True Treasure
Transcript
Good morning. My name's Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. We've been walking verse by verse through the Sermon on the Mount, so we'll be in Matthew chapter 6. If you want to grab one of the Bibles on the row, or if you brought your Bible with you. If you don't own a Bible, this is our gift to you.
Go ahead and take this one home. We want everyone to own a Bible. We'll be in Matthew chapter 6. We'll pick up in verse 19 today. There's a TV show. It's a game show.
I don't know actually if it's still on, but it's called Let's Make a Deal. And I never watched the old one. I did watch the one with Wayne Brady. And in that show, everybody, for some reason, I don't think it has much to do with the show at all. Everybody dresses up in a costume, which makes it slightly more interesting. But everybody's dressed up.
It's like a big Halloween party. And then basically in Let's Make a Deal, you play some random games, kind of like in Prices Right. It just doesn't have anything to do with prices. But you play random games, and then you win something. And then what they do is they'll say, okay, you have $50. I'll trade you one of these two boxes for that.
So they kind of let you pick something, and then you'll trade. Or at any point, you can just say, no, I got the $50. I got $1,000. I got two watches. I'm just going to quit. I can walk away with what I have.
And then by the end, when they make it to, like, the main thing, they'll actually have a couple of curtains or doors with Numbers. And you can trade what you won for what's behind curtain number one. Or you can trade what you won for something behind curtain number one or curtain number two. So, like, there'll be a time where maybe you won a Vespa. Like, I actually watched one where a guy, that's just a fancy moped. That's what a Vespa is.
Had won that, and they basically were like, all right, you want to keep that, because you're going to look great riding around on it. Or do you want what's behind the curtain? And, like, the guy kind of debated for a little while, and I actually watched one where they said, okay, I want what's behind the curtain, because behind the curtain, you don't know. It could be a boat. It could be a car. It could be two Vespas.
You just don't know. You don't know what's going to be behind the curtain. So the guy took it, and what they do in that game is if they have actual prizes, and then they have zonks. And so I was watching in the break room at work one day, and they opened it up, and it was a zonk. It was, like, piles of trash and some goats. Now, I'm from Edgefield, so I know some people who'd be like, I get to keep them goats.
But no, you didn't get to keep the goats. It's a zonk. You lose. He trades in his Vespa. He gets nothing. And what they don't do in that game is they don't give you a lifeline.
They don't let you, when you get to the end, go, okay, I want to do my lifeline. I want to call my friend up from the crowd. I want him to go look behind the curtain, and then I want him to come back out and tell me if I should take the curtain or not. Like, they don't have that in that game. There is nobody who gets to go see what's behind door number one or door number two or door number three. They don't have any kind of thing in that game because it would ruin the point of the game.
But what we're going to see today in the Sermon on the Mount is that Jesus is saying he got to peek behind the curtain. He's coming and coaching us up, and he's saying, I've seen what's behind the curtain, and I'm going to tell you the trade to make. That's what we're reading today. That's what we're going to see where Jesus gets to this point in the Sermon on the Mount. He's saying, I know both what you have in front of you and what's behind the curtain, and I'm going to tell you the trade to make. So we're going to pray, and then we're going to begin to study this this morning.
God, we thank you for your love and your grace and your pursuit of us in the midst of our sin. We pray specifically today that as we study this section of the Sermon on the Mount, that you would help us see clearly. And once we have seen clearly, once we clearly understand what you say, what you teach, and how we ought to view this, I pray that you would change our hearts so that we can believe it. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Chapter 6, verse 19, it'll be on page 473 if you're in a white Bible.
This is Jesus teaching his disciples. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. So Jesus looks at his disciples and he says, don't lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, where thieves break in and steal. But do lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth and rust don't destroy and where thieves don't break in and steal.
That's the premise of what we're looking at. And then he says, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Now, I think it's easy for us as Americans to read this and go, okay, don't lay up for yourself treasures on earth. I get the concept. It's very difficult for us to actually believe it. Actually put this into practice.
Because this is our American system. This is the American dream. Dream. This is what we, this is, this, we've bought into this hook, line, and sinker. That the goal of life is accumulation. Stuff.
We have TV channels devoted to this. So what HGTV is, is here's how to make things better and nicer. Here's how to lay up treasures on earth. I watch the, uh, the show Shark Tank. I enjoy it. Um, it's, it's, uh, basically people come in front of investors and they do a business pitch.
And I like it. I have a business degree. Probably would have done some sort of business stuff if I hadn't been felt called to do what we're doing now. And, uh, but the underlying premise of that show is get rich. That's the dream. That's the goal.
That's the hope. That's the stuff that we celebrate. They'll come in and they'll be like, this lady, stay at home mom, began making mayonnaise in her garage. But now her mayonnaise is on all the shelves and it's like, oh, the mayonnaise dream. But it's not just what she did.
It's the fact that it makes her rich. It brought in money. Now we know she's happy. That's the story we're told. Now we know she's okay.
She has money, you guys. That's why when they, they, people come in and they have this really dumb idea and the investors are like, you're stupid. And then they make them leave. They walk out and they cry and they're like, I'm not stupid. I'm going to make my dreams come true. Why?
What's the dream? I'm going to make money off of this stupid idea. And then I'll be okay. It's what we bought into. I know, one of the ways I see this in my wife and I, and I know that it's like, it's sunk into our heart. So this has become the, the way we think about the world, the way we progress, the way we grow is some sort of accumulation.
Exactly the opposite of what Jesus just said. Don't lay up treasures for yourself on earth. And we go, okay, Jesus sounds good, but it's actually seeped into us. This is the air we breathe as Americans. One of the ways I see this is the way that my wife, Anna and I speak to each other. Because we've been married for going on eight years now and we just kind of dream about the future.
We'll just talk about future us. Future us. And here's the thing I've noticed about future us. Future us always has more disposable income than current us. Future us goes to Disney World. Future us goes to visit New York.
Future us goes to Europe. Future us maybe has jet skis and hangs out on the lake, you know, for mission. Like for the opportunity to invite people in. Now we can tell them about Jesus. Future us always has, oh, future us has some, a little bit of land. So a little bit of, you know, some acreage.
Future us has a, a, a little bit larger house. Future us. I don't know if y'all met future us. Future us is doing pretty well, actually. We don't, we don't brag about it. We're very generous, but we're generous because of all that extra disposable income we have.
We have never once had a conversation where I was like, you know what I was just thinking about? You know, in a couple of years, we have a couple more kids. And you and I are more financially strapped than we have ever imagined. You know what I was just getting excited about? You know, right now I'm counting calories, but I'm pumped that in the future I won't have to do that because I just won't have enough money to buy food to eat. Never once have we had that conversation.
First of all, because that's a sad conversation. Second of all, because we've bought into the idea that the way you progress in life, the way we know that we're growing and doing better, how do, how do we, how do we measure that? When you ask, am I further along now than it was a year ago, then five years ago, then 10 years ago? So often the question is, what kind of car am I driving? What kind of house am I living in? Where am I at financially?
Where am I at business-wise? And here's the thing. This hunt, this treasure-seeking never stops. There is not an end to it. It does not stop. Because, and the way I know this, I know it so clearly in me, and I just want you to take a second and think about you.
There are things that you have currently that you told yourself five years ago if I could just have that, then I'd be okay. There are things that you have currently that you told yourself a year ago, five years ago, ten years ago, if I can just get my own place, if I can just own my own house, if I can just get a car, if I can just get a nicer car, if I could just get a new job, if I could just get my degree, if I could just get my other degree, if I could just get a better Job, if I could just be promoted. There are so many things that if we were able to walk back to you five years ago, you would have tell us so clearly, so bright-eyed, so hopeful, if I could just make 10% more, then I'd really be doing it. And you are now.
And what's happened is we just swapped it out for something else. It does not stop. This treasure hunt that we are on does not stop. And Jesus steps up, looks at us as clearly as he can, as much as he can try to get us to make eye contact with him. And he says, don't. Don't lay up for yourself treasures on earth.
They rust. They get eaten. They get stolen. They do not last. It is not worth it. That's what Jesus is saying.
That's what he's begun to tell us here. And here's the thing. I think he uses treasure for a reason. First of all, he is very much speaking to financial treasure. He is talking about your money. He is talking about your wallet.
He is talking about your bank account. But because he uses treasure, he's also helping us see that it's not just the money. It's where we place value. It's earthly treasure. Things that will just end on earth. The enjoyment will just end on earth.
That's what he says. Don't lay up treasure on earth. Don't gather things where the sole goal, where the end point for it, the most you can enjoy it, is earth. So for some of you, you're going, oh, I'm not that worried about money. Maybe not. Maybe you don't need a lot of money.
Maybe you're not one of these lavish people. Maybe for you, the goal is just comfort. That your earthly treasure is just comfort to be insulated from the world. You don't need a big house. You just need a really soft couch. You don't have to have a boat.
That's crazy. But you have to have what? What is it that you've begun to say, this is what my money exists for? Some of you could care less about money, but you do care about rank. You do need to be promoted. You do need to be the supervisor.
You do need to be the site manager. You do need to be the regional manager. You do need to be the vice president. Like, you've got to be promoted. And here's what he says. That labor, that work, that effort only works out for a short amount of time.
And then it falls apart. Then it rusts. Then it's eaten. Then it's gone. And the most you got out of it was some earthly treasure. Some of you, it's just status.
You're chasing after degree, after degree, after degree. You don't care about money, but you do want people to look at you and approve of you based off of how intelligent you are and how many random letters and Numbers you have in front and behind your name. It's earth treasure. A lot of it has to do with what's the goal. What are we trying to get out of it? I was walking around with my son at the zoo the other day.
And we have a zoo pass and we like it because it's better to take him to the zoo, set him down and follow him around the zoo than watch him burn a hole in our carpet running circles in my living room. And that's actually why Future Us has a few acres because we're going to get a runner across a tree and hook him to a harness. And then I'll just be able to look out the window and see he's okay every once in a while while he runs back and forth and tears up that part of the grass, but that's okay. It's in our backyard. Also so that people can't see him from the road. So anyway, we're at the zoo.
He's running around and one of the things I saw was a couple of little girls ran by and they had face paint. And this is brilliant. So this is a good, if you want a business idea and you're on Shark Tank, this is a great way to make money and to live the dream and be happy is to become a face painter because every kid that you face paint becomes a walking billboard. So that they run off with their face paint and some other kid sees them and goes, oh my goodness, I want my face painted. I want to look like Elsa. Which by the way, is the biggest scam.
They tell these little girls they're going to make them look like Elsa and then they put blue swirls all over their face. Have the kids even seen the movie? She never looks like that. At no point does she get blue swirl face. But anyway, my favorite one is the Spider-Man face.
They put on little boys or they do like Tiger or whatever. But anyway, kids get face paint and that's great. And they're so excited. And this is the best decision they've ever made in their entire life. And parents do it. They let the kid get face paint.
Why not? None of those parents are going to let their children get that same thing tattooed on their face. They're not going to. Why? Because as an adult, you can see further down the road than a six-year-old can. And what is going to be the best, most amazing decision they've ever made is going to be absolutely ridiculous.
And you'll look at them if they wanted it to get permanent. Like if they were doing this and the face painter person was like, just so you know, this will last 10 to 40 years. You immediately would like attack them. Are you crazy? You can't put something on their face that's going to last that long. Why?
Because it's going to be awesome for second grade. This amount of time in their life. That's why it lasts a week. They cry when it's gone. Good. Last two days, you scrub it off that night because they've got to go be around other humans later and they can't keep looking like a half-weirdo version of Spider-Man.
But it would be awesome. If they got a tattoo, it would be awesome. They'd be the coolest kid in second grade. But you know that life goes beyond second grade and you're going to say something to them along the lines of, this will be great in second grade, maybe half a third grade. It's going to be really troublesome when you're trying to get a date for prom. But let's look beyond prom.
You're going to need to go on Job interviews later. You'll be memorable. But nobody's hiring Spider-Man guy. That's what Jesus is saying. He stepped in and said, you're chasing after earth treasure and that's going to be amazing for 50 years. That's going to be the best for 50 years.
That title, that success, that name, that house, that car, those cars, that amount of wealth, that bank account is going to be so wonderful for something as small and as trivial as half a century. See, Jesus has walked out from behind the curtain. He says, he sees into eternity and he says, don't do it. Don't buy into it. Don't make that decision. It's a terrible trade.
He says, hand in the Vespa, take what's behind the curtain. That's what he's saying. Because he sees further than we do. He knows more than we do. And what seems like such a great idea now actually isn't in light of eternity. And if we're Christians, if we actually believe this, we're people of eternity.
We live forever. That's what Jesus gave us was eternal life. Eternal. Forever. And we're making decisions that only make sense for 50 years. Not for 100.
Not for 150. Not for 250. Not for 1,000. Not for 10,000. Not for 10 billion. That's how long we're going to live.
We're making decisions that make sense for 50. And so Jesus is trying to help us. And he's saying, stop. It's a bad trade. So what's he say?
Do not lay up for yourself treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth and rust destroys, where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Do you know what he's assuming about you? You know, he's assuming about me. We want treasure.
Treasure. He does not say, do not lay up treasure. Treasure is bad. Do not value anything. Valuing things is bad. What's he say?
He says, go for the better treasure. Go for the more long-lasting treasure. Make the best treasure hunter decision. When we were created by God, we were designed in some ways to be treasure hunters. What I mean by that was, we were designed to see value. To make correct, appropriate, intelligent valuations of things.
This is better than that. We do this naturally all the time. You go eat somewhere and you'll think, this is a really good burger. But it's not as good a burger as that burger. And it costs $2 more. We have this argument all the time around the office about people going to Chipotle and Moe's and then trying to decide which one's better.
But we're designed to do that. That's why people get so amped up about that argument. Because they like Chipotle and they're wrong and other people try to graciously point it out and they won't repent. It costs more. The chips aren't free and no one greets you. Plus it stinks of hipster.
We're supposed to make valuations of what is good and bad and right and wrong. We're designed to. But here's what happened. Our first parents, Adam and Eve, made the wrong choice and they messed up our value system. They made it to where our hearts chased the wrong treasure. When they were supposed to supremely value God as the ultimate treasure and then everything else would make sense.
We would love our spouses. We would love other people. We would love and value life and all the things that God designed to be good and enjoyable would have fallen in line because God was in His right place. What Paul says in Romans is that that got messed up. That when they chose to value something else themselves higher than God, our whole value system got messed up. And so when we look at earth and say this is what is valuable, this is what is to be treasured, the only way that's going to get reoriented or changed is by Jesus fixing that.
So we're going to live in a broken world where we're tricked constantly by money and cars and relationships and Chipotle. Our value system is going to be off. And Jesus is stepping in right here to try to reorient it for us, to try to fix it for us. In some ways, what's happening and especially so ridiculous and silly in the church, when we gather together on Sundays and say, our treasure is in heaven. There's probably a song that says that, that we would all stand up and sing. Our treasure is in heaven.
Yeah, that's right. You're wondering why I don't sing more often. We sing, take the world, but give me Jesus. We sing that song. And it would be like if all of us living over here in South Carolina in the gold rush era heard that there was gold in California. And we said, we're going to go seek the treasure.
We're going to go to California and we're going to get the gold. And we started going. And every time we stopped, we were going to camp out a little while. I went into the woods and started cutting down trees. And you said, why are you doing that? And I said, I'm going to build a house.
And you said, buddy, we're leaving tomorrow. Stop. Or if every time we stopped, I went and gathered really neat pine cones or pretty rocks. And so we're only a little way in and I'm already loading up our caravans with stupid stuff. You're like, hey man, first of all, as soon as we get to California, we're going to dump all your stupid rocks out and fill these bags with gold, which are better than rocks. Secondly, quit.
We don't need these. And every time we stop, I start building a house. Eventually, you would be like, I hope you get dysentery. I am so sick of you being on this team. But we're Christians.
And we're saying, our gold's in heaven, our treasure's in heaven, what we value's in heaven. And then we're running around and living the opposite. And Jesus, because he loves us, because he loves his disciples, is looking at us and saying, stop it. It is a bad trade. You're going to build this house, you're going to labor over this, and then we're moving. You're going to work really hard for this, and then we're going to throw it out.
When we get to California, we're throwing all your rocks away. They're not going to matter. And he's looking at us and saying, when you meet the king, when you step into eternity, everything you labored for and everything you toiled for and everything you worked for is going to be gone. And it is not going to matter. But there are going to be some things that we can labor for now, work for now, that make sense in light of eternity.
There are treasures. There are rewards. He just got done in the beginning of chapter 6 saying, don't practice your righteousness so that other people can see it. That's earth treasure. That's what he's talking about. Don't practice your righteousness.
Don't be really holy and really good and really devout and pray really well and read your Bible and practice your Bible verses in order that other people can know. Look at how good they pray and how much they know about their Bible and how nice they are and how well behaved. Don't do it. That's earth treasure. That's them valuing you here. What he says is, do it in secret.
Do it privately so that you'll be rewarded by your Father who sees in secret. Give in secret so that you'll be rewarded by your Father who sees in secret. You see, there's ways for us to now begin to lay up treasure in heaven. Begin to make decisions that make sense in light of heaven. Some of the ones he gave us just then were praying, fasting, giving. In other places in the Bible, he's going to say, give to the poor.
Sell your possessions, give to the poor and buy for yourself money bags that don't grow old. Or he's going to say, Paul's going to say for us in 1 Timothy, he says, as for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty. That means arrogant. Nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share. So he doesn't say it's wrong to be rich.
What he says is, tell the rich people to be really generous and to not place their hope in money. To do good, to do good works, to pay for people, to provide for people, to feed people. Thus storing up treasure for themselves is a good foundation for the future so they may take hold of that which is truly life. In Matthew chapter 25, he looks at people and he says, y'all fed me when I was hungry. You clothed me when I was naked. You visited me when I was in prison.
He begins to lay out for them, here's why you're rewarded. Here's what I noticed. Here's what you cared about. We're told over and over again that we should live our lives for the mission to see people come to know Jesus, that we should make intentional, tactical decisions with our time and our money and our jobs and our income and our wealth and our intelligence so that we can see more people come to know Christ because at the end of our lives, our short little 50 year blip that we're here, all that's going to matter is what we did for Christ and what was for his kingdom and everything else is going to be burned up and gone.
So Jesus says this, let's pick up in verse 22. In the middle of this section on money and he's going to get back to money, he's going to get back to treasure, he says, the eye is the lamp of the body. Now he's speaking in a kind of an idiom they would have understood. They believe mostly that your eye actually projected light into the world and that your eye was connected to your heart. So he's already talking about the heart, where your treasure is, there your heart will be and so now when he starts talking about your eye, they immediately connect that to heart as well.
We don't connect it in the same way. So if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness? So what he's saying is if you don't see this, if your view on this is wrong, if your understanding of this, your vision here is short-sighted, you're going to live your life in the dark.
And how dark is it going to be? But if you see this, if it's well lit, if you understand what the implications of what he's talking about, then everything makes sense. Everything's lit up. Some of you are kind of clumsy. So periodically, you bump into things in a well-lit room.
Most of the time, you don't. But if you have to walk through a room in the dark, one of the things that happens at my house is I will be getting ready for bed, Anna will be in bed, I'll cut the light off and I'll have to walk around our bed. And I think probably 40% of the time, I hit something on the way. And I don't hit things gently. It's not like I'm tiptoeing through this room. You'd think I would learn by now.
But there are times where I hit the bed and the whole thing slams against the wall and shakes. And she's like, what's wrong with you? And I was like, well, who hid a bed in here? And Jesus is saying, you're going to walk around in the dark. You're going to make terrible decisions. Decisions you wouldn't make if you saw this clearly, you're going to look like a fool.
My family used to play a game called Blind Man's Bluff. We'd take one of my dad's dress socks, clean one, and tie it around our face like a blindfold. And then we would all be in one room on the carpet and then there was like linoleum or whatever. And the game was, whoever had the blindfold had to get everybody else out. Starts off fairly simple because the room's kind of small. You can't see.
They can. And then you'd tag everybody and get them out. And once you got everybody, game was over. Or once it got down to the last person they had won or something like that. For years, when it was my mom's turn, my dad would let her tag him out first. He would get off to the side.
Then he would signal to his three sons to join him quietly. And then we would all stand and watch as my mom jumped around in the room trying to tag people who didn't exist. And my dad would go, right behind you. And she would like jump backwards and he'd go, oh, you just missed him. And then eventually, he would send us all back out there to get tagged so that she didn't know this had happened. She listens to the sermon periodically.
This may be the moment she finds out. I'm not sure we ever told her. Everybody in the room saw clearly but her and knew exactly what was going on. That was the point of the joke. She looked kind of foolish. We got to enjoy it.
Jesus says, this one isn't funny. You look foolish and no one's going to be laughing. You're missing it if you don't see this clearly. You're in utter darkness and how great is that darkness. And American Christians, we've bought it. We've bought it.
We are supremely good, maybe above all else, all the other churches in the world at laying up earthly treasures. And Jesus says, it's going to work here and it's going to be gone. And we need to live our lives for heavenly ones. Let's keep reading. No one can serve two masters. This is verse 24.
No one can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other, he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. What you do on earth will have two places that it terminates. You will either live a life on earth where all of your work, your energy, everything that you do terminates, ends on earth. Or, your life on earth will terminate and end never because it's sent forward into eternity. That's where he talks about being generous, being good, living your life with, I understand that eternity matters so I've got to make decisions in light of that.
I know all of y'all huge country music fans. Tim McGraw has a song called Live Like You Were Dying and people lost their mind when that song came out so that it got way, way overplayed. They should have played it on the radio like twice and we could have just moved on. They played it way too much. Jesus is saying, live like you weren't dying. Make decisions that only make sense in light of an eternity.
If I've died for you and rescued you and redeemed you and given you eternal life, start making investment decisions that last beyond 30, 40, 50, 80 years because you cannot serve both which is so helpful and so terrifying but it means that your decisions, your effort tomorrow, your life this week, your business decisions, your life goals and decisions for the next 10 years or 15 years or 20 years, they will either go towards earth or heaven. That's it. Pretty clean cut. The things you buy, the way you spend your time, how you interact with people will either go towards earth enjoyment or heaven enjoyment.
Will either go towards you believing that your treasure is here or you believing that your treasure is in eternity. And so that's why Jesus calls us to live lives as if we understand eternity exists. So this means that you should sacrifice. You should throw parties just to invite other people in, just to build friendships. You should spend the money you would have spent on something else to welcome people into your home and to build relationships. You should stay in the neighborhood you're in even though you have the opportunity to move to a nicer one so that you continue to build relationships with the people around you.
You should stay in the job you're in even though you have the opportunity to transfer and make more money because of the relationships you've built. You should say, Jesus, I'm sacrificing. I'm going to do this with my life so that I can see people come to know you. You should take a job in your field that involves serving people and connecting with people and working towards the good of others rather than your good, your benefit, your bottom line. You should get up early to pray. You should get up early to serve and give up some sleep.
You should give up time to help others study the Bible and learn how to study the Bible. There should be time where you give up your nice evening where you were going to enjoy yourself to go sit next to someone else and let them cry and you join them in crying and mourning and hurting when you didn't have to. You see, middle class Americans can insulate themselves for the world. We don't have to be around homeless people. We don't have to be around people that are hurting and broken. We don't have to be around people who are messy and make terrible decision after terrible decision after terrible decision and continually harm their lives.
We can be insulated from that and what Jesus is saying, no, uninsulate yourself for the sake of an eternal decision that makes way more sense. That's what he's calling us into. So, you'll either spend your life for earthly goods or heavenly ones. You'll spend your life for earthly gain or heavenly gain. what's the purpose of your savings account? What's the purpose of your job? What is the goal of your time?
What do you dream about and long for? If Jesus went back right now and over the past month answered everything you had prayed for and everything that in conversations you had said, I hope this happens. I wish this would work out. This is really what I'm shooting for. If he walks back right now over the past month, gathered all of that information and said, done. Let me ask you a question.
Would that go on into eternity or would it stop 50 years from now? Would all the things you're dreaming and hoping and longing for and begging Jesus to work on, are those going to be heavenly kingdom treasures? Are those going to be things that one day you'll stand in front of him and be excited that he answered and be so proud and happy that you got to be a part of it? Or is it going to be one day when you walk in front of him and you realize that everything you've built up and everything that you've piled around you and everything that you've lived your life and energy and sweat and tears and heart and longed for is going to be gone?
What are we serving? Is it going to be eaten, stolen, and rusty? Or is it going to enter into the kingdom where the heavenly king reigns and everything stays forever? Okay. So Jesus says this, you can't serve God and money and immediately he knows our response.
And so he goes from, I think, being really kind of intense to being really gracious and pastoral. You can't serve God and money and what we want to say is, okay, even if I hypothetically agree with you, quit my job? Because if I go to work, serving money, right? Quit my job? Don't feed my kids? Starve and be naked.
It's the rebuttal, right? 25. Therefore, I tell you, so because of all this, because you can't serve God and money, therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are you not more of more value than they? Of which of you being anxious can add a single hour to a span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon, that was the great king in Israel's past, in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, he will not much more clothe you, O you of little faith.
So our response is, I would die, I would starve, I would be naked, and he says, no. If you're living your life for serving God, how much more is he going to take care of you? Is he going to provide for you? And then he takes two things that are so easy to see. He says, look at flowers. You ever just been caught up looking at flowers?
You're just walking along and seeing a bunch of flowers are in a field and it's like you almost wrecked your car because for some reason this entire field just turned yellow and you're just like, wow. Places that are well manicured, you're just like, this is so, like maybe my neighbor's yard, not my yard, but other people's yards where they have like flowers and stuff. It's so beautiful. He says, listen to the birds. It's about to be spring. We're about to get to see flowers and birds and here's what he says.
God's paying attention to each one of those, clothing them and feeding them. You'll be fine. Now, I wouldn't argue. We talk about this all the time. I would not say, everyone in here, quit your jobs. That's serving money.
What I would say to some of you, quit your job. You need to go do something else. Maybe you're supposed to go to the mission field. Maybe you're supposed to go to some hard to reach place, spend your life sweating and toiling and then eventually be beheaded and go meet the king. Living a life that only made sense in eternity. For many of you, I would say, don't quit your job but begin to serve God in your job.
Use your money to serve God and use your time at work to serve God because he's intentionally placed a missionary in a place where there are no other Christians. That most annoying co-worker of yours that drives you crazy, that is bitter and angry and hateful, yeah, Jesus put you there for them. To begin praying for them, to begin intentionally inviting them to things, to welcome them into your home, to share meals with them, to confide in them, let them confide in you, to love them and care for them so that they might come to know Christ. Why don't you start living your life in your job as if you believed eternity existed and mattered?
That's what he's going to say. Here's what I love about this illustration because it's so simple that he gives us. He says, consider the birds, consider the flowers, how much more value do you have than them? I grew up watching some Batman movies and cartoons and stuff. Here's one of the things that would happen often in Batman movies or cartoons. Batman would find the Joker or any other criminal villain but we're going to go with Joker.
This was back when Batman used to talk like a normal kind of, maybe intense person but like a normal person before Batman talked like this all the time. So that, you know, he can't be Bruce Wayne normally because he's so hoarse from yelling at criminals. This was a normal Batman where he would just like talk like he cared about justice. That Batman. And he would come to the point with Joker and Joker would have Robin, the boy wonder and he'd have him like dangling over a pit with sharks or something and then he would have like whatever girl Batman tended to be interested in or Commissioner Gordon hanging over here and he would basically pitch it as like you can only save one of them.
And so here's what's happening in this scenario. Batman comes to meet the Joker and the Joker says, welcome Batman. I'm so happy you're here. I'm going to do an impression the whole time. I don't even know this sounds like a Joker. I'm doing it.
I'm so glad you're here. You can only save your friend Robin, the boy wonder. I see dangles over this pit filled with sharks. Ha ha ha ha ha. Or you can save, you won't have enough time, this beautiful bouquet of lilies dangling over this pit of acid. Which will you save?
And Batman's like, wait, Robin or lilies? Beautiful perennials. Yeah, I'm just going to, can I just start walking towards Robin? You can press the button whenever you want to. What about the lilies? Yep, put them in the lava.
Acid, sure, don't care. Lilies, we will make more. That's what Jesus just said. He said, no one even hesitates on this. You were birds. You.
You were flowers. You. God's taking care of flowers. He's taking care of birds. You. He's not going to leave you hanging.
And, here's the beautiful promise that we have in scripture. That in the moments when the world would gather around and say, yeah, they went on that mission trip and they were killed. They went to that mission field and they were beheaded. Didn't God leave them hanging? The Bible's going to step in and say, no, he did them a great honor. They got so much more eternal treasure in that moment than I may ever get in my entire life.
God said, you're going to live your life for me. You're going to spend your time for me, your money for me. Have I got great reward for you? This is going to be a train wreck here. Oh, but it's going to be so beautiful. You're going to see such glory and such honor and such magnitude of reward that your father has been watching and caring for you.
Your parents aren't going to understand, your friends aren't going to understand. This is going to make no sense here. But let me tell you something. Second grade's really short. There's so much more to come. And then he promises in that, I'm going to provide.
You'll eat. You'll wear pants. He does not promise jet skis. But he promises rewards so far beyond we could imagine. See, one of the things he talks about is we get heathered treasure or money bags that don't grow old. I think one of the reasons the Bible isn't really clear on the treasure is because we wouldn't understand it.
We don't understand the value of the eternal treasure. We don't have a concept for it. So what he just says is it's going to be better. He's asking us to trust him. And here's the thing that Jesus came to do for us. He came because he really believes this.
That's why he lived his life sold out for one purpose, for the kingdom, for the glory of God, for his name. That's why he went to a cross to die at a very young age to rescue and redeem us because he understands the trade was worth it. That's why Hebrews said that for the joy set before him he endured the cross because he's invited us into an eternal kingdom. That's what he's come. He put his money where his mouth is. He believes this and through the cross we can have an eternal life.
We can be brought to him. Verse 31 Therefore do not be anxious saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear for the Gentiles seek after all these things and your heavenly father knows that you need them. For many of you in the room maybe that is your primary anxiety and concern. I don't know how I'm going to pay my bills. I don't know how I'm going to feed myself. I don't know how I'm going to feed my kids.
And the promise here is so beautiful. Trust him. You worry about his kingdom. You worry about people needing to know him and he'll take care of you. But for most of us as Americans our anxiety when it comes to money and clothes and food is not am I going to starve and am I going to be naked?
No, it has way more to do with brand names and am I going to look good? So he says the Gentiles are chasing after all these things. This is what they worry about. See it used to be there was a guy who lived in your town and he cobbled shoes. He was a cobbler. And he would make basically the amount of shoes for feet that were in the town.
You might own two pairs of shoes dress pair like your Sunday pair and your regular other pair and then most of the time you didn't wear shoes because they just couldn't. When they made robots that make shoes and we got you know production lines in gear they have to sell us way more shoes than we have feet so that's where advertisement comes in. They've got to sell you not just you need shoes. Have you seen advertisements that are like you need shoes? No. They sell you on an identity.
They sell you on value system. This is the difference between Hanes and Abercrombie. Hanes is selling you a shirt. That's why they tell you stuff like it doesn't have a tag it'll stay tucked in. Why? Because it's just a white t-shirt.
They've got to sell you on the shirt. Abercrombie sells clothes but they're not selling you on the shirt they're selling you on style. If you see an Abercrombie a bag at the mall the guy on the bag doesn't have a shirt on. Buy our shirts and you cannot wear a shirt and be cool like this guy. And I see that and I'm like I want to be cool like that guy. Maybe if I buy a shirt I can have abs.
Like that's it's a trick. I won't get abs and I'll look weird in the shirt. That's why I bought Hanes Stay Tuck shirts. Like that's that's the ad pitch that's working on me. But we're being sold.
We're worried about all these other things. And here's the thing. It's not going to matter. Jesus is stepping in saying let me explain something to you. Browning Glock LuLaRoe all the cool things you saw on Pinterest Ford not going to make it. They're not going to make it.
There is going to be stuff that does none of those are. And I know some of y'all thought LuLaRoe's going to make it. Not going to make it. We're being sold a lot. And we're going to spend our lives chasing after things that are going to matter for a year two years three years four years Apple not making it. Some of y'all like Android might not not going to make it.
I know the texting thing is cooler not coming. 33 seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. Remember all these things are food and clothing. Care about his kingdom his righteousness care about people meeting Jesus care about God's holiness on earth care about people being fed and his justice and care about him at work and everything else will take care of itself. That's the promise. And as much as he can he's trying to make eye contact with us.
He's trying to say do you see this? Do you hear me? Eventually this is all that's going to matter. And he proves it when he goes to the cross to redeem us and to buy for us in eternity by trading in his life. And he calls us to the same. To live our life for his kingdom and his glory and his name because that's ultimately all that's going to matter.
There's a poem by C.T. Studd who was a missionary who spent his life in Africa and China. The refrain in it is only life only one life which will soon be passed only what's done for Christ will last. Only one life which will soon be passed only what's done for Christ will last. Verse 34 Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Worry about his kingdom worry about his glory and don't worry about anything else. He'll provide he'll care he'll tend there is no choice for him it's a no brainer when it comes to flowers and birds and us. He's got you. The band's going to come back up here and here's the question for us all your life right now if your goals came true if your hopes and dreams everything you've been talking about everything you've been laying in bed thinking about everything you daydream about if it all came true is it done in 50 years? Do you have a really nice comfortable retirement? And that's it?
Do you drive really nice cars your whole life? And that's it? That was the trade you made? Some of us are sitting down right now at the face tattoo station and Jesus is saying get up stop this is silly you see he's you could take everything all the cool stuff you saw on Pinterest all the ways to trick out a bathroom you learned about from HGTV the house the jet skis the cars the status the title the manager position the master's degree you could take it all and pile it up they could lay out before you everything you would ever achieve or earn in your life that would be put in your obituary that people would read and say he's accomplished so much and you could pile it up and if it wasn't done for Christ it's going to be gone and Jesus is walking out from behind the curtain and he sees your life and he sees every ounce of potential you have and every bit of work you'll ever put forth and all the amount of intelligence and effort and time you've got on earth and he looks at you and he looks at that pile of stuff and he says take what's behind the curtain so I suggest we start opening up our wallets we start opening up our homes we start opening up our time our schedule we start opening up our hearts to love people who are hard to love and we begin to live as if we realize one day this is done and there's an eternity to come with a high king who's worth it and reward that we can't even understand or fathom right now that'll make all the silly decisions we made right here so blatantly obvious and every time we invested in something that mattered so epically worth it let's pray God I ask that right now through your Holy Spirit you would change our hearts God we need you to reorient our hearts to value what matters don't let us fumble around in the dark but help us to see clearly your eternity that you bought for us through your blood and your sacrifice on the cross may we place faith in you for an eternal life and then may we live as if we actually believe that life is to come God I pray that our church will be filled with people making decisions that only make sense in light of eternity and I pray that you would give us through the power of your Holy Spirit faithfulness to stay there may we invest in heavenly treasure and laugh at everything else along the way in Jesus name we pray Amen because spices come to rise and HAR
Small Talk and God
Transcript
Well, all right, how we doing this morning? All right. Grab your Bibles, go to Matthew chapter 6. Maybe that'll wake you up. We're going to be in Matthew chapter 6. We've been walking through verse by verse through the Sermon on the Mount.
We're just spending a couple times, a couple, spending some time and several weeks in this section of text where Jesus is teaching his followers what it's going to look like for them to follow him, what it looks like to be his people. We spent last time we were together, we talked through a section where Jesus is basically saying not to practice your righteousness in front of other people, not to to pray or to give or to be generous or to serve for the purpose of having other people see you and think, wow, look at how they pray, give and serve like to not have people look at you and think, what a wonderful person. And he says, if you do that, if that's your purpose, if that's your goal, if you stand up and pray and you pray so eloquently that it was like you poured honey in everyone's ears and it was so beautiful and they thought, man, I'll never be able to pray like that. What he says is, if that was your goal, goal accomplished, everyone thinks you're great at praying.
They can listen to it. I'm not going to. That's basically what he's saying. If your goal is to serve in a way that shows everyone how well you serve and how, how sacrificial you are and how generous you are. And that was your goal was so that everyone could see how great you are. You did it.
Well done. Everyone saw how great you were. Everyone saw how sacrificial you are. It doesn't actually count. Like I'm not rewarding that. And so he says to do all of these things in secret.
And then he rewards them. And in the middle of that section, he says, here's how you ought to pray. And so we just kind of moved past it last time. We're actually focusing in on it today. And we're just going to talk about how do we pray? How basically he's going to talk about what makes prayer effective and how do we do it?
Like, what do we say? And those are the two things we'll spend our time looking at today. So let's before we talk about prayer, let's pray. It just feels right. So let's do that.
Lord, we pray that you'd bless this time we have this morning, that you'd help us to grow in what it means to pray, understanding prayer, and that this would be a people that prays, that we would be a church that prays for your kingdom and your glory in this city. In Jesus' name, amen. So let's pick up in verse 5. We're going to look at Jesus is saying, don't do this, but do this. And we're going to kind of see what he's hinting at here, what he's teaching us here. And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites.
Now, a hypocrite is someone who pretends to be something on the outside, but is actually something different on the inside. So he says, don't be like them, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. So that's what we were just talking about. He's saying if your point of your prayer is to be seen, well done, you did it. That's all you get, though.
So, verse 6. But you, when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And so as he begins, he's basically saying prayer is about you and God. Prayer is about you and the Father. That's it.
So that's why he says go into your room, close the door, pray in secret. The point of prayer is for you to communicate, speak to, relate to God. That essentially prayer is a conversation with God. It's listening to him and talking to him. That's what prayer is. Now for some of us, when you hear that, that prayer is a conversation, maybe you get a little uncomfortable.
I know that we have, increasingly I've had people tell me they have social anxiety. I think it's just because we've labeled something, people now know what to call it. What they mean is when they get around people, they get uncomfortable. And there's a lot of people I know that just like having small talk is very awkward and difficult. I'm not the best at it. I do have this in my favor.
I don't feel uncomfortable when things get uncomfortable. So I've been in conversations and thought, oh, this has gotten awkward. But there's part of me that just kind of enjoys that. I just look around at the people who are like really struggling with the fact. So it makes me not the best person to have small talk with because you may be sweating bullets and feeling terrible.
And I'm like, this is interesting. Like this just, sorry, that happens. But I do know there are a couple of things I've worked on to try to be better at talking to people. Because when we started a church, one of the things you do as a pastor is you have to talk to people. And I wasn't the best at it. So I've worked on a few things.
And I can tell you a few things I've worked on. One of the things I was told, I was told that it's better in a conversation to be interested rather than to be interesting. And so they just said, just ask questions. So I do this. And I remember I met one of the guys who's in our community group now. I met him when we were working at Sears together.
And after we'd been talking for a little while, he goes, dude, are you like in school to be a cop or something? And I was like, well, why? And he goes, you just asked me 20 questions in a row. Like that's enough. And I was like, oh. This guy named Quincy brought one of his friends to our community group a couple weeks ago.
And I was talking to him. And legitimately he looked at me and said, okay, that's too many questions. I'm done. Stop asking me questions. And I was like, I'm overdoing this, I guess. But what I thought was being interested has turned into an interrogation.
And this is also part of the problem that I have is that this is my listening face. So if you're talking to me and I'm interested in what you have to say, this is how I'm going to be looking. And if it gets more interesting, there's a good chance, like if we're at a table or something, I may just start leaning in. So I've been in conversations with people where they start getting uncomfortable because they think I'm disagreeing or I'm upset by what they're saying. And with just cause, did y'all just see my face? And so they start being like, well, maybe, maybe it's not quite that.
And like, like you start trying to retract some of what they're saying. And when they do that, I get more interested in like, what are they, what are they talking about now? And so there's times where people get uncomfortable and I do this. And I start looking at them like, what, what, why did you stop talking? What are you, you know? And then I realized, oh, I look like a crazy person.
And so I've tried to work on this, but it makes it worse. I'll go. Raise my eyebrow, smile a little bit. And I do that some of the people who know I'm working on this. So they'll be talking to me and I'm going, and they're gonna do this worse.
You really got to quit that. But for some of us, when you hear, uh, it's a conversation immediately, you go, oh, I'm terrible at conversations. Like I, I don't know how to carry on a conversation. And it feels like if prayer is a conversation that makes it even more difficult. I'd love for prayer to be something that I, I recite. I'd love for prayer to be something that I memorize.
When Jesus says, this is the model prayer. And he says, this is how you ought to pray. I'd much rather just memorize that and say it. But no, what he's saying is it's a conversation. It's you talking to God, but he's going to give us some help there. So he says in verse seven, when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do.
Gentiles were non-Jewish people. Um, so that'd have been the Greeks or Romans that were around them for, they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them for your father knows what you need before you ask him. So the two things that Jesus is going to help us with today, it's going to tell us what makes prayer effective, what actually makes it work. And then how do we do it? And in this section right here in verse seven and eight, he's answering what makes it effective because that's the, that's the thing he's addressing.
He says, the Gentiles think that they'll be heard for their many phrases. I think they'll be heard because they talk so much because of their presentation. And I think that's what some of us think that if I'm going to have to talk to God, my presentation has to be good. I have to say the right words and in the right way. And I have to kind of know how to pray. And sometimes you'll hear someone else pray and you'll think, well, that's how you're supposed to pray.
I can't do any of that because we begin to believe that it's how we present it, what we say, the words we use, the phrases we use. And that's what he's saying. He's saying that Gentiles think this is how you have to do it in order to be heard. And their tactic, their method was to just say things over and over again. And he's saying it's not that. It's not your presentation.
Because imagine if you got to go in front of Congress to lobby for something or to make an argument for something, something you deeply care about. We would be very concerned with our presentation. What do we look like? What are we saying? What are we asking for? Are we going to have charts?
Are we going to use PowerPoint? Are we going to have some sort of well-crafted argument? And he's saying that there's a temptation for people to believe that when I pray, I have to present it well. I have to pray correctly. And he just says, no, that's not what makes it effective. And he tells us in 8 what makes it effective.
Do not be like them. For your father knows what you need before you ask him. And then he says, pray like this. So he says, what makes it effective is not your presentation. What makes it effective is that God is your father. That he knows you.
He knows what you need. He's intimately related to you. He cares about you. He's paying attention to you. That image of a father is a beautiful imagery. I recently became a dad.
We celebrated my son's two-year birthday. Two-year-old birthday. His second birthday. There we go. We celebrated his second birthday. I don't know.
St. Patrick's Day. Two days ago. And being a dad, I get this picture a little more now. And I understand what he's saying. And he's like, I am supremely interested in my son.
Like, if we're in a group of other children and I hear them, like one of them crying. I'll go, oh, is that? And I'll look. And if it's not my kid, I suddenly don't care anymore. It's like, not mine. Doing great.
Rock and roll. Like, you get to where you can tell the difference between your kid crying. I've been in rooms with dads and we have a kid in the other room. And they'll go, whose is that? And I'll be like, no, it's not mine. That's not what he cries like.
That you get, you care. I have never been that interested in children. They come over and tell you stuff. And I'm just like, uh-huh, that's great. Yeah, mm-hmm, all right. But my son, when he wants to tell me something, like I sit on the floor and just listen to him babble.
He doesn't even know how to use words right yet. And I think everything he says is really interesting. It's not even English. He's learning a little bit. We did ask him the other day how old he was. And he said, come on.
I don't know. And I was like, I am so proud of you. Most parents would be proud if you knew how old you were. I'm proud of this answer right here. But I'm very, like, and that's what he's saying.
God's saying, I'm your father. So with my son, I've held him until he fell asleep. I went and laid him in his crib. I've taken his shoes off so he'd sleep better. I've watched over him. I've disciplined him because I care about him.
One of the things that we talk a lot about, my wife and I, is like, how do we raise him? How do we care for him? How do we discipline him? One of the things that's implemented at our house is if he's throwing a fit, if he's crying, he doesn't get anything. Except for maybe spanked. Because we don't want to train him that the only way to be happy is to be miserable.
The only way to get what you want is to throw a fit first. So if he throws a fit, he doesn't get anything. I'll say, look, you're not getting anything from me like that. You better stop crying unless you want to get spanked. And he's beginning to learn crying and throwing a fit isn't the best way to be happy. It's a good way to get spanked.
But I've disciplined him because I care about him. I want him to be well adjusted and have joy. And when Jesus says, your father knows you, he knows what you need. He's interment related. He's saying the same thing. God's looking and saying, I've watched over you while you slept.
I've cleaned up your messes. I've disciplined you because I care about you. I've walked with you through life. And I'm interested in you and what you have to say. I'm interested in what's going on with you. And this promise is not fully realized or is only fully realized through the gospel.
You see, Jesus is talking to his disciples and he's saying, this is what my people are going to look like. And when he says, he's your father, Jesus actually purchases that right for us. For those who have placed faith in Christ, he purchases that right for us on the cross. I'm going to read a few sections. Galatians 4 says this. Ephesians 1 says this.
I'm going to read something from Romans 8. But it says, for all those who are led by the spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into the fear. But you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba, Father. The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs.
Heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. He's saying that through Christ we've been adopted into the family that the Holy Spirit's come into us. And it's not that God is like our father. If you are a Christian, God is your father. That you've been adopted into the family. Later in Romans he says this.
For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. In order that he, that's Jesus, might be the firstborn among many brothers. That Jesus is the eldest brother in God's family. And that all those who place faith in him have been adopted and are children and heirs. When he says he's your father, he doesn't mean, here's an image. He's saying this is the reality.
For those who will follow me. For those who will belong to me. For those who are mine. When you pray, you're praying to your father. And he loves you. And he cares about you.
And he knows you. And that's what makes prayer effective. You don't have to do it well. You don't have to craft good arguments. You don't have to pray eloquently. One of the things I've noticed by having my son who doesn't, cannot articulate what he wants.
Is that I'm trying to figure it out. When he comes to me and says, I don't go, look at here boy, unless you learn to enunciate clearly, you will never get anything in this household. And then push him. I don't do that. I don't. I go, pat pat.
What the heck is a pat pat? I try to figure it out. And that's what he's saying. When you come to your father, you don't have to come to him with eloquence. Or the right words. Or a perfect formulated argument.
You don't have to flatter him or butter him up. You just get to come to him because he cares about you. That's what makes prayer effective. Is that God, if you are in Christ, has redeemed you, adopted you, has made you his own. And his love is for you and over you. And he is your father.
He's not like your father. He is your father. Prayer gets to be that when we speak to him. But then Jesus does help us with the second question, which is, okay, that's the tone. That's the attitude. That's the posture of the conversation.
But how? How do we actually pray? And I think when we're asking that question, what we really mean is what do we pray? So I remember being in middle school and asking my dad, how do you talk to girls? That was a legitimate question I had. Hey, like, how do you talk to them?
And I knew English, how to formulate sentences. What I really didn't mean was how. What I meant was what on earth do you talk to a girl about? How do you begin this? What are the topics? What do you say?
Like, what's the appropriate? How do you pray about? How do you pray about? Like, that's what I think Jesus is answering when he says, pray like this. I think he's answering us. What do you pray about?
What do we need to talk to God about? What are the things that should be on our prayer list? And so here's my hope. As we walk through this, we're going to kind of just go through and say, here's what he's talking about. And my hope is for us as Christians, not only that we would be praying, but that as we walk through this today, if you see anything and you think, oh, I don't ever pray about that. That you'd put it on like it would become a normal way for you to pray.
Normal topic for you to pray about. Because I think that's what he's helping us with here. So let's pick up in verse 9. Pray then like this. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. So remember, he's saying our Father.
To remember who you're speaking to, he's our Father, but he's also our Father in heaven. So he's vast and massive and glorious and good. And then he says, hallowed be your name. Some of you maybe have different translations. You may have translations you may have. May your name be honored as holy.
That's a good translation. We don't really use the name hallowed. But it means may you be above everything else. May you be honored, respected, revered, glorified. So when he says this, when you begin to pray, some of what we pray about needs to be just praising God for who he is, for his gloriousness, for his goodness.
And this isn't flattery. This isn't me in high school talking to one of the cafeteria workers and slightly flirting with her to try to get an extra cookie. That's not it. It's not when you talk to God, you've got to butter him up first with like, oh, God, you're so special. And then secretly bring out the thing you really want. No, this is the appropriate way that we would begin praying.
That we would acknowledge how good he is. And this is what we do naturally for all things that are good and massive and glorious. So, like, let's say you ran into, it's always been interesting to me, when people meet someone famous, they spend the first little bit usually telling the person who they are and why they're famous. You're Michael Jordan. You're the greatest basketball player who's ever lived. And Michael Jordan's thinking, I'm so glad you told me that because I did not know.
You're Aaron Rodgers. Like, you know, like we would just, you're Neff Campbell. Like, I don't know. You just be popping off with like, you tell them who they are. That's like one of the ways that we would react. The other thing that we do when we see something glorious, we were watching a sunset last night, hanging out with my family.
And we're talking and we would just all stop and be like, look at that. And then you say things like, it's so orange. And the person next to you goes, yeah. He's saying that's one of the ways we ought to begin praying is by coming to God and saying, God, you're glorious. You're honorable. You're beautiful.
You're loving. Not only does it, is it the appropriate response for us when we see someone so good and so glorious, but it also puts us in the right frame of mind to who we're speaking to and what we're talking about. I think the other thing that we need to see here when we say and begin praise with, hallowed be your name. May you be above all else. We're also praying, God, help me to love you more than I love money because I'm so tempted to think that it is above all else. Help me to love you more than I love romance and relationships because I'm so tempted to believe that they're above all else.
Help me to love you more than I love success and approval and having everyone clap and pat me on the back and tell me I'm great because I'm so tempted to believe that that's above everything else. God, may you be above everything else. So do we pray like that? Is that part of your normal praying to praise God, to glorify him? Verse 10. He says, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
So God's kingdom and Matthew talks a lot about it or Jesus talks a lot about it in Matthew's gospel. God's kingdom is his rule and reign on earth. It's his righteous rule and reign on earth. And it's it's also the advance of the gospel. All of those who believe in him and faithfully follow him. That's his kingdom.
And it's it's his justice and his equity and his righteousness and his care for the poor. It's that's his kingdom as it moves forward. It's all the good things that come along with those who've been changed by the gospel and their work on earth. And so one of the ways we ought to be praying is that God's kingdom would advance. That's us praying for justice. That's us praying for fairness, for truth.
That people who commit crimes would be caught and convicted and people who did not commit crimes would would not be convicted. That that would be handled well. That we would we pray for God's right rule that people wouldn't take bribes. That that there would be fairness and equity and love. But it's also us praying that people would meet Jesus.
That for many of us and many of our friends and for the majority of the people in the city, they're facing a Christless eternity. That there will be a day when they stand before the king and all that will matter is that Jesus pay for your sin or are you going to. And that we would care and pray and say, God, this would be lists of names for us. God, be at work. Let your kingdom advance at my job in school. Let your kingdom advance over my neighborhood and begin asking specific people that God would save, that his kingdom would advance in.
I think when he says your will be done, I think we also have the freedom to any time we really have no clue what should happen or how something should work out. We just get to say, God, let your will be done. Let the way this should look in heaven look here. The way I should respond if I was a perfectly heavenly creature, let me respond that way. Empower me to do that. I think we also get to pray that his kingdom would advance in our hearts, that we would love truth and justice and honesty and all the good heavenly qualities of Jesus so they would be at work in us to change us.
So do you pray about those things? Is that a normal way for you to pray? Is that on your prayer list? If not, it should be. Because these are the things that Jesus is saying we ought to pray about. Verse 11.
Give us this day our daily bread. Um, this is just you get to pray for provision and normal daily stuff, small stuff that he would. This is where you get to say, God, I have a light bill. Could you help us pay that? I've got doctor's appointments coming up and I'm gonna have to be able to pay a copay or I've got insurance debt. Oh, that we just begin to pray for normal stuff.
Will you feed us? Will you care for us? I also want to point out that this is a daily prayer. He says, will you give us this day our daily bread? Meaning that he assumes you'll be praying to God daily and about these things on a very regular daily basis. Um, all the things that he's given us here.
This is normal stuff. I've heard some people before. For some of us it seems like there are some people in this room who maybe never pray prayers in this category. I've had someone tell me before, like, their shoulder was hurting and I was like, well, I'll pray about that. And they said, no, don't bother God with trivial stuff. And it's like, first of all, he's outside of time.
So he's okay. Like, he, he's good. He's not busy. He can handle it. Second of all, he's your father and he cares about you. So he cares that your shoulders hurt.
He may not fix it, but we can pray about it. Like, we, you can pray about all the normal stuff. For a lot of us in this room, this may be the only stuff you pray about. That it's only, uh, stuff that's coming up, stuff that's on your schedule, stuff that's going on. And that's, that's good. We ought to pray about that.
We ought to pray about our bills. We ought to pray about our life situations. We ought to pray about the things we need. He says he knows what you need. Go ahead and ask him. He cares.
But that shouldn't be all that we pray about. But this is the area where we would be praying about paying bills, getting a job, got a test coming up. I remember when I was in school, I always prayed, Lord, help me remember everything I studied and help me guess well. That was my test prayer. Everything I actually studied, let me remember that so that I didn't waste that time. And also, let me just, just work some, some of your grace on this test.
But that's, we get to pray about those things. The last, the last section we're going to look at here, it kind of shifts, I think. But still things that we ought to be praying about regularly. So he says, and forgive us our debts. This is verse 12. And forgive us our debts as we also forgive, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. I think we're familiar with the term debt. It means that we owe something. So some of us have school debt or credit card debt or house debt or car debt or debt, debt, debt, debt. And when he says this, he's talking about not just, not financial debt, but actually a sin debt. So that's why some versions will say, forgive us our sins or forgive us our trespasses, where we've stepped over the line, where we've missed the Mark, where we've harmed someone or we've sinned against you or others.
And he says, forgive us as we've forgiven those who've sinned against us, meaning that when we sin, we have debt with God and debt with others. So that there's a human debt from sin and a debt with God, a cosmic, eternal debt of sin. And so he says it's a normal daily thing for his followers who are speaking to the father to repent of sin, to ask for forgiveness. And here's what I want us to see here. This is actually a beautiful invitation into some freedom and joy and grace that I don't want us to miss out on. So I've heard some people before say that when you become a Christian, Jesus pays for all of your sin, past, present and future.
And that is true. All of your sin is covered, that you stand clothed in righteousness because of Christ. And so then they'll follow that up with, so Christians don't actually have to repent anymore. They don't have to acknowledge their sin anymore. It's already paid for. So you should not ever be as a Christian.
Just don't worry about it. Go, you're free. And I've also heard people say, no, you've got to repent of everything. And you've got to think about it and you've really got to figure out what it was. And you've got to know exactly. And you've got to take that to God.
And if there's anything going on, you better repent, repent, repent, repent. And really what Jesus is saying is that, first of all, can I just point out? Jesus, who's training his followers what it looks like to be his people, goes ahead and assumes they're going to daily have some things to repent about. Now, if Mill City Church doesn't say amen about anything, I think we say amen about that. We're going to have some stuff to repent about. There's going to be some things that we mess up, that we fail in, that we hurt each other and hurt God and rebel.
Like he just assumes. He's talking to his disciples, the 12 guys who he's training. He says, look, guys, when y'all talk to God, go ahead and know you've got some stuff to talk about. That's so freeing to me. And what he's saying is you're invited to have your debt forgiven. That you ought to acknowledge your sin on a regular basis and repent.
But that repentance is a celebration of the fact that my debt is paid. You get to go to him and say, forgive it. Forgive this debt. If there was going to be a place set up in downtown Columbia where all you had to do was show up and get debt forgiven, how long is that line? How long is that line? How amazing is that store or government program?
Where just your debt's wiped away. And that's what he's saying is you get to come to God and say, thank you. This is a celebration of the cross that Jesus paid our debt. And so we get to ask for forgiveness. So if you're a Christian, it should be a normal thing for you to repent.
For you to acknowledge sin where you've sinned against people in your community group or people in your family. And you repent. You go to God and say, forgive me. Wipe this debt clean. And you go to them and talk to them about it and ask for and repent there as well. So it's a good mixture of both.
We should acknowledge our sin. But when we acknowledge it, it's not grovelly fear based. It's celebration. Jesus, be at work in me. Continue to forgive me. Help me to walk in the forgiveness you've bought.
It's joy. He clarifies, though, because he says a statement here that I think he says, give us. No, sorry. Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. So he either means kind of at the same time as we or in the same manner.
And so then in 14, I think he clarifies for us. So jump down to verse 14 because he's going to kind of answer what he was saying there. For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses. I think it's easy to not like those two verses, not because they're confusing, but because they aren't. What he said there was pretty clear.
Your forgiving of others is how you will be forgiven. If you forgive others, you're forgiven. If you don't forgive others, you're not forgiven. Now, Paul and Jesus later are going to flip this and say it as if you're truly forgiven, you will forgive. So Paul says we must forgive as we have been forgiven.
So he's saying that our action comes from the forgiveness we've received. Jesus here makes it sound like your forgiveness comes from how forgiving you are. Here's the thing. They're tied together. And here's why this matters immensely. And here's why this matters immensely.
If you genuinely understand the sin debt that was between you and God and the bridge that had to be, the chasm that had to be bridged by Christ on the cross and the amount of sin that was forgiven you, you are enabled to, by the gospel, forgive others. You're able to. You will. That's the way this is laid out in scripture, that you will forgive. So Jesus here says if you're not forgiving, you aren't forgiven.
If you don't forgive, you won't be forgiven. And here's one of the issues I think we have. When we say I'm a Christian, which means I believe that God has forgiven my debt. And then we look at someone and say, but I could never forgive them for what they've done to me. Because what they've done is real. Actually harmful.
Actually damaging. And you say I could never forgive them. Here's what you have articulated. I am bigger, more glorious, and any crime committed against me is more heinous than crimes committed against God. And that is not true. And that is not the gospel.
Our sin debt committed against God is so heinous, wicked, despicable because he is so glorious and so good that once he forgives that, we're able to forgive everyone else. I do want to help us out here. Forgiveness does not mean that you feel good inside or that it is not difficult. I have people say to me before, it's like I want to forgive him and I choose to forgive him, but I'm still angry or I still hurt and I'm still trying to process this and I'm still. And it's like, yeah, our model for forgiveness is a cross. It is not easy or comfortable.
Jesus chose to go to the cross in order to forgive us and we choose to forgive because we believe that he did that for us. And so Jesus is saying that as we forgive, it may be a process, it may be painful, it may hurt. We're choosing to absorb the pain ourselves rather than put it on them. So Jesus says, as we pray, repent and acknowledge our need to forgive others. Verse 13. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. So he says, forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sinned against us or forgive us our debts as we've forgiven our debtors. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. So lead us not into temptation. The Bible kind of lays out that we have three enemies. The flesh, the world, and the devil.
That we actually are your own worst enemy in some ways. You've lied to yourself more. You've tricked yourself more. You've harmed yourself more than anyone else has. That you actively choose to rebel against God. That you're at war with yourself.
So that's the flesh. The world is that the systems that exist around us that help us sin, that help us rebel. Well, so maybe you have a hard time controlling your eating habits. And you're battling yourself. But then, you know, snowballs just opened back up.
And they've opened one on every corner. Krispy Kreme exists. And so do buffets. And it's like it's just so difficult. Maybe you have lust issues. That you struggle with pornography and lust in every television show ever.
That's one of their goals. And they've made the internet have free, accessible pornography. That's our flesh and the world. That temptation exists around us. And then the Bible says that we actually have a real spiritual enemy. The same way that we have a real spiritual God and a real spiritual savior.
Who joined us in humanity and died on our behalf. That there are spiritual beings and we have a real enemy. That is actively waging war to keep us from Christ and to send us to hell. We have three enemies. Jesus says it's normal daily for Christians to pray about all three. The flesh, the world, the devil.
That we would pray, forgive me of my sin. Keep me from temptation. And deliver us from evil. There's some translations that will even say the evil one. Being as explicit as possible. So deliver me from temptation means we get to pray.
God, these are the things I struggle with. Help them not show up. Keep me far from them. When temptation comes, help me get away. It's not a sin to be tempted. It's a sin to sin.
Jesus was tempted. When Satan came to him and gave him temptations to sin. They were actually tempting. That's what a temptation is. It's not just a band. It's something that tempts you to sin.
So when Satan looked at Jesus and said, I'll let you be king of everything without a cross. I'll let you go straight to a throne without a cross. That was actually tempting. But Jesus resisted. He was delivered from temptation. This also can be basically us praying.
So if you have a little kid and you're walking through a store, you may intentionally skip an aisle. Because you just don't want to have to argue with them about they're not getting the things on that aisle. This is saying, hey, God, drive the cart far away from the aisle. Or if you're southern, keep my buggy out of that aisle. Whichever you'd rather say. But that's the prayer.
Keep me from temptation. And then deliver me from evil. That we as Christians would actively be aware that we don't just wage war against the flesh. But that we have an enemy that we can't see. And that we should be praying that his works and efforts would be thwarted. And that God would keep us far from him.
Keep him far from us. And that we would be delivered. It seems to me that people often will pray, maybe one or two of those, that maybe you're one of the people that notices your own sin very clearly. And that when things happen, you are always very quick to say, I'm sinful. I'm to blame. Some people will more quickly notice that the world tricked you.
That your friends are tempting you. Or that the world is tempting you. So you'll pray about this. Other people may be more willing to acknowledge that Satan is at work and blame things on him. And Jesus says yes to all three. So pray about all three.
Don't just acknowledge your flesh. Don't just acknowledge your world and your terrible friends that try to tempt you. And don't just acknowledge that you have an enemy. Acknowledge and pray about all three. Okay. We have a good father who cares about us.
Who intimately knows us, loves us, and has adopted us into his family at the cost of his own son. That Christ came to pay for our sin and to bring us to the Father to open up a seat at the table for us. So we get to pray. Three practical points on prayer. Set aside time. Jesus says go into your room, close the door.
Do that. Some people say, well, I pray, you know, just small times throughout the day. Or I pray, you know, when I'm riding. I pray when I'm driving. Or I pray when I'm in the shower or something. And it's like that's great.
And I think we should be praying. But I also think he says have an intentional time where you get away from everything. You close the door and you pray. And so I would just say for us as a church as we're going to pray, make some time. We make time for the things we care about. Make time to pray.
To spend some time talking to the Father. Secondly, just talk. You get to speak to a Father that cares about you. It doesn't have to be fancy. It doesn't have to be well planned out. Just talk.
Just pray. Just speak. Converse. It can be really awkward. That's fine. He knows you're awkward.
This isn't a first date. He knows you. You're not tricking him. If you show up, if you went into this room and wrote out a beautiful, eloquent prayer and then came into this room, he just saw you. Just talk to him. You're okay.
It doesn't have to be pretty or special. Just pray. Talk to him about the things you care about. Talk to things about worrying you. Talk about nothing. Just tell him he's great for five minutes.
That's fine. That'll help you. Pray. Thirdly, to help you learn how to pray and what to pray about, I would encourage you to do two things. Open your Bible and read it as a conversation. So let's say we're reading through the Sermon on the Mount.
You're reading through it at home. You're in your room. You've intentionally set this time aside to pray. And you come across something where he says, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. You may need to stop right there and say, God, I don't believe that. And I have such a hard time being meek.
The only times I felt like I inherited anything, I fought for it. And I have such a hard time believing that. Help me to believe that. Help me to understand that. Treat it like a conversation. When you hit something, you realize you need to repent.
When you hit something, it's just like, God, that's so beautiful. Because I'm mourning right now. And you say you're going to comfort me. Thank you for being the God who comforts those who mourn. Just use it as a conversation to teach you how to pray. Secondly, you can pray Psalms or epistles.
So you can pray Psalms or there are sections in Paul's letters where he says, this is what I'm praying for you. So you can just steal. I'm going to pray that for my group for a week. I'm going to pray that we would all understand the height and depth and length and breadth of God's love for us. That's my prayer for us right now. So you can just pray sections of scripture.
The same way that a child learns how to speak by having someone else speak to them. There's a reason my son said, come on. He didn't get that, make it up on his own. He got that because that's what has been spoken to him. So have God speak to you.
Use the scriptures to teach you how to pray. I also just want to point out that at the back end of that prayer, there's a section where Jesus is basically saying it's normal for Christians to pray. Keep me. Protect me. Defend me. Keep me from sin.
Keep me from falling. Keep me from running. Keep me close to you. And that ought to be a way that we pray. We praise God for his gloriousness. We pray for his kingdom to advance.
We talk to him about all the normal things going on. We acknowledge our sin. And then we say, God, keep me close to you. Keep me with you. Help me make it to the end. Band's going to come back up.
And we're going to sing. And praise God for his goodness. And celebrate that this is how we get to pray. Let's pray together. Father, you're glorious. You're holy.
And I pray that we would revere you and honor you and love you above all else. We ask, Lord, that your kingdom would come. That you would use our community groups to advance your kingdom on earth. That there would be more joy and more family and more love and more grace and more forgiveness and more justice and righteousness and equity. And more and more and more people who have been saved by the grace and the forgiveness that are found only in Christ. We pray that your kingdom would come through our community groups.
We pray that your kingdom would come in our community groups. That we would repent of sin. That we would acknowledge your holiness. That we would learn to obey. That we would learn to agree with your word and submit to it. We ask, Lord, that your will would be done.
In all the situations going on right now that we don't know how they should end up. We don't understand fully where you're at work. We can't even see beyond the next two steps in life. We pray that your will would be done. That it would look the way it ought to look. That it would look as if heaven for a moment touched the earth.
We ask that in your name. We pray, Lord, that you would provide for us. That you'd help us to pay bills. That you'd work in our health. That you would help us to do well in school and at work. That you'd help us to raise our children.
Or to grow up and to treat our parents well. We ask that you would daily take care of us. We pray, Lord, that you would help us to see our sin clearly. That we would repent often and celebrate in the grace and the joy that's offered to us. That repentance is a privilege that we have. That we don't carry debt because you paid for it.
And God, we ask that you would so free us up in the forgiveness and the payment of debt that you've given to us. That we would forgive everyone who sins against us. That those who've been holding on to bitterness would see your glorious grace for them. And that they would be empowered to forgive. God, keep us far from temptation. And keep us far from the enemy.
That his works would not be present here or active here. That we would walk in the full conquering freedom of Christ the King. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Y'all stand listening.
Righteousness: Before God or Others?
Transcript
Good morning. So over the Christmas holidays, I had a little bit of downtime, and when I just kind of want to relax and chill, I'm a TV person. So I just decided I would pull up Netflix on my phone and just kind of start trying to find a TV show to watch, just something kind of mind-numbing. And my go-to is always comedies. So I'm an office person, 30 Rock, Parks and Rec, for obvious reasons.
But I had caught wind of a particular show I used to watch with my dad. I caught wind that it was on Facebook, and so I was just kind of scrolling, on Netflix, and so I was just kind of scrolling through, trying to find it, trying to find it, and then there it was, The West Wing. I could tell by your, like, judgy smirks and laughter. Some of you don't share my excitement. For the two of you that do, you're welcome. West Wing's on Netflix.
But I did. I used to watch that show with my dad, and for some reason, I've always been interested in politics. I'm not a super political person, per se, but just politics in general has always kind of interested me. So, like, why do people run for the offices they run for? How do they kind of choose their platforms? How do they raise money?
How do they do all this stuff? And as you're looking at elections or even watching some of these TV shows, there's this perception, this theme that kind of runs through them about the question of kind of the motivation for why politicians are running. So, you look at politicians and you think to yourself, like, are they running? Like, are what we're seeing on the outside, so the speeches, the handshaking, the sacrifice, the service, like, is that coming from a genuine heart of American patriotism, or do they have other motivations? So, are they running for the good of the public or for the good of themselves?
Or maybe the more basic question is, what's their motivation? And I think the reason that politicians are such an easy target for this question is because of how public their platform is. There's something to having every aspect of your life kind of lived under the microscope or being in the spotlight, being visible to others, your life kind of being portrayed on the news that makes you begin to wonder about the motivation behind why people do the things that they do. And up until this point in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus has been talking about what citizens in his kingdom should look like.
What should they look like? What should their perception be? How do they stand out from the culture around them? And Jesus has used language like, we should be light. So, in essence, it's going to be visible. And he's been talking about his followers being kind of held to a higher standard.
So, things that they would say would be, not just don't murder, don't hate or be angry. Not just don't commit adultery, don't even lust. Not just love your neighbor, but your enemy also. There's been a heart level theme to everything that Jesus has been talking about, not just the external. And we're going to see that continue today as Jesus begins to press in on what's our motivation behind the things that we do. Why do we do them?
And here's the deal. In this section, Jesus is going to lead off with kind of the main idea. And then he's going to give us three examples to illustrate it. And very rarely does Jesus do this in his teaching or in his parables. And I think the reason that he does it is to give the main idea and to show how all the other three things that he's going to talk about next are connected to it. The three things he's going to use as an example are giving, praying, and fasting.
These are three actions that devout Jews, faithful Jews would have already been doing. But Jesus is going to go deeper than just the action. He's actually going to take the emphasis off of that and begin to ask the question, what's the motivation? Is it genuine, heart level love for God, following God, or is it something else? And so what we're going to see is that Jesus actually cares as much about our reasons, our motivation for doing things, as he does about the actions themselves. So I'm going to pray for us and then we'll hop into the text.
God, I'm thankful that your word is clear. I'm thankful that we have it so that we can learn and study and grow. God, what we're talking about today is difficult to see and we need your Holy Spirit to expose it in us so that we have the ability to respond appropriately. God, this is your word. I pray that you would teach it this morning. Holy Spirit, I pray that you would fill me and speak through me.
In Jesus' name, amen. All right, grab a Bible. If you don't have a Bible, just grab one of the white ones that we have in the seats and go to page 473. We're going to be in Matthew chapter 6 today, beginning in verse 1. I will say this. If you don't have a Bible, take this one with you.
We want everyone to have a Bible. So just take it with you when you go. And again, the way Jesus begins is he starts off with the main point. So really, we could just throw the main point up on the screen and talk about it from there. And that's what Jesus does. He starts with what's the motivation.
So chapter 6, verse 1. It says this. Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them. For then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. I'll read it again. Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them.
For then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. So once again, Jesus leads with the point. What's the motivation? He says, beware, be on your guard, fight against any urge or temptation to practice your righteousness in front of other people to be seen by them. And so when he says practice your righteousness, basically what Jesus is getting at is any action or activity that anyone would do in following God or as worship to God. So basically, anything that we have in the Bible is what Jesus is going after here.
And the three examples that he's going to use are praying, giving, and fasting. But he goes beyond just the action and he qualifies it. He says, doing righteous deeds is what people should do just to beware of doing it in front of people so that they'll take notice. Jesus understands that by nature, these actions at times are going to be done in front of people. In fact, Jesus, in the next section, he's going to pray in front of people. His point is this.
You're going to do these things in front of other people. He just says, don't do them just to be seen. That's not the point. Jesus says, be on your watch that any action that you're doing to ultimately bring glory to God, or that's an act of worship or an act of obedience or following him, isn't done so that other people will see it. Because if that's the case, the way he ends the verse is, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. And here's why I think it's so important that Jesus leads with this idea, both for his original hearers and for us today.
For most of us, we're unaware that this is even happening, much less a problem. It's just kind of sneaky. For most of us, you don't walk around questioning your motivation for why you do the things you do all the time. We just don't. That's not natural for us. For the most part, when we're doing good things, or even like when we're doing something specifically that the Bible tells us to do, we don't question our motivation because we're just trying to be obedient.
Like we're just trying to follow and do what the Bible says, but Jesus is pointing out that there's a danger when we're following him, when we're trying to be obedient, that we'll begin to slip into thinking more about what other people think about it than we do the original intention of the action to begin with. And it's sneaky. Again, we don't question our motivation all the time. And so what he's basically getting them to do is look at these three examples and ask, am I doing this because I genuinely appreciate love, want to follow God, or is it something else? Or is it so that other people will notice?
And again, he's assuming that they're already going to be doing these actions. He's just saying, check your motivations. So verse 2 is where we get our first example. Pick it up there. Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Notice that he says, when you give to the needy, not if you give to the needy. Remember, Jesus is already assuming that people would be doing these things. He's just beginning to question their motivation. He's taking the emphasis off of the action itself and going more towards the motivation.
The Bible's clear in teaching that Christians should be generous. We should give. We should specifically look for people who are in need and try to meet those needs. The Bible tells us that basically everything we have has been given to us by God and it belongs to him and we're just his money managers. The part of the way we know the gospel has actually begun to affect our hearts is if it has begun to affect our wallets. But again, here, Jesus is putting the emphasis on their motivation rather than the action.
You see, giving to the needy in Jesus' day would have been a fairly public action. So whether you were going to the temple itself or going to a synagogue, there would be an alms box placed in kind of a public location and you would go and you would take your offering and you would put it in that box. In fact, in Mark 12, we see Jesus and his disciples, they're sitting in the temple watching people give when a widow walks up and she gives a very small amount but Jesus praises her because she didn't have very much but she gave out of her poverty. She gave all that she had. So it was this public thing.
And I had the opportunity to go to Cleveland, Ohio last year on a mission trip and that Sunday morning that we were there, we got the chance to worship with another church and it was kind of a charismatic church. I mean, the music was awesome. The preaching was awesome. It was just an awesome time. Like, I mean, people dancing, clapping. I mean, I was in it.
And the way the service ended was that they got everybody back up and we started singing. And everybody's dancing, they're kind of clapping. And I mean, I'm loving it, okay? But as I'm dancing and singing, I start to notice that people are leaving. But it's not like everyone's mass leaving.
It's just kind of like by rows almost. And I turn and look over my shoulder and the one exit to the room, there are ushers on either side with buckets and they're getting it too. That was how that church did their offering. So the one door that everyone funneled through was the door that you gave. Ain't nobody forgetting their checkbook in that church. There was no like shimmy and bye or like I left my checkbook in the car because those ushers were like, just like closer and closer to you on the way out.
But I just, I thought that was crazy. We're, you know, we're a little more low key. We kind of put our box and our computer to the side and we just remind you about it. Nobody's in your face, giving you the old shoulder shimmy. But it was visible.
So giving in Jesus' day was visible. And even if you were just giving to somebody on the street who is needy, who is begging, someone who's in that position is going to go to the most high traffic area so that they can attract attention so that hopefully somebody will see them and give to them. It was a visible thing. And Jesus is not saying, never give money publicly. He's saying, don't let your motivation for giving be about the people who are watching. It's not about that.
He literally says in verse 2, and it's my favorite, he basically says, don't toot your own horn. Don't sound a trumpet before yourself as you go to give. It's not about the people who are watching. And Jesus does give us a picture of what faithful giving looks like. He says, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing so that it's in secret. And you guys understand that it's nearly impossible for your left hand to be doing something that your right hand doesn't know about.
Try it when you get home. You'll be amazed. Your brain controls both hands. So Jesus is using exaggeration. It's hyperbole. He's saying that the posture in us giving shouldn't be about who sees it.
Shouldn't be about who knows about it. Whether it's the mount or the person we give to or the situation. He's saying that our response as we give should be, our response should be responding to what Jesus has already done for us. It should be the gifts that we've already been given. That's our reason for giving. So, should we give?
Yes. And is it going to be public or visible sometimes? Yes. Jesus' point here is that when we give, it doesn't have to become a Facebook status where we put hashtag blessed to bless. He's saying that maybe if we're going to give, maybe we show up early before a gathering and put our money in the give box or use the computer so that nobody sees it. He's saying that if our neighbor has a need and they don't have gas money, that the next conversation at our community group isn't all about how we help this one person.
He's saying that our heart and our attitude needs to be in worship to Him. Not about the other people who know. And that's sneaky. Again, we don't question our motivations all the time. But I think if we would begin to, we would say, maybe they're not as righteous as they should be.
And he continues on in verse 5. And this is going to be a little bit bigger section. But this is the section on prayer. And as we get to the back half of it, you're going to see that it's going to be familiar to most of you. It's what's known as the Lord's Prayer. Next week, we are going to specifically teach through the Lord's Prayer.
So I want most of our attention to be spent on the first part. What is Jesus saying about the nature of us praying when it's going to be visible? Verse number 5. And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them. For your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.
Pray then like this. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. So again, we're going to focus on the first little part of that. So my question becomes, does this prohibit all public prayer? Goodness, I hope not because like 15 minutes ago I just prayed in front of y'all and I don't want y'all analyzing the fact that I just prayed in public. That's not what He's getting at. It's obviously not the point because Jesus prays in front of people.
Right here in Jewish culture just to give us a little bit of a background what He's talking about. In Jewish culture there were specific times throughout the day that it was just known that people would stop and pray morning, midday, in the evening. And what He's saying is there were some people who would kind of go off by themselves and pray quietly, maybe not even out loud, maybe just whispering to themselves. but then there were others who would kind of go out into the more open areas and raise their voices and with eloquent speech begin their prayers so that others could hear them. His original hearers would have known exactly what He was talking about.
And what Jesus is saying is that there are those who love to stand and pray and let everyone hear their prayers so that the people around them start looking and going, dude, my elbow and the person beside him is praying. That's a prayer. You listen to this? Oh, what perfect theology. Did He just say propitiation? I don't even know what that means.
Do you know what that means? Jesus is saying there's a temptation when we're praying out loud to begin to think about what others around us are thinking. Like, are they taking notice? Do they, are they impressed by the words that I'm saying? He also says don't pile up empty words or phrases to impress others or for that matter to impress God. God's attentiveness to your prayer is not based off of how many theologians you can quote or how many sections of scripture you can recite or how long you can go without taking a breath.
That's, that's not the point. He says pray simply. If you look at the prayer that Jesus prays, it is a short, simple, direct, heartfelt, genuine prayer. He says, don't do it so that others can see it and don't heap up all these phrases and empty words. When I was in middle school and high school, they would have this event once a year. It's kind of across the nation.
It was called See You at the Pole. And so there's this one day of the year that all the Christians were supposed to, before school, you would go out to the flagpole and you would circle around the flagpole and you would pray. I've got concerns about the fact that we were around the flagpole and praying. But, anyways, so you would get out of your car and you would walk out there and everyone's already in a circle. You know, sometimes they were holding hands at which point I'm always scoping out for the cutest girl like, where do I, where do I break into the circle? Here.
I'm sorry, I need to hold your hand. And so you're in this circle and basically you're praying about all kinds of things. You're praying for your school, you're praying for your country, all kinds of different stuff. And the way it would work is you would kind of say a short prayer and if you didn't want to pray, you just squeeze the person's hand next to you. So, a couple sentence prayer, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, next person would pray. And we're all in a circle, everyone's heads are bowed and their eyes are closed and all of a sudden into the bright morning sky.
Father God, Father God, we thank you, Father God, for this day, Father God, because you are Father God, Father God. And like my head, like I just, immediately head shot up because I was like, who is this person? And they prayed for five minutes and all I can remember from middle school is that they said, Father God, 84,000 times. Now, I do not know what the heart level motivation was going on inside of the man that was praying that. What I do know is it looked like it was very showy, it was very loud, he said, Father God, to the point, I can't remember anything else that he prayed about and what Jesus is saying is that when our prayer begins to be more about the people who are watching or listening than it is about communication with God, we've messed up.
We've missed the point. And let me give us an example of kind of how this can show up in our lives, okay? So imagine, imagine you're hanging out with a group of Christians or you're hanging out with your community group and you're wrapping things up and someone looks at you and says, hey, will you pray to close us out? Sure. So you pray out loud as your group meeting times kind of come into a close.
No big deal. Well, the next week you show up, there's a period where you need to pray and someone looks at you and says, hey, hey, will you pray? You're really good at it. Okay, sure, I'll pray. And so you start praying but now the whole time you're inside your head. You're thinking, wait, I'm good at it.
What does that mean? Is that, okay, all right, so I'm praying. Then you're so inside your head that now every time when your group gets together and there's an opportunity to pray, you say, well, I'll pray because now you've, you know, you're the good prayer so you need to make sure that you're the one that's praying for your group or you're in a group setting and you're going around in a circle and everyone's praying and rather than praying alongside of the people who are around the circle, you're actually sitting there thinking, okay, what am I going to say when I pray? What are the words that I'm going to use?
I don't, you know, I don't want to mumble. No stumbling. It needs to be perfect. And that didn't even cross your mind weeks ago. It can slip in that easily and I think all of us have a little bit of apprehension when it comes to praying out loud in front of people because we go, I don't want to sound, I don't want to sound silly. I don't want to say something silly.
I don't want to sound like a third grader. But Jesus is saying that there are times when our prayers are going to be public. And if the point of our prayer is so that other people notice and pay attention, then basically, basically, Jesus is saying if it's for them, then good. They can listen to it because I'm not going to. It's missing the point of what prayer is supposed to be. So let me just give us a couple of questions to consider specifically about prayer.
Okay? Do you volunteer to pray when your group gets together because in your group you're kind of good at praying? Do you only pray when you're around people so that it seems like you've got a deep prayer life? So what I mean by that is like do you, when you're by yourself, you don't pray a whole lot but if there's a chance to pray in front of people, you're up for it. When people have situations going on, do you tell them that you'll be praying for them? And if you do that, do you actually go away and pray for them or did you just tell them that so that they thought you would do that?
When you have a good quiet time or devotion time, you've been reading your Bible and praying, do you take your phone out and take a picture of your Bible and your coffee cup and run it through that best Instagram filter and then put it online because you have, I mean, it's not about you. You just want people to know. And here's the deal. The reason it's so easy for me to ask these questions is because that's what God's been dealing with me for the last couple of weeks. Guilty. All those things.
All of them. And it can be so subtle that it sneaks in that rather than prayer being communication with God, it becomes about who's watching, who will take notice, what are other people thinking. So, God's been dealing with me about this. But Jesus does lay out what correct posture and prayer should look like. He says, go into your room, shut the door. Prayer is meant to be communion with the eternal God, so let's make it about that, not about what other people are thinking or hearing.
And here's the deal. There's a way to actually do that. There's a way to talk to God like that when you're in front of other people. It's just thinking, believing, realizing that it really is just you and He talking. And listen, that takes work. It takes work to not be thinking about what everyone else is thinking as you're praying.
Jesus says, we've got to begin to check our motivations and let prayer simply be the part of our relationship where we get to have communication. And then He moves on to the third example to kind of illustrate this point in verse 16. Pick it back up with me. It says this, And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret.
Okay, let me just say this. Of the three examples that Jesus gives, this is probably the one that is most foreign to us. And maybe we just don't emphasize it or talk about it as much as we do praying and giving. And so I want to take just a little bit of time to kind of camp out here and talk about it. We've actually never really talked about fasting at length in a sermon. So if you're a definition person or a note taker, here's kind of our working definition of fasting.
Fasting is abstaining from eating food for the purpose of pursuing God. Fasting is abstaining from eating food for the purpose of pursuing God. And even as I was preparing for this message, there are a lot of wonderful reasons why you should fast. But really the one that I find most compelling is that as your hunger begins to grow, the more easily you can see your own weakness and dependence on God. So in the same way that you get hungry or if you're like me, you get hangry, your body needs, craves food.
When you go without food for the purpose of pursuing God, it shows you how weak and frail and dependent you actually are. And in the same way that the body craves, needs food to survive and thrive, we need that kind of relationship with God to survive and thrive as well. And so when you look in the Bible at the times that people were fasting, they would fast to go along with their prayers. There were times where they fasted at different festivals or feasts. They would fast at times of repenting and mourning. And even as you move into the New Testament, you would see people fasting as personal devotion or they would fast before they were going to make big, wise decisions.
Jesus looks at his disciples in a situation. He's talking. He says, they're going to fast when I'm gone. So Jesus had the expectation that his followers were going to fast when he was gone. So fasting was and is a part of the New Testament church.
And part of what Jesus is trying to emphasize here, specifically in this situation, is that there were people when they would fast, he says, don't be like the hypocrites and look gloomy or disfigure your face. Sometimes when people would fast, they would put on what's called sackcloth. So just imagine like wearing a burlap shirt. Awful. Okay, so they would put on sackcloth and then sometimes they would put ashes on top of their heads as well as kind of like a sign of mourning. And basically what would happen is these people really weren't bathing during their time of fasting and I don't know if you all know this but the Middle East is kind of hot and so the ashes would kind of drip down over their faces and onto their sackcloth.
As well as kind of like a sign of mourning. And basically what would happen is these people really weren't bathing during their time of fasting and I don't know if you all know this but the Middle East is kind of hot and so the ashes would kind of drip down over their faces and onto their sackcloth. So when it says they disfigured their faces, it's not like if you were eating like a sour warhead
Or something like that. it's more like their appearance just they look disheveled and Jesus is saying that there were people who were fasting and they were going through this process so that people would see them as devout and holy so that they could get approval from other people just for their willingness to go without food and again Jesus says they've received their reward.
If that's the reason that they're fasting is just so that other people will see it then they've gotten their reward which is other people will take notice but Jesus keeps going and he says when you fast again not if you fast when you fast Jesus' expectation is that people would be fasting and this continues down through the New Testament to us today he just says wash your face
And anoint your head in other words it shouldn't be visible to other people by your appearance or by your words this is something that is between you and God when I was in high school I remember I got to class one day I sat down in my seat nobody was really in there yet just a couple of us I was early go figure and as I was sitting there there was a guy a couple of seats away and I'm just sitting there minding my own business I don't even remember
What I was doing but all of a sudden I hear oh man what's going on over here so obviously I took the bait and I just I just turned and said hey man you alright yeah oh man I'm just I'm super hungry okay and I'm I'm pretty sure I can't remember this I'm pretty sure we had just left lunch
So I just asked I was like dude did you did you not eat lunch he said nah nah man I didn't eat lunch just took the bait my next question why and he goes oh man you know me and some of the kids in my youth group you know we're fasting right now so you know we're not eating and man it's just it's just so tough and you know
I'm just I'm doing it I'm in I'm sold out I'm not going to give up it's really sarcastic I was like okay I just turned back in my seat and again I don't know what his heart level motivation was in that moment but the amount of grunting and sighing to then draw my attention I had to question like was he was he just trying to get my attention that's what Jesus is saying here
When our motivation for any amount of righteous action begins to be so that other people will notice we've missed the point and there is no reward from our father who is in heaven and here's the deal with fasting specifically I get it this is kind of weird for us you're basically depriving yourself of food so that you grow closer to God but here's
What I believe when you go away and try this you will be surprised at how close and how connected you feel to God I promise you that it's this time of just reminding yourself of your need and your dependence on him the times that I have fasted have been very very helpful for me and here's here's how fasting works okay the time that you would have spent eating you're going to abstain from food and you're actually
Going to spend that time with God whether it's praying or reading your Bible or singing worship songs like however you best connect with God and in those moments when the pains of hunger begin to to gnaw at you you're going to get to remember how much you need God that you actually need and depend on God more than you ever do on food and I will tell you one of the most
Helpful thing about fasting for me is it reminds me that food is not God food is just food that is so so helpful for me and let me say this if you're hypoglycemic or you're worried about any health concerns or health risks I would just caution you to use wisdom in terms of your specific needs if you want to have a conversation
About that when we're done I would love to but I believe that all of us fasting would be good for all of us and I would encourage you to do it and biblically fasting is abstaining from food but I think you can take that principle and really kind of apply it to abstaining from anything for the purpose of knowing God more so for some of us I think abstaining from TV
Would be a really good thing or maybe abstaining from coffee try that one boy that's fun for some of us maybe abstaining from playing video games for a time maybe abstaining from social media for a while and specifically with social media here's what's so dangerous for us in this day and time in the world when it comes to social media the point of social media
Is for you to put something up whether it's your thoughts or feelings or pictures or whatever for the purpose of other people seeing it that's actually the point of putting it up on social media so I think we've got to be careful as Christians to think like what's the motivation behind why I'm using
Social media or putting something up I think it would be very helpful for us to begin to question that but at the end of this fasting section I actually left off the last part of verse 18 so I want to go back let's actually pick it up we'll go all the way back to 17 it says this but when you fast anoint your head and wash your face that your fasting
May not be seen by others but by your father who is in secret and your father who sees in secret will reward you your father who sees in secret will reward you in fact this is Jesus includes this phrase in all three of the examples that he says your father who sees in secret who sees your righteous deeds done with pure motivation will reward you
So we've already seen Jesus clearly lays out what it looks like when our motivations are off that the reward for that is just that other people will notice that they're going to see it but he says that there actually is a genuine reward when it's done with the right motivation so the question becomes what's the reward if there actually
Is a reward what is it so is it is it circumstantial is it based off of whatever the action is so like if I give and I'm generous is it that God's going to bless me and give to me Bible says some stuff like that is it is it if I pray that God's going to answer whatever prayer I pray
No we know that's not that's not it is if I fast and sacrifice that God's going to make my he's going to bless my life and it's I'm not going to have any other hardship other than when I'm fasting we know that's not true either it can't
Be the gift has actually got to be bigger and better than that even a lot of the answers that I just gave that are wrong those just terminate on us they're temporary there's got to be a reward that the creator of the universe the king
Of kings and the Lord of lords would give to his creation that is worthy of being something he would call a reward so the question becomes what gift would God give that he would think this is the best gift
For my creation himself the reward that God gives us is himself and so if just now you kind of thought to yourself okay saw that one coming and it doesn't actually stir your affections for him I think you've just
Gotten used to smaller gifts to the approval to the clapping of tiny hands to the watching of tiny eyes rather than the good reward that God gives us which is himself and here's the way that works here's how
That's possible Jesus willingly came to this earth and lived a perfect life that we couldn't live he died on the cross the death that we deserve to pay for our sin the punishment that we deserve and then he
Rose from the grave so that we could have new life in him and could be made into a new creation now and if that's true then the reward that we get is God himself relationship with God has been made
Possible so that we can repent of our sin and place faith in him which means this if that's true that means that every bit of your action and activity and obedience here on this earth isn't to earn God's favor
Or to merit his wrath for those who are in Jesus it means that your action gets to be a response of gratefulness and thankfulness for what God's done because Jesus died for you you get
The relationship with God which then means that praying and giving and fasting and reading your Bible and any other righteous action that the Bible calls us to gets to be simply to enjoy God
That it's not about it's not about what others think or what others see it's not even to earn something from God it's a response so when the Bible calls us to give and to pray what it is going after is communion with God you
Get you get the one who holds the universe in the palm of his hand and he wants to have an intimate relationship with you so that all of those actions get to be just to
Enjoy him there were some theologians in the 1600s that got together and they wrote what's called the Westminster Shorter Catechism and I think it helps sum up what Jesus is getting at here so well
I want to say this here's what they wrote man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever we'll say that again man's chief end is to glorify God
And to enjoy him forever the point of all of our action gets to be because we get God and we want more of him and that through these things we get to
Enjoy him now and forever more so my question for us this morning and really the question that Jesus raises through this entire teaching is what's what's our motivation is our
Motivation for the things that we do to honor him to know him more or is it something else so that others might see and here's what I want you to do I want you to actually ask right now
Holy Spirit where where am I doing this because it's sneaky some of you as we went through you immediately it immediately started going off but some of you may need to ask
Where am I doing this where's my motivation so that others will notice versus relationship with God is it my social media account is it conversations inside of my community group where am
I just doing stuff so that other people will notice even further than this where am I not doing stuff because of what other people would think
If I did so where's my obedience just motivated by what my wife would say if I did that or what my group would
Think if I did that it's sneaky guys and God's faithful God's faithful to lead us in repentance and so I want our response this morning to be twofold
As we repent repenting means turning away from sin and turning to God I want us to repent of where our motivations are off so the first question
Is this that I want you to ask where are my motivations where am I motivated by what others think versus communion with God sit
And ask that like right now if you don't know if God hasn't shown you yet just sit and pray ask him to show you
Where you're selling yourself short because of the cross you actually get to repent of where your heart is off and the second part
Of that repentance is where do my actions need to change to actually match that repentance so that if my heart is changing what
Needs to change about what I'm doing you're going to have a chance to respond here in just a minute some of you may just
Need to sit and pray and weep and think about where your heart has been chasing after smaller gifts rather than the gift of
God himself and who cares what people think if that's what you need to sit and do some of you need to stand and
Sing and praise God and raise your hands and thank him for the goodness of the gospel and it's not about what people think
Sing at the top of your lungs if you want to raise your hands if you want to some of you may want to
Give you've been convicted about giving you may want to do that go for it but don't let it be so that other people would
Notice church you're free we're free for those who are in Christ our relationship has been purchased by Jesus which means that all of
Our actions get to be to enjoy him a good loving holy God band is going to come back up in a second we're
Going to stand and sing I just want you for a second imagine if we as a church followed Jesus from a place of
Pure motivation rather than being worried about what others think of us all the time imagine imagine how free we would be how much
Joy we would have think about the genuine types of relationships we would have both with God and with each other so let's let go
Of the approval of others and enjoy the reward for our actions done with pure motivation which gets to be genuine fellowship with God and
With each other let's pray God I pray that all across the room right now your Holy Spirit would be working and moving God that you would lead us to
Repentance God I know that you expose sin in us we need you to expose the sin in us and I thank you for the
Joy that repenting is because it means we get to turn away from something that is ultimately destructive that will not satisfy us to
A good loving God that we get to continue to pursue righteous living and following you in obedience but we get to do it
From a place where we're not earning anything we're actually just getting to enjoy our relationship with you so God all across this room
I pray that you would do work as we respond to you we pray in Jesus name amenxurl --app my-app auth oauth2 zachpippin
God's Money and My Faith
Transcript
We are starting our first week in our money series, and we're really excited to be able to spend some time talking together about money. We know that when we talk about money, we can get a little uncomfortable. It's kind of one of those issues you're not really supposed to talk about in our culture. You don't ask somebody how much they make. You don't ask about people's finances. And so we just know that in general, spending some time, we're going to take four weeks out to talk about money and finances and address some of these things that it can make us a little uncomfortable.
So we decided to start, thought it would be helpful today, to start by talking about a concept that the Bible says has a lot to do with how we view finances and how we think about money, but that isn't money directly to kind of ease in this morning. So we're going to kind of start off in one area, and then we'll move into money. You are all going to die. Isn't it nice to talk about something a little bit easier than money kind of transition in? We're all going to die. Like every single one of us, it's very clear.
This is the way the world works. At some point, we will take our last breath. We will buy the farm, kick the bucket, take a dirt nap. Like we're going to die. And the Bible says that our mortality, the fact that we won't be here forever, should have a lot to do with how we view finances. Our mortality should have a lot to do with how we think about possessions and how we think about money.
And so I just wanted to kind of ease in talking about money. We thought we'd address death first. Let's pray. We'll be in Matthew chapter 6 this morning. We'll pray together, and then we'll flip over there. God, we thank you for this time we get to get together and address really important issues.
Nobody in this room is going to live a life not affected by money. No one in this room is going to live a life where money doesn't play a major role in how their life plays out. And so, God, we just want to humbly come to you, come to your scripture, and learn how we ought to see money, view money, understand money. And we pray, Lord, that your Holy Spirit would teach us today as we do that. We love you, and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.
So we'll be in Matthew chapter 6. The page number is on the screen behind me. I believe it's 526, I think. Yep, 526 is where we'll be today. And so here's what we're doing. Today we're mostly going to talk about big picture principles, foundational things for how we approach money.
The next three weeks we'll talk very practically about money. So today we're going to talk about principles. Next week we're going to specifically talk about generosity when it comes to giving money away to other people, to causes and that sort of thing. The following week we're going to talk about tithing and giving to the local church. Like is tithing still something we're supposed to do? Is that an Old Testament concept?
What does giving to the local church mean? How does all that play out? So that's what we'll spend our time on two weeks from now. And then the final week we'll talk about kind of working, spending, and saving. So the Bible's pretty clear that some of your money is meant to terminate on you and should be used for your enjoyment and your pleasure and for looking out for the future.
And so we're going to spend a little time talking about that. So we're really trying to address where is money? How are we supposed to handle money? Where is it supposed to go? And so we're going to talk about giving it away to people in the local church towards mission and then spending it, saving it, buying a steak, seeing a concert, that kind of thing. So, but today we're going to talk specifically about some big picture principles.
And then because we want this to be as helpful as possible, one of the reasons we wanted to do this is we, as a church family, have a lot of new Christians and a lot of people just hanging out and checking out Christianity. And that's a beautiful thing for us. And we just have a lot of questions when it comes to money, when it comes to how do we handle this? What do we do with that? What does this look like? What's the rule is kind of the question a lot we get.
And so we just wanted to address that. We also, over the next three weeks, are going to do some Q&A. So send in your questions to Twitter, Facebook, whatever. We're going to spend some time after each sermon just kind of answering some of those questions as best we can. Also, the Bible has a lot to say about money. Jesus talks about money a lot.
And so we have to talk about it some. To really address it. It's a big deal in your life. And the Bible Acts like it's a big deal. So we want to talk about that.
The one thing I do feel like we need to address, every time a church talks about money or takes time to do a series on money, it feels a little bit like, oh, so y'all need some money? Like it just feels like, oh, y'all hurting? Like, you know, what's going on? And so I just wanted to clearly say, we don't need money. Like we don't need your money right now. We're not in hurting or anything like that.
We're church plants, so we're not rich by any means. We try to do things very cheaply. We try to handle money really well. But we're not hurting for money. The Lord has graciously provided for us. And so this isn't a, hey, light's about to be cut off.
We've got to get kicked out of here. We've got to talk about some money or things are going to turn bad on us real quick. That's not what this is. It really is that we just have a lot of questions. It's an important issue. It's a big issue.
Now, that having been said, I want to be clear. Every time I've hung out and been in a church and they started talking about money and then the pastor said, we don't need your money. We don't want your money. I've always been like, come on. Tell the truth. Like, be real with me.
So I want to be real. I want to be honest. We don't need your money. We're not hurting for it. We want your money. Like, we agree with what we're doing here.
We pay for stuff. We rent things. We pay pastors. Matt and I are able to be full time because people generously give here. We are able to support church plants. We're able to do a lot of things.
And so we like money. It's not evil. We want more of it so we can use more of it for more stuff. For Kid City, for all the stuff we do now, we're starting to get student groups started. So don't hear me say, like, fakely, we don't want money.
No, we want it. It's good. We're going to use it. The more money we get, the more we're going to give away, the more we're going to spend. But that's not what this is about.
And we're not even going to talk about us, like, the church money stuff today. We're going to talk about some big picture principles. So Matthew 6, we're going to start in verse 19. And this is Jesus teaching, and he's going to take in this really short section. He's going to lay out some big picture principles, some foundations for how we ought to view money. 19.
Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy. Where thieves break in and steal. So treasure specifically means possessions, because he's talking about rust and moth and thieves. Like, you know, you can't be like, well, I treasure my children. No, he's talking about possessions. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where the thieves do not break in and steal.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body. So if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness. No one can serve two masters.
For either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. Okay, so that's where we're going to spend our time today. And so Jesus says some really clear, really concrete things there. And it's also, though, if you look at the section, it's kind of confusing. Because here's what he does.
He says, don't lay up treasures in heaven. Or don't, don't lay up, do lay up treasures in heaven. Don't lay up treasures on earth. Lay up treasures in heaven. So he's talking about money and possessions.
Then he says something about your eyes and lamps. And if your eye is a lamp and your lamp doesn't work, then you're in the dark. And how dark your darkness is if the lamp is broken. Like, if the light in you is darkness, how dark would that be? Is kind of how he ends it. Then he goes right back into, you can't serve God and money.
So he goes, money, lamp, eye thing, money. And he says this really like, you can't serve God and money. Feels a little bit like this intense, like really drove the point home. And it's like, what were you doing in the middle here with the light stuff? Like, it confuses me. It's a little bit like if you, if you did this on a paper in elementary school, you would make a C.
Like, my mom and I went to the store. I love puppies. Puppies are soft and great. At the store, we bought milk and cereal. Your teacher would circle the middle sentence and be like, what was all that about puppies? What were you doing?
Like, were there puppies at the store? This is not how you write stuff. And so he says money, eyes, money. And so what we have to understand is that the eye section has something to do with money. He hasn't changed the subject. He didn't randomly like, oh, he doesn't have ADD.
It wasn't like, oh, I forgot to tell you this earlier. Now let's talk about money again. Like, it has to do with money. And so here's really simply what I believe he is saying there in that section on eyes. When he says that, the eye is the lamp of the body, and if you don't see well, basically what he's telling us is when it comes to money, it's a vision problem more than anything else. It has to do with how we view money, with how we understand money, with how we see it.
And that the truth is a lot of us are just blind to how big of an effect money has, how actually weighty it is, how much control it has. And we're blind to how we ought to view it. And so that's why he's going to unpack some big principle things here. And really, that's what we're doing today. We're looking at principles, foundational things, so that we can actually know how to do practical things. And that's how life works.
That's how your life works. You have principles that guide how you practice, how you live, what you do. You have a foundational belief set that affects how you live. It affects how you handle money. It affects how you think about relationships, love, and marriage. It affects really everything you do, how you work, what the goal of life is.
You have some big picture principles that affect the practical things. A real easy way to think about this or to explain it is before I ever started dating, I had an understanding of what the principles behind dating, like what the goal was. And so I went in. I had some good principles and some bad principles. One of the good ones I had, one of the things I understood about dating was the point of dating was to get married. Like it was supposed to be fun, but it wasn't just about fun.
Just for the record, if you're dating someone and that's not fun, since dating is about marriage, stop dating that person because marrying someone you don't have fun with would be terrible. Just doing basic math there. But I knew that when I started dating that the goal of dating was marriage, was to find someone to marry. So I went into dating, always asking the question, is this person marriable? And for all the couples in here dating, this just got way more intense, you were like, dude, go back to talking about money. Like, stop this.
But I went into dating relationships knowing that I was looking for someone marriable. And then once I had like a framework for dating, once I had some principles, then I had practical questions. Like, how do I actually get a girl to go on a date with me? Once on that date, how might I get her to kiss my mouth? Like, I had practical questions. Does the wiping away the hair thing work or is that just in movies?
Like, what do we got going here? Like, you have practical questions. And so the next three weeks, we're going to have practical questions we're going to address. But today we're going to handle some big picture principles, foundations for how do we look at money? How do we think about it? And that's what Jesus is talking about.
And the first thing is we don't see money clearly. Money for us, I'm going to just try to quickly say a few ways that we just don't see how big of an effect money has. Money has a lot to do with how you view yourself, what your identity is. So you'll meet people who grew up with not a lot of money and have a lot of weight in, we were poor and we fought through. Like, we didn't have all this stuff. We didn't have, you know, and we fought and we made it work and we, you know, we had family and that's what mattered.
We had our neighborhood and that's what mattered. You'll meet people that had money and that completely changes their worldview. When we use labels like rich and poor, it's an identity label, not an adjective as much as it is like the type of person. And depending on how you land finance wise, it really has a lot to do with who you believe you are. Boils down to money, level of money. And we don't realize that.
For some of us, money just makes decisions for us and we don't even have to, like, we don't think about it. We don't think about the fact that the overarching decision-making process in our life is money. So if a job offers you more money, accept it. Why would you not accept it? It offered you more money. So people will just pick up and move somewhere.
They don't question anything about their family or church family or relate, like, just, oh, it's going to pay more money. And then we'll, like, and this will happen in, like, community groups. Hey, I'm moving here. This place is going to pay me more money. And the whole group just says, sweet, congratulations. And we don't ask the question of, do you realize your only way you decided was money?
College majors. I love history. But you can't make money studying history. So I'm going to do this major. I'm going to go be an orthodontist. Why?
Because of money. Do you like teeth and mouths? Nope. But I like dollar bills. Like, and that's how people make decisions. Job decisions.
Big, life-changing decisions. Not joy. Not giftedness. It's not just money. Where are you going to go? Where are you going to land?
Where are you going to be? How are you going to live? Just money. You're just following the money. We make big life decisions off of it. It affects who we think we are.
It affects how, like, and we just don't even realize it. We don't think about how much money is behind the scenes having control over things. In some ways, money is the Illuminati of our souls. Like, Jesus here says money has a lot more secret control than you think. And we're like, yeah, okay. Like, every time anybody talks to me about the Illuminati, I'm like, sure, okay.
But that's what Jesus is saying. There's a little bit of, like, we don't see it. We don't see how much power it wields. And then at the end, he's going to try to help us see it. So as he goes through this, he's helping us see money clearly.
How we ought to view it. And so that's what we're looking at. We're going to start back up at the top. And we're going to look really at three big principles that Jesus is going to kind of lay out for us. We did get some of our illustrations and some of our thought processes from a book called Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn. It's a very good book.
It's really short. We suggest it. So once we realize we don't see money correctly, we need to then approach and say, okay, Jesus, how ought we to see money? How ought we view this? And so 19, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. All right, that's simple enough.
Jesus says the goal on earth is not lay up treasures for yourself. Another way that we're blinded, some of us, our goal on earth is arrive, be comfortable. Just get to the place where I can just have the things I want and rest and not worry. And your whole life goal is a financial goal. It's a money goal. And what he's saying is, no, that's not the goal.
Don't lay up treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But what he's saying is, everything you have will rust, will rot, will eventually end up in a dump. Every Apple watch is going to be garbage at some point. Some of you are like, they already are garbage. Sure. But so is your Samsung Galaxy.
It's going to end up being garbage. Everything, everything you have is going to be garbage. Some of you right now drive a really beater car. At some point, it was really nice. I mean, as nice as a geostorm can be. But it was nice.
It was new, came off the line, you know. And now you drive a beater car and that's where all cars are headed. All of them. Will be junk. Will be a clunker. That's how that works.
And so what Jesus is saying is, don't pile up garbage. That's not a smart thing. And then he says something that's weird. So we understand that. We understand you can't take it with us. The Bible says that clearly in a couple of places.
That's really what he's saying is, all the stuff you have when you die is no longer yours. Like you cannot take it with you. Ecclesiastes 5.15 says, As he came from his mother's womb, he shall go again, naked as he came, and shall take nothing for his toil that he may carry away in his hand. 1 Timothy 6.7 says, For we brought nothing into this world and we cannot take anything out of it. I heard somebody ask John D. Rockefeller's money manager at one point, said, How much money did he leave when he died?
And the money manager said, All of it. And that's how that works. Everything you have, you can't take with you. But then Jesus says something interesting that I think is something we don't really realize. He says the back end. So don't lay up treasures on earth.
We're like, Okay, yeah, I kind of understand that concept. Can't take it with me, although it's probably enjoyable to have it here. You know, I just know that eventually it ends. But he says, But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys, where thieves do not break in and steal. So what he just said was not material things are bad.
Treasure is bad. That's not a Christian belief at all, that material world is bad. Christian belief is that God made the material world and it's very good. There's a reason that bacon is delicious, that riding a roller coaster is fun. Or terrifying for some people. It's still fun.
There's a reason. Like material world, that's why we like soft things and like holding something very well crafted. And when you see a really nice car, you just want to stare at it. Like material world is good. But what he says is, don't put all the weight here.
Seek real treasure. Because the Bible tells us that we were all designed for eternity. And that when we die, we will continue on into eternity. And it's not a ghosty, floaty, feetless, specter eternity. It's real. We have real bodies.
We'll have real things to do. We'll live in real places. We're going to spend eternity on a new earth for Christians. We'll be on a new earth with, he just renews creation. So what he's saying is send it to a place where sin doesn't exist.
Where it's not broken. Where it doesn't rust. Send it to a place where you can actually have it forever. That's why in another place, when he's talking about the same concept, Jesus says, Why would you be, if you can't be trusted with that which is not yours, why would someone give you that which will be yours? Give you real possessions. Give you something to actually own.
What he's saying is, everything you have now is on loan and eventually will no longer be yours. But everything then, you'll keep forever. Because you won't die and it won't rust and moths won't eat it. So what he's saying is, seek the treasure. Just send it on to eternity. You know how, you know how every time you get something new, or you get a box that has something new in it, but it's got wrapping paper around it so you don't know what the new thing is, and your little heart is like, yee.
Like, you know how you get excited about stuff? Like, every time your birthday was rolling around as a kid, or Christmas was coming up, or someone's like, I have a surprise for you. Like, you're just like, ooh, things, treasure, candy. Like, we just get excited. Every time you buy something new, hold a new gadget, like, there's just something in you. There's like an emotional, spiritual reaction to stuff.
Am I the only one who feels this? I feel like everybody has someone inside of them going, yee. Like, that's not true. We have this, and what Jesus is saying is, that is not in and of itself wrong. You're just too easily pleased. You're pointing it at the wrong stuff.
Seek real, eternal treasure. So the first thing we need to know, and if you're taking notes, write this down. I cannot take it with me, but I can send it on ahead. That's the first big principle. I cannot take it with me, but I can send it on ahead. What he is saying is that, and he ultimately says it's through generosity, through giving things away, that we actually get eternal stuff.
Jim Elliott was a missionary, and he's the guy from the movie End of the Spear. If you've seen that, he showed up in a place to help people meet Jesus and immediately was murdered. And he said at one point, wrote in his diary or his journal or whatever. I guess he's a man, so it was a journal. If you were like, nice diary, he'd be like, it's a journal, bro. I don't know him.
Maybe he thought it was a diary. Jim Elliott says this, He is no fool who gives up that which he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose. He is no fool who gives up that which he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose. That's what Jesus is saying. It's not foolish of you to give things away, because you're actually gaining something that will never be taken from you. It's not foolish.
In a lot of ways, money, how we handle money, how we view money is like playing the game Uno. The goal of Uno is to be, you win when you run out of cards. And if the game ends and you're stuck with cards, there's a penalty for that. And the truth is, when we die, all of the stuff we've amassed around us immediately becomes useless. And all of the stuff we got rid of has eternal value. It's forever.
And that's what Jesus is saying. He's just trying to help us understand that we get to have true riches through generosity. So next thing he's going to point out to us. Well. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Verse 21.
Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. We spent some time talking in the Give series about one of the implications of this is that you can actually know what you care about by looking at your checkbook. You can know what you care about by checking out your bank statement. But here's the other thing that I think we miss on this. Our heart goes with our treasure, and so there's a lot of joy offered to us in this statement. There's a lot of joy offered to us in the statement, where your treasure is, there your heart is also.
Because what he's saying is you can take your heart and you can put it in eternity. You can take your heart and you can, by moving your treasure, by giving things away, knowing that you receive rewards in eternity, you can take your heart and move it to eternity where it's safe and secure. So we think that getting nice things is nice. But the truth is, whenever we get nice things, we get more worried about our stuff. Like our heart goes with it. So if you ever had a house and like, really, if someone broke in and stole everything, you were out 50 bucks, you might not even lock your door.
Like you wouldn't even care. I had a friend of mine said, his brother used to say, man, I wish somebody would steal my identity. And then the bill collectors could call them. Like he just didn't have anything, so he wasn't worried about it. And that's the way it works. But when you get a nice house, suddenly it's like, well, I kind of need an alarm system and I need some good insurance and maybe a moat with some crocodiles.
Like I'm really worried about this stuff now. Like if you, if you're, some of you, your car, somebody runs into you today. You're going to lunch with your community group or whatever. Somebody runs into you at a stoplight. You get out and just go. You good?
Ain't worried about it. Like you walk around, look at your bumper. It'll ride. You get back in your car. You don't care. If they totaled your car, you out 600 bucks.
You figure it out. Some of you though, like when you get, you get a nice car. My brother saved up and was able to get in high school. We were able to, he was able to get, my actual parents were able to give it to him. He got a used Camaro and then he spent a lot of time working on it and getting it real nice. And we were riding one day to the beach and he came around a corner because he ran into people all the time.
He came around a corner. His name's Logan. He's part of our church. You can ask him about it later. He came around a corner and ran into a Mustang of another guy who was probably in high school, college or whatever. It was the prettiest car accident I've ever seen.
A Camaro just, I mean, front of the Camaro crush, back of the Mustang crush. Both of them were just like, like little hearts were hurting. They almost got in a fight because the guy in the Mustang, like Logan didn't just run into his Mustang. He ran into his heart. Like something he treasured and valued and cared about. He just ran into it.
Some of you, if your car, like you've got names for your car. If your car got ran into, you'd jump out and be like, Tina. They'd be like, is there a child or something in the car? No, it's my car. Because wherever we move our treasure, our heart goes with it. And there's so much joy offered in sending your heart to eternity.
So much joy offered to you when he says, give it away. You won't worry about it. You won't care about it. And your treasure is secure. Nobody looks at eternity and says, I lost 3% this quarter. You don't have to worry about it.
So he's offering us joy. And that's the second kind of major point that I think is helpful. It's heaven, not earth. And this is for Christians. Heaven, not earth, is my home. And that's where my treasure and heart, I'm saying this wrong.
My treasure and my heart should be there. Heaven, not earth, is my home. And my treasure and my heart should be there. That we actually get to push our hearts towards eternity where we get to rest. You don't have to worry about it through giving things away. We're going to skip the eyes, the lamp part because we kind of talked about that.
Him just explaining that we just don't see this clearly. 24. Kind of the last major principle he's going to cover is, No one can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other, Or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. You cannot serve God and money.
And even there he's hinting at how much control money has that we just don't think about. Really what he's saying here is that either you will serve God, And by extension, money that is in your possession will serve God. Or you can serve money. But you can't do both. So if money is the main goal, you're serving it, And you're not serving God.
Don't kid yourself. Or you can serve God, And the money that has been entrusted to you can serve him as well. So, kind of the principle here is this. God owns everything. I am his money manager. Because everything we have is on loan.
So, God owns everything. Let me quickly just show you some verses where the Bible says that. Psalm 24.1 says this, So he actually claimed you too, just so you know. He's like, I own you. You'd be like, no, I'm free. No, you ain't.
Haggai 2.8, The silver is mine and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts. Deuteronomy 8.18, You shall remember the Lord your God, For it is he who gives you the power to get wealth. In Exodus 19.5, it's a longer verse, But in it, God says this, All the earth is mine. So, here's the deal. Everything that passes through our hands, Every bit of money that is in your bank account, In your wallet, Under your mattress, Is God's. It's not yours.
It has been entrusted to you. And as a money manager, You will eventually sit down and settle the account with God. So, a money manager looks like this. So, you're a money manager. You work for a really, really rich lady. Super rich.
And you manage her money, Because you're good with money. So, you watch all of her accounts. She does her thing, Making money or whatever, And then you help handle it. So, you help invest it. You're paying attention to what's growing, What's not growing. You're watching it.
You're investing some. You know, you're diversifying her funds. And you're investing in different areas. And you're, Now, because you're her money manager, You pay yourself a salary. You make sure that you're taken care of. You're going to discuss that with her.
But you're going to pay yourself a salary. You have the ability to handle money. But it's not your money. And every once in a while, You're going to sit down with her and say, Let me show you what I'm doing with it. Let me show you where it is. Let me talk to you about your money.
When excess money comes in, It doesn't go to your account. When you die, You don't leave all her money to your children. That would be frowned upon by her, I think. And what we've got to realize is that everything we have is on loan. And the Bible is clear. Jesus tells a lot of parables to this effect, That at some point, We're going to sit down and give an account.
What's beautiful is that through the cross, It's not going to make or break us. Jesus has already paid for our sin. We get into heaven scot-free because Jesus paid our debt. We are perfectly loved, perfectly taken care of. But we are going to give an account for how we handled the time and the money that we had, The talents that we were given.
Yeah, the Bible is clear on that. So at some point, We're going to sit down with him and give an account. So Jesus very clearly says, And we tried to make it into some principles, And took some of how Randy Alcone words it to help us remember it. But I cannot take it with me, But I can send it on ahead. Heaven, not earth, is my home. My treasure and my heart should be there.
Everything belongs to God or everything is God's. I'm his money manager. That is how we ought to begin to view money. And then we can start answering the other questions. Where can it go? How can I use it?
What's it supposed to look like? The real practical questions, But those are some of the principles. Now, one of the things that Jesus says, And he says it really clearly, Is, Go for the treasure. Go for the reward. Serve and give and be generous, Because you will receive back in eternity. So immediately we say, Alright, time out.
Isn't that selfish? Like if I'm only being nice, And only giving because God's going to pay me back, Aren't I just being selfish? And the answer to that question is no. And the first reason is, It's Jesus' idea. We didn't make it up. So if you made it up, Maybe.
Like if you make something up, It's probably pretty busted. Just for the record, Like question it a little bit. You might have just come up with a pyramid scheme, You know, And involved Jesus. Like I don't know. But Jesus came up with this idea.
And here's, He says it a lot. I'm going to run through quickly. Just places where Jesus mentions this. Earlier in this chapter, In chapter 6, He teaches on giving. He says to do it secretly, So you'll receive a reward from God. He says the same thing about prayer and fasting.
Do it secretly. You'll receive a reward. Luke 12, He says, Sell your possessions, Give to the poor, Buy money bags in eternity, Where treasure does not fail. Luke 6, He says that persecution gains us reward, And that we should celebrate when we're persecuted. That we should actually be excited When someone attacks us because of Christianity. That it gains us, He says you'll have great reward in heaven.
Your reward is great in heaven. It'd be like if I told you I'd give you a million dollars If you let me punch you in the face. When I punch you in the face, You're going to start laughing. That's going to be the most fun. You've ever had being punched in the face. Because you just got a million dollars.
Like you excited. That's what he says. Somebody starts punishing you because you're a Christian. You should be like, This is great. I'm just racking up treasures in heaven. This is amazing.
That's what he says. He says you'll be excited. Luke 6, Love and lend, And your reward will be great in heaven. Matthew 19, Luke 18, He tells a rich man to sell everything And to give it to the poor And that he'll have treasure in heaven. Several of Jesus' parables Have to do with settling accounts And being rewarded With how you handled what he had, How the people handled what the king gave them. Matthew 9 and 10 Says this in both of them.
He says, Even a cup of cold water Given to someone because they're my follower Will not lose its reward. He's keeping track Of cups of cold water. So we all need to set up a free lemonade stand. And just be like, Ka-ching! Like that's what he's saying. Like you will receive reward for this.
And here's why This isn't bad. Here's why it's not selfish. In order to live And to do this radically To the point that the New Testament Is going to call us to, We have to trust Jesus. He comes from eternity And tells us This is how you ought to see it. But in order for us to do it, We actually have to have our faith in him.
We have to trust him. Y'all know Wayne Brady And y'all love him. So, Everybody thinks Wayne Brady's the best, I'm sure. He has a new show, Or had a show. It probably got canceled. I hope it did.
It was kind of terrible. But, Let's Make a Deal. Anybody seen this show? It's weird. But in the show, What they do is, They will give you something So you can have this now, Or, And they constantly are trading.
So they'll be like, You can have a thousand dollars, Or we'll give you What's in this mystery box. And then you're like, Oh, Oh no, What's in the box? Like, But I also want a thousand dollars. And so the whole point is like, Trading, And then they have things called zonks, Which is where you open the box, And the word zonk comes out, And you don't get nothing, Go sit down. That's how the game works. So, What Jesus is saying is, You're playing, Like, Life is us playing, Let's make a deal.
And there's a moped in front of us. And they're like, You can have the moped, Or, You can have what's behind curtain number one. And we're like, That moped looks pretty sweet. How many cc's is that thing? Like, That's what we're doing. And what Jesus is saying is that he's walking out from behind the curtain, And saying, Don't take the moped.
I know what's behind the curtain. Don't take the moped. And in order for us to actually begin to leverage things, Leverage our money, Leverage our finances, View this the way, We have to trust Jesus. We have to have faith to do it. And so it's not wrong, And it's not selfish. It's actually us, Continually pushing more faith, More of our trust into him.
Hebrews 11, Talks about this, Talks about, Some people call it the faith chapter, But it kind of runs through a bunch of Old Testament saints, And it basically says this, This is the point of Hebrews 11. Abraham was told to move, Leave his family, And he's going to go to a land that's not his own, But God's going to give it to him. But God didn't give it to him, He gave it to his descendants. So Abraham, When he dies, Owned none of the land, Except for a cave that he buried his wife in, And he got to be buried in next to her. Isaac, Same thing. He goes through, He says that Moses, Left the palace of Egypt, Where he was treated like a king, Because he believed that the persecution of Christ, Was of more value, Than the pleasures of Egypt, Because he was looking ahead to his reward.
It says that all of these saints, All of these Old Testament followers of God, Trusted that they were invited into a better country. Trusted that they had been given a greater reward. Trusted that, Although their life was terrible now, Although they had given up everything to follow, Although they were consistently not gaining a whole bunch of stuff for themselves. That they had a better reward coming, And that they had faith. Now here's the thing.
We're not going to do this. We're not going to apply any of these principles. Like if we stop here, We're just going to be like, Yep, That's true about money, And I should think about it that way. But we don't really have the ability to do anything with it. Until, Until, Eternity, Is as real to us, As it was to Jesus. Until we see, It as clearly as he saw it.
Then we'll actually begin to be able to leverage some of what we have. Flip over to Hebrews chapter 12. We're going to look at this really quickly. We're going to begin to try to help ourselves see, And know what Jesus is talking about when he says this. You see, Hebrews chapter 11 keeps going. It says that there were prophets who wore sheepskins and goatskins, Who lived in caves and holes in the grounds, Who were persecuted and mistreated.
That the world wasn't worthy of them. That they were stoned. That they were sawn in two. They were put to death by the sword. And that they did this so that they might gain a better resurrection. That they believed through sacrifice, That life would be better in eternity.
Because they trusted God. They trusted him, Took him at his word. And then it goes into chapter 12 and it says this. Therefore, Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses. Talking about all of the people that followed God, Trusting him through sacrifice and pain, Even when it didn't pay off in this life. Let us also lay aside every weight and sin, Which clings so closely.
And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, Looking to Jesus, The founder and perfecter of our faith, Who, For the joy that was set before him, Endured the cross, Despising the shame, And is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him, Who endured from sinners, Such hostility against himself, So that you may not grow weary, Or faint hearted. That we are to fix our eyes on Jesus, And that for the joy that was set before him, He endured the cross. That Jesus could look and see so clearly what was to come. See so clearly the eternity that was to come. See so clearly the new heaven and the new earth, That were going to be created by God.
See so clearly that with joy he went to the cross. That he knew the joy that was set before him, And so he was able to sacrifice, Until we see eternity that clearly. We may be generous, But we won't be generous to the extent that the Bible says. We may view our money sometimes correctly, But we won't be able to approach it the way that the Bible says, The way that Jesus talks about, Until we know and feel and believe, That we have a greater hope. That we have a greater home. That eternity is real and really offered to us through Christ.
Until we look at the cross and see so drastically, Starkly and clearly, That Jesus knew, That an eternal hope and an eternal joy, Was offered through sacrifice. Sacrifice. When we see Jesus that clearly, When we consider him, When we fix our eyes on him, Then we are able to begin, To trust and to believe, And to taste and see, The joy that is set before us. To see what is to come. I love that it says, That they knew they had a better country. That we actually are going somewhere, That is not non-material.
It's better. It's this world, But nothing is broken. Nothing rust. Nothing stolen. Nothing is destroyed. That's why you actually have real possession, Because it lasts forever.
In the Chronicles of Narnia, Written by C.S. Lewis, It's a children's fictional story, But they're great. At the end of the last book, They all go to Aslan's country, Which is God's country, Which is heaven. The new earth. And there's a talking horse, Who says this. He says, I have come home at last.
This is my real country. I belong here. This is the land, I have been looking for all my life, Though I never knew it till now. The reason why we loved the old Narnia, Is that it sometimes, Looked a little like this. And for every believer, Every person who's placed their faith in Jesus, To pay for their sin and their debt, When we enter into the new heaven, When we enter into God's presence, This is what's going to explode in our hearts. I'm home.
This is my real country. This is what I was looking for, Although I never knew it. This is what I was consistently searching for, Every time I chased after something, Although it never clicked. And the reason we liked the old stuff, Was that sometimes, It's a little bit like this. See, God made everything perfect, It was destroyed by sin, And through the cross, And through our resurrection with Jesus, As he rose from the dead, We get to rise from the dead, And we get to enter into, His perfect peace, His perfect creation once again. But there's glimpses of it.
Every time you've been captivated by a night sky, Every time you've seen a sunset, And you just couldn't stare away, You almost wrecked your car, Because it was over to the left. Every, Every time you've had a really good popsicle, On a really hot day, That you had to eat super fast, Because it was about to melt everywhere. Your first taste of coffee, In the morning on a cold day, When it's crisp. When you were wearing your Uggs, And drinking your pumpkin spice latte. That moment, In the morning, When you don't want to get out of bed, Because it's so warm, And you're just like, I could just be here forever.
Like you're laying really thinking, I might just quit my job, And stay here. Every time you've been captivated, By like an infant laughing, I watched a video the other day, Of an infant, Every time the parent took a bite of a potato chip, Just died laughing. And you just watch that over and over again, Just a little kid laughing. Like every time you've been caught off guard, By how beautiful scenery is, Or seen a deer standing in a field, And you just couldn't not stare at it. All of these moments, When you've bit into a really well cooked steak, All of these moments are just hints, Of what's to come.
That God in his good grace, Still lets us enjoy what is here, But it doesn't compare. There's a better country, And a better home, On the other side of a resurrection, For those who follow Jesus. With real, The way the Bible talks about heaven, Is it's a city, It's a banquet, It's a wedding party, It's a celebration, It's real. And until it becomes more real to us than this, We'll forever take the moped. Until we can trust Jesus, And see him so clearly on the cross, We'll take the moped every time. And for most of us, We're chasing after mopeds.
And Jesus is saying, Trust me. I have bought for you a better resurrection. I have given you and granted you a greater home. You will live for eternity. And realize that your money, How you use it here, Will matter then. And when you die, Everything you have, Will no longer be useful.
But what you've pushed towards eternity, Will be yours. Because in my presence, There is no sin, There is no brokenness, There is no rust, And no moths. Markets don't crash. And we get to stare at Jesus, And begin to see, That our eternity is made secure through him, And that that really is our home, Where we'll finally find our real country, Our real home. And the reason why we enjoyed all the stuff here, And what we were forever chasing after here. The band's going to come back up, We're going to sing, And make much of Jesus, And here's what I want us to do, We didn't talk about, What to do with money this week, We talked about how we ought to see money, And really we won't see money that way, Won't be able to view it that way, Won't be able to hold it that way, Until eternity becomes so real to us, Until we realize, That that is actually, Where we will go as Christians, If those who have been bought by Jesus, Rescued and redeemed by Jesus, Through the cross, Where he paid our debt, It says consider him, So that you don't grow weary, Or lose heart, And I would just encourage all of us, As believers this week, If you've trusted Jesus, If you've followed Jesus, If you're a Christian, To sit down at some point, And consider Jesus, To sit down at some point, And know that for joy, That was set before him, He endured the cross, And that he's invited us, Into that joy, And that an eternity is to come, And sit for a while, Carve out some time, And sit, And only try to hold in your head, The sacrifice of Jesus, And the eternity that follows, I find that when I've thought about, Sat and meditated on the cross, And on eternity, It helps change, And put everything into perspective, And that's what we're told to do, Is to consider him, To fix our eyes on him, And so as we go into the next three weeks, We're going to talk about really practical things, Take some time this week, To consider Jesus, To sit and weigh it out, And to think about eternity, Y'all stand, Let's sing, And so as we go into the beginning, мои juices, And so as we go inside, And so as we go into the bow, And so as we go into the down, And so as we go into the spectrum, And so we move into the distance, And gentle thought of actually, And so as we move into the middle of it, And so as we go into the next three days, And so as we go into the direction of theת loc Intelli, And then we show the topic of beautiful, And so as we go into the image, And so as we watch it, And so as we go into the next three days to a sûrinté clip on it,