The scripture reading today comes from Philippians chapter 4, starting at verse 10.
Please follow along on the screen or in your Bible.
I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me.
You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity.
Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.
I know how to be brought low and I know how to abound.
In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.
I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble.
And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia,
no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving, except you only.
Even in Thessalonica, you sent me help for my needs once and again.
Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit.
I have received full payment and more.
I am well supplied, having received from Epiproditus the gift you sent,
a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.
And my God will supply every need of yours, according to his riches, in glory in Christ Jesus.
To our God and Father, be glory forever and ever.
Amen.
Greet every saint in Christ Jesus.
The brothers who are with me greet you.
All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar's household.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.
Amen.
Great.
Thank you so much, Sherman.
Welcome again.
My name is Chris, if you don't know me.
I'm one of the pastors here at Watermark.
What I'd love to do as we just get into God's word and before we get into God's word is just
to pray for us this morning.
So let me pray.
Father, I thank you that you're a God of life, that you're a God who wants to bring us abundance
of joy and of contentment and of satisfaction in you, which overflows to others, Lord.
Lord, I pray even this morning that you would speak to us wherever we're up to, Lord.
Whether we're wrestling with decisions, as Kevin shared.
Whether we are wrestling with discontentment in our own hearts.
Lord, I pray for us, Lord.
I pray for those who are teachers and those who are students and those who are parents,
Lord, who are going back to school.
I did it last week, this week, or the coming week.
Lord, I pray that for them that there would be this real sense of you bringing protection,
you bringing your blessing, but also you bringing a real deeper sense of joy in you
through this process.
I pray that you would be at the center of all of that, Lord.
I pray for our young people.
I pray that they would find joy in you, even as they go back to school, that actually they
would see that you are the one who places them in this place for your kingdom and your
glory.
So I pray for today that you would speak to us through your word in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Okay, great.
So we've been looking at the book of Philippians, and we're coming to the last section of the
book today.
And we're going to look at something about gospel partnership and what's the source of
healthy partnerships and relationships.
Partnerships are everywhere, whether it's in marriages, whether it's in community groups,
whether it's in businesses.
All around, we are involved in relational partnerships with different people.
But I think there is actually in society and in the world, there's a couple of different
types of partnership and relationships that people enter into.
I call them egret partnerships and rhino partnerships.
Okay.
Now an egret, if you didn't know, is a bird.
It is a white bird, which hangs around on the top of elephants.
And what it does, it feeds off the parasites and the insects on elephants.
And it's really a win-win situation.
It's kind of a consumer relationship because the egret gets food for itself and the elephant
gets rid of its itch.
It's like, you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours, literally.
And so the problem with this kind of relationship, if for some reason the elephant has got no more
insects on him, well, the elephant's feeling fine, but the egret begins to then go, hmm,
get grumbling, complaining, this elephant ain't good, let me go and find another one.
That's egret relationships.
They're consumer relationships.
We're in it for what we can get out of it.
But then there are male rhinos.
Now rhinos, they are self-sufficient guys.
They can fend for themselves.
They don't need other people.
They're detached.
They're distant.
If they need a mate or need something, they'll come in, they'll get it, and then they'll head
out and do their own thing again.
You know, they're the kind of people who when the going gets tough, the tough get going,
and they're going to get going by themselves.
You see, these kind of relationships, these partnerships characterize much of Hong Kong.
Much of what we think of as love is actually egret-style relationship.
You know, you make me feel good.
I'll make you feel good.
We'll stay together as long as that's still the case.
Otherwise, we'll look elsewhere.
Or in marriage, you know, after a while, we enter into the kind of rhino style.
You do your thing, and I'll do my thing.
We'll live under the same roof together, but functionally, we live separate lives unless
there's something we need at that moment.
But the book of Philippians has been showing us a different way of doing relationships
and partnerships.
It's Christ-centered partnership.
You see, what you've seen, the whole of Philippians, you're seeing this partnership between Paul
and the Philippians, which is birthed in Jesus, sustained in Jesus, and whose goal is Jesus.
You see, it flows out and is characterized by Christ's sacrificial, generous love.
It overflows in the whole of the book.
Paul has said, I yearn for you guys with Christ's affection.
I long for you.
I love you.
You're my joy.
You're my crown.
And he's poured his life and the gospel into this little church in Philippi.
And the Philippians, in return, they've sent financial gift after gift.
They've sent key leaders like Epaphroditus at huge cost to themselves.
And 2 Corinthians 8 tells us that actually they did all of this out of a condition of
extreme poverty, not out of a sense of wealth and abundance to encourage and support Paul,
even in his darkest moments and in his best times.
And right now, he's in prison.
It's not a great time.
It's not an egret relationship.
It's not a rhino relationship.
It's a Christ-centered relationship.
And it could have been so different because Paul, stuck in this prison cell, lonely, hungry,
dark, for a while, he gets no support from the Philippians.
And instead of grumpiness, he's rejoicing.
He's rejoicing in Jesus.
He's so satisfied in Jesus that when Epaphroditus shows up with a financial gift, he doesn't go,
oh, it's about time.
Where have you guys been?
Talk about a relationship.
He goes, I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that now at length you have revived your concern for me.
And that word concern is the word that's been used at least 10 times in the book of Philippians for the word mind.
And it's a word meaning you're thinking of me.
You're caring for me.
His rejoicing in Jesus is actually not that just his physical needs were just met right now.
But he's rejoicing that when Epaphroditus came to him, it spoke to Paul that actually in Jesus, his grace has come.
You're still thinking of me.
And so what I want us to look at is how do our relationships, how do our partnerships, how, whether it's in our marriages, our CGs, our friendships, our churches,
how can we be characterized by that kind of non-entitled, non-detached, non-grumbling, generous, other-centered love?
And Paul is going to give us the secret to this.
And I'm going to spend much of today looking at this one word, contentment.
So we're going to look at contentment, say how do we get there, and then we're going to look at a few implications and things that flow out, the fruit of contentment.
So let's just get going in chapter 4, verse 10 and 11.
Paul says,
You see, Paul is really keen, as he's writing to the Philippians, that they don't get the wrong idea about his situation.
He's got needs, but he doesn't want to manipulate them or guilt trip them into giving more.
And particularly when he's talking about money, he's trying to help them see he's not just making a subtle request for more money.
Instead, he says, I'm content, guys.
And that word content was actually a very popular word used by a group of philosophers at the time called Stoics.
And what they thought the word contentment meant was rhino contentment, meant using your willpower, just keep calm, carry on, no matter what the storms of life are, push through by yourself, don't rely on anyone else.
You've got to be detached.
And Paul is not saying that.
He's saying, I'm not just, I have needs, but I'm not just needy.
I'm not just self-sufficient.
I'm Christ-sufficient.
He says, in what a situation I am, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.
You see, he's saying, even when you can't provide for me, I have one who continually sustains me.
And that is Christ.
Now, how can Paul find that contentment?
Well, he's been telling us he's been pursuing knowing Christ and knowing this God in his life.
The God who commands us to praise him is not a needy God.
He doesn't need our worship.
He doesn't need us at all to kind of stroke his ego.
He's all-sufficient.
As the creator of the galaxies, he is rich beyond compare.
And yet he's not.
He's all-sufficient, but he's not self-sufficient in some distant, detached way where he doesn't kind of care about us or need us.
Or just care about us in any way.
Rather, he's a contented, joyful God.
And out of the overflow of his contentment, in fact, Paul says in the book of Timothy, he says,
he is the blessed God.
He's the happy God.
He's the contented God.
And out of the overflow of that, he's told us in Philippians 2 that out of joy and contentment in himself,
God both created the world, but he also sent Jesus into the world.
He came down into that J-curve of humbling himself, sacrificing himself to the point of death on a cross for us,
so that we might be restored.
But then he raised up again to life, and he's exalted at the highest place above all other names.
He's raised in power for us, seated in glory for us.
And if he has loved us with that kind of sacrifice, and if he has that kind of power over even death itself,
and if he has even that kind of authority over all things to command worship,
then Paul in Romans will say,
if God has given us Jesus, then how will he not graciously give us all things?
We don't have a stingy God.
We don't have one who right in our current moment, we've got to wonder whether he's going to provide for us.
Paul can say, no, I can trust this God that I know in any situation because I'm his beloved child.
I don't have to get grumpy and irritable right now because I rest in him.
Sinclair Ferguson, who's a theologian, he said this,
Christian contentment is the direct fruit of having no higher ambition than to belong to the Lord
and to be totally at his disposal in the place he appoints at the time he chooses
with a provision he is pleased to make.
What he's saying is this.
He's saying contentment is founding knowing whose you are and trusting him with where you are.
My son, Etienne, when he was born, came screaming out of the womb into this dizzying world of lights and sounds and smells.
It's a scary place for a little kid.
But doctors, they recommend that babies have what's called skin-to-skin time.
In other words, in a scary and insecure environment, what happens is you bring the baby to the mother,
to the one who has given this little baby life,
and it's there that that baby will discover the warmth, the safety, the protection, and the provision of his mother.
And it's there, at that place, that the crying stops and peace is found.
His mother will provide for him.
That is Christian contentment.
We want Christ more than anything.
And Jesus doesn't want an egret relationship with us,
where he's died for us, so we've just got to do our bit, pray,
do enough things in return to make him happy with us.
He doesn't want a rhino relationship with us,
where if we just come to him when we've got a problem,
and the rest of the time we forget about him, do our own thing.
No, Paul knows, he said, I can be content in Christ,
because I have a relationship with him as his beloved child,
knowing him is our highest ambition.
We lay our lives in his hands,
because he's a father who loves us,
and will supply all of our needs.
That's what Christian contentment is.
That trusting that even Kevin talked about just now.
But how do we get there?
How do we get to that place of trusting our Father,
and that Christ will supply all that we need?
Paul says this.
He says,
I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.
I know how to abound.
I know how to be brought low.
I know how to abound in any and every circumstance.
I've learned the secret.
I've learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger,
abundance and need.
I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.
You see, what he's saying is contentment is learnt.
Did you notice that?
He said, I've learnt it.
You don't suddenly wake up one day content.
You see, that word, when he says contentment has a secret.
He says there's a secret to it.
And that word is actually a word that is used by the secret societies of Paul's time
for the initiation ceremony that they would come into,
into that little community.
And what Paul is saying is,
if you want to come into the school of contentment,
you don't have to have some initiation ceremony.
The initiation ceremony is Christ,
and the sustaining ceremony is Christ.
And when he says,
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,
that's one of the most misunderstood phrases
in all of the New Testament, I think, by Christians.
Because we often think,
what he means by all things is,
I can achieve anything.
I can get that promotion.
I can fulfill my dream.
I can be a success in my life through Christ.
That's not what Paul is talking about.
Because if you look back to verse 12,
all things refers to this.
He says,
I know how to be brought low,
and I know how to abound in plenty or hunger.
You see, how do we learn contentment?
That school of contentment is in the humbling
and in the abundance of all of life.
You see, it's through classes of being brought low,
just like Jesus was humbled.
Financially, you lost your job.
Spiritually, you have your sin
and your failure exposed to you.
Socially, you experience criticism,
rejection, even for your faith.
Physically, Paul was beaten.
He was sick.
He was stoned.
He was shipwrecked.
All of this was his school to learn contentment.
You know, when Etienne was born,
and with that skin-to-skin time,
he still didn't actually know how much we really loved him.
You see, how is Etienne going to learn how much we love him?
Well, if you're parents of older kids,
you know that they learn it through all of life.
That actually, the sleepless nights where you're comforting your child,
the times of taxing your child to every place under the sun,
the struggling with homework and helping them come through it,
later on, just all the relational issues that children have,
or when they have their own family,
or when they see other parents and they feel the pain of parenting,
then they realize,
I'd never realized just how much my parents loved me
and sacrificed for me until this moment.
You see, that's the same with God as he takes us through life.
He's wanting it through all of the ups and downs of life
to show us the depth of his love
so that we can only learn that contentment as you go through life
in him, trusting him.
You know, some of us,
we think that if I can just get a job,
then I'll be happy.
Or you think, if I can just get my kids in school,
if I can just get a boyfriend,
I can just get out of COVID,
then everything will be fine.
Then I'll be content.
I think Paul would say,
don't skip classes in the school of contentment.
Don't wish your present away.
He's not saying you can't long for something different.
He's not saying you can't have a desire that things will change.
But no, in this moment,
God wants to bring you contentment.
You see, in Hong Kong,
we live in a world of comparison.
We're always comparing to everybody else.
We always want to be in a different class
than we're in right now.
But Christians, we didn't enroll in the school of envy.
We enrolled in the school of contentment in Jesus.
You see, graduates of the envy school
have worry and fear.
You know, it's a different education system.
Worry and fear tell you,
look at your problems, you won't have enough.
Envy tells you,
look at what they have, you don't have enough.
The school of contentment says,
look at Jesus, he is enough
for you, today, right now,
whatever you're going through.
So I don't know where you're up to.
But Paul is not here talking about that holy discontent,
you know, where you can actually want to be more like Jesus.
That's good.
He's not talking about passivity,
just kind of hanging back and just saying,
oh, God will do it and I don't have to do anything.
No, Paul's ambitious.
But he's talking about resting in the sovereign God
and trusting in his fatherly care for us
that whatever circumstances he's brought you into right now,
that he'll provide.
You see, he says, I know how to be brought low.
But he also says,
and this is really interesting,
he says,
I've also learned how to face plenty
and how to abound.
Did you notice that?
I don't know if you would normally think about that,
but Paul himself,
he has experienced all the different things in life.
He's experienced abounding with a full stomach
and everything going well,
and he's not living with a guilt trip of,
oh, I should be suffering at this moment.
No, he's rejoicing.
I've learned how to face it.
Some Christians actually think we should just be
living in a mud hut and poor,
and that's the true sense of spirituality.
Other people think you've got to be totally rich
and blessed and everything,
and that's spirituality.
And Paul's saying,
I don't believe in either of those things
as true spirituality.
I can enjoy abundance,
but with open hands.
He says,
I've learned contentment even in abundance.
You know, Spurgeon,
the English preacher,
he said this.
He said,
it is harder to know
how to be full
than it is to know how to be hungry.
To know how to be hungry
is a sharp lesson,
but to know how to be full
is the harder lesson after all.
Do you know what he's saying?
He's saying,
when you're full,
when you've got your promotion,
when your relationships are going great,
everything's swimmingly moving on,
you might thank God for that,
but secretly we applaud ourselves in that.
Your contentment is often more with your comfort
or more with your achievement
or more of all the other things that you have,
but not with Christ.
And that self-sufficient,
rhino-like attitude towards Jesus
is devastating,
because when later on in your life
you may be brought low,
your contentment will just be blown out of the water,
because it was just dependent
on the things that you had,
not on Christ.
I think many of us,
if I can be honest with us,
many of us,
we don't know how to be content
when we're full.
Many of us actually are abounding
in a lot of different ways in this city,
but we haven't learnt
that actually Christ is enough for us
and that today is a stay
of the school of contentment.
You know,
how can you be content today?
Well, if you realise
that you have to run to Jesus
whatever your circumstances,
if you are abounding,
realise your abundance
is not earned at all.
It is undeserved gift.
That's why Paul has said,
like,
think about all the good things,
the great things,
and see it as grace from God.
That's showing you
that God's heavenly bank account
is far richer
than you could possibly imagine.
He can provide
abundantly more
than you can ask or imagine.
But hold that
with surrendered open hands,
because it's all on loan.
It's yours to steward,
it's not yours to own.
And God may bring you
through times of need
and lack
and waiting for things,
humbling times.
Some of us are going
through that right now.
But you know,
that's the chance
to find contentment,
because in that suffering,
he's showing you,
you didn't need
all the other things
to be content.
He is sufficient for you.
So that all the other gifts
only point you to the giver.
This is what Christ
is trying to do.
And if you're struggling
today with contentment,
because this is a fight,
like we talked about
fighting, rejoicing,
fighting for joy last week,
praying in all circumstances,
bringing our requests
to God.
When we talked about
letting our focus
be on Christ
in everything
and doing it together,
that's the wrestle
that we've got to go through
to fight,
to find contentment.
And if you're struggling,
look back on
Christ's faithful love
in your life
and see where he has
provided again and again.
So if you're in need
right now,
you can have confidence.
Your God will supply
all of your needs.
That is contentment.
Now why
and how does that
even connect
with the idea
of partnership
and relationship?
partnership?
Well,
why does Paul
talk about this?
He talks about this
because
he wants to show us
that when you're content
in Jesus,
when you're content
in Jesus,
when you're not grasping
from others
or just detached
from others,
you can then overflow
that on his mission
with sacrificial generosity
and in gospel
partnership with others.
So here's two things
that it overflows.
The first thing,
there is an overflow
of contentment
in humble,
generous partnership.
Verse 14 to 16.
It was kind of you
to share,
to fellowship,
to partner
in my trouble.
And you
Philippians know
that in the beginning
of the gospel,
when I left
Macedonia,
no church
entered into
partnership,
fellowship with me
in giving and receiving
except you only.
Even in Thessalonica,
you sent me
help for my needs
once and again.
You see,
Paul,
twice there,
uses this word
for fellowship,
for partnership,
which is the word
koinonia.
And it's a word
which means
to have a common life
together,
to have a common goal
together,
to be focused
on the same things
together.
And the friendship
that these guys
had grew out
of a gospel
contentment that
led to partnering
the gospel into
giving and
receiving.
You see,
when Paul brought
the gospel to
the Philippians
and Paul's life
into them,
the Philippians
have responded
not out of a
kind of,
oh,
we have to give
you back,
but out of this,
what 2 Corinthians
8 says was
an abundance
of joy
and their
extreme poverty,
they overflowed
in a wealth
of generosity
on their part.
Do you get that?
They had joy
in Jesus'
contentment,
that overflowed
in generosity.
Contentment
means
that even if
you feel like
your reserves
are running low
in a relationship,
you're not getting
back where you want,
your tank feels
empty,
your spouse
isn't responding,
your finances
are tight,
whatever,
you can both
have the resources
in Christ
to be able to
keep loving
and lavishly
giving,
but also
you have the
humility to
accept help
when you do
have needs
because you're
not self-sufficient
like a rhino.
Now,
we could play
this out in
marriages,
we could play
it out in
community groups,
in lots of
different places.
Let me make
this a broader
church level.
The early
church
didn't believe
in isolated
congregations.
You see that
in Philippians.
Like,
we don't need
help from you,
we're just
building God's
kingdom in
our little
area.
No,
they didn't
think like
that.
They built
these connections,
these partnerships,
they were a
network of
churches that
mutually supported
and encouraged
one another
in the mission
of God
wherever it
led.
You know,
I think
sometimes,
even when we
think about
mission,
for example,
mission trips,
many people,
I think we
do mission trips
like rhino style
where we think
we're the ones
who are going
to go and
save the poor.
We're the ones
who are going
to rescue the
needy in other
places.
And so we go
as the heroes
without having
the humility
to realize that
actually partnership
is not just one
way,
it's two way.
And we will
learn through
that.
We need
humility.
But partnership,
it's not just
us helping
others,
it's not just
others helping
us,
it's a costly
sense of us
contending Christ
and pouring
things out to
people around us
as we can
and receiving
in ways that
are appropriate.
One of the
things in
Watermark we
want to do
is partner
with local
churches,
international
churches,
churches in
Hong Kong
and churches
around Asia
for the cause
of the gospel
going forth.
We cannot
do the
mission by
ourselves.
That means
we need to
be humble
enough to
receive people
to help us
and to walk
alongside us.
This is one
of the reasons
why we had
Pastor Paul
from the local
church come
and preach to
us.
We've had
Al Gibbs
come and
we've had
other people
who just
walk alongside
different people
in the
congregation.
This is part
of what
pastoring is.
Today Oscar
is preaching
at Emmanuel
English Church.
What a great
opportunity to
pastor.
We have our
resound
church here.
network that
we're part
of with
churches in
places like
India and
Australia and
Japan.
Our prayer is
some of us
might be able
to go over
and to
support and
encourage them
just as
they came
over last
year and
many of
them actually
encouraged us.
God's vision
for kingdom
ministry is
global.
It's not
territorial.
We want to
give away our
best people.
We want to
give away
resources.
We want to
partner with
people like
Amelia in
Taiwan so
that we can
actually be
blessing and
encouraging the
work that's
there.
Our prayer is
that actually
out of
watermark more
and more people
will be able to
send to the
nations for the
gospel.
We even had a
time last year
when our budget
was tight and
we prayed,
should we be
giving more to
missional justice
partners?
God's saying
yes, I will
supply all of
your needs and
God has
abundantly.
Whether we are
financially tight,
whether we're
struggling,
we always want
the generosity
of the contentment
of God to
fill our hearts
so that we're
not just tight
but we want to
be lavish and
humble to
receive as well
when we need.
See, the
overflow of
contentment leads
to humble,
generous partnership
but also
contentment leads
is the final
thing, to
sacrificial worship.
You know, the
whole of the
book of
Philippians is
a call to be
on mission,
making our
greatest ambition
to know Christ,
to follow him
together, to
become like him
and to make him
known.
You know, Jesus
who's the one
who was brought
low is also
the one who
is exalted
and everyone
in this universe
that one day
will bow the
knee and will
confess that
Jesus Christ
is Lord.
That is the
heart.
It's a call for
each one of us
because that is
true, that we
are willing to
follow and
imitate that
J-curve life
of suffering
which leads to
resurrection glory,
of humbling
which leads to
life, of the
way down being
the way up,
and this joy
in Christ flows
out as worship
and praise to
him because he
alone deserves
it.
You see, right
at the end of
this book,
Paul says that
the Philippians,
your love and
your generosity
was a fragrant
gift,
acceptable and
pleasing to God.
That's worship
language he's
using.
And then he
said, right at
the end,
it is all for
the glory of
God the
Father who
provides in so
many ways.
John Piper says
God is most
glorified in us
when we are most
satisfied in him.
But I also think
when we are most
satisfied in him,
we will also
sacrifice the most
for him on his
mission because we
know that he will
provide abundantly
for us.
I had seven
friends.
Some of them
graduated with me
in the UK,
all single,
working men
and women.
And they felt
God calling them
to the Shamshay
Pole of the
city we were
living in at the
time.
They were all
working in
different areas.
They weren't
working with the
church.
But they went
to this place,
this estate,
where there was
about 30,000 to
50,000 people
who had no
gospel witness.
And they moved
on to the
estate and they
took years of
just this slow,
painful process of
getting to know
the neighbors,
of hosting barbecues,
of trying to love
the people.
They ran pub
quizzes.
They did anything
to reach out to
the neighborhood
so that people
could experience
the love of
Christ through
them and the
gospel.
But they also
made this
commitment.
They said if
anyone actually
wants to date
us, you've
also got to be
willing to get
on the mission
that we're on.
And so we
want, like,
we're willing to
sacrifice whatever
it takes because
God has called
us.
You know, 15
years on, many
of them are in
their kind of
40s now.
Some of them
are married.
Some of them
are still single.
And people have
said to them,
listen guys, you
are just crazy
for giving up
those opportunities
to have children,
to have family
because of this
mission.
That's ridiculous.
Others have
said, hey, you've
sacrificed career
opportunities.
That's stupid.
Just to go on to
this rough council
estate where you're
not getting a ton
of great things
back from these
people.
But if you
would actually go
and talk to them,
if you were going
to meet them,
you wouldn't find
bitter, angry,
resentful, regretful
people, you would
find this community
that radiates this
joy in Jesus.
You would find
these people who
would say, we've
walked through life
and we've seen
by our experience,
we've learned that
contentment is
found not in
having the one
as your partner,
not in finding
the greatest
career or anything
else.
It's found in
Jesus and being
with him on his
mission that people
might come to
praise him who
is the Lord of
all.
Because you see,
they're ordinary
messy people,
but their whole
lives are a
picture of
worship, that
Jesus is worth
it.
So is Jesus
enough for us?
God may not
call you, he
may call some
of us to that.
Right now, there
may be some
people that
actually that's
what God is
placing on your
heart right now.
a call for a
mission in a
way that you're
going to have to
sacrifice greatly.
Some of us, many
of us, that's not
going to be the
call in that kind
of way, but
actually the call
is always that we
would find our
contentment so much
in Christ that we
would be these
people who are
partnering with
overflowing,
generous,
humble,
sacrificial
worship to the
one seated on the
throne.
let me pray for
us.
Thank you,
Father, that you
say that my God
will supply all
our needs as we
walk with you,
all of our needs,
not just our
wants, but
everything we need
for true contentment.
According to your
riches, you are
abundantly wealthy.
Father, I pray that
we would not be
those who live with
a poverty mindset,
those who live with
an egret-like neediness,
codependency.
Lord, I pray we would
not be those who live
with a self-sufficiency,
but we'd see that
wherever we are
right now, you are
sufficient for us.
Give us that rest.
Give us that peace.
Even in the struggle,
even in the challenges,
we'd be of a
community that is
the most content
community in the
whole of Hong Kong,
I pray.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.