Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - How Money Makes Us Orphans

Episode Date: December 29, 2023

Jesus addresses our worry about money.  We are in the grips of anxiety about money, about what we will eat, about what we will drink, where we will live, whether we can make the rent. We are in deep anxiety. Jesus comes to us and says, “Stop it!” But he’s a surgeon, not a sergeant. He goes underneath and says, “Let me show you why. Let me help you out.”  Jesus teaches us 1) that money makes us deeply anxious, 2) why money makes us deeply anxious, and then 3) how to break the power of money. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 23, 1997. Series: Stewardship, Generosity and Money. Scripture: Luke 12:22-34. 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.

Money can be an uncomfortable subject for many of us, so you may be surprised to know that Jesus spends a good bit of time in the Gospels talking about it. Why was the subject of money so important to Jesus? And what does it mean for our lives today? Today on Gospel and Life, Tim Keller explores how the hope of Christ transforms the way we view our finances. After you listen, please go online to GospelandLife.com and sign up for our email updates. When you sign up, you'll start receiving our quarterly newsletter with articles written

by Dr. Keller as well as other great Gospel-centered resources. Subscribe today at GospelOnLife.com The subject, which we're looking at for two weeks in a row, what Jesus Christ says about our money and our possessions, this is Luke 12, 22 to 34. Then Jesus said to his disciples, 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. Consider the ravens, they do not sew or reap, they have no storeroom or barn yet God feeds

them. And how much more valuable are you than birds? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life, since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest? And consider the lilies, how they grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you not even Solomon and all this splendor was dressed like one of these. Now if that is how God closed the grass of the field, which is here today and the mar

was thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, oh you of little faith? And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink, do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after these things, and your father knows that you need them, but seek his kingdom and these things will be given to you as well.

Do not be afraid little flock. For your father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. This is God's Word. Now, this could not be a more concrete subject. Jesus is addressing, worry about money. It couldn't be more specific.

This couldn't be more down to earth. He is addressing the fact that we tend to be anxious about money, about making ends meet, about our career, but in particular about the necessities of life. We worry about money, and that's what this subject is, but all Jesus is not a drill sergeant when it comes to subjects like this. Some years ago I heard a pastor, a friend of mine, Frank Barker, and he was speaking, and he was poking fun at himself about what an insensitive husband he'd been

in his younger years. And he said, he related that in his early years of his marriage, his wife got very depressed, I think was right after their first child. And he says, boy, I pulled out all the stops. And he says, and I got no results. Every single day I did everything I could, I would go into her and say, Barbara, buck up.

He says, but nothing helped. Now, there is nothing worse when you are in the grips of an emotion and anxiety. You have somebody just come in and say, stop it. But Jesus does not come to us and we are in the grips of anxiety about money, about what we will eat, about what we will drink, where we will live, whether we can make the rent, the house payment. We are in deep anxiety and Jesus does come to us and say, stop it, but he's a surgeon, he's not a sergeant.

He doesn't just come and say, stop it, buck up. Instead, he goes underneath and he says, let me show you why. And let me help you. Let me go down underneath and help you out. Well, let's see how he does it. His teaching is here he teaches us that money makes us deeply anxious and then he teaches us why money makes us deeply anxious. And then last of all, he shows us how we can break the power of money to do that in our life. That we're anxious about it, why we're anxious, and how to break the power of it.

Okay, first of all, that. And you know where you get that from? Look, in verse 22, he says, and then he turned to his disciples. Now, if you were here last week, and even if you weren't, I'll tell you, last week Jesus Christ was confronted with a question by a man of means, a man with an inheritance. And he was asking a question about money, and he had money. And Jesus responds with a parable of the rich fool.

In other words, he responds to a man of means with a story about a man of means. And so he's talking to people with money, but now he turns to his disciples and his disciples are not people with money. His disciples are working class or poor people basically. And these are people who have no money and actually are in a position of always being worried about making ends meet.

And yet instead of turning away from the subject are in a position of always being worried about making ends meet. And yet instead of turning away from the subject of the spiritual dangers of money, he goes along with 12 more verses of the hardest hitting teaching on that subject. Now why? Well, what he's saying is, what the most important teaching we get from this is that it's either through the presence or the absence or anything in between. The presence of money or the absence of money, either way, money can distort your life.

You are not free from the distortive power of money just because you don't have any. Money has an ability to blind you and control you and corrupt you, whether you've got it, whether you've not had it, or whether you've got something in the middle. Look, it's very easy, especially for people who don't have much money to see how those people who live in the presence of it are blinded, interrupted, and controlled by it. It's so easy to see when money is present, how it does that. Just on the front page of the New York Times this week, did you notice there was an interesting article about the fact that after many years of trying, the United States got 27 countries, but only 27 countries, to finally agree that it's a

crime for a business leader from one country to bribe a far and official of another country in order to get access to the markets. Up to now, bribery wasn't a crime. And the reason the article said that it's been so hard to get most countries to come around, and many countries still won't do it, is this is what they said. It was right in there. It's that said, listen, when you get public officials in the presence of money, they're just going to be corrupted. That's the way it is. I mean, the idea of even trying to make it a crime isn't going to stop. They said, why even try?

It's not going to stop it. Money corrupts us. They just assumed that people were going, businesses were going to come into their countries, not businesses that necessarily serve the interests of the people, but businesses that line the pockets of the officials. It was just assumed. And you know what many of the people that agreed, many of the countries that agreed, yeah,

will make this a crime. Still think this is ridiculous. It's never going to stop. And you know what? They're right. I was also reading an article actually that's addressed to us baby boomer types. Because for the next 10, 20 years, a lot of baby boomers are going to lose their parents and a lot of wills are going to be open and it was a fascinating and frightening article

on case after case after case, horror story after horror story, a family in which you have brothers and sisters that really were very close to each other and really loved each other. And over the inheritance and over the will, their relations are poison forever. And we've all seen this. So look, those are just two little illustrations of something we know. When you get in the presence of money, money corrupts, money blinds, money controls, money destroys.

Ah, but somebody says, yeah, people who live around money, people with money, I'm just a working person, I'm just a person always making ends meet. And what Jesus is trying to say is, when he turns to his disciples and keeps talking about money, he's trying to say, you are just as much distorted. The very absence of money, through your anxiety over it,

you too are being controlled. Look at verses 29 and verse 30. What does he say there? In verse 29, verse 30, look at how he puts it. Do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink. Do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after these things. And here's the test.

Is it the natural drift of your heart to worry about money? Is it the pattern? Of course, everybody has to worry about it sometimes when there's a crisis But is it a pattern in your life? Do you run after these things? What does that mean? It doesn't just mean it means you overwork It means that you're you tend to be absorbed it tends to you tend to worry you're always taking your financial temperature You're always worried You're running. You're absorbed.

You're anxious. You're bothered. And what does he say? If you are, you set your heart. If you are, it's got you. You see that? If you are, it has you. And you know what's interesting,

up in the first passage that we looked at last week, it talks about, it says, life is not possessions, but down here, what does Jesus say? Verse 23, life is not eating and drinking. Even the necessities, we're not talking about mansions, we're not talking about fur coats, we're not talking about sports cars. Jesus Christ says, if you were, even over the necessities of life, this is something that can just absolutely control and blind you. One of the most interesting things that I found in reading the whole chapter, which we

aren't looking at, the all of chapter 12, is birds are brought up twice. In chapter 12, verses 6 to 10, when Jesus is talking about persecution and the dangers of persecution, he talks about birds. He says, little birds falling out of the ground, don't worry if father cares about them. And then when he talks about money and worry, he says, little birds, even though they're living out there, they won't starve. God cares about them. And one commentator I read was amazing to me. He said, he realized what's going on here. Jesus Christ is concerned for his flock. And what are you saying is, by this parallelism, it

says, one thing that can destroy your faith, one thing that can knock you off of spiritual reality, one of the things that can make you live faithless to God is being thrown into a dungeon and being threatened with your life in some totalitarian dictatorship, but But every bit as powerful a force in knocking you off center and blinding you to spiritual reality and making you faithless is the worry over your money. And it's just to be working and to be busy and to be absorbed and to be afraid. It's amazing. The totalitarian threat of persecution and just the worry of money, he says, either way, it doesn't matter where you are, whether you're richer or whether you're poor somewhere in between. If money can make you anxious, it's got you.

That's the first thing it teaches. Now, secondly, though, see, Jesus is a surgeon, and what I mean is, if he just stopped, if he just said, don't you see your anxious over money, don't you see how it's got you. Now, if he stopped, what will we be doing? We'd have to say, I have to stop that. That's right. See, maybe somebody's out there saying, you know, I always thought of rich people as greedy people.

Now I'm beginning to realize that money has as much control over me if I worry about it, even though I don't have it. I've got to stop it. Buck up. But see, that's not good enough. And Jesus Christ is a surgeon, and surgeons have to do two things. First of all, they have to open you up. They have to get down.

They have to get inside where the trouble is. And that's what He does here. Because not only does He tell us that money makes us anxious, He tells us why, and He gives us two reasons. Now, there's actually an overarching reason, but he breaks it down. Here's the overarching reason. It's in verse 30. In verse 30 says, the pagans run after these things, but you have a father.

Now listen, pagans had gods. Of course, pagans had gods. Not all of them did, but by and large. Some of them had gods who were creators. Some of them had gods who were creators. Some of them had gods who were kings, princes. Some had gods, a god who was a comprehensive force. They had gods. Jesus says, the reason you're worried about money, though, is that you're acting as if

you don't have a father. You're forgetting he's a father. You're forgetting who this god is. You're forgetting who this God is. You're forgetting who the real God is. And therefore, what God Jesus is saying is, you're looking to money to give you what only a father or a mother, what only a parent can give you. Look at the two illustrations. Birds and lilies or flowers. And the two illustrations are extremely interesting. The first illustration, he says, look, see the birds, why are you worried about money?

You are more verse 24, valuable than they. And then down at the next one, which has to do with flowers, he says, look, the flowers are up and over. They're gone real quick, because actually in that arid time, wild flowers actually, some of many of them actually did only bloom for a day. But here's the point, the two points. On the one hand, what he's saying is, one of the reasons why we worry about money is because money is a place, money is a place where we try to convince ourselves that we're valuable. People who worry over money don't know that they are valuable, and they're looking to

money to make them valuable. They're looking to money to make them feel that I'm a worthy person. Don't you see how this can affect you whether you have money or you don't have money? If you have money or you're growing in your income, it is so easy to start to say, I am savvy, I am with it, I'm a cutting-edge person. And if you are not having money and if you're not getting money, it's so easy to start to say, I'm an inadequate person. But you see, it's the same sin.

Many, many years ago, Jonathan Edwards actually wrote an essay on giving and charity and one of the things that struck me, he wrote this 250 years ago. He says, some of the most wonderful people, people with the greatest character, some of the greatest people who have ever lived the face of the earth did not have a lot of common sense about money. And some of the nastiest, most ridiculously messed up people on the inside were incredibly good at managing money. And you see, if Jesus Christ says,

life is not food and drink, what does He mean? I'll tell you what your life is. I'll tell you what makes you worthwhile. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, integrity, humility, self-control. And those things have nothing to do with money. Not necessarily. Sometimes, love, joy, peace, and patience, kindness, goodness, integrity, humility, self-control, actually, sometimes it makes you money. Sometimes it makes you lose money. I mean, in other

words, that's just, you know, to use the Aristotelian, it's not the essence. It's only the accidents. You know, Aristotle says you have the essence and you have the accident. Accidentally, your character can bring money sometimes, but sometimes it can mean you can lose money. The essence of what is life, the essence of what makes you great, the essence of what makes you valuable, is not got to do with money. You know, the only part I liked, and the only part I even remember about that movie with Ted Danson and Jack Lemons some years ago called Dad's.

And at one point, the son asked Ted Danston the father, why did you leave mom and me? Why did you divorce us? Why did you leave us? And at first, he says, she was jealous of my career. She got in the way. And then finally, he looks to the ground and he says, making money made me feel like a man. So this is exactly what Jesus is saying. You're going to money to get value,

but then secondly, the flowers show that we're going to money to get safety, to feel like we last, to feel like we can control the environment. Ernest Becker, brilliant Pulitzer Prize-winning sociologist in his book, The Denial of Death, said, the reason people are stingy, the reason we have trouble giving away our money, the reason that we need money so much is we don't want to admit that we're going to be whisked away. We don't want to admit how broken and turbulent the world is,

money is our way of insulating ourselves, money is our way of controlling the environment, money is our way of insulating ourselves. Money is our way of controlling the environment. Money is our way of going to safety. Now we look to money for a deep sense of value. We look to money for a deep sense of safety. There are an awful lot of debates going on about what a family is, what the nature of a family is, but there's complete consensus that parents have got to give their children two things. You know what they are. Parents have got to love their children and give them a deep sense of their worth and

value. And number two, parents have got to protect their children and give them a deep sense of safety. And money comes to us and here's the power. Money comes to us and says, without the messiness of a relationship, I can get that for you. When the prodigal son is tired of the messiness of family life,

you see, the messiness of family life, he says, I'm tired of having to live with my father and my brother, I want to get out in the world, but where am I going to get my confidence? Where am I going to get my value? Where am I going to get my value? Where am I going to get my sense of safety? He says, give me the money. Give me the money.

Because money promises, it comes and seduces us and says, I can get it for you. You don't have to go to God, you don't have to go to a family. I can get it for you. I can make you know that you're valuable. I can give you a sense of safety and control in life. I can give you a sense that you can protect yourself. Without the messiness of a relationship or a real parent, I can give it to you.

Now listen, this makes us look at our lives in a whole different way, does it not? Some of you had a lousy parents. Some of you had no parents. I know a woman who once told us this story that she really was orphaned and she was raised by other relatives, and when she came into her inheritance, that money was her family.

She moved out saying, finally, now I know that I'm a valuable person, I have confidence, I can get out there in the world, but when anything now goes wrong with your money, you are ruined to the foundations, you're shaken to the foundations, and here's why, we are built for family love. The only love that will give you a deep sense of value

and the only love that will give you a deep sense of safety is family love and what is family love? Family love is love that never deserts you. Family love is absolutely counter conditional love. You know what that means? Family love is love that will always be there no matter what you've done or where you go. That's family love. You know what that means? Family love is love that will always be there no matter what you've done or where you go. That's family love. You know we know when somebody says family a family is a place where when you go no matter

what you've done they have to take you in. That's family love. Family love is absolutely consistent, absolutely counter-conditional, absolutely for you who you are and not for what you're giving. But money will absolutely desert you. Don't you see money promises you these two things? Money could never do that. Money will desert you like that. Money is not unconditional. You got to be very smart.

You got to be very, very lucky. You got to get the brakes. It's exactly the opposite. Money promises that it can give you, what only family love can give you. That you see that woman, she was literally an orphan, so she's a great illustration. But don't you see, you don't have to be literally an orphan for money to make you an orphan, for money to seduce you and pull you in and promise you these things and then make you spend all the rest of your life in incredible anxiety, living like an orphan, insecure, scared.

If I lose this, I lose myself. That's why Jesus says, Jesus is saying, don't just say, I got to stop worrying about money. Look and see what's going on. It's a substitution for a father. As you probably know, the end of the year is an important time for ministries like ours, and it's your generosity that allows us to continue to grow and show the gospel with more people. When I've spoken to others about the potential for gospel in life to reach

more people, they're encouraged that the good news of the gospel is going forward. Please join me in praying that God would move through the resources of gospel and life to transform the hearts and minds of more people all over the world in the coming year. Your support is vital to our ministry, and I ask you to prayerfully consider whether God is calling you to make a year-end gift to gospel in life. To make a gift, go to gospelandlife.com slash give. Again, that's gospelandlife.com slash give. Thank you for your generous support because the gospel truly changes everything everywhere.

Now, what can we do about it? How can we break the power of money in our lives? And you know, when I've read this thing, and I read this over and over and over again, there's a very complex interplay, I think, but actually, I think we can break it down this way. We said a surgeon in order to do surgeries to fix you. First of all, the surgeon has to go underneath. He has to open you up. He's got to go inside. He's got to get under the skin. He has to get down there. And we've already done that. But now, the other thing that a surgeon does, the two things surgeons do to

fix you down in there is the surgeon has to cut and has to mend. There are certain places there has to be cutting. Certain places we actually have to blow things apart. Take things away. Take things out. And there are other places where you have to blow things apart, take things away, take things out. And there's other places where you have to bring things together, where you have to mend, where you have to make whole. And what's intriguing to me is I see if we're going to be healed and we can be utterly, completely healed of this. There's two things we have to know and two things we have to do.

And the two things we have to know, one is cutting and one is mending. And the two things we have to do, I think one is cutting and one is mending too. But anyway, look, the two things you have to know, that you're not God, that's cutting and that you're children of God, and that's mending. Now look, these are two things that you have to screw down into your heart.

These are two things you have to pour over, you have to reflect on, you have to understand, you have to screw down into your heart. These are two things you have to pour over. You have to reflect on. You have to understand. You have to bring them all the way down deep. I'll show you how deep I mean. The first thing, and this is the cutting part. This is the place where Jesus is doing, I guess, the cutting part of surgery. Jesus actually almost takes you and shakes you and says, the reason you worry about money

is because money has played to your God complex. We all have a God complex, that's what sin is. We want to be our own God's, our own masters, our own Lord. We want to be the ones who give ourselves the value. We don't want to depend on somebody else for a sense of value, and we don't want to depend on somebody else for our sense of protection. So we're going to go out and do it ourselves. And therefore, listen, worry about money is always an aspiration to divine attributes. That's sort of a, sorry about those big words. It's an aspiration.

When you worry about money, you're trying to be God, and that's why you're worried. You're trying to have his attributes. You want divine attributes. Jesus gives you two of them. If you're worried about money, you're trying like crazy to be omnipotent and omniscient. See, in verse 25, he says, don't you see that all your worry cannot change a thing?

You can't add an hour, you can't add a minute, you can't add a second to your life. And this is what he's saying. You might lose your life. This is what he's saying. You might lose your job. You feel like you're out of control. Don't you say Jesus says the only thing that happens is the illusion that you were ever in control is the only thing that's changing. You've never been in control. It is not luck and it's not even hard work that's brought you to the place that you are. Through your word, you're trying to control the world. You're saying it's got to happen, it's got to happen, it's got to happen. Through your word, you're trying to get things to happen.

Jesus says it's never happened. You don't hold yourself up. You don't have that kind of power. Money has blinded you to that fact. Money actually has blinded you to the fact that God's been holding up all along. Money has blinded you to all the things that he's given you.

It has deluded you into thinking that you're in charge. And when something goes wrong to your money, what happens? Your money's deserting you. You're not losing control. What's happening is the delusion is over. Money's like an Oz machine, I think, oh, Ozzy, an Oz machine, remember, the little guy goes in there

and there's his Oz machine and it makes his head look real big and it projects this big voice and he speaks into the mic and he says, I am the great Oz. And you know, money is like an Oz machine. It makes you feel like a great Oz, but sometimes money will splutter, it will desert you, it will scare you.

And when it splutters, you're just a little guy behind the curtain. You know? Trying to reach over to the mic. I am the great oz, but the mic is leaving you. Look, worry over money is an aspiration to be God, and Jesus Christ is saying, you're not God. If you knew that, you wouldn't be worried.

If you reconciled to that, if you believed that. But not only do we try to be omnipotent, but we try to be omniscient, it says in verse 30, everybody else is running over these things, but your father was to say, your father knows, your father knows, try this on. If you're worried today, actually about anything, especially money, but if you're worried today about anything,

the premise behind your worry is, you know. You know how history has to go. You know exactly what has to happen for you to have a good life. You know. And the only reason you are worried is because you're absolutely convinced of that. There's no rational reason for that at all.

Look back at the rest of your life. Look, just go, sit down and read a history book. People don't know. You don't know. And the only reason that you are so dog on worried is because you're sure you know better than God, and I wonder whether God's going to get it straight. If you would stop trying to be God and money seduces you into trying, you'd be able to get over your anxiety, you need to know that, you need to screw that down.

But not only do we have to know that we're not God, but secondly, and really, the most important thing is we have to know that we're children of God. That's the real, real, real gist of this. You have got to screw down into your heart what we call the biblical doctrine of adoption. That through Jesus Christ, we have been adopted into the family of God and we are His sons and daughters. And it's very clear, this is the place where Jesus starts using the word Father.

He does it in verse 28, in verse 30, or 32, He starts talking about father when he's addressing the issue of worry about money. He's saying, you're forgetting that you've got a father. Now, if you want to understand the doctrine of adoption, you've got to understand three quick things. Here's the biblical doctrine of adoption. Number one, you've got to see the need for divine father.

The Bible teaches that human parents are just training wheels. Ephesians 3 verse 15, a very cryptic statement. Ephesians 3 verse 15, Paul is making a prayer and he says very cryptically, he says, and I bow the knee to the Father, from whom all fatherhood is derived. That's what he says literally, puchery of fatherhood. And really what he's saying, it's a little cryptic, but here's what he's saying. All fathers, all mothers, all parents, all families are just training wheels, they're reflections, they are types of the archetype. We need family love. We need consistent love. We need absolutely

unconditional love. There's another way to put it only not as well. We need a love that's there, that's always there, that never deserts us, and there is not a human being on the face of the earth that can do that. And you know why? One of these days, I'm going to preach a sermon on this and the title is going to be in the bullet. The Bible teaches that parents are evil. It's in Luke 11-11 where Jesus does an amazing statement. He says, you fathers, how many of you fathers, if your son would ask for a fish, would give him a snake, and if your son would ask for an egg, would give him a scorpion,

and then he says, if you fathers being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more does your heavenly father know? Now, that's how Jesus taught. He was talking to a group of people, any group of people, a random group of people, and he says, by the way, you're evil. He assumes it, and he says,

parents, even you evil parents, get the gist, but my heavenly Father is so much more vastly able to give grace and love and gifts. The first thing you have to see if you believe in a biblical doctrine of adoption is that you need a divine Father. Until you see, as David says in Psalm 27 verse 10, he says, though, my Father and Mother forsake me, the Lord will bear me up. And until you see that, of course your father and mother will forsake you, even the best ones, at least even they, they'll die.

And most of them aren't the best, but definition most parents aren't the best parents. Of course your parents are going to let you down, and you know what's going to happen. There's only three things that can happen. One is you can be bitter against them for giving you what they never could have given you anyway. Even if they've been better. They can't give you the ultimate family love. And number two, you can transfer.

And say, I'm going to get my needs for value and safety from a spouse or money and then be anxious that way. Or you can say, I got to take the training wheels off. And how do you do that? So the first thing is you have to see the need for a divine father. Secondly, you have to see the inheritance of your divine father.

In verse 32, it says, your father has given you past tense the kingdom. To be a Christian means, as John chapter 1 verse 12 says, those who have received him, he gave authority to become sons of God. When you adopt somebody, that somebody becomes your heir automatically legally. See, verse 32, that statement about the kingdom is getting at the legal side of adoption. When you become a Christian, when you believe in Jesus, you are legally adopted and you get the kingdom. You become an heir of what? I'll tell you

what. This is what. In Romans 8 it says, creation itself waits with eager longing for the sons of God to be revealed. And then the creation will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. And we ourselves await to the redemption of our bodies. Now listen, in Romans 8 it says, when you get adopted you become heirs of his glory. And that passage tells us that there is a wealth coming to us, there is a glory coming to us on the last day that when it descends on us is going to be so blindingly great. It's going to be so incredible in its wealth.

Now listen, creation is long and for it to happen to us. When we finally get the wealth that comes to us as children and heirs of the King of the universe, it's going to come down into us with such power that it's going to heal the universe. It's going to heal everything of all of its incoherences and all of its decay. Instead of looking to money, as the wealth that's going to somehow insulate you from the brokenness of the world, this is safety. This is wealth. This is the inheritance, which someday will actually heal the world of all the brokennesses that you're so scared of. Jesus says, he's giving you the kingdom. Do not fear he's giving you the kingdom. If you're afraid, you're not even thinking what that is. It's an abstraction to you.

And then secondly, though, thirdly, I said, you see, you have to see the need for a divine father. You have to see the inheritance of a divine father. And finally, you have to see the love of a divine father. He says, little flock. Little flock. You realize how tender that is? Your father loves you.

Isaiah 49 verse 10. God says, can a woman forget the baby who nursed at her breast says, God, yay, she may forget you, but I will never forget you. She may forget, I will never forget you. And here's what some of you are mothers, and most of us have had them. And one of the things you know is there's something about the hormones. When they come in, they kind of make a mother, you know, like those she grisly bears you read about, nothing is going to hurt my baby.

And God says, as powerful as that is, something has happened to him so that he, with all of his divine glory, is that committed in love to you. That's how valuable you are to him. And somebody says, but how could that be? How could the Holy God of the universe give us family love, like a mother? Cormonal love. But love that never, doesn't matter what the little kid does. It doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter what the kid ever does. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what the kid ever does. How could a holy God do that? How could it be possible? And how could it be possible that he says, I'm infinitely beyond that. And the answer is, and here's, if you wanna see your value, you have to see your slunch, you know how you became a child of God.

You know why it happens when you become a Christian. When Jesus Christ was on earth, read His prayers. Look at all the places that He ever talks to God, and you know what you're going to see. Every time I've looked everywhere, and I may be wrong on this, but virtually always, or always, He always calls Him what? Father, except once. Only one time. Only one time he called him God, the formal. You know why? Where was it? It was on the cross. And you know what the torment was on the cross when he said, God, God, instead of Father, it was because he lost the welcoming love of the Father so that we could get it. He lost a supreme blessing, the family love that every heart in the world needs.

He lost it so we could get it. And not only is that how we got the value, that's the proof of his value. Now, screw that down. Get that in your heart. Pour over it. Think about it. And you know what? You've got to get it down there.

You have to. Because if you don't get it down there, here's an illustration. When Michael Plant took a yacht, the coyote, and tried to go across the Atlantic, he was lost at sea. And when they found the yacht, they found the sailboat. It was upside down in the water.

And when they first saw pictures of it, everybody said, how could that be? Silvots never float upside down, never. You know why? Because it's a principle of sailing that you have to have more weight underneath the water line than above. And the coyote had 8,000 pounds bolted to its keel.

And you see, as long as you have more weight underneath the water than above the water, all the wind, all the turbulence just gets the boat there faster. Even if it goes over, it always writes itself. But if you have more weight above the water line than below the water line, then the same turbulence that gets you there faster destroys you. You have got to have this sense of the adopted love of Jesus Christ in your heart. And then all the turbulence does is it just sends you to Him. It just pushes you toward Him. Don't you see? This is what you've got to have. How do you get

it? Jesus says, consider. Twice. Consider. Think. Think, and the Holy Spirit's job were told in Romans 8, 17, and 16. The Holy Spirit's job, when you're thinking, is to come and show you that you are His child. The Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we're a children of God. But now, then I told you there were two things you have to know and two things you have to do. Now, the two things you have to do are actually rather simple. And yet they're very hard. You have got to start putting your money into the poor.

Sell your possessions and give to the poor, verse 33. And secondly, you've got to start to give your money to the kingdom. Seek first the kingdom and the other, over these other things. Treasure in heaven, eternal things, same thing. Why would God do that? Now there's an interplay between the two and we have to end right here. You have to know these two things, if you're going to do these two things, but you have to be doing these two things to push yourself back so that you have to keep grabbing what

you know. The reason God wants you to go after the poor, if you know that you're adopted, you're not saved by being a good person. You're saved because of what Jesus Christ went through. Now, how will you know that? The one of the ways you will definitely know that is that you will want to give to the poor, because when you see the poor, you see yourself. One of the ways you know you're a sinner saved by grace, and not a moralistic person who thinks you're saved by being good, one of the ways you know you're a sinner saved by grace and not a moralistic person who thinks you're saved by being good. One of the ways you know that you know that you're saved through adoption being brought into the family of God.

See, you have been given the kingdom. You're not performing to get to it. You have been given the kingdom. One of the ways you know you're saved by grace and not by works. When you look at the poor, you never ever say, what's wrong with these people? Why don't they just pick themselves up? Why don't they get themselves together? Never. Be impossible. Because you know that when God looks at you, apart from Jesus Christ, He sees a person without resources and a person who wasn't even smart enough to come ask for what

you needed, but he came to you. And though he was rich, he became poor, so that through his poverty, our poverty might be wiped out. Do you know that? You sell your possessions, certainly means you have to remember they didn't have bank accounts. If you're gonna give anything, you had to sell something. But it did certainly mean go to the mat.

But on the other hand, you have to put your money into the things that last. Put your money into things, the kingdom. Spreading the kingdom in word indeed. Seek the kingdom. Put your money into it. And you know, listen. Remember Catherine De Nue, she was considered

one of the most wonderfully beautiful women in the world in which, on her 45th birthday, she had an interview and she said, it's scary to see myself aging. And from what I could read though, it's hard to know somebody's heart. Here's what was going on. The moth was getting to her treasure. God says, look at my son. The more he gave away, the more love he drew down into his life.

The more he gave away, the more glory he drew down into his life, that's the treasure that lasts forever. The more you give yourself away, the more you care for others, the more you go to the mass sacrificial, the more you say, look what Jesus Christ has done for me, show me somebody to whom I can be what Jesus has been to me. Show me somebody. The more you do that, the more you will have wealth indeed. Let's pray. Father, help us to see how money makes us orphans,

help us to come to you and bolt onto our keel, the spirit of sonship, and help us do that until weel, the spirit of sonship. And help us do that until we finally have the spirit of adventure that is willing to risk, to give, to exuberantly and delightfully lay ourselves out for others. No longer afraid who's going to take care of us. No longer afraid.

Father, we pray that you would give us a spirit of adventurous giving that comes from knowing that through your son Jesus Christ, we are your children. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ Thanks for listening to Tim Keller on the Gospel and Life podcast. If you were encouraged by today's teaching, we invite you to consider becoming a Gospel

and Life monthly partner. Your partnership helps more people discover the transformative power of Christ's love through this ministry. Just visit GospelAndLife.com-slaashpartner to learn more. That's GospelAndLife.com-slaashpartner. This month's sermons were recorded from 1994 to 1997. 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.

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