2023 03 21 Where your security comes from

The speaker asks the audience what they would save if their house was on fire. They discuss various possessions like genealogy files, hard drives, wallets, passports, and sentimental items. They then talk about people who have lost everything and how it changes their perspective on material things. The speaker transitions to talking about treasuring God and prioritizing Him above all else. They discuss the Sermon on the Mount and how what we treasure reflects our character and principles. They highlight the importance of serving God and putting Him first. They also address worries about provision and emphasize that God will provide for our needs when we prioritize Him. The speaker encourages the audience to seek God's kingdom and trust in His provision. I have a question for you tonight. It's a bit of a cliche question, so you've probably been asked it before. Maybe you've thought about it before. But if your house, Lord forbid, was on fire, and you could save one thing, what would that one thing be? Let's assume everything living is already safe. Okay? Everything living, your children, your family, your pets, your plants, everything living is already safe. What would be that one thing you would go back to save? Anybody? Any thoughts? What's that? Oh, your genealogy files. Yeah? No, I could see that for sure. Yeah? Anybody else? Your hard drive. Your wallet? Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. So hard drives, genealogies, wallets, baby books. Yeah, yeah, nope, that's fair. That makes sense. Passport? Yeah, that's annoying to replace, right? Yeah? Your kid's first hair snip. Oh, okay, cool. Yeah, yeah, nope. Yeah, that makes sense. Anybody else? What would I go back for? You know, what I would probably go back for is, when I was a teenager, I used to draw comic strips. That was just kind of my hobby. And I have a whole bunch that I drew on paper that I've never scanned into the computer or anything like that. That's the only way I have them is on paper. So that's probably what I would go back for. But yeah, I think most of us, like we said, we probably go back for that family member or that pet or that kind of thing. But then we have these other things, if they were safe, that we'd probably go back for. Now, I've met multiple people in my life whose homes did burn to the ground. They lost everything. And, you know, before you get conspiratorial, I am not the common link, okay? I'm not an arsonist as a hobby. I only do it professionally for hire, and I have a strict criteria. But it's incredibly... What's that? It's incredibly enlightening, though, to talk to someone who has lost everything. It really does change their perspective on things, whether it was a fire or bankruptcy. And it does give a unique perspective. And interestingly, the people that I have met who've lost everything have told me that their mindset around material things change a lot. And they honestly said they didn't really miss anything they lost. Most of it was replaceable, you know. One of the people who I knew who lost everything was a child when they lost everything. And they said, yeah, they really missed nothing. The only thing that really changed for them was they don't ever buy physical media of any kind. No books, no print books or anything like that. It's got to be an e-book, because they're like, yeah, I'm just going to lose all of that, right? If I've got a digital library, it's in the cloud, right? So the other who was an adult when they lost everything, similar to some of the things that you guys shared, they were really only interested in things like the photographs and things like that that they only had physically, things like the baby book, that kind of thing. But each of us has precious things and people that we treasure. And I think what we value most personally, it says a lot about who we are, about our character, about our principles, what's important to us. I can see that obviously family is important to you. If the baby book is something that you would go back for, or the lock of hair, that's something you go back for. Family is obviously important. Lucy, like me, doesn't like all that government red tape hassle, so we're going back for that passport. I understand that as well. But that really brings me to the big idea that I have for you tonight, which is we should treasure God more than anything or anyone. And we are continuing a series on the Sermon on the Mount. If this is your first night, don't feel like, uh-oh, I'm not going to know anything that's going on. You don't need any context that everything will be all in here. But the Sermon on the Mount was a sermon which Jesus preached on a mount, hence the very original name, the Sermon on the Mount. And it's recorded for us in the book of Matthew. And tonight we're looking at the portion of the sermon that talks about what we treasure, what we value most. And my first point for you from what we're about to read is what you treasure is what you love most. We're going to jump into Matthew 6, 19 to 21, which says, Do not store up for yourselves treasures 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 vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. So here Jesus challenges us on where we place our treasure, either on earth, where nothing lasts, or in heaven, where it lasts forever. And I think this begs the question, what is the treasure we're going to store up? Because the shift here is not just the location of our treasure, but what actually is the treasure, what the substance of it is itself. You know, it's not about withdrawing your money from CIBC, taking it down the street and putting it at the bank of BMO, right? It's a bit more like switching from BMO to the blood bank. It's a totally different kind of thing that is being stored up. Some of the things in this life that we often try and store up are money, or reputation, or our impact on others. Let's just look at a few of those quickly, though. You know, our money is very fleeting, and I think if you ask anyone who invests in stocks, or gambles, or runs a company, money can disappear very quickly. Quickly as it comes, it can go. And it really doesn't provide for you. You know, even the money you have, it's because God blessed you to have it, you know? That lotto ticket is not going to save you from the issues in your life. And I'm just going to say this because I don't think this gets said a lot, this kind of maybe gets danced around a little bit, but it is something that I hear a lot, I've heard a lot of Christians say a lot. I'm just going to say it. God will not bless your lottery ticket. I'm sorry if that's something you believe, he's not going to do it. No more than he is going to bless your team to win the Stanley Cup, or anything like that. It's not going to happen. God is your provision, and gambling is squandering that blessing he's already given you. And I know that times can be tough. I'm not going to be insensitive to that, but that's when we trust God rather than get-rich-quick schemes. Secondly is our reputation or our legacy. Maybe we want to be remembered. And the truth is, most of us won't be remembered ten years from now, maybe even ten minutes after we die. So building up a legacy, while noble, should be less the goal of a life well-lived, but the side effect of a life well-lived. God's legacy is what must remain, and if our eyes are on him, we can share in that, but it's his legacy we're building. And any of the heroes in the faith that we read about in the Bible aren't really remembered so much for who they were, but for how they trusted God and had him as their treasure. Thirdly, the other thing that we try and store up here is our impact on others. I meet a lot of people who feel like maybe their ship has sailed. And the only way that they can make an impact now is to impact others. Whether it's me up here hoping that my words have an impact on you, or whether it's the parents in this room hoping to raise their kids right so that they can change the world one day, or whether it's the other meaningful things that you do in your life. That's awesome, but it's not the ultimate treasure. I'm aware that I'm not going to say all of the right things in my sermons. Even if I said, and I never said anything, I guarantee you, I've said some things, and maybe you guys can list them out to me, please don't, but I guarantee that I've said some things before. They're like, that one was questionable, Chris. And I will in the future too, but I won't be able to cover everything. But it's an unstable thing. So it's an unstable thing for me to put the treasure of my heart in. I care deeply for all of you and sharing the gospel with you, but my preaching and even you guys are not my ultimate treasure. God is, right? So what's a treasure worth having? Well, my second point for you from our reading is that who you serve is who you treasure. Let's continue reading Jesus' words here in Matthew 6, 22 to 24. The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness? And I just want to highlight here, this is not talking, when I say your eye is healthy, okay, I wear glasses. This is not talking about the strength of your prescription. This is talking about your focus, right? It's a relief for a lot of us in this room. But it's talking about your focus. If your focus is healthy. No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. In the song, Gotta Serve Somebody, Bob Dylan famously said, but you're going to have to serve somebody. Yes, indeed. You're going to have to serve somebody. Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord, but you're going to have to serve somebody. And when we ask this question, who do you serve, let's look past the idea that Dylan proposes, like the devil versus the Lord, or the specific example even here that Jesus is talking about, of God versus money. Because I think in both of these cases, these are examples. This is not the principle, this is the example for the principle that you cannot serve two masters. Because Bob is right, we all serve somebody. Whether it's our jobs, our families, our own preferences, our pride, our appetites, our desires, our impulses, we all serve somebody, something. And God is the only master that truly provides. And I think often the trap we fall into is looking for provision or happiness or purpose in lesser things. And as hard as it is for us to think about, even our families are lesser things. Similar to what I said about a life well lived, I think that the positive life that we live towards our families and the way that we care for our families is an outflow of a strong relationship with God. That has to be that ultimate goal. It's similar to what you hear some people say about self-care and that sort of thing. They say you can't care for anybody if you haven't taken care of your own health and things like that. It's the same thing with our spiritual health. We really can't take care of the spiritual needs of another person unless we're taking care of our own spiritual needs as well. And whether it's worrying about things that our family is going through or where the next meal is coming from or devoting all our time to their improvement at the cost of having any personal relationship with God in prayer and in His Word, we often sacrifice our connection with God on the altar of family. And often because we see that even biblically we are meant to bless our family, right? We're meant to provide for our families. But Jesus is saying not to worry about this or really anything, that He is the provider. You are not the breadwinner for your family. Jesus is. That job you have is because He gave it to you, because He provided to you. That paycheck or assistance is because God gave it to you. You know, through the Salvation Army here, we have the privilege of doing what we can to provide for people in need, but that's because God is allowing us the privilege of being a part of His plan for others. But He is the provider. And ultimately, to provide for your family the best you can, you need to have a relationship with Jesus yourself. It's not enough to want our kids or those in our family to grow up loving God if we aren't modeling it ourselves. And the best way to do that is by prioritizing God in our life, in prayer, in the Bible, and in the community of believers like we're doing right now. But the fear is, while I'm prioritizing my relationship with God, will my needs get met? Will their needs get met? Like, how? Right? I don't have time. You don't understand, Chris. This sounds great. I agree with you in principle, but I do not have the time. My calendar is so full I need a second calendar just to fill in everything that I'm doing. I get it. I get it. There's an epidemic of busyness in our lives. I understand what you're saying. Which leads me to my last point, is that when we treasure God, God, and when we put Him first, then He will give us what we need. Let's just finish our reading up here today. It says, Therefore, I tell you, this is Jesus still speaking, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or store away in barns, or in our more modern vernacular, they don't have a job. And yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you, by worrying, add a single hour to your life? Scientific News Flash for you, you can take hours from your life by worrying. Stress can kill you. Over time, slowly or suddenly, it can kill you. And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow? They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon, in all his splendor, was dressed like one of these. Solomon, of course, being a famous king in the Old Testament, one of the richest people in the known world at the time. 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, you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, What shall we eat? Or what shall we drink? Or what shall we wear? For the pagans run after all these things, and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough troubles of its own. I feel like if you ever needed two verses to put up on the wall, it's those last two verses right there. There's just something so plain and straightforward about them. Let tomorrow worry about itself. There's an old, I think it might have been a Greek philosopher, I'm not sure, and so I'm going to butcher this quote here because I don't speak Greek, but basically there's this thing that he was saying about how when you worry about something, it's like inflicting a wound twice. It's inflicting the wound that may come, it's the wound that may come but inflicting yourself ahead of time just in case it does, basically, right? Because you're worried about the thing and the thing may never happen, right? And if it happens anyways, well then it happens. If it doesn't, it doesn't, right? We worry so much about these little things. Now I want to be clear. When I said earlier, when we treasure God, we put him first and then he will give us all we need. I think the temptation for us is to see that as conditional, right? Like God is withholding from us unless we make it all about him as if he's prideful and he should just bless us. Why do we have to make it all about him? He should just get over himself and just give us what we need, right? But I want to draw a distinction between condition, creating a condition, and cause and effect, okay? So if someone drives their car off the cliff and they're injured or worse, right? That's not the car or the automakers being conditional. You know, oh, Toyota just wants to kill people who drive their car differently. No, that's not a condition of that. That's the cause and effect of driving off a cliff, right? And this goes in a positive direction as well. If we put our focus on God, if we make him our greatest treasure, he's able to provide us as a cause and effect. And another way to think of this is, and you might think, like, okay, how am I stopping God from being able to provide for me? Like, that's ridiculous, right? Let me ask you this. If you, before you came to dinner tonight, filled up on a hundred Timbits and then I wanted to give you some healthy, nutritious food to fill up on, I would not be able to do that anymore. You would have no room left for it. And even if you could eat any of it, those few pieces of lettuce are not canceling out all of the sugar in those Timbits. Hate to break it to you, right? It's the same with God. If we're spending all of our time providing for ourselves with lesser provision, God has no room left to provide for us the better things that we need. So, in conclusion, I want to be clear that I'm not saying you should all quit your jobs and read your Bible 24-7 and never provide for your family's needs. I'm saying that within everything to do. When it says, seek first his kingdom, this is not a, like, a to-do list and it's number one on the to-do list. It means that as a prioritization, right? Like, Hannah is my wife, right? She is first in my life. That doesn't mean I talk to her first thing in the morning and then I never talk to her throughout the day and she has no consideration in my plans or anything like that. It means that she has a position of priority in my life. I'm saying that within everything we do, we need to make the mindset that what we do for God is for God and for us to get closer to God. If God is our provider, think about this for a second. If God is your provider and not your job, if he gave you that job, right? So, it's him providing and he could provide for you even without that job. Why do you have the job? Think about it just for a second. What's that? Participating in life, right? But there's also something that he's given you that will affect those people in that job, right? And he'll work through you uniquely. I've said this before and I'll say it again. There will be people, I know there is people, that will be very off-put by my personality, right? Michelle is really nodding her head. So, I don't know if she's really off-put by my personality. She's like, yes, Chris. I know a lot of people off-put by you, Chris. Oh, okay. But there's going to be people that will get along great with Lucy, but not with me, right? And so, there's people that God has put in Lucy's life that she's going to have just the right way to be able to communicate with them. So, each of the things that we've been given in our life is, those are not the provisions in themselves. Those are the opportunity to participate in God's mission with him, right? It's like we talked about in the Lord's Prayer, in the Sermon on the Mount earlier, our Father who is in heaven. So, he is our heavenly Father, which means if you're a parent in this room, your kid has another father, right, in heaven, who is caring for them and for you because you are those children too, right? So, he's inviting you to be a part of raising his kids, right? That's an opportunity. Each thing in our life, whether it's being with those coworkers that maybe you don't necessarily like or that one really annoying person you know, but maybe you're the only person in their life who will even listen to them longer than five minutes, right? And you don't know that. You have an opportunity to be a part of that mission with him. You know, in our families, it means letting go of the great weight and worry of seeing ourselves as that sole provider for kids or aging parents. If you're a parent or a caregiver listening, know that God has the heart of the greatest father that there can be, and he loves your children more than you ever could imagine. He's looking out for them. Like I said, if you're not the provider, who are you? You are their model of someone who has a relationship with God. Each of us in this room is a model for someone, and you might not even know who that someone is, but someone is watching, and you are a model for that person. You're showing them how to put God first in your life and how they can do the same in theirs. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you love us so much, that you're taking care of us, that you're providing for us, and even sometimes when it may feel like you aren't, help us to trust that you are a good father like we sang earlier. You're a good, good father, and you care for us. You care for those that we care for as well, Lord. You're providing for us. Help us to take the weight of responsibility, that feeling of guilt when we feel like we don't measure up, providing for others, Lord. Help us to take that weight off, Lord, knowing that you care for those people, and you care for us too. Lord, I just pray for each and every person in here. I know that they're all going through things, things that I might not even know about that are more than I could even imagine, Lord. I just pray you touch them right now, that you would speak to them in a way that is specific to their needs and to their situation to let them know that you care about them and you're providing for them, and they have security in you. We thank you in Jesus' mighty name. Amen.