WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.879 Good morning, everyone. My name is James. It's good to see you all this morning. 00:00:05.900 --> 00:00:13.939 Life can feel like a treadmill, seeking contentment and happiness. Maybe when I've earned 00:00:13.939 --> 00:00:21.640 this amount of money, then I'll be content. Maybe when I make it to the weekend, then I'll be 00:00:21.640 --> 00:00:29.519 content. Or maybe when I make it to the holiday, I've got bad news for you. It's Sunday, and that 00:00:29.519 --> 00:00:35.200 means that tomorrow we have to go back to work. Maybe you're on school or uni holidays, 00:00:35.759 --> 00:00:44.359 and as the holiday gets closer to ending, all your happiness and contentment erodes. Is anybody 00:00:44.359 --> 00:00:49.939 feeling like that at the moment? Any school students, uni students, worried about what's 00:00:49.939 --> 00:00:55.260 coming up in the next couple of weeks? You're anxious as the end of holidays come because 00:00:55.259 --> 00:01:01.099 you can see it disappearing like a fog. I was talking to someone the other day who was 00:01:01.099 --> 00:01:07.519 sharing that they have an issue buying things online because there is no contentment when 00:01:07.519 --> 00:01:14.099 you buy things online because there are always more things to buy online. But what do we do 00:01:14.099 --> 00:01:21.700 in this situation? Do we just try and find happiness where we can find it? Do we just guilt each 00:01:21.700 --> 00:01:27.939 other into feeling worse that we're not happy with what we have? What do we do when we are on a 00:01:27.939 --> 00:01:35.780 treadmill of seeking a contentment that will last? Is there anything that can be done? Are we content 00:01:35.780 --> 00:01:44.040 with what God has given us? The Bible promises that Jesus is enough. It promises that Jesus is the yes 00:01:44.040 --> 00:01:51.920 to every one of God's promises. But what does it look like to be content in Jesus when we have so 00:01:51.920 --> 00:01:59.160 many desires and so many needs? Today, as we continue in our series looking at the heroes of the faith, 00:01:59.880 --> 00:02:05.760 as we see Christians from history who have not been perfect but have been people who have been 00:02:05.760 --> 00:02:12.200 challenged by God's Word, we're going to look at a man named Hudson Taylor. He's the man standing with 00:02:12.199 --> 00:02:19.819 his wife on the far right in this picture. He was an English missionary to China and we will see 00:02:19.819 --> 00:02:26.839 what his contentment looked like and he will show us what it looks like to have contentment in God. 00:02:27.359 --> 00:02:32.659 So please let me pray for us as we look at this today. Dear Lord and Heavenly Father, we thank you 00:02:32.659 --> 00:02:38.519 for your Word to us and we thank you for other Christian brothers and sisters throughout history 00:02:38.520 --> 00:02:44.280 who model to us what following you looks like. Father, we ask that this morning we would be 00:02:44.280 --> 00:02:48.240 encouraged and challenged to find our contentment in you. Amen. 00:02:54.980 --> 00:03:03.640 Hudson Taylor was born in England in 1832. He grew up in a Christian family and not long after 00:03:03.639 --> 00:03:11.839 he took hold of Jesus himself as a teenager, he struggled with defeat, with discouragement 00:03:11.839 --> 00:03:20.500 and after one particular defeat, he called out to God for help. He wanted to live a life pleasing to 00:03:20.500 --> 00:03:31.599 God in everything and he felt that he would go anywhere, he would do anything for God if God would give 00:03:31.599 --> 00:03:38.439 him clear assurance of direction. He would do anything for God if he had clarity. And so he wrote this 00:03:38.439 --> 00:03:45.979 after calling out to God on this particular day and he felt as if he was in the presence of God and 00:03:45.979 --> 00:03:55.159 felt something say to him, your prayer is answered, your conditions are accepted. And from that time forward, 00:03:55.159 --> 00:04:04.000 he felt a conviction to go to China. From that call on, his response was extremely practical. 00:04:04.939 --> 00:04:12.519 He began devoting more time to prayer and Bible study and of course, he had to learn Chinese. 00:04:13.560 --> 00:04:20.000 At that time, a rare book of Chinese grammar would cost $25, which was a lot of money at the time. 00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:29.360 And an English to Chinese dictionary was even more expensive, $75. And he didn't have that kind of 00:04:29.360 --> 00:04:38.100 money. So what Hudson did was he bought a Gospel of Luke in Chinese. And he spent time comparing the 00:04:38.100 --> 00:04:45.160 Chinese Gospel of Luke to the English and made his own dictionary of about 600 characters. 00:04:45.160 --> 00:04:50.120 And that's how he started learning Chinese. So, you know, I'm trying to learn Chinese, so I really 00:04:50.120 --> 00:05:00.220 have no excuse, do I? At this point, he also began training in contentment. To go overseas as an 00:05:00.220 --> 00:05:09.220 isolated missionary, it would be a challenge. And so Hudson wrote, to me, it was a very grave matter 00:05:09.220 --> 00:05:17.380 to contemplate going to China. Far from all human aid, there to depend on the living God alone for 00:05:17.380 --> 00:05:26.020 protection, supplies and help. I felt that one's spiritual muscles required strengthening. And so he 00:05:26.020 --> 00:05:32.420 stripped back his food to only the basic things he needed to survive. So he could save for the voyage, 00:05:32.420 --> 00:05:41.340 the several-month-long boat voyage to China, and to depend upon God. He ate plain, insubstantial food, 00:05:41.860 --> 00:05:49.220 and he wasted nothing on luxuries. Before he left, it seemed that there was one other trial for 00:05:49.220 --> 00:05:58.180 contentment. Hudson had fallen in love. That's an appropriate response. That's good. He had known a 00:05:58.180 --> 00:06:03.060 young music teacher. These music teachers, they're deadly people. He'd known a young music teacher 00:06:03.060 --> 00:06:11.759 for two years. And though she was a Christian, she did not feel called to mission. She asked Hudson 00:06:11.759 --> 00:06:20.680 if he just couldn't serve God at home instead of going to China. But Hudson was convicted of his call 00:06:20.680 --> 00:06:29.019 by God. And he wrote of his wrestle with desire. Why should you go to China after all? Why toil and 00:06:29.019 --> 00:06:37.639 suffer all of your life for an ideal of duty? Give it up now while you can yet win her. Earn a proper 00:06:37.639 --> 00:06:47.040 living like everybody else and serve the Lord at home for you can win her yet. This struggle, a desire 00:06:47.040 --> 00:06:54.020 and a conviction from the Lord to go overseas and do missionary work where there was a very small 00:06:54.020 --> 00:06:59.820 amount of the gospel, very few missionaries at that time. A desire to do that, a conviction from God to 00:06:59.820 --> 00:07:11.120 do that, and a desire for this person. And yet the Lord revealed his love to him, made him happy in his 00:07:11.120 --> 00:07:17.759 Savior's love to continue without fear of what was to come. He was content in God's love. 00:07:19.500 --> 00:07:30.060 And so he sailed to Shanghai, a fairly eventful boat trip. And even when he finally came ashore in Shanghai, 00:07:30.360 --> 00:07:37.319 he had to find his contentment in God alone. Whilst he was joyful to have finally arrived, 00:07:37.319 --> 00:07:45.459 the loneliness and reality of his situation sank in. He did not know a single person in the country. 00:07:46.199 --> 00:07:54.920 No one on the entire continent knew his name. He eventually got settled in Shanghai. He learnt four 00:07:54.920 --> 00:08:01.740 Chinese dialects. I assume Mandarin and Shanghainese were one of those. And even at this point, he could 00:08:01.740 --> 00:08:07.579 have been content to stay in Shanghai or in one of the other port cities where the rest of the 00:08:07.579 --> 00:08:14.780 foreigners were, where there was other missionaries. But it was not enough to preach the gospel in 00:08:14.780 --> 00:08:22.199 Shanghai. There were others doing that. He wanted to get to the interior, to the heart of China, where 00:08:22.199 --> 00:08:29.600 the gospel had not yet penetrated. His heart was burdened with a sense of responsibility for those who 00:08:29.600 --> 00:08:37.300 would never hear the gospel unless someone took it to them. And so despite the comforts of being in 00:08:37.300 --> 00:08:45.580 Shanghai, he went alone into the areas of China unreached by the gospel. Many of these parts of China 00:08:45.580 --> 00:08:53.980 had never seen a white person, a yang guizzi or white devil. And so Hudson Taylor did something else 00:08:53.980 --> 00:09:02.039 radical. He took to Chinese dress. He shaved the front of his head. He grew his hair long. He put 00:09:02.039 --> 00:09:07.700 black tar in his hair to make it black. You know, we could just buy dye these days, but he had to put 00:09:07.700 --> 00:09:13.659 tar in his hair. And he dressed like the people of the time. Here's a photo of Hudson from later in life. 00:09:14.180 --> 00:09:19.120 I think that beard is something to long for. So we'll see how we go with that. 00:09:19.120 --> 00:09:27.720 His contentment in Christ was so great that he was willing to dress like the people he ministered to, 00:09:28.779 --> 00:09:32.019 even if that meant being rejected by the other Europeans. 00:09:33.679 --> 00:09:40.000 He travelled into the heart of China, into the interior, and he had great success as a travelling 00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:46.259 missionary. But he couldn't do it alone. So he founded the mission organisation called the China 00:09:46.259 --> 00:09:54.840 Inland Mission, which later became OMF. But supporting other missionaries was always hard, 00:09:55.179 --> 00:10:02.159 as they lacked finances. In one of these times, years later, after he'd been there for a while, 00:10:02.259 --> 00:10:08.799 he'd gotten married, and he retreated to his office and was reading the Bible. And then he would pray a 00:10:08.799 --> 00:10:14.279 while, and then he would look at the finances, the very dire finances. And then he would pray a while, 00:10:14.279 --> 00:10:19.980 read the Bible, and then look at the finances again. And then he'd pray a while, and read the Bible. 00:10:20.860 --> 00:10:28.379 And after a while, he left his office. His wife, Maria, who he'd married in China after some time, 00:10:28.699 --> 00:10:36.799 asked, what are we going to do? And Hudson said, we have 27 cents, and all the promises of God. 00:10:36.799 --> 00:10:45.059 What more do we need? Now, I could talk at great length about Hudson Taylor, his life and ministry, 00:10:45.319 --> 00:10:53.039 his joy depending on God in the face of adversity. I could talk of him being chased out of towns, 00:10:53.620 --> 00:11:02.259 being sick and in ill health, being forced to head home from illness to England before returning to China. 00:11:02.259 --> 00:11:11.879 I could talk of losing his wife, Maria, to cholera at the age of 33 after she'd just given birth and that 00:11:11.879 --> 00:11:19.759 child had died. By the end of his life, it is reported that he and the ministry, the mission 00:11:19.759 --> 00:11:27.500 agency he'd started, the China Inland Mission, had brought around 849 missionaries to the field. 00:11:27.500 --> 00:11:36.840 He'd trained some 700 Chinese workers. He'd raised $4 million. He'd developed a witnessing church, 00:11:37.240 --> 00:11:44.799 a Chinese church of around 125,000. It has been said that at least 35,000 of these were his converts, 00:11:45.200 --> 00:11:53.899 and that he baptised some 50,000. But how could Hudson Taylor live this kind of life? How could he 00:11:53.899 --> 00:12:01.480 move to another country, learn the language in multiple dialects, see people all throughout China 00:12:01.480 --> 00:12:12.919 saved, lose a wife and children, be set by sickness, but be content that he had everything in Jesus? 00:12:15.319 --> 00:12:20.480 How could he do that? How could he live to see many, many people come to know Jesus? What was 00:12:20.480 --> 00:12:28.200 his secret? In his biography, it says that he was able to do this because of the simple, 00:12:28.720 --> 00:12:37.039 profound secret of drawing for every need, temporal or spiritual, upon the fathomless wealth of Christ. 00:12:38.000 --> 00:12:46.480 He was content in Jesus, and he was able to be satisfied by what he was given, whether he was rich 00:12:46.480 --> 00:12:52.940 or poor, when he was in good health or poor health, with his wife by his side or when she was with the 00:12:52.940 --> 00:13:02.700 Lord. He managed, because of his secret, contentment in Christ at all times. Yes, he struggled, yes, he 00:13:02.700 --> 00:13:12.700 sinned, but he learned how to be content in Christ. He is a wonderful model to us of what Paul preached 00:13:12.700 --> 00:13:21.940 in Philippians 4, which Sue Wing read for us. Paul learned how to be content in Christ. His letter, 00:13:22.180 --> 00:13:28.900 which was part of it, was read for us, that was written while he was in prison. That is usually a 00:13:28.900 --> 00:13:37.320 strange place to write a letter saying how content you are. But in chapter 4, Paul says that he has 00:13:37.320 --> 00:13:43.460 learned to be content whatever his circumstance. From verse 12, I know what it is to be in need, 00:13:43.840 --> 00:13:50.980 and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every 00:13:50.980 --> 00:13:57.560 situation, whether well-fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. Paul has been in both 00:13:57.560 --> 00:14:04.240 situations. He has been high and he has been low. He has been well-fed and he's been living with plenty, 00:14:04.240 --> 00:14:12.480 but he's also been hungry and brought low. He has been brought low in prison. He's been able to be 00:14:12.480 --> 00:14:18.820 content when everything was stacked against him, when he is shipwrecked and flogged and attacked, 00:14:19.080 --> 00:14:26.360 when he is stoned and persecuted. And yet he can say here in prison that he is content, 00:14:27.399 --> 00:14:33.379 all because he's learned the secret to being content. The link between his situation 00:14:33.379 --> 00:14:43.559 and his contentment is he knows that God is in control. Back in Philippians 1, while he's in 00:14:43.559 --> 00:14:48.679 prison, it says, now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has 00:14:48.679 --> 00:14:58.860 actually served to advance the gospel. He is in chains so that people hear the gospel. It's almost 00:14:58.860 --> 00:15:07.000 that Paul can see that being in prison is a good thing. People are hearing about Jesus and his fellow 00:15:07.000 --> 00:15:13.680 disciples are trusting God more because he's in chains and they're becoming more confident and 00:15:13.680 --> 00:15:22.779 courageous. But Paul also knows what it is to have plenty. Chapter 4 verse 18, there we go. 00:15:22.779 --> 00:15:30.059 I have received full payment and have more than enough. I'm amply supplied. And even when in 00:15:30.059 --> 00:15:37.079 abundance, he is content, not yearning for more, all because my God will meet all your needs, 00:15:37.439 --> 00:15:45.120 according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. Paul knows that God has met all his needs 00:15:45.120 --> 00:15:50.339 in Jesus and he knows that God will provide the church, the Philippian church, with all that they 00:15:50.340 --> 00:15:57.360 need to. Paul's secret to contentment... I feel like I should write a book, The Secret to Contentment. 00:15:57.460 --> 00:16:02.700 It seems like it would be a very on-trend book. Everybody loves The Secret. Paul's secret to 00:16:02.700 --> 00:16:09.700 contentment is not learned when he's rich. Paul's secret is not learned when he is poor. It's because 00:16:09.700 --> 00:16:16.480 he knows what both situations are like. Imagine for me a person who is incredibly wealthy. 00:16:16.480 --> 00:16:24.100 They come from a wealthy background and they have never lacked anything in life. And imagine that 00:16:24.100 --> 00:16:31.000 suddenly that person had everything taken from them. Do you think that they would be comfortable 00:16:31.000 --> 00:16:38.399 and content in poverty? I don't think so. Imagine someone from the opposite situation. Somebody that has 00:16:38.399 --> 00:16:45.340 come from a very poor background. They've learned how to be content. They've learned how to survive 00:16:45.340 --> 00:16:54.019 uncertainty and to depend and trust on God. But would they continue to trust God if they were suddenly 00:16:54.019 --> 00:17:01.740 wealthy? You see those statistics about people who suddenly win the lottery and they go from very poor 00:17:01.740 --> 00:17:07.940 to very wealthy. Those stats say that people who go from very poor to very wealthy do not find contentment. 00:17:07.940 --> 00:17:17.400 Money does not bring contentment. It just brings more pain. Paul insists that his contentment is found 00:17:17.400 --> 00:17:24.960 because he knows what both situations are like. And he's not longing to be wealthy. Imagining that it will 00:17:24.960 --> 00:17:33.640 bring him joy and happiness. And he's not longing for a simple life. Paul has learned how to be content 00:17:33.640 --> 00:17:41.160 in both situations because his contentment is independent. It is outside himself. His contentment 00:17:41.160 --> 00:17:50.560 is not found in his situation. His contentment is found outside. Whether rich or poor, his contentment 00:17:50.560 --> 00:17:58.420 is focused on enjoying all he has given in Jesus. Paul talks about the beauty of this contentment in 00:17:58.420 --> 00:18:07.900 verse 13. I can do all this through him who gives me strength. Now, you may have heard this verse before. 00:18:08.440 --> 00:18:15.440 Usually this verse is just plucked straight out of the Bible and used totally out of context. Usually it's 00:18:15.440 --> 00:18:23.039 used to describe ourselves. I can do all this. I can walk on water because God gives me strength. 00:18:23.039 --> 00:18:29.819 I can be as strong as Arnold Schwarzenegger. Don't you think? No? Oh, thanks, Noeline. Shaking your head 00:18:29.819 --> 00:18:35.720 there. I can be as strong as whoever because God is going to give me that strength. I can do whatever 00:18:35.720 --> 00:18:41.259 I want because God is going to give me that power. Yeah. And we think it's a really encouraging and 00:18:41.259 --> 00:18:46.579 really exciting. Yeah, Adrian, you can do everything because God will help you to do everything. 00:18:46.579 --> 00:18:50.220 But that's not what the Bible is saying and that's not what Paul is saying. 00:18:52.699 --> 00:18:57.759 To take it a step back, to go back to verse 12, from halfway through, 00:18:57.939 --> 00:19:05.299 I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well-fed or hungry, 00:19:05.419 --> 00:19:13.279 whether living in plenty or want. I can do all this. I can be content in any situation. I can do all 00:19:13.279 --> 00:19:21.920 this through him who gives me strength. I can do what God wants me to do. I can preach to people in 00:19:21.920 --> 00:19:29.279 prison. I can preach to the wealthy. I can do all that God needs me to do because he is the one who 00:19:29.279 --> 00:19:35.980 gives me strength. It is not about me. It is about me serving God in any situation because he is the one 00:19:35.980 --> 00:19:42.980 who gives me strength to find contentment in my situation. How do we get there? 00:19:44.839 --> 00:19:53.579 How do we become content in Jesus? How can we affirm that Jesus is all I need? Because I have so many 00:19:53.579 --> 00:20:00.539 needs. I have so many wants. I have so many desires. And I find it hard to just give up my desires and say, 00:20:00.539 --> 00:20:09.440 oh, Jesus is enough. On Tuesday, I was doing the washing up. And I was thinking through this. 00:20:10.460 --> 00:20:16.940 And at that moment, I can still picture the moment, standing over the dishes, hot water a little bit 00:20:16.940 --> 00:20:24.119 too hot. And God rebuked me in that moment as I was thinking about this topic. I have three young 00:20:24.119 --> 00:20:30.959 children. And when I get to seven o'clock at night, I long for my children to be asleep. 00:20:32.759 --> 00:20:43.639 I want to have time to sit down and watch TV and relax. I'm longing for the freedom of burden and 00:20:43.639 --> 00:20:49.639 responsibility. And I get frustrated when my kids don't go to sleep as quickly as I would like. 00:20:49.640 --> 00:20:56.600 I get frustrated when cleaning the house takes longer than I think it should at the end of the day, 00:20:57.100 --> 00:21:05.280 because I want me time. And as I've been reading about Hudson Taylor, who he lost two wives, 00:21:05.880 --> 00:21:13.920 he lost four children before the age of 10. It made me reflect on what I'm chasing and what the cost is. 00:21:13.920 --> 00:21:22.440 I'm chasing freedom from responsibility. I'm chasing freedom from burden. But I have that in Christ. 00:21:23.519 --> 00:21:29.740 I'm free to serve and love him because he has the responsibility to save. I'm chasing rest, 00:21:29.940 --> 00:21:37.279 but I get my ultimate rest in Jesus. Because even though I long for rest at seven o'clock at night, 00:21:37.380 --> 00:21:42.740 and I get that when my kids are asleep, that is gone the next morning. And my kids are awake, 00:21:42.740 --> 00:21:50.579 and I'm longing for that night again. Whatever we are pursuing that we think will make us content, 00:21:51.079 --> 00:21:58.019 the answer is actually Jesus. The boat or the holiday that we are longing for, 00:21:58.519 --> 00:22:06.539 it is a desire for freedom and rest. And that's only found in Jesus. The new job or the promotion 00:22:06.539 --> 00:22:13.519 that we long for, it's seeking security and respect. But that's only found in the God 00:22:13.519 --> 00:22:21.019 who chose to die for us. A desire for close friends and intimate relationships. 00:22:21.920 --> 00:22:27.940 What a friend we have in Jesus who will not betray us, who will not abandon us. 00:22:27.940 --> 00:22:35.500 Maybe we're not content until we have a family. Well, we have an older brother in Jesus who brings us 00:22:35.500 --> 00:22:43.120 to the best father and into a family, the church. Even with Chinese New Year coming up, 00:22:43.340 --> 00:22:50.160 the giving of red envelopes and the giving in return of a blessing, what is that but a desire for money 00:22:50.160 --> 00:22:59.640 and riches to have security. Working hard to earn a certain amount of money to buy a house, 00:23:00.060 --> 00:23:08.420 to buy another house. A longing and desire to have security. But Jesus is eternal security. 00:23:09.160 --> 00:23:18.540 A security that can't be destroyed or burnt down. The longing for security is answered in Jesus. 00:23:18.539 --> 00:23:27.460 The desire and longing for love is found in the arms spread on the cross. The hope for tomorrow is 00:23:27.460 --> 00:23:34.500 found in the resurrection of the dead. Our peace is found in his blood, buying it from God. Health, 00:23:35.139 --> 00:23:41.500 we have a great healer in Jesus. Riches, we are made heirs of the God of the universe. 00:23:41.500 --> 00:23:51.519 Rest. Rest. God says, come to me all you who are weary and I will give you rest. 00:23:54.420 --> 00:23:58.759 What will make you content? Is it the lollipop my child is asking for? 00:24:00.140 --> 00:24:06.319 What will satisfy? Because that hit of sugar is not going to last for long. The things that we 00:24:06.319 --> 00:24:13.079 seek contentment from do not last long. They are temporary things that we chase. 00:24:14.240 --> 00:24:16.919 The only thing that will satisfy is Jesus. 00:24:19.419 --> 00:24:26.159 We can be content regardless of life's circumstance. Our contentment is not based on what is going on 00:24:26.159 --> 00:24:32.439 around us, but what Jesus has done. It is not a philosophy like Buddhism that we seek to have 00:24:32.440 --> 00:24:41.160 no desires. We seek to rise above our desires. Rather, in the midst of difficult situations, 00:24:42.160 --> 00:24:51.039 people like Paul and Hudson Taylor sought and trusted in God and looked to Jesus. 00:24:51.920 --> 00:24:56.299 In him is every longing and desire satisfied. 00:24:56.299 --> 00:25:09.639 Being content in Jesus is a very dangerous place to be. Because there's consequences of being content. 00:25:11.019 --> 00:25:16.599 Being content doesn't fit with the rest of the world. The world is not content around us. 00:25:17.680 --> 00:25:23.159 But the world is chasing personal desire at every turn. I had a strange moment at youth group 00:25:23.160 --> 00:25:29.180 last year, towards the end of the term. I was sitting there. I was sitting next to a younger 00:25:29.180 --> 00:25:32.180 person. Most people at youth group are younger. Actually, everyone at youth group is younger than me. 00:25:32.660 --> 00:25:37.480 I'm the old, odd one out. And I was reading my Bible on my phone, and one of the younger people 00:25:37.480 --> 00:25:42.620 was reading a Bible on their phone. That's a fairly normal thing these days. And they said, 00:25:42.620 --> 00:25:48.540 oh, how do you cope only having an iPhone 8? You need an iPhone 11. 00:25:48.539 --> 00:25:56.379 And I was taken aback. This phone I have, it's enough. I'm more than content in it. 00:25:57.019 --> 00:26:01.559 But even that, not having the very latest technology is weird. 00:26:03.420 --> 00:26:10.819 When we are content with what God has given us, He will do dangerous things with us. 00:26:12.259 --> 00:26:17.139 Hudson Taylor strove to be content in what God had given him. 00:26:17.140 --> 00:26:24.620 And God sent him across the world to minister to a people who did not know God. 00:26:25.400 --> 00:26:32.720 And God used him to do marvellous things. The same with Paul. He was content to say that 00:26:32.720 --> 00:26:37.960 to live is Christ and to die is gain. That is a wonderful contentment. 00:26:39.020 --> 00:26:43.040 One that can see him understanding why he was even in prison. 00:26:43.039 --> 00:26:50.299 We can be content. Every longing and desire of ours is met in Jesus. 00:26:51.359 --> 00:26:56.359 It's not met by earthly things. Jesus is the yes to all of God's promises. 00:26:57.480 --> 00:27:03.019 And imagine what God would do with us if we were content with Him. 00:27:03.019 --> 00:27:22.420 Let me pray for us. 00:27:22.420 --> 00:27:30.120 Father, we thank you for our brothers Hudson and our brother Paul. 00:27:31.240 --> 00:27:35.500 Lord, we thank you that they have learned contentment in you. 00:27:36.680 --> 00:27:39.920 Father, we ask that as we are encouraged by their model, 00:27:40.480 --> 00:27:45.900 that we would see Jesus as the yes to all of our desires. 00:27:45.900 --> 00:27:53.460 Father, help us to be aware of the things that we long for. 00:27:54.340 --> 00:27:56.519 Help us to see the heart of them. 00:27:57.200 --> 00:28:01.720 And to see how you have answered that already in Jesus. 00:28:02.180 --> 00:28:04.960 Father, help us not chase things that will not satisfy. 00:28:05.860 --> 00:28:09.920 But to be satisfied and content in all that you have given us in your Son. 00:28:09.920 --> 00:28:15.700 We pray that we would do this so that you would do dangerous things with us, Lord. 00:28:15.759 --> 00:28:18.940 That you would make us fearless proclaimers of the gospel, 00:28:19.060 --> 00:28:20.680 not afraid of what other people would think. 00:28:21.000 --> 00:28:25.000 That you would send many of us out to preach the gospel, 00:28:25.160 --> 00:28:29.000 just like Sue Wing, across the world, across Sydney and our country, Lord. 00:28:30.060 --> 00:28:33.300 So that more people would come to know and love you, 00:28:33.759 --> 00:28:35.660 so that you would have all the glory, Lord. 00:28:36.279 --> 00:28:36.600 Amen.