The Story of Your Baptism

[00:00:03] Nico, you've been baptized into Christ, and so you've been baptized into God's name. You've been baptized into, well, a new family, God's family. And then we're sort of the local form of that, right? [00:00:26] A new family and a new story. [00:00:29] We're going to start off here just by looking at the Apostles Creed. [00:00:34] This is the story that we've been baptized into, that we are brought into as part of God's family. [00:00:43] Now, everyone lives by a story. [00:00:48] Everyone lives with certain assumptions about. [00:00:51] About reality, about our identity, about where we came from, where we are, where we're headed, what matters in life. [00:01:02] What should we be concerned about? [00:01:08] What our actions and our words and our life is aimed toward? [00:01:15] Getting a little bit of feedback. Is that because I'm a little far forward or. Aha. It is. I knew Dan would know. [00:01:24] We're gonna step up here. [00:01:26] Oh, that's all right. [00:01:30] So let's start off with a couple of assumptions that we might have, apart from the Apostles Creed, which is to say when I forget about the story that I've been baptized into. [00:01:44] Echoes. Sorry. [00:01:48] All right. So sometimes I forget that I was made by God the Father, right? Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth. I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth. [00:02:02] When I forget that he made everything, well, then I start to treat my own life like. [00:02:11] Well, like I can make my own decisions and go about my life without regard for my instruction manual that God made along with me as my maker. If God made me and all creatures, then, well, I ought to care about what he wants for me. [00:02:37] So, baptized into a new story. Like, oh, well, no, God made me, and he sent his son, Jesus Christ for us. [00:02:49] He was crucified, died and was buried, descended into hell. The third day, he rose again from the dead, ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. [00:02:59] From thence he will come to judge the living and the dead. [00:03:03] So he sent Jesus Christ, who died and rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God and is ruling and reigning over everything and has promised to come back. [00:03:16] When we forget who is the master, who is the king, the ruler, then our life can kind of go off course. [00:03:27] But then we're reminded of Jesus Christ, into whom we've been baptized, into whose name we've been baptized and remember this new story. [00:03:40] Anyway, there's a lot more to it. Okay? But baptized, we've been baptized into a story. And this now, this is now the guiding story for your life and my Life and our life. [00:03:56] And we need to be constantly reminded of the story. [00:04:00] So we say the Apostles Creed every Sunday or the Nicene Creed. [00:04:05] It's repetitive, but that's the point. [00:04:10] This is for us to meditate on our whole life. [00:04:14] All right, let's jump to the Gospel reading and specifically the end of it. [00:04:23] But Jesus says in verse 13, no servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. [00:04:47] I want to propose that these are sort of two. [00:04:52] Two overarching stories that can guide our life. [00:04:57] And there are others. [00:04:59] There are other masters than money. [00:05:01] But here Jesus is putting together God and money. [00:05:05] He's contrasting them. You can't serve both well, but you can serve one or the other. And so either of them can serve as this sort of overarching narrative by which you run your life. [00:05:19] Okay? So in baptism, we've been brought into God's family, and so we look to our Father to give us instruction. We look to our Father to teach us in the way that we should go. Or we could say we follow Jesus Christ, to whom we've been united. [00:05:40] In baptism, Jesus, who says, follow me. Take up your cross and follow me, okay? [00:05:49] But money, boy, money can be just as much of a master. [00:05:53] So if I. [00:05:55] Well, if I start to think that money is the master, then money starts to guide my actions and my words and my life. [00:06:08] And Jesus says, don't. [00:06:12] You've got one master? [00:06:19] This parable that he tells, it's dense, and there are twists and turns in it. [00:06:27] And the Pharisees weren't so happy about it because they were lovers of money. [00:06:33] Their master was money. And so they weren't receptive to what Jesus had to say. [00:06:42] So let's look at what he had to say. [00:06:46] There was a rich man who had a manager, okay? And this rich man tells the manager, turn in your accounts. [00:06:56] You're just about done. Your time's up. [00:06:59] And the guy says, what do I do? [00:07:02] I depend on this. [00:07:03] But Jesus says that this is the wealth that fails. [00:07:10] The unrighteous wealth. [00:07:12] The riches of this world. [00:07:15] They are passing away, and so don't put your trust in them. [00:07:21] So the manager says, well, then what I'm going to do is I'm going to cut everybody a deal. I'm going to give away my master's money so that they'll like me, and then they'll welcome me into their houses and I'll have some place to stay. [00:07:36] It's like if I'm a rich man and have a manager, I don't want him to do that. Right? [00:07:43] If money is the master. [00:07:48] But sort of mysteriously the master commends the guy. He's like, well, that was smart. [00:07:57] And then Jesus goes on and says that we should be faithful with the unrighteous wealth. [00:08:06] And by faithful, what does he mean? Does he mean what the dishonest manager did? [00:08:12] Is he telling us to give away the master's money or is he telling us to take a Dave Ramsey course and save up for retirement? [00:08:26] I mean, what do you think this is such an interest? It's like he's commending the dishonest manager and then he's saying go and do likewise. [00:08:35] That is what he's saying. [00:08:38] Last week we talked, well, two weeks ago maybe we said that God owns everything. [00:08:44] Everything belongs to God. [00:08:47] Is he the rich man who had the manager? I think, you know, it's hard to like say one to one, this is what's going on in the parable. But I think we can confidently say that Jesus is telling us to give away our wealth to those in need. [00:09:06] He's telling us to be faithful with the unrighteous wealth. He doesn't mean be really wise money managers, which is kind of hard to hear as an American who has taken the Dave Ramsey course. [00:09:25] There's some helpful stuff in there, right? [00:09:28] How do we take this? Are we to be the dishonest manager and give everything away? [00:09:37] Well, yes, I think so. [00:09:45] Now this is not the anti Dave Ramsey course either. [00:09:50] He's not telling us to just be unwise with money, but we can put it in this frame. [00:09:58] He says the unrighteous wealth, by which he means worldly wealth that fails, it's got an expiration date. Or rather we have an expiration date. Just like the manager had to give up his account. [00:10:13] Well, that's going to be me one day. [00:10:16] Because we're mortal. [00:10:20] We're not taking it in the U haul with us to heaven. We're not. [00:10:25] After I die, where do my possessions go? [00:10:28] Well, there's probably an answer to that, you know, technically to my family or whatever, right? But then I'm out of the game. I mean, it's all this that I worked to build up. Like Solomon says in Ecclesiastes, it's going to be handed on to somebody else that comes to an end. But then Jesus pits the unrighteous wealth against true riches. [00:10:59] And he says, if you haven't been faithful with the unrighteous wealth, who's going to give you the true riches? And then he says, if you haven't been faithful with what's not yours, how will you be given what's yours? [00:11:18] What he's saying is that the true riches, yours, you see, you've got the temporal wealth with which we're entrusted to manage it, as God would have us manage it, right? He's our master. There's one master. And it's not money, it's God. [00:11:36] So there's that wealth, and then there are the true riches. [00:11:42] And you have true riches in Jesus Christ. [00:11:46] And what you own, your house, your money, your possessions, your car, whatever you have, your clothing, none of that is yours. Jesus is saying, he says, if you haven't been faithful with what's not yours? That's what he's talking about. [00:12:03] It's not mine. [00:12:07] You see, this different perspective that we're baptized into, being brought into God's family. A different look on the things around us, on ourselves. I am not my own. The things I own are not my own. [00:12:21] They don't belong to me. [00:12:23] You know what's cool, though, is that he says that the true riches do belong to you. [00:12:31] You see, one day I'm going to have to turn in my account and everything that I own in this world is not going to be mine anymore. [00:12:40] It's going to be taken back. I have it on loan to use it toward a certain purpose, the purpose of my master. [00:12:49] But the true riches, forgiveness of sins, everlasting life, and immortality in Jesus Christ. [00:13:00] The fruits of the spirit, like love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. [00:13:13] Everything spiritual. Every spiritual gift that we receive through Jesus Christ in God's family is yours and will not be taken away from you. [00:13:26] That's what Jesus says to Martha. Remember, she says, Mary has chosen the better portion and it will not be taken away from her. [00:13:39] Those are the true riches. [00:13:43] So then the question is, what do we do then as managers under God our Father? [00:13:53] Managers of possessions that he has given to us to manage. [00:13:58] What does he want us to do with Him? [00:14:04] Well, what's God like? How does he manage his possessions? [00:14:13] He gives them up. [00:14:15] He just gives freely, right? He sends rain on the just and the unjust. Like people don't have to deserve it. [00:14:23] And. And he sends rain. [00:14:25] He gives his gifts freely to the point of sending his own son. [00:14:32] He gave up his son for us to death on the cross so that we could have life while we were yet sinners. Christ died for us. [00:14:44] That's the kind of generosity that God displays in his own actions that reflect his own heart, pours himself out out of love for us. Okay, so that's our master. And we are managers of whatever has been given to you, whatever resources you have. [00:15:10] And here Jesus is talking specifically about money in this passage. You could extend that to everything else that you have, all the skills that you've been given, or the time that you've been given, or the relationships, any of it. [00:15:27] All our life in this world is to be managed as stewards of God. Having been given these things on loan for use in his kingdom. [00:15:45] What does God want with what I have? [00:15:51] Well, we've been united to Jesus in his death and resurrection. [00:15:59] We've been called to follow Jesus wherever he leads, to take up our cross, which means the loss of all things, and to follow him wherever he leads. So, well, can I afford to give up, let's just say, 10% of my income? [00:16:24] Well, God had the Israelites do that in the Old Testament. Well, we've been freed from the law, though the law no longer applies in Christ. Christ has fulfilled the law. [00:16:39] And so I don't have to take that 10% rule as a hard and fast rule. [00:16:46] Ah, good. [00:16:50] Well, no, no, see, Christ has fulfilled the law so that now we're under grace, not under the law. [00:17:04] We have everything taken care of in Jesus Christ. [00:17:09] We don't have to worry about a thing. [00:17:14] Jesus Christ gave himself up for us all and gives us himself. [00:17:22] He says, even if you die, I'll raise you from the dead. [00:17:28] So we follow Jesus taking up our cross, suffering the loss of all things and gaining everything, suffering the loss of the unrighteous wealth, as Jesus calls it in this parable. [00:17:45] And receiving the true riches, we can afford to give up anything. [00:17:55] You see, the Old Testament tithe is surpassed in Jesus. [00:18:05] Now, it is a text specifically about money. [00:18:12] And so I should take a moment here to talk about money. And I kind of already have here. But just want to note, this is the most I've ever preached about money ever. [00:18:24] Because I hear so often, like about how pastors, all they talk about is money, and it's not true. It's not true. Maybe somewhere, right? [00:18:37] But I think money is this topic that is so, you know, you always hear that it's a personal. [00:18:43] Like it's so personal. And I think it's a difficult. [00:18:47] It's a difficult topic. I mean, in tough times, money can be a topic that pulls people apart, right? Families can argue or lose their peace over money. [00:19:07] It happens all the time. [00:19:09] I think that's part of the tension in the text too, where you see the Pharisees upset. [00:19:17] They're angry because of the way Jesus just talked about money. [00:19:21] But it's because they were lovers of money. [00:19:27] It's because their hearts were pulled by money. Money had their hearts by the throat, so they couldn't handle hearing that. [00:19:41] Have you ever had heartburn over money tithing in the Old Testament, in the life of Israel, it wasn't just a way of providing for the spiritual life of Israel, the temple and all of that. [00:20:08] It was that. [00:20:11] But it was also a spiritual discipline by which God taught the people of Israel that the earth is the Lord's and everything in it, that everything belongs to the Lord. [00:20:26] And so by giving up not just a tenth, but also redeeming their firstborn son, they were continually learning and being reminded that everything they had belonged to the Lord. [00:20:46] The practice of giving is a discipline. [00:20:54] I remember my dad saying once when I was a kid, sometimes it's hard to write that check. [00:21:00] You know, it's like. Well, that's part of the point. [00:21:03] That's part of the point, right? Is that it's hard. [00:21:11] Why is it hard? Because my heart is pulled by it. [00:21:21] But in the difficulty is a gift. [00:21:26] God is loosening our grip on the things of this world. [00:21:31] Why does it matter? [00:21:34] It's always a good question to ask, why does it matter? [00:21:39] It's because no one can serve two masters. [00:21:42] And God wants our heart, our entire being. [00:21:49] So Jesus says to be faithful with the unrighteous wealth in order to be given the righteous wealth. He's not saying that by giving to the needy, that by being loose with God's possessions, as we should. [00:22:14] He's not saying you're scoring points with God or earning salvation, but it does reflect, does reflect who our master is, how we spend our possessions. [00:22:39] Nico, you've been brought into. [00:22:41] You've been brought under a new master, let's say Jesus Christ, who has all power and authority in heaven and on earth. And that's all of us together. [00:22:54] We've all been brought under a new master, Jesus Christ. And it means freedom to follow him into whatever. [00:23:07] We talked the other day about how Jesus came and he displayed power over everything, over the evil spirits. He drove them out. If you were afraid of evil or the power of evil, well, Jesus has power over them. [00:23:26] They're afraid of him. They flee just at the sight of him. [00:23:32] If people were afraid of sickness or suffering, well, Jesus has power over that too. He healed every kind of sickness. If they were afraid of death, well, he raised Lazarus from the dead and others. And he himself rose from the dead. [00:23:56] Jesus has risen from the dead, has been given power and authority, all power and authority in heaven and on earth, in his reigning and ruling as king. [00:24:06] And that's who we serve, thanks be to God. And in him we have all of his promises. [00:24:15] And we know that this temporal world is passing away. [00:24:21] And that in Jesus we've been brought into eternity. In his name, amen.