Good morning, everyone. I was in a pharmacy a few years ago, and I'll tell you in a few minutes why I know it was a few years ago. I was dutifully waiting in the prescription pick-up line when it became my turn. The pharmacist asked my name, and I said John Eismann, and there just so happened to be, among the other folks that were all kind of milling around waiting their turn, there was a woman who, when she heard me say my name, she sweetly said out loud, oh my gosh, Pastor John, hi.
At that point, I started trying to remember what prescription it was I was picking up. And she came over and introduced herself. She was very kind and encouraging of me in of our church. She said she had just started coming over the last few weeks and was excited about everything, really looking forward to bringing her husband with her in a few weeks.
I said, oh, that's awesome, thank you for that. When you bring them up and introduce them, I'd love to meet them. And I guess I said something, some kind of inquiry, like, oh, he hasn't come with you yet. And her reply, in fact, if you're here this morning, I'd love to have you come up and talk to me after I was just reconnected on it.
She replied just so honestly, she said, oh, no, he hasn't come yet. He's gonna come when this series about money is over. And it was just such a perfect answer, right? Like, it was a great answer.
Like, I get it. Apparently I don't get it because I entitled the series money, money, money. I'm not hiding anything. But I understand, there's an old joke that says, when the preacher tells you they don't want your money, hold on to your wallet.
And guys like me, church leaders over the years, when it comes to money, oftentimes, they have not, we have not been above reproach. And for that, I think the scriptures are clear. People like me will be judged more harshly than others for these things. I know, because I live here that, and I have my whole life, that some of you come from church backgrounds where it seems like that all the priests or the preacher cared about was money.
It seemed like that's all you ever heard about it with the central calling of the church. I have family members that I love that would tell you that this is their experience. I've been told by people I love, not specifically about our church, but about the church that they grew up in. All the church cares about is money.
And as a guy committed to reaching the 96,976 people that live within one town of our church, that don't have any kind of personal relationship with Jesus, the last thing I want to do is put up a hurdle for people coming towards Christ. And talking about money in the church can do that. I get it. In fact, the reason I know it was several years ago, that conversation at CVS was held, is I know how often I talk about money in church.
And it's not a lot. And for all the reasons I just mentioned, it's not very often, it's literally every couple of years. And yet, in my role here as your pastor, there is absolutely no way for me to be authentic relative to the scriptures and the teachings of Jesus, and ignore money. Like I can't do, I'd like to, but I can't do it.
It was a topic that Jesus not only didn't shy away from, it was one that he just kept returning to. In fact, other than the kingdom of God, Jesus talked about money by most counts, more than any other topic. And why? I mean, does God, the creator of everything, need our money?
Of course not. Proposters, right? In fact, right? Just, our theology would teach us that God in his very nature is in need of nothing.
But God does have a one. God has a desire, and it's our hearts. And nothing competes for our hearts, like our money. I'll give you another reason why I think this topic is worthy of some regular reflection within the church.
It's because you and I reflect on it regularly. In fact, there are a few things in our lives we are more concerned about than money. A couple of recent studies and their headlines to prove the point these are both from this year. Here's the first one.
Survey, 43% of Americans say money is negatively impacting their mental health. So about half of us are experiencing anxiety relative to our finances. We have a mental condition because of our money. And 43% is a substantial amount of people.
But it pales in comparison to what this next study shows. Americans are more worried about running out of money than death. How many Americans? The study says two thirds of us.
66% of us are more worried about money than we are about dying. Jesus came that we might have life eternal. The majority of us would settle for a highly rated annuity. Now this should be a warning to us about the power, the inordinate power, that money has in our lives.
And so that's what I want to look at as we get the series started. The oft repeated, and like I mean over and over and over again in scriptures, the oft repeated scriptural warning about money. If there's anything that the scripture says and it says a lot about money, maybe it says more than any other thing. Be very careful.
If you have a Bible with you this morning, you could jump over, we're going to be in Luke chapter 12. If you had a Bible with you, you would see over that section of the scripture, the translators have entitled it warnings. Luke was a first century, highly educated Greek physician. He was not a disciple of Jesus.
Luke, the author of the book Luke in the Gospels, he had never met Jesus. But he was so taken with the story of Jesus that he set out to write a highly researched, very detailed accounting of Jesus' ministry. And in his writings, Luke says that Jesus one day, he's on his way to Jerusalem. He just had a recent conflict with a bunch of religious elites.
And he's walking towards Jerusalem. And because of his growing reputation, he has gathered around him what is becoming now a massive crowd. The scriptures say, Luke, who looked into this, so this is not just some kind of gas. Luke says, thousands of people are now in tow.
So you've got this rabbi, this pretty famous first century teacher, he's walking towards Jerusalem, and there are thousands of people following him. In fact, so many of the scriptures say that they're trampling each other just to get close. And so to this very large crowd, Jesus begins to give them various warnings. Things to quote, be on your guard against.
Things that will mess up your life. Things that will mess up your witness. Things that will mess up and steal your purpose. Things that will erode your walk with God.
You know some of these warnings. He talks about hypocrisy. He speaks about fear. He speaks, this is where he talks about acknowledging him before others.
And then he, in fact, let me jump into the story right there. At that moment, Jesus is speaking, he tells this crowd of thousands, he goes, when you're brought before synagogues, rulers, and authorities, don't worry about how you're gonna defend yourself or what you'll say. For the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say. Jesus is speaking to this multitude of people, and he's assuming something, that at some point these people are going to be on mission for him.
They will be fulfilling the purpose that God has for them. And at some point, as a result of being on that mission and fulfilling that life purpose, it's very likely that they might come into conflict. And he's saying, essentially, when that happens, you don't need to worry about what you're going to say. The Holy Spirit is going to come upon you and speak through you.
And it's just at that moment, when, Luke says, someone in the crowd said to him, teacher, my brother, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. Jesus replied, man, I don't know how he said it, like man, right, like, come on, man. Who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you? This is at some level, it's the ultimate adventure in missing a point, right?
It's like this huge disconnect. Jesus is speaking to him about eternal things and weighty issues and the purpose of life itself. And right in the middle of this list of warnings of these things that can really destroy your life, some guy, and think about this guy, right? It doesn't say that he cried out from the back, it says that someone in the crowd said to him.
So at some level, he's close enough to merely speak this amongst the thousands to Jesus. I had to imagine that he had to have been working his way through the crowd, fighting his way up, to be in the front. Can you imagine the moment, right? It's a true story, he gets close enough to God incarnate.
At this point, word is out on the street of who Jesus is and the things that Jesus is doing, the miracles, the claims, this is why the big crowd is there. He gets one shot to speak to Jesus. One shot to speak to this moment, they believe to be this incredible miracle doing Rabbi, I teacher. He has one shot and what does he do with his one shot?
And friends, file this away under how money can make you miss the moment. It's made some of you miss some pretty big moments. Dance recitals, games, anniversaries. Money makes him miss his moment.
Does he praise him? Does he thank him? Does he worship him? Does he surrender to him?
No, he asks him to settle a dispute about money. Why? Because that was his greatest concern. It was his greatest concern then.
Much like if you and I would look at our prayer lives and what we spend our time asking God about, with the access that we've been granted in the moment we have, the moments of our lives that we have to live in intimacy with the King, is this not often what we do with our moment? Jesus is speaking to them about life and purpose and mission. And what to do in the moment when someone comes to derail you from that? And this guy wants to talk about money for him.
And oftentimes, for us, Jesus in our moment becomes a means to another end. And oftentimes, the end is money. The context of the request is likely that this is probably a younger sibling, a younger brother, whose older brother has, and this was common in the day, the older brother has inherited his father's entire estate and chosen to distribute none of it to the younger siblings. And so Jesus is seemingly pretty curt with the guy, at least at first, right?
And telling him that his purpose wasn't to be a judge between them. He hasn't come to be one of Israel's ancient judges, like in the past, that he has been appointed to something different. He hasn't come to do that kind of thing. And then he moves right to his appointment, right in the midst of a list of warnings.
Now, Jesus adds another one for this man and his family, which is being torn apart. Then Jesus said to them, picture the moment, thousands of people, watch out. Be on your guard against. And I pause here because I think of someone who's aware to ask you and I, what it is that Jesus told this crowd of thousands to watch out for, and to be on guard against.
What would, how would you and I answer that question? What do you think Jesus is going to tell them to be, to watch out for and be on guard against? I mean, if I was to take this to the streets, right? Mars Town Green, as I often say.
In our hyper-divided culture, everything is politics, culture today, the first answer would probably be, oh, you gotta watch out for those woke dems, right? Those Magga Republicans be on the watch. Maybe even from a church background, right? You might begin to think theologically.
Oh, you can watch out for liberal theology. Be careful about legalistic teaching. How do I, I'm not denying that all of these are true, but there's lots of things we could put here that we would think Jesus would say, watch out, be on guard against. Again, this is battle language, right?
These are words you use relative to an enemy that is making its way towards you. What is the aggressive enemy making its way towards God's people that you and I need to be on the watch for and guard against? He said to them, watch out, be on your guard against all kinds of greed. Greed, that word in the Greek there, it's often translated covet, covet, tinnest, covetness.
The word there, I pulled it up to get a deeper understanding of it in the Greek, it means the lust and desire for more things. And the implication from Jesus' warning is twofold, the first is that it's coming for you. You don't have to seek out greed. Greed is coming for you.
Be on your guard against it, right? Watch out. Jesus is saying that desire for more, the lusting for a greater number of things, number one, it's coming for you, but there's another implication to what he said. If I need to be on the lookout for it, if I need to be watching for it, what Jesus is saying is, it hides itself from you.
If you're not watching, you'll miss it. You won't see it coming. You won't know it has you. It has destroyed this man's family.
Some of you this morning, almost all of us, in some level of our family, and it's uncle's cousins, all of us can look at areas ago, I've seen what money has done to my family. Almost every one of us. The lust, the desire, the relentless pursuit of more. This is interesting language, because it's not language Jesus does not use for other sins.
Tim Keller has a really funny line about this, every time I read this story I think about his line about it. He said, Jesus never says, for example, watch out, be on your guard against adultery. Why? Well, because adultery is not, I mean, it'll ruin your life too, but it is not as deceptive.
Almost everyone knows when they're committing adultery. Oh, you're not my wife. You don't have to watch out. It's not gonna sneak up, right?
Like you knew, but conversely, almost none of us, almost none of us who are greedy or materialistic, feels they are greedy or materialistic. I have been in ministry for over 20 years. I have had countless people show up in my office to share with me struggles in their life. You name it, from sex and marriage to pornography and infidelity, not to this debt, not to today, after 20 years of ministry.
Not one person has shown up and said, John, you have to help me. I am such a greedy son of a gun. Nobody, none of us think this of ourselves, right? It hides.
This is likely why Jesus warned about money about 10 times more than he did about sex, because both of them can ruin your lives outside the bounds of God's design, but only one of them hides. Only one of them are you so wrapped up in and you don't even know it. Here's how we know it hides. Northwestern Mutual in this year again, put out a report called the Planning and Progress Study.
36% of American millionaires, actually only 36%, only a third of American millionaires consider themselves wealthy. Over half of the households with income of over $100,000 in our country are living paycheck to paycheck, which means if you ask them, they would say that they barely have enough to get by. I mean, I am bearing, you know. We have six figures coming in, but I am barely scraping by.
I don't have a nickel to spare. I don't have enough money for me in my needs. How in the world could I possibly give any money away to the poor? How could I be expected to help anyone?
I mean, you can't get blood from a stone, right? And friends, this is why I go to Guatemala every single year. This is why I literally am begging you to come with me. It is the most massive annual head screwing on readjustment for me.
When you stand in a garbage dump and you imagine your home relative to theirs, your income relative to theirs, and you think, you know, I should ask them, do they think I'm being, I'm watching out and being on my guard against greed? I have had folks, multiple folks from Guatemala that have grown up in the garbage dump and then gone to work for Potter's house. They have come and stayed in my home. And there is a sense when that happens, where you go, I don't know that shame is the right word, but there is something that is like very eye opening in that moment about what is going on in not the world, but in my heart.
Friends, if you're ever gonna put a verse and hang it on someplace and you are from Mars County, New Jersey in 2025, please consider Jesus' next line, please. He says to them to be a guard against all kinds of greed, and then he says he gives the why. He goes, because life does not consist in an abundance of possessions. Beyond guard, because this desire, this lust for more and more, it will deceive you regarding the meaning of your life.
It will steal your life from you. This is what this is about, this passage, but this is not what life is about. Jesus is saying this is not what you were created for. You were not created to amass things.
You were meant for so much more than this, and the danger of greed is it will cause you to entirely miss the purpose of your one God-given life. It will steal your moment. Key point, Jesus is not worried about your money at all. Jesus is very worried about your mission.
Jesus is worried about your purpose. Jesus is worried about your one and only life, and that if you are not on guard against greed, if you don't keep a watchful eye out for it, it will steal your life. You will give away the one and only life you have to pile up things. What a complete and utter waste.
So important that Jesus begins to tell them about. The ground of a certain rich man, he said, you've been an abundant harvest. And so he thought to himself, what shall I do? I don't have any place to sort out my crops.
Interesting, the interaction began with a guy who had no money, right? Tell my brother, who took all the inherent that gave me none, tell him to share some of it. He didn't have any money. Jesus all of a sudden starts to tell a story about a man who's got lots of money, which is interesting, because what Jesus is getting at is that greed, this desire for more, is an issue for both those who have lots and those who have little.
It knows no boundaries. You can have a money-centric sickness, whether you have a lot or a little. It is a heart issue. It is not a money problem.
And what's funny is he says, the guy says, I don't have any place to store my crops. Not true. Not true. As you're about to see, he's already got barns.
Not only has he already got barns, the barns are already full. Because greed hides. He doesn't see his full barns, and they're right in front of his face. And then he said, this is what I'm going to do.
I'm going to tear down my barns, and I'm going to open up another for a one. I mean, build bigger barns. And there, I will store my surplus grain. And I'll say to myself, self, you have plenty of grain laid up for many years.
Take life easy. Eat, drink, and be married. He already had lots. He already had more than enough.
He already had excess capacity. He already had more than he needed. But he was now going to tear down those barns and build bigger ones. And why?
This is the key to the power ball. Because then I will, and it's the key to really the whole concept. Then I'll say to myself, self, you have grain laid up for many years. Take life easy, drink, eat, and be married.
This is me. I'm guessing it's many of you, too. This is my struggle, and I think it might be yours. What he believes is that if he can acquire enough money, grain, in this case, but essentially money, if he can acquire enough, then it will give him control over his life.
See, if I get enough, then I don't have to worry about anything anymore. I can kick back. He thinks that money is going to provide him his security. He believes that money is, if he gets the money, not only will he have security, but then he'll be able to enjoy life.
It will give him pleasure and joy and happiness. Don't you believe that? I fall into that all the time. He begins to look at money in his possessions, right?
If I could just, if I could have more of it, and there's no end to more, if I could have more of it, then I'll be more in control of my life. I'll be more secure. I'll be more happy. I won't have to worry about anything.
And here's the thing. This is the key teaching on money. When we think that, and we do that, we have literally, really quite literally, made money our God. All the things that God actually is, all the things that God wants to be, our security, our joy, our purpose, our meaning, our pleasure, we've trusted money for.
We have looked to money to be for us the only thing that God can, can be, must be and wants to be. But God said to him, you fool. This very night, your life is going to be demanded from you. And then who's going to get what you've prepared for yourself?
The language here, your life will be demanded from you. It's financial language. Your life will be demanded from you. It's like a loan that's being called due.
The principle is now due. The balloon payment has come up. Because what Jesus is trying to say is not only was the money not yours. And you know that, because Jesus points out that somebody else will get it.
It's never really yours anyway. Somebody else is now. If somebody else is now, it couldn't have ever really been yours. Not only was the money not yours.
Your very life wasn't yours. I gave it to you. I lent it to you. I gave it to you for a purpose.
And you wasted the very life I gave you. Hiling up money, creating a false identity for yourself, and a false god to trust. And your life wasn't yours to begin with. Look what you've done.
Money is a great tool. Money is a terrible god. It will enslave you. It will never set you free.
And it is completely, holy, and fully unreliable. How do I know? I lived through 2008. Some of you are too young to know what that means.
But I can tell you exactly where I was when the stock market imploded in 2008. Some of you, again, younger folks might not believe this. In that downturn, it didn't all happen one day. But it did the vast majority of it happened in a couple of days.
The S&P 500 went down nearly 60%. I remember going for a walk that afternoon. I was with my brother down in Florida. Why does everything?
I was in Florida when COVID happened. That was in Florida when this happened. I got to stop going to Florida. I remember walking in my brother's neighborhood that day, the day of the biggest drop.
And I remember actually thinking, oh, well, I had a lot of plans for that 401k. And all of it seems to be gone. But the funny part was what was so shocking to me at the time was I wasn't that upset. If I'm honest with you, it almost was a bit freeing.
It was like because money is a great tool. It's a terrible God. It was like, well, suddenly, if I'm not going, if I can't trust an anymore, I'm just going to have to trust in God. And suddenly, that felt pretty good.
It felt pretty good. It cannot be for you what you want it to be for you. It cannot control, money cannot control any of the things that makes your life rich and full and meaningful. Jesus goes on, this is how it's going to be with whoever stores up things for themselves.
But it's not rich towards God. Here's the thing, if you look to money as your security, and we often do, as what gives us, if money is our security, if money is what gives us control, and peace, and identity, and purpose, and joy, and satisfaction, you can't possibly give it away, can you? You can't. You won't.
And every single study confirms it. Every single one looked them up. The more money people make on a percentage basis, the less money people give away. Every study shows it.
That's why Jesus is going on telling you. You're going to lose your life to this. Jesus's brother, James. Remember, it was James, right?
Jesus's half brother, along with the other siblings, the other children that Mary had, and it was even Mary herself. They all thought at one point during Jesus's ministry during these three years of ministry that he was crazy. Especially when you start teaching about money like this, people can go, this guy's back. It was James who became convinced that his brother, Jesus, was who he said he was the way the truth in life after James saw him crucified, killed, buried, and James saw him resurrected to life.
James takes a shot at this topic. Here's what he wrote to people. Well, like us in Morris County in the year 2025. Now listen, you rich people.
Weep and well because of the misery that is coming on you. Your wealth has arrived, and more often you're closed. Your gold and silver, they're corroded. And this corrosion will testify against you, and each your flesh like fire, you have hoarded wealth in the last days.
Two quick thoughts as I read this. First one's incredibly serious. The second one has a little bit of a tinted fumor to it. First is this concept of storing and rotting, right?
Many of you know the story of the Israelites and their 40 years of wandering in the desert after God had led them out of captivity in Egypt. And you all know how God provided for the people they are wandering through a desert. What are you going to eat? There's nothing to eat.
There's no crops. There's no fields. And so God gives them. Manna.
How often does God give them the manna? Every day. Some of you know this. What happens?
You know, here's what we would do, right? Wake up in the morning. Field full of manna. Early bird get to the worm.
I find out what time you're waking up. Set my alarm half hour earlier. I go out there. Collect up all the manna.
I'm going to go out there. Set my alarm half hour earlier. I go out there. Collect up all the manna.
Give 10% back to the church, right? And go, what's the problem? And God knows people would do that. So God said to them, if you take more than a day's worth of manna, it is going to rot and smell.
And when everybody wonders why you stink, they will know it is because you stole their manna, right? There was this provision. You are going to have to rely. I need to teach you to rely on me.
I am the only thing certain for you. Do not trust storing up stuff. God wanted his people to be dependent on them, not on things. Jesus says your wealth has rotted, your silver has corroded, and this will testify against us.
This storing up so that we can be like God. James says, man, you keep doing this. It is going to eat your flesh like fire. Second quick thought.
I've had many people over the decades that I've been a ministry come up to me and say, pastor, we're living in the last days. Here's how I know if I seriously believe they believe that. When I see them radically begin to give all of their stuff away. James says you have hoarded wealth in the last days.
And we know that this is true too, right? If you or I got a bad diagnosis this afternoon, very few of us would say, man, I got to really start working harder. I got to really start packing cash away now. When you have a short time to live and you got an expiry date, what money has almost no need to you anymore.
This is how we are to live as if we are in. I'm in my last days. Jesus goes on and then he said to his disciples, I tell you, don't worry about your life. What you're going to eat or your body, what you're going to wear.
And here it is again. For life is more than food and the body is more than clothes. It's funny, right? The guy in the parable, he had a law and it produced within him all of that pride and arrogance, right?
That self-sufficiency, I'm going to build bigger bonds. This is what greed does when we have a lot. Do you know what greed does when we don't? It produces worry.
Since I can't rely on my bigger bonds, well then who can I trust since I can't trust myself? It's really just the other side of the same coin, right? They're both about trusting me rather than trusting God, depending on me and what I have and not depending on God and what he has. It's all about life.
Life is more than this, Jesus says. And so then Jesus gives us something to, in his words, to consider regarding greed. Remember in the opening there was that warning, he said to be on your guard against all kinds of greed. Did you know there's different kinds of greed?
Consider the ravens, he says. They don't sow or eat, they have no storeroom or barn and yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds. Who of you by wearing can add a single hour to your life?
Since you cannot do this very little thing, why are you worried about the rest? This is the kind of greed that we've already kind of discussed this morning. The ravens, right? They don't look to build up better and bigger bonds for their security.
They live in full, complete, utter and total reliance on God. It never crosses their mind to worry. Imagine getting up every day and go on that. Why?
I got it. Do you know who God is? The rich man thought money would keep him secure. The bird, with a bird-sized brain, understands that it is God who feeds him.
And literally, like it's ripped from our earlier headlines, Jesus says, all this worry is not going to add a single hour to your life. In fact, anxiety is killing you. I walked that day in Florida when I thought I had lost 60% of everything. There was, for a moment, a little bit of peace.
The anxiety seemed to fade. There was something about not having to feel like I have to control my future myself that I might just be able to lean into God and trust. I never felt calmer. If you go with me to Guatemala and you walk around on those hearts on the side of garbage jumps, almost all of those people have a smile on their face that they can't wipe off.
This is by far, and you ask anybody that's gone there. This is the first thing that everybody says when they go to Guatemala. They always go, they're so happy. They seem so happy.
That's what it feels like to walk around to fly like a raven and know that I just trust God. And so, Jesus, then, he gives us something to do. Well, in his words, consider regarding greed. Remember in his opening warning, he said to be on the lookout for all kinds of greed?
There's this second level of greed. Here's what he said. Consider how the wildflowers grow. They do not labor or spin.
And yet I tell you, not even solemnly, all this wonder was dressed like one of these. If that's how God closed the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, you of little faith? With the raven, that's one type of greed. It's about security.
It's about control with the wildflowers or other translations you may have heard this taught as lilies, right? It's about beauty. It's about how they look, what their adorned or in some versions arrayed in and with. And we know this is true in Menden, New Jersey, right?
Money, or, excuse me, money for many of us is not just our security. It's who we are. It's our identity. I mean, I live in Menden, right?
I mean, I don't, I can't afford to live in Menden, but I mean, right? I live in Long Valley, right? See, when I say Menden, I know some of you who first thought you said is, yeah, but the township or the borough, right? The accumulation of stuff, money, titles, houses, cars, clothes.
How we like to be arrayed? How we like to be seen? What we want people to think about when they see us. For many of us, for most of us, money, our stuff becomes our identities.
Our stuff becomes our beauty. It's what gives our life meaning. It's what we think makes us attractive. And again, just like with trying to rely on money for control and security, it's a sham.
It's a lie. It's a counterfeit. Same thing with relying on money for beauty and attractiveness. When you rely on it for that, it will never make you, it will never, you rely on money and your stuff.
You know what it's going to, it's not going to make you beautiful. You know what it's going to make you? And arrogant jerk, right? Don't you know people like this?
Are you attracted to them? You go, oh, I just, I would like to be by more really wealthy people. Two kinds of greed. The one addressing the story of the Ravens.
One's addressing the story of the Ravens, the other in the flowers. And the result in two kinds of sickness is, one is a hoarding sickness. I am going to save and save and save. Since money is my control and my pleasure and my security, I can never give it away radically.
I need more and more and more and more the story of the lilies. When we think our beauty and identity is tied to money, we can never spend enough. Complete opposite, right? We're constantly shopping and buying and borrowing.
Friends, let me answer your question. Look at your life. Be on the lookout, which is it? Which is it?
Then Jesus gives maybe one last sign, one last thing to consider. And Jesus said, do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink. Do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after all such things and your father knows that you need them.
If you're just exhausted and worried and burnt out, is it because just like people who don't know God or trust God or believe in God, are you living your life just like people that have no relationship to God, have no faith, no trust? Are you living in the exact same way, wearing yourself out, trying to provide for yourself, trying to get more and more and more, trying to get more security, more control, more beauty, giving your life away on trains and planes and automobiles, day after day after day after day, and yet your father, your good heavenly father knows what you need. So what's the answer? Jesus says, but seek first.
Seek his kingdom. And these things will be given to you as well. The only thing Jesus talked more about than money was his kingdom. Seek his kingdom.
Stop building your own. This is the purpose for which you were created, that you will lose. This is the purpose for which Jesus came to inaugurate the kingdom of God, the effective reach and rule of God's reign. Seek that kingdom, the upside down one, the one where the last are first and the first are last, where grace and truth and forgiveness are plenty and greed and selfishness and pride are banished.
Where the poor and the neglected, the marginalized, the widowed, the who are from the foreigner are not oppressed but are lifted up. In the kingdom of God, you will find all of these things that you're looking for. All of the stuff that you're chasing after is there. Not only should you seek it, but listen to this.
This is so important, especially in the order in which Jesus says this. He says, do not be afraid, little flock. And by the way, what language? I mean, Jesus could go you selfish greedy jerks.
Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid, little flock, for your father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. You already have it. It's already been given to you.
There's nothing you can do to get it, to buy it. You can't give enough money away to get it. Now that might seem like a non-sequitur, like how is that related, right? But what can set you free from greed and its need to find security, control, or beauty through it?
It's when you find that some, it's when you find, it's when you find them somewhere else and realize you've already been given them. Because Jesus never says if you sell all of your stuff, then God will give you the kingdom. He says you've already been given the kingdom, therefore you don't need any of these other things. They are fakes, frauds, and counterfeits.
Stop selling your life for them. God has given you everything and it was all apart from your works and your record. He didn't require anything of you other than faith and belief. And when you really believe this, it will free you up to be generous with God's things, with the life God gave you, with the treasure God gave you, in ways you could never have dreamed of.
You will become, as Jesus said earlier, rich towards God. As I close, I need you to see something. The Apostle Paul would pick this up. He was talking about money and giving and generosity to a local church.
Here's what he said to the Corinthians. He said, but since you excel in everything, right, like you guys are awesome in faith and in speech and in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in the love we've kindled in you. See, this is the one that's always the hardest. See also that you excel in the grace of giving.
How can I do that? For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. Does Paul say, if you give away your money, then Jesus is going to forgive and love you? No.
Paul is saying Jesus has already loved and forgiven you. Paul is saying what Jesus was teaching, you'll never be free of your need for storing up your treasure until you see that God has freely given you his ultimate treasure. Jesus, the prince of the universe, came to earth and lived in abject poverty. Many of you know his quote, Fauff, does that hold his birds of the air of nets?
The Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. Don't you see that what Jesus is asking you and I to do, he's already done for you. On the cross, Jesus gave up all of his power, all of his beauty, all of his glory, all of his intimacy with his father. Jesus gave up all of his earthly and heavenly treasure.
He sold it all and gave it all away, all of it, to who? The poor, like you and I, to pay for our sins. And why to gain us? Do you know who you are?
Check this out, it's in the scriptures over and over and over and over, but this is who you are. It says over and over again, you are God's treasure. He gave it all away to gain. And it's only knowing and understanding this, that the Father has given you the kingdom.
It's now an understanding that it's already been done and given to you. Jesus has already done what he's about to ask you to do. He's essentially saying follow me, sell your possessions and give them to the poor. Provide verses for yourselves that will not wear out a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no more of the destroyers for wear your treasures.
There your heart will be also so important to get that from the reverse. In other places in the description we're used to it going the other way. It says things like out of the heart, the mouth speaks. It starts in the heart and makes its way out.
This is different. This is in verse. It's backwards when it comes to our stuff. If you want to move your heart, right?
If you want to control your heart, the heart that Jesus so desperately wanted that he died for. He says where your treasure is, your heart goes. And since that's true, then be radically, radically beyond what you could imagine, generous. Because if you invest in the kingdom of God, your heart will follow.
And when you get the money is no longer security or beauty, it's just love. Good tool. Back down. So friends, if you want, I told you so.
Be on your guard. Your one and only life is at stake. It's at risk. It hangs in the balance.
Choose the right treasure. Inspired by the fact that God chose you.