Living for tresure or trash

Title: Living for treasure or trash.

This sermon is not my own. It is one from the late Dr. T. T. Crabtree.

Text: 19 “Don’t collect for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But collect for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. HCSB

The Holy Bible: Holman Christian Standard Version. (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2009), Mt 6:19–21.

Offertory Prayer: Heavenly Father, we come today to bow down before you in worship. We recognize you not only as the source of our life, but as the sustainer of our lives. We thank you for the blessings that make physical life possible, but we also thank you for nourishing our spiritual lives. We come today to thank you for the privilege of working and earning an income. From our earnings we come to bring tithes to express our gratitude, and at the same time, our concern for others. Bless these gifts to the end that we shall all worship you in spirit and in truth and practice love toward one another. In Christ’s name. Amen.

Introduction

Have you ever been to an estate auction following a death when personal items were put up for sale? This can be a sad and sobering experience. Someone has said, “One person’s junk is another person’s treasure.” While this may be true, one cannot help but observe that there is always a lot of trash that remains when the average person passes away. This should cause each of us to raise the question, “Am I living for trash? Will the values I live for have eternal significance?”

Today let us ask ourselves, “Am I living for true treasures or am I living for trash?”

I. Christ Jesus came to save us for a heavenly life.

A. God, the Creator, has given us bodies that are perfectly adapted to our earthly habitat (1 Cor. 15:35–41).

In this passage dealing with the hope of resurrection from the dead, Paul illustrated the power and wisdom of God.

God gave us each an earthly body that is perfectly adapted to an earthly habitat.

To depict the wisdom and power of God regarding our earthly life, Paul used illustrations from botany, zoology, and astronomy.

The plants of the field have a body perfectly adapted for the fruit that is to be produced.

Humans, animals, birds, and fish have bodies adapted for their natural habitats.

In the realm of astronomy, each star is different and is perfectly appropriate for its orbit and its place in the universe.

B. The wisdom and the power of God will provide for believers a body perfectly adapted for the heavenly home (1 Cor. 15:42–44).

Paul declared, “So is it with the resurrection of the dead.” vs. 42

The Father God’s wisdom and power will make available to us spiritual bodies that are perfectly adapted for a heavenly habitat.

C. God the Father has given us the Holy Spirit to help us live with the values of eternity (2 Cor. 5).

By giving us the Holy Spirit, the Father God is giving us a present guarantee that we will experience resurrection and that we will live eternal in the heavens, in the house not made with hands.”

“II. Christ teaches us to live and work with heaven always before us.

A. The words of our text are not a gimmick for receiving an offering.

B. In these words our Lord is seeking to enrich us rather than to impoverish us.

God is not a beggar.

Nor is he a thief.

He is not a beggar who sits on the sidewalk begging charity from us. Our gifts do not enrich him.

C. God is interested in our highest possible good in the present as well as in the future.

When we live with the issues and values of eternity, we are going to be richer both in the present and in the future.

III. Christ wants us to be rich with the riches that do not perish.

Christ our Lord was giving us some excellent financial advice and spiritual counsel.

His concern was not for the gifts that we might give; rather, he was concerned about the location of our hearts:

“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

It is possible for you to live all of your life for treasures that will turn out to be nothing but trash.

Trash is that which is worn out, broken, or worthless.

We cannot take earthly treasures with us into eternity. Thus they hold no permanent value for us.

1. A house is possibly our very best investment, but in the final analysis, a house will have no value for us.

2. In much of the world an automobile is considered a necessity. We will not be able to take our automobiles with us through the strainer that people call death.

3. In our homes we need furniture, but the day will come when furniture will have no more value than trash.

4. Some people enjoy the luxury of a boat, but we can’t take a boat to heaven with us.

5. You cannot take even one silver coin with you to heaven. It is like other trash.

6. A diamond ring is a beautiful and highly valued thing, but not even our most highly prized treasures on earth can pass through death into our heavenly home. They will be considered as having no more value than trash.

It is possible to live for treasures that will last forever.

1. You can take your soul through death to heaven. Your greatest possession is your own personal welfare.

2. You can take your personal spiritual growth with you into heaven. You do not have to remain in spiritual infancy. With the help of the Holy Spirit and by nurturing yourself in the Word of God, you can grow and take that growth to heaven with you.

3. You can take your memory with you to heaven. In Luke 16 we read of the memory of the unsaved man who found himself in torment.

a. If people can remember in hell, we certainly can remember when we get to heaven.

b. Today’s experiences are tomorrow’s memories.

4. You can take those whom you have won to Christ with you into heaven.

These will be your richest treasures and your most prized valuables once you enter into eternity.

5. You can take to heaven the service that you have rendered to God and to others.

6. You can take to heaven the believers you discipled.

Conclusion

What are you living for? Are you living for earthly treasures that someday will have no more value than mere trash? Will you go off and leave your treasures behind?

Ours is the choice of living for true treasures that have eternal significance or for values that will “eventually be considered as worthless.

What will it profit a person if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?

The highest wisdom that any person can use is the wisdom of accepting Jesus Christ as Lord, Savior, Leader, Guide, and Teacher.

Jesus challenges us to live for the true treasures that will be valuable throughout all eternity.”

Excerpt From

The Zondervan 2022 Pastor's Annual

T. T. Crabtree

https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-zondervan-2022-pastors-annual/id1540515774

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