Mark Radke was scheduled to take this chapter while Ginger & I were in Texas. In the midst of the Coronavirus crisis, everything changed, but we decided to stick with Mark and Luke 12.
Luke 12.pdf (Mark Radke)
Luke 12.mp3 (Mark Radke)
Here is a link to the livestream video: https://www.facebook.com/horizoncentral/videos/1399883910195033/
32 Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Jesus begins by reassuring us that it is the Father’s “good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” It is not something we have to compete for, haggle over or bid on like participants in an auction. He wants to give the kingdom to us as members of his royal family. But do we want what the Father wants to give?
Maybe. Or yes, probably so, deep down, when we are quietly thinking about the subject. But how often do we think so quietly? In the systematic blur of day-to-day endeavors and obstacles, we may never quietly think about we want deep down and long-term. By “long-term” I mean in eternity. Really long-term.
Jesus knows this about us. So he immediately teaches us how to get our hearts in the right place. The next two verses tell us how to get our hearts in proper alignment with God’s, and it all starts with our treasure.
It may involve giving up some of our treasure here on earth, such as selling things and giving to the needy. There is be more to it, of course, but it is not Jesus’s goal to give us a lengthy how-to lesson. That might only bog us down in the details and distract us from his ultimate priority. He wants us to store up treasure in heaven. In part, that is so we will have treasure in heaven, plain and simple, which is, in itself, is a good thing. There is, however, something else.
Storing up treasure in heaven taps into an overriding and stable principle, which is “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Jesus wants us to invest in heaven, because the treasure we have there will ultimately lead our hearts into alignment with God’s while we still inhabit the earth.
We need some skin in the game. If we don’t invest in our heavenly future, we will remain stupidly focused on the here and now. Yet both experience and observation indicate that the here and now becomes the there and then all too soon. Heaven is eternal. There we find “moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.”
Heaven is where our Father eternally resides. Heaven is where Jesus is now and that is where he wants our hearts. Our hearts invariably follow our treasure; our treasure will lead our hearts.
Sometimes the best way to pray is to use the words of Scripture directly. Here is an example from Luke 11.
2 And he said to them, “When you pray, say:
“Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
3 Give us each day our daily bread,
4 and forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And lead us not into temptation.”
Amen!
33 “No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. 34 Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. 35 Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness. 36 If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.”
There are really two lessons here:
1. Don’t hide the light you have.
2. Make your whole self full of light.
Most often, when I’ve heard this passage taught, the focus is on the first lesson. I also cannot read it without hearing a cheerful melody resonating in my head.
This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine!
So let’s focus on the second one: Make your whole self full of light.
In other words, we need to beware of what we might call Selective Sanctification.
Let’s read Luke 11:35-36 again.
35 Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness. 36 If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.
Sometimes we can want to be holy, but only in the ways that we like best. Then at the same time, we leave a little room for a few other things – maybe things that are not really holy at all. We can have our favorite (little?) sins. We can have the ones we don’t yet realize we have and maybe don’t really want to even know about.
Leviticus 11:44-45 says,
44 For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy … 45 For I am the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.”
A few chapters later, in Leviticus 20:26, we read,
You shall be holy to me, for I the Lord am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine.
Then in the New Testament, Peter reminds us, in 1 Peter 1:14-16,
14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
We need to be holy all the way through. And if you think you are there yet, think again. Beware of selective sanctification; just be holy.
Central Reflections 