Matthew 6:19-24
“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.”
I brought this up this morning just so you can spend the entire time wondering what it is. Um, I will get to it at the end. Uh, if you’re a guest with us today, my name is pastor mark. One of the pastors here really excited to have you worshiping with us. And now we’d like to go to the scripture, invite you to go with me to Matthew chapter six, Matthew chapter six.
We’re going to be looking at verses 19 to 24. As we return again to our series, the upside down life on the sermon on the Mount Jesus in Matthew five, three. We’re going to be reading verses 19 to 24 in a little bit. But first I wanted to just give, um, a few practical insights about finances that various speakers have shared with us.
Um, well-known economists like Bob hope bill Murray have contributed to these. A bank is a place that will lend you money. If you can prove you don’t need it. Think about that. If you think that nobody cares, whether you’re alive, try missing a couple of payments. The best way to teach your kids about taxes is by eating 30% of their ice cream.
Bill Murray contributed that one, a study of economics reveals that the best time to buy anything. Was it a couple of years ago, the morning I look at the Forbes list of the wealthiest Americans. If I am not on the list, I go to work our servers today, we’ll focus on money. So I thought I would keep it light as long as possible.
We’re going to be looking at this passage, which actually is an incredibly exciting passage as it challenges us again, as all of the sermon on the Mount is to make Jesus central in our lives. The context of this sermon is following up three sermons that were presented, um, uh, basically talking about a triad of lessons that Jesus gives in the beginning of Matthew six on our motives.
And what he does is take the three most sacred, uh, or the pillars of spirituality for the Jews of his day, uh, generosity, prayer, and fasting. And in each of them, he has been talking about the fact that it, isn’t only what you do. It is the reasons you do it, that we can be self-absorbed even in the best of our activities.
He talks about motives and what drives us. Now, he goes into two sections beginning in verse 19 of chapter six. In talking about choices, significant choices that we need to make in our lives. If we are going to live the upside down life, the kingdom life, Jesus offers. He’s going to tell us here in verses 19 to 24, 2, use your treasure money or God.
The second choice is going to present to us next week will be to choose your outlet. Look, worry or trust Jesus in the sermon on the Mount is providing a corrective teaching, but it is not a corrective teaching designed to beat us up and to rebuke us and who convict us primarily. It is primarily to correct?
Yes. To restore us to life. As it ought to be. Jesus has continually presented in the sermon on the Mount life as God designed human life to be lived life, as it ought to be life as God designed human experience to be life that is lived with and through God, one of the most sub subtle substitutes to living with God as the center of your life is presented here in Matthew chapter six, verse 19 to 24.
A parallel teaching is a lesson that Jesus gave in Luke chapter 12, where he talks about being on your guard. Here’s what he says. Watch out beyond your guard against all kinds of greed for a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possession. So it’s an interesting statement. A man’s life doesn’t consist in the abundance of his possessions.
I remember growing up as a kid and there was a game that was out that was called the game of life was a board game. Many of you remember it, some of you may have had it as kids. And even if you’re younger, but you basically got this little car and you’ve got these little sticks that you see you put in and blue is for guys and pink was for girls.
I think that’s how it went. And you could have more kids and, and you went around the board, but the entire way that you won the game of life was to end up with the most money that life was defined by the abundance of what you had. You want it life. If you had the most. And Jesus has man be on your guard or a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.
We come now to Matthew chapter six and Jesus is giving the same letter, but it’s broadened. And in this passage, Jesus is presenting three lessons on valuing the right treasure in our lives. Now it’s interesting that in Luke chapter 16, it’s recorded that Jesus gave this same talk on another occasion.
And in that one, there were a bunch of Pharisees there. And this was their response to this sermon. We’re looking at this morning, the Pharisees who were lovers of money, heard all these things and they ridiculed Jesus. I’m hoping that’s not the takeaway. We’re going to have this. As we come to Matthew chapter six, verse 19 and 24.
He speaking to us, all of us, as he talks about the beautiful privilege of having our value be in the true treasure. I’d like to read this passage for you. Matthew chapter six, verse 19 to 24. Here’s what Jesus says. Again, you’ve heard that w excuse me, I’m read the wrong. That’s Matthew chapter five, lay it.
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 the eyes, the lamp of the body.
So if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness. How great is the darkness? No one can serve two masters for either. You will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and money. Let’s pray. Lord, we gather here in Mount Laurel, we gather here in Collingswood, we gather here in. Are homes watching online or on a vacation. And Lord, we ask you to be our teacher. God, there’s nobody. There’s not one of us. That doesn’t sense the pole of having our life defined by stuff.
So Lord instruct us this morning, beauty of having our lives defined when we value the true treasure, teach us what that means and change us by it. I pray in Jesus name. Amen. Three lessons. Jesus gives about valuing the right treasure in our lives. The first thing we notice is that what you value is what your heart loves.
He says this in verses 19 to 21, and he talks about, uh, making your treasure treasures on earth. Laying up means to store up and literally means to invest in that becomes a priority. You’re gathering, you’re gaining it. You’re putting your energy there. You’re, you’re finding your security there. And he basically says, w w where do you have your treasure?
What is the thing that is compelling you is, is that your 401k, your, your home, your car, your funds. And he says, don’t be ultimately invested in those things. Why? Well, he gives practical reasons. They won’t last there. Their loses will. They are things that you can’t protect. Ultimately, uh, if nothing else, you won’t take them with you.
He says the moth and rust can, can destroy them while the moth w w would basically eat much of the thing that they, uh, would find pride in would be if they had luxurious garments, the word rust is actually the word to eat. Probably shouldn’t be translated rust, which has little to no narrow. It, it can mean that, but it also can mean, uh, anything that is, that is eaten, that is devoured.
And the idea here is whether it’s crops or it’s metals that are corroded, but something that can be lost. The volatility of the market just reminds us that things are, things are not necessarily always sure. And he says, why do you love these things that can’t be counted on? There is something that will never be lost and can always be counted on that should be your ultimate treasure.
Now he’s not talking about amount. He’s talking about affection. He’s not saying you shouldn’t invest in 401k. You shouldn’t be, Hey, you can’t have nice clothes or he, you can’t have a nice home. He’s not saying it. The issue is. Where is your heart. And he says, cause where are your hardest? That is what your true treasure is.
So it’s not primarily, it’s not a focus case about, should I have any of this? It’s ultimately is what do you love most? What are you devoted to? We’ll see that more as we go through this study, he compares that with treasure in heaven. Now, what does it mean to have your treasure in heaven that you’re, you’re investing in heavenly treasures?
Well, one of the primary principles of Bible study, when you’re trying to figure out what a, what a concept means is to find out how it’s used in other places. The most significant place is the one that is in your immediate context, because you find out this is what the author was referring to and what God was saying through the author in Matthew chapter six, Matthew chapter five and six in the sermon on the Mount, the word heaven has already been used 14 times, and it’s been used in two ways.
And I think it beautifully pictures. What is being talked about, about having our treasures, our ultimate investments in heaven. The word is first of all, used of the kingdom of the father, excuse me, the kingdom. Of heaven. Jesus talked about the superior value of this as being our treasure. Here’s what he says in Matthew chapter 13, verse 44 and 45.
The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hit it again. And then in his joy went and sold all he had in bought that field. And again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of the great one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought.
And he says, the kingdom of heaven is what we invest our lives in the kingdom of heaven is the kingdom that Jesus brought to earth offers to us. It is those that have embraced him as Lord and savior of their lives. He’s talking about investing your life in the work of the kingdom, investing your life in as a member of that kingdom, serving it.
Serving to the glory of Christ in that kingdom, he says, invest your life in those things. Either way. Heaven is used in Matthew five and six prior to this time, six times is the term father in heaven. He, somebody says your father in heaven reward you. Your father in heaven is watching your father in heaven is present.
They sing, invest in that, which delights the one who’s watching you. Who’s doing life with you, investing in that, which pleases the father, the goal is to enjoy, and please him, the consuming passion of your life, you sing, the joy of your life is to know and glorify your father and to invest in his work.
This is what it means to invest in the treasure of heaven. Being your treasure. For where your treasure is. He says in verse 21 is where your heart will be. Also. Now of course, now we need to put a little shoes to this. So the question is, what do you love? What are you devoted to? This is the whole thing he’s saying in verse 21, because I mean, if, if what you love, if what you’re devoted to, if what you’re investing your life in, it’s your focus at what’s keeps you alive and keeps you moving is the accumulation of things.
Uh, the, the, the, the safety and security that is found there, he says that is your consuming treasure. On the other hand, if it’s your father and his work and him and the establishment of his son’s kingdom in the world, then you’re investing in that, which he says is the enduring kingdom.
So, what is it? Lights your fire is the foundation and driving reality in our lives. I was 28 years old. The first time I ever went into my dad’s office at what was then RCA and eventually is now Lockheed Martin. Wasn’t keeping me out of Mel. I think he was ashamed of having me there, but it just never had, had me come over and to security.
He had always been involved in Naval defense companies, but he brought me in and. I knew my dad was, uh, had had a significant role there. My father was a wonderful follower of Christ by the way, he got saved, uh, well into his well, his early adulthood after he was married just about time, he had me, I think he was terrorized.
Um, and, but I was there and, and while security checks were happening, he had to come all the way down from the top floor and get me and bring me up. And while I was there, I was just sort of hanging over them side. And I noticed this, this wall plaque and this wall plaque was a, a description of the mucky monks of the company and particularly of, of the plant here in Morristown.
And to my amazement, my father’s name was very prominently displayed as a direct report to the general manager of the entire operation. I had no idea. It was just surprising to me. We got taken up, we went up and we, we got on the fourth floor, which happened to be the, the primary movers. And I went to my dad’s office.
We’re sitting there and a guy came in, knocked on the door, came into my dad’s office. And, uh, honestly the guy intimidated me. I just, they’re just some people that have a presence. This guy had a presence and I thought, oh my God, oh my goodness, this, this has gotta be the, the, uh, the guy, well, didn’t turn out to be the guy.
It was a guy that reported to my dad and he’s apologized. I’m like what? In the world. I used to test my father all the time and went through this whole long one, but I wouldn’t tell him my father for, you know, as I remember as a teenager, he didn’t understand the real world, yo, blah, blah, blah. Looking at this and wonder what this guy would think.
He’s not saying it to my father. So again, my dad then said, look, I, I, you know, we talked for a while in his office and he said, I want to take you down to the factory. And he takes me out of the factory and we get down there and people are coming up to me. And, and when they find out I’m gene Willie’s son, they said, your dad’s the only guy from the fourth floor ever come or whatever it was.
I don’t remember. It was third or fourth week. He he’s the only guy that ever comes through here. And, uh, so we’re meeting, um, all the people that are putting little circuit boards together. I think that’s what they’re called and, and doing all this work and, and, uh, he’s introducing me to everybody by name.
I just, I was, it was weird and he finally broke. He said, I want you to meet somebody. He takes me over to this, to this kid. He’s probably in his early twenties. And he introduced me enthusiastically and he says, you know, here, here, um, so-and-so just won an award for, um, the, he, his, his effectiveness in putting these little boards together, his accuracy, and he says, my son, mark, would you, you tell him, you know, how you do that.
And this guy turned out to be a believer. And he goes on. He said, before I ever start a circuit board, I lay it down in front of me. And I talked to Jesus and I said, Lord, help me to do this in a way that honors you give me recall, give me ability, because I want to, I want to help this company succeed. But most of all, I wanna do everything I do here to the glory of Jesus Christ.
That guy just lit my dad’s fire. There were so many other stories I could tell about this. This was not shocking to me because it fit my perspective of my dad. But I want to tell you, I came out of that. Yeah, I was just revisiting this in the last couple of weeks. So I was thinking about this sermon and I, I came out of there absolutely convinced of this.
Well, my father loves his Jesus Christ. It’s the glory of Christ. He doesn’t, he’s not devoted to the fact and finding his joy in the fact that he reports to the top guy. Not that he has impressive people reporting to him. Not that he’s got this influence. My father loves Christ.
Jesus is saying to us here,
What would the people in our lives that know us best say lights, our fire, you may love golf. That’s great. But if that’s what lights your fire in the eyes of other people, you may love your job. You may love your family, but Jesus is saying, where’s your heart. What’s the thing that just your, your life is lighting up about.
He says, because that’s your treasure and your treasure can be the, the kingdom of heaven. It can be the father of heaven.
I hope it is. He says because that’s, what is the design for the people of my kingdom. The second thing, he tells us about our values. And I’ll tell you, the first two are longer than the third, just so you don’t panic
is found in verse 22 and 23. What your value is, is where you set your sights. First 22, the eyes, the lamp of the body. So if your eyes healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness. How great is the darkness?
The I was viewed first, what it means the, I was viewed as the means of light getting into the person. Basically it says if, if your eyes are looking at the right stuff, if the, if they’re focused the right way, what you’re going to do is you’re going to take in things that are going to bring light into your life, into your interior life.
There’s going to be health. If you’re, if you’re focused on the wrong things, if you’re fixated on the wrong things, it’s going to take in not enough light and there’s going to be darkness and it’s going to be unhealthy in the interior life. Now it’s in the context of talking about. Money and the accumulation of stuff.
Now we get this visual, right? The idea of eyes. I mean, I remember watching cartoons and we’d have these kinds of visuals. And what is it saying? This person they’re excited about money. I mean, they’re just looking at his landing with Jesus says it’s inside. They’re going to be darkening, their intention, soul life, the, all the I is all about where you set your sights.
Arthur Momand and his wife lived on long island in the early 20th century. They lived among fairly affluent neighbors. And as he described it, life for us was a constant truck struggle of trying to live far beyond our means in our endeavor to keep up with the well-to-do class. Eventually, Arthur.
Parlayed his own life experience into the development of a comic strip and the comic strip. He actually got sold to Joseph Pulitzer’s New York, uh, world, uh, newspaper in New York city. And it depicted the attempts of Alysia and Claris McGinis attempts to live comparatively with their neighbors. There was a phrase that Arthur Momand, uh, embraced as an expression that has worked its way into contemporary language.
You have all heard it. He talked about the McGinnis attempt to keep up with the Joneses. We all get it. We all live with the struggle of competitiveness. We can set our sights on keeping up with others, comparing ourselves. We can set our sights on our own financial goals and a life of ease and comfort.
But this passage is saying, if you belong to Christ, you’re called to set yourself on the glory of God and the service of God. Now we see how our values are played out in practical life. If your value, which I certainly hope a high value for you is your family. When you have a job offer, come, let’s say you’re offered a position.
It would require you to move, but it’s more, more pay. It’s a better position. It’s a career for you,
but you have a child with a rare disease. And you know that living in the Philly area, there happens to be a particular hospital with this particular department that is unique in the entire United States. And your child is regularly going to that special department because they’re the best specialists among the only real specialists in the country to care for your child’s disease.
It’s likely that if your value is your family and you value the care of your family, you will make the decision to turn down that opportunity. Out of concern for your child, right? And that’s commendable. We agree with it. We endorse it. But quite honestly, a lot of your neighbors would do the same thing that have nothing to do with Jesus Christ.
That’s not really what Jesus is saying here. Jesus is saying this, how much do you value me? Now? You could say, well, it’s because of my value of Christ that I value my child. I get it. But let me try to illustrate like this, that same job comes and that opportunity to move comes.
If our eyes are fixated on Christ, we will likely also ask questions and make determinations based on questions like this. I may need to turn down this sales job, which pays me more because I’ve already seen that I can’t trust myself self in a hotel room on the road that much with the visuals that will be available to me and the TV and the internet that is there when nobody else will know, I’ll turn down the lucrative offer because I have a ministry to my coworkers for Jesus in the job I have.
Now, maybe I’ll ask the question I need to turn. Should I turn down that offer because I’ll not be able to continue in my small group that has absolutely revolutionized my passion for Jesus Christ. I’m not saying to any of those questions, you should automatically say I shouldn’t take the job, but I am saying, will we ask those questions?
Will we say I value Christ and the glory of Christ above everything else. It’s the number one priority that I use to determine the next steps in my life. It’s above my career. It’s above my position. It’s above my influence. It’s above the accumulation of stuff and, and a life of ease.
And why it matters is told us in the next verse, if your eyes healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eyes bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness. How great is the darkness now? What is he talking to me? He says the darkness. What’s the darkness in inside and our interior life.
I think a parallel passage is first Timothy six. Let me just read it to you quickly. Big packages. But godliness with contentment is great gain for, we brought nothing into the world and we can’t take anything out of the world, but if we have goods and clothing with these will be content, but those who desire to be rich, fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction for the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils.
It is true. This craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. The darkness I think is described here in phrases like this, they fall in temptations and snares, sinful, senseless, and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction through this craving.
People have wandered away from the faith and stabbed themselves with many pangs. Now that is more extreme darkness, but he says, this is what happens. If we are driven. If our eyes are fixated in the wrong place. Even though we know Christ, we named the name of Christ and our members of his kingdom. And he says many have wandered from the faith and stabbed themselves with many pangs.
But the darkness is also something else in this passage. See, Paul is writing a rebuttal to teachers in the section, right before that first time of the six that were saying godliness, let me get the exact phrase. Godliness is a means to gain. In other words, follow God because that’s where you’ll get your money.
It is an ultimate first century prosperity gospel that the do this, and God will abundantly bless you financially impulses. That’s not no that isn’t the gain. Th th the, the focus is not getting money. The great gift of godliness he says is not financial gain. The great gift of godliness is contentment.
That you don’t have to be driven prosperity. Gospel stirs up discontent. He saying godliness is the gift. Excuse me. Contentment is the gift of godliness. We live in a culture that encourages you to define yourself, your financial position, your status, your success, your security, but you are not what you make.
You are not where you live. You are not your position in your company.
You’re not what your portfolio is. And the degree to which you’re dividing, defining yourself by your position, your income, your. Is the degree to which darkness will seep into your life in which you’re fixated on something that he says is unhealthy to your soul, to the interior life. And he says, yeah, there’s temptations to come their snares to come.
But he says, also you will find yourself discontent. He’s not just talking to rich people. Of course, right. He’s talking to everybody, we get it. We can be in any financial situation and be fixated on either what I have. And, and it’s what I, what I depend on or what I don’t have and I need to have, but he said, there’s, that’s not where your treasure to be.
He says, you’ll, you’ll find yourself never satisfied because you’ll always be looking. To be a little more secure. And he, Paul says the author of Ecclesiastes. He says it this way in chapter five, the one who loves money, same expression used in first, Timothy six is never satisfied with money and whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with income.
All right, that’s the darkness. That’s the darkness that comes in when, when we’re fixating on the wrong thing. So what happens with the light? What happens when we fixate on the right thing, God, and his purposes in our life in glorifying him. What brings this, this light? When he says, what comes with the light is contentment.
The godliness with contentment is great gain. was speaking to the graduating class of McGill university and he said, one day you’ll meet a man who doesn’t care much for wealth or fame. And then you will realize how poor you are. Jesus saying. That’s rich. Everybody’s trying to get more to be content. So you don’t have to have more to be content if your treasure is in the right place.
So how do you keep your eyes from being focused on money and greed? I personally believe one of the gifts of tithing and giving regularly to the work of the Lord is that it helps curtail, okay. Our eyes being fixed and motivated by greed. You entrust yourself to the Lord by saying, Lord, you own it all.
And I am giving this portion of it to you. The practical principle old testing was 10%. Maybe you’re not giving anything. Well, I don’t know that you’re going to tomorrow start giving 10%, but I believe you need to start giving. What it does. And what giving always is, is this word is used in the new Testament and the old Testament, it says, give the first fruits, the first fruits.
This means you gave the first part to Lord. You made sure his gut taken care of. It was not because he has that. And now I got mine. No, it was a way of saying, Lord, this, this harvest that we have, it’s all yours and all that we are getting. And all that we’re going to, we’re going to use is to be used to your purposes, but we are acknowledging you own it all by giving you this part.
Yeah. I rarely see someone who is regularly given faithfully and generously who is consumed with greed. Usually grade greed is the thing that keeps us from giving. It helps us to not be fixated
in a misplace. Way the third thing, last thing, what you value is what you’ll serve. And Jesus says here in verse 24 for where, uh, 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. You cannot serve God and money. It’s interesting.
Jesus is not talking about employers here. I mean, you can serve two employers, right? You can have a full-time job and a part-time job or three part-time jobs you got to, but an employer is not same as a master because a master is absolutely ruthless in getting his, and he basically, what he’s saying is you can’t really be completely under the authority of one thing.
And there’s going to be someone who is going, especially in times of crisis when finances are short, where’s it going to be? Where are you going to cut corners? And in all realms, like he’s saying. Serving one or serving the other. It’s interesting. He talks about serving money. We tend to look at money as serving us, but most of us struggle not being under the servant hood to money.
And it is a tyrannous master. It’s interesting in this passage that Jesus is basically deifying money. I was struck and I did a series years ago called American idols. And I was struck as I had studied through the scriptures that there are three things that an idol has, three things I give to an idol that I should give to God.
And if you remember them, which probably you don’t, but I’ll say them, we love something more than we love God. That’s exactly what he talks about in the first three verses here. Where your treasure is, there’s your heart. The second thing is we, we serve something more than God. That’s exactly what he’s talking about here in the last part.
It’s our master. The third one is we trust in it more than God. And I would say it to me, that being fixated on the thing is, is because it’s what we hope. And it’s what we’re, depending on toward trusting, he’s defining in this passage money as a potential rival S D a T in our lives and the strike. It it’s interesting how Paul says it in these two passages in Ephesians chapter five, everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is greedy and, and the parenthesis section is Paul’s.
That is an idolater. He says same thing. Galoshins three verse five greed, which is idolatry Colossians chapter three, verse five. It is. Placing that entity. It is personifying it as an idol in our lives and the striking thing he says, and nobody, no one gets a pass on this, that everyone is capable of having their loyalty be deflected from God, because no one is capable of having two ultimate loyalty.
So where are we this morning?
Are you continually discontent?
Is it largely about money? Are you continually frustrated? You continually discontent? Do you find yourself? Continually constantly worried about money. Do you find yourself unwilling to give
it may be because the wrong treasure is being deified in your life. So mark, what now? Maybe you’re here and some of you in this room here in Mount Laurel here in Collingswood here in your own home or at the shore or vacation place, you’re saying, oh God, what am I doing? I mean, I, I just, I, what am I doing?
And you’re convicted that your value you’ve been living with values that are screwed up. You actually have two responses to this message. One, maybe you’re convicted that you’re living with values or that you’re sort of screwed up in your heart outlook right now, or your practices. The second thing response to this message is you feel like you want to punch me in the mouth for making you feel so uncomfortable.
You came to church to feel good. Well, this is my suggestion. I would suggest that you resist the second.
And it’s the feeling of conviction I want to speak to
number of years ago. I put together, I’d studied a couple of years, the book of Proverbs, and I just started putting something together in our family and ended up doing it with about 35 men in our church. Um, these family nights we did, but one of the things we did was we put together a board, which was a, a board game.
We had cards and all kinds of stuff, and it was on the book of Proverbs. And basically the idea was you go down the path of wisdom is the plan, the hope, um, I don’t know,
no, this is that much you really want to see. Then there was the path of folly, which it says is a crooked path and twisted, and there all these things along the path of falling, here’s the deal it’s really easy. And these are all snares. That laid you the path of folly. It’s easy to get on the path that far.
It’s easy to feel. I’ve been walking the path five for a long time. Talk about money. I’ve been on that path for a long time, even though I’m a Christian. So what’s the result response. What do you do you say? Oh my goodness. I’m all the way over here. I guess climbing back. Oh no, that’s not what the Bible says.
The Bible has this beautiful thing called repentance. You say, God, I, yeah, I just, yeah, I didn’t see it. Yeah. I am. My, my eyes are fixated on, on, this is why I’m upset. It’s why I’m consuming. It’s why am I giving a smile on blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Here I am. And I bet, man, I’m in my, I wouldn’t want anybody to know the place money has in my life.
Well, God doesn’t say okay. Then let’s start the slow walk home, buddy. No, he says, man, I’ve been waiting for you girl. I’ve been waiting for you. You say it Lord. I’m sorry. I want to love you most. I want to be fixated on you and your purposes. I want people to look at my life and say, there’s a guy. There’s a girl that is absolutely in love with Jesus Christ.
It’s the consuming reality in his life. And even if people say, you know, the guys are not, but man, he loves Jesus.
We get there by just saying, Lord, restore that to me. And he says, okay, here we go. Boom. We’re back on the path of wisdom. There may be things he leads you to do. There may be changes. He’ll make it. Have you make, but you don’t have to say I am hopeless. Now you move from here, here, here, here, immediately back on path of wisdom simply by repentance.
It’s what grace is all about.
Jesus is taking this whole sermon to do one thing.
He said. I want to tell you about life. As it’s designed to be left, you were never designed to do life on your own. You were never designed to, to, to pursue things in your own research. Lean into me. Trust in me, watch what I do, and you’ll find there’s a peace. There’s a joy. There’s a contentment.
It is found with no other deity in your life, wherever you are this morning, whatever God’s saying to you, if he’s asking you say Lord I’m, um, I’m recommitting again. I’m I’m offering myself again, hear that still small voice Lord. We come to you today. Thank you that you want us. Thank you. That you pursue us.
Lord, may our treasure
that lights our fire and leads our, I S
be you in Jesus name. I pray. Amen now go in peace to love and serve and enjoy .