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• (Mat 6:19-34 NIV) "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. {20} But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. {21} For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. {22} "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. {23} But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! {24} "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. {25} "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? {26} Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? {27} Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life ? {28} "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. {29} Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. {30} If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? {31} So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' {32} For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. {33} But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. {34} Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
• Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest: It is one of the severest of disciplines of the Christian life to allow the Holy Spirit to bring us into harmony with the teaching of Jesus in these verses.
• This passage of scripture changed my life. In my early 20s, when I began to consider following Jesus as an adult, it was this scripture, probably more than any other, that confronted my self-led, self-ambitious life and challenged me to the core of my existence.
• It bothered me. It was like a mirror that was being held up in front of me challenging me to live life God’s way.
• I would actually resist God for about another year before I would actually bow the knee and begin to follow Jesus on His terms.
• Even today, after over 30 years, I still am challenged by the call that Jesus is making to His followers.
• Even Oswald Chambers, who has affected so many people to grow as followers of Jesus, recognized the challenges: We cannot consecrate once and for all. Am I continually separating myself to consider God every day of my life?
• If Chambers found it difficult, no wonder we do.
• So let’s jump in and see how we are going to face this challenge. How we are going to live the life to which Jesus is calling us. A life that is totally counter to the way of the world.
• Jesus wants to correct our nearsightedness.
• (Mat 6:19-21 NIV) "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. {20} But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. {21} For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
• Myopia is the medical term from the Greek: μυωπία myopia "near-sightedness". It is also called near- or short-sightedness. Those with myopia see nearby objects clearly but distant objects appear blurred.
• One part of the human condition is that we are all myopic. From a theological understanding of the world, we are nearsighted, shortsighted.
• We struggle because we can only see what today holds, and we fear the future because it is unknown. Our near vision is good, but our far vision is limited.
• It forces us to try to plan for every detail of the future as if any one of us can actually plan for it.
• I don’t think that Jesus is necessarily against pension plans, but He certainly wants us to depend on His Father for our future and not trust in our own ability to plan for the future.
• This week, Johnathan Goddard was killed in a motorcycle accident near his parents Kathy and Johnny’s home in Starke. The Goddards were members here for several years before they moved to Stark, and actually came back for a while, because it was worth the drive.
• Johnathan played football at Marshall and was drafted by the Detroit Lions and would also play for the Colts until an injury sidelined him.
• I spoke with Johnny on Monday to see how the family was doing.
• Johnny was amazingly positive and shared that Johnathan loved fast things and had always lived that way.
• He shared how it had always been his dream to play in the NFL and that he had fulfilled that dream.
• There is no way to downplay the tragedy of a young death, but often I see believers fall apart at the death of a loved one that has loved 80 plus years.
• It is because we are nearsighted. We store up for today as if we can really control our future.
• This day is all we can see. Frankly, that is all that is promised.
• That’s why Jesus taught us to pray, (Mat 6:11 NIV) Give us today our daily bread.
• He didn’t teach us to pray, In Social Security I place my trust, In my IRA do I trust.
• The problem is that we treasure the earthly kingdom that we can see, but have so little hope, make so little preparation for the eternal, unseen kingdom.
• Jesus poses the question, {21} For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
• Americans are known for preparing for our futures, unfortunately, many of us have only prepared for the future that we think we can see.
• There is a new commercial advertising financial planning where the man is emailing his wife that he just checked 65+ on a form that he was filling out. He ponders how the + will be.
• No one knows. There is no promise, just the truth that nearsighted people are only storing up for what they can see and fail to trust God for what they can’t see.
• Jesus wants to increase the light.
• (Mat 6:22-24 NIV) "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. {23} But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
• When I turned 40 I began to notice two things, restaurants got louder and they had less light.
• I started to become like my dad.
• I first began to notice it when I was working on projects that I had to read directions. The print kept getting smaller and smaller. The parts were harder to tell apart.
• I would have to find a flashlight or get into the room that had the most light.
• One day just for fun I picked up a pair of non-prescription reading glasses and everything became very clear to me. Literally!!!!! It was a rude awakening that I was aging.
• I have been blessed with good eyesight all my life, and unlike my father and sister who couldn’t find their bedroom without glasses, much less drive a car without corrective lenses, I never needed glasses to function.
• I just couldn’t get used to carrying glasses, and I admit I am a little vain.
• I print the messages at 18 pt. not really because I am vain, but I really don’t like the constant reading and looking up, taking the glasses off effect. I guess you look more scholarly, but who am I going to fool.
• In my stocking at Christmas, Santa gave me one of those little halogen lights that go on your key chain. I discovered that I could read menus in restaurants again!
• The truth is, no matter how good your eyesight is, without the light, you can’t see.
• Jesus makes a strange statement: {23} But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
• John writes about the light in his letter (1 John 1:5-7 NIV) This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. {6} If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. {7} But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
• It is so easy to slip into darkness.
• I was reading in Sandy’s parent’s living room on a visit. When I first sat down there was a lot of light from outside coming in the room.
• Her mother walked through the room and asked if I had enough light, and before I could even answer she turned on the overhead light.
• I was ready to answer no, but as soon as the light came on I realized that I had been sitting in the darkness, straining my eyes. In denial about the lack of light, embracing the darkness. Actually, I thought of this later and realized that is the way most of us live our lives.
• We settle for dimly lit rooms. We become comfortable in the darkness and let our eyes adjust.
• Jesus always comes along to confront the darkness. It is always a surprise how much we have settled for darkness and have not embraced the light of Jesus.
• Beware of Double Vision
• {24} "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.
• Jesus doesn’t really advocate poverty or wealth, but he always points out the attitudes of our heart.
• Jesus wants to make it clear, if your motivation for a relationship with God is wealth and material possessions, then your vision is blurred.
• I have known some people who have had double vision. It is a terrible thing. You really don’t know which set of keys to pick up. Which fence post is close to your rear fender.
• You can’t call two things Lord of your life. If the lord of your life is wealth, possessions, security, your vision of Jesus will always be blurred, you won’t be able to focus.
• That leads to the next reality.
• Worry will keep your life out of focus.
• (Mat 6:25-32 NIV) "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? {26} Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? {27} Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life ? {28} "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. {29} Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. {30} If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? {31} So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' {32} For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
• I think this is the place where people think Jesus wants us all to join hands and sing “Don’t worry, be Happy,” or burst out into a little “Hakuna Matatta.”
• Let’s not trivialize faith. Jesus was not some happy go lucky Love Guru, just shooting people peace signs and signing copies on his books on meditation or how to rid your life of anxiety.
• Jesus’ message is that you will never be focused on the work of the kingdom if your focus is on yourself.
• Corrie ten Boom said it best, “Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength.”
• Worry will prevent you from enjoying and enduring the past, present and future events of your life.
• Jesus wants His followers to be free from their past, passionately living in the present, assured that God has their future in control. It takes faith to live like that.
• {27} Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life ?
• Faith places your focus on Jesus.
• (Mat 6:33NIV) But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
• Bishop Will Willimon in his book Sunday Dinner writes: Jesus calls for a reordering of priorities, not as a simple command to asceticism and self-denial, but as an invitation to be truly satisfied.
• The evidence of our faith is what kind of priority is given to the Kingdom of God verses your priorities.
• Is your focus laser-like on Jesus, or is it fuzzy.
• Jesus offers us salvation through grace, but that is only the start of the abundant life that God has for His followers.
• Focusing on Jesus, making his will for our life the priority of ours.
• Oswald Chambers (May 18), If you want to be of use to God, get rightly related to Jesus Christ and He will make you of use unconsciously every minute you live.
• {34} Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
• Invitation

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