SPEAKER_00: Well, good morning, everybody.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Cameron, for praying.
SPEAKER_00: Lizzie for reading.
SPEAKER_00: It's good to be with you again this morning as we continue our series through the Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to be considering that passage that Lizzie just read for us.
SPEAKER_00: So why don't I pray before we dive into it?
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_00: Our Father, we thank you again for another morning.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you that your mercies are new every morning.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for every person, every household watching this now.
SPEAKER_00: And I pray that the reading and the uh the studying and explaining of your word would be a blessing to them this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Father, give us a uh a supernatural sense of learning together, that we cannot see one another.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to uh to feel that reality that we have been bound together in the Lord Jesus and that we are a family of faith, not disconnected individuals.
SPEAKER_00: Help us, uh we pray as we consider these verses and the implications for our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to follow Jesus more closely, to love him more dearly.
SPEAKER_00: We ask it in his name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Do keep that passage open uh in front of you.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've got it on your on your phone or you have a Bible there.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be looking at those uh those verses as we as we go through.
SPEAKER_00: Uh some of you watching this uh will uh be very clear in your own mind uh the uh the direction that your life is going in.
SPEAKER_00: You'll be very clear about the things that you want, uh, about the drive that you have, and you are committed to achieving those things.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, congratulations.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I imagine that you're probably quite rare.
SPEAKER_00: Because there's going to be people on the other extreme who, frankly, are watching this this morning and feel a sense of directionlessness, a sense that you don't quite know what you're aiming at.
SPEAKER_00: You don't quite know what the trajectory of your life is.
SPEAKER_00: There's a sense of lostness, kind of deep inside, that you scarcely want to kind of admit to yourself, never mind to anyone else.
SPEAKER_00: The idea of making a decision terrifies you, paralyzes you, and so you don't make any decisions at all.
SPEAKER_00: I imagine that most of us are somewhere probably uh in the middle.
SPEAKER_00: We have a vague sense of uh where we want to go in life, the kind of things that we uh that we want to get out of life, the kind of things that we want to to achieve.
SPEAKER_00: And yet we probably don't really give much thought to the underlying values, the underlying things that we love that propel us and urge us in those directions.
SPEAKER_00: But whether we realize it or not, the things that we value internally, they steer the course of our life for good or ill.
SPEAKER_00: What you love leads you, what you love determines how you will live.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's quite important then, isn't it, to to think, well, how do I know if I'm valuing the right things?
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean to love rightly?
SPEAKER_00: And so to set the course of my life in the right sort of direction, because nobody wants to go in the wrong direction, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's very frustrating, isn't it, when you're on a uh when you're on a journey, you're driving down the road, and uh you you take a turn with a reasonable degree of confidence, and about half an hour into it, you think, gosh, I've actually come completely the wrong way.
SPEAKER_00: And so you not only have you got to make up, not only have you lost half an hour, but you've got to make up that half an hour going back to try and get back on the right track.
SPEAKER_00: And some of you maybe feel like you're not on the right track.
SPEAKER_00: But maybe we all need to consider, are we going in the right direction?
SPEAKER_00: And the way that we'll do that is by having a think about what it is that we value, what it is that we love, because what we love is leading us, what we value is directing us, it's driving us.
SPEAKER_00: There are there are voices, um, not in my head, uh, in the world, there are voices clamoring in the world uh that uh that pull us in different directions.
SPEAKER_00: So we say, no, the thing that you need to value above all else is freedom.
SPEAKER_00: You need to value your freedom, you need to maximize your freedom.
SPEAKER_00: You go into Starbucks, there are 14,000 different possibilities, and yet you order the same thing over and over and over again.
SPEAKER_00: Don't go into Starbucks at all, don't do that.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but there are 14,000 possibilities, and they say that's freedom.
SPEAKER_00: Freedom is all of this choice, and you need to value freedom above all else, you need to maximize your own individual freedom.
SPEAKER_00: Other voices say, No, no, no, you need to prioritize success, you need to prioritize and value achieving and being successful.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody has said that to you, or you implicitly feel that pressure.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's from uh from family, from parents.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe there's the the honor of uh of family of the family name.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you feel like, well, my siblings have all achieved great things, and my parents are proud of them, but I haven't yet, and I feel that pressure to to achieve, you value that, and that's driving your life and probably leading to some anxiety, which we're going to do two weeks on next week.
SPEAKER_00: Two weeks on anxiety, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Just flagging that up.
SPEAKER_00: Other voices will say no, the thing that you need to value above all else is your own self-expression, that you can mold yourself in whatever way you want.
SPEAKER_00: You can create yourself, and you need to uh be given all of the tools necessary in order to do that.
SPEAKER_00: So, self-expression is what is driving and governing your life because it's a value, it's the thing that you value most, and so it's setting the course of your life.
SPEAKER_00: I imagine, again, that's some of us what ends up happening is that we hear all of those competing voices, and that actually contributes to the directionlessness that we feel.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like we're at this uh this massive crossroads of of different roads all intersecting, and we're standing there at the middle, and there are people down a little ways down every road saying, This way, come this way, this way's the best way.
SPEAKER_00: And you turn around and go, somebody else is going, no, no, come this way, this way's best, and you hear a voice behind you say, Don't listen to them, come this way, value this thing, come this direction, set that for the course of your life, and it's overwhelming.
SPEAKER_00: It's overwhelming, and so maybe you find that really the the the metaphor for your life is you're kind of just sitting at this intersection, not sure what direction to go in.
SPEAKER_00: Frederick Nietzsche, uh you know, Frederick Nietzsche, everybody knows one phrase from Nietzsche, right?
SPEAKER_00: God is dead, right?
SPEAKER_00: That's the thing that gets you know printed on the t-shirt.
SPEAKER_00: That's what everybody knows about Nietzsche.
SPEAKER_00: That's what that's the only thing of any import that he said.
SPEAKER_00: That's what people think.
SPEAKER_00: But the thing about that phrase, God is dead, Nietzsche wasn't saying that with triumph.
SPEAKER_00: See, you know, atheists kind of print it on their t-shirt and go, God's dead, and it's kind of hurrah, and shake your fist at the at the sky.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what Nietzsche was on about.
SPEAKER_00: Nietzsche said God is dead with fear and trembling.
SPEAKER_00: Nietzsche said God is dead with a lot of trepidation because one of the things that he realized is that once you kill God, once you say that God is dead and that we killed him, that's the uh the next line in the quote, God is dead and we killed him, we're the murderers.
SPEAKER_00: So once you realize that, you've got to actually come up with your own values, you've got to come up with your own direction.
SPEAKER_00: And that's a hard thing to do.
SPEAKER_00: That is not easier said than done, in a way that uh that is good for you and is good for society.
SPEAKER_00: So the other image that Nietzsche uses is that killing God is kind of like it's kind of like the earth cutting the cutting the tether uh that orbits it to the sun.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like, well, we're just kind of floating off into space, and there's an increasing sense, isn't there, in our in our world, and that in you watching this or in the people around you that you're floating off into space.
SPEAKER_00: You don't know where to aim your life, you don't know what to really value, what to pay attention to.
SPEAKER_00: Human beings are made to seek out things to value, we're made to seek out meaning, we are meaning making machines, creatures.
SPEAKER_00: That's how God made us, but in our killing of him, that is, in our rejection of him, it's not as though we suddenly stop valuing things, it's not as though we suddenly stop finding meaning or seeking out meaning, giving meaning to our lives.
SPEAKER_00: We do it all the time, often without realizing it.
SPEAKER_00: Nor do we realize how the direction of our life and the things that we value is affecting us and affecting those around us.
SPEAKER_00: Some of the decisions that you're making are affecting those who love you, and maybe you don't even see it.
SPEAKER_00: If you're feeling a little bit like the earth that's kind of floating off into space, uh unattached from its orbit, if you're not quite sure what direction your life is going in, if you're not quite sure what the things are that you should value, or if you're not quite sure how your life is affecting you, the choices that you're making, or is affecting others around you, Jesus wants to help you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus wants to help you this morning because the things that he's talking about, they're not things that we readily think about.
SPEAKER_00: We don't think about our values because we're too busy thinking with them.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus would say to us all this morning in this passage, you say, stop, stop, take a breath, take a moment, and let's consider.
SPEAKER_00: Let's consider what some of the uh the governing principles are for how you're living your life, and let's play some of them through and see actually are they going to maximize your flourishing in the world and the flourishing of the people around you?
SPEAKER_00: Or are there things that you need to be warned about?
SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna tackle this passage by considering a couple of questions.
SPEAKER_00: The first is, how do you know what you're valuing?
SPEAKER_00: Remember, I just I just said that uh we don't think about our values because we uh uh we're too busy thinking with them.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we've got to do some diagnosis, we've got to kind of work out well, how do I work out what I'm valuing?
SPEAKER_00: That's the first question, and Jesus helps us with that.
SPEAKER_00: That's gonna be the first question.
SPEAKER_00: Second question, well, what should we value?
SPEAKER_00: If Jesus helps us to think what we are valuing, is there things that we should value?
SPEAKER_00: And then finally, we'll we'll have a look at that, kind of playing it out.
SPEAKER_00: What are the consequences of valuing rightly and valuing wrongly?
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: First, how do you even know what you're valuing?
SPEAKER_00: Well, actually, Jesus helps us in this middle section.
SPEAKER_00: The middle section is the uh is in some senses the the hardest bit, but it's really the key to unlocking the uh the whole thing.
SPEAKER_00: So that's why I'm going to start there and then hopefully show you how how they all link together because there's there's three bits.
SPEAKER_00: There's uh there's treasure on heaven, treasure on earth, there's the stuff about the eye that we're going to come to now, and then there's who you're serving.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to start with this uh metaphor about the I, the I being the lamp of the body.
SPEAKER_00: It's there in verses 22 and uh 23.
SPEAKER_00: You you've heard people say things like, or maybe you've said them to yourself, you say stay focused.
SPEAKER_00: Say that to people, or somebody said that focus, or somebody has said something like, keep your eyes on the prize, keep your eyes on the prize.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what are they saying?
SPEAKER_00: When they say stay focused, keep your eyes on the prize.
SPEAKER_00: What they're saying there, in a sense, is pay attention to the thing you value, focus on the thing that you desire above all else.
SPEAKER_00: Aim at the goal that you want to achieve.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus says in verses 22 and 23 that the eye is the lamp of the body, what he's saying is that what you're paying attention to, what you're looking at, reveals something about what you value, what your heart desires, what your heart loves.
SPEAKER_00: Your eyes reveal your heart.
SPEAKER_00: You see, spiritually speaking, your eyes aren't connected to your brain, your eyes are connected to your heart.
SPEAKER_00: You will seek out and pay attention to things that you love, the things that you value.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this of course could be physical looking, right?
SPEAKER_00: You think of the uh the person whose uh whose heart desires uh intimacy and relationship above all else, you they might constantly be looking as they as they move through the the world for that for that person, might be uh swiping on uh on a dating app, looking for that person, or it might actually lead them into uh into something that's darker, it might lead them to looking at pornography.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus is saying more than that, Jesus is saying whatever you give your attention to, or whatever you prioritize tells you something about what you value.
SPEAKER_00: What you prioritize tells you something about what you value, it shows you where your heart's at, it shows you where you find meaning.
SPEAKER_00: So, does that mean that we only ever pay attention to things that we value?
SPEAKER_00: Well, not necessarily.
SPEAKER_00: I imagine you can uh think of instances the most obvious being you work a job that you don't particularly like.
SPEAKER_00: You just work a job that you hate.
SPEAKER_00: But the reason why you do it, why you pay attention in that job, why you uh continue to focus in that role, might not be for the job itself, but it might be for the things that it gives you.
SPEAKER_00: The comfort and security that come from the uh the the paycheck at the end of the month.
SPEAKER_00: It's that their job gives them what their heart is focused on.
SPEAKER_00: It leads you into achieving what you're really aiming at.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever said to yourself or said to to someone else I just don't have time to read my Bible at the moment.
SPEAKER_00: Just don't have time.
SPEAKER_00: I'm so busy.
SPEAKER_00: Or I would I like I'd love to go to church, or yeah, I but I can't, I I'm just too busy.
SPEAKER_00: I'm really too busy for community group tonight.
SPEAKER_00: No, look, caveat.
SPEAKER_00: There are exceptional circumstances when demands are placed upon us when it's simply impossible to to get along to those things that you do genuinely value.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm speaking rather to the person, and I'm guilty of this too.
SPEAKER_00: I'm speaking rather to the person who says as a uh as a matter of first uh excuse or first recourse, I'm too busy.
SPEAKER_00: I can't.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have time to read my Bible, I'm too busy.
SPEAKER_00: Could it be that actually you're prioritizing wrongly?
SPEAKER_00: Could it be that actually in your hierarchy of values, there are lots of things that come above spending time with God in his word and God's people, that actually those things are expendable, that you can cast them aside because in your mind, actually, those things are more important, and maybe, and here's the thing about the the blindness that Jesus talks about here, which we'll get into in a minute.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you'd say, of course I value reading the Bible, of course I value uh meeting with with God's people.
SPEAKER_00: How could you say that?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but where's your eye pointing?
SPEAKER_00: What are you prioritizing?
SPEAKER_00: What are you paying attention to?
SPEAKER_00: Because that actually reveals uh what the hierarchy of values is in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: When we prioritize rightly or wrongly, it tells us something about where our heart is at.
SPEAKER_00: It tells us what we really value.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's worth, as Jesus gets us to stop and think, it's worth asking ourselves, well, what do you fix your gaze on?
SPEAKER_00: Put it another way.
SPEAKER_00: What occupies your daydreams?
SPEAKER_00: What do you think about when you're not thinking about anything else?
SPEAKER_00: What gets most of your attention?
SPEAKER_00: What gets top priority?
SPEAKER_00: If you think about your hierarchy of values, that might be um you know, job, family, money, God, God's people.
SPEAKER_00: Why is the how do you order them?
SPEAKER_00: What is the hierarchy?
SPEAKER_00: That'll tell you something about what you value most in life.
SPEAKER_00: What you're aiming your life at.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus wants you wants to help you to think about what it is you're valuing.
SPEAKER_00: How do you know what your heart loves?
SPEAKER_00: You're paying attention to it.
SPEAKER_00: You're deliberately seeking it out.
SPEAKER_00: It's the stuff that you give most of your time to.
SPEAKER_00: What should we value?
SPEAKER_00: This is the the second question.
SPEAKER_00: Well Jesus says that you this is the the first part of the the passage, it's there in uh verses uh 19 to 21.
SPEAKER_00: Do not lay up for yourselves 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 moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal.
SPEAKER_00: For where your treasures Treasure is, there your heart will be also.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is saying that your heart lives with your treasure, that which you value most.
SPEAKER_00: And the connection between these two sections is this your heart is attached to what you value, and what you value determines what you focus on, look at, pay attention to.
SPEAKER_00: Put it simply, your heart governs your eyes.
SPEAKER_00: Your heart governs your eyes.
SPEAKER_00: Note that Jesus is not saying that there is a discussion here between valuing and not valuing.
SPEAKER_00: Rather, it's a discussion between valuing rightly and valuing wrongly.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus again is reinforcing this idea that every human being values, every human being loves, every human being seeks meaning.
SPEAKER_00: The question is not do we do that or not do that?
SPEAKER_00: It's are we getting meaning?
SPEAKER_00: Are we loving rightly or wrongly?
SPEAKER_00: Are we valuing rightly or wrongly?
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean to value rightly or wrongly?
SPEAKER_00: Well, clearly, Jesus' answer is that you don't want to lay up treasure on earth, you want to lay up treasure in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: But what does he mean by that?
SPEAKER_00: And why is that important?
SPEAKER_00: Well, what he means is so to lay up treasures on earth, what he's saying there is don't make earthly things, that is, the created things around you, the things that you have that you own, the relationships that you're in, don't make those things ultimate things.
SPEAKER_00: It's not that you can't have them, it's not that you can't enjoy them as good things.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is not saying that.
SPEAKER_00: Don't use them to derive your sense of identity, your sense of uh of worth or of hope or of joy in the world.
SPEAKER_00: And why not?
SPEAKER_00: Why shouldn't you do that?
SPEAKER_00: Well, Jesus' answer is that it is because those things can be taken away from you.
SPEAKER_00: It is because those things can degrade and decay, can slip through your fingers, or can be stolen away.
SPEAKER_00: The problem is if you attach your heart, if you attach your identity, your sense of self in the world, your value, your hope, your joy, if you attach your heart to something that is made to a relationship, to success, and you find that it slips through your fingers or that you lose it, Jesus is saying the problem is you lose yourself.
SPEAKER_00: You really are cut off from orbit, drifting endlessly in the world.
SPEAKER_00: The particular context here in this passage obviously deals with money.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus talks a lot about money because it often uh reveals something about our heart.
SPEAKER_00: Money is a it's a beguiling thing, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: It's good to have it, it's wonderful to have it.
SPEAKER_00: It's anxiety-inducing not to have it, especially if you need to have it.
SPEAKER_00: It captivates our attentions, it preoccupies our mind.
SPEAKER_00: It can preoccupy your mind and captivate your attention whether you're rich or you're poor.
SPEAKER_00: The rich person obsesses over money just as much as the person who doesn't have it.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus warns us that the problem is that all of it can be lost.
SPEAKER_00: It's like I've said before, when John D.
SPEAKER_00: Rockefeller died, and they asked him how much, you know, he was asked, they didn't ask him he was dead, uh, but it was asked how much he left behind, and the answer came, well, all of it.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' warning is that it all can be lost.
SPEAKER_00: Not only that, but it all will be lost.
SPEAKER_00: Every earthly thing that you love will be taken away from you at some point or in the final analysis.
SPEAKER_00: That's not a pleasant or cheery thought for a Sunday morning, but it does happen to be a true one.
SPEAKER_00: And so it is worth thinking.
SPEAKER_00: Do I have a source of joy?
SPEAKER_00: Do I value things outside of those earthly things that will steer me through the various losses that I will endure in this life?
SPEAKER_00: Because if those things in which your hope resides are lost, you will be left hopeless.
SPEAKER_00: And never mind talking about people living without water or living without food.
SPEAKER_00: People simply cannot live without hope.
SPEAKER_00: They either turn to despair or they turn murderous with resentment.
SPEAKER_00: But it's not just money, though, is it?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is warning us about deriving our meaning and our hope from anything that can be taken from us.
SPEAKER_00: Again, of course, we can still love people, can still love the things that we have here on earth, but we do not make them ultimate.
SPEAKER_00: That is what Jesus is cautioning us against, about attaching our heart too closely to them.
SPEAKER_00: Rather, Jesus' counsel is to value the things that can never be taken away, to fix our attention on what he calls the heavenly things.
SPEAKER_00: What that means for our life is that we could suffer loss and still have the things that we truly value, or suffer loss and grieve with great pain the loss of those things, but still have hope.
SPEAKER_00: What is the hope of the promise of the gospel?
SPEAKER_00: It is of renewal, it is of reunion, it is of resurrection, and so we can suffer the loss of people that we love dearly and grieve that loss acutely and still have gospel hope.
SPEAKER_00: Gospel hope in the goodness of God and in the renewal of all things.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is saying you orientate your life in that sort of way.
SPEAKER_00: You're able, you're able then to navigate whatever life throws at you.
SPEAKER_00: That's the thing.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody considers this.
SPEAKER_00: In the intersection, back into that image, in the intersection of all of those clamoring voices.
SPEAKER_00: There stands Jesus quietly.
SPEAKER_00: Beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: Holding out life.
SPEAKER_00: And take what he loves and follow him down the path that he leads.
SPEAKER_00: To store up treasure in heaven is for the Christian to have Christian priorities, Christian values.
SPEAKER_00: I don't mean that in a in a one-dimensional political sense.
SPEAKER_00: No, we've talked about Christians being a counterculture, a counterculture for the common good.
SPEAKER_00: Well, a counterculture doesn't just live differently, it loves differently.
SPEAKER_00: It values following him, following the Lord Jesus, even when it's costly, and especially when it's not cool.
SPEAKER_00: How do you know that you're not living counterculturally?
SPEAKER_00: Everybody in the world is applauding you.
SPEAKER_00: That tends to be how it goes.
SPEAKER_00: Not just of ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: It seeks out, we seek out generosity and compassion, not entitlement, not rights, not selfish game.
SPEAKER_00: We are concerned for justice rather than exploitation.
SPEAKER_00: And we extend grace and forgiveness to others, charity to those whom we disagree with.
SPEAKER_00: We are truly tolerant.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, That's treasure.
SPEAKER_00: Folks, all of you watching this, don't spend your life trying to become rich.
SPEAKER_00: Spend your life seeking treasure.
SPEAKER_00: Thirdly, and and finally, how does what you value affect you?
SPEAKER_00: Or indeed those around you?
SPEAKER_00: So we've thought about how do you know what you're valuing?
SPEAKER_00: That is, well, how do you know it's what you're focusing on, what your eyes are are looking at, or the eyes of your heart in that metaphorical sense, what you're what you're aiming at that tells you something about what you value.
SPEAKER_00: What should you value?
SPEAKER_00: What your heart should be attached to, uh, to the things that are imperishable, those things that cannot be taken away from you.
SPEAKER_00: And now finally, Jesus wants to kind of uh encourage us and warn us by showing, well, if you value wrongly, if you value rightly, here are some of the consequences, here's the effect that it will have.
SPEAKER_00: You might be fooled into thinking that what you value serves you, that what you value serves uh your deeper desires, your ends.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus would have you stop and reconsider that, and that's what he's getting at in verse 24.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, rather, he says, No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate one and love the other, or he'll be devoted to the one and despise the other.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot serve God and money.
SPEAKER_00: It is not that uh it is not that the things that you value, the things that you're aiming at serve you, it's that you serve them.
SPEAKER_00: You will serve what you love.
SPEAKER_00: That's what 24 is about.
SPEAKER_00: You will serve is pour yourself out, give your time and your treasure and your attention and your skills to the thing that you love.
SPEAKER_00: All of your striving, sacrificing, pursuing, all of that is serving the thing that your heart is captivated by.
SPEAKER_00: If your heart desires, for example, success and admiration, you will serve that end by working to achieve it, sacrificing time, sacrificing time from other things, sacrificing even the relationships that you're in in order to achieve that end, in order to serve that small g god, all gods, all idols, all small g gods, they all require sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: What are the things that we sacrifice?
SPEAKER_00: We sacrifice ourselves, we sacrifice people around us.
SPEAKER_00: If your heart's desire is to create your own identity, if your heart's desire is to mold yourself into the image that you desire, you will serve that end by giving that all of your attention, by pouring your time and your money into that, by sacrificing your old self, by sacrificing those who stand in your way as you perceive it, by sacrificing those who quote unquote don't get it, don't understand.
SPEAKER_00: Our choice as human beings is not between serving or not serving, it is who or what will you serve.
SPEAKER_00: Now, someone might say, Well, that's fine.
SPEAKER_00: I will serve what I want, I will serve what I value.
SPEAKER_00: Again, Jesus would caution you.
SPEAKER_00: Again, he would say, Don't serve something that can be lost, don't serve something that can be taken away from you, don't serve something that actually won't satisfy you, is so often the case, with success or or self-creation.
SPEAKER_00: With success, you're never really at the top of your game.
SPEAKER_00: And when you are, you find that it's very empty.
SPEAKER_00: You think, is this it?
SPEAKER_00: The the the adrenaline rush lasts for for a few minutes, the congratulation lasts for a day or two, but then where do you go from here?
SPEAKER_00: And the rest of your life is is about looking over your shoulder at those who are coming behind you, ready to eclipse you.
SPEAKER_00: Or if it's self-creation, you will never be satisfied.
SPEAKER_00: Because it's not the issue that you have is not an external one, it's an internal one.
SPEAKER_00: The issue that you have is nothing to do, it's not to do with your physiology, it's to do with your heart.
SPEAKER_00: And only God can change that.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus also warns us that serving the wrong thing can make you blind.
SPEAKER_00: Serving the wrong thing can make your whole body dark.
SPEAKER_00: Again, we're we're back in uh the more difficult section of the three, it's there in 22 and 23.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just remind one another of it.
SPEAKER_00: The eye is the lamp of the body, so if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light.
SPEAKER_00: But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.
SPEAKER_00: If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness?
SPEAKER_00: What does he mean by that?
SPEAKER_00: Remember the context.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that he's talking about money primarily here, though not though not exclusively.
SPEAKER_00: What happens to people who love money?
SPEAKER_00: What happens to people who love and desire money above all else?
SPEAKER_00: What happens to them?
SPEAKER_00: They become selfish, they become blind, don't they?
SPEAKER_00: They become blind to their own greed, they become blind to the need of others.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Dickens talking about uh Ebenezer Scrooge.
SPEAKER_00: You know, just as we prepare to get into uh the Christmas season, and you'll be dusting off the uh the Muppets Christmas Carol uh DVD.
SPEAKER_00: What is it that Dickens says about Scrooge?
SPEAKER_00: Says he was as cold and solitary as an oyster.
SPEAKER_00: Or his business partner, Jacob Marley.
SPEAKER_00: The book, Christmas Carol, begins with a line: Jacob Marley was dead to begin with.
SPEAKER_00: It leaves you cold.
SPEAKER_00: Or, uh, since it is me and uh Dickens will not suffice, you could have a uh a Tolkien reference, not from Lord of the Rings this time, but from the Hobbit.
SPEAKER_00: What is the disease, the sickness that befalls Thor and Oak and Shield once he uh acquires again the dragon's horde and all of that gold in the lonely mountain?
SPEAKER_00: It is dragon sickness.
SPEAKER_00: And what is dragon sickness?
SPEAKER_00: Dragon sickness is greed, it is blindness to the plight of others, it is blindness to the all to the uh to the self-consuming nature of the greed that you are wrapped up in.
SPEAKER_00: An obsession with money and with material wealth or security can happen to us whether we are rich or of meager means.
SPEAKER_00: The effect is that it blinds us to the needs of others.
SPEAKER_00: Do you love your money?
SPEAKER_00: Do you love your money in an unhealthy way?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus would say that the danger is that you'll become blind.
SPEAKER_00: But it's not just money, is it?
SPEAKER_00: To have a bad eye, as he says, if your eye is bad, to have a bad eye here is to have an eye that is selfish, that is uh inward looking, that is uh conceited, that is contriving and manipulative, that is self-absorbed over and against the needs of others, that cannot see the point of view of the people around you.
SPEAKER_00: You are always right, you are always the victim, you must always be in control.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, that's a bad eye.
SPEAKER_00: You end up, you value your own happiness, your own freedom above all.
SPEAKER_00: And what happens?
SPEAKER_00: Well, one of the things that happens is that the people around you, the people around you become tools to be used rather than human beings to be loved.
SPEAKER_00: Have you been in that relationship where you know that you are being used for the happiness of another?
SPEAKER_00: When you are blinded, you are dark on the inside, and when you are dark on the inside, you cannot see the world for how it truly is, you cannot see what is really going on in yourself, you cannot really see who truly loves you and is seeking your good.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot see what is really right or good or true in the world.
SPEAKER_00: And do you know what the worst thing is?
SPEAKER_00: The absolute worst thing.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know what the worst thing is that Jesus says here?
SPEAKER_00: You think you're fine.
SPEAKER_00: You think that what you have inside of you is light.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the last phrase is about.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he means by if then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness?
SPEAKER_00: And that's the thing about the blindedness, the self absorption, the manipulation.
SPEAKER_00: Manipulation, the conceit.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know what it does?
SPEAKER_00: It completely you're the first person that's deceived.
SPEAKER_00: You're the first person who's fooled, and you think you're seeing clearly.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is like, how bad must the darkness be?
SPEAKER_00: If you think that that's light, if you think that you're fine.
SPEAKER_00: To have a healthy eye, a good eye, a healthy eye.
SPEAKER_00: Healthy is the word that's translated here.
SPEAKER_00: I mean just good eye.
SPEAKER_00: To have a healthy eye is an eye that, well, it does sort of the opposite of all of those things.
SPEAKER_00: It keeps things in perspective.
SPEAKER_00: It is still able to look to others, primarily in this context, to do with generosity.
SPEAKER_00: Generosity and compassion and other person-centeredness.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus is saying that we need to get our values right.
SPEAKER_00: You need to value rightly.
SPEAKER_00: If you value the wrong things, it will have consequences, not just for the people around you, but it'll have consequences for you.
SPEAKER_00: It will blind your vision.
SPEAKER_00: You won't be able to see outside of yourself.
SPEAKER_00: You won't be able to see others.
SPEAKER_00: But a healthy eye is an eye that regards the things of this world as they truly are meant to be seen, as gifts, as things to be enjoyed.
SPEAKER_00: It sees yourself as someone who is both beautiful as an image bearer and flawed.
SPEAKER_00: You are not only a victim, you are flawed and have weaknesses.
SPEAKER_00: You are a beloved image bearer for whom God's anointed King, the Lord Jesus, died, but you are also in need of forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: To see rightly is to see those things clearly.
SPEAKER_00: That is the alternative that Jesus offers, to have a good eye that is full, oh, that allows light to flood into your life.
SPEAKER_00: Allows life to invade your your body, your psyche, your your heart, your mind, your relationships, your perspective.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it is to be immeasurably and enduringly rich, to be able to go through life with perspective on the things that you have, perspective on the suffering that has befallen you.
SPEAKER_00: To know that everything that you have, all of the money in your bank account is a gift.
SPEAKER_00: You don't own it.
SPEAKER_00: God gave it to you.
SPEAKER_00: You're a steward of it.
SPEAKER_00: The same with everything else.
SPEAKER_00: It's to be used for in his service, it's to be used to bless other people, it's to be used with generosity.
SPEAKER_00: You do that, you live like that, your life will be full of light.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the deal.
SPEAKER_00: And with this I finish.
SPEAKER_00: We have all valued wrongly.
SPEAKER_00: I don't value right.
SPEAKER_00: I don't value right still.
SPEAKER_00: And neither do you if you're watching this.
SPEAKER_00: You're trusting in Jesus, and you're like, gosh, yeah, I have wrong values.
SPEAKER_00: That is true.
SPEAKER_00: We've all valued wrongly.
SPEAKER_00: We've all valued and prioritized money, sex, power, comfort, family, security, more than anything else.
SPEAKER_00: We've all valued wrongly, and we know the consequence of that, that it's consumed us, that it's left us feeling lost and anxious and directionless.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus here, and Jesus in the gospel offers you a new start.
SPEAKER_00: Using a phrase from the Gospel of Luke, he set his face towards Jerusalem on the road of self-sacrifice and suffering for the good of others.
SPEAKER_00: He died for our false values, for our false loves.
SPEAKER_00: And he offers you a new heart that is in harmony with his, that resonates with the values of the Sermon and the Mount.
SPEAKER_00: He would give you new eyes so that you could see the goodness of following him, the goodness of turning around and seeing him at that intersection in your life and thinking, I'm going that direction.
SPEAKER_00: Come to him this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Come to him wherever you are.
SPEAKER_00: Come to him sitting sitting in your living room, sitting in your bedroom, sitting in your PJs, wherever you're watching this, come to him.
SPEAKER_00: Confess your false values.
SPEAKER_00: Admit that you have not been going in the right direction.
SPEAKER_00: And ask for the grace to turn around and to follow him, whatever the cost, and to find that he makes you immeasurably rich.
SPEAKER_00: That is what he offers you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Won't you take it?
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Our Father, we thank you that you apprehend us in passages like this and get us to review, to think about the things that we love, the things that we're really valuing.
SPEAKER_00: And I think, well, are they satisfying?
SPEAKER_00: Are they delivering the life that that I want?
SPEAKER_00: Help us by your spirit to value what Jesus values, to love what he loves, to have a heart that is in harmony with his.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you that he died for our conceit and self-absorption, our manipulation, our false values, our loving things more than you.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you that he forgives us and he offers us hope and the promise of restoration, renewal, and resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to follow him, not just today, but every day.
SPEAKER_00: We pray these things in his precious name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Amen, everyone.