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Jonathan Griffiths: Your hearts will follow your treasure. Your heart may be fixed to earthly things a whole lot more than you would like to admit. And so here is what we need to do, train our heart to love the right things by disciplining ourselves with the help of the spirit of God to do the right thing. Do the right thing and your heart will follow.

Steve Hiller: Welcome to Encounter the Truth with Jonathan Griffiths. I'm Steve Hiller. Glad you've joined us today as we continue looking at cash, Christ, and his kingdom. In fact, that's the title of the series we're currently in. And Jonathan, interesting that you point out scripture says your heart will follow your treasure. Like sometimes we think that it might be the other way around, but here it sounds like we're being told if we don't like where our heart is, we can actually change the focus of our heart by investing in different areas.

Jonathan Griffiths: Well, that's right, Steve. This is one of those wonderful moments where Jesus really surprises us and almost says the very opposite of what we may anticipate. So you're right. I think we figure, you know, once my heart is in a certain zone, in a certain place, then I will order my priorities around, you know, my feelings within almost and and and that will be a natural progression. But what Jesus wants to say to us about money and generosity is that actually our heart will follow our treasure. So if we make intentional decisions to invest in a certain way that we know to be right because we've become convinced of it, our heart's going to catch up.

He says, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. And I take that to mean that I need to teach my heart a lesson by some of the financial and stewardship choices I make out of conviction from the word of God. So that's a very interesting thing. I think it's a surprising thing, but we need to look at it closely together from the word of God.

Steve Hiller: So let's do that. If you have a Bible nearby, hope you'll open it and join us in the book of Luke chapter 12 verses 22 to 34 as we continue our message, the heart of the matter. Here is Jonathan.

Jonathan Griffiths: 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 were 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 are 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 clothed 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 concerned, 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. That is bring your agenda in line with God's agenda. Seek what the King of Kings desires, do his bidding, long for the increase of his kingdom and the wider praise of his glory. Seek those things rather than seeking the things of this world.

Steve Hiller: That is Jonathan Griffiths with a message called The Heart of the Matter, and we'll get back to this look at Luke chapter 12 in just a moment. If you ever miss a program, you can always come and listen at our website. It's encounterthetruth.org, and you can stream the program or download an MP3 for free. Another way to listen is to get the Encounter the Truth app. If you don't have it yet, you 'll find it for free at your app store, and it's a great way to listen to Jonathan's teaching when you're on the go.

It's basically listening on demand. So again, look for the Encounter the Truth app at your app store or come and listen online at encounterthetruth.org. Let's get back to the message. Again, we're in Luke chapter 12. Here is Jonathan.

Jonathan Griffiths: It was mentioned recently that a number of our young adults attended a conference on missions the other week, and it was wonderful that they were able to go and to be inspired by the word of God to consider the great work of world missions vocationally. And And we were so thrilled at the end of it to learn that three had made a personal response saying they wanted to think through and pray through the possibility of devoting themselves to the work of world missions. Now you think about that, that will never be a financially smart decision.

That is never going to be the path to material prosperity, but what a wonderful way to invest a life. As I studied this passage in recent days and thought over these things, I was prompted to remember the story of uh C.T. Studd and his ministry and witness. Many of you will know the story. Studd was born in 1860 to a wealthy English family. He was educated at Eton and and at Cambridge. He was a very fine cricketer, and he played in the 1882 match against Australia, which actually became the origin of the Ashes for those who know cricket.

When Hudson Taylor of the China Inland Mission visited Cambridge, Studd became one of a group of seven young men, the Cambridge seven as they were then known, who committed to join Taylor in his mission to reach China for Christ. When Studd's father died, he received a very large inheritance, £29,000. In those days, that was a vast sum of money, something like £4.5 million in today's money. And as a missionary, he gave all that money away to the work of the gospel, even though he himself would have had little income. Studd's spiritual outlook was captured in some of his most memorable sayings, which themselves have been hugely influential for generations of believers, commenting on the tendency that we have to play it safe and to seek comfort.

He declared that some wished to live within the sound of a church or a chapel bell. I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell. Isn't that wonderful? Someone to stay close to home. I want to go where the need is. Reflecting on the brevity of life, he said this. Many of us will know these words. Only one life twill soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last. You see, the people of this world run after the things of this world and anxiously pursue material security. But what does Jesus say?

And what had a man like Studd learned instead? Seek his kingdom. Invest elsewhere. And by the way, he says, Jesus end of verse 31, these things will be added to you. As you do that, these things will be added to you. God will take care of you materially. He will provide what you need. You know, one of the interesting things we observe over the course of the Christian life is that the numbers don't always make sense for the people of God, for the servants of God. Have you ever noticed that? Disciples of Christ can give and can serve in uncalculating ways.

And having given, having made sacrifices, somehow things still work out. Maybe you've noticed that. God provides for his people in ways we don't quite understand or pinpoint. But the gift of the sacrifice seeking first the kingdom, it doesn't lead to poverty and ruination for the people of God. C.T. Studd was a great advocate for taking risks in serving the Lord. He himself did that in going to China in the late 19th century as a missionary, and then afterwards I think to Africa and India too. And seeking the kingdom first it means earthly risk. It means not having everything perfectly lined up for ourselves.

It means spending ourselves in his service. And it could be a fearful thing that could lead actually to a fresh round of anxiety. But Jesus knows how we feel and he knows how we operate. And so he continues, verse 32. Fear not, little flock. What a term of affection that is. Fear not, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Remember the big picture. God our father has our best interests at heart. He has nothing less than the kingdom prepared for us. We have a home in heaven. We have a secure future.

He won't abandon us. We're safe. Our long-term situation is entirely sound and is well provided for. And so Jesus presses us further to make radical kingdom choices. Verse 33. Sell your possessions and give to the needy. Provide for yourselves money bags that do not grow old with a treasure in heaven that does not fail where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. It's pretty interesting. It's pretty interesting. When you think about it, that Jesus began our passage Remember where he began by addressing the issue of worry over money. And he works through that with us very very carefully.

And we think of the kinds of situations where we might worry about money. But now he ends this passage by telling people who might have worried about money to sell our possessions and to give to the needy. It hardly seems like any kind of solution to the issue of money, does it? Of worry. But I actually think we can see that it is a kind of solution. You see, Jesus is issuing a radical call. And he's doing so in very strong terms here. He isn't He isn't forbidding us from holding any assets, having anywhere to live or any clothes to wear or food to eat.

I mean, we see disciples with those things in this very book and in Luke and in Acts and in the New Testament. But he is saying this. He's saying, hold lightly to your possessions. Be ready and willing to put them to use to further the kingdom, to pursue God's priorities, to help the needy, to serve the poor. Be active in doing that. Be radical in your approach. And that sounds counterintuitive to us if we are worriers. But Jesus is wanting us to be set free. He's wanting us to be set free from our attachment to material things because we know that God our father provides for us and has prepared for us a kingdom in which to live.

And Jesus wants us to know that using our resources to further God's work, to serve the needy whom God loves, that's actually an investment. That's actually an eternal investment. It's hard to think, isn't it, of a really sure fire investment in this world, one that's rock solid, you know, a fund that won't go belly up, a company that won't go bankrupt, is safe, that will never be robbed. I I gather that Costco have started selling gold bars. As soon as they come in stock, I'm told that they sell out right away. The demand is really really high.

You see, people are looking for secure repositories for wealth. But you see, if we're investing in the kingdom, if we're pursuing God's agenda, then we are investing in eternity. And we're putting our resources in money bags that don't grow old and develop holes. Treasure in heaven that does not fail in a place where no thief can get it, where no moth destroys. Thieves can get all our things. It's been all over the news, hasn't it, how car thieves are grabbing cars off driveways every day in our communities, getting them right into shipping containers and straight out of the country.

We once lived in an old house, a Victorian house in London that had moths. And the moths worked through the wardrobe. Anything with natural fiber was chewed. The moths it turned out they had taste. They liked expensive fabric. Cashmere apparently is especially delicious. But wealth invested in heaven, no no thieves, no moths. And so Jesus concludes with a statement that I find utterly fascinating and so very wise and perceptive. Verse 34. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Now I think it's easy to read that verse just at the end of the passage when we're about ready to switch off and to think it says what we would expect it to say.

And we expect Jesus to say that our treasure is going to follow our heart. If we value something in our heart, if our heart naturally loves something, then we will eventually invest in it just naturally. That'll be the natural course of things. But that's not what Jesus says here, is it? That's actually kind of the opposite of what Jesus says here. He is saying that our heart will follow where we put our treasure. Remember he's just told us to do some radical things, sell our possessions, give to the poor, etc. And he says your your heart will follow your treasure.

Your Your heart may not actually be there yet. Your heart may be fixed to earthly things a whole lot more than you would like to admit that they are. And so here is what you need to do, what I need to do, what we need to do. We need to train our heart to love the right things by disciplining ourselves with the help of the spirit of God to do the right thing. Do the right thing and your heart will follow. Your money is so influential to your heart that if you do something with your money, your heart will learn to value what it is you are investing in.

He's saying, let your let your checkbook teach your heart a lesson. That's the direction of travel here. That's the logic of what Jesus is saying. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. What do we do with anxiety over money? We heed Jesus' instruction. We learn not to be anxious. We take on board his rationale. Life isn't about money. And our father knows and loves us and will provide for us. And so the alternative, seek the kingdom. Let your treasure teach your heart a lesson. I don't know where the encouragement in all this is for you that you need to hear.

I don't know where is the challenge from this that perhaps you need to receive. I don't know what you need to go away and act upon and pray over, but I know there will be a response to each of us from the word of God. And we want to be sensitive to that and we want to be full of trust and of joyful obedience.

Steve Hiller: Jonathan Griffiths here on Encounter the Truth. Wrapping up our message, The Heart of the Matter, part of our series cash, Christ, and the kingdom. And if you ever miss a broadcast in the series or you want to go back and listen again, you can always do that by coming to our website. You can stream the program or download an MP3 for free. That's at encounterthetruth.org. Well, Encounter the Truth is listener supported, and we depend on your generosity to continue to bring you Jonathan's teaching each day. And as you give a gift of any amount this month, we want to send you a book called Gentle and Lowly.

It's written by Dane Ortlund. And Jonathan, who is this book for?

Jonathan Griffiths: Well, Steve, this book is for anyone who feels that God is frowning down upon them from heaven, anyone who feels that God is disappointed with them for their failures in the Christian life, for anyone who feels that they need to prove themselves to God or earn their way into his favor. Gentle and lowly is a beautiful reminder that God loves us, that he's given his son for our redemption, that he reaches out to us in mercy and grace through the gospel, that he is compassionate toward us, and that the Lord Jesus Christ is indeed gentle and lowly of heart.

And And I think hearing these things, even if we know that they're true, even if we've read them before in the scriptures, being reminded in such a helpful way as Dane Ortlund reminds us in such a helpful way, will do our heart and soul good. And I think for the one who is fearful and imagining that God is indeed frowning upon them, this will be such a help and such an encouragement. And I hope you can take hold of it.

Steve Hiller: Well, we want to send you a copy of this book, Gentle and Lowly, as our way of saying thank you for your financial support this month. Give online at encounterthetruth.org or when you call 1 833 99 Truth. That's 1 833 998 7884 or encounterthetruth.org. You can also write us at Encounter the Truth, PO Box 5513, Ottawa, Ontario K2C 3M1. Or in the US at Encounter the Truth, 215 North Arlington Heights Road, Suite 102, Arlington Heights, Illinois 60004. For producer Mark Branna and our Bible teacher Jonathan Griffiths, I'm Steve Hiller. Thanks for listening, and I hope you'll join us next time.