True Treasure: Living for God's Rewards

TRUE TREASURE: LIVING FOR GOD’S REWARDS! Matthew 6:19-24 – MHAFB, 9 Aug 20 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------Series: Sermon on the Mount / Topics: Jesus; Life and Teaching of Jesus Christ; Teachings of Jesus; Sermon on the Mount/Plain; Treasure; Heart; Heaven; Server; Pursue; Godliness; God Before Worship: Pray with leaders! Openings Verse: Colossians 3:1-2 Songs: Hosanna; Good, Good Father; Great Are You Lord ----------------------------------------------------------------------------SLIDE-Transition to Sermon Pre-Sermon Opening: Ch Ellis - Welcome! - Note online posted sermon notes - Lord’s Supper elements in the foyer - Read Colossians 3:1–2 CSB So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. Prayer: Worship: Anthony - Hosanna - Good, Good Father - Great Are You Lord Sermon Introduction Introduction Attention: 1. How many of you know about David Livingstone? a. Trained as a Scottish physician, b. Dr. Livingstone served as a pioneer Christian missionary and explorer in Africa c. He actually became known as "Africa's greatest missionary!" 2. Upon his death while serving in Africa in 1873, a. His homeland honored with burial at Westminster Abbey in England. 3. However, he isn’t totally buried there… a. The African natives, whom Dr. Livingston loved, removed and buried his heart at the foot of a tall tree in Africa near where he died! b. Even at death, the heart of this man was with those whom He loved and spent his life to serve. 4. If your heart were to be buried in the place you loved most during life, where would it be? a. At the bank? A space at the office? Somewhere in your house? b. Where is your heart? Big Picture: 1. Today we are talking about this very thing— a. Not the burial of Dr. Livingstone, b. But what you most treasure—the place of your heart. c. Today we are talking about… 2. SLIDE-Title: True Treasures: 3. That which can only be found when we are Living for God’s Rewards 4. SLIDE-Thesis: Or, to spell it out more fully, today I hope that we will each come to understand that… a. Enduring value is only found when our life-defining pursuit is God & godliness. 5. There are many things that we can pursue as treasures in our lives a. Things of worth b. And things that are worthless! 6. And what we pursue really does determine a lot about where our heart and mind is at! 7. Jesus, knowing our needs well in this, turns His focus to this in His Sermon on the Mount Passage: 1. Context: We’re picking right back up after last week’s verses. a. If you remember, Matthew 6:1-18 dealt with how we ought to live righteously i. Not at all to be seen or rewarded by people, ii. But to be seen and rewarded by God b. Beginning to focus in now on the idea of pursuing treasures, i. Jesus shares these coming words… 2. Verses-6 Slides: I invite you to stand with me in honor of God’s Word as we read… Matthew 6:19–24 CSB 19 “Don’t store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. So if the light within you is darkness, how deep is that darkness! 22 “No one can serve two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. 3. Join me in prayer… 24 Transition: 1. Now, let me take a moment to talk briefly about… Main Point 0: Life-Defining Pursuits Explain: Consider some of the words Jesus uses in this passage and how they talk about life-defining pursuits that we take up as humans; our life-defining pursuits are… 1. MP0: Things we store up for ourselves (vv19-20) a. There’s quite a bit of intentionality that goes into this… i. Researching something, hunting for it, paying a price to gathering it, preparing a way to save it for later… ii. Indeed, what you treasures in such ways truly reveals where your heart is at (v21)! b. Next, we see that life-defining pursuits... 2. MP0: Define how we look at the world (vv22-23) a. MP0: The heart’s desires are revealed by the eye’s pursuit! b. A Jewish idiom of the time used the phrase “good eye” to talk about a generous person i. Their eye is not on physical possessions; ii. Knowing a generous God, they are generous to others iii. And this fills their life with light! c. However, someone with a “bad eye” is one who is stingy or miserly i. They hoard up & obsess over certain possessions ii. Their skewed value of these things affects how they look at the world iii. The result is a deep internal darkness that diminishes your ability to see & pursue what is truly good! d. Furthermore, we also see that life-defining pursuits are... 3. MP0: Become an object of our devotion, love, & service (v24) a. As Jesus says in Mt. 6:24, Matthew 6:24 CSB “No one can serve two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. b. It’s very telling that Jesus uses the imagery of a slave here… i. Have you every seen someone respond to a possession as though it owned them? ii. Those things which we treasure and value— 1. Which we seek with great focus and enthusiasm— 2. Those things receive our devotion, love, & service c. And in the Christian heart— i. God must clearly be the top recipient of this! d. But as we know, this is not always the case! Transition: 1. And thus we turn to our next are of focus… Main Point 1: Worldly Treasures Explain: 1. God has created many wonderful things in our world for us to enjoy! (Ecclesiastes 3:13, 5:19, 6:2) a. Unfortunately our hearts are tempted to value the creation over the Creator… b. This is the temptation that Jesus speaks about here— i. Those things we are tempted to store up for ourselves ”the treasures on earth” (v19) 2. MP1: In this morning’s passage it is very clear that Jesus is talking about Physical Assets. a. The referenced Jewish idiom about the good/bad eye— i. MP1: Deals with how you handled your material possessions b. And in the final verse Jesus says, “You cannot serve both God & money” (v24) i. The Greek word for ‘money’ is mamonas (Aramaic: Mammon) ii. A word used for any form of material wealth c. From money, to cars, to clothing, to jewelry, to video games, to the latest tech, and well beyond… i. We live in a world with some amazing physical assets! ii. And when we value these wrongly, 1. MP1: They directly compete with God— 2. becoming the center of our affections & our life-defining pursuit! d. But that isn’t the only thing we have to look out for… i. There is another worldly treasure highlighted in all of the verses of Matthew 6 preceeding today’s passage ii. Do you remember what that was? 1. Doing things “to be seen by others” (vv6:1, 2, 5, 16) iii. Jesus mentioned that when we do religious acts “to be seen by others,” we have our reward! 1. And this, most certainly, is an earthly treasure—let’s call it… 3. MP1: Social Assets a. This includes: i. MP1: How people view & value you. 1. Your reputation, status, or prestige before others ii. MP1: How you can influence them. 1. Your power in the relationship, how you can impact them iii. MP1: Your sense of belonging. 1. Even your sense of belonging to a group of people— b. Have you ever been tempted to value these things wrongly? i. When we do, they also directly compete with God! c. Consider what Paul reflects on in… Galatians 1:10 CSB For am I now trying to persuade people, or God? Or am I striving to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ. Illustrate: 1. There are many things in this world we can treasure… a. From physical assets, social assets, & even personal intellectual assets. 2. Yet each of these things is found to be lacking true enduring value. 3. Are many of you familiar with D. B. Cooper? a. In 1971 an unidentified man who used the name Dan Cooper hijacked a Boeing 727 flying from PDX to SEA i. Threatening to blow up the plane with a suitcase bomb, he demanded $200,000 in ransom (~$1.3 million today), parachutes, and a fuel truck meet his plane in Seattle. b. His demands were met & after a 2 hour layover his plane took off for Mexico at a very slow speed and low altitude with an unpressurized cabin. i. About 30 minutes into that flight, with the crew having previously been forced into the cockpit, Cooper apparently skydived out of the plane to an uncertain fate c. Since that time, despite extensive investigations, i. While $5,800 of the ransom has been found, ii. The perpetrator & the rest of his ransom has never been found. d. It remains the only unsolved case of air piracy in commercial aviation history. 4. The actions of Cooper revealed a life-defining pursuit of worldly treasure a. And with such an investment, 'he had his reward’ b. And while it may give him temporary pleasure— i. It had no lasting value. Expand: 1. While none of us is a “Dan Cooper,” a. We are each tempted to invest in worldly treasures far more than we should! 2. When these worldly treasures become… a. That which we store up for ourselves b. That which define how we look at the world, c. That which are the object of our devotion, love, & service— i. Even the center of our affections— 3. Then we know that... a. Our treasure has no lasting value (see Luke 12:13–21) i. From the destruction of moths and rust, 1. to the theft of thieves— ii. These ‘treasures’ will not endure. b. We know that… We have the ‘bad eye’ i. Having a deep darkness cloud our view of our God 1. And cause us to stumble greatly in life ii. Generosity does not define us— 1. At least not with those specific idols c. We know that… We are serving mammon i. Not the God of the universe— 1. The great Creator who gave us these gifts. d. And most heartbreakingly… Our heart is not with God. Transition: 1. But—there is another way! 2. For in these verses, Jesus commands us to store up something else… Main Point 2: Heavenly Treasures Explain: 1. MP2: Let’s refer to these as Spiritual Assets. 2. Consider our verses this morning… Jesus shares that these things— a. MP2: Do not decay or lose value b. MP2: You cannot lose them c. MP2: They result in the ‘Good Eye’ of generosity that fills your life with light! d. MP2: The lead you to serve God with love and devotion i. MP2: To find rest for your heart in Him! Illustrate: There’s a pastor-joke told about Christian man who, in his later years, sadly lost sight of his heavenly rewards and began to invest in his earthly rewards. 1. He became so diluted that upon his death bed he asked his children to fill the pockets of his final suit with gold to see if he could take it to heaven with himself. a. His children kindly did just as he requested. 2. When the man found himself on the streets of heaven, a. He placed his hands in his pockets, and, to his surprise, found them stuffed with gold! b. He took out handfuls & threw it in the air with happiness! 3. Meanwhile, off to the side one angel turned to another and asked, a. “Why is that guy so excited about the asphalt?” 4. Clearly streets of gold are not the great heavenly treasures that Jesus commands us to store up! Expand: MP2: So, what are these treasures? 1. While Jesus doesn’t provide a strict description of what these are, perhaps we can consider them as anything a Christian can take with you beyond the grave; such as… a. MP2: Abundant life now that is part of our eternal life with God! (Daniel 12:2–3; Matthew 16:24– 27, 25:46; John 5:28–29, 10:10, 14:1-3; 1 Corinthians 15:51-57; Colossians 3:4; Titus 3:7) b. MP2: Growth in obedience to & love of God! i. As taught throughout Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, to include… 1. MP2: Holiness in character (deeper than the misreadings of the OT laws; c.f. Matthew 5:21–48, 1 Peter 1:7) 2. MP2: Righteous living (in secret for God, c.f. Matthew 6:1-18) a. Especially relevant in this context, generosity with your material treasures (cf. Luke 16:8– 13) c. MP2: Fruit from your disciple-making work i. From new converts to growing believers d. MP2: Other unknown heavenly rewards i. God highlights these in various Bible verses (Ecclesiastes 12:14; Isaiah 3:10; Matthew 5:1-12, 5:46, 6:1, 6:4, 6:6, 6:18, 10:41–42, 16:24-27, 19:2, 19:27-29, 25:34; Mark 10:29–30; John 4:36; 1 Corinthians 2:9, 3:10-15, 5:10, 9:24-27; 2 Corinthians 4:16–18; 2 Timothy 4:7-8; James 1:12; Revelation 11:18, 22:12) 2. MP2: The best of treasures are those which make a happy home for the godly heart. Transition: 1. Considering all of this now, let’s begin to close this off… Conclusion: Conclusion Reiterate: Enduring value is only found when our life-defining pursuit is God & godliness. 1. Each of us have life-defining pursuits… a. Things we store up for ourselves b. They define how we look at the world c. They become the object of our devotion, love, & service 2. While we are tempted to pursue worldly treasures… a. Physical, social, or even prideful intellectual assets 3. But we know that the only lasting value is found in heavenly treasures! a. The spiritual assets that never decay or lose value, that cannot be taken away, that fill us with life, & lead us to serve God with greater love & devotion b. Indeed, these treasures are a happy home for the Christian heart. Apply: So, how should we respond? I suggest these points for your prayerful consideration… 1. Con: Check your heart! a. What do you truly, tangibly value & pursue? b. What are the objects of your devotion, love, & service? i. Indeed, the heart’s desires are revealed by the eye’s pursuits! c. It’s easy to claim that we value & pursue Jesus, but… i. What does your use of money reveal? Time? Stress & energy? 1. Consider your generosity or lack thereof… ii. Do any material possessions or social concerns cause you to neglect heavenly treasures? 1. E.g. Sitting on the phone, playing games instead of quiet time, not praying at lunchtime or reading the Bible for fear of what others will think, etc. d. Some think that the great danger of Christianity is some foreign religion or extreme ideology, i. But one of the greater ones may strike much close to home… ii. The all-pervasive materialism of our affluent culture! e. We are so tempted to create a materialistic heaven on earth i. And throw in Christianity as it seems convenient ii. Jesus challenges this tendency! 1. Calling us to serve Him wholeheartedly, in every area of life 2. Which includes our value and use of material resources f. Consider using Psalm 139:23-24 to guide your prayer for self-reflection… Psalm 139:23–24 CSB 23 Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns. 24 See if there is any offensive way in me; lead me in the everlasting way. 2. Con: Focus your pursuits on God & godliness! (See Hebrews 12:1-2) a. Even if your heart isn’t totally in it yet, start to pursue God & godliness more fully! i. Don’t wait until you ‘feel like it’ — ii. Change your actions now to match what God is calling you to! b. Remember what Jesus shared here— i. “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (v21) ii. Exercise the spiritual discipline to change what you practically treasure… iii. And your heart will start to grow into it! c. Con: Realize, Jesus commands us to store these treasures up! (v19) i. We don’t ‘accident’ into this! ii. It takes thoughtfulness, focus, & discipline! d. Finally, learn to… 3. Con: Trust in God for the best rewards a. Sometimes we begin to look at the wrong treasures initially out of anxieties and fear; i. Know that God is faithful and good ii. He will care for you & provide all that you truly need as you walk in obedience to Him iii. This actually flows right into next week… b. More specific to this week… c. Con: Learn contentment—with what He has given you i. Wrestle with your heart to be satisfied with this ii. Guard against all forms of greed, 1. For it is a powerful idolatry (Colossians 3:5; Ephesians 5:3)! iii. Know that His rewards are best— 1. Both in this life & beyond the grave! Appeal: 1. And so, brothers and sisters, I encourage you to seriously consider… a. Where is your heart? 2. The best of treasures truly make a happy home for the godly heart. a. Are these the treasures that you pursue & enjoy? b. I earnestly hope that they are! 3. In a moment we are going to pray & close off our time of sermon, a. But as we prepare for that, I encourage you to also prepare for the Lord’s Supper i. Which we will partake in together after the prayer. ii. If you have not picked up the elements yet, I invite you to do so in the foyer b. Remember what Paul shared in 1 Corinthians 11:27–28 1 Corinthians 11:27–28 CSB 27 So, then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sin against the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Let a person examine himself; in this way let him eat the bread and drink from the cup. c. And so, I encourage you all the more—prepare your heart for this time as I pray… Conclude: 1. Pray with me... a. Lord, You have been so good to us. b. You have promised such richness to us— i. Well beyond the greatest of riches this world can offer c. Teach us contentment and trust in You. d. Help us to courageously receive Your Spirit’s inspection of our heart’s i. And to repent from those ultimately worthless physical, social, or mental treasures that we have placed above you. e. Teach us to center our lives on the life-defining pursuit of You i. And the godliness that is appropriate of those who call upon Your name f. In these true heavenly treasures, Lord, we will find an enduring & life-transforming value g. And now, Lord, be with each of us as we prepare our own hearts to take part in the Lord’s Supper, i. Fill us with great reverence as we consider Jesus’s selfless sacrifice on the cross to pay for our sins ii. Fill us with great joy as we remember Your great love and that we have become Your children iii. Fill us with great hope as we remember that one day, we will enjoy this as a feast with You in heaven (Luke 22:16; 1 Corinthians 11:26) 1. When You have ended to all sinful rebellion, even w/in our own hearts 2. When You have ultimately renewed the earth! h. With great faith in and seeking faithfulness to Jesus Christ we pray— i. Amen.