Lack Mentality
by Rachel Coltharp
First Apostolic Church of Maryville (Maryville, TN)
Kind: teaching

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/rachel-coltharp--lack-mentality
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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so let me translate that for you that is y'all don't hold us accountable for what that woman says i did ask him if he'd like to look over my notes but he wanted plausible deniability so you know they do bring people sometimes to talk um and to explain to you how to do things better because there are folks who have done things the right way but then there are people like me who've done it all wrong and we get to come and tell you how not to do it and so i want to talk to you just for a few minutes about what the lord has been whipping my hide over for the last two days in my personal devotion and it might not be just for me there just might be another one of me among you i want to talk to you for just a minute about lack mentality we live in a culture of consumerism now our economy would not work or they're not consumers so i consider myself a vital part of the economy without consumers like me y'all would all not have jobs you can thank me later but what i have come to understand about not just myself but about the society that i live in in the time period that i live in is that contentment is something you will have to strive for contentment is something you will have to learn it's like practice like patience you have to practice it you won't be perfect at it the first or 10 or 15 or 100 times you'll get to do it from the basket to the casket you will get to practice contentment and so here's what the lord started talking to me about the morning after the wedding so i'm not good with math or calendar so that would have been like five days ago it feels like the lord started talking to me and i'm going to read to you what i wrote in my journal the whole world was there in all of the whole of creation there was only one thing that the creator said is not for you and so that of course was the very thing that the enemy brings to eve's attention the one tree of all the trees and all of the garden of all of the beautiful things that were for her in a place where she doesn't have to toil or labor in a place where there are no weeds or thorns in a place where the very animals are her friends in a place where there is no danger and she gets to commune with almighty god in the cool of the day into that perfect place her enemy directs her attention to the one and only thing that is not for her and here's the first lesson that i learned from this is that when contentment is not king and when thankfulness and gratefulness do not reign in my heart even a palace will become a prison of lack if i live with lack mentality all i can see is the one thing beyond my grasp without contentment what i need to be happy is always just ever two inches beyond what i can touch other people have it and i can see that you've got it of course and so if i had what you had well then i would be content too the old enemy doesn't have to come up with a new lie y'all we keep falling for the same old one it doesn't make him smart it makes us not smart without contentment no matter what i have around me i will be ever straining and grasping at the wind because this is what contentment does rachel remember this is what contentment does it turns your back to what you have it turns your back to the provision that god has given you it turns your back on the spouse that god gave you it turns your back on the relationship that you have opportunity with him every day it turns you back to everything you need and turns your attention to the one thing beyond your limit and it will leave you with an outstretched and always empty hand i see it in the garden with eve in her spiritual quest her spiritual quest isn't it the same lie that that that the accuser said to himself i will be like the most high didn't work out so good for him but he tries it again on her oh you will not surely god knows that you will be like him same lie it doesn't make him smart it makes us not smart see it as she listens to what the enemy says and she believes what she thinks and she believes what she feels do you know what being wrong feels like it feels just like being right and in your heart and in your intellect you do not have the capability of telling the difference thus authority remember this rachel don't believe what you think and don't believe what you feel because eve thought it was a mighty good thing to take the forbidden fruit and do we not all suffer for it and later even when adam and eve are hiding in the garden and god says who told you the shame that they feel they were never intended you were not made to feel shame but the shame that we feel comes from our disobedience and god says who told you this and so not only do they eat of the fruit because they think it's a good idea but then they go and make their own coverings and now they feel covered but once again it's not up to god's standard because what you think and what you feel will never measure up to god's standard thus authority see it in king david who is king of all of the realm husband to several wives but he refuses to bounce his eyes when he sees what he should not see and he refuses to bring his thoughts into captivity and he leads the death and destruction of his friend which will result in the death of his own child and not just his own child but bathsheba has a grandfather who is his trusted advisor and in time he will be one of the few suicides that we see in the bible because her grandfather will be the one who says to absalon do in public to these women what david did to my granddaughter in private you see this is what discontentment does it doesn't just grow in your own heart it breeds seeds into the lives of other people down the road thus authority discontentment is never satisfied it is the dragon it is smog with his golden treasure who can't let you have one coin and who always needs one coin more discontentment is rockefeller when asked how much money do you need says one dollar more it is hitler who needs just one more country it is hugh hefner who needs just one more experience don't believe what you think don't believe what you feel it will not just destroy you my friend it will destroy everything that you love and the people that you love what eve does in the garden with the fruit overcome with her own thoughts and her feelings and she breaks communion with god her son will do in a field with rock or stone or a tree limb and he won't just break communion with god he will crush in the skull of his own brother don't believe what you think don't believe what you feel it will lead you wrong every time what i kill in my relationship with god and his authority because it feels right or it looks right or it makes sense to me can i tell you that my children may kill because sin reseeds itself and its crops are always always always bitter ones but because he loves them god ejects them from the garden least they take of the tree and live in their sorrow forever when you hear people talk about the sweet release of death that's what it is heaven is a holy place filled with glory and with grace sin will never enter there it will block you at the door bar you out forevermore sin can never enter there but can i tell you that to be locked into this earthly body with the sin and destruction that comes in life would be more unbearable than being able to live forever on this earth and never meeting eternity and so god in his love rejects them ejects them from the garden because he knows that what they've done now is not just going to hurt them but they're going to see the seeds and their children the grandchildren the great grandchildren and it's going to go on because the consequences of disobedience are always bitter when god says don't he's saying don't hurt yourself thus authority can i tell you that if i continued unheeded into my sin i would have further suffering in my life getting caught teach your children this i don't suggest you get a tattoo but if you're going to get one let it be an invisible one across your heart that says getting caught is a good thing because what gets caught young and early and plucked out of our hearts can keep from growing there's many a man that wouldn't have ended up in prison if his mama or his daddy had said uh-uh no no we're not going to act like that in this house i leave you with the three points from my devotion if i can't be content here wherever here is i can't be content anywhere satan was not content in heaven eve was not content in the garden david was not content in the palace if i cannot choose contentment here wherever here is yeah i can't be content anywhere number two when i act according to what looks the fruit or feels the covering i will be both famished and uncovered isn't it interesting that the new testament says and therefore having food and raiment be content not just food for my mouth or my belly but the food that god trusts through my authority raymond not just the clothes that i cover thank you sadie bees and sister sister c for opening up a whole new world of happiness for my husband's credit card y'all don't be hungry or uncovered because you eat of the fruit that looks good to you or you cover yourself with your own covering you will be famished and naked all of your days and last of all it's all for my good i have learned things in obedience you only know if you're in submission when you bump up against something that you're not submitted if you agree with it you're just in agreement you're submitted when you bump up against something that you wouldn't have chosen yourself and you say it don't look right and it don't feel right but i am the kind of person who is submitted i have learned things from pain and suffering that god has allowed into my life i would not have learned any other way from the children he didn't let us carry to birth in the times that we knelt on cold concrete emergency room floors and said the doctors say there's 50 chance this child will live but she is yours and we meant it when we said we give her to you the lord gives and the lord takes away blessed be the name of the lord i've learned it when people walked away from truth people i loved that i'd poured my heart and soul in i've learned things in disappointment and pain y'all that i couldn't have learned anywhere else i may be the only one here but i'm probably not the next time you believe something you think or you feel i highly suggest you choose to turn your back on mother eve and you go to a different garden where someone says man if there's any other way nevertheless not my not my thank you not my philly but yours amen thank you