Strategic Treasuring
Notes
Transcript
Jesus teaches us a better strategy for treasuring: earthly stuff bad, heavenly stuff good. Treasures in heaven are eternal: our walk with Christ, Christ-like character and Christ-won souls. We treasure wisely when we value these over all other options, leveraging our time, talents and wordly treasures. We are what we treasure.
Oh, Sheet
Oh, Sheet
This is a sheet. It’s a very old sheet, actually. The fitted match is gone, got ripped up years ago, I think using it at camp.
When we made our last move, KK held this up to me and asked if we should toss it because it wasn’t a set anymore.
She didn’t know.
I was just walking up the stairs. I wasn’t prepared.
I, literally, burst into tears.
This was Logan’s first set of sheets on his “big boy” bed, and a gift at a baby shower before he was born.
I didn’t even realize the place it had, that it was treasured… and sharing that with KK...
Treasures
Treasures
Everybody’s got treasures.
Maybe you keep them in a “safe.” Even that word is kind of funny. Or close to your person. Or at home in a special spot, either on display or in secret.
One measure of intimacy, one act of intimacy is sharing your treasures with one another.
If I know what you treasure, I know something truly important about you. If you trust me with your treasures… that’s a big deal.
Every human has treasures of one kind or another.
Sometimes the fewer treasures you have, the more sacred they are to you.
19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal,
20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.
21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Treasures on Earth
Treasures on Earth
This sheet is a terrible thing to try and hold on to. Why? Moth and rust destroy. Maybe thieves will steal it. More likely it’ll soiled and ripped and deteriorate.
Jesus spent most of his life below sea level and near a lake. I think moths and rust were a very present issue. Can you imagine thieves where the “police” are a hated occupying Roman army? Not great.
Treasuring sheets is dumb.
Would You Rather?
Would You Rather?
The old math puzzle. Goes something like:
Would you rather have a million dollars today… or a penny doubled every day for 30 days?
Anyone doing the math for me?
And the “correct” answer is? Double your money every day. It’s more than 10 million.
However… what if I told you: “you are going to die in 5 days.” Changes the narrative a bit.
You’ll never see a U-Haul behind a hearse.
You ever hear the song, country song, “I hope you get the chance to live like you were dying...”
What if, instead, you could live FOREVER!
Alternatively, what if I told you you were immortal. You would live forever. You would change your investment strategy, right? Buy long term assets, diversify across multiple nations even, you’re going to outlive America!
It changes your strategy for investing.
Or, to use Jesus’ words: it changes your strategy for treasuring.
So what are these treasures in heaven?
Treasures in Heaven
Treasures in Heaven
First thing we think of?
Mansions in heaven. Streets of gold.
So… I want a BIGGER mansion… and GOLDIER streets! I’m not quite sure how that part of it works. Actually, those metaphors never quite land with me. I don’t love gold, and I don’t really want a mansion in particular.
When we get descriptions of heaven the prophets are reaching for the best things they know as a bare analogy for pure amazing AWESOMENESS. I’m in for awesomeness.
Treasures in heaven absolutely includes things in eternity, in resurrection, in new heaven and new earth. That’s real. There are some crowns coming. Some paychecks. Some recompense.
12 “Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done.
That’s either exciting or terrifying depending on what you’ve done. Thank God for grace and forgiveness, Amen! There are heavenly rewards in resurrection, and we can only look forward to discovering together everything that means.
… but it isn’t just that.
Just as the “Kingdom of Heaven” is not only the coming Kingdom, it is present, it is “at hand,” it is HERE! There are all kinds of “heavens” but the clearest definition and distinction of “heaven” is the presence of God.
Where God is, that’s heaven. Where his will is done, that’s the Kingdom of Heaven. And Jesus is telling us, commanding us, to store up things now in heaven… as if we actually can.
And as if it’s worth it to us now.
But the contrast to things of earth is that earthly things get destroyed but these “heavenly treasures” can’t. They last into eternity.
The Definitive List of Heavenly Treasures
The Definitive List of Heavenly Treasures
Except for the things I’ve forgotten. Or the things I don’t know yet.
Get ready for it.
Christlike character
Christlike character
What do you get out of this life?
What does God get out of you being in this life? One of the things that seems to be SUPER important to God is the kind of person you are… the kind of person He is making and shaping you to be.
We call this Christ-like character.
Paul uses a very similar contrast to describe this:
Paul draws this contrast:
2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
So we ditch the earthly stuff:
5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
Are most of our earthly treasures in there somewhere? Certainly the sinful ones. Especially when we include “covetousness” which is desire to own things. Possessions and its connection with idolatry is exactly where Jesus goes in the following verses of the Sermon on the Mount. “God vs. Mammon.”
By contrast:
12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,
13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.
16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
The good stuff. Treasures in you… and you keep all that forever. It builds, actually, peace upon love, humility upon kindness, building and encouraging others to grow in the same… treasures earning interest today and ON through eternity.
The Word of God himself invested in you. Treasure!
Maybe we even can continue to grow in Christlike character in eternity, I’m not sure. Let’s find out together. Our bodies are made perfect, complete, but I don’t see that there’s any limits put on how we can grow in all of these things. Treasures in Heaven.
You are immortal, and the shaping of your soul in the image of Christ is of immortal and eternal value.
But you aren’t the only immortal walking around.
Christ-Won People
Christ-Won People
Actually, every one you meet is an immortal until God says otherwise. Why does he do the resurrection to judgment to punishment and/or destruction and/or abolition… I don’t pretend to have all the answers there.
But this I know, everyone who calls on the name of Jesus, who confesses with their mouth and believes in their heart that Jesus Christ is Lord, they shall be saved.
And for some seriously crazy reason, God has us as part of the mission. We plant seeds, we water and nurture seeds, we harvest souls.
Less poetically, we share the truth of Jesus, his life, death and resurrection, his love grace and forgiveness… and we lead folks to put their faith in Christ. We make disciples of Jesus, we are commanded to it.
And you kidding me? That’s a treasure forever!
Paul writes again:
19 For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you?
20 For you are our glory and joy.
Picture this on your first day in heaven. And that neighbor, that coworker walks up to you.
I think of my friend, Christina, from college and haven’t seen her since. But I remember sitting in the car with her outside her house, dropping her off from a group Japanese study session… praying with her to accept Jesus into her heart.
And she finds me. And she says “I’m here because you listened to Jesus and shared him with me.”
Imagine a line of folks seeking you out to thank you for the seed you planted. For the example of Jesus you were. For praying for them. For being part of their journey.
TREASURES!
And guess what, that isn’t just a treasure in heaven, that’s a treasure RIGHT NOW! We are doing that for one another right now! That’s going to happen at lunch as you maybe press pass the surface for a second and get to moments of real. It’s going to happen this afternoon and tomorrow morning as you pray again for one another.
It’s going to happen when you forget the awkward and get BOLD and share the love and name of Jesus with that friend. TREASURES in heaven. Eternal, immortal, forever treasures.
One more. It’s a good one.
Christ Alone
Christ Alone
The ultimate treasure: your relationship with the King. It lasts forever.
I don’t think we stop growing in that in heaven… I think that’s what makes heaven heaven. Deeper into the mystery, deeper into the persons of God, deeper into the mystery.
When every other mystery has been fully explored, who can make more? He can and does and will… the angels have been praising for how long, and still they find authentic expression in “holy, holy, holy is YHWH, God Almighty.”
What a treasure, to grow in knowledge of Him… in life with Him. Simply the best. Better than all the rest.
8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
TREASURES! He is treasuring! What is he treasuring? Christ alone above all… and it isn’t even close. RUBBISH! PUTRESCENCE! compared to Christ.
Strategic Treasuring
Strategic Treasuring
This is a crazy thing Jesus says. “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be...”
“The heart wants what the heart wants.” That’s the story, that is the narrative of our age. The heart wants what it wants… and there’s NOTHING you can do about it!
In fact, it may be immoral to try to deny or rewrite what the heart wants!
Whether that is sexual desire. “Love is love is love, love who you want, when you want, where you want, however you want.”
Ambition. “Don’t let your dreams be dreams.” “You can achieve whatever you set your mind on.” “Dream big,” “Conquer the world.” “Shoot for the moon, and if you miss, you hit the stars!”
To the high schooler, “Find your passion, your dream, what your heart wants… and GO FOR IT!”
There is a little truth in some of those things. Just a smidge, just enough to make it sound right. God made you and shaped you, he gifted you, He is now gifting you… and discovering the ways you are uniquely created to serve is HUGELY important.
But the Bible says:
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
Your heart isn’t trustworthy.
And it isn’t just “feelings.” When the Bible talks about the heart it talks about the center of will and decision. Actually, they usually talk about feelings being down more in the guts.
This is your will, your decision center.
Where you treasure… and you choose your treasuring… that is going to shape where your heart is. Your desires and your decisions.
Jesus gives us the lever. He gives us a way to shape our own hearts.
“Show me where your treasure is, I’ll show you where your heart is.”
“Show me where your heart is, I’ll show you where your treasure is.”
One follows the other, follows the other, follows the other. Jesus has more to say on this.
21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Jesus gives us that as a command. Which means it is something we can do. Lay up treasures in heaven. For ourselves.
Jesus has already given us a few ways to store treasure in heaven.
This statement doesn’t come from nowhere, and it is not disconnected from everything he has said so far in the Sermon on the Mount. Just now he has given us three ways that:
Matt 6:4.
Giving:
4 so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Praying:
6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Fasting:
18 that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Anyone else read “reward” and think it just might possibly be related to “treasure?” ESPECIALLY because he just contrasted the reward from our heavenly Father with the reward the actors/hypocrites get: applause from men.
In each of Jesus’ examples, we are trading the “earthly things” for the “heavenly things.”
In giving we trade our money. And doing it secretly, we trade the earthly applause as well. We trade it to bless and love others, shaping our immortal character and showing God’s love and provision to those immortal souls in need.
In praying we grow in relationship with God, Abba Father, the whole Trinity we can pray to… treasuring.
In fasting we focus our time, our attention, we trade our food for focus, we build up treasures in heaven.
The Bible doesn’t stop with those particular spiritual disciplines. In persecution, we build up treasures in heaven, in obedience to God’s commands: treasures in heaven, in discipleship and evangelism, in reading His Word...
All of those form in us Christ-like character, make disciples - Christ-won people, and draw us near to Christ Himself.
We treasure wisely when we value these over all other options, leveraging our time, talents and wordly treasures.
What we treasure shapes our heart. Relocates our heart. Our center. Our focus.
We treasure wisely when we value these over all other options, leveraging our time, talents and wordly treasures.
Let’s seek some heavenly treasures in worship.