Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moths and vermin destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moths and vermin do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness how great is that darkness. No one can serve two masters either you will hate the one and love the other or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Therefore I tell you do not worry about your life what you will eat or drink or about your body what you will what you will wear is not life more than food and the body more than clothes. Look at the birds of the year they do not sow or reap or store away in barns and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow they do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all of his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God closed the grass of the field which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire will he not much more clothe you you of little faith. So do not worry saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear. For the pagans run after all these things and your heavenly father knows that they that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore to not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Well good morning everybody and happy Father's Day to all of the dads who are out there this morning. As we continue on in our Sermon on the Mount series reflecting on the image of the kite in order for us to saw about crashing in life. We've been going through different segments of the sermon and pulling out the wisdom that Jesus is teaching us. We want to be people who flourish to be people who saw. And this week's passage we've called our string sacrifice but come up with another name this morning holding things loosely. If you want to be a person who flourishes if you want to be a person whose life is not weighed down by anxiety by stressing out about things in life. This is a string that you desperately need to have in your tool belt. The ability to not be weighed down by the things of this world. That's why I love so much about this teaching is that Jesus reminds us. What about blinding myself. Is that Jesus reminds us. So life isn't about food or clothing. It's not about having lots and lots of money. It's about seeking first the kingdom. Holding things loosely. That's a secret to flourishing. Now if you remember last week when Murray went through three aspects of doing things secretly about giving, praying and fasting. A big part of that and I'm just going to kind of reiterate some of that is that Jesus says be careful. This is Matthew six minus says be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your father in heaven. That's kind of the idea that Jesus tapping into this idea of reward. Now it's probably something that we may be a little bit uncomfortable thinking about. Yes this idea of getting rewards. Of doing things if we do certain actions. And this is like this is Jewish teachings and Jesus kind of riffing off these Jewish teachings here. Is that somehow I don't know exactly how it works but kind of goes into this heavenly piggy bank. And the Jews in particular many rabbis wrote in the period around when Jesus was around. This idea that particularly if you give away arms so if you're generous to the poor that like quates with what Jesus calls heavenly treasure. So idea and not just giving away money but doing right actions doing good deeds is that this will sort of store up treasure in heaven. And so when Murray bought us a message last week about giving and praying and fasting. This is interconnected with that problem of preaching a sermon on the someone on the Mount is that need to break it up. These divisions are artificial. This idea is flowing on you can do things in life where you will get no reward. That's your choice. Hey if you want to give someone can praise you if you want to pray out in public you doing lovely loud voices. If you want to fast and look really unhappy go for it. You're not going to build up heavenly rewards. And let's take out that idea of doing religious actions in order to get praise from others to the things that we do in life. There are decisions there are choices that we make where we will be rewarded here and now but not be rewarded in heaven. It's pretty scary teaching actually when you think about it it's quite terrifying that the actions that we do here can have consequences in the eternal space. But Jesus here in particular he's focusing on this pursuit of wealth. So when we come here in this famous passage and I think I've shared this a few times that this verse was quite instrumental in bringing myself back onto the spiritual journey. Where Jesus says these words do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moths and vermin destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moths and vermin do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is there your heart will be also. It's pretty black and white. I still remember the day reading those words of Jesus and being deeply challenged I'm spending my life storing up treasures on earth. What happens to those treasures they get a rust they're going to fade away or possibly someone will steal them. But if you invest in heavenly treasure that will never be destroyed that will never be stolen. Me that verse was so instrumental in bringing me back to the Lord and re-evaluating the priorities in my life. That's the same invitation that Jesus is offering us today. Perhaps your idol isn't wealth, all of us are seeking to store things on earth that have no eternal value. The famous reformer John Calvin said the art the heart is an idol factory and we may not be worshipping idols of silver, gold and bronze like in the ancient world. He just bow down to different things. Ultimately if you serve a God and Jesus uses doesn't say it here in this version of the Bible. You cannot serve to muscle over your hate one and love the other or you'll be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. The Aramaic word was mammon. It's like another God. Either you're going to serve God or you're going to serve mammon. If you serve mammon, it's a pretty terrible God to serve. It won't take away the anxiety that's eating deep within you. It won't give you the satisfied felt need that you have for security, for identity and purpose. We find treasure. We find anxiouslessness. That's a real word. If it's not, I'm making it up by storing treasure in heaven. Now naturally, friends, you might be wondering, like I am, what is treasure in heaven? And honestly, I don't actually know what it looks like. I spent hours in hours this week sourcing internet, looking at John articles, looking at commentaries. So we get a few little hints, a few little snapshots of what it might look like. And so, there's one time where Jesus may know this encounter, where Jesus meets a rich young ruler. And the rich young ruler tells Jesus, "Hey, what do I need to do to inherit turn of life?" And Jesus says, "Follow the commandments, love the Lord, your God, for your heart, soul, mind and strength. I love your neighbor as yourself." And the rich young man is like, "Yeah, yeah, I do that already." And Jesus is like, "Great. Now get rid of all your possessions. Give it to the poor." And the rich young ruler turns away really upset. And so part of that, particularly in Matthew's account, there's a Matthew's version of Matthew chapter 19, the disciples are like puzzled, they're like, "Huh, okay, wealth was a sign of God's blessing. And if the wealthy man can't enter the kingdom of heaven, then what hope do we have?" And so Jesus sort of says here, and this is just a little hint we get. He goes, "Hey, if you guys, I'm paraphrasing here. If you guys follow after me, when the son of man returns and sitting on his throne, guess what you guys? You will get to sit on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. And everyone who's left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last and many who are last will be first." So this idea here, that's a bit of a theme in Matthew, is that if you follow Jesus, your reward, then necessarily in this lifetime, it's in the next lifetime. Like the Beatitudes, blessed are the poor, blessed are those who mourn, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. There's an idea that here and now, there's something there if you're mourning right now, when Jesus comes back in the kingdom and it's fullness, hey, you'll no longer be mourning. If, for instance, you are meek in this lifetime, then you inherit the earth. It's a similar idea that's playing throughout how Matthew structures his gospels around Jesus' teachings, is this idea is that our actions in the here and now have significant impact when the kingdom comes in its fullness. I don't know what heavenly treasure will look like. We get a little hint there that will give up fields you'll receive a hundred times more, that clearly there's some sort of ruling and judging going on with the disciples, at least. I know that wonderful passage in Revelation where John describes the heavenly Jerusalem coming down, and there's this marriage between heaven and earth. And then we'll pay no more tears than we'll suffer in, there's this fruitful abundance. So it seems to me this idea that heavenly treasure has to do with this, I guess, beautiful new world that will be recreated. I don't know what heavenly treasure looks like, but I know it's really important to be storing our treasures there. It's easy to lose sight of that, friends. It's super easy to lose sight of that. I'll admit that, it's really easy to get focused on the here and now to write about the money we have here, to be worried about what people think about us, to be worried about how we look, to be worried about you just insert whatever that might be. And we do become anxious about that. And what I love here in the sermon is that Jesus wasn't speaking to a group of people who's lies or sunshine and roses. Well, speaking of people who are wealthy, who had no worries, his life was peachy, spoke to people who were predominantly subsistence farmers, so one bad crop, that's it. Speaking to people who the Roman Empire could just pick up their luggage and carry it for a mile, lived under a Roman Empire that would regularly crucify people, where there's lots of political unrest, where there's lots of uncertainty. Jesus was saying, "Hey, in the midst of this very, very uncertain life where there is no security, there is one thing that he can guarantee, treasure in heaven." Friends of reality is all of us are storing. We're all storing treasure in some place or another. Just make sure that you're investing right. That's what Jesus is telling us. If you Google cost of living in crisis, there's hundreds of articles out there. In fact, I was reading this morning that a government appear there's talks about getting credit card surcharges to help ease cost of living tension. There's going to be tax breaks to help people out there. There is, right now, a climate of anxiety and uncertainty. Probably now, well, in the midst of my lifetime, the kid that grew up in the '90s, I kind of didn't understand all the financial insecurities that my parents might have faced in the '80s and '90s. I mean, life has always been good. This first time, I'm actually like, "Oh, I actually need to budget things. I actually need to be careful about what I'm spending because things are going up. There is now a climate of uncertainty." And so the temptation is greater than ever to start trying to store a treasure on earth. There's now more temptation than ever than to become very, very anxious. I was speaking to someone out on the sports desk and I'm one of my customers. Just saying, "Oh, I just can't sleep at night. I'm just so worried about trying to pay bills, trying to make ends meet." That's a common conversation. Stuff isn't just up there, nice theological talk that we do in ivory tower. This is on the ground reality. And Jesus is speaking into this, this idea of holding things loosely. If you want to flourish, it's now more important than ever. Jesus uses a great little rabbinical technique. It's a technique and, "Oh, as I like to do occasionally teach you guys big words that you might be able to use at a party one day. And just to show off, it's called quaal." So let's say it together, quaal quaknoma. Quaal quaknoma. There you go. Quaal quaknoma. It's a rabbinical teaching technique which just basically means lesser to greater. That's the style of teaching that ribose would use it. And Jesus adopted it very often. And he adopts it here from verse 25. And we'll just hold this read over that again. As you therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you'll wear. It's not life more than food. And the body more than close. Now here, this is where he does it. Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or store away in barns. And yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they are? What's the implied answer? Yes, a human is way more valuable than a bird. It's only one of you by worrying at a single hour to your life. And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow? They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, they're not even Solomon and all he's splendor was dressed like one of these. If this is how God closed the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you of little faith? He's doing here. He's encouraging his audience and us. Look at the birds. Look at the flowers. And Old Testament and a lot of the Jewish writings from the Rabbis would talk about God's care for creation. It was well known that, you know, it's actually written there in Deuteronomy chapter 25 that God says, "Hey, don't muzzle an ox while it's working." This idea is like, "Hey, I actually care about animals. I feed them. I care for them. I look after them." And if a lowly bird, a lowly sparrow can be fed by God and cared for, he's not going to look after you. You're like, "Yeah, he does." Then Jesus really ups the ante, especially for people. You know, we just go to the shops to buy new clothes in the first century Israel. Didn't have that luxury. You made your clothes by hand. But only they'll made of wool. So you would probably only have like one, maybe two garments at most in your lifetime. He's Jesus using an illustration from one of the greatest kings of Israel, Solomon. Solomon, or he's lavish attire that would have taken hours and hours in significant portions of money to design, even in all his spender. Hey, look at the lowly flower. And what a great time are you to actually be doing that. Just go for a walk and we see spring is sprung. Actually, today is spring, yeah. Pinch on a punch on the first day of the month. There you go. I forgot to do that. But it's spring time. We can look at the flowers and see, oh, at this lowly flower here growing on the side of a footpath has more glory than even King Solomon himself. Why are we worried about clothes? Why are we worried? It's his idea of holding things loosely. He recognized that the things I'm wearing right now, they're going to fade away by investing something greater, the greater treasure, how much more. And so in the here and now while it's very, very, very tempting to be anxious, don't be anxious because God's got it sorted. And I love how this passage ends, where Jesus tells us Matthew 633, he says, "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all of these things will be given to you as well." This is a solution. And if you remember so far in the sermon, this idea of righteousness has come up a few times that our righteousness needs to surpass the righteousness of the Pharisees. Jesus, and we don't practice our righteousness in front of others. Jesus saying that this is the secret to soaring. Seek first the kingdom. That's another way of just saying invest in how God's characteristics make sure you are like that, seeking first the kingdom and his righteousness, doing right behaviour, focusing on that. That is your number one priority, seeking to honor God and everything you do. If you do that first, the rest will come. Food, clothing, shelter, insert, whatever thing that you need. God will sort it. The early church father, a man called John Christophism, had some advice for Christians in the fourth and fifth century if you're worried about things, he actually proposed something of turning your house into a micro-church. To do that, he said, I'll just read, he's quoted from one of his writings, "Therefore, let us collect money in the home for the explicit purpose of arms giving. In this manner, therefore, let everyone's house become a church that will have sacred money stored within it." This is Christophism's way of helping people to become generous, of helping to become less anxious. I absolutely love this idea. Have a little money fox in your house and put away coins there for the poor. There's one way to hold things very loosely, and Christophism goes on to say that I think it's a little weird and bizarre, but I'll keep going. He says, "When money is stored up for the poor, that place is inaccessible to demons and that money is collected together for arms giving fortified Christians homes more than any shield, spear, weapons, physical power and multitudes of soldiers." Christophism saw that the ability to hold things loosely and not to store treasure on earth was a spiritual thing. This will protect you, because there's one action. Putting money away, holding things loosely, it's a spiritual thing. It's going to protect your house fortified from demons, stronger than any human weapon, and it will help your soul tremendously because you won't be anxious. Soren Kickingard, he was a Danish theologian. He wrote a book called Birds and Lilies, a reflection on the Sermon on the Mount, and encourages his readers to look at the birds and the flowers. They are our silent teacher. Friends, if you are feeling anxious, if you are worried, but we'll be money, clothing, waiting else in life, because there's certainly lots of things that make us anxious. They keep us awake at night, and their thoughts just keep spiraling, where our teeth start to grind, there are lots and lots of things to make us anxious. Look to the silent teachers, look to the birds, and look to the flowers. We finish off today. I recognize that many of us in this room, we have a lot more wealth than those in Jesus' first crowds. And again, this is from Christophism. He has lots of wisdom to teach us, nearly 1,600 years later. He actually, Christophism, there's nothing wrong with having money, absolutely nothing. He recognizes that Job and Abraham possess tremendous wealth. But here's the thing, he says, and I'll quote here, "Since Job was also rich, but he served not manon, but possessed it and ruled over it, and was a master, not a slave." That's what he says the difference. There is nothing wrong with Christians having wealth. Nothing wrong with being rich, just need to master it. Same with many things in life, you need to master it. It's just knowing where it's being stored. Is it being stored on earth, or is it being stored in heaven? As I said earlier, I don't know what heavenly treasure looks like. We get little hints. All I know is that if we give up something now in this lifetime, just tells, we told the apostles, they will receive 100 fold more in the kingdom when it comes. I know that my life, I'm nearly 36 soon. I think I've ever lived to 100. Cool, that's a pretty good life. One day I'm actually going to die unless the Lord returns before that. All the stuff I've accumulated is going to be forgotten. But what won't be forgotten is that treasure in heaven. My friends, hold things loosely. Become people who saw, because you know where your treasure is being stored. Let me pray for us. Lord, we give you thanks for these words which still speaks so powerfully into our culture today. Culture that is wrapped up in anxiousness and insecurity and a desire to be building treasure on earth. For how I pray that we are people that store our treasure in heaven. To recognize the eternal value of what you bring. Of, hello, the immense blessings that we'll receive when the kingdom comes in its fullness. And so Lord, I ask for your hope in just removing the anxiousness. That's there. To be a people who seek first the kingdom. To be a people that look to the silent teachers around us, of the birds and the flowers. And to be reminded of the immense blessings that you've given to us. And that you will give us. We put the kingdom first when we orientate ourselves correctly. I pray this now in Jesus' name. Amen. (gentle music)
