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children but our father never fails and if you don't know if you don't have a living relationship with the father if you still speak to him like god and i mean you know would be like me coming home to my dad and saying my father and saying oh man how are you today many times we talk to god like that because his his position and his name and what the bible calls him is our father and if you don't have that relationship yet i pray that you will and i pray that some of the things we talk about are helping you but because we made the we we decided back before mother's day that we're not going to interrupt for special days but we're going to keep going please turn to uh the sermon on the mount uh matthew chapter 6. jesus is getting down to the heart of the matter now uh up till now you we we've been talking about what kind of people he wants he's going to create in the kingdom up till now he's talked about you have heard it said this but i'm going to tell you it's this way um you've heard because there was religion always tends religious organizations religious practices always tends to take reality situations and turn them into a religious observance okay let me just say that again if you're a religious person you generally will take a reality situation a reality notion a reality relationship and turn it into a religious practice and so actually living by faith is a reality situation we live by faith the just shall live by faith and many times that changes into we practice our faith together on sunday and that's when we do our faith the rest of the week we live by the seat of our pants and that's religion again religion has taken over the reality this is prayer too jesus says you're gonna pray pray the the core of your prayer don't it's not like we can't pray together the church prays together but the core of your prayer is to pray in secret the core of your giving is to give in secret the core of your fasting is to fast in secret in other words this has got to be reality between you and god don't it's not a religious observance fasting is not a religious observance giving is not a religious observance prayer is not a religious observance but see we make it into that and the reason we make it into that i believe is because the human heart really likes to divide what we'd like it to be and what it really is in our human heart we like to divide what we'd like to think of ourselves and how we ought to think of ourselves this is why the apostle paul says each of you should judge yourselves and judge rightly it's really hard to judge yourself and judge rightly because we know what we're trying to do we're trying to present a godly religious person but we also know our hearts are desperately wicked we struggle with all this we are not walking with god we have evil thoughts we don't pray like we should fasting why would i fast giving i'm giving to look good we have all this and jesus is calling all this out in the sermon on the mount he's saying he's calling us from religion to the reality of his kingdom and now he's got to the heart of the matter and the title of the message is making bank and the reason why is because we come when it comes right down to it you guys know there's only actually two gods on this in this world there's lots of false gods but all those false gods actually pour into the bucket of myself as god which by the way is what the wicked one said to adam and eve from the very beginning you can be like god god is holding out on you you can be like god and all the religions of the world are pouring us back into that including casual christianity including casual christianity that we could be the god of our life and the reason why money is so important to us is because that's the currency of our kingdom right you guys have heard it time is money money is time and and those of you who work for another company that's absolutely true they give you money in exchange for your time uh now some of them don't give you enough money in your mind in exchange for your time but that's what the social contract is and so jesus is coming down here and he's saying you need to decide where you're going to lay up treasure you need to decide where you are going to put your effort to lay up treasure uh he exp he explicitly states in the model prayer he says uh give us this day our daily bread he explicitly asked that and then what he's about to say he's talking about having the right treasure having the right devotion having the right master because it's possible and tempting to get each and every one of those things wrong particularly in an affluent society like we live in i said this 10 years ago and people got irritated at me no it's actually longer than that now 15 years ago but it's still true if you are working if you are living at an average salary in north america an average salary just an average salary you are living above the level of many kings and princes around the world there are lots of places where people would love to get what salary you have now the reason why it doesn't feel like we're living like kings and princes is because everything costs so much so that's why it doesn't feel like that but actually we are wealthy we live in a very affluent society and being in a very affluent probably the wealthiest society but actually right now the world has more wealth spread across the planet than it ever has in the history of the world to more people it's one of the great benefits that has happened since world war ii is that the the third the first world has expanded into the second and third world and people are all sorts of people are making more money than they ever have there's less in absolute abject poverty than there ever has been so we are living in a time of complete affluence and when jesus talks he actually makes a play on words when he says do not lay up for yourself treasures in heaven it's really hard it's really hard to translate that into english because jesus is using an idiom that is that very well known in in the jewish mindset and this is how it comes across treasure to you treasure that's what he's actually saying treasure to you treasure you see how clumsy that is in english but think about it for a minute treasure to you treasure what do you treasure to yourself as treasure do you see what he i'm going to say it until you guys can get it i know some of us it's kind of slow in the morning and we only have one cup of coffee jesus is saying be careful what you treasure to you as treasure that's why it says lay up for your treasures that there's just no way to say that in english and so you got to kind of what he's basically saying is this be careful what you value actually be aware of what you value because what you treasure shows what you value what you value is that which means the most to you what you value is what you are willing to spend your life on what you're willing to make sacrifices for and what you're willing to hold dear so now jesus has gone beyond matters of the heart to the values of the heart he's pressing deeper into not just the matters of the heart he's now going to the bedrock what do you value and he ends this little talk well let's just read it do not lay up for yourselves verse 19 matthew 6 treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moss nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal for where your treasure is there your heart will be also he goes on the eye is the lamp of the body so if your eye is healthy your whole body is full of light but if your eye is bad your whole body is full of darkness if then the light in you is darkness how great is the darkness by the way the eye is the lamp of the body is another idiom from jewish belief in those days it's another you know by the way when i say an idiom trying to think of a good what's a good english idiom that we use all the time actually making bank is an english idiom because it you don't go you're not making bank if you take it literally it means that you go down and you build a brick and mortar building and call the bank that but this is an idiom and making money lots of money you're going to lay up in the bank so making bank is an idiom so that it's it's a it's a simple phrase that illustrates a big concept and so the i is the light of the body is an idiom and jesus is going to talk about that we'll pick it up and then here's the third one and this is not an idiom this is a true truth truth no one can serve two masters that's just truth lots of people have tried for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other here it is you cannot serve god and money now let's go back and unpack this okay jesus starts up with saying do not lay for yourself up treasures on earth and we've already talked about the fact that we are no longer just talking about the matters of heart we're talking about what the heart values and we've already talked about the fact that time is money but let me just let me just say this when we talk about people who money is really important to we tend to think about i'm going to make this point a little bit later we tend to think about rich people now i've already made the point that we in light of a lot of people in the world are rich but you don't have to be wealthy to love money or the things that it buys in fact in many cases middle management people middle of the road people actually have a love for money and a craving for money and for what it then people who are incredibly wealthy because you don't have it and you want it you set your heart on it you value it now jesus said there's a couple reasons why you shouldn't value money one because it it eats it rusts it gnaws it corrodes my grandfather used to say never buy on credit something to eat while you sleep and i'm like that's another idiom but you say don't buy a horse on credit because a horse eats while you sleep which cars do too you know what i'm saying while you're sound asleep trying to rest up for the next day that horse is over there eating your oats eating you away and by the way those of you who own cars you understand your car is eating far more than it used to just a couple months ago right just a couple months ago now i got sick and tired of my weed whacker which is gas i tried i've worked and worked to get the dump thing so i went and bought an electric weed whacker thinking now i'm on top of it and i decided yesterday to go see if i could buy another battery for my weed whacker the weed whacker and i won't tell you the name of this company but this company the weed whacker cost me let's just say a hundred and fifty dollars and the second battery was going to cost me 149. now tell me did they just throw in the machine for the battery this is this is how the world works it's eating while you sleep and i just i went to the store and i said shame on you shame on you i will not buy your battery i turned george costanza for a minute the thing yeah you got you guys got that good the thing about money is it's always slipping through your fingers it's like sand at the ocean it's just always slipping through your fingers some of it sticks to your hands but not very much of it no matter how much you hold it you can't keep hold of it and even the stuff you buy with money even the stuff you buy with money rust tarnishes and corrodes we just we just yesterday had to come to grips yesterday my wife has been asking me to come to grips with it for a while the elders in the church has has asked me to come to grips with for a while and that is that the shed that was built in 1965 behind the house at the parsonage had long outlasted its usefulness and yesterday we finally decided to do something about it and we started tearing it apart and somewhere in the middle of it i noticed we got to get out from under this this whole thing could collapse on us i actually wanted my wife to paint it repaint it this summer and in the middle of us tearing it down she looked at me and said and you wanted me to repaint this trying to save money it has rusted it has corroded things have eaten it we can talk about anything people people putting money into the the funniest thing right now that people are putting money into and i tease people that are doing it there are people in this room that i've teased about this is this non-fungible nft's non-fudgible transaction that you buy i don't even know what fungible means but it's a picture that's online that doesn't actually exist anywhere but online and people pay money to buy them and they don't actually exist in real time real life and i'm like and and bitcoin i mean people if you're a bitcoin i'm not telling you you're wrong but if you put all your money into the bitcoin it has it has certainly taken a toll lately and there are people in the room going yes it has okay i've noticed i i someone gave me a troy ounce of silver way back when i was in high school and and this is going to be worth something and and i pulled that troy at that troy ounce of silver out to show you today i should have brought it because the thing is tarnished to no end it's all tarnished and so before i could turn it in i would have to clean it all up before i could turn it in this is what jesus says jesus says don't value things that rusts gnaws or corrodes and actually he goes on to say or thieves break in and steal and what's really fun about this one is that um the greeks used to call burglars mud diggers and that's what jesus is talking about a mud digger he actually uses the term mud dinger digger and the reason why is because they didn't have safes like we have today and so they would make these very well crafted clay holders of their money and people would actually interestingly enough go to the outside of the house find out where that spot was that you and dig through the side of your house and dig into your safe keeping place and take all of the thing your wealth while you were sound asleep at night and just leave and the next morning you would wake up you'd come out look and say what what and look and there'd be a hole in your house because they built houses with clay and they were actually burglars were actually called mud diggers and even in today's security people still break in and steal so there is no such thing when it comes to treasure as as a sure thing on this planet on this planet there is not rather jesus said you should treasure up your treasure in heaven treasure to you treasure in heaven in other words live by kingdom of god values why well he says it because it cannot be lost jesus actually says that you will have everything you need for life and godliness first peter chapter two second peter chapter chapter one i mean he actually says you will have everything you need in the in the in the prayer that he taught us the model prayer right here he says give us this day our daily bread so literally what he's saying is the only sure thing is to lay up treasure to yourself the treasures of heaven because that's the only thing that the most important person in the universe the most powerful person in the universe and the one who's making the whole universe hang together with the power of his will will guard your treasure for you in fact peter said paul i think no it's peter that says that we have a hope that is being kept for us in heaven that when we finally see him what we hope for will become real and so jesus is saying you need to treasure up for yourself treasure in heaven because it cannot be lost but not only that it'll also demonstrate where your heart is it'll demonstrate where your heart is because we value treasure and the treasure we value our heart is all into it where your heart is will determine what energy you put into things if you treasure money then you'll put that energy of your heart into money if you treasure houses and lands you will put your energy into building houses and lands if you treasure your family you will put your energy in to building your family if you treasure your own life you will put your energy into building your own life now the reason why i went through these four things is these are the four things that jesus says if you treasure these above me you cannot be my disciple if you treasure money above me you cannot be your disciple if you treasure houses and lands above me you cannot be my disciple if you treasure your family above me you cannot be the disciple and then he says even you're yay in fact it says yes even your own life you cannot be my disciple very we're going to get to why that is so then he goes on to say you need to be single-minded about this not just decide where your heart's going to treasure where you're going to lay up your treasure but you need to be single-minded about it that's what he says here by the way the first thing is about your heart this now he's talking about your soul the soulish part of you it says you're so the soulish part of you has to be single-minded about this and he actually says the eye is single that's another idiom he uses he uses uh the eye is the lamp of the body so if your eye is healthy if your eye is healthy your whole body is full of light actually the term if your eye is healthy is if your eye is single that's what he's that's the idiom he uses so there's two idioms back to back the eye is the lamp of the body this is what they believed and then if your eye is single what does it mean to have a single eye first of all let's talk about the eyes length of the body the eye is the lamp of the body as the window lets in light in the house so the eye lets light into your body just close everybody close your eyes is it dark in there yeah open them up now is it light in there it's very easy simple this is an idiom but then he goes on to say but your eye has got to be single that means do i have to punch one out just what no it's focus it's focus uh your eye is if what you're looking at what you set your sights on is healthy good then the whole body is good in fact proverbs 22 9 says a good of eye person will be blessed a person who assets the focus of their eye properly their whole person will be healthy because they've set their eye properly however and the point is what you set the focus of your sight in life will set the whole tone of all of your life so jesus is actually saying keep your eye on the prize unwaveringly gaze toward the kingdom of jesus it's interesting that we that's an idiom eye on the prize if you're a basketball coach i was a soccer coach i used to say it all the time what are we playing for what are we playing for if we're just playing to run around the field and have good health good but if we if we want to win the championship keep your eye on the prize keep your eye on that on that trophy that's coming into the season so jesus is saying here you've got to be single-hearted toward not just in your heart decide to lay up treasures in heaven but now in all you see now you need to make sure that everything you see you're looking at the right stuff so you keep a single focus the metaphor here is light and darkness good and evil if you set your focus of the window of your soul on light then all of your life will be light but if you set your focus on on bad in this context the love of money and what it can buy then your soul will become dark to focus on money and what it gets you in building your own kingdom instead of the kingdom of god george michael nailed it in a song that wham sang back in the 80s boy everything she wants is everything she sees remember that song oh come on everybody remembers that song i hear it in elevators now he wasn't wrong he wasn't wrong the love of money when we think of the love of money we tend to imagine the lavish life of billionaire sultan in the middle east we think of super yachts we think of big tech ceo who catapults himself into outer space just for the heck of it we by the way that just happened mostly the love of money we ascribe to the irreligious the opulent the secularist living out a lavish lifestyle with no care of god however the bible speaks of the love of money in a very different term altogether focusing on the love of money inside the heart of the believer and the religious zealot an idol that infects even the staunchest religious person even those who claim to follow the law in detail and with great zeal the pharisees the love of money is the root of all evils first timothy 6 10 it is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith so paul says that underneath all evil and all kinds of evils is the love of money reason what's the reason for this the love of money is synonymous here comes with no faith whatever without faith it is impossible to please god hebrews 11 6 whatever does not proceed from faith is sin romans 14 23 all evil comes from this now think about this in the model prayer jesus said give us this day our daily bread that is a cry of faith but if you have enough money you never have to pray that and this is the problem everyone is we're banking for retirement we're banking for the future we're putting and i'm not saying it's wrong to do that but if you do that and lay that stuff up i just thought of something very funny i will tell you in a minute you lay that stuff up and that's what you're working for you could lose it all and i am the living example of this because i am 60 coming going to be 62 in about a month and we have been planning for retirement ever since we started ministry and we have banked up money remember 2008 do you remember 2008 2008 in michigan was awful it was it was awful everywhere but it was it hit michigan pretty hard it hit my investments incredibly hard everything that i had put away for retirement do you know how much retirement i had walking out of 2008 after putting maybe 50 000 away all gone all that paper money disappeared with the paper i think it funny now you say how can you think it funny because jesus said give us this day our daily bread he meant it i used to live for putting money away for retirement i didn't think i would want to do this until i was now that until i was like dead but now that i'm 62 years old i can't think of why i would quit doing this i can't think of why i would quit because this is the most important thing and the longer i live the more i realize my brothers in ministry are not talking the bible anymore even the song we sang today i will build my life upon your love we used to say i will build my life upon your word because you see your word the word is the firm foundation we can we can mess with the definition of love but the word of god is the firm foundation it stands and in my lifetime i've seen that shift we're talking about love and now we're talking about love is love and so when we sing the song anyone can sing this song but if you sing i will build my life upon your word i value your word actually psalm says that god has held his word above his name that i value your word your word is truth it is truth and i will build my life upon that we are living with kingdom values at that point that's what we're going through matthew chapter or the sermon on the mount jesus was telling us this is what the kingdom looks like and this is how people that live the kingdom this is how they do it i'm sorry i got a little preachy right there i'm preaching that's good james himself says a double-minded main man is unstable in his all's ways if you have double focus you will be unstable riding my motorcycle one day i don't know what hit me oh yes i do too no i hit me i was riding my motorcycle one day and i went through a a whole is like snow shower of cottonwood just drove through a snow shower is right here in town on 18 i'm driving through a snow shower of cottonwood and when i came out the other side my eyes double vision on a motorcycle that is a very bad thing to have happen in a car it's a bad thing but on a motorcycle i actually pulled over stopped pulled over and i actually took a water bottle and washed my eyes out so i could come home this is what we need to do brothers and sisters when we come to the point we recognize oh no my vision has become double i'm looking at god and i'm looking at money i'm looking at god i'm looking at what i can get and brothers and sisters we live in this you can get on amazon and before we get done with the service some of this stuff can be shipped to you you can get bored with me get on the on your phone right here in this chair supported by our internet and you could be it's this is how quick it is in fact what this is saying what jesus is saying is you need to be on guard against self-deception if then the light in you this is what he says if then the light in you is darkness what an interesting phrase jesus is using all sorts of idioms here but think about that how can light be darkness if the light in you what he's saying is this if you consider yourself as seeing light even though you're looking at darkness how dark is that going to get he's talking about the self-deceived person self-deceived person but if your eye is bad your whole body is will be full of darkness and then he says then if the light in you is darkness how great is that darkness there is nothing that you can do to rescue a self-deceived person that's what he's saying here be on your guard against self-deception and it is so easy in the context of money we are good at lying to ourselves but it's really easy in what we need it starts out with a kid daddy i need an ice cream it does and it just keeps going to where we now in our prayers daddy i need a yacht it's the exact same thing you didn't need the ice cream you don't need to not we need donuts today now if you cannot see if you cannot see if you have already consid can if you've already convinced yourself that what has a hold of you is by god's plan if you've already said god provided this for me and you've already said that when and in actuality he never did then you're already self-deceived and you're already going to be willing to wander away from the faith you cannot see now that you're ruined in your soul the seat of your affections and soon in your heart where all of life is coming from you can't see it anymore in fact in the past of scripture i referred to it says that it leads to wandering away from faith so i'll sit in my office thinking about my friends who have been led away from the faith by things here's the here's the list of people i came up with not the people i'm not gonna i'm not calling out people i'm gonna tell you what they set their heart on and what they convinced themselves that god had given them and what and then watch them walk right away from the faith here it goes a boat i remember with back in michigan there is navigable water every seven miles you're never farther away from navigable water more than seven miles away from it so if you if if you want a place to have a boat michigan's your place now there's lots of mosquitoes because of that water we won't talk about that anyhow if you want so there's all these lights everywhere and people just love boats boats are a big deal boats are a big thing here you got the ocean everybody wants but here the problem is you got to get a big boat and so you go in deep or you go home you don't there's very few people that have little boats there there's all sorts of boats sailboats everything i had a good friend would you pray with me that god will give me a bowl i'm like i will pray with you you get your heart right but no he convinced himself he convinced himself god gave me this boat the problem is within a year he was no longer participating in any of church events no longer participating in anything but his vote and the worst part about this is in michigan half the year you can't float a boat because it's frozen and so i'm like well maybe we'll see him in the winter time no in the winter time he's going to boat shows to see how he can get a new boat i'm totally serious a close friend of mine that no longer walks in the faith because of a boat that he convinced himself god had provided now let me ask you a question would god provide something that would take your heart away from him so this is all self-deception this is what jesus is saying if your light becomes darkness how dark is it be careful what you think god gave you secondly a house i'll just go through the rest of it a motorcycle a promotion this one's the one that got me wanting your kid to be good at a sport so they can get a scholarship we know an entire family of people that quit church and they are now second generation deny everything about christianity because they started playing soccer on sunday so they could get a scholarship to go to college i'm going to tell you a little secret about this we came to vancouver washington by the lord's direction and my son was given a scholarship by the lord he got a wsu degree it cost us 35 dollars you tell me was it worth losing your entire faith for 35 no you can ask me about it later i mean there is an amazing deal in this city with wsu right up there you can get a world-class diploma for next to nothing if you're willing to do the work and live here it's amazing we used to complain why did the lord bring us to vancouver we stopped complaining for those of you who've gotten this degree good for you what i'm saying is this i know someone who lost the faith because they had their sights set on a degree for their children because they couldn't afford to college so they're going to get a scholarship by the way never got the scholarship because he never got that good all their faith gone set their heart on the wrong thing plans to retire while they're still young have you ever heard this new thing fire financially independent retire early yeah i know people have walked away from the faith because of that and here's another one retirement itself okay so we've talked about our our heart we've talked about our soul how we can be self-deceived okay how do we check this out how we check this out the very last one check your service record who you serve is what you value this is your will check your service record the reason why i say check your service record is because i we bought a jeep and it's got service record and i got an email from my from the place we got the jeep saying it's 60 000 miles this time you should be near 60 000 miles by now it's time for you to have service so i called them i said will you check my service record sure enough it is time to get my oil changed and to have service record and so now i know exactly what i need to do i need to go and have my oil change and have service done to my car because i have a service record now this is what he's saying jesus is saying this check who you serve look at your service record if you want to know whether you love god whether you value whether you're laying up treasure for heaven who are you actually serving check your service record i had someone long time ago when i was a young man in ministry say i and this is an unbelieving man sitting sipping coffee with me like i've done all my life this is a funny story for those of you want to know how i started drinking coffee with people there was this lady in our church named emo she was a great lady snack of tooth old lady and everything and she asked me to come leave your office come down drink coffee and i said i'm busy and she said what are you just too good to drink coffee with us and that was like i'll show you and so i went down i went down to drink coffee with him and here she had an entire group of people all of them unbelieving that she was ministering to and i'm like i'm missing the boat so i started drinking coffee with him every every other week and right in the middle of this this guy who's a detective for a police department near chica near detroit and he'd seen everything and he was sitting there and he looked at me and said don't tell me how much you love jesus show me your calendar and your checkbook and i'll show you i'll tell you how much you love jesus leave it to a retired police detective to cut to the quick he actually looked right at me and he actually said that he said i am tired of people telling me how much they love jesus show me your calendar and your checkbook and i will tell you how much you love jesus so i did so i did i won't tell you his answer but that's been that's what jesus is saying here check your service record if time and if it's time and money then check your calendar and your checkbook how you spend how you spend it tells you everything you need to know check your service record if you want to know where you're laying up treasure in check it sit down and think through why you do what you do why is my calendar full of all of this instead of all of this why am i writing checks to all of this instead of all of this because if time and money are the two things we have by the way it is money is something you can accumulate time is something you can only spend but really time and money is all we have so where you spending it it got quiet he was right wasn't he harry wilkie an unbelieving person just cut to the quick and just looked me in the eye and said this is how you know it's exactly what jesus is saying no man can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other he will be devoted to one and despise the other you cannot serve god and money jesus said about the money-loving pharisees no servant can serve two masters woe to you scribes and pharisees hypocrites for you clean the outside of the cup on the plate but inside is full of greed and self-indulgence this sounds very much like philippians 3 19 your god is your belly woe to you scribes and pharisees hypocrites for you are like whitewashed tombs which outwardly appear beautiful but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness anywhere else in the new testament the word uncleanness is used it is used to refer to sexual perversions of all kinds sexual uncleanness jesus was actually saying to the pharisees the ones who were supposed to be so religious that their lives were not just full of uncleanness but a particular kind of uncleanness a sexual uncleanness and those who listen to me are you kidding me the pharisees are the most preeminent law keepers jesus says no really they're full of greed self-indulgence self-perversion and lawlessness meaning god and his word are not their authority their bellies their appetites their groin is their authority that's what jesus said about the pharisees john piper says not exactly the way i typically think about squeaky clean sinners called pharisees so i have to rid myself of the segregation of legalistic pharisees over here and libertine lovers of money over here there's no way jesus sees the world that way they're all lovers of money then he goes on to talk about the rich young ruler you guys know the rich young ruler i've kept all the law to the end then you have one thing so give all you have away to the poor come follow me and he walked away sorrowful because he had much money so the guy who was fooling himself but not just that the loving the money loving miracle worker judas judas actually was he actually did miracles before the lord mark 6 7 23 uh 13 and 12 and 13. jesus

called to 12 and began to send them out two by two i would love to paul john john piper says i would love to know who was paired up with judas but actually he didn't show up they were all surprised so even a participant

2022-06-25 16:38

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