Our Highest Values

[00:00:00] Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our father and from our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. [00:00:12] Jesus words again. How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God. [00:00:20] Now, which of us are they who are wealthy? Wealth is something that's difficult to measure, really. [00:00:28] Historically, I think we're all wealthy. Like, anybody who lives in the United States is wealthy to some degree. And of course, I recognize that there are people who are homeless and in need and such, but just generally speaking, what do they say? Citizens of the United States are among, like, the 1% most wealthy in the world. Something like that. [00:00:54] We have so many conveniences, so many, well, things that make life easier, that help us to not spend so much of our life just working to live. Not so long ago, it was different. I mean, many of you, as I speak with you about your childhood, tell me about a time when it was a lot harder, when a lot more of. Of family life and a lot more of one's attention and strength. Time we're spent on just growing food and doing basic things to fulfill human needs. [00:01:39] Today, we spend a lot less of our income on food. For example, I think it's something like 15% on average. [00:01:49] This is just a statistic, is like how much we spend on our food. And it used to be more like 50% or more. [00:01:59] So anyway, the conveniences of the modern age have kind of lessened the. [00:02:06] Well, the. [00:02:09] They've made the contingencies of human life. The ways that we are dependent and our life is, well, risks going away. Like, we need food. I'm speaking simple terms. We need food, we need housing. These things are like, we are mortal. We could die. We need health, and we just don't have to worry quite as much about those things as we used to. [00:02:39] I think in the context of, like, the history of human civilization, we're pretty wealthy, and we have to worry about relatively little with regard to our bodily needs. Again, recognizing that those are. That there are many who are in need and are in need of our assistance, we should generously offer that. [00:03:01] Often, though, we don't feel like we're very wealthy. [00:03:04] I mean, at least we don't have time for a lot of things that maybe we should have time for. There's just not enough time to invest in relationships with family or with people in our community. Just not enough time to know my neighbors well. [00:03:23] You know, we put our time where our values are, and so if I really care about my neighbors, I should spend time with my neighbors and give it to them, we should just spend time with people. But our values have shifted. [00:03:37] And that's one of the things I want to talk about, is that our values have shifted along with the advances in technology that have made life easy. [00:04:02] You could say that over the last few hundred years, we have focused more and more on science and technology and on studying things around us, empirically observing the material world in order to increase our power. So if you look at, like, any of the advances in technology, whether it's in, like, the area of healthcare or like, now we have air conditioning and things like that, you know, like, they all, they all kind of increase our power, right? [00:04:35] They. [00:04:37] They increase our power. And what's happened is that as we change our environment to make things easier and easier, I think that that that affects the way we think as we change our environment. Our environment then shapes us. And so we've come to value these things. So a simple way to look at that is say, like, well, what are some ways that our environment has changed? [00:05:04] And, like, one way is that we used to have, like, well, at least thinking in Europe, right? Churches were, like, ornate and very large, especially in comparison to the houses that people lived in. If you think of, like, their huts versus the churches, like, wow, you know, and like, this is a pretty, pretty big building, right? And, you know, beautiful according to our standards. All right, so I don't mean to demean it, but we don't really build cathedrals like that, at least unless we're the roman catholic church that has boatloads of money. [00:05:54] Just like I don't have time for my neighbors. We don't have money to spend on a massive church with a bunch of custom artwork. [00:06:06] Does that resonate with everybody? I think that's where we're at. But the thing is, it's not that there aren't massive buildings. [00:06:15] I walked into a hospital in Loveland a few days ago and, wow, you walk into that hospital and the ceiling is way up there, okay? You feel like the heavens are opened and the huge windows let in all kinds of light. [00:06:42] And then besides just the grand feeling of the building, there was really nice music playing. I think it was a piano that was playing by itself in a corner, but it sounded like, wow, this is really pleasant. There's music. It's a grand space. You walk in there and you feel like heaven has come down. And that's because that's how they want you to feel. And in a sense, there's nothing wrong with that. You want to walk into a hospital and feel like this is a place where my needs are taken care of. This is a place that has understanding, that has been enlightened and given the gifts to save my life, which is, which is why churches were built that way, too, in the past. Right. [00:07:31] What's another building that benefits from being grand? [00:07:37] I'm thinking. Oh, yeah, you want to answer here? [00:07:41] Government buildings. Government buildings, yeah. That's a good one. Right? They're very grand. And I think that's really important. Right. I mean, we don't want, like, we don't want our government buildings in Washington, DC to be tiny and, you know, decrepit or something like that. Right. That would say something about what they mean. No, they need to stand out and. Exactly. So the way that they're built, the huge pillars and the grandness, the stone, right. This dense, heavy, important material, it grabs attention and it really matters. So our context, including architecture, really matters. I was thinking of banks. [00:08:18] I don't know, there are banks that are just kind of out of an office building, it would seem. They're not much to look at, but there are also a lot of banks that look grand, even if it's in kind of a surface level way. [00:08:31] You feel good about a bank that looks like it's solid and that you can trust it. [00:08:38] So, well, where are our values? [00:08:43] Physical health is certainly a major value for us. And I mean, of course that makes sense because, well, we don't like being mortal, and suffering isn't fun, and it's not like we look forward to death. Right. And banks, well, you know, of course, banks would be, I mean, money, again, is important, but where are our values? [00:09:09] Here's another thing. So we've talked about architecture. [00:09:14] What about habits or let's say, customs? [00:09:21] Talking with many of you, I think that your home life, especially if you've been around a while, your home life growing up was probably a little bit more structured than my household. [00:09:37] In my household, a lot that used to be formal has become informal, and that was partly by choice because I grew up in a culture that said, informality is genuine and attractive and fosters a more sort of loving community. [00:09:58] But what happens is that the informality actually, you know, turns back on us and shapes us. [00:10:05] Why do we have formality? There are reasons for the structures around us. There are reasons for customs. [00:10:11] There's a reason that you don't wear pajamas to an interview for a job, because it says something about you, right? And also, like, there's a reason you don't wear pajamas to work, even if your boss wouldn't care. It's, well, maybe you do. I don't know. [00:10:30] If I'm in pajamas, that means something very different for me and for my own experience of what I'm doing than if I dress up. If I dress up, then I think this is important, and I have a job to do. [00:10:42] If we sit around the table as a family, we're saying we're together, and then if we set the table nicely, which I'll just say, like, we don't have a really formal, you know, consistent way of setting our table, which is something that we've talked about changing, because realizing, you know, we really need a lot of those structures, I think that we threw out thought, oh, these aren't so important. Well, then you start to try and cultivate discipline and respect and things like that, and it's like, why is this so hard? You know? Well, maybe it's partly because we've thrown out the environment in which those things were shaped, and that environment, in turn, was shaped by our values. So now we see the values gone. How do we get them back? [00:11:33] How do we get them back? Well, maybe by, you know, in part by reshaping our environment so that it cultivates the kind of values that actually matter. You know? Another example of. Of, let's say, schedule and habits and environment is when you're watching tv, it's all very carefully designed to draw your attention and keep it to give you what you need to be interested when the sports game ends. I always think it's funny, there's this team of a couple people after the sports game whose job it is to keep your interest for, like, 30 seconds while people who are going to interview players go out onto the field and find the players to interview. It's like, okay, we've got this 32nd spot where nothing's happening, and so there's this very surface level conversation for about 30 seconds. [00:12:31] It's just saying, stay with us. Stay with us. Stay here. Stay here. [00:12:36] Tv. They have to be very careful about that, and so they actually think about where your attention is and where it ought to be, kind of like we do in worship. I mean, this is all of worship. We'll talk about that more in Bible class today. But all of worship is designed to funnel your attention, our attention, collectively, together to a place for a purpose in order to shape us. It's very intentional. Well, same thing with family life, dinner at the table or devotions. How do we end our night? How do we begin our day? Right? Do we do it looking to the Lord? Where's our attention going. All of these things are extremely important. [00:13:14] And if we forget it, then we should take Jesus word seriously, and the words of Hebrews as well. [00:13:29] How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God. [00:13:35] Not impossible, but difficult. Why? [00:13:40] Because when you have it all to enjoy, what else do you need? [00:13:48] When there's no reason to turn my attention to God, then, well, maybe I don't. Right. [00:13:58] We need to take our attention seriously. [00:14:02] Faith in Christ seriously. Jesus said, truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions, and in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be last and the last first. [00:14:31] So no one who has left house, brothers, sisters, mother, father, children, lands. What are those things that I need to leave, that you need to leave for the sake of the gospel? What are those things that threaten to steal our attention away from Christ and become the highest good in our hearts and minds? [00:14:53] Or as a family, you think in terms of a group or as a congregation. What are those things that threaten to get in the way? [00:15:01] Jesus says you can stand to lose anything. [00:15:06] Don't worry about it. You can lose anything. And in fact, you end up gaining everything. [00:15:15] Think about it. You really do have family and a home in Christ as a part of the body of Christ and a home to look forward to, treasure waiting in heaven for you. An inheritance waiting in heaven for you. Thank God in Jesus name, amen.