True Treasure
Transcript
Good morning. My name's Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. We've been walking verse by verse through the Sermon on the Mount, so we'll be in Matthew chapter 6. If you want to grab one of the Bibles on the row, or if you brought your Bible with you. If you don't own a Bible, this is our gift to you.
Go ahead and take this one home. We want everyone to own a Bible. We'll be in Matthew chapter 6. We'll pick up in verse 19 today. There's a TV show. It's a game show.
I don't know actually if it's still on, but it's called Let's Make a Deal. And I never watched the old one. I did watch the one with Wayne Brady. And in that show, everybody, for some reason, I don't think it has much to do with the show at all. Everybody dresses up in a costume, which makes it slightly more interesting. But everybody's dressed up.
It's like a big Halloween party. And then basically in Let's Make a Deal, you play some random games, kind of like in Prices Right. It just doesn't have anything to do with prices. But you play random games, and then you win something. And then what they do is they'll say, okay, you have $50. I'll trade you one of these two boxes for that.
So they kind of let you pick something, and then you'll trade. Or at any point, you can just say, no, I got the $50. I got $1,000. I got two watches. I'm just going to quit. I can walk away with what I have.
And then by the end, when they make it to, like, the main thing, they'll actually have a couple of curtains or doors with Numbers. And you can trade what you won for what's behind curtain number one. Or you can trade what you won for something behind curtain number one or curtain number two. So, like, there'll be a time where maybe you won a Vespa. Like, I actually watched one where a guy, that's just a fancy moped. That's what a Vespa is.
Had won that, and they basically were like, all right, you want to keep that, because you're going to look great riding around on it. Or do you want what's behind the curtain? And, like, the guy kind of debated for a little while, and I actually watched one where they said, okay, I want what's behind the curtain, because behind the curtain, you don't know. It could be a boat. It could be a car. It could be two Vespas.
You just don't know. You don't know what's going to be behind the curtain. So the guy took it, and what they do in that game is if they have actual prizes, and then they have zonks. And so I was watching in the break room at work one day, and they opened it up, and it was a zonk. It was, like, piles of trash and some goats. Now, I'm from Edgefield, so I know some people who'd be like, I get to keep them goats.
But no, you didn't get to keep the goats. It's a zonk. You lose. He trades in his Vespa. He gets nothing. And what they don't do in that game is they don't give you a lifeline.
They don't let you, when you get to the end, go, okay, I want to do my lifeline. I want to call my friend up from the crowd. I want him to go look behind the curtain, and then I want him to come back out and tell me if I should take the curtain or not. Like, they don't have that in that game. There is nobody who gets to go see what's behind door number one or door number two or door number three. They don't have any kind of thing in that game because it would ruin the point of the game.
But what we're going to see today in the Sermon on the Mount is that Jesus is saying he got to peek behind the curtain. He's coming and coaching us up, and he's saying, I've seen what's behind the curtain, and I'm going to tell you the trade to make. That's what we're reading today. That's what we're going to see where Jesus gets to this point in the Sermon on the Mount. He's saying, I know both what you have in front of you and what's behind the curtain, and I'm going to tell you the trade to make. So we're going to pray, and then we're going to begin to study this this morning.
God, we thank you for your love and your grace and your pursuit of us in the midst of our sin. We pray specifically today that as we study this section of the Sermon on the Mount, that you would help us see clearly. And once we have seen clearly, once we clearly understand what you say, what you teach, and how we ought to view this, I pray that you would change our hearts so that we can believe it. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Chapter 6, verse 19, it'll be on page 473 if you're in a white Bible.
This is Jesus teaching his disciples. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. So Jesus looks at his disciples and he says, don't lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, where thieves break in and steal. But do lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth and rust don't destroy and where thieves don't break in and steal.
That's the premise of what we're looking at. And then he says, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Now, I think it's easy for us as Americans to read this and go, okay, don't lay up for yourself treasures on earth. I get the concept. It's very difficult for us to actually believe it. Actually put this into practice.
Because this is our American system. This is the American dream. Dream. This is what we, this is, this, we've bought into this hook, line, and sinker. That the goal of life is accumulation. Stuff.
We have TV channels devoted to this. So what HGTV is, is here's how to make things better and nicer. Here's how to lay up treasures on earth. I watch the, uh, the show Shark Tank. I enjoy it. Um, it's, it's, uh, basically people come in front of investors and they do a business pitch.
And I like it. I have a business degree. Probably would have done some sort of business stuff if I hadn't been felt called to do what we're doing now. And, uh, but the underlying premise of that show is get rich. That's the dream. That's the goal.
That's the hope. That's the stuff that we celebrate. They'll come in and they'll be like, this lady, stay at home mom, began making mayonnaise in her garage. But now her mayonnaise is on all the shelves and it's like, oh, the mayonnaise dream. But it's not just what she did.
It's the fact that it makes her rich. It brought in money. Now we know she's happy. That's the story we're told. Now we know she's okay.
She has money, you guys. That's why when they, they, people come in and they have this really dumb idea and the investors are like, you're stupid. And then they make them leave. They walk out and they cry and they're like, I'm not stupid. I'm going to make my dreams come true. Why?
What's the dream? I'm going to make money off of this stupid idea. And then I'll be okay. It's what we bought into. I know, one of the ways I see this in my wife and I, and I know that it's like, it's sunk into our heart. So this has become the, the way we think about the world, the way we progress, the way we grow is some sort of accumulation.
Exactly the opposite of what Jesus just said. Don't lay up treasures for yourself on earth. And we go, okay, Jesus sounds good, but it's actually seeped into us. This is the air we breathe as Americans. One of the ways I see this is the way that my wife, Anna and I speak to each other. Because we've been married for going on eight years now and we just kind of dream about the future.
We'll just talk about future us. Future us. And here's the thing I've noticed about future us. Future us always has more disposable income than current us. Future us goes to Disney World. Future us goes to visit New York.
Future us goes to Europe. Future us maybe has jet skis and hangs out on the lake, you know, for mission. Like for the opportunity to invite people in. Now we can tell them about Jesus. Future us always has, oh, future us has some, a little bit of land. So a little bit of, you know, some acreage.
Future us has a, a, a little bit larger house. Future us. I don't know if y'all met future us. Future us is doing pretty well, actually. We don't, we don't brag about it. We're very generous, but we're generous because of all that extra disposable income we have.
We have never once had a conversation where I was like, you know what I was just thinking about? You know, in a couple of years, we have a couple more kids. And you and I are more financially strapped than we have ever imagined. You know what I was just getting excited about? You know, right now I'm counting calories, but I'm pumped that in the future I won't have to do that because I just won't have enough money to buy food to eat. Never once have we had that conversation.
First of all, because that's a sad conversation. Second of all, because we've bought into the idea that the way you progress in life, the way we know that we're growing and doing better, how do, how do we, how do we measure that? When you ask, am I further along now than it was a year ago, then five years ago, then 10 years ago? So often the question is, what kind of car am I driving? What kind of house am I living in? Where am I at financially?
Where am I at business-wise? And here's the thing. This hunt, this treasure-seeking never stops. There is not an end to it. It does not stop. Because, and the way I know this, I know it so clearly in me, and I just want you to take a second and think about you.
There are things that you have currently that you told yourself five years ago if I could just have that, then I'd be okay. There are things that you have currently that you told yourself a year ago, five years ago, ten years ago, if I can just get my own place, if I can just own my own house, if I can just get a car, if I can just get a nicer car, if I could just get a new job, if I could just get my degree, if I could just get my other degree, if I could just get a better Job, if I could just be promoted. There are so many things that if we were able to walk back to you five years ago, you would have tell us so clearly, so bright-eyed, so hopeful, if I could just make 10% more, then I'd really be doing it. And you are now.
And what's happened is we just swapped it out for something else. It does not stop. This treasure hunt that we are on does not stop. And Jesus steps up, looks at us as clearly as he can, as much as he can try to get us to make eye contact with him. And he says, don't. Don't lay up for yourself treasures on earth.
They rust. They get eaten. They get stolen. They do not last. It is not worth it. That's what Jesus is saying.
That's what he's begun to tell us here. And here's the thing. I think he uses treasure for a reason. First of all, he is very much speaking to financial treasure. He is talking about your money. He is talking about your wallet.
He is talking about your bank account. But because he uses treasure, he's also helping us see that it's not just the money. It's where we place value. It's earthly treasure. Things that will just end on earth. The enjoyment will just end on earth.
That's what he says. Don't lay up treasure on earth. Don't gather things where the sole goal, where the end point for it, the most you can enjoy it, is earth. So for some of you, you're going, oh, I'm not that worried about money. Maybe not. Maybe you don't need a lot of money.
Maybe you're not one of these lavish people. Maybe for you, the goal is just comfort. That your earthly treasure is just comfort to be insulated from the world. You don't need a big house. You just need a really soft couch. You don't have to have a boat.
That's crazy. But you have to have what? What is it that you've begun to say, this is what my money exists for? Some of you could care less about money, but you do care about rank. You do need to be promoted. You do need to be the supervisor.
You do need to be the site manager. You do need to be the regional manager. You do need to be the vice president. Like, you've got to be promoted. And here's what he says. That labor, that work, that effort only works out for a short amount of time.
And then it falls apart. Then it rusts. Then it's eaten. Then it's gone. And the most you got out of it was some earthly treasure. Some of you, it's just status.
You're chasing after degree, after degree, after degree. You don't care about money, but you do want people to look at you and approve of you based off of how intelligent you are and how many random letters and Numbers you have in front and behind your name. It's earth treasure. A lot of it has to do with what's the goal. What are we trying to get out of it? I was walking around with my son at the zoo the other day.
And we have a zoo pass and we like it because it's better to take him to the zoo, set him down and follow him around the zoo than watch him burn a hole in our carpet running circles in my living room. And that's actually why Future Us has a few acres because we're going to get a runner across a tree and hook him to a harness. And then I'll just be able to look out the window and see he's okay every once in a while while he runs back and forth and tears up that part of the grass, but that's okay. It's in our backyard. Also so that people can't see him from the road. So anyway, we're at the zoo.
He's running around and one of the things I saw was a couple of little girls ran by and they had face paint. And this is brilliant. So this is a good, if you want a business idea and you're on Shark Tank, this is a great way to make money and to live the dream and be happy is to become a face painter because every kid that you face paint becomes a walking billboard. So that they run off with their face paint and some other kid sees them and goes, oh my goodness, I want my face painted. I want to look like Elsa. Which by the way, is the biggest scam.
They tell these little girls they're going to make them look like Elsa and then they put blue swirls all over their face. Have the kids even seen the movie? She never looks like that. At no point does she get blue swirl face. But anyway, my favorite one is the Spider-Man face.
They put on little boys or they do like Tiger or whatever. But anyway, kids get face paint and that's great. And they're so excited. And this is the best decision they've ever made in their entire life. And parents do it. They let the kid get face paint.
Why not? None of those parents are going to let their children get that same thing tattooed on their face. They're not going to. Why? Because as an adult, you can see further down the road than a six-year-old can. And what is going to be the best, most amazing decision they've ever made is going to be absolutely ridiculous.
And you'll look at them if they wanted it to get permanent. Like if they were doing this and the face painter person was like, just so you know, this will last 10 to 40 years. You immediately would like attack them. Are you crazy? You can't put something on their face that's going to last that long. Why?
Because it's going to be awesome for second grade. This amount of time in their life. That's why it lasts a week. They cry when it's gone. Good. Last two days, you scrub it off that night because they've got to go be around other humans later and they can't keep looking like a half-weirdo version of Spider-Man.
But it would be awesome. If they got a tattoo, it would be awesome. They'd be the coolest kid in second grade. But you know that life goes beyond second grade and you're going to say something to them along the lines of, this will be great in second grade, maybe half a third grade. It's going to be really troublesome when you're trying to get a date for prom. But let's look beyond prom.
You're going to need to go on Job interviews later. You'll be memorable. But nobody's hiring Spider-Man guy. That's what Jesus is saying. He stepped in and said, you're chasing after earth treasure and that's going to be amazing for 50 years. That's going to be the best for 50 years.
That title, that success, that name, that house, that car, those cars, that amount of wealth, that bank account is going to be so wonderful for something as small and as trivial as half a century. See, Jesus has walked out from behind the curtain. He says, he sees into eternity and he says, don't do it. Don't buy into it. Don't make that decision. It's a terrible trade.
He says, hand in the Vespa, take what's behind the curtain. That's what he's saying. Because he sees further than we do. He knows more than we do. And what seems like such a great idea now actually isn't in light of eternity. And if we're Christians, if we actually believe this, we're people of eternity.
We live forever. That's what Jesus gave us was eternal life. Eternal. Forever. And we're making decisions that only make sense for 50 years. Not for 100.
Not for 150. Not for 250. Not for 1,000. Not for 10,000. Not for 10 billion. That's how long we're going to live.
We're making decisions that make sense for 50. And so Jesus is trying to help us. And he's saying, stop. It's a bad trade. So what's he say?
Do not lay up for yourself treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth and rust destroys, where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Do you know what he's assuming about you? You know, he's assuming about me. We want treasure.
Treasure. He does not say, do not lay up treasure. Treasure is bad. Do not value anything. Valuing things is bad. What's he say?
He says, go for the better treasure. Go for the more long-lasting treasure. Make the best treasure hunter decision. When we were created by God, we were designed in some ways to be treasure hunters. What I mean by that was, we were designed to see value. To make correct, appropriate, intelligent valuations of things.
This is better than that. We do this naturally all the time. You go eat somewhere and you'll think, this is a really good burger. But it's not as good a burger as that burger. And it costs $2 more. We have this argument all the time around the office about people going to Chipotle and Moe's and then trying to decide which one's better.
But we're designed to do that. That's why people get so amped up about that argument. Because they like Chipotle and they're wrong and other people try to graciously point it out and they won't repent. It costs more. The chips aren't free and no one greets you. Plus it stinks of hipster.
We're supposed to make valuations of what is good and bad and right and wrong. We're designed to. But here's what happened. Our first parents, Adam and Eve, made the wrong choice and they messed up our value system. They made it to where our hearts chased the wrong treasure. When they were supposed to supremely value God as the ultimate treasure and then everything else would make sense.
We would love our spouses. We would love other people. We would love and value life and all the things that God designed to be good and enjoyable would have fallen in line because God was in His right place. What Paul says in Romans is that that got messed up. That when they chose to value something else themselves higher than God, our whole value system got messed up. And so when we look at earth and say this is what is valuable, this is what is to be treasured, the only way that's going to get reoriented or changed is by Jesus fixing that.
So we're going to live in a broken world where we're tricked constantly by money and cars and relationships and Chipotle. Our value system is going to be off. And Jesus is stepping in right here to try to reorient it for us, to try to fix it for us. In some ways, what's happening and especially so ridiculous and silly in the church, when we gather together on Sundays and say, our treasure is in heaven. There's probably a song that says that, that we would all stand up and sing. Our treasure is in heaven.
Yeah, that's right. You're wondering why I don't sing more often. We sing, take the world, but give me Jesus. We sing that song. And it would be like if all of us living over here in South Carolina in the gold rush era heard that there was gold in California. And we said, we're going to go seek the treasure.
We're going to go to California and we're going to get the gold. And we started going. And every time we stopped, we were going to camp out a little while. I went into the woods and started cutting down trees. And you said, why are you doing that? And I said, I'm going to build a house.
And you said, buddy, we're leaving tomorrow. Stop. Or if every time we stopped, I went and gathered really neat pine cones or pretty rocks. And so we're only a little way in and I'm already loading up our caravans with stupid stuff. You're like, hey man, first of all, as soon as we get to California, we're going to dump all your stupid rocks out and fill these bags with gold, which are better than rocks. Secondly, quit.
We don't need these. And every time we stop, I start building a house. Eventually, you would be like, I hope you get dysentery. I am so sick of you being on this team. But we're Christians.
And we're saying, our gold's in heaven, our treasure's in heaven, what we value's in heaven. And then we're running around and living the opposite. And Jesus, because he loves us, because he loves his disciples, is looking at us and saying, stop it. It is a bad trade. You're going to build this house, you're going to labor over this, and then we're moving. You're going to work really hard for this, and then we're going to throw it out.
When we get to California, we're throwing all your rocks away. They're not going to matter. And he's looking at us and saying, when you meet the king, when you step into eternity, everything you labored for and everything you toiled for and everything you worked for is going to be gone. And it is not going to matter. But there are going to be some things that we can labor for now, work for now, that make sense in light of eternity.
There are treasures. There are rewards. He just got done in the beginning of chapter 6 saying, don't practice your righteousness so that other people can see it. That's earth treasure. That's what he's talking about. Don't practice your righteousness.
Don't be really holy and really good and really devout and pray really well and read your Bible and practice your Bible verses in order that other people can know. Look at how good they pray and how much they know about their Bible and how nice they are and how well behaved. Don't do it. That's earth treasure. That's them valuing you here. What he says is, do it in secret.
Do it privately so that you'll be rewarded by your Father who sees in secret. Give in secret so that you'll be rewarded by your Father who sees in secret. You see, there's ways for us to now begin to lay up treasure in heaven. Begin to make decisions that make sense in light of heaven. Some of the ones he gave us just then were praying, fasting, giving. In other places in the Bible, he's going to say, give to the poor.
Sell your possessions, give to the poor and buy for yourself money bags that don't grow old. Or he's going to say, Paul's going to say for us in 1 Timothy, he says, as for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty. That means arrogant. Nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share. So he doesn't say it's wrong to be rich.
What he says is, tell the rich people to be really generous and to not place their hope in money. To do good, to do good works, to pay for people, to provide for people, to feed people. Thus storing up treasure for themselves is a good foundation for the future so they may take hold of that which is truly life. In Matthew chapter 25, he looks at people and he says, y'all fed me when I was hungry. You clothed me when I was naked. You visited me when I was in prison.
He begins to lay out for them, here's why you're rewarded. Here's what I noticed. Here's what you cared about. We're told over and over again that we should live our lives for the mission to see people come to know Jesus, that we should make intentional, tactical decisions with our time and our money and our jobs and our income and our wealth and our intelligence so that we can see more people come to know Christ because at the end of our lives, our short little 50 year blip that we're here, all that's going to matter is what we did for Christ and what was for his kingdom and everything else is going to be burned up and gone.
So Jesus says this, let's pick up in verse 22. In the middle of this section on money and he's going to get back to money, he's going to get back to treasure, he says, the eye is the lamp of the body. Now he's speaking in a kind of an idiom they would have understood. They believe mostly that your eye actually projected light into the world and that your eye was connected to your heart. So he's already talking about the heart, where your treasure is, there your heart will be and so now when he starts talking about your eye, they immediately connect that to heart as well.
We don't connect it in the same way. 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. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness? So what he's saying is if you don't see this, if your view on this is wrong, if your understanding of this, your vision here is short-sighted, you're going to live your life in the dark.
And how dark is it going to be? But if you see this, if it's well lit, if you understand what the implications of what he's talking about, then everything makes sense. Everything's lit up. Some of you are kind of clumsy. So periodically, you bump into things in a well-lit room.
Most of the time, you don't. But if you have to walk through a room in the dark, one of the things that happens at my house is I will be getting ready for bed, Anna will be in bed, I'll cut the light off and I'll have to walk around our bed. And I think probably 40% of the time, I hit something on the way. And I don't hit things gently. It's not like I'm tiptoeing through this room. You'd think I would learn by now.
But there are times where I hit the bed and the whole thing slams against the wall and shakes. And she's like, what's wrong with you? And I was like, well, who hid a bed in here? And Jesus is saying, you're going to walk around in the dark. You're going to make terrible decisions. Decisions you wouldn't make if you saw this clearly, you're going to look like a fool.
My family used to play a game called Blind Man's Bluff. We'd take one of my dad's dress socks, clean one, and tie it around our face like a blindfold. And then we would all be in one room on the carpet and then there was like linoleum or whatever. And the game was, whoever had the blindfold had to get everybody else out. Starts off fairly simple because the room's kind of small. You can't see.
They can. And then you'd tag everybody and get them out. And once you got everybody, game was over. Or once it got down to the last person they had won or something like that. For years, when it was my mom's turn, my dad would let her tag him out first. He would get off to the side.
Then he would signal to his three sons to join him quietly. And then we would all stand and watch as my mom jumped around in the room trying to tag people who didn't exist. And my dad would go, right behind you. And she would like jump backwards and he'd go, oh, you just missed him. And then eventually, he would send us all back out there to get tagged so that she didn't know this had happened. She listens to the sermon periodically.
This may be the moment she finds out. I'm not sure we ever told her. Everybody in the room saw clearly but her and knew exactly what was going on. That was the point of the joke. She looked kind of foolish. We got to enjoy it.
Jesus says, this one isn't funny. You look foolish and no one's going to be laughing. You're missing it if you don't see this clearly. You're in utter darkness and how great is that darkness. And American Christians, we've bought it. We've bought it.
We are supremely good, maybe above all else, all the other churches in the world at laying up earthly treasures. And Jesus says, it's going to work here and it's going to be gone. And we need to live our lives for heavenly ones. Let's keep reading. No one can serve two masters. This is verse 24.
No one can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other, he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. What you do on earth will have two places that it terminates. You will either live a life on earth where all of your work, your energy, everything that you do terminates, ends on earth. Or, your life on earth will terminate and end never because it's sent forward into eternity. That's where he talks about being generous, being good, living your life with, I understand that eternity matters so I've got to make decisions in light of that.
I know all of y'all huge country music fans. Tim McGraw has a song called Live Like You Were Dying and people lost their mind when that song came out so that it got way, way overplayed. They should have played it on the radio like twice and we could have just moved on. They played it way too much. Jesus is saying, live like you weren't dying. Make decisions that only make sense in light of an eternity.
If I've died for you and rescued you and redeemed you and given you eternal life, start making investment decisions that last beyond 30, 40, 50, 80 years because you cannot serve both which is so helpful and so terrifying but it means that your decisions, your effort tomorrow, your life this week, your business decisions, your life goals and decisions for the next 10 years or 15 years or 20 years, they will either go towards earth or heaven. That's it. Pretty clean cut. The things you buy, the way you spend your time, how you interact with people will either go towards earth enjoyment or heaven enjoyment.
Will either go towards you believing that your treasure is here or you believing that your treasure is in eternity. And so that's why Jesus calls us to live lives as if we understand eternity exists. So this means that you should sacrifice. You should throw parties just to invite other people in, just to build friendships. You should spend the money you would have spent on something else to welcome people into your home and to build relationships. You should stay in the neighborhood you're in even though you have the opportunity to move to a nicer one so that you continue to build relationships with the people around you.
You should stay in the job you're in even though you have the opportunity to transfer and make more money because of the relationships you've built. You should say, Jesus, I'm sacrificing. I'm going to do this with my life so that I can see people come to know you. You should take a job in your field that involves serving people and connecting with people and working towards the good of others rather than your good, your benefit, your bottom line. You should get up early to pray. You should get up early to serve and give up some sleep.
You should give up time to help others study the Bible and learn how to study the Bible. There should be time where you give up your nice evening where you were going to enjoy yourself to go sit next to someone else and let them cry and you join them in crying and mourning and hurting when you didn't have to. You see, middle class Americans can insulate themselves for the world. We don't have to be around homeless people. We don't have to be around people that are hurting and broken. We don't have to be around people who are messy and make terrible decision after terrible decision after terrible decision and continually harm their lives.
We can be insulated from that and what Jesus is saying, no, uninsulate yourself for the sake of an eternal decision that makes way more sense. That's what he's calling us into. So, you'll either spend your life for earthly goods or heavenly ones. You'll spend your life for earthly gain or heavenly gain. what's the purpose of your savings account? What's the purpose of your job? What is the goal of your time?
What do you dream about and long for? If Jesus went back right now and over the past month answered everything you had prayed for and everything that in conversations you had said, I hope this happens. I wish this would work out. This is really what I'm shooting for. If he walks back right now over the past month, gathered all of that information and said, done. Let me ask you a question.
Would that go on into eternity or would it stop 50 years from now? Would all the things you're dreaming and hoping and longing for and begging Jesus to work on, are those going to be heavenly kingdom treasures? Are those going to be things that one day you'll stand in front of him and be excited that he answered and be so proud and happy that you got to be a part of it? Or is it going to be one day when you walk in front of him and you realize that everything you've built up and everything that you've piled around you and everything that you've lived your life and energy and sweat and tears and heart and longed for is going to be gone?
What are we serving? Is it going to be eaten, stolen, and rusty? Or is it going to enter into the kingdom where the heavenly king reigns and everything stays forever? Okay. So Jesus says this, you can't serve God and money and immediately he knows our response.
And so he goes from, I think, being really kind of intense to being really gracious and pastoral. You can't serve God and money and what we want to say is, okay, even if I hypothetically agree with you, quit my job? Because if I go to work, serving money, right? Quit my job? Don't feed my kids? Starve and be naked.
It's the rebuttal, right? 25. Therefore, I tell you, so because of all this, because you can't serve God and money, therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are you not more of more value than they? Of which of you being anxious can add a single hour to a span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon, that was the great king in Israel's past, in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, he will not much more clothe you, O you of little faith.
So our response is, I would die, I would starve, I would be naked, and he says, no. If you're living your life for serving God, how much more is he going to take care of you? Is he going to provide for you? And then he takes two things that are so easy to see. He says, look at flowers. You ever just been caught up looking at flowers?
You're just walking along and seeing a bunch of flowers are in a field and it's like you almost wrecked your car because for some reason this entire field just turned yellow and you're just like, wow. Places that are well manicured, you're just like, this is so, like maybe my neighbor's yard, not my yard, but other people's yards where they have like flowers and stuff. It's so beautiful. He says, listen to the birds. It's about to be spring. We're about to get to see flowers and birds and here's what he says.
God's paying attention to each one of those, clothing them and feeding them. You'll be fine. Now, I wouldn't argue. We talk about this all the time. I would not say, everyone in here, quit your jobs. That's serving money.
What I would say to some of you, quit your job. You need to go do something else. Maybe you're supposed to go to the mission field. Maybe you're supposed to go to some hard to reach place, spend your life sweating and toiling and then eventually be beheaded and go meet the king. Living a life that only made sense in eternity. For many of you, I would say, don't quit your job but begin to serve God in your job.
Use your money to serve God and use your time at work to serve God because he's intentionally placed a missionary in a place where there are no other Christians. That most annoying co-worker of yours that drives you crazy, that is bitter and angry and hateful, yeah, Jesus put you there for them. To begin praying for them, to begin intentionally inviting them to things, to welcome them into your home, to share meals with them, to confide in them, let them confide in you, to love them and care for them so that they might come to know Christ. Why don't you start living your life in your job as if you believed eternity existed and mattered?
That's what he's going to say. Here's what I love about this illustration because it's so simple that he gives us. He says, consider the birds, consider the flowers, how much more value do you have than them? I grew up watching some Batman movies and cartoons and stuff. Here's one of the things that would happen often in Batman movies or cartoons. Batman would find the Joker or any other criminal villain but we're going to go with Joker.
This was back when Batman used to talk like a normal kind of, maybe intense person but like a normal person before Batman talked like this all the time. So that, you know, he can't be Bruce Wayne normally because he's so hoarse from yelling at criminals. This was a normal Batman where he would just like talk like he cared about justice. That Batman. And he would come to the point with Joker and Joker would have Robin, the boy wonder and he'd have him like dangling over a pit with sharks or something and then he would have like whatever girl Batman tended to be interested in or Commissioner Gordon hanging over here and he would basically pitch it as like you can only save one of them.
And so here's what's happening in this scenario. Batman comes to meet the Joker and the Joker says, welcome Batman. I'm so happy you're here. I'm going to do an impression the whole time. I don't even know this sounds like a Joker. I'm doing it.
I'm so glad you're here. You can only save your friend Robin, the boy wonder. I see dangles over this pit filled with sharks. Ha ha ha ha ha. Or you can save, you won't have enough time, this beautiful bouquet of lilies dangling over this pit of acid. Which will you save?
And Batman's like, wait, Robin or lilies? Beautiful perennials. Yeah, I'm just going to, can I just start walking towards Robin? You can press the button whenever you want to. What about the lilies? Yep, put them in the lava.
Acid, sure, don't care. Lilies, we will make more. That's what Jesus just said. He said, no one even hesitates on this. You were birds. You.
You were flowers. You. God's taking care of flowers. He's taking care of birds. You. He's not going to leave you hanging.
And, here's the beautiful promise that we have in scripture. That in the moments when the world would gather around and say, yeah, they went on that mission trip and they were killed. They went to that mission field and they were beheaded. Didn't God leave them hanging? The Bible's going to step in and say, no, he did them a great honor. They got so much more eternal treasure in that moment than I may ever get in my entire life.
God said, you're going to live your life for me. You're going to spend your time for me, your money for me. Have I got great reward for you? This is going to be a train wreck here. Oh, but it's going to be so beautiful. You're going to see such glory and such honor and such magnitude of reward that your father has been watching and caring for you.
Your parents aren't going to understand, your friends aren't going to understand. This is going to make no sense here. But let me tell you something. Second grade's really short. There's so much more to come. And then he promises in that, I'm going to provide.
You'll eat. You'll wear pants. He does not promise jet skis. But he promises rewards so far beyond we could imagine. See, one of the things he talks about is we get heathered treasure or money bags that don't grow old. I think one of the reasons the Bible isn't really clear on the treasure is because we wouldn't understand it.
We don't understand the value of the eternal treasure. We don't have a concept for it. So what he just says is it's going to be better. He's asking us to trust him. And here's the thing that Jesus came to do for us. He came because he really believes this.
That's why he lived his life sold out for one purpose, for the kingdom, for the glory of God, for his name. That's why he went to a cross to die at a very young age to rescue and redeem us because he understands the trade was worth it. That's why Hebrews said that for the joy set before him he endured the cross because he's invited us into an eternal kingdom. That's what he's come. He put his money where his mouth is. He believes this and through the cross we can have an eternal life.
We can be brought to him. Verse 31 Therefore do not be anxious saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear for the Gentiles seek after all these things and your heavenly father knows that you need them. For many of you in the room maybe that is your primary anxiety and concern. I don't know how I'm going to pay my bills. I don't know how I'm going to feed myself. I don't know how I'm going to feed my kids.
And the promise here is so beautiful. Trust him. You worry about his kingdom. You worry about people needing to know him and he'll take care of you. But for most of us as Americans our anxiety when it comes to money and clothes and food is not am I going to starve and am I going to be naked?
No, it has way more to do with brand names and am I going to look good? So he says the Gentiles are chasing after all these things. This is what they worry about. See it used to be there was a guy who lived in your town and he cobbled shoes. He was a cobbler. And he would make basically the amount of shoes for feet that were in the town.
You might own two pairs of shoes dress pair like your Sunday pair and your regular other pair and then most of the time you didn't wear shoes because they just couldn't. When they made robots that make shoes and we got you know production lines in gear they have to sell us way more shoes than we have feet so that's where advertisement comes in. They've got to sell you not just you need shoes. Have you seen advertisements that are like you need shoes? No. They sell you on an identity.
They sell you on value system. This is the difference between Hanes and Abercrombie. Hanes is selling you a shirt. That's why they tell you stuff like it doesn't have a tag it'll stay tucked in. Why? Because it's just a white t-shirt.
They've got to sell you on the shirt. Abercrombie sells clothes but they're not selling you on the shirt they're selling you on style. If you see an Abercrombie a bag at the mall the guy on the bag doesn't have a shirt on. Buy our shirts and you cannot wear a shirt and be cool like this guy. And I see that and I'm like I want to be cool like that guy. Maybe if I buy a shirt I can have abs.
Like that's it's a trick. I won't get abs and I'll look weird in the shirt. That's why I bought Hanes Stay Tuck shirts. Like that's that's the ad pitch that's working on me. But we're being sold.
We're worried about all these other things. And here's the thing. It's not going to matter. Jesus is stepping in saying let me explain something to you. Browning Glock LuLaRoe all the cool things you saw on Pinterest Ford not going to make it. They're not going to make it.
There is going to be stuff that does none of those are. And I know some of y'all thought LuLaRoe's going to make it. Not going to make it. We're being sold a lot. And we're going to spend our lives chasing after things that are going to matter for a year two years three years four years Apple not making it. Some of y'all like Android might not not going to make it.
I know the texting thing is cooler not coming. 33 seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. Remember all these things are food and clothing. Care about his kingdom his righteousness care about people meeting Jesus care about God's holiness on earth care about people being fed and his justice and care about him at work and everything else will take care of itself. That's the promise. And as much as he can he's trying to make eye contact with us.
He's trying to say do you see this? Do you hear me? Eventually this is all that's going to matter. And he proves it when he goes to the cross to redeem us and to buy for us in eternity by trading in his life. And he calls us to the same. To live our life for his kingdom and his glory and his name because that's ultimately all that's going to matter.
There's a poem by C.T. Studd who was a missionary who spent his life in Africa and China. The refrain in it is only life only one life which will soon be passed only what's done for Christ will last. Only one life which will soon be passed only what's done for Christ will last. Verse 34 Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Worry about his kingdom worry about his glory and don't worry about anything else. He'll provide he'll care he'll tend there is no choice for him it's a no brainer when it comes to flowers and birds and us. He's got you. The band's going to come back up here and here's the question for us all your life right now if your goals came true if your hopes and dreams everything you've been talking about everything you've been laying in bed thinking about everything you daydream about if it all came true is it done in 50 years? Do you have a really nice comfortable retirement? And that's it?
Do you drive really nice cars your whole life? And that's it? That was the trade you made? Some of us are sitting down right now at the face tattoo station and Jesus is saying get up stop this is silly you see he's you could take everything all the cool stuff you saw on Pinterest all the ways to trick out a bathroom you learned about from HGTV the house the jet skis the cars the status the title the manager position the master's degree you could take it all and pile it up they could lay out before you everything you would ever achieve or earn in your life that would be put in your obituary that people would read and say he's accomplished so much and you could pile it up and if it wasn't done for Christ it's going to be gone and Jesus is walking out from behind the curtain and he sees your life and he sees every ounce of potential you have and every bit of work you'll ever put forth and all the amount of intelligence and effort and time you've got on earth and he looks at you and he looks at that pile of stuff and he says take what's behind the curtain so I suggest we start opening up our wallets we start opening up our homes we start opening up our time our schedule we start opening up our hearts to love people who are hard to love and we begin to live as if we realize one day this is done and there's an eternity to come with a high king who's worth it and reward that we can't even understand or fathom right now that'll make all the silly decisions we made right here so blatantly obvious and every time we invested in something that mattered so epically worth it let's pray God I ask that right now through your Holy Spirit you would change our hearts God we need you to reorient our hearts to value what matters don't let us fumble around in the dark but help us to see clearly your eternity that you bought for us through your blood and your sacrifice on the cross may we place faith in you for an eternal life and then may we live as if we actually believe that life is to come God I pray that our church will be filled with people making decisions that only make sense in light of eternity and I pray that you would give us through the power of your Holy Spirit faithfulness to stay there may we invest in heavenly treasure and laugh at everything else along the way in Jesus name we pray Amen because spices come to rise and HAR