Wealth and Worry (Matthew 6:19-34)
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Opening Prayer
Opening Prayer
Scripture Reading
Scripture Reading
“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 lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or 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, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
“So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
“Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Introduction
Introduction
So today, before we begin I would like to ask you guys some question.
Name me five things that are really important to you.
Your phone?
Games?
Sport?
Friends?
Hobbies?
Now I want you to tell me, how much time you invest into these things in a day.
Lets do some quick math and work out how much time you’ve spent on these activities this week.
Now lets evaluate how important these things are to us, based on how much time we invest into them.
Based on these figures, would you guys say that you treasure these things?
Now I would like to ask you guys two more questions:
Firstly, how much time did you spend this week reading your Bible?
Secondly, how much time did you spend this week praying and speaking to God?
Based on the time you spend on each of these items, would you say that God is your treasure?
Is it possible to say, that you love Him more than these things?
Today we will be looking at what our treasure should be as disciples of Jesus.
We’ll be looking at possessions in the life of the believer, and how God provides.
Laying up treasures in Heaven:
Laying up treasures in Heaven:
“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.
Do you know that God loves you? Not only that, the Bible tells us that God is love.
Read 1 John 4:8
1 John 4:8 (NKJV)
He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
The Bible make use of three types of Greek Words for love.
The first is: Eros
Eros refers to sexual love.
It is the type of love between that exists between a husband and a wife.
Eros is based on meeting human need.
The second: Philia
Philia is a natural love.
This refers to the type of love between friends.
Philia is based on what you like.
You are friends with people who share mutual interests, and like the same things you like.
The third: Agape
Agape love used to describe the type of love God has for us.
Agape is a divine love, based on the nature of God Himself.
That is why 1 John 4:8, tells us that God is agape (love).
This is a self-sacrificial type of love, where one makes a decision of the will to love another, irrespective of what it will cost you personally.
Its the type of love that moves you beyond your own self-interest, to doing what is best for the other person.
This type of love can only be understood in light of what Jesus did for us on the cross.
The Bible tells us:
That God takes the initiative in loving us first, and once begin to comprehend his love for us - its possible for us to love Him in return.
1 John 4:19 (NKJV)
We love Him because He first loved (agaped) us.
1 John 4:10 (NIV)
This is love (agape): not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
John 3:16 (NKJV)
For God so loved (agape) the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
You see God didn’t have to save you and me.
Its not something that you and I are entitled to.
Its something that He chose to do, in His loving kindness.
The Bible tells us in 1 John 3:4, that when we break God’s Law - we sin.
And because God is good, He needs to punish evil - sin.
But because God loves us, He invites us to turn from our sin and trust in Jesus finished work on the cross, that through his death, burial and resurrection, we can receive His gift of eternal life.
Its because of God’s (agape) love, His self-sacrificial love, displayed on the cross - that we are able respond to the God’s love appropriately.
And how should we respond? We love Him in return.
Jesus tells us in Matthew 22:36-37.
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”
Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment.
To love God, means to treasure Him. We choose Him. We love Him. We follow Him. We obey Him.
The Apostle Paul had first hand experience of this type of love.
He knew that it was only possible to treasure God and love Him in return, if we came to a real understanding of the love of God in light of what Jesus did on the cross for us.
Therefore, He prayed that those in the church of Ephesus would experience this revelation.
That by experiencing the love of God, and growing in their understanding of what He accomplished on the cross - Jesus would become their treasure, and they would become strengthed in the faith, and that they would want to serve him with heart of thanksgiving.
Listen to what He prays in Ephesians 3:14-19:
Ephesians 3:14–19 (NKJV)
For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Its only once you treasure Jesus, and His overwhelming love for you, that you are able to love Him with all your heart, soul, and mind.
Its only when you once your eyes are opened to extremely valuable He is, that you begin to treasure Him more than the things of the world.
And its only when you begin to treasure Jesus, that you begin to lay up for yourself treasures in Heaven. Why? Because Jesus is your treasure, and He is in Heaven.
And that is when we can say with Paul.
Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ
Do you treasure Jesus the way Paul did?
Do you love Jesus the way the Bible prescribes, with all your heart, soul and mind?
If the answer is no, I pray this prayer of Paul over you today.
That God may give you a revelation of who Jesus is.
That He may give you an understanding of what He accomplished for you on the cross.
And that you will experience and be filled with the love of God, that you may treasure Him in return.
Let’s say a quick prayer found in your Bible.
Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.
The Lamp of the Body:
The Lamp of the Body:
“The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
You see when we love and treasure Jesus, we set our focus on Him.
We make time for Him, and invest an effort into getting to know Him.
A quick reflection on how we invest our time and our money, paints a dreadfully sober picture of what we love most.
Why is that? Because God’s definition of love, agape, is not merely an emotion but an action!
Someone can tell you they love you with their mouth, but their actions can prove otherwise.
Jesus agrees, listen to what He says!
“If you love Me, keep My commandments.
Jesus understands, love is an action, and He proved it by His example on the cross.
Jesus also knows that there many who say they love Him with their mouths, but their hearts are far from Him.
Their actions prove it.
Listen to what Jesus says later on the sermon on the mount.
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
Now how does this tie in to Matthew 6:22-23?
The focus of our lives are determined by the things we treasure.
We will either treasure the things of God, or the things of this world.
And our actions, reveal the treasures of our heart.
Either we focus on Jesus, and invest time into knowing and loving Him.
Or we focus on the things of the world.
Our hearts are either filled with a love for Jesus, or we fill our hearts with a love for the for the things of this world.
You become who you surround yourself with.
The more time you spend with Jesus, the more we begin to look like Him.
The more time you spend with the world, the more you look like the world.
This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
When your friends look at you, do they see Jesus? If not, I encourage to repent and to get right with God today.
The direction of our lives is determined by the things we treasure.
You’re either moving closer to Jesus, or further away from Him.
Its impossible to stand still in the Christian life.
Look to Jesus!
Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Do not worry:
Do not worry:
“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or 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, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
“So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
“Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
When we treasure Jesus, we follow Him and become His disciples.
We give up our worldly treasures, our possessions, and our very lives in order to follow and faithfully serve Him.
He becomes our Lord and Master.
And He begins to guide us on the path that He has for us.
A path that He has planned for us before the foundations of the were in place.
For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will guide you with My eye.
We are called to trust Him, to treasure Him and to walk by faith.
For we walk by faith, not by sight.
And when we do that he promises to provide for us.
Both disciples knew this very well.
And He said to them, “When I sent you without money bag, knapsack, and sandals, did you lack anything?”
So they said, “Nothing.”
God knows every one of our needs, and He owns all things.
The Bible tells us in Haggai 2:8 that all the money in the world belong to God.
‘The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine,’ says the Lord of hosts.
The Bible tells us that all things in Heaven, earth and all things on the earth belong to Him.
The heavens, indeed the highest heavens, belong to the Lord your God, as does the earth and everything in it.
Therefore, He is able to faithfully provide for us.
All we are expected to treasure Him above all other things, to seek Him and His righteousness, and to live day by day for Him.
Key verses:
Key verses:
But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Conclusion
Conclusion