Matthew 6:19-24
Matthew 6:19-21
Notice that Jesus said earthly treasures are destroyed by corrosions of nature (moth), time (rust), or human beings (thieves).
1) How are treasures on Earth vs.19 different than treasures in Heaven vs.20?
2) What are some treasures here on earth? (house, car, money, things, books)
3) What are some treasures in Heaven? (Salvation, family, ect.)
4) Did Jesus mean that owning possessions or planning for the future is wrong?
Why or Why not? (I think we have to have the right motives.)
TREASURE -VS- HEART
1. The heart signifies one's total allegiance.
2. Treasure signifies the things that are important to us.
Verse 21 links treasure and heart. They go together. Where your treasure is there your heart will be also. Jesus could also have said it another way, “Where your heart is, there's where you will invest your treasures.” Our attitudes and actions determine our real values and priorities. Many people give lip service to treasures in heaven, but they give their lives to treasures on earth.
Biographers try to lay their hands on every possible source when they are doing research for writing a person's life. One of the most valuable sources is a person's canceled checks. Our canceled checks or credit cards show where our real treasures are, on earth or in heaven. This in turn shows one's true priorities and values, another way of describing where the person's heart is.
The central issue in verses 19-21, indeed throughout the Sermon on the Mount, is the heart. A person's whose heart is totally committed to God will reveal this by investing personal treasures in heaven.
Matthew 6:22-23
(Safety glasses with petroleum jelly on them)
“If your eyes are good, the whole body will be full of light.”
Jesus spoke of commitment to Him in terms of singleness of vision. He contrasted a blind person to a sighted person and physical vision to spiritual vision. Christians are to focus firmly on God. The person who attempts to divide his or her vision and focus on both God and worldly matters has no clear vision, orientation, or direction.
Matthew 6:24
Think about this to yourself.
“If Jesus is not Lord of all, He is not Lord at all.”
Is there any area in your life that you need to place under Jesus' lordship?
Undivided Loyalty
Joshua 24:15
But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourself this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorities, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.
1Kings 18:21
How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal is God, follow him.
Matthew 6:24
No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
Luke 9:62
No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.
1Corinthians 10:21
You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord's Table and the table of demons
Summing up the Lesson
1. Absolute financial security is an illusion. Jesus warned that earthly treasures are subject to deterioration and loss. When we die, we leave all our material possessions behind.
2. We lay up treasures in heaven when we live by heaven's standards in the here and now. Treasures in heaven are the qualities and actions of disciples that reflect their total loyalty to God and His eternal kingdom.
3. People whose hearts are totally committed to God reveal this by investing their treasures in God's eternal kingdom. Our treasures reveal where our hearts are. Our hearts determine what our treasures are.
4. Single-hearted commitment to God provides a clear vision of reality as God sees it. Anything less than total commitment results in spiritual blindness or a blurred vision of reality.
5. Loyalty to God in incompatible with selfish, materialistic living. Many people think they can combine their religion with selfish materialism. Actually, selfish materialism becomes their true god and demands a fearful price.
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