Title: Don't Be A Hoarder Text: Matthew 6:19-24 | Date: 05/19/2024 Speaker: [[Evan Johnson]] Location: [[Cornerstone Baptist Church, Ankeny]] Length: 30:55 min --- ## Summary ### Theme The sermon emphasizes the importance of valuing spiritual wealth over earthly possessions, urging believers to focus on eternal treasures in heaven and the transformation of the heart as taught by Jesus. ### Takeaways 1. Pastor Evan asks the audience to consider what they value most in life, excluding family members and loved ones. 2. Jesus advises against storing treasures on earth where they can be destroyed or stolen. 3. The passage highlights that where one’s treasure is, there their heart will be also. 4. Christian living involves giving, praying, and fasting. 5. Earthly treasures are temporary and will eventually deteriorate. 6. Humans have an innate desire to acquire things. 7. Downsizing can be necessary as people age. 8. Lay up treasures in heaven where they cannot be destroyed or stolen. 9. Eternal salvation is the greatest treasure. 10. No one can serve two masters; one cannot serve both God and money. ### Highlights - "For where your treasure is there your heart will be also."-- Jesus 《Matthew 6:21》` - "You ain't taking the U-Haul to the grave with you."` - "The greatest treasure the world has ever been given is the eternal salvation we find in Jesus."` - "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."-- Jesus 《Sermon on the Mount》` - "Our eyes sometimes deceive us."` - "You cannot serve God and money."-- Jesus` - "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."-- Jesus` - "May we be a people who direct our heart towards the Lord and not towards the stuff in our lives."` ### Chapters & Topics 1. **Introduction and Personal Reflection** > Pastor Evan introduces the topic by asking the audience what they value most in life, excluding family members and loved ones. He shares personal anecdotes about valuable possessions, emphasizing sentimental value over monetary worth. - Pastor Evan asks the audience to consider what they value most in life, excluding family members and loved ones. - He shares a personal story about a book he values, which he found at a library sale. - Pastor Evan emphasizes the sentimental value of possessions over their monetary worth. 2. **Biblical Text: Matthew 6:19-24** > Pastor Evan reads and reflects on Matthew 6:19-24, where Jesus advises against storing earthly treasures and emphasizes the importance of heavenly treasures. The passage highlights the transient nature of material possessions and the importance of spiritual wealth. - Jesus advises against storing treasures on earth where they can be destroyed or stolen. - He emphasizes storing treasures in heaven, which are eternal and secure. - The passage highlights that where one’s treasure is, there their heart will be also. - The eye is described as the lamp of the body, influencing one’s spiritual health. - No one can serve two masters; one will be devoted to one and despise the other. 3. **Heart Issues and Christian Living** > Pastor Evan connects the teachings of Jesus in the Beatitudes to the current passage, emphasizing that Christian living involves heart issues. He reiterates that Jesus calls for a transformation of the heart, urging believers to focus on spiritual rather than material wealth. - The Beatitudes focus on heart issues and how Christians should live. - Jesus calls for a transformation of the heart, urging believers to be different. - Christian living involves giving, praying, and fasting. 4. **Earthly Treasures and Their Limitations** > Pastor Evan discusses the limitations of earthly treasures, using personal anecdotes and historical examples. He emphasizes that material possessions are temporary and will eventually deteriorate, urging the audience to focus on spiritual wealth. - Earthly treasures are temporary and will eventually deteriorate. - Personal anecdotes and historical examples illustrate the transient nature of material possessions. - Pastor Evan urges the audience to focus on spiritual wealth. 5. **Earthly Possessions and Their Limitations** > The sermon emphasizes that earthly possessions are temporary and cannot be taken with us after death. They often lead to conflicts among loved ones after one’s passing. - Earthly possessions are temporary. - Possessions can cause conflicts among family members. - There is an innate desire in humans to acquire things. 6. **Desire for Material Things** > Pastor Evan discusses the human tendency to desire material things, often expensive ones, and the concept of lifestyle creep. - Humans have an innate desire to acquire things. - Lifestyle creep and keeping up with the Joneses are common phenomena. - People often desire expensive items, believing they will last longer. 7. **Downsizing and Letting Go** > Pastor Evan shares a personal story about his grandparents downsizing their home and offering him items, which he mostly declined, emphasizing the need to let go of earthly treasures. - Downsizing can be necessary as people age. - Letting go of earthly treasures is important. 8. **Treasures in Heaven** > Jesus teaches that instead of accumulating earthly possessions, one should focus on laying up treasures in heaven, which are eternal and cannot be destroyed or stolen. - Lay up treasures in heaven where they cannot be destroyed or stolen. - Treasures in heaven are related to giving, praying, and fasting in secret. 9. **Eternal Salvation** > The greatest treasure is the understanding of eternal salvation through Jesus Christ. This is emphasized through various biblical references. - Eternal salvation is the greatest treasure. - Salvation is found in Jesus Christ alone. - Biblical references affirm the importance of salvation. 10. **Heart and Treasures** > Jesus teaches that where one’s treasure is, there their heart will be also. This emphasizes the importance of valuing godly things over earthly possessions. > - Your heart is an indicator of what you value. > - Jesus emphasizes turning from worldly desires to godly ones. 11. **The Eye as the Lamp of the Body** > Jesus uses the metaphor of the eye as the lamp of the body to illustrate that what one desires and looks at influences their inner being. > - The eye is the lamp of the body. > - What you desire with your eye determines what you look at. > - Healthy desires lead to a body full of light, while unhealthy desires lead to darkness. 12. **Desire and Materialism** > Pastor Evan discusses the human tendency to desire material possessions, often driven by the illusion that these items will improve our lives. This desire can lead to unhealthy habits and a focus on material wealth rather than spiritual well-being. > - Human eyes sometimes deceive us into thinking material possessions will make life better. > - Pastor Evan shares a personal anecdote about working at a hot dog factory and spending money on material items to feel better. > - The desire for material things is often driven by a need to feel good rather than practical necessity. 13. **Spiritual Teachings on Wealth** > Pastor Evan emphasizes the teachings of Jesus, which advise against accumulating earthly treasures and instead focusing on spiritual wealth. Serving two masters, such as God and money, is deemed impossible. > - Jesus teaches not to lay up treasures on earth and to avoid unhealthy desires. > - Looking into darkness refers to focusing on material wealth rather than spiritual light. > - No one can serve two masters; one cannot serve both God and money. 14. **Balancing Multiple Responsibilities** > Pastor Evan reflects on the modern tendency to juggle multiple jobs and responsibilities, contrasting it with the historical context of slavery where serving two masters was impossible. > - In modern times, people often balance multiple jobs and responsibilities. > - Historically, a slave could not be enslaved by two people. 15. **Choosing Between God and Material Wealth** > The sermon emphasizes the necessity of choosing between serving God and pursuing material wealth. It highlights that one cannot serve both and must make a conscious decision to prioritize their devotion to God over material possessions. > - Jesus teaches that one must either love and serve God or hate and despise Him; there is no middle ground. > - The concept of serving God is equated to being a bond servant, indicating total commitment. > - A choice must be made between laying up treasures in heaven or on earth. > - Material possessions and wealth are not inherently wrong, but placing hope and trust in them is. > - The heart’s focus should be on eternal hope in Jesus rather than temporary material wealth. > - Believers often struggle with desiring worldly things but must reorient their hearts towards God. > - Jesus warns that earthly things will ultimately fail, and true value lies in heavenly treasures. 16. **The Heart’s Posture Towards God** > The sermon concludes with a prayer, emphasizing the importance of desiring God above all material possessions and seeking His guidance and comfort in all aspects of life. > - The heart’s posture is crucial in determining one’s devotion to God or material things. > - Financial advisors often say that one’s bank account reflects their values. > - Believers should desire Jesus above all worldly possessions. > - God’s grace abounds even when believers fail and desire worldly things. ### Suggestions - Do not hoard material possessions; focus on what truly matters. - Reflect on where your heart lies and what it values most. - Strive to be minimalistic and realistic in possessions to avoid burdening loved ones. - Pray regularly to maintain a heart that desires God above all else. - Seek God’s guidance and comfort in all aspects of life. ## Transcript Today we will be in Matthew chapter 6 verses 19 through 24, so you can go ahead and be turning there. But I want to ask a question. What do you value most in life? And when I ask that, I want to, what do you value most in life that is not a family member, a loved one, something of, more of a possession? What's your most valuable thing, not valuable in the sense that you could sell it for, but most valuable to you? For instance, I've asked a friend of this question recently, and he told me that the thing that he valued most in this world was his grandmother's Bible, because it had prayers that she had written in it, and notes that she had written in there. And many other people that I talked to had said similar things, that their Bible or something of that nature was the most valuable in this world. For me, for instance, one of the things that I value most in this world is I have a book in my office that I found at a random library in the middle of Kentucky that had a book sale, however many books you could fit in this bag and get it for a dollar. And I was able to get a book from 1914 from the Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, so it's a precursor to Lifeway. It's a book on the Book of Romans. It would be like our Sunday School curriculum today, but it was back in 1914. I love history, and I love the Bible, and so it's two of those areas that I love. And I found it to be one of my most valuable possessions. I don't know what it is for you. What is it that you value most in a person's life? It's not a business, but she and her family. Well, I have the book in the back of the area. What it is? A precious heirloom that you've been given, a wedding ring that you have. Well, I want you to think about that as we begin to think about this text today from Matthew 6, verses 19 through 24. So if you have a copy of God's Word, look on with me or follow along on the screen. Jesus says, Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is there your heart will be. The eye is the lamp of the body. So if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness. No one can serve two masters, for either you will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, I come before you this morning praying that you would illuminate this text to our hearts and our minds and allow us to understand your will, your desire for this in our lives. Help us to hear, see, and understand the truth of your word, Father. I ask that you would guide our steps this morning. It's all to your glory and your kingdom we pray. Amen. So if you remember, if we go back to the Beatitudes, Jesus has been saying stuff basically about our hearts. Things that have to do with a heart issue, and it's no different today. But he, in the Beatitudes, told us how we should live our lives. This is how the makeup or the model of a Christian is to be like these things, right? Then he went on to go, hey, you need to be different, right? You've heard that was said. This isn't a law, but you need to have this. Peter preached on anger. If you have anger in your heart, then you have committed murder. He's changing those things. And in the last couple weeks, he said to be holy, to be righteous, to be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, you must be a person who gives, prays, and fasts. And then today he comes in and says, do not lay up for yourselves. It's all still a heart issue. It's still driving home his central theme throughout the Sermon on the Mount, is this desire to have a different heart in him, right? So he says, do not lay up for yourselves or store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth or rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. The context of which Jesus is talking in is recognizing that the banking system during that day and age wasn't the most reliable banking system. So if you were a wise person, you didn't invest your money in the bank because it wouldn't last. So what else would you do? How would you protect your finances? Maybe, you know, we've heard people store money in their mattresses. But how do they do it? Well, we have a little bit of an insight to some degree in Matthew chapter 25. By the way, if you're ever reading the Bible and you're wanting to understand the word of God better, use other scriptures to help you interpret the scripture you're reading. It's always a good way to understand what God is meaning. Chapter 25, verse 24 says, this is the parable of the talents, and he's went through all the guys that did the good job. This is the one that didn't do so good, verse 24. He also, who had received the one talent, came forward saying, Master, I knew you to be a hard man reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed. So I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours. So we see that idea of burying the talent, right? This is the best way for me to store this up is to bury it. And Jesus is telling us in Matthew chapter 6, these earthly treasures that you have, where moth and rust, don't lay those up. Don't hide those in the ground. Don't invest them in some kind of, it's just going to go away. I remember many, many years ago at my last church, when I first got there, there were farming communities, so those of you that have ever been around farming communities, you can go on a farm, and they've got things that are there for centuries, it seems like. And this guy had this old car from like the 1920s. And I asked him, I said, what are you going to do with that car? He said, oh, I'm going to keep it. I said, why? He said, well, because someday when I need money, I can sell that car. I left it outside in the elements. Some guy had offered him $8,000 for it. He said, well, I'm going to keep it because someday when I need the money, I'll sell that car. And his father-in-law was with us, and he goes, yeah, but it's going to be rusted out by the time you need the money, and it's not going to be worth anything. Jesus understands that our earthly treasures, the things that we hold on to most dear, will go away. We're moth and rust destroyed. I didn't know this, but my grandparents growing up, I'd go to their house, and they had a very distinct smell. Not until I was an adult that I realized it was moth balls that I smelled in their home. Because they were protecting their quilts and their things that are of value to them because they want the moths to eat it up. They want the rust to get to it, right? They want thieves breaking in and stealing their things. Our earthly treasures, as good as they may be, whether they're an old Bible, jewelry, or a boat, whatever it might be for you, Jesus tells us it's always going to fail us. It's always going to fall apart. It's always going to eventually go away, no matter how much you try to preserve it, no matter how much you try to keep it. Now, granted, nowadays we've got way more ability to preserve and keep things, but they're still eventually going to go away. I can remember many, many years ago, I was helping my grandparents clean out my great-grandmother's house in Illinois. We were up in the attic, and I found in her attic my high school graduation invitation. It was ten years from the time when I sent it to her, but she still had it in her attic. I'm sure we just threw it away because at that point it was long over. We also found something really interesting up there that I also value and treasure, but I can tell you it's slowly deteriorating, and I need to do something, otherwise it's going to go away. I mentioned it before. In my office, I have some artifacts from a great-uncle of mine who served in World War I. It says, Thank you for your great service in the Great War, postmarked, I think, in the 1920s of sorts. Seeing these things is great, but they're falling apart because it's paper. I've got it stored in my office in a tube. It's going to eventually just disintegrate. We've all had loved ones we've had to clean out their house. We wonder, why are they keeping all these things? Why are they storing them up? Why are they keeping these treasures? If you ever ask anyone that's a hoarder, they'll tell you they're a collector. The reality is they're a hoarder. That's why we shouldn't be hoarders. For the sake of your loved ones, please don't hoard things. Get rid of them. The idea is we think someday I might need this. Some of this comes out of the Great Depression, some of that mentality of keeping things. The cool dish, because you just don't know if you're going to eat that dish. I'm not here to say that you should or shouldn't, but I'm just telling you. Jesus is telling us that we should not lay up for ourselves treasures on earth, whatever those might be. For everyone, it's a little different. But they always will go away someday. Because the reality is you can't do what this picture is going to show you. You ain't taking the U-Haul to the grave with you. You can't take your stuff. All it will do, and I've experienced this, all it will do is cause fighting afterwards. I don't know how many times at someone's funeral the kids are fighting over mom's dish set or whatever it might be. They're fighting over things. It's creating this desire. And I don't know why, deep down inside of us we have this innate desire, apart from sin, to want things. Liz and I talk about it often as being lifestyle creep. Or another way to say it is keeping up with the Joneses. We have this desire to acquire things. Even Father's Day is coming up and Liz said, hey, do you want anything for Father's Day? She goes, but not your expensive stuff. Because I've got a list of expensive things I want. Cheap things I'm not going to have anything. How about we just eat out that day? Because I have things that I want, but they're always the expensive things, never the cheap things. My logic is they'll last longer. But why do we have this desire to store up things? I remember my dad's parents were finally realizing that they were getting to the age where taking care of their large lake home was too hard. They just couldn't do it anymore. So they decided, let's downsize and get a smaller home and get rid of our stuff. And they asked me, hey, do you want anything from our home? I said, well, I have a shotgun that you've already lent to me. Can I just keep that? And they said, sure, go ahead and keep that. And I said, but other than that, I don't really want anything. They said, well, you don't want the cows you gave us when you were in fifth grade? I said, what do you mean the cows? Ceramic cows, I guess, when I was in fifth grade, I thought it was a great present to give my grandparents. And they have them still. Years later, I said, oh, I'm good. I don't need the cows. I don't need more things in my life. I don't need these earthly treasures, if you will. But I think Jesus is getting at something. He's wanting us to understand that this is not that we shouldn't own or not own things, but it is a call to reorientate our lives away from one type of acquisition for another. Our desire should be to lay up treasures in heaven. He goes on to say, but in verse 20, lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroy or where thieves do not break in and steal. What is the treasure that we lay up in heaven is the question. Well, if you remember over the last two weeks, we looked at giving, praying and fasting. And Jesus told us, if you give in secret as your father is in secret, you will be rewarded. Chapter six, verse two. He then says in chapter six, verse six, if you pray in secrets to your father who knows the secret, you will be rewarded. And then he goes on and he says, if you fast and don't make it so everyone can know, wash your face and make sure everything's good and clean and you look good, your father who is in secret will reward you. This idea of being rewarded by the father. Now, the struggle is we might go, OK, well, then I just need to go and work harder at giving, fasting and praying and I will get more reward. But the reality is those treasures are stored up not by performing works, but by belonging to and living by the priorities of the kingdom of heaven. So what is the greatest treasure? That should be the question we ask. What is the greatest treasure? And Matthew chapter 19, verse 25 to 29, we see this interaction with Peter and Jesus. It's right after the rich young ruler walks away from the love from Jesus sad because he has too many possessions. And this is what it says in verse twenty five. When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and who can then can be saved. But Jesus looked at them and said, with man, this is impossible. But with God, all things are possible. Then Peter, in a great Peter fashion. He said in reply, See, we love everything and follow you. What then will we have? He's excited, right? Peter's like, I'm getting something. Jesus said to them, Truly, I say to you in the in the new world, when the son of man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or land for my name's sake will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. Jesus tells us that the treasure that we need to lay up in the heavens is the understanding of our eternal salvation. That is with Jesus Christ alone. That our hope is found in him and him alone. Paul tells us in first Corinthians chapter fifteen verses three through five that I'm going to give you to the church of most importance. Basically, that if you have believed that Jesus has been crucified, buried and raised again, that you will be saved. The Romans chapter ten verses nine and thirteen also affirm that same sentiment from Paul. That our salvation is found in the Savior, Lord Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for your sins. That is the most glorious reward you can ever have is by trusting in Jesus that you will have eternal life. That is the greatest treasure that the world has ever been given. There is no boat, home or treasure on this earth that compares to the eternal salvation we find in Jesus. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is trying to get to the heart of that. It is all about the posture of our heart. Do not lay up for yourself treasures on this earth, but lay them up in heaven. It's interesting though, in verse twenty-one though, Jesus goes from saying treasures, plural, to verse twenty-one. For where your treasure is, singular. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. He's letting us know, he's telling us that what you value in this world is where your heart will be. Your heart is an indicator of what you desire, what you want. In the next two sections that he looks at, it's just saying it in a different way. He's helping us to understand something else. See, he wants us to have our heart directed away from earthly stuff and towards or focused on godly things. And he has been saying that from the beginning of the sermon. It's all about turning from and turning to, from the world to the Lord. In verse twenty-two, he says the eye is the lamp of the body. So if your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness. He's letting us know that this idea of the eye is the lamp. The eye is what lets in the light. Those of you that maybe wear sunglasses or are having maybe some issues with your eyesight, you can tell. Like, I can't see as good because it's not as bright or light out, right? I need to have clearer eyesight. I need to see better. Jesus said if your eye is the lamp of the body and your eye is healthy, what you desire with your eye will determine what you're looking at, right? If I desire the things of the world and I'm looking at the shiny new car, your heart might not be right because that's the inlet, the eye to the heart. It is a connection of letting those things in. He wants us to understand that our eyes, what we desire with them, is either healthy or sick. What do you look for in the world? And I have to tell you, when I took the poll on what people's treasures on earth was, I got a lot of people who told me their salvation, which tells me that a lot of people that are churchgoing folks understand and know that this is not, that the earthly treasures are not where our hope is. But every now and then there is the creep, right, the desire that we see. Our eyes sometimes deceive us. Walking down the aisle, we see something that's really fancy looking, and we're like, that would make my life so much better. Now, it may make your life easier, that's one thing. But sometimes when we start to struggle in life, we look at things that can, in our minds, simply make us better. I remember when I was early on in my adulthood, I worked at a hotdog factory, I've told you all about that. I made really good money for a 20-year-old. I wasn't very wise with my finances at the time. I had no friends. I didn't have a girlfriend. I didn't really have much of a life besides work and going home, and so I thought the best thing to do was go spend money. That made me feel better. Something about going to the store and buying a new watch, a new pair of jeans, and a video game system, because that's what you do in your 20s, made me just feel better. My eyes desired things because I wanted to feel better. It wasn't that my eyes were like, oh, that would be a helpful item around my home. It was, I need that to make me feel good. Jesus is stressing here that we shouldn't lay up treasures on earth, we should not allow our eyes to gaze at things that are unhealthy because that means that we are looking into darkness, not into things. And then he, lastly, gets into verse 24. He says, No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to you cannot serve God and money. He's helping us understand you cannot serve two masters. And we think about it in our world, we do it all the time. We oftentimes serve two masters. We don't think of it like that because I can work for multiple people and it's okay, right? I have multiple jobs and I'm able to balance them. But if you think back to when slavery was real, no slave can actually be enslaved by two people. It just couldn't happen. It couldn't exist. And Jesus is saying here, you either are going to love God and desire God or you're going to hate God and despise him. There's no middle ground. You're either on one side of the fence or the other side of the fence. He is saying you must serve one or the other. You cannot be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because when you think about surrendering your life to Jesus, it is essentially the word serve is the word for bondservant. It is the idea of a committed to the Lord in all that he's called us to. He wants us, Jesus wants us to understand that there is a decision you must make as a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. You cannot be a person who rides the fence. I'm going to kind of dabble in the world for a little bit and then I'm going to come over here and follow the Lord, and back and forth. He is telling us we must make a choice. Are we going to lay up treasures in heaven or are we going to lay up treasures on this earth? Are we going to be people who look clearly at the things of this world for what they are or are we going to look at them in a way that says, man, that's going to make me feel better. He wants us to understand that we must make a choice. Because either we will love and be devoted or we will hate and despise. And then the very last verse is you cannot serve God and money. He is very clear. Some translations say mammon, but he is telling us very clearly that this is the divide, right? It's God and money. What are you going to choose? Who are you going to follow? Now, I want to be clear. The warning that Jesus is giving us is all about our heart. He is not saying you can't have wealth. He is not saying you can't own things. What he is saying, though, is where does your hope lie? Does it lie in your 401k or in your Savior? I would advise you shouldn't invest in your 401k, so when you are older you have finances, right? It's not a bad thing. But if your hope is built in that and that alone, you are missing what Jesus is saying because he is saying you've got to hope in me because I'm the eternal hope. Someday you're going to leave behind all your wealth to somebody else. Jesus is warning us to focus our hearts towards him and not materialism. Like I said, it's not wrong to own possessions or to have wealth, but what is wrong is to be focused on the earthly things in our life. And I don't know what that is in life. I was told recently that I'm a minimalist, that I don't like things, and the reality is I just don't need clutter in my life. It's not that I don't like things, but I can tell you that my heart at times is deceptive and wicked. It wants things that aren't always necessarily bad, but it wants them for wrong reasons. I keep in my mind thinking, you know, if someone just accidentally hits my car, I could get me a new car. I'd feel better if I had a nicer car. It's getting a little old. Why? Why would I think that? Because I'm sinful and I desire things of this earth. I still need a vehicle to drive around, but that's okay, right? There's a balance there, and that's why Jesus is saying it's all about your heart. That's what drives home is where your heart or where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. What you value most in this world is where your heart will be, and I think for all believers, we vacillate a little bit, right? We start to creep over and desire things of the world, and then we realize, oh, I need Jesus, and we come back, and that's the struggle that we balance with, right? It's not that we're living sinful lives in such a way that it's just way out there, and we're just having all the fancy stuff, and Jesus is helping us just to reorientate our lives back to center, back to Him, to understand that the things in the world will fail you every single time. Vacations, I remember as a kid, we used to go on pretty elaborate vacations, and then I realized as I got older that we just charged them, and then tried to pay them off the rest of the year. It's not a good way, a good model, right? It's valuing that we've got to go do this fancy thing versus going, hey, we could have just camped in a tent for 30 bucks a night and called it a night, right? Where does our heart lie? There's a lie in the things of this world. There's a lie in the hope of Jesus. That is the wrestle that you have to have, is to go, where in your life, what in your life is hindering you from desiring Jesus? Maybe it's just reorientating and going, you know, this is a helpful item in my life or a helpful possession in my life, but I need to recognize it's not my hope. It's Jesus is my hope. For others, you may have to go, I've got to get rid of this. This thing is hindering me from seeking Jesus because it's getting in the way. I'm going to downsize from the large house to the small house, maybe. I don't know what it is. This is where the Lord has to work in your life and help you to understand that it's all a heart posture. Where is your heart? What does it value? What does it want? Oftentimes, you hear financial advisors tell you, if I can look at your bank account, I can tell you what you value. Where is your heart? Does it seek to desire Jesus, or does it desire the things of the world? Remember, he said, no one can serve two masters. Either you serve God or you serve possessions. I pray that our heart, our desire, our treasure would be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. When I fail and desire things of this world, I pray that his grace will abound all the more. Romans chapter 5 tells us where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more. I pray that when we have our failures and our struggles, that we would come back to the Lord and know that he is good and gracious and loving, that he will forgive us and restore us. May we be a people who direct our heart towards the Lord and not towards the stuff in our lives. May we be a little bit more minimalistic in our possessions, so that our loved ones that come after us don't have to take care of them all. Y'all know, you've had family members where you've had to take care of your stuff. Let us reflect on our hearts today. Let us think about what God wants us to do with this text. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is there, your heart will be also. Let us pray to the Lord this morning that we would be sacrificial in our lives and recognize that he is our only hope and he is our treasure. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, I pray this day that you would help my heart desire you over the things in my life. When I begin to wander, Lord, I pray that you would bring me back. And I pray the same for my brothers and sisters in Christ, that we as people would desire you above all the things we own. We know, Lord, that it's not wrong to have wealth or to have possessions, but Lord, help us to be a people who desire you above all things. And if they all were to disappear today, Lord, that we would still worship you and we would still seek you, we would still desire you above all things. Father, I pray for everyone here today that whatever they're walking through, whatever they're going through, Lord, that you would be with them, comfort them, strengthen them, and walk alongside them. Father, may we be a people who come to you and pray to you gratefully. It's in your precious name and to your praise that we pray these things. Amen.