Where Is Your Heart? [11-23-25]

November 23, 2025

“Where is Your Heart?”

Luke 12:32-34

What is the dominant enterprise of your life? What matters most to you? Where is your focus? What are you passionately pursuing in your life? If today were your last day on earth, how would you spend it?

Let’s look one last time at Luke 12:22-31. It is a perfect passage for the Sunday before Thanksgiving:

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. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. 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! And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they 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 is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. 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.”

What shouldn’t you do the Sunday before Thanksgiving? Worry.

What shouldn’t you be allowed to do all Thanksgiving week long? To be anxious about your life.

The 1990s brought us the classic “Festivus” episode of Seinfeld. Some of you might remember. “Festivus for the rest of us.” And what’s the highlight of “Festivus” celebrations? We gather around and air our grievances. Did 

you know that some families, when they gather around the Thanksgiving dinner table, spend a moment sharing something they’re thankful for? You shouldn’t spend a moment on Thanksgiving worried or anxious about anything.

“But Pastor Richard, you don’t know about…” “But Pastor Richard, you don’t understand…” “But Pastor Richard, if you had to deal with…” As someone once told me, if ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we’d all have a wonderful Christmas. Jesus says, “Do not be anxious about your lives.” No ifs ands or buts about it.

Jesus is inviting us to live changed lives. Here’s a wise observation:

Jesus didn’t spend time and eat with sinners because He wanted to appear tolerant and affirming. He spent time with them to show them He is God, and how to live differently. The Gospel isn’t about tolerance. The gospel is about transformation.

So here we are, at this profoundly transformational teaching in Luke 12. Jesus is saying, you can go through your life doing what you were doing 

before you started following Jesus. Or you can let Jesus work his transformational power in your life. Are you with me on that? Instead of worrying about your bank account, let your devotion to Christ dominate your thoughts. Instead of worrying about your food, let your devotion to Christ dominate your thoughts. Instead of worrying about your clothes, let your devotion to Christ dominate your thoughts. Instead of worrying over all that, let this be the dominant focus of your life:

THE KINGDOM OF GOD…THE JOY OF SALVATION…AND THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST.

Listen to how Paul puts it in Colossians 3:1-4:

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”

Jesus says to stop seeking the things here. Instead, seek the things above. And all that you need will be added to you.

Here’s something you might want to write down:

GOD TAKES CARE OF THOSE WHO BELONG TO HIM.

In one way or another, according to His sovereign will, God cares for you. So seek heavenly treasure. Heavenly treasure.

Which leads us to our final three verses of this section:

“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 moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

• 12:32-34

This is the biggest point of all. It’s something else you might want to write down:

WORRY IS A FAILURE TO UNDERSTAND DIVINE PLEASURE.

What delights God? To give you the joy of salvation…to give you the Gospel of Christ…to give you the Kingdom of God. That word – good pleasure – is from the Greek, eudokeo. Eu=good. Dokeo=to think. It is God’s good thought to provide you what you need to love, honor, and glorify Him. God isn’t hesitant to do this. It is His delight. It is God’s pleasure to provide for the children He loves. Amen?

Jesus tells us about what pleases God. And while we know the command not to be anxious about anything, we also know our imperfect human condition. We know the state of the world. Not always good. Troubling things happen. We struggle. We face set-backs. Things sometimes seem out of control. Change hits rapidly. Circumstances aren’t always secure. Does it ever feel like you’re living on the edge? As Job 5:7-8 says, “For affliction does not come from the dust, nor does trouble sprout from the ground, but man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.”

Oh, we’ve all been through our share of flying upward sparks. Even Jesus reminds us that, in this world, we will have trouble. That’s the way it is in a fallen world.

So, knowing the reality of a sinful world, how can we be worry-free? The 

key, Jesus says, is where is your heart? If your heart is fixed on heaven, then you will be unstirred, unshaken, and un-anxious. If your heart is in heaven, then nothing here on earth can shake, uproot, or change God’s promises for your life.

Now, don’t misunderstand. This isn’t some prosperity gospel pitch. Jesus doesn’t mean that if you seek first God’s reign, that somehow it will payoff in all kinds of material bounty. No…no…no…in fact, quite the opposite is true. If you submit to God’s rule, you will be unconcerned about material abundance. As Paul says in Philippians 4:11-13:

“Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned, in whatever situation I am, to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”

So worry-free living really is a heart issue. Jesus says so. If your heart is focused on the Kingdom of God and the joy of salvation and the Gospel of Christ, then your life will be soil upon which worry can find no purchase. 

You cannot be rooted in fear if you are rooted in Christ.

So what does Jesus say? Knowing God cares for His people, what does Jesus say? Again, hopefully remembering the hyperbolic nature of some of Jesus’ teachings, what does he say about what is a sign of embracing a worry-free life? “Sell your possessions and give to the needy.” Here’s the point, hyperbolically made:

“Faith sees the abundance as surplus to be shared, because God can be trusted to provide enough for next year, as well.”

• Richard H. Lowery

In other words, especially in verses 32-34, Jesus is telling us to be heaven bound and earthly minded. We are both here-and-there. Because, in Christ, we are delivered from the wrath to come, and because we know we are heaven-bound through Christ and Christ alone, we can live freely and joyfully and lovingly to be blessings to others.

Who is caring for you? God. God will make sure you are equipped to make a difference in His world. So why worry? Think about it this way. Four days before Thanksgiving. If you complain about what you don’t have, are you 

being thankful? If you say that you don’t have enough of what you do have, are you being thankful? If you say you want more of what has always been just enough, are you being thankful? Jesus says a greater abundance of things doesn’t lead to a more abundant life. But the assurance of salvation through Christ, and Christ alone, let’s us live joyfully and worry-free in this life. We get to make our little corner of God’s world such a beautiful place when our hearts are set on heaven.

I love this quote from John Piper:

“Occasionally, weep deeply over the life that you hoped would be. Grieve the losses. Feel the pain. Then wash your face, trust God, and embrace the life that he’s given you.”

What do you hear underneath those words? I hear, do not be anxious about your life. I hear, fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. So go out there and let your life reflect the grace and goodness and joy of the life God has given you. Your name has been written down in the Lamb’s Book of Life. So why worry?

A young pastor and his wife have three young children. He’s been in the 

ministry for a little over ten years. The church he’s pastoring just started to flourish a couple of years ago. About that same time, he was diagnosed with cancer. Like any loving husband and father, his primary concern is for his wife and children. He’s concerned about how they’re going to get by. He’s preached about as long as he can preach.

Recently, he called his mentor. He said, “I went to the hospital for more treatments. Once home, I was coming down the stairs, and I reached for the handrail, and my bones are so brittle my arm broke, and then I fell and had other fractures. So, I’m in the hospital.”

And then, in moment of quiet vulnerability, he said, “You know, I’ve reached the point now where I…I just want to go to heaven. I just want to go to heaven.”

As his mentor and friend reminded him of the promises of Luke 12, he said, “Please pray that I will finish triumphantly so that my wife and children see the triumph in my faith.” And then he remembered 2 Corinthians 2:14-16:

“But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.”

Make no mistake. Nothing good comes from worry. That’s what Jesus says. Anxiety leads to nervousness. Anxiety leads to a lack of courage. Anxiety leads to a loss of confidence. Anxiety leads to doubt. Anxiety leads to bad choices, as seen in trying to find security regardless of the cost. Instead, Jesus says, fix your heart on heaven. God loves you more than you can ever imagine. Earthly things are temporary. Things of heaven are eternal. That’s where your treasure belongs.

Here’s the good news. The only way to abandon all the false things that hold our hearts is to turn to the cross. That’s where Jesus is heading. He’s our heavenly treasure. He’s the only One in whom we can be supremely 

and eternally happy. On this Sunday before Thanksgiving, let’s close with this charge from Charles Spurgeon:

“LET GRATITUDE BE AWAKENED; LET HUMILITY BE DEEPENED; LET LOVE BE QUICKENED.”

And together, the thankful people of Covenant Church said, “AMEN.”