Latest / Worldview Matters With David Fiorazo / Dave Jenkins: Being Content, Serving God Where He Places You

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Dave Jenkins: Being Content, Serving God Where He Places You · Worldview Matters With David Fiorazo

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  Welcome to World View Matters, discussing controversial issues, discerning current events,
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  defending biblical Christianity.
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  Thank you guys so, so, very much.
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  We appreciate it.
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  All right, today we've got a great guest, Dave Jenkins, and he's got a brand new book out.
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  So he's obviously, not obviously to you because you don't know him.
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  This is his first time on the podcast, I think.
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  So he's married to Sarah, he's a writer, editor, speaker, he lives in Southern Oregon.
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  And he is a lover of Christ, his people, the church, and sound theology.
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  He's the founder and executive director of servants of grace, the host of equipping you
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  in grace, and also the executive editor of theology for life magazine, theology for life
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  magazine.
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  I said that wrong, theology for life and host of a podcast called equipping you in
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  grace.
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  He's a contributor and producer of contending for the word as well.
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  He's an author of many books, the word explored, the word matters, contentment, the journey
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  of a lifetime.
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  That's what we're going to be talking about today is brand new book.
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  It is available next week in pre-order it now.
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  It's available in just a few days.
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  It's called contentment, the journey of a lifetime.
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  So let's bring in Dave Jenkins.
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  Welcome, brother.
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  Good to see you.
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  Hey, it's so good to be with you, brother, on your show first time.
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  Yeah.
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  That's right.
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  Yeah, we just got going in September of last year and the momentum is picking up, praise
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  God.
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  Praise the Lord.
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  But thank you, by the way, you recently had me on your podcast and I appreciate that
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  opportunity to be able to speak so your viewers and listeners can get to know what we do
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  here at World View Matters and about my ministry.
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  By the way, in my book, right here, we have it conveniently in front of me as salt on
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  the image of God.
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  The last chapter I wrote on trials, faith through trials and I didn't talk about contentment.
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  So I'm doing a segue here into your book, but I talked about how sometimes as believers,
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  we tend to fake it when we don't need to, we don't need to pretend in front of other
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  people when we're going through hard times.
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  But we do need to trust the Lord and be content with, you know, and by the way, there's
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  a scripture I wanted to share that came to mind, you, I didn't read your whole book,
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  but it's probably in there.
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  I'm sure.
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  Philippians 4, 11 through 13, then I'm going to hand it over to you, Dave Jenkins.
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  Paul says, not that I speak in regard to need for I have learned in whatever state I
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  am to be content.
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  I know how to be a based and I know how to abound everywhere and in all things I've
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  learned to both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.
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  I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
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  So Dave Jenkins, you've written a lot about the word of God, about different topics, why
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  this book on contentment now?
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  Well, this, this is definitely me at my most personal, most personal and vulnerable in
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  this book.
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  And I originally wrote this book.
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  It was for a different series, a different publisher.
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  And then I realized very quickly that I wanted to make it something a little bit more than
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  than what that series allowed.
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  And so, but as I, as I worked through this book, this book, more than any of the others,
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  it really, if you will, it worked me, you know, sometimes writers, they write because
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  they realize they have a need to really work on a topic or to grow in a certain area.
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  I think for me, this book was an application project.
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  As a subtitle suggests, the journey of a lifetime, that really encapsulates what I hope that
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  people will see about contentment, that it's not just a magic formula, it is something
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  like Paul said in the, in the Philippians passage that you cited.
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  It really is something that we learn, we learn through the trials, we learn through the hardships.
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  And I mean, we know from Paul's life, right?
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  He suffered a great deal in second Corinthians, I think it's 11.
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  He says that he suffered 39 lashes, which I mean, 40 is basically like your dead.
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  He was shipwrecked and all of that.
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  I mean, how much more suffering do you want a guy to go through?
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  Of course, we know what the Lord told him very clearly there on the road to the masses that
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  you'll suffer for my name. At Jesus said in John 1633, right? In this world, you'll have tribulation,
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  Paul told that to Timothy. Of course, we have first Peter, we have James, we have the book of
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  Hebrews, we have the prison epistles. I mean, Christian life is hard and it's hard to learn
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  contentment. I have had to myself, there's been many times where it's been a real struggle with
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  contentment, where I just have to take myself by the hand and just remind myself of the truth
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  that I know. And that's true for all of us, right? So this is me saying, I don't have even
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  though I wrote the book and it's tempting to say to people, you know, I have this figured out,
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  you know, there's still a lot of room for growth. As the subtitle suggests, this is a journey of
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  a lifetime, this is a work of sanctification, God is growing us in His grace. So let's be humble,
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  let's be honest about that. Let's be realistic about it. Rather than just say, okay, here's a
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  pie in the sky idea. I wrote this book to, hey, I figured it out. That would be a lie. You know,
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  there is art as the as Jeremiah Burroughs talks about as other Puritans have written about. There
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  is art. There is there is contentment. There is real peace as in the passage that you
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  same chapter of Philippians, Paul says, you know, that we can have the peace of God that passes on
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  understanding Philippians 4.68. And that peace is because we are entwelt by the Spirit. We have
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  the peace of God that passes on understanding because we belong to Christ. We are kids. So that
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  peace is, you know, even that even says something about how the peace of God is becoming even more
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  real in our experience. Because if we look at that section of Philippians 4, for example,
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  starting verse 4 through 8, Paul is giving these emissives, these directives like think of
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  a drill sergeant. Yes, sir, you know, you're going to go do it, you know. And Paul is giving these
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  commands. We call these imperatives, but these imperatives are fueled by the grace of God.
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  And even what's interesting, a lot of people read those passages and what they forget is verse
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  2 of Philippians 4, which very clearly tells us to rejoice in the Lord. And isn't that so wonderful?
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  You cited verse 11 through 13, but verses 2 and 13 really are like bookends. Yes.
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  There in verse 2, he says to rejoice in the Lord, and then he talks about, I can do all things
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  through Christ. You strengthen me. So with the reason that we can rejoice in the Lord is because
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  Christ is sufficient. And all the rest of it is because of his sufficient grace that he is helping
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  us and to work those realities that he's describing in our life. And you see this idea all throughout
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  Paul's epistles. Yeah, verse 11, I don't know what I printed out. I'm not sure what translation
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  this was. It made of in the ESV or the New King James. But the New American standard, I like how it
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  says verse 11, not that I speak from need for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances
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  I am. And I thank you, Dave Jenkins, for pointing out that you're an author, you wrote on this topic,
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  you don't have it all together. Authors, I don't have it all together. We write from our heart,
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  hopefully, true to God's word in the biblical worldview and just try to help other people.
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  But we by any means do not have this all figured out. So that's why as you put in the title,
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  it's a journey of a lifetime. I want to read part of the description. By the way, I don't think I
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  gave the website, um, servants of grace.org. You can get the book there pre order the book. And then
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  next week it's available, servants of grace.org. And um, it says, what do I do when I struggle with
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  anxiety, depression, discouragement, fear and face suffering? Many Christians ask these questions
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  in a desire to grow in their communion with the Lord. Some struggle to know whether they should
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  even ask these questions. Others struggle even more through these questions with great doubts
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  that impact their daily walk with the Lord. How do we grow in the grace of God amidst the daily
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  grind of life? I love that question right there, Dave, because it's, uh, it is one day at a time.
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  The daily grind. Well, uh, we can't live tomorrow. We can't live for next week. We only have it
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  every day. So one of the top bullet points you sent me dealing with disappointment and rejection.
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  Oh my goodness. Hello. I mean, if there's anyone watching or listening to this that
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  has not been there with disappointment, whether it's that's with yourself, with others, with the
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  church, you know, with just this life, because we are citizens of heaven, right? We are not made for
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  this world, but we are to live here until he returns and do what he's called us to do. So talk
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  to us about, uh, I don't give it all the way. Obviously in the book, but dealing with disappointment
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  and rejection, give us a few bullet points. Yeah. So, you know, when I got out of seminary in 2012,
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  I, I, I had a, I was already well into vocational ministry for about 12 years and, um,
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  so I was looking to get published and I was pursuing pastor positions, but all I was getting was
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  a hard no, you know, and what I didn't realize until it took about five years for me to realize
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  this that I had really become despondent, um, not despondent. And like I didn't, I still love the
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  Lord. I still was pursuing him, but really emotionally, I was raw from the, from the rejection. And
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  it, and it was hard. And, and I kind of, you know, sealed that part of my life off and, and, um,
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  so when I got a book contract, uh, the next day of the day after I got the book contract,
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  I just out there and cried. And as I do, as, as we should do, um, you know, I was, I was assessing
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  what is happening here, like emotionally, um, so I was asking myself some questions afterwards,
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  asking for some help from other people that know me well. And what became pretty evident is that
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  I had made book contracts and even pursuing pastor positions and those kinds of things, um,
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  an idol in my life. And, um, I realized, like I, as I was working, this book was working me,
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  as I said, um, applying it. And this is what Paul wants to do is he wants to take those truths
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  and really infillipients for it. And he's really pushing them, um, into our life. He's,
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  he's really pressing them home. And, and so, uh, that's what the Holy Spirit was doing as I was
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  working on this book. He was really pushing these truths into my, into my life. And I realized
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  very quickly that I had made even good things like pursuing a book contract and other things in
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  my life. And, and I really have been doing this a long time, you know, playing sports and all
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  these things and, um, making them ultimate things in my life, you know, in an idol, by the way,
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  just for people to know what that is, it's an idol is anything where we're seeking value and
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  meaning and worth and that outside of the Lord. It's an ultimate thing. And, and so as Christians,
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  we, we belong to Christ. We are his and he is ours. Um, Colossians 1, uh, 13 says we've been
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  transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of the Lord Jesus. So we belong to him.
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  And so, so I had to, I had to repent in a lot. Oh, there was a lot of repentance and writing
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  in this book. It wasn't hard like substance wise, it was just really hard in application.
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  Personally, yeah. Personally, and, and the Lord really used that, um, to, to grow me in a lot of
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  different ways. Uh, experience, the Puritans talked about the Christian life very differently
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  than we do today. Um, they talked about it and experientially. There's an experiential
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  walking out. There's a knowing, um, which is in the heart. Um, and, and John Flavel wrote a book
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  called Keeping and Guarding the Heart. And, and that's a, that's an amazing book. Um, you know,
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  Jeremiah's book, Burles book on content is amazing as well. Um, so, but this idea of working it out
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  because we've been united to Christ and we're walking a community with him. It's that communion
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  aspect that I'm, that I'm talking about and, uh, enjoying that union with Christ is really the,
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  the fruits of, of contentment. Um, you know, it's because we actually do belong in Christ that
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  we can have real contentment in the midst of, you know, a storm toss world. Uh, Jesus promised,
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  uh, in John 14, he promised his disciples that he would go ahead of them and make a place for
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  them that, that place was secured by his death. You know, John 1930, it is finished. It was signed,
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  it was sealed. You know, Ephesians, uh, to, uh, talks about this, how the veil was torn from top
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  to bottom. And now, now we're one new man in, in Christ. And we, we belong to him. We're reconciled
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  to God. We were brought out from the slave market. Uh, we're adopted with friends of God. We're,
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  we're declared not guilty. And yet we're still, we're not perfected. Uh, as, as Martin Luther said,
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  we're at the same time, sane and sinner. And, and so we're growing. We're facing suffering.
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  And we have the God of all, as Paul says, and second Corinthians, we have a God of all comfort.
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  His promises are sure. They're steady. They're the same. They remain. And, and, and, and so when we talk
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  about rejection and disappointment, I just bring that up just to say that the person that needed
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  this book the most more than anybody else was, was, was in writing it. It was me. It's helped me.
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  And so I, I hope that when people read it, they, they really, uh, not, not just, it's not about me,
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  you know, we don't as authors as preachers as podcasters. We're not trying to point to ourselves.
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  But, but I hope what people can, can see in the book is, hey, the Lord took me and he's helped me,
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  he's helped me to grow. He can do the same for you. Amen. And the Lord, the Lord is always faithful
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  to his word. That's right. That's right. Oh, we're speaking with author, Dave Jenkins, executive
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  director of servants of grace. When we come back, we're going to talk about being content with
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  where the Lord has placed you and serving him right where you are. That's next.
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  Today's show is brought to you by Harbinger's Daily. World news,
• 16:43
  biblically understood. Stay informed at Harbinger's Daily dot com.
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  Dave Jenkins is our guest today, servants of grace.org. So Dave, I opened it up by teasing this.
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  We could spend probably a whole hour on this, but we just have a little bit of time remaining.
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  Being content with where the Lord has placed you to serve him. I think a lot of people struggle
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  thinking they should be somewhere else doing something else, and they forget. I think the
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  Ezekly Shay is to bloom where you're planted, but talk about that in terms of contentment where
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  the Lord has us. Well, there's nobody that struggles with that more than I do. If you were,
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  if you were to get in my head, in my heart, you would, you would quickly realize that,
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  you know, man, this guy's a, this guy's a disaster, man. You know, just, just be like,
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  there's red flags going on. But, but so I have to remind myself, you know, hey,
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  there are those things where we are really challenged, but God in His providence,
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  you know, and this is on my better days, I have to remind myself. We're,
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  remember what was going on that day, and remember to be thankful to the Lord. God,
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  one of my mentors calls this God, hand-tailed as a situation of our lives, and he does that, of course,
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  because he's in control of all history from beginning to end and everywhere in between.
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  And so there's nothing that where God is fooled or like you talked about. There's nothing that we
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  can hide from God. He sees all, he knows all, and he orders all things in our life. You know,
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  if you, if you, if it, this helps, think about Joseph, right? He's stuck in a pit. He was
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  sold in slavery. And, and he had every reason to be disappointed with God, to think that God didn't
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  care about him and, and anything like that. But, but yet God was orchestrating that event and,
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  and the events that happened. And he turned it around and used it for the good of his family,
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  the good of the nation of Israel. And it's a powerful reminder that God is orchestrating
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  every single event under under his providence in our lives. And, and so when, when we come together
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  as the church, we gather together to encourage one another, Hebrews 313, we are to remind each other
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  while today is today so that we are hearts will not be hardened. And, and don't we need that,
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  we need the reminder, we need the encouragement. Some of us need to be confronted about our
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  discouragement and our anxiety and our fear. And, and even that's a good thing. That's a blessing
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  that we can encourage one another because the New Testament has, you know, over 50 reminders,
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  one in others that encourage us to bear one others burdens. And that's what filled the love
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  Christ, which is, of course, the great commitment. And so this is, this is a good thing. And I have to,
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  like I said, I have to remind myself of these things. It can be, it can be hard. You know,
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  I still want, I still want to be a pastor. I still would love to be in pastoral ministry.
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  But I have to remind myself, the Lord is still using me where I'm at. And he's put me there
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  where he's having, and that's true for the single mom. It's true for the, for, for the lawyer.
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  You don't have to be in vocational ministry to be used by God. That's right. You don't even have
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  to have a, you know, I mentioned seminary. You don't have to have a seminary degree to be used
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  by God. A.W. Tozer, the knowledge of the Holy, he didn't even have a degree. In fact, he prayed
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  on his knees and wrote those, wrote those books, I guess, some, some biographer say through tears.
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  And, you know, so you don't have to have a formal education to be used by God, you know, just look
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  at the disciples, you know, probably other than, other than Paul, other than Paul, I mean, you
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  know, who was extremely well educated and obviously Luke, who was a doctor, medical doctor,
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  I mean, you don't see them, you know, being formally educated, but, but they were educated by
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  Christ. And that was enough. So, so it's enough that we have the 66 books of the word of God.
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  And it's enough where God placed you. He's given you his word. He's given you his spirit. He's
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  given you the church. He's given you, I mean, I'm against. We have, we have unlimited, almost
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  unlimited resources today through podcasts and videos and all these things today. So, utilize
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  those resources as you, as the Lord sends you out from your local church to wherever he would
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  have you be. We do have to recover today the doctrine of vocation whereby, you know, we, like
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  I'm talking about the Lord scatters us from our local churches and we do have to realize we have
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  to take ourselves by the hand and remind ourselves that you don't have to be a preacher or a pastor.
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  You don't even have to be a podcaster. You don't have to be an author to be used by God in your
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  vocation as a lawyer, a single mom, a stay at home, a homeschool mom or whatever it is that the
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  Lord has given you, you can be used by God. And by the way, just, just a plug here, those homeschool
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  moms are heroes, right? I just wanted to say that, you know, they, the single mom, she's a hero,
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  man, she's a hero in my book, you know, the mom that stays at home and raises her kids, she's
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  the hero. Yes, yes, in our society. Yeah, and instructs the children in the way of the Lord. By
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  the way, you just did a podcast on homeschooling. Where can people hear your podcast, Dave?
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  Yeah, you can find it on iTunes and Spotify and Google. You can go to our YouTube.
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  And by the way, if I can really quick, I just started a reading the Bible daily with day podcasts
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  where I'm not just reading the Bible, but I'm offering a very, that's about five to 20 minutes.
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  So I'm covering key ideas and themes and theology. But, you know, you've been on equipping
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  grace. I've had lots of different guests. We talk about different topics like homeschooling.
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  And just trying to really help the average Christian in the pew, that's really where my heart is.
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  That's really what I want to do. And what we want to do at Servants of Grace is really,
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  you know, come alongside them. We do have a lot of pastors who do write for us. We have pastors who
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  watch us. So don't just think, if you're a pastor, you're not going to get help. I think
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  that a lot of pastors do tune in and do get help. We have a lot of educated people who listen as well.
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  So we hit, we hit kind of a broad spectrum on that show. So you might enjoy that.
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  So that is the equipping you in grace podcast, equipping you in grace with Dave Jenkins. Let's
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  quick follow up. We have less than five minutes already, Dave. Believe it or not. It flies,
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  doesn't it? It does. Um, so you mentioned you don't have to be a pastor. You don't have to
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  be the leader or an elder of a church or anything. One of the things you sent me was not to
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  not worry about pursuing numbers, but pursuing Christ in ministry. Give us just a few brief
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  points on that very important. Um, I think that's a very important point that you made about not
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  pursuing numbers because we can compare ourselves to other people. That's when we get discouraged
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  or get ourselves in trouble. Absolutely. Again, you know, that's, that's something I struggle with,
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  have struggled with in the past. Yeah. And I think it's just a reminder that, you know, numbers
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  represent real people and real people are being helped by that. And what that should link to is
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  profound thankfulness that God would even choose to use us. You know, John McArthur once said that
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  we're to focus on the the breath of our ministry and God will focus on the depth. So what that man
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  means very practically and some profound thought if you really think about it is that it's not
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  about numbers. It's about people. I remember when I preached what they call the seminary sermon
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  before I preached it, one of the pastors told me, they just focus on loving the people with a word.
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  And at the end of the day, that really is, I think, the best advice that I could give on this
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  topic. Just focus on loving people, loving the Lord, loving people, serving them with the word
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  through whatever avenue, whatever means the Lord has given you and whatever influence, whatever
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  platform, whatever numbers, whatever they are, um, you know, that's, that's what matters. You
• 25:08
  know, there's a godly ambition. It's pursuing Christ in all of life. And then there's an
• 25:14
  ungodly ambition, which is, you know, the motivation of our hearts saying, the thing is, is that God
• 25:19
  sees and God knows. And so I think that that's really where we can, you know, and God by his grace
• 25:24
  through his word and by his spirit, you know, he'll he'll show us that. He'll show us if our
• 25:29
  motivation is is really, you know, for his glory alone or for our own glory and we're building a
• 25:35
  kingdom, I can say, I can say there was a period in my life where it was about numbers. And especially
• 25:42
  when I was younger and, and I, and I, you know, you may not even realize that it is, but, but ask
• 25:48
  yourself and notice, what do you talk about the most? Do you talk about the honor and glory of God?
• 25:53
  And, and how to serve people and even, even how you would talk about that, how numbers represent
• 25:59
  real people that are being helped, or is it just about numbers? And if it's just about your
• 26:04
  realizing that you're just talking about numbers, that could be a good indication right there
• 26:08
  that that you have made numbers, the goal of ministry and not serving and loving people with a word.
• 26:14
  And that can be something that you need to really assess, you know, um, and, and look through
• 26:20
  whether you're a writer, a blogger, a podcast, or whatever, just very practically, just, just ask,
• 26:25
  what are you talking about? What are your, what are your, what are your spouts here? What are your
• 26:29
  friends here as you talk about those things and, and just invite them to speak into that.
• 26:34
  And I think, I think it would be shocking for a lot of us, um, you know, Jesus talks about this
• 26:41
  out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. We can't help but love, love to get the pat on
• 26:47
  the back and, and there's nothing wrong with getting encouragement, but we have to thank the
• 26:51
  person for that and, and redirect it back to the glory of God because it is God's work in us and
• 26:56
  through us. Holy. Yes. May Christ be praised. And I'll tell you in this internet age with
• 27:02
  everything's high tech and everything's about, it's, it's easy to get caught up into that trap of
• 27:08
  looking the numbers and comparing yourself to other people. I, I have that struggle too sometimes.
• 27:13
  So we need to keep ourselves in check. But I want to direct people to your website and that is
• 27:16
  servants of grace.org. You can pre-order the book. It is available next week, January 15th,
• 27:24
  contentment, the journey of a lifetime by author Dave Jenkins. Brother, happy New Year.
• 27:31
  We'll, we'll learn willing. We'll talk to you and see you again soon. And God bless you. Thanks
• 27:36
  for your time today. God bless you too. Thank you so much for having me, brother. You're welcome.
• 27:40
  We'll talk soon. All right, guys. Um, did I thank everybody that I was supposed to thank at the
• 27:44
  beginning of the show? Yes, I did. But hey, we got Ohio. You know, we're keeping track of all the
• 27:48
  states that are supporting us. So thank you guys so very much again, especially for your prayers.
• 27:52
  And God bless you. As always, keep speaking the truth about things that matter.