SPEAKER_00 0:07

Hey, this episode of the 10-Minute Bible Hour Podcast is brought to you by Dwell Audio Bible app. This is my favorite audio Bible ever. The narration is fantastic. The customizability is fantastic. Well, you can't like customize the Bible to make it say other stuff, but you can put music on in the background or kill the music or use different voices. It's just really artfully done. And I continue to enjoy it. I know a bunch of you do as well. I've got great feedback on it. They're doing 33% off for people who listen to the program. There's a link down below in the show notes that will get you there, or you can just go and do a free trial at the App Store or the Google Play Store on your phone. All right, let's go talk about wacky 80s comedy movie tropes and how that somehow vaguely relates to Matthew chapter six. It's gonna work, I promise. And wacky sidekick guys always got terrible advice about girlfriends and what to do. And wacky sidekick guys, the one who always is like totally street smart. He knows how things ought to be, except his advice is always absolutely terrible. And he says things like, I got this, man. Like, trust me. And you're like, no, I know this, the archetype. If he says trust me as he pulls down his shades and cocks his head to the side and glances over them at you with this knowing, I got this, bro. Look, do not trust him. He most certainly does not got this, though. The movie is going to get way more interesting if you do listen to him. So maybe just listen to him for like the first third of the movie and then start doing smarter things as you go along. But it's a little bit different when we get to Matthew chapter six, and we're into one of the all-time famous, trust me, I got this kind of sayings, but it's happening in a totally different context. As best as I can tell, this is not a wacky 80s weekend of Bernie style comedy. As best as I can tell, Jesus, this guy who's dazzled people, if nothing else, with his oratory skills, his ability to read the room and walk the audience through a set of ideas. Maybe he's something much, much more than that. We don't really know at this point. But he's walked people through this stuff. And he's like, yeah, this is great. This is an amazing kingdom. There's this reality that's bigger than the reality that you know, and the religion that you've been doing, it's not fake, it's not wrong. There's just more to it. And I am the fulfillment of this, and there's something bigger coming. And it's not predicated on all of your amazing, impeccable behavior and self-control. It actually has a lot more to do with the grace of God and with something that happens at the level of the heart and your desire to be a part of this greater, truer, realer kingdom. You gain access to that by merit of your relationship with the king of this kingdom, not by merit of your impressive behavior. Now, here's what that looks like with a bunch of common commands you've heard. And you might be wondering, well, what does it look like when we do religious activities like donating money or praying or fasting, denying ourselves something? Well, here's what it looks like when you do that. And in all of this stuff, he just keeps pointing to complete and total selling out to this king. It's a forfeiture, a rejection, in a way, of the ground rules of the world, the values of the world, the currency of the scene, visible, normal world that you're used to, and this call that goes all the way down to the level of the motives and the heart to pursue this truer, realer, though in many ways invisible or at least very hard to notice kingdom. And then rightly, people would have been starting to raise their hands. And here's the hand raising sound.

unknown 3:42

Call me, call me.

SPEAKER_00 3:43

There's a hand raising sound. People are starting to raise their hands and they're like, but what about food and stuff? Because you know how like you have to have food and everything to convert into calories for your organs to not shut down and all of that. Like, what about food and shelter and clothes? Because if you don't have shelter, you're naked, you get too cold and you can die. I mean, what about things like that? Does your kingdom have shelter and stuff? And so Jesus then comes off of this stuff about money. Don't store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy. Instead, store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth and rust don't destroy, where thieves don't break in and steal. Don't even serve or pursue this master of mammon of possessions as a dead end. You got to be devoted to God, the one true master. And of course, people are asking the question. And so Jesus just rolls right into it before the question even gets asked. He says, Therefore I tell you, don't worry about your life, what you'll eat or drink, or about your body, what you'll wear. Isn't life more important than food and the body more important than clothes? And look at the birds of the air. They don't sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you, by worrying, can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow? They don't labor or spin, yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all of his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that's how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, oh you of little faith? So don't worry, saying, What do we eat, or what are we going to drink, or what should we wear? For the pagans run after these things, and your heavenly father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. On the surface, that is soothing, that is encouraging, that does make you feel this sense of calm, like stuff's gonna be okay, and maybe I can even let go of some of my impulse to try to control everything. But then you think about it a little more, and maybe you're like, no, that sounds like come on, trust me, guy from 80s sitcom show. Well, which one is it, and how would you know the difference? I mean, the words are fine, right? I don't think we have any dispute with what was actually said in the passage. If there is a kingdom, and there is actually a God who's behind that kingdom and is king of everything, and life is so much more than just physical provision and there's an eternity, and your body is just a momentary vessel in this much larger journey that we're on, being guided by the maker and sustainer of all things, then sure, the only thing that would make sense is to go all in on that kingdom stuff. And even though I don't think it's meant to be a jab, the the ones who would run after the world stuff would be the word here is pagan. Maybe that doesn't totally translate into how we might use the word today. It certainly I don't think it's meant as an insult, but here it just means somebody who doesn't believe there's a God or anything to it or believes in lesser, more human-like deities. Well, if you think the world is it, then chase after that stuff. If you think that there's actually a God and there's actually a kingdom, we'll chase after this stuff. I mean, the the words themselves, check out. That is perfectly rational. It makes a ton of sense. What is very difficult is to know who we're dealing with. And come on, set aside the Christian thing for just a minute. Those of you who are coming at this from the same perspective I am, the perspective of Christian faith, haven't been around this for a while, but just set it aside for a minute. If you are in Matthew chapter six, almost to Matthew chapter seven, and you've seen what you've seen so far: a genealogy, a really fascinating, miraculous birth, an account that maybe doesn't look super well attested to, because who is there to see it, of a standoff between pure good and pure evil, Jesus and the devil himself, some people who've been pretty compelled by what Jesus said and followed him on very little evidence or reason to do so, and then an amazing speech. Is that enough for you yet? I don't mean with everything you know. I mean through the end of Matthew chapter six. Is that enough for you to say, yeah, I'm gonna cash out my world currency? I'm gonna change my investment and I'm gonna throw it all after this homeless guy who's saying this stuff. I'm gonna level with you. That is not enough for me. I have not seen enough through six chapters of Matthew to be like, I am completely in. And I don't think the original audience had either. And I think there are a whole bunch of people sitting there on that hill listening to this. And I think there are a whole bunch of people in their workout unitards right now listening to this on their home treadmills, thinking to themselves, I also haven't seen enough yet. And that is okay. The text is not supposing that you have seen enough yet to know whether you're getting someone who can credibly deliver on this stuff or a come on, bro, trust me, 80s sitcom wacky sidekick guy. The data that you need to decide, the data that the original audience needed to decide, is going to come later. So the equation then would seem to be okay, if there is such a God who can deliver on all this stuff, and we really can mean it when we pray stuff about provision, your kingdom come, your will be done, you know, you give us today our daily bread. If we want to get to a place where we can actually mean it, that's part one of the equation, then we would need to see that this deity actually exists and wields power and cares about the people who might pray such a prayer and therefore equals, well, this would work and this would be worth our investment. But until we're clear on what the invitation is, and until we're clear on whether or not this entity can deliver, we're still in the equals question mark range. We don't know quite what to do with it. But what I think we can take from Matthew chapter six is that Jesus has not failed to compel to this point. He hasn't said or done anything that would cause me to say, well, that's definitely not the guy. So far, he's ticked every box, he's touched every base. This seems like it has the makings of something that could hypothetically be legitimate, but I am not selling out my personal well-being over might, over initial signs look promising. I want to know more about who this character is. And I think Jesus gets that as he's teaching this stuff. Yes, he's teaching as one who has tremendous authority, but he also understands the minds of people. We've seen that again and again in terms of how he's navigated the conversation. And that means he understands what questions would be outstanding. Now he's gonna land the plane on some business here in the Sermon on the Mount that we still need to work through and we still need to take a little more time, even to talk about what it actually means to receive this teaching about stuff and worry and all of that. And then once all of that is done, just one chapter from now, he's gonna walk off that mountain and we're gonna get a real quick look at whether or not he holds himself out as a character who could deliver on this, whether or not he can actually do things that would cause the people who'd heard it and hoped that this was true and hoped that such a provision might exist to believe that this character actually could come through where no one else ever has been able to deliver. So we get a little more breaking down once again on the whole questions about worry and singularity and how that ties into a couple of other passages, and that'll be what we tackle tomorrow. And then we're on to one of the most abused passages in all of the Bible about judging the beginning of chapter seven after that. More tomorrow. I'm Matt. This is the 10 Minute Bible Hour Podcast. Oh, and make sure to check out that Dwell app. That really is a fantastic thing, and 33% off is a sweet deal. It's listed down below in the comments. If you haven't tried it already, you can also get it for free on the app store. Okay, now I'm really wrapping it up. I'm Matt. This is the 10-minute Bible hour podcast. Let's do it again soon.