Sermon Transcript:

Now we would like to transition into the message. So we'd like to welcome our guest pastor

all the way from Sun City. Church, El Paso.

Pastor, Brent

small,

good morning, live. Church,

I bring warm greetings from just a little bit further east at Sun City Church, where they're gathering right now to do the same thing that we're doing and exalting Christ, Jesus through His Word and worship. So I bring warm greetings to you from Sun City Church. With that, let's pray, Father, we thank you for your goodness and grace upon us. Father, we thank You for Your word and how we know and trust that your Word will do its work amongst your people. Father, you tell us that your Word will not return void, that it equips, that it reproves, rebukes, that it exalts our King, Jesus And so Father, in these moments, we ask for your help in understanding and applying your word,

Father, we ask that you would

convict us of sin,

that you would cause us to love and treasure

Christ above all else and

father. Ultimately, we ask all of these things for your glory and for our joy, and it's in Jesus name we pray amen. On April 3, 1975 the Pensacola News Journal printed an article about a woman named Bertha Adams. Bertha Adams had been found dead in her home earlier that week, she weighed only 50 pounds when they found her, and the cause of her death was malnutrition. But what makes this story most interesting is what police found after the death when they began to investigate the death. They found safety deposit boxes with over $800,000 they found certificates of stocks and bonds and other financial securities, meaning that Bertha was well into the millions. She was, in fact, a millionaire. Her neighbors said, though that for food and clothing, she would often come to them and ask for those resources. Now, what Bertha is going to serve for us this morning, as is a parable, a parable that's going to describe what the text is that we're looking at today in realizing that money is not what is most needed, nor what can satisfy the ultimate needs of you and I. There is something greater needed for us. We're going to be in Matthew chapter six this morning. We're going to be in the Sermon on the Mount. This is one of the most famous discourses that Jesus gives in Matthew chapter six at Sun City Church. We've been walking through the Gospel of Matthew. We've spent two and a half months in the Sermon on the Mount, and we're going to pick up in Matthew chapter six. So there's already been a portion of the Sermon on the Mount covered at this point. And then Matthew, chapter seven will be the continuation of the sermon on the mount this morning. We're going to specifically see and we're going to observe the difference between the two treasures in our text, the two visions that are displayed there that ultimately tie to the two masters in which we will have to decide whom we are going to serve. So that's a road map of where we're going to be this morning, I'm going to read for us in Matthew chapter six. We're going to we're going to see how Christians are to be slaves to Jesus, because he has become our one true treasure. He has captivated our hearts and our eyes. Matthew, chapter six, picking up in verse 19. This is what the word of the Lord says, 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. 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. We are first going to look at the two different treasures that Jesus lays out for us in the text, either treasures on earth or treasures in heaven. We see this in verses 19 through 21 where he says, Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth. And Jesus begins our time in our text this morning with a negative command. He's telling us something not to do, and he's urgently telling us not to do this. So this is not a hey, take this under consideration, and then at some point maybe don't lay up for yourselves, treasures on earth. But no, he's he's telling us right out of the gate, do not do this. Do not lay up for yourselves, treasures here on Earth. So there's no no delay in this command and and so that we know like, like this is almost feels like it would just be written to us here in Western society, where we all have all the trappings of comfort that that come with the money that we have and the things that we buy, but, but as we know through the Scriptures, there's nothing new under the sun. So this was applicable for the hearers in the Sermon on the Mount, as Jesus is preaching, just like it's applicable for you and I today that we're not to be a people who lay up for ourselves treasures on earth, the temptation towards earthly comfort and worldly treasures is something that captivates our minds and our hearts often, and so we want what will make us most comfortable or most delighted in this world? In fact, I would imagine a lot of our motivations throughout the week, the reason we do the things that we do is so that we would be more comforted or we would be more delighted. So if we took inventory and stock of the decisions that we made this week, we would be able to look and say, Yeah, I do function this way. A lot of what I do is to these ends. And so we have to ask ourselves, is that what ought to be motivating us? I mean, here in the West, we're plagued with what's called the prosperity gospel, this idea that what Jesus wants most for us is our wealth or our health or our earthly prosperity, which the scriptures directly contradict. But it's such a temptation for us because of our affluency because of how we have been raised, because we have been taught from the day we came out of the womb that the world is about us. It's about us being comfortable and us being getting the things that we want for a comfortable and delighted

life.

So this aberration

or this temptation towards treasuring things on earth happens.

It's so attractive to us,

oftentimes not because Jesus is attractive to us, but the things that he can give are

and this is not just a poison

that heretics alone drink. We

we tend to take this glass and sip upon this poison ourselves. We, far too often, more than we would like to admit, live for the here and now, live for the comfort of self and treasure things that are given to us by God instead of treasuring him. Now at this point, we might be saying, Okay, well, Pastor, you're gonna have to make a convincing argument for me not to want to live and to walk in that manner, like, like, what argument would there be made for us not to pursue those earthly things? I mean, after all, we're we're here and and we live now in this physical world and reality. So What? What? What justification would we have for for living for something other than earthly treasures. Well, the word tells us that Jesus is faithful to give us these reasons. So, so let's look at the word. What does Jesus tell us as to why we should not lay up treasures for ourselves

on Earth,

if you look at verse 19. He tells us that there's going to be moth and rust that will destroy those treasures, and thieves will break in and steal. So he lays out for us, this is why we shouldn't be living for just the here and now, for just our comfort, for just laying up these earthly treasures. We shouldn't be doing this because they're temporary. They can be taken from us like that

in a moment,

moth and rust and thieves and this word destroy in our text, depending on your translation, it may say vanish. This means that all of those things that we have been working for could vanish like that. And that's not saying that those things are bad, like the Lord's the one who gives those things. But if that is our focus, if that is why we live and what we're living for, that's what Jesus is exposing here with our heart. So we are not to be a people as God's people who live just for the next paycheck or the next promotion or the next car or the next phone or the next toy friends. This is a terrible existence. And we, we are tempted to live that way and and we're tempted to live that way, because, I mean, if we're honest, like, it feels good, like, when you get that new home, that new car, that promotion, that job, like, like, there's something that feels good about that, right?

It's why we're on like, the iPhone 75

like, like, they've tapped into that and understand that like the only thing that they change on those things are the size, but they know that there's just something enticing about the new.

But what's the problem?

What it doesn't last? That's why they have to come out with the next one and the next one. It's why, at some point in time, your nice new car then becomes the beater car that you want to trade in. But these things don't last, and yet so much of our lives are given to over to the pursuit of those things. And Jesus is is telling his disciples. He's telling the crowds that have gathered around that are listening to this. Listening to the sermon, not to live for that,

not to live for that,

that there is something far better

than an existence that just looks for the next thing, materially speaking. And a side note here about that, when we die,

all of those earthly treasures

stay behind,

like all of those things

don't go with us.

And now you might be thinking, Well, Pastor, what a downer.

You know, thanks for coming.

But, but here's the reality. I tell the church to which I pastor often, one of my roles is to prepare you for the day you meet the Lord like like when we're young, we think that that day is far off, but I promise you, next week, there could be people that were in this room this week that are not here next it takes one phone call to shatter our worlds.

We're far more fragile than what we realize we are.

So that's that's not a far off thing that is at the back of our minds. But as Christians, we're people that are prepared for that day. In fact, we're people that long for that day.

So let us remember

that these are earthly treasures, these things that Jesus is warning about. Here are things that are temporary, and we

don't want to lay out for ourselves wrong treasures.

So before we look at what the right treasures are, I do want to just remind us, and we need to remember that, in fact, we all do have treasures. So this wasn't something that was just like, hey, just for the rich. Like, Hey, you don't need to be treasurer, like, no matter where your bank account is at this morning, like, we have treasures. The question that we need to ask ourselves this morning as we're working through this text, is, what is our treasure? It's not, do I have a treasure or not? And like, if you're a guest in here this morning, like you came in, even if it's going to be your first time to hear about Jesus, like you treasure things, something, someone, and so. Question we have to ask ourselves is, what is it that we're treasuring? Because what Jesus is drawing out in verse 21 specifically, this may be the the verse that's that maybe on some coffee cups, or that you've heard before, For where your treasure is there, your heart will be also. I mean, I like, if you're a church folk like you've heard those words. And that's, that's where this, this text hinges. He's teaching his people that that you will have treasure. And here's the the reality about that treasure. When you have that treasure, that's the thing that has your heart. And now, to be certain, we may read that and be back. Okay? Well, what is the heart? Because we're not just talking about the organ that's in our chest, that's beating that that's not how the hearers of Jesus's sermon would have understood that. And instead, the heart, then the way that Scripture uses the heart most frequently is where the center of our personality, our will, our mind and our emotions reside. It's the very center of who we are, and this is how it will be understood. For those that are hearing Jesus' sermon, and so ask them, knowing this about our hearts, what is it that I treasure? Because that's going to reveal to us what we've given our hearts over to. And again, here's the crazy thing about that, is that what we treasure may not be bad,

but that doesn't mean that it's not

ultimate we want to treasure. What is ultimate? What's lasting? So we have to ask ourselves that treasuring is not bad. Jesus never teaches that we are not to treasure, but the word to treasure rightly and so as we do inventory in our own hearts, we need to ask, what is it that I am treasuring?

What kind of treasuring are

we to do as God's people? Our text also

tells us this

in verse 20,

as opposed to the negative command that is in verse 19, we get the positive command in verse 20, and as to what kind of treasures we are to lay up for ourselves, he says, lay up for yourselves. Treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys nor thieves, or where thieves do not break in and steal.

This is a very good command.

Like, this is the Lord Jesus taking care of his people. Because the negative command he's saying, Don't treasure these things. They won't last. And then He gives us a positive command, saying, treasure this instead. It's eternal, like, it's an infinitely greater treasure. But far too often we make the insane trade to trade the heavenly treasures, and instead live for earthly treasures.

And so Jesus is drawing out the insanity of such a thing

like I want you to treasure the heavenly things, because guess what? Can't happen to those. They can't be taken from you. Now, all those other things and other pursuits, they can they'll end up in a junk heap somewhere, or your family will fight about them long after you're gone. But Jesus is showing us, but I'm going to give you something greater. I want you to treasure, something that will last in eternity, and that's what He's inviting us into. So this is a beautiful command and invitation for the Lord's people. It's a wonderful trade that Jesus is inviting you into this morning. It's one that will last and echo throughout eternity. It's one that's full of joy and a fruitful life. Our default position, though, is not to treasure heavenly things. Our default position is to treasure these earthly things. But Jesus, this morning, is inviting us to store up treasures that are eternal. And you might ask, what kind of treasure is this? What kind of treasure will never fade,

friends,

the simple answer to this is, Jesus.

He Himself

is the treasure in heaven,

he and and the works that are associated with following him again. The one who has your heart is the one whom you will treasure. And in Christ, Jesus, what happens at our conversion? When we come to Jesus, we get new treasures. We're a new person. We use the terminology born again that comes from John chapter three, like the the idea that we are not who we were.

We don't love the things we once love.

We actually celebrate and love the things that we once hated. That's what's happening in conversion and being born again. It's not just an intellectual ascent. So we're not just looking for some facts to confirm in Christianity, that's that's not the case. Listen, there are lots of theologians that will be in hell.

They could check mark some right doctrine,

but that's not what's happening in conversion. It's not just about a right world view or right or correct doctrine, but rather it's a new treasure, and that's what's happening in our hearts when we come to Christ. When we come to Christ, we now see his all surpassing, all glorious worthiness and and now he's the aim of our lives, like Jesus is who we want as a people. That's what's happening in conversion. Jesus is better than any of these earthly treasures because he can't be taken from us. He secures us. He's eternal. He's at the right hand of the father right now interceding on our behalf. So you are invited this morning to treasure in the one who will never leave you nor forsake you,

what an infinitely better treasure

that we would be a people

who could trade in temporary trinkets and toys for eternal treasures, and that's what He's inviting us into in this text,

we become a people

who once were blind, but now can see.

Think about this when we come to Christ and we're born again, and he becomes our treasure. And where your treasure is, your heart will be also. So think about this, our entire person, our wills, our emotions, our personalities, our minds are all focused on Jesus, all of us. Jesus is not just a part of the Christian life, friends. He is the Christian life. And when we forget this, what happens is we become a double minded person. When we pursue other things as ultimate as our treasures, we will walk the path of idolatry instead of the path of joy and righteousness. So how then do we do this, how do we store up these treasures? Simply put we store up these treasures in Christ by following him. Now that's a loaded statement. We could spend a lot of time unpacking that. But by following Christ, what do I mean? I mean by walking in obedience to Him, I mean suffering, for his name's sake, one of the things that the Western Church needs to recover is a deep and abounding doctrine on suffering. We treat it as a thing that we're allergic to, instead of an instrument in the hands of our Redeemer to bring us closer to Him, to show that he is our ultimate satisfaction, not for the things of this world. In fact, our Savior promises us that we will suffer as he has. If you look at church history, all of the early disciples end their lives end badly, but they got their all surpassing worthy Christ. They got the eternal treasure. So we we don't walk our in our lives looking for more stuff. We're not trapped by the scam of materialism. Instead, we're captivated by our Lord Jesus Christ. When he calls a sinner unto salvation, He leads them to transfer in their treasures temporary ones for eternal ones. And thus we pursue the things that please our Lord Jesus, our Master

Jesus.

And so, in short, how

do we do this? How

do we know what it is where to follow friends? It's by the word of the Lord, if You. Want to know how to follow Christ. It's not just some nebulous voice that you hear that goes with the whims of what you want. If you want to hear from the Lord, we open his word. His word contains what it is to walk in obedience to Him. So so the church, we are, in fact, actually creatures of His Word. As one pastor put it, because if we want to know how to follow Jesus, it's in these words. And in fact, you're you're in a time where you're searching for the the next pastor here, I want to encourage you, coming from a sister church in our city, that whoever you would call to be the pastor of this church, that you make sure that they have an absolute certainty on what the Word of God is, and that that will be their foundation for Everything they do in pastoring and shepherding this church, you should not care what any opinions have to be said from this pulpit. In fact, this morning, I'm going to invite you not to care about anything that I say unless it is in accordance with the Word of God.

And so we are a people

that are founded on the Word of God. So

if you want to know what it looks like to lay up treasures in heaven, it looks like walking in obedience, in accordance to the Scriptures. Christian Christians, again, are to be slaves to Jesus, because he has become our true treasure. He has captivated our heart and our eye. So the two treasures that we have to decide between this morning are treasures on earth or treasures in heaven, and it's connected to the two visions that we see in our text are the two ways in which we would see in our text. In verses 22 and 23 we read 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? There is a difference between the two visions laid before us by Jesus this morning, one that sees light and pursues it, and the other that continues to live and remain in darkness. And so the question before us this morning is, do we have healthy eyes? There's a clear connection between the heart and the eyes in our text, then our eye will be upon what we treasure. How many of you have seen Lord of the Rings?

Okay, the rest of you, you have a homework assignment.

Greatest trilogy that's out there. You can argue with me. Later in Lord of the Rings, there is a particular character, Lord Sauron, whose eye is fixed upon finding this ring, the ring to rule them all. That's a picture of what it's like with our eyes, they're going to be focused on what it is that we treasure whether that is light or darkness. And so the question is, do we pursue holiness? Do we pursue light, or are we pursuing darkness? This comes from that transformation that takes place. This is not something that you just put in the effort to do and then we get there. But rather it comes from a new heart that Christ gives us.

We are to be in

Christ Jesus, a single minded people in pursuit of him. Our text is laying out that there is no middle ground here. There is either eyes that are looking toward the light are eyes that are in darkness, that are trapped in severe darkness. Light is used throughout Scripture to describe the way of God and His people. So we are indeed a people who walk in the light and have had our paths illuminated by God Himself through His Word, and this brings the clarity and health for those who walk in him. Darkness in our text is described as bad. This darkness comes from the eye that is bad, the eye that's set upon wickedness. And so those that are apart from Christ, we ought not to be surprised by their wickedness. I'm often surprised at how often Christians are surprised by the wickedness of our world, as if God has not told us that it would be so. I'm also surprised that we're surprised. When people respond in hatred to us just for believing what he's revealed in his Word, Jesus tells His disciples that they're going to be hated because he was hated. And listen, I know that that's not like a hey, 10 steps to build a healthy big church tell people that they're going to be hated, but our Lord Jesus does that with His disciples. He tells them, you are going to be hated because the world has rejected and hated him, and if we reflect Him, then we will be recipients of that same hatred. Why? Because their eyes are focused on darkness. Because wickedness is what consumes us, and this is what consumes us, apart from Christ ourselves. So, so this is not a us versus them. This is a hey, we were all in that boat. But the Lord Jesus has saved and redeemed. He has caused people to go out of darkness into His marvelous light, as we would see in First Peter, in John chapter three, we read these words, starting verse 19, and this is the judgment the light has come into the world, the light referring to Jesus and the people love the darkness rather than the light, because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light lest his work should be exposed. So friends, the remedy for the bad eye and the bad heart this morning is Jesus. He's the one who saves us that are trapped in our darkness. Jesus is the one who captures the eye and the heart of his people, and he does this by giving them a new heart and a new vision.

And finally, this morning,

our verse ends. Our Verses end in verse 24 where Jesus warns that we can't serve two masters. No one can serve two masters, for either they will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Jesus is clear we will be enslaved to something. The question is, are we enslaved to Christ, or are we enslaved to our flesh? Are we enslaved to in our text, money? We can't serve two and so I think this is a bit of a caution for us today, because I think we may be tempted. Those of us who profess the name of Christ are tempted to live with a foot in both worlds. But what Jesus is showing us here, and to be clear, like I've not met many Christians who say, Yes, I'm trying to do that. Like you don't find many Christians that are saying, well, yes, I want to live with a foot in this world and a foot in the other world, but but practically speaking, our lives oftentimes would display that. And what Jesus is showing us here is that that's impossible for the Christian. We don't live with a foot in in both worlds. We can't serve two masters. Why? Because we will ultimately serve one. We're going to hate one and love the other. That's what's going to define us as a people.

So Jesus is showing us that trying

to live with a foot in both worlds is actually an endeavor that is vain and pointless, because what's going to happen is one is going to own you,

so all of us will be owned by one or the other.

When we are enslaved by someone or something, we will work and serve that thing, work for and serve that thing.

So we must take inventory of our lives.

Who are we serving?

Is money what we serve.

And here's the one of the tragedies in this like, God's the one who has given us those gifts. He's given us those things to steward them, not to have ownership over us. So like earlier in your service, like you had a time of giving. That's one of the ways that shows that your money is not master over you, like we're to be a people marked by generosity, knowing that God owns it all, but he rather gives us

things to steward. And

so the warning here in our text is is palatable, like it's a question that we need to ask ourselves.

It's very intimate.

Why do we do what we do? Who, who owns us, and whoever owns us will be ever. In the manner in which we make decisions, and to what end will we ultimately serve Jesus or a paycheck? And listen in our world today like this is a real question that has real ramifications that we have to ask ourselves, because there are real situations that are going to be calling for our compromise on clear biblical teaching, and we will have to ask ourselves, are we going to serve God or are we going to serve money? This is not some far off, ethereal doctrinal position.

This is a question we must ask ourselves. And

so this morning,

you and I have a choice. We have a choice to make.

We have a choice between two treasures, a choice between two visions, a choice between two masters. So this is really an invitation for us to choose this day whom we will serve. Will be the idols of our flesh, or will be the treasures of a converted heart in Christ, Jesus, who died to make that possible, who died to redeem His people, to cover them in his blood, so that they may have new hearts, new lives and new treasures. So

for those that would consider themselves to be Christians,

we need to with a sober mind and heart, ask ourselves examine our lives for the areas to which we have given our lives over to things other than Jesus, and then repent and come to Him because He is faithful to forgive. He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins. So Christian Christians, we are to do this, to examine our hearts and our minds, and if we're not in Christ, Jesus this morning, my hope and prayer, my plead this morning, is that you would see Jesus in His Word, and that through the power of his Spirit, that he would change your heart and your mind, and that you would see him as all glorious, all worthy, the beautiful King of Kings, who is worth all of our lives.

He's worth far more than what we could ever give him, and

yet he saves us, not because of anything we can give him, but because of his goodness and grace and mercy. So my hope is that you would see this Jesus, one of the Scriptures reveal to us, then you would see your treasures and say, I don't want those anymore. These earthly treasures, they're going to fade. I want something lasting. Friends. The only thing lasting is Christ, Jesus. So that's the that's the call for us this morning. We need to remember, as John Stott says, Keep in mind that Jesus forbids the kind of materialism that tethers our heart to the earth, but rather, we're a people that are tethered to the kingdom through Christ, Jesus. So let's not be mastered by our possessions. Let's be marked by generosity. Let us pursue obedience to the Lord, because he is the one that is our treasure, and in obedience to Him, He will not rob us of joy, but rather, he would bring us into a greater joy and satisfaction than We could ever imagine. Church, let's pray, Father,

Your Word is clear.

We cannot serve both you and money. So we ask that You would help us to live differently, to pursue eternal things and not earthly pleasures. We ask you to do the work that only you can do in our hearts this very morning, to expose our sinful ways of living and trust in your righteousness and holiness, Father, we want your eternal treasures forevermore. We

do not want temporary trinkets. That will pass away.

So we ask that you transform our hearts and our heads and our hands this morning so we may see our King Jesus all the more clearly and worship Him as our one true treasure. You

Father, we ask all these things

in Jesus name, amen. Amen.