22 And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on.23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.24 Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!25 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?126 If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?27 Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin,2 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.28 But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith!29 And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried.30 For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them.31 Instead, seek his3 kingdom, and these things will be added to you.
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.
Footnotes
[1]12:25Or a single cubit to his stature; a cubit was about 18 inches or 45 centimeters [2]12:27Some manuscripts Consider the lilies; they neither spin nor weave [3]12:31Some manuscripts God’s
22 And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on.23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.24 Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!25 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?126 If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?27 Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin,2 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.28 But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith!29 And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried.30 For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them.31 Instead, seek his3 kingdom, and these things will be added to you.
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.
Footnotes
[1]12:25Or a single cubit to his stature; a cubit was about 18 inches or 45 centimeters [2]12:27Some manuscripts Consider the lilies; they neither spin nor weave [3]12:31Some manuscripts God’s
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Collin Hansen:
Well, just let me add my welcome, to those of you for whom it's your, it's your first time visiting Redeemer. Just consider yourself lucky. At least Joel didn't ask you to preach on your first time here. Actually, my wife Lauren and I have visited several different times, but this is our first time as permanent residents of Birmingham. And, again, we've just heard a lot about this church.
Collin Hansen:
We've been praying for this church for a long time. We've, again, known Joel and Lauren for a number of years now. My wife is actually from here, from over the mountain. We met in Chicago in college a little more than a decade ago. And then we lived there, since then.
Collin Hansen:
And we met and we spent about a year in New Jersey. I'll, I'll tell a little bit about this later, but basically we've been wanting to move here, wanting to live here and wanting to be part of this community among you for a long time. And again, we're just thrilled to finally be among you and to have this opportunity to open God's word with you. Well, I don't know many of you very well yet, though I hope the Lord will give us opportunity to do that soon. But there's one thing I do know about everyone here.
Collin Hansen:
That's that You've worried about something that's that's passed. You're currently in the middle of something. You're worried about something that's that's passed. You're currently in the middle of something. You're currently in the middle of something.
Collin Hansen:
You're currently in the middle of something. You're worried about something that's that's passed. You're currently in the middle of something. You're currently in the middle of something. You're past.
Collin Hansen:
You're currently in the middle of It's very difficult and troubling, maybe even keeping you up at night. If you haven't had that experience yet, it's one that is sure to come to anyone in this life. You will be able to have that opportunity to be anxious and to worry about something. You'd think, those of us living here in the United States, in the west, you'd think that with all of our wealth and experience that we've accumulated by this point, you know, you figure we would have we would have eliminated anxiety by now, found a cure for anxiety. Well, just think of all the ways that we try to do this.
Collin Hansen:
Forecasters, they tell us, you know, what the temperature is. Outside, they tell us exactly what the weather is going to be like in their 5 day forecasts. Right? We've got 2. I think this is, I think this is the case now.
Collin Hansen:
We have 2 full time FM sports talk radio stations now in Birmingham. And this, it's easy. Now, now you don't even have to go to the games. You can find out on Monday how your team's gonna do on Saturday. Right.
Collin Hansen:
I mean, they explain everything. What do you do in 24 hours a day talking about sports? Or economists, they forecast for us perfectly how exactly, how many jobs are going to be added to the economy each month so investors can plan and businesses can prepare for all of these things. Well, of course, this is, this is an illusion. We try.
Collin Hansen:
We have, we, we spend lots of our time, lots of our energy, lots of our money in trying to do this, but we actually live, as all of you know, we actually live in an age of troubled souls. This unprecedented freedom that we enjoy, we wouldn't want to give it back for anything. This unprecedented autonomy that we have was meant to give it, to liberate us from these circumstances that are outside But if you noticed, this unprecedented autonomy has actually led to the opposite of what was intended. The thing about knowledge, it turns out, contrary to the common statement, knowledge is not power. It's actually fear.
Collin Hansen:
The more you know, the more you know to worry about. Just think of that experience for those of you who have children. The more you know about all the different things that can happen with your kids. Well, maybe then as our world casts about in so many different ways, looking for a cure for their troubled souls. Maybe then we can learn something from Jesus who we've just been singing about into.
Collin Hansen:
The thing about Jesus, for those of you who have had the opportunity to read his teaching before as revealed in God's word, it's not just as we often He's not, this isn't just good advice that He's giving us. This is, as we've been singing and reciting together, this is the authoritative word of the sovereign of the universe, the one who created all that was and all that is and is to come. This is not a take it or leave it message that He gives us in his word. This is actually advice that we ignore at our own peril. So in this afternoon's passage, what we're going to see from Jesus, we're going to learn from him.
Collin Hansen:
The only cure for a troubled soul is to look to the Lord and seek the kingdom of God. To look to the Lord and seek the kingdom of God. So if you will, you can, open your Bibles to to Luke, chapter 12. So in the New Testament, you have Matthew, Mark, Luke, the 3rd gospel. Chapter 12, we're going to read verses 22 to 34.
Collin Hansen:
Kind of jumping in the middle of a story here, but I'll be able to provide some of that context, as we continue. So Luke chapter 12 verses 22 to to 34. And he said to his disciples, Jesus said to his disciples, therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens.
Collin Hansen:
They neither neither sow nor reap. They have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds? And which one of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to a span of life? If then you are not able to do a smaller thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?
Collin Hansen:
Consider the lilies, how they'd grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass which is alive in the field today and tomorrow was thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe you, oh you of little faith? And do not seek what you are to eat or what you are to drink, nor be worried.
Collin Hansen:
For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you. Fear not, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with money bags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.
Collin Hansen:
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this word which you have given to us for our good. You, God, that we know as we've recited together from Heidelberg Catechism, that you are sovereign over all things, things that we recognize as good and things like the shooting earlier in Auburn that we struggle so much to understand god. So, lord, we put our trust in you.
Collin Hansen:
We ask you through this through these moments that we have here together that you might bolster our faith and cure our troubled souls by by your word and through what you've done for us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. So like I said, we're jumping kind of right into the middle of Jesus' teaching here in Luke 12. I chose this passage. When you're the guest preacher, one of the advantages, but also a challenge you have, you can basically pick whatever passage you want.
Collin Hansen:
And this one, I chose because I thought it'd be familiar to some of you at least here. But I wanted a chance to go deeper and look into a little bit of what Jesus is actually trying to accomplish here. Well, you know, in the beginning of of chapter 12, you see that the crowds, if you look there in verse 1, the crowds have gathered to Jesus. He's so popular. His teaching is so renowned among Israel.
Collin Hansen:
Actually, the crowds have gathered by the 1,000 to hear Him, to just to hear who this man is, who has such wisdom unlike anything that ever heard before. It's actually got to the point. The crowds are actually, they're killing each other, not on purpose, accidentally, because they're crushing one another, trying to get close to Jesus to hear Him. The passage I just read, you may actually also recognize it from elsewhere in Scripture. This is part of the Sermon on the Mount of Matthew 6 in the first book, the first gospel of the New Testament.
Collin Hansen:
It's rearranged a little bit there. But again, these are, this was an important teaching that the disciples recognized that they wanted to pass along to us still today. Well, in this section, Jesus is answering a question. And as He does so often, He answers it with a parable. Well, the question He's he's answering is one that's very common back then and is very common right now.
Collin Hansen:
Somebody's asking him about inheritance. Somebody shouts out a question about inheritance from the crowd. If you've gone through that experience before, you know how difficult that process is. And today, I mean, back then, of course, inheritance was an even bigger deal because that was your very livelihood, being able to figure out who money would go to in the end upon someone's death. Well, in fact, inheritance was such a common question that another parable that occurs only in Luke chapter 15, the parable of the prodigal son, which I'm sure some of you are familiar with, was also a question that was addressing inheritance.
Collin Hansen:
Well, so the parable that Jesus responds with, and in a parable, of course, Jesus often responded to questions with a story. A story that had a particular point and a story that people in the crowd could identify with, either on the good side of things or on the bad side of things. So parables often got Jesus in trouble, because sometimes people would recognize themselves in the parable and re realize He was teaching against them. So he responds with a parable. And the parable you can see right there in chapter 12, starting in verse 13, the parable of the rich fool.
Collin Hansen:
This is one that's not, I don't think, as well known as many of the others. So I'll just go ahead and I'll recap a little bit of what Jesus is trying to do here. Well, this is a rich man who's had a good harvest. He's already wealthy. He already owns a good bit of land, but he's had a particularly good harvest this year.
Collin Hansen:
And he's wondering what to do about these crops. It's a pretty common question, a pretty simple issue. So he did what any smart farmer would do back then or today. He built bigger barns. This was, of course, for him though, if you see there, in verse in verse, 19, and I'll say to my soul, the issue here is that in doing, in doing this, it's not just a practical response to a good harvest, but he's also this is a man who is very troubled in his soul about what he's going to do.
Collin Hansen:
Well this man, I think we can all identify with him. We can identify with him because the rich fool responds 2 ways that we often do when we're trying to control essentially our world. Again, he's just, he's just trying to plan things, but again, these are the things that, like I said before, keep us up at night worrying about what's going to happen to us. Our money, our inheritance, things like that, our families, good things in general. But he exemplifies 2 ways that people try to control our world, that we try to control things.
Collin Hansen:
The one is through planning, and the other is through escape. Some of us are prone to planning to control things, and some of us are more prone to escape. Well, maybe you think like I do. So I actually grew up on a farm. I can identify with this guy.
Collin Hansen:
On a farm, essentially, the idea is that if you plan everything out and you work hard enough, you can take care of things. You can control things. It's all about your work ethic. If you're lazy, things are gonna turn out poorly for you. If you're smart and you work hard, things are gonna turn out well.
Collin Hansen:
That's the essential approach to things. But the strange thing about those of us who are prone to planning is that this is just an illusion. It's an illusion for you and me. It's an illusion for farmers. It was an illusion for the rich fool in this passage.
Collin Hansen:
The thing is, all of that hard work that he could muster couldn't guarantee anything. That's actually the real story of farming and the real story of so much of what we experience in this world, no matter what your circumstances. You can put in all of this hard work. You can do all of the right things, but ultimately, this rich man couldn't control the weather. You know, he didn't make the sun shine.
Collin Hansen:
He didn't make the rains fall. He couldn't do anything ultimately to secure this crop for him. The thing is, what he failed to realize and what we often so, so often fail to realize is we can't really fathom how much is outside of our control. It's completely out of our imagination about how much in this world we don't control. And that's ultimately the illusion for those of us who try to plan our way out of the troubles in this world.
Collin Hansen:
But maybe you're different. Maybe you prefer the escape of the good life, of eating, drinking, and having fun. Again, the the rich fool tried this as well. There's actually a play on words in the passage here. Be merry in verse 19, chapter 12 verse 19.
Collin Hansen:
The original word for that, it sounds very similar and looks very similar to the word fool as God responds to him. Again, the issue is not having fun here, eating, drinking, having fun. Those are not problems. They're not condemned in Scripture. Problem is, this was His way of escape from his circumstances, but he couldn't escape what he didn't know.
Collin Hansen:
What he didn't know was that, as you can see there in verse 20, God said to him, 'Fool, this night your soul is required of you and the things you have prepared, whose will they be? Couldn't escape. He didn't know he died that night. That's the thing about escape for those of us. Life, we try to escape the things that trouble us, the circumstances that make life difficult for us.
Collin Hansen:
Thing is, there's always a reckoning time. You can't escape life. There's life waits for us at the end of every vacation. It waits us at the end of every hangover. It awaits us at the end of every binge, binge eating time, every trip to the buffet.
Collin Hansen:
So planning and fun, again, those are not the problem. But again, Jesus in telling us this story, he shows us why this was a problem, and then he'll explain it to us. He shows us why it's a problem because, follow again with me in chapter chapter 12, you can see there starting in 17. He thought to himself, this rich fool, what shall I do for I have nowhere to store my crops?' And He said, 'I will do this. I will tear down my barns and build larger ones and there I will store all my grain and my goods.
Collin Hansen:
And I will say to my soul, soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years. Relax, eat, drink, and be merry. Again, I emphasize it when I was reading. The problem here is that in this attempt to escape in all of this planning, this is all about him. This life is all about him.
Collin Hansen:
Certainly, there's no room for god in the rich fool. There's no remembrance of where all these good things came from for him. But this is crucial to see as well. There's no room for anybody else. There's no room for others in this man's tail either.
Collin Hansen:
And that's actually revealed then in verse 20 that I just read. The reason why this was a question that Jesus responded to with inheritance, there was nobody to take the inheritance from him. No friends, No family. This man has everything. Okay?
Collin Hansen:
But he has no one to be able to share it with. That's the illusion of his trying to control his circumstances. So then starting in the passage that we read in 22, Jesus explains the meaning and the significance of this parable to his disciples as the crowd of 1,000 looks on. I mentioned what we were gonna look at as the theme of this passage. The first aspect of our theme that we're gonna look at closer in this passage, Jesus teaches us that the cure for our troubled souls comes when we look to the Lord.
Collin Hansen:
On verses 22 and 23, Jesus addresses our basic need for shelter and sustenance. These are of course, very important things. It says, don't worry about your life, by which he means, don't worry about what you will eat, or your body, namely what you wear. And this is not a fashion statement. There's not worried about how he's going to look in the community.
Collin Hansen:
He's mainly worried about shelter, about protecting himself, what's going to protect himself from the elements. These are not small matters. Not for them. They're not small matters for us today, shelter and sustenance. So why shouldn't we worry about these things?
Collin Hansen:
Essentially, if we don't worry about shelter and sustenance, what what should we worry about? Well, but Jesus comes back, and he gives us three ways to be able to look, to just look outside of us and to look inside with our experience, to know that the only cure for our troubled souls is to look to Him, and He makes this case 3 ways. The first thing you can see right there in verse 24 says, look at the ravens. Look outside. Look into a tree.
Collin Hansen:
Look at the birds. They don't build big barns. In fact, ravens, they don't even nest, but they have food. They have all the food that they could want. The thing about the ravens, they're not even made in God's image like you and I are, as we learned from the beginning of the Bible in the book of Genesis.
Collin Hansen:
God takes care of the ravens. They eat. They're fine. But we, how much more does He love us if He's made us in His image? The second way that He shows us that we can trust Him and look to Him and find this cure comes in verses 2526.
Collin Hansen:
This is very practical. I think any of us can relate to this in our experience as no one knows the time of his death. Ultimately, so worrying about it does nothing but waste the precious time that you do have to be able to live. The thing is, if you can't even, by worrying, add 1 hour, 1 hour to your life, what good is it gonna do for you to worry about the shelter and the sustenance? Again, Jesus is teaching us here things just things are just out of your control.
Collin Hansen:
But that's the hope. The hope is that we can look to the ravens and be able to trust him to know that he will provide for us. But I think this this worry, just think with yourself. Think in your own experience here. What what good has worry ever done you?
Collin Hansen:
I mean, of course, you've you've gone through a lot of difficult. No matter how old you are, you've gone through difficult times. Times where you've worried. And God ultimately has gotten you through that those times, even if He shaped you, even if those experiences have been painful. But again, what role did worry play in that?
Collin Hansen:
Did that aid the process? Did it somehow bring about the desired result that you were looking for? Or did it make things more difficult? And did it even in some ways, make you feel somewhat foolish in the end forever doubting that God was going to get you through? That's what Jesus is trying to teach us here.
Collin Hansen:
So he's he's told us to look at the ravens. He's told us to look at our own experience about what worry has done for us. And then finally, in verses 27 and 28, he says, he tells us to look at the flowers, to look at the lilies. How did they get so beautiful? Did the lilies work hard?
Collin Hansen:
Did the lilies carefully plan everything out? Well, of course not. Of course not. The lilies didn't do any of that. God made them fodder for our photos, you know, but then the next day, he makes some fuel for our fires.
Collin Hansen:
Okay. So if he does this and makes the lily so beautiful, how much more then is he going to love us as our heavenly father, as we are children of God as scripture teaches us? So those are three ways within here he tells us that we can look to him to find the cure for this troubled this this trouble that we have. Well, if you still don't believe Jesus after he's pointed to those three things, he gives you another example. This is one final, final example.
Collin Hansen:
But this one is a negative one. This one, this one really hits home. Solomon. You can see Jesus mentioned Solomon in this, in this passage that we read. Solomon had everything we want, everything we would want.
Collin Hansen:
He had all the money he could ever use and more, and all the sex he could ever put up with, and all the power any man could ever desire. And this is what we're all looking for in one way or another. The thing about Solomon, he had all those things, but the one thing he didn't have, he he had an uneasy soul. And he couldn't even match the beauty of the lilies, Jesus teaches. And what did they put it planning?
Collin Hansen:
What did planning an incredible palace? Solomon, King of Israel, the most distinguished part of the history of Israel, planned this incredibly beautiful palace. What did it get him? And what did the escape of all the food he could eat and sex he could manage get him? Well, you can actually find out.
Collin Hansen:
Solomon told us what it got him. It came. You don't have to turn with me. But it came in the book of Ecclesiastes. Follow Psalms and Proverbs and Ecclesiastes.
Collin Hansen:
And he tells us, he writes and he reflects back on his life of what all this got him. And starting in verse 1 of Ecclesiastes, chapter 1 verse 1, the words of the preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. Vanity of vanities, says the preacher. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?
Collin Hansen:
A generation goes and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. So you see there even in there, a reference, again, even to the, to the flowers, the way God takes care of things, man toils all he does, but he can't even match the beauty of these flowers. And ultimately, he think about, we talked about how Jesus responded here to a problem with inheritance. If you want to talk about an inheritance problem, Solomon had an inheritance problem. In fact, things were so bad with Solomon after he built the temple, all this money.
Collin Hansen:
He impressed the kings of the earth. He built this temple. He built this palace, and ultimately, it got him nothing because his, the kingdom split up after his death, and they essentially went to war against each other for 100 of years after. It's the, the it's the really discouraging, depressing story of so much of the Old Testament. So Solomon understood.
Collin Hansen:
I don't know how much he understood. Well, actually we'll look at that, but he understood an inheritance problem. He understood the problem of all this toil and what it got him. So Jesus is actually then, when he is teaching here, when he mentions Solomon, that's our clue that he's referring then to Ecclesiastes. Well, the the other way that we can know that he's referring to Ecclesiastes because this actually ends on a positive note.
Collin Hansen:
Book of Ecclesiastes does. It's on a positive note that tells us then what we can do. So vanity, meaningless is life. Except then Solomon in the end comes to an understanding of what life really is about. The end of the matter, all has been heard in chapter 12, starting in verse 13.
Collin Hansen:
Fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment with every secret thing, whether good or evil. So why do we look to the Lord? We look to the Lord because as Ecclesiastes tells us in the end, but also Luke tells us from Jesus' teaching, just look in chapter 12 verses 2 and 3. God sees everything.
Collin Hansen:
He judges our actions, even our thoughts. I don't know about you. That's a it's a fearful thought for me. That's a scary thought to know that especially when I'm worrying, especially the things that go through my head when I'm worrying. But as we're gonna see then in the second major theme, the second major cure for our troubled souls, we can see how God continues to provide for us even when we fail to trust Him.
Collin Hansen:
Because that's the sort of good, wonderful father that he is for us. So in the second theme that we're gonna look at, god cures our troubled souls by giving us the opportunity to seek the kingdom of God. So Jesus, our teacher and ruler, gives us only 2 ways, only 2 ways to live. He says, you can either seek stuff, which inevitably leads to worry, or you can seek the kingdom of God, which ultimately leads to glory. Those are the 2 ways Jesus gives us to be able to live.
Collin Hansen:
We end up seeking shelter, seeking sustenance. We end up inevitably worried. And the word, the original Greek word that's translated in verse 29 as 'be worried', You'll see worry translated elsewhere, but this is a slightly different word with a slightly different connotation. And it actually extends beyond how we understand worry today to be something about concern, essentially, and actually becomes it actually connects this idea to arrogance. So it connects worry to arrogance.
Collin Hansen:
It implies a certain vacillation between fear and hope, but ultimately selfish desire. Does that resonate at all with what's going through your head when you're worried Dahl? I mean, is there an element of essential selfishness in that? This is what Jesus is wanting to liberate us from. That worry is not innocent.
Collin Hansen:
Worry corrodes our faith. It corrodes our relationships with others. This is what Jesus delights to liberate us from. And the thing is, it doesn't worry does not discriminate. I don't care what your ethnic background.
Collin Hansen:
I don't care if you grew up poor, if you grew up rich, wherever. It doesn't it doesn't matter because worry is something that afflicts everyone across the spectrum. Think about the poor. I didn't grow up with a lot of money, and I didn't grow up a lot around a lot of people who did. So what I saw is that people who are poor become obsessed in a lot of ways.
Collin Hansen:
They can become obsessed with what they don't have. But the thing is, the rich, they end up in the same boat. They get concerned and worried about what other people have because the thing about being rich is there's always somebody richer than you. You can't escape this at all. No matter what we have, if we're not trusting God and handing it over to him, not seeking him and seeking the kingdom, this inevitably leads to worry no matter where we are in life.
Collin Hansen:
Well, you think, if you allow me to get biographical for a couple minutes, you'd think that we all, think that we all would have learned this lesson about seeking stuff in the way that it leads to worry in 2 1,008 with the economic downturn. You'd think we would have learned that we don't control our circumstances with what we saw happen. Well, the thing the thing that is so difficult for me, like I told you earlier, I'm a planner. You know, I I like to say if I work hard and I plan, things are going to work out. That's one of my kind of default creeds with life.
Collin Hansen:
It's actually fairly ridiculous. I said because of how much circumstance are outside of our control. And that was why for me especially, the economic downturn was so difficult because I don't know if anybody else is in is in the same boat, but I did the right thing, the only responsible thing that I was supposed to do when I bought a house in 2004. You know, buy a house because every year, they just get they just get more valuable. Nobody knows how this has happened.
Collin Hansen:
It's magic. It's economic magic. Everybody gets magically richer every single year. Why doesn't everybody do this? Well, everybody did do it.
Collin Hansen:
And then, of course, it fell apart. So that was what happened. We decided, in 2,004, we bought the house. And in 2,009, we decided we wanted to move back to Lawrence's home, be around her family and be a part of of this community. By that time, of course, our home value had actually dipped from back to about the levels that it was at.
Collin Hansen:
It was worth about what it was when we were in high school before any of the value kicked in. Well, it wasn't the worst thing. It could've been worse because our home wasn't really worth that much to begin with. So, and we actually compensated for that by saving up quite a bit. But the thing is I it wasn't enough for me.
Collin Hansen:
I, you know, God provided for us even during the difficult circumstances that we couldn't have foreseen, but I found plenty of people to blame. I blamed the bankers. I didn't like them. I blamed the government. I really didn't like the government.
Collin Hansen:
I blamed, neighbors for contributing to the problem. That's essentially what, you know, this was how I how I responded to this situation. Actually, again, only 8 months. It felt like 18 or longer. Only 8 months it took for us to be able to finally buy, find a buyer.
Collin Hansen:
It seemed like a small miracle at the time, mostly inactivity. We actually came down here, bought a house, had a contract on a place that we really liked. Then on, April Fools' Day, like I said, the the microphone, the the car, it's nothing. April Fools' Day of 2011, got the call. Our buyer had exploited a loophole in the contract, backed out of the thing.
Collin Hansen:
So we were stuck. Talked to real estate agents. They basically said, Yeah. Good luck. You know, it was a miracle that you got anybody to buy it in the 1st place, so there's not really much hope for you to be able to sell it at all again.
Collin Hansen:
And, obviously that was difficult to hear. It was especially difficult to know that we lost our house here. First call I made was actually to Joel because we knew we wanted to come here and be a part of this community and, it was difficult. Difficult also just knowing at that point, we didn't know where to turn. There was nothing we could we could do.
Collin Hansen:
I mean, I guess we could have thrown another money we didn't have into the situation. Again, this was very difficult. That's of course where, finally, we started to realize what the actual problem was. The problem wasn't the banks. The problem wasn't my neighbors.
Collin Hansen:
The problem wasn't the government, ultimately. The problem was, was me. Even when we had that was revealed when we had the house in Birmingham. Even when we had it and everything was working out, I was still complaining. I got everything, I got everything that I wanted and I was still complaining about it.
Collin Hansen:
That's what happens with worry. That's the way it corrodes us. That's the way it starts to destroy our faith. My soul was still troubled. Well, God decided He was going to make His point in a rather spectacular and unexpected way was by sending us into our little personal exile into New Jersey.
Collin Hansen:
It was God's, very strange provision for us at the time, but it turned out to be His good care for us, both spiritual as well as financial and also through ministry. One of the things that he did during this time for me was disabuse me of any notion I had of being able to carefully control and to plan all of my circumstances. The thing was, of course, I never planned to lose a lot of money when we bought the house in 2004. That was supposed everything was supposed to work out. But the thing is I never planned for the job opportunity that Lauren got that took us to New Jersey that helped us to make up for things financially.
Collin Hansen:
I didn't plan the problem, but I also didn't plan the provision. God did. He took care of us. I didn't plan to be stuck with the home that we couldn't sell, but I also didn't plan for the renewal that God brought for us in our marriage and also in our ministry. The incredible things that God was able to do that we were able to witness and to be a part of even in just one short year in New Jersey.
Collin Hansen:
So ultimately, what God did was just provide for us beyond our imagining. I spent all this time worrying, being anxious about how things were going to work out, got what I wanted, finally. It all seemed to work out. Didn't make me happy. Couldn't possibly imagine how good though it was going to be amid all of my complaining.
Collin Hansen:
And that's often the way that God works, delights to give us something far greater. It may not be in everybody in the world's eyes. Again, try explaining to everybody that you're going to New Jersey where you don't know anybody and everybody nobody has a positive view of New Jersey, really. So try explaining that to people, but we knew at the time it was beyond our imagining, beyond our understanding. God would provide and he ultimately did.
Collin Hansen:
So God God does not condemn. And Jesus in this passage does not condemn all of our planning and doesn't condemn all of our work, but he warns us that seeking the kingdom seeking the kingdom of God is the only way to save us from succumbing to these circumstances, whatever circumstances they are in your life. And that was what, for us, changed so dramatically in our East Coast exile. So just to wrap this up, how do you seek the kingdom? Then Where do you find this kingdom of God that Jesus teaches about?
Collin Hansen:
Well, the word for seek that Jesus talks about here also comes up in one of my absolute favorite parables. It's in Matthew 13. It's verses 45 and 46. This is a parable I find incredible just to sit and to think about just this is what I want my life to be about. Verse 45.
Collin Hansen:
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it. It's a simple parable. It's a short parable. Just 2 2 verses. What does it teach us about this kingdom?
Collin Hansen:
What does it teach us about seeking the kingdom? The kingdom of God here is likened to fine pearls. The point here is the kingdom of God is of inestimable in calculable worth. So much so that when you seek it, and when you found it, you will give, without hesitation, everything you have to get it. Everything you have.
Collin Hansen:
There's nothing that can compare to it. There's no trade off here. Nobody could ever pay you to leave the kingdom. Here. Kingdom of God is the it's the blessing of abundant life here wherever you are Because it's all ruled by a loving father who cares for you, like he does for the lilies, and like he does for the ravens.
Collin Hansen:
And we find it we find it when this loving father gives it to us, to all of us who follow Jesus. And following Jesus ultimately then frees us up, frees us up to be fully present wherever we are, to be fully loving wherever we are, no matter what circumstances come our way, no matter what we can't anticipate coming into our lives. We come to find out with these circumstances, we don't rule them. God does. But they no longer rule us.
Collin Hansen:
That's the liberation of trusting God no longer to your circumstances, which you can't control anyway, control you and cause this trouble in your soul and cause this anxiety. Jesus himself was the one who brought the kingdom. He brought the kingdom when he left every blessing he had enjoyed from eternity in fellowship in heaven with his heavenly father to take on human flesh and to walk among us. He taught us about the kingdom of God. He showed us what it looked like with his actions.
Collin Hansen:
And ultimately, he died for us who believe, who trust in him and defeated death. Defeated death through his resurrection so that that kingdom might be present among us already here, but not yet fully revealed until Jesus comes again. Thanks to this sacrifice. Thanks to this triumph from Jesus. All who seek this kingdom, this kingdom of God, instead of the kingdom of self will have eternal life, eternal fellowship with him.
Collin Hansen:
Let's pray together. Heavenly father, we are mindful of your care and concern for this world even as we reflect our own lives and realize how much lays beyond our control. God, rather than making us fearful of all those things, God, would you give us the ability to trust you, to seek your kingdom, to be able to look to you when trouble comes our way. God, liberate us from our circumstances, knowing that you control them. So that instead of being worried about ourselves, we can love you and we can love others.
Collin Hansen:
And we can give of ourselves to those who who need what you've given to us. I pray this in Jesus name. Amen.