his legalistic older brother.

No. The whole story, the focus of the story is on the father. It's on the father. And that's where I get totally undone every time I read the story. When the boy came back, after squandering his inheritance, and in the Middle Eastern culture, if you ask your daddy to give you your inheritance while your daddy was alive, it is nothing short of wishing that your dad was dead.

That's what he's saying. That's what the boy was saying when he asked for his inheritance. He said, Dad, I wish you were dead. Give me my inheritance now.

I'm not going to wait. After he squandered his inheritance, after he disgraced and shamed the family name, after he messed up royally, the father never condemns him. The father never prods him. The father never retaliates. The father never asked him to jump through hoops in order to get back to the home. The father never sent him to a halfway house in order to get him cleaned up before he can come to his presence.

The father never asked him to pay back for the misery that he caused the family or the money that he wasted. None of that. And my beloved friends, I want to tell you, this is the amazing grace of God. Did you know that all religions, all religions have certain hoops that you have to go through, you have to jump through in order to be part of that religion? I mean, the Buddhists have their hoops, their eightfold paths, and the Hindus have their karma, and Judaism has its rituals and Islam has its five pillars, and all religions and even Catholicism, you have to do certain things to be accepted by the church. But you know, none of them can truly guarantee the relationship, intimacy with God and forgiveness of God and the assurance of heaven. You go through all these hoops and you never have the assurance of receiving forgiveness from the hand of God and that your sins not only forgiven and you're assured of eternal life.

None of them. When you come to Jesus Christ, there's only three words you need to say. Father, forgive me.

And do you know that when that boy came back and he prepared his speech and he was come and I'll say this and I'll say this, you know, like when you're practicing and he was probably just practicing his speech and as soon as his father forgive me, the father said that's enough. My friend, if you get tired of wondering, you get tired of searching, you get tired of restlessness, when you get tired of discontent, you can come to God the Father through Jesus the Son, repent of your sins, and God the Father through Jesus the Son welcomes you and forgives you. Challenging words today from Dr. Michael Youssef right here on Leading the Way. Know if the words from Dr. Michael Youssef sparked questions and you would like to speak further with a friendly member of the pastoral team at Leading the Way, begin your conversation at ltw.org slash Jesus. You know, over the past few years, we've really lost community.

Being deliberate about social distancing and gathering in groups has also invited loneliness and isolation into our homes and into our culture. But now imagine adding persecution for faith into that mix. Recently, the Leading the Way team received a note from some special brothers and sisters in Turkey. Listen to a portion of their story. They tell us, a man and wife became Christian several years ago. They moved out of war-torn Yemen and they're now living in Turkey.

They have no family or Christian community where they live. But they find encouragement by listening and watching Dr. Youssef through radio and satellite. The Leading the Way field team is also in contact, helping them to grow spiritually as a family.

Isn't that encouraging? And know that we hear from many people who can't safely attend church or they can't meet with believers because of COVID. But experience a sense of community anyway, by listening to and by watching messages by Dr. Youssef. So please know, friends, that if you pray for Dr. Youssef or if you give financially to the Ministry of Leading the Way, you are making it possible for families all over the world to learn more and to grow in their faith. Visit ltw.org to learn more.

That's ltw.org. And you can also ask a ministry representative directly. Give us a call, 866-626-4356. That's 866-626-4356. You can also write us a letter. We're at Leading the Way, Post Office Box 201100, Atlanta, Georgia, 30325.

That's Post Office Box 201100, Atlanta, Georgia, 30325. There are some people who have physical weaknesses that causes loss of joy and loss of contentment. There are other people who have moral weaknesses and they are constantly losing their joy because of that moral weakness.

Whatever the area of your weaknesses may be, if you have not learned to apply the grace of God on the area of your weaknesses, chances are you've lost your content. You're already in a major detour and you've lost your way. That was just a preview of what Dr. Youssef will be teaching next time on Leading the Way. Make plans to join him for this powerful message when he digs further into this thought. This program is furnished by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef. Connect with us through our YouTube channel, Facebook, Twitter, and all of our social media networks. Learn more at ltw.org.