#112 Lu. 12:29-33 LEARNING TO GIVE GOD'S WORK TOP PRIORITY Introduction: In our previous text Jesus taught His disciples not to worry about their material needs. He taught them to trust in God to supply their needs. In our text today Jesus teaches His disciples to put God's work first. I. Learning not to make material things top priority V. 29-30, "And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things." This does not forbid the Christian to provide for himself the necessities of life. Rather, he is not to make the seeking of those things his top priority. Also he is not to worry and fret, fearful that his needs will not be supplied. God the Father in heaven knows that needs fool and clothes. He knows all about the things he needs to sustain life and provide for his family. God knows exactly what the Christian needs and God will supply his need. The unsaved people of the world worry and fret over their material needs and make the getting of material things their top priority. They seek not only to get what they need, but they seek to get all they can beyond their needs. This is their top priority in life. If the Christian is not careful he will do the same thing. He will make it his chief objective in life to get all of the material things that he can get his hands on and he will seek to store up and hoard up those things for his own use and his own pleasure. Jesus instructs the Christian to not make it his chief objective to store up material things for himself. He is to work and earn a livelihood for himself and for his family, but he is not to make it his objective to accumulate riches in this world. He is to learn to put his faith and trust in God to provide his needs. God is not going to let the Christian starve. God sees his life and God will supply. The Christian is to learn to trust God to supply all his needs. II. Learning, rather, to seek the kingdom of God Jesus then instructs the Christian that he is to give the worship and work of God top priority in his life. V. 31, "But rather seek ye the kingdom of God..." Keep in mind that Jesus is talking here to people who are already His disciples. They are already saved. He is not telling them to get saved. He is telling them that now that they are saved, they should put the kingdom work of God first in their lives. It is true, of course, that if one is not saved, then the most important thing for him to do is to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as His Savior and be saved. One cannot really work in God's kingdom until he is in God's kingdom. He needs to be saved and to get into the kingdom. But once one is saved and in God's kingdom, he should not continue to seek after the riches of this world as he was inclined to do before he was saved. There are greater riches than the riches of this world which saved person should seek. Worshipping the True and Living God brings spiritual riches that are greater than the riches of this world. Rendering service to God brings spiritual riches that are far greater than the riches of this world. III. Learning go believe the promise of God One may say, "But what am I going to do about my necessities? If I put the work of God first in my life, how in the world am I going to take care of needs?" That is just the point that Jesus is making. Don't worry about taking care of your needs. Let God take care of you. Don't be afraid that you will go lacking. God will take care of your needs. Trust the promise that Jesus made. In the latter part of verse 31 Jesus said, "...and all these things shall be added unto you." If you will do the will of God all of your material needs will be take care of. Do you need food? Do the work of God and God will see that you do not starve to death. Do you need food? Do the work of God and provide your food. Do you need clothes? Do the work of God and God will provide your clothes. God sees your need and God will provide for you. He may not give you all the luxury items you desire, but you will be provided for. V. 32, "Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." Jesus had told the members of His church not to set their affections on the material things of this world and not to make it their main objective to treasure up those things for themselves. He told them to learn to trust God to supply their need. He says that it is the Heavenly Father's good pleasure to give them all their needs. Let me repeat. It the Father's good pleasure to give to His people what they need. To be specific, Jesus said that it is the Father's good pleasure to give them the kingdom of God. But in giving them the kingdom, He is giving them spiritual riches which are far greater than the material riches of this world. God the Father gives His people greater riches than the material riches of this world. It is His pleasure to do so. It is likewise His good pleasure to furnish them the material things which they need while they are in this world. God knows that the Christian has material needs as long as he lives in this world and it is the Father's good pleasure to supply what he needs. God will supply just as long as the Christian is in this world. I think the average Christian has no trouble believing this truth with his mind, because the Bible teaches it. The Lord Jesus Christ, Himself, has said it and every Christian knows that Jesus speaks the truth. We believe it with our minds, but because of the weakness of our flesh nature, we do not fully believe it. If we fully believed it, we would never worry again! If we fully believed it, we would have no problem in depending fully on God. We would know that God will supply our needs and we would never worry about those things again. If we fully believed it, we would have no problem in devoting ourselves more fully to the work of God. We would not have any problem in getting to the church services on a regular basis. We would find it much more difficult to miss a service than to attend a service. If we fully believed that we get far greater blessings by attending church than by missing church we would find it extremely difficult to miss. Not only would our Sunday School be better attended, but our Sunday evening services and our Wednesday evening services would be well attended. We would never stay home to watch television. We would not stay home to watch television even on Super Bowl Sunday. Listen! Am I right or am I wrong? In verse 33 Jesus gave His disciples an assignment that I am going to confess to you that I am not sure I rightly understand. I have an idea of what Jesus was talking about and I think I am right. But I will continue to study the Scriptures on the matter with a prayer that the Lord will teach me better if I am wrong. IV. Learning to give to the poor V. 33, "Sell that ye have, and give alms..." There is no question about what is meant by the word, alms. Alms are gifts to the poor. There is no question about Jesus wanting His disciples to give alms. Jesus very definitely wants His people to give alms to the poor. He wants them first of all to give tithes and offerings to the church even though that is not what He is talking about in this verse. But in addition to giving to the church, He wants His people to give to the poor. This truth is taught in many passages of Scripture. Likewise, there is no question that Jesus wants His disciples, at least under certain conditions, to be willing to sell their possessions and use the funds from the sale to give to the poor. I do not understand that Jesus was saying that all of His disciples were to sell all of their possessions and give everything away to the poor. Let me put it this way: I do not understand this statement to mean that all of you should sell all of your possessions and give everything away to the poor. I do believe that if that were the intent of the command that God would take care of us anyway. I also believe that if that were the intent of this command that everyone of us ought to be willing to sell everything we have and give everything away to the poor. Whatever the Lord wants us to do, we ought to do it. I believe that. Some have suggested that only the twelve apostles were expected to sell their possessions and give the proceeds to the poor. They point out that the twelve were expected to follow Jesus and that they would not need houses while they were traveling around with Jesus. I am going to acknowledge that this could possibly be the right explanation of the command. However, I do not understand it that way. Some of the apostles had family members who would still need a home to live in while the apostles were away. I do not think Jesus deprived them of their homes. I think that there is a better explanation of this verse of Scripture. I think that Jesus means that when His disciples see people in need, that they are to do their very best to take care of the need of those about them. If they do not have sufficient to help the needy in any other way, they are to sell some of their possessions and give to the poor. I do not understand it to mean that every Christian is to sell everything he has. I do think it means that he should be willing to sell his most prized possessions in order to help others in need. Such an occasion actually arose later as is described in the Book of Acts. Many Jews came to Jerusalem for the annual observance of the Passover and stayed in Jerusalem through Pentecost. About three-thousand of them got saved on the day of Pentecost under the preaching of the Apostle Peter. They were then baptized and joined the church at Jerusalem and just stayed in Jerusalem. They did not return to their homelands, their homes and their jobs. They had no homes at Jerusalem and they had no jobs. Some of them really had a struggle to survive while hunting jobs in Jerusalem. Many of the Christians who already lived in Jerusalem sold some of their possessions in order to provide for those in need. Barnabas sold some of his property and gave the money to help those in need. Others did the same thing. Ananias and Sapharia also sold some of their property and pretended to give it all when they didn't give it all. They got into trouble with God because they claimed that they gave the total amount of the sale, whereas the truth was that they had kept back some of the sale price for themselves. The Apostle Peter said that Ananias and Saphira were not required to sell their property. He said further that even after they sold it, they were not required to give all of the sale to the needy. Peter said that where they went wrong was in lying about what they had done. Now here is my point. The Apostle Peter knew what Jesus said in this verse. Peter was there when Jesus said it. Peter did not understand that Jesus meant that every Christian was to sell all that he has and give it all to the poor. I think that if Jesus had meant for every Christian to sell everything he has and give it all to the poor then the Apostle Peter would have understood it that way and he would have said so. Now aren't you glad? Aren't you glad that you are not required to sell all that you have and give it all away to the poor. Aren't you glad that you are not required to sell the house that you and your family live in. Aren't you glad you and your family do not have to leave you home and move out into the cold? Never-the-less, that does not let us off the hook entirely. We are to be willing to give to help the poor. And if necessary, we should be willing to sell at least some of our possessions in order to be able to help the poor. I personally think that we should be willing to give up our most prized possessions in order to help the poor. I know that here in our country there are many government programs that are designed to help the poor, but that does not let us Christians off the hook. We still have a responsibility to God to reach into our pocketbooks and reach out with a helping hand. V. Learning to lay up treasures in heaven In the latter part of verse 33 Jesus said, "...provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth." The kind of bags that Jesus is talking about is money bags or purses. Jesus, of course, is not saying that those men should buy lady's purses. Even the men carried bags in that day for the purpose of carrying money and other items. Occasionally the bag they carried would wear out and would need to be replaced. What Jesus was recommending to them would provide bags that would not wear our and would never need to be replaced. For the disciples to do what Jesus had already recommended to them would be like putting money in a bag in heaven. The bag in heaven would never wear out and would never need to be replace. Neither would thieves sneak into heaven and steal their money. The treasures which they would lay up in heaven would never be taken away by thieves. It would never be taken away by inflation. It would never be taken away at all. Likewise, when they would sacrifice their own possessions in order to help others in need they would be laying up treasures in heaven where they would never be taken away. Whatever treasure one lays up in this world will surely be taken away. It may be taken away while he is alive. Moths can eat his clothes. Rust can destroy his instruments. Common usage will wear out some things and they need to be replaced. Inflation or depression can eat up his funds. B bad investments he can loose his shirt. But whatever treasure he lays up in heaven he will never lose. Let me remind you that this text was spoken by Jesus to His disciples. We will all agree that it is important for those who are His disciples to learn to put into practice what Jesus commands us to do. By doing the will of the Lord Christians can experience far greater blessings in this life. They can live a much happier life. Furthermore, by doing the will of the Lord here in this life. Christians can lay up much greater rewards for the next life. It is far more important that Christians lay up treasures in heaven that will never be taken from them than it is to lay up treasures here on earth where it will all be taken from them. However, those who are not saved have nothing to look forward to. Whatever they accumulate in this life they will lose. They will leave it all behind when they die and they will have nothing but fear and torment ahead. They will be tormented forever. Oh, how they need to turn to God and be saved. Conclusion: I am going to call upon those who are unsaved and who want to be saved to turn to Jesus Christ right now and trust in Him for salvation. I am also calling upon each one who is saved to yield your life to the Lord. Let the Lord have His way in your life.