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Sunday 09/15/24
Title: Storing up what you Treasure Pt. 2
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Storing up what you Treasure Pt. 2
Treasure what will truly satisfy you
Matthew 6:19-34,
“(19) Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; (20) but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.
(21) For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
(22) “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light.
(23) But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.
If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
(24) “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
(25) “THEREFORE I SAY TO YOU,
do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on.
Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
(26) Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are you not of more value than they?
(27) Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
(28) “So why do you worry about clothing?
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; (29) and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
(30) Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?”
“(31) “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ (32) For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
(33) But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
(34) Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
It is important to realize that included in the list of things which God treasures and by direction of Jesus’ ongoing teaching we should as well is the delight, favor and reward of our Father. Just before verse 19 where we began reading, Jesus had just instructed us to not do things to be seen by man. To not seek man’s approval or favor. To not be a man pleaser.
The example He offered was very practical to the group He was addressing and that was prayer.
You see, the Pharisees’ liked to pray long, pretentious prayers to be seen and recognized by others.
When I was a young man I saw this regularly in the deacons of the Southern Baptist church I attended. Being a deacon back in that church was not a call to service, but to prestige. Our deacons were largely men of money and influence. Even as a young man I deliberately attempted to listen in on their normal conversations with family and other church members to see if the way they prayed was coming from a place of honesty, reflecting who they really were. In many cases, these men were pretentious and prayed long prayers in 1611 King James style otherwise known as Elizabethan English. It was as fake as a 3 dollar bill and for their trouble they received the praise of man – which is to say the esteem of some and the envy of others.
To these Jesus says – “You have your reward!”
Now it’s easy for me to look up on days and judge them for their pretenses but what of myself? How many of my works which appear so good on the outside have Jesus had to say the same to me?
This is part of keeping our eyes fixed on the prize.
There are so many ways in which the external esteem of others has always been loathsome to me so the enemy finds other ways to incur guilt in me regarding the sin. There’s the obvious expression of this sin where people do things to be seen by others. But what of a desire to Simply avoid their scorn. Is this not, in heart, very much the same thing? It is to live your life before men and not God. It doesn’t matter if what you’re seeking is their approval or to avoid their disapproval if they are still your primary focus.
Jesus’s instructions teach us to avoid falling into the ditch on either side.
His instruction is to value the esteem of God. To value what He thinks of our contributions, work, study and even prayer.
Later in Matthew 12 Jesus is recorded as saying rather plainly,
“(33) Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit.
(34) Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
(35) A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things.
(36) But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment.”
For years I missed the obvious and very practical meaning of this last statement. Jesus was not adding a third category of judgment for the words we speak but rather revealing that anything we speak that is good but which is not consistent with what is in our heart is an Idle Word and for that we will be judged. But the same is true on the other end when we as a child of God sometimes say things which line up with our flush but which are not truly indicative of our heart. This too is an Idle Word and will be judged – either by ourselves in Repentance before God or at the end when our works pass before Him.
“(37) For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” – Matthew 12:33-37
Later Jesus compared those who are truly part of His kingdom with these pretenders. It eludes to a topic we have brushed up upon twice now on Wednesday nights, using the mass church exodus of the Covid years as a luminous example.
Lord willing we will begin here next week.
Additional and Supplimental lesson…
This week we had many questions which took a leaning towards the political and a question arose about female governmental leadership so we addressed that which is what the following addresses. At the end of this article are some linked messages which will help the reader take this study further and offer key scriptural support. Also is the audio of this portion of the message as well which you can listen to by clicking on the photo at the end.
To answer the question I referenced the only Queen on all Jewish history, namely Queen Athaliah AND a prophetic word from Isaiah where God called female leadership judgment He passes on a land.
Let’s read the whole passage…
Isaiah 3:1-26,
“(1) Observe this: The Lord GOD of Hosts is about to remove from Jerusalem and from Judah every kind of security: the entire supply of bread and water, (2) the hero and warrior, the judge and prophet, the fortune-teller and elder, (3) the commander of 50 and the dignitary, the counselor, cunning magician, and necromancer.
(4) “I will make youths their leaders, and the unstable will govern them.” (5) The people will oppress one another, man against man, neighbor against neighbor; the youth will act arrogantly toward the elder, and the worthless toward the honorable.
(6) A man will even seize his brother in his father’s house, saying: “You have a cloak–you be our leader! This heap of rubble will be under your control.”
(7) On that day he will cry out, saying: “I’m not a healer. I don’t even have food or clothing in my house. Don’t make me the leader of the people!”
(8) For Jerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen because they have spoken and acted against the LORD, defying His glorious presence.
(9) The look on their faces testifies against them, and like Sodom, they flaunt their sin. They do not conceal it. Woe to them! For they have brought evil on themselves.
(10) Tell the righteous that it will go well for them, for they will eat the fruit of their deeds.
(11) Woe to the wicked–it will go badly for them, for what they have done will be done to them.
(12) Youths oppress My people, and women rule over them. My people, your leaders mislead you; they confuse the direction of your paths.
(13) The LORD rises to argue the case and stands to judge the people. (14) The LORD brings this charge against the elders and leaders of His people:
“You have devastated the vineyard. The plunder from the poor is in your houses. (15) Why do you crush My people and grind the faces of the poor?” says the Lord GOD of Hosts.
(16) The LORD also says: Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, walking with heads held high and seductive eyes, going along with prancing steps, jingling their ankle bracelets, (17) the Lord will put scabs on the heads of the daughters of Zion, and the LORD will shave their foreheads bare.
(18) On that day the Lord will strip their finery: ankle bracelets, headbands, crescents, (19) pendants, bracelets, veils, (20) headdresses, ankle jewelry, sashes, perfume bottles, amulets, (21) signet rings, nose rings, (22) festive robes, capes, cloaks, purses, (23) garments, linen clothes, turbans, and veils.
(24) Instead of perfume there will be a stench; instead of a belt, a rope; instead of beautifully styled hair, baldness; instead of fine clothes, sackcloth; instead of beauty, branding.
(25) Your men will fall by the sword, your warriors in battle. (26) Then her gates will lament and mourn; deserted, she will sit on the ground.”
So in this passage we have illustrated for us that when a woman reigns – like Queen Athaliah in Judah…and we know that God either appointed it or permitted it for the sake of judgment.
Before Athaliah took political control of Judah, the last two kings of Judah were Jehoram and Ahaziah – both of whom walked in the ways of Ahab who God had just judged and killed! Yet, here Ahab was, in effect, still ruling in through these men who had learned his evil ways over greater Israel were now corrupting righteous Judah and leading the people into sin. Part of Ahab’s sin was to (like Adam) follow after the leading of his wife. He allowed her to lead from the side.
It is a pattern we see SO OFTEN in scripture that it requires no defense – that God will MOST OFTEN judge us by handing us over into the hands of those we admire.
The Israelites admired and wanted to be like the Assyrians or Babylonians or the Moabites…etc. and so God, in response, turned them over these nations in captivity. He did this so they might learn not to desire ungodly things!
To have good eyes – be good trees which produce good fruit and value heavenly rather than earthly things (sound familiar?)
Here we have God doing the same thing, by allowing a woman – namely Queen Athaliah to rule in Judah!
If you were to read about her death at the hands of the priests – not a single person in the kingdom mourned her passing! Quite the contrary, they rejoiced!
These former kings were wicked men, who promoted evil in Judah and God had – had enough of Ahab and his corrupting ways! So He placed Judah under a woman and in so doing brought them into judgment and ultimately loosed the tongues and actions of the priests and led the people of Judah to a place of repentance!
Referenced messages:
Blessings!
