Listening to Jesus (4)

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Storing treasures in Heaven.
When you hear the word heaven, what do you think of? Maybe you think of being up in the sky. maybe you think of God. Maybe you you’ve read some stuff about heaven in the Bible and you see where it says that in heaven, the streets are made of Gold, and there won’t be anymore pain or hurting anymore. Well today we are going to continue having a conversation of what it looks like to love people and to love God.
Remember, we said that everything that God ask us to do, will help us to either love other people or love God.
Luke 10:27 NIV
27 He answered, “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
This will very likely be a memory verse this year so we should try our hardest to remember this. God tells us that everything we will find in the Bible will help us to either love people or love God. you know what’s really cool is that sometimes we get the opportunity to love people and love God at the same exact time. why don’t we read the Bible today to see how we can do that.
Matthew 6:19–24 NIV
19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! 24 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
Before we get into what we are reading here, I hid a treasure in the sanctuary somewhere. It is your job to go out and find it, if you find it you get to keep it.
Now that you have that treasure, what would you like to do with it? You want to use it, but think for a second, what if you had that treasure and instead of using it, you got greedy, and you stored it away and never used it. What would happen to it? It would go bad. Jesus says:
Matthew 6:19 NIV
19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
Unfortunately sometimes we like to store treasures here on earth, and instead of using our treasures, or instead of sharing it with others, it goes bad. But what is a treasure on earth? treasure on earth is anything that can
Go bad.
Be eaten by bugs or animals.
Can be stolen.
That is what treasure on earth looks like. Now, let’s not be confused. Sometimes we read this and what we hear God saying is that earthly treasures are bad, but that’t not it. Having treasure on earth can be a good thing, but there is a way to use those treasures. Give me some examples of earthly treasures.
Some examples might be:
money, food, cars, house. those are just a couple of things, and those treasures aren’t bad. Money is not bad, but using it on things you’re not supposed to would be wrong. Food is not bad, but if you let it go to waste, or if you too much of it, that’s bad also. A car isn’t a bad things, but if you have it to make you look better, or if you don’t take care of the car God gave you, that’s not good either. God doesn’t have a problem with you being here on earth and enjoying the good things that this beautiful worlds has to offer. Going to school, joining clubs, playing in sports teams. Those are all magnificent things you can do, but life has so much more than just storing up earthly treasures.
Jesus says:
Matthew 6:20–21 NIV
20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Jesus tells us that we can store treasures, we can, but they should be heavenly treasures. What does it mean to store heavenly treasures? That’s a hard question because the more I looked into it, there isn’t just one answer. heavenly treasures isn’t something you can just hold in your hand and say “Hey God! hold this for me until I get up there, thanks!” It’s a little more complicated than that. The best way that I can define heavenly treasure for you is in this:
A heavenly treasure is our obedience to God.
We’ve ben talking about for going on 2 months now, but God has a voice. He speaks to us through the Bible. So when God ask us to do something, we should obey because that’s what it means to store treasures in heaven. Obeying God is always a good thing, it will never be a bad thing. As Christians we believe something very different than any other religion.
Doing good things won’t get you to heaven.
But that doesn’t mean that doing good things isn’t important.
Jesus tells people that storing treasures in heaven is good for you. See he says in verse 21 that where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Jesus says that your heart and your treasure are in the same place. Is your heart a heart that is looking to do what God says? That’s a good question isn’t it?
How do we know that storing treasures in heaven is good for us?
Matthew 6:22–23 NIV
22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
Jesus tells us that what we look at, what we fill our minds with, will define how healthy your spirit is. Sometimes we catch ourselves trying to do both things. We try really hard sometimes to do what God wants us to do, but other times we catch ourselves trying to store earthly treasures. But Jesus tells us that we can’t do both:
Matthew 6:24 NIV
24 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
Eventually, you will have to make a choice. Do I want to serve God, or do I want to serve the things here on earth. Again, the things on we have here in our life aren’t bad. But we make them bad when they replace God.
Q: What is 1 thing that can happen to earthly treasures?
go bad
be eaten by bugs or animals
can be stolen
Q: What is a heavenly treasure?
Obedience to God
Q: What is the lamp of the body?
The eye
Q: who are the two groups God wants us to love?
God and other people
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