How often do we seek the Lord first?
This evening we are going to go on a treasure hunt. We are going to search for the things that are most important to us. Because, wherever our treasure is, that is where our heart and efforts lie.
We all have treasures, things we prize over most anything else. Our treasure can be money and the desire for more money. We will spend most of our time trying to get and keep our money. After all, money shows that we are successful in life and other people rate us on how much or how little money we have.
Along with money, our treasure may consist of silver or gold or jewels or some other precious objects that are indications of our wealth.
For some of us, our treasure may be people. We become obsessed with meeting the right people and making them our friends. These are people that can help further our career or who can hook us up with more of the right people so that we can achieve success.
For others, the treasure might be cars or other vehicles. Something we can invest our time and money in so that other people will be impressed by what we have. Our treasure might be music collections, movies or other entertainment. Then there’s the electronics, video games and video systems, stereo equipment, computers and software.
Some of us have collections of various objects or books or music. Our treasures can be just about anything that takes much of our time and interest.
Play – track 1 (This was a short segment of a song by John Michael Talbot that says: "So seek ye first the kingdom of God and the wealth of His righteousness. For wherever you treasure lies, there will you find your heart".
When Jesus went up on the mountain and talked with the people in what has become known as the Sermon on the Mount, one of the things he said from Matthew chapter 6, was:
Matthew 6: (Msg)
19"Don't hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or—worse!—stolen by burglars. 20Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it's safe from moth and rust and burglars. 21It's obvious, isn't it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.
It is hard for us to avoid these treasures. They give us pleasure and a sense of purpose. They make us feel good and establish a place in life for us. And it is true, wherever or whatever our treasure is, our heart and mind and thoughts are there also. Often we become consumed in trying to build our treasures.
Our treasures can also be clothing or food or alcohol or cigarettes or drugs or a host of other things that are more important in our lives than just about anything else. These things drive us.
But by putting so much of ourselves in these treasures, we are blind to the treasures that God has in store for us. We don’t have the time or energy to search for and open ourselves to the things God has planned for us. There’s an old saying that the “eyes are the windows to your soul.”
Here, in this sermon on the mount, Jesus tells us:
22"Your eyes are windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. 23If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. If you pull the blinds on your windows, what a dark life you will have!
Too often we invest ourselves so fully in our treasures that it is like living in the cellar. We are closed to so many things around us. We miss the times that Christ might be trying to get in touch with us. We treat our treasures as a god; worshipping them and sacrificing love and life for the few moments of pleasure we get from our treasures.
But Christ warns us:
24"You can't worship two gods at once. Loving one god, you'll end up hating the other. Adoration of one feeds contempt for the other. You can't worship God and Money both.
This does not mean that we should completely give up the things we enjoy here on earth. We need not give up all of our money or our cars or electronics or collections of things. As long as we indulge in these things in moderation without sacrificing our dedication to God, we are OK. As long as we don’t use our treasures as an all-consuming replacement for God, we can still indulge and have fun with our things.
We should not fuss about things we don’t have and worry about the treasures that others have.
25"If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don't fuss about what's on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body.
And talk about fussing – Jesus says:
27"Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch?
Don’t worry about treasures and don’t worry about feeling left out if your treasure is not as great as your neighbors. Jesus says:
33Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.
34"Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.
We do worry. We worry about treasures here on earth. This past couple of weeks have been fairly rough for Keely and I but it has helped us put things into perspective.
My dad had another heart attack which was brought on by some kind of infectious bacteria in his blood. The doctors are still trying to figure out what it is and how he got it.
My youngest brother just had his second colonoscopy and we are waiting for the biopsy reports.
Keely’s Mom is waiting for her biopsy report also and is suffering with tremendous back pain.
A close friend of Keely’s Mom is suffering with cancer and is declining fast.
Laura Morgan has just gone through two strokes and is in the hospital with partial paralysis on her one side.
Keely and I learned this past week that my other brother’s wife is full of cancer after defeating the disease nearly 15 years ago. She has cancer in her ribs and a number of bones and in the back of her brain. She has a month to live. Because of her past history, she is checked every year for any recurrence of cancer. It was little more than 6 months ago that she was checked last. She went to the doctor again because she was experiencing double vision.
And there are so many others. People who are finding how unimportant their earthly treasures really are. And those of us around these people who are really sick and, in some cases, dying, begin to see how worthless our treasures are. We realize just how much more there is to life than a collection of things. We see how little time we spend with our friends and families and our God. And for most of us that feeling may last for a couple of weeks or a month or so before we are back into our old habits of collecting treasures again.
How many of us have been to the funeral of someone we know and stop just long enough to take a little time and realize how short life is and how we are wasting our time here in the pursuit of happiness and peace that we believe we can create on our own? How long did that feeling last?
I don’t know how to impress upon you that there is only one source for true happiness and peace. That is our Lord, Jesus Christ. That is something you will have to find out on your own, hopefully before it is too late. But I can tell you that it will be much harder to find that connection with God when you spend so much time chasing your treasure. Through Christ, we have been offered so much more than we could ever get anyplace on earth. We just have to accept it, hold out our hand and say OK, and understand that our true treasure lies in believing in our Lord and letting Him lead our lives.
Then we will be able to stand and sing loudly about how awesome our God really is. . . .Amen.
