The Way of Peace

--- Welcome to week six of our Bible study through the Sermon on the Mount called The Way of Jesus. And this week I titled our lesson The Way of Peace. You can open your Bibles to Matthew chapter six. We're gonna be going through verses 19 through 34. And as we start, I'm gonna ask you a question again this morning. Are you an anxious person? Do you experience a restlessness or do you worry? Do you deal with anxiety, fear? If I asked you the question, what's the opposite of being anxious? You might tell me, well, being at peace, contentment. You might say being calm, a confidence. So if we have two buckets here, this is not a spectrum this time. This is just two buckets, anxious and peace. Today, where would you place, which bucket would you be in? Anxious or at peace? Last week I asked you the question, are you ever hypocritical? That might've offended you, but we all kind of decided from time to time, we care more about what other people, how they perceive us than we actually care about pleasing God, not all the time, but sometimes. And the reason I asked that question was because Jesus used the word hypocrite several times in the lesson last week. Well, this week Jesus uses the word anxious several times. And that's why I asked you, are you an anxious person? Last week he said, do not be like the hypocrites. And this week he says, do not be anxious. So since anxiety is a theme in the passage that we're studying, that's why I chose to call this week, the way of peace. And remember, we established this from the beginning of our Bible study. We all choose our way in life. There are many ways that we can take. I titled this the way of Jesus, and he shows us here the way of peace. So verse 19, here we go.

So before we get to any words about anxious, Jesus opens up a conversation about treasures, what is very important to us. What exactly is our treasure? He didn't explain right here, just like he didn't explain what exactly is the reward last week. But the point is, what he's saying is it's highly probable that people in life are going to live in such a way as to accumulate treasure. We will, we do, that is who we are. We will accumulate some kind of treasure. It will either be on earth or it will be in heaven. And those are two very contrasting places. So our accumulations of treasures on earth are vulnerable. They are corruptible, they succumb to decay and theft and inflation, just like everything else. In fact, this week I was working out in my yard, cleaning up, getting ready for winter. And there was a cover, nice canvas cover for our lawnmower that three years ago was a treasured Christmas present. And today it was all moldy and cruddy. And I just didn't wanna see it ever again anymore. So into the dumpster it went. And isn't that the way of life? Things that we one day treasure. And by the way, that's the way we roll. We give things like canvas lawnmower covers for Christmas presents. But anyway, that is how it goes. But when we accumulate treasures in heaven, they are not vulnerable, they're not corruptible. They're made of better stuff. So we have these choices. Jesus is presenting the choices of what we value, what we put our time into, what we put our energy into. Touchable, tangible things will fade. I mean, this isn't the only laptop I've ever had in my life. You know, you roll through several of them over because they're corruptible. But the intangible things that we store up in heaven are waiting for us. But what are those things? What are they? Well, I wanna remind us where we've just been in the Sermon on the Mount. Last week, Jesus was talking about giving, praying, and fasting, those devotional practices for which we will receive a reward from him. So a good question might be, wait a minute, are the rewards from last week the same thing as the treasures from this week? Are they kind of the same thing? Well, let's just say for a moment that they are the same thing. And then we realize that we accumulate treasure in heaven, not by our strong work ethic and working hard, but honestly, we accumulate our treasures in heaven by denying ourselves and by, through faith, investing in the things of God's kingdom. As previously mentioned in the Sermon on the Mount, including but not limited to giving that Jesus talked about, giving our return to the Lord for how he has blessed us, releasing of our own possessions and wealth to relieve the suffering of other people. We lay up treasures in heaven by praying. Remember last week, being interested in God's concerns, God's interest, his name, his kingdom, his will, and aligning ourselves to his will, maybe even through fasting, but through praying, aligning ourselves to his will. And then if we go back a little bit further in the Sermon on the Mount, do you remember the difficult lesson we had, the hard conversation about our enemies, loving and praying and then forgiving our enemies? Okay, remember a simple definition of an enemy is someone who you need to forgive, someone who has devalued you in some way, requires your forgiveness. So are those indeed some of our treasures in heaven, accomplishing those things through the power of the spirit? Look, I've never thought before this lesson about loving and praying for my enemies as laying up treasures in heaven, but it's all in the context of what Jesus was teaching those people. So none of these things that I've mentioned are physically tangible. All of them require some level of sacrifice on our time and our attention, more of him and less of me. And all of these things need to be done on earth before we get to heaven. This is the time in which we can accomplish those things and lay up our treasures in heaven. So that's kind of a sub point that I wanna talk about here is we can only accomplish these treasures in heaven during our lifetime, which reminded me of the parable of the talents. And it's in Matthew 25. And Jesus told the parable of talents, resources given to these people. To one was given five, to another was given two, and to another was given one. And what did they do with those opportunities that were given to them or those resources given to them? The one with the five turned it into five more. And the one with the two doubled it and turned it into two more. But that one person that was given one said, I don't believe you. I don't believe this is important. I think you're a harsh man. And because of his unbelief in the opportunity, he did nothing with it. And of course, Jesus was saying, don't be like that. So we have to make use of our time and lay up the treasures. Both types of treasures, treasures on earth and we know what they are, treasures in heaven. Jesus informed us here that both of these types of treasures have the same effect on us. It says where your treasure is, there your heart will be. It's a magnetic pull to make it a habit, to have more of it. When we lay up treasures on earth, our heart wants to do that more and more. And when we lay up treasures in heaven, our heart wants to do that more and more. So they're two opposite things, but the effect of the choice that we make, the choices that we make of either earth or heaven, the effect is like night and day. It's like dark and light. It's like being blind or having sight. And that's where our next verse takes us. Verse 22,

but we always try. We always try to serve them both. We like money. The word here is mammon. It means both money and possessions. It is basically our wealth. We like mammon, and we like God, too. So what we try to do is we try to serve God on Sunday and serve mammon on Monday through Saturday. Or we try to serve God when people are viewing us, and then we serve mammon when no one is watching, right? We serve God because we love him. We love our possessions as well. So this is convicting. When Jesus says you can't serve both God and money, I'm like, no, let me try. And each one of you thinks that, too. Let me try. I don't believe you, just like the man with the one talent. So we're in a pickle, and this is convicting. The key here that helps us process our choices is the word serve, because that word is like slave. You are owned by, and that is important. What are you owned by? And that helps us to discern now the wisdom between adding to our savings account, because there is wisdom to add to your savings account. This is back to the farming analogy. You have a harvest. You don't just eat today, and that needs to last you until the next harvest. So you get a windfall. There's wisdom to adding to your savings account. But if you are serving that, then you do it all the time. You become addicted to that. Maybe that's a bad word. Maybe addicted is strong, or triggers somebody. But it becomes the habit. You want to do that more and more. There's nothing wrong with adding onto your house. You have more kids than you had five years ago. I need more space. But it is possible then, once that's done, to set your heart on the next thing, the next move, the next bigger thing, the next remodel, whatever. So for me, this passage, as I processed it this week, it was convicting. It was a wake-up call. It made me stop and just have to go back to the beginning and say, who am I? Who do I belong to? And what am I to be about? And I think that's what Jesus was trying to say to those people listening. They were primarily Jews. He was trying to get them to think, who are you? Who do you belong to? And what are you to be about? Well, we are to be about the kingdom. If we belong to our Heavenly Father, we are to be about the kingdom. So what do we do about this? We can say, oh, that's convicting, and then just go to lunch. Or we can say, how should I respond? And so I want to put a verse that the Apostle Paul used up on the screen from Colossians. I can't remember for sure if it was in your study guide or not. But what we need to do about this is we need to have a talk with our heart and with our mind. And this is, so the Apostle Paul said the same thing as Jesus, using slightly different words. He says, since then, you have been raised with Christ. Since you're in the kingdom, since you belong to your Heavenly Father, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on the earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. And what are you going to find there? Your treasures in heaven. But here's the key. Have a talk to your mind. Have a talk to your heart. Set your mind on things above. Set your heart on things above. This is our action that we need to take. And there is a delightful benefit that we receive right here from setting our minds and our hearts on things above. Not only do we accumulate treasures in heaven, but we get something right here, right now. And that is peace. We get peace to replace anxiety. And so look what Jesus says in verse 25.

OK, anxious is our key word for the second half of our lesson. But the most important word is the first word in verse 25, therefore. Without that word, it would be like a command. Do not be anxious. Do not covet. You need to do this thing. And I've always said, you cannot self-control your way out of anxiety. You cannot self-control your way out of worry. You cannot self-control your way out of fear. You're going to frustrate yourself. With that word, therefore, instead of self-controlling our way out of anxiety, we lean back onto what Jesus just said about having a talk to your mind and your heart and setting your affections on our treasures in heaven. We lean on that. We lean back further into what Jesus said about giving, praying, and fasting. I'll just take praying. We lean on praying, because in our prayers, we are setting our mind on God's interests, his name, his kingdom, his will. That's how we get out of anxiety. That's how we gain peace, is by setting our minds on those things. So I find that women sometimes are critical of the phrase, do not be anxious. And they will say to me, but I have anxiety. Or they will say, this is the condition that I have, or I am a worrier. And it's delicate to talk about these things. And it is true that some situations will spring forth anxiety or fear in you in the moment. I think Paul mentioned, but I'll tell you, just last week, we were at the Boise Town Square on a birthday date with our granddaughter buying shoes. And we left three minutes before the shooting. And the shooting started at the food court, on down the escalator. Well, that's where the Encore shoe store is. So we just missed it by a handful of minutes. So what I want to say is, if we were in that situation, and gunshots are fired in the mall, that produces anxiety. That produces fear immediately. That's a helper in that case. Because those emotions say, think quick. Pray quick. Ask the Lord what I'm supposed to do here. So it's not like they're useless. They have a purpose. But here's the difference. You don't take anxiety home and ask it to dwell with you, to live with you all the time. It has a purpose in the moment to help you discern what it is that you need to be doing. But you don't bring it home and live with it. I want to give a definition of anxiety. I went back to Noah Webster, 1828, Dictionary of the American Language. Look at the definition of anxiety here. Concern respecting some event, future or uncertain, which disturbs the mind and keeps it in a state of painful uneasiness or perplexity. Have you felt that? Have you gone through a season? It's like this defines me right here. My mind is in a state of perplexity, uneasiness. I can't rest. I am restless. That is what anxiety is. But again, we, because we belong to our Heavenly Father, have the unique ability to enjoy inner peace. Let's define that. We'll add that definition, peace. A state of quiet or tranquility, freedom from the disturbance or agitation. Do you enjoy inner peace? If you do not enjoy that, how do you get that? You lean back on what Jesus just said, treasures in heaven, praying to your Heavenly Father for His name, His kingdom, His will to be done. Listen, our lives are not void of difficulties and problems. And I'm going to say this too. Women who started life in their childhood with anxious situations pressed upon them have a more difficult time doing this. But just because something is more difficult for you doesn't mean it's impossible for you. Because what did we learn? These things are habit forming. And so you start life in a home situation where there's a lot of fear, a lot of worry, a lot of anxiety. That has formed a habit. But what do we read in the Word? With Christ, all. things are possible. So just because something is difficult to overcome doesn't mean it's impossible to overcome. I want to show how the Apostle Paul also linked peace to the activity of prayer, just like Jesus has done. He was just talking to us about prayer and now he's talking to us about don't be anxious. The Apostle Paul linked them in the same way. Look at Philippians 4, 6 through 7. He says, be anxious for nothing. But again, he doesn't tell you, you need to have self-control. No more anxiety, girl. No, he says, but in everything by prayer and supplication. That's what we lean on. We lean on prayer. With Thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. So again, it is a matter of control of the heart and mind, not by self-control, but by through prayer, through our connection, through our genuine relationship with our heavenly father. So let's look at the examples Jesus gave. Verse 26,

I think that that is such a great verse to lift out for those of you that have fear of death. I know a lot of people in my world that are afraid of death. And I like this phrase, who can add a single hour to your span of life by being afraid, by worrying, by the anxiety? That is not how, listen, if it was our day last Monday, it was our day. God has, you know, he has my days established. He knows the number of my days. I love that book when I was homeschooling, The Bulletproof Washington, and it talked about how all the things that General Washington got out of him, bullet holes in his jackets and stuff like that, because God had his days ordered and he has our days ordered. And by worrying or anxiety, who can add a single hour? You just can't. I hope that's a comfort. I hope that's not depressing, but you know, it is, it is something to take, to take to heart and say, Lord, you know, every moment of my life, I choose to lean back into you. I choose to rest in you. Let's go to the next illustration, verse 28.

And here it comes again.

I think that phrase is put in there for all of us planners, that we already have our plans made for tomorrow and planning isn't a bad thing. But every time, every once in a while, I see my face in the mirror of scripture and I'm like, oh, that one's for me because I love to think of that. Don't be anxious about tomorrow. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. And so those verses bring us to the conclusion that we have two choices for priorities in life. One choice is to seek the kingdom of God. And the other choice is to seek provision, seek focus on all the what ifs of tomorrow. And there's a lot of them. And I think this really strikes a chord with women in particular, because in general, women love safety and security. In general, men are wired for protection and provision. And I say in general, because nothing is tidy as tidy as that, but we love security. Women do. We want to know that I am going to be comfortable, be cared for, be loved, have the financial resources I need for today, for tomorrow, for next year, for 10 years from now. That's what I crave. I want security. And of course, men have struggled too, because they want to provide and they have a base desire to provide. And so they're the same thing. I want to know that I can provide tomorrow and a year from now and 10 years from now. So we all struggle. We all struggle in this. But the problem with focusing on tomorrow is when is enough enough? No possible way you can know when enough is enough, because we don't know all the, what does my husband always say? Something he says, basically, I don't have all the pieces. I don't have all the pieces of this, but we don't know about the accidents that might happen. We don't know about the deaths in our family that might happen. We don't know about a turn of health that might happen. We don't know about financial collapse that might happen. We don't know about inflation. If you're going to try to make provision for tomorrow, it will be a full-time job. It will never end, because enough is never enough. And here's the problem. If we apply ourselves to seek after security for tomorrow, we will not be able to fulfill the purpose for which God has created us today. Can I say it again? If we apply ourselves to seek after security for tomorrow, we will not be able to fulfill the purpose for which God has created us today. And God has created us for a purpose. We have a very significant and special part in the kingdom. So as we seek first the kingdom of God, what we're doing is today, God, I want to fulfill the purpose that you have created for me, for today, for your kingdom. Tomorrow, all the troubles will be there. I can guarantee you that. All today's troubles will be there tomorrow. We'll deal with them then, because tomorrow, I will seek the purpose for which I was created, and that will trump the anxiety over the issues that are going on. What a generous gift that God has given us as His kids, that as we walk with Him, we can lean into Him through prayer. We can take these concerns, and we do not have to live with anxiety. We can walk in the way of peace. Amen? Father, thank you for that. That is just a glorious reminder. I'm sure in this room and for those listening, there's all kinds of issues, all kinds of situations, which just knock on our door and tempt us to become anxious. Lord, would you help each one of us to grow in that area of leaning into you, talking to you about it, offloading our difficulties and our challenges so that we can be about the business of the kingdom, so that we can be useful in your kingdom, so that we can lay up our treasures in heaven. Lord, we all need this message, and I pray that you would just work in our hearts, even next week, as we move on and focus on different things. Lord, help us not lose hold of what we have learned in this lesson. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. ---