Boots on, we're going to ask them to try to fix the heat in
here so it comes on earlier on a Sunday morning.
I'm so sorry you're feeling a little chilly, a little cold.
We've been talking about money and our relationship to it.
Even as believers, we still have to sort out and wrestle with how
it pulls us, right? We know that there's four basic
things that we can do with money.
You can pop that forward. Thanks.
There we are. You can earn it.
Hopefully you will. Hopefully you might actually be.
I know, you know, there's a lot of students who actually have a
job while they're in school, and it really changes their life and
work experience with school during that time.
And then you can spend it. How many of you like to spend
it? Yeah, like to spend it.
And then you can save it. How many of you are like, when
it comes push comes to shove, I'm a saver, A few savers here.
That's good. You know, the other side of
saving to spending is that you get in debt.
And so we've invited you to come to a workshop on debt and the
skills that it takes, the mindset that it takes, It's
actually if you've never been in debt and fought your way out of
that hole, and there's a set of skills that you maybe you
haven't learned. And so we want to invite you to
come learn those skills, start to apply them in your life.
And these are proven mindsets and ways to find your way out of
debt. It's really, really important.
In fact, if you're in debt, the Scripture says you are actually
enslaved. You're enslaved to the lender,
OK. And so this is a spiritual
condition and we want to address this and help you because if
you're carrying debt as you graduate, there might be some
things that God wants you to say yes to.
But you, you see the debt sitting over there and you're
like, well, I'll just, I need to wait till I get the debt done.
So you wait on the yes to God. And that may indeed be part of
his plan, But if you don't tackle it like a gazelle and get
out of that situation as quick as you can, you're going to wait
10 years to actually see that debt done.
So if you graduate with $30,000 in debt, which the it's pretty
close across Canada, student loan debt is usually around 28
to $29,000. And if you wait 10 years to pay
that off, you will actually have paid out $40,000.
It's called interest. OK, so we want to help you
address this. Another thing you can do is give
her. You can be a give a giver.
How many of you like to give a few of you?
Yes, you like to be a giver, but you know there's something else
you can do with money besides these 4.
You can worry about it. You can worry about it.
Hey, This is Money. Get ready to worry about it for
the rest of your life. Wow, that's sad, right?
But that is much of our introduction to money and some
of us in our culture and our experiences, we find ourselves
worrying. Jesus knows this.
Notice what Jesus says. He says.
I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or
drink, or about your body. What you will wear.
Is not life more than food and the body more than clothes.
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?
Can anyone of you by worrying? Add a single hour to his 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 and all his splendor was dressed like one of these.
If that is how God clothes the grass of the field which is here
today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will He not much
more clothes 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 you need them.
But seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these
things will be given to you as well.
Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will
worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble on
its own. Jesus trying to help his
disciples form an alternative view of their lives, and he
wants them to form an alternative view.
On the issue of more, how many times have you said I just need
more money? I just want to earn my way out
of this debt. I'm going to earn more money.
I need more. Give me more, more, more.
I mean, this, this can be a prayer that we have it.
It can be a delightful prayer. In fact, I remember an occasion
where we were driving across the Alex Frazier Bridge and there
was a sunset and my daughter Michaela starts signing more.
More. She was so excited about that
sunset that she begins to sign more.
We had started teaching her sign language as a baby, and so it is
within us to want more, better, higher.
We wished Canada had scored more goals this morning.
More. But Jesus wants them to have an
alternative view of more he says.
Is not life more than food and the body more than clothes?
The more factor he applies to the issues of the life and the
body and that you are worth more, he says I tell you, do not
worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your
body what you will wear. Is not life more than food and
the body more than clothes more this word worry actually could
could be more accurately concerned as or shown as focused
concern In English. We we go towards the element
inside here where it's it relates to our worry and our
anxiousness. Some of your translations might
say don't be anxious about your life.
Don't be hyper concerned such that you actually get tunnel
vision when you're worried about these things.
You actually can't get your head up and see the opportunities.
You can't think creatively. I actually like the English word
for anxious. Can you put a a hand at your
throat? Angst.
Angst means to be a sort of choked up and you're so worried
and hyper focus that you you become angry.
You have angst about what others have and you're anxious you
can't breathe. And when we have that kind of
hyper focus that influences us, we miss this more quality to
say, you know what life is more than clothes and food and what I
eat, which are all associated with status.
You know, you can, you can set great style at Sally Ann.
Some of you love to go thrifting and you're able to find style
because you're like, I can, I can raise my head.
I don't have to keep up with everyone else.
It doesn't apply just to that. It applies to our cars or lack
thereof. I mean, how many of you have a
really fancy compass card? Have you painted your compass
card, You know, to make it the envy of everyone?
We can look for status in a lot of different ways.
And he says, look, don't worry about that.
But you have to realize that the audience that Jesus was talking
to was mostly poor. They were mostly survivors,
day-to-day sustenance workers. They were laborers where what
they ate at the end of the day was what they had earned during
the day. There were among them those who
had it a little easier, but they also worried.
He also encourages them to think of themselves as more You are
worth more than you imagine. You are incredibly valuable to
God. If God values the birds, won't
he value you? So tell your neighbor you are
more valuable. You are more valuable you, you
are enough in the eyes of God because you are so valuable to
him. The more factor we have to
always find an alternative view of ourselves, but we also find
its roots in our alternative view of God.
He says 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 your heavenly Father? Jesus is speaking to this large
crowd and the Sermon on the Mount, and he's telling them
your heavenly Father feeds them. Your heavenly Father cares for
you. In this alternative view of God,
we need to see that God feeds God clothes, and God knows
because God cares for you. That must become this
foundational, confident, humble view that you carry around in
yourselves. My heavenly Father cares for me
on the tough day. My heavenly Father cares for me
on the good day. My heavenly Father cares for me
on the day you fail your math 101.
My heavenly Father cares for me. He cares for me.
This is the alternative punk rock Christian view of God that
we hold up in our lives every day, in every moment.
This is the alternative view that Jesus wants you to have.
My Heavenly Father cares for me, and what this does is it
actually generates a kind of freedom in our lives.
It generates the ability to look up and see opportunity, to have
divine imagination about what God might do among us.
It actually helps me value the more.
The more that God has given me in terms of time, the more that
God has given me in terms of relationships, my relationship
with God, with self, with people, and the stuff of earth.
There is so much more in those things that God wants me to know
and enjoy and find great purpose in.
And when I'm worried and when I'm anxious and when I'm hyper
concerned with the small things, I actually neglect.
The values that God had pushed put in me.
I neglect the greater purposes that God could put in me.
I neglect people. I might even neglect myself and
stop caring for myself as God intends.
But the alternative view of God and have more actually rests in
the alternative view of His Kingdom, that this world's kings
and kings will pass away, but the Kingdom of Jesus will last
forever. Say this verse with me, but seek
first his Kingdom and his righteousness, and all these
things will be given to you as well.
Matthew 633. This is worth memorizing.
Let's say it one more time, but seek first his Kingdom and his
righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as
well. Do you know, it's possible that
we hold to this idea of Kingdom as if it's some great Camelot,
it's some great ideal that's far off from us that we can't
actually attain. But to Jesus, the Kingdom of God
was a reality. It was a real body life
experience that he was living in.
In fact he announced it. He says repent for the Kingdom
of God is at hand and he began going around and telling the
good news of the Kingdom. It was such good news that he
could give it to the poor, and it was rooted in a very old and
ancient idea about God's view of Kingdom and what God was up to
in God's Kingdom. When God rescued Israel from
Egypt, he announced to them, I am going to turn you into a
Kingdom of priests. You may have come from a place
that had a king, that had a pharaoh, but I'm going to be
your king and you will be my priest.
Priest administer the life and work of the king.
They administer the mercy of the king.
They administer the grace of the king.
They carry out the will of the king in order to do good and
provoke change in others. The priests were seen almost as
a mediator, but as we'll see, Jesus becomes our mediator and
so we are just actually mediating it by giving it away.
Again, God's view, His Kingdom and his people in it are meant
to be a Kingdom of priests. He says You yourselves have seen
what I did to Egypt, how I carried you on eagle's wings and
brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and
keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my
treasured possession. Although the whole earth is
mine, you will be for me a Kingdom of priests and a holy
nation. This is God's view of his
people. Now we know that they actually
began to want to have a king. The people were like, we need to
be like the other nations and have a king.
They went through a period of judges and they went through a
period where Samuel was being the great prophet.
And they came to Samuel and said, give us a king.
We want to be like the other peoples.
And Samuel goes in on them and says, look, having a king is not
going to go well. The king will take and he uses
this word over and over and over.
The king will take. It's actually a violent word.
So I've just pulled out a little bit here.
He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will
become his slaves. When that day comes, you will
cry out for relief from the king you have chosen.
But the Lord will not answer you on that day.
In fact, he says, the king will take your sons, the king will
take your daughters, the king will take your abilities, the
king will take your lands. The king will take your flocks.
The king will take everything for himself.
How many of you want a king like that?
No way. But they said no, we want a king
over us. Then we'll be like all the other
nations, talk about FOMO. Then we'll be like all the other
nations with a king to lead us and to go out before us and
fight our battles. Oh, that's interesting.
They wanted someone else to be responsible for the decisions of
their lives. Someone else to fight their
battles. 3 kings later, they're back in Egypt.
David. Well, Saul.
David Solomon. Solomon enjoyed an incredible
time of peace, an incredible time of wealth, an incredible
time of learning, an incredible time of wisdom.
We can see all the great gifts that Solomon gives to us.
We can see it in the Scripture how Israel rose up into this
sort of golden age, but at the same time, they became like the
other nations, the very nation they left.
They became like Egypt. For Solomon began to take, and
he did all the things that the kings were told not to do.
The kings were told do not have horses.
He multiplied horses so much they had to build a city for the
horses. He took on wives and concubines
in order to build strategic allegiances and satisfy his
passions. He had 700 of them.
He took on wealth, exorbitant wealth for himself, and had
taxes on the land and the people.
He began to take people. He conscripted 30,000 Israelites
as laborers and assigned people over them.
They were back in Egypt. Does this sound like Babylon,
anyone? Do you remember that?
That impulse and power to dominate and to take, to take,
to take for yourself? Jesus knows there's a conflict
of kingdoms. And so the prophets that God
gave to Israel began to remind the people of God's vision for
them. The people are like, hey, we're
fasting. We've entered into this time
where we're we're trying to get your attention.
God, we read this passage earlier.
Thank you so much. That was a great reading of the
passage. Is this not the kind of fasting
I've chosen to loose the chains of injustice, to untie the cords
of the yoke and to set the oppressed free to break every
yoke? Is it not to share your food
with the hungry? To provide the poor wanderer
with shelter? This is God's vision of his
Kingdom, that where his rule and reign, these things begin to
happen. Where he rules and reigns in the
heart of a person who's his people, his person, they begin
to do these very things. His Kingdom view is of a people
who does this kind of stuff. They give their food to the
hungry, they provide the poor wanderer with shelter, they see
the naked and clothe them, and they don't turn away from their
own flesh and blood. Then he says, you will shine
like a light, and your healing will appear.
Your righteousness, your your move of justice will go before
you like a reputation, and the glory of the Lord will be coming
up behind you. You will call and the Lord will
answer. Look at the prayer life of these
people. They cry for help and he will
say, here I am and I am. And he says, you got to deal
with that yoke of oppression. The pointing finger, that's
judging finger. Spend yourselves on behalf of
the hungry, satisfy the needs of the press and your light will
rise, it will shine and the Lord will guide you.
What a great picture. Next slide.
And then get this. You will be like a well watered
garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.
Do you hear these echoes that Jesus had in his language about
how his people would thrive? He says your people will build
the ancient ruins, you will raise up the age-old
foundations, you will be called repairers of broken walls,
restorers of streets with dwellings.
You're going to be rebuilders that where things have been
destroyed and demolished, you rebuild it with your life.
Where the healthcare system begins to decline, you rebuild
it. Where education systems decline,
you rebuild them because you're rebuilding people and providing
healing. Where architecture has fallen
away, you rebuild it. See, Jesus believes his Kingdom.
People actually have a relationship with the stuff of
earth. They actually have a
relationship with money. They actually have a
relationship with knowledge. They actually have a
relationship with the skills that are required to lead and
mobilize people and be a steward of everything he's given.
He has this vision, and Jesus inaugurates and announces that
Kingdom. Jesus had said, repent, for the
Kingdom of heaven is near. Then he went throughout Galilee,
teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the
Kingdom and healing every disease and sickness among the
people. And news about him spread all
over. Now when Jesus saw the crowds,
he went up the mountainside and began to teach them.
We call this the Sermon on the Mount.
And his disciples came to them, and he began to teach them,
saying, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the
Kingdom of heaven. And he goes on through this
sermon to describe his people, that his people are salt and
light. You are the salt of the earth,
so tell your neighbor you are the salt of the earth.
Going to be some salty people here.
Seriously. You're not just passive, you're
active ingredients. You are the light of the world.
A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.
He's going to build a town. He's going to build up a people.
It seems that he does this where people of prayer and his life
and his compassion and his justice show up.
There you can find people gathering even in deserts.
How many of you have been traveling along with the Desert
Fathers and Mothers in Lectio 365 this week?
Welcome to Lent 3. Lectio 365 will take you on a
great journey. Go to Lectio 365 on YouTube and
watch the videos, the history lessons about the great fathers
and mothers. This is the Kingdom that Jesus
envisions. It's not an ideal, it's the
reality. It's a reality that we are able
to live in and measure. We don't get to see it and be a
part of it though, he tells Nicodemus.
Unless you're born again, unless there's a spiritual transaction
of the soul, you can't see it and you can't be in it.
Unless you were born again, the radical revolution and
realignment of your affections for Jesus.
Born again, where the Spirit makes your soul and spirit alive
to God and to him. This is his offering to all who
surrender to Him. He envisions this, the apostle
Peter said. It's for real, he says, you
writing to the people. You are a chosen people, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may
declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into
wonderful light. Seek first the Kingdom, he said.
Next slide, just say it with me if you don't have it memorized
yet, but seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all
these things will be given to you as well.
This is the way to more peace and purpose in your life, not
just with finances, but with the stuff of earth.
And all of you've got some stuff of earth, got shoes, stuff of
earth, got clothes, stuff of earth.
Do you have a degree yet? It's stuff of earth.
It's knowledge all about the stuff of earth.
It's things you're learning. And Jesus wants to take all of
this as a great purpose in your life so that you can be a part
of his Kingdom work in these days.
You know, just a caution to the pull of the desert fathers and
mothers that we've been hearing and their vows of poverty and
that move. I, I want us to consider what
Dallas Willard said about that. Dallas Willard said poverty as a
general practice cannot solve humankind's bondage to wealth.
So this is just a little caution to the to the pull of Francis
and others who just give up their wealth.
Even the rich young ruler who was told to go sell his wealth
and give it to the poor, that was actually going to take a
while. Jesus was inviting him into a
stewardship way of life. I mean, he, he just couldn't get
rid of all his wealth. Wealth was usually tied up in
property and stuff. He was going to have to go sell
it and then he was going to have to be a steward of it, giving to
the poor. And that vision is what he
didn't really like. Jesus was calling him into a new
relationships with his wealth, not just an abandonment of it.
Because we find even the desert fathers and mothers could not
abandon the stuff of earth, they actually had to become different
kinds of stewards of it. So freedom from possessions is
not an outward thing as much as an inward one.
It is something that can come from the inward vision of faith
alone. The Kingdom of God starts within
you. This is the point of
Bonhoeffer's remark. To be without desire is a mark
of poverty, but to abandon the goods of this world to the
enemies of God is to fail the responsibilities we are given at
creation. To have dominion to rule over
all life forms above the plants. So he says this possession and
right rule over material worth is a spiritual service of the
highest order, and our response must be to develop a ministry
that prepares people for that service.
Jesus went about preparing his disciples for this kind of
service. The apostles all tried to
prepare the church for this kind of service.
This is why Jesus talked about money more than he did.
Heaven is that you are being prepared for service now.
That's why next week we're going to talk about stewardship, that
we are not owners, but we are stewards.
But it comes to us with this alternative view.
When's the last time you saw a LinkedIn account that said
Steward? It's an alternative view to say
it's God's and I'm a steward. My Heavenly Father cares for me
so I could give it away. My Heavenly Father cares for me,
so I must take responsibility of it.
I must see what is in my hand and do something with it.
Do it well, do it beautifully. 4 things If you want to live into
this life, here's what's going to happen for you.
You're going to be grateful. You're going to be grateful
about the Moors of life, and you're going to have to see them
and develop them and make them part of your values.
You're going to have to rest in the gracious provision of your
heavenly Father who loves you. That's why Psalm 58 ends with
the Sabbath. Wasn't that weird?
Take a day off, rest, take a Sabbath where you recognize God
is in control and I am not. I can rest.
And when you rest you can be more creative, more thoughtful,
more resourceful. You begin to see new
relationships. God gives you divine imagination
when you rest, when you live purposely by sharing the beauty
and abundance and Kingdom of His, the goodness of His
Kingdom. This is going to come in your
life. If you take this alternative
view, you're going to live purposely and then you're going
to live confidently through the troubles and shortness of life.
Didn't you like it twice in here?
Jesus says, who by worrying? Who by having a hyper concern on
all these things can make their life longer.
He's like, you can't do it, you're not in charge of that.
Who have you by worrying can change the troubles, he says.
There's enough trouble in today, but you can live confidently in
the troubles of today and the shortness of life.
You weren't meant to live in fear of death and loss.
You're meant to live in confidence of God's gifts and
God's Kingdom in life. And This is why Jesus came to
set us free from such fear of death.
We're going to come to the table in just a moment, and we're
going to consider Jesus body and his blood.
We're going to invite the worship team to come now, and
we're going to remind ourselves again of him who gave himself
for us. That Jesus opens the way that we
might be born again and see the Kingdom and enter the Kingdom.
That Jesus is the one who gives us the forgiveness of sin and he
conquers death so that we might live.
I'm going to invite you all to stand.
Heavenly Father, I pray that now as we consider the gift of Jesus
and his body and his life to us, that we would let your spirit
create an alternative life in us, that we would truly say,
yeah, Lord, your love is better than life.
I want more that we would say, I want to know you more.
Oh God, who loves and cares so deeply for me, I want to
actually participate in your Kingdom work, Lord Jesus.
And so as I come to your body, I see that sometimes a Kingdom
work means laying my life down, and I pray that You would give
me the wherewithal to do that. Forgive me, Lord, when I've
complained about not having enough, where I've doubted Your
goodness and where I've run from the life of Your Kingdom and
generosity. We pray Father, that You would
reset our souls in this very moment and we ask this in Jesus
name, Amen.