What do you treasure?
Notes
Transcript
What the world says
What the world says
The world is screaming at you to buy everything. Weather it’s instagram ads, Youtubers merch, or product placement. The world wants you to buy into the idea that if you had that “thing” or experience that life would be 1000 times better than it is right now.
But as most of you know… It’s never that way. You are so excited about that new phone! and it’s AMAZING and you are showing it off and then a few weeks in… It’s normal. Then a year later it’s now “old”. Then two years later it starts to not work like it used it.
The thing that is being marketed to us as the END ALL BE ALL of things… is not that at all… it’s just a another thing that we give ourselves to… that will end up letting us down.
Jonathan Rockefeller lived in the late 1800 early 1900’s. Rockefeller at his peak his net worth 1% of the entire US economy. He is known as the richest man in modern history. He was worth 418 Billion (in todays money). To put that into perspective the Founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos’s net worth is 117 Billion. He was almost 4X more than the founder of Amazon. When he was asked “How much money is enough money?” He replied “just a bit more”.
Solomon… The richest and wisest man to ever live. He was the son of King David. It is estimated that Solomon’s net worth was 2 Trillion. With a T.... That is 2.4X Rockefeller and 8.5X The founder of Amazon… This dude had everything. I mean everything. and here is what he says about all of it...
Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher,
vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
What does man gain by all the toil
at which he toils under the sun?
A generation goes, and a generation comes,
but the earth remains forever.
The sun rises, and the sun goes down,
and hastens to the place where it rises.
Eccl 1:
I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.
Eccl
Vanity : Hevel “It means like a breath”
Hold your hand out. now go haaa. See how fast you feel it.. and then it’s gone. In a matter of seconds.
Solomon is saying. Everything under the sun is like breath. Everything you could invest in on earth is here and then gone…
“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 eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
Matthew 6:19-
Treasures on earth… where moth and rust destroy. Everything on earth will come to an end… there is nothing here that you could physically invest in or buy that will not become rust.
- Pictures of Chernobyl????
- things on earth can be stolen too. Maybe you know this. Maybe you have had something stolen from you.
My friend, had all of his music equipment in his car, it was broken into and stolen. All of it.
“But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth not rust destroy”
Jesus is saying, there is MORE THAN THIS. The reason why the treasure on earth leaves you empty is because you were made for more than your stuff. You were made for something that is eternal. You were made for a relationship with God.
Some of you know this. You have experienced the love of Jesus but you might still struggle with this. You might still be trying to find satisfaction in the things you have.
Jesus goes on to say in vs. 24 “ No one can serve two masters, for either you will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money”
You cannot have both. You cannot enslave yourself to what the world says that you need that next thing or I need security or I need to trust in the money I have in my bank account…
You cannot trust God and money. Because if you trust money, when God tell you to give to those in need you will hate him for it. If God allows you to loose money or get something stolen or not have something anymore and your God is money, then you will hate God.
BUT if you sit, knowing that God is good and that he has given you everything in Christ. He has saved you… man how much more will he not provide for you… Later jesus says, look at the Birds of the air… they neither sow nor reap but your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not more value than they?
Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
You cannot trust God and money. If you try you will hate God.
Because Jesus does not guarantee you will have what you want on this earth. He doesn’t. anyone that tries to say that God provides what you want if you ask is wrong. Actually Jesus shows a different way of life. flip to mark 8 real quick
When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country. Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. And those who had seen it told them how the demon-possessed man had been healed.
Luke 8:
Jesus has been casting out demons and there is a huge crowd following him now. He tells it straight to them. He doesn’t sugar coat what they will have to do.
And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?
Jesus’s question. Do you want to save your life? well yes of course.... Then you must loose it.
To follow Jesus is to lay yourself down before him and say “my life is not my own, you have full authority of it. Where you go, Ill go, where you stop ill stop, what you beleive, I will believe, how you tell me to treat others, I will treat them. Its a full surrender to him.
Why would you do that? Because of who Jesus is. If you actually believe that Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead… Guys no one else has done that!!! It’s not like “ oh i think a new a guy who did that at parties....” NO!
Jesus is God and you are saying to him. YOU ARE THE BEST THING FOR ME. SO I WILL FOLLOW YOU ANYWHERE AND EVERYWHERE.
And too Jesus says it plainly… If you go down this path of gaining the whole world… You will loose your soul. If you reject Jesus fully and say, no I want the world instead. You will loose your soul in the end.
And if you believe in Jesus and trust him but you get so caught up in the things of the world, you will have wasted your life on this earth.
So, where is your treasure? Is it on earth where it will be stolen and destroyed? or in Heaven where it will be fully realized and satisfied?
As normal we will have adults in the back ready to pray with you through this. It’s tough… I get it. That’s why we are here. But guys, Jesus is worth everything he says he is. He is,. He is worth giving up all the riches of the world because all of it is nothing in comparison to him. And I am not talking about in the future when you are dead. .. I am talking about right now… he is worth it.