Matthew 6: What Does It Mean To Live The Good Life?

Jesus gathered his disciples and walked to a high spot as a crowd swelled with students.

Curious onlookers and possible enemies wanting to hear this religious leader who seemed different.

Could it be the Messiah they have been waiting for to save them from their enemies?

Could the old kingdoms of this world be passing away?

Was this Jesus finally ushering in the kingdom of God?

And then he spoke a verbal attack on unrighteousness and self-righteousness, an assault on I'ma get me and mine.

And it was a message for the broken.

Blessed are the poor spirit, the spiritually bankrupt, those who recognize desperate need for God.

And starting with this deep truth, he dispensed world-changing, life-rearranging understanding.

Love your enemies, be generous to everyone.

Come on, for real.

You will never be good enough by working harder.

Pray this way.

You are the light of the world.

Do not worry about your life.

Be realistic, Jesus.

Ask, seek, knock.

Stop performing.

Enter through the narrow gate.

Today, many likers of Jesus listen to these words and they say, He probably didn't mean that.

But if we truly assume Jesus meant what he said, a better kingdom would shine brighter in the darker world.

Together we can look to the Savior on the mountaintop and soak in the teachings of life.

Join us for uncommon sense, joyfully living out the challenges of Jesus' sermon on the mount.

Finally feel like you you made it.

You guys remember uh Kanye West's song, uh Good Life?

No.

You got you guys, do you guys okay?

So uh it was a number one, uh it was number one on hip hop charts, top 10 billboards, certified platinum record, is a huge record.

And the hook he goes, he goes, Ah, I go for mine.

Oh, okay.

I wasn't expecting that.

So she she she got she has the the background music, but he goes, Ah, I go for mine.

I got to shine.

This is the good life.

And then, yeah, there you go.

And then, see, I I could have, I could have sung myself this morning.

You know, I wouldn't even need Reuben.

I would have had y'all ears bleeding.

Um later on in his song, he says, he says, I've always had a passion for flashing.

Before I had it, I closed my eyes and imagined.

This is the good life.

And then he continues on, he says, This is the good life, better than the life that I live when I thought that I was gonna go crazy.

There you go.

He says, Now my grandmama ain't the only girl calling me.

Y'all some hoodlums.

Y'all some hoodlums.

So, so for for my for my ebonically challenged folks, what Kanye is actually saying, he's like, I I always wanted nice stuff.

I always wanted to make it, I always wanted to be somebody.

And before I had it, I dreamed about it.

I dreamed about life, what what life would finally be like when I made it.

And so now he has money, he has fame, he's paid, he's he's highly paid, and he's saying, This is the good life.

Thank you.

So his definition of the good life probably isn't that far from ours.

Maybe we wouldn't say it exactly like Kanye, but most of us have some uh a version that we imagine of the good life in our minds where we finally feel secure and safe, right?

I asked you guys when I started if if you could just not worry about money, how many of you guys would take that?

Most of you guys say, Yeah, I take that.

So in our passage today, Jesus is addressing exactly this thing.

What is the good life?

So by now you should be in Matthew 6, uh verses 19 through 24.

Am I good to read?

All right.

Don't store up treasures for yourselves on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.

But store up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, where thieves don't 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 eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of sight.

But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.

So if the light within you is darkness, how deep is that darkness?

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

You can't serve both God and money.

I'm excited to unpack this text for you guys today.

Uh, true story when Dale told me I was preaching on this, I was like, bro, absolutely not.

I don't, I do not want to touch this text, but I'm grateful that I got the chance to because if I can just preach from brokenness, this is a text from me.

Um, this is a text that I really needed to hear and study.

And so um, as I'm up here, I don't want to be a hypocrite and be like, yeah, I I've arrived.

You know, I I struggle with a lot of the things that we're gonna talk about today.

So um I'm gonna let you guys in on something that I've just become aware of just a little bit more recently.

Um I have this constant feeling, like all the time, that something bad is about to happen.

It's kind of hard to describe, like even in my happiest moments, like it's just a little bit quieter, but it never quieter, but it never actually like goes away.

And then when I when I don't have anything to distract me, the feeling creeps back in.

So like when I'm lying awake at night or I'm out on a walk or when I take a shower and I've got nothing to take my mind off of it, I feel this feeling.

It's not like a stomachache.

It's kind of like you got a huge exam and you gotta pass, and if you don't pass, it's gonna be bad.

Uh, some of you guys uh know what this might feel like.

Uh my mom was supposed to be here today, so I wish she was here for this next point, but um it's kind of like report card day, uh where you you gotta like go home.

Maybe some of y'all can relate to this, some of y'all won't, but you gotta go home and you gotta explain.

Like, that teacher, like, she felt the whole class.

It wasn't just me, she was tripping.

Uh and what I wanted my mom here to attest to was like on report card day, I would have the like the worst excuses.

But like we didn't get it because like the printer broke, and so like we're gonna get them next week.

Um, kids make the dumbest excuses for things they don't want to get in trouble for.

But I have this feeling where it's like I have deep uh anxiety at times.

Um, and I I don't know exactly why.

Um when I'm feeling this anxiety, I I become more aware of my failures, uh, all of my weaknesses.

I think about all the ways that I've dropped the ball.

I think about the problems that I have with my family.

I think about all of the problems of the world.

The furthest thing from my mind is resting in God's love and trusting that He's sovereign.

My mind starts searching for something to look secure in.

And so I've gotten pretty good at distracting myself.

So this might look like doom scrolling in the middle of the night just to turn my brain off.

Amazon orders.

Like I'm at the point where you know I'm telling my Amazon driver, like, yeah, same time tomorrow.

You know, gaming, binge watching random YouTube videos.

Uh my newest hobby has been making my apartment so comfortable that I never have to leave.

My wife said, Yup.

Shh.

Trying to be vulnerable here.

Um if I can be honest with one of my most broken thoughts here.

I tell myself, man, if COVID ever happened again, I want to make sure that I don't ever have to leave.

Like, I want to be comfortable.

I won't even mind COVID.

Like social distancing, yes.

You guys ever have thoughts like this?

Like if the housing market crashes again, maybe I'll be ready.

If I date again, I know exactly what I'm looking for.

You gotta be like 6'4 muscles, 200K.

You gotta let the Lord though.

Philippians 4:13 in the bio.

Philippians 4:13

Um, I want to save and invest so much money so that I'll never have to worry about money again.

If I could just make$100,000, everything would be good.

All I need is that man or that woman in my life, then I'll be satisfied.

Recently, my my father-in-law sent us two boxes of military MREs, which is like these ready-to-eat meals.

He he was worried about food shortage shortages because of the conflict that we have in the Middle East.

We laugh, but we've all done versions of the same thing.

We have deep fears with irrational solutions.

The truth is that we all know that something's off, something's not right.

We know that we're vulnerable.

At any moment, life can change.

I'm dealing with this right now.

A diagnosis, a phone call, a layoff, an accident.

One unexpected thing can expose how fragile life at life is, how fragile everything is.

And so Jesus in our text today agrees with us.

He acknowledges that we're fragile, but he gives us revelation.

He says, Everything on earth is temporary, everything on this earth will one day be stolen, destroyed, or corroded.

Jesus isn't pretending that uh everything is stable, that the world is stable.

He knows our hearts are searching for something that can't be taken away.

And this is the the problem is that we we desperately want security.

So that's that's not the problem.

The problem isn't that we want security.

We we should seek security.

The problem is where we look for it at.

And so today I have uh three foundations uh of the good life.

I have three foundations of what the good life actually is.

So uh that brings me to point number one.

The good life is built on eternal treasure.

Jesus says, Don't store up treasures for yourself on earth where moth and rust destroy, where thieves break in and steal.

Store them up in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves don't break in and steal.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will also be.

Our culture is really good at uh making temporary things feel ultimate.

You guys remember a few years ago, uh, if you've watched anything online, everyone had a formula to success.

Morning routines.

You guys remember how elaborate that they were?

Gotta wake up 4 30 a.m., six miles, gotta run six miles, gotta lift weights, meditate 45 minutes minimum.

Gotta dunk your face into water, ice water, not just any water, Saratoga water.

You gotta read two chapters, self-help book, gotta prepare an elaborate breakfast or fast, depending on which influencer or what regimen you follow.

All before nine to five.

It was your five to nine before your nine to five.

You guys remember this?

The message in culture is always optimize yourself, hustle harder.

If you make enough, you'll be good enough.

You'll finally become the person that you've always wanted to be.

Without realizing it, I think we've started to believe the story that culture is telling us.

Work, consume, repeat.

How many of you guys find yourself in that cycle?

Like we work to just buy things and then we repeat it all over again.

It just feels like we're on this treadmill, right?

World tells us, build your kingdom, protect yourself, get yours before someone else does.

Jesus says, You built your life on the wrong foundation.

Our answer to anxiety isn't uh isn't rest in our creator, no.

It's productivity, it's manifestation, it's investing, building our brand, more work, more money, more possessions.

There's a famous uh marketing consultant, his name is Ernest Ditchter.

He's consulted multiple companies, Chrysler, uh Mattel, and most famously Procter and Gamble.

And if you're familiar with Procter Gamble, they like make everything.

He wrote two books.

One's called The Strategy of Desire, and the second one is called The Handbook of Consumer Motivations.

In his book, he says this the strategy of appealing to desire is the heart of marketing.

People rarely understand why they buy.

Marketers should uncover the unconscious desires of the buyer, appeal to them, and they'll find the most success.

The world knows that we have deep desires that we're gonna look for things to fill.

And so he's just uh saying it the quiet part out loud.

Jesus wants his followers, his disciples, disciplers, his disciples, did I say that right?

Disciples, he wants us to have a different perspective.

He says, Don't store up treasures on earth.

Why?

Because the things that we're chasing can never give us what we're actually after.

What we're ultimately, we're not ultimately chasing uh money, power, sex.

What we're ultimately after is we're chasing security, self-worth, and peace.

Earthly treasure promises, every earthly treasure promises some version of salvation.

Every earthly treasure says this like if you have me, everything will be okay.

Jesus says that the problem is that earthly treasures make for terrible saviors.

Where your treasure is, your heart will also be.

Let's play a scenario out just really quickly.

Like, imagine two people, two separate people receive a thousand dollars.

One of those persons invests in stocks, the other invests in supporting a missionary family.

A year later, one checks the market every single morning, the other is reading up ministry updates and praying for the family that they invested in, and they're celebrating every person that comes to God because of their investment.

They made the same investment, but they're they stored their treasures just a little bit differently, which led to a different heart.

Do you guys see that?

So I don't want to sound like I'm saying investing is wrong because it's not.

You should be prudent.

Jesus isn't condemning possessions.

What he's saying is like if you misplace your worship, if investing becomes the ultimate thing that you feel secure in, then that's the the the the where we miss the mark.

Am I making sense?

If we're if we're investing and that becomes our thing, we're ultimately going to find ourselves unfulfilled.

So the problem isn't what we own, the problem is what we allow to own us because of our dependence on it.

So your heart will always follow your investment.

That's why Jesus tells us to invest where we actually want our heart to go.

So sometimes that might mean like you don't feel like it, right?

Like I love how the world is set up to like mimic some of the principles of Christ.

Like, I I don't feel like eating chicken breast all the time.

But if I did and I ate chicken breast and vegetables, I would see results eventually.

But it requires discipline.

You know what I mean?

So every every time we invest, it shapes what we love.

Tim Keller says this the heart is the seat of what you trust the most, what you are committed to the most.

So we've got to protect what sits on the seats of the heart.

What sits on the seat of your heart of the heart of your heart matters.

And to hammer home the point of tragedy is that we keep asking temporary things to carry eternal happiness.

We work overtime to buy houses that we probably can't afford.

We chase promotions that will ultimately never satisfy.

And we got this like thing now.

It's called buy now, pay later.

And so we're we're we we keep hitting that buy now button, hoping to purchase uh the thing that will finally satisfy.

Got Amazon Target TikTok uh shop.

That's for you, Jen.

Um maybe, maybe you're not a spender, maybe it's save, invest, build up a nest egg for the future.

Those things aren't sinful, but the dangerous part is the moment that they just become security for you, the moment that they become the thing that you hope in.

Scripture tells this story over and over again.

If you think about Israel, God delivers them from slavery with signs and wonders, unlike anything the world has ever seen.

He turns the river, the Nile into blood, darkness covers Egypt, the Red Sea parts, God demonstrates his power over kings and nations and creation.

It's just this whole kind of like wild cosm of things happening.

And yet, before long, after God has delivered them, the desire to return back to the thing that enslaved them.

How quickly they forgot.

How quickly do we?

How many times has God been faithful and provided for you?

How many prayers has He answered for you?

How many times has He carried you through something that you thought would destroy you?

Yet, when temptation comes, we find ourselves saying, I know what God says, but this feels easier, this feels safer, this feels better.

So we start to rely on our own wisdom instead of his.

So we're not much more different than Israel.

The issue has always been misplaced treasure.

The good life isn't found in building your own kingdom, it's found in living in God's kingdom.

Why would anyone give up and stop living for earthly treasure?

Well, it's because they found something infinitely better.

The only way you'll loosen the grip of temporary treasure is when you've found an eternal one.

That's where Jesus is leading us.

Takes me to point two.

Good life depends on a healthy perspective.

The eye is the lamp of the body.

If your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light.

But if your eye is bad, your body will be full of darkness.

So if the light within you is darkness, how deep is that darkness?

Jesus is making what seems to be like a weird illustration.

It almost feels disconnected from the first part, but he's he's still talking about the same thing which is treasure, just changing it from what we value to how we actually see.

So before you can treasure the right things, you have to see rightly.

Most of you guys can tell I have glasses, I've got terrible eyesight.

If I take my glasses off right now, everything would become blurred, and I see a bad image of reality, a blurred image of reality.

I could still see shapes.

Um, I know that there are people sitting in front of me, but things get a bit fuzzy.

Last week I just got my license, my driver's license renewed, and they had me take a vision test.

They went to make sure that I wasn't a danger to others on the road.

I didn't start wearing glasses until 2015, and before then, I I thought I saw perfectly fine.

Then I sat in the in the chair, you know, they have like the little machine, I don't know what it's called, it's a big word.

And they it's like the one, two.

One, two.

And so so she's flipping through the lenses, and I remember thinking, like, wow, I I've not seen clearly this whole entire time.

I wasn't bothered by it, I was perfectly fine living my life without being able to see clearly, but it wasn't until I had a different perspective when I realized that I needed to be living a little bit differently.

I needed the corrective lenses.

And so that's what Jesus is trying to get us to understand is like, because of sin, we all have a broken eye.

We need his corrective lens to see the perspective of the world correctly.

We see reality incorrectly, we think we're we're in control, we believe our future depends entirely on us.

We spend our entire lives just trying to control everything uh that that has always belonged to God.

So the problem just isn't sin, it's the problem is our our vision has been distorted by sin.

Jeremiah 17:9.

Jeremiah 17:9

The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick.

Who can understand it?

Our hearts don't naturally lead us towards God, our hearts take us away from God.

They convince us that there's something besides God that will satisfy us.

It's because we're looking through the wrong lens.

When Christ becomes lens in which we see life, everything changes.

We begin to recognize life isn't about building our kingdom, it's about participating in Him.

So success looks just a little bit different.

Failure feels a little bit different.

Money doesn't have the same power and control over us.

Suffering can have we can have hope in suffering.

So suffering looks different.

Healthy eye changes everything because it changes how we interpret everything.

But the scary part of that story is like I said, I had no idea that I was blind before I saw the new perspective.

I genuinely thought that I could see.

That's what makes spiritual blindness so dangerous.

Jesus isn't talking to those that know they're blind, that know that they need glasses.

He's talking to religious people who are convinced that they see perfectly.

That's why he says, if the light within you is darkness, how deep is that darkness?

Like, what if the thing you think is guiding your life is actually misleading you?

Like, what if the thing that's guiding your life is actually like leading you to hell?

How scary is that?

Culture tells us, follow your heart.

The Bible says, be careful, your heart can deceive you.

Culture says, live your truth.

Jesus says, I am the truth.

Two completely different foundations.

So since Genesis 3, humanities has looked at life through a fractured lens.

So our question as humans has has become it's not what what does God desire desire?

Our our question is, what do I want?

It's not how can I glorify God, it's how can I make my life better.

Everything becomes centered on us.

That's why Jesus says the eye is the lamp of the body.

The lens is wrong, everything downstream is affected.

Our marriages are affected, parenting, the way we manage our money, our ambitions, our fears, our relationships, everything's affected with the wrong lens.

Blind people don't know they're blind until someone helps them see.

I'm proof of that.

Spiritually speaking, every one of us was born blind.

That's why Jesus didn't come to make bad people better.

He says, I come to give sight to the blind.

A healthy perspective changes how we live.

He has the power to restore our sight.

Like I said, once you've experienced clear vision, it's it's hard to imagine living without it.

Like if you wear glasses, I see a lot of folks have glasses in here.

You know exactly what I'm talking about.

Like when I wake up in the morning, the first thing I do is what I gotta grab my glasses, I gotta see.

And when I when I can't find them, life is is frustrating real fast.

So you become dependent on the lens that you see with, right?

That's the Christian life.

The more clearly we see Christ, the more dependent we become on Him.

We stop assuming that we know best.

We begin asking, Lord, what do you want?

Our priorities change.

Generosity becomes easier because we know that we have a provider.

We're not just dependent on our own income.

Obedience becomes joyful because he has wisdom.

We trust in his wisdom.

Prayer stops feeling like a chore and like we're wasting time because we realize that we're speaking to the sovereign king of the universe who is fully in control at all times.

The clearer that we see Christ, the less attractive that the world becomes to us.

It's because we're discovering something infinitely better.

A healthy perspective doesn't simply make us make better decisions, it gives us an entirely new way of seeing reality.

So once our eyes have been opened by Christ, there's no going back.

When you finally see clearly, you realize the good life was never found in what you could build, it was found in the one who gave you sight.

Once Jesus changes the way you see, he begins to change the way that you live.

And that brings me to my final point.

The good life is experienced under God's rule.

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

You cannot serve both God and money.

You guys know every person has a master.

In this text, Jesus is forcing us to make a decision.

He says, No one can serve two.

You can't serve both God and money.

He doesn't say you shouldn't.

He says you can't.

It's impossible.

You're gonna choose one.

In other words, every person in this room right now is already serving someone or something.

We like to think that we're independent.

I'm my own person.

Nobody tells me what to do.

I make my own decisions.

Jesus says, like, nah, that's that's an illusion.

You're tripping.

Something's governing you.

And if it's not me, you're blind.

Every one of us organizes our lives around whatever we think is most valuable.

What sits at the center of our life becomes a thing that that shapes our decisions.

So do you do you sacrifice rest and time with your family or church so that you can get ahead?

Maybe success is your master.

You constantly change depending on who's watching?

Maybe it's approval or people pleasing.

What about avoiding doing things that are difficult?

Even when God is calling you to step into something?

Are you serving comfort?

Here's the thing like I started this and I said, like, I struggle with a lot of these things.

So, like, ouch.

So whatever sits on the throne of your heart determines your direction of your life.

The question isn't whether you have a master, it's who's your master.

Tony Evans says, you can't have the Lord and anything as a final decision maker.

Only the Lord gets the final decision to make, uh only the Lord gets the final decision to make or over to rule or overrule.

Every false master eventually enslaves.

So Jesus uh specifically mentions money here as a master, uh, because money has a unique ability to convince us that we don't need God.

Money isn't isn't evil, it's the love of money that is.

Money is morally ambiguous, meaning that it can be used for good or it can be used for bad.

It can it can feed families, it can fund missionaries, it can care for the poor, it can build hospitals, it's a great servant, but it's a terrible master.

Every false master promises that it makes promises that it it can't keep.

The promises sound believable at first.

Like I see people like they're making money, they're buying houses, they look happy.

That must be the secret to success.

That must be true.

And then something happens, you get that thing, and it's enough is never enough.

House comes normal, that raise just it becomes a lifestyle, vacation's over.

The thing that you just bought, now you're you're over it, you're ready for the next new thing.

You guys ever notice that?

Like you're you're you're uh you're waiting for something to come in the mail or something, you're you're excited for it, or you've been, and like three months later, it's like in the closet, you haven't touched it.

Right, right.

Right?

Does that happen to you guys?

The thing you once thought would change your life eventually becomes ordinary.

It's because idols they they always they're always asking for more of us.

They they promise that they'd give us freedom, but they're actually creating slavery.

Eventually you aren't even using them anymore, they're using you.

That's why anxiety is often tied with uh it's a symptom of misplaced treasure, which I think Ruby is is preaching on next week, which is gonna be great.

False masters gonna kill it.

False masters promise life, but they leave us exhausted, they demand everything and give nothing that they promised.

I know some people like that.

I digress.

Um culture says uh freedom means answering to no one, where Jesus says freedom is is finally belonging to the right king.

We hear words like submission and obedience, and we think that they're restrictive, but Jesus is saying that they're liberating.

Why?

Because God calls us to surrender.

The God who calls us to surrender is the God who also deeply loves us.

He's our He's the one who made us.

He's not trying to take our joy, He's trying to lead us into it.

Tim Keller says the fish experiences freedom in the water.

Could you guys imagine like picking up a fish and throwing it on the land and saying, Go, you're free, go enjoy your life.

Would that be freedom?

It'd be death.

We're like that because we weren't created, um, we we had a we have a specific purpose for for um, we were created for a specific purpose.

We weren't created to rule independently from God, we were created to flourish underneath Him.

And so that's why obedience is the path to freedom.

It's not restrictive, it's the path.

So give your life to Jesus if you want freedom.

When Christ is your king, you no longer have to carry the burden of trying to control everything, anxiety.

You don't have to prove yourself, you don't have to build a fake identity.

You already belong to the king of the universe, and so that changes everything.

You're free.

You can be generous, you can rest, you can obey, you can love.

You're no your identity no longer depends on approval.

Do you guys see what this passage has been doing this entire time?

Jesus is dismantling every counterfeit version of the good life.

I don't know what Kanye was talking about.

We don't build bitter bigger kingdoms for ourselves.

The good life is found in building your is not found in building your own kingdom.

The good life is experienced under the loving rule of the king who gave you his gave his life for you.

I'm getting ready to close here shortly.

I'm almost done.

Um, as we've been working through this passage, maybe you're like, I I feel that a little bit.

I feel like I've been chasing this treasure.

Uh I feel like my perspective maybe is a little bit off, and I need to change my perspective.

And if I'm honest, I've trusted money, comfort, and I'm looking for success, maybe a little bit more than I'm trusting God.

Let me just like Jesus isn't trying to crush you, He's trying to expose something that's deeper than your behavior.

So the the Sermon on the On the Mount isn't just telling us to make better choices, it's revealing the condition of our heart.

The longer we look at at the standard of Jesus, the more that we realize it's harder, it's we just we can't meet his standard.

We don't naturally uh uh store treasure in heaven, we don't naturally trust God's wisdom, we don't naturally trust our our own.

So Sermon on the Mount is a mirror.

It shows us exactly who we are, and if we're honest, that mirror leaves us with a problem that we just can't solve.

You cannot change, you can change your habits, but you cannot change your heart.

You can become more disciplined, you can become more religious.

None of those things can change what you actually love most.

Have you ever noticed that?

Have you ever caught yourself saying, I'm gonna worry less?

I'm gonna stop watching that thing, I'm gonna trust God a little bit more.

How long has that lasted?

A week, a month, six months?

Eventually you found yourself right back in the same spot.

Willpower can can modify your behavior, but it can't change your worship.

Only God can do that.

It's the crisis that Jesus leaves for us.

If the good life requires perfect treasure, perfect perspective, and perfect submission to God, we are screwed.

Can I say that?

Which means our greatest need isn't for more effort, our greatest need is for a savior.

And that's exactly what Jesus came to be.

None of us qualify.

The good news of Christianity, of our faith, has never been to try harder.

The good news is that there was one who lived the life that we couldn't, where we spent our lives storing up treasure.

Jesus treasured his father above everything else.

Matthew 4, 8, when Satan offered the kingdoms of the world to Jesus, world, our wealth, power, glory, an easier path, Jesus refused.

He knew there was a greater treasure.

Where we live with blurred vision, Jesus saw reality perfectly.

He never confused temporary things with eternal things.

He never sought significance from people.

He never found his identity and success or trusted money, comfort.

His eyes were always fixed on his father's kingdom.

We've resisted, where we have resisted God's rule, Jesus joyfully submitted to her.

Jesus could always say, I always do what pleases the Father.

Not my will, but your will be done.

Think about the contrast.

The first Adam stood in the garden surrounded by beautiful plants, everything that he could ever need.

Abundance.

And he reached for the one thing that God withheld.

Jesus stood in the garden knowing that suffering was only hours away, and he surrendered himself completely to his Father's will.

His perfect life was only part of the story because our greatest problem wasn't simply that we needed a better example, we needed someone to rescue us.

So on the cross, Jesus took the judgment that we deserved.

Every time we built our own kingdom instead of his, every act of rebellion.

Proving that our greatest treasure isn't something that we can earn.

It's a relationship with him.

That's the gospel.

In Christ, you found that treasure.

You'll still be tempted with things.

You obey because you've already received it.

I'm blind right now, guys.

That's what repentance is.

It's not simply turning away from sin, it's turning to a better treasure.

So practically, maybe that means in the morning you're reading your Bible.

Before you open your phone.

Maybe it means you can be generous instead of holding everything just a little bit tighter.

You don't have to be so insecure about your fun and your funds because you have someone who's gonna supply for your resources.

Maybe it means uh choosing integrity when you can cut corners.

You can finally rest, trusting that God is at work even when you aren't.

Those actions don't earn God's favor.

They're fruit.

So let me ask you the question that Jesus has been asking all my life.

What are you building your life for?

It's not his eternal kingdom.

Jesus is in body.

It's not because he wants less for you, it's because he has something infinitely better.

You don't gotta be perfect.

Just simply come.

The good life isn't found in having more, the good life is found in knowing Jesus Christ.

When you have him, you have a treasure that never needs.

Let's pray.

Father God, we're just so grateful for you.

So grateful for you.

That you would give your life for a broken people, an undeserving people, people who reject you consistently, people who choose their own desires over you.

Foolish.

God, we are so dumb.

Lord, we don't see clearly, and we need you to give us clear vision.

Lord, I ask that for this church body.

I ask that we would not be a people that desires to perform, desires to seek approval from other people.

God, but let us be agents.

Let us be agents when we go out into our work, into our communities.

Filled with your joy and glory, Lord.

Filled with a heart of abundance because of what you've done for us.

That we know that the King of the universe who's created all things looks down on us and says, Child, and is proud of us, that we might not seek approval in men who are fickle, but we would get our approval from you.

That desires would not be satisfied in the things that we can buy, that we would not try to pursue the empty treasures that this world offers us.

They're so tempting, they're so attractive.

God, but I just pray that you would give us a new perspective.

Let those things become dirt on our tongues, that it would not be attractive.

God, I pray that you would give us new desires, new hearts.

Help us to follow your truth.

Help us to follow the things that you tell us to follow and not what the world calls us to.

We love you.

Pray all these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.