Where Your Treasure Is

Introduction

There is none like him, none can compare. Nobody’s evil, no riches. Lift up your eyes, see his great eye, so like an evil wings of life. Say lift your voice so darker days. Lift up your stream, sing on his praying, offer dark morning, brighter than eyes, soaring like evil, all wings of life, and you not know him, and creating lift up your eyes, see his brain light, so like an eagle, all wings of light, sing lift your voice, so dark your days, lift up your seat, sing out his praying, offer the light, brighter the light, soaring light evil wings of light, some will grow in single servants of God are hearing you. Lift up your eyes and see his brain eyes, so like an evil.

Please be seated. Some will grow weary and sin they’ll pursue. Others will serve God and their power he will renew. And we are here this morning to have our power renewed by a powerful and loving and living God. And we have sung to stir each other toward that end. And Ed has done a wonderful job. Our singing today has been incredible. And what that means is, visitors, you can’t leave.

Somebody needs to thank the Burklers, the Burkners and the Finleys for being out of town because we wouldn’t have had enough place to sit everybody. Had they been here. We’d had to sit them on the front row. Well, it’s good to see you all today. If you can be back tonight at five o’clock, the sermon at that time is entitled Faith Through the Fire. And there may be fire that you will have to endure in your life and make it through. And so hopefully you’ll come back tonight at 5 o’clock if you can. Okay, put your thinking cap on. What is the first Bible verse that you remember memorizing? You do have some scripture memorized. Didn’t it start in a Bible class somewhere? You have at least one, don’t you, Woody?

I usually pick on Thad and Scott, but it’s your turn. I know you know John 11, 35. Jesus wept. Yeah, he got that one. That’s one of the first verses that we memorize. And most of you, and I know Woody knows this one too. Acts 2 verse 38. Repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Oh, there are the Finleys back there. You’re not in your customary place. See, by the way, what does the preacher see when he preaches? I see everything. And I see the Finleys back there. Okay, just the Birkners are gone. I want to add another verse to the memory verse list that you need to know.

And that verse is actually only part of a sentence, though it incorporates an entire verse. It is Matthew 6, verse 21. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The handful of you who marched all the way across town to hear me preach on Tuesday night of the South Side Lectures to hear the one sermon that I did not preach here first at Decker Prairie. The dangers of materialism, you know that I concluded that sermon with a reading of Matthew 6, verses 19 through 21, and I pointed out that my longtime friend Pat Riley from the Dallin Road Church in Beaumont said these were the key verses of the Bible. And I’ve been saying that Pat said that for many years, and some of you may know that Pat Riley died just a few months ago of prostate cancer.

And I made the point that he knows now just how right he was about these verses. But I want to read these verses, and I want you to see the context of this statement. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

And where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness? No one can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and men.

1. You Love What You Treasure

So how does your love become evident? You love what you treasure, you treasure what you love. How does that love become evident? Well, it’s evident by what you will work hard for and sacrifice for, what you labor for, that evidences what you love, and that’s the concept of laying up for yourselves treasure. But this business about the lamp of the eye, what you treasure is evidenced, regardless of what we say, by what captivates your attention, what you are drawn to. And finally, what you serve, what gets you busy and active and working to possess. And so it’s one thing to be able to quote Matthew chapter 6 and verse 21 for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. But it’s another thing to evidence that is the treasure of your heart by the things you pursue and how you live.

2. I Go to Praise God

This may be easy to say, but what is your treasure truly? Can you say, I treasure his fellowship? I treasure his approval, I treasure a daily relationship with him, I treasure pleasing him, and flowing out of that. A relationship with his people.

Several reasons might exist why people attend worship assemblies, but this certainly ought to be at the top of the list. Why did you decide this morning to get up and to get dressed and to come here and to meet with all these people? Should it be first and foremost about the desire to praise God, as the psalmist says in Psalm 100, shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before him with joyful singing. Know that the Lord Himself is God. It is He who made us, and not we ourselves. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him and bless His name, for the Lord is good, His loving kindness is everlasting, and His faithfulness to all generations.

I like Ed’s Psalm number 644 to the tune of, I’m not ashamed to own my Lord, but the words are directly from Psalm 118, where the psalmist says at the end of that psalm, the Lord is God and He has given us light, and I give thanks to thee, verse 28. Thou art my God, I praise thee, I extol Thee, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his loving kindness is everlasting. Well, because your treasure is spiritual things and a right relationship with God and his people, is your heart truly that? Do you have the same sentiment of heart that Wes expressed when he said, I go to praise God? Or when he said, Secondly, I am there to see my Savior. When we come to this place, we don’t literally see Jesus.

Though our eyes do not see him, we love him, and we rejoice with joy, inexpressible and full of glory. Peter says in 1 Peter chapter 1, verses 8 and 9. But certainly the sentiment of the Greeks who speak to Philip, and Philip speaks to Andrew, and they say, Sirs, we wish to see Jesus. What a marvelous spirit is displayed by those Greeks, and he teaches them after they are brought to him. And then in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, as the Lord’s Supper is described, the unleavened bread and the fruit of the vine, aren’t we in our minds’ eye, the eye of faith, seeing Jesus as we partake of this memorial and remembering him, and that he now sits at the right hand of our Father? I go to praise God.

I am there to see my Savior. And West further said in this letter, I attend regularly, and it’s never enough.

And when you have that sentiment, you don’t have a problem with Hebrews 10 and verse 25 when it talks about not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. And the previous verse that talks about stimulating one another unto love and good deeds. Well, why should we even do that? I think we make a mistake if we go to Hebrews 10 and start hammering, attend the assemblies, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, and we miss the context of those statements where it says, we have been caused to enter into the most holy place by what Jesus has done. A new and living way which He has inaugurated for us through the veil, and we can draw near with a sincere heart and full assurance of faith, having our bodies washed with pure water.

I think sometimes we start taking that for granted, the access that Jesus has provided, the means of cleansing and forgiveness, the importance of our baptism into Christ as we rose to walk in this new and living way that the Hebrew writer describes. Hold fast your confession of faith without wavering. That’s the problem. We begin to waver. We’re going to talk about that tonight. Hold on. Faith through the fire tonight, the cause of the wavering, without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And so then consider how to stimulate one another unto love and good deeds. Is this the treasure of your heart? Are you concerned about developing these sentiments? I go to praise God. I’m there to see my Savior. I attend regularly, and it’s never enough.

And I join in the chorus of praise. And what a chorus it was this morning. You know, when the singing is like it was this morning, I really get energized. It really is wonderful to hear the blending of voices, stirring us. I wonder why God commanded us to sing. Must have been some profit to that in our walk of faith. Well, what does the Hebrew writer go on to say about that in chapter 13, verses 15 and 16? Why offer God the fruit of our lips? Why sing men, even though sometimes I think men have a problem with singing. Women like to sing more than men do. I don’t know why that is. It’s like maybe our voices don’t sound as pretty. Mine doesn’t. But that doesn’t stop me.

And when we sing a song like Tremble, we can go tremble. I know you can do that. Sing out. Even if the sound we make is not as pretty as we would like. Because we’re singing to God, and it flows from the thanksgiving that’s in our hearts through Him then. Let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God. That is the fruit of lips that give thanks to his name. So Wes says, I attend regularly and it’s never enough. And I join in the chorus of praise. I show everlasting faith by wearing my church best. I notice some of you dressed up this morning. We don’t have a dress code. James chapter 2 talks about the poor man that enters into your assembly, evidenced by the way he is dressed, and he’s not be, he’s not to be told, well, you sit back there in the back because of the way you’re dressed.

Bring him up front. Embrace him. Show him Christianity. It’s not necessarily about the clothes that you wear. But why is it that we put on our Sunday best? Where did that phrase come from? Because it was a way people evidence their respect. Perhaps culturally more in a time past than now, but even now. We show respect for the occasion, that God is worth the effort to go and to put ourselves out a little bit, perhaps. It’s a very little bit. In putting our best foot forward. And so he said, I show everlasting faith by wearing my church best. And then he concludes by saying, I’ll see you in church. You can count on me to be there and to be present. And that’s important too. I talked about our service tonight at 5 o’clock, and I realize some of you visitors may be going home today, and that’s okay.

But attendance from Sunday morning to Sunday night in a lot of places is waning dramatically. People just won’t come. To the extent that instead of trying to encourage better attendance, some have canceled Sunday night services. And Wednesday night services for that matter. And I was talking to someone, and this is about a conservative work, where there are 200 in attendance on Sunday morning and on Sunday evening, they’re fortunate to have a hundred. A 50% drop off in attendance. And that’s not just because there was a lot of visitors like there is here today on a Sunday morning. That’s the normal folks. 50% don’t come back. What a marvelous thing it is if we can count on folks who will say, I’ll see you in church, I’ll be there.

Probably because of the previous five things that are mentioned.

3. Houston, We Have a Problem

Okay. I have some bad news. Wes had some other things to say. Here’s the full quotation. The Toyota Center is my place of worship. It’s where I go to praise the hockey gods. I attend regularly, and it’s never enough. I join the chorus of praise. I show my everlasting faith by wearing my church best on a regular basis. I’m there to see my Savior, the man in the net. That’s a golden. I sit in my seat to show my respect. Hockey is my religion. I’ll see you in church. Go, Houston Arrows. That is sad. Hockey of all things. Okay, football, maybe a little bit. I can see hockey. Minor league hockey. I’ve been to a Houston Arrows game, and the best part about that was being with some of you.

They’re slow compared to the NHL players. Amazing. Okay, Houston, we have a problem. All of that emotion and commitment and priority and devotion and action and zeal for something that is passing and physical and not God. All of what, as we can say by his own quotation, all of what really deserves to be directed toward God is directed toward something else. The object of his affection will pass. Their season will conclude, his life will conclude. Then what? Well, none of us would ever say these things, would we? We may not be like Wes and put it in writing or to say it out loud in blasphemous ways. But you know, sometimes people say this. My job is my worship. Because it’s their treasure. It’s what they value even more than spiritual pursuit.

Some say, I go to praise the sports God. I choose ESPN over worship, study, and meditation. That’s where you’ll find me at 5 o’clock on Sunday night or 7:30 on Wednesday night, kicked back in my recliner, watching ESPN. Or some might say, I’m there to see my Savior, and who they mean is their family, because they exalt family and relationships with family above everything else, including meeting with the Lord’s people. Family is their God. Or materialism and recreation are my religion. And while these words may not actually be uttered from someone’s lips, like Wes actually enunciated regarding his religion of hockey, some people evidence that is where their treasure is. When they choose not to participate fully and completely and to put God first in their lives, what in essence they’re saying is that this material world holds out more value and hope and significance in their lives than their faith in God.

So it’s not necessarily about what you write. We may never speak these words. But is my life saying it? Well, he could have written those things about God. It sure looked like he did in the introduction of my lesson, didn’t it? But if he cares more about sports than worship, if he talks more about athletes than Jesus, is he more faithful to games than services? If he sings fight songs but rarely spiritual songs, if he dresses in that $135 nice jersey and cares little about his presence in worship, if he says, see you tonight at the game, but rarely see you tonight at worship. Where is his heart? How do you know? How do you prove that God is first in your life above everything else?

4. Store Up for Yourselves

Sometimes there are competing things there, aren’t there? Challenges to putting God first. We would all like to be able to go around the room and all of us raise our hands and say, I put God first. God is first in my life. That’s the treasure. I’m laying up for myself, treasure in heaven. And I hope that is right of all of us. That’s what we want to promote. That’s what we want everyone to pursue that’s here today. But how is that true? Let’s go back to the text of Matthew chapter 6. Store up for yourselves. Well, are you doing that? What is getting the time? We talked about scripture memorization. That’s something we do with our little kids in Bible classes, but have you memorized? Any new passages lately?

Thy word have I treasured in my heart that I might not sin against you. And Jesus demonstrated this in Luke 4 when his answer each time to the devil’s temptation was a quotation. It is written. A quotation from the word. We will likely not be successful against the advances of the evil one who prowls about as a roaring lion seeking someone to devour unless we are familiar with the text. Unless there are verses that we can recall. You know, I didn’t see Jesus saying, hold on just a second. We’ll get back to this temptation in a minute. Let me go get the word and let me look up the verses that I need. He has them stored in his heart. What is stored there? And yes, by participating in Bible classes, that’s one of my favorite memory tools.

5. What Draws Your Eye?

Just sitting here in a Bible class. I mean, the words of Habakkuk 1.5 are right there in my mind right now because we studied them. Be astonished and wonder. What have you committed to memory lately? You know, if I like to get away from my work and I need a break just like everybody else does from what you do all day long, you know where I’m headed, and that’s to the sports. I’ve always enjoyed that. But are we giving sufficient time to spiritual things and spiritual pursuit? That’s going to evidence the treasure. Secondly, what draws your eye? The lamp of the body. If the light that is in you is actually darkness, he goes on to say, how great is the darkness. What are we allowing into the lamp of our eye?

6. You Cannot Serve God and Mammon

That’s going to make us what we are. That’s going to indicate the treasure that’s in our hearts. What captivates your attention? Does righteousness capture your attention? Does hate for immorality capture your attention? And who are you choosing? When it’s God or something else, who wins? You cannot serve two masters. You must hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Our lives with the devil’s help, which is not really assistance at all, is it? Is going to put challenges in our way. Challenges of serving God above mammon, the things of this world. And we might be able to rest in our knowledge of the scripture and be able to quote Matthew 6 21, where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

But the question is, where exactly is my treasure today? You know that day when I obeyed the gospel, and the weight and burden of sin was removed, and I came up to walk in newness of life, my treasure was in heaven. But that was then. A lot of days have passed. A lot of ups and downs have been experienced. A little dabbling in sin. Moments of carnality. Where is my treasure today? Am I continuing to make a sufficient investment in the things of God? Following these statements in Matthew 6 are the familiar statements of chapter 7, verses 13 and 14. Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction. And many are those who enter by it.

For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it. I bet we’ve committed that to memory too. We could probably bring that one out if we had to. The broad gate and the broad way that leads to destruction, the narrow gate and the narrow way that leads to life, you there be that find it. Well, that probably just rolls right off the tip of the tongue. Why is it a broad gate and a broad way that leads to destruction? Because on that path, you can do anything you want. There’s no self-control on the broad way that leads to destruction. There’s no harnessing of our thoughts and affections. There’s no storing up of treasure and spiritual things.

Conclusion

You can just put your treasure wherever you want it. And thus it is the broad way that leads to destruction, and that’s why so many go in thereat. A few will choose the narrow way. But remember where it leads to life. The broad way does not lead there. May we say, as Wes should have said, the assembly of saints is my place of worship. It’s where I go to praise the God of heaven. I attend regularly, and it’s never enough. I join in the chorus of praise. I show my everlasting faith by wearing my church best on a regular basis. I joyfully sing spiritual songs. I’m there to see my Savior, the God man on the cross. I sit in my seat to show my respect.

Jesus Christ is my religion. I’ll see you among his church. Of all the things that will happen today in our community and in the world.

And we are so blessed that we know that this is right, that God is real, and that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. We are a blessed people. And if you’re not a Christian, we want you to be like us. Blessed to know and to have been forgiven by the blood of the Lamb. And if you’re subject to his invitation, won’t you respond as we stand and sing together?