Encounter the Truth

Jonathan Griffiths: Anxiety about money, over-concern about material things, fretfulness about finances, that can actually be an issue of heart both for the poor and for the rich and for everyone in between. But Jesus, he doesn't want that kind of anxiety to take hold and to drive the heart of his disciples.

Steve Hiller: Welcome to Encounters of the Truth with Jonathan Griffiths. I'm Steve Hiller. Glad you're with us today. And anxiety over finances, Jonathan, I think is something that probably all of us can relate to, at least on some level. And for the person who is feeling very anxious because of the financial situation today, sounds like you might have a word of hope for them.

Jonathan Griffiths: Well, the word of God has hope for all of us. And I think you're right. There is probably an epidemic at the present time of anxiety over money. I'm hearing about it all the time. People feeling stretched financially, wondering how they're going to make make the mortgage payment, make rent, cover their bills this month. And it's it's a real issue for many people, and I know for many listening. And the word of God points us to place our hope in the Lord God who loves us, who cares for us, who made us in his image and says we're dignified and valued in his sight, and then who sent his son to redeem us.

And And he wants us to know and understand that we are a value in his sight, and he hasn't forgotten about us. And our needs matter to him. And if we're his children through faith in Jesus Christ, we are precious to him. We are part of his family. And he undertakes to care for us. So we we need to turn to him with our needs and our concerns, and we need to place our hope in him. And that's what our passage today is going to call us to do.

Steve Hiller: That passage is the book of Luke chapter 12. We're on verses 22 to 34 today. As we begin a message called The Heart of the Matter. Here is Jonathan.

Jonathan Griffiths: Well, I wonder if you ever find yourself feeling anxious about money. I wonder if concerns about your financial situation ever weigh you down. If fears about your financial future consume your thoughts and rob you of your peace. I wonder if that experience is familiar to you, even to you today. Well, if so, you're not alone. Money consistently tops surveys of peoples' well-being and mental health as being among the leading causes of strain and of stress. A recent survey I read commissioned by the Royal Bank of Canada paints a startling picture concerning the impact of financial worry on the well-being of the population.

40% of adults in our country report losing sleep over money worries. Overall, the younger the respondent in the survey, the higher is the impact of financial stress. Young people are feeling the strain and are carrying the burden disproportionately today. About half of those surveyed say that money woes are impacting their mental health. And about the same proportion indicate that they are negatively impacted in their relationships by money woes. And most concerning of all, and I was shocked to read this, 41% of those facing financial hardships say that they have contemplated suicide in the last year.

Now, I think we can all agree that money worry, financial anxiety is a massive issue for us. It is a topic we cannot ignore. In our passage today, Jesus addresses the issue of financial anxiety head-on. And he calls us to a distinctly Christian response, a distinctly believing attitude against the backdrop of the world's anxiety about money and our temptation to fretful strain. He gives us an instruction, a rationale for that instruction, and then an alternative way to live. An instruction, a rationale, and an alternative. That's where we're going. First, the instruction. Against the backdrop of a fear-filled world, the words of Jesus at the opening of our passage come both as a comfort and as a challenge to us.

Notice them again. Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food and the body, more than clothing. In our previous passage, you'll remember that Jesus told the story of a rich man who had his his own kind of financial concern. His farm was very productive. His barns were filling up. He had no room left to store his wealth. And for him, that induced a certain type of anxiety. What What am I going to do? Where am I going to put it all?

Where will I store my wealth and keep it safe? And that is a concern for some wealthy folk, by the way. That's a real issue for what our world will call high net worth individuals. You know, where is the safe place to put all my money? Where will it be secure for the future, untouched by war and inflation and theft and all the rest? And so this man, you'll remember, he he decides, look, I'm going to build some bigger barns. But he's forgotten that his life is actually out on loan, and the judgment will come.

Now, Jesus zones in and applies what he's been saying, in particular now to the disciples in verse 22. He wants to drive home a specific application to them. Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, etc. Anxiety about money, over-concern about material things, fretfulness about finances, that can actually be an issue of heart both for the poor and for the rich and for everyone in between. But Jesus, he doesn't want that kind of anxiety to take hold and to drive the heart of his disciples. Notice specifically that he says, therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious.

Therefore, I tell you. You see, he's linking his instruction here directly to the negative example of the rich fool. He is applying the parable to his disciples, showing that it holds meaning for them, for us, a warning for his people. See, the rich man, he he weighed the value of his life in his riches. He made the accumulation of riches his chief concern. It was his life's obsession, but in the end, he forgot that his life was going to be actually recalled by God. He gave no thought to his standing before God. He knew nothing of what it meant to be rich toward God.

And so his life was of course a cautionary tale. And so therefore, Jesus wants his disciples, whatever their financial situation, not to be driven by material concern, not to allow that to dominate. Don't be anxious, not about your life, what you will eat, not about your body, what you will put on. Don't worry about the material necessities of life. Don't worry about possessions, cash flow, finances, don't worry. The instruction, it's it's perfectly clear. But you know, we we hear that, and let's be honest, we hear that and we say, well, that is easy enough to say.

You know, that that's easy enough to say. I I hear the word of Jesus, but at the same time, here's the reality. The credit card bill is due tomorrow and I can't pay it. You know, the the mortgage goes out next week and there's no money. I'm behind on rent and eviction is the next step. There is too much month left at the end of the paycheck, and the line of credit only goes so far. I'd love to stop worrying about money, but I just don't know how. You may be a Christian believer, well established in the faith, but you are in the grips today of financial anxiety.

I won't ask for a show of hands, but if I asked for a show of hands, we would see a lot of hands. I know we would. The issues are real. The challenges are big. And to be honest, for some it's keeping you up at night. It is robbing you of your peace and your joy. It is weighing heavily upon you. Yeah, it's easy enough for Jesus to say don't be anxious, but frankly, Jesus might as well just tell me to scale Mount Everest or to hike across the Sahara. The instruction, it sounds so unrealistic to me right now in my situation.

Now, most of us if we are told to do something, we need to know why. We need to see and believe and understand that there's a good reason for it. If you if you have children, you know about this. You know, you can bark out orders and commands all you want, but over time, your children want to understand why the instruction makes sense, where it comes from, what's the logic. They need to see the rationale. We were driving the kids to school the other day and we were in heavy traffic in town in rush hour and we approached a section of the road where there were lots of signs for road work up ahead.

There were big arrows telling us, you know, that the lanes needed to merge left and and converge. The The The right lane was presumably going to be closed up around the curve of the road we couldn't see around the corner. So everyone was just jostling at the traffic lights to zoom ahead and get in and and get into the left lane, move over, squeeze. And then we rounded the corner and we discovered low and behold, there were no road works. There was no lane closure. There was nothing at all. The signs were there for no reason.

And actually, the signs were left like that for days on end. They may still be like that. Now, you know, you receive an instruction with no rationale. And over time, you stop taking it seriously. Okay. Well, we've heard the instruction of Jesus, don't be anxious about these things. Now comes the substantial and the immensely helpful rationale, the rationale.

Steve Hiller: You're listening to Encounters of the Truth with Jonathan Griffiths and a message called The Heart of the Matter. It's part of our series Cash, Christ, and the Kingdom. And we're going to pause here, but we'll get back to the message in just a moment. If it's been a moment since you've been to the website, I hope you'll visit encounters of the truth.org. There you're going to find links to our social media. You can subscribe to our newsletter and check out our weekly e-devotional. And another way to connect with Jonathan's teaching is through our YouTube channel.

If you've not found us on YouTube, simply look for Encounters of the Truth. And I hope you'll like and subscribe to the channel. That way you'll be updated anytime we put new content on there. So again, look for Encounters of the Truth on YouTube and make sure you like and subscribe. Back to the message. Here is Jonathan.

Jonathan Griffiths: Jesus does indeed have a rationale for his instruction. And in this, there is actually huge help and there is huge comfort for those feeling the strain. And we want to hear that. We want to explore it together. Here in chapter 12, Jesus is teaching a very large group of people. Thousands of people have gathered. Crowds are listening and it's a mixed group. There will be committed believers listening and there will be curious onlookers listening as well. In the previous verses, Jesus responded to a question you'll remember from someone in the crowds. And his his answer, the principle that life does not consist in the abundance of our possessions and the parable that he told to illustrate that principle, it brought a challenge to everyone listening, believer and unbeliever alike.

A A challenge to be careful of greed and covetousness, and instead to learn what it is to be rich toward God. And we all felt something of that challenge last time. We felt that challenge as we considered the danger of greed which touches all our lives. The warning against behaving like the rich fool, gathering up wealth, imagining that life can be measured by the value of our possessions, the challenge that it hits home for everyone, for every listener on some level. But now Jesus has some specific help and some specific encouragement to give. But these words are not going to apply to everyone.

No, this section is now more specific and it is more narrowly directed to the disciples, to those who have placed their trust in him and who are taking seriously the call to follow him. Notice it there in verse 22, and he said to his disciples. For Jesus's people who know him by faith, there are promises here which the crowd actually cannot claim, even though they may still be listening in. Everyone needs the warning of the rich fool, but not everyone can claim the promises of the disciples. That's important to note at the outset. And I'm taking a moment here just to underline it because the first thing that is needed in addressing anxiety in this world of any kind, in addressing fearfulness for the future, the pressures of material need, the first thing to do is to turn to Jesus and to find in him hope and security, to look to him by faith and to place your trust in him.

You see, the Lord Jesus Christ, he came to earth to be our savior. He gave his life to purchase our forgiveness. And for those who know him and trust him, we understand that he loves us and he's committed himself to us. And he undertakes now to care for us. So let me say this. If you don't know the Lord Jesus by faith, and if you are in a place of anxiety today, let me encourage you, start there. Start with him. Start with exploring what it means to trust him and to be his disciple. You see, that's the the fundamental issue that is your great need.

And now the details of the rationale for the disciples. Why should the disciples not be anxious? Why should we abandon worry? Verse 23. For For life is more than food and the body more than clothing. Jesus is now reinforcing what he has said to the wider group already. What he said already in the hearing of his disciples, remember it back in verse 15, he's underscoring this. In response to the greed of the man wanting his inheritance, Jesus made the point that life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. We You see, we can't measure our lives, their value or their quality by the quantity of our possessions.

You see, that is the wrong measuring stick. We We We think in terms, don't we, in this world of a person's net worth when we sum up their life. A wealthy person dies, you know, what was she worth? Someone might ask crassly. But possessions are the wrong measuring stick when it comes to life. Just as you cannot measure a piece of string with a thermometer, wrong measure, so too you cannot measure the value of a life by someone's bank balance. Life is more than that. There's a bigger picture. God is concerned that we should be rich toward him, that our focus should be higher, that our devotion should be directed elsewhere.

Our lives as disciples are to be about something else entirely. Does that mean that, you know, we anticipate starvation and homelessness because we give no attention to these things? No, it doesn't. We do have physical and material needs after all. These are real. Well, how are these going to be met if we don't spend our time fretting over them, focusing on them? Jesus continues verse 24. Consider the ravens. They neither sow nor reap. They have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds? Remember that rich man with his ever-expanding barns, anxiously building storage capacity to ensure that he would never ever face any kind of want.

And Jesus says, look at the most insignificant creature you can think of, the humble raven. No one cares about the raven. I mean, it doesn't plan its food supply. It doesn't farm. It doesn't have a storage depot anywhere. And the ravens are fed because God feeds them. God feeds the ravens and Jesus makes a simple and obvious point. His logic is actually inescapable. You are so much more valuable than a raven, made in the image of God, redeemed by the blood of Christ. Is God going to abandon you? I mean, is God really going to forget your needs?

No, he won't do that. He'd never do that. And by the way, verse 25, worry doesn't actually help anything. It doesn't actually achieve anything. I mean, it's obviously true. Jesus is clearly correct. You know, lying awake at 3:00 a.m. fretting doesn't achieve anything, doesn't do anything useful. You know, pacing the living room, it's not productive. Chewing over the same issue a thousand times with your spouse, you're not actually getting anywhere, are you? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life, asks Jesus? If then you are not able to do a small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?

You know, the truth is you and I, we can actually control so little of the big picture of life. The days of our life, they are numbered. The hours of our life, they are fixed. The Lord has set them and we rely upon him for everything in the meantime. We cannot take a breath unless he gives it to us. Our heart cannot produce a single beat unless he sustains us. We are totally dependent creatures in every way. What good is worrying going to achieve? And so now comes another image from nature to help us. We have the raven.

Now the lilies, verse 27. Consider the lilies, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. You know, the lilies, they look wonderful in the summer. They are beautifully arrayed, well dressed as it were. They're the picture of flourishing and bounty. They don't toil. They don't spin. They don't manufacture their garments. But they don't hit the factory floor at 5:00 a.m. to earn their keep. They don't worry about their bank balance. And yet even great King Solomon with all his wealth could not match their wardrobe.

Plants, vegetation. It flourishes briefly and disappears. But you and I were so much more valuable, verse 28. But if God so closed the grass which is alive in the field today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, oh you of little faith? Now there it is. Jesus has made it quite clear for us. This actually is a faith issue. That's what he's saying. Do we believe that God cares for us, remembers us, will provide for us? Do we trust him? Do we have faith in him? You see, it's our attitude in these things as believers that ultimately sets us apart from the world around us, that makes us distinctive as Christians.

Notice how stark Jesus makes that. Verse 29. And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink. That is, do not pursue them as your obsession or your life's passion. As you're all consuming concern, don't do that nor be worried. For all the nations of the world, the Gentiles, the unbelievers, they seek after these things. That's what they're doing. And your father knows that you need them. And Jesus is of course right. The world is obsessed by all this. The people of the world are consumed by it. It's front page news all the time.

The economy, I mean, we're tired of it, right? The economy, inflation, the cost of groceries, the housing market, interest rates, employment numbers, the world is fixated. The world is gripped by anxiety over these things. But you and I, if we belong to Jesus Christ, we have a father in heaven who knows that we need them, who loves us, who cares for us, who promises to provide for us. Now, if we're believers, we know that this is true. But we also know if we're honest that we easily forget it. You know, the pressure rises, the costs go up faster than the wages, and it's hard to manage.

Perhaps there's a job loss, a a season of unemployment, some other setback or disaster in the family, and the assurance that God will provide it slips from our heart and worry begins to set in. But Jesus, he wants us to know and to remember and to believe that we are a value to God. He loves us. He knows our needs better than we know them. He promises that he will provide. And so instead of joining the world in the chorus of worry, Jesus sets before us now an alternative, an alternative, a different way to live.

Verse 31. Instead, seek his kingdom and these things will be added to you. When you think about it, life is actually pretty short. How many years do we have? How many decades? If the Lord is gracious and our health endures, is it eight decades, nine decades? For some maybe 10. But the years they go by pretty quickly. One birthday drifts into another. We had a birthday in our family this week and we have a special drawer in our dining room where we keep birthday decorations and candles and balloons and things. And I was looking through and seeing the special decorations for birthdays of a certain age with, you know, the number written on the party hats or whatever.

I was looking at decorations and party paraphernalia from themed parties we had for the kids in different years and at different ages. And as I sifted through that drawer for a few minutes the other night and remembered those occasions, I could just see and feel the years going by. One of the apps on my phone, you might have this, it pulls up pictures from the archives and it generates these little slideshows at random. And sometimes pictures from birthday parties through the years flick by and they all they all just seem like yesterday. Life it it it goes pretty fast.

And Jesus is taking us here to basics, to some core issues. And he's asking us, he's challenging us as to how we are going to use and invest our lives. The Gentiles, the nations, the unbelievers scurry around, accumulating wealth like squirrels, like squirrels gathering acorns for winter. Sometimes I find little stashes of acorns around our property under a shed or something like that where squirrels have stored them from years gone by. And here's the thing. The squirrel is long gone, but the acorns are there. See, the Gentiles are scurrying after the things of this earth and squirreling them away.

And Jesus says to the Christian believer, you do something different. You pursue something different even as you do your normal job. And And And you work and you make a living things that are good and dignified in the sight of God. As you do that alongside other people in the community, here's the thing. You be about something else in your heart of hearts. Seek the kingdom.

Steve Hiller: Jonathan Griffiths here on Encounters of the Truth and a message called The Heart of the Matter. Now we're going to pause here, but we'll continue on our next broadcast. So I hope you'll make it a point to tune in. Well, whether you listen to Encounters of the Truth on the radio, online, or through the app, it's all made possible through your generosity. And as you give a gift of any amount this month, we want to say thank you by sending you a book called Gentle and Lowly, The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers. And Jonathan, I know that this is a book that you've read, you've picked out for us this month.

Uh what did you take away from this book?

Jonathan Griffiths: Well, thanks, Steve. It is a book I've read and appreciated. I've got others to read and I'm planning to read it again. And I 've appreciated it so much because it reminded me of things that I knew to be true, but I don't always remember and don't always live in the good of.

Steve Hiller: Hm.

Jonathan Griffiths: I think that the default mode of our hearts and our sinfulness is to think that God is keeping some kind of scorecard of our obedience, and he's more pleased with us when we do better in the Christian life and are more uh faithful and and more fruitful in our service of him. And Gentle and Lowly reminds us that God's heart toward us is a heart of grace poured out in the gift of his son and given daily through the presence of his Holy Spirit within our lives, that God loves us, that he's merciful toward us, that he's a compassionate father, that he's a gentle shepherd.

And we need to be reminded of these things because we don't naturally believe that they're true. But when we're reminded of them and we take hold of them, we're encouraged to walk with Christ in in joy and in faith and indeed then in obedience.

Steve Hiller: Well, we want to send you a copy of this book. Again, it's called Gentle and Lowly is our way of saying thank you for your financial support this month. You can give online at encounters of the truth.org or when you call 1 833 998 7884. It might be easier to remember as 833 99 Truth. And again, our website is encounters of the truth.org. You can also write to us at Encounters of the Truth, PO Box 5513, Ottawa, Ontario K2C 3M1. Or in the US at Encounters of the Truth, 215 North Arlington Heights Road, Suite 102, Arlington Heights, Illinois 60004.

For Jonathan Griffiths and our producer Mark Griffiths, I'm Steve Hiller. Thanks for listening and I hope you'll join us next time.