March Newsletter

Dear Friends of Mission Surge,

In this month’s update I want to share with you the following things for you to be aware of and pray about. 

1.  I ask you to pray for me over the next couple of months as I travel and preach.  I will be preaching a Harvest Day at Unity Baptist Church in Atmore, AL on Easter Sunday morning.  Please pray that many will be touched by the Gospel and born again.  Then on Monday night, I will be meeting with some of the men of the church to discuss moving from a deacon led church government to an elder led church government.  On Wednesday I will be sharing with the congregation about the work of Mission Surge.  Then on Saturday night, April 6, I will be preaching in McDavid, FL at a youth event.  I will be delivering the gospel to these young people and challenging them to a life of true holiness.  Then on Sunday, April 7, I will be preaching 4 times at Rays Chapel Baptist Church in McDavid, FL as I lead a Family Discipleship Conference.  Then I will be traveling back to Jones County on Monday to lead a Bible study.  April will conclude on Monday, April 29 with a Missions Conference at Macedonia Baptist Church in Petal, MS.  I plead with you to lift me up and these churches up.  I am hungry to see God do a work and I covet your prayers.

2.  I also ask you to please pray for my preaching schedule to continue to fill up.  Please share with anyone and everyone that I am available to preach Harvest Days, revivals, missions conferences, and family discipleship conferences.  I am also available on Sunday nights and Wednesday nights to simply come and share about the work of Mission Surge with churches.  I know as a pastor I was often looking for someone to come and fill a Sunday night or Wednesday night spot.  I will come!   I would appreciate it if you would share the word about Mission Surge with your pastors and churches.  

3.  I also ask you to pray for a special event in Birmingham, AL.  You can go to the following website and check it out.  I have the privilege of speaking at this event and would encourage you to bring all the father’s that you know!  Please pray for all of the speakers and those who attend the Master’s Plan for Fatherhood.  Here is the link:  https://ncfic.org/events/view/birmingham-masters-plan 

4.  The Bible study in Jones County continues on Monday nights.  Please pray for that as well.

5.  I also want to ask you to pray about the following things that I cannot expound upon at this point in detail.  More info will come in April’s newsletter.

• Gene Pickern has just recently returned from the Dominican Republic.  I will be meeting with him the week after Easter to be brought up to speed with what is happening there and with what is planned for the future.  There are many promising things going on in the DR. Please pray for us as we meet and look to the future work in the DR. 

• I also want to ask you to pray about 2 major developments in the international work of Mission Surge.  I can’t go into great detail at the moment, but know that I covet your prayers as we are going to be considering some major expansion to the international work.

• Also, please pray about a major endeavor locally that is in the process of being fleshed out.  This will be an opportunity for individuals, missions committees and local churches to join hands with Mission Surge and impact individuals and families in their communities! 

• Please pray for us as we replace a number of our board members next month.  Pray that God will lead, guide, and direct in this process.

6.  If you are not following me on twitter please follow the link below and do so:  https://twitter.com/missionsurge

7.  If you are not following my blog please follow the link below and do so:  http://kevinivy.blogspot.com/  I have been posting fairly regularly thoughts on contentment.  I would encourage you to follow me and read them as God would lead. 

8.  If you have not like Mission Surge on Facebook, please go the following link and do so:  

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mission-Surge/145423062144598?ref=hl

9.  Finally, I appreciate your continued prayers concerning our home saga.  We made another offer on a home this week, but were outbid so we are back to square one.  Baby Silas is due in May and I was hoping that we would have a contract before the end of March so that we could close in April and move in before May.  That apparently is not going to happen at this point.  We definitely do not want a house that God does not want us to have.  We want to be exactly where God wants us and that is why we are very methodically trying to follow His leadership, guidance, and direction in relation to this.  In all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your paths.  That is what we are hanging on to.  We covet your prayers.

Please pray for us!  We desperately need your prayers.  

Why so many posts about discontentment?

Why so many posts on discontentment?

            Well, to be transparent, it is a constant battle in my life right now.  We sold our home back in July feeling confident that God called us to do so and feeling hopeful that he would provide for us another home within in our meager budget.  It has been 8 months and we are still waiting.  That hopefulness has subsided to say the least.  It is as if God is tarrying and my faith is weakening.  I find myself prone to frustration and struggling with discontentment.  I am seeking to be patient and wait upon the Lord, but it often feels like He is not listening to my prayers, is not answering my call, and is not working in this area of my life.  Discontentment is real and it is sinful. 

            Discontentment is un-Christian.  We profess to live by faith.  Faith is a grace that substantiates things not seen.  Faith looks beyond circumstances and feeds upon promises.  True faith will trust God where it cannot trace Him.  If I am discontented because I do not have all that I want, either my faith is a non-entity, or at best it is but an infant.  It is a weak faith that must have stilts and crutches to support it. 

            Discontentment is sinful because of its roots.  One root of discontentment is pride.  A discontented man is often a proud man.  He thinks himself better than others, and therefore finds fault with God when he is not treated better than or advanced above others.  Discontent is nothing else but the boiling over of pride. Another root of discontentment is envy.  He who envies what his neighbor has is never content with what God gives him.  The envious man looks so much upon the blessings which another enjoys that he cannot see his own mercies, and so continually tortures himself.  More roots of discontentment are covetousness and jealously and distrust.  Discontentment is nothing else but the echo of unbelief.  It is the evidence of weak faith.  In reality, distrust is worse than distress!  Discontentment is sinful because of its roots.

            When I find myself discontent, I often find myself sullen.  Because I do not have what I desire, I get frustrated with God and bitter.  I take my frustrations out on God!  I am quite content to receive mercies from God, but if He crosses me in the least thing, then, through discontent, I grow irritable and impatient, ready to take out my aggressions upon God.  The discontented person thinks everything he does for God is too much, and everything God does for him is too little.  That my friend is evil and that is the battle that is raging in us all.  Can you relate?  And are you at war with your discontentment?  Let us not only strike the plant of discontentment, but let us go to the roots as well:  pride, envy, covetousness, jealousy, and distrust to name a few.  

When is Discontentment Okay?

            In all of our discussions about contentment, let us consider today the following question:  When is it okay to be discontent? 

             While it is not okay to be discontent with our physical condition, it is okay to be discontent with our spiritual condition. Though we should be content with an adequacy of food and clothing, we should not be content with an adequacy of grace.  We should covet more grace.  Never think you have enough! The Apostle Paul, though content with so little of this world, was not content with only a little grace.  He was continually striving for more, fighting for more, running for more.  A Christian should be the most content with where he is, yet the least satisfied with who he is. 

            In our discontentment over our sin however, we still must be careful.  Our discontentment over our sin and state of grace may be out of bounds and sinful too.  For example, if we are viewing our sin as greater than God’s mercy, we have gone too far.  Consider Numbers 21:4-9.

From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. 5 And the people spoke against God and against Moses, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food." 6  Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. 7  And the people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us." So Moses prayed for the people. 8 And the Lord said to Moses, "Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live." 9 So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. ESV

            When God sent the fiery serpents among the children of Israel, what would have happened if, rather than looking to the bronze serpent that Moses lifted up, they had only looked at their wounds?  They would never have been healed.  That sorrow for sin which drives us away from God IS sin!  There is more despair in it than remorse.  Judas was so remorseful for betraying Christ that he confessed his sin to the Pharisees, returned the money, and then went out and hung himself and went to hell.  That was some serious remorse, but it did not end in forgiveness.  It ended in despair.  Why?  Because Judas did not look to Christ and cling to His grace and mercy!  Let us be careful, in our discontentment with our sin, that we do not forget to look to Christ!  In the words of Thomas Watson, “Sorrow in itself does not save (that would be to make a Christ of our tears).” 

             When our sorrow over our sin is not relieved by the grace of God and the mercy and forgiveness of Christ, it makes the heart out of tune for prayer, meditation on the Scriptures, and fellowship with God and other believers.  It secludes the soul.  To quote Watson again, “This is not sorrow, but rather sullenness, and renders a man not so much penitential as cynical.” 

             It is good to be content with our physical condition.  It is good to be discontent with our spiritual condition.  But even in our spiritual discontentment, we must be careful that we do not spend our lives focusing only on our sin.  We must look to Christ and be forgiven.  We must embrace more of His grace!  

The "Little Sin" of Discontentment?

What’s the big deal with contentment?  Why have I been posting so much about contentment and discontentment?  Isn’t that a minor thing compared to all of the sin, iniquity, and transgression in our day and age?  Let us not forget that it is the little foxes that ruin the vineyards (Song of Solomon 2:15) and it is also compromise on the “little sins” that lead to greater ones. 

There are 3 things which contentment frees us from.

            1.  It frees us from a continual murmuring and complaining.  Murmuring is no better than mutiny in the heart; it is a rising up against God.  The Apostle Paul tells us to do all things without murmuring and complaining…all things...not some things, the big things, the religious things...but all things...all things.  

            2.  It frees us from moodiness.  We can become so discontent with our current situation that we can become consumed with our situation and be unfit to pray, study, or meditate upon the things of God.  And we soon find that we are not ourselves. 

            3.  It frees us from pouting and frustration.  When I am impatient and unable to see how to deliver myself from the present situation, trial, or circumstance, I can easily find myself falling under the weight of it.  A despondent spirit is a discontented spirit. 

In the words of Thomas Watson, “Contentment is a sweet temper of spirit whereby a Christian carries himself in an equal poise in every condition.  The soul which is possessed of this rich treasure of contentment is like Noah in the ark, who can sing in the midst of a deluge.”

            Imagine if a king should say to one of his subjects, I will take care of you.  As long as I have any crown revenues, you shall be provided for.  If you are in danger, I will secure you; if in want, I will supply you… would not that subject be content?  We must often ask ourselves, “who has placed us here (whether it is in a “good place” or a “low place”)?"   Obviously it wasn’t chance!  It was the all-wise God in His providence that has placed us where we are, wherever we are, for His glory and our spiritual good.  God has set us in our station, and has done it in wisdom and with purpose.  The wise God has ordered our condition.  If He sees that it is better for us to abound, we shall abound.  And if He sees that it is better for us to want, we shall want.  I must learn to be content… to be at God’s disposal.  Will I be discontent at that which is enacted by a decree and ordered by Providence?  If so, am I being a child of God or a rebel? 

This “little sin” of discontentment…if I am guilty of it, am I being a child of God or a rebel?  When you think of it that way it isn't such a small sin is it?  Something to think about until next time…

More on Contentment

            Contentment is an extremely hard lesson for us to learn.  The angels in heaven did not learn it.  Jude 6 tells us, “And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day.”  Our first parents, in their innocence, did not learn it.  We read in Genesis 3:5, “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”  If this lesson was so hard to learn in innocence, how hard shall we find it who are cluttered with corruption? 

            The reason contentment is so difficult to learn is because an earthly heart is like the grave:  it is never satisfied.  Someone once asked one of the Rockefellers how much money was enough.  His answer was, “Always a little more!”  We are never satisfied by the things of this world.  Think of Haman, who was set above all the princes in Persia.  He advanced upon the pinnacle of honor to be the second man in the kingdom, yet in the midst of all his pomp, because Mordecai would not uncover and kneel, he was discontented and full of wrath.  We read in Esther 3:1-5, “After these things King Ahasuerus promoted Haman the Agagite, the son of Hammedatha, and advanced him and set his throne above all the officials who were with him. 2 And all the king's servants who were at the king's gate bowed down and paid homage to Haman, for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai did not bow down or pay homage. 3 Then the king's servants who were at the king's gate said to Mordecai, "Why do you transgress the king's command?" 4 And when they spoke to him day after day and he would not listen to them, they told Haman, in order to see whether Mordecai's words would stand, for he had told them that he was a Jew. 5 And when Haman saw that Mordecai did not bow down or pay homage to him, Haman was filled with fury.”  In spite of all of his advancements and all of his recognition, the fact that he lacked the praise of Mordecai discontented him!  Haman is a good example of how we can have it all and yet still not be satisfied.

            The apostle Paul had learned contentment.  He said in Philippians 4:11-13, “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 12 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. 13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”  As for his outward condition, he was like a reed, bending every way with the wind of Providence.  When a prosperous gale blew upon him, he could bend with that (I know how to be full), and when a boisterous gust of affliction blew, he could bend in humility with that (I know how to be hungry).  Though God had carried him into various conditions, he was not lifted up with one, nor cast down with the other. 

            So, how do we handle our struggle with discontentment and trials?  We see how the Israelites handled them in Numbers 14:27-30.  “How long shall this wicked congregation grumble against me? I have heard the grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumble against me. 28 Say to them, 'As I live, declares the Lord, what you have said in my hearing I will do to you: 29  your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and of all your number, listed in the census from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against me, 30 not one shall come into the land where I swore that I would make you dwell, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun.”  Obviously God was not pleased with their complaints.  But, then we also see David, a man after God’s own heart, pouring out his complaint before the Lord.  In Psalm 142:2 he said, “I pour out my complaint before him; I tell my trouble before him.”  Apparently God was not displeased with David.  What made his complaint different from the complaints of the Israelites in Numbers?  There is a difference in murmuring and appealing.  The Israelites murmured and quarreled with God.  They were accusing God of not dealing well with them.  They felt as though they deserved better from Him.  David appealed to God.  Like a child expresses his pain and discomfort to his earthly father, so we can do to our Heavenly Father.  When any burden is upon the spirit, prayer gives vent; it eases the heart.  Here is the difference between a holy complaint and a discontented complaint.  In the one we complain to God; in the other we complain of God.  

            Let us go to war with our discontentment.  Let us recognize the futility of seeking satisfaction in the things of this world.  Let us recognize the Providence of God in our every situation:  “good” and “bad.”  And let us make our requests known to God in the midst of our “need.”  But as we do, let them be made known with thanksgiving knowing that God is good and works for our good if we love Him and are called according to His purpose. 

Phil 4:6

do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

More on contentment in the coming days!

The Mystery of Contentment, Part 2

The Mystery of Contentment, Part 2

If you did not read the first part of this blog, please do so as this is the second installment.  These are some more of my gleanings from Jeremiah Burroughs’ works on contentment.  I hope they are an encouragement and challenge to you.

6.  James 4:1 states, “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?”  The discontentment that we experience is not so much from things outside of us, but from what dwells within us.  The way to contentment is to purge out our worldly desires and lusts, not to acquire more things.  We must make an effort to redirect our inward desires from the things of the world Godward.  As we desire God more, the things of this world will lose their appeal. 

7.  We must also understand that God demands all of our affection!  In the words of Burroughs, “You know when a man has water coming into his house through several pipes, and he finds insufficient water comes into his wash-house, he will rather stop the other pipes, that he may have all the water come in where he wants it. Perhaps then, God had a stream of your affection running to Him when you enjoyed these things; yes, but a great deal was allowed to escape to the creature, a great deal of your affections ran waste.  Now the Lord would not have the affections of his children to run waste; therefore he has cut off your other pipes that your heart might flow wholly to him.” 

The very fact that nothing in this world truly and finally satisfies us is simply the grace of God drawing us to Himself; the only one who can fully and finally satisfy us.  Maybe, in our discontentment God is simply closing us off from more and more of the world that cannot satisfy in order to drive us closer and closer to the only one that can satisfy:  Himself. 

8.  The one who is filled with good things is just like many a man who enjoys an abundance of comforts in his own house.  God grants him a pleasant home, a good wife, and many pleasures.  A man who has it all at home does not care much for going out.  Other men are eager to go out and see friends, because they have discontent and strife at home.  So, a carnal man has little contentment in his own spirit.  He is constantly searching, constantly looking.  When our hearts are filled with the pleasures of God, we are not as prone to wander.

If you were to break a glass bottle full of water, it will break rather quietly.  But, if you pour the water out and then break the glass bottle, it will make a loud noise.  So it is with the heart:  a heart full of grace and goodness within will survive many blows, many attacks, and many lures quietly—but if an empty heart is struck, it will make a noise.  When some men and women are complaining so much, it is a sign that there is emptiness in their hearts.

Many think, if I had what another man has, how happily and comfortably should I live!  But if you are a Christian, whatever your condition, you have enough with Christ.  Isaiah 43:2 said, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.”

9.  2 Corinthians 4:17 says, “For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.”  This is what really separates the men from the boys so to speak.  What enables believers to be content is simply the fact that our rewards, our blessings, our hope is not in this life.  We are not expecting our best life now!  We know that it is yet to come if heaven is our home.  A carnal heart has no contentment from what he sees before him in this world, but a godly heart has contentment from what he sees laid up for him in the highest heavens.

I hope these gleanings have been challenging and encouraging to you.  Check back often for more talk about contentment.  We are going to glean some from the Puritan pastor Thomas Watson in addition to Jeremiah Burroughs in the days to come so stay tuned!