David Stockton 8/1/21 David Stockton 8/1/21

Treasures in Heaven

We’re in Matthew, Chapter six, if you want to grab a Bible and turn there. Today we're looking at the words of Jesus again in the Sermon on the Mount and praying that his Spirit will open our eyes and our ears and our hearts to get a vision for the righteousness of God.

Series: The Sermon on the Mount
August 1, 2021 - David Stockton

And what I mean by that is we want to know what is righteous in God's eyes. Our culture or our pundits these days are telling us what justice and righteousness are and I’m not that interested in hearing what they have to say. I really want to know what God thinks. And that's what we're doing. We want to know how to be approved unto God. We want to know what pleases God. We even sang about it this morning: What moves your heart?

We want to know how to be rich in God's economy, more than being rich in this economy. So anti-American. It's so difficult for us. We are so steeped and we are so good at defining success in this economy. In the kingdom of heaven, in the temporal kingdom of this world, we are so good at it, and what Jesus is trying to teach his disciples and ultimately us, is what the economy of heaven is like, what God values. And that's where we get the word righteousness. That's what God values. And ultimately, we want to know how to live in a way that helps us to hear Jesus say, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” the moment after we take our last breath on this earth.

In Chapter five, Jesus was teaching his disciples about the greater righteousness. You've heard me mention this time and time again. Jonathan Pennington, if you want to go deeper into that, wrote a book and really just constantly comes back to that, the greater righteousness as opposed to the counterfeit righteousness or the lesser righteousness.

Again, coming out of our cultural context, last year there was lots of claims to righteousness. We need to be those who are able to discern which ones are counterfeit righteousness, which ones are lesser and which one's greater righteousness. And so Jesus uses six very common human situations to help us understand and begin to unpack and discern the difference between lesser and greater righteousness. Those six common human situations, maybe you've heard of them: anger, lust, divorce, breaking of promises or deceit, vengeance, and enemies.

So in case you're familiar with any of those in the human situation, you can go back and listen to the podcast of the teachings online and… yeah, it was intense. It was real. And we're better, we're better because of it. But it was it was intense. And it hit us right in the heart.

So now in Chapter six, which for the last three weeks, we've been kind of spending some time and Jesus is teaching about the greater righteousness in our relation to God in some very common religious practices, so to speak: giving to the poor, prayer and fasting. And those are the three things that Jesus talked about.

So, first of all, the greater righteousness in regards to our neighbor and then the greater righteousness in regards to our relationship with God is is what Jesus is unpacking here.And as he does this, he's giving us a glimpse of of the greater righteousness. And it's beautiful and it's almost breathtaking. It's sometimes even discouraging when we think of where we are and what Jesus is depicting. It also is very challenging because it hits us and helps us see how far removed we are from this.

As Tim Keller writes, he basically, as you're reading through the Sermon on the Mount, you're understanding the inside out kingdom. So basically, we are such an external society. We base everything on external appearance. What who what you look like, what you have. And the kingdom of God, you know, measures everything internally. And so it's just so hard. It's inside out.

And then the other thing is, it's upside down. And that's where you have the Beatitudes. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are the persecuted. Blessed are those who are mourning, blessed are the pure in spirit. Whereas our our society and culture would say the exact same thing.

And the weakest is the strongest. The greatest is the least. All this kind of Upside-Down Kingdom stuff. So it's a little disorienting sometimes as we read Jesus's words. But it's not because Jesus is off. It’s because we're off and he's trying to help us get back on on track with who God is.

So as we've done this, a couple of things to note over Chapter six and our relation to God. Three things about God that have been brought up. One is God hates hypocrisy. As you see in this whole chapter, he continues to say, you know, "Don't be like the hypocrites. Don't do what the hypocrites do. This is hypocrisy. Don't do things just so other people will think you're cool if you're trying to do it for God. God hates it.”

And as you read through the entirety of the scriptures, God hates hypocrisy. He hates hypocrisy. He detests it. Isaiah, chapter one, if you want to get further into it, he's like, “I stop my ears when you're singing your hypocritical songs in church. It just makes my stomach churn. I want to spit you out of my mouth.”

This is the kind of things that God feels towards hypocrisy and sad to say, Christians. We are some of the best hypocrites in the world. We have created a complete art of it. We are awesome at it. And Jeff Gokee taught two weeks or three weeks ago on hypocrisy, did a great job. So you can go back and listen to that if you want.

But that's one thing that Jesus is really trying to make it very clear. You're not fooling God. You might be fooling everybody else, but you're not fooling God. He sees it and literally he hates hypocrisy. He hates it. And we’ve got to remember that as we process how we're living our lives and even in our worship to the Lord, we can even get that so messed up, which is crazy.

The second thing that we need to note as we go through Chapter six is God is our daddy. Literally daddy. The word, our father in heaven. And it’s Abba, or translation of Abba. And it means daddy. So when Jesus was saying, “Here, let me tell you how you should pray, you should say, ‘Daddy in heaven.” And is super uncomfortable.Tthe way I know it's uncomfortable, because after all these years of Jesus telling me to pray that way, I still don't. I'm like, “Our father who art in heaven.” You know, like old English or something when I say that prayer, because it just feels more serious. Then Jesus is like, “No, he’s still not getting it.”

And then, you know that like dred pirate guy that was doing the announcements just a second ago — his name is Alec. And he actually does this. He says, “Daddy," when he starts out praying and he's like, “Daddy." And I'm like, “What? Oh.” You know every time still today when he says that it like throws me off. I have intimacy issues, maybe.

But yeah, but that's what Jesus was saying. Like he is your father. He's your daddy. And you don't have to say a whole bunch, you don't have to get everything right, you just kind of talk to him about what's going on in the day. I mean, it's such a simple prayer. And again, Jeff Gokee taught on that last week. It was awesome. He unpacked that really well, gave us a lot to think about.

And so in that idea that God is our daddy, he's close to us. He is transcendent, no doubt. He's our father in heaven. And he's the father, not just of you. He's our father. So you need to remember that you're not the only child. It's really important for us to remember that. And it's very sad that we don't in our prayers and oftentimes even in our, you know, our faith. We a lot of times think that it's all about us. And we we judge God according to what he does for us alone, not understanding that he's kind of got a bigger job than just us.

So I think there's the transcendence of it is so important that God is big and he's created this entire world. And, you know, there's like two trillion galaxies. You know, our galaxy is just one of them and two trillion in our galaxy.

There's all these planets and everything is working in order. And we're on this place called the Earth. That's literally going sixty seven thousand miles an hour around the sun. Now it's in a circle, too. So it's like sixty seven thousand miles an hour straight, has a certain kind of like intensity to it. But the centrifugal force of sixty seven thousand miles an hour going in a circle, that's intense. Like I went on a Slip and Slide for about 30 minutes the other day and threw my back out. Seriously, like seriously sitting down. Back brace. I wasn't like showing them my super cool abs or anything. Just from doing that.

And we're going sixty seven thousand miles around the sun at the same time were spinning on our axis at — how fast? I wrote it down. I didn't know — it's on this page. It's not on this page, I don't know, it's like a thousand miles an hour. Anybody know? Come on, somebody out there knows. Ten thousand or a thousand?A thousand miles an hour. We're spinning on the axis while we're going six or seven.

I mean, and what I'm doing, I'm talking about the transcendence. He's the Creator of the heavens and all these things. And yet Jesus tells us to call him daddy. Anybody said when they prayed, they called him daddy. Yeah, Kurt, of course. Of course I love it.

Nobody else says that Jesus said, you're supposed to say daddy and none of us say, daddy. There’s some daddy's back there. All right. Try it this week. Try it this week. I'll try to.

Daddy. Daddy in heaven. He cares so much. We're going to get into that a little bit more next week. And as we continue on in the Sermon on the Mount, helping to know how God really does pay attention to every single detail of your life.

And the word daddy I know can be a little weird for some. It can have a bad connotation. But it's daddy in the best sense of the word. Daddy honestly, in the sense of the word that none of us have ever experienced in our earthly relationships. This is the way God wants you to see him and relate to him — as a daddy.

So the third thing to note again, Jeff, did those things last two weeks or last three weeks, which is awesome.

And today I want to unpack the idea that God is a rewarder. God is a rewarder. And yeah, it's interesting. But we see that clearly leading up to this point where God is a rewarder. Consistently he says, you know, “If you practice your righteousness before other people, I hope you enjoyed your reward,” kind of.

So if you're if you're going to fast, and you're going to kind of moan and groan so that other people will think that you're really holy, he says, “I hope you enjoyed that, because that's the only reward you're getting.” You know, when you pray and you're like, “Oh, Lord, God of the universe, you are so good and I am so bad,” like when you start praying like that, everybody thinks you're so holy. He's like, “I hope you enjoyed that, because that's all you're getting.” There's no reward for that at all.

And then the same thing when you give to the poor. But he says, “If you're willing to do those things in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you openly.”

So there's this constant, continuous theme that God is wanting to give you reward in result of your righteousness. So he is a rewarder. And we have that in Hebrews 11 verse six, you know, says that if we want to come to God, we must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. And reward is a huge concept, you know, in Revelation, all these type of things. But we'll get into that.

So God is a rewarder is what we're going to be looking at today. So, Matthew, chapter six, verse 19:

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and …

…mammon is the word. And money is a good translation, but it's more than that, actually. The word treasure has a whole kind of broad sense of it differently than just treasure. And money is not quite there. Mammon has a little bit broader sense. The things we value, the things that that that we that we have desire for, the things that we honor and give value to.

So anyway, we've just gotten through Jesus talking about the greater righteousness in these human examples, the greater righteousness, our relationship with God examples. And then he kind of goes into what almost seems like three completely separate proverbs. And it took me a while to kind of try and unpack, “OK, Jesus, what are you getting out here? Why is this after this?” I mean, I even started thinking like did Jesus, like the Jesus work on this message before this moment where he's sitting on a hill overlooking the Sea of Galilee and he calls the disciples to him. Was it something that he was like had already worked on or was it just like catching a moment and saying, “Hey, guys, I want to share some things with you," and just kind of, you know, vamping a little bit? And and I don't know, obviously. But what it does seem like is, because it's recorded in a couple of the different gospel accounts, and because Jesus really was going around the Sea of Galilee and teaching on the kingdom of heaven, it almost really is more like Jesus's stump speech. Now, there was probably some variations where basically Jesus was going around from from village to village around the Sea of Galilee. And this was his speech, as you would call his people together.

That's another reason why it's recorded with such clarity is because it was such a familiar thing that the disciples had heard over and over and over and over and over again, which gives me a little better feeling that we've been in it for four months, and we're going to be doing it for the rest of this month, too. But it was this repetition that these guys really were trying to understand and Jesus was doing this. So there were variations. But Jesus definitely at this point was was moving away from those examples.

And he was talking about this this next life. He was talking about the kingdom of heaven that we are going to to dwell in and that economy that's there. And so he's talking about, “Don't store up treasures in this life. But store up treasures, things of value in the next life.”

That's the goal and what he says here, and actually when he's talking about the lamp, he's talking about, you know, if you're able to discern, if you're able to see what is truly a value, then what will happen is your whole soul will be filled with light. And the word there value, actually, it's like when your eye is singular, when when your eye is singular and what it values. It's like, I think it's Kierkegaard who says, “Purity of heart is to will one thing.” And the way James says it is, “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.”

And there's something about Jesus saying here that we need to be singular in our focus and attention. We need to make sure that the kingdom of heaven, and the economy that's there, is our singular focus; that we're not necessarily trying to win in this life and that life.

And now we're beginning to hear those other words of Jesus, “What will you gain if you get this whole world and lose your soul?” There's this this kind of challenge where Jesus is now trying to help, “Hey, I do care about everything you're going through. I do care about your daily bread and all of those things. But I want you to understand that what I'm trying to do is help you gain a desire, gain a passion, gain a singularity in your focus for the next life.”

And this is where Christians start to sound a little crazy. And I'm totally OK with that, because the world view of the scriptures, the world view of Jesus and the New Testament, for sure, is that we are going to live on after our final breath on Earth, and the life that we live there is the real life. It is more real than this life. This is the temporal life. This is the fading life. This is the shadow. That is the reality. And Jesus is saying we need to keep that in mind. We need to focus on that, because when we get to that life, the things that are valuable there are the things that we are going to wish we had.

And oftentimes when we lose in this life, we actually are gaining in that life, like the Beatitudes teach. Oftentimes death in this life leads to resurrection life. Oftentimes sacrificial love in this life leads to something beautiful in the kingdom of heaven.

And you can look at the life of Jesus, and that's exactly what he did. He didn't just teach these things, but then he lived out those things. Basically, there's a moment in Jesus's life on earth where you can apply each beatitude to it. And the reason that he was doing that wasn't just because he was so masochistic. He was doing that because he understood the the value of heaven, and he understood if he gave himself in this life, he would gain so much more. And that gaining of so much more was you and I could be with him. And so he had joy while he was on the cross. “It was for the joy set before him that he endured the cross.” Because he understood the economy of heaven.

And that's what we're trying to do. It’s what we're trying to get to, is understanding that type of thing. Some of us are understanding a little better than others. Some of us get it some days and totally far away the other days.

I was teaching this to the third through fifth graders on Wednesday night. My wife is in charge of that group and she asked me to to speak to it. And she has a lot more pull than anybody else around here. So I was I was in there speaking. I was talking to them about how God is a rewarder. And it was so funny because the best example of that I could give to the third through fifth graders was like Brittany, my wife. You know, I was like, “She's a rewarder, right?” And they were like, “What?” I said, “Think about how much candy she gives you.” And they were like, “Oh, yeah! Yeah, yeah, yeah!”

I mean, that’s the number one complaint about Brittany. She does a thousand things so well. But people are just like, why she gotta give my kids so much Candy? And I'll tell you, because she's a rewarder. And so you should just be thankful because she's teaching your kids about God and his character, because she gives them candy for, like, showing up. She gives him candy for, you know, being good after they were bad. She gives him candy just because sometimes she's bored. She gives them candy … there are just endless amounts of reasons that they can give.

But that's literally, as you look through, the way that the Bible talks about God is he is a rewarder. He is such a great rewarder.

Jesus told this story about God's heart when it comes to rewards, and it's the worst parable by far.

He told a parable of this, this master employer that went and was telling people, “Hey, if you come work in my field today, I will give you this much in pay.” And so there were, you know, some people heard the news and one guy showed up 8:00 a.m. the next day. He was all ready to go, you know, and he started working in the field, excited about the pay that he would get. And he worked, you know, eight hours, or whatever it was.

The next guy shows up about 10:00 a.m. and he's like, “Hey, can I work?” And the master was like, “Sure, jump in!” And so he works the rest of that day.

One guy shows up at noon. He jumps in. He's like, "Hey, man, I know I'm late, but can I work?” And the master was like, “Dude, work it up. Let’s go!”

And so they're all doing this work. And then one joker Enneagram 9 shows up five minutes before it's over, five minutes before the sun's down, whatever, it was the end of the day. And he's like, “Hey, can I work?” And the master is like, “Sure. Jump in, man.” So he jumps in and he's just working so hard for five minutes. And then the bell rings. Day’s over. And they all line up to get their pay.

And, you know, the guy who was there for five minutes goes up first and and the master gives them the full amount, as if he worked the whole day, because he said, “If you come and work in my field, I'm going to give you this amount.” So the guy works for five minutes, gets the full pay. And the guy who was there at 8:00 am was like, “If he's getting that, I'm going to get big! This is going to be awesome.”

And so the next guy who came at noon goes up there and he gets paid the same amount as the five minute guy — the same amount that the guy said he would pay everybody if they came and worked. So he was like, “Oh, okay. It seems a little weird.” And then he takes off.

The guy who showed up at 10 a.m. shows up and he gets the same pay as the rest of them. He's like, “It doesn't seem right. Well, I got paid, you know, and at least I didn’t work as much as that guy.”

And the 8:00 a.m. guy shows up and he gets paid the same as everybody else, including the five minute guy. And he's ticked. He's American. He is offended at this point. And he will not lay down quietly. This is injustice. This is not fair. And he's like, "Come on! What's the deal?”Starts throwing tea in the ocean and, you know, he's like, “No, man! This is not right!”

And so this is the way the parable ends. It's basically like, “What is it to you if God wants to give somebody else something good?” That’s the resolve of this thing? I'm not resolved in my spirit here. And again, that it's totally justice. You know, the master did exactly what he said he was going to do.

However, there was there was someone that experienced mercy. Experienced grace. And in this story, what Jesus is trying to say is, “You got to understand, when you see God as a rewarder it should cause your heart to rejoice whether it be you or somebody else. You've got to start to value mercy — even more so than sacrifice. It's just so upside down. It's so bizarre when you put it into real life context. But that's what Jesus is trying to get them to do. “You’ve got to learn to store up and treasure and be singular in your focus and and really value the things that I value.”

And so when you see that situation, if our hearts were right, we would go, “Wow. Who is this master? What is this mercy? And how do I worship him, honor him? How do I get to know him? How do I get closer to him?” That's a bit of the shift that Jesus is wanting to do.

And in this last section, he talks about, "No one can serve two masters.” So it's kind of the same type of thing. You have to be singular in your worship. You can't actually worship God and mammon. If you start to value or treasure anything else on equal or greater than God, you've completely lost God.

Just recently, I was reading about, you know, the story of King David, who was a man after God's own heart, right? I mean, he basically was seeking exactly the way that we're seeking to know what moved God's heart. And yet at one point, David slipped. David messed up and he saw Bathsheba bathing on this rooftop. And there was something in his heart that begin to value that and to long for that, and he treasured that above his relationship with God.

And you know the story. That got him to where he was lying, he committed adultery, ended up murdering Bathsheba's husband and then taking Bathsheba as his wife. And when Nathan, the prophet, comes and busts him and basically says, “Look, God knows what you did and doesn't think it's that cool.” What he actually says is "You have despised the Lord. What God felt in that — it wasn't that, oh, you tried to love two things. You actually despised the Lord.”

And ultimately, whatJesus is trying to do is get us to value the things that the kingdom of heaven values. And ultimately there's nothing more valuable than God. He is the treasure. He is the reward.

This is what John Piper says about this passage. He says:

“You have a good eye if you look on heaven and love to maximize the reward of God's fellowship there. You have a good eye if you look at Master-money and Master-God and see Master-God as infinitely more valuable.”

This is really tough for us Americans.

In other words, a “good eye” is a valuing eye, a discerning eye, treasuring eye. It doesn't just see the facts about money and God. It doesn't just perceive what is true and false. It sees beauty and ugliness, it senses value and worthlessness, it discerns what is really desirable and what is undesirable. The seeing of the good eye is not neutral when it sees God. It sees God-as-beautiful and it sees God-as-desirable.

It's a singular focus. Not wanting what God can do for us — wanting God. Treasuring him, and as we do these things that that are done in secret, as we mentioned, as we store up this treasure in heaven, there's something that happens in our heart. As we as we discern things well and correctly in our singular, our focus, it does things to our soul. All these intense inner parts of us are stimulated and stirred in interesting ways.

And I think this leads us to a little fuller understanding of rewards and the scriptures. We have the story of the wood, hay and stubble, which a lot of us have heard about where Paul is trying to teach that believers, those who are believing in Christ, when we go and stand before God, we don't stand in judgment whether we're going to heaven or hell. We already have that assurance because we gave our life to Jesus. He bled on the cross for us, and he's put his Spirit inside us as a guarantee. So we have complete assurance that when we breathe our last, we are going to be with Jesus.

But we also will go through a judgment as believers. And it's not, again, heaven or hell. It's more what did we do that matters — and what did we do that doesn't matter. And the way Paul describes it is that we pass through a fire and whatever we did that was economy of heaven that was pleasing to God will become these precious metals that are not burnt by the fire. And whatever we did that was for critical, whatever we did that we did not honor, please God in the way that Jesus taught, it will become wood, hay and stubble, and it will just be consumed.

And it's hilarious, actually, if you read through it. Basically Paul kind of describes like, we're all going to pass through that and some of you are going to come through and there's going to be a lot of smoke on you. There's not going to be a lot of meat left on the bones after you get through, because you've been living like a hypocrite. And basically it's like you're going to come through and you're going to be like, “Yeah, I made it! Woohoo!” And all of us are going to be looking at you, like, Where’s all that smoke coming from, man? Well, you got to stop, drop and roll quick! You’re burning!”

And another way that it's described in the New Testament — and Paul alludes to this and it's picked up in Revelation and is having to do with crowns. So Paul is basically sharing with Timothy and Second Timothy four that he's come to the end of his life, he's been poured out, he's fought the good fight, he knows his time is coming to depart from this life and enter into the next life. And what he says is, “Timothy, I want you to know that there is stored up for me a crown of righteousness for all the all the things that I have done, all the times I've valued Christ above everything else. It's now created for me a crown of righteousness for when I get to heaven.”

And then later, it's picked up in Revelation, where we see this vision of heaven and all these angelic beings. And there's these elders and they have these crowns. And at some point in this worship service, they take these crowns and they go lay them at the feet of Jesus.

Again, this is a little strange for us, because, you know, my daughters were into the crowns for a little bit when they were younger, but I've never been in the crowns. I've never been like, “Dude, I want a crown so bad!”

But think of it more like, you know, the Olympics right now. So if you were to ask Michael Phelps when he was twelve years old, like, “Hey, man, could I get you a necklace with a cool, big, old medallion on it?”

He'd have been like, “No, weirdo, go away!” But then in the nature of that context, now that he's standing in the Olympic Village, and as he's, you know, gathered and the whole world is watching, you know, when they go and they put that necklace on him with a big old medallion, and it's like he really, really wants that. And when we get to heaven, when they start passing out crowns, we're going to care very, very much about the crowns.

You can also think about the NBA or the NFL. You know, like if you ask these big strong guys like, “Hey, man, you know, I got you this ring..” It’s "Get away from me, weirdo!” But like after they win the Super Bowl, after they win the finals — or not— you know, then they get the ring. And that really means a lot. They're really into rings, even though they've never been into rings their whole life. They're really into rings.

And I know I shouldn't have left the Suns. I should have stayed. I mean, I watched and I did my best to not jinx them and stuff, but I just should have stayed and they could have probably got that game four. And then they would’ve been … anyway.

But like those rings mean something in that moment. And when we get to heaven, what Paul is trying to help Timothy understand is that when we get there, these crowns are going to mean a lot. These are the rewards, so to speak. This is the treasure that we're storing up in heaven, these crowns of righteousness.

And again, that's a kingdom of heaven principle. A nd we want to take kingdom of earth perspective and think, you know, we want big, old mansions and we sing songs about how big our mansion is going to be, maybe. And then we're looking at everyone else and, “Look at your stupid mansion.”

But that's kingdom of earth perspective on a kingdom of heaven principle. And that's not right, because this is what's going to happen when we get those, when we stand in that line and they start giving out those crowns of righteousness. And some of us just barely made it through the fire. And ours is like kind of that crown that's made from the weeds, you know, that you just pick out of the out of the field and just kind of wrap them up and you put it on. Some of us are going to be like, “What's up? We've got a crown. I mean, like I got a crown.” And then when it's time to lay that before Jesus, we're going to understand we're giving him everything we have. But it's less than what we know could have happened. And maybe that's the point at where we start to weep and Jesus wipes the tears from our eyes. But there's going to be that moment where we're going to lay down at Jesus' feet our crown.

And some of us, you know, might have liked that pope, you know, like that pope thing is super tall and it's just like bling all around, all the way up, even in the back, maybe on the inside, too, where nobody could see, but you and Jesus like, “Jesus, just check it, bam.” You know, doing it in secret. Doing it in secret. But it's just like all blinged out. And then you're going to be able to lay that before Jesus. And again, it's not going to be a comparison thing where you're going to be like, “Dude, I'm so much better than them.” You're just going to be so glad that you get to lay this thing down before your King. And what it's going to mean between you as you lay down.

So the storing up treasure in heaven is, again, it's not an earthly thing where you're trying to stock up and become some baller. It's again, even the rewards that we're storing up in heaven ultimately lead back to more worship, and more value, and more treasuring, and more singular focus on who Jesus is.

And so Jesus is saying, “You want to get that right now, you want to figure that out now. And begin to have worship, purity now and singular focus now. And then in that day, it's going to matter so much.”

And just in case, it's still not making sense. When I got married in 2004 to my wife, Brittany, I remember about our one-year anniversary. I was looking at her and I told her I loved her and I said, “I love you.” And, for whatever reason, I remember saying it and maybe it was the look on her face or maybe it was how cheesy I can be sometimes or what, but I just in my mind, I was like saying, I love you with one year of emphasis behind it. It just felt so weak. It felt like I barely even got it out. And part of that was because, you know, I knew other people who have been married for a long time. I mean, I just you know, I know people in our church have been married sixty-five plus years. I know my grandparents are married sixty-five plus years. And I'm like, you know, I got this like one year, you know, nothing thing.

But I also know that, you know, Brittany's dad said, “I love you” to his wife and his kids for twenty-two years and then left. And so in my wife's heart and mind, so to speak, until I get to year twenty-three, my “I love you” doesn't even fill the hole.

You with me? Now, it's not totally true, and the grace of God changes things, and ultimately she needs God, not me, all of those things, but in our relationship, my “I love you,” it's only got sixteen years of weight behind it. And I'm excited about that because the hole is smaller. And I'm longing for the day when I get to say, “I love you” on year twenty-three, and to see what that feels like for her. But ultimately, I've told her this many times before, I can't wait to be married for fifty years and be like, “Oh, I love you." Like the weight of saying “I love you” at that point, all the, you know, the times where I've treasured her above everything else, all the times of kindness, all the times we've had to turn the corner, because our hearts were really hurting, all the times where she's forgiven me and I've forgiven her. I long for that end. And just, so you know, I'm saying fifty is kind of like a goal, but I'll keep going after that point. Is not like 50 — it's over — did my job. See you. You know, like, I’ll keep going.

But just the weight of that phrase, with all that backing is going to be very different. And I think that's what we're cultivating with our relationship with God. That ultimately the rewards we're after are not something God can give us if we're seeking God for what he can give us, we're losing from the very beginning. We're not hearing the words of Jesus. We're treasuring what he can give more than who he is, and really the goal of our entire lives is is to be intimate with God. It's to say, “Daddy.” It's to know and be able to receive the fullness of his love for us.

As Paul puts it one place, “I count everything as crap compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ.” He is the prize, he's the treasurer, he's the reward, and really, ultimately, the greatest reward we can receive in this life is a greater intimacy with him. And so that's why the rewards are so important, because they're going to represent a deeper intimacy with him. They're going to represent that “I love you” that has so much more effort behind it.

And and I'm sorry if this message is not helping you. I'm sorry if you know you're having trouble getting this, but this really is the gospel. Everything else, somebody's selling you something. The chief end of mankind is to know God and enjoy him forever.

So every joy, every pain in your life, ultimately, is God allowing it so that you will be closer to him. And if you can't see that, you're not a Christian and you're not practicing Christianity. You're practicing some form of Christianity that has no real heart behind it.

And we have to continually try and get pure in heart so we can see God. We have to continue to try and look at at our worship and see if we're really trying to value two things, or if we're really just being singular in our valuing of who God is. And we have to remember that the reward that we really long for, the reward that God really wants to give, the best thing we can get is to be able to have a greater intimacy with God in this life and the next. That is to the end for which you are made, why you have a beat in your heart, breath in your lungs and a mind that can know, it's for him.

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David Stockton 4/11/21 David Stockton 4/11/21

The Beatitudes

This is part of our year-long commitment and lifelong commitment to really try and get a vision for the righteousness of God. Last year, and all of our lives, but last year became very, very prominent that…

Series: The Sermon on the Mount

April 11, 2021 - David Stockton

This is part of our year-long commitment and lifelong commitment to really try and get a vision for the righteousness of God. Last year, and all of our lives, but last year became very, very prominent that there were a lot of different visions about what is righteousness that will produce justice. They were coming from left sides, right sides, top sides, down sides. There are all these different basic gospels — in a lot of ways — these ideologies that were being presented and claiming to have Christ on their side.

So we heard all of that. So we committed the first of this year. We fasted for twenty-one days to say, “God, we want to have a vision for righteousness that comes straight from you. And we want to have a hunger for it.” Because we know that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled. So we want to have a hunger for it. So we’ve stayed hungry. We’re still hungry. And we’re really trying to figure out what God’s view of righteousness in our day and age is. So that’s why we’re going to the Sermon on the Mount.

As we’re unpacking this, and as you’re dealing with this in your own relationships — I mean, I know of a marriage that, basically one of the spouses said, “If you don’t come to my point of view on this ideology, our marriage is over.” We have people in the church that have left us because they cannot track with us and stay in the same direction that we’re headed as far as what we’re teaching coming from the scriptures.

You guys are dealing with this in your own families, your own communities. This is everywhere and there’s lots of division, there’s lots of challenge, there’s lots of confusion. So one of the things we’re going to do is just say, “Hey, Jesus, we just want to hear from you. Nothing else will do. Nothing else will do.”

It’s so sweet to trust in Jesus and take him at his word. And it’s very hard to do these days. But that song will always be true. It is so sweet to just say, “Okay, Jesus, what’s going on inside me is killing me. What’s going on around me is killing me. But I’m just going to sit here and take you at your word.”

So that’s what we’re going to try and do. We’re going to try to put ourself in that space going into the Sermon on the Mount. I need to give us as a church a couple of tools that have been very helpful for me. I’m hoping they’ll be helpful for you as you process your own concept of the righteousness of God, but also as you interact with others who are doing that as well.

The first one is Weslyan quadrilateral. You’ve heard me mention it before. If you’ve been through our Explore class I bring out there too. But I think this is very, very important. This is not super ancient. This is John Wesley, so it’s not that long ago. But I love what he did. Most of the theologians that came before him said, “Scripture, tradition and reason,” but he actually added “experience” and I think that’s important for us today.

The way that this goes down is super important. As you’re trying to figure out what truth is, what is important, what is valuable, what is good, what is right, all of those things. This is the way that Wesley said you come to it. You start with the scripture. The scripture is at the bottom, but it’s at the bottom because that’s the foundation. That is the starting point. Anything you think or feel or anything that comes to you, you first apply the scripture to it and see if it jives or not. Scripture is the foundation. That has got to be the beginning. Because there are lots of ideas. I mean, basically, we’ve had six thousand years of recorded human thought. Right? For six thousand years people have been writing down, “I think this.” And it’s led to a lot of different religions, a lot of different philosophies, a lot of different ideas.

So how can we say that we stand in the truth? First of all, we have the Spirit of God. God didn’t leave it up to us to figure out, but he sent his Spirit to guide us into all truth. But second he’s given us all these type of things to help us process this stuff out.

So you’ve got scripture, first and foremost. And in this church, you’ve heard it over and over again, we’re going to be about scripture. The Old Testament. The New Testament. The life of Jesus. The words of Jesus. The best thing you can do if you’re really trying to figure out what you should fight for or not fight for, maybe more importantly, is start with the words of Jesus, see how it’s unpacked by the epistles and the rest of the New Testament, and then look for concrete pictures that basically teach it in the Old Testament as well. It’s a good way to use the scriptures.

So first of all scriptures. But then we have tradition. So if it passes the scripture test, then you go to the tradition test. The tradition test is basically, we don’t like that word tradition because we’re Americans and we got rid of the British. Sorry if you’re British. But we don’t like tradition. But tradition, think of it more in the sense of the community. Basically we have a community of faith right here, Living Streams Church. But we’re just one tiny, little dot in the grand community of Christ.

So, first of all, we have to start with the community. We have to be able to test all of these ideas with the community that God has placed us in. Not only that, but we have to add to it the community that has come before us. Historic Christianity is so important. We are not the first people to ever face these things. The questions that you have in your heart, there have been so many Christians that have had those questions way before you. Some of them have done some really good work in helping us know what we should do when we face these things.

So that’s the next phase. So scripture first and foremost. It passes that test, then it’s got to go through the historic Christianity perspective and your own community perspective. After that, then you go to reason. God gave you a brain. He gave us sociology. He gave us science. He gave us psychology. These studies that help us understand what is good and right and what isn’t at all.

Like I said in my weekly email, I’m praying that right now, just like the sexual revolution of the sixties, where everyone thought it’s really important to get sex outside of that tiny, narrow space of marriage and let sex be enjoyed by everybody, even if they’re not married — that right there. Sociology, psychology. If you apply those reasonable sciences to that decision and what happened in America, you can see the results of those things. STD’s. Abortion. Adoption. Foster care. You can look at the sciences and you can see the result of some of these things.

I’ve been praying that, just like that sexual revolution created this great Jesus Movement in the 70’s — I’m praying that whatever we’re going through in this sexual confusion of today will give rise to a beautiful Jesus Movement, as well, and that the Church will do really, really well in this time. She’ll be beautiful. She’ll be redemptive. She’ll be kind. And she’ll be faithful. We’ll get to see some really cool things happen. I think we already seeing some of the stuff, by the way. There’s a hunger for the righteousness in God, which is awesome.

Then the last one is experience. It’s at the top, but that doesn’t mean it’s the most important. It’s the smallest one. And yet, Wesley was willing to add experience. The theologians before him were like, “Forget about experience. People are crazy. You can’t add experience because then they’ll get all crazy and get Joseph Smith and things like that.”

But at the same time, he was saying, “But, I don’t think we can just pretend like we don’t have experiences.” So he added experience. And I think it’s a very important thing. But again, we have to remember that it’s the smallest and it’s the last.

Now experience can lead us to the scriptures and to tradition and all those things. But we have to put experience in its place. What our culture is trying to tell us today is that experience is the foundation. Our thoughts and our feelings are the way to truth. Cold Play said it best, “Science and progress do not speak as loud as my heart.” That is the cry of the post-modern, post-Christian, progressive-Christianity. I’m not saying progressive in the sense of politics. I’m saying in the sense of theology. I really feel like they’re making experience way too important to the understanding of truth. I don’t think we should get rid of experience. I think it’s valid and important, but it has to be submitted to those other things.

So that’s a little bit of what we’re applying as we go through this. The second thing is something I learned in theology by Irv Bredlinger, who was my theology professor in Bible school. This was interesting. I’m actually supposed to draw two of these circles, I realized after first service. So you’re going to have to do a little extra work.

Basically, he drew one circle where the thought quadrant, the opinions quadrant, the beliefs quadrant and the dogma quadrant were all giant circles. There was very thin space between all of them. He said this is an immature Christian. This is someone whose dogma is so big, everything they’ve ever believed is so important they’ve got to fight everybody about it. We’ve all probably been through phases like this, where we’re willing to fight about anything and everything instead of understanding that some of what we’re calling dogma — core beliefs —should actually be a little bit more in the thought and feeling realm; or maybe the opinion realm, or maybe the belief realm, but not necessarily things we should be telling our spouse, “It’s over between us.”

There’s a challenge, there’s a maturing that needs to happen where we begin to understand what we should fight about and what we shouldn’t fight about. That’s an important maturing process, as Christians, that we’re going through. It feels a lot like deconstruction. It feels a lot like you’re losing your faith; but you might actually just be losing some stuff that you think was belief, but it was really just more opinion.

So I think it’s important we go through that process. And you don’t have the choice, those of you who are going through this in your family dynamic. You are going through this process, and trying to figure out where are the lines that I need to fight and avoid, and where are the lines that I can continue to live with? And I think it’s important for us to do this as Christians. Jesus never said it would be easy for us to walk this out. That’s a little heady stuff for you.

Last year, more than ever, many of our thoughts, feelings and political opinions became religious beliefs and dogmas. We’re continuing to see friends, families, marriages and church communities going through painful divisions because of humanistic and demonic ideas claiming to have the high moral ground. I’m not saying there’s no right and wrong. I’m not saying there are not things we should divide over. But I do think we need to make very sure we are diligently working to have Jesus’ vision for righteousness, not a man-made or devil-made ideology.

Anybody with me? Paul the Apostle, who wrote long ago, not in America, but somehow knows exactly what we’re thinking, said this to his young mentoree in 2 Timothy 4:2-5:

Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come…

He could have said “in 2021,” but he said:

…when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

So is the Bible outdated and irrelevant, or does that seem to really resonate and hit home? I need some encouragement this morning. You think this is easy? I am so alone up here! Where is everybody at? Nobody. You’re all there. Come on. Let’s do this together. Or, if you’re like, “No! That doesn’t sound right,” say that! I’m totally fine with that. I mean, maybe. We’ll see. But no. I want to hear from you guys, for sure. This is important stuff.

With that being said, with all the swirling winds of ideologies around us, we as a church fasted and prayed, committed ourselves to seek first Jesus’ kingdom and his righteousness. We believe Jesus’ way is the way to produce true justice and the greatest freedom and flourishing in this life. So we turn our attention for the next few months to the Sermon on the Mount.

In this sermon Jesus is creating distinction between his way and the religious ideologies of his day. Did you hear that? As you read this, Jesus is intentionally saying, “You have heard it said…but I say.” He’s creating distinction between the way of Jesus and all the other political and religious ideologies of his day. And that’s what we’re trying to do. That’s what we want to do. That’s what we have the Spirit of God helping us to do as we go through this.

This is Jesus’ manifesto — his public declaration of the motives, values and intentions of his kingdom. These are awesome, awesome words. Super awesome. As we go into this, there are a few things that have been helpful to keep in mind. I know I’m unpacking a lot of things right here, but I’m kind of front-loading this because I’m going to borrow a lot of this stuff as we go further into this sermon. I think it’s really important, before we jump in, to get some framework for this.

Tim Keller gives good framework when he says, when you think of the way of Jesus as opposed to all the other ways or gospels or whatever views of righteousness, he said you’ve got to think of it as the inside out kingdom and the upside down kingdom. As Americans we have a very consumeristic, individualistic, success-oriented economy. We really look at the external. How do they dress? How do they look? What car do they drive? What house do they live in? Are they beautiful or not beautiful? And we esteem and give credit to so many external things. And we really value those things.

What Jesus is trying to put forth, according to Tim Keller, is that Jesus’ kingdom is much more inside out than outside in. So Jesus really is more interested in what’s happening inside your soul than what’s coming out, if that makes sense.

Then the upside down kingdom. We look at people at the top of their game, so to speak, the top of their industry, so to speak, the top of all of these things. We look at them and think, “Wow, they are blessed! God has been good to them. Wow. They should be able to speak into our lives and speak into our culture. We should learn from them.”

But Jesus has an upside down kingdom. Whereas you read, you just continually hear that. No, those people, that’s fine. He doesn’t have a problem with them. But the real goal, the real beauty are those who are down and out, those who society just kind of passes right over and you might not even notice at all. Those are the ones that God is paying attention to. Those are the ones that will have the best perspective on the kingdom of heaven. That’s wild stuff right there.

That’s why a lot of you, when you go on a missions trip to a foreign place and you see people who are extremely poor and yet they have so much joy, you go, “Whoa! I’ve got some thinking to do.” Yeah. Right. It’s proof of what Jesus is trying to teach in the Sermon on the Mount. So I love that.

Anytime you’re like, “This is is so…I don’t get it.” Inside out. Upside down. Everybody say it. It’s because you’re going to get hit with stuff and you’re going to be like, “Ugh! What?” Inside out. Upside down. Thank you, Tim Keller.

There’s a guy named Jonathan Pennington who has spent like five years just trying to unpack and understand how to interpret the Beatitudes. And he had the audacity, as I’m trying to do this, he had the audacity to say to me (through a podcast), “After all my efforts, I don’t feel like I’ve ever found anything that really does it.” I was like, “You jerk. How am I supposed to feel good about what I’m doing?” Five years. And these guys are brilliant. Anyway, it always gives me a little hope, because if he can’t get it right, maybe I’ll get it right just by chance, you know?

But anyway, he says that the way of Jesus, as you go through the Sermon on the Mount, the way of Jesus looks a lot like a cross. That’s basically what he said. He said the way of Jesus is very low and very cross-shaped. So when you’re facing a decision or facing like, “I don’t know what is right or what is true. Jesus, what’s your way in all of this?” Whatever looks the lowest and the most like a cross, that’s probably the way of Jesus.

It is true. That’s basically what Jesus was teaching. So inside out. Upside down. Low. And like a cross. Those are going to be helpful things for us. And lastly, Jesus finishes the Sermon on the Mount with three analogies that I think are important as we go back to try and unpack. The three analogies are the small gate and narrow road versus the broad way to destruction. So the way of Jesus is small and narrow and few that find it, as opposed to the not way of Jesus is broad. It’s basically like anything you want to do. There are lots of options. There isn’t even a gate. It’s just like, zoom, go for it. But the way of Jesus is small and narrow and few find it. So you have that analogy.

You also have the prophet and the false prophet. The prophets both look like fruitful trees. They both bear fruit. But the false prophet’s fruit is bad. And the good prophet’s fruit is good. Again, we talked about how it takes time. There’s nothing instantaneous in this. There are counterfeits. It’s tricky. The way of Jesus — how do you know? It actually produces freedom and human flourishing — in time. It produces the peaceable fruit of righteousness. So that’s how we can judge between which way is true. Whatever the fruit that is produced from those things.

The last thing is, one is the rock and one is the sand. Right?

The wise man builds his house on the rock — that which has withstood the test of time. It doesn’t matter what the wind does. It doesn’t matter what the waves do. It doesn’t matter what the tide brings in. It’s solid. That’s where you build your house.

Whereas, you have the sand — which is this picture of here today, gone tomorrow. It’s whatever the tide brings in. It’s whatever’s new. It’s whatever’s temporary. It’s whatever fad there might be. If you build your house on those type of things, you’re going to get washed away.

So these are the analogies. These are the pictures we have from Jesus and from some others, to help us now as we get into this to understand and not get lost as we go to the Sermon on the Mounts. Matthew 5:1:

Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them.

He’s teaching. It’s a sermon.

He said:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
    for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek,
    for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
    for they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful,
    for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
    for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
    for they will be called children of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

And if you’ll do me a favor, I’m going to read you the very last verse after the Sermon on the Mount is concluded. Matthew 7:28:

28 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29 because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.

So here we have very famous text, very famous passage. It’s very sermon-like. It has a rhythm to it. It’s almost poetic the way it rolls out. Jesus is on the mountainside, so you got to think maybe, like, hippies out there. Kind of out in the country. Small town. You’ve got to think not a lot of education in these people that he’s teaching. There’s nothing about it that is that special except that Jesus has been going around Galilee, this little sea in Israel. And he’s been going around from village to village, small village to small village. He would show up there and he would do some ministry. He would talk to some people and find out what they were struggling with. He would minister truth. He would minister the power of the Spirit. He would bring some healings to them. Then he would proclaim to them that the kingdom of God has come. It is here. That God is for them. These people were so amazed by all he was doing, that every once in a while when Jesus would go out, whole crowds would gather around to see what he would do and hear what he would say.

In this one instance, he sits on the side of a hill. He’s already gathered disciples. He’s got disciples. At this point it is tricky. It could be twelve, but it’s probably more than that; because it was later on in another teaching that Jesus did, where his whole congregation got whittled down to twelve because it was very hard what he was teaching. But here in this moment, there’s probably a lot more than just twelve disciples — people were saying, “We want to be with Jesus.” And then there’s the crowds that are gathering, looking for a miracle or something. And he sits down and he starts to teach these people.

Now these people are not American. Right? Track with me here. I’m not trying to be racist or anything like this. I’m trying to give us context. These people are not American. They didn’t grow up with the internet. They’re not white. They’re not black. Could be a little sprinkling in there. Who knows? But they are jewish. And they are small-town. They are uneducated. They don’t have a lot going for them. They’re barely scraping to get by. They are deep, deep under Roman domination, even in their home town. They can’t do anything without Rome really telling them what to do. The taxes are brutal — to where they can never really gain any ground.

Not only that, but they are deep, deep under religious, kind of hierarchical oppression. The religious leaders of that day have convinced everybody of what is good and right and true. And it looks a lot like a Pharisee. And anyone who doesn’t look a lot like a Pharisee is worthless and wrong and God doesn’t really love them. So they’re wrestling with that. And these guys are also at the bottom of whatever kind of caste system was there, these men and women out there on the side of a hill listening to a rabbi that was kind of a wanna-be at this point. Yet, as he speaks to them, he speaks in such a peculiar way, such a simple way, but such a different way, that, when they heard his words, they were amazed.

As we read through this sermon, it’s going to be interesting. Because we’re going to read through this sermon and there are times when it’s just like, What? That’s too heavy. That’s too narrow. There’s no way. What? Jesus? Come on! It’s going to be rough. But we’ve got to remember to hear it the way they heard it. When they heard it, their response was, “This is awesome! This is awesome!” Not only that, but they’re like, “This sounds so different from what I’ve heard all my life from the religious leaders. This feels like it has authority to it. This feels like it has substance to it. This sounds like something I can trust in.”

So, as we read through this, no matter what, we’re going to hit some passages and you’re going to be like, “Oh, no! What? Brutal.” Even when you just hear the words, “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” the truth is, as Americans, we think of times maybe that we were poor in spirit, but I think it’s not natural for us to think Jesus is talking to us. Whereas, the people he’s talking to in that day, when he said, “poor in spirit,” they were like, “Oh, he’s talking about me? He’s calling me blessed?” That’s what they did. That’s how it hit them. And they were so encouraged by it. So we’ve got to keep that frame of reference as we go through this, to let the Sermon on the Mount create that in us.

The second thing we’ve got to remember is you go through here just like Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for this is coming your way. Blessed are those who mourn, because this is coming your way.” He keeps reminding them that, if they will diligently do the way of Jesus, it will produce really great things. There will be rewards. Jesus is not afraid to use the word reward. He actually says it. He says, “When they do all kinds of evil against you because of me, rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven.”

So as you go through the sermon, you’re going to see the juxtaposition of the now life and the next life. Jesus is not afraid to say that a lot of the things that you do today are going to affect your reality in heaven. There’s lots of verses here to back this up. He says, “Rejoice and be glad. Great is your reward in heaven.” He talks about, “If you do this, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.” “Truly, I tell you they have received their reward in full.” They’ve received their reward in this life, which means they’re going to get anything in the next life. “Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” “Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full in this life.” They’re not getting what’s next. “He sees what is done in secret will reward you.” “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven.” There’s a whole big, long part of the sermon where Jesus is talking about storing up treasures in heaven where moth and rust can’t get to it.

The next life vs. now life is a consistent theme in here. I think it’s important for us to understand that, for Jesus, the priority was the next life. It says about Jesus that it was for the joy set before him that he endured the cross. So everything you endure, everything you go through now that is challenging or hard, actually is an opportunity to invest in the next life.

There’s this guy, Francis Chan, he’s a great preacher and he actually has a long rope. I don’t have a long rope so you’ve just got to think about the long rope in my hand here. It’s a huge rope that goes from that wall all the way to that wall. You know, and I can fling it. You see it? He had a rope. I can’t figure out how to get a long rope. But basically like a long tug-of-war rope. He was trying to express to everybody like eternity is this rope but forever. So God is eternal. Right? God has no beginning so you can go back as far as you want with this rope this way and you’ll never get to the beginning of God. And God has no end, so you can go as far you want that way and you’ll never get to the end of God.

But he said, for us, even though sometimes in songs we use the word eternity about us — we’re not eternal. We’re not eternal because you can go back to our beginning. Right? We had a beginning. Now, we are everlasting. We have no end. And that is true. But what Francis Chan was trying to illustrate — he took a Sharpie and drew a black line on the rope. He was like, “See this? This is your now life. See this? That’s your next life.” And this is why Jesus says, “Why would you sell your soul to gain something in the now life and lose it for the next life?”

Or in the sermon he says, “Why would you keep your eyes if they’re causing you to stumble? Instead, cut out your eye in this life so that in the next life you’ll make it and you’ll have all you need.”

He’s talking about the now life or the next life. This is a little weird for us especially because there’s like crypto-currency out there right now! Right? It’s like investment time is good right now. And Jesus is not saying, “You shouldn’t invest and be wise in this life.” But he was saying, “You’ve got to make sure that you are investing in the next life, more so. More time, attention, resource, energy be given to the investment in the next life than in this life. Otherwise, you are a fool building your house on the sand. Otherwise, you are a false prophet that are going to wish you had some good fruit in the next life, but you’re not going to have any. Otherwise, you’re going to find yourself on a broad way leading to destruction, instead of the narrow way.

We’ve got to figure out the now life vs. the next life concept. This is going to come up a bunch in the Sermon on the Mount. This is a motivation and Jesus isn’t afraid to say it. Now I’m not saying the kingdom of heaven hasn’t come and isn’t in this life. We do get appetizers in this life. But the real meal is coming. And Jesus said that that’s really important that you think about investing and preparing for that.

That also was makes the Beatitudes so true and right and good, if we can see them from that perspective. Because Jesus is not lying or just trying to make people who are poor in spirit feel better. He’s really trying to understand that, when you’re poor in spirit, when you’re broken down, when you feel alone and you feel isolated, and you feel like God is so far from you, in those moments you have such an opportunity to gain something that’s everlasting. That’s why you’re blessed.

It’s not because Christianity is some sort of masichistic, weird thing, like, “Oh yeah, look, I’m bleeding. Isn’t that awesome?” No. Jesus is trying to say that, really, you’ve got to see these things differently. You are blessed with an opportunity to invest in what’s next, to receive the kingdom. To see God. To receive the comfort of God. To receive the reward he has for you. You are so blessed when you’re in those moments, because God’s attention is on you. God’s focus is on you. God’s presence is so near to the broken-hearted.

That’s why you’re blessed. That’s why you’re flourishing in these moments. That’s why you’re standing in the right place when you’re standing with the poor in spirit, or when you’re poor in spirit yourself. Because, right there in that moment, the kingdom of heaven has never been closer.

Ultimately, when you read these Beatitudes, Jesus is just describing himself. Right? Jesus is declaring something that he knows and he believes and he walked out. Blessed am I when I am poor in spirit because he who knew no sin, he who is seated at the throne of God became sin and entered our world. He became poor in spirit because he knew that there was a blessing there. There was an opportunity to gain you and I forevermore. He became the person who mourned and wept. I mean Jesus is describing himself. Jesus is describing the way that he walked so that we could follow him in this way, in this upside down, inside out blessing that he offers to us.

Now, to finish, I rewrote the Beatitudes, even though Pennington told me that I shouldn’t. He didn’t say that. But I just felt like this was the way this was speaking to me. And I felt that this is the way the Beatitudes kind of speak to our moment in time. So I’m going to read through this. You can follow along and maybe one of these things will stand out to you. Maybe more than one. That’s fine. But here’s what I kind of feel like Jesus is trying to say to us today at Living Streams with the Beatitudes.

When you’re poor in spirit, rejoice with a quiet confidence because the kingdom of heaven is made up of people who know what it means to be poor in spirit.
When you’re in mourning (because of broken relationships, because of battles within, whatever you might be going through) rejoice with a quiet confidence because God is very near to the broken hearted, and he himself will make sure that you are comforted.
When you’re humble, rejoice with a quiet confidence, because it’s only a matter of time until you get to experience God lifting you up in this life.
When the injustice in the world causes you to feel desperate for righteousness, rejoice with a quiet confidence because God is going to make sure you have a front row seat when he rids the world of all wickedness and restores everything as if evil never existed.
When you see heartbreaking situations and are compelled to give mercy, rejoice with a quiet confidence, because God will be happy to show you mercy when you need it.
When you deny yourself and miss out on the things in this life, rejoice with a quiet confidence, because God’s way will be more clear to you because of your sacrifice.
When anger and hatred are escalating, but you choose to speak peacefully to defuse the situation, rejoice with a quiet confidence because God will claim you as his own forevermore.
When you do the right thing and it costs you friendships, comfort, finances, and even your health or safety, rejoice with a quiet confidence, because God is going to repay you tenfold with heavenly treasures which cannot spoil or depreciate.
When your love for Jesus causes you to lose out or be lied about, rejoice with a quiet confidence, because God is keeping track and will reward you just like he rewarded the prophets of old.

Let’s pray:

Jesus, we want to see things the way you do. We want to live into the kingdom. We want to invest in the kingdom. We want to establish your kingdom here. I thank you, Jesus, that you came and suffered so much and lost so much and denied yourself so much, so that you could show us the way.
And Lord, I pray that we would fall in love with you all over again, that we’d fall in love with your way, and that you really would use our lives, and even our pain and struggle to pave the way for others to know your love. Help us to be able to stand in this narrow way, to walk this narrow road and love those who are not.
I thank you for your Spirit that you promised to fill us with to empower us to walk in this way. I thank you for your blood which cleanses us each and every time we fall or fail. I really pray that we would be people that can find your way. And I pray that this would be a church that has so many rewards in heaven because of each and every sacrifice they make here. We really believe that you are a rewarder of those who diligently seek you, so help us keep seeking you.
I pray for those who are battling, Lord, those who are really mourning, poor in spirit, because of internal struggles or external struggles, Lord. I pray that you would really help them get to a place where they can just trust you and take you at your word, and you would hold them, Lord, and you would go with them and you’d lead them to life, Lord.
For those who have been away for a long time but know they need to come back right now, Lord, I pray that they would know that you are a Father who receives them with a robe and a ring, and they can come back any time. We love you, Jesus. We thank you for your word. Amen.

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