Beth Moore - Minding The Store - Part 1
You may be seated. I'd love to read to you out of Luke chapter 6 starting at verse 27. Now, our text that you and I are really going to be focused on isn't going to come into play until about verse 40, and then through that last portion that we'll read together, but here's what I want to do. For one thing, I want to keep it in context, and for the other thing, I want to try as much as I can, I asked them to have it up on the screen so I can look away from my Bible some, because I want to do my best to speak it to you instead of just reading it to you. Because when Jesus was giving this sermon, he was speaking this to them, they were listening, he wasn't looking down at something and reading. He was speaking it out to them and seeing their faces as he said it.
Now, I want you to see the context for it. Look at the very beginning of chapter 6 and verse 17, because that's where this sermon begins. This is going to be Luke's version of the Sermon on the Mount. It would have gone into, if this were our text this weekend, it would go straight into what we know, if you have some background in the church and in the Scriptures, as the Beatitudes, "The blessed are the poor, because the kingdom of God is theirs". So, I want you to look at 17 so you can see where he's moving. It says in verse 17, "After coming down with them, he stood on a level place with a large crowd of his disciples and a great number of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon. They came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases, and those tormented by unclean spirits were made well. And the whole crowd was trying to touch him, because power was coming out from him and healing them all".
Here's what I want to suggest to you before I start reading. That even in the reading of the Word, and I love the words out of Psalm 107 verse 20 that say, "He sent forth his word and he healed them," and in so many ways that's my testimony to you. I don't know if maybe this is the first chance I've gotten to serve some of you, I hope so, but I want you to know that my story is that literally, I just, I had a fire lit under me. I love to study, I love research. I'd already given my heart to Jesus when I was nine years old, and then I had surrendered to vocational ministry at 18, having no idea what he would call me to do, but I already knew my face was set on serving Jesus.
But then I had a teacher come along the way when I was 27 that loved the Scriptures more than he loved his next meal. And when you've got a teacher like that, man, if the Holy Spirit is in you and you want it bad enough, you just start praying. I don't know what that is, but I want it. I want it. I wanted it so bad, I couldn't even define it. And God lit such a flame in me that to this day has not gone out. But at that point when I first started studying voraciously, I was studying because I just loved studying the Scriptures. I didn't even have a clue how sick I was and how much healing I needed. Does anybody know what I'm talking about to them tonight? That sometimes the Lord is already healing you by the time you realize how much you needed healing.
And you know, you're not just starting from the beginning, he's already been doing it, you just didn't know to call it healing when you were hearing it. But he was changing my mind and the way I thought, and here's what I want to say to you. That these words that he's going to say are healing words. His way of healing is so different from ours, because our world tells us, and even our natural flesh tells us, that the more we think of ourselves, the more we put ourselves first, the more we are me-centered, the more we are gonna look out for ourselves, doesn't it? And that's the message of the world, is that we're gonna be all about ourselves and that way we'll make sure that we are prioritized, only Jesus turns it all upside down and he said I have this whole different way of looking at this.
I who created the heavens in the earth, spoke them into existence, am telling you that it will be the exact reverse. That it will be in you losing your life that you will find it, and that if you spend your life just grappling to find your life, you'll never, ever find what you're doing here on this planet. It will be in taking up your cross and following me. So, you're going to hear it in the words, because what he's about to put in front of us, we're going like, ain't nobody do that. And he's saying, you come over here and look from my perspective, you look from my point of view, and I'm going to tell you what is healing for you. So, I want to begin reading at verse, I'll start at 27 all the way through 46, and I'm going to try to say it to you instead of just read it to you.
So, I want you to imagine that you're gathered on the side of this plane, Jesus has called his disciples up, his 12, the closest to him, and then there'll be in the periphery this whole crowd of people and others who are followers. But he wants those 12 as close as they can get. He wants them in the spit section, so they understand very clearly these are my values. One way people will know that you belong to me is that you are so different from the world. Our calling is not to blend in. It's not to be obnoxious and draw attention to ourselves, but it's not to blend in. He said I have a different way for you to think. And I'll begin saying it at 27, "But I say to you who listen," I love the way the CSB says that. He's talking to those, he said, I'm just talking to those who are listening.
I love the thought of that tonight. That if you're not listening, I'm not talking to you, but if you're listening, "Love your enemies". That doesn't sound healing, does it? Only you know that it is. Because I ask you what favor your hate for your enemies has ever done you, it's never done me any. The more I have stored up hate and disdain towards someone, the more miserable I have become. "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you. If anyone hits you on the cheek, offer the other one also. If anyone takes away your coat, don't hold back your shirt either". Now, I suggest we have on undershirts. You get what we're talking about.
"Give to everyone who asks you, and from someone who takes your things, don't ask for them back. Just as you want others to do for you, do the same for them. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. If you do what is good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that," he says. "If you lend to those whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do what is good, and lend expecting nothing in return, then your reward will be great and you will be children of the Most High. For he is gracious to the ungrateful and evil. Be merciful just as your Father is also merciful. Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you".
Now, let me pause here just a second, because you can always tell someone who has spent too much time in vacation Bible school by how they want to do hand motions to a verse. And every single time I say this verse, I want to do a full-on routine to it, because there are ways to get children to memorize Scripture, and it usually involves all of their limbs. But just think how good this one is. "Give, and it will be given to you, a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over. Will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. He also told him a parable. 'Can the blind guide the blind? Won't they both fall into a pit? A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher. Why do you look at the splinter in your brother's eye, but don't notice the beam of wood in your own eye?'"
See, it doesn't feel like healing words, but you know that it is. Because it has never once healed us to pick out the splinter in someone else's eye, but to see the plank in our own, now we've been healed a lot of times by that. "How can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me take the splinter out of your eye,' when you yourself don't see the beam of wood in your own? Hypocrite, first take the beam of wood". These are his disciples sitting the closest. "Take the beam of wood out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the splinter out of your brother's eye".
And here we go with our text, "A good tree doesn't produce bad fruit. On the other hand, a bad tree doesn't produce good fruit. For each tree is known by its own fruit. Figs aren't gathered from thorn bushes or grapes picked from a bramble bush. A good person produces good out of the good stored up in his heart. An evil person produces evil out of the evil stored up in his heart, for his mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart".
Would you stop with me there? "His mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart". You have your Bible open to these passages, I want you to center with me particularly on verses 45 and somewhat into 46, but our primary text is coming straight out of verse 45. This is where our concept is going to take shape. Now, here's what I want you to notice with me. I want you to see that it almost seems like at first in these couple of passages that are grouped together in a paragraph of sorts on your page, that Jesus is mixing metaphors. I mean, are we talking about trees and fruit, or are we talking about hearts and mouths? Well, he's saying it's the same thing. The metaphor is teaching the same lesson, and that is what is inside is going to come out.
I want to read this verse to you again, because we will all have memorized it by the time we leave here. It says this in verse 45, "A good person produces good out of the good stored up in his heart. An evil person produces evil out of the evil stored up in his heart, for the mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart". So, what you and I are going to do, first of all, we need to figure out what in the world does Jesus mean by good? Because if you have been raised on New Testament teaching, then it's always going to raise the question, what is meant by a good person? Because you might remember that Paul says, in me, that is in my natural flesh, no good thing dwells. It's a very interesting thing.
Would you hold something here in the Scriptures, because we'll be back and forth here into Luke 6 and verse 45, but would you go with me for just a moment to a very interesting set of Scriptures in Luke 18? Notice with me that he's just talked about, so he's teaching, he's just talked about the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, the one that was so glad that he wasn't a sinner like others, but the tax collector was just like, Jesus, have mercy on me. He then tells about blessing the children, that's where I want to pick up with you. So, I'm in 18 verse 15. "People were bringing infants to him, to Jesus, so he might touch them. But when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. Jesus, however, invited them, 'Let the little children come to me and do not stop them, because the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly, I tell you,'" listen carefully to this, "Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it".
So, there's a certain place where being too cool and too sophisticated is not our friend, and that's in spiritual terms when we come to him to enter his kingdom. He says come as children to me. Come to me as those who would depend entirely upon me. So remember, he's just talked about the tax collector, he's just talked about do not keep the children from me. If you don't become like them, then you don't enter the kingdom. So, then it says, this is suddenly gonna make sense to somebody else, I think. In 18, "A ruler asked him," so this is the rich young ruler. "A ruler asked him, 'Good teacher, what must I do to inherit life?'"
Okay, stay with me here, because I've missed this over and over again. He's not able to relate to the tax collector. He's not able to relate to the children, because why? Because he's a rich young ruler. Maybe if he had been a rich older ruler, he might not have been so full of himself. But if you put rich ruler with young, now you really do have you a situation, because they have not had the snot beaten out of them yet. Life does that after a while and there's some humility. But right now, I mean, all he's seeing is, well, you know, I can't come like a tax collector. I mean, I can't come like a child. I'm a ruler. "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit life"?
And Jesus turns back around to him and says, "Why is it you call me good"? What a strange question. This is Jesus, sinless, the absolute goodness incarnate, and he says to him, "No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: Do not commit adultery; do not murder; do not steal; do not bear false witness; honor your father and mother". "'I've kept all these things since my youth.'" Oh, I bet you have. Bet you have, rich, young, and in charge. I want you to hear an excerpt, it's wordy, and it is a bit, how can I say, cumbersome, but I think you're going to like it, and this is what gave me insight into this. Now, I knew that Jesus's point was, he's testing the rich young ruler. "Do you know that I am God"? He goes, "Why do you call me good, good teacher"?
So, listen to this excerpt. This is by Joel Green, scholar Joel B. Green. He says this, "In addressing him as 'Good Teacher,' the ruler is engaged in a word game deeply rooted in concerns with status. According to this linguistic system, one commendation deserves another. Thus, even in the way the ruler addresses Jesus, he signifies his commitment to a particular set of conventions". Stay with me, and I'm going to explain it. "His identity within a particular social group and his understanding of the speech event he has initiated. Jesus's counterstatement concerning God's goodness thus not only echoes an important scriptural motif but also serves notice that the terms of this interaction will not be set by the standard values to which the ruler has already paid homage".
Let me see if I can explain this. Good teacher. Well, he social norms of that day in conversation, especially if it took place in front of other people, would be to answer good teacher with another commendation of some kind, to say back to him some kind. So, the feeling of it is that Jesus is on to him, because he knows that he wants to be exalted, and so, he's like, well, you call me good teacher. I mean, I'm the Savior of the world. I mean, I'm a good teacher, but I'm the Savior of the world. Why do you call me good? Because you want me to call you rich, and in charge, and young. You got it. And Jesus don't play. The only reason I am still in one piece is because Jesus knows bull when he hears it. Think what it would be like to be able to bull God. Think what it would be like. Think what we could get away with. But he's always on to it.
So, in the Gospels, since we know that it's not goodness that saves us, these are not teachings about salvation, they're teachings about the evidence of God here. When he's talking about good, he's going to talk about good people storing up good things. When he uses the word "good," this is not going to be that their goodness is what makes them fit for heaven. That's not it. In the Gospels, when Jesus speaks of good, almost invariably what he's talking about is that which somehow reflects God, that to Jesus, all goodness, that's what he's saying here to the rich young ruler: Who is good except God alone? So, all goodness, all essence of goodness, any time he sees it, even in a person that does not know him and does not believe in him, when that person does someone good, they are doing good out of the fact that they have been created in the image of God. Is that fair?
So, that's what the dynamic is here. Looking back at Luke chapter 6 with a little bit of definition behind what is good, that which is reflective of God, that's where we began. And this is a great relief to us, because I want you to know he's gonna get into our business this weekend, and he's not gonna wait until tomorrow. But we're in good stead, because every single one of us is here by grace. All of us who are in Christ, none of us have been saved by our own goodness but by the goodness of God and through his grace alone. So, there's no shame to be had here, but there is courage to be had. There is the invitation to let him get into our business. Now, before we get to number one, bad in this context, because we're gonna hear it over and over again, means exactly what you think it does plus one more thing.
So, it would mean when he says, "Out of the..." "A bad person brings forth bad fruit, or what's been stored up that is bad in his heart". What he's talking about there is that which is evil, that which is wicked, that which is malicious, that which is also though of no worth and of no benefit. The word that God has inspired in his Word here for good over and over again, it is a word, the primary lexical term is agathos, agathos, A-G-A-T-H-O-S, and it is a word that means that something is not only good in its essence, but it is profitable and it is beneficial. In other words, God isn't just good, his goodness does good. When we emanate, imitate, or we are vessels of or agents of his goodness, we aren't just in essence good, we do good for people. We are of benefit to people. That's the meaning of the word.
So, this other word means to be absolutely worthless. It's not the person, the image bearer that's worthless, but those are worthless things that have been stored up. So, number one is this, the heart is the built-in storage unit of the human being. How do I know that? Because of verse 45, I'm gonna read it to you again. "A good person produces good out of the good stored up in his," what? In his heart. "An evil person produces evil out of the evil stored up in his heart, for his mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart". So, it's got everything to do with the heart.
Now, when the heart is used, especially when it's used independently like this, if we saw heart, and soul, and mind, and strength, then there would be some distinguishing elements to each one of the four, because he is using them in contrast to one another or alongside one another. But when he's using it by itself, almost invariably, it's really representing the inner man. That which not only feels, but that which thinks, that which processes, its attitudes, its perceptions. It's all of those things in the inner man. That's what he's calling the heart. We're going to do all sorts of plays on words of storing and storing up. I want you to think about it. We'll be using words and thoughts like storage. We'll be using store as a verb. In other words, it's something we do. We store something up. We'll also be using it as a noun. In other words, what is in our store. I get to look in my store and I get to decide what I want to keep and what I don't.
We may decide this weekend that there are some things we want to move out of our storage. I wonder if there's anything anybody has stored, listen to these words, long enough, long enough. It's like, you know what, long enough. I've obsessed on that long enough. I've held that, I've preserved that long enough. Because you're asking God, show me. Do you have the courage enough, do I have the courage enough, to ask him, Lord, show me? Show me what is in. I've got an inner store. And listen, some of it was expensive, right? What's in it? What we store is what we treasure. What you treasure, and what I treasure, isn't necessarily worth treasuring. So, here's what we think, that we're going to be able to figure out what we treasure by what is really valuable to us. Oh, no, no, no, we put value on something by how much we attend to it. Is anybody with me in the house tonight? Anybody willing to be that courageous? To go, it could be true that I treasure something really, really trashy.