WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.280 Good morning, church. Good to see you all this morning. Let me invite you to turn with me 00:00:05.280 --> 00:00:12.200 to Matthew chapter 6, verses 19 through 24. That's page 761 in the Pew Bible. 00:00:15.860 --> 00:00:19.080 As you turn there, let me pray, and then I'll read. 00:00:22.460 --> 00:00:25.580 Father, by Your Spirit, help us to hear and understand Your Word today 00:00:25.579 --> 00:00:33.500 so that we might turn from sin more and more and turn to Christ more and more, who is our life. 00:00:35.119 --> 00:00:40.079 And in beholding Christ through Your Word, would we become more like Him by Your Spirit. 00:00:41.000 --> 00:00:45.840 And in becoming like Him, would we honor and praise You with all of our lives, Father, as You 00:00:45.840 --> 00:00:54.239 so wonderfully deserve. We pray this in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. Amen. All right. Matthew 6, 00:00:54.240 --> 00:00:58.640 19 through 24. Let me read this for us. Jesus says, 00:00:58.780 --> 00:01:03.980 Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break 00:01:03.980 --> 00:01:10.340 in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys 00:01:10.340 --> 00:01:15.920 and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be 00:01:15.920 --> 00:01:23.719 also. The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. 00:01:24.599 --> 00:01:31.439 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, 00:01:32.260 --> 00:01:40.320 how great is the darkness! No one can serve two masters, for he will either hate the one and love 00:01:40.319 --> 00:01:48.759 the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. 00:01:51.399 --> 00:01:56.219 Well, as we come to a new section on the Sermon on the Mount today, we come to a topic that most 00:01:56.219 --> 00:02:02.819 Christians don't really talk about. If I were to ask you what are some of the top kind of failures or 00:02:02.819 --> 00:02:07.619 sins in the church that dishonor Christ and wound our souls and our communities, you know, 00:02:07.620 --> 00:02:14.180 you might list kind of hypocrisies of various kinds. Or if I were to ask you what are some areas of 00:02:14.180 --> 00:02:20.939 obedience that you personally are struggling with right now? Where is the battle for sanctification 00:02:20.939 --> 00:02:25.060 of becoming more like Christ by the Holy Spirit? Where is that happening right now for you? 00:02:26.500 --> 00:02:35.200 Well, you might list lust or pride or anger or complacency, fear, doubt. 00:02:35.199 --> 00:02:41.519 But I wonder how many of us would list what Jesus pinpoints in our passage today. 00:02:43.159 --> 00:02:47.799 How many of us would look at our lives and say, you know where I really need help, what I really 00:02:47.799 --> 00:02:58.539 struggle with is greed. That's what Jesus is talking about here in verses 19 through 24, greed. In verse 19, 00:02:58.620 --> 00:03:04.759 he talks about the impulse to amass treasures on earth. In verse 23, he talks about having a bad eye, 00:03:04.759 --> 00:03:10.519 which as we'll see in a little bit was a metaphor for being stingy, for being greedy. And in verse 24, 00:03:10.599 --> 00:03:17.639 he talks about serving money like a god. So, this whole passage is about the dangerous nature of greed 00:03:17.639 --> 00:03:22.859 and how followers of Jesus should live differently in relationship to money and material possessions. 00:03:22.860 --> 00:03:31.960 But do we need to talk about greed and money today? Is this really an important topic? Absolutely. 00:03:33.380 --> 00:03:38.640 And for a few reasons. First, living with Jesus as our King means that every aspect of our life is meant 00:03:38.640 --> 00:03:43.580 to come under His kingdom, under His rule. And that includes our material resources and our money. 00:03:43.580 --> 00:03:49.080 Everything we do in this life is meant to be done for His glory. And that includes our approach to 00:03:49.080 --> 00:03:55.840 material wealth. Second, the Bible has a lot to say about the nature and danger of wealth and greed. 00:03:55.920 --> 00:04:01.660 So, clearly, God thought this was a vital topic for us, His people. If it doesn't seem relevant to us, 00:04:01.740 --> 00:04:08.080 maybe that's because we're missing something that we ought not to have missed. Third, just a simple 00:04:08.080 --> 00:04:13.420 glance through the passage before us shows us how important this topic is. Jesus here talks about 00:04:13.419 --> 00:04:21.560 our heart. He talks about living in the light or being filled with darkness. He talks about the nature 00:04:21.560 --> 00:04:27.759 of serving God and the possibility that we might not be serving Him at all but actually despising Him. 00:04:28.899 --> 00:04:37.819 So, the stakes are high. But, you know, looking out at the world, we know the stakes are high. 00:04:37.819 --> 00:04:45.259 Every year in our country, the gap between rich and poor seems to grow and grow and grow. 00:04:47.040 --> 00:04:51.779 Every year in our world, poverty and hunger ravage millions and millions of people. 00:04:53.079 --> 00:04:55.839 And it's not because there's a scarcity of resources. 00:04:55.839 --> 00:05:05.060 It's because there's something fundamentally broken in the world and in us because of sin. But here, 00:05:05.179 --> 00:05:10.620 Jesus looks at His disciples and He says, you're going to model something different. 00:05:11.739 --> 00:05:17.459 The world says, amass wealth, maximize profit, destroy the competition. The world says, 00:05:17.459 --> 00:05:23.519 money will give you what you always wanted, security, wisdom, freedom. But Jesus says, 00:05:24.120 --> 00:05:33.459 that's all a lie. That's not the path of flourishing. It's the path of sorrow and exploitation and death. 00:05:34.740 --> 00:05:37.819 Money is a God we must not serve. 00:05:37.819 --> 00:05:47.360 So, in our text, Jesus exposes greed for what it is. And the ESV breaks our text into three paragraphs, 00:05:47.620 --> 00:05:51.879 which I think is right exegetically. So, that's how we'll consider what Jesus has to tell us about 00:05:51.879 --> 00:05:54.980 the nature of greed. We'll do it in three points following each of these paragraphs. 00:05:55.939 --> 00:06:05.779 And the first point is this, greed will make you eternally poor. The God of money promises security, 00:06:05.779 --> 00:06:12.099 but it is not so. We see this in verses 19 through 21. Let me read those verses again. 00:06:12.579 --> 00:06:16.439 Jesus says, don't lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves 00:06:16.439 --> 00:06:21.799 break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys 00:06:21.799 --> 00:06:26.599 and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 00:06:27.839 --> 00:06:31.819 You know, amassing wealth in this life on the surface seems like kind of a common sense thing to do, 00:06:31.819 --> 00:06:38.899 doesn't it? After all, if I can amass more than I need, then I'll be abundantly secure. And not just 00:06:38.899 --> 00:06:48.980 secure, I'll be happy. And that's when greed sets in. Now, what is greed? How should we define it? 00:06:50.139 --> 00:06:57.539 This week, I ran across this definition, which I found helpful. Greed, simply put, is when desire 00:06:57.540 --> 00:07:08.040 outstrips need. When desire outstrips need. When I'm driven to accumulate for myself beyond what I need. 00:07:09.740 --> 00:07:15.080 When Jesus talks about laying up for yourself treasure on earth, that's what He's talking about. He's 00:07:15.080 --> 00:07:22.320 talking about the desire to amass more than I need. In the gospel according to Luke, Jesus tells a parable 00:07:22.319 --> 00:07:27.560 that I think illustrates this point well. This is from Luke 12, 15 through 21, and I'll read this for us 00:07:27.560 --> 00:07:32.680 because I think it's very connected to the passage from Matthew's gospel. Jesus said to them, 00:07:33.319 --> 00:07:41.759 take care and be on your guard against all covetousness. Greed. For one's life does not consist 00:07:41.759 --> 00:07:46.680 in the abundance of his possessions. And Jesus told them a parable saying, the land of a rich man 00:07:46.680 --> 00:07:52.199 produced plentifully. And he thought to himself, what shall I do? For I have nowhere to store my crops. 00:07:52.319 --> 00:07:59.959 And he said, I'll do this. I'll tear down my barns and build larger ones. And there I will store all 00:07:59.959 --> 00:08:07.680 my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years. 00:08:07.839 --> 00:08:18.860 Relax, eat, drink, be merry. But God said to him, fool, this night your soul is required of you. 00:08:18.860 --> 00:08:25.080 And the things you have prepared, whose will they be? Then Jesus concludes, 00:08:26.340 --> 00:08:32.060 so is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. 00:08:32.059 --> 00:08:43.179 So what is Jesus saying? Is he saying that we, you know, shouldn't have an emergency fund as a family 00:08:43.179 --> 00:08:47.299 for rainy days? Is he saying we shouldn't reasonably save for retirement? Is he saying 00:08:47.299 --> 00:08:50.979 that we shouldn't enjoy the good gifts that God gives us that come as a result of hard work? 00:08:52.199 --> 00:08:54.879 No, I don't think Jesus is saying any of those things, but he is saying, 00:08:54.879 --> 00:09:00.460 if your goal in life is to amass wealth, if you're striving to build up earthly treasure, 00:09:00.799 --> 00:09:06.460 if that's where your security, hope, and joy is found, you will be inevitably disappointed. 00:09:07.820 --> 00:09:18.120 Why? Because all these things will eventually fade. They will rust, and they will be taken by others. 00:09:18.120 --> 00:09:23.019 They will give out and leave you wanting. 00:09:25.740 --> 00:09:30.820 And of course, that's not just true of material wealth, right? Think of all the other earthly 00:09:30.820 --> 00:09:37.000 treasures, as it were, that we base our lives upon. It could be status or fame. It could be privilege 00:09:37.000 --> 00:09:42.639 or success. It could be intelligence. It could be artistic achievement. It could be power or position. 00:09:42.639 --> 00:09:48.580 None of that will withstand the rust of time and the threat of being stolen away. 00:09:51.379 --> 00:09:55.399 But is there an alternative? What are we supposed to do otherwise? 00:09:57.299 --> 00:10:04.100 Well, Jesus says, lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys 00:10:04.100 --> 00:10:10.960 and where thieves do not break in and steal. In other words, rather than using our material 00:10:10.960 --> 00:10:17.700 resources to amass our own earthly prosperity and security and luxury, Jesus says, use your material 00:10:17.700 --> 00:10:28.639 resources to bless others. Live lives of simplicity rather than luxury so that you will have enough to 00:10:28.639 --> 00:10:39.019 share with others. View your material resources as what they truly are, something that belongs ultimately to 00:10:39.019 --> 00:10:48.460 God of which you and I are simply the steward. And His purpose in giving you and I these resources is, 00:10:48.759 --> 00:10:53.600 yes, to provide for your needs, yes, to provide for the needs of your family, but also to share and to 00:10:53.600 --> 00:11:03.600 distribute to those in need. The early church, I think, was more clear-eyed and courageous when talking 00:11:03.600 --> 00:11:10.700 about this than we are today. John Chrysostom, not one to ever mince words, once said, 00:11:12.139 --> 00:11:19.420 not only is the theft of others' goods, but also the failure to share one's goods with others, 00:11:20.879 --> 00:11:28.860 theft and swindle and defraudation. Did you catch what he said there? Not only theft of others' goods, 00:11:28.860 --> 00:11:34.060 but also the failure to share is theft and swindle and defraudation. 00:11:37.000 --> 00:11:43.240 Now look, as Americans living in a capitalist society, I know that hits us the wrong way, 00:11:44.680 --> 00:11:47.820 but maybe they saw something that we failed to see. 00:11:47.820 --> 00:11:55.900 But notice the positive side here in our passage. Living lives of simplicity and generosity and 00:11:55.900 --> 00:12:01.500 solidarity with our brothers and sisters and those in need and using our material resources to bless 00:12:01.500 --> 00:12:09.200 others and advance God's kingdom, what is the result? Jesus says, it's a treasure that cannot fade 00:12:09.200 --> 00:12:16.700 and cannot be taken away. Do you want to have lasting treasure, Jesus says, a lasting inheritance that 00:12:16.700 --> 00:12:24.780 you will enjoy forever? Then do something radical. Live simply and share generously for the kingdom. 00:12:27.180 --> 00:12:34.280 Is this not an incredible trade that Jesus is talking about? He says that you can take something 00:12:34.280 --> 00:12:42.900 that has no lasting value, that will certainly rust and fade, earthly wealth, and you can turn it into 00:12:42.899 --> 00:12:50.279 something of eternal worth. That you can take worthless quartz. I remember growing up, we had a gravel 00:12:50.279 --> 00:12:56.059 driveway, and I remember the first time we had the gravel laid out, there were these like shiny rocks 00:12:56.059 --> 00:13:01.399 in there, and I pulled one out, and it was clear and shiny, and I thought, this is amazing. Look at this 00:13:01.399 --> 00:13:07.379 thing. And my mom was like, that's quartz. It's worthless. Friends, but you can take what is 00:13:07.379 --> 00:13:17.879 ultimately of very little value eternally and turn it into diamonds. Who wouldn't take that trade? 00:13:22.299 --> 00:13:30.539 Now, to be clear, when Jesus speaks of laying up treasure in heaven, He's not talking about earning 00:13:30.539 --> 00:13:39.759 merits through good works. To be clear, our righteous standing before God, our adoption into God's family, 00:13:40.279 --> 00:13:47.120 our entrance into His kingdom of grace, that comes solely by grace through faith in Christ alone. 00:13:47.939 --> 00:13:54.120 No amount of generosity on our part could earn the forgiveness of our sins and merit a right 00:13:54.120 --> 00:13:58.699 relationship with God. Only God's work of grace through the death and resurrection of Jesus could 00:13:58.700 --> 00:14:06.080 ever accomplish that. So, when Jesus speaks of treasure in heaven here, what is He talking about? 00:14:06.140 --> 00:14:14.700 What is that treasure? Well, the New Testament does speak in multiple places about varying rewards 00:14:14.700 --> 00:14:21.220 for Christians in the age to come. Jesus' parable of the talents is one example of this. If you remember 00:14:21.220 --> 00:14:28.080 that parable, you can read that maybe later this afternoon and find it. But what will the nature of our 00:14:28.080 --> 00:14:34.740 treasure be in the age to come? Now, surely there are some things that we can't imagine what that will be 00:14:34.740 --> 00:14:44.700 in this finite earthly life. But I think at the root, what that treasure will be will be an increased 00:14:44.700 --> 00:14:55.660 capacity to enjoy and delight in God. And part of that joy and delight in God will be to see 00:14:55.659 --> 00:15:04.899 the eternal good that God brought about through the church's simplicity and generosity in this age. 00:15:06.240 --> 00:15:12.600 What could be a greater treasure than seeing the faces of men and women who came to know Christ 00:15:12.600 --> 00:15:18.240 and spend eternity in His kingdom because we decided to give rather than hoard our material wealth? 00:15:18.240 --> 00:15:23.279 What could be a greater treasure than hearing your heavenly Father say, 00:15:23.539 --> 00:15:28.379 well done, good and faithful servant? You've been faithful with little. Now you will be entrusted with 00:15:28.379 --> 00:15:37.779 much. Enter into the joy of your Master. Sharing the joy of God, that's the only treasure that really 00:15:37.779 --> 00:15:43.960 matters. And that's something that amassing earthly wealth will never give you. 00:15:43.960 --> 00:15:52.900 But greed, you see, doesn't want us to see that. Greed wants us to think that we need more and more and 00:15:52.900 --> 00:16:01.300 more. But in reality, everything we amass in this life will pass away. Greed in the long run will make 00:16:01.300 --> 00:16:09.259 you eternally poor. But what Jesus is saying here is more than just about the sort of permanence of 00:16:09.259 --> 00:16:14.080 heavenly riches and the impermanence of earthly riches. He ends the paragraph by saying, 00:16:14.659 --> 00:16:22.179 for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Where your treasure is, where you place it 00:16:22.179 --> 00:16:31.939 and store it, there your heart will be also. You see, friends, how we handle our money isn't morally 00:16:31.940 --> 00:16:38.700 neutral. Where we put our treasure is where our hearts will go. 00:16:40.800 --> 00:16:47.180 In the Bible, your heart is like the center of your personality. It's sort of what's under your 00:16:47.180 --> 00:16:52.680 emotions and your will and your intellect. It's that core part of you. And at the center of us as human 00:16:52.680 --> 00:16:59.140 beings is the fact that we're worshiping creatures. We can't help but worship. We praise, we adore, we delight 00:16:59.139 --> 00:17:06.460 in the object of our worship. And that thing that comes out of our heart is actually what shapes what 00:17:06.460 --> 00:17:15.039 we feel and think and do. And Jesus is telling us here, if you amass wealth on earth, your heart will 00:17:15.039 --> 00:17:21.859 be inevitably wrapped up in it. It will occupy more and more of your heart's desires. It will drive more 00:17:21.859 --> 00:17:25.859 and more of your thoughts and feelings and emotions. It will consume more and more of your choices, 00:17:25.859 --> 00:17:33.759 your values, your dreams. And it's this very present spiritual impact of greed on our hearts 00:17:33.759 --> 00:17:40.759 that Jesus addresses in the next two points He makes. So, first point, Jesus tells us that greed 00:17:40.759 --> 00:17:49.599 will make you eternally poor. Second, Jesus tells us that greed will make you internally dark. 00:17:49.599 --> 00:17:57.500 The God of money promises to make you seem wise, but it is not so. 00:17:59.559 --> 00:18:03.079 Listen again to verses 22 through 23. The eye is the lamp of the body. 00:18:04.019 --> 00:18:10.699 So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, 00:18:10.919 --> 00:18:15.279 your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, 00:18:15.279 --> 00:18:24.619 how great is the darkness. Now, these verses are at first a little tricky to grasp. And that's because 00:18:24.619 --> 00:18:31.000 Jesus, as He sometimes often does in His teaching, is using a play on words with a common expression of 00:18:31.000 --> 00:18:36.259 His day. And that common expression that He's kind of playing on is found in verse 23, where Jesus 00:18:36.259 --> 00:18:44.460 mentions a bad eye or an evil eye. Now, having a bad eye was a common expression for someone who is sort of 00:18:44.460 --> 00:18:51.600 greedy or stingy. Where do we see that? Well, one example of that is in Proverbs 28, 22. 00:18:52.299 --> 00:18:58.299 Our English translations read, a stingy man hastens after wealth and does not know that poverty will 00:18:58.299 --> 00:19:04.960 come upon him. But literally what that verse says is, a man's eye who is evil hastens after wealth 00:19:04.960 --> 00:19:10.920 and does not know that poverty will come upon him. We see the same expression in Deuteronomy 15 in the 00:19:10.920 --> 00:19:14.680 context of helping those in need. Deuteronomy 15 verse 9 says, 00:19:14.840 --> 00:19:19.400 Take care lest your eye look grudgingly on your poor brother and you give him nothing. 00:19:20.800 --> 00:19:24.620 Literally, that verse reads, take care lest your eye be evil toward your brother. 00:19:25.580 --> 00:19:29.620 You see there, it's talking about greed. It's talking about wanting more than you need. 00:19:32.019 --> 00:19:36.400 In fact, we see the same expression later in Matthew's gospel itself. In chapter 20, Jesus tells 00:19:36.400 --> 00:19:41.400 a parable about a vineyard owner who rebukes a group of workers because those workers are begrudging the 00:19:41.400 --> 00:19:49.019 owner's generosity. But literally, the owner rebukes those workers for having an evil eye towards his 00:19:49.019 --> 00:19:58.380 generosity. Okay, back to Matthew 6. Jesus starts in this paragraph. He starts kind of with just a basic 00:19:58.380 --> 00:20:03.240 understanding of eyesight in verse 22. He says, the eye is the lamp of the body. He's sort of drawing his 00:20:03.240 --> 00:20:07.640 crowd in. Oh, yeah, okay, that makes sense, right? The eye takes in all the light that we receive 00:20:07.640 --> 00:20:13.779 and allows the rest of your body to sort of know what's going on around you. We got that. But then 00:20:13.779 --> 00:20:19.660 Jesus begins the play on words. He says, yes, the eye is the lamp of your body, but what if you have a 00:20:19.660 --> 00:20:26.519 good eye? That is, what if you're generous? And what if you have a bad eye? That is, what if you're 00:20:26.519 --> 00:20:34.099 stricken by greed? What sort of light will be in your body then? What sort of light will flood in? 00:20:34.920 --> 00:20:40.420 He says, well, a generous eye will flood the body with light, but the greedy eye will flood the body 00:20:40.420 --> 00:20:51.079 with darkness. In other words, Jesus is making a moral point here. If you allow greed to take root, 00:20:51.079 --> 00:21:00.599 it will shape how you see the world. If you see the world with eyes shaped by greed, the desire to have 00:21:00.599 --> 00:21:07.220 more than you need, then it will produce darkness in you. It will cloud your judgments. It will cloud 00:21:07.220 --> 00:21:11.039 your view of other people. It will cloud your view of what's right and wrong. It will cloud your view of 00:21:11.039 --> 00:21:18.899 what's possible and impossible. You know, the first thing that greed clouds, actually, is our awareness 00:21:18.900 --> 00:21:24.500 of greed itself. You know, Jesus says, remember that parable from Luke? Jesus says, be on your guard 00:21:24.500 --> 00:21:29.380 against all forms of covetousness of greed. It's funny he says we have to be on guard against greed. 00:21:29.440 --> 00:21:33.740 He doesn't say that for other sins, right? He doesn't say, be on your guard against adultery, 00:21:34.300 --> 00:21:40.200 right? Because, like, you know when you're doing that. But greed is different. It's more subtle. 00:21:41.900 --> 00:21:48.880 He says it's hard to spot in ourselves. We always see others who have more, don't we? Who are more 00:21:48.880 --> 00:21:54.180 affluent than us? And we think, well, they probably struggle with this, but not me. 00:21:55.420 --> 00:22:02.060 I remember a family member told me a story one time. They were at a gathering of some friends and 00:22:02.060 --> 00:22:06.880 some friends of friends in the main line of Philadelphia, which is a very wealthy area of 00:22:06.880 --> 00:22:11.480 Philadelphia. This person lived in a very affluent neighborhood. They had a lot of material resources, 00:22:11.480 --> 00:22:15.360 and they were contemplating, it was a number of years ago, they were contemplating an upcoming election, 00:22:15.359 --> 00:22:19.719 and they thought, you know, if so-and-so wins the election, I just don't know how we'll handle it. 00:22:19.859 --> 00:22:26.359 Middle-class people like us, what are we going to do? And I thought, middle-class people like you? 00:22:27.259 --> 00:22:32.699 The perception was so skewed about their place in the grand socioeconomic of things. 00:22:34.819 --> 00:22:41.439 But friends, we're all a little bit like that. We have a hard time seeing this in our own hearts. 00:22:41.440 --> 00:22:49.600 So how do we counteract it? How do we work against that blinding effect that greed has? 00:22:51.279 --> 00:22:55.340 Well, it will take some hard questions, I think, and some hard practices. One thing to ask is, 00:22:56.000 --> 00:23:01.500 am I living at the edge of my resources with no financial margin? 00:23:01.500 --> 00:23:09.579 Or am I willing to forego things that might enable a little more margin? 00:23:13.339 --> 00:23:20.000 You know, second thing, and this is very hard, you know, do you have someone in your life in a 00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:28.980 similar place as you, a fellow Christian, that you can talk to and seek some advice about how to be 00:23:28.980 --> 00:23:32.860 living generously given the resources that you have? 00:23:36.779 --> 00:23:45.700 But, you know, the darkness of greed goes deeper. Jesus says, how great is this darkness? 00:23:46.720 --> 00:23:52.940 You know, we sometimes think money and greed is just a game, but it's not. You know, historically, 00:23:52.940 --> 00:23:58.960 and even today, you know, there are horrifying examples of this, of how greed shapes our moral 00:23:58.960 --> 00:24:06.460 calculus. Think with me about a hard topic, about the slave trade in the 17th century. 00:24:08.000 --> 00:24:15.420 What drove the slave trade, friends, was greed. Cheap labor was needed in the colonies in the 00:24:15.420 --> 00:24:21.279 Americas so that greater sums of wealth could be accumulated. And so, through exploitation and greed, 00:24:21.279 --> 00:24:27.460 human beings from Africa were enslaved and sold and treated as property. That's bad enough. 00:24:28.660 --> 00:24:35.660 But in order to justify that exploitation and enslavement of other human beings, what happened? 00:24:37.960 --> 00:24:47.339 Well, ideas of racial inferiority began to crop up. Racist ideas were circulated and created to justify 00:24:47.339 --> 00:24:58.939 the enslavement of Africans. Why? Because of greed. The God of money produced a whole discourse of 00:24:58.939 --> 00:25:08.819 violence-justifying hatred. Do you see now why Jesus can say, if your eye is bad, your whole body will be 00:25:08.819 --> 00:25:14.500 full of darkness? And if the light in you is darkness, the darkness is so great. 00:25:18.439 --> 00:25:23.220 Perhaps you can think of other examples of how greed leads to deep moral compromise. 00:25:23.939 --> 00:25:25.240 It's true in ministry. 00:25:27.439 --> 00:25:35.619 Sadly, many pastors and ministry leaders are afraid to teach biblical orthodoxy for fear that they might lose 00:25:35.619 --> 00:25:40.959 congregants. And if they lose congregants, the budgets shrink. 00:25:44.459 --> 00:25:49.919 And of course, shading the truth is justified as, you know, we need to reach more people or we need 00:25:49.919 --> 00:25:58.859 to change with the times. But underneath, it's often a subtle form, an unseen form of greed. 00:25:58.859 --> 00:26:07.199 Greed. You see, our approach to material wealth is not neutral. It shapes us. It shapes how we view 00:26:07.199 --> 00:26:17.039 the world and each other, and it shapes the choices we make. But Jesus pushes us even deeper in the next 00:26:17.039 --> 00:26:24.399 paragraph. Greed doesn't just make us internally dark. Greed makes us spiritually captive. This is our 00:26:24.400 --> 00:26:30.800 third point. Greed will make you spiritually captive. The God of money promises freedom, but it is not so. 00:26:31.820 --> 00:26:36.900 We see this in verse 24. No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love 00:26:36.900 --> 00:26:43.140 the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. 00:26:44.759 --> 00:26:49.280 We often think that amassing more and more wealth will bring us freedom, don't we? Freedom to live where 00:26:49.279 --> 00:26:53.019 we want to live, freedom to wear what we want to wear, freedom to drive what we want to drive. 00:26:54.259 --> 00:26:58.319 You know, Harrison Ford could give a whole commercial during the Super Bowl about how 00:26:58.319 --> 00:27:04.200 freedom was our most important value, and he chooses Jeep, even though his name is Ford. 00:27:08.539 --> 00:27:09.859 But Jesus says, no. 00:27:09.859 --> 00:27:20.099 Money will not free you. It will become your master. It will not liberate you. It will enslave you. 00:27:21.559 --> 00:27:26.299 And what will be the signs that we're captive to the God of money? When the desire for money doesn't 00:27:26.299 --> 00:27:31.279 just shape our thinking, but as we… it doesn't just shape our thinking, as we saw in verses 22 and 23, 00:27:31.459 --> 00:27:37.299 but when it begins to dictate our choices and our future. Think about choosing a job, right? 00:27:37.299 --> 00:27:47.839 Surely, and subtly, greed can get us to choose a profession, not just because it's a good fit for 00:27:47.839 --> 00:27:53.500 our gifts and talents, not because we find joy in the work, not because it brings about good for our 00:27:53.500 --> 00:27:58.579 neighbors or our world. Instead, we choose a job because it makes a lot of money. 00:27:58.579 --> 00:28:05.539 Are we really free if we serve the God of money? 00:28:08.839 --> 00:28:14.299 And what if you realize that such a high-paying job actually harms neighborhoods and doesn't bring 00:28:14.299 --> 00:28:19.559 good to people made in God's image? What if you find that in order to make such great sums of wealth, 00:28:19.659 --> 00:28:21.899 neighborhoods are damaged, people are exploited? Is that freedom? 00:28:21.900 --> 00:28:29.360 We often say there's nothing wrong with making a lot of money, perhaps. 00:28:31.860 --> 00:28:37.640 But are you aware of how that money is made and what impact it might be having on your own soul 00:28:37.640 --> 00:28:46.240 and the lives of others? But here's the greatest tragedy of all. The worst part of making money our 00:28:46.240 --> 00:28:55.259 idol is that it alienates us from the true God. You see, friends, there is a God of freedom, 00:28:56.059 --> 00:29:06.620 a living God, a God of love, a God of justice, a God of mercy. But it is impossible to serve the one 00:29:06.619 --> 00:29:13.079 true God and have another God in your life. Your devotion to the one will inevitably lead you to 00:29:13.079 --> 00:29:23.939 despise the other. But the good news is, in the midst of our captivity, the good news is this true 00:29:23.939 --> 00:29:32.419 and living God has acted on our behalf to liberate us from false gods, even the deceptive God of money. 00:29:32.420 --> 00:29:39.480 You see, we go to material wealth. Why? Because we want security. We want freedom. We want to be seen 00:29:39.480 --> 00:29:47.700 as wise. But in the end, we get none of those things. But the living God does something on our behalf 00:29:47.700 --> 00:29:55.820 that actually gives us lasting security and complete freedom. And though it looks like foolishness to the 00:29:55.819 --> 00:30:05.419 world is the utter wisdom of God. When we were dead in our sins and trespasses, when we had accumulated 00:30:05.419 --> 00:30:12.200 infinite debt before God's justice that we could never repay, Jesus Christ gave up the treasures of 00:30:12.200 --> 00:30:17.599 heaven and came to earth to cancel our debt and to credit us with His perfect righteousness. 00:30:17.599 --> 00:30:27.399 At the heart of the good news is an unbelievable exchange. Jesus takes our sin and in exchange gives 00:30:27.399 --> 00:30:35.199 us His righteousness. He takes our debt and gives us infinite riches. And this comes to us completely 00:30:35.199 --> 00:30:45.179 free of charge. Our only part to play is to admit that we're sinners, unable to pay that debt ourselves, 00:30:45.180 --> 00:30:53.140 and to turn and trust solely in the work of Christ on our behalf. And when we do this, God forgives all 00:30:53.140 --> 00:30:59.060 our debt of sin and grants us eternal life, eternal life that begins now as part of His kingdom. 00:31:00.100 --> 00:31:09.519 And that is real security. That is real freedom. And friends, from that place of real security and real 00:31:09.519 --> 00:31:18.980 freedom, our approach to money totally changes, it's not our master anymore. It's not the lens through 00:31:18.980 --> 00:31:27.639 which we see the world. Our eyes are now attuned to God's generosity. Having received His undeserved 00:31:27.639 --> 00:31:33.680 mercy, we now have eyes to see where we can be merciful and generous as an act of praise to Him, 00:31:33.680 --> 00:31:41.920 the incredibly generous and merciful God. We now have our eyes attuned to God's generosity, and we see 00:31:41.920 --> 00:31:49.779 new possibilities. You know, the early church still confuses readers even today, especially when we go 00:31:49.779 --> 00:31:54.299 back and read those accounts in Acts, right? You read the accounts in Acts, and they're just selling 00:31:54.299 --> 00:31:59.880 things and giving it to those in need. And people read that, and they're like, wow, is this communism? 00:31:59.880 --> 00:32:06.460 And you realize, well, no, I mean, they still owned the stuff. It wasn't like a state-run thing. 00:32:08.160 --> 00:32:15.580 And yet at the same time, was the early church driven by the logic of profit-driven, finance-dominated 00:32:15.580 --> 00:32:26.820 capitalism? No. Friends, this water that we swim in does not need to limit what we think is possible. 00:32:26.819 --> 00:32:34.439 The gospel is breaking out into new forms of doing life. His kingdom is at large. 00:32:38.279 --> 00:32:46.899 We are not fundamentally consumers. Our lives, as Jesus says in Luke 12, do not consist in the 00:32:46.899 --> 00:32:54.359 abundance of our possessions. And we certainly do not measure someone else's worth by their capacity to 00:32:54.359 --> 00:33:01.939 produce. And as we view ourselves, we view ourselves as not even belonging to ourselves, 00:33:02.039 --> 00:33:08.659 but belonging to God. And if we ourselves belong to God, then certainly our material stuff belongs to 00:33:08.659 --> 00:33:14.599 Him as well. And our joy is found not in getting more of it, but in giving more of it so that others 00:33:14.599 --> 00:33:20.319 might flourish in being so creative in that, so that others can work and have something to give, 00:33:20.319 --> 00:33:30.319 so that others can flourish together. Friends, our security comes not from the size of our bank 00:33:30.319 --> 00:33:36.879 accounts, but from the reality that God is now our heavenly Father through the gospel of Jesus Christ. 00:33:37.960 --> 00:33:43.079 And if this God, who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, 00:33:43.079 --> 00:33:49.980 if this God did that, will He not also with Him graciously give us all things? 00:33:52.039 --> 00:34:00.480 Brothers and sisters, you cannot serve God in money. Let us serve God. Let's pray. 00:34:06.019 --> 00:34:12.920 Father, help us to see that all we have is a gift from You to be used according to Your 00:34:12.920 --> 00:34:20.180 purposes of the purposes of grace. Father, it is true, where our treasure is, there our hearts will be. 00:34:21.500 --> 00:34:28.079 Lord, we want our hearts to be captivated by the things of You, Your kingdom, Your glory, 00:34:28.820 --> 00:34:33.920 Your paths of peace. So help us to store up treasure not on earth but in heaven. 00:34:35.440 --> 00:34:39.220 Help us to live simply and give generously, 00:34:39.219 --> 00:34:44.980 knowing that in Your paths, Jesus, our real security and wisdom and freedom. 00:34:46.799 --> 00:34:51.459 Grant us wisdom, God, for the facing of these days, 00:34:52.500 --> 00:34:56.839 that in our life together, we might be a signpost 00:34:56.839 --> 00:35:01.219 of Your mercy, Your generosity in Your kingdom. 00:35:02.219 --> 00:35:04.419 In Your name we pray, Jesus. Amen. 00:35:04.419 --> 00:35:04.559 Amen. 00:35:04.559 --> 00:35:04.559 00:35:04.559 --> 00:35:04.559