Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Christian Hope and Money

Episode Date: April 17, 2023

There’s more emphasis in our culture on getting and spending money, on consuming goods, than in any culture in history. In his book, The Real American Dream: A Meditation on Hope, Andrew Delbanco says we’ve lost the sense that there’s something beyond this world, so we use money to distract ourselves from the fear that our lives aren’t going anywhere. Paul agrees with that, that what you believe your ultimate future to be will have a huge impact on how you use your money. In these two famous chapters in 2 Corinthians, Paul talks about money. He says there’s a way to use your money that will make your life an exciting story. If you want to have that, you have to see three things: 1) there is a problem, 2) there is a key to the problem, and 3) there is a power to use the key. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on May 2, 2004. Series: Living in Hope. Scripture: 2 Corinthians 8:8-15, 9:6-12. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Welcome to Gospel in Life. The way you live now, your present behavior and character, is determined in a large part by what you believe your ultimate future to be. And today's teaching Tim Keller explores how Christian Hope can transform our present behavior. After you listen, please take a few seconds to rate and review our podcast. Your review can help others to discover our podcast and experience the hope of the gospel. Now here's today's teaching from Dr. Keller. The reading for today is taken from the book of

Second Corinthians, chapters eight and nine. I'm not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that you, through His poverty, might become rich. And here is my advice about what is best for you in this matter.

Last year, you were the first not only to give, but also to have the desire to do so. Now, finish the work so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means. For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have.

Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time, your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn, their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality as it is written. He who gathered much did not have too much and he who gathered little did not have too little. Remember this, whoever soes sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever soes generously will also reap generously.

Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver, and God is able to make all grace abound to you so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written, He has scattered abroad His gifts to the poor, His righteousness and deers forever. His righteousness and deers forever. Now, He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way

so that you can be generous on every occasion and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God's people, but it is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. This is the Word of the Lord. We're doing a series on hope. Andrew Dombanca, who teaches at Columbia University, wrote a book about four or five years ago called the Real American Dream, a meditation on hope. And in it, he says, human beings need to organize the incoherit sensations amid which we pass

our days, pain, desire, pleasure, fear into a story. When that story actually leads somewhere, and thereby helps us to navigate through life to our inevitable death, it gives us hope. Now, see what he's saying, is your life a story that leads somewhere, or is it just one thing after another? Is it just a sequence of inco-it sensations, or is it have a point? Is it going somewhere? Does it accomplish something? No one can live without feeling like your life isn't just a sequence but a story. But then he goes on and says this, I will use the word culture to mean the stories and symbols by which we try to hold back the melancholy suspicion that we live in a world without meaning. Like that. I will

use the word culture to mean the stories and symbols by which we try to hold back the melancholy suspicion that we live in a world without meeting, that there is no story. We must, he says, imagine some end to life that transcends our own tiny allotment of days if we are to escape the lurking suspicion that all are getting and spending amounts to nothing more than fidgeting while we wait for death. Now here's what he's saying in the book. As a big point of the book is that in our culture we have lost a sense that there's a God or that there's transcendence or there's something beyond this world.

And as a result, there is more emphasis in our culture on getting and spending money, on consuming goods than in any culture and history. But we don't, he says, use all this money. I mean, why? Why are we driven to do that? We don't use the money to go somewhere, to accomplish something. We're not going anywhere.

We're sitting and fidgeting with it. And by that, he means we use money to hide from ourselves, to distract ourselves from the fear that our lives aren't a story. They're not going anywhere. It's just a series of incoherent sensations. Now Paul agrees with that that what you believe your ultimate future to be will have a huge impact on how you use your money.

But Paul, in these very famous two chapters, even though we only printed a couple of them, a part of them, their two chapters, 2nd Corinthians 8 and 9, 39 verses, very long, with very famous, Paul talks about money and he says, there's a way to use your money to make your life an exciting story. There's a way to use your money to make your life an exciting story so that you know it's not just a series of incoherent sensations. But if you want to have that, you have to see three things.

That there's a problem, there's a key to the problem, and there's a power to use the key. There's a problem, there's a key to the problem, and there's a power to use the key. There's a problem, there's a key to the problem, and there's a power to use the key. The first is the problem. Now, what do we mean by that? Well, what is the situation here that Paul was addressing? If I had read, if we had printed out and read the entire two chapters, you would know that Paul was urging the Corinthian church, the church of Corinth to participate in a collection. There had been a devastating famine in Judea, and Paul was going to all the churches in Asia and in Greece,

and he was seeking to have all of them participate in a collection to give money to the devastated victims of this famine. But what's important to see is verse eight, the top of chapter 8 verse 8, where Paul says, I am not commanding you to do this. I'm not commanding you to do this. Now, that is very significant. And I want to reflect on that for a second and then ask what that means. It's very significant. He does not as an apostle, he does not say, you must.

It's very significant. He does not as an apostle, he does not say, you must. Over and over and over and over again, he says in various ways, I want you to want to do this. I don't order you, I want you to want to do this. So, you know, in chapter 8 verse 11, he says, I wanna see eager willingness. Then in chapter 9 verse 7, he says, I don't want you to do with reluctance or compulsion,

I want you to want this. I'm not going to tell you to do it, I only want you to do it if you really want to. Now, to see the importance of this, let's compare this to some other area of Christian ethics. You see, generous giving has always been a standard for the people of God, all through the Bible. But so have other things like, for example, sexual purity. Can you imagine Paul writing a group of people saying, I'm not going to command you to be sexually faithful to your spouse as I only want you to be faithful to your spouse as if

you really want to? Of course, he'd never do that. Well, why is he doing it here? And what this reveals is that unlike some other areas, unlike some other sins like impurity or adultery, greed and materialism has got no absolutely certain external behavioral referent. Now, there is no one external kind of behavior. There's no level of gift or level of money or level of spending that says,

if you're over that, you're greedy, if you're under that, you're generous, or if you're over that, you're generous, you're under that, you're greedy. There is no place like that. Over the years, as a pastor, people have come to me many, many times and said, I've got a problem with lust. Never, ever, ever has anyone come to me and said, pastor, I've got a problem with lust. Never, ever, ever has anyone come to me and said, Pastor, I've got a problem with greed. It's never happened.

And yet the Bible warns against greed at least 10 to 20 times more than it warns against lust. Now what does that mean, class? It means if there must be a lot more of a danger, greed is a bigger danger than lust. Yet we must be many times less aware of it in ourselves. And the reason is because, again, no behavioral reference. Paul is over and over and over again in here saying,

greed versus generosity is a matter of your heart. It's a matter of the emotions, it's a matter of the attitude. It's not a matter of your heart. It's a matter of the emotions, it's a matter of the attitude. It's not a matter of the gift. A widow's might, a tiny gift can be an active radical generosity, but a huge gift might just be a heart's effort to hide its own greed from itself. You say, well, of course there's standards. What about the tie? There's a true historically that the scripture has said that people have gotten us tied, give 10% of their income away to charity, to the church, to others? And the answer is, in Luke 12, if you're really careful, and we actually looked at this

about a year ago, Jesus criticizes the Pharisees for only tithing because they were so well off that the tith really didn't even feel it. See, there is no way you can look at a standard, there's no reference. With adultery, impurity, there's a behavior and you know if you're doing it. It's genital intimacy. With greed, you don't have that. You don't know where you've gone over the line, you know, into greed or materialism, and therefore, you can't see it. It's all a matter of your motivations. It's all a matter of your heart. Jesus says in Luke 12 verse 15, he says,

beware of all forms of greed. Now, what is he saying? He's saying, watch out for all the different forms that greed can take. Now, what is it, the implication of that? The implication, it's hard to see. In fact, we hardly ever see it, because it's ultimately a matter of the heart.

Paul, commentators have noticed something interesting. Paul, through this chapter, chapter eight and nine, through very long chapters, 39 verses, it's the longest place where Paul ever talks about money. He's talking about money incessantly, but if you read it carefully, you realize he talks about money over and over and over and never again never uses the word. He never uses the word money or even a synonym for money. Now that is too hard to do for it not to be deliberate.

So what was he doing it for? To say it's not the checkbook. It is the heart, or put it like this. If this is true, then Paul's definition of a generous heart is a frightening thing. Because the only way you really know whether you're generous or greedy, whether you're greedy and materialistic or not, is not so much

by how much you're giving to who. It is by the emotions, the motivation, the attitude you feel towards your money. It has to do with, well, look, for example, look at verse 8, if you want to see what Paul considers the normal Christian heart, verse 8 says, I'm not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others. Okay, two terms there. Who are the others he's talking about? Well in chapter 8 verses 1 to 4, he talks about the fact that Macedonian churches, who

were in much poorer towns, had already given. And he says this, this is chapter 8 verses 1 to 4. Now brothers, we want you to know the grace of God that was given the Macedonian churches. Out of the most severe trial, they're overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testified that they gave as much as they were able and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service. Now, when Paul says, he uses that example and then he says,

I want to test the sincerity of your love. Notice he doesn't say money. He says, love. The word sincerity is not a synonym for the word intensity. He's not saying, I want to see how much your love you love. I want to see just how committed you are. No, the word sincerity means truth, trueness, reality. He is not talking about when he looks at these Macedonians

who have done this already. He is not looking at them as some kind of super spiritual. He says that's normal, that's not above and beyond. That's just normal. That just means they actually have the grace of God in their lives. So what is the definition of a generous heart? It's there in verse 8, let me put it like this. The definition of a generous heart is someone who's got such a joyous, assertive, proactive desire to seek out ways to give your money away, that you do it and do it and do it until it makes a measurable difference in the very way

in which you're able to live economically. And not till then. A generous heart is one that joyously, because this is the example of the Macedonians, joyously, proactively, aggressively, is looking for ways to give away your money and you don't stop at some 5% to 3% temper, that you don't stop until it's made a measurable difference

in the way you're able to live your life, where you're able to eat, where you're able to go on vacation, how you live. You don't stop till then, and you like it, because until that is the way your heart operates, you can't be sure you're not greedy for materialistic because it matter the heart. So there's the problem.

It's invisible to us. And real generosity, normal generosity, according to Paul, is something that is really, really pretty much beyond what most of us experience. So there's a problem. Is that a problem? Some of you are saying, why did I come today? It's cold and rainy.

I could have slept in. I don't want to. I just want you to be like, it gets, the sermon gets better after this. It actually is more positive. Okay. So there is a problem. And right away, it leads to the question, well, I'm waiting for this, this is such an invisible problem to us.

We can't even see it. How in the world do you even work on it? And the answer is the key. We said there's a problem. The second thing you need to see here is there's a key to dealing with the key. We said there's a problem. The second thing you need to see here is there's a key to dealing with the problem. And the key, well, I mean, before I just, instead of just saying it, I'll say it later, but the key is revealed in the middle of the passage where it's verse 13, 14 and 15 of chapter 8. Paul gives an illustration out of the Old Testament.

When he says, our desire is not that others may be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there may be equality. At the present time, your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn, their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality. As it is written, and here he quotes from Exodus chapter 16, he who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too much and he who gathered little did not have too little. Now, when he quotes from Exodus 16, he is evoking an incident that happened in the life of the children of Israel.

They were in the wilderness, and the wilderness could not give through hunting and agriculture, they couldn't support themselves, so God sent Manna. And the man appeared on the ground every morning and it had to be gathered. Now the simple fact was, as you know, since gathering manna was a physical action, that not everybody was able to gather the same. Some people were able to gather faster or gather more than others.

But Exodus 16 tells us that no matter how much you gathered, if you gathered twice as much as somebody else, it was pooled and everybody got what the family needed. Now when Paul quotes that passage and applies it to the Corinthians now, that means a lot. It means that Paul considers that passage the way in which they dealt with the manna

to be a setting of abiding principles for how we are supposed to look at our money. That man, some people gathered more, some people gathered less. It was pooled so that basically every family got what was needed. And if you hordered it, do you remember this? If you tried to hold on to it and hordered it beyond what your daily needs were, it rotted maggots. Now, why would Paul be evoking this? Or what part of it? What does Paul trying to say to us? Several things. Paul is first of all saying,

number one, you must look at your money. The money you earn as much as a gift of God as the man who was a gift to the Israelites. You see what's interesting about the metaphor? Of course, you went out there and you worked in order to gather the man. was a gift to the Israelites. You see what's interesting about the metaphor? Of course, you went out there and you worked in order to gather the manna, but the fact the manna was there was a gift of God. So you couldn't say, I have earned this manna with my hard work. See now we, you and I, we tend to say,

I've worked hard for what I have. And therefore what I have is mine. Wait a minute, non-sequitur. I've worked hard for what I had, yes, that's true. But let me just suggest that if God had had you be born on a mountain top and to bet in the 12th century rather than in the particular situation into which you were born, all the hard work in the world wouldn't have gotten you what you've got. In other words, the money you earn is as much a gift.

It's a gift, it's not yours, that's the first thing. Secondly, though, and this is where it gets threatening. By Paul quoting this passage, what he is saying is that the money you keep, if it's much beyond the amounts that other people keep, it will rot your soul. If the money you spend on yourself is much beyond your basic needs, it will fill your spiritually with maggots. Why is there so much pain and suffering in the world?

And how do we handle it in a way that won't destroy us, but could actually make us stronger and wiser? Those are the questions Tim Keller explores in his book, Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering. The book doesn't provide easy answers, but is instead both a deeply theological and incredibly personal look at how we can face pain and suffering. Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering is our thank you for your gift to help Gospel and Life share the hope of the Gospel with people all over the world.

So request your copy today at gospelandlife.com slash give. That's gospelandlife.com slash give. Now here's Tim Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. Now someone says, well that's interesting, but how do you know? I mean, how would I know? I'm keeping too much. How do I know? And the answer is, and this is the key, the reason why the gatherers who went out to get

their mana were able to know how much to give away or how much to receive or how much to keep was not that they didn't go out with an abstract thing. They didn't get out with a cup and say, okay, everybody, everybody go out there and you get one cup and then that's it and then you go home. You gathered as much as you could, you came back and divided it up because you saw what other, you were in community. You were in community. One of the reasons why no one feels greedy.

One of the reasons why no one ever feels that they spend too much money on themselves, never why it's invisible to you. Even though obviously according to the Bible, we've got a big problem here. But the reason none of us ever think so is because of who we hang out with. I make a little more money. I can get my kids into another school,

and suddenly I'm hanging out with other parents whose kids are in that school. I can move into another neighborhood. I'm hanging out with people in the neighborhood. I can go to certain hotels, I get into certain clubs, and next thing you know, I'm hanging out with people who make what I make, and also 10 times what I make, and 20 times what I make.

And therefore, nobody ever feels, ever feels, like you're spending too much money because of who you're hanging out with. But what if you did with Paul is suggesting? What if you located yourself radically in the whole body of Christ? Now, here's an advantage that the Christian has over maybe somebody else.

If you moved the city, who are you gonna hang out with, who are you gonna spend your time with, who are you gonna compare yourself to? Probably, you know, if you've moved here to take a job in law, you going to hang out with, who are you going to spend your time with, who are you going to compare yourself to, probably? You know, if you've moved here to take a job in law, you're going to hang out with the lawyers. If you've moved here to kick job and fat you hang out. But you see, here's the great thing. If you're a Christian, the whole body of Christ, all the churches of the city, will represent every strata of society.

And there are ways to involve yourself with the whole body of Christ's ways to pray with them. There's ways to serve them. There's ways to get involved with them. There's ways. And if you do, I can guarantee you, it's gonna have a radically different effect on how you look at the way in which you give and keep your money than if you only have knob

with communities of people who make what you make or more. It all depends on community. it all depends on community. There's no abstract way to find out whether you're generous or greedy. It depends on involving yourself with real people and a variety of people. And when you're spending time, when you're getting to know people, really know them personally, not just seeing them, you know, sweeping for you, but know them personally, it's going to have a huge effect on how you look at your money. Or there's another way to look at it.

When you, somebody says, well, if there's no way for me to know if I'm generous or greedy, I guess it's up to me. No, it's not. Find some other Christians who are really spurred to the mature. Obviously, not many, because they're going to do with you and you're going to do with them, and tell them what you make, and tell them what you're spending your money on, and show them and say, do you think I could give way more? And if anybody out there says, I would never do anything like that, so throw away the key, you got the problem. The key to the problem is community.

Who you hang out with has an enormous impact on the way in which you look at your hard and understand whether you're generous or whether you're greedy or materialistic. And unless you look at yourself deeply in community, you will never know. You will stay blind. So there's the problem and there's the key. Ready? Gonna go do it? And the answer is, this is hard. This is a hard thing you have asked of me.

You're standard for generosity, it's hard. Not by the way, it's Paul standard, not my standard. Don't beat the messenger up. I'm just bringing you the word of God. And it's not my standard, you know, don't beat the messenger up. I'm just bringing you the word of God. And it's not my opinion. It's not, it's not my opinion. So there's the problem and there's the key, but where do you get the power to do this?

I can't just send you out at this point. Where do you get the power to do this? And the answer is, though, as a little subtle, you have to look for it, are hope in the future. See, the problem is the heart heart and the key is the community. But the power to use the key is the future hope through Jesus Christ. Look at chapter 9, the second part of the passage. Remember this, whoever so sparingly will also reap sparingly.

Now, what Jesus is saying, or what Paul is saying here, is that you should think of your money as seed. It's a great metaphor. He says, we all know that the more seed you put onto the field, the more of a harvest will come up, right? And so he's saying, the more you're able to give, the more charitable, the more you're able to give your money away, the greater the harvest. Now what's the harvest? That's the question. And when you first look at it, of course, it does seem to include that God is going to take care of you,

but don't forget, it's certainly you cannot turn this into what they call the prosperity doctrine. That the more money I give away, the more money I'll make, because you notice, even in verse 8, it says, and God is able to make all grace about you so that in all things having all you need, it doesn't say he's going to give you everything you want. It it's only basically meet your needs. That's all it's promising there The harvest is not that the harvest is in verse 10

He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store seed will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness Now when you first look at that Because our in English our word righteousness is a negative word, right? In English we almost never use the word except negatively. And when we do use it we're thinking of personal moral goodness and it looks like it's saying if you give your money away then that will make you a righteous and decent and morally good person. No. It might mean that but

sometimes the word righteousness can mean that in the Bible, but because he quotes Psalm 112, because he quotes the place where it's talking about a man, which it says he has scattered, brought his gifts to the poor and his righteousness and doers forever, if you go back to Psalm 112, you can see what that righteousness is. Now, if you go, it's probably it's a wonderful Psalm. And if you would go home and read it, you'll see the righteousness that's being spoken of, the man that's being described, is a man who is using his money to re-weave creation.

Re-weave? Yeah. The rich and the poor are falling away from each other. Our bodies are falling apart. The creation falls apart. Things fall apart. The center cannot hold that famous line. But what this man is doing is he's putting money

into the poor to lift up the poor. He's putting money into the hungry so that they don't die. Over and over throughout the passage, through Psalm 112, it talks about him doing justice, compassion, giving freely. And finally it says he gives a scatters abroad his gifts to the poor, his righteousness. Now it's talking about the way in which he uses his money, which means he uses

his power. Your money is your power. I mean if you have any money to the degree of money, to the degree of some power, he uses his money and his power to re-weave creation instead of just spending on himself. And then it says, and this righteousness endures forever. Now when you read that, you might think, oh, that's just a rhetorical flourish, right? That's an exaggeration. His righteousness can't endure forever. He's going to die. It's not an exaggeration. Because in 2 Peter 3-13 we read,

we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. A new heavens and new earth filled with this kind of righteousness? Yeah. If you read Psalm 1-12 and see what he's doing and what righteousness means there, and then you read 2 Peter 3 3 13 that promises that the future world is a world filled with righteousness. That doesn't mean a bunch of people going to church. No, now you know what it means. It means a world in which everything broken has become whole.

Everything unraveled has been rewoven and knit together. Everything sad has become untrue. You see, for example, right now in the New Heaven's New Earth, God and human beings will be finally knit together. So there'll be no more spiritual alienation or rebellion. Race and race, nation and nation will be knit together. You see, there'll be rewoven. It won't be any more war.

It won't be any more war, won't be any more poverty, psychologically, who you'd most long to be and who you actually are, finally, will be knit together, and you won't be hand happy anymore. And your body, your molecule, you know, it's wrong with us right now, don't you know? You're literally, your molecules are falling apart. You're sagging, you're getting older. You're dying, we're all decaying, but not in the new heavens and new earth.

Finally, our molecules will be knit together. Permanently, there will be no sickness, no disease, no death, not even any, there won't even be unsightlyness. You'll finally be beautiful. New heavens, new earth. That's the future. That's the righteousness, this, wait a minute,

that's the harvest of righteousness that our money can give us now, yes, because what Paul is saying is that you and I must do with our money, what Jesus did with his miracles. You and I must do with our power, what Jesus did with his power, what did he do with his miracles? Think about it.

When Jesus did miracles, he never simply was doing a naked display of power to impress people. Did he ever see Jesus say, hey, you see that tree over there 100 feet away? Watch, I can uproot it. See? Now, watch me make it to a summer salt.

I guess you know I'm a divine person. Never. His miracles, he healed the sick. He fed the hungry. He, he healed the sick. He fed the hungry. He gave oil to the poor. He gave cleansing to the leper and the outcast. He gave sight to the blind.

Why? I mean, why not? There aren't the better ways to display who he is. He wasn't here to tell us just who he is. He was here to tell us what he came to do. His story of his life, his purpose, his mission. What is his story? His life is leading somewhere. What is his story? What is his life is leading somewhere?

What is his purpose? He's going somewhere to the new heavens and new earth where in dwell of righteousness. He has come so that all of the signs of his miracles are signs of that hope. So when Jesus Christ did miracles like that, that showed that he's no more happy with this world than you and I are.

His miracles point back to the Garden of Eden, the way God wanted it. No one hungry, no one blind, no one oppressed, no one dead. But more than that, his miracles point forward. His miracles are a sign of the coming Kingdom our future hope where there will be finally No one poor no one hungry no one oppressed and no one dead and Now do you believe that? Do you believe that that's coming? Are you utterly sure that that's the future that's coming to you? Then when you use your money you put yourself into Jesus' story

to you. Then when you use your money, you put yourself into Jesus' story. When you use your money to do ministry, you're knitting God and people together. When you use your money into the poor, you're knitting the social fabric together. You're knitting bodies together. It's a much smaller way than the way Jesus did it. It's a much less dramatic way than way Jesus did it. But see what happens is because you know that that's coming. If you're certain of that, then suddenly your money isn't a way of fidgeting.

It's not a way of just kind of distracting yourself from the fear that maybe my life is just a sequence of incoherit sensation, is not going anywhere. Now your money makes you part of Jesus' story. Your money is a sign of the coming kingdom, the more you give it away, the more you put it into reweaving the fabric of creation. The more your money is given away, the more it's a sign, and your whole life is a sign of the new heavens and new earth we're in dwell righteousness. That's the harvest, your money can have now. Well, you say, well, this is all dependent on really believing that this is true, and I'm

not even sure. How can I know that that's the future that's coming? How can I be sure that that's what's coming? If you want to be sure the future, look to the past, where we read this, Jesus Christ, you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that you, through his poverty, might become rich. Here's what happened on the cross.

How can Jesus create this new heavens and new earth? No more oppression. No more outcasts. No more death. When so much the oppression and outcastness and death is our fault. How can he wipe out evil without wiping out us? On the cross, we see it right here. He can make us rich because he became poor.

He can liberate us because he became oppressed. He can make us alive because he became dead. And this is the reason why Paul can say, I am not commanding you. You know what I'm saying? He says, if you know what Jesus did for you, if you knew the future he secured for you, then you will want to do this. And he says, if you don't want to do this,

if you don't experience joy in giving, he says, I'm not gonna tell you do it anyway. He says, go look at your foundations. Find out whether God is your vendor or your savior. Look to see whether you're relating him to get him to serve you or be, or that you have gotten into a relationship to serve him out of grateful joy for what your, what your, his son Jesus did.

Jesus Christ is the unique treasure. Do you know the last verse of chapter 15, I've, it's chapter 9 verse 15, the last verse of this whole passage, Paul suddenly cries out and says, thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift, his indescribable gift, Jesus. Jesus is the ultimate gift, Jesus is the ultimate treasure,

and here's why he's so ultimate. Every other treasure you have to purchase, Jesus is the only treasure that purchased you. Every other treasure you're gonna have to go to the mat to get, Jesus is the only treasure that went to the mat for you. And when he was in the garden saying, Father, I don't want to go to hell. But for their sake, I sanctify myself. For their sake, I lay myself out.

What Jesus was saying is, I treasure them. And they are so valuable to me that I'll spend myself and go to hell. If it takes hell, I want them. Now, if Jesus is that ultimate treasure and Jesus treasured you in the most ultimate way, Paul is simply saying, if you know that, you are gonna have a completely different approach

to your money and here's why. Your money will no longer be your hope. It will be a sign of your why, your money will no longer be your hope. It will be a sign of your hope. Your money will no longer be your hope. It won't be the thing that makes you feel secure in the world. If you're afraid to give away your money, it's your hope. If you're afraid to give away your money,

it's your significance. But if you see what Jesus has done for you, he has secured your significance, he has secured your security. And if that's the case, then no longer is your money or your hope. Your money becomes a sign of your hope. The new heavens and new earth. We're in 12th righteousness and you're part of his story.

You know, God sort of says to us, look at what happened when my son made himself poor. Look at what's going on in your life. Look at what happened when Jesus sowed his power. Let go of his wealth, impoverished himself. Look at the harvest already. Look at the righteousness. Look at the richness. Look at what's happened to you. Look what's happened to me. It's already begun. Now go and do likewise. Let us pray. Father, make Jesus sacrifice how He treasured us

and how He is the ultimate treasure. Real door hearts now, as we offer up ourselves to you. We ask that you would help us to be people who because of this life-shaping certainty, this hope of the future, it changes the way in which we use sex, money, and power, it changes the way in which we relate to other races and classes and nations. We want to be radically different in accord with the radical grace that you have given us. We pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Thank you for joining us today. We hope you'll continue to join us throughout this month as we look at the uniqueness of the hope Christ offers. If you are encouraged by today's podcast, please rate and review it so more people can discover the hope and joy of Christ's love. Thank you again for listening. the hope and joy of Christ's love. Thank you again for listening. This month's sermons were recorded in 2004 and 2008. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017, while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church. you