Mount“Treasure in heaven”

BibleClass.com.au Teaching SeriesSeries: The Sermon on the Mount

Part: #26 Main Scripture: Matthew 6:19-34

Teacher: Dr Paul IlesDate: 28.10.2012

The MP3 audio of the study upon which this transcript is based and a learning guide are available from http://bibleclass.com.au/

Inline, direct scripture quotes are italicised. Block quotes are indented.The New King James Version is used unless otherwise stated.

This transcript has undergone minor editing to ensure readability.

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IntroductionToday we’re moving into the second part of Matthew 6. The section in verses 19-34. We have been dealing in the first half of the chapter with our life as the individual Christian lives it before God. It’s a life that’s lived between you and the Lord alone. Life which ultimately has an audience of one, and that one is God. We also spent a little bit of time on our prayer life, looking particularly at the structure and the guidelines that the Lord Jesus gives us as to how we should be praying.

More broadly, the Lord Jesus is teaching us now how we live in the world. The first thing He says is, live your life before God. Have a relationship with God. Have a prayer life between you and your God and we’ve started to see that during the miniseries on prayer over the past two weeks.

Now we’re going to move on to deal with some issues concerning real life in the world itself; living in today’s society. We’re going to deal with what the Lord Jesus says concerning when we go out there in daily life, in the real world. There are two major problems that we will have to deal with; problems that might well overwhelm us, even ruin our life and usefulness for God.

1. The first problem we’ll find out about is the world itself. You can end up loving something in the world itself. It gets to be your treasure. It’s a snare; it’s a trap. It will take you away from the Lord.

2. The second problem is the fact that you can actually be overwhelmed by the troubles, worries and the cares of just living daily life. Lots of things make demands on our time and our energies. They bombard our brain. I don’t mean wrong things, perfectly right things: the cares of family life, the cares of a career, study. All that sort of thing can overwhelm you and you can lose your point of connection with the Lord and your testimony can be ruined.

That is what the Lord Jesus is now going to discuss – living life in a real world.

Problem 1: The world itselfFirstly, we have the statement of problem number 1 in verse 19: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth,” - that’s the statement. Then He goes on - “where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal;” - in other words, spoil your treasure.

The first statement - the statement of the problem - is really in two parts:

• Firstly, don’t lay up treasures on earth, where there are rust and moths. • Secondly, be sure to lay up treasures in heaven, where there is no rust and no moths.

Then He goes on to give us some reasons why we ought not to lay up treasure on earth. This is what can go wrong. There are actually three such warnings given, and they are:

1. “Where your treasure is there your heart will be also.” He says that in verse 21.

2. The second warning or explanation is contained in this statement from verse 22: “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light.”

The meaning of this second warning is that, if you can see things clearly and perceive things

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properly you will be thinking rightly and everything that you do will be in touch with what is right. Whereas if your eye is evil or it’s unhealthy, it’s perceiving wrongly and “your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” You know, the eye is the source of that light. If that goes out, then you’re in trouble because you are not going to get light from anywhere else. Where you should have got your light from isn’t giving you light and you end up like somebody completely in the dark. You are seeing things wrongly, perceiving it incorrectly.

3. The third warning or explanation is in verse 24 and it’s this: “No one can serve two masters;” - it’s not possible.

This tells us that we can’t have divided allegiances. You can’t have treasure in heaven and treasure on earth. It’s only one or the other. If someone is serving two masters, then “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.” Mammon means earthly possessions; things that belong down here.

So problem number 1 has been both stated and illustrated. In a nutshell, the problem is that you can end up having treasure in the wrong place; loving the wrong thing. If you love something in the world you will end up not really loving the Lord.

Problem 2: The cares of daily lifeRemember that problem number 2 was that you can actually be overwhelmed by the world. He says, therefore, not only should you not be treasuring it or loving it but actually, verse 25 says that you treat it like this: “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life.” That means you take no anxious thought for your life. It doesn’t mean you don’t think about life, but it’s more specifically referring to anxious thoughts about your life - “what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on.” Don’t let those issues in life be the worry of your mind overwhelming you.

Jesus continues through verse 26, “Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 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?” That is what you have to keep in your mind all the time: You have a Heavenly Father. How did our prayer life begin? With the statement, “Our Father.” It is something about which we remind ourselves of and remember in all things.

Verse 28 gives us another illustration, this time to make the point from verses 25-27: “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 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?” - In other words, while the non-Christian’s life and thinking and energies are taken up with all those sorts of things, the Christian, the one who has a Heavenly Father, who is in the family of God, for them He says, “For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.” There is nothing we need in life that He doesn’t know that we need and clearly He has promised to supply all of our needs. We don’t need to be lost in the worry of it and the anxiety about it and the running after it and it filling our minds and taking our time. No, you don’t have to be in that situation at all because you have a Heavenly

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Father who knows you’ve got need of these things.

SolutionsSo problem number 1 was that you could start to love the wrong things and give your life to the wrong things. Jesus says that, really the answer to this is, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” That is verse 33.

The second problem was that you can be overwhelmed with anxiety and worry and your whole mind is concerned with just meeting the demands of every day. But He says, in answer to that, “do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” That’s verse 34.

He is saying that you shouldn’t be having these anxious thoughts that are overwhelming you. You actually should live one day at a time and get the grace each day, on the day, for the day. And after that, tomorrow will be another day and on that day your Heavenly Father will be able to meet your need for that day. God doesn’t give you everything you need immediately and let you use it up over the period of your life. He gives it to you day by day. He wants you to learn to live day by day. He wants you to learn to pray and say, “Give us this day our daily bread,” - our needed bread for the day. He wants you to learn to live such that you are dependent on Him, where He is the focus of your life, where ultimately He is your treasure so that you will never forget Him, you will always love Him. You will never move away from Him and you will never put anything in His place.

That is the teaching of Matthew’s gospel chapter 6 verses 19-34. That is the danger facing every believer as they go out into the world. They suddenly find that they latch on and they start to have a treasure in the wrong place. They suddenly find they are completely overwhelmed by the demands of daily living. If you are a man with a family you are just overwhelmed with the fact you are trying to keep ahead and provide for your family. If you are a student at the college you get overwhelmed with the fact that you must pass your exams and get the finest result. If, maybe, you are a woman and you have a family, you are overwhelmed with the cares of looking after the children. All of these things are right in themselves but if anything they sneak up on you and dominate you and that becomes your guiding focus in life and the next thing you know, these are the things that you put first and suddenly it is your treasure and you didn’t realise it.

The Lord tells us now, “Be warned! Seek first the kingdom of heaven and all these things will be added to you.” Your Heavenly Father knows you need to provide for your family. Your Heavenly Father knows if you are a young person and you need to have a career and you need to have a means of earning your living. He knows that you need to pass your exams. He knows that a mother needs to look after her children. But, He says, “I will meet that need if you will come to me.” Only on one condition will He meet it: that you put Him first and the kingdom of God first and you want to do right by Him first. “Seek first” - first! First! First! - “The kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added to you.”

ApplicationThat is the secret of the Christian; living in victory over the world and in fellowship with God. That is how the Christian lives. Live any other way and the world will overwhelm you. Remember

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we’ve got enemies living today. The Christian has enemies:

• The world; • The flesh; and • The devil.

The world refers to the thinking, the people, the society, the culture, the environment, the place in which we live. That is enemy number 1 – the world.

Enemy number 2 is the flesh. That’s the thing inside you that’s sinful. The thing that causes you not to trust the Lord. The thing that would want you to have a treasure in any other place except heaven and would cause you to treasure anything else but the Lord.

The world on the outside, the flesh on the inside and enemy number 3, the devil, is dangling the world in front of us and plucking on the strings of the flesh to make it respond.

That’s how life goes.

Seek first...Now the Lord Jesus is telling you that He is well aware of this. That He wants to give you the secret of living in the world and not being overwhelmed by it, but actually being victorious in it, being blessed by God in it and not suffering any loss in it.

Seek first... And prosperity

You will never suffer loss by putting the Lord first. You won’t. You will never lose money by putting the Lord first in the long run. He is no man’s debtor. I tell you now you will never fail your college course by putting the Lord first. He’ll look after that and if you don’t believe that I will tell you it’s true because I had to do it myself for enough years. No, I don’t mean that you can be lazy. No, I don’t mean you can go to sleep. No, I don’t mean you can go socialising and waste your time and then say, “I prayed about it so the Lord’s going to look after me.” He will not look after you because you were lazy, partying, socialising and so on. You know that you are being lazy in those situations. I don’t mean that. But, when it comes to a choice of what you put first, if you ever put the Lord first I tell you now you will never lose out. Never! It’s a rule of life. You want your family to prosper? Put the Lord first. You want yourself to prosper in real happiness and joy? Put the Lord first. It works every time because God has promised that that’s how it will be.

Seek first... And prayer

This is also why Jesus taught us about prayer first, in the preceding section. You will forget all about this if you haven’t got your prayer life right, because your prayer life underpins your living in the world and the environment in which you have to move. Your prayer life reminds you all the time of God your Heavenly Father. It reminds you all the time of heaven and His kingdom. It reminds you all the time of the fact that you don’t belong here. There’s something far better. You are passing through on a journey. That’s what the scripture teaches us. We’re all on a great and grand journey. We’re all passing through - pilgrims and strangers, it says, and there’s something even better up ahead and He blesses you every step of your life. That is what this is really and truly all about.

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Seek first... And living in the world

We cannot underestimate the difficulties of daily living. You can’t do it in today’s world, in the current society. It’s an alien, hostile environment. It really is. Once you are saved and you are truly a believer, you suddenly find out that, compared to everybody else’s thinking, political thinking, cultural thinking and general standards... Compared to all that... You have got different standards. You have got different values. You have got different goals. But here you are living in this situation where basically there is this huge difference. Not only is there a huge difference, but they don’t like it that you are different. They don’t like it. The devil doesn’t like you in his kingdom, different to the rest of his subjects. You are threatening his rule, you see. He doesn’t like it. The world doesn’t like it, society doesn’t like it. You are upsetting their plans; you are giving them a conscience about what’s right and wrong. They don’t want to hear that. They want to pursue what’s wrong and forget about God and there you are in the middle of it thinking about God, your Heavenly Father. Thinking about heaven and having a treasure up there. The truth is that you have to live in a hostile environment.

Now this is important. You do have to live in it. You cannot just elect yourself out. People do exactly that, you know. And it can often be a very pious and genuine desire to escape the world and its temptations and its influences and its problems. It’s the whole root of the monastic system; the idea of the monks. They take themselves out of the world. They shut themselves away for a life of prayer and fasting. They want to live a holy life so they shut themselves out of the world. Sounds like a good idea? There’s lots of problems with it because the trouble is that when you shut yourself out of the world and you shut yourself into a little monastery or a little cell you actually shut yourself in as well. You might have shut the world out but you’ve shut the flesh in and we can see the disaster that’s imminent in that situation!

Besides, the Lord Jesus didn’t save you and me to take us out of world right now. He saved us and He deliberately chose us in order to leave us in the world right now. We’re left here for a reason. We’re left here to live for God in the world. We’re left here to shine the light in the world. We’re left here to learn how to get victory over the world. We’re left here to learn to live in this world in the fear and trust and faith that’s in the Lord. That’s what we’re here for.

The world is a powerful enemy. It’s a constant battle. It really is a daily battle to live a God honouring, prayerful life in today’s world and we’ve got the two problems: the first problem was that you can end up loving the wrong thing, and the second problem was that you can end up getting overwhelmed just by the demands of daily life.

Treasure...What is a treasure?

So let’s go back there and read verse 19. I want to define treasure here. What is it? Simply, I put it this way: the treasure you have is the thing that you value most. Your treasure is the thing that will be last thing in your life that you would let go. It is the thing that occupies most of your time, thinking, and energy. It is ultimately what matters most to you. It actually impacts and influences all of your behaviour. It is actually the thing that becomes ruler number 1 in my life. This thing I don’t let go. This thing I hang onto. This thing I, above all else, prize and I treasure.

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Now, what are the things that matter most to you and that govern your life? What’s the thing that takes up all your time and thinking? Is it something on earth or is it something that’s connected with heaven? That’s what He’s teaching here.

Treasure on earth... Is it just wealth?

Now don’t get the idea that a treasure on earth is something to do with a rich man and it’s all his money. That’s what you automatically think. That man has got a problem; he’s got treasures on earth. “Look! He’s wealthy! He’s got it all back-to-front and upside down.” That’s not what the Lord is teaching here. That can be so, however. What’s your treasure? It could be your possessions, yes. It could also be your ambition, career, or status. Today it could even be someone’s sport. You see people that just live for their sport; their time, their lifestyle, their diet, their conversation, their whole mentality is bound up in a sport. What this person has done - not realising it maybe - is they are laying up for themselves a treasure which is upon earth.

Treasure in Heaven... The Lord Jesus Christ.

But the Christian has had a major change. He’s had a brain transplant. He’s had a heart transplant. He’s had a personality change. He has got treasures too, but ultimately for the believer our treasure is the Lord. Now have you got that? Think about it. Does He matter most to you, to me? Is that the focus of our time and energy - is it His kingdom? Is it His work? Is it His people? Is it His house? Is it His will? Lay up for yourself treasure in heaven! Ultimately, all together, that’s the Lord. All His interests. That’s treasure in heaven.

In Heaven...Temporary versus permanent

“Don’t just think of things on earth,” we’re told. Why? Because they only last for now.

If you sort of add it all up this is how everybody thinks and how everybody lives. “What gain do I get here and now?” People don’t think of later on in future. “Well this pleases me now. I’ll get this now, I’ll get that now. If I don’t put this first then I will lose this now and I’ll lose that now and I won’t get this or that... Now...” The whole idea is this: be careful concerning the things that are just for now because in the future the moth can get it, the rust can get it. In other words, it decays with time and thieves can break through and steal it. In other words, it can just go in an instant. Everything you’ve got on earth, everything! Right from your health to your possessions, to your reputation, to your career. It can go just like that. Have you ever been in that situation where you’ve lost your health? Somebody loses their health and they’ve lost everything. Or somebody in the financial crisis loses their business. They lost everything. How many people did? What happened? Well, the moth and the rust go it. You get the idea? It was just crumbling and decaying and somebody just took it away from you overnight and it was gone.

The Lord says therefore, don’t be thinking of the here and now. Have some serious thoughts about the outcomes and the future. Not just physical needs, not just earthly needs. What about spiritual needs and heavenly needs? Because He says, “Heaven is where the Lord is, that’s where your Father is, that’s where your ultimate home is.” You lay up treasure in heaven then you won’t find that there is anything that can corrupt it. It will never decay. The thieves cannot take it away.

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It won’t disappear overnight. The Bible tells us that we have got an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, that fades not away, reserved in heaven for us! It can’t decay and nobody can take it. Your name is on it and God has given it to you. Now, He said, that’s what you want to think about! That is where your mind ought to be! Be set on your treasures which are up there in heaven.

Biblical examplesLet’s look at some examples in scripture. In Hebrews chapter 11 we will see how the righteous men of God lived in days gone by, being examples for us as to how we should live now.

Let me just say again in passing: there is nothing wrong with possessions. There is nothing wrong with a career. There’s nothing wrong with family. That’s not what we’re saying – it all becomes wrong when it becomes your focus and it dominates your thinking at the expense of your spiritual life.

AbrahamHebrews 11:8 says, “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.” Why would he leave home and family, his inheritance, his culture? Why would he just say, “I don’t value that anymore” when he didn’t even know where he was going to finish up?’” We read on... “By faith he sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange or a foreign country.” So now he is away from home, in an uncomfortable environment, living in tents. He could have had a good house back at home!“By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise;” - now this is the reason why, note this - “for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”

He was waiting for a city that didn’t belong to earth but belonged to heaven. He was listening to God and putting His word and His requirements first and he became a pilgrim or a stranger because he had his treasure in heaven and he didn’t have his treasure on earth.

The PatriarchsVerse 13 tells us, “These all died in faith,” - who are they? Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham and Sarah - “not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” They were persuaded and convinced of the promises. They didn’t belong to earth. They didn’t belong to the here and now. They were up there in the future, they embraced that and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims. As long as they lived on the earth, they were foreigners, not belonging, and travellers, going somewhere else, whose treasure belonged in another land or another country.

For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had op-portunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.

Now that is exactly what these people did. They didn’t lay up treasure on earth; they laid up treasure in heaven. They didn’t let the here and now dominate their thinking - their ambitions

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or their goals. They were thinking of a city whose builder and maker was God, and God was their God.

Does age matter?Now you say. “Well that’s fine, you sort of get this kind of outlook on life, you get this sort of wisdom when you get older.” Look, can I just speak to you because there is a good number of young people here and quite frankly I really pray for you and plead for you that you never lose your way in life. Some of you are teetering on the edge of losing your way in life and if you continue on laying up treasures on earth and moving along that line of the here and now you will end up going over the edge.

Remember the Lord Jesus took this up later in a parable. He said the sower came along sowing the seed, and it was sown amongst thorns. And what happened was, as this seed of the gospel was growing up in them, so the thorns grew up - they are the cares of this life, the riches of this life, the pleasures of this life. All were allowed to grow together and so this person gets to a situation where on this side there’s the gospel and the Bible, and on that side there’s the Lord and there is the Heavenly Father. On this side there’s all these things in the world - the cares of this world, the riches of this world - and they’re fighting for attention. And he or she finds out, you cannot serve the both of them. You will end up loving one and hating the other or else just serving this one really and despising that one and then you become unfruitful.

That’s what we’re talking about. That’s why I’m taking this up. That’s the message I want to get to you. Make your mind up. Where’s your treasure? What do you love? What do you want? Where do you belong? Where are you going?

DanielYou say, “Well when you’re young you don’t think like that.” Hey! Hold your horses, that’s not right! You’re old enough to make intelligent decisions, to make career decisions and some of you would say, “I’m old enough to make marriage decisions.” Fine, you can make spiritual decisions also, and until you’ve made that the rest of your life will be a write off and a mess.

How old was Daniel in the Bible when he made his decision? Did you know he was about 16? He had been taken away from his native country. He was carried down, a captive into Babylon. He was one of the brightest boys of the nation of Israel, absolutely smart, highly intelligent, very well presented, tremendously capable. And the king of Babylon that conquered the nation and took them away captive and said, “Pick out the best of the young. I will teach them and I will train them up in my school to be the bright lights and the leaders of my nation, thinking like I think, eating what I eat and living as we live.”

Daniel gets down there and he’s faced with his decision in this situation. He goes along and they say, “Now this is what we want you to eat, this is what we want you to learn, this is what we want you to do.” He starts off at the age of 16 and he says straight out, “I’m sorry, I won’t eat that kind of food, I won’t do that kind of thing, I won’t be part of your plan.” Now, in actual fact, that was it. He could have lost his life straight away.

Daniel purposed in his heart not to defile himself with the king’s dainties. Daniel said, “No.

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Its God first.” Daniel said “No. It’s God’s kingdom first. For me it’s not here and now, it’s not treasure on earth, its treasure in heaven.” You know what happened to Daniel? He served as Prime Minister of that foreign country throughout the reign of three and a half kings. What did the verse say? “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added to you.” Many a person has had blessing in their life, grand blessing, great blessing in their career, maybe great blessing in their finances, even, but underpinning it all - not that they went looking for it - but that they put the Lord first.

MosesHebrews 1:24 gives us another excellent example – Moses. “By faith Moses, when he became of age,” - frankly I don’t know what age that was. Whatever was regarded as the age of independence or adulthood in the land of Egypt and if anybody knows that I would appreciate knowing what it was. It wouldn’t have been a great age. But, when he was come of age, he “refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.” In other words, he would not be Pharaoh’s grandson. He was brought up in the palace, he had all the wealth and position and possibility even of getting to the throne himself but when he got to that point where he had to make a choice, he said “I’m going to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.” So he was “choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin.”

This is what Moses decided to do instead, in verse 26: “esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt;” Those treasures were far greater than Pharaoh’s riches, but included his palace, his table, his fame and his position. But he said. “No, I won’t lay up for myself treasure on earth. I’m going to think about the future.” Why? The end of verse 26 says, “For he looked to the reward.” He said, “I’m thinking of, I’m looking at the outcome of what I do now. Where will it lead me?” So he forsook Egypt. He didn’t fear the wrath of the king. He endured because he was seeing Him who is invisible. His focus, his attention was on God. “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added to you.” Moses ended up a servant of God, a man of God, a man of history, one of the greatest men of the nation, and it all hinged in a major way on this decision.

Where you and I end up tomorrow rests on the decisions of today. Where you get your rewards tomorrow rests on where you put your treasure today. What do you love most? What rules your life? What rules my life? What is the last thing I let go? What is the first thing I let go? Is it that the Lord goes first so that I can do this second thing instead and put it first or does everything else go second and the Lord always stays in His place? He must always stays in His place as Lord, provider, blesser, carer, keeper. My final treasure is the Lord. My final thoughts are about heaven and what lies up ahead. I say to myself, “What am I building, where am I going, what do I want?”

5 loaves and 2 fish It’s exactly the same idea as what the Lord Jesus said to those that came because they wanted loaves and fishes. Remember, they saw the miracle of the loaves and fishes and they all followed Him. They were searching for Him, going over the sea to find where He was and He just says to them, “You’ve come because of the loaves and fishes. Labour not for the meat that perishes but for the meat that endures and to life everlasting.” That’s the idea right there.

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ConclusionJesus’ parableIf you have these possessions, they must not be your God. What does a rich man do with his possessions? You say, “Well I’m not rich it doesn’t count for me” – no, no that’s not right – what do you do with whatever possessions you’ve got? What do you do with them? Read Luke 16, the Lord Jesus says go and make friends with the mammon of unrighteousness. Use your possessions to bring blessing to other people! We’re not good at this, not very good at it at all. And he tells a story about a servant who is going to get the sack from his master because he hasn’t done a very good job. And he thinks to himself, “Well I’m going to lose my job. Now I can’t dig and I’m certainly not going on the street begging, whatever will I do? I’ve lost my career.” “Oh,” he says, “I’m a sharp man, I’m a sharp, opportunistic thinker. I’ll go out there and I’ll - I know - I’ll get all these people that owe my master all this money.” And he goes up to the first one and he says how much do you owe the boss? He says, “Oh, 100 talents I owe him.” “Here, here give me 50 and we’ll write the debt off.” He goes over to the next one and says, “Hey, you! How much do you owe?” “Oh, he says, 50.” “Right, just give us 25 and we’ll write the debt off.” You see, then he goes to the master. He says, “Before I leave, I just settled all your accounts. I collected all your money. Here it is!” And the master says, “Oh, you’re a good fellow after all,” and all the debtors out there say, “Wow, this fellow is a good creditor. When he gets the sack we’ll look after him!”

The Lord says, I’m not saying that’s right but what I’m saying is this - the children of this age are much wiser than the children of life. They know how to use what they’ve got to get ahead. Now, he says, you are my followers. You use what you’ve got also to get ahead, but not in this world - in the one to come! So, he said, use what you’ve got to make friends, using the mammon of unrighteousness, using your possessions to make other friends so that in a day to come when you get to heaven you will meet somebody up there that you worked with, that you talked to, that was in your family. And when it’s all said and done they are up there because of what you did in your life down here. Hey, maybe it was something you gave them, maybe you used your home to entertain them, maybe you just used your time to talk to them, but you used your earthy possession for the blessing of that person and when you get to heaven, there they are up there inside the door as well.

Jesus tells us to use what we’ve got for that. That’s how you use things on earth. You don’t use them for yourself and you don’t worship them and they don’t take your time. They don’t dominate your thinking. What’s your job? What is your career? What are you using your career for? Yourself? Your finance? Or for the blessing for the kingdom of God and the blessing of others? That’s the lesson.

“Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added to you,” for God is no man’s debtor.

END

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