Everyone is a Treasurer
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
Intro: Judas Iscariot’s tomb
The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
Four truths to help your “wants” match your “needs”:
Four truths to help your “wants” match your “needs”:
The Treasure of God: God is the greatest being to ever exist. He made a whole creation that exists to show his beauty and treasure him.
The Treasure of God: God is the greatest being to ever exist. He made a whole creation that exists to show his beauty and treasure him.
God is good: God has made a whole creation that exists to treasure him.
And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one,
everyone who is called by my name,
whom I created for my glory,
whom I formed and made.”
The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
Day to day pours out speech,
and night to night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech, nor are there words,
whose voice is not heard.
Their voice goes out through all the earth,
and their words to the end of the world.
In them he has set a tent for the sun,
which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber,
and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.
Its rising is from the end of the heavens,
and its circuit to the end of them,
and there is nothing hidden from its heat.
God is holy: Because there is nothing like God, in order to maintain this purpose, God must punish anything that deviates from it.
“Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father, and you shall keep my Sabbaths: I am the Lord your God. Do not turn to idols or make for yourselves any gods of cast metal: I am the Lord your God.
Whatever is your greatest joy and treasure, that is your god.
Charles Spurgeon
How does this help us bridge our wants and our needs? - It shows me that there is not many targets, not many treasures, but one.
Graph: runners in a race.
The Treasurer of Man: Man was created to treasure God, but has fallen and is trapped treasuring idols.
The Treasurer of Man: Man was created to treasure God, but has fallen and is trapped treasuring idols.
What is an idol? It is anything that I love more than God.
Images in the OT.
Adam and the garden.
There is a test: a way to know if you really love God. The Law.
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
I really want to be a good person. I think I love God. But God gave a test to help me see if I actually do.
The reality is that there are two things you must look at to see if you love God: Your thoughts, and your actions.
Our thoughts: The things that bring me the most joy are not often thoughts of the presence of my savior, but thoughts of pleasure from food and drink, praise from people, and entertainment from things. Beyond that, I am stricken with fear of my future, deep anxiety that should trust in a God who controls the universe but instead crumbles thinking that my future depends on me. Wicked temptations and fantasies enter my mind and I succumb to them. Unjust anger and a desire to punish others for small
Our actions: Every time I do something nice to someone, my first thought is that I hope they will like me more because of it. I serve in hopes to be seen, I give compliments in hope I will receive them back. I lose my patience and punish others in ways they do not deserve. I turn to self pity when.
What does this mean?
Because my thoughts and actions line up with what God wants, that means my heart is wicked. It treasures the creation, not the creator.
It treasures approval - It wants the praise of created people more than creator God.
It treasures control - It wants a future of it’s own plans rather than a future decided entirely by God.
It treasures comfort - It is lazy and ignores responsibility rather than desiring to work unto the Lord.
It treasures pleasure - It seeks joy from sexual images, entertainment that relishes in violent defacing of other people rather than seeking joy and eternal pleasure in the beauty of my God, knowing that I am his bride.
It treasures treasure - It wants things, better houses, better jobs, better games, phones, activities, and the excitement from those things excites me more than my God.
Therefore speak to them and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Any one of the house of Israel who takes his idols into his heart and sets the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and yet comes to the prophet, I the Lord will answer him as he comes with the multitude of his idols,
The human mind is, so to speak, a perpetual forge of idols.
John Calvin (French Reformer)
If I am wicked, what does that mean for me?
I sinned against an eternal God. I deserve an eternal punishment. I am actively hurting his other children.
The reality is that I was a walking dead man. I was dead because I was under the death penalty, but I was also spiritually dead.
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
We do bad things, because we want bad things, and are bad people.
How does this help me bridge my needs and my wants? - It shows me that I am broken, there is something seriously wrong with me.
The Treasurer of Jesus: Jesus came as the perfect treasurer of God, living a perfect life in our place and taking our punishment.
The Treasurer of Jesus: Jesus came as the perfect treasurer of God, living a perfect life in our place and taking our punishment.
The crazy, insane thing through all of this is that despite how magnificently beautiful God is and how wicked and unrighteous we are, something overcomes all of that.
An unconditional, unwavering, love of God for all his wayward children. That while they did not want him, he wanted them. He wanted you.
There are two types of people in the room: those who have encountered this love and those that never have. For those that haven’t I want to introduce you to the beautiful news, the most powerful news, the more transforming news of your life. For those that have encountered this love, this is still the answer to your wandering heart. The old answer gets more new every time!
In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Jesus fulfilled the Law: Jesus perfectly treasured the Father while he was on earth.
Jesus’ thoughts: Jesus had one great treasure above all. His Father. Jesus lay aside his comfort to please his Father, he suffered dearly to love the children of His Father
Jesus actions:
but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father.
Jesus died for atonement: Jesus took the place of the wicked treasurers.
but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Jesus rose again: Jesus conquered death and recieved the reward of His Father.
And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
How does this help me bridge my needs and my wants? - God did something to help with my longing issue. He supplied a better Adam. A better me, that took my place, did all the work.
The Treasure for You: Jesus rose again, promising resurrection for your soul to change you today, and resurrection to perfect you tomorrow.
The Treasure for You: Jesus rose again, promising resurrection for your soul to change you today, and resurrection to perfect you tomorrow.
He sees you. He asks: do you want me?
Stop for a moment and ask: do you want Jesus?
What brings transformation? It is surrender. It is waving the white flag.
Justification: Everyone who trusts in Jesus work receives salvation.
because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Sanctification: Jesus progressively changes that person’s heart to treasure the true God.
Whenever you hear a story about how good someone is or see people you think are good, they are able to do that by a virtue that does not belong to them.
Something powerful. The Holy Spirit himself lives in a person.
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
Glorification: Jesus perfects you to want God and himself.
For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
How does this help me bridge my needs and my wants? - My past is forgiven. My present is changing. My future is guarunteed.
What is the main point?
“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.
You must keep all earthly treasures out of your heart, and let Christ be your treasure, and let him have your heart.
Charles Spurgeon
Conclusion
Conclusion
Conclusion: There is only room for one king on the throne of your heart. Jesus is not a king to add to your treasures, he is the treasure all others must be given up to receive. He is your greatest need, so lay down your wants to want him.
Story: John Tuttle
Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!
Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
Treasures in heaven are laid up only as treasures on earth are laid down.
Anonymous
