(Audio and Text)
Title: Treasure
What makes you happy?
That’s where we’re going to end up this morning, so I thought I would save us some time. Jesus’ words here are poking, and prodding, and uncomfortable, if we allow them to be. But if we read Jesus’ words and do not apply a hard look at our unbelievably comfortable lives, then we miss the real treasure.
We go home to our lazy boys, our big screen TV’s, our microwave dinners, and we do so at the expense of something so much more powerful and meaningful than these devices, these technologies, these luxuries, could ever be. What are you storing up, and what does that say about your maturity? What does that say about your faith? What does that say about your joy?
(read/pray)
- Perishable or Eternal?
In today’s passage we see two characteristics of the earthly treasure. The first that Jesus touches on in verse 19, and then again in verse 20, is the concept of perishability. Essentially, WHAT is your treasure?
When Jesus warns us not to have treasure that moth and rust are able to destroy, what is he really getting at? (take answers)
- Does your treasure fade over time? (Do we need to keep upgrading?)
- Are the elements of the earth able to corrode your treasure? (What material is it made of?)
- Is your treasure in a place where the elements of corrosion can reach it? (Is your treasure in an incorruptible location?)
II. Shoe Box or Bank Vault?
The second question that Jesus wants us to wrestle with is not so much what the treasure is as much as where that treasure is located.
When I was growing up and through my college years, I had a horrible filing system for all my important papers. Things like my birth certificate and passport could usually be found right next to other treasures like my Barry Sanders rookie card and my Dairy Queen Ice Cream Cake frequent buyer card in an old shoe box under my bed. Not the most secure of locations…
What is Jesus really getting at when he tells us not to store up our treasures where thieves can break in and steal it? (take answers)
- The location of our treasure speaks volumes of how important that thing really is to us.
- The location of our treasure shows how mature we are to protect it.
3 Objections:
- So are we allowed to have earthly things? If so, are we allowed to enjoy them? (The problem is not when men own possessions, but rather when possession own men.)
- How do we “lay up” treasures in heaven? (By acquiring the knowledge and Truth that transcends time itself. By knowing Jesus intimately, you have a greater treasure than can ever be won in the physical realm. Why? It’s eternal, it does grant you life in Heaven, it is always relevant to any and all situations.)
- What do we do if our treasure and heart are not in the right place? 1. Pray that God would change your desires. 2. Get into the word daily 3. Suggested reading List: Desiring God by John Piper, Knowing God by J.I. Packer
Closing thought: You are what you love. We need to elevate what we love, what we consider to be a treasure, making sure that this treasure is eternal in nature, incorruptible by time, rust, and moths, and then we need to store that treasure in our hearts, a place that in unreachable by thieves. We need to fall in love with Christ, and make the gospel our treasure.
As C.S. Lewis wrote: Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.