From Consumption to Contentment
Scripture: 2 Corinthians 6: 1-10 (RNJB)*
We begin a new series entitled “Stewardshift” and explore this week how we can move from consumption to contentment in our lives. With God’s unlimited resources and divine strength, we in our limitedness and weakness can become living oxymorons, who paradoxically and simultaneously can be:
Sad—yet rejoicing.
Anxious—yet at peace.
Penniless—yet enriching others.
Suffering—yet hopeful.
Dying—yet living.
Having nothing—yet possessing all.
By God’s grace and power, adversity betters us, rather than embitters us. Our joy is found not in our circumstances, but in our Savior, who is always by our side.
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Scripture: 2 Corinthians 6:1-10 (RNJB)
“As fellow-workers we appeal to you also not to accept the grace of God in vain, for he says: At an acceptable time I listened to you, and in the day of salvation I helped you. See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation. We put no obstacles in anyone’s way to keep our ministry free of blame, but in every way we commend ourselves as servants of God through great endurance, in hardships, in need, in oppression, in beatings, in imprisonment, in riots, in labors, in lack of sleep and lack of food; by purity, by knowledge, by patience, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by genuine love, in the word of truth, in the power of God, with the weapons of righteousness on the right and on the left, with honor and dishonor, with bad reputation and good; taken as imposters and yet genuine, taken as unknown and yet well known, taken as dying; and see, we are alive, as punished yet not put to death, as sad yet always rejoicing, as beggars yet enriching many, as destitute yet having everything.”
* The Revised New Jerusalem Bible. Biblical text copyright © 2019 by Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd. Forward, notes, and introductions copyright © 2019 by Dom Henry Wansbrough. All rights reserved.
A Kindle version of the Revised New Jerusalem Bible is currently available at: https://www.amazon.com/Revised-New-Jerusalem-Bible-ebook/dp/B078VWWLGT
Sermon Art: “Simplicity” by Gary Oakley
Sermons by Dr. John C. Tittle are available in our Library of Sermons.
Other Sermons In This Series
From Grasping to Generosity
January 26, 2020
From Grumbling to Gratitude
February 02, 2020
From Glory to Glory
February 23, 2020