here your Treasure Is

WHERE YOUR TREASURE IS…

Matthew 6:19-20

19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:

20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

When we think on the things of this world that we might treasure, our minds automatically go to things like houses, cars and land. But there are things in our lives other than material things that we can hold dearer to us than God.

Take for example low self-esteem, seems harmless, but often we can mistake it for humility. A person walking around with their head down, pointing out all of their failures and none of their successes, comparing themselves to others is the furthest thing from humility. Low self-esteem is just another form of PRIDE. Envying others for what they have and what we feel that we should own, painting our own picture of what we believe we deserve from life is PURE BRED PRIDE.

You have all heard me talk about the “difficulties'' I used to have with the scripture about turning the other cheek. Growing up I was trained to protect myself, “Never let anyone take advantage of you”, “If they start the fight, you finish it”. But now the Word was challenging that mindset. God would have to be the one to protect me now, and I was not sure if I was prepared to do that. I never doubted that He could, but I knew that in order for Him to do that, I would have to take the low road, HUMILITY.

There was the issue of my pride I had to deal with. How would it look if someone was to just come up and slap me across the face and I could do nothing to retaliate? It would be ok if no one else was watching, but in my mind I would have to think twice about it if we were in a crowd. As funny as it may sound, it was all too real to me. It was the reality that I lived in everyday. My image was more important to me than what the Word had to say about it. It was something that I treasured, something that I valued, a mindset that I held on to with dear life.

Knowing that I held that mindset dear, God had to show me a living example of His Word in operation. On the news there was a pastor praying for people and in the midst of it, a man just punched him for no reason, and all the pastor did was turn and walk away. This was in a huge church, filled with people and all the pastor did was turn around, he turned the other cheek. So now I knew it could be done, I had no more excuse.

Then I came into a situation where there was a man; obviously possessed by demons, in another church where one of our Bishop's was preaching. It looked as if at any moment he was going to attack the Bishop right in the pulpit, and I just happened to be sitting right across the aisle from the man. The man was getting angrier as the message went on and it seemed as if I was the only one that noticed. In my heart I started praying and I knew something needed to be done, but there was a reserve telling me “If he makes any sudden moves I’ll have to take him down!”. Even though the anger was directed at me, I was not going to just let him attack Bishop. Even after praying to myself, I was going to go and talk to the man, but that reserve was still there. “Should I touch him? What if he slaps me as soon as I do?”

I eventually approached him, and nothing happened. I breathed a sigh of relief that nothing happened, but that could not negate the fact that there was hesitation on my part. The treasure of my image and upbringing could have prevented me from fulfilling my duty in that situation, and who knows what could have happened. God was using those situations to show me that if you value anything higher than His ways and His Word, it will show up and may sometimes hinder you from moving into what He would have done at any particular time.

Our mindsets are not only shown when we are the ones doing the ministering, but it will also be evident even when we are the ones being ministered to. At any given time God may send someone to us to minister, but what if one thing that they say is not “where we are”? We would be quick to say “I’m not that way” or “That’s not me!” But what if they list 99 things that are not right, but that one thing of what they say is 100% correct? What if that one thing is all God had to say? Would we now negate everything that was said because they were off every where else? Would we take the stance, “God didn’t send them” just because they missed you on 99 points? What about that one thing that was true? Are we too good now to take the low road in order to hear God?

Our images can be so much of a big deal to us in more than one way. But we have to examine it because continually not accepting counsel will drive people away. There will come a time when they might see us going over a cliff, but out of fear of our reaction, say nothing to help save us. Although that would seem natural to do in the world, as sons of God it would not be the righteous thing to do. We have to love our brothers enough to do whatever it takes to help save their soul.

Matthew 6:21

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

So now that we have seen that there are things about us that can be treasures, what about something that is not a part of us, something as simple as a job. Obviously there is nothing wrong with working. The Word even says if we don’t work we don’t eat. But what if our job becomes too much of a cushion? What if we get so comfortable with it that we no longer acknowledge God as our provider? We have worked so long until we already know that the job pays enough to take care of our needs, so there is no need to rely on God. Or so it may seem. Yes, God is the one who provided the job, but we must never forget that.

God is a jealous God and He can turn what we said to be our cushion, and turn it into a “bed of nails”. He can even stir things up at the office to make even going to work hard. We might even be in danger of losing the job that made us comfortable in the first place. God desires us not to miss out on heaven, so He might move those things that might keep us from it.

Some of us value our jobs so much that no matter what we feel like; tired or sick, we will always go to work. But when it comes to ministry, the littlest thing becomes an excuse not to go. “I was out all day”, “I have a cough”, everything now is more important than what is the most important thing in our lives, making it into the Kingdom of God.

Now on a wider scale; the devil knew that if he could change the way the church sees things, they would never make it to God. In this same chapter, the Word states:

Matthew 6:22-23

22 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.

23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness.

The devil knew that he could not change a son of God from withou so he has to change our minds on how we see things. The easiest way to do that is to change the leader’s minds, change what they value. The biggest question is; do we really value our place in God? Do we really value making it in at the end of our days? Don’t give yourself a good answer, or what the answer should be, but examine it this way.

Equate your answer with what you actually do. Is what you say out of your mouth lining up with the things we do in our lives? We cannot just go off of what we know and expect that it will be O.K. Our lives are the true us. What we do says who we are. Nothing we can do in “ministry” equates to what our lives speak outside of the church. Ask yourselves, how many times outside of “ministry” do we have praise in our hearts? Either in music, in dance, in whatever you do in ministry, is it in your heart to the point that you can praise outside of the four walls of your church? Even the things we do in the church can become something we treasure more than our place in God.

Now we have heard it being taught that once we find ourselves off course with God, that all it takes is a decision to do righteousness and we are back in right standings with Him. This much is true, but if we are honest with ourselves; those of us who have at one time or another backslid from the faith, making that decision is not always easy to do. Especially for those of us who have sat under the pure Word for so long, and know the truth, allowing ourselves to go against that Word requires us to totally disregard all that we know. As the scripture says, if the great light that is in us; (the pure Word, our knowledge of God), be darkened, then that darkness must be such a great darkness.

We would almost become as a man or woman who has never known God, because we had to do so much just to sin. And since we, as sons have given the darkness its power, it is almost as if it overtakes us, we now walk in darkness, we look and even feel like sinners because we have overridden all that we know of God to stay in sin. We even do things now that we would not do before. Our whole lives and beings are consumed with darkness. We no longer are living with purpose in mind or with heaven in our view.

As sons when we choose to live outside of the boundaries of God and we live trying to hold on to what we treasures, our lives are evidence of it. Where we used to be able to walk in love with our brothers and sisters, we distance ourselves from them. Where we use to delight in the Word of God, we can no longer wait for the church service to be over so that we can leave. Now, every message seems to be targeted at us, the pastor has something to say about us in every service and we don’t believe or think it is God. ,;

The people who are closest to us now become the least significant to us, since we no longer deem it necessary to show them Christ. But on the other hand, where will those who will be exposed to our down falls, be found? Are they now exempt from righteousness because we are out of the way? I’m afraid not. We all have to come to a place to where we can bear the infirmities of our brethren.

Galatians 6:1

Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.

There has to come a time in our lives, where we are strong enough to bear each other. A time where we no longer have to run to the leaders to tell the faults of others, or sit around and talk about them. There must come a time where we can actually restore our brothers in a spirit of love and not coming to them to just prove that we know their downfall, but coming so that we may encourage them to get back in right standing with God. The way the Lord would want others to come and get us out of our faults and not expose us, we must do the same for them.

Matthew 6:24

No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

In light of all that God has said about our treasures and things we hold dear in this world, this scripture sums it all up. There is no way that we are going to hold on to our “treasures of life” and still be able to fulfill all that God has for us. And if we cannot fulfill what God has for us, we will not be able to make it into the Kingdom of Heaven. God is making it so clear that no man will enter into the Kingdom unless we can overcome self; our wants, our desires, our image, everything that makes us “us”. It does not matter how long we have been under the Word, or how much of the Word we know, if we do not overcome, there is no entrance for us.

Luke 18:18-22

18 And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

19 And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God.

20 Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother.

21 And he said, All these have I kept from my youth up.

22 Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.

This is the prime example we have to follow.

The rich young ruler was given the same charge that we were; give up all of his treasures, everything that he held dear to gain eternal life. But it continues to read that he went away sorrowful because he was rich and he was not willing to let it go. We never hear of him coming back to Christ. He was offered eternal life but was not willing to pay the price to attain it.

Seems drastic because it pertains to material things, but that is still the only way into the Kingdom of God. There has to be nothing that we are not willing to give up to gain eternal life, if we would be perfect! But if we already value who we are now, there is no way we would feel it necessary to give it up to attain Jesus Christ. The sons of God can end up just as the rich ruler did sad and depressed, missing out on real life.

We have entertained a real God, and we have been offered eternal life through Jesus Christ, but when we decide to turn our backs on His life to hold on to what we know is not God, this depresses a son of God. A son is never satisfied not pleasing God. We know outside of Christ there is nothing but darkness and a creature of light will never be comfortable there.

Luke 10:17-20

17 And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name.

18 And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.

19 Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

20 Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.

Even as the men in this story, God may use us for any reason He choose to, but we need not equate ourselves with what God is doing. Any gifts that we have or any work that is done, it was all given to us by God. Even though it is all done for God and by God that is not the reason why He saved us in the first place.

We have to ensure that our names are in the book of life. If that is our focus, then it will be no problem for us to fulfill ministry at any cost, to live holy at any cost. Why do you think the disciples could look their executioners in the face and still preach the gospel with all fervency? How could they not sway from what they believed even while being killed? There was nothing in this world that they wanted more than to please God. No matter when, where or how they had to died, they knew that on the other side they would see the Lord in peace and that is the only thing that mattered to them. They never faltered even in the face of kings and those on this earth who seemed to have rule over them, they only had one purpose in mind, and that was glorifying the Father so that He could say well done at the end of their days.

It is easy to pick out those who no longer value their place in the Kingdom. We can walk around for days with iniquity in our hearts against our brothers with no fear of our names being blotted out. We no longer deem it necessary to live commending ourselves to every man’s conscience because we have no fear of our names being blotted out. When we no longer value our place in the Kingdom, there is nothing that we can say that we will not do. When you no longer fear being separated from God, anything is possible and being consumed in that darkness, makes it seem so easy to sin, and have no regrets. But there is hope! God has given us hope of restoration. As much as we can find to treasure on this earth, there is still one treasure that is found in us that can bring us back to God.

2 Corinthians 4:7-10

7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessel, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;

9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;

10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

The treasure that was left for us on earth may not seem as much to man, but God says otherwise. We already know that as long as we are on this earth, there will be trials, persecution and there will be suffering in our lives. But these things must come because Jesus had to suffer, so must we. But the Holy Spirit who we have on the inside is a gift that surpasses anything that we could ever gain on earth. No matter what we come to look like to the world, our suffering and denial of the flesh is all for the glory of God.

Our focus must remain on whether or not our names remain in the Lamb’s Book of Life. We must realize that the one thing that matters on this earth is fulfilling the purpose God in our lives, which is simply to live holy so that we may procure more sons for the Kingdom. If we always keep that in mind, and know that the reward that He has for us can in no way be compared to what the world may offer us, then we will forever treasure the things of God.

In everything we do, we must remember that our actions say who we are, and our actions depict our heart. Our heart is the seat of all we hold dear, our wants and desires, the treasures that we hide. If we treasure the things of man, we will gain only the things of man, and experience eternal separation from God. If we treasure the things of God, we will walk upright before Him and gain eternal life with Christ. So where is it that your treasure lays?