A Spiritual Stool Analysis

Well, thank you again, Mr. Emery, and good afternoon once again. You know, in 1998, I had a chance to go and serve for the very first time at a United Youth camp. And it was a camp that was north of us. And when I say north of us, I mean in the country to the north of us, the great white north, Canada.

The camp was Camp McGillbury. It was located in Croesnes Pass, Alberta, which is kind of just south in the mountains there of Alberta. I don't know if that's the Rockies actually come to think of it now or not, but pretty much straight south from Canmore, closer to the U.S. border. It was very nice, very rugged location, had canoeing, had mountain bike trails, served our camp needs very, very nicely. I was a dorm counselor to the 13- and 14-year-old boys' dorm. And I was only a few years older than they were at the time.

I think I was probably 17. And I don't know how much counseling actually went on, but we had a good time and we built some good, solid relationships. Many of which have lasted through the years. And as with the majority of a lot of our United Youth Camp programs, the counselors get together every morning. We talk. We talk about the themes of the day. We talk about issues that we're having. We talk about ways to get ideas so we can better reach our kids.

And we're sitting there in one of our morning meetings, and I'm sitting on one of those standard sturdy metal folding chairs, identical to the kind that you're all sitting on right here. And I was rocking back on the legs of the chair.

I don't know if you've ever done that before in school. We always go, put those legs on the ground! You're gonna bust your head open! Right? Well, I tip back, and as we're talking, all of a sudden the next thing I knew I was flat on my back. Just absolutely flat on my back. But I didn't tip over backwards. I broke the metal chair. Now, once the group of counselors realized that the only thing that was really bruised at that point in time was my ego, they did what any reasonable group of people would do.

They lost it. They absolutely started laughing, just, I mean, just cracked up like you wouldn't believe. And honestly, who could blame them? I would have been laughing right along with them if the chair were on the other keister. So, I'm pretty sure that all of this happened before the institution of what we now call at the camps the no-knock policy, which means you're going easy on ribbing each other, you know?

Because at that point in time, at that camp, all of us counselors had participated in some good-natured international ribbing between the Canadian counselors, the American counselors, and our lone Dutchman. We had one guy from the Netherlands, and it was just back and forth, back and forth. So, I hopped up really fast.

I tried to diffuse the situation. I was embarrassed. Oh, I was so embarrassed. I tried to diffuse the situation really quickly by going, ha! Look at that shoddy Canadian worksmanship to which I flipped the chair over and on the bottom of it, as big as big can be, made in the USA. And everybody started cracking up, you know? I lost it at that point and had no real choice but to join in too.

If you have ever had the opportunity to have a chair break underneath you or to somehow otherwise fall to the ground suddenly and unexpectedly, you know all too well that it can be quite a shock. It can surprise you. Honestly, you have very little time to react or to prepare. It's one second you're suspended in the air and the next year on the ground and there really is not a whole lot you can do in between.

We have an analogy in the education field that was borrowed from the world of finance. You might be familiar with it from there, but it's the analogy of the three-legged stool. Who's ever heard of the three-legged stool analogy? They used it for financial retirement stuff for years. Well, we, as all good teachers, we steal everything and we adapt it for our own uses in education. The stool in this case, which supports the student's educational success, is held up by three legs.

It's held up by the teacher, by the parents, and ultimately the student. There's three aspects of support that go on in supporting the student's educational success and really all three of those entities bear a responsibility on the success of that young person. If the parents and the students work as hard as possible, I mean if they're really working hard and the teacher drops the ball through either incompetence or negligence, the student's success could be adversely impacted. Likewise, if the parents and the teachers are working as hard as possible and the student's just kicking back loafing, well, then their success can also be adversely affected as a result.

And lastly, if the parents don't provide a reasonable home environment where students are able to have a place to study and able to be conducive to their success, provide at least some general quality of life for the student, again, their success can be elusive. What's interesting about a three-legged stool instead of a four-legged stool is that a three-legged stool requires that those legs be perfectly placed and balanced, and rightly, if they're too far forward, everything tips over.

You've got to have the perfect balance set up in order to enable that to remain stable. And, frankly, if one leg is weak or one leg is wobbly, the balance is off, the stool's unable to remain stable. And really, if one of those legs becomes fractured or broken, which in the case of my metal chair, apparently when we found out later on, one of them had already been kind of folded over and just bent back.

Well, you know, with metal, it, you know, holds its memory. And I gave it a considerable amount of force, and down it went. So if you have a stool where you've got a broken leg like that, it's also going to tip, and it's also going to be unstable. Everything comes crashing down just like that morning at Camp McGillvery with my broken support system underneath me. If you've been in the Church of God for any length of time, you're probably able to look around and identify people who are no longer here.

If you think back through the years—some of you have been at this for quite some time—if you think back through the years, you can think back, and there are a number of people who, for whatever reason or another, have decided to leave our fellowship.

For some, they've kept the faith and they've changed associations. For others, they've left altogether. In their minds and ultimately through their actions, they've determined that the faith once delivered just doesn't hold the same level of importance to them as it once did. How does someone reach that point in their spiritual life where everything that they once believed comes crashing down and they're willing to walk away? What broke?

What became compromised? Something undermined the stability of their life and they were unable to maintain that balance, causing that spiritual life to topple. How do we get to that point? How does someone arrive at that place? Let's start today over in Mark 4. Actually, I'm going to have you turn to a different spot because I'm going to—would you turn to Matthew 13 instead? I will review it from Mark 4. We won't turn there. But we're going to turn over to a well-known parable that discusses the conditions that lead to someone losing the word that was sown to them to begin with. Mark 4 is the parable of the sower or the parable of the soils. And in verse 3 of Mark 4, it starts to illustrate four different scenarios. Three of those scenarios which result in the person not making it.

Three of the four, the person doesn't make it. Where the fourth one is the desirable. We see that as the seed was sowed, some fell by the wayside, the fowls of the air came and they devoured it. Some fell on stony ground where it didn't have much earth, and immediately it sprang up but didn't have the depth of root. Sun came out and it withered. Another one fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no fruit.

And then the fourth one fell on good ground and yielded fruit that sprang up and increased and brought forth some thirty, some sixty, and some a hundred. Christ at this point in time provided a parable to a group of people that they really didn't understand. Even the disciples who had been with him for a while had to ask for an interpretation, which he provides in the subsequent verses of Mark 4 and also in Luke 8 and Matthew 13.

So there's three places that the response is recorded. And each of those records slightly different details. We're going to go to all three today. Interestingly, the parallel account in Matthew 13 is worded a little bit differently with regards to the first scenario as some. So he said, okay, what's the explanation? Tell me what the explanation is. Please give us the information. And Christ says in Matthew 13, verse 18, Hear you therefore the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and understands it not or doesn't understand it.

Then comes the wicked one and catches away that which was sown in his heart. The other account, Mark 4, specifically says, he hears it and Satan comes and takes it away. It doesn't add the other piece that we find here in Matthew 13, which is, hears the word and understands it. Here's the word and understands it. Verse 20 of Matthew 13 says, But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who receives the word or hears the word and immediately receives it with joy.

Yet he has no root in himself but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. Now he who receives seed among the thorns is he who hears the word and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and he becomes unfruitful.

Verse 23, But he who receives seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it. He hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty. That's a slightly different wording than what we see in Mark 4. Again, the beginning section of Mark 4 says he hears it and Satan comes and takes it away. It doesn't get into the aspect of understanding it.

The Greek word for understanding in this section is suniemi, which translates to put together or to mentally comprehend. So putting it together, mentally comprehending it. So we see in this case there was a lack of understanding of that which was heard. And what was the ultimate effect of that? Let's go to Luke 8 and we'll fill in the rest. Luke 8, over to the other parallel passage. Luke 8, and we'll fill in the rest of it here by turning to Luke 8 and verse 12.

Luke 8 and verse 12 goes into the same sort of an account. Luke 8 and verse 12. That's Luke 7, verse 12. There's Luke 8 and verse 12. It says, now the parable is this, the seed is the word of God, and that's verse 11. Those by the wayside are the ones who hear. Then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts. And then notice what it finishes with, lest they should believe and be saved.

Lest they should believe and be saved. So the word is sown, it is heard but not understood in their hearts. The devil takes it away from them. And had they heard it and had they understood it, they would have believed and they would have been saved. All three of these accounts continue. They basically explain the other scenarios in much the same way.

But looking at this particular scripture and talking with a number of people and trying to brainstorm the reasons why people walk away, a pattern started to develop. The reasons that people left the faith could be sorted into three basic categories. And the categories, as they became more defined, it was pretty apparent that they were the same basic scenarios that are listed here in the parable of the sower. A lack of belief or understanding, a lack of commitment to this way of life when things get tough, or a lack of follow through to what they know to be true.

Finally, a lack of contentment with this particular way of life and a desire for something more, either riches, unbalanced priorities, or sinful desires which choke out the word that was sown. What that means is the things that could cause someone to walk away from God could ultimately be categorized as a lack of conviction, a lack of commitment, and a lack of contentment.

A spiritual, three-legged stool, if you will. Weakness or damage in any one of these situations could result in an unstable spiritual life and a person who leaves the faith. So how do we protect ourselves and our own spiritual lives and the spiritual lives of our brothers and sisters against this? And I want to be clear, I don't want to spend the entirety of the time focused on the negative. I don't want to look at the reasons why people leave. What I'd rather do is spend the time looking at how can we analyze our own spiritual stool in order to identify where there might be cracks or fractures in our own supports so that we can work towards making the necessary repairs before it collapses.

So the three legs of the spiritual stool that we're going to talk about today is conviction, commitment, and contentment. So with the time left, today I'd like to examine these aspects and explore them a little more fully, analyzing our conviction, our commitment, and our contentment in hopes of increasing in these things as we begin to move into the spring holiday season. It's not far off. The examination period starts here in the next little bit. The title of the message today is the spiritual stool analysis.

So we're going to start today with conviction. We're going to begin with the very first scenario given in the parable of the sower, which is a lack of understanding, a lack of belief, or a lack of conviction. Conviction is defined, if you take a look at the online dictionary, conviction is defined as a firmly held belief or opinion. A person who is convicted holds a deep belief and understanding that stands up to scrutiny. What we might define it as, we might say that it's faith.

We might say that that conviction is faith. In the life of a believer, a person might be committed to necessary actions. They might keep the Sabbath. They might attend the Feast of Tabernacles. They might follow through on what they quote-unquote believe. But even after doing all those things, they might still not believe. We see this scenario sometimes frequently with young people who were born in the church and struggled to make this faith their own. It's certainly not limited to youth.

We see it in older aged people as well. But a person in this scenario is content with attending. They haven't been offended. They haven't been upset by somebody enough that they want to leave. They're not necessarily angry or bitter. They might not be struggling with outward sins that would disqualify them to those around them. But they're going through the motions. They're here, but they're not really here. They might be following through on what they read in Scripture, or they were taught during their lifetime in a variety of ways. But without a belief and a conviction as to why it's unsustainable over time. As time goes on, they might simply fade away, or they may begin to accept alternate philosophies such as Eastern religions.

Natural philosophies such as evolution may result in atheism or becoming agnostic. I know people who I grew up with that went down that road who are at best agnostic, but more likely probably atheist, today. Grew up in the church.

Hebrews 11 talks a little bit about this concept. Let's go ahead and turn over there real quick. Hebrews 11. Because without conviction, it's difficult to build the level of belief or understanding that we must have to remain stable. If we don't have conviction, contentment and commitment alone isn't enough to keep us upright. The conviction has to be there. We have to have all three legs of the stool in order to be successful. Hebrews 11 and verse 6.

Hebrews 11 and verse 6. But without faith, it's impossible to please Him. For He who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. The first step in the process is our conviction or our belief of God's existence. In this case, it's the Greek root, pessuo, which is faith or trust, as well as His involvement in our lives, recognizing that not only does He exist, but He actively works in our lives. That He cares about us, that He sees us, that He knows what we're going through. It's a process. In fact, the book of Acts quotes a section from the book of Isaiah which kind of outlines that. Let's turn over to Acts 28. Let's pop over to Acts 28 real quick.

Acts 28 verses 26 through 27. There's a quote here from the book of Isaiah that kind of outlines a process that people go through to build belief. Acts 28 verses 26 and 27. Acts 28, 26 and 27 says, saying, but we'll start with 25, so when they did not agree among themselves, they departed after Paul had said one word. The Holy Spirit spoke rightly through Isaiah the prophet to our Father, saying, Go to this people and say, hearing you will hear, and shall not understand, seeing you will see and not perceive, for the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed. So there's the situation, but what's the fix? Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them. It says their heart has grown dull, their eyes and their ears are stopped up and closed. Then it says, lest, and here's the process. Again, they should see with their eyes, hear with their ears, and understand. And that's the same word that we saw before in the parable of the sower. That's sumi ami, which again is comprehend, mentally put together, but notice what they're mentally processing it with. They're processing it with their heart. They're understanding with their heart. So what does that mean? Well, the Greek word for heart is cardia, which is where we get the root for cardio from, or cardiac, and it's figuratively used throughout Scripture to represent thoughts and feelings in the way that it's used, and that's how it's used here. So this is much more than just an academic understanding or mental comprehension. This is far more than just knowing it up here. In addition to knowing it up here, it involves the heart. It involves the heart. It involves our thoughts. It involves all of ourselves, so to speak. If that were to occur, as this account said, they would have been converted and healed. If they could have understood with their hearts, they would have been converted and healed. And God lamented over and over in Scripture, seen a number of places where He says, oh, that they would have had such a heart in them, that they would have heard, that they would have obeyed, that they would have allowed themselves to be converted, that they would have faith. This concept of understanding with the heart is found throughout the New Testament. One of those places is Mark 6. Let's go over to Mark 6, and we'll see this particular use in Scripture, Mark 6.

Mark 6, and we'll pick it up in verse 49. We'll read through verse 52.

Mark 6 and verse 49.

It says, And when they saw him walking on the sea, they supposed it was a ghost and cried out. For they all saw him and were troubled. But immediately he talked with them and said to them, Be of good cheer, it is I, do not be afraid. Then he went up into the boat to them, and the wind ceased, and they were greatly amazed in themselves, beyond measure and marvel. Now verse 52. For they had not understood. That's the same word that we've seen now twice.

That's Sunni Ami. Understood. Mentally comprehended. Put it together. For they had not understood about the loaves, the miracle that they had just seen. They had not understood it, because their heart was hardened. Their heart was hardened.

So did they not accept it, because they refused to see it for what it was? Did they struggle to accept it? Did they lack the necessary faith to understand what it was they were looking at? The heart is a crucial player in the process of understanding. It leads us to belief. Romans 10 talks about this. If you jump over to Romans 10, that'll conclude our rapid fire proving of a point.

Romans 10. And we'll take a look at the Apostle Paul's account in verse 8. How the heart influences belief, how it works into belief and ultimately faith.

Romans 10. And we'll pick it up in verse 8 of Romans 10. It says, But what does it say? The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. That is the word of faith, which we preach. So it's located near you. It's in your mouth. It's in your heart. That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. I really appreciated what Mr. Harmon was talking about in the first split, because it dovetailed so nicely with this. It is action. It is follow-through. It's the thoughts of our mind and the thoughts of ourselves and the follow-through that goes along with that. That helps us to build that faith and build that belief.

That requires us to engage the heart. That requires us to engage the heart. And you know, for some who have grown up in the church, perhaps, engaging the heart can be a little bit difficult.

They've never really known anything else. I count myself as one of those. I was born in the church. Not literally in the church, but I came to church after I was born. But 36 years ago, we've been going through this process for so long.

The starkness of conversion for somebody who was born in the church is so different than for someone who has come in from outside. It's so different. And the reality of it is, sometimes it's hard for us to sometimes see the emotional relationship at times, because it's all we've ever known. Whereas you know sometimes this and then stark difference to this. And we don't want to encourage people to go astray so that they can feel a conversion. That is not the goal we have. Well, I'm just going to have to go off. And what is it that the Amish do? The thing where they go and they leave for a while and they decide, is this something that I want to do or come back? That's not what we're saying here. But what we are getting at is, we do need to have emotion in our day-to-day relationship with God. Honestly, if we're not having emotion in our day-to-day relationship with God, brethren, we might be doing it wrong. There should be emotion. We should feel something in our relationship with God. And I don't mean overboard. I don't mean like, you know, nothing but emotion. But to be honest, as a church, sometimes I think we've instructed a very analytical faith that is devoid of the heart. And I think sometimes we need to recognize that the heart plays a huge part in this process as well. In addition to, not at expense of, emotion is not a bad thing. Feeling our faith isn't a bad thing as long as it's balanced and it's appropriate. So if we don't feel our faith in the day-to-day, like we don't feel our faith in the day-to-day, how can we build and strengthen our conviction? Well, it's pretty simple, actually. Mr. Harmon covered it in the first split sermon. We love and we serve others. I'm not going to turn there because we already went there, but in James 1, verses 25 through 27, it talks about what we can do to strengthen that conviction and to strengthen that faith and that belief. Being a doer, living it, acting on what we know to be true in a pure and undefiled religion is God's love flowing through you to other people. It talks specifically in those sections about the fatherless and the widows. And if we're serving one another in love, you will build that faith and that conviction. Now, it can't be done out of a sense of obligation. It can't be doing it because you feel like you have to. It has to be done in love. Otherwise, you do it because you feel like you have to. It builds resentment as time goes on. Without conviction, without a deeply held belief, commitment and contentment isn't enough to keep us spiritually stable.

It may last for a time, but we need to make sure that what we do, we do out of a deep sense of conviction and love for other people. Or we have the potential to resent what it is that we do. The second thing, the second leg of the stool, is commitment. And a person may have very strong convictions. They may truly believe head and heart what they read in their Bibles. They might believe strongly that God is the creator of it all and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. They might believe and be convicted of the fact in the deepest places of their heart. They may have a strong faith. And they may be very content in their life, placing their contentment in God and not in what others think.

But when it comes to potentially giving our life for what we believe, it's almost like sometimes maybe there's a little line in the sand that we're hesitant to cross. There was a movie once. I don't even remember what it was now. One of the characters said to the other one, I'd take a bullet for you. I mean, not in the chest. The person was like, oh yeah, no, no, no, not in the chest. I mean, come on, let's be serious. And it's almost like we get in that place where we're like, you know what, yes, I would absolutely do that, but not that way, or that way or that way or that way. But yes, in my sleep, I'd be okay with that. If I were to give my life in my sleep, that would be fine, but not violently. It's almost like we put limits on it. There's a line in the sand where we're kind of hesitant to cross. Let's go to John 12. John 12.

John 12, we'll take a look at an account, actually, that quotes the same section of Isaiah that we quoted above regarding belief. John 12, and we'll pick it up in verse 36. John 12, verse 36, says, So why didn't they believe? Why didn't they have a degree of conviction? Because of the hardness of their hearts. Verse 41, Nevertheless, even among the rulers, many believed in him. But because of the Pharisees, they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue. For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. There were men among the chief rulers who did believe, who had faith in Christ. But because of the unpopular opinion, they kept their mouths shut. They didn't say anything. They loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. Now, they believed. Were they committed? No. Were they content, being a part of the chief rulers, and getting the praise of men? Yes. So they didn't act. The commitment wasn't there, even though the conviction and the contentment was. The commitment was not there. Conviction and contentment alone are not enough. It requires commitment, too, because, again, without that third leg, you end up on your back, with a broken metal chair or a broken wooden stool or whatever it happens to be in this case.

There's another aspect of commitment that bleeds into this, and it kind of bleeds, honestly, into contentedness a little bit as well, which is not allowing our secondary commitments to get in the way of our primary commitment. What that does is it ends up resulting in commitments that don't necessarily match our convictions. There's a short selection I'd like to just read to you quickly from a book entitled, When the Game is Over, It All Goes Back in the Box, and it's written by John Ortberg. It's from a section of the book called Set Up on pages 100-101. In the book, basically what he talks about is that there are certain pieces in the game of life that go back in the box when it's done, but there are other things that you achieve in life, like a relationship with God, etc., that don't go back in the box. All the other physical stuff goes back in the box, but not the relationship, not some other things. Here's what he says. Some time ago, I read an article with a title that stuck with me. Do your commitments match your convictions? We all hold convictions about what matters most in our lives, about what we hold most dear, but when we take stock of our day-to-day actions, there's often a gap between what we value and the way that we spend our time, money, or energy. Binding commitments are actions or choices made in the past that ties us to a future course of action. They determine the shape of our lives. The ultimate commitment that we're called to is the one that God enters into with us. All of our smaller choices about relationships and work and leisure are to be shaped and evaluated by how they help us keep the one great commitment. But often we drift into other commitments that help us, or that keep us, from living out our deepest values. In fact, the Apostle Paul warned Timothy about this tendency that no one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs because he wants to please his commanding officer. Binding commitments come in different flavors. Sometimes they're dramatic, like graduating from high school, choosing a college, getting married, changing jobs, getting a career. All those things involve highly dramatic commitments. One advantage of dramatic commitments is they're really easy to see. That's the one nice thing about dramatic commitments. Sometimes, though, we don't consider the hidden cost. Sometimes people buy a home that means commuting an hour each way to work.

They see the increased square footage that the purchase buys, but they don't see the cost of losing time with their family. There's a hidden cost involved in that. More often, though, the commitments that we bind ourselves to are routine. It says, I may accept a task or say yes to someone's offer to serve on a committee. I may volunteer to serve at my church or take a class or shoulder some new responsibilities at work. Routine commitments may look mundane, but don't underestimate their power. Any parent who's signed up a five-year-old on a soccer team knows the time-consuming potential of the routine commitment.

There are cults that place fewer demands on a person's time than soccer leagues. It says some commitments are also unspoken. These could include a commitment to ambition or comfort or learning. They might be playing golf or riding motorcycles or spending time in a chat room. Addictions are all a form of unspoken commitment. One of the most surprising discoveries of recovering addicts is how much time their addiction consumed.

Whether it involves sex, shopping, or substance abuse, addictions steal hours not only to be indulged in, but also to be fantasized over, funded, covered up, or regretted. They're not just habits that shame us. They rob us of our lives. Our primary unspoken commitment, however, as Americans, is watching television. According to Time Diaries, adults in America average four hours of viewing of television per day. Husbands and wives spend three or four times as much time watching television than they actually do talking to each other. This becomes habit-forming and mildly addictive.

Maybe nowhere in the gap between convictions and commitments is found to be larger than in family life. Parents spend, on average, four hours a day watching television, one hour a day shopping, and six minutes a day playing with their kids. Let me read that again. On average, four hours a day watching television, one hour a day shopping, and six minutes playing with their kids.

Those routine commitments, those unspoken commitments, they can sure get in the way. He concludes this section and mentions that Jesus made the object of the game clear when he said to love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, your mind, and your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. God and people are what matter. So, brethren, what are our commitments? Do they match our convictions? Do they match what we profess to believe and what we find to be important? Or are they out of balance as well? Matthew 22, 37 is the part that was quoted here in the article, and it basically lines out two things.

And Mr. Herman brought up the importance of keeping the commandments today, and we recognize this isn't eliminating eight of them for two. This is categorizing ten under two. We see that that's what this particular section is. But it basically tells us in Matthew 22 that there are two big things that we are tasked to do.

That is, love God and love everybody else. And that's not the guy on the right side of my fence and the guy on the left side of my fence, and then the guys across the street forget them. That's not what that is. It's everybody. It's everybody. Everybody that we come across. That's our primary commitment. What in our lives is getting in the way? If we have conviction, if we truly believe, and we're content in that belief and in our life, yet we lack the follow-through, that stool will tip over.

Again, if we only have two out of the three legs, that stool will tip over. The last leg that we're going to look at today is multifaceted. And to be honest, it's one of the largest topolers of schools in the modern era of the church. You can have conviction. You can have a true deep faith and a belief from the heart that leads to conversion. You can have solid commitment. You can talk the talk, and you can walk the walk.

But that does not necessarily make you immune from being toppled in this category. Contentment is one of those areas in our spiritual life that's difficult because it's multifaceted. It involves anger. It involves frustration. It involves discontent over situations and people. It involves our desire for something more. Maybe it's power. Maybe it's money. Maybe it's prestige. It can affect our job. It can affect our marriage. It can affect our spiritual life. It can affect our church congregations.

And what makes it so difficult for us in the modern era is that we so often place our contentedness in material, physical things. We build our contentedness into material, physical things. We build it into our wealth and our income. We build it into our job. We build it into our marriage. We build it into physical constructs. And we don't necessarily place it in God. So when something does happen that causes us to become offended, when someone says something hurtful or does something that's hurtful, and we become offended rather than reconcile at times, rather than try to constructively solve the problem, recognizing this is human limitation and carnality, our response is, that was such an unchristian thing to do.

This person, and frankly, this church, cannot possibly be the church. And that's the conclusion that we make. You know, you can debate level of commitment in those situations. Maybe you can debate a number of other things. But often individuals that find themselves in this place are having trouble with other legs of the stool, too.

Not always. But at times, they might be having trouble with the other legs of the stool, too. But the reaction is that this person is not acting like a Christian, therefore this church cannot be God's church. When in reality, the actions of a person, or even the actions of the organization on the individual, is on the individuals involved in that situation. It's on those people, not God. Because a person acts inappropriately doesn't mean God is wrong. It means that that person and their action is wrong. When we allow ourselves to become offended by the actions of a person, and we somehow blame that on God, we do ourselves and God a disservice.

Because in some ways we place our contentedness in the wrong place. We place it in man. We place it in man's constructs instead of in God. We put our faith and our conviction in man, and if we do that, we will be disappointed every single time.

If we put our contentedness in the wrong place, we will be disappointed every single time. Let's go over to John 6, verses 60 and 67. Or 62, 67, sorry. John 6. Just prior to this section, Christ instructed the disciples and those gathered that they would figuratively need to eat His flesh and drink His blood, referencing the New Testament Passover emblems that would eventually be instituted a few chapters later. But what we see is interesting. It was a difficult saying for a number of people to understand, and many were offended.

Many were offended. John 6 and verse 60, we'll pick it up in, like, verse 58. It says, This is the bread which came down from heaven, not as your fathers ate the manna, and our dead. He who eats this bread, referencing the bread that he was speaking of, will live forever. These things he said in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum. Verse 60. Therefore, many of his disciples, when they heard this, said, This is a hard understanding, or a hard saying.

Who can understand it? Who can comprehend it? Who can process this? 61, when Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said, Does this offend you?

What then, if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before? It is the Spirit who gives life, the flesh prophets nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you who do not believe, for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were, who did not believe, and who would betray Him. And He said, Therefore, I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to Him by My Father. From that time, many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.

Verse 67, then Jesus said to the twelve, Do you also want to go away? Do you guys leave Him too? As He asked His disciples at that point in time, Simon Peter answered Him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also, we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Some of His disciples were offended by what they heard. And rather than listen to the explanation and try to adjust their understanding, they walked away because the saying was too difficult for them. Christ asked the rest of the twelve, What about you?

You guys leaving too? We see Peter's response. He said, No. We're convicted and we're committed. We're not going anywhere. And so, you could argue level of commitment and conviction in the other disciples that walked away, individuals who've become offended can rationalize their way around leaving the faith relatively easily. In this situation, they weren't content with the teaching and they walked away. That was it. Done. Interestingly, though, contentment can also take the form of status quo, being content in who we are, where we are, and really not being willing to change, as God requires or prompts us to do.

And Mr. Harmon read the example of the rich young ruler. We won't turn there. But you can also find it in Mark 10. You know, he walks up, he asks Jesus Christ, What must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus tells him, You know the commandments. Don't commit adultery, don't kill, don't steal, don't bear false witness. Don't defraud people, honor your father and your mother. He says, I've done all these things for my youth! He says, Okay. He says, Beholding him, loved him, and said to him, One thing you lack.

Go your way, sell what you have, give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven, and then come, take up the cross, and follow me. And we see he went away grieved. As Mr. Harmon mentioned this morning, he left. He had great possessions, and he wasn't willing to walk away. That was that bridge that was a little bit too far. We'll never really know what potential was lost.

We don't know. He was so content with the status quo. The desire to maintain that wealth, that instead of giving up the wealth and going the way, he walked away and said. You know, in his case, in the case of many in the modern era, we get wrapped up in the physical things. Sometimes it's hard for us to let go and hard for us to put hurts and wrongs in God's hands and not dwell on them. We take them to heart, and we get upset.

We respond in kind sometimes when we shouldn't. We can be convicted. We can be committed to this way of life. We can serve. We can love one another and do everything right. But the actions of someone else can come along and just kick that third leg right out from underneath our school. And we let them. If we are able to place our contentment in the right place, we recognize that folks is folks. People are people. You know, people are going to do things that will offend, because we're all still human.

We're all working at this. We're all trying to get along better and love one another more. And no, we're not perfect at it yet. We're not. We make mistakes. But hopefully we recognize and we apologize and we ask for forgiveness, and hopefully the other person is willing to let it go and give it to God.

You know, if we can treat one another with love, even when someone acts to the contrary, we can maintain the stability of that third leg of that stool and possibly even stabilize the other person a little bit, too, as they're getting a little rickety. Our spiritual life is like a three-legged stool.

It is supported by conviction, commitment, and contentment. And all three of those things in our life need to be stabilized. They need to be strengthened equally in order to provide the greatest level of support. In all of these situations, focusing on conviction, commitment, and contentedness in God will help us to support ourselves more effectively.

Brethren, as we start to continue towards the spring holy days, it's really not too early to start examining where we stand, really analyzing our three-legged spiritual stool, looking for cracks, looking for fractures, places in our contentedness, places in our commitment, and places in our conviction that might need repairing, finding those cracks, finding those places where we can put a little glue, where we can add a little duct tape, and fix those things up a little bit.

But they need to be repaired, brethren, so we can prevent a collapse in the future. Hope you have a wonderful Sabbath, and we'll look forward to talking to you here in the next little bit.