WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:10.900 I suspect that the words cost of living will have crossed your lips at some point this week. 00:00:10.900 --> 00:00:19.920 ! And if the words didn't cross your lips, I suspect that you will have certainly thought about them in some way. 00:00:19.920 --> 00:00:34.920 The concept will have entered your thinking. Worry about money is commonplace at the best of times, but it has clicked up a few notches in the last year, especially in London. 00:00:34.920 --> 00:00:42.920 Partly because London is an expensive place to live, partly because we see the trappings of wealth all around us in a city like London, 00:00:42.920 --> 00:00:53.920 we've been told that the good life is found in having those things, and we strive for them, and we worry when we don't have them, and we need money to get them, and those go together. 00:00:53.920 --> 00:01:00.920 Partly also because we've convinced ourselves that more money is the answer to the problems that we have in life. 00:01:00.920 --> 00:01:07.920 More money will sort everything out, so we worry because we want to make more. 00:01:07.920 --> 00:01:17.920 Well, this evening Jesus is talking to us about anxiety in relation to money and what money provides, and He gives us a kingdom perspective on these things that is very simple. 00:01:17.920 --> 00:01:26.920 He says, don't worry. Don't worry. Three times He says it. 00:01:26.920 --> 00:01:32.920 Verse 25, do not be anxious about food or clothing. 00:01:32.920 --> 00:01:36.920 Verse 31 again, do not be anxious about food or clothing. 00:01:36.920 --> 00:01:41.920 Verse 34, do not be anxious about what tomorrow might bring. 00:01:43.920 --> 00:01:47.920 Does Jesus know that we're in a cost of living crisis? 00:01:47.920 --> 00:01:54.920 Is what He says reasonable when things are as tight as they are for many of us? 00:01:54.920 --> 00:01:56.920 Well, let's see, shall we? 00:01:56.920 --> 00:02:09.920 Let's see, as we walk through the passage where, first off, Jesus exposes the root of our financial anxiety when He addresses, point number one, the priorities that create an anxious soul. 00:02:09.920 --> 00:02:12.920 Here are the priorities that create an anxious soul. 00:02:12.919 --> 00:02:18.919 And the first one, verse 19, is the priority of having the wrong treasure. 00:02:18.919 --> 00:02:19.919 The wrong treasure. 00:02:19.919 --> 00:02:25.919 Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. 00:02:25.919 --> 00:02:36.919 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 00:02:36.919 --> 00:02:41.919 Jesus, very clearly contrasting earthly and heavenly treasure. 00:02:41.919 --> 00:02:46.919 And He warns the person who sets their heart on the earthly variety. 00:02:46.919 --> 00:02:53.919 Now, you can do this whether you have much or little. 00:02:53.919 --> 00:02:56.919 This person might do this as an ambition. 00:02:56.919 --> 00:03:01.919 They don't have much and so their ambition is to lay up treasure on earth. 00:03:01.919 --> 00:03:07.919 Or they may have plenty of it already and they store it up for themselves. 00:03:07.919 --> 00:03:10.919 There could be a number of reasons why they do that, but that's what they do. 00:03:10.919 --> 00:03:12.919 Storing up. 00:03:12.919 --> 00:03:14.919 The idea is that you can never have enough. 00:03:14.919 --> 00:03:17.919 It's like J.D. Rockefeller. 00:03:17.919 --> 00:03:21.919 A beloved illustration of the preacher on this passage. 00:03:21.919 --> 00:03:23.919 Rockefeller, one time the richest person in the world. 00:03:23.919 --> 00:03:29.919 They reckon that given his time, he was an oil businessman in America. 00:03:29.919 --> 00:03:32.919 Given his time, he's the richest person that's ever lived. 00:03:32.919 --> 00:03:36.919 And nearing his death, he was asked, Mr. Rockefeller, how much is enough? 00:03:36.919 --> 00:03:39.919 And he said, just a little bit more. 00:03:39.919 --> 00:03:43.919 That's how we think, isn't it? 00:03:43.919 --> 00:03:46.919 Whether we have much or little, we think just a little bit more. 00:03:46.919 --> 00:03:47.919 That'll be enough. 00:03:47.919 --> 00:03:48.919 Then it'll be okay. 00:03:48.919 --> 00:03:53.919 And Jesus says that prioritizing the earthly over the heavenly is the wrong way round. 00:03:53.919 --> 00:03:59.919 And it's the wrong way round because here is an insecure place to invest. 00:03:59.919 --> 00:04:04.919 Earth is where moths fly around and eat our stuff. 00:04:04.919 --> 00:04:08.919 It's where rust gets after things. 00:04:08.919 --> 00:04:14.919 And where global financial decisions can wipe out your investment portfolio in a second. 00:04:14.919 --> 00:04:17.919 And if they don't get it, they're always the thieves. 00:04:17.919 --> 00:04:23.919 The thieves that are lurking, ready to take what you have for themselves. 00:04:23.919 --> 00:04:30.919 When you think about it, those things are why even the very rich are anxious about their wealth. 00:04:30.919 --> 00:04:32.919 Because they know that it's vulnerable. 00:04:32.919 --> 00:04:34.919 It comes and it goes. 00:04:34.919 --> 00:04:37.919 They know that they can easily lose it all. 00:04:37.920 --> 00:04:43.920 I was at the 70th birthday party of a wealthy friend of mine a few years ago. 00:04:43.920 --> 00:04:45.920 And it was a grand affair because he's very wealthy. 00:04:45.920 --> 00:04:49.920 And he made a speech as part of this party. 00:04:49.920 --> 00:04:55.920 And in his speech, he referred to life incredibly wealthy. 00:04:55.920 --> 00:04:57.920 Here he is, 70 years old. 00:04:57.920 --> 00:05:01.920 The poor people that were there, like me, would have been thinking, 00:05:01.920 --> 00:05:02.920 Well, look, he's made it. 00:05:02.920 --> 00:05:03.920 He has everything. 00:05:03.920 --> 00:05:09.920 And yet he described life as climbing the wall of worry. 00:05:09.920 --> 00:05:14.920 I'm sitting there thinking, he has nothing to worry about. 00:05:14.920 --> 00:05:17.920 He can pay his way out of any problem he has. 00:05:17.920 --> 00:05:19.920 That's not how he thinks about it. 00:05:19.920 --> 00:05:22.920 Because earth is where the moths fly around. 00:05:22.920 --> 00:05:24.920 It's where rust gets after things. 00:05:24.920 --> 00:05:26.920 And it's where the thieves are always knocking about. 00:05:26.920 --> 00:05:29.920 By contrast, Jesus says, 00:05:29.920 --> 00:05:32.920 If you want to invest in the most secure place possible, 00:05:32.920 --> 00:05:36.920 in heavenly treasure, 00:05:36.920 --> 00:05:39.920 there is no wall of worry. 00:05:39.920 --> 00:05:42.920 There's no wall of worry because none of those threats can touch it. 00:05:42.920 --> 00:05:44.920 There is no decay and there is no theft. 00:05:44.920 --> 00:05:48.920 Now, as you think about this, 00:05:48.920 --> 00:05:50.920 how can you tell, 00:05:50.920 --> 00:05:55.920 how can you tell which kind of treasure you're pursuing? 00:05:55.920 --> 00:05:57.920 Because Jesus, of course, isn't against saving. 00:05:57.920 --> 00:05:59.920 He's not against wise financial planning. 00:05:59.920 --> 00:06:03.920 The book of Proverbs is full of stuff about that, 00:06:03.920 --> 00:06:06.920 about prudent decisions with our money to provide. 00:06:06.920 --> 00:06:08.920 We are to provide for our families. 00:06:08.920 --> 00:06:10.920 Paul says that to Timothy. 00:06:10.920 --> 00:06:14.920 So, how can you tell whether you're investing in the right or the wrong treasure? 00:06:14.920 --> 00:06:16.920 Jesus says, 00:06:16.920 --> 00:06:18.920 Follow your heart. 00:06:18.920 --> 00:06:20.920 Your heart will tell you. 00:06:22.920 --> 00:06:24.920 That is, 00:06:24.920 --> 00:06:29.920 what do you care about the most? 00:06:29.920 --> 00:06:32.920 Where your treasure is, verse 21, 00:06:32.920 --> 00:06:34.920 there your heart will be also. 00:06:34.920 --> 00:06:39.920 The thing that you care about the most will tell you about your treasure. 00:06:39.920 --> 00:06:42.920 The heart is the control center of the whole person. 00:06:42.920 --> 00:06:43.920 So, Jesus is saying, 00:06:43.920 --> 00:06:47.920 whatever people value is who they truly are. 00:06:47.920 --> 00:06:50.920 So, what does your heart pursue? 00:06:50.920 --> 00:06:56.920 What does your heart pursue in the quest for joy and satisfaction and flourishing? 00:06:56.920 --> 00:06:58.920 The context of the sermon. 00:06:58.920 --> 00:07:02.920 More money in and of itself. 00:07:02.920 --> 00:07:06.920 More of the stuff that money can buy. 00:07:06.920 --> 00:07:09.920 Where your treasure is. 00:07:09.920 --> 00:07:14.920 That thing that you've set your heart on for happiness. 00:07:14.920 --> 00:07:16.920 That's where your heart will be. 00:07:16.920 --> 00:07:18.920 This is who you are. 00:07:21.920 --> 00:07:26.920 First priority that leads to an anxious soul is having the wrong treasure. 00:07:26.920 --> 00:07:30.920 Jesus then moves us from the wrong treasure to where the heart, 00:07:30.920 --> 00:07:34.920 that kind of heart that's pursuing the wrong treasure, can often go. 00:07:34.920 --> 00:07:36.920 Secondly, the wrong attitude. 00:07:36.920 --> 00:07:37.920 Verse 21, 00:07:37.920 --> 00:07:38.920 Verse 21, 00:07:38.920 --> 00:07:42.920 The eye is the lamp of the body, so if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. 00:07:42.920 --> 00:07:45.920 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. 00:07:45.920 --> 00:07:51.920 If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness. 00:07:51.920 --> 00:07:57.920 If treasure on earth is your priority, Jesus says, this is usually what happens. 00:07:57.920 --> 00:08:00.920 So, interesting use of language here. 00:08:00.920 --> 00:08:04.920 What Jesus is talking about when he's referring to a healthy eye, 00:08:04.920 --> 00:08:07.920 it's a Hebrew idiom used to describe generosity. 00:08:07.920 --> 00:08:14.920 By contrast then, having a bad eye is also a way of saying someone is tight or stingy or miserly. 00:08:14.920 --> 00:08:21.920 If you are generous, Jesus says, then your whole life will be full of light, full of blessing, and vice versa. 00:08:21.920 --> 00:08:30.920 It's interesting that a generosity, when it comes to money, affects your whole life positively. 00:08:30.920 --> 00:08:34.920 If you are generous with your money, it affects all of your life positively. 00:08:34.919 --> 00:08:40.919 And if you are tight, if you are a miser, when it comes to money, that affects your whole life in a detrimental way as well. 00:08:40.919 --> 00:08:43.919 Your whole body will be full of darkness, he says. 00:08:43.919 --> 00:08:48.919 Being generous with your money affects your whole life positively. 00:08:48.919 --> 00:08:51.919 Being tight and stingy affects it negatively. 00:08:51.919 --> 00:08:56.919 Our attitude to money, Jesus is saying, will play out in every area of our lives. 00:08:56.919 --> 00:08:59.919 It will play out in all the corners of our lives. 00:08:59.919 --> 00:09:09.919 The anxiety that makes us unwilling to be generous, unwilling to be generous to others, will be felt in, for example, our hospitality or lack of it. 00:09:09.919 --> 00:09:12.919 Our spending or lack of it. 00:09:12.919 --> 00:09:16.919 Our attitude to how much everything we do is costing money. 00:09:16.919 --> 00:09:17.919 Money. 00:09:17.919 --> 00:09:28.919 You see, if we have set our heart on the wrong treasure, it affects the way we live in all kinds of different areas of our lives. 00:09:28.919 --> 00:09:33.919 The issue is the level of control that money has over us. 00:09:33.919 --> 00:09:38.919 The issue is how much our thinking about it consumes our life. 00:09:38.919 --> 00:09:42.919 And so again, in this case, the amount, the actual amount is irrelevant. 00:09:42.919 --> 00:09:46.919 You can be consumed by money with lots of it or not very much. 00:09:46.919 --> 00:09:48.919 The problem isn't the amount. 00:09:48.919 --> 00:09:51.919 The problem is the mastery that it has over us. 00:09:51.919 --> 00:09:54.919 The control that it has over our hearts. 00:09:54.919 --> 00:09:57.919 Which is where Jesus goes next. 00:09:57.919 --> 00:10:01.919 So, wrong priority, number one, wrong treasure. 00:10:01.919 --> 00:10:06.919 Wrong priority, the priority that leads to anxiety, number two, wrong attitude. 00:10:06.919 --> 00:10:11.919 Whether our attitude is greedy or stingy, what that does is demonstrate we have, thirdly, the wrong attitude. 00:10:11.919 --> 00:10:12.919 The wrong master. 00:10:12.919 --> 00:10:14.919 The wrong master. 00:10:14.919 --> 00:10:17.919 No one can serve two masters. 00:10:17.919 --> 00:10:22.919 For either he will hate the one and love the other or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. 00:10:22.919 --> 00:10:26.919 You cannot serve God and money or God and mammon. 00:10:30.919 --> 00:10:32.919 It doesn't matter how gifted we are. 00:10:32.919 --> 00:10:34.919 We can only serve one master. 00:10:34.919 --> 00:10:35.919 You can't serve two. 00:10:35.919 --> 00:10:37.919 You can't serve two. 00:10:37.919 --> 00:10:39.919 You can't go two ways at once. 00:10:39.919 --> 00:10:44.919 You can't serve two masters when they demand different things of you. 00:10:44.919 --> 00:10:53.919 So, again, we are hearing Jesus challenge the disconnect between heart and life that has run like a thread all the way through the sermon. 00:10:53.919 --> 00:11:02.919 So, with the first half of the chapter, just as you can't live for the praise of others and the praise of God, so you can't live for money and live for God. 00:11:02.919 --> 00:11:07.919 God is only interested in our wholehearted, single-minded devotion. 00:11:07.919 --> 00:11:20.919 So, money is given by God as a servant, and we must keep it in the place of a servant. 00:11:20.919 --> 00:11:25.919 As someone once said, God doesn't mind his people having money. 00:11:25.919 --> 00:11:28.919 He does mind money having his people. 00:11:28.919 --> 00:11:35.919 So, the question as we assess how we're going on this is, let's be honest, who's in charge? 00:11:35.919 --> 00:11:38.919 Who's in charge? 00:11:38.919 --> 00:11:41.919 Who is my master? 00:11:41.919 --> 00:11:46.919 Money is a very useful servant that will do lots of good things for us, but it is a terrible master. 00:11:46.919 --> 00:11:59.919 And it's a terrible master not just because you can have lots and lots and lots of it and get to a point in your life where you still describe life as climbing the wall of worry, 00:11:59.919 --> 00:12:09.919 but because the anxiety runs out into all the corners of our lives. 00:12:09.919 --> 00:12:14.919 So, if those are the priorities that create an anxious soul, what is the answer? 00:12:14.919 --> 00:12:17.919 Well, in a sense, Jesus has already made that clear. 00:12:17.919 --> 00:12:23.919 Store up heavenly treasure, use your money to be generous to others, and make sure that God and not money is in charge. 00:12:23.919 --> 00:12:25.919 But how do we get to that point? 00:12:25.919 --> 00:12:28.919 It's all very well saying that. How do we get to that point? 00:12:28.919 --> 00:12:31.919 Well, then, this is where Jesus goes next. 00:12:31.919 --> 00:12:32.919 He says, verse 25, 00:12:32.919 --> 00:12:35.919 Therefore, I tell you. 00:12:35.919 --> 00:12:43.919 That is, on account of the fact that living for money as your master is absolutely hopeless, let me suggest a better way. 00:12:43.919 --> 00:12:52.919 In showing us the priorities that cause an anxious soul, he then secondly outlines the path that cures an anxious soul. 00:12:52.919 --> 00:12:55.919 Point number two, the path that cures an anxious soul. 00:12:55.919 --> 00:12:56.919 What does it involve? 00:12:56.919 --> 00:13:01.919 Well, first of all, it involves trusting your father's care. 00:13:01.919 --> 00:13:10.919 Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. 00:13:10.919 --> 00:13:14.919 Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 00:13:14.919 --> 00:13:27.919 If Jesus had said here, do not be anxious, full stop, let's pray together, that would have been useless. 00:13:27.919 --> 00:13:34.919 Have you seen, it's still kicking around on YouTube, it's a few years old now, but it's a sketch by the comedian Bob Newhart. 00:13:34.919 --> 00:13:47.919 And he is, in the sketch, he is a therapist, and a lady comes in, and he says, do have a seat, and she sits down, and he sits on the edge of his table in a very kind of concerned way, 00:13:47.919 --> 00:13:57.919 and listens to her as she says, I keep doing this, and I keep doing that, and I keep doing the other, and he listens very attentively, and he said, I'm about to say something very profound to you here. 00:13:57.919 --> 00:13:59.919 Stop it! 00:13:59.919 --> 00:14:03.919 Utterly useless, isn't it? 00:14:03.919 --> 00:14:07.919 So it would be if all Jesus said was, do not be anxious. 00:14:07.919 --> 00:14:08.919 It's no help at all. 00:14:08.919 --> 00:14:10.919 But that's not what he does. 00:14:10.919 --> 00:14:14.919 He says that, and then he lays out the reasons why our Father can be trusted. 00:14:14.919 --> 00:14:21.919 And why he can be trusted in such a way that drives out anxiety, and I want to say, even in a cost of living crisis. 00:14:21.919 --> 00:14:25.919 Well, what are the reasons? 00:14:25.919 --> 00:14:28.919 Reason number one, he sustains verse 26. 00:14:28.919 --> 00:14:30.919 Look at the birds of the air. 00:14:30.919 --> 00:14:35.919 They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. 00:14:35.919 --> 00:14:39.919 Are you not of more value than they? 00:14:39.919 --> 00:14:42.919 It's an argument from the lesser to the greater. 00:14:42.919 --> 00:14:51.919 And perhaps with a note of incredulity in his voice, Jesus says, have you not stopped to think about even the humble sparrow? 00:14:51.919 --> 00:15:01.919 Birds don't grow crops or store up food that they've harvested, and yet God provides for them day in, day out, day in, day out. 00:15:01.919 --> 00:15:13.919 And if this is true even of them, how much more can he be trusted to care for his highly valued humans who bear his image? 00:15:13.919 --> 00:15:14.919 Think about it. 00:15:14.919 --> 00:15:19.919 God made you in his image, and he called you to his Son, and he gave you eternal life. 00:15:19.919 --> 00:15:24.919 Will he not much more provide for you than a little bird? 00:15:24.919 --> 00:15:30.919 And then there's a gentle rebuke, verse 27. 00:15:30.919 --> 00:15:37.919 And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his span of life? 00:15:37.919 --> 00:15:44.919 Worrying about what you'll eat or drink will not add one bit to the life that you're seeking out. 00:15:44.919 --> 00:15:47.919 The worry doesn't achieve anything. 00:15:47.919 --> 00:15:55.919 It's like Jesus is considering us to, is forcing us to consider the pointlessness of anxiety. 00:15:55.919 --> 00:16:04.919 When anxiety can do nothing to make you more secure, or more comfortable, or more invested in the life of righteousness that he's calling his followers to. 00:16:04.919 --> 00:16:10.919 Anxiety cannot change the number when you press check balance on the ATM. 00:16:10.919 --> 00:16:12.919 It can do nothing about it. 00:16:12.919 --> 00:16:16.919 And so Jesus is saying, why would you be anxious about it? 00:16:16.919 --> 00:16:20.919 And hasn't he just given us? 00:16:20.919 --> 00:16:26.919 We saw last week a pattern to follow. Verse 11, give us this day our daily bread. 00:16:26.919 --> 00:16:37.919 Anxiety about where your sustenance comes from needs to be swallowed up in God-dependent prayer, trusting in your Father's care. 00:16:37.919 --> 00:16:41.919 Then comes the same argument from a different angle. 00:16:41.919 --> 00:16:44.919 Our Father sustains, but he also clothes. Verse 28. 00:16:44.919 --> 00:16:46.919 He sustains, he clothes. 00:16:46.919 --> 00:16:48.919 And why are you anxious about clothing? 00:16:48.919 --> 00:16:50.919 Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. 00:16:50.919 --> 00:16:52.919 They neither toil nor spin. 00:16:52.919 --> 00:16:56.919 Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 00:16:56.919 --> 00:17:06.920 But if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you? 00:17:06.920 --> 00:17:08.920 Oh, you of little faith. 00:17:08.920 --> 00:17:10.920 Look at the flowers. 00:17:10.920 --> 00:17:20.920 I'm not really into flowers, but I can still appreciate the detail and the delicacy of the colors and the subtlety of the different shades. 00:17:20.920 --> 00:17:21.920 Some flowers are simply stunning. 00:17:21.920 --> 00:17:25.920 Maybe I am into flowers now that I think about it. 00:17:25.920 --> 00:17:33.920 Every season comes around and people rave about this new range by this or that new designer. 00:17:33.920 --> 00:17:39.920 But their work doesn't come close to the originality and the beauty of the Father's design in nature. 00:17:39.920 --> 00:17:57.920 Well, says Jesus, if your Father has so lavishly provided for the flowers, the flowers that have an even shorter season than fashion, here today, gone tomorrow, how much more will he provide for your needs? 00:17:57.920 --> 00:18:01.920 And again, he brings a rebuke at the end. 00:18:01.920 --> 00:18:04.920 Anxiety about these things, verse 30, is faithless. 00:18:04.920 --> 00:18:06.920 Oh, you of little faith. 00:18:06.920 --> 00:18:09.920 Fails to trust the care of our Father in heaven. 00:18:09.920 --> 00:18:11.920 The logic is very sound, isn't it? 00:18:11.920 --> 00:18:20.920 If God sustains and provides for the things that are of the least value, can you, whom he loves so deeply, not trust yourself to his care? 00:18:20.920 --> 00:18:26.920 Therefore, do not be anxious, saying, what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear? 00:18:26.920 --> 00:18:31.920 As citizens of the kingdom, we don't need to be anxious. 00:18:31.920 --> 00:18:32.920 We have a Father who cares. 00:18:32.920 --> 00:18:37.920 We have a Father who provides, who protects, and he holds us in his hands. 00:18:37.920 --> 00:18:40.920 In fact, Jesus explains just how out of place it is. 00:18:40.920 --> 00:18:45.920 Verse 32, for the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 00:18:47.920 --> 00:18:49.920 This kind of thing belongs to those. 00:18:49.920 --> 00:18:53.920 Anxiety about these things belongs to those who don't know God as their Father. 00:18:53.920 --> 00:19:11.920 Just as they prayed back verses 7 and 8 in ways that showed that they didn't know him, that they didn't know his grace in their lives, so here their anxiety reflects a similar ignorance of God's care that disciples of the Lord Jesus receive from their Father. 00:19:11.920 --> 00:19:20.920 It reads like Jesus spoke these words gently, or you can certainly read it in that way. 00:19:20.920 --> 00:19:24.920 But when we put them together, Jesus' rebukes here are withering. 00:19:24.920 --> 00:19:27.920 He's unequivocal in what he's saying. 00:19:27.920 --> 00:19:34.920 This kind of anxiety is pointless, faithless, and godless. 00:19:34.920 --> 00:19:36.920 It's pointless, faithless, and godless. 00:19:36.920 --> 00:19:40.920 We're not left in any doubt. 00:19:40.920 --> 00:19:46.920 So, the first step to chasing anxiety is actually trusting our Father's care. 00:19:46.920 --> 00:19:47.920 The second follows. 00:19:47.920 --> 00:19:50.920 It's pursuing your Father's kingdom. 00:19:50.920 --> 00:19:52.920 Pursuing your Father's kingdom, verse 33. 00:19:52.920 --> 00:20:01.920 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 00:20:01.920 --> 00:20:05.920 When Jesus says seek first here, he's saying prioritize. 00:20:05.920 --> 00:20:06.920 Prioritize. 00:20:06.920 --> 00:20:09.920 Make this your singular aim. 00:20:09.920 --> 00:20:11.920 Put this to the very top of the list. 00:20:11.920 --> 00:20:17.920 Yet again, he's pointing us towards wholehearted discipleship. 00:20:17.920 --> 00:20:29.920 To the pursuit of the kind of righteousness that surpasses the superficial and the external and the kind of pharisaical righteousness that he's been pointing at all the way through the sermon. 00:20:29.920 --> 00:20:32.920 What he wants is kingdom righteousness. 00:20:32.920 --> 00:20:34.920 A single mind, a single heart. 00:20:37.920 --> 00:20:40.920 This is actually why he's been making such a big deal about this issue. 00:20:40.920 --> 00:20:46.920 Being taken up with money, food, or clothing, or possessions, to the extent that it makes you anxious, is to have a divided heart. 00:20:46.920 --> 00:20:50.920 It is to have two masters. 00:20:50.920 --> 00:20:59.920 But if we remember back to the first section of the sermon, one of the distinguishing marks of those who are part of this kingdom is that they hunger and thirst for righteousness. 00:20:59.920 --> 00:21:04.920 And we're told, 548, that they are whole. 00:21:04.920 --> 00:21:07.920 That is, they're undivided as their heavenly Father is whole. 00:21:07.920 --> 00:21:11.920 The translation here is perfect, but we talked about it as wholeness. 00:21:11.920 --> 00:21:22.920 Single-minded, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, that's the top priority, and we will be whole as we emulate our Father. 00:21:22.920 --> 00:21:28.920 As Jesus has said, leave anxiety about these things to those who don't know God. 00:21:28.920 --> 00:21:29.920 We don't need to be anxious. 00:21:29.920 --> 00:21:32.920 We can leave that to people that don't know God as their Father. 00:21:32.920 --> 00:21:43.920 Because the King has come, because the kingdom is here in Jesus Christ, we pursue Christ, and we're taken up with His kingdom and all that that entails. 00:21:43.920 --> 00:21:57.920 One of the mistakes we might make when we hear Jesus contrasting heaven and earth here is He contrasts the future that is permanent and secure and the present that is insecure. 00:21:57.920 --> 00:22:04.920 When we hear that contrast, it is to think that what we need to do is hold on and wait for the end. 00:22:04.920 --> 00:22:08.920 Just get through, here and now, and wait for the end. 00:22:08.920 --> 00:22:10.920 Wait for that which is permanent. 00:22:10.920 --> 00:22:14.920 But verse 33 here reminds us that the Christian life is not passive like that. 00:22:14.920 --> 00:22:18.920 We come in through poverty of spirit, chapter 5, verse 3. 00:22:18.920 --> 00:22:22.920 We recognize that we have sinned against God and we don't deserve any part of His kingdom. 00:22:22.920 --> 00:22:30.920 But that through faith in Jesus, His life, His death, and His resurrection, we are drawn into the kingdom and adopted by our Heavenly Father. 00:22:30.920 --> 00:22:34.920 That humbles us. That is the heart of the Christian good news. 00:22:34.920 --> 00:22:40.920 Our salvation is all the work of God and He draws us to Himself and brings us into His family all by His grace. 00:22:40.920 --> 00:22:43.920 Nothing that we do, we simply respond. 00:22:43.920 --> 00:22:49.920 And when we see that as we truly should see it, when we see it clearly as it is, it humbles us. 00:22:49.920 --> 00:22:51.920 It humbles us. 00:22:51.920 --> 00:22:56.920 That is, we say, nothing in my hand I bring, simply to the cross of Christ I cling. 00:22:56.920 --> 00:23:03.920 And in that humility, we come into the kingdom. 00:23:03.920 --> 00:23:13.920 But that humility continues as we actively seek to live the wholehearted, distinctive life to which we are called as citizens of that kingdom. 00:23:13.920 --> 00:23:17.920 The life that He empowers us to live by His Spirit. 00:23:17.920 --> 00:23:26.920 And we live like this so that His will is done, verse 10, on earth as it is in heaven. 00:23:26.920 --> 00:23:30.920 On earth as it is in heaven. 00:23:30.920 --> 00:23:39.920 When we see things like that, when we see things this way, we can leave anxiety about the future, verse 34. 00:23:39.920 --> 00:23:42.920 We can leave that anxiety to worry about itself. 00:23:42.920 --> 00:24:00.920 When our Father has come, when we see that He has come to us in Christ with such grace, and we are so secure, and the life that we live, we do in the power of the Holy Spirit under His guidance and His love and His care. 00:24:00.920 --> 00:24:07.920 We can leave worry to others. 00:24:07.920 --> 00:24:11.920 Jonathan Pennington, who has written a great book on the Sermon on the Mount, says this, 00:24:11.920 --> 00:24:26.920 The final solution then to the anxiety about money problem is to set one's heart and mind to seeking God's way of being in the world and His coming reign, which promises to result in all of one's needs being truly met. 00:24:26.920 --> 00:24:34.920 This is the next decisive step on the path to cure an anxious soul. 00:24:34.920 --> 00:24:39.920 But verse 33 does leave us with a question, doesn't it? 00:24:39.920 --> 00:24:43.920 It seems that Jesus here has made a direct connection between faithfulness and provision. 00:24:43.920 --> 00:24:46.920 All these things will be added to you. 00:24:46.920 --> 00:24:51.920 The question is, well, what about the faithful Christians who have not experienced this provision? 00:24:51.920 --> 00:24:55.920 Those who have starved or gone without their basic needs being met? 00:24:55.920 --> 00:25:01.920 Well, this is part of a bigger question about the providence of God, one that runs really all the way through the Bible. 00:25:01.920 --> 00:25:07.920 And for a kind of extensive treatment, we don't have time now. 00:25:07.920 --> 00:25:30.920 But we should acknowledge, as one theologian has said, that the sermon is no different from the rest of Scripture in making true promises that reflect God's character and care, but which all fly under the banner of God's mysterious providence and submission to His will in faith. 00:25:30.920 --> 00:25:42.920 And we can think about that, and we can try and intellectualize it and process it, but of course our model here must be the Lord Jesus Himself. 00:25:42.920 --> 00:25:49.920 The one who, when His needs weren't met, trusted Himself to His Father's care and pursued the righteousness of the kingdom. 00:25:49.920 --> 00:25:59.920 If we think of the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus' needs went unmet, as we would have perceived them, and yet He knew His Father does all things well. 00:25:59.920 --> 00:26:04.920 And so He could pray, not my will, but Yours be done. 00:26:04.920 --> 00:26:10.920 That's our prayer when the future is unclear. 00:26:10.920 --> 00:26:15.920 That's our prayer when we don't know how ends are going to meet. 00:26:15.920 --> 00:26:23.920 Because that is the posture of faith in the face of the mysterious providence of God, and that is what we must pray as we seek God's kingdom. 00:26:23.920 --> 00:26:34.920 The kingdom of our Father, the one who holds us in His hand, even when ends don't seem like they're going to meet. 00:26:34.920 --> 00:26:37.920 So, Jesus couldn't make the contrast clearer. 00:26:37.920 --> 00:26:43.920 When you pursue money for yourself apart from God, the result is never the sole peace that you're seeking, it's only anxiety. 00:26:43.920 --> 00:26:51.920 When you store up treasure on earth, when that is your goal, anxiety always follows. 00:26:51.920 --> 00:26:57.920 But whatever our circumstances, however uncertain our financial situation might be, 00:26:57.920 --> 00:27:04.920 Jesus can tell us that when we trust our Father's care and pursue our Father's kingdom, 00:27:04.920 --> 00:27:10.920 we are freed from anxiety to grow and flourish as those who know the Sermon on the Mount, 00:27:10.920 --> 00:27:17.920 blessedness of living in the love of our Heavenly Father. 00:27:17.920 --> 00:27:19.920 Let's pray together.