WEBVTT 00:00:03.946 --> 00:00:04.586 I'm so excited. 00:00:04.586 --> 00:00:13.887 We've been continuing in our series on the book of Matthew on the Sermon on the Mount, called Red Letters, and I'm just thrilled to get to be able to do this. 00:00:13.887 --> 00:00:24.628 It's Jesus' sermon that he preached there to a group of people that were really challenged by his message, and so we're also challenged by it. 00:00:24.628 --> 00:00:25.489 I think most of us. 00:00:25.489 --> 00:00:31.762 If we read it and take it seriously, we just think of the things that this message today we're going to be talking about. 00:00:31.762 --> 00:00:32.884 Where is your treasure? 00:00:32.884 --> 00:00:34.789 Where is your treasure? 00:00:34.789 --> 00:00:36.432 And it's a good question. 00:00:36.432 --> 00:00:38.024 We all need to answer that question. 00:00:38.024 --> 00:00:46.020 Miss Bertha Adams was 71 years old when she died alone in West Palm Beach, florida, back in 1976. 00:00:46.020 --> 00:00:56.630 And the coroner's report read cause of death malnutrition and after wasting away to 50 pounds, she could no longer stay alive. 00:00:56.630 --> 00:00:57.612 That's pretty serious. 00:00:57.612 --> 00:01:03.932 They found a veritable pig pen the biggest mess you can imagine, they wrote. 00:01:03.932 --> 00:01:09.784 One seasoned inspector declared he had never seen a dwelling in greater disarray. 00:01:09.784 --> 00:01:17.242 Bertha had begged for food at her neighbor's doors and had gotten what clothes she had from the Salvation Army. 00:01:17.242 --> 00:01:26.807 From all appearances she was a penniless recluse, a pitiful and forgotten widow, but such was not the case. 00:01:26.807 --> 00:01:36.531 Amid the jumble of her filthy, disheveled belongings were found two keys to a safe deposit box at two different local banks. 00:01:36.531 --> 00:01:39.528 The discovery was unbelievable. 00:01:39.528 --> 00:01:54.331 The first box contained over 700 AT&T stock certificates, plus hundreds of other valuable notes, bonds and solid financial securities, not to mention cash amounting to $200,000. 00:01:54.331 --> 00:02:01.754 The second box had no certificates, just cash $600,000 to be exact. 00:02:01.754 --> 00:02:06.549 Bertha Adams was a multimillionaire, and then some. 00:02:06.549 --> 00:02:09.403 She yet died of starvation. 00:02:09.403 --> 00:02:14.814 Her case was even more tragic, I guess, if she was destitute spiritually. 00:02:14.814 --> 00:02:23.592 Her story is kind of an extreme example of a distorted value system, and we want to talk about that today. 00:02:23.592 --> 00:02:35.890 Our consumer society you see it's kind of like drives us to get more, have more, buy more, doesn't it that we think that life consists of what we have, our possessions? 00:02:35.890 --> 00:02:38.819 And Jesus comes along and he says something different. 00:02:38.819 --> 00:02:46.510 This Sermon on the Mount is, I guess you could say, as people call it, an ethical sermon. 00:02:46.510 --> 00:03:04.951 It's Jesus' ethics of the kingdom, and there's a distinction here between what we might say is the kingdom of self versus what Jesus offers here, where morality is often defined as whatever feels right to me. 00:03:04.951 --> 00:03:16.133 We're living in a society that has the morality based on whatever feels right to me versus the kingdom of God which Jesus is going to tell us about today. 00:03:16.133 --> 00:03:43.643 But one thing is certain, I know this, that the gospel, it really upsets our value system and we've gone through this passage where Jesus says you have heard it said, but I say to you you have heard it said, but I say to you, and today he's going to challenge our value system and I think, while we know that, as Christians, the tug is so strong for us to say no to the, to the buy me now culture. 00:03:43.643 --> 00:03:45.770 Really, what we're talking about is how Jesus wants us to say no to the buy-me-now culture. 00:03:45.770 --> 00:03:51.409 Really, what we're talking about is how Jesus wants us to live for one person and that's him. 00:03:52.612 --> 00:03:58.407 Chuck Colson, way back in 1991, made me think of this, this idea between ethics and morality. 00:03:58.407 --> 00:04:15.618 Chuck Colson, if you remember him, if you're old enough to remember him, he was involved as a cabinet member in the Nixon administration, president Nixon's administration, and the result of that was, as many of you know, was the Watergate scandal, and back then it was a pretty big deal. 00:04:15.618 --> 00:04:26.771 I don't know that it compares anything with what's going on today, but Chuck Colson was basically convicted of the crimes that he was involved in in the Watergate scandal. 00:04:26.771 --> 00:04:32.488 He was put in prison and he spent a number of years there and during the prison time he actually came to Christ. 00:04:32.488 --> 00:04:44.124 He became a Christian and he kind of, for that time after that, began to teach and preach about what God had shown him, as he had changed his value system. 00:04:44.665 --> 00:04:51.115 And he discussed the difference back in 1991 at a lecture at the Harvard Business School. 00:04:51.115 --> 00:04:57.692 And they tell the lecturer why Harvard can't teach ethics. 00:04:57.692 --> 00:05:12.033 And he argues that ethics, he says, is rooted in a transcendent moral order, while morals are more subjective and influenced by societal and individual beliefs. 00:05:12.033 --> 00:05:18.307 So in other words, morals are what is so it's what you see but ethics are what ought to be. 00:05:18.307 --> 00:05:29.632 So essentially we have, I think, in our society so rejected the truths of Scripture that our nation has essentially become demoralized. 00:05:29.632 --> 00:05:35.610 So when truth is rejected or it's put down, it's made less than what it should be. 00:05:35.951 --> 00:05:36.692 Guess what we have? 00:05:36.692 --> 00:05:40.932 We have cultural chaos, because nobody knows which end is up. 00:05:40.932 --> 00:05:52.668 And as the Old Testament described those who lived in that day like this they did what was right in their own eyes, everybody did what was right in their own eyes. 00:05:52.668 --> 00:06:03.387 And so, if you haven't realized it by now, we're living in a culture whose value system is more distorted and perverted than I think I've ever seen in our history. 00:06:03.387 --> 00:06:05.754 So what are values? 00:06:05.754 --> 00:06:10.928 Values are fundamental beliefs that guide us or motivate us to think. 00:06:10.928 --> 00:06:15.062 That is our attitudes and how we live, that is our behaviors. 00:06:15.062 --> 00:06:26.600 Values are like I guess you'd say they're like our moral compass, and so if our life is aligned with Jesus' values, guess what we're going to? 00:06:26.600 --> 00:06:30.312 Our moral compass is going to point us always to the right thing. 00:06:30.312 --> 00:06:31.766 It's kind of what Cody said this morning. 00:06:31.766 --> 00:06:42.889 We had really two other messages this morning, derek and Abby and Cody, so we're just thankful for what God is going to show us this morning. 00:06:42.889 --> 00:06:43.851 I hope you'll be listening. 00:06:45.141 --> 00:06:48.988 Let's kind of look at this Matthew 7, 24. 00:06:48.988 --> 00:06:50.747 I just want to remind you the scripture. 00:06:50.747 --> 00:07:01.071 We're going to look at chapter 6 of Matthew, but I want to go back to what really the thrust of this whole sermon is about, and I said this last time when I spoke Matthew 7, 24. 00:07:01.071 --> 00:07:10.134 Matthew 7, 24, everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 00:07:10.134 --> 00:07:16.031 So, with these words in ringing in our ears, let's look at Matthew 6. 00:07:16.031 --> 00:07:18.829 We're going to look at verses 19 through 24. 00:07:19.620 --> 00:07:20.564 Where is your treasure? 00:07:20.564 --> 00:07:43.283 Jesus speaking, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal, for where your treasure is there, your heart will be also. 00:07:43.283 --> 00:07:55.370 The eye is the lamp of the body, so if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. 00:07:55.370 --> 00:08:01.492 If, then, the light in you is darkness, how great is that darkness? 00:08:01.492 --> 00:08:11.014 No one 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. 00:08:11.014 --> 00:08:14.627 You cannot serve God and money. 00:08:15.829 --> 00:08:22.326 Let's pray, father, spirit of God, lord, we ask that you would open the Scripture today. 00:08:22.326 --> 00:08:33.791 Lord, as we hear your words, lord, we ask that you would open the scripture today, lord, as we hear your words, lord, we ask that you would leave no area of our lives that would keep us from following you. 00:08:33.791 --> 00:08:44.587 With a whole heart, lord, I just pray that we would be like those first servants who were told Lord do whatever he tells you. 00:08:44.587 --> 00:08:49.070 And when they obeyed you turned water into wine. 00:08:49.070 --> 00:08:53.208 So, lord, transform us by your Word today. 00:08:53.208 --> 00:08:58.831 Speak to us, holy Spirit, in Jesus' name, amen. 00:09:00.520 --> 00:09:06.000 Let me just say up front, really, just so you don't get the idea, because when you hear the title when is your Treasure? 00:09:06.000 --> 00:09:07.647 You may think this is a sermon about money. 00:09:07.647 --> 00:09:12.850 That's part of it, but really this is not about wealth. 00:09:12.850 --> 00:09:13.491 Primarily. 00:09:13.491 --> 00:09:18.231 It's really about what we would say is our ability to follow Christ. 00:09:18.231 --> 00:09:19.947 It's about absolute discipleship. 00:09:19.947 --> 00:09:26.068 So, jesus' words, if you, we what he's saying here. 00:09:26.068 --> 00:09:35.145 They cover a lot of issues of the heart which we don't have to count time to cover all these, but let me just kind of mention them because the tendency, as I said, is to live for the here and now. 00:09:35.145 --> 00:09:36.649 It's what we see. 00:09:36.649 --> 00:09:43.505 We have blinders on and that's the mentality of getting all you can and canning all you get. 00:09:47.090 --> 00:09:48.111 We have words for it. 00:09:48.111 --> 00:10:04.111 You've heard them probably Covetousness, wanting that car, that house, those clothes, that whatever is on your heart, and it just keeps you focused on that. 00:10:04.111 --> 00:10:08.576 If I could just get that, if I could just have that covetousness. 00:10:08.576 --> 00:10:16.952 It's really what you say would be you're wanting what someone else has that you don't have. 00:10:16.952 --> 00:10:18.179 You want their car, you want their house, you want whatever. 00:10:18.179 --> 00:10:21.126 That's covetousness. 00:10:22.389 --> 00:10:23.212 And then materialism. 00:10:23.212 --> 00:10:24.725 There's a word we've heard. 00:10:24.725 --> 00:10:29.409 It's simply the unsatisfied desire to have more. 00:10:29.409 --> 00:10:37.488 And it goes unsatisfied because we always want more and we want more and we want more. 00:10:37.488 --> 00:10:40.746 And then that phrase worldly desire. 00:10:40.746 --> 00:10:45.931 Worldly desire when we delight in our treasures more than God. 00:10:45.931 --> 00:10:52.052 And when I was writing those words I thought well, that sounds kind of old-fashioned. 00:10:52.052 --> 00:11:02.129 And it might sound old-fashioned, really even out of touch for many people, maybe a lot of people talking about those ideas. 00:11:02.129 --> 00:11:03.245 But what do they do? 00:11:03.245 --> 00:11:11.749 They reveal the critical issues that are going on inside of us, in our heart, that we don't talk about, and more for sure we won't admit. 00:11:11.749 --> 00:11:16.010 And they keep us from the abundant life which Jesus is talking about here. 00:11:16.010 --> 00:11:21.365 So we make trade-offs, but we don't know what we're trading off. 00:11:22.849 --> 00:11:34.514 Someone said the fight of faith is the fight to keep your heart contented in Christ, to really believe and keep on believing that he will meet every need and satisfy every longing. 00:11:34.514 --> 00:11:36.304 Do you believe that? 00:11:36.304 --> 00:11:39.067 Well, I'm hoping I'm going to convince you a little bit of that today. 00:11:39.067 --> 00:11:43.462 This is what Jesus is going to convince us of here and think about. 00:11:43.462 --> 00:11:45.489 Just keep in mind who his audience is. 00:11:45.489 --> 00:11:48.448 Here he was speaking to people who didn't have a lot. 00:11:48.448 --> 00:11:57.568 These were probably poor people, and you get the idea sometimes that people that Jesus spoke to didn't even know where their next meal was coming from. 00:11:57.568 --> 00:12:00.447 They just followed him around because he had the words of life. 00:12:00.447 --> 00:12:12.087 So these are probably not rich people by our standards of life, so these are probably not rich people by our standards, and yet Jesus is telling even them these things. 00:12:12.087 --> 00:12:16.842 How much more do we need to hear it in a culture like ours and I thought about this. 00:12:16.883 --> 00:12:19.111 So you know, wealth is relative, isn't it? 00:12:19.111 --> 00:12:29.594 It's kind of like what may be considered wealthy by our standards may, or someone else's standards may just be what we need on a daily basis in our culture. 00:12:29.594 --> 00:12:49.475 For example, in some places there are people who and it's like I'd love to have a car, and in that culture they either walk or they ride bicycles right, and so we think a car is a necessity, and maybe it is in our culture. 00:12:49.475 --> 00:12:53.427 It's the way we get around. 00:12:53.427 --> 00:12:56.692 How many of us would love to walk to work? 00:12:56.692 --> 00:12:58.261 That'd be hard, wouldn't it? 00:12:58.261 --> 00:12:59.923 It's funny what we deem wants versus needs, isn't it? 00:12:59.923 --> 00:13:01.024 And you know it's kind of interesting too. 00:13:01.024 --> 00:13:02.826 It's like okay years ago, I think. 00:13:02.826 --> 00:13:04.188 You know it's kind of interesting too. 00:13:04.188 --> 00:13:08.212 It's like okay years ago, I think you know, when everybody got cell phones. 00:13:08.212 --> 00:13:10.436 It's like, wow, everybody wants a cell phone. 00:13:10.436 --> 00:13:19.004 You know, I don't think there's probably anywhere in the world somebody I see people in the jungles of deep dark Africa who have a cell phone. 00:13:19.004 --> 00:13:21.145 It's like everybody's got a cell phone. 00:13:21.566 --> 00:13:23.668 What I'm saying, the point, is that wealth is relative. 00:13:23.668 --> 00:13:31.636 What's not relative is our attitude toward it, and this is what Jesus is going to get to. 00:13:31.636 --> 00:13:40.682 So let's see what he has to say to us this morning, what's relevant for us to hear, and what does he do here? 00:13:40.682 --> 00:13:46.086 He's basically given us these words in contrasting choices, and he presents three of them. 00:13:46.086 --> 00:13:57.971 There are two treasures, on earth and in heaven, two bodily conditions light and darkness and then two masters God and possessions. 00:13:57.971 --> 00:14:03.412 And what Jesus says is make a choice, because you cannot sit on the fence. 00:14:03.412 --> 00:14:04.870 Let's look at it First of all. 00:14:04.870 --> 00:14:05.658 Jesus presents us with a choice, because you cannot sit on the fence. 00:14:05.658 --> 00:14:06.032 Let's look at it First of all. 00:14:06.032 --> 00:14:08.615 Jesus presents us with a choice of treasures. 00:14:08.615 --> 00:14:11.208 This is in verses 19 through 21. 00:14:11.208 --> 00:14:13.648 And the first one is in verse 19. 00:14:13.720 --> 00:14:18.130 He says essentially stop accumulating earthly treasures. 00:14:18.130 --> 00:14:25.783 Here's the words Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. 00:14:25.783 --> 00:14:28.106 And the verb tense there is. 00:14:28.106 --> 00:14:34.894 Jesus is saying something in the original that says You're doing this, stop. 00:14:34.894 --> 00:14:37.788 This is something they were already doing. 00:14:37.788 --> 00:14:39.125 He's telling them to cease doing it. 00:14:39.125 --> 00:14:42.567 Stop doing this, stop accumulating earthly treasures. 00:14:42.919 --> 00:14:47.991 And you know, in that day people didn't have a closet full of clothes like we do. 00:14:47.991 --> 00:14:56.149 So when you think about what he says here where a moth and rust destroy, a moth eating a hole in their clothes would be disaster. 00:14:56.149 --> 00:15:03.352 What if your whole closet full of clothes got wiped out by some insects? 00:15:03.352 --> 00:15:05.807 This is what's in their mind. 00:15:05.807 --> 00:15:12.052 Or he says or rust, rust the word here is the word for rot or decay. 00:15:12.052 --> 00:15:17.187 Because guess what If I left my lawnmower outside in the weather? 00:15:17.187 --> 00:15:20.908 Eventually I wouldn't have to touch it, but it would waste completely away. 00:15:20.908 --> 00:15:23.306 This is the nature of things. 00:15:23.306 --> 00:15:26.207 Anything left to itself deteriorates. 00:15:27.639 --> 00:15:30.908 Today, nothing we buy, think about it. 00:15:30.908 --> 00:15:36.907 Nothing we buy is made to last, and yet we put great, great value on it. 00:15:36.907 --> 00:15:38.350 What do they call that? 00:15:38.350 --> 00:15:41.105 Planned obsolescence? 00:15:41.105 --> 00:15:42.269 Is that what the term is. 00:15:42.269 --> 00:15:49.653 Yeah, so there are no banks in that day, and so we have places to put our money. 00:15:49.712 --> 00:15:51.020 But in that day, what do they do? 00:15:51.020 --> 00:15:55.552 Well, he says there where thieves break in and steal. 00:15:55.552 --> 00:16:12.133 And that day, the way to put your money away safely, they would go along and find a place, walking along, and they'd dig a hole in the ground and cover it up they knew where it was, but hopefully nobody else did or they would dig a hole in the soft sides of the clay houses they lived in and put it in the walls. 00:16:12.133 --> 00:16:14.380 And what he's saying. 00:16:14.380 --> 00:16:18.548 That literally says where thieves break through and steal. 00:16:18.548 --> 00:16:27.427 So their worry was that the thief would get inside and steal their life savings by digging through the walls in their homes. 00:16:27.427 --> 00:16:33.442 And so there's this kind of fear for all of us that what we have we might lose. 00:16:33.442 --> 00:16:40.269 So we got to protect it, and that's probably true in our culture. 00:16:41.250 --> 00:16:43.692 But what is really? 00:16:43.692 --> 00:16:45.253 What's Jesus getting at here? 00:16:45.253 --> 00:16:46.033 It's not. 00:16:46.033 --> 00:16:47.835 That's just kind of the surface meaning. 00:16:47.835 --> 00:16:49.235 What is Jesus talking about here? 00:16:49.235 --> 00:16:50.136 Oh, we know this. 00:16:50.136 --> 00:16:54.682 He's not telling us that we can't have nice things. 00:16:54.702 --> 00:16:59.532 The Bible tells us that Jesus, or God, has provided everything richly for us. 00:16:59.532 --> 00:17:04.000 To what Enjoy. 00:17:04.000 --> 00:17:05.963 He's not telling us we shouldn't have nice things. 00:17:05.963 --> 00:17:08.829 He's also not saying that we shouldn't save for a rainy day. 00:17:08.829 --> 00:17:14.031 You know, if you look through the Old Testament you see the passage in Scripture that talks about the ant. 00:17:14.031 --> 00:17:22.275 It says go to the ant you sluggard, see how he gathers food in the summer and he stores it away for the winter. 00:17:22.275 --> 00:17:25.327 That's a principle for us. 00:17:25.327 --> 00:17:27.907 So he's not saying don't save for the rainy day. 00:17:27.907 --> 00:17:32.951 And we're also told that we're also to provide for our family. 00:17:32.951 --> 00:17:39.573 If your family has a need, you're the one, if you're in the family, to provide for them if you can. 00:17:39.573 --> 00:17:43.869 And we have to save for those kinds of things and help for those kind of things. 00:17:44.140 --> 00:17:46.220 So now Jesus is warning us something else. 00:17:46.220 --> 00:17:52.333 He's warning us against finding our greatest satisfaction in the things of this world. 00:17:52.333 --> 00:17:57.667 And there are two really practical reasons for this. 00:17:57.667 --> 00:17:58.431 He gives them to us. 00:17:58.431 --> 00:18:02.326 Number one is earthly treasures are unreliable and they're easily lost. 00:18:02.326 --> 00:18:08.840 I mean, you can lose your wealth in a heartbeat if you're not careful. 00:18:08.840 --> 00:18:15.477 Proverbs 23, 4 and 5 says don't wear yourself out trying to get rich. 00:18:15.477 --> 00:18:30.501 Be wise enough to know when to quit and some people never know when to quit In the blink of an eye. 00:18:30.501 --> 00:18:32.585 It goes on to say wealth disappears for it will sprout wings and fly away like an eagle. 00:18:32.585 --> 00:18:34.568 And how many people have lost their fortunes? 00:18:34.568 --> 00:18:38.394 And they didn't ever expect to? 00:18:38.394 --> 00:18:50.730 Economic downturns, poor business decisions, online fraud which is a big deal nowadays, right or just simply basic financial mismanagement. 00:18:50.730 --> 00:18:55.692 All those things can happen and we can lose our earthly wealth. 00:18:55.692 --> 00:18:59.109 But Jesus said it's unreliable and it's easily lost. 00:18:59.109 --> 00:19:03.991 There's another practical reason Jesus tells us to stop accumulating our earthly treasures. 00:19:03.991 --> 00:19:08.392 He says, secondly, material wealth is worthless beyond this life. 00:19:08.392 --> 00:19:13.246 Luke 12, 16 through 21,. 00:19:13.266 --> 00:19:28.859 Jesus tells a parable about a man who is building into and now I'm not going to go through the read it for you, but he's basically he's telling the parable and saying this guy is into building bigger and bigger and better and better barns, bigger and better barns, and he's filling them up with all of his treasure. 00:19:28.859 --> 00:19:37.571 And God comes to him and says you don't know, your very life is going to be required of you this very night. 00:19:37.571 --> 00:19:41.045 And what did he do? 00:19:41.045 --> 00:19:46.969 He spent his life investing here and he didn't have anything for eternity. 00:19:46.969 --> 00:19:54.450 Jesus' point is that you cannot take it with you, but you can send it on ahead. 00:19:54.450 --> 00:19:59.430 So wealth is temporal, it's not eternal. 00:19:59.430 --> 00:20:00.904 This is what Jesus is getting at. 00:20:00.904 --> 00:20:10.843 He's trying to tell us the wisdom of making the right choice here, and sometimes we're so blind to this that we fail to consider the eternal. 00:20:13.788 --> 00:20:19.480 There's an old story about an old miser who called the doctor and lawyer and minister who was his friends. 00:20:19.480 --> 00:20:21.083 Three friends a doctor, a miser, or in, and lawyer and minister, who were his friends. 00:20:21.083 --> 00:20:24.369 Three friends a doctor, a miser and this lawyer and minister to the deathbed. 00:20:24.369 --> 00:20:30.346 He's about to die and he said they say you can't take it with you, but I'm going to try. 00:20:30.346 --> 00:20:45.825 So here are three envelopes and each one of you I'm going to give $30,000 to, and what I want you to do with the envelopes, I want you, when I die and they lower my casket into the ground, throw in the envelopes. 00:20:45.825 --> 00:20:54.490 And when the old man died, sure enough, each one of those three, they threw in the envelope as requested. 00:20:54.490 --> 00:21:03.742 But on the way home after the funeral service, the minister texted the other two and confessed I needed the money for the church. 00:21:03.742 --> 00:21:09.594 So I took out $10,000 and threw only $20,000 into the grave. 00:21:09.594 --> 00:21:16.566 And the doctor read that and he texted back. 00:21:16.566 --> 00:21:19.832 I too have to confess, I'm building a clinic. 00:21:19.832 --> 00:21:21.596 He texts it back. 00:21:21.596 --> 00:21:23.118 I too have to confess, I'm building a clinic. 00:21:23.118 --> 00:21:26.325 So I took out $20,000 and only threw in $10,000. 00:21:26.325 --> 00:21:41.108 And the lawyer said and he read that he said, gentlemen, I am so ashamed of you, I threw in my credit card for the whole amount. 00:21:41.148 --> 00:21:49.147 The old miser's fixation on trying to have a scheme to get his wealth to follow him didn't work too well. 00:21:49.147 --> 00:21:54.162 It didn't even work well even at his own burial, because his friends were so materialistic. 00:21:54.162 --> 00:22:00.290 Stop accumulating earthly treasures, j Jesus said. 00:22:00.290 --> 00:22:01.553 Instead, what does he say? 00:22:01.553 --> 00:22:08.682 Wisdom, start stockpiling heavenly treasures Verse 20,. 00:22:08.682 --> 00:22:11.369 Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. 00:22:11.369 --> 00:22:13.627 Literally make a treasure for yourself. 00:22:13.627 --> 00:22:16.398 Make a treasure for yourself. 00:22:16.398 --> 00:22:28.892 Heavenly treasures are a wiser and more secure investment than you might ever believe, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 00:22:30.279 --> 00:22:39.104 Jesus' examples that he's given here lead, I think, to a deeper principle, which is what we might call the treasure principle. 00:22:39.104 --> 00:22:40.346 It's in verse 21. 00:22:40.346 --> 00:22:43.113 And he makes those examples and he comes to say this. 00:22:43.113 --> 00:22:44.876 He says why. 00:22:44.876 --> 00:22:50.347 For where your treasure is verse 21, there your heart will be also. 00:22:50.347 --> 00:23:03.553 In other words, put your treasure in the right place in the kingdom is what he's saying and your heart will be in the right place to live a life now in a way that will pay off later. 00:23:03.553 --> 00:23:07.606 Here's the principle, this idea. 00:23:07.606 --> 00:23:23.394 He's not just talking about money and wealth, he's talking to me, he's giving us wisdom about the right priorities and he's basically saying your heart will be wherever your treasure is placed. 00:23:23.394 --> 00:23:27.490 So if we put it in the wrong place, it'll reveal itself. 00:23:28.421 --> 00:23:31.550 And he uses that word treasure kind of in a really broad way. 00:23:31.550 --> 00:23:34.329 We think of it always as about financial and money stuff. 00:23:34.329 --> 00:23:58.522 It could include potentially a lot of stuff that we call our treasure Family, the position at your job, artistic pursuits that you have, relationships that you think are so important in comparison. 00:23:58.522 --> 00:24:01.830 Maybe it's social media, and that's where you put all your time and attention. 00:24:01.830 --> 00:24:10.799 It could even be a memory that you hold as your treasure. 00:24:10.799 --> 00:24:16.723 If anything in the world is everything to you, it is an earthly treasure. 00:24:16.723 --> 00:24:17.486 So what is your treasure? 00:24:17.486 --> 00:24:19.107 The treasure is what you love the most. 00:24:19.107 --> 00:24:22.554 Your treasure is what you love the most. 00:24:22.554 --> 00:24:24.917 Your treasure is what you love the most. 00:24:24.917 --> 00:24:29.547 What do you love the most this morning? 00:24:29.547 --> 00:24:37.382 Now, jesus moves on from a choice of treasures to a choice of visions In verses 22 and 23,. 00:24:37.382 --> 00:24:38.964 He says in verse 22, the eye is the lamp of the body. 00:24:38.964 --> 00:24:42.171 What an obscure line. 00:24:42.171 --> 00:24:43.773 What an obscure statement. 00:24:45.520 --> 00:24:48.788 Jesus is not giving us a lesson on ophthalmology. 00:24:48.788 --> 00:24:52.863 He's not trying to tell us how to better read an eye chart at the doctor's office. 00:24:52.863 --> 00:24:54.467 This is not physical stuff. 00:24:54.467 --> 00:25:02.068 He's talking in spiritual terms and he's using a metaphor from their culture. 00:25:02.068 --> 00:25:12.532 He's really referring to the way we see things, the way we see life, the way we view life and what he's saying. 00:25:12.532 --> 00:25:19.680 Just as your heart will follow your treasure, so also your body, that is, your whole life, will follow your eye. 00:25:19.680 --> 00:25:22.769 When he's talking about his heart, he's not talking about we think of. 00:25:22.769 --> 00:25:27.048 Well, the heart is the affections he's talking about, not just your affections. 00:25:27.048 --> 00:25:35.604 He's talking about your whole life and what your eye, if you look at the things he's saying, your eye will follow. 00:25:35.604 --> 00:25:38.491 Your body will follow what your eye is focused on. 00:25:39.080 --> 00:25:43.112 So we're intended to understand here that having the right outlook on life. 00:25:43.112 --> 00:25:53.464 It enables us to orient ourselves in the right way, and the opposite is true. 00:25:53.464 --> 00:26:00.022 If you're focused, if your outlook on life is not in the right way, it's not aligned to what Jesus teaches. 00:26:00.022 --> 00:26:03.529 Guess what You're going to be living a life of darkness. 00:26:03.529 --> 00:26:05.894 Now think about that. 00:26:05.894 --> 00:26:18.567 Because you use that idea of an eye, you could have a cataract, you could have floaters, you could have problems in your eye, and those could be fixed by the doctor. 00:26:18.567 --> 00:26:22.102 But this spiritual problem, there's only one doctor that can fix that. 00:26:22.102 --> 00:26:23.688 His name is Jesus. 00:26:23.688 --> 00:26:28.723 It's a spiritual vision and our outlook on life will determine the direction of our life. 00:26:28.723 --> 00:26:42.234 It's so interesting to me how so many times we get our outlook our philosophy of life is about the values of certain things here and we get ourselves caught up in so many problems. 00:26:44.661 --> 00:26:48.250 The Scripture says the love of money is the root of all evil. 00:26:48.250 --> 00:26:49.092 No, it doesn't say that. 00:26:49.092 --> 00:26:53.050 It says the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. 00:26:53.050 --> 00:26:56.428 So it is a danger for us. 00:26:56.428 --> 00:27:05.048 If we have our focus in the wrong place, we're going to live lives that will really be disoriented and going in the wrong direction, and you don't think that happens. 00:27:05.048 --> 00:27:08.092 It happens a lot, but he says so. 00:27:08.092 --> 00:27:10.934 If your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. 00:27:10.934 --> 00:27:19.248 In other words, you're going to have an enlightened sense of the direction you should take in life, because your treasure is in the right place. 00:27:19.248 --> 00:27:21.953 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. 00:27:21.953 --> 00:27:25.829 If, then, the light in you is darkness, how great is that darkness? 00:27:25.829 --> 00:27:30.990 So, these two perspectives on the eye, there's what he calls here the healthy eye. 00:27:30.990 --> 00:27:31.972 That's verse 22. 00:27:32.520 --> 00:27:43.672 And this is an interesting word, because if your eye is healthy it might not be the best translation it can mean generous, literally. 00:27:43.672 --> 00:27:49.893 If your eye is generous, if you well, I'll give you a reference Proverbs 22, 9. 00:27:49.893 --> 00:28:00.972 Whoever has a good eye will be blessed, for he shares his bread with the poor, and so what you have, if you have a generous eye, is you live with open-handed liberality to people. 00:28:00.972 --> 00:28:08.133 Sometimes we're so tight-fisted with what we have, god has to pry our fingers off of it. 00:28:08.133 --> 00:28:09.502 And then what it is? 00:28:09.502 --> 00:28:11.450 It's really painful when we lose it. 00:28:11.450 --> 00:28:14.425 So it could be generous. 00:28:14.425 --> 00:28:19.330 The other word it can mean and it typically means this is single. 00:28:20.040 --> 00:28:32.448 If your eye is single and you have these varying translations when you look at it, it's either generous or single, sometimes healthy, but single it's the idea of being single-minded in your focus, focused on one thing. 00:28:32.448 --> 00:28:38.272 Or we could put it like do you have one passion in your life that you're focused on? 00:28:38.272 --> 00:28:47.063 And Jesus says, as we'll find there's only one that we're to have and it's Jesus. 00:28:47.063 --> 00:28:58.778 You know, I was interested in how this kind of came to me this week because my little two-year-old granddaughter my wife will kill me because I don't have it exactly right. 00:28:58.778 --> 00:29:02.405 Two-year-old granddaughter my wife will kill me because I don't have it exactly right, but she is. 00:29:02.425 --> 00:29:12.023 Ever since she was able to sort of start talking, she has been focused on fire hydrants and I thought why is that? 00:29:12.023 --> 00:29:13.967 Well, maybe they're about her height, you know. 00:29:13.967 --> 00:29:18.752 And so everywhere we go it's like hydrant, hydrant. 00:29:18.752 --> 00:29:25.888 There's a hydrant, you know, and we were driving down the road just the other day and she's pointing out hydrants everywhere. 00:29:25.888 --> 00:29:27.144 That's all she sees. 00:29:27.144 --> 00:29:36.406 And I said her name's Lily and I said Lily, you have such a good eye and I thought how true that is. 00:29:36.406 --> 00:29:42.810 When our eye is single, we see Jesus as the most valuable thing to our lives. 00:29:42.810 --> 00:29:44.453 That's all we see. 00:29:44.453 --> 00:29:50.794 The picture here you can see how thrilled she is with her hydrant. 00:29:50.794 --> 00:30:06.851 The neighbor across the street from where they lived got wind of her focus on hydrants and so they went out and decorated the hydrant in her neighborhood and had her pose for this picture and she's absolutely thrilled. 00:30:06.851 --> 00:30:12.888 That's a good eye focused on the right thing. 00:30:12.888 --> 00:30:19.085 And then Jesus talks about the bad eye, and you might think of the bad, the unhealthy, the diseased eye. 00:30:19.085 --> 00:30:29.352 He ends up saying people with that kind of vision, that kind of outlook, that kind of focus can't see, can't see much at all. 00:30:29.352 --> 00:30:31.946 They're clearly blind. 00:30:33.580 --> 00:30:42.067 David Brooks, in a 2023 article in the Atlantic entitled how America Got Mean that's an intriguing title, isn't it? 00:30:42.067 --> 00:30:57.834 How America Got Mean makes this observation we're enmeshed in some sort of emotional, relational and spiritual crisis, and it undergirds our political dysfunction and the general crises of our democracy. 00:30:57.834 --> 00:30:59.619 What is going on, he's, of our democracy. 00:30:59.619 --> 00:31:01.501 What is going on? 00:31:01.501 --> 00:31:10.174 Over the past few years, different social observers have offered different stories to explain the rise of hatred, anxiety and despair. 00:31:10.174 --> 00:31:14.262 So he's looking out on our culture and he says what is going on. 00:31:14.262 --> 00:31:24.083 And so he goes on to touch on a variety of proposed answers from people who were supposed experts, from technology to sociology, from demographics to economics. 00:31:24.083 --> 00:31:39.869 And these answers, he said, well, they may have something to do with it, maybe have a measure of influence, but he writes something beyond this that I think really touches on the biblical narrative and the way the Bible teaches us about what's going on. 00:31:39.869 --> 00:31:48.012 He writes, our society has become one in which people feel licensed to give their selfishness free reign. 00:31:49.381 --> 00:31:52.607 We live in a society that's terrible at moral formation. 00:31:52.607 --> 00:32:02.881 Moral formation, as I will use that stuffy sounding term here, comprises three things First, helping people learn to restrain their selfishness. 00:32:02.881 --> 00:32:06.890 Second, teaching basic social and ethical skills. 00:32:06.890 --> 00:32:10.241 And third, helping people find a purpose in life. 00:32:10.241 --> 00:32:23.646 Morally formative institutions hold up a set of ideals and I thought, god, that's why we're here, that's why the church is here. 00:32:23.646 --> 00:32:34.454 And is it a statement against how poorly we have done this of late? 00:32:34.454 --> 00:32:37.000 You know? 00:32:37.000 --> 00:32:57.333 Because the culture's values have spread into the church and this is now needed to be retaught to us as Christians, who would have thought what are we talking about? 00:32:57.333 --> 00:32:59.413 Nothing less than the gospel of the kingdom. 00:32:59.413 --> 00:33:05.753 Our eye needs to be made healthy again. 00:33:05.753 --> 00:33:13.876 So now Jesus goes on to the core issue, which is our last thing, and what is he doing? 00:33:14.337 --> 00:33:15.507 I felt like this, even for me. 00:33:15.507 --> 00:33:20.432 I just thought, okay, and this is a good thing, every time a preacher preaches, it ought to go through him. 00:33:20.432 --> 00:33:23.392 I was discouraged this way. 00:33:23.392 --> 00:33:33.958 I was like Lord, you're talking to me, you're stepping on my toes, and so Jesus has gone through this kind of stepping on our toes from the little toe all the way now to the big toe. 00:33:33.958 --> 00:33:37.933 And this is the bottom line. 00:33:37.933 --> 00:33:48.057 He's telling us to choose the right treasure, then choose the right vision and now to choose the right loyalties Verse 24,. 00:33:48.204 --> 00:33:56.234 No one 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. 00:33:56.234 --> 00:34:02.696 And I think Jesus just knew the emotional bond that wealth and money has on us. 00:34:02.696 --> 00:34:23.400 And there's a spiritual connection between our money sometimes and what God has wanted to show us here, how we think about money. 00:34:23.400 --> 00:34:46.612 You know, I don't know about you, but I've been involved in a few settling of wills over the years and I've been amazed at what sometimes normal peaceful people will turn into sometimes from Jekyll to Hyde, when money becomes the subject. 00:34:46.612 --> 00:34:47.954 I got to get mine. 00:34:47.954 --> 00:34:51.306 Maybe you've been a part of one of those. 00:34:53.829 --> 00:34:58.036 See, the question is do you possess treasures or do the treasures possess you? 00:34:58.036 --> 00:35:11.835 And the danger for us is that we let the pursuit of what we deem our treasure to really substitute for our pursuit of God. 00:35:11.835 --> 00:35:27.369 You know what the Bible calls that Idolatry, calls that Idolatry Our treasure becomes our substitute for the thing we should love the most. 00:35:27.369 --> 00:35:29.715 He says you cannot serve God in money. 00:35:29.715 --> 00:35:31.197 He doesn't say you should not try. 00:35:31.197 --> 00:35:35.353 He says you cannot serve God in money. 00:35:35.353 --> 00:35:35.733 Why? 00:35:35.733 --> 00:35:38.478 Because, ultimately, this is a matter of worship. 00:35:38.478 --> 00:35:39.005 Why? 00:35:39.005 --> 00:35:40.949 Because, ultimately, this is a matter of worship. 00:35:40.949 --> 00:35:42.072 It's a matter of worship. 00:35:42.072 --> 00:35:44.157 You have to choose. 00:35:44.157 --> 00:35:56.139 Because why Jesus won't compete with lesser loyalties, lesser gods, money? 00:35:56.139 --> 00:36:09.463 I've figured this Money is a good servant but a poor master, and so what he's telling us is, instead of letting it be your master, make money your servant. 00:36:10.184 --> 00:36:11.188 In fact, he says that in Luke 16. 00:36:11.188 --> 00:36:14.797 He says go out and use your money to buy friends for the kingdom. 00:36:14.797 --> 00:36:17.572 Don't let it be your master. 00:36:17.572 --> 00:36:19.974 There's only one of me. 00:36:19.974 --> 00:36:23.496 Don't let it be your master. 00:36:23.496 --> 00:36:24.878 There's only one of me. 00:36:24.898 --> 00:36:39.405 Well, I want to finish up by drawing our attention to a couple of short, really short parables that he talks about later in the Gospel of Matthew, and they kind of emphasize the incomparable value of eternal life and the kingdom of God. 00:36:39.405 --> 00:36:40.088 Listen to these. 00:36:40.088 --> 00:36:48.673 Jesus said the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field which a man found and covered up. 00:36:48.673 --> 00:37:07.159 Then, in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls who, on finding one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it. 00:37:07.159 --> 00:37:20.596 And so the true riches that Christ offers us, they're not material, they're spiritual, they're not temporary, they're eternal. 00:37:24.806 --> 00:37:33.597 A number of years ago you know, it's kind of like, I think, of the scripture, it's like from the mouth of infants, you have ordained praise, the Bible says. 00:37:33.597 --> 00:37:43.793 And years ago, when my youngest daughter was, we were sitting around, I remember, downstairs on the couch and I think we were just, we were talking about Jesus. 00:37:43.793 --> 00:37:56.557 And at the end of our conversation and she's like three years old she looked over at my wife and I and she said Jesus is our greatest treasure. 00:37:56.557 --> 00:38:06.369 And I looked at my wife and she looked at me, me and I was like that was a God thing, jesus is our greatest treasure. 00:38:06.369 --> 00:38:11.018 And to those with spiritual eyes, jesus is our greatest treasure. 00:38:11.018 --> 00:38:16.996 The problem is with so many we never buy into that truth. 00:38:16.996 --> 00:38:21.135 But this is true wisdom that Jesus has given us here today. 00:38:21.135 --> 00:38:29.552 Let me kind of tell you how Jesus is our treasure and we'll end here in just a moment. 00:38:32.545 --> 00:38:35.273 Several places in Scripture where Jesus is talked about. 00:38:35.273 --> 00:38:48.978 In this way, the unsearchable riches of Christ cannot be fully searched out because, it says, in Christ all the fullness of the deity dwells in bodily form. 00:38:48.978 --> 00:38:55.436 So the riches of Christ include think about it all that God is. 00:38:55.436 --> 00:39:10.617 The unsearchable riches include the wisdom of God, the glory of God, the truth of God, the life of God and the love of God. 00:39:10.617 --> 00:39:19.092 The Bible says in Christ God has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing. 00:39:19.092 --> 00:39:25.456 The Bible says in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 00:39:25.456 --> 00:39:31.235 And the Bible says in Christ God has given us everything we need for a godly life. 00:39:31.235 --> 00:39:36.994 That's a lot of treasure and we haven't even scratched the surface. 00:39:40.786 --> 00:39:42.088 So how do you measure your treasure? 00:39:42.088 --> 00:39:45.947 How do you know where your treasure is? 00:39:45.947 --> 00:39:47.751 How do you measure it? 00:39:47.751 --> 00:39:54.626 That's just a question of what brings you the most pleasure. 00:39:54.626 --> 00:40:02.070 Let me read this again the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field which a man found and covered up. 00:40:02.070 --> 00:40:03.811 Then I hope you didn't miss this. 00:40:03.811 --> 00:40:09.284 Then in his joy it says he goes and sells all that he has and buys the field. 00:40:09.284 --> 00:40:16.414 He is thrilled to transfer his earthly wealth to pursue something that is eternal. 00:40:21.208 --> 00:40:26.396 John Piper wrote this makes pleasure also the whistleblower of your heart. 00:40:26.396 --> 00:40:32.054 If something sinful gives you pleasure, it's not a pleasure problem, it's a treasure problem. 00:40:32.054 --> 00:40:37.277 Your pleasure mechanism is likely functioning just fine. 00:40:37.277 --> 00:40:38.708