June 18, 2024 • 39 mins
In this episode, we delve into the teachings of Jesus from Matthew 6:19-24, exploring the profound message about what true treasure is, which in turn creates the upside down economics of the Kingdom of God.
Initially preached at C3 North Perth as part of our 'This Strange Life' series, this particular recording was re-recorded at my home.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Our scripture reading is from Matthew chapter 6, verses 19 to 24.
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume,
and where thieves break in and steal.
But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust
(00:21):
consumes, and where thieves do not break in and steal.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. so.
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 unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness.
If, then, the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
(00:45):
No one can serve two masters. For a slave will either hate the one and love
the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and wealth.
This is the words of the Lord.
For the love of money, people will steal from their mother. For the love of
money, people will rob from their own brother.
(01:07):
For the love of money, people can't even walk the street, because they never
know who in the world they're going to beat.
For that lean, mean, mean, green, almighty dollar.
Money. For the love of money, people will lie. Lord, they will cheat for the
love of money. People don't care who they hurt or beat.
For the love of money, a woman will sell her precious body. For a small piece
(01:31):
of paper, it carries a lot of weight.
Call it lean, mean, mean, green almighty dollar. For the love of money.
Those were the lyrics of the OJ's 1970s hit,
For the Love of Money, made popular in that rather infamous noughties reality
(01:51):
TV show known as The Apprentice, starring the former president you-know-who.
The Apostle Paul was right when he said, for the love of money is indeed the
root of all kinds of evil.
After all, why are there more than 150 million children worldwide engaged in
(02:12):
slave labour, making the clothes on our back and picking cocoa for our Nestle chocolate.
Well, companies get to cut costs to create a greater production-to-profit margin.
But why have I been guilty of paying for such clothing and buying the chocolate?
Well, sometimes there's no other
alternative, but sometimes it is because it's cheap, and I like Milo.
(02:37):
How easy it is to love our neighbors who are out of sight and out of mind.
Lord, have mercy on us all.
Now, I don't say this to shame us. However, I am one for honest assessment.
And it appears to me that when you really stop and reflect on it,
a lot of evil done in the world is because we love money.
(02:58):
We don't say it like that. And as soon as someone like myself suggests this,
we get offended pretty quickly.
We think the problem is out there. And because we don't daydream about being
like Scrooge McDuck swimming in a pool of gold coins, that all of a sudden we
think we're off the hook.
As if Jesus should have never spoken about money because this part of the Sermon
(03:22):
on the Mount surely must have been only for the super-rich as a way to stick it to the man.
Well, in this section of the Sermon on the Mount where these set of scriptures
come from, I think Jesus' audience at the Sermon on the Mount,
Now, yeah, there were maybe a couple of people who were well off there.
But actually, I think most of them probably weren't well off.
(03:43):
And so if people who didn't have much money had to be taught by Jesus about
having a right relationship to wealth, then how much more do we need to hear
about money in our consumeristic world today? day.
So perhaps, instead of being offended by Jesus, we can see his words on wealth
(04:05):
as an invitation for you and for me to not automatically assume we have perfectly arrived.
Instead, we should muster up the courage to admit that maybe,
just maybe, we need to heed to Jesus' words and be invited into a better relationship
(04:25):
with wealth and treasure.
So let us be curious, church, and seek this strange kingdom life together when
it comes to our treasures.
Now, some disclaimers. First, Christian faith does not prohibit having money, things, or property.
(04:47):
Instead, our faith pushes back against our scarcity mindset,
whereby we fail to appreciate the abundance of the gifts we already have in our life.
Now, it is in this scarcity mindset that we become obsessed with trying to get
more money, things and private property, and then we become stingy when we do
(05:08):
get these things because of fear of losing them.
The Apostle Paul assumed, though, that there would be well-to-do Christians.
But to them he says this in his second letter to Timothy,
to not be arrogant, nor put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain,
but to put their hope in God who richly provides everything for our enjoyment.
(05:32):
And then he commands those same well-to-do Christians to do good,
to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.
So he assumes that there would be Christians with money, but he makes it very
clear what they are to do with their wealth.
So likewise, the critique isn't that someone might have private property.
(05:57):
But that those of us here who have it, that we use it for the common good.
The early church treated their property as if it was to be used for the common
use for the family of God.
Now, I want to make this very clear. This is worlds apart from state-sanctioned communism.
Because it's not like the first Christians entrusted their land to the Roman
(06:18):
Empire, assuming the powers that be would automatically be benevolent.
Sorry, Marx. But the early church did see their private property filtered through
the deeper truth that God created the world for all people.
As such, we are to steward our resources in a manner that makes our place a
(06:41):
light of refuge in the neighborhood and a part of the church community.
Even though your property then is theoretically yours, from God's point of view,
It also kind of isn't. It's God's.
Second disclaimer. Those of us here who don't have a lot of money and do need
(07:02):
more of it to be saved from poverty, let me just say that wanting money can
be perfectly reasonable.
There is an injustice if you don't have enough money to eat,
have shelter, or access to health and education.
Wanting money to get these things is about moving out of poverty.
(07:23):
Jesus himself fed people and healed people medically. So why would he do those
things if getting food and medical intervention were inherently wrong?
So if tonight, if you are in dire straits,
We together need to be the church for each other.
However, like Jesus' first hearers,
(07:43):
you still need to hear to this section on the Sermon on the Mount because while
being poor limits the idolization of money, it does so only like a straitjacket limits movement.
We all have a skewed relationship with what Jesus calls our treasures.
(08:03):
And the gospel invites us to have a newly formed and renegotiated relationship with our treasures.
Bread is fine, but man cannot live on bread alone. So, our treasures.
In the Greek, the word for treasure here denotes a collection of things of great importance or value.
(08:28):
Surprise, surprise. price. Likewise, to store up referred to storing up of material
goods, which essentially means hoarding things.
So it's no surprise then when you put the two together that storing treasure
then means hoarding things that are of great importance or value to us.
Now, Jesus assumes that anything we hoard in the present, that upon closer inspection
(08:52):
will be discovered to be of of only earthly value,
things that will eventually turn to dust or be taken from us.
Therefore, we might as well stop hoarding these things.
But notice Jesus does not say to stop hoarding treasure, but that we shouldn't
store up earthly treasures.
(09:12):
Instead of hoarding earthly treasures in the present, Jesus invites us to hoard
treasures into the future, which are the things that, though we might not think
much of now, will become treasures later and will last forever.
From an earthly point of view, there are things we often desire in the present,
thinking that they will satisfy the deepest levels of our soul.
(09:36):
However, from heaven's point of view, these things may not be of eternal value
at all and will fade away into the eternal dustbin of cosmic meaninglessness.
Conversely, there will be things in the present that we might not have given
much weight to, but which, from a heavenly perspective,
(09:57):
will turn out to be of eternal value etched into the very building blocks of
God's kingdom when it is finally and fully reigning here on earth as it is in heaven.
Yet how do we discern what makes for heavenly treasure?
We can look to Jesus to see how he conceives of heavenly reward based on what
(10:21):
he desires for this world.
Because what he desires for our world is ultimately heavenly.
As we unpacked earlier this year, Jesus brought good news that he was bringing
the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.
Jesus' vision fits perfectly with his own Jewish tradition.
(10:45):
Wherein the Jewish prophets of old dreamed of God's presence being made known all over the earth.
The prophets described this longing and hope by envisioning a world where God's
presence floods earth forever, changing everything.
Swords are bent into plowshares, and we make for war no more.
(11:07):
Great banquets are put before all people to share in and enjoy,
and no one goes hungry. Even the trees dance and clap and the lion lies down with the lamb.
Those who were blind or could have walked now walk and see.
The injustices and evils of the world are done away with. No one is dying.
(11:27):
Corruption cannot happen anymore.
Human trafficking ceases. Being homeless is a thing of the past.
And all people who worship and call upon the Lord are part of God's restored
world. Now, Jesus comes along and says.
So, if heaven on earth is the will of Jesus, the prophet's hope,
(11:52):
and what is described in John's very trippy book called Revelation,
that when Jesus says that we are to store up treasures for heaven,
heaven he cannot mean storing up
for heaven in the sky but storing up
for heaven on the earth after all
that's how the bible ends now there's a small interlude of
(12:14):
heaven elsewhere after we die but the end game is heaven here in other words
when jesus says treasures of the earth he isn't implying that the treasures
ultimately for elsewhere or that the earth itself is bad,
but that the earth without heaven coming down is bad and will continue to be
(12:36):
bad unless he intervenes, which he has.
That's why we can look at Jesus and discover the things we might not consider
treasures in the here and the now, but which will turn out to be the true treasures later on.
Because what is Jesus doing in his ministry? Bringing the kingdom of heaven on earth.
(13:02):
If we want to know what the heavenly treasures are that we are to,
quote, store up, the answer is found in Jesus' own actions.
Now, we are not literally the
second person of the Trinity who can do all things Jesus did on his own.
But as a church community, as people called out to be the people of God,
(13:24):
filled with the Holy Spirit of God,
we can seek to become the community whereby we do things that,
though tough and messy and not seeming like much, and perhaps time and money
consuming in the present,
might make for the gifts of heaven later on.
When a church plants a community garden that offers sanctuary and feeds the
(13:47):
community, that's a treasure that will last forever.
When we open up our homes and offer counsel, comfort and community,
that's a treasure that will last forever.
When we offer service of love and support for an op shop, that's a treasure that will last forever.
When we serve the neediest on the streets of Perth on a cold Saturday night,
(14:09):
that's a treasure that will last forever.
When you love your child with the love of the Lord, even on the days that it
feels the loneliest, that's a treasure that will last forever.
When you take your creator gifts of music, acting, filmmaking,
songwriting, painting, building, or storytelling, and use them to touch on the
deepest recesses of what it means to be human, to create beautiful and ethical
(14:32):
constructions, to draw people to live for something bigger than themselves,
that's a treasure that will last forever.
And of course, when you build up the church through the making of disciples,
that's a treasure that will last forever.
N.T. Wright says it well when he says this, What you do in the Lord is not in vain.
You're not oiling the wheels of a machine that's about to roll over a cliff.
(14:56):
You are not restoring a great painting that's shortly going to be thrown on the fire.
You are not planting roses in a garden that's about to be dug up for a building site.
You are, strange though it might seem, almost as hard to believe as the resurrection
itself, self, are accomplishing something that will become in due course part of God's new world.
(15:19):
Every act of love, gratitude and kindness.
Every work of art or music inspired by the love of God and delights in the beauty of his creation.
Every minute spent teaching a severely handicapped child to read or to walk.
Every act of care and nurture of comfort and support for one's fellow human
and for that matter, one's fellow non-human creatures.
(15:42):
And of course, every prayer, all spirit-led teaching, every deed that spreads
the gospel, builds up the church, embraces and embodies holiness rather than corruption,
and makes the name of Jesus honored in the world, all of this will find its
way through the resurrecting power of God into the new creation that God will one day make.
(16:05):
So says N.T. Wright. right.
In all that we do, we are like the stonemasons of old who would spend their
entire lifetime focusing on one small section of a cathedral,
only to die without seeing the end product.
But imagine if they all came back to see in delight the fruit of their labour,
(16:29):
A magnificent cathedral that communicates the grandeur and awe of God.
Their labor wasn't in vain, and neither is ours.
Now, if after hearing all of this you're still asking, so what will this heavenly
treasure tangibly look like?
Well, I think we are missing the point. Point, I highly doubt that the economic
(16:56):
value reward system of heaven matches the materialistic economic value reward system of earth.
If we value Ferrari, a mansion, or gold in the new heavens and a new earth,
what does that say about what we desire in the here and in the now?
It just sounds like we just want earthly treasures again, except the location
(17:19):
and time have simply changed from earth in the present to the new heavens and new earth in the future.
In this scenario, our treasures are still earthly. We just have our fingers
crossed that we get them later.
But that makes no sense!
Because what we value and see as true treasure has not changed.
We've just kicked our idolatry down the road, hoping that God will give us our idols later on.
(17:45):
Now, sure, Scripture does talk about how in the new heavens and new earth,
the wealth and goods of the conquered kings of the earth will be taken into the new creation.
A little bit similar as to how the Israelites took Egyptian loot with them when
they crossed the Red Sea.
But that way, those images are framed.
The way those images are framed, it is as if the people of God are victorious
(18:08):
over the powers of the earth. And so taking the plunders of the world is a way
of saying that the people of God alongside the Lamb have conquered the powers of the world.
That is worlds apart from thinking that when Jesus returns and that we are just
given Elon Musk's bitcoins, we get to turn them into gold and then see our reward
(18:29):
as enjoying swimming in the pool of gold like that of Scrooge McDuck.
No, because that just sounds like an unchanged heart. heart
now assume all you want sure and i'm confident there
will be a type of leisure in in that's included
in the new heavens and new earth but come
on we know deep down that is worlds apart from thinking that heaven is just
(18:53):
about being a glutton like those humans in the movie wally whose life is pure
consumption and where their god is their stomach no whatever it means to have reward in heaven,
or in this case, the new heavens and the new earth, it's probably something
much more deeper and more soul
satisfying than just mere material goods of the treasures of the earth.
(19:17):
I suspect the reward will be in seeing the culmination of all the good work
we ever did, from the big to the mundane, and being deeply satisfied. this fire.
And so, returning to the here and the now, this is the choice we are faced with daily.
From the big decisions of life and how we do our vocation, in our lifestyle
(19:40):
choices, all the way down to the little mundane decisions we make,
the question is this for you and for me, what will our treasures be?
Because it is very easy for us to believe that our treasures is what we find
on billboards, needing that bigger car.
Or that Facebook ad, essentially telling you and me that all your happiness
(20:02):
boils down to whatever the algorithms glow up on your screen.
Or perhaps it's using things like TikTok and Instagram to be noticed and seen
as special or important, chasing after fame for fame's sake,
or chasing after the high of wanderlust or accolades.
If you want to know what you really consider to be your treasures,
(20:23):
ask yourself What do you daydream about?
Likewise, what do you prioritize as your highest goals in life?
The actions you will undertake to get your desired ends?
After all, you don't daydream or prioritize things you don't care about.
After all, what is desire but the things you seek after, like treasure?
(20:47):
Those desires are where the deepest parts of you really are.
For where your treasure is, Jesus says, there your heart is also.
Now, you might desire things that can be shaped for godly purposes.
For example, I desire to have a marriage that glorifies God.
And I also desire to do good work in my job that serves people in godly ways.
(21:12):
Likewise, you might desire a large home because you have this burden in you
to house as many people as possible as an act of radical hospitality.
Or you might desire Desire to do creative work because you want to evoke people's
imaginations heavenward.
So I'm not saying that all those desires are bad, particularly if God is at
(21:35):
the center shaping them for kingdom purposes.
But I invite both you and me to not use the God card as a get-out-of-conviction-free card.
Because I know for a fact that when I daydream about winning the lotto,
It isn't just so I can help people.
(21:56):
It's there, but it's also because I like the idea of having a lot of money.
So despite having a roof over my head and a good wage, I have bought into the
scarcity mindset, and I want more, counting my pennies so closely.
But here's a question. Is that really a good way to live? Will the pursuit of
(22:18):
our earthly treasures, living from a place of existential deficit,
really be the right way to live?
I think when it's all said and done, no one will get to the end of their life
and wish that they had devoted more time and energy to things for things' sake,
or money, or for more likes and views, or for more accolades on their resume.
(22:42):
No. At the twilight of life, will fame hold your hands?
Will fortune tell you everything will be okay?
Will knowledge pat your head down? It seems to me that, in the end,
it's the treasures that make for heaven,
that of love, care, and compassion around us, and the noble work that we did,
(23:06):
given all that we had to live for Jesus, that will matter and carry on eternally.
Jesus invites us then into something far better and far bigger,
something that will make us truly come alive.
Because the simple truth is this, No one can serve two masters.
(23:27):
Try to serve God and money or treasures or mammon, whatever translation you like.
Try to serve one or the other at the same time.
That's like trying to drive up the freeway up north towards Two Rock and south
towards Mandurah at the same time.
It cannot be done.
(23:48):
And even if you are sincerely serving God, driving up north,
one devoted, one way directed.
How easy it is for you and me to be tempted by the rear view mirror,
luring you and me to go the other way.
So what are we to do then?
Can we just click our fingers and move from storing earthly to heavenly treasures?
(24:14):
Even for us followers of Jesus here, God gives us a new heart,
so that our deepest desire is to now please Christ.
But that doesn't mean our strongest desires now match our deepest desires instantly.
No, we need practices that help us transition out of fear-based attachments
(24:36):
to our earthly treasures.
So let's explore a few of them that are actually found within this section of Scripture. scripture.
First, start somewhere and just do it.
The verse, quote, for where your treasure is there your heart will also be,
quote, highlights that what you deeply desire, i.e.
(24:58):
Your treasures, matches the deepest parts of you.
Now that sounds so existential of Jesus.
But it's also true that that Jesus commanded just one verse earlier to start storing differently.
Now, here Jesus just assumes that your treasures can change by simply changing
(25:18):
them. Well, how can that be?
Well, I think here I look to a particular form of therapy that kind of helps
add a bit of a flavor to this image that Jesus is giving.
In more behavior and solution-focused forms of therapy,
therapy depressed client who wants to live
differently might be asked this by a therapist and
(25:41):
the question is this how would you live differently right now if you weren't
depressed now in that situation client might then respond by saying things like
that they will get out of bed maybe go for a morning walk maybe cook a meal
or go to the park and meet up with a trusted friend end.
The therapists then respond, saying, okay, let's try that.
(26:05):
And then together they map a way forward, starting with the small steps and then going from there.
I think that's a good image to apply that same principle here when Jesus says
that we can just change our treasures from earth to treasures in heaven.
So here's the question then.
What would you do differently right now if you lived a life seeking the kingdom
(26:30):
of God, i.e. the treasures that make for heaven?
Now, this isn't a hypothetical you who has a large house and is a thriving philanthropist.
Because that might never be you.
But what can you and me do right now?
Can you invite a mate over once a week for a cup of tea in the house you share with others?
(26:53):
Or could you meet that friend at a park and pray together?
And if you've never given to a cause before, can you give as little as $5 if
that's all you can do at the moment?
If you've started coming into income, have you looked at your budget to see
if you can put more aside to help those around you?
Even if you have debt to pay down, do you need to use all of that increase to pay it all down?
(27:17):
Now, there is some wisdom in paying down debt, since it means you can free up
income to be more generous later on.
But could you use some of that increase right now to be used as a way to be generous?
Do you own a place? How can you use it generously?
Do you really need another piece of clothing? And if you do,
(27:39):
could you buy from stores that source their products ethically,
like those listed in Baptist World Aid's financial guide?
A great thing, by the way, just type that into Google, Baptist World Aid fashion guide.
Not financial, fashion guide.
Could you be more reflective with your budgeting and invite an accountability
partner to watch over your budget alongside you?
(28:03):
These are just all ideas, by the way. But Jesus spoke to an audience that probably
didn't have much, but he assumed they could think creatively and outside the box.
And so for us today listening, what would you do differently right now if you
lived a life seeking the kingdom of God?
(28:25):
My invitation is that we start making a mental list right now and don't overcomplicate it.
Start small, even if it's just one or two things.
And the invitation from Jesus is to start living from where you are right now. But do live that way.
Slowly weaning ourselves off the treasures that make for earth that are going
(28:49):
nowhere for the treasures of heaven.
The second practice is to practice gratitude.
Now, we see this in the verse a little bit further down where Jesus says this,
The eye is the lamp of the body.
If your eyes are full of good, your whole body will be full of light.
But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.
(29:12):
In the ancient world, the phrase good eye meant you had a generous heart,
giving as one who sees the world as overflowing with God's generosity.
In contrast, a bad eye meant someone with a bad heart, hoarding resources out
of stinginess because they saw the world as limited in God's gifts.
(29:38):
So, either you look at your life and focus on all you don't have.
This is a decision to see the good.
Jesus unpacks this just a few verses later. We didn't mention it in the opening of this sermon.
(30:01):
But he calls his followers to look at the birds of the air and the lilies of the field.
There it's an invitation to practice gratitude, to count our blessings.
Contemporary studies on gratitude show that noticing and naming things you are
grateful for actually changes you for the better.
(30:22):
If you're struggling then to name something though, here, just lower your standards
for what you consider something to be grateful for.
So are you sitting here or listening to this and you've got a pain in your leg?
Oh my gosh, you can feel. You have nerve endings that allow you to even feel
anything at all. Wow, what a gift.
(30:45):
Are you listening to this as you're driving? My gosh, you have hands that know
how to drive. You can drive.
And likewise, are you breathing right now? You've got breath in your lungs.
Our hearts are beating. We can see and hear. What a gift.
Are you somebody who has family and friends who love you? What a gift.
(31:11):
Seeing the world this way will fill you up like a lamp filled with light.
And that light will spread far and wide.
You know what I mean. You know, the type of people who have a lightness to them,
who are carefree and relaxed, who are so far along in their discipleship to
(31:31):
Jesus that they just radiate warmth like that of a lamp.
And for those people, you know those type.
They typically trust God to provide their every need. And so they simply seek
first the kingdom of God in a carefree and relaxed way.
But here's the thing.
(31:53):
We can become that too, seeing everything, every second as an abundant gift from God.
So for us listening, as an exercise for us, before you go to bed tonight,
name five things you are grateful for.
And then continue to do that practice whenever you go to sleep each night onwards. See what happens.
(32:19):
The final practice is this. Live in a communal way.
Now, I can't point to a specific verse for this practice in this section of
the Sermon on the Mount, but I can point us to Acts chapter 2.
When Jesus' life-giving spirit fell, the first community-forming thing the church
(32:39):
ever did was becoming a community of givers unto each other.
It's easy to speak to you all in a way that calls us to contribute and to give
as isolated individuals.
But the call is to contribute in a way where we don't just give to the church,
but we give as the church unto each other as brothers and sisters.
(33:04):
We shouldn't be atomized individuals giving to each other from a distance.
We should envision ourselves as a tight-knit family.
Families look out for each other, and if you live under one roof, they share a fridge.
And so we can do so much more together than alone.
(33:26):
We as a church might not be able to solve the plight of poverty in Perth,
but together we could be like Peter and John in Acts 3, three,
who told the beggar at the temple gates, Silver and gold I do not have.
And Peter and John offered that beggar what they could. In that case,
it was for the man to walk in Jesus' name.
(33:49):
Maybe if someone without a home were to come through the doors,
we can offer community and friendship in Jesus' name.
Deep relationships in community and beyond to our neighbourhood,
that all kicks at the darkness that seeks to divide and atomise us and see people as transactional.
(34:09):
In contrast, the early church didn't create, whilst they didn't create tight-knit
communities for all of Rome, they did create tight-knit communities for their local streets,
which then spread among the town and from there to social networks,
gradually, gradually expanding until yes, a whole society, a whole society started to change culturally.
(34:34):
Food banks emerged in the Roman Empire.
Hospitals and public schools are the legacy of the Christian faith.
Now, whether or not systemic and cultural change is possible in our context
is a whole other conversation.
But what if we dreamed of ways to transform just our little neighborhood pocket of the world?
(34:58):
What if we started with us?
How we see each other in our community? We want to save the world,
change the whole of society.
But that's God's job. But you know what we can do?
That by the power of the Spirit, through our transformed hearts,
we can start here and be family to one another,
(35:21):
sharing our time, energy, and resources, so much so that when Jesus then later
says in this section of the Sermon on the Mount to, quote, do not worry,
quote, it all makes sense.
Because if we become a people who focus on investing in God's kingdom in community,
(35:42):
we then will have our basic needs met.
We will be free to no longer worry because we will live for each other generously
as a community, helping each other and loving our immediate neighbors as if
they are the true treasures of heaven.
This is a community-led economic vision of Jesus'
(36:03):
kingdom that dismantles hyper-capitalism and transcends mere socialism into
a vision simply called love.
And to conclude, the good news is this.
This is something we are invited into.
(36:25):
This isn't a pull yourself up by your bootstraps and be more generous church.
No, rather this is this, that Jesus has bought the kingdom of God.
He has won. Now, let us join him, trusting in his provision and in his victory
(36:47):
over the economic powers of the world.
For when it is all said and done, the economic hand of the market will not have
the final say over the world.
Jesus has brought his economic dream into the world.
Jesus, the true treasure of heaven, is making all things new.
(37:09):
In Jesus, we have one who set aside his privilege to come into solidarity with us.
He forsook the riches afforded to him and took on the form of one without a dime to his name.
He was a rough sleeper, sleeping nomad without a place to lay his head.
(37:31):
Jesus came from a financial backwater part of town known as Nazareth and bought
an economic vision that shook up the social order by shaking up our hearts.
Jesus' shaking eventually got them into trouble, and so they killed him.
Yet, in his death, whilst Jesus could have left us in our bankrupted state.
(37:57):
Jesus didn't throw our stinginess back onto us in a tit-for-tat way.
Instead, he revealed God's free gift of love to the whole world,
exposing and defeating the forces of darkness, bringing the free,
unearned, jubilee love of God to us all.
And on the far side of this freely self-giving love is Jesus' resurrection,
(38:24):
assuring us of his victory.
His resurrection is a revelation that Jesus has the final say over this broken
economic world and over our broken hearts.
In coming to him with all we are right now, as we are right now,
(38:46):
our broken state and all, our stinginess and all,
we ask for the Holy Spirit to come to transform our stingy hearts.
So that way we start to live into the true treasures of heaven as people who trust in God.
For his ways, his kingdom, his economic vision has his inevitable victory baked into it.
(39:16):
We can store up treasures for heaven because Jesus, in solidarity with us,
carries, is carrying, and will carry this world forward to the shores of heaven
on earth, Where all the treasures that made for heaven on earth will find their
completion in a world made new.
(39:37):
A world where true treasures are found.
Treasures that moth and rust cannot destroy. Amen.
Our scripture reading is from Matthew chapter 6, verses 19 to 24.
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume,
and where thieves break in and steal.
But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust
(00:21):
consumes, and where thieves do not break in and steal.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. so.
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 unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness.
If, then, the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
(00:45):
No one can serve two masters. For a slave will either hate the one and love
the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and wealth.
This is the words of the Lord.
For the love of money, people will steal from their mother. For the love of
money, people will rob from their own brother.
(01:07):
For the love of money, people can't even walk the street, because they never
know who in the world they're going to beat.
For that lean, mean, mean, green, almighty dollar.
Money. For the love of money, people will lie. Lord, they will cheat for the
love of money. People don't care who they hurt or beat.
For the love of money, a woman will sell her precious body. For a small piece
(01:31):
of paper, it carries a lot of weight.
Call it lean, mean, mean, green almighty dollar. For the love of money.
Those were the lyrics of the OJ's 1970s hit,
For the Love of Money, made popular in that rather infamous noughties reality
(01:51):
TV show known as The Apprentice, starring the former president you-know-who.
The Apostle Paul was right when he said, for the love of money is indeed the
root of all kinds of evil.
After all, why are there more than 150 million children worldwide engaged in
(02:12):
slave labour, making the clothes on our back and picking cocoa for our Nestle chocolate.
Well, companies get to cut costs to create a greater production-to-profit margin.
But why have I been guilty of paying for such clothing and buying the chocolate?
Well, sometimes there's no other
alternative, but sometimes it is because it's cheap, and I like Milo.
(02:37):
How easy it is to love our neighbors who are out of sight and out of mind.
Lord, have mercy on us all.
Now, I don't say this to shame us. However, I am one for honest assessment.
And it appears to me that when you really stop and reflect on it,
a lot of evil done in the world is because we love money.
(02:58):
We don't say it like that. And as soon as someone like myself suggests this,
we get offended pretty quickly.
We think the problem is out there. And because we don't daydream about being
like Scrooge McDuck swimming in a pool of gold coins, that all of a sudden we
think we're off the hook.
As if Jesus should have never spoken about money because this part of the Sermon
(03:22):
on the Mount surely must have been only for the super-rich as a way to stick it to the man.
Well, in this section of the Sermon on the Mount where these set of scriptures
come from, I think Jesus' audience at the Sermon on the Mount,
Now, yeah, there were maybe a couple of people who were well off there.
But actually, I think most of them probably weren't well off.
(03:43):
And so if people who didn't have much money had to be taught by Jesus about
having a right relationship to wealth, then how much more do we need to hear
about money in our consumeristic world today? day.
So perhaps, instead of being offended by Jesus, we can see his words on wealth
(04:05):
as an invitation for you and for me to not automatically assume we have perfectly arrived.
Instead, we should muster up the courage to admit that maybe,
just maybe, we need to heed to Jesus' words and be invited into a better relationship
(04:25):
with wealth and treasure.
So let us be curious, church, and seek this strange kingdom life together when
it comes to our treasures.
Now, some disclaimers. First, Christian faith does not prohibit having money, things, or property.
(04:47):
Instead, our faith pushes back against our scarcity mindset,
whereby we fail to appreciate the abundance of the gifts we already have in our life.
Now, it is in this scarcity mindset that we become obsessed with trying to get
more money, things and private property, and then we become stingy when we do
(05:08):
get these things because of fear of losing them.
The Apostle Paul assumed, though, that there would be well-to-do Christians.
But to them he says this in his second letter to Timothy,
to not be arrogant, nor put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain,
but to put their hope in God who richly provides everything for our enjoyment.
(05:32):
And then he commands those same well-to-do Christians to do good,
to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.
So he assumes that there would be Christians with money, but he makes it very
clear what they are to do with their wealth.
So likewise, the critique isn't that someone might have private property.
(05:57):
But that those of us here who have it, that we use it for the common good.
The early church treated their property as if it was to be used for the common
use for the family of God.
Now, I want to make this very clear. This is worlds apart from state-sanctioned communism.
Because it's not like the first Christians entrusted their land to the Roman
(06:18):
Empire, assuming the powers that be would automatically be benevolent.
Sorry, Marx. But the early church did see their private property filtered through
the deeper truth that God created the world for all people.
As such, we are to steward our resources in a manner that makes our place a
(06:41):
light of refuge in the neighborhood and a part of the church community.
Even though your property then is theoretically yours, from God's point of view,
It also kind of isn't. It's God's.
Second disclaimer. Those of us here who don't have a lot of money and do need
(07:02):
more of it to be saved from poverty, let me just say that wanting money can
be perfectly reasonable.
There is an injustice if you don't have enough money to eat,
have shelter, or access to health and education.
Wanting money to get these things is about moving out of poverty.
(07:23):
Jesus himself fed people and healed people medically. So why would he do those
things if getting food and medical intervention were inherently wrong?
So if tonight, if you are in dire straits,
We together need to be the church for each other.
However, like Jesus' first hearers,
(07:43):
you still need to hear to this section on the Sermon on the Mount because while
being poor limits the idolization of money, it does so only like a straitjacket limits movement.
We all have a skewed relationship with what Jesus calls our treasures.
(08:03):
And the gospel invites us to have a newly formed and renegotiated relationship with our treasures.
Bread is fine, but man cannot live on bread alone. So, our treasures.
In the Greek, the word for treasure here denotes a collection of things of great importance or value.
(08:28):
Surprise, surprise. price. Likewise, to store up referred to storing up of material
goods, which essentially means hoarding things.
So it's no surprise then when you put the two together that storing treasure
then means hoarding things that are of great importance or value to us.
Now, Jesus assumes that anything we hoard in the present, that upon closer inspection
(08:52):
will be discovered to be of of only earthly value,
things that will eventually turn to dust or be taken from us.
Therefore, we might as well stop hoarding these things.
But notice Jesus does not say to stop hoarding treasure, but that we shouldn't
store up earthly treasures.
(09:12):
Instead of hoarding earthly treasures in the present, Jesus invites us to hoard
treasures into the future, which are the things that, though we might not think
much of now, will become treasures later and will last forever.
From an earthly point of view, there are things we often desire in the present,
thinking that they will satisfy the deepest levels of our soul.
(09:36):
However, from heaven's point of view, these things may not be of eternal value
at all and will fade away into the eternal dustbin of cosmic meaninglessness.
Conversely, there will be things in the present that we might not have given
much weight to, but which, from a heavenly perspective,
(09:57):
will turn out to be of eternal value etched into the very building blocks of
God's kingdom when it is finally and fully reigning here on earth as it is in heaven.
Yet how do we discern what makes for heavenly treasure?
We can look to Jesus to see how he conceives of heavenly reward based on what
(10:21):
he desires for this world.
Because what he desires for our world is ultimately heavenly.
As we unpacked earlier this year, Jesus brought good news that he was bringing
the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.
Jesus' vision fits perfectly with his own Jewish tradition.
(10:45):
Wherein the Jewish prophets of old dreamed of God's presence being made known all over the earth.
The prophets described this longing and hope by envisioning a world where God's
presence floods earth forever, changing everything.
Swords are bent into plowshares, and we make for war no more.
(11:07):
Great banquets are put before all people to share in and enjoy,
and no one goes hungry. Even the trees dance and clap and the lion lies down with the lamb.
Those who were blind or could have walked now walk and see.
The injustices and evils of the world are done away with. No one is dying.
(11:27):
Corruption cannot happen anymore.
Human trafficking ceases. Being homeless is a thing of the past.
And all people who worship and call upon the Lord are part of God's restored
world. Now, Jesus comes along and says.
So, if heaven on earth is the will of Jesus, the prophet's hope,
(11:52):
and what is described in John's very trippy book called Revelation,
that when Jesus says that we are to store up treasures for heaven,
heaven he cannot mean storing up
for heaven in the sky but storing up
for heaven on the earth after all
that's how the bible ends now there's a small interlude of
(12:14):
heaven elsewhere after we die but the end game is heaven here in other words
when jesus says treasures of the earth he isn't implying that the treasures
ultimately for elsewhere or that the earth itself is bad,
but that the earth without heaven coming down is bad and will continue to be
(12:36):
bad unless he intervenes, which he has.
That's why we can look at Jesus and discover the things we might not consider
treasures in the here and the now, but which will turn out to be the true treasures later on.
Because what is Jesus doing in his ministry? Bringing the kingdom of heaven on earth.
(13:02):
If we want to know what the heavenly treasures are that we are to,
quote, store up, the answer is found in Jesus' own actions.
Now, we are not literally the
second person of the Trinity who can do all things Jesus did on his own.
But as a church community, as people called out to be the people of God,
(13:24):
filled with the Holy Spirit of God,
we can seek to become the community whereby we do things that,
though tough and messy and not seeming like much, and perhaps time and money
consuming in the present,
might make for the gifts of heaven later on.
When a church plants a community garden that offers sanctuary and feeds the
(13:47):
community, that's a treasure that will last forever.
When we open up our homes and offer counsel, comfort and community,
that's a treasure that will last forever.
When we offer service of love and support for an op shop, that's a treasure that will last forever.
When we serve the neediest on the streets of Perth on a cold Saturday night,
(14:09):
that's a treasure that will last forever.
When you love your child with the love of the Lord, even on the days that it
feels the loneliest, that's a treasure that will last forever.
When you take your creator gifts of music, acting, filmmaking,
songwriting, painting, building, or storytelling, and use them to touch on the
deepest recesses of what it means to be human, to create beautiful and ethical
(14:32):
constructions, to draw people to live for something bigger than themselves,
that's a treasure that will last forever.
And of course, when you build up the church through the making of disciples,
that's a treasure that will last forever.
N.T. Wright says it well when he says this, What you do in the Lord is not in vain.
You're not oiling the wheels of a machine that's about to roll over a cliff.
(14:56):
You are not restoring a great painting that's shortly going to be thrown on the fire.
You are not planting roses in a garden that's about to be dug up for a building site.
You are, strange though it might seem, almost as hard to believe as the resurrection
itself, self, are accomplishing something that will become in due course part of God's new world.
(15:19):
Every act of love, gratitude and kindness.
Every work of art or music inspired by the love of God and delights in the beauty of his creation.
Every minute spent teaching a severely handicapped child to read or to walk.
Every act of care and nurture of comfort and support for one's fellow human
and for that matter, one's fellow non-human creatures.
(15:42):
And of course, every prayer, all spirit-led teaching, every deed that spreads
the gospel, builds up the church, embraces and embodies holiness rather than corruption,
and makes the name of Jesus honored in the world, all of this will find its
way through the resurrecting power of God into the new creation that God will one day make.
(16:05):
So says N.T. Wright. right.
In all that we do, we are like the stonemasons of old who would spend their
entire lifetime focusing on one small section of a cathedral,
only to die without seeing the end product.
But imagine if they all came back to see in delight the fruit of their labour,
(16:29):
A magnificent cathedral that communicates the grandeur and awe of God.
Their labor wasn't in vain, and neither is ours.
Now, if after hearing all of this you're still asking, so what will this heavenly
treasure tangibly look like?
Well, I think we are missing the point. Point, I highly doubt that the economic
(16:56):
value reward system of heaven matches the materialistic economic value reward system of earth.
If we value Ferrari, a mansion, or gold in the new heavens and a new earth,
what does that say about what we desire in the here and in the now?
It just sounds like we just want earthly treasures again, except the location
(17:19):
and time have simply changed from earth in the present to the new heavens and new earth in the future.
In this scenario, our treasures are still earthly. We just have our fingers
crossed that we get them later.
But that makes no sense!
Because what we value and see as true treasure has not changed.
We've just kicked our idolatry down the road, hoping that God will give us our idols later on.
(17:45):
Now, sure, Scripture does talk about how in the new heavens and new earth,
the wealth and goods of the conquered kings of the earth will be taken into the new creation.
A little bit similar as to how the Israelites took Egyptian loot with them when
they crossed the Red Sea.
But that way, those images are framed.
The way those images are framed, it is as if the people of God are victorious
(18:08):
over the powers of the earth. And so taking the plunders of the world is a way
of saying that the people of God alongside the Lamb have conquered the powers of the world.
That is worlds apart from thinking that when Jesus returns and that we are just
given Elon Musk's bitcoins, we get to turn them into gold and then see our reward
(18:29):
as enjoying swimming in the pool of gold like that of Scrooge McDuck.
No, because that just sounds like an unchanged heart. heart
now assume all you want sure and i'm confident there
will be a type of leisure in in that's included
in the new heavens and new earth but come
on we know deep down that is worlds apart from thinking that heaven is just
(18:53):
about being a glutton like those humans in the movie wally whose life is pure
consumption and where their god is their stomach no whatever it means to have reward in heaven,
or in this case, the new heavens and the new earth, it's probably something
much more deeper and more soul
satisfying than just mere material goods of the treasures of the earth.
(19:17):
I suspect the reward will be in seeing the culmination of all the good work
we ever did, from the big to the mundane, and being deeply satisfied. this fire.
And so, returning to the here and the now, this is the choice we are faced with daily.
From the big decisions of life and how we do our vocation, in our lifestyle
(19:40):
choices, all the way down to the little mundane decisions we make,
the question is this for you and for me, what will our treasures be?
Because it is very easy for us to believe that our treasures is what we find
on billboards, needing that bigger car.
Or that Facebook ad, essentially telling you and me that all your happiness
(20:02):
boils down to whatever the algorithms glow up on your screen.
Or perhaps it's using things like TikTok and Instagram to be noticed and seen
as special or important, chasing after fame for fame's sake,
or chasing after the high of wanderlust or accolades.
If you want to know what you really consider to be your treasures,
(20:23):
ask yourself What do you daydream about?
Likewise, what do you prioritize as your highest goals in life?
The actions you will undertake to get your desired ends?
After all, you don't daydream or prioritize things you don't care about.
After all, what is desire but the things you seek after, like treasure?
(20:47):
Those desires are where the deepest parts of you really are.
For where your treasure is, Jesus says, there your heart is also.
Now, you might desire things that can be shaped for godly purposes.
For example, I desire to have a marriage that glorifies God.
And I also desire to do good work in my job that serves people in godly ways.
(21:12):
Likewise, you might desire a large home because you have this burden in you
to house as many people as possible as an act of radical hospitality.
Or you might desire Desire to do creative work because you want to evoke people's
imaginations heavenward.
So I'm not saying that all those desires are bad, particularly if God is at
(21:35):
the center shaping them for kingdom purposes.
But I invite both you and me to not use the God card as a get-out-of-conviction-free card.
Because I know for a fact that when I daydream about winning the lotto,
It isn't just so I can help people.
(21:56):
It's there, but it's also because I like the idea of having a lot of money.
So despite having a roof over my head and a good wage, I have bought into the
scarcity mindset, and I want more, counting my pennies so closely.
But here's a question. Is that really a good way to live? Will the pursuit of
(22:18):
our earthly treasures, living from a place of existential deficit,
really be the right way to live?
I think when it's all said and done, no one will get to the end of their life
and wish that they had devoted more time and energy to things for things' sake,
or money, or for more likes and views, or for more accolades on their resume.
(22:42):
No. At the twilight of life, will fame hold your hands?
Will fortune tell you everything will be okay?
Will knowledge pat your head down? It seems to me that, in the end,
it's the treasures that make for heaven,
that of love, care, and compassion around us, and the noble work that we did,
(23:06):
given all that we had to live for Jesus, that will matter and carry on eternally.
Jesus invites us then into something far better and far bigger,
something that will make us truly come alive.
Because the simple truth is this, No one can serve two masters.
(23:27):
Try to serve God and money or treasures or mammon, whatever translation you like.
Try to serve one or the other at the same time.
That's like trying to drive up the freeway up north towards Two Rock and south
towards Mandurah at the same time.
It cannot be done.
(23:48):
And even if you are sincerely serving God, driving up north,
one devoted, one way directed.
How easy it is for you and me to be tempted by the rear view mirror,
luring you and me to go the other way.
So what are we to do then?
Can we just click our fingers and move from storing earthly to heavenly treasures?
(24:14):
Even for us followers of Jesus here, God gives us a new heart,
so that our deepest desire is to now please Christ.
But that doesn't mean our strongest desires now match our deepest desires instantly.
No, we need practices that help us transition out of fear-based attachments
(24:36):
to our earthly treasures.
So let's explore a few of them that are actually found within this section of Scripture. scripture.
First, start somewhere and just do it.
The verse, quote, for where your treasure is there your heart will also be,
quote, highlights that what you deeply desire, i.e.
(24:58):
Your treasures, matches the deepest parts of you.
Now that sounds so existential of Jesus.
But it's also true that that Jesus commanded just one verse earlier to start storing differently.
Now, here Jesus just assumes that your treasures can change by simply changing
(25:18):
them. Well, how can that be?
Well, I think here I look to a particular form of therapy that kind of helps
add a bit of a flavor to this image that Jesus is giving.
In more behavior and solution-focused forms of therapy,
therapy depressed client who wants to live
differently might be asked this by a therapist and
(25:41):
the question is this how would you live differently right now if you weren't
depressed now in that situation client might then respond by saying things like
that they will get out of bed maybe go for a morning walk maybe cook a meal
or go to the park and meet up with a trusted friend end.
The therapists then respond, saying, okay, let's try that.
(26:05):
And then together they map a way forward, starting with the small steps and then going from there.
I think that's a good image to apply that same principle here when Jesus says
that we can just change our treasures from earth to treasures in heaven.
So here's the question then.
What would you do differently right now if you lived a life seeking the kingdom
(26:30):
of God, i.e. the treasures that make for heaven?
Now, this isn't a hypothetical you who has a large house and is a thriving philanthropist.
Because that might never be you.
But what can you and me do right now?
Can you invite a mate over once a week for a cup of tea in the house you share with others?
(26:53):
Or could you meet that friend at a park and pray together?
And if you've never given to a cause before, can you give as little as $5 if
that's all you can do at the moment?
If you've started coming into income, have you looked at your budget to see
if you can put more aside to help those around you?
Even if you have debt to pay down, do you need to use all of that increase to pay it all down?
(27:17):
Now, there is some wisdom in paying down debt, since it means you can free up
income to be more generous later on.
But could you use some of that increase right now to be used as a way to be generous?
Do you own a place? How can you use it generously?
Do you really need another piece of clothing? And if you do,
(27:39):
could you buy from stores that source their products ethically,
like those listed in Baptist World Aid's financial guide?
A great thing, by the way, just type that into Google, Baptist World Aid fashion guide.
Not financial, fashion guide.
Could you be more reflective with your budgeting and invite an accountability
partner to watch over your budget alongside you?
(28:03):
These are just all ideas, by the way. But Jesus spoke to an audience that probably
didn't have much, but he assumed they could think creatively and outside the box.
And so for us today listening, what would you do differently right now if you
lived a life seeking the kingdom of God?
(28:25):
My invitation is that we start making a mental list right now and don't overcomplicate it.
Start small, even if it's just one or two things.
And the invitation from Jesus is to start living from where you are right now. But do live that way.
Slowly weaning ourselves off the treasures that make for earth that are going
(28:49):
nowhere for the treasures of heaven.
The second practice is to practice gratitude.
Now, we see this in the verse a little bit further down where Jesus says this,
The eye is the lamp of the body.
If your eyes are full of good, your whole body will be full of light.
But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.
(29:12):
In the ancient world, the phrase good eye meant you had a generous heart,
giving as one who sees the world as overflowing with God's generosity.
In contrast, a bad eye meant someone with a bad heart, hoarding resources out
of stinginess because they saw the world as limited in God's gifts.
(29:38):
So, either you look at your life and focus on all you don't have.
This is a decision to see the good.
Jesus unpacks this just a few verses later. We didn't mention it in the opening of this sermon.
(30:01):
But he calls his followers to look at the birds of the air and the lilies of the field.
There it's an invitation to practice gratitude, to count our blessings.
Contemporary studies on gratitude show that noticing and naming things you are
grateful for actually changes you for the better.
(30:22):
If you're struggling then to name something though, here, just lower your standards
for what you consider something to be grateful for.
So are you sitting here or listening to this and you've got a pain in your leg?
Oh my gosh, you can feel. You have nerve endings that allow you to even feel
anything at all. Wow, what a gift.
(30:45):
Are you listening to this as you're driving? My gosh, you have hands that know
how to drive. You can drive.
And likewise, are you breathing right now? You've got breath in your lungs.
Our hearts are beating. We can see and hear. What a gift.
Are you somebody who has family and friends who love you? What a gift.
(31:11):
Seeing the world this way will fill you up like a lamp filled with light.
And that light will spread far and wide.
You know what I mean. You know, the type of people who have a lightness to them,
who are carefree and relaxed, who are so far along in their discipleship to
(31:31):
Jesus that they just radiate warmth like that of a lamp.
And for those people, you know those type.
They typically trust God to provide their every need. And so they simply seek
first the kingdom of God in a carefree and relaxed way.
But here's the thing.
(31:53):
We can become that too, seeing everything, every second as an abundant gift from God.
So for us listening, as an exercise for us, before you go to bed tonight,
name five things you are grateful for.
And then continue to do that practice whenever you go to sleep each night onwards. See what happens.
(32:19):
The final practice is this. Live in a communal way.
Now, I can't point to a specific verse for this practice in this section of
the Sermon on the Mount, but I can point us to Acts chapter 2.
When Jesus' life-giving spirit fell, the first community-forming thing the church
(32:39):
ever did was becoming a community of givers unto each other.
It's easy to speak to you all in a way that calls us to contribute and to give
as isolated individuals.
But the call is to contribute in a way where we don't just give to the church,
but we give as the church unto each other as brothers and sisters.
(33:04):
We shouldn't be atomized individuals giving to each other from a distance.
We should envision ourselves as a tight-knit family.
Families look out for each other, and if you live under one roof, they share a fridge.
And so we can do so much more together than alone.
(33:26):
We as a church might not be able to solve the plight of poverty in Perth,
but together we could be like Peter and John in Acts 3, three,
who told the beggar at the temple gates, Silver and gold I do not have.
And Peter and John offered that beggar what they could. In that case,
it was for the man to walk in Jesus' name.
(33:49):
Maybe if someone without a home were to come through the doors,
we can offer community and friendship in Jesus' name.
Deep relationships in community and beyond to our neighbourhood,
that all kicks at the darkness that seeks to divide and atomise us and see people as transactional.
(34:09):
In contrast, the early church didn't create, whilst they didn't create tight-knit
communities for all of Rome, they did create tight-knit communities for their local streets,
which then spread among the town and from there to social networks,
gradually, gradually expanding until yes, a whole society, a whole society started to change culturally.
(34:34):
Food banks emerged in the Roman Empire.
Hospitals and public schools are the legacy of the Christian faith.
Now, whether or not systemic and cultural change is possible in our context
is a whole other conversation.
But what if we dreamed of ways to transform just our little neighborhood pocket of the world?
(34:58):
What if we started with us?
How we see each other in our community? We want to save the world,
change the whole of society.
But that's God's job. But you know what we can do?
That by the power of the Spirit, through our transformed hearts,
we can start here and be family to one another,
(35:21):
sharing our time, energy, and resources, so much so that when Jesus then later
says in this section of the Sermon on the Mount to, quote, do not worry,
quote, it all makes sense.
Because if we become a people who focus on investing in God's kingdom in community,
(35:42):
we then will have our basic needs met.
We will be free to no longer worry because we will live for each other generously
as a community, helping each other and loving our immediate neighbors as if
they are the true treasures of heaven.
This is a community-led economic vision of Jesus'
(36:03):
kingdom that dismantles hyper-capitalism and transcends mere socialism into
a vision simply called love.
And to conclude, the good news is this.
This is something we are invited into.
(36:25):
This isn't a pull yourself up by your bootstraps and be more generous church.
No, rather this is this, that Jesus has bought the kingdom of God.
He has won. Now, let us join him, trusting in his provision and in his victory
(36:47):
over the economic powers of the world.
For when it is all said and done, the economic hand of the market will not have
the final say over the world.
Jesus has brought his economic dream into the world.
Jesus, the true treasure of heaven, is making all things new.
(37:09):
In Jesus, we have one who set aside his privilege to come into solidarity with us.
He forsook the riches afforded to him and took on the form of one without a dime to his name.
He was a rough sleeper, sleeping nomad without a place to lay his head.
(37:31):
Jesus came from a financial backwater part of town known as Nazareth and bought
an economic vision that shook up the social order by shaking up our hearts.
Jesus' shaking eventually got them into trouble, and so they killed him.
Yet, in his death, whilst Jesus could have left us in our bankrupted state.
(37:57):
Jesus didn't throw our stinginess back onto us in a tit-for-tat way.
Instead, he revealed God's free gift of love to the whole world,
exposing and defeating the forces of darkness, bringing the free,
unearned, jubilee love of God to us all.
And on the far side of this freely self-giving love is Jesus' resurrection,
(38:24):
assuring us of his victory.
His resurrection is a revelation that Jesus has the final say over this broken
economic world and over our broken hearts.
In coming to him with all we are right now, as we are right now,
(38:46):
our broken state and all, our stinginess and all,
we ask for the Holy Spirit to come to transform our stingy hearts.
So that way we start to live into the true treasures of heaven as people who trust in God.
For his ways, his kingdom, his economic vision has his inevitable victory baked into it.
(39:16):
We can store up treasures for heaven because Jesus, in solidarity with us,
carries, is carrying, and will carry this world forward to the shores of heaven
on earth, Where all the treasures that made for heaven on earth will find their
completion in a world made new.
(39:37):
A world where true treasures are found.
Treasures that moth and rust cannot destroy. Amen.
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Charlie is America's hardest working grassroots activist who has your inside scoop on the biggest news of the day and what's really going on behind the headlines. The founder of Turning Point USA and one of social media's most engaged personalities, Charlie is on the front lines of America’s culture war, mobilizing hundreds of thousands of students on over 3,500 college and high school campuses across the country, bringing you your daily dose of clarity in a sea of chaos all from his signature no-holds-barred, unapologetically conservative, freedom-loving point of view. You can also watch Charlie Kirk on Salem News Channel