The Way of The Kingdom Economy of God - Louie Giglio

0:27 It's found in Matthew chapter 5, 6, and 7. Today we'll be looking at chapter 6. And we're talking again today about recommended for you. We're bringing this collection actually to a close today, which is kind of sad. And we've been talking about how the algorithm has a plan for our lives. We're not living in neutral. We were in a planning meeting a few days ago for some of the weeks that are coming up after our Sabbath break. And we were talking about this new message collection that we're going to do, or thinking about doing, praying about doing. And we had some names were floating around. And I'm not going to tell you what the name was because that will spoil it all. But one of the people in the conversation said, hey, there's a song by that name, by such and such people. And that might fit really good in that. And I wasn't real familiar with it, but they sent me a link later. And lo and behold, later that night, in my feed, is another song by that name from another church actually in our city. And I went to my phone.

1:31 I said, good job. Do you understand? We're being observed all the time. Does Siri ever think you were asking her something when you weren't? And she goes, excuse me? You're like, yeah, no, we weren't talking to you. But she was listening to you. And somehow the algorithm is now set up to know, we talked about this before, Oh, you're looking for a canoe. Gotcha. Check your email.

2:11 The algorithm is watching, listening, studying, plotting, and planning to shape our lives. And now we find ourselves, you know, really hooked to the screen. And I know a lot of you are doing a lot better than this than maybe some of the rest of us. and you're really managing that screen time well, but you might be doom scrolling.

2:39 Does anybody know that phrase? Isn't that a great new phrase? Just made its way into the dictionary. Appeared, we think, for the first time in 2018, a guy named Ashik Sadiq tweeted, this is where we think the first time this word was ever used, and in his tweet in 2018, he said, I'm just sitting here doom scrolling on my phone.

3:05 Word caught on, COVID, it blew up. Doom scrolling found its place. And it's described this way if you ask chat GPT, what is doom scrolling? It says it's when people find themselves endlessly scrolling through bad news. Now, I know all the news isn't bad news. There's some good news sprinkled in there, but a lot of it's bad news. Oh, they went to Hawaii. Great.

3:34 Oh, there's another outbreak of some kind. Great. Oh, there's another pandemic going on in another part of the world. Great to know. And we are stuck on our phones. I don't know if you ever do this, probably not, but if you open up your phone to your main page, anybody got your phone around? If not, that's good news. Some of you are like, no, I actually have it in my purse right now because we're in church. Thank you. But if you go to that page, you know what I'm talking about? And then you just swipe that way backwards. And that's going to have your little photo of the day, whatever it's giving you and some news, whatever your news is. And if you just keep scrolling down, it's going to tell you right down here, this box is what I'm looking for. And it tells you how many minutes you've been on your screen. Is anybody following along so far? Thankfully, I have been in church most of the day and have only been on my screen 47 minutes.

4:32 Thank you. Anybody more than an hour? Show of hands. Anybody more than two hours? Show of hands. Okay, see, you have not been serving the Lord like I have all day long. And part of me being on my screen is getting this out so I can show you what I'm talking about. But if you click over, just click on the little box and it opens up for you. and you've got day over here and week over here and if you click on week and this is where I'm not going to let you see my phone anymore and you just swipe back on the week it's going to really shock you because it's going to give you your average time that you have been on your phone every day last week and if you are in the normal category, that's going to be somewhere between five and eight hours a day.

5:31 and in all of those hours, I know some of them are reading news, some of them are searching for something you're buying online, some of them are, I don't know, playing solitaire or finding words in the word game, but some of them are on social media, and in all of them, you're being observed, studied, and plotted. And the goal, the ultimate goal, and we're going to see this today again in a really powerful way, the goal is what? The goal is to keep you on the screen. That's the goal. And so far, I would say that the algorithm is doing a fantastic job. It is doing an above average job of keeping us on the screen. And today we're just coming one more time around to say, okay, if the algorithm is recommending a whole way of life to me, what is Jesus recommending to me?

6:35 What is God recommending to me? Because God knows that he created me in a certain way and he wants me to flourish in the way that he's created me. And so what would he recommend for my life? And we've done a whole collection now of all the things he would recommend to give us a healthy heart, a happy, joyful heart. And then today we're closing out in Matthew 6. In Matthew 5, by the way, is where you find all the you've heard it said, but I say to you statements. And so we're actually getting the recommending to you. The very last one in Matthew 5, if you just go back to the last paragraph before chapter 6, it says you've heard it, that it was said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. See, that's God's way. That's kingdom way. You've heard it said this. This was recommended to you, but I say this. You've heard it said love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

7:28 No, flip it upside down. Love your enemy and pray for the people who are trying to take you down. Jesus says when you do this, the last verse of chapter 5, you will be children of your father in heaven. And then chapter 6 comes, and man, he is recommending something pretty amazing. Let me give you a little backdrop here. The Sermon on the Mount, the core teaching of Jesus, is 107 verses long. This is a great sermon. None of us have been able to replicate it. We're all preaching 35 minutes, 45 minutes, 55 minutes. This sermon is about 15 minutes long. If you just read it at a normal pace. It is the central core teaching of the kingdom of God from Jesus Christ himself. 107 verses. And you are going to be shocked today to see how much real estate in these 107 verses that Jesus gives to the topic that he's recommending to us today. Because today is all about how to operate in the kingdom economy as a follower of Jesus.

8:37 Today is about how we operate in a kingdom economy, the kingdom economy, a capital king kingdom economy, as a follower of Jesus. You're like, are you telling me today's talk is on finances and giving? Yes. And if for some chance you got here today for the very first time, this is really what you need to know. All this is free today. everything. You don't have to pay to park. You don't have to pay to ride a shuttle. You don't have to pay to have somebody loving on your kids right now. This is all free. And if you come back next week, it'll be all free next week. There is no subscription. And if you come here for a year, it's all free. In fact, if your finances are out of whack right now, and you're a little bit behind the curve on what we're going to be talking about today, we have a core class called Biblical Finance that will help you take step one in getting your finances together.

9:39 And it's also free. I'm glad you're here. So, Matthew 6. Notice how Jesus wants to help us understand what operating in the kingdom economy looks like. He says, be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when, key word here, you give to the needy, to the poor, do not announce it with trumpets as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly, I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you, when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing so that your giving may be in secret. Then your father who sees what is done in secret will, can you say this with me?

10:37 Will reward you. Wow. So there's a reward connected to our generosity to the needy. But what Jesus isn't saying in this sermon that he's putting a lot of energy towards the kingdom economy in is if you decide to give to the needy, here's how to do it. No, he said, when you give to the needy, here's how you do it. Not you should consider giving to the needy, and when you do, this is how you do it. He said, no, no, no, you're going to give to the needy. And the reason is the first thing that we see about the kingdom economy of God today is that Jesus' followers are God's primary conduit to provide for the poor. The government can do it.

11:31 NGOs can do it. Your neighbor who doesn't even acknowledge God can do it. Great organizations can do it. But the primary conduit to the needy are the followers of Jesus. And he's setting it right here in the central kingdom teaching. And yes, he's showing us how to do it, but he's also assuming in that that we are going to do it. I was thinking back to just a few weeks ago, our auditorium, our main hallways and our locations look like this. because we cared that there were kids in our city who were financially disadvantaged and didn't have the opportunity to get all the school supplies that they need to get off on the right foot this year. And so our house, this is down at Trillith, brought backpacks.

12:27 And we ended up bringing, I think the total is 1,586 backpacks. And then you can shift gears a little bit. And I know it's kind of like we're losing our reward and probably even showing these photos. And that's okay. We'll get another one back somewhere else. I have my target receipt right here.

12:50 But then the powerful thing happened that on the weekends that followed, kids primarily from foster families came to get backpacks. Some of them little kids and some of them older students, high school age.

13:11 And the image of what that represents is so powerful. To think that I get to pick which one of these brand new backpacks I'm going to wear into class on the first day when you give to the needy. do it in such a way that you don't make a big fanfare. But do know that as you are operating as God's primary conduit to the needy, that he sees it and there will be a reward.

14:00 He goes on to talk about prayer. When you pray, don't be like the hypocrites who stand on the corner and draw the attention to themselves. and then he gives us the prayer. I think probably everybody in Atlanta knows there's the Lord's Prayer. And right in the middle of the Lord's Prayer is kingdom economy. He says in verse 11, give us today our daily bread. So one of the things in this model prayer that Jesus is wanting us to take on board for our lives is that every single day, trust God for what you need that day. That is the kingdom economy of God. He's not saying don't save. He's not saying don't have a 401K. He's not saying don't put money away in case the car breaks down or the air conditioner goes out. But he is saying don't be stressed about all of the tomorrows. Just trust today in the kingdom economy of God.

14:55 As a follower of Jesus, God's going to give you daily bread today. And that is where your peace comes from. We see right in the teaching here that Jesus' followers have what they need because he gives us our daily bread. And he goes on to talk about fasting. And then he shifts gears directly to talk about treasures in heaven. And this is Jesus. Notice how many of these words, by the way, are red.

15:30 This is not some body talking. This is Jesus helping us today. He said, do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth. Where moths and vermin, you gotta love that, destroy. And where thieves break in and steal. But, verse 20, here's the recommendation. If you're wondering where is the recommendation today, here it is right now. But, Jesus says, I recommend that you store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moths and vermin do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there is your heart also. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Jesus is saying, hey, here's an idea.

16:32 Don't just put all your stuff in an earthly account. Put your treasures in a heavenly account. In other words, what he's saying to us is, open a heavenly depository and start moving stuff to it. open up a heavenly depository and start moving stuff that way store up for yourselves here's key phrase we're going to come back to because god doesn't need our money god doesn't need our possessions god doesn't need our stuff he's saying this is i'm recommending for you to store up for yourselves our motivation and being generous isn't so we can store up stuff for ourselves He's just wanting us to understand. In 107 verse sermon, he's giving a lot of real estate to helping us understand the kingdom economy of God. And he's saying, store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth and vermin do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal.

17:38 Thank you so much. I think I heard someone say amen. Did I? Or did you just sneeze or clear your throat? Did somebody say amen? Back there somewhere. Thank you so much. God bless you. I'm glad you came today. Get any amens at Cumberland? I thought, honestly, I had in my mind at some point that when we got to verse 20, there was going to be a standing ovation for Jesus. I thought people were going to, thank you very much. That's awesome.

18:12 I just thought people were going to lose their minds. I mean, I thought people were going to be elbowing their neighbor, just writing stuff down as fast as they could, you know, just going, I cannot believe this is unreal. Do you, let me just back up. I got a tip for everybody today. this guy called me a couple months ago and was telling me he's in finance and knows a lot of stuff about stuff that the rest of us don't know yet and he said, Louis, I'm telling you this stock IPO that's about to happen is going to be the biggest stock in this generation do not miss it anybody know what I'm talking about?

18:52 he said, here's how you can get in here's the way you want to do it here's how you want to move Do not miss it. This is going to be the biggest thing in this generation, maybe, period. And I was like, hmm. Anybody get in it? Hello? No? Whew, okay. I was hoping somebody would say, yeah. Count on me, 10 above and beyonds for now. I'll be loaded. I had second thoughts about it because I remember when Meta's IPO happened. That's Facebook's parent company. And that happened in 2012. Big news. Facebook's going public. You can buy stock in Facebook. Came out. First day, $38 a share. $38.

19:47 And that was in the spring. By summer, it had gone down to $18. So all the fanfare and all the excitement and all the Facebook now is out on the market and you can buy it. Now it's worth way less than you paid for it just a couple months later. And you know why the stock went down so much? It's because everybody was concerned whether or not they could figure out how to monetize social media. Well, I looked where Facebook closed Friday, and it's down a lot this year, a whole lot, especially in the last couple of weeks. But even in that, it closed on Friday at $553 a share. I sold mine when it went down. And so when they said this is the thing, going to be the biggest of all time, I remembered that and I was like, hmm, things sound great on the front end.

20:53 but then Jesus comes into the story today and he says I've got a tip for you I've got insider information. if you store up treasure in heaven, it'll be there when you get there. Nothing can touch it. Nothing and no one can steal it. Nobody can corrode it or erode it. It will be there. And he's telling us in different ways in his teachings, Jesus is, that it's going to be compounded with phenomenal interest. It's going to do way better than the money you've got in your money market fund is kicking it back about 3.25% right now.

21:53 So whatever is in this heavenly treasure account, this heavenly deposit account, is earning massive interest right now. It's compounding because the generosity didn't just do that one thing, that one thing did that thing, and that thing did that thing, and that thing did that thing, and that thing did that thing. It's compounding like crazy right now, and it's going to be there when you get there. You can bet on it, count on it, you can bank on it. He's saying, I have a recommendation. I got a tip.

22:28 Store up treasure in heaven. and store it up for yourself. Yes, it's going to impact somebody else. Yes, it's going to bring glory to God. Yes, it's going to bring people to Jesus, but you're storing this up for yourself. I think this is what Jesus had in mind in Luke 12 when he told this parable. And he's hat maker, by the way. Our student pastor here at 515 preached a phenomenal sermon on this at camp. The sermon was called How to Be a Fool. someone in the crowd said to him, Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. But he said to him, Man, who made me a judge or arbiter over you? An arbitrator over you. And he said to them, Take care.

23:21 So here comes his summary statement. And be on your guard against all covetousness. Interesting choice of words. For one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. let's let that sink in I promise if I am on average five, six hours on this screen a day it is going to do everything it can to convince me that my life consists of the sum of my possessions that my life equates where I live what I have, what I earn what I wear, what I experience, how much money I've got in the bank, what kind of stocks I've got, and how good they're doing, that my life is basically the sum of what I possess. But Jesus is saying, I've got a different recommendation for everybody. Put this in the algorithm. I guess you're listening to this whole sermon, so that's good. Send me more stuff like this, if you will, that one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.

24:35 and then he tells the story to illustrate that point that's where the parable came in he's trying to illustrate this and he tells them this parable the land of a rich man produced plentifully we all know this parable and he thought to himself what shall i do for i have nowhere to store my crops and he said i will do this i'll tear down my barns and build larger ones and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years. And then listen to Jesus' words. He said to his soul, relax, eat, drink, and be merry.

25:24 But God said to him, fool. this night, this very day, today, tonight, your soul is required of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be? So is the one who lays up, there's the words from Matthew 6, who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. You know what Jesus is not saying in this parable is it's wrong to have a barn.

26:00 He's not saying it's wrong to have successful farming business. He's not saying it's wrong to have a bigger barn if you need a bigger barn because your crops were way bigger than you thought and you'd given away as much as you could and you'd trade it off with these other people as much as you could and if you didn't get it inside, it was gonna ruin and so you made more room for the stuff. He's not saying that's wrong. What he's illustrating is not how much stuff the guy had. What he's illustrating is the guy's attitude towards the stuff that he had. And I brought this to us today in the ESV translation.

26:39 Because the NIV has a different word in this phrase. And it's not precisely the word that Jesus used. And the ESV takes it right. It says that he said to, in Innovate, that he said to himself, self, man, we got all this stuff and we're good. But the word Jesus used was that he said to his soul, soul, we got all this stuff. The point was that this man was talking and speaking to himself and to the soul that God had made for the infinite. and he was telling his soul that was made for the infinite that it could be satisfied because of the abundance of the finite. And so, A, he was missing the whole point and robbing himself of the very thing that he was created for. And when he spoke to his soul, he was highlighting there's a hunger in here, but guess what?

27:49 We got plenty. There's a longing in here, but guess what? We got plenty. There's a searching in here, but guess what? We got more than enough. relax soul, eat, drink, be married. Because we are flush right now. And Jesus said, what a fool. he wasn't trying to condemn this guy he just was holding up reality and saying this is your last day on earth and you don't even know it it's basically like he'd be saying to me or you right now your your day's coming and you're like well i i'm i'm not gonna be like this guy who says we he doesn't know who his stuff's gonna go to because I've got a great will and I know who's getting this and who's getting that and who's getting the other and I know how it's all going to go. Yes, okay, so you do know that, but you don't know how any of them are going to do.

28:49 Oh, we know we're leaving it all to our son and our daughter. Well, what if your son's soul is required of him? And what's he going to do? Hopefully he's got as good a will in the mind as you do. You don't know whether they're going to be good stewards or not good stewards. You don't know whether they're going to have good fortune or bad fortune, good health or bad health. You don't know, honestly, who's going to live in your house 20 years from now. The one that you are putting down that mortgage for every day, mowing that grass, taking care of it, renovating here. You don't know who's going to live there.

29:25 And I don't either. Because life is fragile. It is a vapor. It is here today and gone tomorrow. And all Jesus is really wanting us to see in this parable is not that it's wrong to be successful. He's wanting us to see that it's better to store up treasure in heaven. and he's recommending to you that you have that opportunity. A few months back, I was paying a bill, and we didn't have enough money in our regular checking account to pay for it. It's not because we don't have any money. It's just that it was a big bill, and we don't keep a lot of money in our regular checking account, getting that, you know, whatever it is, 47 cents a month, interest or whatever they're sending me. And so I had to go to another account and move some money into this account so I could pay this thing because I needed to pay it out of this account and not out of that account. Is anybody tracking along here? And so I went to that account, hello, and I went over to transfer button and then a drop down box from which account. And so So that was easy because it was from this account.

30:40 And which account do you want to transfer to? I already had my other account linked to it. So the drop-down box to that one. Hit transfer. And within a day, whoop, whoop. That's not rocket science, is it? No, I did have to pay the bill, so the illustration breaks down at that point because I didn't have the money after I paid the bill. but that's what Jesus is recommending. When you give into the kingdom of God, you are selecting your earthly account and you are transferring it into your heavenly account. So again, we don't give out of selfish motive. We're not giving because we get an eternal reward.

31:34 We're giving out of obedience and worship and love and devotion to God. We're giving as a way of saying, thank you, and I want to be a part of what you're doing on planet Earth. But when we give, the money doesn't evaporate into the ether. It goes into another account. And it's our account.

31:55 You transferred treasure from an earthly account into your heavenly account. you're like, I just don't know if I can afford to give. You're still got it.

32:15 Earning heavenly interest. You're like, that sounds like a bunch of mumbo jumbo. No, that sounds like the very words of Jesus. Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven. And then he concludes, I'll wrap up. But that's number three, by the way.

32:40 Jesus' followers open and deposit into their heavenly deposit account. And he says, then the eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. man that thinking about this algorithm thing that just jumped off the page in a totally different way to me your eye is the lamp of your heart, soul, mind, your eye. Who wants your eye? Give me your eye. Right here. keep it here. Keep it here.

33:33 Keep it here. I want your I. be careful he says if your eye is healthy your whole body will be full of light you know what that means? it doesn't mean that your retina and your lens and your corneas are all great it means single and clear focused when your eye is focused, clear your whole body is full of light and then he says no one can serve two masters you're like man he won't let this go louie this is crazy 107 verses and he will not let it go no one can serve two masters either you will hate the one and love the other or you'll be devoted to the one and despise the other you cannot serve both god and money you're like jesus give it a rest he's like no i want you to have a happy and a healthy heart. And you've got to get this right. And then he goes into this beautiful passage that we've sung about at our church so much, the Lord will provide, which capstone is verse 33.

34:50 But seek first his kingdom. And let's don't forget the and, and his righteousness, right things. and all these things will be given to you as well. In the kingdom economy of God, that Jesus followers seek first. his kingdom. What's he doing? What's he talking about? What's he thinking about? What's important to him? What are his objectives? What's his mission? What's on God's heart today? Where's God moving today? I want to first seek his kingdom and his righteousness. And when I do, I'm confident just because I asked for daily bread that all these other things, all what other things, where are we going to wear? Where are we going to eat? Where are we going to live, what kind of house we're going to have, we're going to have all the things that we need. He said, yeah, all that stuff is going to be added to you. You'll be fine with all that if you prioritize that single-minded eye in seeking first the kingdom of God.

35:55 I had a title for this talk called Storing Up is Greater than Scrolling Down I like that one better than the official one, which was the contentment and the joy of living in the kingdom economy of the Almighty. This is what God wants for you. Contentment and joy. And he's teaching you today where they're found. And I'm not creating a battle. and I'm not unnecessarily creating a war, but contentment and joy, that's not the plan.

36:44 That is not the plan that is in the palm of your hand. But Jesus says, I know the way. I am so excited about this above and beyond season. I'm not preaching this talk just because we're on the doorstep of above and beyond, but I love this season, Shelly and I do. It's a time for us every year to just reevaluate. That's really all it is.

37:12 We do our normal giving, our regular giving, and this is a time to step back and just reevaluate. Someone shared a story a few nights ago at an Above and Beyond dinner that we had, and it's not my story to tell, so I'll just kind of go with the 30,000-foot view, but they were talking about how they used to work in a C-suite of a company here in Atlanta that everyone in this room would know. And they lost their job. Some turbulence came in their life. But the person now is walking closer to Jesus than you can imagine. Just contentment and joy everywhere. Just radiating contentment and joy in Jesus. And an older stage of life person, not my age, but older stage of life person. And they said something that just absolutely rocked me. They said, I'm at this new point with God where I'm not evaluating my giving based on my income statement because their income statement has changed a lot.

38:16 But they said, I'm evaluating my giving based on my balance sheet. Now, for all of the younger people, single people, couples just getting started in life, maybe your balance sheet isn't robust. You're like, man, I can do that in five seconds because my balance sheet is not a lot, and there's not a lot of wiggle room there. But some of you are at the stage of life that we are at. I should be retired by now. I should be playing golf and getting Social Security dropped into my account every month.

39:00 Shelly is not retirement age, just to clarify. Yet. but just to be personal, we listen to the teacher. when we didn't have anything we listen to the teacher. and we don't regret any of it.

39:40 And now we're in a season of life where we don't need anything. and so we can say okay we are giving according to the income statement but lord when it comes to this moment and to above and beyond we we want to we want to think about the balance sheet and we want to say anything you want to adjust change do because every bit of this came from you our crops they came from you our barn became from you our new barn it came from you the rain it came from you the seed it came from you the soil it came from you the sunshine it came from you. The seasons, they came from you. The increase, it came from you. The growth, it came from you. The fruit came from you. The crops came from you. And everything on the table came from you.

41:05 and it might be a good idea to get some of it in our heavenly deposit account into that safe spot. I've got a 401k, some version of that. But I also have a 401hda. and that's where our above and beyond