Investing in Eternal Treasures: A Heartfelt Reflection

So here are the words from the greatest teacher who ever taught the most influential sermon whatever you think about it ever delivered do not store up for yourselves or uh don't lay up Treasures he says uh on Earth where moths and Vermin destroy and where thieves break in and steal but store up for yourselves Treasures in Heaven where moths and Verma do not destroy where theves do not break in and steal for where your treasure is there your heart will be. [00:00:32]

This is a passage about treasuring we are inevitably treasuring creatures we prize we cherish we hold dear and when you treasure rightly something wonderful something beyond the merely human can happen and so I will tell you one of my favorite stories it was inspired partly by a preaching Professor who I dearly love the init Watson who would often talk about how there is a Kind of Love a kind of treasuring that looks for what's valuable. [00:01:08]

There is a kind of love that creates value and so I will tell you about Pandy Pandy was pretty messed up P's face P's face was pretty messed up Pandy's body was pretty messed up Pandy was my sister Barbie's favorite doll she was not a very attractive doll she actually looked a little bit scary to me um she was not a very valuable doll I doubt that we could have given her away but for reasons nobody could ever quite understand in the way that kids sometimes do my sister cherished that doll. [00:01:58]

The measure of her love for for Pandy was how much he was willing to suffer to keep Pandy well and by her side one time our family it's true story took a vacation from Rockford Illinois where we lived up to Canada and of course Pandy went with us but when we got back home we were almost to Rockford and Barb you realized Pandy had stayed behind she was still in Canada and so no other possibility was uh thinkable we turned that car around and drove all the way from Rockford to Canada to get that doll back. [00:03:00]

There is a kind of love my old teacher Ian used to say there's a kind of love that just looks for value in what is loved what do I think might be able to make me secure what do I think might be able to make me stable what do I think might be able to give me status but then there is a kind of treasuring that creates value in what is loved and Jesus Friend John talks about this when he says um this is love not that we loved God. [00:06:24]

It's no surprise that we should love God to treasure God above all else is the great commandment in the Jud Christian tradition it's interesting in Psalm 34 it says delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart we are to find our ultimate Delight our ultimate treasure ultimate worth in the God because he's The Giver of every good and perfect gift um everything that is good is wrapped up in him he is worthy of being treasured above all else. [00:06:54]

But then we have these things that he calls the desires of the heart uh little dolls like candy and that matters to God and God loves to fulfill that so now Jesus says you are a Treasurer and we all treasure different things and some little odd things and that's kind of a precious thing about us but be very careful what you treasure it is so easy to give your heart to that which cannot last people will often look back on um Financial opportunities and think if only. [00:07:34]

You could buy a share of cocacola when it first went public in 1919 for $40 if you had bought that then do you know what you would be worth today you would be worth nothing today because you would be dead today but that share if you kept letting it get reinvested would be worth over $10 million well you'd be dead and Jesus says it's that way be really careful what you treasure because you can divide everything up into two categories and one is temporary moth and rust and thieves they're going to get it. [00:08:05]

To treasure that is folly or you can treasure what is eternal now this involves our money but it's just not mechanically given money in fact this passage is deeply connected to what we have just been learning about Jesus actually says earlier on in Matthew 6 if when you give you blow the trumpets and you're just doing this to impress other people you have your reward you've given money but really you've only laid up treasure on Earth it was for your reputation storing up treasure in heaven. [00:08:45]

See is just another way of talking about seek first the kingdom of God become this kind of person whose heart has changed who is marked by true goodness from the inside and then you will carry that with you into eternity and when you invest in other people you carry them into eternity that will last forever When you pray for people I'm so grateful we have a prayer team I want to tell you about one of the guys out it his name is Ry and he had lost his wife his heart was broken he asked for prayer. [00:09:05]

And then Tim asked him we got a prayer team would you like to be on it and Ry said yes and quite recently uh when respond when requests for prayer come in Ray will pray for them and then send a response to some I'm praying for you he recently sent out his 1,000th prayer response to somebody who needed prayer and uh we have a whole team of folks that I'm so grateful for you I have felt what it is to be prayed for and I know that sense of I matter to somebody my pain matters to somebody. [00:09:35]

So today you know part of what Jesus says is um where you put your treasure your heart will be so find ways to treasure all the good things of Earth this creation that God has made but especially people because they're treasured by God love me love my ragd dolls Jesus says since God so loved us so treasured us we are a treasure John says not simply God that too but we are a treasure we to love one another think about years ago somebody. [00:10:10]