Contentment in a World that Never has Enough

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05 May 2024

Contentment in a World that Never has Enough

Passage Matthew 6:19-34

Speaker Chris Steynor

Service Evening

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Passage: Matthew 6:19-34

19 ‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

22 ‘The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. 23 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!

24 ‘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 Money.

25 ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

28 ‘And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you – you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

New International Version - UK (NIVUK)

Holy Bible, New International Version® Anglicized, NIV® Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Transcript (Auto-generated)

This transcript has been automatically generated, and therefore may not be 100% accurate.

Good evening, folks. Let's pray before we dive in. And so, Lord Jesus, we thank you that you came. And we thank you that you came, among so many other things, to be our teacher, to teach us what it means to live, and to teach us what it means to live for your kingdom in this world as we look ahead to the next. And, Lord, we pray that you would be speaking to our minds and our hearts this evening, that we might glorify you with our lives.

Amen. Amen. Evening, folks. If you're new here, my name's Chris. I'm one of the ministers.

And I'm so pleased that you've come to join us for worship this evening. We're in the middle of a series called distinctives dare to be different. It's very possible that you can come to church and be inspired by the story that is in the Bible and by the life of Jesus. And in fact, we hope that everyone will be inspired by the story that is in the Bible and the life of Jesus. It is very possible to come to church and enjoy doing the churchy things.

The singing, the listening, the chatting, the coffee, the serving. And indeed, we hope that everyone will come and enjoy doing the churchy things.

But what Jesus calls us to is to put our trust in the story. Not simply be inspired by it, not simply enjoy it, but to trust it. And Jesus call is to follow it. And the mark of those who follow the mark of those who trust is that if we think, actually this really is the story of the world, this is what reality is rooted in the story of scripture, then as we go out from this place, our lives will look different from those around us. And last week we looked at serving, and as Steve said, tonight we're looking at the topics of giving and contentment, and those two things go together.

Really, the summation of what Jesus is saying here is that the antidote to discontentment is giving. And that is completely counter intuitive, because we all think, like, if we're not content, we need to go and get more stuff or buy more stuff or find things. But Jesus says, no, the antidote to discontentment is giving. And we're going to look at what he says about that through this passage in Matthew six that Emily read for us. Proverbs tells us that actually there are unique traps or particular traps for rich and poor, for those with much money, for those with not very much.

So I don't know how you feel about money tonight, but this message is for everyone. But we can ask ourselves, if you're a Christian in the room tonight. If we compared the way that you have spent and used money over the last twelve months with someone else who isn't a Christian in similar circumstances, would your spending, would you're giving look any different? Would it look distinct? We're going to start by diving into a question that's posed by the passage.

The verses will come up, but I didn't use a font that's readable enough, sadly. So you may find it helpful to have the Bible on your phone, or a physical Bible as well. But we're going to start in Matthew, chapter six, verses 22 and 23, which you may have heard, where Jesus says 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? What is Jesus saying? Jesus is saying the way we see the world and the way we appreciate the world impacts what goes on inside, impacts our attitudes. And we don't need to be a Christian, we don't need really much extra christian theology to realise this. Just somebody that kind of brings this to life.

We're about to watch just a short little video clip. This is an american comedian on a late night chat show. He's called Adam CK and this is a little story. I was on an aeroplane and there was Internet, high speed Internet on the aeroplane. That's the newest thing that I know exists.

And I'm sitting on the plane and they go, open up your laptop, you can go on the Internet and it's fast and I'm watching YouTube clips. I'm in an aeroplane and then it breaks down and they apologise. The Internet's not working. The guy next to me goes, this is bull.

Like how quickly the world owes him something he knew existed only 10 seconds ago. Right, right. And on planes, flying is the worst one because people come back from flights and they tell you their story and it's like a horror story. It's. They act like their flight was like a cattle car in the forties in Germany.

That's how bad they make it sound, right? They're like, it was the worst day of my life. First of all, we didn't board for 20 minutes and then we get on the plane and they made us sit there on the Runway for 40 minutes. We had to sit there. Oh, really?

What happened next? Did you fly through the air? Incredibly, like a bird? Did you partake in the miracle of human flight. You non contributing zero that.

You got to fly. You're flying. It's amazing. You're flying. You're sitting in a chair in the sky.

Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's right now, Louie. But it doesn't. It doesn't go back a lot.

And it's really. You know, here's the thing. People, like, they say there's delays on flights. Delays, really. New York to California in 5 hours.

That used to take 30 years to do that. And a bunch of you would die on the way there and have a baby. You'd be at a whole different group of people by the time you got there.

A little message about contentment, right? Look at the world and be content. And I could, if I went into a school, I could give a very sort of safe, ecumenical kind of lesson on, you know, if you look at the world with gratitude, you'll have good mental health. Right. I could take those words and say that.

But when we look at the rest of this passage, what does Jesus want us to see? He says, the eye is the lamp of the body. Through what lens does he want us to see the world? The gospel story, the good news of scripture is written throughout the whole of it. He wants us to see creation.

He wants to understand the world that's fallen. He wants us to see the redemption. He wants to look at the future hope that we have in Christ. And so we're going to look at all of those things. Through the rest of this passage.

We're going to see four things. Firstly, Jesus wants to look at creation and consider where you find your freedom. He wants you to look at the broken world and consider where you set your hope. He wants you to look for God's kingdom and consider where you'll invest your purpose. He wants us to look at our hearts and consider where we lavish our worship.

And Jesus says, if you do those things, you will find the secret to contentment. So firstly, he wants us to look at creation and consider where we find our freedom. And Emily, read for us these verses, 25 to 27. Jesus says, I tell you, don't worry about your life, what you'll eat or drink or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothes?

Look at the birds of the air. Look around. They do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? And why do you worry about clothes?

See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labour or spin, yet I tell you that not even solomon in all his splendour, was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow, is thrown into the fire, will he not more clothe you, you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, what shall we eat? What shall we drink?

What shall we wear? For the pagans run after these things, and your heavenly father knows that you need them. What clothes? Us. Not simply physical clothes, but what is the things that make us from a nothing into a something that tells us we're not just nothing, we're something.

Jesus says the pagans run after these things. Paganism, encompassing a whole range of beliefs of people that don't believe in a creator God who's separate from our creation and in our day and age. It might include those who say that we're nothing but an accident. There is no intent or design about us. And in that worldview, you are nothing.

Unless you make yourself into a something. You're just an accident. And so what do pagans spend their money on? Clothing themselves. Not just in literal clothes, but in those things that give them dignity, that make them into someone that gives them that feeling.

And rich and poor do this in different ways. I've been struck on occasions when social workers have told me that the tragedies where they've gone into homes and parents will choose to buy games, consoles for their kids before they pay for food. And the reason they do that is because all of the other kids in the road or in the school all have these consoles, and not having one is a mark of shame. And they're buying the things that they don't really need and costing themselves the things that they do need in order to clothe themselves, in order to give themselves dignity, to make them feel that they are a somebody and not a nobody. How do wealthy people do this?

Well, let me count the ways. But I was considering, as I was writing this when I first came to Linfield, and maybe you had the first question, maybe you have this question as well. When I came to Linfield, I innocently asked James and Stewart, I think, and I just said, so is Linfield in Haywards Heath?

And I trod on something there, because apparently there'd been a whole campaign, there'd been a whole group of Linfielders going, do we really have to put Hayward's Heath in our address? Do we really? And you could imagine the retire. I assume they retired because they had the time to. To complain about this sort of.

Yes, I live at 55 Cressington Rise, Linfield, he would say, because Linfield is a place. Not everyone, but Linfield is a place where people come not just to live, but to clothe ourselves. And I can believe it because I live in the hollow estate. And if you don't know geography of Linfield, there's sort of Hayward's heath here and Linfield's up here, and the hollow estate's sort of the. The kind of dangly bit that no one actually thinks is in Linfield, but it is.

The catchment areas say it absolutely is. And if you live in the sort of extremities of Linfield, someone decided that you need extra reassurance that you are, in fact in Linfield. Because obviously, if you live near the pond or the common or the high street, you sort of walk out of your door and very soon the sort of Linfield enos is kind of wafting towards your soul, telling you that everything is okay, but I have to walk ten minutes to get that feeling. And so what they've done in our estate is they've given us green signs and it's great. So you've got William Allen Lane, you've got the rise to cops, you've got kiln Lane, you got the hollow.

All green. All green. But if one deigns to step across the border, white signs, so that I can come out and be reassured, I am, in fact, a Linfielder, right? It's a village people come to. Some come to dress themselves.

I'm not judging. I'm here as well. Right.

Jesus encourages us to look at creation and consider where you find your freedom. You are a created being. And Jesus says, that already makes you a somebody. And Jesus actually says this even before we consider the love of God poured out in Jesus Christ in the gospel story, even before we even consider that human beings are made in God's image, he says, even if you line yourselves up with the rest of creation, look at how God clothes his creation and then consider how much more valuable you are than they. They don't labour or clothe themselves.

Your actual needs will be taken care of. But if you use your money to clothe yourself with things you don't need, you will not be generous. The doctrine of creation frees us in our souls. To be generous. Look at creation, consider where you find your freedom, look at the broken world and consider where you set your hope.

Jesus says, 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 treasure in heaven, where moth and vermin do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. That first verse, verse 19, it kind of resonates with another scripture later on, where Paul says in Timothy, he says, we brought nothing into this world and we can take nothing out of it. That if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. And this sentence and these sentences, they're not uniquely sort of religious. They ought to be obvious things, right?

You don't need the Bible to tell you that one day you're not going to be able to take things with you. That actually, we live in a world of decay. So why do we need to be told? We need to be told because affluence shields us from that reality. Affluence shields us from that reality.

As I was writing this sermon, we're basing this series on a book by Vaughan Roberts. And the title that we've got contentment in a world that never has enough. That's from the book. But as I was reading it, I was reading the theology is all absolutely relevant, but the direction for which he's coming from is almost alien because that book was written in the year 2000. And how much has changed in the year 2000?

It was the year before 911, it was before the crash of 2008. It was before the pandemic. It was before the wars. It was before the energy crisis. It was before we even had something called a cost of living crisis.

And in that book, in this chapter, he's saying, the world tells us that we need to accumulate. And I'm just very aware nowadays I'm speaking to most young people in an era where actually the price of salaries or the price of houses versus salaries is three times what it was. And they're going, I didn't even realise accumulating was a possibility. I didn't even realise accumulating was a possibility. And so things have totally changed.

But as I was mulling this over, there was a post this week, Pete Gregg. He posted a quote from a Times article by James Marriott. He's an atheist, an economist, and he was surprised that his local church was full of worshipers and young worshippers on a Sunday. And his reflection was this. He said, faith in God is enjoying a resurgence in a sign that our culture is less secular than we assume.

We may look back on the high point of secularism as a phenomenon peculiar to an age that hubristically believed itself to be at the end of history, an affluent self confidence and relatively monocultural society that now belongs to the past. I just wonder whether he's talking about the year 2000. That was probably the last year where our culture had that optimism. And he ends with, the world is not as secular as it seems. In a world where the upcoming generation is increasingly finding that actually the teaching of the world isn't satisfying.

The sexual revolution is increasingly failing us. The dream of prosperity and that optimism is no longer there. Here, perhaps here in this book of scripture, are the key, that there are things that are more important. We can be encouraged. But my point isn't that we should be encouraged because affluence is going down.

But my point is here, that where there is affluence, it shields us from the reality of sin and decay in the world. There ought to be absolutely obvious.

And therefore, the mark of someone who is truly trusting in that hope of heaven that Jesus offers is that the logic of where we spend our money has to change. If you forget the world is broken, you will make poor investments with your money. If you forget that the world is temporary, you will invest in things that will pass away.

Contentment and generosity depends on us looking at our broken world and considering where we set our hope. And so then we might ask, well, Jesus talks about storing up treasure in heaven. Well, therefore, where does Jesus want us to invest? Let's move on. Look for God's kingdom and consider where you'll invest your purpose.

And Jesus ends the passage with this. He says, seek first his kingdom, God's kingdom, and God's righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Jesus says, if you want to follow me, and if you want to find contentment and true security, point the compass of your life in a different direction, live for a different purpose. And what is this purpose that Jesus points towards? What's the greatest thing you can give your life to?

It's building the kingdom of God, which quite simply is anywhere where the rule and reign of God is present and being put into effect his righteousness. God's kingdom is the place where people are saying, God is right and I am not, and we are not. And we should pour our time, talents and money to extending the kingdom of God, because the Bible tells us this is the kingdom that will last forever. This is storing up treasures on earth. And so you ask, okay, but what does this actually look like?

If God is calling me to give x number of pounds, where does that money actually go? Is he going to say, is the guy in church who is paid by the church going to say to the church, yes, he is going to say to the church predominantly, you might ask, well, is it not best to give to aid agencies and to people who are in acute need? And the answer is, yeah, absolutely give to those things as well. But the focus of giving for the Christian is the church, whether it be your local church or churches worldwide. And here's why.

Because the local church is the only organisation in the world with a mandate to heal the world's greatest need, which is reconciliation. You cannot have prosperous communities and prosperous nations without right relationships, without reconciliation. Fragmented community or nation is never one that will prosper. It's obvious, for example, that if you have civil war or war with another country, then your community will not flourish. Perhaps it's slightly less obvious that if families break down, if marriages break down, then a nation is going to need a lot more housing.

And what happens when a nation needs a lot more housing? The house prices go up. What happens when the house prices go up? The divide between rich and poor increases.

Now, I don't have time to give a nuanced overview of the world's problems, but the Bible tells us, and christian agencies, aid agencies tell us this, that the world's problem starts with fractured relationships with God and each other. And they are healed by the gospel of Jesus Christ. That restores us, restores humanity to relationship with God and consequently to each other. And there is no other organisation in the world that has that mandate. And so by all means, give your money to acute needs where we see them.

We absolutely must be doing that. But as the church, we say we have the power to heal the underlying problems. The gospel. The gospel has the power to heal underlying problems. Seeking God, therefore, and following God makes good financial sense.

And that's why as christians, we primarily give to the church when we give, because the church is not simply there to give relief, but to bring healing to the underlying problem. So look for God's kingdom and consider where you'll invest your purpose. Finally, look at your heart and consider where you lavish your worship. At this stage you may be thinking, okay, so you told me that the key to discontentment, the antidote, is to give, that when we give, we need to give to God's kingdom. That that may be lots of things, but it's primarily the church.

And so really important question, how much money can I give to sort of, how much do I need to give to kind of get away with it? Tell me, give me the figure for the God tax. And I'm not going to do that because firstly, the New Testament doesn't. And secondly, if you start talking figures, it only drives us to evaluate our performance and either causes pride or devastation. Either you give a figure and you go, oh, that's easy done, or that's really hard, and it's going to be crushing Jesus.

In Matthew, chapter six, he doesn't give a number. He says, don't look at the maths, but look at your heart. It's the heart where giving starts. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 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 money. You cannot separate money and worship. Worship is a word that the Bible and the scripture uses to describe whatever that thing is that you supremely lavish your affections on above all else. And Jesus is much more concerned not about the number you're giving, but what is happening in your heart as you give it.

And actually, Paul says the same thing to a letter where he talks about giving to a church in Corinth. Actually, Steve read it out earlier, but he points the church not to a number. But he says, I'm not commanding you. I'm not going to give you a command, but I want to test the sincerity of your love for, you know, you know, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake, he became poor so that you, through his poverty, might become rich. How do we become rich?

We become rich by being drawn through Jesus Christ back into a relationship with God, and so being reconciled to one another through the life of the church. And in the light of this gospel, there can be no number. That is enough. The grace of Jesus. The grace of Jesus invites us to give out of that grace, out of that love, because God has given everything in Jesus Christ and his death on the cross to give us back to God.

And you might say, yeah, that's amazing. It's about grace. It's not about a number, but really, can you give me a little bit of a ballpark? Can you really give me a bit of a ballpark? And it's sometimes said that the Old Testament talks about giving, it talks about tithing, and 10% is the number banded around, and 10% is kind of a good place to start for your giving.

But here's a first test. Does the amount you're giving to the kingdom of God just hurt a little bit in any way?

A while back, we were discussing this topic with a number of the 18 plus group, and there were some for whom this was a relatively new teaching and it was being received well and just. Somebody said he went, oh, it's just at the point where you want to start building. It's just the point where you want to start building. And it may be there are some people in here tonight that actually giving anything at all is a little bit of hurt. And so if that's you just give a little bit and just exercise your heart in that way.

And if giving becomes very comfortable for you, give a little bit more. So it becomes just a little bit more uncomfortable where you kind of get, oh, I really could have a bigger holiday or update that rust bucket of a car I have or move them out of my home or buy the latest tech or whatever it is. Find that point where you go, because what you're doing is you're exercising the heart, because giving is the antidote to discontentment. And what you'll find if you keep doing this, your frustration will change. And your frustration is transformed from, oh, that hurts to, I'm just so frustrated I can't give more.

How can I earn more so that I can give more?

And when that is your biggest frustration, life, when that frustration eclipses all others, it's at that point where your heart is starting to fall in love with the kingdom of God and that future hope and that joy of reconciliation we have through Jesus Christ with God the father. And it's at that point that you'll realise, without realising, that you found true contentment. Let's pray.

Dear Lord Jesus, we stand before you as a people so blessed.

And Lord, we thank you that you long to lavish your people with good things. You long for prosperity for all people. That is your heart. You long for prosperity for all people. And that is why you have drawn us to yourself.

Lord God in the Lord Jesus.

And Lord, we want to pray that you would teach our hearts what it means to seek first the kingdom of God with our lives, with our hearts, with our wallets.

Lord Jesus, I want to pray that you would pour grace by your spirit on this issue. Lord God, there's no point in going away just giving out of guilt. Lord, but you want us to see you. You want our hearts to see you and to long for you. And Lord, so our first prayer is draw us to yourself once again.

We're always so aware that we buy things we don't need. We buy things because we want to clothe ourselves with those things that the world around us has.

But, Lord, we want to pray that your grace would free us and that you would draw us not only to yourself, but to one another and to those in our community around us who are broken and in need. Help us to do that for the extension of your kingdom as we look forward to that day. Where your glory will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. Amen.

19 ‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

22 ‘The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. 23 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!

24 ‘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 Money.

25 ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

28 ‘And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you – you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

New International Version – UK (NIVUK)

Holy Bible, New International Version® Anglicized, NIV® Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

This transcript has been automatically generated and therefore may not be 100% accurate

Good evening, folks. Let’s pray before we dive in. And so, Lord Jesus, we thank you that you came. And we thank you that you came, among so many other things, to be our teacher, to teach us what it means to live, and to teach us what it means to live for your kingdom in this world as we look ahead to the next. And, Lord, we pray that you would be speaking to our minds and our hearts this evening, that we might glorify you with our lives.

Amen. Amen. Evening, folks. If you’re new here, my name’s Chris. I’m one of the ministers.

And I’m so pleased that you’ve come to join us for worship this evening. We’re in the middle of a series called distinctives dare to be different. It’s very possible that you can come to church and be inspired by the story that is in the Bible and by the life of Jesus. And in fact, we hope that everyone will be inspired by the story that is in the Bible and the life of Jesus. It is very possible to come to church and enjoy doing the churchy things.

The singing, the listening, the chatting, the coffee, the serving. And indeed, we hope that everyone will come and enjoy doing the churchy things.

But what Jesus calls us to is to put our trust in the story. Not simply be inspired by it, not simply enjoy it, but to trust it. And Jesus call is to follow it. And the mark of those who follow the mark of those who trust is that if we think, actually this really is the story of the world, this is what reality is rooted in the story of scripture, then as we go out from this place, our lives will look different from those around us. And last week we looked at serving, and as Steve said, tonight we’re looking at the topics of giving and contentment, and those two things go together.

Really, the summation of what Jesus is saying here is that the antidote to discontentment is giving. And that is completely counter intuitive, because we all think, like, if we’re not content, we need to go and get more stuff or buy more stuff or find things. But Jesus says, no, the antidote to discontentment is giving. And we’re going to look at what he says about that through this passage in Matthew six that Emily read for us. Proverbs tells us that actually there are unique traps or particular traps for rich and poor, for those with much money, for those with not very much.

So I don’t know how you feel about money tonight, but this message is for everyone. But we can ask ourselves, if you’re a Christian in the room tonight. If we compared the way that you have spent and used money over the last twelve months with someone else who isn’t a Christian in similar circumstances, would your spending, would you’re giving look any different? Would it look distinct? We’re going to start by diving into a question that’s posed by the passage.

The verses will come up, but I didn’t use a font that’s readable enough, sadly. So you may find it helpful to have the Bible on your phone, or a physical Bible as well. But we’re going to start in Matthew, chapter six, verses 22 and 23, which you may have heard, where Jesus says 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? What is Jesus saying? Jesus is saying the way we see the world and the way we appreciate the world impacts what goes on inside, impacts our attitudes. And we don’t need to be a Christian, we don’t need really much extra christian theology to realise this. Just somebody that kind of brings this to life.

We’re about to watch just a short little video clip. This is an american comedian on a late night chat show. He’s called Adam CK and this is a little story. I was on an aeroplane and there was Internet, high speed Internet on the aeroplane. That’s the newest thing that I know exists.

And I’m sitting on the plane and they go, open up your laptop, you can go on the Internet and it’s fast and I’m watching YouTube clips. I’m in an aeroplane and then it breaks down and they apologise. The Internet’s not working. The guy next to me goes, this is bull.

Like how quickly the world owes him something he knew existed only 10 seconds ago. Right, right. And on planes, flying is the worst one because people come back from flights and they tell you their story and it’s like a horror story. It’s. They act like their flight was like a cattle car in the forties in Germany.

That’s how bad they make it sound, right? They’re like, it was the worst day of my life. First of all, we didn’t board for 20 minutes and then we get on the plane and they made us sit there on the Runway for 40 minutes. We had to sit there. Oh, really?

What happened next? Did you fly through the air? Incredibly, like a bird? Did you partake in the miracle of human flight. You non contributing zero that.

You got to fly. You’re flying. It’s amazing. You’re flying. You’re sitting in a chair in the sky.

Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He’s right now, Louie. But it doesn’t. It doesn’t go back a lot.

And it’s really. You know, here’s the thing. People, like, they say there’s delays on flights. Delays, really. New York to California in 5 hours.

That used to take 30 years to do that. And a bunch of you would die on the way there and have a baby. You’d be at a whole different group of people by the time you got there.

A little message about contentment, right? Look at the world and be content. And I could, if I went into a school, I could give a very sort of safe, ecumenical kind of lesson on, you know, if you look at the world with gratitude, you’ll have good mental health. Right. I could take those words and say that.

But when we look at the rest of this passage, what does Jesus want us to see? He says, the eye is the lamp of the body. Through what lens does he want us to see the world? The gospel story, the good news of scripture is written throughout the whole of it. He wants us to see creation.

He wants to understand the world that’s fallen. He wants us to see the redemption. He wants to look at the future hope that we have in Christ. And so we’re going to look at all of those things. Through the rest of this passage.

We’re going to see four things. Firstly, Jesus wants to look at creation and consider where you find your freedom. He wants you to look at the broken world and consider where you set your hope. He wants you to look for God’s kingdom and consider where you’ll invest your purpose. He wants us to look at our hearts and consider where we lavish our worship.

And Jesus says, if you do those things, you will find the secret to contentment. So firstly, he wants us to look at creation and consider where we find our freedom. And Emily, read for us these verses, 25 to 27. Jesus says, I tell you, don’t worry about your life, what you’ll eat or drink or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothes?

Look at the birds of the air. Look around. They do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? And why do you worry about clothes?

See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labour or spin, yet I tell you that not even solomon in all his splendour, was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow, is thrown into the fire, will he not more clothe you, you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, what shall we eat? What shall we drink?

What shall we wear? For the pagans run after these things, and your heavenly father knows that you need them. What clothes? Us. Not simply physical clothes, but what is the things that make us from a nothing into a something that tells us we’re not just nothing, we’re something.

Jesus says the pagans run after these things. Paganism, encompassing a whole range of beliefs of people that don’t believe in a creator God who’s separate from our creation and in our day and age. It might include those who say that we’re nothing but an accident. There is no intent or design about us. And in that worldview, you are nothing.

Unless you make yourself into a something. You’re just an accident. And so what do pagans spend their money on? Clothing themselves. Not just in literal clothes, but in those things that give them dignity, that make them into someone that gives them that feeling.

And rich and poor do this in different ways. I’ve been struck on occasions when social workers have told me that the tragedies where they’ve gone into homes and parents will choose to buy games, consoles for their kids before they pay for food. And the reason they do that is because all of the other kids in the road or in the school all have these consoles, and not having one is a mark of shame. And they’re buying the things that they don’t really need and costing themselves the things that they do need in order to clothe themselves, in order to give themselves dignity, to make them feel that they are a somebody and not a nobody. How do wealthy people do this?

Well, let me count the ways. But I was considering, as I was writing this when I first came to Linfield, and maybe you had the first question, maybe you have this question as well. When I came to Linfield, I innocently asked James and Stewart, I think, and I just said, so is Linfield in Haywards Heath?

And I trod on something there, because apparently there’d been a whole campaign, there’d been a whole group of Linfielders going, do we really have to put Hayward’s Heath in our address? Do we really? And you could imagine the retire. I assume they retired because they had the time to. To complain about this sort of.

Yes, I live at 55 Cressington Rise, Linfield, he would say, because Linfield is a place. Not everyone, but Linfield is a place where people come not just to live, but to clothe ourselves. And I can believe it because I live in the hollow estate. And if you don’t know geography of Linfield, there’s sort of Hayward’s heath here and Linfield’s up here, and the hollow estate’s sort of the. The kind of dangly bit that no one actually thinks is in Linfield, but it is.

The catchment areas say it absolutely is. And if you live in the sort of extremities of Linfield, someone decided that you need extra reassurance that you are, in fact in Linfield. Because obviously, if you live near the pond or the common or the high street, you sort of walk out of your door and very soon the sort of Linfield enos is kind of wafting towards your soul, telling you that everything is okay, but I have to walk ten minutes to get that feeling. And so what they’ve done in our estate is they’ve given us green signs and it’s great. So you’ve got William Allen Lane, you’ve got the rise to cops, you’ve got kiln Lane, you got the hollow.

All green. All green. But if one deigns to step across the border, white signs, so that I can come out and be reassured, I am, in fact, a Linfielder, right? It’s a village people come to. Some come to dress themselves.

I’m not judging. I’m here as well. Right.

Jesus encourages us to look at creation and consider where you find your freedom. You are a created being. And Jesus says, that already makes you a somebody. And Jesus actually says this even before we consider the love of God poured out in Jesus Christ in the gospel story, even before we even consider that human beings are made in God’s image, he says, even if you line yourselves up with the rest of creation, look at how God clothes his creation and then consider how much more valuable you are than they. They don’t labour or clothe themselves.

Your actual needs will be taken care of. But if you use your money to clothe yourself with things you don’t need, you will not be generous. The doctrine of creation frees us in our souls. To be generous. Look at creation, consider where you find your freedom, look at the broken world and consider where you set your hope.

Jesus says, 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 treasure in heaven, where moth and vermin do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. That first verse, verse 19, it kind of resonates with another scripture later on, where Paul says in Timothy, he says, we brought nothing into this world and we can take nothing out of it. That if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. And this sentence and these sentences, they’re not uniquely sort of religious. They ought to be obvious things, right?

You don’t need the Bible to tell you that one day you’re not going to be able to take things with you. That actually, we live in a world of decay. So why do we need to be told? We need to be told because affluence shields us from that reality. Affluence shields us from that reality.

As I was writing this sermon, we’re basing this series on a book by Vaughan Roberts. And the title that we’ve got contentment in a world that never has enough. That’s from the book. But as I was reading it, I was reading the theology is all absolutely relevant, but the direction for which he’s coming from is almost alien because that book was written in the year 2000. And how much has changed in the year 2000?

It was the year before 911, it was before the crash of 2008. It was before the pandemic. It was before the wars. It was before the energy crisis. It was before we even had something called a cost of living crisis.

And in that book, in this chapter, he’s saying, the world tells us that we need to accumulate. And I’m just very aware nowadays I’m speaking to most young people in an era where actually the price of salaries or the price of houses versus salaries is three times what it was. And they’re going, I didn’t even realise accumulating was a possibility. I didn’t even realise accumulating was a possibility. And so things have totally changed.

But as I was mulling this over, there was a post this week, Pete Gregg. He posted a quote from a Times article by James Marriott. He’s an atheist, an economist, and he was surprised that his local church was full of worshipers and young worshippers on a Sunday. And his reflection was this. He said, faith in God is enjoying a resurgence in a sign that our culture is less secular than we assume.

We may look back on the high point of secularism as a phenomenon peculiar to an age that hubristically believed itself to be at the end of history, an affluent self confidence and relatively monocultural society that now belongs to the past. I just wonder whether he’s talking about the year 2000. That was probably the last year where our culture had that optimism. And he ends with, the world is not as secular as it seems. In a world where the upcoming generation is increasingly finding that actually the teaching of the world isn’t satisfying.

The sexual revolution is increasingly failing us. The dream of prosperity and that optimism is no longer there. Here, perhaps here in this book of scripture, are the key, that there are things that are more important. We can be encouraged. But my point isn’t that we should be encouraged because affluence is going down.

But my point is here, that where there is affluence, it shields us from the reality of sin and decay in the world. There ought to be absolutely obvious.

And therefore, the mark of someone who is truly trusting in that hope of heaven that Jesus offers is that the logic of where we spend our money has to change. If you forget the world is broken, you will make poor investments with your money. If you forget that the world is temporary, you will invest in things that will pass away.

Contentment and generosity depends on us looking at our broken world and considering where we set our hope. And so then we might ask, well, Jesus talks about storing up treasure in heaven. Well, therefore, where does Jesus want us to invest? Let’s move on. Look for God’s kingdom and consider where you’ll invest your purpose.

And Jesus ends the passage with this. He says, seek first his kingdom, God’s kingdom, and God’s righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Jesus says, if you want to follow me, and if you want to find contentment and true security, point the compass of your life in a different direction, live for a different purpose. And what is this purpose that Jesus points towards? What’s the greatest thing you can give your life to?

It’s building the kingdom of God, which quite simply is anywhere where the rule and reign of God is present and being put into effect his righteousness. God’s kingdom is the place where people are saying, God is right and I am not, and we are not. And we should pour our time, talents and money to extending the kingdom of God, because the Bible tells us this is the kingdom that will last forever. This is storing up treasures on earth. And so you ask, okay, but what does this actually look like?

If God is calling me to give x number of pounds, where does that money actually go? Is he going to say, is the guy in church who is paid by the church going to say to the church, yes, he is going to say to the church predominantly, you might ask, well, is it not best to give to aid agencies and to people who are in acute need? And the answer is, yeah, absolutely give to those things as well. But the focus of giving for the Christian is the church, whether it be your local church or churches worldwide. And here’s why.

Because the local church is the only organisation in the world with a mandate to heal the world’s greatest need, which is reconciliation. You cannot have prosperous communities and prosperous nations without right relationships, without reconciliation. Fragmented community or nation is never one that will prosper. It’s obvious, for example, that if you have civil war or war with another country, then your community will not flourish. Perhaps it’s slightly less obvious that if families break down, if marriages break down, then a nation is going to need a lot more housing.

And what happens when a nation needs a lot more housing? The house prices go up. What happens when the house prices go up? The divide between rich and poor increases.

Now, I don’t have time to give a nuanced overview of the world’s problems, but the Bible tells us, and christian agencies, aid agencies tell us this, that the world’s problem starts with fractured relationships with God and each other. And they are healed by the gospel of Jesus Christ. That restores us, restores humanity to relationship with God and consequently to each other. And there is no other organisation in the world that has that mandate. And so by all means, give your money to acute needs where we see them.

We absolutely must be doing that. But as the church, we say we have the power to heal the underlying problems. The gospel. The gospel has the power to heal underlying problems. Seeking God, therefore, and following God makes good financial sense.

And that’s why as christians, we primarily give to the church when we give, because the church is not simply there to give relief, but to bring healing to the underlying problem. So look for God’s kingdom and consider where you’ll invest your purpose. Finally, look at your heart and consider where you lavish your worship. At this stage you may be thinking, okay, so you told me that the key to discontentment, the antidote, is to give, that when we give, we need to give to God’s kingdom. That that may be lots of things, but it’s primarily the church.

And so really important question, how much money can I give to sort of, how much do I need to give to kind of get away with it? Tell me, give me the figure for the God tax. And I’m not going to do that because firstly, the New Testament doesn’t. And secondly, if you start talking figures, it only drives us to evaluate our performance and either causes pride or devastation. Either you give a figure and you go, oh, that’s easy done, or that’s really hard, and it’s going to be crushing Jesus.

In Matthew, chapter six, he doesn’t give a number. He says, don’t look at the maths, but look at your heart. It’s the heart where giving starts. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 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 money. You cannot separate money and worship. Worship is a word that the Bible and the scripture uses to describe whatever that thing is that you supremely lavish your affections on above all else. And Jesus is much more concerned not about the number you’re giving, but what is happening in your heart as you give it.

And actually, Paul says the same thing to a letter where he talks about giving to a church in Corinth. Actually, Steve read it out earlier, but he points the church not to a number. But he says, I’m not commanding you. I’m not going to give you a command, but I want to test the sincerity of your love for, you know, you know, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake, he became poor so that you, through his poverty, might become rich. How do we become rich?

We become rich by being drawn through Jesus Christ back into a relationship with God, and so being reconciled to one another through the life of the church. And in the light of this gospel, there can be no number. That is enough. The grace of Jesus. The grace of Jesus invites us to give out of that grace, out of that love, because God has given everything in Jesus Christ and his death on the cross to give us back to God.

And you might say, yeah, that’s amazing. It’s about grace. It’s not about a number, but really, can you give me a little bit of a ballpark? Can you really give me a bit of a ballpark? And it’s sometimes said that the Old Testament talks about giving, it talks about tithing, and 10% is the number banded around, and 10% is kind of a good place to start for your giving.

But here’s a first test. Does the amount you’re giving to the kingdom of God just hurt a little bit in any way?

A while back, we were discussing this topic with a number of the 18 plus group, and there were some for whom this was a relatively new teaching and it was being received well and just. Somebody said he went, oh, it’s just at the point where you want to start building. It’s just the point where you want to start building. And it may be there are some people in here tonight that actually giving anything at all is a little bit of hurt. And so if that’s you just give a little bit and just exercise your heart in that way.

And if giving becomes very comfortable for you, give a little bit more. So it becomes just a little bit more uncomfortable where you kind of get, oh, I really could have a bigger holiday or update that rust bucket of a car I have or move them out of my home or buy the latest tech or whatever it is. Find that point where you go, because what you’re doing is you’re exercising the heart, because giving is the antidote to discontentment. And what you’ll find if you keep doing this, your frustration will change. And your frustration is transformed from, oh, that hurts to, I’m just so frustrated I can’t give more.

How can I earn more so that I can give more?

And when that is your biggest frustration, life, when that frustration eclipses all others, it’s at that point where your heart is starting to fall in love with the kingdom of God and that future hope and that joy of reconciliation we have through Jesus Christ with God the father. And it’s at that point that you’ll realise, without realising, that you found true contentment. Let’s pray.

Dear Lord Jesus, we stand before you as a people so blessed.

And Lord, we thank you that you long to lavish your people with good things. You long for prosperity for all people. That is your heart. You long for prosperity for all people. And that is why you have drawn us to yourself.

Lord God in the Lord Jesus.

And Lord, we want to pray that you would teach our hearts what it means to seek first the kingdom of God with our lives, with our hearts, with our wallets.

Lord Jesus, I want to pray that you would pour grace by your spirit on this issue. Lord God, there’s no point in going away just giving out of guilt. Lord, but you want us to see you. You want our hearts to see you and to long for you. And Lord, so our first prayer is draw us to yourself once again.

We’re always so aware that we buy things we don’t need. We buy things because we want to clothe ourselves with those things that the world around us has.

But, Lord, we want to pray that your grace would free us and that you would draw us not only to yourself, but to one another and to those in our community around us who are broken and in need. Help us to do that for the extension of your kingdom as we look forward to that day. Where your glory will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. Amen.

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