Challenged...

There are some sermons that just hit hard....they challenge you and bring you back to reality. Today's did just that. Thank you Jere for reminding me of all the silly and small things we fill our lives with, looking for contentment, when in reality all we need it staring us right in the face. Jere recently traveled to Africa with several others from the church. He shared with us a conversations he had with some of the older men from an extremely poor village. They have nothing, they have their huts, they have one outfit, and they eat about one meal a day. In sharing, one man told him, we don't need your money...thank you for it, it has helped us, but we don't need it. What you brought to us today, the gospel you are sharing with us, that is what we need. We have been here for years and have done just fine, but this gospel that you are sharing with us, that is all we need. Amazing...he shared how they looked at him with his cars, home, wardrobe, etc. and were not in want of that, but instead they were in want of what he shared with them, because they "got it", they understood what it meant. If we could all just have a small piece of the faith those people have. It was such a strong reminder of what we need to find true contentment in. Nothing else will last, all the things we have here are just "bonuses" but in the end, if we haven't relied on Christ for our true contentment, we will feel empty, always searching for more.

He gave us this quote which just nails it on the head...

If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ were not there? 

- John Piper, God is the Gospel