[0:00] Luke 12, 13-34. A man who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you. Then he said to them, Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed.
[0:14] A man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. And he told them this parable. The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop.
[0:24] He thought to himself, What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops. Then he said, This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones.
[0:35] And there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself, You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy. Eat, drink, and be merry.
[0:49] But God said to him, You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself? This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself, but is not rich toward God.
[1:08] Then Jesus said to his disciples, Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes.
[1:23] Consider the ravens. They do not sow or reap. They have no storeroom or barn, yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable are you than birds?
[1:36] Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest? Consider how the lilies grow.
[1:48] They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in 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, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith?
[2:07] And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink. Do not worry about it, for the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them.
[2:21] But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well. Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.
[2:33] Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourself that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.
[2:47] For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Let's give our full attention to God's word. Worry.
[2:59] As I look out here, I can see lots of reasons that you might be worried, or to put it another way, I see a lot of people with a lot of potential for worry.
[3:12] We all have that. We all know that feeling, that we are in trouble, that either tomorrow, or a week from today, or several months, or years ahead, it's going to be bad.
[3:31] It's going to be bad. I was in sixth grade, and I got into a fight on the playground. I didn't want it.
[3:41] I didn't ask for it. I didn't start it. I threw one punch, and I think I hurt myself more than the other guy, and I was sent to the principal's office.
[3:51] I had never been to the principal's office. It was a terrifying experience. I received a half a day of in-school suspension, and there was no hiding that from my parents.
[4:05] You can't pretend like that didn't happen. So I had to tell my mom and my dad. I don't know if you've ever seen, I'm sure you have, the Christmas story movie about the Red Ryder BB gun.
[4:19] And the little boy, Ralphie, gets into a fight with a schoolyard bully, and then he has to wait this long evening until his dad comes home from work.
[4:30] And his little brother, Randy, is hiding under the kitchen sink, and his mom sees him down there and says, what are you hiding down there for? What are you down there for? And he says, Dad is going to kill Ralph.
[4:43] And that's how I felt that afternoon as I waited to tell my parents. It was a short life. It was a good life, and now it's over.
[4:56] Worry is not a purely adult emotion, but it is something that I think grows upon us as our life grows, as our concerns grow.
[5:13] As our life gets bigger, our concerns get bigger, and our ability to think about the future, to project into the future, as that grows, we become more creative about things that we can worry about.
[5:28] Our ability to worry gets bigger. And so then we worry about our children, and we worry about our parents, and we worry about our health, and our neighbors, and our church, and our country.
[5:46] We worry about our economy, that whole big thing, and we worry about our job. We worry about what people think about us. We worry about the church.
[5:59] We worry about slippery slopes. That's something I see as a pastor. People are worried about slippery slopes. If we change this, if we believe that, if they do it that way, if they do it this way, that's a slippery slope.
[6:13] And we worry about money. Money. Samuel Butler, an English author, said, money is always on the brain, so long as there is a brain, in reasonable order.
[6:28] And basically, what he is saying is, as long as you have a brain, that's working properly, you're probably going to be thinking, about money in some way. We have to think about money.
[6:40] Because money is how we get what we need. Money is how we get to where we want to go. Money is how we can think about the future and plan.
[6:51] It's how we do what we need to do or want to do. And so long as we are planning, thinking, preparing, doing, wanting, we're going to be thinking about money.
[7:04] money. And the minute we stop planning, and thinking, and wanting, and doing, and we quit thinking about money, we've already gone to the next world, haven't we?
[7:19] We've died. And all that thinking about money means that worrying about money is not far behind. Not far behind. The anxiety, the fear, the distress, the obsession.
[7:35] Am I going to have enough? How am I going to get it? What should I do with it? Now that I've got it, how do I keep from losing it? What should I do with it? And when Jesus begins now talking about worry, and talking about money, he is talking about something that we all, struggle with.
[7:58] We are all tempted to. It's a problem. It's a sin. We all struggle with it. It looks different in different people. I think we're used to the classic example of, of, of worry, which is anxiety.
[8:14] We're anxious about it, but worry also comes in different shapes. This, this obsession with money is sometimes it looks like greed. That's what Jesus was just talking about. There's all sorts of forms of greed.
[8:29] Sometimes it's just obsessing over how to handle it. Right. That's where I'm at. I don't worry so much about, will I have enough, but am I doing what I'm supposed to do?
[8:42] Can I do this better? Is this the right way? Obsession, obsession. And it might not sound very sinful, but it is because I'm not obsessing about faith and I'm not obsessing about God. I am in this closed loop where I'm going and going and going and thinking about just me and mine.
[8:59] And, and I'm inside of it and I go over the same ground again and again. And that's how worry works. Doesn't it? It's a closed loop. It's a closed circuit.
[9:10] And where we start is where we end. And we're no further down the road because we just are right where we began. And so you lay there in your bed and you're thinking and you're thinking and you're thinking and around you go, never going anywhere.
[9:33] I don't know, kids, if you've seen the Winnie the Pooh movie or you maybe read that book where Pooh and Piglet and Rabbit get lost in the woods. And they keep on coming back to the same sandy pit.
[9:47] They, they go through the woods and it's dark and it's frightening. And no matter how many times they go around, they end up at that same pit. And Pooh begins to think, I think that pit is following us.
[9:58] And that's how we can feel about our money. That's what worry is. You, you beat a path through the woods and it's surrounded. It's dark and there's trees and it's scary. And there's all the night sounds and you, and you beat a path through the woods and only to come back to exactly right where you started out.
[10:16] out at the same sandy pits. But what we have here in Luke 12 are five truths, five exits, if you will, out of the woods, five truths that come from the outside.
[10:33] And Jesus comes down to where we are. And he shows us five exits to get out of worry. And really any one of these will, will take us out of the worry.
[10:46] But when you put them all together, Jesus is giving us an entirely new way to think about life. A heavenly way, a kingdom way. It's a totally different way to live.
[10:57] And so let's just look at these five truths in this passage, realizing that this is for each one of us because each one of us struggles with this. And you see the first truth, the first exit in verse 22.
[11:11] And Jesus said to his disciples, therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothes.
[11:26] Now, what's that word that he begins this with? What is that word? Therefore, right? He's not starting completely new.
[11:36] He's basing what he's saying here. This is connected to what was right before it. You can't understand this bit about do not worry if you don't understand about this parable of the rich fool.
[11:49] And so Jesus says, therefore, because of this, I tell you, don't worry about food and clothes. Well, what's the connection? Why not? What is the truth in the parable of the rich fool that says, you know what?
[12:03] You shouldn't really worry about money. Well, it's just this. And here's the first big truth. Here's the first exit out of worry. Possessions, money, does not answer our biggest problem.
[12:19] Money doesn't answer our biggest problem. It doesn't answer the ultimate test. It's not ultimate. Life is not about this, is what Jesus is saying.
[12:33] And so you know the story. Here's a rich man. And rich people tend to get richer. And so here's a rich man, and he gets richer. His harvest is huge. And he says, I know what I'll do.
[12:45] I'll build bigger barns. And I'm going to retire and take it easy. I've won the game. I've won the game. Well, did he win the game?
[12:57] No. No. No. No. That night, he died. His life was demanded of him.
[13:11] In other words, God says, give me that back. And God takes it back. God summons him to judgment. And he fails the test.
[13:24] He failed the only test that really matters. For all of his money, for all of his money, did he live a life worth living? No.
[13:37] For all of his money, was he rich toward God? For all of his money, could he keep it? For all of his money, did he escape hell? That's the first big truth.
[13:50] That's the, this is, and this is what Jesus is practically applying. This is why you shouldn't worry. Because money doesn't answer the ultimate test. It doesn't answer the ultimate question.
[14:02] It doesn't decide if you've lived a life worth living or not. In the big scheme of things, in the matters of life and death, it doesn't matter at all.
[14:14] It doesn't, it's not taken into account. It didn't save his life. It didn't help him live longer. It didn't impress God.
[14:24] He didn't get to keep it. And math, I know sometimes when you're doing algebra or equation, you just factor out things, don't you?
[14:38] I don't remember much about it. kids, it's still important to do math. But, you just factor it out. You factor this side and that side and it just drops out.
[14:49] It doesn't mean anything anymore. And that's what happens here. At the end of your life, the amount of money you have in your checking account, the amount of money you have invested, the amount of money you have coming in, it's just factored out.
[15:06] Just drops out of the equation. poor people go to heaven. Poor people go to hell. Rich people go to heaven.
[15:19] Rich people go to hell. And the amount of money they had had nothing to do with it. This man won the first battle. He won getting rich.
[15:31] And he lost the war. He scored first, but he lost the game. And so Jesus comes to every one of us, every one of you, and he asks the question, are you rich toward God?
[15:45] Does, is God, do you have treasures in heaven? Because that's all God cares about. That's all that's really going to matter. And if that's true, why worry about money?
[15:59] Why get stuck in, will I have enough? How do I get more? How do I save what I have? Am I doing the right thing? Why worry about that? Because money doesn't answer the ultimate test.
[16:11] And so heaping up money, worrying about money, you know what that's like? It's like going to Walmart, buying those crust teeth whitening strips, doing it every day.
[16:29] I'm going to whiten my teeth. And meanwhile, you have pancreatic cancer. It's nice to have white teeth, but you have a bigger problem.
[16:42] Life is so much more than how much money you have. And so Jesus says, therefore I tell you, do not worry. Now what that is, is a big double-laned exit out of that closed circuit of worry, that racetrack of worry.
[17:00] Then Jesus goes on to verse 24, think about the ravens. They do not sow or reap, they don't have storehouses or barns, and yet God feeds them. And then he says, think about the grass of the field and the lilies.
[17:14] They don't toil, they don't spin, and yet I tell you, Solomon in all of his beauty and majesty and glory, he wasn't dressed like one of those. And this is the second big exit lane out of worry.
[17:28] Look at the birds, look at the flowers. That's it. Take a good look at them. Consider them. Think about them. Ravens.
[17:39] Ravens. He's talking about crows there. Crows. So think about a crow. How much time does a crow spend planning and getting ready and thinking about what he's going to eat?
[18:00] How much time do they think about that? How much time do crows spend building barns? Building storehouses? How much time do they spend sowing?
[18:14] Do they have little crow tractors and they're plowing up the field? No. Do they spend time reaping? No. They don't do any planning.
[18:28] They don't think about it at all. And what do they eat? Well, they eat roadkill. They eat corn that we've planted.
[18:42] They eat fruit from the fruit trees that we've planted. That's why we have scarecrows. And so, they don't think about it at all. They're like children.
[18:55] The littlest of children. No thought. No planning. No thinking of the future. And so, here we are, driving as fast as we can to work and we hit an animal.
[19:07] And we plant our corn in the ground. And we plant our fruit trees. And the crows just come by and eat up all of our work. And what Jesus is saying is, God feeds them.
[19:23] Won't he feed you? You're a lot more valuable than birds. So, next time you're worrying, you should go outside and look at the birds. You can see them pecking on the ground.
[19:36] Right outside, out of my study, there's a window and there's a driveway and the birds come and they eat whatever they're eating. God's feeding them.
[19:47] They're not planning. They're not worrying. They're just eating. And Jesus says, there is no reason that you can't be like them. In the sense of, there's no reason you can't be as carefree.
[20:03] Because God feeds them and you're much more valuable than they are. And then think about flowers. They don't work. They don't save. They don't plan their outfits. They don't sew their clothes.
[20:14] They don't spin the yarn. They don't put it together. And yet, God dresses them more beautiful than Solomon. So how much more will he clothe you? Again, birds, flowers, they don't do any of the sensible things that Jesus is talking about here.
[20:33] Like planting or sowing or storing up or reaping or thinking about the future. They don't do anything sensible. And yet, God feeds them.
[20:44] They don't go around naked. They don't go around starving. God takes care of them. And so his question is, is how much more you? How much more you? Don't worry.
[20:57] It's just so needless. So unnecessary. You're precious to God. And so maybe we just need this homework this spring to go outside and spend 10 minutes looking at the birds.
[21:13] Looking at how God feeds them. You know, we have a flock or whatever you call them of crows in our neighborhood.
[21:24] And just think of their day. They wake up and the sun is shining on them. They're sitting on their trees. And they're eating their food throughout the day.
[21:36] And for me and all my planning and all my thinking, I'm no richer than they are really. I just have my food and I have some clothes and they get the sunshine and I have to stay inside.
[21:52] God cares about them and he'll care about us. That's the second big exit off this closed racetrack called worry. Here's number three. Worry can't do what it promises.
[22:04] Worry can't do what it promises. Verse 25. Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?
[22:17] It's literally, worry doesn't add a cubit to your span. Now, you have to, the Bible's way of talking about life is a journey, right?
[22:29] We're walking and our life is this journey. We have this walk and worry seems to say that if we worry about something, we'll get further on down the road.
[22:44] But Jesus says, worry doesn't give you 18 inches to the length of your life. It doesn't get you 18 inches down the road. It doesn't get you any further down the road.
[22:57] So worry is this illusion. When you worry about something, you think you are doing something about it, don't you? You think, I think I'm doing something.
[23:10] I'm trying to take care of this problem and I'm worrying about it. But it's just an illusion. Rich or poor, you die on schedule. So you go back to the parable of the rich fool.
[23:27] What was his plan? What did he see for his life? The best years of my life are coming up. I'm going to sit back. I'm going to relax. I'm going to enjoy life.
[23:37] I have lots of money. He was going to retire. He was going to enjoy it. But his retirement didn't see the next morning. So his greed, his obsession with what he had and what he was going to get and what he was going to do, it didn't help him at all.
[24:01] It didn't help him live a day longer. And so you can't miss this exit. Worry is this lie that says if I think about something long enough, I'm actually doing something about it. I'm actually fixing a problem.
[24:13] And so worry has this illusion of control, doesn't it? When we're worrying about something, we think we're taking care of it. We're in charge of it. We're in control of it. It's like if we think about it long enough, we'll get there.
[24:29] But it can't do what it promises. It's like those people that when they're diagnosed with something, they immediately go home on the internet and they do all the research they can and they obsess over learning more and more and more, not just because they want to know, but because they think they're doing something.
[24:53] They feel like they're accomplishing something. They feel like they're taking control of the situation. They feel like they're fighting the disease. So often, we can do research instead of praying about it.
[25:08] And we think our research will solve our problem and we ignore God, the great physician. But it's an illusion. WebMD, not a real doctor.
[25:21] And worry, obsessing, doesn't fix anything. That's exit three. Exit four is this that Jesus says next, the pagan world runs after all such things and your father knows that you need them.
[25:37] your father knows you need them. Exit number four. This is a big green exit off the racetrack.
[25:48] This is your father knows what you need. It's really two truths wrapped in one. The first truth is that God is my father.
[26:01] God is my father. And that truth changes everything about how we look at our circumstances. So let me tell you about one woman.
[26:13] She had health problems and she had financial problems. And those things go together a lot. And she had become very discouraged.
[26:26] And she just couldn't get traction in her life. You know, her health wasn't improving. Her finances weren't improving. things were not seeming to get better and she's confused and she's anxious.
[26:42] And sometimes her worries would just sweep her away. She'd be in a room just borderline panic attack. But then like a bolt of lightning out of the sky, a truth came to her mind.
[26:59] and it said, the truth was just this, your father is God. Your father is God.
[27:13] Her problems didn't go away. She still has health problems and financial problems and her problems stay the same, but her worries didn't.
[27:26] Her worries didn't. Because now instead of worry draining her life, she can say, my father is God. And my father knows my needs.
[27:37] And that's the second truth that's woven with the first truth. What does God know? God knows that in three months from now, you're going to need a house to live in.
[27:50] And he knows four months from now, you're going to need money to buy food. And he knows that six months from now, you're going to need courage. to face a new situation.
[28:02] You're going to need encouragement. You're going to need hope as you go into something new. And eight months from now, he knows you're going to need a way to pay for a doctor bill.
[28:14] And seven years from now, he knows that you're going to need to retire. And you're going to have to have some way of paying your bills. He knows all of your needs. things. And he's not blind.
[28:29] He's not thoughtless. He doesn't neglect his children. We think it is appalling when a father or a mother neglects their children and you hear the horror stories of this kid not eating, left alone.
[28:46] It's the worst of all things. the message of abuse is I don't like you. The message of neglect is I don't see you.
[28:56] You don't matter. But worry puts that kind of interpretation on God's heart. Worry says, God, you're a neglectful father.
[29:09] I don't matter to you. I don't care. You don't care about me. You're not going to give me what I need. And that's just a terrible thought.
[29:19] But if we who are evil know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more will our father in heaven give us what we need? Let alone so much more than that.
[29:32] And so Jesus says, don't worry. Your needs are God's problem. Food, clothing, shelter, the needs of my children is not their problem.
[29:46] problem. It's my problem. It's my concern. And, you know, fathers, you'll move heaven and earth to provide what your children need.
[29:58] And they don't need to worry about it because I've got it. Their care is my business. And, you know, it's just as simple. I'll die before I drop that ball.
[30:09] And so just think of the cross as well. It wasn't food and clothes then. it wasn't they're going to need to pay for a medical bill.
[30:22] They're going to need some place to live. They're going to need a friend. They're going to need encouragement. They're going to need something. It wasn't any of those legitimate needs that we might have.
[30:32] The need was far, far more profound. We didn't need an exit out of worry. We needed an exit out of wrath, an exit out of condemnation, an exit out of hell.
[30:44] And when my need was at its highest, there could be no higher need than that. He gave me his own son.
[30:59] He judged. He condemned. He killed his son to give me what I need. He met my need when I had no way of meeting my need.
[31:10] He met my need when I didn't even know I had a need. When I was blind to it, he knew it and he provided for it. So there's the cross.
[31:24] It's just this jagged standing reminder that says my father knows my needs and he will do anything to take care of them. I don't need to worry.
[31:37] My father knows my needs and he'll move heaven and hell to meet my need. That's the fourth truth. The fourth truth is just this big green exit sign with a cross over it saying my father knows my needs.
[31:54] Now here's the fifth in the final one in this passage. Verse 32. Do not be afraid little flock for your father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.
[32:07] them. Let's just start with that little flock. I think these might be some of my favorite words in the whole Bible to be honest.
[32:18] I have loved them for a long, long time. A little flock. It's the only time Jesus ever uses this phrase. It's the picture of a shepherd with a little flock.
[32:34] not a big flock, a little flock, and he knows all the sheep by name. And so we aren't this huge, nameless, faceless mass.
[32:47] We aren't this huge flock of sheep to God. We're just a little flock to God. And he knows all of our names. He knows exactly where we are.
[32:58] He has our eye on every one of us. It's just like a shepherd that has 12 sheep. He's got them. He knows what they need. He's not this overworked shepherd trying to do something too big for him.
[33:13] We're his little flock. Little flock. So don't be afraid. And then Jesus goes on, your father's been pleased. It's been his pleasure.
[33:25] It's been his delight. It's been his joy to give you the kingdom. And this is sort of like dropping the A-bomb. on the problem. Because he's revealing God's heart.
[33:39] He's not the stingy father. This is his joy, his delight to give you what? The kingdom. And what does that mean? What does that mean?
[33:51] Because if it's really going to remove our worries, if it's going to take away our worries, we have to think about his kingdom. What does that mean? Well, it means we're heirs with Christ. Christ receives the kingdom and we receive the kingdom.
[34:06] And so Paul says to the Corinthians, all things are yours. Is that true of you? All things are yours.
[34:17] What that simply means is that anyone and everyone and everything is yours for God to use to meet your need.
[34:31] So if you need money, he has money 10,000 miles away that he can bring to you. He has everything and everything is yours.
[34:42] There's no point in worrying. God has been delighted to not give you just the bare minimum. He's given you the kingdom, everything. And when Jesus came preaching in Galilee, you remember his message?
[34:56] he said the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news. Now the kingdom of God, Jesus is saying, it's good news.
[35:08] It's good news for you that the kingdom of God is here. And so then Mark 1 and 2 begins to unfold. What does this kingdom look like? Why should men be repenting and turning around their lives and believing good news?
[35:22] Well, Mark 1, Satan is thrown back. Demonics are healed. Peter's mother-in-law is healed.
[35:32] A leper is healed. A whole town is gathered at the door and he heals them. A man who's lame, who couldn't get into the building, his four friends climb up on a roof and tear open a hole and lower his friend in front of Jesus.
[35:46] And Jesus says, your sins are forgiven. And the Pharisees say, you can't do that, only God can forgive sins. And he says, well, which is easier, to heal or to forgive sins. And both are equally impossible for man.
[36:00] But just to show that Jesus has authority, that's a kingdom word, just to show you that the kingdom is here, the king is here, and he's here to bless. So not only are your sins forgiven, get up, take up your mat and walk.
[36:14] what was that? That's the kingdom of God. That's the kingdom of God showing up. That's the king bringing in his kingdom.
[36:27] So think of the kingdom of God. And when you think of the kingdom of God, you think of Eden before the fall. No worries in Eden. You think of Canaan, the land of milk and honey.
[36:38] We read Deuteronomy 8 last week, and it just talked about this land as rich. It was dangerous because it was so rich, but it's land full of blessing and prosperity.
[36:49] The kingdom of God is the place where God blesses man, the place where God's heart and God's rule is manifested. And the benefit that comes to us is we're protected, and we're loved, and our sins are forgiven, and we're cared for.
[37:07] That's the kingdom of God. And that's why Jesus says, repent, and believe the good news. Quit living for your little kingdom of one.
[37:23] And that's what worry is all about. Worry is that tight spiral circle within myself. It's this little kingdom. It's all about me worrying about my tiny little kingdom, and my little kingdom is a very fearful kingdom.
[37:41] it's a very small place. I'm just thinking it's like Luxembourg, you know? It got invaded in World War II, and no one cried about it. That's my little kingdom.
[37:53] No defense, no riches, no help, always in danger of famine and need. And Jesus says, turn away from your little kingdom.
[38:05] Believe the good news, that the big kingdom is here. blessing, it's provision, it's salvation. And Jesus says, this is why you shouldn't worry, because your father has been so happy to give you that kingdom.
[38:22] Not just food and clothing. That's included with it. But, eternal life, eternal blessing, eternal forever joy.
[38:33] God has given you the king, and with the king, you get the kingdom. So don't be afraid. And then he turns to this practical lesson of instead of greed and worry, give.
[38:48] Give. What's the opposite of worry? What's the opposite of worry? I think generally we would think the opposite of worry is just to have a peaceful heart.
[39:02] Right? I'm not worried, I'm not anxious, I'm calm. I'm safe. And there's a sense in which that's true, but where Jesus goes with this is the opposite of worry is not peace inside of our hearts.
[39:16] It's generosity to others. Because worry is about me grasping and clutching and bringing to myself the things that I need and I have to have.
[39:28] And so the opposite of it is not, oh, I'm calm. The opposite of it is, let me give. So Jesus says, give to the poor and store up treasures in heaven.
[39:40] Give to the poor. Give to those who are in need. Don't worry about your own needs being met. That's God's problem to meet your needs. Instead, you go and meet the needs of others.
[39:54] So we live in a very rich land, but there's still the poor among us. Jesus says, go find them and give to them. And the world is getting smaller and smaller and there's the poor, we can help.
[40:10] As I was preparing this message, I got an email. Honestly, it's so weird.
[40:21] Honestly, like right when I was getting to this point, now I'm working on this section. I get this email. And it just says, there's this major drought in eastern Africa.
[40:35] It includes Ethiopia and Sudan, countries that are dear to my heart. And now here's this famine. And harvests are small. And the poor are vulnerable.
[40:48] And Jesus says, give to the poor. Give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out. So where does this all end?
[41:03] It ends with us stopping the clutching and the grabbing and the bringing into ourselves like a big fat spider. And instead generously finding the poor and providing for their needs.
[41:18] I have three questions as I close. The first is, the rich man wasn't rich towards God. He wasn't ready to die.
[41:30] It came all of a sudden. Are you ready to die? What is your answer for the biggest test?
[41:43] To decide where God decides, was that a life worth living? Did he live for the right things? Are you ready to face the test? Second question, there are five exits out of worry.
[41:57] Which one spoke to you most clearly? Which one are you going to take to get out of worry? And then here's the third question, how are you going to give to the poor?
[42:13] There's no point in doing all of this when Jesus ends up by saying, give to the poor, and we don't do anything about it. So the question is, how are you going to give to the poor?
[42:26] Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we do want to be doers of your word, and so I pray that we would take these exits that you've given us, Lord Jesus, to stop worrying, stop being so obsessed with ourselves and our own needs.
[42:46] Break us free, from that worry, by your goodness and your grace that we've seen in this passage, that you are our Father, you've given us the kingdom, that it doesn't do any good.
[43:00] Will you please make these truths to settle upon our hearts, that we might not worry, and that we might have hearts that are not bent inward any longer, but are freed then to then store up treasures in heaven, where the treasures can't be taken away.
[43:23] Help us to be greedy for heavenly things, heavenly treasures, and not greedy for things that are going to be lost and destroyed. Help us to be greedy for the things that are upon your heart, obsessed about those things instead of our own little kingdoms.
[43:42] I pray for those who aren't ready to die. What a frightening thing to go to sleep and then to have your life demanded of you, taken back.
[43:58] Pray for those who aren't ready that they would see the danger that they are in, that they would repent and believe the good news, that they would quit their old lives and embrace the Lord Jesus and his saving and his kingly work and his priestly work as a prophet.
[44:17] They might embrace him as their salvation. They might hide in him. Pray these things in in his name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you.