We have several of our number that are missing, but we have a
great crowd because you're here and it is always a pleasure and
a privilege to worship God, as Terry pointed out in the very
beginning about worshipping God. That's why we're here.
It's all about God. It is always a joy to preach
concerning the word of God. And I am enjoying this series
very, very much on the great Sermon on the Mount.
Today we've come to a passage of scripture that's found in
Matthew Chapter 6 and verses 19 through 21, where Jesus is going
to talk on the concept of laying up for yourselves, treasures in
heaven. And thank you, Chris, for
leading that song just a moment ago, because it's really fitting
to our lesson, treasures unseen. There are things in life that we
spend a lot of our time investing in.
We do. We have investments that we do
with our money, We invest of our time.
And there's things in life that do draw our attention.
What the Lord is going to say is the Lord is going to tell us
that the treasures in heaven far surpass any treasure that you
could ever try to get in this life.
The things of this life are temporal.
They're passing, and they can all be taken away.
Let me just ask you a question before we go any further.
Have you ever had something in your life that was taken away?
Everybody has. And it's painful.
And the more emphasis you put on what was taken away, the greater
the pain and the greater the effect on your life.
This lesson is about focusing on better things and investing in
heavenly treasures. And we're going to talk about
what all that means. By the way, we're going to
prefer heavenly things over earthly things.
You know, before Jesus taught on these passages though, he taught
on the subject of fasting. And I'm not going to go back
into that because about eight years ago I gave a two-part
series on fasting and I'm not going to go back and do that.
What I want to do is though I'm going to skip those verses, but
I'm going to mention them in general really briefly as an
introduction as they apply to the same concept Jesus said
about praying. What did Jesus say when he
taught the concept of prayer? He gave principles of proper
prayer. And what Jesus said is he said
don't do it for the wrong motive.
Don't do it for the wrong reason.
Don't do it to be seen by men. We know that right?
It's got to be for the right reason.
In other words, prayer is something personal between you
and God. So is fasting.
So Jesus says when you fast, implying that you're going to
when you fast. And there are times when a
disciple of Jesus is going to fast.
Absolutely. In fact, in the Old Testament,
it's called afflicting the soul. What that means is that just
means humbling yourself. And there's times when you
humble yourself in fasting and it's accompanied by prayer.
What did Jesus say about that? He said, when you do it, don't
do it to be seen by men. Wash your face.
Put a smile on your face. Don't have a sad.
The Bible says a sad countenance.
Oh look at me, I'm starving. Don't do that.
Don't do it to be seen by men. After he got finished with all
of that, he's going to talk about the things that are most
important in our life, laying up for ourselves, treasures in
heaven. Now what I got to tell you is
this. I'm going to give today 5
practical ways to do that. You know, the Bible is filled
with general principles, and general principles are
wonderful. But the Bible is also filled
with practical application of how to achieve those general
principles. So I can get up here today and I
can say, you know, what you got to do, what you really got to do
is just kind of put the Lord first.
OK, great. What you got to do is you got to
really get your priorities straight.
How many times we heard that. Thanks for that.
What if I could, you know, in my career as a preacher, one of the
things that comes to mind or comes to my attention or is
brought to my attention from people wherever I preach is I
really want to do what's right. I really want to live the
Christian life, but I struggle. Everybody struggles.
I'm weak and sometimes I fall and I struggle.
I try to stay focused, but man, I keep getting derailed.
And one of the greatest requests from me is can you give us some
practical things that I can do to apply in my life to stay
focused and stay on track? That is so important.
I'm going to give you 5 things today on how to lay up treasures
in heaven and five ways to know if you actually are great stuff
from the word of God. OK, before we do that, let's go
to verse 19. Because in verse 19 Jesus is
going to say the flip side. He's going to say what not to
do. And the first thing he says is
do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth.
First of all, let me say Jesus is not condemning wealth.
He is not condemning earthly riches.
He is not saying that you have to live your life in poverty.
He's not saying that at all. He is also not suggesting that
money is inherently evil. You know, I got to tell you,
there's a passage in the Bible that talks about money with
regards to evil. We all know what that is, right?
I was watching a movie not long ago and Hollywood tried to
depict that phrase that is found in the Bible, but they misquoted
it. It was regards to a guy that was
guilty of greed. So somebody in this movie says,
well, you know, as they say, money is the root of all evil.
No it's not. And that's not what the
scriptures teach. What the Bible teaches is it's
the love of money that is the root of all evil.
There's many examples in the Bible by by the way of
describing men and women that were very wealthy and very rich,
but they were godly men and godly women.
Give you 2 examples. We all know who they are and I'm
use the two very common examples.
One. How about Abraham?
Abraham, a man of God, was extremely wealthy.
The Bible says he had gold, he had silver and he had cattle.
But he was a God fearing man. He passed the great test.
You remember when God told Abraham to go and and give your
son as a sacrifice to me? Fast forward through the story.
He's about to do it. God stops him.
What's the point? He put God first in his life.
Wealth. Not a problem.
What about Job? How about Job?
We always talk about the patience of Job.
What about Job? You know what the Bible says
about Job? He was the wealthiest man in the
East, the richest one. And yet do you remember what God
says about him? I love this.
God is talking to Satan about Job, He said.
Have you considered my servant Job?
How? There's none like him in all the
land. He said this.
He's faithful and upright. He fears God and shuns evil.
Here's the point. Wealth is not morally good or
morally bad. It's not.
It is a meanless. It is a mindless means of
exchange. We all need to have it.
And by the way, I'm just going to say it again.
I've said it before. I know it's repeating, but if
God has blessed you with wealth, that's great.
Good for you. Use it for the cause of Christ.
Use it for the glory of God. Be a giving person and go do
good with it. If you had $1,000,000, here's
the question. How much would the Lord have?
That's the point. It's not the wealth.
Wealth is neither good nor evil. The problem is our affection to
it can become a problem. I want to notice with you a
passage found in First Timothy chapter 6 and verse 9.
But those who desire to be rich, following the temptation and a
snare and into many foolish and harmful lust which drowned men
in destruction and perdition. This does not say those that are
rich fall into temptation. It says those who desire to be
rich. That's the problem.
I had a friend, I've known him many years.
He's six years younger than I am.
All he ever talked about was being successful in business and
being wealthy. That's all he cared about.
It was the most important thing in his life.
He had a desire to be rich. It was such a desire.
It overwhelmed him so much. Let me tell you what happened.
He got married on his honeymoon. He cut his honeymoon short to go
back home and go back to work because that was more important,
his wife said. What are you doing?
It's our honeymoon, he said. You knew what you married.
This is number one in my life. Desire to be rich.
They had a son. A year later, they were
divorced. It ruined his relationship with
his wife, destroyed his marriage.
It ruined his relationship with his son.
Had nothing to do with either one of They didn't have anything
to do with you, either. Either of you.
Either of them destroyed it. He got remarried, and she had
children too. His desire to be rich continued.
No, he did. He just kept pursuing wealth.
He got incredibly overweight, his health began to deteriorate,
and he was a severe alcoholic. At the age of 50, his kidneys
failed and now he's on dialysis at 50.
While on dialysis, he had a heart attack and died at the age
of 50. His greatest desire was to be
rich. Did he accomplish it?
Yep. He had a $50 million company.
You know what his father told me the other day?
He said. It's really sad.
He was this family's financial rock, but he was a terrible
father. Was it worth it?
Throughout the Lord's ministry,
the Lord repeatedly warned against possessions.
He said this in Matthew chapter 19 and 24.
It's hard for a rich man to enter heaven.
What he said is this. It's easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle than a rich man to get into heaven.
You know, why all the distractions?
What else did he say? Riches can choke out the seed of
the gospel. Not only riches but the cares of
this life. Mark chapter 4 and verse 19 #3
You can't serve God and money. Didn't say you can't have God
and have money. It says you can't serve both.
You just can't. What's the point?
The point is this. The key to wealth is our
attitude toward it. And I'll just put this little
quote on the screen. If your possessions begin to
possess you, you've forgotten about God.
Have you ever stopped to consider that we are bought at a
price? In Romans chapter 6, a beautiful
chapter, it talks about that very thing.
You are a slave to someone or something.
Right now you are. Everybody is You're either the
slave of sin or the slave of righteousness.
When we come from the world, we are a slave of sin, right?
We're in sin. We just sang a song about Jesus
and we find redemption in Jesus and life in Jesus.
Why? Because we came from the slave
market of sin. The Lord purchases our salvation
by His blood. We contact the blood baptism,
our sins are washed away. And guess what?
From that point forward we become the Lord's servant or
slave. And that being the case, be very
careful. Don't let your possessions begin
to possess you, because the one that possesses us is the Lord.
He owns our life. This is what Jesus says though,
about treasures that are on earth.
He says, where moth and rush destroy, and where thieves break
in and steal. Here Jesus is going to give
three things that demonstrate the perishable nature of worldly
goods. Here they are moth, rushed and
thieves. You know the Lord was absolutely
brilliant. You know why?
Because they would have understood the relevance of
everything he just said, did you know?
And back in ancient Palestine, back in those days, 1st century
Palestine, one of the things that described wealth was
clothing. Now, back in 1st century
Palestine, most of the clothing was made out of wool.
OK, a moth can destroy what's often considered what's
describing your wealth, which was your clothing.
What he's saying is don't put too much stock in the treasures
on the earth when an insignificant moth can destroy
it. Don't do that.
By the way, this is a very fitting example because clothes
were very valuable. I'm gonna give three reasons.
Number one, average person didn't have much.
I got to thinking about this. I kind of even felt a little bit
bad about this. This morning I'm in my office.
I'm looking over my lesson and I started thinking about all the
clothes in my closet that I do not wear.
I would imagine that everybody in this room has a bunch of
clothes that you haven't wore for a long time.
I think that's everybody. You know why?
Because we don't live like that. What we do is we've got the
abundance of everything, especially in our country.
It's easy to get clothing, by the way, you can go down to a
thrift store and get it for inexpensively.
You can buy it at a garage sale. I know a preacher that's got
money, but he buys all of his clothes at thrift stores and
garage sales, all of them. Suits, ties, everything.
OK? It's his choice.
I'm just saying, it's easy to get clothes.
You can even go to places where they give it away for free.
The Lord was making a point here, though, that clothes was
very valuable because the average person didn't have much.
You couldn't just go down to the store and buy it down at the
mall. You had to make it.
So it's very precious. What else?
Secondly, clothing was so valuable that in ancient times
it was frequently taken as spoils of war.
Joshua Chapter 7 and verse 21. Again, clothing is valuable.
What else? The size of one's wardrobe was
often marked by his financial status.
Judges 14 and 13. OK, So what he's saying is he's
talking about the kind of wealth that they would have had back in
them days. One of which is clothing.
Don't put too much stock in that.
Why? Because an insignificant moth.
Here he comes, going to chew it up.
Wow, what about rust? Now I'm going to tell you, when
I think about rust, I think about corrosion, don't you?
Corrosion on steel. Maybe you've heard this phrase
when it comes to a boat, that a boat's cancer is rust, right?
You got to get the rust out. You got to do something about
the rust because they don't eat it up.
Interesting. It's very interesting because
the actual word rust, according to Mr. Robertson, means eats.
What's he talking about? He's talking about things that
eat your wealth, A moth, and even rust.
So while the application, I think in the general sense,
could be about rust and it could be in corrosion, it could be in
those things. Yeah, that's true.
But I think in the context of the passage and what the word
actually means by eating, I think it has a broader
application. Let's go back to wealth.
The first thing we said that marked their wealth was closed.
We know what the second thing was.
According to Luke, Chapter 12, grain.
Grain marked wealth. Remember the parable, the rich
fool. I'll not go there.
We don't have time, but wealth or grain marked his wealth.
That's why he says I'll pull down my barns and build greater
than all my stuff, right? So the concept in a broader
perspective regarding grain and things that a farmer would grow.
Rust describes something that eats.
And now what do you got? You got mice, you got rats,
rats, you got bugs, you got all kinds of stuff eating the
profits of the grain from the farmer.
That's wealth, too. Insignificant things.
And by the way, did you just notice what I just gave you?
The two examples of cloves and Moss, and I'm talking about
grain and mice and rats. They are things beyond your
control. Does that mean things in life
can be taken away from you, beyond your control?
Yes. Does that mean it's unfair?
Yes. But it's true.
And it does happen. So don't put too much stock in
those things that can be taken away beyond your control.
What about this, though? What about thieves?
Thieves pose a great threat, threat to anyone who has worldly
goods, and there's a great number of passages that bear
this out. I'm going to tell you, if you
have something, it doesn't have to be expensive, it doesn't have
to be extravagant, it doesn't even have to be all that
valuable to you. If you possess something and you
don't protect it, somebody will take it.
Give an example just the other day.
Tanner in the back of his truck had a blower left in the back of
his truck. Got stolen.
A blower. Come on.
I gave him the blower. Didn't even cost that much.
You know what else they did? They unscrewed the ball off of
his trailer hitch and stole that too.
The ball. Not the whole hitch, just the
ball. If you have something, somebody
will take it. Thieves are always that way.
What does the Bible say about thieves?
Well, it says many things. I'm going to give you one.
Verse John, chapter 10 and verse 10.
The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and
destroy. That is a thief.
Look at the flip side. Look at the Lord here.
But I have come that you may have life and they may have it
more abundantly. That's the difference between
treasures on earth and treasures in heaven.
All right, what about this? What do we do to keep the thief
out? Oh, we do all kinds of stuff.
We've got locks, we've got alarms, We've got bars on
windows. We got barbed wire on the back
wall because people were jumping the wall to break into cars.
Really. Has it come to that?
Yes, but it's always been like that.
Thieves will breakthrough and steal.
But do you know, back in those days when Jesus gave this
illustration, back in the 1st century Palestine, there were
two ways that you protected yourself from a thief.
Two ways. Number one, you took your
valuable possession and you buried it in the ground.
That's number one. The number two thing that you
did to protect your goods from someone is you place them in
your home. Let's talk about, first of all,
the hidden treasure as found in Matthew 13 and 44.
Now again, Jesus is making in this parable.
He's making a spiritual application of the Kingdom.
Remember what a parable was. A parable is a laying alongside
something from the physical realm, laying alongside the
spiritual realm. And get this, they were always
true. It was true on the physical
side. It was true on the spiritual
side. Always.
OK, that means this. He said again, the Kingdom of
heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field.
Why? Because that's what people did.
They took the treasure and they hid at the field.
They stuck at the ground so nobody would take it right.
The 2nd way that they did that, by the way, is they put it in
their house. Homes back in those days were
not built like homes in our day. Homes were built by way of dirt
and clay that was hardened by the sun.
You know, mud huts, Clay huts, right.
So you know what's interesting here?
This phrase right here. Thieves break in and steal some
translations. Say breakthrough and steal.
Do you know what the word actually means?
It actually means this. Dig through Why, 'cause that's
what you had to do. You had to dig through a clay
wall or a dirt wall of a house. And you might think, man, that
was back in those days. Glad I live in this day.
I'm going to tell you an example of how that's still happening
today. Tina's work, her boss, a
dentist, owns a building. You know what some guys did?
Couple guys, they busted through the outside wall of the
building, climbed through, busted the drywall on the
inside, got inside the building to try to do some stealing.
Still good thing the alarms went off and all that and got him out
of there. But I'm telling you, the Lord
was pretty brilliant, wasn't he? Back in them days, they dig
through. That's what a thief will do.
They'll dig through, They'll do whatever it takes.
My father used to say that fences make good neighbors and
all that. That's all true.
But he used to say this too. He used to say that a fence
keeps out the honest people because a dishonest guy's
getting through. That's just the way it is.
Nothing is secure. So in summary so far, don't put
too much importance on the things that can be easily taken
or destroyed. And then he talks about what is
really, really important and this is what he says.
But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where
neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break
in and steal. Here's the point.
Heaven is a spiritual realm. Please get this where our
possessions are safe with God. The very forces of advert that
adversely affect earth's goods have no power over the heavenly
realm. This does not mean that I can't
mess up and lose my salvation because I messed up.
That's not what this means. What this means is, when I lay
up for myself treasures in heaven, all the things of the
earth that adversely affect the world's goods have no bearing on
that inheritance. They can't do a thing about it
because it's secure and safe with God.
When we lay up spiritual treasures in heaven, they will
not perish First Peter One and Four says to an inheritance
incorruptible and undefiled, and that does not fade away reserved
in heaven for you. So with that being said, here's
my question. I really want to do that.
I want to lay it for myself, treasures in heaven.
I want to try not to be derailed.
I want to try to stay focused. I want to do that.
How do I do it? Here we go.
I'm going to give four general principles and then I'm going to
give a #5AA specific, practical way to do that.
I'm going to tell you in advance it's going to be hard.
I'm going to tell you it's going to be trying sometimes and
sometimes, often times it's going to be a struggle.
But please get this. This is Bible.
OK, here's the general principle.
Number one, recognize those things that are of lasting
importance. That's number one.
General principle. Get to how we do that.
Number two, general principle, cultivate a deep love for and a
relationship with God. I'm going to tell you something.
The greatest relationship you can ever have is the one you
have with God, the one that you have with God and Jesus Christ.
And let's not ever become or think we are just being stagnant
or just going through the motions, punching our time in as
we come to church and do all those things.
Let Jesus be alive in your life and have a relationship with
God. Make it real #3 General
principle. Understand that material goods
are given, so God's cause might be furthered.
Understand that you know the Apostle Paul, when he turned his
back on Judaism, lost everything.
He lost his status. He had a a status of being an
important guy. I like what Lynnwood Smith used
to say. We might have called him as an
educated man. We might have called him Doctor
Saul today. He was the very hired gun of the
Sanhedrin. He had all this authority.
You know what happened to him? He obeys the gospel in Acts
Chapter 9 and also as described again in Acts 22.
Do you remember what happened to his life immediately after he
obeyed the gospel? You want to talk about difficult
times? Please get this part.
Please tune in tight. They wanted to kill him.
Just because you become a Christian does not mean
everything's going to be good and wonderful and smooth and
easy. It's not.
If you turn your back on sin and you turn your life toward Jesus,
I'm telling you, the devil's coming with everything he's got.
Now remember what I said before We whip the devil with the Thus
saith the Lord. Submit yourself therefore to
God. Resist the devil.
He'll flee from you absolutely. He's a vanquished foe.
He was whipped at the cross. We share in that victory because
we have the blood of Jesus at baptism.
But we got choices to make, folks.
We got to make choices. You got to make the choice as
difficult as it might be. We need to understand that
material goods are given, so God's cause might be furthered.
What did Paul say about all the things he lost?
Notice Philippians 3 beginning in verse 7.
But what things were gain to me before these?
I counted lost for Christ. Yet indeed, I also count all
things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ
Jesus, my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things,
and count them as rubbish that I might gain Christ.
Wow. Let me ask you something.
Don't answer out loud. Answer inside.
Inside. Are you willing to give up
anything and everything to follow Jesus?
Or let me ask it like this. Is there anything you wouldn't
give up to follow Jesus? Paul says I gave all of it up,
that I might gain Christ. Do you know why?
Because none of it matters. Can I say something else too?
Even family? Jesus says he that loves father
or mother more than me is not worthy of me.
He didn't say don't love your father and your mother.
He said love them with everything you got.
Love me more. That's what he said.
OK, general principle #4, here we go.
Give to others freely, Give to others free freely.
Now, by the way, this is not just earning merit with God, and
we give to others freely. That's not what this means.
What it means is we are cultivating the proper spirit
and attitude toward the things that we have.
If we're a miser and a skin Flint about what we have, and
we're not giving people, we're holding on to the possessions
and we're giving that too much credence in our life.
But if we give to others freely with what God has already
blessed us with. And by the way, what you have,
God gave you because it's his and he gave it to us for us to
use. And when you do that and give to
others freely, you are on the right path to having the proper
mindset and perspective. Let me notice what these four
things are and I'm going to get into #5.
And this is what we're going to get specific.
Here we go. So let's do this.
How am I going to recognize the things that are of lasting
importance? How am I going to cultivate a
deep love for and relationship with God?
How am I going to understand that material goods are given so
God's cause might be fulfilled? And how am I going to have the
proper mindset to give to others freely?
Here we go, #5 I need to add to my life the fruit of the Spirit.
I got to add those things to my life.
Galatians chapter 5 beginning in verse 22.
But the fruit of the Spirit is Lovejoy, peace, long-suffering,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,
self-control. And Paul says against such there
is no law. OK, I got to make some
clarifications here. When you look at various
commentaries, there's a debate and a discussion over whether or
not the fruit of the Spirit is the human spirit.
Please stay with me on this. Is it the human spirit or is it
the Holy Spirit? Folks, it's an easy answer.
The fruit of the Spirit is the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
Let that sink in for a minute, OK?
The fruit of the Spirit is the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
OK, but it doesn't mean that the human spirit is not involved.
It does not come by direct operation.
The Holy Spirit does not give me these things by direct operation
without my choice. I'm going to give you some
reasons. I'm going to give you some
proof. In the passages prior to these,
what did it say? The works of the flesh are
manifest. Which are these?
And he gave adultery, fornication, idolatry, all the
things he lists us in. OK, that is the work of the
flesh. You could call it like this,
too. You call it the fruit of the
flesh, if you want to. OK.
All those things in the works of the flesh, and all of those
sinful things exist with or without me.
They exist as fact, right? They are the works of the flesh.
It doesn't mean I'm guilty of them, and it doesn't mean I've
applied them in my life just because they exist on their own.
In similar fashion, these things are the fruit of the Holy
Spirit. It's wonderful.
And they exist. And you know what?
They exist independently from me.
They exist because the Holy Spirit is perfect and it's the
fruit of the Holy Spirit. Great.
But it doesn't mean that I apply them to my life without my
choice and without working on it.
My human spirit has to be involved.
Personal choice has to be involved.
More on that. Just a moment.
But let's just talk about what they are.
Let me just talk about what they are.
The fruit of the spirit is love. You know what love is?
Love has sacrificial giving as its motivating factor.
That's great. That's what love means, by the
way. Sacrificial giving as a
motivating factor. Here's another one.
How about joy? Joy describes a delight because
of the expectation of good coming out of a trying
circumstance. Joy is to be seen in good and
bad circumstances equally. So wow, that's hard, isn't it?
What else? How about peace?
Peace is the condition that exists between man and God, and
between man and his fellow man. That's what the word peace
means. But you know, there's a broader
scope because of what the word actually means as defined.
You know what it means. It means whole.
Please stay with me because I promise you this is going to
make sense. It means whole.
And it refers back to Joshua chapter 8 and verse 31, when
they had to take stones that were whole, that didn't have
pieces broken off. They had to take stones that
were whole to build the altar without any peace broken off.
That's the same word, peace. So the word peace means whole
meaning this in my relationship, I'm whole in my relationship
with God, and I'm whole in my relationship with my fellow man.
That is a it is a fruit of the Holy Spirit.
What else? How about long-suffering?
long-suffering is the opposite of wrath.
It's when people try our patience.
We're patient with them. That's hard to do when people
try your patience. You're patient with them.
By the way, when I'm done with these, I'm going to follow my
sword right in front of you. OK, just hang with me.
It's the opposite of wrath. It's manifesting long temper and
not short temper. That's the fruit of the spirit.
What about this kindness? That's kindness in words and
actions. Sometimes we use the word oh,
he's a kind person. Well, kindness in the Bible as a
fruit of the Spirit is kindness in words and actions.
What about this? Goodness is behavior that
benefits the people we associate with.
What about faithfulness? Faithfulness is when a person's
belief in God is shown, it makes him trustworthy to others.
What's the difference between faith and faithfulness?
Faith is your belief in God. OK?
Faithfulness is belief in action.
It's a pretty good list here, isn't it?
We're not done. How about this?
How about gentleness? Some translations say meekness.
It's the opposite of being self assertive and having
self-interest. Wow, that's hard.
And finally, self-control, that is, controlling yourself with
your emotions and your passions. The words actually mean to hold
yourself in. Now, Paul said against such
there is no law. What does that mean?
He means this. No responsible government would
make a law against the practice of any of the characteristics of
the further spirit. Nobody 's going to give you a
hard time for living like that, right?
OK, so let me just say this. If we got these wonderful fruits
of the Spirit by direct operation of the Holy Spirit
beyond our will and beyond our choice, then that would mean
that everybody, I'll just get specific about this room.
Everybody in this room manifests all of these things all the time
because the Holy Spirit's perfect, I would say maybe you
don't. Come on.
Is sacrifice to others your motivating factor all the time?
What about joy of all these on the screen?
You know what I struggle with the most?
I struggle with joy. I do.
I also know where that's coming from, too.
That's coming from the devil. The harder I work for the devil,
the more it makes a man. The harder I work for the Lord,
the more it makes the devil man. If the devil can discourage me
by taking away my joy, then he wins.
He wins. What about the next one about
peace? Peace means whole.
I'm going to tell you something right now.
Sometimes I am broken. Are you?
Or do you just got her all dialed in?
By the way, If you got it all dialed in, if you're sitting
there going, hey, I'm good with always, then great,
congratulations. Good for you.
But to the rest of us that are not perfect, listen closely.
Sometimes I'm broken too. I don't always have patience for
people that try my patience. I don't always demonstrate
kindness in words and actions all the time.
I don't always do that which benefits the needs of others all
the time. I don't always demonstrate
faithfulness because nobody's perfect.
I'm not always gentle and meek. Sometimes I want to stand up for
myself. That's the opposite of meek.
And you know what? Everybody struggles with this
one right here? self-control.
Have you ever said something you didn't mean or you shouldn't
have said? And then you reeled it back in?
It was too late. I said some things here.
I want you to be encouraged by the next thing that I'm going to
say to you. The next thing that I want to
say is this. Don't feel discouraged if you
have not mastered the fruit of the Spirit.
Don't feel like you've failed because I'm going to tell you,
it's a struggle, It's a work. And transformation in our life
is a process. It's a journey.
It's not a destination. That's facts.
The Holy Spirit indwells every Christian, yes, but he he does
not, by direct operation make me manifest these things without my
choice. I've got to make the choice.
I got to work at it. And that's OK doesn't take
anything away. Remember this.
The Bible also says the Holy Spirit's in US, but it also says
we're in him. Later on in the chapter said if
we are living, one translation says, by the spirit, let's walk
by the Spirit. You know what other translations
say? If we're going to live in the
spirit, let's walk in the Spirit.
Don't you see that we got to make our Part 2.
Our part is The Walking. Our part is the choice.
Our part is applying these, and that's work, and that's OK.
And when we do these things, we are working toward our mindset
of laying up for ourselves treasures in heaven.
That's the next passage here. Jesus says this for where your
treasure is, there your heart will be also.
There's a natural link between your treasure and your heart.
But here's a philosophical question that's often asked Does
our treasure follow our heart, or does our heart follow our
treasure? I think it's both true.
I think both are true. The point is, we naturally
invest in the things that mean something to us and the things
that we love. That's a fact.
So the point is this. If that's the case, and this is
important to me, it won't be long before my heart will be
there too. It's the way it is.
And what did Jesus already say? Don't put too much stock on the
physical, fleshly, worldly things as treasures 'cause it
can be taken away. But if you invest in heavenly
things, God secures that investment.
Wow. If your treasures are in heaven,
our affections, our longings, and our desires will also be in
heaven. If our treasures are on the
earth, then our affections, our longings, and our desires will
be on the earth. Period.
Simple. So what am I saying?
Let's be careful what we value because that's where our hearts
going to be able to put some on the screen.
I believe this to be true. Christianity is a decision of
the heart. That's just what it is.
It's a change of mind. By the way, when we talk about
heart, we're talking about the mind.
It's a change of the mind and the change of will that
ultimately we understand this too, that all spiritual problems
come from a problem with the heart, folks.
That's why when we struggle and we get out of focus, it's
because of the heart, which is the mind.
The Bible says as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.
OK, all right, sounds great, preacher.
But how are we going to do all that?
How are we going to stay focused and keep our hearts right?
I want to keep my heart right. How do I do that?
OK, the very next verse. Jesus said this.
The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good,
your whole body will be full of light.
So now the Lord switches from the heart to the eye, and once
again He's talking about focusing on heavenly things.
The analogy is physical, but the lesson is spiritual.
If we have single vision for God, then we'll be dedicated to
Him. But when life clouds our vision,
that's usually when we struggle. Some translations say it like
this. If your eye is single and by
looking at it that way it appears that it's saying this,
it just means if my eye is focused and it does include
that. But the translation of this word
in the new King James is good. It doesn't say single.
What is the word actually mean? The word means healthy or clear.
Aren't you seeing the point here?
If my eye is healthy and clear, that's first and foremost.
When we see healthy and clear from a physical sense, then our
body is able to process the environment and it works
effectively. Likewise, if my spiritual eye
and my vision is set on good, then that'll be affected too.
How do you do that? I'm going to tell you something
You can't know about God without reading about God.
If you're struggling, OK, let me ask you how much Bible reading
you're doing. How much in the Word are you?
That's the first thing you can do.
When you get out of focus and your eye gets out of focus, this
gets clouded, muddy. Go back to the word of God.
Go back to the Bible. Get grounded.
OK, good. I'm.
I'm set. Now I I feel better.
Then close your Bible and go to God in prayer about the things
you read. You want to find out where God
is. You got to find out where he is
in His Word. You got to read His Word.
Stay in the word. Let that be living in your life.
That's how you're transformed. By the way, there's a connection
between our eyes and our hearts. I'm going to put a phrase on the
board. I'm.
I'm finished, but I'm going to put a quote on the board.
You've heard it before from me. But it is something that I
believe in and it is something that I live by.
I think it's totally true. It was a saying that was in a
movie and then it was used in a football sense and I used it as
a coach. But I investigated what this
means and had nothing to do with football.
It had everything to do with cancer patients that were
fighting the greatest battles of their life.
I'm going to tell you something. If you ever fought cancer, you
know what I mean? But nothing like it.
This one lady was eaten up with cancer and she tattooed these
words that I'm going to show you on the inside of her armor.
Here, here's the words. Clear eyes, full hearts, can't
lose. If you have clear eyes, which is
healthy and clear, and you're focused on that which is good,
and you're not allowing all the muddied things of the world
getting the way, it will lead to having the proper heart that
we're talking about. How do you have a full heart?
The hearts, the mind. But it also includes the
emotions as a demonstration or manifestation of the mind.
It begins in the mind. How do you get the mind right?
It begins with a clear eye. You're looking at things with
proper perspective. It leads to a full heart.
How do you do that? You rid yourself of all the
negative, hateful, bitter stuff. You get rid of it, you dump it
and you fill the heart, the mind.
You fill it with all that is good and right and wonderful and
the people that you love. You fill it with that kind of
stuff. When you do that, you have clear
eyes that leads to a full heart. You know what?
You can't lose meaning this. It doesn't matter the outcome of
the circumstance. You cannot lose because you've
just become the greatest version of you.
You can be, and the outcome doesn't matter.
Set your affections on things above the Bible says, not on
things on the earth. How do you do it?
Work on the furthest spirit in your life.
Work on having the proper eye, a good, clear, healthy eye.
Work on having a full, proper heart.
And guess what? When we do that, our inheritance
is secure and we cannot lose. And nothing that happens in this
world can take it away. Wonderful.
I'm finished this morning. Great blessings for being a
child of God. The first thing that a person
has to do in order to have the blessings that we talked about,
those You got to become a child of God.
You got to become a Christian. We never teach from God's word
without extending an invitation. The first thing you got to do,
you hear the word of God. Romans 10/17.
So faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
After you hear the word of God, we all have a choice.
You got to believe it with all your heart.
Hebrews 11 and six. Without faith, it's impossible
to please Him. For he who comes to God must
believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who
diligently seek him. Then what?
I got to repent of my sins? Truly these times of ignorance
God overlooked but now commands all men everywhere to repent.
Then what I need to be willing to confess Jesus as the Son of
God Acts 837 That Philip said, if you believe with all your
heart you may And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God. These steps are leading toward
or pointing toward the point of salvation, but it's a baptism
for the remission of sins. Where a person contacts the
blood of Jesus has his sins washed away.
He who believes that is baptized will be saved, but he who does
not believe will be condemned. If you've never taken these
steps of obedience, we'd love to assist you in that today.
Maybe you have. Maybe there's something in your
life that you just would like to get off your chest that you need
to correct. That is the case.
Come forward. Either case, we'll pray with you
and for you, God will forgive. Come forward while we stand.
While we're saying we thank you for listening to our podcast put
on by the Church of Christ at 2215 Plans Rd. in Bakersfield.
If you would like any additional information or you would like to
receive a free Bible correspondence course by mail,
please e-mail us at info@churchofchristbakersfield.com.
Our service times are Sundays at 10:30 AM and 5:00 PM and
Wednesdays at 7:30 PM. Please make plans to join us.
We would love for you to be our honored guest.