01/17/10
Eternal Perspective
Summary:
"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, where thieves break in and steal. But instead, store up your treasures in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy. Where thieves do not break in and steal."
Welcome:
We're in week two of a thought provoking series called Thirty Days to Live, asking the question, how would your life be different if you recognized just how brief our lives are? Let's take a look at the verse that is at the heart of this series. It comes from the Old Testament from Psalm 39 verse 4 and 5. This was a prayer of David and I hope that it will become a prayer for each of us as well.
4 “Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be.
Remind me that my days are numbered—
how fleeting my life is.
5 You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand.
My entire lifetime is just a moment to you;
at best, each of us is but a breath.”
Because our time is brief, last week we looked at the words of James in the New Testament where he asked, “what is your life?” He said your life is a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Because our life is so brief, I want us to consider one of the most important questions I think that you could answer and that is this, “where is your treasure?”
Where is your treasure?
Jesus offered a very important teaching concerning this question in Matthew chapter 6 verse 19 and this is what He said. Jesus said, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, where thieves break in and steal.
He said, don't invest all your energies into things that do not last. Don't put all of your effort and your focus into treasures here on earth; into things that just burn up in the end because they don’t last forever.
You can't take it with you. Doesn't matter if you go this way or that way, you are not taking it with you and Jesus said don't let your treasure be in this world.
He went on to say in verse 20, he said, "But instead, store up your treasures in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy. Where thieves do not break in and steal."
Now here's the key. Verse 21. This is why it's so important. He said, "For where your treasure is, there your" what, there your "heart will be also." Wherever your treasure is, that's what your heart will drift toward.
Now, what is your treasure? If you're taking notes, the Greek word for treasure is the word thesauros and it means a deposit or it means wealth. Where are you putting your best, your energy, your wealth, your resources, your time? Are you depositing your best into things that don't last and your treasure is on earth or are you depositing your best into eternal things, things that will last forever.
Here's what I would ask you to wrestle with. I want you to ask yourself honestly, “where is my treasure?” Look at the last seven days, just the last seven days, last week. Were you more focused on things that are temporary, or are you more focused on the things that last? Is your treasure on earth because if it is, that's where your heart will drift or is your treasure in heaven?
Jesus went on to say, don't worry about all these things of the world. Your Heavenly Father knows that you need them and then He said this in verse 33, he said, "but seek first God's kingdom and God's righteousness and then all these things will be added to you as well.”
We seek first what lasts forever. It's not wrong to have things, but it's wrong to seek things first. Instead, we seek God first and His righteousness and then He will add everything that we need.
Thirty days to live. How would your life be different, if you recognized just how brief it really is? I can guarantee you our treasure would not be on earth if we recognized just how brief it really is.
During this series, we're looking at some interviews with people that the doctors say don't have long to live and the interview that we'll show this week is with a guy who is not just asking this question. I don't know any more valuable perspective than to have someone that is this close to God and truly can put into words what is important.
So you need to listen to Larry. Larry was diagnosed with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease and he may be just a little bit challenging to understand at first, but if you listen close you will hear what he’s trying to communicate and you will never ever forget his message.
[Video] "And then in February March of 2005 I was diagnosed with ALS…
We’re going to hear more from Larry in a little bit. The first time I watched his interview I had a hard time because it made me so emotional. So as I listened to his words today, I pray, God, burn this perspective on our hearts.
I wish we could really recognize what is important in this life, but the sad thing is, we can watch a video like this and then I would slip back into normal life and normal thinking and it’s bothersome to me how easily I can lose that eternal perspective and how quickly I can let go of the things that really matter and grab a hold of the stupid things that don't.
Life is brief. It's a mist that appears for a little while and then it vanishes and because of that, to honor the words of Jesus and the message of Larry, I’d like us to make three internal promises today.
We're going to seek first what lasts forever by doing three things.
The first, if you're taking notes is that we will and we must guard against materialism.
We must guard against putting our treasure in the things of this world.
In fact, in Luke chapter 12 verse 15, Jesus said this, he said, “watch out.” Listen how intense Jesus is. “Watch out, be on your guard,” he said “against all kinds of greed, because a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
Watch out, be on your guard. Don't slip into the trap of materialism that so many people fall into, but watch out. Be ready. Be on your guard. Your life is not your things. Your life is not your car. Your life is not your clothing. Your life is not your house. Watch out. Be on guard.
I have to watch out all the time because I'm a regular old guy who thinks I want to provide great things for my family. I forget that I am the best thing that God can give to my family; so much more important than houses and cars and vacations etc. And yet, I'll often neglect them in favor of things that don't even last. Watch out, Jesus said, be on your guard.
Jesus went on in Luke's gospel to tell a story that's kind of like a historical story of the modern day American dream. He said there's this guy who had a great business here. He had a bumper crop. He had so much he didn't know what to do with it. So the guy thought to himself, hmm what should I do?
I know what I'll do, I'll build a bigger barn, that's the answer, a nicer barn. And bigger and better and bigger and better and then one day I'll have so much I'll kick back and I'll take life easy and then I'll have everything I've always wanted.
And God said to him, verse 20, "You fool this very night you're life will be demanded from you, then who will get all that you prepared for yourself. This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”
I promise you, if you only had thirty days to live all these things that we pursue they wouldn't matter; not one bit. Watch out. Be on your guard. Be ready. Be on your guard against all kinds of greed because our lives do not consist in the abundance of things. Make sure that you're rich toward the things that last forever because life is a mist. It's here for a little while and then vanishes. I will not allow my treasure to be on earth. I will guard against materialism.
Second internal promise that I want us to make is this: I will be generous.
I will be generous; radically generous, aggressively generous, extravagantly generous. Generous. Instead of holding on to everything, we need to see everything as God's and ask how God wants us to use it. Be generous with your money. Be generous with your things. Be generous with your time. Be generous with your heart. Be generous with your words. Be generous with your attention. Be generous with your focus. Be generous with your entire lives. Why? Because you cannot love without giving.
What does love do? Love gives. John 3:16, if you know it, for God so what, for God so... For God so loved the world what did He do? He so loved the world that He gave. Love gives. What did He give? His only Son. The very best that he could have ever given He gave because love gives. When you love you give.
I John 3:16 says, “This is how we know what love is; Jesus Christ laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. We give our lives. It's the only reasonable response to what Christ gave. Let me just say it as bluntly as I can. If you've got a problem with that, you've got a problem in your heart. If you don't give to God, you don't love God. And don't tell me you do because you do not. If you don't give your finances and your time and your heart you don't love God because you cannot love without giving. Love gives.
What's one of the greatest ways that we can give to God? We can give to people who are in need.
In fact, Jesus told this story, he said one day there will people on both sides, there'll be those who knew me and there'll be those who didn't and I'll say this to those who knew me, it’s in Matthew 25:35. He'll look at you one day, I want you to hear this. He will look at you and Jesus will say to you, for I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and what did you do, you gave me something to drink and you will look back at Jesus and you'll say I don't remember that, when did I do that? I know I did some things for other people but Jesus if it had been you I know I would have noticed. When did I do that? I don't remember giving to you. Verse 40, Jesus will respond. Whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me.
How would your life be different if you recognized just how brief it was? You would be generous reflecting a heart of God.
And the third internal promise I we need to work toward is this: God help me to focus on what matters.
God help me to focus on what matters. Help me to focus on what matters. Because the problem is, I often don't. I often focus on the things that don't matter. So what does matter? What does matter?
What matters? People matter. People are always going to matter. Perhaps, the ones you are sitting right next to right now, they matter, your kids matter, your parents matter, your dad that you may not get along with right now, he matters. The people that live next door to you or that you work with or you went to high school with or you work out at the gym who don't know Christ, they matter. People who are in need, they matter. People matter. Jesus matters. His truth matters. Generosity matters. Helping those who are without matters. Just showing people the love of Jesus that matters.
Why is it though that so many of us we focus on the things that don't matter and ignore the very things that do? The apostle Paul, toward the end of his life, he was in a prison chained up to a guard and if you would have asked him, he's toward the end of his life, you've got 30 days to live, what do you want to say? What Paul said in Philippians chapter 3 verse 7 and 8 might have been his advice to us.
He said, looking back over life. Whatever was to my profit, all those things I thought I needed and wanted to do and were good, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord for whose sake I've lost all things. He said, I consider them rubbish that I might gain Christ. I consider them rubbish.
The Greek word for rubbish is the word skubalon or skubala and rubbish is a weak translation of it. The King James has the closest and most accurate. The word should be translated, “dung.” Skubalon was the things that were thrown to the dogs or garbage or refuse or a good translation is dung but it's still not the real translation. The real translation is one that no Bible translator would put in print because it is too harsh, too graphic. It is the worst version of dung that you can think of in your mind.
That's what it literally means. That's what Paul said. If we could make a bumper sticker, it would say skubalon happens. And God is my witness, that is what it means. I consider all this stuff skubalon compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Everything I thought was important was not important. Knowing Christ, that was the most important. God, may our treasures not be in this world but in the things that last forever.
We watched the first part of the interview with Larry and his story is heartbreaking, but I want you to listen to his words and I want you to be different as God speaks to you.
[Video]
I think we're ready to pray.
