Have you Found What You are Looking For

Have you Found What You’re Looking For?

Intro: A horse, A horse, My kingdom for a Horse. Richard the Third cries out this statement in Shakespeare’s play. This is because his horse was killed during the battle and so he is willing to give up his kingdom to get something he needs immediately.

Now it is said sort of ironically. And Richard would not really trade his Kingdom for a horse. But many of us would or have given up things that fill our immediate needs but compromise our spiritual growth.

In the first half of chapter 6, Jesus instructs us how to be correctly pious. And in the second half of this chapter, he moves on to several topics That address more of our daily life and put the topics of giving, praying, and fasting into perspective.

Main Point: Jesus instructs us that We need to rely on God for our spiritual needs and the correct earthly needs. God provides our true wealth and our peace

I. What are You Working For? (19-23)

Jesus starts off saying do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.

So what is Jesus really saying here? Is he saying don’t have a bank account or at least a savings account, especially an emergency fund or to not have nice things. Does he want us to live a very minimalist life or buy indestructible things or maybe coat everything you own in flex seal.

Or is he concerned with what or where you put your hard earned money and effort into? Are you squandering the resources God has given you by buying things that are of no use to the kingdom or take your time away from doing things for the God.

Not really. But what God is telling us here is “Rather than accumulating material wealth, people should work for spiritual riches invulnerable to loss and death”

AT Robertson sums it up like this “The paradox is literally true that a man only keeps what he gives. What he keeps he leaves.”

God does not want us to act like Scrooge Mcduck or a Dragon and hoard our treasure in a vault of cave that no one can use and all of our shiny new pennies, turn to that tarnished green color that pennies get when they get old.

You cannot take your physical possessions with you when you die, but you do take your spiritual possessions with you. Your “holiness of character, obedience to all of God’s commandments, souls won for Christ, and disciples nurtured in the faith. In this context, however, storing up treasures focuses particularly on the compassionate use of material resources to meet others’ physical and spiritual needs, in keeping with the priorities of God’s kingdom”

We want to hear, well done good and faithful servant at the end of our life when we are standing in front of God.

This idea is a direct tie into how you give and why you give. Are you giving things away because they are junk or it just isn’t being used anymore?

Are you giving and living with the idea that “I am giving because God gave me this. He makes my cup runneth over. I have an over abundance of resources and others can benefit.

Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

Good will come to those who are generous and lend freely,

who conduct their affairs with justice.

Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.

God has so much that he has no problem giving to us. The prophet Isaiah says He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.

When we give what little we have and what God has given us, we get to be more Christ-like. God laid down his life for us to rescue His people. In human terms, that is the one thing that you can't get back. You can make more money, more bread, you can buy or make a new house. In human terms, we protect that in any way we can.

But God said, I understand, so I am going to give up my life for you. And guess what God is so awesome, He gave that back your life back as well. If you follow me. When you follow me, you get your life back after you shuffle off this mortal coil. When

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. 14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

This idea should motivate us and help us answer the next question of who are we working for.

II. Who are You Working For? (24)

How we accumulate our treasures and what we consider to be treasures will drive who we end up working for. If we are only trying to accumulate earthly treasures or recognition then we are endup working to make money. Essentially Money becomes our boss. George Carlin said our houses are the place to keep our stuff while we go out and get more stuff.

Jesus tells us plainly that we cannot serve two masters. We must choose between God or Money or Mammon which is more accurately understood as a person’s material wealth.

Here is some information to help you make the decision A little comarison between the two masters we can pick to work for.

God’s resources are infinite

. "But, as it is written, 'What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him'—"

. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."

. "I ask that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know the hope of His calling, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and the surpassing greatness of His power to us who believe. He displayed this power in the working of His mighty strength."

The earth and everything in it, the world and its inhabitants, belong to the Lord. –

Riches and honor come from You, and You are the ruler of everything. Power and might are in Your hand, and it is in Your hand to make great and to give strength to all. –

There is only so much money you can earn or possess in your lifetime. Most people will make only about 1-2 million dollars in your working lifetime.

God never loses value. He is unchanging and he is worthy He is the same as he was yesterday, today and tomorrow and forever. He is untarnishable.

Money loses value over time. If something cost a quarter in 1955, it would cost $2.41 because of inflation. 1965 Mustang 2+2 Fastback was only $2,639 back in 1965, but when adjusted to inflation you’re looking at $21,115!

So over time, even the money you save today has less worth and you will need more money in your account in order to maintain the same lifestyle.

His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave! You were faithful over a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Share your master’s joy!’ –

In this story the one who feared the master to the point of burying the money that was given hid it in the ground is the illustration of these two sections in an applicable situation.

To money, you have no worth. Money does not care about you. It is an it. It ihas no feelings about you or anything.

We are worth more to God than any other thing in His Kingdom. God will make sure you have the money you need when you need it. He will make sure you are around the right people when you need to be. He provides you with all you need and allows us to also exercise our freewill so we are not just robots following a track down the road of life.

Your name is already written in the lamb’s book of life

What drove his actions? Fear or anxiety of how his master would react.

III. What are You Worried About? (25-32)

Jesus gives three things that people worry about; your life, your basic needs, and the future.

Last week we talked about food and how odd it may seem or did seem to people who may not have enough to eat or did or do not know where their next meal was coming from.

Hunger is a very real problem in our country today just as it was for many people in Israel In Jesus’ day.One article I found says “ According to estimations 9 out of 10 persons lived close to the subsistence level or below it.” There was no middle class.”

If you grew up in a similar way, then you know this is a real thing. Here are some statistics.

—In 2017, 40 million people struggled with hunger in the United States.[1]

—The USDA defines "food insecurity" as the lack of access, at times, to enough food for all household members. In 2017, an estimated 15 million households were food insecure. [2]

—In America, hunger is caused by poverty and financial resources at both the national and local levels.[3]

—1 in 6 American children may not know where their next meal is coming from.[5]

—Children who experience food insecurity are at a higher risk of developing asthma, struggling with anxiety or depression, and performing poorly in school or physical activities.[7]

But also, we cannot predict the future or how are lives are going to go or where we are going to end up.

R. Mounce says, “Worry is practical atheism and an affront to God.” Works based legalistic religions get you worrying about doing the right thing at the right time or fear doing the wrong thing. And if you don’t do those things God will be mad at you and punish you and you have to beg for forgiveness to be let bad in to his presence.

But with true Christianity, You are still forgiven, you are still loved, you are still in right standing with God. Why, because God’s grace is not a carrot to be placed before you to get you to move forward. It is the force that pushes you ahead.

Jesus challenges the people in verse 27 and asks who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?

Instead, even science backs up Jesus’ rhetorical question. Too much worry can kill you.

There was a man who worked for the railroad. One day as he went into the freezer compartment to do his routine work, the door accidentally closed and he found himself trapped in the compartment. He shouted for help but no one heard him since it was past midnight. He tried to break down the door but he could not. As he lay in the freezer compartment, he began to feel colder, and colder. Then he began to feel weaker, and weaker, and he wrote on the wall of the compartment, “I am feeling colder, and colder; and I am getting weaker, and weaker. I am dying, and this may be my last words”. In the morning when the other workers opened up the compartment they found him dead. The sad twist to the above story is that the freezing apparatus in the compartment had broken down a few days earlier. The poor worker did not know about the damaged freezing apparatus and in his mind the freezing apparatus was working perfectly. He felt cold, got weaker and literally willed himself to die.

You may be asking yourself with everything going on in my life, how do I not worry about things?

Application:

Look Up. Don’t Look Down. Where does my help come from? asks the psalmist? My help comes from My Lord above. .

Cast your cares on God. Give it to God.

Humble yourself. This one goes a little bit hand in hand, because one of the reasons we worry is because we see a problem, but we don't know how to fix it, but we think we should be able to. But we are finite, we can only do so much. But God can do everything. He is the one that made everything right in the world with His incarnation and death on the cross. He conquered death. He raised others from the dead.

Trust God

IV. What are You Seeking? (33-34)

All of this comes down to the last two verses and back to the title of the sermon. Have you found what you are looking for? Do you even know what you are looking for?

V33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Is what I am doing furthering God’s Kingdom.

When God’s people corporately seek first his priorities, they will by definition take care of the needy in their fellowships.

Conclusion

The question I will leave you with today is What are you looking for? And also, what are you overlooking?

Are you trying to hoard God’s gifts? Or are you sharing them with those who are needy. This is not just money and food, but spiritual gifts as well.

God is the good father who provides for his children. It should cause us so much joy to know that God is taking care of us and things that happen. Even when bad things happen, God is working them out for good.