Transcript

The Center of the Sermon

Today, we have been taking this glance, this glimpse, this look at Jesus’ most famous message: his Sermon on the Mount. It is important to remember why we went there. There was a real conversation among our church leadership that we need to go to Jesus’ words directly. We need to go back to the Good Shepherd and hear from him as we face the many things in our lives this time of year and what we are uniquely in as a church.

We are asking, what could Jesus’ most famous words say to us? The last section we were in was the direct middle of Jesus’ sermon: the Lord’s Prayer. As a Jewish rabbi, Jesus spoke and arranged his talk in a chiastic format, which is a fancy way of saying the middle is the juice. The middle is the point, and everything around it supplements, builds, and supports the middle.

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Most painful part of that prayer right there. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Jesus wanted to give you the prayer and the way of seeing God as a Father who provides and cares. Everything is built around that. Jesus does not randomly tell you what to do. He does not just look at you and say, do what I said. He assumes that you want to be in his world. He assumes that you understand that the way he would run his world, his kingdom, is better.

A Different Kingdom

Today Jesus will talk about money. If you are here thinking, did I invite my friend on the weekend where they talk about money, you are okay. We are not going to ask you to give. Jesus is just going to talk about how ninety percent of your life is consumed with money, and that is why we are stressed, broken, and hopeless.

Why does Jesus bring up things like money? In the weeks before, Scott covered murder, adultery, lying, breaking oaths, divorce, all these hot-topic buttons. Jesus picks them on purpose because he is presenting a new world, one that you might be able to step into as easily as your next breath if you wanted it.

The phrase Jesus taught more than any other was the kingdom of God. In Matthew you also hear kingdom of heaven. They mean the same thing. Heaven is not a box God lives in. God and his goodness are always with him.

I thought we probably all needed some popcorn. This popcorn from home costs $2.99 at Target, and you get about eight in a box. This other popcorn costs $14.24 because King Mickey is on it. It does not taste $14 different to me.

At Disneyland or Disney World, you can get popcorn in a little cardboard box for $7.99. Or you can get a souvenir bucket. Why does Mickey’s popcorn cost more? It probably came from the same place as the Target popcorn. Why would I need a souvenir bucket when I have buckets at home? Because in Mickey’s kingdom, or more appropriately Walt Disney’s kingdom, the rules are different.

When you approach Anaheim, California, you notice that within a five- to ten-mile radius of Disneyland, the shrubbery looks nicer. Restaurants get a little bigger and more elevated. You see signs and Disney characters on things. A 7-Eleven near Disneyland has plushies everywhere because Disneyland, before you even go through its gates, changes the rules around it. It has impact on things not even within its kingdom.

When you step onto the property, the hotels cost more. Is the bed better? No. Is the coffee better? No. But it is more expensive because the rules are different, and we have submitted to a different understanding in that kingdom. We know it is crazy, but we are there because we understand the rules and what we are getting out of the arrangement.

Jesus’ dominant image for helping us understand God is a kingdom. Kings have their range, influence, and values, and they operate from their kingdom. A kingdom is an influence and a value center.

You have a kingdom. Your kingdom is your influence and the range of your values in action. I chose to take popcorn from my house, microwave it here, and give it to you. That was the range of my will, and somehow on a Sunday morning at church, you ate popcorn. I changed your world for a minute. You have that same power.

Our clothes, what we say, and what we do not say reflect the values of our kingdom. Sometimes our kingdom interacts with other kingdoms, and there is a fight for power. We call this marriage. We call this raising children. You have a kingdom, and their kingdom knows no boundaries. You are teaching them the range and boundaries of their kingdom.

Your kingdom is the range of your will in action. Your will can make things happen or diminish things around you. It can create, add, or destroy value. God has entrusted you with a kingdom and incredible power.

Jesus says that if you were to live in his Father’s kingdom, surrender your kingdom to his, and take on its values and goodness, it would have a profound impact on you and everything around you.

There is a kingdom invading our world right now. It is good. It is not your enemy, but it sure feels like it.

There is a kingdom invading our world right now. It is not politically based, though it has incredible political ramifications. It is not a kingdom from people. It is otherworldly and yet familiar. It is more powerful than yours, and sometimes that feels threatening.

When God asks or leads me to do something I do not understand, it threatens my values and my will. But this kingdom has a specific agenda: getting rid of the will and values of other kingdoms that are destroying lives. There are days when God and his will invading your world feel like a threat. We are going to experience some of that today.

Jesus’ Words About Treasure

I want to read our text in its entirety, Matthew 6:19–34. As we read, I hope standing puts us in a posture to hear the words differently. Then we will pray and talk about a few things Jesus said.

God, we acknowledge the teachings of Jesus and how foreign, threatening, and enticing they can be. We acknowledge our inability to live and understand the rules of this good kingdom. Gently invite us again to learn from Jesus. Empower us to receive the goodness you have for us, knowing that you love us, cover us, and invite us only into what is good and best. Amen.

Verse 19 starts with not storing up treasure on earth. After teaching us how to pray and about fasting, Jesus says, now I have to bring up money. Money is humanity’s greatest expression of value. The question Jesus brings up is, what does God value, and is it the same as what you value?

We train children early that if they do not produce at some point in life, they will not have things. We train them to go to school on time, finish on time, and make a living. I am not here to correct that, but the question is clear: what does God value?

Treasure That Lasts

Jesus says not to store up treasure here because it can be taken away. My dad collected many things, but he valued fishing equipment most of all. We had a back room filled with fishing poles, lures, and lines. Any avid fisherman would have loved his lure and tackle boxes.

When he got ill and could no longer work, those things went away. We found places to give them. We donated them to an organization in Arizona teaching kids to fish. A man came to my dad’s funeral because of how much tackle they received. That was beautiful, but my dad spent thousands of dollars on lures he never got to use. They went to someone else.

How often have money and acquiring things that rust can destroy or thieves can steal burned us? The message of our life is, if I just had this, I would be happy. God reminds us that none of that goes with us into eternity.

But heaven values something. A pastor mentoring me once asked, do you know how to store up treasure in heaven? I had been a Christian for several years and had no idea. Is it prayer, going to church, being generous, or turning my money around and giving it away?

He said, the one thing we take into eternity is relationships.

Relationships follow us into eternity. The heart of heaven is relationship.

Let that haunt you and excite you at the same time. Relationships have a profound impact on who we are and who others are. God himself is the mysterious relationship of Father, Son, and Spirit. Heaven itself is relationship. What we value directs the course of our soul.

Jesus says, invest in people. Put your money toward relationships. That does not mean you need to buy someone something expensive. It flips your values and asks why you would want money if you would not use it to bless and connect with people.

Some people take time off because they are excited to be with family. Others force themselves to take time off because they worry about productivity. When a doctor tells us to make healthy choices because they affect the length of our life, the length of life matters because we want to be with people for a long time.

How often do we choose a substance, food, drink, or craving over the relationships that would be limited by those choices? God is inviting us into a better kingdom. If you store up treasure on earth, it will let you down. You have watched it happen over and over.

A Single Aim

In verse 22, Jesus says the eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body is full of light. If your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body is full of darkness. Why is Jesus talking about our eyes when he was talking about money?

The King James Version reads it as if your eye is single. What Jesus intends is that when you have a singular aim in life, you are free. When you have conflicting values, you are a mess. It darkens your path.

Our eye is the image of what directs where we go. If you want to walk on a narrow beam, do not look at your feet. Look a few feet ahead, where you want your feet to be. If you look at moving things, you get confused and wobbly. If you look where you want to be, it smooths your path.

Where do you want to be? What relationships do you still want when you are eighty-five or ninety-five? What kind of person do you hope to be when you enter eternity? If your eye is single, you can go freely where you are headed.

Aim for something good, and do not waver in your aim. If what you aim for is good, your whole life will be full of light. If you cannot even aim, and what you aim at is bad, how lost you will be.

Jesus then says no one can serve two masters. He is playing with the idea of double vision. Imagine holding two jobs with contradictory schedules, working in marketing for Apple and Microsoft, or writing content for Fox News and CNN. This is the position Jesus says many humans are in. Their values go in nine directions at once.

Jesus says you do not have to wonder. Seek God and what he would have you do. Then you are free and clear.

Trusting God With Worry

Jesus wants to challenge our values, and money is a way of getting at what we value. In verses 25 through 34, he talks about flowers, animals, and not worrying.

When someone challenges your relationship with money, you immediately ask, what am I supposed to do about my bills? Who is going to do this? How will that happen? There is practicality here. Every one of us knows what it is like for someone to say, just recenter, you are panicky and worried.

Sometimes a pastor says worry is a sin. That is a clunky phrase for me. Worry is a natural human expression. Telling someone who worries that they are sinning does not help with worry. It becomes an endless cycle.

I do not think Jesus is saying that if you are anxious, stop it. He is saying that the competing ideas of your kingdom and God’s kingdom require surrender at some point. Either free yourself and do not pursue God, or give it up to him. You would be better off.

Jesus talks about being lukewarm. I would rather you be hot or cold, against me or for me, but not in the middle. The middle does not make sense. You will be divided and confused.

Stop chasing money so you can finally feel secure. Every time more money comes your way, you think, we made it, and then the refrigerator breaks, a relative gets sick, or a situation comes up. The money finds a place to land that was not in the budget.

We have to question our values. Who do I want to be? Who do I want with me at the end of my life? When someone tells you not to worry, it is threatening. But God is insisting that you live with the end in mind.

People who work with those nearing the end of life know that the room and atmosphere are almost always the same: people are clear about what they wanted, what they did not get, who they are, and what they wish were different. Our regrets are crystal clear in those moments. Jesus says we do not have to wait for that day to have clarity.

Seek First the Kingdom

Jesus says, seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. From this point on, you can singularly focus on what God has for you.

Proverbs 3:5 and 6 says, trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. When you lean on something, you count on it to catch you and support your weight. You are living in absolute faith, and when it does not, it is catastrophic.

I have a magnet for being in chairs that break. Nothing diminishes you more as a human. You are sitting there, and then you break the chair and think, all right, I will not eat chips tomorrow.

When you are counting on something to catch you, Jesus says you can count on God to catch you. Put your confidence in him and his kingdom. Aim your life after God and what God values: people. God values people and relationships. Aim at that and let God provide your needs.

This contradicts the ways we are taught to live. Jesus says to not lean on your own understanding, to acknowledge God in all your ways, and he will direct your paths. Acknowledging God is the word we need to land on today.

Dallas Willard put it this way: do the next right thing you already know you can do. What is the next good or right thing you already know you could do?

John Mark Comer has helped reshape what we think about discipleship. Our church has taken it on as a mission and directive: be with Jesus, be like Jesus, and do as Jesus did.

What is the next right thing you can do to be more with Jesus today and into a new year?

What would it look like to be with Jesus today, something you could do today, and to go into a new year? Maybe you need to get right with God again. You pray at a meal or at a church function, but have you and God had a good one-on-one recently? Have you gone on a long walk and had it out?

Maybe the way to be with Jesus is to pray again, live with the end in mind, and ask whether you like your life and where it is going. What keeps you from trusting God? What keeps you from speaking to God anymore? Look at that as you enter a new year.

What technology, substance, habit, or strained relationship, if dealt with today, would change you for the better? What one thing, if fixed today, would lift a weight from your soul? Is there a spiritual discipline you want to try and make part of your life in 2027?

Communion

Today we have the opportunity to do something Jesus did. It is not just eat popcorn, though I think he would have loved that. It is to eat something else he gave us: communion.

Around you is communion, a little piece of bread and a cup. If yours is cold or frozen, you did not do anything wrong. Just squeeze it a little, and it will come back.

Communion is a way of reflecting on the ways Jesus said we can do the things he did. We can be re-centered on the Father and his values. Jesus’ influence and kingdom were so strong that he could take bread and wine, daily objects and a ritual rooted in the Jewish faith, and transform them for the better for two thousand years.

I do not know how this sermon finds you or what spoke to you. Hold the elements for a minute. Take one minute of quiet with God and think about how you want to be more with God and more like Jesus. Maybe something Jesus said about the focus and values of your life, or how more of your kingdom could be handed over, is what you need.

When you feel ready, take this bread and lift it in front of you. On the night he was betrayed, he took bread, gave thanks, passed it to his disciples, and said, this is my body given up for you. Take and eat in remembrance of me.

Likewise, he took the cup, shared it, blessed it, and said, this cup is my blood, the blood of the new covenant poured out for the forgiveness of sins. Take this, drink it in remembrance of me.

Lord Jesus, as we learn from your words and do our best to understand and put them into our lives, sustain us by your body, blood, and living presence. Cover us for the times and ways our kingdom has taken over. Bring more of your kingdom and your will into us and among us on earth as it is in heaven.

Guide us so that our influence and values become more like yours, that we would be with you, like you, and do as you did, bringing God to every possible space and relationship we know. Amen.