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Sermon on the Mount: "Lay Up Treasure" Matthew 6:19-21 · Clifford Baptist

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  Speaker A: Welcome to Truth for the Journey from Clifford Baptist Church, 635 Fletcher's Level Road in Amherst. Please join us today as Pastor Jeffrey Campbell leads us in an in depth study of the Sermon on the Mount. Today's scripture is Matthew, chapter 6, verses 19 through 21. And the sermon is entitled Lay Up Treasure.
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  Speaker B: Go to Matthew chapter number six. We're continuing to chug along through this Sermon on the Mount and we're going to talk about laying up treasure tonight. Laying up treasure as we think about the closing of chapter six. When I talk about the closing of chapter six, I'm not saying this is the last sermon of chapter six. I'm just saying the end of the book. We think about the end of the book. We're going to conclude the lessons on the end of chapter six and how we can keep the Lord first everything that we do. Matthew, and this is my own personal opinion, Matthew 6:33 offers what I believe is the summation of the second half of this chapter which says this. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. So how do you keep Jesus number one? How do you seek him first above all things? We understand that Jesus knew that his disciples would struggle in this area and he knew that you and I would struggle in this area. It is the battle of the flesh and the spirit, of keeping the Lord first in our lives. So we come tonight to seek God's direction and how we lay up treasure. But what we've also learned is this very, very fourth right is it cannot be about you. So we have seen the examples of praying and giving and fasting that it cannot be about you. If it's done to draw attention to yourself, it is done with the wrong heart and with the wrong intentions. Excuse me. In the 1950s, there were five young missionaries that went to Ecuador to the Okua people, a remote jungle population. And you may know who Jim Elliot is. He is one of those famous of the five. But Jim Elliot, Nate, Roger, Ed and Pete all went to Ecuador to try to witness to this tribe of people. They gave up the promises of the American dream and the American life to minister to this tribe. Many calling on their lives as wasted time as they gave their lives to try to minister to this tribe. Most of you know this story. You can actually read about it in a book or a movie, even called the End of the Spear. But that tribe ended up turning on these five missionaries and killing them all. Later in that story, Jim Elliot's wife, Elizabeth would go back and minister to this tribe, even forgiving and leading those men that killed her husband to the Lord. It's an amazing story. So I challenge you. If you're a book reader, read the book. If you're a movie watcher, watch that movie titled End of the Spear. But there's a little saying from Jim Elliot's life and here it is. It says this. He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose. And that sums up our lesson tonight as we think about laying up treasure. These five men chose an eternal treasure for over any comfort that could be given or found on this earth. The investment that they made as they laid up treasures in heaven is a picture of what we're going to talk about. It is the heart of the message that Jesus is trying to teach his disciples, his followers. A simple message that you will see tonight that if your treasure and your heart are are going to be found in the same place. That's the summation of the message tonight. And so tonight as we look at God's word, I'm not actually going to start in the book of Matthew, chapter number six. You can just stay right there. But I'm going to read a couple verses from First Timothy, chapter number six, verses 17 through 19. Here's what it says. First Timothy 6, 17, 19. Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high minded nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy, that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate, laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on on eternal life. The work that you and I are called to and to lay up cannot be found on this earth. We come asking ourselves tonight, what is our treasure? What has our energy today? What has our passion, our focus, our drive today that we don't want to lose? Are you pouring everything into one thing? What is that one thing you're pouring everything into right now? That's what your heart's after. That's your desire. And so tonight when we talk about treasure, it doesn't have to be money. It can be other things that vie for that position of satisfaction in your life. Some of those areas could be a job can be your treasure. If you're focused on promotion and power and moving up the corporate ladder, friend, I've been there and done that. If you devote all your time and energy, you're gonna forget about everything else that's where your treasure is. It can be money seeking wealth to cover wants. That's certainly a treasure. Your family can be a treasure. Now, you may say, pastor Jeffrey, I'm supposed to love my family. You, yes, you're supposed to love your family. But if your family becomes a treasure, you're in trouble. Our family, that can be an issue. There are many other options. But tonight I'm gonna look at three points in this sermon as we talk about laying up treasure that matter. Number one, the location of the treasure. Number two, the losing of the treasure. And number three, the love of the treasure. And those three things tonight will determine where we lay our treasure up. Let me start with prayer, Father. God, tonight, as we open your word, God, thank you for the bread of life, God, I pray, Lord, that these words are not my own. But Lord, are carefully through the vessel that people see tonight, which is me. But they are words of yours. I pray, God, guide us with your holy word. I pray. And we give you this time in Jesus name, Amen. I'm going to read all three verses from Matthew chapter number six. As we think about this Matthew chapter number six, verses 19, 20 and 21. Tonight, those are the three verses we're going to look at. Lay not up for yourself treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt, where thieves rake through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will be your heart also, or there will your heart be also. So tonight, three simple points. The first one is this. The location of the treasure. The location of the treasure. According to Jesus, the location matters. So there's no question, should we lay up treasure? No, that's not the question here. We should be laying up treasure somewhere. But the location of that treasure is up for discussion. So Jesus says in verse number 19, don't lay up your treasure upon this earth. Upon the earth. So we just finished. We're coming off the three examples of giving prayer and fasting. And the hypocrites who desired attention and recognition, man's applause. Their reward was where it was on earth, right? It was an earthly reward that they received well on the heels of that earthly reward. Here Jesus is saying, you cannot lay up your treasures on this earth. Those hypocrites saw an earthly clap, a pat on the back of that. A boy. Great job for your prayer. Great job for what you gave. Great job for fasting. Great job for what you. That was the earthly reward. And so what we see tonight is that we can lay up treasures on this earth. Location does matter. So I ask you tonight, when you think about laying up treasures and how they are laid up on Earth, what is that one thing that you're driving toward right now? Now, I'm not saying that all of us, the biblical answers, all of us are doing the. Are running after God 100%. I don't even do that all the time, okay? I get distracted. But the reality is this. The things that command our energy and effort and time, when are the things that we are working towards in laying up, how do we then lay up treasures in heaven? That's my question. How do we lay up treasures in heaven? In studying for this, I had to go back to the Internet. I'm thankful for the Internet because I remember a series 10, 12, 15 years ago called Hoarders or something like that on TLC. It freaks me out. And if you fall in this category, we're on opposite ends of the spectrums. And that's okay. My wife has trained me well over 20 years. And the fact of this, if it's not being used, it ain't staying around here, okay? That's the way that Terri has trained me and that's the way I operate. If you ask one of the staff members, I'm always walking the halls here and saying, what's that for? What's that for? What's that for? What's that for? Get it out of here, get it out of here. But I went back and watched a 2 minute and 54 second clip of this show, Hoarders, and I about had a fit. I couldn't stand to watch it for three minutes. But this woman allowed the cameras into her home and there was but a. I don't even know if it was a path to walk. And she said, this is my living room. And the living room, nothing there. One chair to sit in. Everything else was mounded up with stuff. In the kitchen, the table closed and piled up. The microwave looked like it was 30 years old and never had a wash rag on it. I was like, oh my gosh, how do people live like this? There was a can. This was, I don't know, in those 2010-2014, there was a can from 1998 that went bad in 1998, still in her cabinet she was holding onto. So I tell you this, that freaked me out, that flipped me out. But about the Hoarders, Buried Alive was the name of the show. It just clicked in there, Buried Alive. And literally she was Buried alive. She went into her bedroom and there was no place to lay. No place. And so I'm not downing that, but what I'm showing you is there are people that lay up treasures that hold onto things that are not good, that are not beneficial. Now we can look at a show like that and say, man, I would just come in there and take it all out. Well, what about our lives? What are we holding? What are we holding onto as Christians and laying up treasures that are not going to amount to a hill of beans. This lesson is not about a savings account or retirement account. That's not what this lesson's about. This lesson is about where is your treasure? So how do we lay up treasures for heaven? I believe we can lay them up in a couple ways. Number one, Jesus has to be your treasure. Jesus must be your focus. And if we are focused on him, then we are to love him with our heart and soul and mind and strength. And from there, we are to love our neighbor as ourself. And when you do those three things in that order, it's amazing what God will direct you to store your treasures at. It's amazing where God will lead you. So I think tonight, as we think about this, I've got a verse of scripture that I want to share in. It is one of my. It is my favorite verse. Colossians chapter number three, verse 23 and 24. Here's that scripture. And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men, knowing that of the Lord, you shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for ye serve the Lord Christ. So whatever you were doing, if I ask, how do you lay your treasures up in heaven? Whatever you are doing, you give it to the Lord and work heartily as unto the Lord. Meanwhile, loving him with all that you have and loving your neighbor and let him direct everything about your life. Surrender that part of your life to him. First Corinthians 10:31 says, Whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God. And so we're reminded that as we live on this earth, God is supposed to be getting the benefit of our life. So storing up treasure, the location of the treasure matters. Is it temporary or eternal? It's not planning, but it's priority. And so tonight, what do those priorities look like? Are they earthly minded or are they heavenly minded? That's the location. What about the losing of the treasure? Look in verse number 19. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt, where thieves break through and steal. With that one verse, you see that a location on earth, you will lose that treasure. So what does the losing of the treasure look like? Earthly treasure is temporary. Heavenly treasure is secure. And I just did a little bit of a word study here. But that word corrupt that is used in verses 19 and 20 in the King James is also the same word. If you go back to verse 16 where it says they disfigure their face. So remember, the hypocrites disfigured their face. They painted up their face to look like they were fasting. They made it look right. Well, that hypocrite that is disfigured and that earthly treasure now have the same word connected to them. They are corrupt, they are disfigured. Okay? And so I believe this is pointing to that, that these hypocrites were laying up earthly treasures. But we see that, as Jesus Sundays, there are three things that are going to destroy your earthly treasure. The first one is a moth. We think about that little insect that tries to sneak in your door in the summer night before you can get in there because you left your porch light on. Y' all have to chase those moths out too, don't you? You catch them and get them out of there, right? But that little insect seems innocent. Aw, it's a cute little butterfly like thing, right? No, it's not. You put that moth into a bag of clothes and what's going to happen? You ain't going to have no clothes, are you? That moth will destroy. It's silent, but it is a destroyer of things. And sometimes our earthly treasures are destroyed by innocent things that we don't realize or recognize that they're going away or that our stuff is being destroyed. But there's that moth that's destroying very innocently. The second thing is rust. That's another silent destroyer of things. That you may think that something metal cannot be destroyed or harmed, but that's not true. Rust eats away, destroys, and devalues the things of this world. If you go try to sell your vehicle and it's got rust all over it, it's devalued. It's not worth anything. How many of you like Toyota vehicles, right? Yeah. There's a common problem in old Toyota trucks. The frames rust, right? And you can have a beautiful truck, but if that frame is rusted out, you're not going to get an inspection sticker. And it's not going to be worth anything to sell unless you fix it. So rust devalues it, renders it worthless. And so we See, that rust will devalue and render useless the things of this world. It will eat away when you don't realize what's going on underneath, underneath that vehicle, that rust is working underneath your stuff. That rust is decaying and devaluing. That there's a third way to lose treasure, and it's to the thief. How many of you understand when you have something, you gotta protect it. And the more people know what you have, the more you have to protect what you have. The thief will devise a plan and carry it out to steal. And Jesus says they break through and they steal that earthly treasure. There's no safe safe enough. There's no lock strong enough. There's no wall tall enough to protect the treasure of this earth. Just last month at the Louvre Museum in Paris, the most famous museum in all the world, I hope you heard about this. It fascinates me. I hope I'm not wrong by saying that. It fascinates me. In seven minutes, four thieves went up to the most famous museum in all the world, and in seven minutes stole eight pieces of jewelry valued at $102 million and made out like a bandit. Two of them have been caught. I think two of them are still on the Lord. Seven minutes. The most famous secure museum in all the world. And the thieves broke in the point. Here's my point. All earthly treasure will be lost. That's Jesus point. No matter what you accumulate on this earth, it will not go to heaven with you. It will not. And so the point of it, you can spend your life accumulating things, and at the end of your life, not only will you lose those things, but you could also lose your life to an eternity separated from God and hell. Nothing will go with you from this world. So where do you want to lay up your treasure? In a place that you know it will not last. In a place that you know it will decay. In a place that you know it will be stolen. Or do you want to invest in a place called heaven, a place where earth, where things cannot get destroyed like the earth. And so when we think about that heaven, that place where we want to store up and lay up our treasure, what does that look like? Look at verse 21. Going to read 20 and 21. But lay up yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Verse number 20 says this. There is an investment where things will not be stolen. There is a place, a location, where things will not be stolen. It's heaven. And that's where you need to invest. That's where you need to store your treasure. And we're going to talk a little bit about that in this point. Point number three tonight. Is this the love of the treasure? Do you know that your treasure has a shadow just like me standing here? I'm looking at my shadow right here. Y' all can't see that thing. It's right there. Wherever I move, that shadow follows me. And just like that treasure, wherever your treasure is, your treasure has a shadow there. Your heart will be also. So the heart is the treasure. Shadow, wherever that treasure is, that's where you can find your heart. What we value tells you not only who you are, but it carries a reward. And it's important where we lay that reward up that it's not lost or wasted away. One of the ten commandments, thou shalt not covet. You know that behind that commandment, I think that is at the heart of the storing up of the treasure. But verse number 24 of Matthew, chapter 6, verse number 24, I'm going to jump ahead and just read the end of that verse. It says this. You cannot serve God and mammon. Now we're going to get to that. But as we see this verse, the material things of this world, we've got to be careful not to devote our life to serving and living and working for these things. So these words caution us to think where we want to store up our treasure. If we desire attention, this earth will have its reward. It will already be received. But heavenly rewards are earned in the secret place. Do you remember that from a few weeks ago? The secret place. That's where the heavenly rewards are earned. And so I just want to encourage you, as we think about treasures being laid up in that secret place where God knows your intentions, where God sees forgiveness, where he hears prayers. These treasures are rooted in the love of the ultimate treasure, and that is Jesus Christ. And so tonight I want to encourage us to leave in this place tonight saying, okay, what is my ultimate treasure? Is it Jesus? If so, then we work toward laying up those heavenly treasures and expecting a heavenly reward. But if not? If not, then our treasure is being laid up on this earth. Jesus is showing his followers this. You can't love the attention of this world and the stuff of this world more than you love me. You can't. It will not be tolerated. So when we think about earth and heaven, I'm going to give you a couple of examples tonight of what storing up things on earth would look like versus storing things in heaven. Number one, we can store up our wealth on earth or through generosity, we can make investments in heaven. We can seek status on this earth or we can humbly serve and store up those heavenly treasures. We can seek the comfort that the world offers us, this earth offers us. Or we can sacrifice and store up that treasure. We can find security in things and having stuff on this earth or we can find our security in Jesus collection. I'm not saying collecting things is wrong, but we can collect things on earth or we can work for character and store up those heavenly treasures. Those are just a couple examples. We could go on all night about these things. But tonight, as we close this lesson down, when we think about what we love the most. Your treasure, your heart, your reward. Notice through this study what we learned. Your treasure, your heart, your reward will all be in the same place. If it's on earth or in heaven, it's going to be the same place. And so what we're cautioned by, the love of treasure will lead to the location. That's where your heart will be. Possessions can possess. And so we must be careful that those possessions do not lead our lives. Where are we oriented tonight? Earth or heaven? Are we earthly minded or heavenly minded? Tonight, there's this little quote that I wrote down. Well, I'm going to give you this first. Colossians, chapter number three, verse two says this set your affection on the things above, not on the things of the earth. That's a great reminder as we leave. But here's this quote that I wrote down. Your treasure shows your love. Your love reveals your loyalty and your loyalty exposes your Lord. I'm gonna say that one more time. Your treasure shows your love. Your love reveals your loyalty and your loyalty exposes your Lord. There's a lot of truth there. And so tonight, as we contemplate laying up treasure, we are warned very directly that we cannot, we cannot love the things of this earth more than God. Let's pray together, Father. Lord, thank you for tonight, God. We thank you for your word and Lord. We just pray that you use it, Lord, to not only convict us, but lead us in this time together. Father, tonight, as we submit the rest of our evening to prayer, God, I pray that you will go before us in the situations that are going on in our church, family and the lives that are represented here tonight. God, we thank you just for your unending love for us. And God, we pray, Lord, that you will continue to work in our hearts to make us more like you God, I pray in Jesus name. Amen.
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  Speaker A: You've been listening to Truth for the Journey from Clifford Baptist Church. You're always welcome to visit Clifford Baptist Church for Sunday School at 9:45, worship at 11:00am and when Wednesday evening worship at 7:00pm Join us again for Truth for the Journey.