Living for Eternity
Notes
Transcript
For what are you living for? How many of you like Hobby Lobby? The man who started it David Green, in Oct of 2021, said he is giving away ownership of the company, and said “Wealth can a curse” and he “chose God”. There is a man who is as rich as anyone with the right priority. And that is something many Christians lack. Many Christians are just focused on this life.
Here we are in the Sermon on the Mount, and Jesus is addressing your priority specifically with money but it has more to do with your priority. This is not a message against saving, and being wise with money. Rather it is about your heart and ultimately what your worship. We understand the first couple verses where it says lay not up yourselves treasures in earth. They are temporary. If you live for the Lord, the treasures are eternal. Many Christians do not have the right priorities. The reason they do not have the right priorities is that their spiritual eyes need some work. Your focus will need to be changed from: this life to the next life.
Jesus starts out talking about treasure. What you give the most of your money to will show what you want to do. Surprised to see an empty seat at the super bowl stadium, a diehard fan remarked about it to a man sitting nearby. “It was my wife’s,” the man explained, “But she died.” “Oh! I’m very sorry to hear that,” said the man. “Yet I’m really surprised that another relative, or friend, didn’t jump at the chance to take the seat reserved for her.” “Beats me,” he said. “They all insisted on going to the funeral.” Obviously that is bad advice, but it shows where this man’s priority. Your priority is what you give time, treasure and talent to. Some people your age just give all they can, to themselves. They spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on making sure they can keep up with the jones. Other times you show what you treasure when If you want to keep money and not give it, so you can get things for yourself. It shows your priority and treasure is yourself. If you don’t want to give to a missionary even a dollar, so you can get yourself a pop out of the fridge, it shows you value yourself more than the missionary and the work of the Lord.
We understand that no man can serve two masters. What you treasure in your heart will ultimately be your master. Someone whose master is money, will always be thinking about money, and when called on God to give they will not. It is like the story that Pastor told of the man who was not willing to tithe when his income was alot higher. Someone whose master is a sports team, will always be watching them even when it is not beneficial.
Jesus is telling them not to focus on what they can get, and amassing riches in this life, but He is telling them to focus on the next life, not this.
The reason you have the treasue is that your focus is on this life. Notice Matthew 6:22–23 “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. 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 word light is the word for candle. The eye brings in light. If I were to turn off the light, you cannot see, unless there is some light. The word for single means sound, sincere. Think of it has someone who has good vision. My brother always brags about how he has 20-20 vision. He is the only one in my family who does not need glasses of any kind. I am near sighted, others are farsighted. Someone with 20-20 vision has eyes that are functioning.
When Jesus said, if thine eye be evil, He is talking about an eye that does not function properly. I had an eye doctor appointment and one thing that they did was dilate my eyes. I would be wearing my glasses, and would be on my phone, and I would be barely able to see, my vision was affected and I could not see clearly. Even when driving home, they gave me sunglass things to put behind my glasses so the light would not affect me. And how our eyes are affects the rest of our life. Someone who can see well, will not make the mistakes that someone who cannot see well.
The eye being single represents right priorities and seeing how God sees, while the eye being evil represents wrong priorities. Proverbs 28:22 “He that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye, And considereth not that poverty shall come upon him.” One who has good eyes, will see spiritually, while the one who has bad, can only see physically.
What Jesus is saying is that when you have the right priorities, your entire life will be affected, and if you have the wrong priorities your entire life will be affected. Both times your life will be affected, but how depends upon your eye.
What does this look like?
The one who sees well,
will not be controlled by money,
Focus will be on giving to those in need, and will give generously
Proverbs 11:25 “The liberal soul shall be made fat: And he that watereth shall be watered also himself.”
You will also not worry
Live cleanly
1 John 3:3 “And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.”
If you are one who does not see well,
you will be controlled by money, you will worry about materialistic things,
you will worry about God providing.
One who has an evil eye will not be able to trust God.
It will be easy for you to live in sin. Why? Because the next life does not matter to you.
1 Timothy 6:9–10 “But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”
How do you get your eyes right? Focus on the next life. Focus on doing whatever God has called you to do. Because when you are focused on the next life, God will provide the things for this life. Also you will have riches that are far more valuable than what you can get here. You will be walking on in the next life one of the most valuable
You can either live for this life or for the next life. What life are you living for?
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