Build Your Hopes on Things Eternal

Sermon Transcript

I confess I’m not a big reader of self-help literature, but I do remember an illustration I once heard about from self-help guru Stephen Covey that I’ve since found helpful. Self-help is there to help you achieve your goals, which we can envision as climbing a ladder. But the question Covey asked was, “What if your ladder is on the wrong wall?” Everyone in the room today is seeking something, working toward something, trying to attain something. It could be as immediate as trying to figure out how you’ll pay rent this month; it could be as long-term as trying to get married, have kids, or buy a house. And when we’re seeking something, we think about it a lot, we worry about it when we sense we might not get it, and we typically work hard toward it. But have you ever stopped to ask the scary question why you’re seeking this thing at all? Have you ever considered that you may reach the top of the ladder, only to realize it was on the wrong wall?

 

As we look at the Gospel of Luke today, Jesus talks in this passage about what we’re seeking, what we’re setting our hearts on. He especially addresses one of the most common things people set their hearts on: Money, whether in the interest of wealth, or just in the interest of meeting their basic needs. Whatever you are seeking, even if it’s something other than money, it’s probably something you sense more money would help you get. So people often set their hearts on it: They get anxious about it, they think about it a lot, and they work hard to get more. But Jesus suggests here that’s a ladder on the wrong wall. Instead, he says to set your heart on the kingdom of God. Specifically, he says to set your heart on the kingdom of God rather than material wealth, rather than material needs, but with the material you have.

 

Rather than material wealth

 

Our story today picks up with Jesus still speaking in front of a crowd of thousands (Luke 12:1). Within the crowd, he’d been speaking to his disciples, but now someone in the crowd interjects and asks Jesus to tell his brother to divide the inheritance with him. The request appears to be a just one: The inheritance is singular, and if one brother is keeping it all, he should not do that. And we have seen Jesus’ authority to judge in multiple ways so far in Luke’s Gospel: Recently he pronounced woes on the Pharisees for their hypocrisy and on the lawyers for their false teaching, for example. So to ask Jesus to render a just verdict in this case is not totally unreasonable.

 

But in verse 14 Jesus asks, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” Though he had authority to judge, the ministry God gave him was not to settle familial disputes. In his own words, the ministry God gave him was to “preach the good news of the kingdom of God” (Luke 4:43). He uttered judgments against the Pharisees and lawyers because they were leading people away from the kingdom of God, but adjudicating the distribution of an estate was, we might say, beneath his pay grade. 

 

So, instead of deciding the dispute, Jesus uses the opportunity to teach about the kingdom of God. He notices something in the situation that could lead the man making the request, the brother withholding the inheritance, and the rest of the crowds, astray from the kingdom of God: Covetousness. He says to the crowd in verse 15, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness.” Covetousness more narrowly refers to desiring that which belongs to someone else, but more broadly it refers to an insatiable desire for more, and might more commonly be called greed. Its opposite is contentment, when we not only accept, but rejoice in the Lord today, with only what he’s provided for us today. 

 

Last week we saw Jesus warn us against a dangerous poison: Hypocrisy. Now here he warns us against another: Covetousness. In each case, the warning is necessary in part because it is something that happens inside you, and therefore easily remains undetected. He never tells people to be on their guard against murder, for example, because you know when you’re doing that, and it’s socially stigmatized. But hypocrisy and greed are like many cancers–they can be spreading in your body, silently killing your soul, and you don’t even realize it. The guy in the crowd who calls out to Jesus looks like someone just seeking what’s fair, but Jesus sees a threat to his heart beneath it. How often does covetousness find a welcome home in our hearts under the guise of “seeking what’s rightfully ours,” “wise stewardship,” or “providing for my family”? 

 

You have to be on your guard against covetousness because it so easily takes root in your heart, but the reason Jesus gives in this passage to be on your guard against covetousness is because one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. God created humans with a greater purpose than accumulating more and better stuff. And that stuff doesn’t have to look like Rolex watches and designer clothes; in the parable Jesus is about to tell, we’ll see it could also include grain or land–whatever you daydream about having more of. God created humans to fill the earth with his image for his glory until the day when we rest from our labors and enjoy unbreakable communion with him forever. The good life, in his estimation, is the life full of faith, hope, and love, not the life full of possessions.

 

To illustrate the point, Jesus gives a parable about a rich man whose land produces plentifully, so plentifully that he can no longer store all his crops. So what does he do? Jesus let us in on his internal thought process: He decides he’ll tear down his barns and build larger ones, so that there he can store all his grain and goods. And then, here’s his aspiration according to verse 19: To relax, eat, drink, and be merry. Sounds a bit like the American dream, doesn’t it? Perhaps you’ve heard of the FIRE plan: Financial independence, retire early. Now if you want to retire early so you can devote your time to good works you don’t get paid to do, that’s one thing, but for most Americans who adopt such a goal, the aspiration is to have enough stored up that they can relax, eat, drink, and be merry for the rest of their lives.

 

Even before we get to God’s rebuke of the man in this parable, then, we can see a couple things that are problematic about his choices. And even before that, it’s worth noting what is not presented as problematic. The fact that he is rich is not rebuked or even portrayed negatively in the parable. It was rare for early Christians to be wealthy, but not unheard of, and those who were were not incessantly guilted for possessing wealth (Acts 16:14-15, 17:4, 1 Cor 1:26, 1 Tim 6:17-19). So the problem with this man’s conduct was not that he was rich. It was not even that he had barns! The biblical book of Proverbs commends storing up grain at the time of harvest so that you have food in the winter (Prov 6:6-8, 21:20, 30:24-25). Do you see what this man’s problem was? He couldn’t stop! He already had grain stored up for the winter; his barns were so full he couldn’t add more! But when he got more than that, he wanted to keep it. 

 

This is covetousness in practice: He always wanted more, so when he got more, he tore down his barns, built bigger ones, and kept it all for himself. There are four basic things you can do with money: You can spend it, you can save it, you can invest it, or you can give it away. In my experience as a Christian, most Christians are alert to the danger of spending too much, but are you alert to the danger of saving too much, or even investing too much? Saving or investing money so you can spend it on yourself later is not any holier than spending money on yourself now. Furthermore, padding your savings or retirement account can easily replace God in your life, though in a different way than spending now does. Look at how the man in the parable reassures himself: “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years.” When he looks ahead to the future, what gives him hope and peace? Not God and his promises, not a sure hope of inheriting the kingdom of God. Instead, it’s his ample goods. When you look ahead to your future, what are you telling your soul? “Soul, you have plenty in that 401(k), and your company is still matching it. Soul, even if the stock market fails, you have plenty invested in real estate. Soul, even if the dollar fails, you have gold and bitcoin.” I’m not trying to throw shade on any of those things per se, but notice the danger, and be on your guard against all covetousness.

 

Can you stop? Can you ever say, “This is enough”? Can you ever say, “Hey, the barns I have are of a reasonable size, and they’re full. I don’t need to keep what I can’t fit in them”? What size would be enough? How big of a house is big enough? How much spent on food each month is enough? This passage doesn’t tell us, nor does any passage of the Bible tell us, and if God wanted to tell us, he would have. So I won’t try to tell you, but John Cortines and Greg Baumer are two Harvard MBAs who wrote a book called God and Money, a book I don’t know enough about to recommend or not recommend to you. One thing they say in it that rings true, though, is, “We will never stumble into ‘enough.’ It is not something you recognize when you get there.” Because what happens when you get there? When you get there, “there” becomes your new “normal” and you start to think, “Well now what if I just had a bit more?” 

 

The approach Cortines and Baumer recommend, then, that many Christians have found helpful, is setting a “financial finish line.” Usually with the help of a financial advisor, you take an honest look at your life and decide, “here’s how much I need to live on each month” and “here’s how high I’ll let my net worth get” and anything the Lord gives you beyond that increases your standard of giving rather than your standard of living. I’m not telling you this passage of the Bible teaches you must do that; it’s just an example of a way to guard yourself against covetousness. Of course, that’s only really an issue for those of you who are rich in the present age, which I recognize is not all of you; some of you are just trying to figure out how to meet your basic needs, while we’ll talk about in a bit. But certainly on a global and historical scale, many of us in the room today are rich, and even on a 2026 American scale, I assume some of you are in higher tax brackets and are earning more money than you need, and Jesus wants to warn you here about just storing up more and more of it for yourself, even if in savings or retirement accounts. Furthermore, even those who aren’t earning more than they need can develop a heart that gets set on achieving that, or despairing when they feel like they can’t, and so must also be on their guard against covetousness.

 

So that’s one problem with this guy’s approach: He always wants more for himself, and so he keeps the more he gains for himself. The second problem is what he hopes to do with his “more”: Relax, eat, drink, and be merry. He wants to be able to retire early so he can indulge himself. Now, rest is commended in scripture; we’ll talk about that in the Ten Commandments seminar today. But rest is also given in a ratio: Six days you shall labor, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God, Exodus 20:9-10 says. So that’s one day in seven given to rest, and six given to work while we’re in this creation. That one rest day is meant to preview our final rest, but that rest in scripture is clearly a rest we can only enjoy in heaven, when we go to be with the Lord. So the apostle John heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them” (Rev 14:13). In the here and now, scripture tells us, we are to strive to enter that rest (Heb 4:11) through a life marked by zeal for good works (Titus 2:14). 

 

But what you and I have been sold in this country is a different hope for the future, one in which we hustle hard to accumulate for ourselves enough to store in our barns, barns that we now call retirement accounts, so that we can retire and spend decades of our lives on beach chairs and golf courses. So here, this man’s aspiration is not the kingdom of God; it is rather to relax, eat, drink, and be merry in this life. Now some are telling us this is what AI will enable us all to do, especially once the clone armies, I mean, the humanoids, are all developed, though it seems like events of the past week or so have have begun to disabuse many of the visions of a self-indulgent heaven AI was giving them. Just as the ancient mesopotamian gods made humans to do the hard work so they could sip ambrosia and drop grapes in each other’s mouths all day, the theory is that these creations of our hands will do the work for us so we can relax, eat, drink, and be merry.

 

But a man’s life doesn’t consist of these things! God made us for a life of active service, not passive consumption! Yes we take time to relax, eat, drink, and be merry, but we also spend six days laboring because we recognize that work is good, it is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35), and fullness of joy will only come to us in heaven. A world in which no one works, unless it’s one in which we’ve all been fully redeemed from our sins, and now dwell in the presence of God, will not be a good one. God has good works he’s prepared in advance for you to do (Eph 2:10); don’t set your heart on decades of relaxing, eating, drinking, and being merry here.

 

And so God says to this man, in Jesus’ parable: Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be? Always accumulating more for yourself so you can relax, eat, drink, and be merry is foolish in God’s sight! J.C. Ryle, commenting on this passage, writes, “And yet these are the men who are called clever, and prudent, and wise! These are the men who are commended, and flattered, and held up to admiration! Truly the Lord seeth not as man seeth! The Lord declares that rich men who live only for this world are ‘fools.’” And they’re fools because the day of their death is coming, and after that they will face judgment, where the size of their barns will do nothing except testify against them! From that point forward, they won’t get to enjoy it at all. That big plan for relaxing, eating, drinking, and being merry, will end, it will end on the night the Lord decides, and it will all then belong to someone else.

 

So, Jesus says, is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. The alternative, then, to laying up treasure for yourself, is being rich toward God. Recall that when Jesus issued his woes against the Pharisees, he said they tithed mint, rue, and every herb, while neglecting justice and the love of God. He said these they ought to have done, while not neglecting their tithe. So again we see here, that Jesus wants us to give toward God. In fact, as is so often the case, he’s not lowering the bar and saying, “Don’t worry about tithing like those legalistic Pharisees.” To the contrary, he’s raising the bar from the bare minimum tithe to being rich toward God.

 

The tithe was a way of being rich toward God on the front end of your earning–when you’d grow a crop like mint, rue, or some other herb in the case of the Pharisees, or like the grain of the rich man in Jesus’ parable, the tithe was the first ten percent, which you’d take and give to the priest at the temple, who would then offer some of it directly to God, use some of it to meet his own needs and the needs of the other priests, and use some of it to provide for the needs of the poor. But here was the nice thing about the tithe from the Pharisees’ perspective: It had a cap. Once you gave your ten percent, you were done, they thought. So if the man in Jesus’ parable gave his first ten percent, he could tear down his barns, build bigger ones, and keep the rest for himself. In other words, you can tithe, and still have a covetous heart; in fact, that’s exactly what Jesus said was true of the Pharisees: Inside they were full of greed (Luke 11:39). 

 

The richness toward God that Jesus had in mind looks more like not just bringing that firstfruit tithe to the temple, but bringing that extra that God himself gave you when your land produced plentifully, and instead of tearing down your barns to build bigger ones, bringing it to the temple as well. Of course, under the New Covenant we don’t have temples, but the church is called the temple of God in the New Testament, and so the first way to be rich toward God is to give to your local church, though you’re also free in the Lord to give to other things. That’s the beauty of having a finish line or in some other way deciding when you have enough: Now you’re really dangerous for the kingdom of God, because anything above it is now ready to be deployed in the advancement of that kingdom. Give the firstfruits–decide what a reasonable giving commitment is, and give it before you spend on anything else or put anything in your barns. But then guard yourself from covetousness by deciding when you have enough, and giving the rest. Speaking of giving, the apostle Paul writes to “see that you excel in this act of grace” (2 Cor 8:7). What if you aspired to give not only the minimum toward God, but to be rich toward God? 

 

Set your heart on his kingdom, rather than material wealth. And next, set your heart on his kingdom, rather than material needs.

 

Rather than material needs

 

Look at what Jesus says next starting in verse 22, here now again turning from the crowds to his disciples: Do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. Not only should you not set your heart on material wealth; you don’t even have to worry about material needs like food and clothing.

 

Then he gives us a series of reasons we need not be anxious about these things: First, verse 23: Life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. This is similar to his earlier argument that a man’s life doesn’t consist in the abundance of his possessions. God made you for a greater purpose than to feed you and clothe you. Yes you need those things and he’ll talk about that in a bit, but what a waste of your life it would be if you spent most of it thinking about what you’ll eat and what you’ll wear! Yet this happens to people. I remember a time I was on a fanatical diet because I said I wanted to be healthy, but really I just wanted to look better, and I spent a significant portion of my day thinking about and planning for what I was going to eat! What a waste of life. God made you for more than that.

 

Ok, but again, what if you’re just thinking about it as a necessity? Well, next Jesus says in verse 24 to consider the ravens. Last week it was sparrows; this week it’s ravens. There are estimated to be 20 million of them in the world, and do you know how big their barns are? Well they don’t have barns or storehouses, Jesus says. In fact, they don’t even plant seeds, or harvest plants. They certainly don’t manage an investment portfolio or have budget spreadsheets, and yet, God feeds them. And as with the sparrows, so with the ravens: If you are Jesus’ disciple, you are of more value to God than the birds, much more value, Jesus says. Do you think he won’t feed you? 

 

And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life, Jesus asks next. There are two reasons this is the case: First, anxiety takes no action. If anything, we now understand high stress levels to have potentially life-shortening effects, but it certainly does nothing to extend life, because anxiety does nothing at all! Moments of fear can positively motivate us to action. If you’re standing in the middle of a street, a car starts speeding toward you, and you feel afraid, that might extend your life in a sense if you do something about it and get out of the street. But sitting at home imagining getting hit by a car, and doing nothing about it, won’t extend your life at all. One way you can combat anxiety, then, is when you are experiencing it, just ask, “Is there anything the Lord wants me to do about this?” If there is, go do it, but whether there is or isn’t, don’t just sit and stew on it.

 

But the second reason anxiety can’t add an hour to your life is because the days of your life have already been fixed by the Lord, and you can’t do anything to add an hour to what he has ordained. When the Lord came to the rich man in Jesus’ parable and told him that night his soul was required of him, there was nothing he could have done to extend it further. We get anxious in part because of this delusion that we are in control of our lives. It’s better to just accept that we aren’t in control of our lives, or our deaths, but God is, and that’s a good thing.

 

Because not only does he feed the birds; he clothes the lilies, Jesus says next. Consider the beauty of a flower, notice that it isn’t working to beautify itself, and yet the Lord clothes it. Consider the grass, which is alive today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven–if these plants are clothed by God, will he not also clothe us, who are of more value to him than these? Jesus closes this question by calling his disciples “O you of little faith.” Do you see that Jesus understands us, brothers and sisters? He knows our faith is small; he knows we are prone to anxiety. So he takes the time to lovingly show us why we don’t need to be. If your heavenly Father feeds the birds, he’ll feed you. If he clothes the flowers, he’ll clothe you.

 

And so, he says, do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. Don’t set your heart on those things! Certainly don’t set your heart on acquiring riches, but don’t even set it on food and drink! For, he says, all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. In other words, your needs are real, but so is your Father in heaven. So you don’t have to have all your food and drink figured out ahead of time. Don’t set your heart on that, like all the nations of the world do. Instead, set your heart on this, verse 31 says–do you see the “instead” there? You can’t set your heart on both! You can’t serve two masters! Instead of seeking food and drink and clothing, seek what? Seek his kingdom, and the rest of these things will be added to you. Your real Father in heaven will meet your real needs; you just seek his kingdom. Set your heart on it.

 

What does that mean? Most basically it means striving to enter the kingdom of God, and as you do so, striving to advance that kingdom’s interest on earth by bringing as many as possible with you. It means you give your thoughts and efforts to things like your own growth in godliness, the health of your church, and the advance of the gospel to all nations. And here’s what’s cool about that in the next verse: If you just seek his kingdom, you have nothing to fear, because it is his good pleasure to give you the kingdom! Remember Jesus told us that the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, a door will be opened. If you seek his kingdom, you will not seek in vain. God delights to give his kingdom to his little flock of sheep, the sheep who are Jesus’ disciples!

 

And we know it’s his delight to give us the kingdom because he sent his son Jesus to give us a way to enter that kingdom. When Jesus says a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions, when he says life is more than food, and the body more than clothing, to what greater purpose is he referring? Ultimately, we were created for life in the kingdom of God. And yet, we have rebelled against the king. We have all rejected his loving rule over our lives, and the proof is in how we’ve responded to his commandments. We are those who haven’t been rich toward him, we are those who have laid up treasure for ourselves, we are those who have lived as though there is no heavenly Father, and so we must take care of our own needs. And yet, he is such a kind God, and it so pleases him to give his people his kingdom, that he sent his son Jesus to bring his kingdom to us. 

 

Jesus came to proclaim the kingdom of God, Jesus taught truly the way into the kingdom of God, Jesus performed miracles that revealed the kingdom of God, and then Jesus died for our sins on the cross, rose from the dead, and ascended into the kingdom of God, so that all who would turn from their sins and believe in him would enter the kingdom of God through him. But if you are here today and you are not one of Jesus’ disciples, you are still outside of this kingdom. Remember that he addressed the whole crowd and warned them against covetousness, but the glorious promises of a Father who will supply your every need are promises he makes only to his disciples, because only they can call on God as their Father. If you aren’t yet a disciple of Jesus, you have good reasons to be anxious, and you have a good reason to be afraid of the night when your soul is required of you.

 

But let that fear drive you to action: turn from your sins to Jesus. God will adopt you as his child, and be delighted to give you his kingdom. Can you imagine how free you would be if you no longer had to worry about material wealth or even material necessities? Brothers and sisters, do you see how dangerous you would be for the kingdom of God if you really believed that your heavenly Father would supply your every need? 

 

11 years ago when we decided to plant this church in the city, this passage had a major impact on me. I was 28, I’d never lived in the inner city before, I was scared of all the things people who grow up in the suburbs typically think of the inner city: What if there’s bad crime, what if we can’t afford it, how will we navigate racial tensions, where would we send our kids to school if God gives us them? And I remember the Lord brought me to this passage and showed me that though my needs were real, so was he, which freed me just to ask: God, where do you want to use me for the advance of your kingdom? And in prayer with the elders at Citylight Manayunk and some of you in the room today, we felt it was here. I can now say eleven years later that he’s made good on all these promises. He’s fed and clothed me, my wife, and now my three children, and he’s been pleased to give his kingdom to more through the ministry of this church.

 

If you took material concerns off the table, and your heart was set only on the kingdom of God, what would you do differently? Maybe you’d also make a long-term investment in ministry in this city. Maybe you’d be open to having kids who you’d bring up in the discipline and instruction of Christ before you can figure out exactly how you’ll afford to supply all their needs. Maybe you’d learn another language, and go to a different country to proclaim the good news of the kingdom to people who have never heard it. We’d be delighted to assess, train, and send you if that’s the case. Maybe you’d largely stay the course of your current life, but use your time and money differently.

 

Well using your money differently is what Jesus talks about next, and where we’ll end today. Set your heart on the kingdom of God instead of material wealth, instead of material needs, and set your heart on the kingdom of God with the material you have.

 

With the material you have

 

If it’s your Father’s good pleasure to give you his kingdom, what do you really need to keep money for? So Jesus says in verse 33, sell your possessions, and give to the needy. In the book of Acts we read of those who sold possessions, lands, and houses, brought the proceeds, and laid them at the apostles’ feet, to distribute to any as they had need (Acts 2:45, 4:34-35). While scripture doesn’t require those who are rich in the present age to sell all their possessions, it does exhort them to be rich in good works (1 Tim 6:17-19), and one way to do that to which they should absolutely be open is to sell their possessions and use the money they make from the sale to give to the needy.

 

We live in a world today with many more social safety nets, due in large part to the massive influence Christianity has exerted on it. But imagine a member of our church did reach a point where due to medical bills and other life circumstances they were at a real risk of being without food or shelter. It would be absolutely right, and not at all crazy in Jesus’ mind, for us to be selling houses, cars, TVs, stocks, and whatever else we need to to accumulate the funds necessary to care for that poor brother or sister. We have a benevolence fund in this church that you can give to directly that our deacons then use to coordinate our giving to the needy for that reason, and you all do a great job of giving to it. You see, Jesus doesn’t tell his disciples here that their material is sinful and filthy, so they should just incinerate it. Instead, he tells them to give it in service of kingdom interests.

 

Jesus says that when you give like that, you’re providing yourself with moneybags that do not grow old, and with a treasure in heaven that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys, for wherever your treasure is, there will your heart be also. As Randy Alcorn has said, you can’t take it with you, but you can send it ahead, and the way you send it ahead is when you give. Proverbs 19:17 says, “Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed.” That’s not saying your giving merits your salvation, but it is saying that in heaven, a heaven you’re only in because of Jesus’ merits, God graciously rewards any giving you do in this life. And while moths can destroy your clothing, and thieves can break in and steal your food along with all your other stuff, that reward isn’t going anywhere. It’s the reward you get to enjoy after the night your soul is required of you, and when you put your treasure there, your heart will follow.

 

Do you want to be less caught up in this life and more focused on heaven? Be rich toward God. Give to the needy. Think about this: If you spend a bunch of money on a home renovation, what do you suddenly care a lot about? The quality of that home renovation. If you spend a bunch of money on your kids’ education, what do you suddenly care a lot about? The quality of that education. If you put a bunch of money in a mutual fund, what do you suddenly care a lot about? The performance of that fund. Where your treasure is, there your heart goes, but there’s only one place to send your heart where it will be truly satisfied. There’s only one place to send your heart where it will have fullness of joy, and pleasures that never fade: Heaven. So send your money there, and your heart will follow.

 

Set your heart on the kingdom of God. It is your Father’s good pleasure to give it to you, so much so that he sent Jesus to bring it to you. Know when enough is enough, and according to the degree the Lord prospers you, be rich toward him. When was the last time you reevaluated your giving? Perhaps this week would be a great opportunity to do so. Who else is speaking into your giving? Why not open up your spending to a few trusted brothers or sisters in the church who are the kind of people who would actually tell you if it seems like you’re laying up treasure for yourself and aren’t being rich toward God? Your needs are real, but so is your heavenly Father. Set your heart on his kingdom, and he will take care of you.