MeaningFULL [STAR]

Introduction

Greet/Introduce - Hype up conference

We’re continuing the topic of “MEANINGFULL” - very diverse topic. But more important than many of us may think at first glance.

There has never been a greater search for purpose than in this generation. More people than ever are searching for meaning, searching for purpose in their lives.

You know it’s crazy to think that people (even in church), struggle to find meaning as well. Like we say that we’ve got the solution and that God is the author of purpose and meaning - so shouldn’t we expect Him to be the solution? Shouldn’t faith be the solution - and yet it somehow doesn’t always look that way does it?

Christians can struggle to live meaningFULL lives.

But I mean Jesus actually promises a meaning-filled life, an abundant life in John 10:10

so what did He lie? Is there a reason for the disconnect that we’re experiencing?

What happens when we don’t experience that - when we come to church and give faith a shot and do all the right things and we don’t have that God-shaped hole in our lives filled?

Is the Christian life actually one filled with meaning, and with purpose?

Pray

The Principle of Sowing [from the world]

We’ve been talking a lot about a specific verse in church recently, ever since our HFTH offering - and I want to revisit this because I think it’s so critical to understand. Let’s read the full passage:

Matthew 6:19–21 “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.”

The last verse (v21) is this key verse that God has really placed on my heart over the last few weeks.

And it’s a significant verse because it teaches us The principle of sowing - and it’s important to understand this; because it’s so counter-intuitive to the way we actually live.

The first thing we need to know about this passage is that “the heart” in scripture refers to the center of your personality - your mind and thoughts, your emotions and feelings, your will. So where your heart is literally changes who you are as a person, transforms the way that you think, quite literally shapes your plans and dreams, your goals and your values. Like where your heart is - is important.

See the world teaches us to put our treasure where our heart is - this is normal, and logical.

For example - we invest in what we’re passionate about, we love people who love us, we forgive people who forgive us.

We invest in the things that we love and enjoy, we spend time and money on the things that bring us happiness and pleasure - this is how it works in the world.

It’s logical! You can’t be faulted for it. For example - if Char brings me great joy and happiness (which is questionable at best), then I invest into the relationship by buying him gifts and spending more time with him.

Boys - if there’s a girl that you like, and she makes you really happy and you see value in her then you’ll buy her flowers, gifts, you’ll invest your time with her right?

Like where you see value - wherever your heart is, that’s where you put your treasure.

But hear me out here - it sounds reasonable, it sounds almost logical - but it’s actually not the way that God intended for us to live our lives!

If we live this way then what is actually happening is that we are being LED by our heart - we are being LED by our emotions, by our feelings.

It’s a fickle and indecisive way of living that will see our heart thrown around in many directions.

Living meaningfully and finding fulfilment like this is incredibly difficult. Because our emotions and our feelings are fickle at best - they are constantly changing - and so our sense of meaning and fulfilment changes.

And this is the trap that we fall into - we think that we’re in control, that we’re leading our lives when actually we are BEING led.

But we’re not meant to FOLLOW our heart - God actually calls us to LEAD it.

The heart is deceitful

The bible actually specifically warns us about the danger of following our heart. We somehow are under this impression that we can trust our heart to lead us - but the bible says:

Jeremiah 17:9 “9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”

We not meant to follow our heart to find meaning, to find purpose, to find value in things. The bible says that our heart is deceitful ABOVE all things.

In other words if you follow your heart you will end up DECEIVED. We are not meant to be led by our own thoughts, our own emotions, our own feelings. We’re not meant to follow our heart.

I think we need to pay special attention to the word used here: Deceitful. The root word is deceive - it carries the implication that it is intentionally misleading.

This is something we can’t ignore. We follow our heart and our emotions toward something because we believe we’ll find meaning, we believe we’ll find value in this thing - only to be led down a path where we realise that it does not satisfy, it does fulfil.

To trust in your heart is to allow yourself to be misled, to search for false meaning, temporary fulfilment.

Scripture does not call us to trust in our heart, to trust in ourselves - scripture calls us to trust in GOD.

ILLUSTRATION: Getting lost in the supermarket

When I was a kid, like maybe 5 or 6 years old; my parents took me shopping at what was called Action supermarkets back then. Anyone remember action? God I’m ancient.

Anyway when I was in action my parents got talking to some random couple - because back in the day people actually knew how to be nice. And this couple had a kid. And so this kid and I start to play together, we ran around the shopping center playing hide and seek. I don’t super remember it clearly but we must have played for like 30 minutes.

When it was my turn to hide - I just remember hiding for ages, and like nobody finding me. I later found out that the kid’s parents found him and left - so I was literally hiding for no reason like an absolute turd. So 10 minutes passes and I come out of hiding - and I obviously can’t find anyone. Parents aren’t there, this little turd is gone, so I start freaking out, I mean, I’m a kid - I’m desperate. I’m running around, I’m crying, I’m screaming for mum and dad.

And then I see mum - and so I quickly run up to her and jump in her trolley. Except it wasn’t mum. It was some other random asian lady with the same hairdo. But I was so desperate to find my parents, I didn’t even stop to look at her properly, I didn’t pause to talk to her, or even look up as I was sitting in her trolley. All I remember is that I squished her bread.

She started speaking and yelling at me like any asian aunty would do - I don’t speak asian so I had no idea what was going on, was expecting mum to yell at me so it was normal; in fact it was probably a bit lighter than normal. Thankfully this is before people were kidnapping kids so this lady actually wheeled me around the shops until we found my mum - never stopped scolding me either while she was wheeling me around it was wild. Typical asian mums.

But this is an image of what happens when we follow our hearts, and follow our emotions, when we’re desperate, longing for meaning it’s so easy to get in someone else’s trolley! It can be so easy to hop into the wrong trolley!

Just like when we follow our heart - we think it’s guiding us to the right place, but we’re getting into the wrong trolley, we’re pursuing the wrong meaning, we’re not finding the right kind of fulfilment. We’re following the wrong asian aunty!

The principle of sowing [from God’s perspective]

And it comes back to what I said before - we’re not meant to be LED by our heart, we’re not meant to follow our emotions, our feelings, our desires. We’re meant to LEAD our heart.

What Matthew 6:21 teaches us is that where we sow - our heart follows. THIS is the new principle.

In other words the heart is NO LONGER what we follow to find meaning, or value, or purpose.

Instead, we are to LEAD our heart to what is meaningfull - we are to lead our heart, to teach our heart which are the things of value.

That’s why in the preceding verses of Matthew 6:19-20 Jesus tells us to value the things of heaven over the things of the Earth, he’s telling us to find value in the things of God - the things that God created to have meaning, the things that God has placed value in!

And that’s when Matthew 6:21 comes in - because He’s not just showing us WHAT to value, He’s telling us HOW to lead our hearts there. Our hearts are led to where we place our treasure

Our hearts weren’t meant to lead us - we are meant to lead our hearts!

And the way we do this is by sowing our treasure there - by taking a step of faith and investing our treasure, our time, our resources, our money, our relationships, our effort - and IN doing so, we direct our hearts to where it is meant to be.

DONT MISS THIS! This is so significant - because if you really understand this then you’ll know that it COMPLETELY changes the way that we live!

Do you see why we struggle so much with finding meaning nowadays? Because we are not in control of our lives anymore. We are so easily led astray by our hearts - by our feelings, our emotions, our own desires. So when we can’t find meaning, when we struggle to find purpose or any fulfilment it should be no surprise.

We’ve got it the wrong way round - we’re meant to be LEADING our hearts to the place of fulfilment, we’re meant to be LEADING our hearts to ultimate meaning and value. Not the other way around.

We’re not meant to be driven by our heart - we’re meant to direct it.

The Examples

And so this is becomes the only question that matters: Where are you sowing your treasure?

Where are you spending your money? Where are you spending your time? Where are you spending your energy and effort?

These things are your treasures - the precious things here on earth; where we place them is where we direct our heart.

Because here’s the problem that I have - We Christians talk about struggling with meaning, we talk about how we aren’t finding our fulfilment and our purpose in church. We talk about how the faith doesn’t have much meaning for us, about how we expected more.

But the thing is that our treasure isn’t here!! It’s not in this house, it’s not even anywhere in the kingdom! There’s not a CENT that’s been given to the Lord’s house, no SERVICE that’s been offered, no LOVE that’s been poured out, no EFFORT that’s been expended!

We’re expecting our hearts to be MOVED but we’re not doing anything to move our hearts! Hear me carefully my friends! We can’t expect our heart to be moved if we’re not willing to do what it takes to move it.

If we don’t invest in the things of God, then we shouldn’t be surprised when our hearts feel distant from Him.

The bible is clear on this matter - our hearts are moved when we invest FIRST, when we step out in faith - when we sow out our treasure.

And this is a HUGE problem in Christianity today - we have built such a commercial Christianity which is based on people coming to church, even coming to faith with the expectation that they are going to RECEIVE and not give.

People come to church today and sit in the pews and don’t lift a finger to build the house or invest in the kingdom - we just expect to be fed, we expect to be loved, we expect to be fussed over and cared for without giving, without sowing ANYTHING in return.

This kind of Christianity has NO power to move people. It has NO power to move hearts or to change lives, has no power to instill true meaning and significance - because it neglects THIS very principle of the Sower.

It is an easy faith, a comfortable faith, a convenient faith - listen to me: such a faith has NO power to move your heart!

In fact the bible talks specifically about this kind of faith in 2 Timothy 3:2–5 “2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.”

Sound familiar? Christians who profess faith but their HEART is not moved. Having an APPEARANCE of godliness - but lacking in power. It lacks in power to move us, power to change us, power to imbue meaning and fulfilment.

This is the kind of faith that we build when our hearts are not FOR God, when our hearts are not in His church.

THIS is what we are building with Commercial Christianity - an appearance of godliness but without any power to move hearts.

And that’s why this principle is important - because it changes the very expression of our faith.

Please hear me out on this: There is only one way to build a life of faith that is filled with meaning, and purpose and power.

There is only one way to have your heart so moved for a cause that you’re willing to die for it.

And that is to sow, that’s to give - and I do mean that quite literally. Place your treasure here, all of it. Offer your money to God, offer your time to God, offer your effort to God, offer your skills, your gifts, whatever you have - offer it to God.

Place it all on the altar - place all of your treasure on the altar.

A heart does not move closer to God by accident, it moves when we choose to lay up the treasure God asks of us: Our Obedience and Worship.

Man I’m so passionate about this because I think this is just such a huge problem in the church nowadays. Let me spell it out for us here today:

Are you tithing? How is your offering life? Money is important in the kingdom, not because God needs it - but because of what it represents. Value. How much value are you attributing to God? How does it compare to how much you’re spending on yourself and the things that you like? Some people spend more a week on coffee than on God - what do you think that does to your heart?

Are you serving? Time is the most precious resource that we have on this earth - we are always running out of it. How are you using your time? How much of it is spent building the house of God as opposed to pleasure? or even your work? your studies?

Are you investing in relationships here? Are you in a Connect Group? I mean without relationships here, how are you going to fulfil the MOST important command that God asks - to love one another? SPECIFICALLY to love those who are IN the body of Christ. Or is church just an in and out thing for you? You will make effort to build friendships outside, but not here.

Are you sowing into your growth? - are you signing up for conference? How much time do you actually take to read and study the Word? Are you taking notes during the message, are you sowing your attention, your effort into this faith - or is it simply just a routine, a check box that you have to tick off every week before you go back to your “real life”.

EVEN LIFTING YOUR HANDS IN WORSHIP, COMING TO CHURCH EXPECTANT, RESPONDING TO ALTAR CALLS IN FAITH; THIS IS LAYING UP TREASURE HERE

See - because we can’t have it both ways my friends. We can’t complain that we aren’t finding Meaning, we can’t say that we don’t feel our hearts MOVED if we are doing nothing to move them in the first place.

ILLUSTRATION: Lucas

I’ve told this story to some of you guys about how earlier this year I met with one of my friends, someone who used to be one of my kids in my youth group. The meeting started off normal but I soon realised that he was meeting me to tell me that he was actually not a Christian anymore. He launched into a 30 minute long rant about all the things that are wrong with the church, it’s people, about how God doesn’t care or isn’t real, how the bible isn’t real, how all religion ultimately leads people astray; just a huge rant. I sat there and took all of it quietly, as a pastor you do tend to hear at least a couple of these a year. When I sensed he had finished, I looked up at him and told him I understood, that I didn’t necessarily agree with what he was saying but that I respected his opinions. I just said, but before we leave here I just want to ask you one question that I’d like you to honestly answer, I asked him, “When was the last time you read your bible properly?” the question caught him off guard, he froze. He tried to stammer out “I mean, I’ve read it pretty extensively when I was a Christian” but i interrupted, “yeah but when was the last time you like actually read it - and be honest with me please.” After umming and ahh-ing for a couple of seconds he responded to me - “maybe a year ago. Maybe more.” I kind of let the silence just sit there between us.

This is such a common example nowadays - it’s like we call it quits; we say that our heart was never in it anymore - but we don’t actually do anything to move our heart TOWARD it.

Value and Cost

You know what drives this whole principle of sowing? Think about it - where your TREASURE is, that’s where your heart will be.

The word treasure is meant to convey Value. It’s Value. Value is the underlying force behind everything that I’ve mentioned tonight. Your heart is drawn to what you VALUE.

How do we show value in this world? Simple. It’s about cost. What something costs.

Think about it - it’s logical even in just monetary terms: The more you PAY for something, the more something COSTS you - the more valuable it is to you.

The price you pay sets the value you place.

If you deem something of value then you will pay a high price for it - and if you don’t deem it valuable then you will not pay a price for it.

I want us to read this story in 2 Samuel 24 where David is trying to obtain a property to offer a sacrifice to God in order to get God to withdraw a plague over the land of Israel that had killed tens of of thousands. Like this is something really HIGH stakes.

And so the owner of the property that David is trying to buy (a man named Araunah) comes out and actually offers to give David the property FOR FREE (sounds like a good deal right? Any asian would have taken that deal immediately) but I want use to really capture the heart of David’s response:

2 Samuel 24:24 “24 But the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.”

Are you catching that? The COST is important! It’s the COST that conveys value! So much so that EVEN when he was offered the entire property free of charge, King David INSISTED on paying the price because he wanted to convey the VALUE of what he was doing.

David COULD have taken the land for free and still made the offering!

But David knew that any offering that didn’t COST him had no value. And so he INTENTIONALLY paid the cost so that the Lord would see that his offering had value.

How does that relate to what I’ve been speaking about tonight? Matthew 6:21 - where you place your treasure, or can I rephrase it like this: What COSTS you - is where your heart is drawn towards.

The question that you need to ask is this: How much does your faith COST you?

Because your answer to that question will reveal how much your faith is worth to you.

Because what you’re willing to pay reveals the value that you have given to your faith.

Hear me out here - and I say this as lovingly as possible: We can’t expect meaningfull faith if we’re coming to God with scraps.

We can’t expect a meaningfull, significant faith unless we are willing to be all in - unless we are willing to pay the price that God clearly states for us in scripture; your life as a living sacrifice. All of you. Obedience. It’s all there.

ILLUSTRATION: John Oros

During the communism era in Romania - pastor John Oros preached at a service in which people responded to his altar call and they said, "I have decided to become a Christian." He told them, "It is good that you want to become a Christian, but we would like to tell you that there is a price to be paid. Why don't you reconsider what you want to do, because many things can happen to you. You can lose, and you can lose big."  Even after being told that a high percentage of these people chose to take part in a three-month discipleship class. At the end of this period, many participants declared their desire to be publically baptized. Pastor John recalled saying to all of the potential baptism candidates “Look, It is really nice that you want to become a Christian, but when you give your testimony there will be informers here who will jot down your name. Tomorrow the problems will start. Count the cost. Christianity is not easy. It's not cheap. You can be demoted. You can lose your job. You can lose your friends. You can lose your neighbors. You can lose your kids who are climbing the social ladder. You can lose even your life." Pastor John Oros said that he openly wept when one by one, each of the believers took his hand and said to him "Pastor, If I lose everything but my personal relationship with my Lord Jesus Christ, it is still worth it."

These people knew what it would cost to move their hearts to the house of God - and they were willing to pay it. May it be so for us too.

Altar Call

You know Scripture may teach us the principle of Sowing but God was the first to demonstrate it - God gave His son for you. He sowed his ultimate treasure, He paid that cost gladly for you. His heart is with you, He loves you.

He was the first to enact the Sower’s principle. The first to act in love, the first to move his heart toward us.

The meaningfull life begins here - right here, right now with you. With where you are going to place your treasure, is it here among the things of God - or somewhere else?

Because I hope it’s clear now - where you place your treasure, your heart is moved towards too.

I think there are people today who have their treasure scattered in different places. And that’s why your hearts are so drawn to other things, other people, other places.

But today God wants your heart back here - in His house, with His people.

He’s asking you to move your treasure, to move it here - so that your heart may follow. This is the challenge over us today. Whether it be money, time, effort, relationships - all of it; God is asking you for it tonight.