Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Hello everyone.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is Pastor Benjamin.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You're listening to Sermon Audio from New City, Orlando.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: At New City, we long to see our Father answer the Lord's Prayer.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: For more resources, visit our website at Newcity Orlando.com.
Nadia Chong: Join me in this prayer of illumination.
Nadia Chong: Give us understanding that we may keep your law and observe it with our whole hearts.
Nadia Chong: Lead us in the path of your commandments, for ye delight in it.
Nadia Chong: Turn our eyes from looking at worthless things and give us life in your ways through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Nadia Chong: Amen.
Nadia Chong: Today's scripture reading is going to be from Luke twelve.
Nadia Chong: It's a long one, so stand if you can.
Nadia Chong: Someone in the crowd said to him, Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.
Nadia Chong: But he said to them, Man who made me a judge and arbitrator over you.
Nadia Chong: And he said to them, Take care and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.
Nadia Chong: And he told them a parable saying, The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?
Nadia Chong: And he said, I will do this.
Nadia Chong: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods, and I will say to my soul, Soul, have you ample goods laid up for many years?
Nadia Chong: Relax, eat, drink, be merry.
Nadia Chong: But God said to him, Fool, this night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?
Nadia Chong: So is this the one who lays up treasure for himself and that is not rich toward God?
Nadia Chong: And he said to his disciples, Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on, for life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.
Nadia Chong: Consider the ravens, they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them.
Nadia Chong: Of how much more value are you than the birds?
Nadia Chong: And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his span of life?
Nadia Chong: If then you are not able to do a small thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?
Nadia Chong: Consider the lilies, how they grow, they neither toil nor spin.
Nadia Chong: Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Nadia Chong: But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today and tomorrow is thrown up into the oven, how much more will he clothe you?
Nadia Chong: O you of little faith, and do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried, for all the nations of the world will seek after these things, and your father knows that you need them.
Nadia Chong: Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.
Nadia Chong: Fear not, little flock.
Nadia Chong: It is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
Nadia Chong: Sell your possessions and give to the needy.
Nadia Chong: Provide yourselves with money bags and do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Nadia Chong: This is God's word.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Thanks be to God.
Pastor Jason Dunn: This morning, I am one of the pastors here at New City.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Now, one of the most challenging things about being human is that our attention is limited.
Pastor Jason Dunn: It's in fact maybe one of the most precious things that we have, the most precious resource that we have.
Pastor Jason Dunn: You can really only focus one thing at a time.
Pastor Jason Dunn: There is really no neutrality or this myth of multitasking with our attention.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Either you aim at one thing with your attention or you aim at another.
Pastor Jason Dunn: We all know this to be true because we have this thing that seeks our attention all the time in our pockets.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And you know that you can't look at the phone and also be engaged in conversation with somebody across from the table.
Pastor Jason Dunn: You have to choose.
Pastor Jason Dunn: But before I go on and get all abstract about and existential about our attention, I want to tell you a story.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Now, I love riding my bike.
Pastor Jason Dunn: You know what 40-year-old doesn't love riding his bike?
Pastor Jason Dunn: Some of you guys have some of those cool, fancy electric bikes, which is cool.
Pastor Jason Dunn: I haven't quite made it that far.
Pastor Jason Dunn: But I don't get to ride it as much, but sometimes I get to ride my bike to work.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Actually, Ben, who's not here this morning, we both get to ride our bikes to work.
Pastor Jason Dunn: It's a single-speed, fixed gear bike and so much fun.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Uh, he does it for fun, and I kind of do it for exercise.
Pastor Jason Dunn: But anyway, you know what it's like when you're on a bike with like really thin tires.
Pastor Jason Dunn: You're going down the sidewalk and you're hitting driveway after driveway after driveway after driveway.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And I'm like, man, I'm meant to be over here in the roadway.
Pastor Jason Dunn: But I have this big fear of Orlando traffic.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Like, I can't get out there, I'm gonna get hit.
Pastor Jason Dunn: So, but then sometimes I get enough courage, enough boldness, and I'm like, well, I'm gonna head that way.
Pastor Jason Dunn: So, what do I do?
Pastor Jason Dunn: I fix my eyes towards the roadway, and I try to make a determination whether or not I can get into the roadway without being hit or not.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And so I did this one time.
Pastor Jason Dunn: I looked back because I was on a sidewalk across from the lane I needed to be in to be uh roadworthy, going with traffic on my bike.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And all of a sudden I looked back and smack, I hit a concrete telephone pole going about 20 miles an hour.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And the next thing I knew, I was on the ground, I couldn't breathe because the impact I had had knocked the wind out of myself.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And uh somehow, by God's grace, I missed my head.
Pastor Jason Dunn: I wasn't wearing a helmet that day, and my shoulder and and the bike did not fare so well.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Now I'd love to kind of tell you the end of that story, but that's a different sermon on the power of shame.
Pastor Jason Dunn: But what happened?
Pastor Jason Dunn: The fancy psychological and behavioral concept is called target fixation.
Pastor Jason Dunn: I focused my attention on where I wanted to go even for a moment, and that drifted me far enough that I would hit an immovable concrete structure.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Now, this is what I want you guys to hear.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Our attention directs our affections.
Pastor Jason Dunn: What you aim at, you will get.
Pastor Jason Dunn: In today's parable, Jesus shows us that we build our lives, we build our lives based on what we pay attention to.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Jesus wants us to know the importance of where we focus our attention.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And what the problem is, is that sin hijacks our attention.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Sin takes our attention and malforms our aims.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Sin takes our attention and leads us, if you think about the parable, to foolishness, and you think about the narrative after the parable, to anxiety.
Pastor Jason Dunn: We often, when our attention is misguided or directed in something different, our affections directed at something that we shouldn't be directed towards, we often hit an immovable force and crash.
Pastor Jason Dunn: So the question for us today is who or what has your attention?
Pastor Jason Dunn: And what does that produce inside of you?
Pastor Jason Dunn: Peace and security, or anxiety and fear?
Pastor Jason Dunn: We'll explore those questions through these points: the problem of anxiety, the principle of attention, and the pleasure of the Father.
Pastor Jason Dunn: If you have a Bible or device or a bulletin, turn with me to Luke chapter 12, starting in verse 13.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Someone in the crowd said to him, Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Well, what's going on here?
Pastor Jason Dunn: Jesus, as he often does, is teaching his disciples, but there's others, those are around him.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And someone raises their hand to ask him and calls him a teacher and says, Hey, I have a question.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And what was it about?
Pastor Jason Dunn: It was a family dispute.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And what was the family dispute about?
Pastor Jason Dunn: Money.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And it's usually right, family disputes could be about a lot of different things.
Pastor Jason Dunn: It's relationally in the end, but sometimes there's always this thing about money.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And the problem was probably a younger brother complaining about his older brother who is controlling the assets or controlling the family estate.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And did Jesus get sucked into the family squabble?
Pastor Jason Dunn: No.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Look at verse 14 with me.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And he said to him, Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?
Pastor Jason Dunn: And then in this next statement, Jesus goes below the question that this man is asking.
Pastor Jason Dunn: He goes deeper.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Verse 15, and he said to them, Take care and be on your guard against all covetousness.
Pastor Jason Dunn: For one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Jesus uses this moment to actually expose this man's heart, the heart that has a tendency to bend in on itself.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Jesus uses the moment to expose what grabs our attentions and our hearts.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Jesus actually gives us two commands here, and this is a warning.
Pastor Jason Dunn: These two commands are a warning.
Pastor Jason Dunn: He says, take care.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And the second command is be on guard.
Pastor Jason Dunn: The Greek word here for take care has this broader, wider meaning.
Pastor Jason Dunn: It means of considering, seeing, watching.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Some translations actually take this Greek word and they translate it, watch out.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Take care, see what is really there.
Pastor Jason Dunn: This is attention language.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Look what's really going on.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Be alert.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And what does Jesus want us to see?
Pastor Jason Dunn: What does he want us to watch out for?
Pastor Jason Dunn: Jesus wants us to watch out for the problem of coveting.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Coveting grabs our attention by our misseeing, misseeing possessions as life, misseeing abundance as security, misseeing surplus as salvation, misseeing that our hearts aren't actually as healthy as they are.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And the second imperative, be on guard.
Pastor Jason Dunn: It's an echo from the garden, protect and keep the garden where they're to keep and protect the garden from the evil one.
Pastor Jason Dunn: They were to do the good work that God had asked them to do.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And Jesus is here saying, protect and keep on guard from the evil of coveting.
Pastor Jason Dunn: So what is coveting?
Pastor Jason Dunn: Coveting is the state of desiring to have more than one's due.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Augustine says, covetousness is an appetite on anyone's part for more than enough.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Coveting is to want what you don't have.
Pastor Jason Dunn: This is probably true of the man who interrupted Jesus with his question, with the family dispute.
Pastor Jason Dunn: He was asking for more than his due.
Pastor Jason Dunn: He was asking for what he didn't or could not have.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And coveting, it puts us on a posture of always saying, Mine.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Look down with me as I read verses 17 through 19 with a little emphasis.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And he told them a parable.
Pastor Jason Dunn: By the way, I don't, I just real quick aside as I continue to read, is who who actually created the wealth that this man had?
Pastor Jason Dunn: It's the land that created the wealth.
Pastor Jason Dunn: God is the one who gives wealth.
Pastor Jason Dunn: But let me keep reading.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Verse 17, and he thought to himself, What shall I do?
Pastor Jason Dunn: For I have nowhere to store my crops.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And he said, I will do this, I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods, and I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Relax, eat, drink, and be merry.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Anyone who's been around a toddler recently knows what it's like.
Pastor Jason Dunn: My toy, my plate, my bottle, even if it isn't theirs, they still say, mine, mine, mine.
Pastor Jason Dunn: It's this automatic state of our hearts.
Pastor Jason Dunn: There's an insatiability with our hearts.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And just a real quick aside here, I want to say something because there is something here to say about self-talk.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Jesus is portraying this rich man, this farmer, as someone who is engaging in self-talk.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And that self-talk, I think, led to a lie.
Pastor Jason Dunn: The lie is that it's all about me.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Eat, drink, and be merry.
Pastor Jason Dunn: The lie is that the life is all about my comfort, my security.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And so now I wonder, just for this little aside, what is your self-talk telling you?
Pastor Jason Dunn: Is your self-talk telling you lies or life?
Pastor Jason Dunn: The truth of who God is?
Pastor Jason Dunn: Are we speaking lies to ourselves or are we speaking the truth of God?
Pastor Jason Dunn: As Steve Brown would say, you think about that.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Okay, the point is this: we have a coveting problem, which is actually the cause of our anxiety problem.
Pastor Jason Dunn: It's one of the big ten, right?
Pastor Jason Dunn: Coveting.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Francis Schaefer says that the tenth commandment is about covetousness and is entirely inward.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Coveting is the reverse side, he goes on to say, coveting is the reverse side of the law of love.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Coveting does not move us outward, but coveting moves us inward.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Look at the end of verse 15.
Pastor Jason Dunn: For one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Jesus then here ties coveting to not just generally what we want, something we don't have, but he ties coveting specifically to money, to possessions, to wealth.
Pastor Jason Dunn: So what is unique about possessions, money, and wealth?
Pastor Jason Dunn: Why is Jesus tying coveting to money?
Pastor Jason Dunn: I think it's because we believe money will bring us security, satisfaction, and significance.
Pastor Jason Dunn: We believe that money actually will solve all our problems and that our future, if we had enough money, will be secure.
Pastor Jason Dunn: But do you guys think that's true?
Pastor Jason Dunn: Does money bring more peace?
Pastor Jason Dunn: Does money bring more security and less anxiety?
Pastor Jason Dunn: The Financial Services in Power did a financial happiness survey in 2022 asking the question exactly how much more money do you think you need to be happy?
Pastor Jason Dunn: Now they it was, I think, a pretty well-done survey.
Pastor Jason Dunn: They surveyed about 2,000 people.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And in the survey, most people said it would take a pretty significant pay bump to achieve happiness, to achieve contentment, and be free from the anxiety about wealth.
Pastor Jason Dunn: 70% of the respondents strongly agreed with this statement.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Having more money would solve most of my problems.
Pastor Jason Dunn: But here's the fascinating thing about that survey was that true that was the answer was true, and people could relate to that answer no matter where they were on the income bracket, across all income brackets.
Pastor Jason Dunn: It didn't matter how rich or how much wealth you had or how little wealth you had, you always wanted more money.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And this was even true for very, very wealthy people.
Pastor Jason Dunn: A 2018 study asked millionaires to rate their happiness on a scale from one to 10.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And if they didn't say 10, they were asked to predict how much more money would they need just to move one point higher.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Slightly, over half of those with a net worth of $10 million or more said that their wealth would need to increase by at least 50%.
Pastor Jason Dunn: That's at least $5 million more dollars to move just one point on the happiness scale.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Apparently, wealth does not bring happiness, no matter how rich you are.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Listen to Paul, how he talks about it to Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter 6, starting in verse 9.
Pastor Jason Dunn: But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.
Pastor Jason Dunn: For the love of money, and that's important, it's the love of money.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Money necessarily wealth or possessions isn't bad, but the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.
Pastor Jason Dunn: It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.
Pastor Jason Dunn: What is Jesus belaboring?
Pastor Jason Dunn: What is Paul belaboring?
Pastor Jason Dunn: They're warning us about the problem of coveting money.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Coveting seeks possessions, it claims them as mine, mine, mine, my barns, my food, my wealth, my money.
Pastor Jason Dunn: But they are not equated with true living, they do not bring true happiness.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Jesus purposely also, here in this passage, after the parable in the narrative section, he ties coveting to anxiety.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Look down with me in verse 22 and 23.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And he said to his disciples, so he's purposely training his disciples, right?
Pastor Jason Dunn: There may be a larger crowd, but he is disciple making his disciples, training them.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And he says, Therefore, therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And you always have to ask, what is that therefore, therefore, right?
Pastor Jason Dunn: And so he's Jesus is tying here in the gospel of Luke.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Luke is writing this in tying Jesus' words from the parable of the rich fool to this narrative about do not be anxious.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Coveting and anxiety actually are married bed fellows.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Coveting leads to anxiety.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And anxiety, what is it?
Pastor Jason Dunn: It is it's actually an effect, it's not the cause.
Pastor Jason Dunn: It's best understood as a psychological equivalent of a fever.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Now, fevers they can indicate a common cold, or fevers can sometimes indicate something way deeper problems, like cancer.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And the problem of anxiety in our lives reveals deeper problems.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And here in this passage, the connection between anxiety and coveting.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Wealth does not relieve our anxiety because we are not in control.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Our souls will be required of us.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Look at what he with verse 25 through 26.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his span of life?
Pastor Jason Dunn: If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?
Pastor Jason Dunn: Possessions are not the antidote to our problem of anxiety and coveting.
Pastor Jason Dunn: So here are some diagnostic questions to get you going to be thinking about this problem of anxiety in your life, and if it's leading to exposing the deep problem of coveting.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Why do we want what we want, what we do not have?
Pastor Jason Dunn: Why do we think we need always more?
Pastor Jason Dunn: And in case you're trying to understand the anxiety part, here are why do we experience emotional anxiety?
Pastor Jason Dunn: Here are actually this is the question I want to ask is when do you tend to experience anxiety?
Pastor Jason Dunn: And then I want to tell you this is what anxiety looks like in a person.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Here's the emotional symptoms.
Pastor Jason Dunn: So we think about this.
Pastor Jason Dunn: When do you experience these symptoms?
Pastor Jason Dunn: Feelings of apprehension or dread.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Check.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Feeling tense.
Pastor Jason Dunn: That happens for me.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Restlessness or irritability.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Always thinking about the worst case scenario.
Pastor Jason Dunn: You know the feeling.
Pastor Jason Dunn: The mind is circling, the heart is racing and tightening, and your future is shrinking down to what you think you might lose.
Pastor Jason Dunn: That's anxiety.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Well, Jesus isn't only trying to give us a warning about anxiety and about coveting, but he's trying to teach us the principle of our attention.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And this leads me to my second point, the principle of our attention.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Simply put, attention directs affections.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Now, we've already talked about this from a foundational point in verse 15 when I talked about the two words, take care and be on guard against all covetousness.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Those were imperatives, were attention language.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Jesus does not only tell us both not to just don't be anxious, just to stop worrying.
Pastor Jason Dunn: He actually retrains our attention.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Jesus redirects our attention, and you can see that through the actual verbs of the narrative section after the parable.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Look with me in the following verses.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Verse 24, consider the ravens.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Verse 27, consider the lilies.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Verse 29, do not seek like the nations do.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Verse 31, instead seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.
Pastor Jason Dunn: All of this is attention language.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Jesus is trying to retrain your attention.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Jesus knows that where our attention is, our hearts will be led.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Your attention directs your affections.
Pastor Jason Dunn: If your attention is on your possessions, you'll be led to anxiety.
Pastor Jason Dunn: If your attention is on God and his kingdom, you'll be led to peace and love.
Pastor Jason Dunn: You'll be rich toward God.
Pastor Jason Dunn: The rich fool had his attention, his heart, his affections on his treasure.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Jesus is calling us to have our attention on God and his kingdom.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Look down with me at verse 21, the end of the parable section.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Jesus says, So to the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.
Pastor Jason Dunn: There's no neutrality in that statement.
Pastor Jason Dunn: You are either laying for yourself up treasures here on earth or you're laying up for yourself treasures in heaven, riches toward God.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Well, how are we doing with that?
Pastor Jason Dunn: Anybody in the room experiencing anxiety or the deeper problem of coveting?
Pastor Jason Dunn: No matter how much we try to keep our focus and our attention on God, we fail at doing so.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And this language of attention and focus, it reminds me actually of the Grand Canyon.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And have you guys ever been to the Grand Canyon?
Pastor Jason Dunn: I haven't been since I was a little kid, probably a teenager actually.
Pastor Jason Dunn: But this is just the most beautiful landscape that God has created.
Pastor Jason Dunn: He's created a lot of beautiful landscapes.
Pastor Jason Dunn: But the Grand Canyon is majestic, it's beautiful, it's awe-inspiring, but it's dangerous.
Pastor Jason Dunn: So much so that they have put guardrails up where a lot of tourists go, they'll put guardrails up along the edge to keep from tourists falling in.
Pastor Jason Dunn: The problem is that our personal judgment cannot always be trusted.
Pastor Jason Dunn: We may be, our attention may get distracted and we may fall over the cliff.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Our attention can be misdirected.
Pastor Jason Dunn: So, in the same way that we can be distracted by the Grand Canyon and all its beauty, we can be distracted by the many beautiful things here on earth that God has given us.
Pastor Jason Dunn: They are not bad in themselves, but if they pull our full attention or if they order our loves in such a way where God is not first, they will become dangers to us.
Pastor Jason Dunn: So we need guardrails in our lives to remind us what our true treasure is.
Pastor Jason Dunn: So who or what are the guardrails in your life?
Pastor Jason Dunn: For me, the guardrails are the people that I serve with, the staff at New City, the elders of our session, uh, my wife.
Pastor Jason Dunn: They help me keep my focus, my attention on God.
Pastor Jason Dunn: They help me to take care and be on guard.
Pastor Jason Dunn: They help me to move outward, not inward.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And so I would invite you all you need guardrails, you need community around you to help you to take care and be on guard, to help you not fall over the cliff that's coming.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And this leads me to my third and final point: the pleasure of the Father.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Turn with me to verse 32.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Fear not, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
Pastor Jason Dunn: This is one of the sweetest verses in this whole passage.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Jesus has warned us about covenant, he has exposed our heart of anxiety, he has retrained our attention, and now he tells us why the anxious heart can rest.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Verse 32, fear not, it is your father's good pleasure to give.
Pastor Jason Dunn: It is his joy, he is joy-filled by giving.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Jesus does not only tell us what God does, he gives, but he tells us who God is like in this verse.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Why can the anxious heart rest?
Pastor Jason Dunn: Because the father is not stingy, but he is joy-filled.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Why can the covetous heart loosen its grip on his possessions and wealth?
Pastor Jason Dunn: Because the father is not withholding life from us.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Why can the disciples seek the kingdom first?
Pastor Jason Dunn: Because it is being given by a pleased father to the needy children.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Jesus prepares us for this language.
Pastor Jason Dunn: If you look at verse 24, of how much more value are you than the birds?
Pastor Jason Dunn: And verse 28, of how much more will he clothe you than the lilies of the field?
Pastor Jason Dunn: Beloved, the Father wants to give to you.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And this is why verse 33 makes sense.
Pastor Jason Dunn: If you look at verse 33, it says, Sell your possessions and give to the needy.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Notice the order.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Jesus says that the Father gives, verse 32, and then we respond with a richness toward God, verse 21, but by selling our possessions and giving to the needy, verse 33.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Paul says something similar in 1 Timothy chapter 6, a little bit later than I read earlier, just 6 verses 17 through 19.
Pastor Jason Dunn: That God richly provides us with everything to enjoy.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Therefore, his people are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Things and possessions are not made to hold our attention and affections.
Pastor Jason Dunn: They are meant and made to be enjoyed and shared in good works.
Pastor Jason Dunn: As David Platt has said, when you get to heaven, Jesus will never ask you why you didn't collect more things here on earth.
Pastor Jason Dunn: So because the Father gives, you don't have to treat money like your Savior anymore.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Because the Father gives, you do not have to make possessions carry the weight of your identity anymore.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Because the Father gives, you do not have to build bigger barns to secure a future that the Father has already secured in Jesus.
Pastor Jason Dunn: A richness to God is a movement outward toward God in gratitude and toward our neighbor in love.
Pastor Jason Dunn: This is storing up treasures in heaven.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Well, I want to quick tell a story about C.T.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Stud.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And uh when I preached Romans a few years ago, I mentioned, I think I mentioned one of the Cambridge seven, and this is number two.
Pastor Jason Dunn: I'm gonna make it through all seven, but these are these are men who were uh from elite backgrounds in England in the 19th century.
Pastor Jason Dunn: They had all, they had all this wealth, they had all this status.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And C.
Pastor Jason Dunn: T.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Studd actually, he was this phenomenal athlete.
Pastor Jason Dunn: But they all the Cambridge Seven, they gave all those things up in order to go overseas and preach Christ.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And and C.
Pastor Jason Dunn: T.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Studd in particular, he wrote this beautiful poem.
Pastor Jason Dunn: I don't have time to read the whole poem, but this one line it speaks so loudly.
Pastor Jason Dunn: He says, only one life twill soon be passed.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Only what's done for Christ will last.
Pastor Jason Dunn: What C.T.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Studd, this wealthy man, knew, who had all the comforts in this world, he understood what his true treasure was.
Pastor Jason Dunn: He gave up the comforts of this world and gave his attention and his affections toward God and his kingdom.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Our passage ends with this searching diagnostic line in verse 34.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Look with me.
Pastor Jason Dunn: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Pastor Jason Dunn: The heart follows the treasure.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Your attention directs your affections.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And where did Jesus' heart lead him?
Pastor Jason Dunn: Where did Jesus' attention lead him?
Pastor Jason Dunn: Jesus didn't take on the role of the judge or arbitrator when he came, he took on the role of a servant.
Pastor Jason Dunn: His attention, his affections were to do the will of the Father, to seek his kingdom.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And the will of the Father was to give us a crucified Savior.
Pastor Jason Dunn: He is the one who is freely given to us by faith by the Father.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And Jesus himself freely gives himself to the needy.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Jesus himself is the inheritance that is talked about in the beginning of our passage.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And he claims us.
Pastor Jason Dunn: He claims us as his.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Abraham Kuiper says, There's not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry, mine.
Pastor Jason Dunn: While it's improper of toddlers and even adults to claim everything is mine, mine, mine, this is a proper response for the king and the judge of this world, and he claims us as mine.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Look to him, put your attention on him, the founder and the perfecter of your faith.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Let us pray.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Father, we are grateful for your love for us in this, that you have given your son the true inheritance to ransom a people to be your sheep by his blood.
Pastor Jason Dunn: And you tell us, Father, to fear not.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Jesus, you are the one who sought the kingdom to the point of death, and you have purchased us in your own blood.
Pastor Jason Dunn: We are not our own.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Spirit, fill us with peace and joy and move us towards storing up treasures in heaven.
Pastor Jason Dunn: We give you the glory.
Pastor Jason Dunn: Amen.