9/8/2019 Where Is Your Treasure?

A scripture reading this morning comes from Matthew chapter 6 verses 19 through 21. Do not store up for yourselves Treasures on Earth where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal but store up for yourselves Treasures in Heaven where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal for where your treasure is there. Your heart will be also the word of God for the people of God.

Thank you, sir.

osprey

Lord may the meditation of our hearts. In the words of my lips be pleasing in your sight. our Rock and Our Redeemer

amen

this past weekend Sarah and I had it planned out after school. It started in our family kind of gotten into a little bit of a routine that we were going to take a Friday night and go on an overnight to St.Louis and she shares with me. Don't worry about anything just find us a place to stay. Okay find us a hotel. Gentleman in the room. Does that give you pause?

Cuz you are wiser than I am if it did. So the three places that we went to we started off Friday at the hobnob Market. And for those of you who are familiar with Hob Nob it's a places where middle age and younger women gather to drink wine and walk around and and four others of you that don't know what it is it the craft fair in Altamont where they drink wine and walk around and so we went there and we walked and I am the product of craft fairs if there is a craft fair in central Iowa as a child. I was drugged there early in the morning. Do you all remember those little lathe boxes people used to make and put the artificial flowers in with a not popular around here? Okay, so so

When we were walking around I kept thinking wow, craft fairs have really really changed over the years. Right? And so the the level of crafts was really really good and we were looking for I don't know what we were looking for it, but we won a lot of places to try to find it and so I was also thinking was What happened to all of that stuff 30 years ago that filled the craft fair rooms that clearly were no longer in style. Right like so what happened to all of those crafts and all of those candles and all those doilies for the love of God, right? Like where did they all go? Okay, they went to storage. Sewage right in this country. There is 2.3 billion square feet of rentable storage space that does not include your at the garage or you're out building that is only rentable storage space. indecision and so

so we've collected so much stuff that our homes can no longer contain it all. But this series is not an indictment on our stuff or an indictment on our stuff. What it is going to do though is show us that just because we might have stuff. That doesn't mean that is our treasure. The things that we treasure are not things. As a pastor I am invited into the most intimate seasons of life, especially the season of death. Having bore witness to people's passing. I can also bear witness to what they talked about in their final days and moments. These moments have happened in the smallest of Shaq's and in the grandest of homes. But never did I hear or did people want to discuss how important their physical possessions were. If they pointed out a special possession it always led to a story that they wanted to share about a person or an experience in their life. It was not about the item itself. In all the conversations, they never highlighted the importance of physical things. It just wasn't what they seems to Treasure. And it isn't at the end of our Lives what we treasure either. We can't take it with us and it all fails to fully expressed why and how we came to possess it. Essentially. It never means enough to others as what does meant to us. So as we realize that we realized that these physical items are not the things that we treasure.

This series. Is about when and where you are investing your life. It is also about money. There is no denying it. If there's one thing that I find most difficult to talk about its money, I actually when the service was just about to start I offered Sammy my packet I said here. Why don't you just read it? And she looked at me and I said well it's a sermon about money and she said I don't talk about money. In reality, none of us do and nobody did in Jesus's time either because a conversation about money. It's so much more than just about money, but we'd rather not talk about it. So what does that do then? That concedes the power to money if we don't talk about it, it just gives up. It just as well that has more importance than anything else on my life if we acknowledge and talk about its meaning and how we use it and how it influences us. Then we are claiming power back over money, which is the way the relationship should be. It shouldn't be that we just do things without an inspection of why and how we do them. Where are you investing your life?

You know, we're going to talk about money because quite frankly Jesus talked about money a whole lot. Jesus talked more about money than he talked about heaven and hell combined. 11 of the 32 parables are about money. In the Gospel of Luke one in every seven versus is about money.

And I know every church has always had people that just say will the pastor only talks about money. One of the one of the questions that I got. Was why are we talkin about money when the church is not in a Current financial crisis, like why are we talkin about money right now? And so that the reason is because of part of that relationship is we don't talk about it. Then it has more power. But also it's not just about the money. See stewardship not just money, but also time and talents as well. It's it's a spiritual Act. It's a spiritual act and Jesus knew the importance of our relationship with money to our spiritual selves in The Sermon on the Mount we see the Jesus is looking at the heart he cares about the heart of God's people. Jesus talks about money and treasure because he knows how much they affect our hearts. He knows that money stresses out. Our relationships money causes division among people. Money and it's pursuing it can be all-encompassing and even burdensome those who have lost jobs or find money hard to find. Will tell you that it is not about. Just being a financial issue.

It is also an emotional and spiritual when it all as well.

We often think about where our heart is there. Our treasure will be also right wherever your heart is. That's what you treasure but Jesus flips it on its head and says no wherever your treasure is. That's where your heart is and that's why I'm worried. Wherever your treasure is that is where your heart is. And so this series is going to be about looking at our lives and finding where are treasure really lies.

Jesus knows that the place where we spend our money will become our treasure. Our heart is going to be there also. whether we want it to be or not

Chief Financial commitments require time and energy They pull our heart in a different direction that perhaps we nor God ever intended to go.

Look at it. Look at it this way if you're going to I'm a fan of Dave Ramsey.

Not that I follow everything that he teaches but he's interesting to listen to on the radio, right? He has some good advice. And so one of the things he says you should only a lot so much of your income in the purchase of a house, right? You should only a lot so much of your income in a purchase of a house. Otherwise if you have more of your income in that house then if something happens or you have a change in job or career Then you won't be able to take care of yourself in that way. And so also I think it's interesting that the more wheat, we spend on a house then the more you have to work at your job to pay for that house. So more of your priorities have to be ways to cut money to pay for the house and So eventually if it's too much everything starts to be about this thing when it was was not really supposed to be that important in the first place, right?

to the reality is that if if we do not acknowledge the importance of how we do things in relation to our faith like why those things may be important to us then we just Acting as though it doesn't matter and then in the end, we're going to find out that it really does matter. There are some things I want to invite you to think about and these are not audible questions for a response, but But just think for a moment. If you did not have debt. or financial commitments And if you could choose. where to store up your treasure where would it be?

as you consider where you would store up your treasure take a moment to assess realistically where your treasure currently is

then a question I have for you as well. Is do you feel as though your heart? is divided

do you feel as though the difference between those two questions? I asked you before highlights a division in your heart. In other words, do you feel torn between multiple Treasures? Jesus tells us that we have the opportunity to lay up our treasure in heaven when we are investing our lives in the things of God. when we invest our lives in the things of God, we find that our hearts no longer feel disconnected from God, but are Unified

this series is about where we store up our treasure and the first part of that is an introspection into where our current situation is. There's a study that goes along with this. It's actually a devotional you can get it on Amazon. I'm told you can get it for like five bucks on Amazon. We have it for 10 bucks in the office. And so also you can get a digital copy and download it and we do have some copies still in the office available as well.

If you find that money is something hard for you to talk about. And maybe you aren't willing to do the group thing. By the way, the group thing is just a spiritual conversation about money. It's not an actual conversation about and he said it's about the the spiritual aspect of it. It's only invite you that and if you're not able to do that, I want to invite you to just follow along as devotional if you have any questions and and maybe you don't want to come to the one of the studies feel more than welcome to shoot me an email or a text in and I may be able to answer any questions that you may have. It's important that we take time to study what Jesus talked about the most.

It's also important for us.

To talk to ourselves. Thoroughly thoroughly inspect our lives and how we View and how we respond to where our treasure is.

Because wherever our treasure is. There are heart will be also. Let us pray.

Lord help us and guide us as we learn more about where our treasure is.

Give us wisdom and discernment.

hopeless follow wherever you may lie in Jesus name we pray. amen