Righteous Rewards: Jesus' Commands For Storing Treasure

Well, it's good to see if you have your Bibles,

if you'll turn with me to Matthew, Matthew chapter six,

and we'll start in verse nineteen this morning, Matthew chapter six,

starting in verse nineteen this week, this month, I've been

walking you through giving you some different books and resources

that you can use that you're kind of starting a

new year, maybe starting a new devotional, so having some resources.

Want to share with you first as a book by

David Paulson as a devotional. David Paulson is a biblical counselor.

He passed away a few years ago, but he is

an expert in biblical counseling, and they've gathered some of

his writings and made it into like a devotional form.

So what it does is every day it has a

passer of scripture and then it has a devotion that

goes along with that.

It's a credible devotional occurs that to you.

Also, I've been giving you every week, I've been giving

you a book of a question that I often have

gotten through the years and ministry, and I have a

book today that probably a question I've gotten a lot

over the last probably seven years, probably gotten more of

the last year that is what is the role of

women in church? And so you know, as our church,

we believe that in our constitution by law also talks

about the role of men and women, and it says

we believe that men and women are spiritually equal in

position before God, but that God has ordained distinct and

separate functions for men and women in the home and

in the church. The husband is to be the leader

of the home, and women are to be helpmates that

glorified God and established a godly household. And so there's

many books written on this, but a lot of them

are pretty lengthy. And so this is a new book

that I've gotten. It's called Men and Women in the

Church by Kevin Deyank. It's a grave book. It's a

great just concise understanding of our view of what we believe.

What is what's called complementarium. And so this is just

a resource for you. It's a question that we're getting

a lot today. It's a big question in the SBC today,

and so this is a great resource. It's really short,

under page book. And so you have some questions about that.

I'd like to know more about. That's a great resource

for you.

So I have these for you at the end of service,

you want to come and take a picture of those,

or we'll also trying to put.

Something out where you can.

We've done this all month to maybe have a collection

of all where these different books are. And so those

are there for you this morning. The title of my

sermon is let me get to that Jesus commands for

storing treasure. Now heard the story of a pastor one

day and he was preaching, and he was getting to

the end of its sermon, and he was kind of

getting really passionate, and the church was getting passionate, and

he would say a few words and they were respond

in response to what he said. He said, this church

is like a crippled man. It's got to get up

a walk, and the church said, let it wall, Preacher,

let it walk. He said, the church is like Elijah

on Mount Carnwell, it's gotten to run, and the church said,

let it run.

Preacher, let it run. He said, this church is gonna

mount up.

On weed like eagles and it FLI It's gonna fly,

he said, preacher, let it fly. Let it fly. He said,

Now this church is gonna fly. It's gonna take a

little money he said, let it wall, reacher, let it wak.

You know, many times we are all into the message, right,

We're all into what God wants to do. But when

many times when it comes to talking about money, we say.

Whoa, preacher, what hold back?

Let's step back a little, let's walk it back, preacher.

But and I really like this, this illustration of this story,

because many times when we start thinking about money, we

start thinking about giving. We start thinking about that, We

start thinking about, well, how is this going to affect

my personal life, How this is going to affect my

material life, how.

It's going to affect my pocket book?

Right, And in this passage, Jesus is teaching and about materials,

he's teaching about giving, He's teaching about all these different things.

And his concern, I want you to hear this today,

is how it impacts your spiritual life. He's not concerned

about your pocketbook. He's not concerned about your comfort. He's

concerned about how your materials and how your money and

how your treasure is impacting your spiritual walk with him.

And so this morning he has commands for us of

how we.

Should store our treasure.

So let's stand together and let's read this passage scripture,

there is a lot in a few verses, and so

you know I'm a long winded preachers. So you just

need to pray. So Matthew chapter six, starting in verse nineteen, says,

do not lay up treasures for yourselves. I mean, do

not lay up for yourself's treasure on earth, where mouth

and rust destroy, where thieves break in and still, But

lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth

nor rusts destroy, where thieves do not break in and still.

For where your treasure is there, your heart will be.

Also.

The eye is a 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

is in you, it's darkness.

How great is the darkness.

No one can serve two masters, for either he will

hate the one and love the other. He'll be devoted

to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve

God and money. Lord, We lee love you today, and

we thank you Lord for the truth of your word.

Or today I pray that we would be open books

before you, or we pray that your word would impact. Lord.

Our hearts are our love for you. Today, I pray

we would examine where we're storing our treasure, and Lord,

help us rightly examine, Lord, where our heart is. So, Lord,

lead us by your word, just as you led your

people in Matthew, and just as you led when you

were here. God, may you lead us today by your word. Lord.

We love you. We thank you Lord for the truth

of your word. We thank you that your word is

the authority in our life above all else, above how

we feel and say. Lord, today, help us surrender to

you and you alone in your name. We pray, Amen,

you may be seen as we come to this passage

of scripture if you remember the first thing I want

you to see Jesus commands about storing our treasure. And

the first thing Jesus commands is Jesus commands believers not

to store their treasures on earth. Jesus commands us, Now

it's very important. In this pastor of scripture. He says,

do not lay up treasures for yourself. This is a

command from the Lord. By the way, as you just

remind you, as we come to chapter six of Matthew,

Jesus this is his Sermon on the Mount. This is

not Paul or someone else preaching. This is Jesus preaching

his sermon on the Mount. And this is part of

his sermon to believers like you and I. And in

that sermon, Jesus says, do not lay up for yourselves

treasures on earth.

This is command from the Lord.

He commands us believers not to store treasures on earth. Now,

if you remember, as we walked through this series, we've

done a series called righteous Rewards, and Jesus has been teaching,

and he's been using and modeling, teaching what we would

call compare in contrast. He compares one thing to another.

And in this passage scripture, he's doing.

The same thing.

He comparing laying treasures on earth compared to laying treasures

in heaven. He's been doing that throughout all of this.

As we look through a few months ago, a few

weeks ago, he talked about how we seek rewards on earth, right,

and he says, don't when you give, when you're giving

to the poor, don't give to the poor, what for

the treasure of man's reward, for the treasure of the

praise of men.

But when you give to the poor, give to the poor.

That what, not for what you get on earth, not

for the praise that you get on earth. But you

give to the poor what that your father, who is

in heaven might see you. Right. Give to the poor

for not the treasure that you can get or the

praise of man on earth. Give to the poor, that

your father will reward you in heaven. Right. And he

does this all throughout this sermon, I mean all through

his message here. He did this about giving to the poor.

He did this about pray. When you pray, go into

your room, shut the door, pray to your father, who

is in secret, And your father, who sees in secret,

will reward you. When you give to the poor, do

it not for the reward on earth. Do it for

the reward in heaven.

Right.

When you pray, don't do it for the reward on earth.

Do it for the reward in heaven. When you fast,

as we looked at last week at Matthew six's eighteen,

that you're fasting may not be seen by others, by

your father who's in secret, And your father, who sees

in secret, will reward you. Right. So when you give

to the poor, when you fast, when you pray, don't

do it for the earthly rewards. Do it for the

heavenly reward that God sees you, and that He will

rewards you in heaven. Will This passage is sermons a

continuation of that. Now he goes into what we are

acquired and the things that we're acquiring in our life,

the things that were storing up our treasures, you know,

and Deuteronomy, I won't you look at a passage with

me if you'll turn on me deuter around at twenty eight.

God had commanded Israel to obey his commands, and in

baying his commands of Deuteronomy twenty eight, God promised, if

you obey my commands, there would be blessings.

And that's what twenty eight says.

He says, and Moses structed through Moses. God spoke through Moses,

and he had told Israel, if you obey my commands,

they will be blessings. But if you disobey my commands,

they'll be curses. And that's what Deuteronomy twenty eight outlines.

So let's just look at it.

He says, if you're faithful to obey the voice of

Lord your God, being careful to do all his commands

that I command you today, the Lord will set you

high above all the earth. All these blessings shall come

upon you to overtake you. If you obey the voice

of your God. Blessing shall be in your cities, Blessing

shall be in your field. Blessing shall be on your

fruit of your wound, the fruit of your ground, the

fruit of your cattle herds, the younger of your flood.

Blessed be their basket. You're needing boe blessed share when

you come in. Blessed shall be you when you go out.

So there's this idea that taught in Mosaic law and

the old tests ofment that if God's people obeyed him,

there would be blessings. Right if you follow on In

deuter On May fifteen, there was also the same commands

that if you disobeyed the Lord, there would be not blessings,

that would be cursings. And he says, but if you

do not obey the voices of your God, careful to

do all his commands, and it sat your's command today,

then all these curses shall come upon you. And the

rest of dooter on Me is just outlining the different

curses that will come upon you. And Matthew chapter six,

Jesus is teaching to believers, and he's teaching to a

gathering of people on the mountain. In the midst of

those were some Pharisees, religious people, and they've taken deuteron

Me twenty eight and they twisted it. They twisted to say,

you know what, the more things that I have, the

more materials I get in this life, then that shows

that God, I'm very blessed by God, and that God

is happy with me. And so the Pharisees had created

this system to say, you know what, I want to

gather more things. I want to have more things in

my life. I want to have more material possessions. I

want to store a bunch of treasures on earth. And

by gathering treasures on earth, it shows that I am

blessed by God and that God is happy with me.

And they manipulated that's not the intent of Deuteronomy twenty eight,

but they've manipulated the passage to invoke a desire to

gain more things and to look like, you know, look

how holy I am. The more things I gather on

this earth, the more bless it looks like I am

by God. And therefore it makes me look like that

God is happy with me, although their hearts were away

from God.

And in this.

Paste, sure Jesus is saying, listen to you, pharisees, you

religious people who think that just accumulating things on this earth.

You you pray, and you fast, and you give to

the poor that you might get the praise of men,

and you gather material things in this world that you

might get the praise that people would think you're blessed

by God. And he says, stop praying for the praise

of men, stop giving to the poor for the praise

of men, stop fasting for the praise of men, and

stop accumulating things for the praise of men. He says,

in turn, don't store treasure.

Actually the word.

Here, if you read the passage, do not lay up

for yourselves the end the Greek the it's a present

tense verb, but it's best translated stop stop storing up

treasures for yourself on earth. Stop doing it. You're you're

just continuing to build up material things, and you're put

your treasure on earth. He says.

Stop.

Now, if you look at this passage, just notice a

few things about this. What Jesus says about these treasures.

He says, do not lay up treasure for yourself on earth.

And then he outlines and things about earthly treasures. This

is what he says. He says, earthly treasures where moth

and rust destroy. He says, where thieves break in. And

still what is he talking about earthly treasures? He describes

that earthly treasures are temporal. Moth will decay them, right,

eat at them, right, Russ will create decay upon different things.

What's Jesus saying?

Everything in this life, even the room that we're sitting

in today, Everything in this life that we have, from

the clothes you wear, to the house you live, into

the car you drive, everything in your life. And this

life is temporal. You may have gotten that warranty on

that car that's supposed to last five or years or

ten years, whatever it may be. But listen, after ten years,

it's going to go down. You do repairs on your home,

why because your hair, your hair, your home is continuing

to cause problems. It's continuing to decay. Even your body

is decaying. Right, there's that's why there's hair's they're turning gray. Right,

that's why the eyesight is getting bad. I've played basketball.

The other day, i played basketball three years. I'm telling

you today, I am so sore.

I can barely move.

Right, because even our bodies are decaying. Why because everything

in this earth that we can invest in, our money,

our treasures, our material is temporal, he says, Earth, these

earthly treasures are temporal. But not only are they temporal,

they're not secure. He says, these break in.

And still there's there's no.

Security, even though we try to put so much security

in things of this world. Listen, as much as we

think that they may last, as much as we think

that they may be secure, that nothing in this life

is secure.

In the moment, it can be taken away.

And we see that just in the last few months

of what's happened in western North Carolina, what's happening in

Los Angeles with the fires. Everything is temporal. It does

not last, and it can be gone in a moment.

If you look at what how he describes heavenly treasures,

he says, but lay it for yourselves, treasures in heaven,

in that place neither moth and rust destroy. Listen, Heavenly

treasures are not temporal, They're eternal. Heavenly treasures are not

only are they eternal, but heavenly treasures are secure. Listen

to what he says here where thieves do not break

in and steal. Jesus is very simply saying in this

passage of scripture that you and I were either storing.

Treasures in one or two places.

We're either storing treasures on earth that are temporal, that

are not going to last, that are not secure, or

we're storing treasures in heaven that are eternal and are

secure in heaven. You know, if you think about this

passive of scripture, you may say, well, Jesus saying that

I shouldn't have a nice car, should not be building wealth,

and should not be doing this. It's not the wealth

or the materials that's evil here.

Listen to me. It's very important.

It's the love of material and wealth that is the problem.

Jesus would say much about money and materials. He says

in one Timothy six ' ten the love of money

is the root of all evil. Jesus, I mean. James

Warms warns and James five two and three believers not

to be shortsighted and to hoard many riches. First John

two fifteen through seventeen. John warns about loving the world

and the things of the world. So the issue here

that we see consistently through scripture is the love of money,

the love of materials. Scripture doesn't prohibit building wealth. Actually,

scripture teaches the importance of man providing for his family.

For Timpathy five to eight, Paul says, a man who

does not take care of his family has denied the

faith and is worse than none abeliever. In proverb six

six through eight, the writer encourages believers of work and

provide for the future. So again, it's not the issue

of wealth, work or materials that them and themselves are

not simple. The issue is the love of these things.

It's the love of the materials. It's the love of

the things of the world. John Stott was a pastor

and he said this about this passage scripture. He said,

this verse does not prohibit being.

Making provisions.

He says, it's important for us to make sensible revisions

for the future.

But this verse does.

Prohibit being coveted inness and hoarding materials and always wanting

more and more. Heard a story of a couple. Their

names were mister and missus. Thing they're very pleasant, successful couple.

At least, that's the verdict of most people. They tend

to measure success with the thingameter they have. When the

thing of meter is put to work in the life

of mister and missus thing, the results are startling. When

he sits in their luxuries, home and very expensive thing,

almost hidden by a large number of other things to

sit on, things to sit out, things to cook on,

things eat from, all shining and new things. Things, things, things, things,

things to clean with, things to wash with, things to clean,

things to wash, things to immuse with, things to give

to pleasure, things to watch, things to play. Things for

long hot summer, things for short cold winters. We know

all about that, don't we recently? Thanks for the big

things which they live in. Thanks for the guard and

thanks for the lounge, things for the kitchen, thanks for

the bedroom, Thanks for four wheels, things for two wheels,

things to put on top of the four wheels, things

to put behind the four wheels, things to add to

the interior of the thing on the four wheels, things, things, things,

And in the middle of all the things, or mister

or missus thing, please pink with all their things, thinking

of more things that add to their things, securing their

castle of things. Well, mister thing have some bad thing

news for you. Oh you say you can't hear me,

because all the things are in the world where I

want you to know that.

Your things will not last. They're going to pass.

They're going to be into them, and maybe there's an

error in your judgment, maybe there's.

Temporary loss of concentration.

Maybe you'll just pass them off to second hand thing dealer,

or maybe you'll they'll wind up in a mass of

mingled metal being toed off to the thing yard or

the thing dealer. All those things in your house well.

Are going to pass.

And all the way of life, doesn't it. All the

things in this life will pass. And here's reality. And

someday when you die, they're only put.

One thing in the box, and that's you.

It's silly as that may sound, that's us, isn't it.

Things?

Things, things, electronic things, car things, house things, cooking things, things, things, things,

And many times reality is we're okay as long as

we're full of things. And Jesus saying, stop storing your

treasure on earth, stop it. Stop trying to find your

happiness in things. He knowing in this passage of Scripture,

says he commands believer it's not to store their treasures

on earth. But secondly, he commands believers to store treasures

in heaven. So you say, okay, Pastor, I get it.

I have a problem with things. I need to stop

doing that. And so how do I store treasure in heaven?

And again he's a compare. In contrast, he's saying, don't

do this, but do do this. And he compares the two.

One decays and is destroyed, one is not secure. One

is secure and it's eternal. So how do we store

treasures in heaven? Well, I think we see this in

Matthew six and his Sermon on the Mount.

All the way from.

Five on, Jesus is taught how we are to do

things that He might see in heaven and reward us.

What are those things he calls those righteous acts? Right,

these righteous acts that we do to show our devotion

and our love for him? What were those things? Giving

to the poor? What don't give to the poor that

someone might see you? But your father is in heaven might.

See you, And what will reward you in heaven?

Right? Praying? He commanded us to pray, to go in

our cause and pray that your father in heaven might

sue you and reward you fasting. We should fast, not

that others might see us. But our Father was in heaven,

who see us, and he will reward us. So you

say to me, Pastor, what can I do to aligne

my heart to store more treasures in heaven. It's very simply.

One of the things that we should be devoted to

in this life is praying, fasting, and giving to the poor.

Those things, Scripture says, are eternal. They will last. The

things that we might do in this life with things

will not last, but the devotion and demonstrating our love

to the Lord will endure forever. Scripture also describes Jesus

describes in his Sermon on the Mound in Matthew ten

and Matthew twelve about blessed or the Us through persecution.

And one of the things that we do for the

Lord that last for eternity is our suffering for Christ.

Make you stand for the Lord, standing upon the word

of God in the midst of a lost and dying

world and proclaiming the truth of the Gospel, even though

we may face persecution, is something that will endure forever.

Jesus says in Matthew five ten blessed to those who

are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom

of Heaven. And Matthew twelve he's I mean five twelve,

He says, rejoice and be glad, for your reward is

great in heaven. So they persecute the prophets who will

before you. Here is a reward for those who stand

upon the word of God and is faithful even in

the midst of persecution. Jesus tells us to forgive, that

we might the Father in Heaven might see that how

we forgive others on earth, and that He might forgive

us in heaven. Matthew six fourteen through fifteen. For if

you forgive others of trespassage or heaven, the Father will

also forgive you. But if you forgive their trespasses, neither

will your Father forgive your trespasses. Scripture tell us the

supportance of taking the gospel. Paul would say in Second

Timothy five I mean four or five. As for you, Timothy,

always be so reminded, endure suffering, do the work of evangelists.

Fulfill your ministry. One of the things that we can

do that a righteous deed is not only continue showing

our devotion and prayer, giving and fasting. We should continue

to stand for the word of God, but we should

do the work that God called us to do in

taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth that

will endure forever.

Giving.

Paul talked about giving and to Timothy in six seventeen

through nineteen. As for the rich of this present, say

charge them not to be haughty, nor set their hopes

on uncertainty of riches, but on God, who provides for

us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good,

to be rich and good works, to be generous, ready

to share, thus storing up treasures for themselves as a

good foundation for the future, so they may take hold

of what is truly life. Those are different things that

we can do. We can continue to pray, fast, give

to the poor, forgive one another, stand for the gospel,

and in the medst of persecution, do the work of

an evangelist. Give. There's how we continue to store treasures

on earth, so we finish up. As the passage continues,

Jesus and not only commands you to soar treasures in heaven,

he says to you you're either there's two storage facilities

there's one on earth, there's one in heaven, and you're

either giving to one or the other. He then outlines

reasons of why we should store up treasures in heaven.

He uses three metaphors. He's a metaphor of the heart,

the eye, and a servant, and he uses these three

metaphors to describe reasons why we should store treasures in heaven. First,

our treasure indicates our love. It indicates our loves. You know,

just the other week we were we have a little car.

My daughter has a car, Calen, and she came in.

She said, Daddy, there's a little light in the car

that's on, and so I went out to check engine light. Well,

the car sounded good, It sounded fine, it was going

up and down the road. Find everything to me looked

fine looking on outside. But there was something in that

on that dashboard that said that something was wrong. So

have a little code reader and I plugged it up

to the car, and it showed that there was a

problem within the motor of that vehicle. So although on

the outward appearance it looked like it was okay, internally

there was a problem. Jesus is saying in this passage

of Scripture. Look at what he says in verse nineteen.

For where your treasure is, there is your heart. I

mean there your heart will be also Jesus saying you're

storing your treasure in one or two places. You're either

storing your treasures on earth or you're storing your treasure

in heaven. And where your treasure is, it indicates where

your heart is. It indicates what you love. You know,

for the vehicle, I couldn't determine what was inside that motive,

what was going on side that motive. The light told

me what was happening inside the motor. Jesus is saying, here,

what your treasure is is the light that is showing

what you truly love. And if you're storing treasures on

earth and you're finding your satisfaction and you have a

love for things in this world, I'm telling you what

you truly love. It's here. You may say outwardly, I

love the Lord and I have a heart for God.

But the light shining from what you're where you're storing

your possessions, it's revealing what you truly love. It's not

what you say you love. Your actions and your behavior

is showing what you truly love is the things of

this world you made. You say you love God. You

may you say you have a heart for God, but

the lights flashing and the light flashing saying, what you

truly love is here, What you truly love is what

you're storing here. And Jesus is saying, listen, you've got

to stop it. If you really want to love me,

if you truly treasure me, then store your treasures where

I am, and re orient your heart to where I am.

And that's what he's saying in this passage of Scripture

not only says that our treasure indicates what we love,

but secondly he says that our treasure determines our direction.

He uses the metaphor of an eye. Look what the

passage says in verse twenty two. The eye is the

lamp of the body. So if your eye is healthy,

the whole body will be full of light. But if

your eye is bad, your whole body will be full

of darkness. If the light is in you darkness, how

great is the darkness? He uses the eye, the imagery

or the metaphor of a eye, and the eye here

and we know in Israel's time, the eye and scripture

and the Old Testament was likened to the heart. So

he's using the hot the eye to really to explain

how what you love and where your treasure is is

setting the course of your direction. What you love is

what you will do is how you will behave, it's

how you will act.

If you think about just for a minute, he was

saying that it's.

Two different people in this passage, right, there are people

who found their treasure in storing things on earth and

possessions and money, earthly things, and there's those people who

who are storing their treasures in heaven. And he says, here,

what you love where you are is determine what you

really love. Now, if you think about this passage, he

describes two eyes in this passage. He said, there's a

healthy eye. There's one that really loves the Lord, and

it's storing treasures on earth, I mean storing treasures in heaven. See,

if you're paying attention, there's a bad eye, and that

eye is storing treasures on earth and it's full of darkness.

The healthy eye is the eye that loves God and

his store and treasure in heaven, and it's full of light.

There's a bad eye just storing treasures on earth, and

it's full of darkness. Now you think about it just

for a minute. Your eyes, through your eyes in which

you set your direct right. It's through your eyes you

determine where your go. Is through your eyes where you

determine what steps you're going to take. It's through your

eyes you determine what your hens are going to reach

for a touch. It's through your eyes that leads your

minds to read books or to understand things. It's through

your eyes that set a path of direction of where

you go, what you think, what you do. And Jesus

is saying this to these He's saying, listen, your eye

is the lamp of your body. What you're pursuing, what

you're setting your eye on, is what you love and

is determining your direction. And if you love the Lord

and you set your eyes on things of heaven and

destoring things of heaven, then you're full of light. But

if you're setting your eyes on things of this world,

you are full of darkness, and your eye is bad.

You don't really even recognize it even uses a term.

If the light is in you darkness? How great is

the darkness? Ask you today, where's your treasure?

Listen.

It's indicating what you love and where's your treasure. Is

is determining your direction. It's determining what you do. It's

determining what you pursue. Is determining what you think about.

Is determining what you live for. If you want the

light today, if you want to be healthy, spiritually, set

your eyes on heaven, set your eyes on Jesus. Set

your focus on him. You'll be full of light. Lastly,

as I finished this morning, our treasure determines our service,

he says. In this passage, you use last metaphors a slave. Here,

servant says, no one can serve two masters, for either

will hate the one and love the other. He'll be

devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot

serve God in money. The imagery of the passage is

a servant or a slave. The word money there means

wealth or property. It's the idea that you are serving

one or two things here Again, you're either a servant

or a slave to money or your slave to God.

Now you can imagine if you think about this idea.

You can't be a You can't be owned by two

different masters. Right, you don't have one master. You have

only one master over you, right. You can't serve two

different things. Now, if you think about if you were

servant and you went to go work at I don't know,

bow Jingles, right, if you went to go work at

Bo Jingles and you were employed by them, then you're

going to produce for them, what biscuits and food and

different things. What you're gonna produce, right, So what you

work at is what you're gonna produce. If you go

work at a tire shop and they you know, they

sell tires, and what you're gonna do for that in

person is you're gonna sell tires. You're not gonna go

work at a tire store and make biscuits, you understand, right,

You're not gonna go work at bow Jangles and be

changing tires in the parking lot. Right. What you work

for is what you will produce. Right. And he's saying, listen,

you cannot you cannot be You can't serve two masters.

You can't say you love money and you love your materials,

but you're producing things of God. Or you can't say

I love God yet you're producing a love of money.

You're either a servant of your money you're a servant

of your materials, you're a servant of your treasures on earth,

or you're truly a servant of God and you're serving

him and you're producing the fruit of God in your life.

But you can't do both. You can't be a servant

on earth. You're either a servant of one or the other.

And in this.

Passive scripture, he says, you're the hate one, or you'll

love the other. You'll be devoted to one or you'll

despise the other. You will either love God and you'll

hate the things of this world, or you'll love the

things of this world. And you may say that you

don't hate the things of God. But Preacher, don't talk

to me about money. I wonder why so many times

we push back on hearing about money, because the reality

is we love our things and don't tell me about

giving up my things. And that is a tell tale

sign of the warning light that maybe we've got our

love in their own place. Our treasures indicate our love.

Our treasures determine our direction, and our treasure determines what

we will serve. You pray with me, Father, I thank

you Lord for today, Lord forgive us for loving things

of this world, And what do we love? You forgive

us in the places Lord, where we have treasured things,

and we've not treasured prayer, we'd treasured things of this world,

and we've not treasured giving to the poor or fasting.

We've not treasured sharing the gospel, or standing for your word,

or sharing Lord, your truth. We treasure things here. Lord,

I pray today that we would seek to store our

treasures where you are, Lord, and not seek the reward

or the praise of man or the material things of

this world. But God, seek a relationship with you. Seek Lord,

you above all else. Lord. I pray today that our hearts, Lord,

will be where you are, Lord, and Lord, that we

Lord would love you more than we'd love any other thing. Lord.

We at times, Lord, want to put up with holls

and not let you pass that wall.

Lord, I pray today that as you've spoken to us

the Lord, we'd lay it. We'd lay down the wall. Lord,

we'd recognize areas, Lord, where we're putting our work before you.

We're putting our wealth before you, We're putting our materials

before you. And today I pray we would freely give

those things up for you. God, You're more. You're worthy.

You're greater than all our ambitions, all our desires, all

our things. And Lord, today, may we treasure you above

them today and surrender the things that we've put before you. So, Lord, today,

give us a heart of repentance, give us a heart

of confession. And Lord, may we run to you, Lord today,

while you may be found or we love you. We

thank you Lord for this word. Lord, help us surrender today.

In your name, we pray.

Amen Jesus

To