Tag: temporal things

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Luke Luke 12

Parable of the rich fool: What this life is all about

Luke

What is this life all about?

So many people wander about lost because they don’t know. Often times they search for meaning in money, possessions, and things.

That’s what the man who asked Jesus to judge between he and his brother about their inheritance was worried about.

But Jesus told him,

A man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. (Luke 12:15)

He then told all the people,

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear.

Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. (Luke 12:22-23)

Why does he say this? For two reasons.

First, life is far more than food, clothes, or anything else you can buy in this world. These things are temporary. They are here one moment and gone the next.

And while buying these things may satisfy your stomach or your heart for a time, eventually, you start to hunger for more.

In other words, the things of this world will never truly satisfy. It always leaves you longing for more.

But second, God cares about you. He knows what you need, and if you will put him first, he will provide for you.

And if that’s the case, shouldn’t we put our priority on other things? What then is life about? God’s kingdom.

What is God’s kingdom? It’s people. People for whom Jesus died. People whom God desperately desires a relationship with. And that’s where our focus should be.

When we see people in physical need, we should do our best to meet those needs. To love these people more than our own money, giving generously as God gave to us, and in so doing, storing up a treasure in heaven that will never be exhausted.

But even more importantly, we need to see their spiritual needs and reach out to them with the love of Christ.

God has given us his kingdom. He’s given us his Son that our sins might be forgiven. He has adopted us as his children.

So let us not waste time chasing things that are temporal. Let us chase what is eternal. Let us pursue our relationship with the God who loves us, and reach out with his love to those around us that they may know him too.

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John John 6

“Working” for true bread

John

This is one of the more powerful passages in scripture, but it is also a somewhat difficult one.

After Jesus fed the 5000, they wanted Jesus to become their king, and so he left. When they found him, Jesus admonished them,

I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.

Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval. (John 6:26-27)

In other words, the only reason you’re seeking me is for physical reasons, not for spiritual ones.

I gave you physical bread, but don’t make what’s temporary your priority in life. Instead, work for the food that gives eternal life.

The Jews then said, “What should we do to do the works of God?”

Perhaps, they expected him to say, “Well, memorize the scriptures. Keep the ten commandments, and make sure you keep all the other laws as well.”

After all, that’s the kind of thing they heard all the time.

But Jesus told them something totally unexpected. He said,

The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent. (John 6:29)

In other words, “The only thing you can do to obtain eternal life is to put your trust in me. Eternal life doesn’t come from keeping God’s law. It comes from putting your faith in me.”

I’m sure this must have bothered the Jews to hear this, and so they asked for a miraculous sign to prove what he said, pointing out that Moses gave the Israelites manna in the desert as a sign to them that he was God’s servant.

But Jesus responded that it wasn’t Moses that gave the Israelites bread, but God.

He then taught them that the manna was a mere symbol of the true bread that would come into the world and give people, not a life that was temporary, but eternal life.

His next words, though, truly stunned them.

I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. (John 6:35)

This by the way is the whole key to the passage. Jesus isn’t talking literally. He isn’t literally a piece of bread. And just because you come to him and believe in him doesn’t mean you’ll never have to eat another meal. All of this is spiritual.

To “eat his flesh,” is to come to him. To “drink his blood,” is to believe in him. And if you come to him and believe in him, you will never be hungry or thirsty for God again.

You see this theme throughout this passage.

He told them that their problem was they had seen him, the true bread and did not believe in him. But all the Father gave him would come to him.

He said if you look to the Son and believe in him you’ll have eternal life (John 6:40).

That everyone who listens to the Father comes to Jesus (John 6:45).

That he who believes has eternal life (John 6:47).

He then pointed out that if you eat physical bread, you’ll eventually die, but if you eat this spiritual bread, if you come to the one who gave his life for the world on the cross, you will live forever (John 6:51, 58).

He goes to say that if you do not come to him (eat his flesh) and believe in him (drink his blood), you do not have eternal life.

But if you do, you will be raised bodily when Jesus returns and you’ll live forever (John 6:53-54).

And if you come to him and believe in him, you will remain in him, and he in you (John 6:56).

Finally, he concludes by saying that physical food in the end counts for nothing because it can’t give eternal life. His words, on the other hand, will impart eternal life if you’ll only believe them. (John 6:63)

What can we get from all this? If you want true satisfaction in life, it only comes in a relationship with God.

And the only way you’re going to have a relationship with God is by coming to Jesus and putting your faith in him and his work on the cross.

Have you done so?

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Luke Luke 11 Matthew Matthew 6

Sermon on the Mount: Setting our sights

The gospels

I talked briefly yesterday about how if we set our sights on the sins we want to avoid, saying constantly to ourselves “I have to stay away from this,” we are actually more likely to fall to temptation.

A better way to fight temptation is to set our sights on God and follow him.

But this is true not only in temptation. It’s true in every aspect of our lives.

Jesus here talks about where we set our sights in everyday life, saying,

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.

But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:19-21)

He then says,

No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve both God and Money. (Matthew 6:24)

So the question is, “Where are we setting our sights?”

For many people, they set their sights on what is temporary; on money, on things.

But Jesus warns us that these things will not last. That we are to set our hearts on that which is eternal. What is eternal?

Only two things: Our relationship with God, and our relationships with those who put their faith in Jesus.

There is nothing else on this earth that we can take with us into heaven.

And so this is what we need to be setting our sights on here on earth: Developing our relationship with God. Sharing the gospel with those who don’t know Christ. And developing our relationships with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

By doing this, we earn for ourselves treasures in heaven. For what greater treasure is there than a relationship with the God who loves us and with those we love?

But so many people, even Christians, set their hearts on money. On the things of this world.

Jesus warns that we can’t do this. God doesn’t accept half-hearted service. Either we serve money or we serve him.

Jesus asks in this passage what kind of eyes we have. Do we have eyes that see things as they really are? Do we have eyes that see what’s truly important?

He says that if we do, our life will be filled with light. We’ll live a life worth living, the kind of life God intended for us. A life centered around relationships.

But if we don’t, our life will be filled with darkness.

We’ll be stumbling around unfulfilled and never knowing why. We’ll constantly be grasping for money and other things that ultimately leave us empty if we make them our life’s pursuit.

And he laments that if what we think is “light” is truly darkness, how great that darkness truly is. So he warns in Luke 11:35,

See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness.

How about you? What are your eyes set on?

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Psalms

True repentance

Psalms

There may or may not be any direct connection between Psalms 38 and 39, but both seem to be dealing with David’s attitude toward God’s discipline in his life, and so I place them together here.

We don’t know what the situations were in which these psalms were written, but I would guess that it was after the incident with the census.  This is pure speculation, however.

But as in Psalm 29, David seems to be suffering God’s discipline because of a sin he committed.

And he prays,

O LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath.  For your arrows have pierced me, and your hand has come down upon me.

Because of your wrath there is no health in my body; my bones have no soundness because of my sin.  My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear.

My wounds fester and are loathsome because of my sinful folly.

I am bowed down and brought very low; all day long I go about mourning.

My back is filled with searing pain; there is no health in my body.

I am feeble and utterly crushed; I groan in anguish of heart.  (Psalm 38:1-8)

One verse that strikes me here is 18, where David says,

I confess my iniquity; I am troubled by my sin.  (38:18)

Some people take their sin lightly.  They may “repent,” but are merely trying to wipe their dirt off on the mat of grace.  Yet in their hearts, they are not troubled at all by the sin they committed.

But David’s heart troubled him when he sinned.  And like Paul in Romans 7, his heart cried out in remorse when he fell.  That’s a true heart of repentance.

In Psalm 39, we see more of his response to the suffering he went through.  And at first, he said nothing, for fear that he might bring disgrace upon God’s name among the wicked.

Perhaps he felt by confessing his sin before them, it might give them the opportunity to blaspheme God.

Or perhaps he feared that by complaining about the discipline he was receiving, that it would reflect badly on God.

But in the end, he cried out,

Show me, O LORD, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life.

You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you.

Each man’s life is but a breath.

Man is a mere phantom as he goes to and fro:  He bustles about, but only in vain; he heaps up wealth, not knowing who will get it.  (39:4-6)

Here David confesses how his distorted perspective led him into sin.

If indeed this was written following his sin with the census, he could’ve been referring to how all his efforts to build up his military strength was a waste of time.  How all his pride in what he had and what he had accomplished was worthless.

For all these things were temporary.  All would pass away.

And so he prayed, “Lord, never let me lose perspective again.  My life is but a breath.  Let me not sin by focusing on things that are temporary.”

And then he prayed,

But now, Lord, what do I look for?  My hope is in you.  (Psalm 39:7)

In short, “I no longer to the things that are temporary for my hope.  For my satisfaction.  From now on, I look to you.”

He then closes by weeping before God, asking for forgiveness.  And God did.  For as John wrote,

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.  (I John 1:9)

How about you?  Does your sin trouble you?  Does God’s discipline turn your eyes from temporal things to eternal things?

Let us be like David.  Let us turn our eyes and our hearts from sin to the things that are eternal and bring true life.