Where is Your Treasure?
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/Easter – Jesus established that kingdom.
/Easter – Jesus established that kingdom.
Treasure – What is most valuable to you?
what is most valuable to you?
Does it bring you ultimate joy?
What you value most is what you hope will bring you ultimate joy. Does it
Great Commission – advance the kingdom. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
what is rodeny a dumbass
God’s Plan – Establish a Kingdom
God’s Plan – Establish a Kingdom
Foretold in
Seeking first His Kingdom – 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever, just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. A great God has made known to the king what shall be after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure.”
Problem – His Kingdom agenda is not always our top agenda. Agreed? Why?
Established through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus
Our Commission – Being and Making Disciples
Our Commission – Being and Making Disciples
… 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. People stress out over stuff. The reasoning goes like this. Sure Jesus, I would like to seek frost your kingdom and everything but I have to earn and make a living. Life requires I have a job, earn a living, pay bills, and provide for my needs and the needs of my family. Seeking first your kingdom means that I have to shift my focus away from those responsibilities and put my energy in resources into areas that will not increase the bottom line.
Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
That’s why Jesus talked about money so often. People were always asking him about it. Tell my brother to spilt the inheritance. Should we pay taxes to Caesar? We don’t have enough food to feed these people. This perfume was wasted when it could have been sold and the money given to the poor. Jesus spoke about money more than any other subject.
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Sixteen of the thirty-eight parables were concerned with how to handle money and possessions.
In the Gospels, an amazing one out of ten verses (288 in all) deal directly with the subject of money.
The Bible offers 500 verses on prayer
less than 500 verses on faith,
more than 2,000 verses on money and possessions.
Our Struggle – Deciding Which Kingdom to Advance
Our Struggle – Deciding Which Kingdom to Advance
Here at Grace we have neglected this subject.
Let’s be honest. His Kingdom agenda is not always our top agenda. Why not? If we are truthful with ourselves and one another we are afraid that if we somehow go all in on “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” we will lose out somehow.
Expository preaching.
Fear of man. I am not wild about preaching on a topic that many people interpret as self-serving. I loathe the prosperity gospel so much that there is always a danger that I might avoid legitimate matters the Bible addresses for your good and God’s glory.
Goal of Series
Goal of Series
Pay attention to Jesus’ admonition here. It tells us something about the reason we struggle. People stress out over stuff. The reasoning goes like this. Sure Jesus, I would like to seek first your kingdom and righteousness but I have to earn and make a living. Life requires that I have a job, earn a living, pay bills, and provide for my needs and the needs of my family. Seeking first your kingdom means that I have to shift my focus away from those responsibilities and put my energy in resources into areas that will not increase the bottom line. We tell ourselves we have to choose providing for ourselves and our families over seeking first his kingdom. Jesus is telling is that is a false choice. Earlier in this same chapter Jesus went straight for the heart.
First let me address the Non-goal of this series: make you feel like a total failure… This is a real danger. I am one of those people who for many years felt a low-level guilt anytime I thought deeply about stewardship. When we were first married, we financed everything. Car, House, furniture. And no, I didn’t think through the concept of compound interest. I did not actually learn about that until I read Larry Burkett’s stuff. Consequently, we carried more debt than we should and always felt a level of guilt and shame concerning stewardship. Rolling out a million verses on why you should stop being a financial idiot will not free you. It highlights our problem and make us feel worse. To be clear, we will highlight the problem but knowing what one ought to do never empowers anyone to actually do it. Only the gospel can do that.
The Expressed Goal: Experience the fullness of joy promised to us () by treasuring Jesus above all else.
Series Overview
Series Overview
24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he 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.
Jesus is telling us our problem is what we value. Where your treasure is there your heart is. People are afraid if they actually follow Jesus and seek first his kingdom they are going to miss out.
1. Introduction – Treasure
2. Diagnosis – Sin, Law, and the Gospel (Old Testament)
Your Treasure is whatever you are afraid to lose as you consider following Jesus.
What are you afraid to lose if you follow Jesus?
One of the things people are afraid to lose is money, or the stuff they think money will get them. People were always asking Jesus about money and stuff.
3. Jesus - Treasuring the Treasure
Tell my brother to spilt the inheritance.
4. – Treasuring Jesus Together
5. Paul – Gospel Generosity Part 1
Should we pay taxes to Caesar?
6. Paul – Gospel Generosity Part 2
We don’t have enough money to buy food to feed these people.
This perfume was wasted when it should have been sold and the money given to the poor.
The Problem Stated – Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also… You cannot serve two masters… You can’t serve both God and money.
The Problem Stated – Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also… You cannot serve two masters… You can’t serve both God and money.
“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.
“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 he 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.
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
What is an idol? … Anything we value above God. Reason for exile…
Jesus spoke about money and possessions more than any other subject. More than faith, heaven, or hell.
Sixteen of the thirty-eight parables were concerned with how to handle money and possessions.
Tension – Treasuring Gifts (stuff) versus the Giver of Gifts…
Gifts are good and supposed to be enjoyed – For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5 for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.
o Gifts are good and supposed to be enjoyed – For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5 for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.
In the Gospels, one out of ten verses (288 in all) deal directly with the subject of money.
For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.
If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed. Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.
Command and teach these things. Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.
Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity.
Honor widows who are truly widows. But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God.
For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.
If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed. Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.
Command and teach these things. Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.
Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity.
Honor widows who are truly widows. But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God.
For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.
If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed. Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.
Command and teach these things. Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.
Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity.
Honor widows who are truly widows. But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God.
Gifts tend to replace the Giver as our object of affection. 17 Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. 18 For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.
The Bible offers 500 verses on prayer
The Bible has less than 500 verses on faith
The Design – Back when man enjoyed the giver through the gifts…
The Design – Back when man enjoyed the giver through the gifts…
God is – eternally expressing love between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The Bible has over 2,000 verses on money and possessions.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
God creates – creates and shares his glory. Creating magnifies his glory.
Confession - Here at Grace we have neglected this subject. I suppose I could tell you that the reason is since we preach verse by verse that we address it when its addressed in the Bible, so when we are in a series and the text addresses it we talk about it. That would be true. For example, we just finished Daniel and Daniel does address the subject so neither did we. True enough. But there is another reason which is not as noble. I can’t speak for all of our elders but as the person who does the most preaching I loathe the idea that if I preach on money people will immediately question my motives. I have a fear of what people think. I wonder, “will they think I am like the prosperity preachers that constantly preach on money and who coincidentally have lots of money?” They might. You might, but that is none of my business. We cannot avoid legitimate subjects in the Scriptures for your good and God’s glory just because someone might impugn my motives. Besides, no one who has been here longer than a couple months will make that charge considering we often have new comers ask, “I have been coming here for a month and I don’t know how to give to the church.”
Goal of Series
Goal of Series
God plants a garden.
God puts man in the garden.
First let me address the Non-goal of this series: make you feel like a total failure… This is a real danger. I am one of those people who for many years felt a low-level guilt anytime I thought deeply about the issue of stewardship. When we were first married, we financed everything. Car, House, furniture. And no, I didn’t think through the concept of compound interest. I did not actually learn about that until I read Larry Burkett’s stuff. Consequently, we carried more debt than we should and always felt a level of guilt and shame concerning stewardship. Rolling out a million verses on why you should stop being a financial idiot will not free you. It highlights our problem and make us feel worse. To be clear, we will highlight the problem but knowing what one ought to do never empowers anyone to actually do it. Only the gospel can do that.
Man told to enjoy the garden (creation)
The Expressed Goal: Experience the fullness of joy promised to us by treasuring Jesus above all else.
Man told to be fruitful and multiply (work the garden, multiply, spread God’s glory. This is mission… Gifts are given to be enjoyed and to enable the mission.
The Tension (The Heart)
The Tension (The Heart)
Everything man enjoyed regarding creation was a function of his enjoyment of the giver himself.
Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also… Treasuring Gifts (stuff) versus the Giver of Gifts…
Gifts are good and supposed to be enjoyed –
Joy derived through relationships (Adam and Eve) was experienced as derived from the giver of all good gifts and thereby enhanced man’s enjoyment of God.
For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving,
For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.
If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed. Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.
Command and teach these things. Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.
Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity.
Honor widows who are truly widows. But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God.
Gifts tend to replace the Giver as our object of affection.
Gifts tend to replace the Giver as our object of affection.
Joy derived through stuff: seeing, feeling, hearing, and tasting God’s gifts in the garden were experienced as derived from the giver of all good gifts and thereby enhanced man’s enjoyment of God.
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
The Design – Back when man enjoyed the giver through the gifts…
The Design – Back when man enjoyed the giver through the gifts…
The Fall – The Day man decided the gifts were all he needed…
The Fall – The Day man decided the gifts were all he needed…
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.
And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.
And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.
And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.
And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.
And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.
These are the generations
of the heavens and the earth when they were created,
in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.
When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said,
“This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called Woman,
because she was taken out of Man.”
Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
The temptation – you need something the giver won’t give you…
God is – eternally expressing love between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
God creates – creates and shares his glory. Creating magnifies his glory.
The fall – I can be happy with gifts themselves. 18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,
God plants a garden.
The Fallout – Man lost joy.
The Fallout – Man lost joy.
When you value something beyond its worth things go south. Men, how many of you enjoy golf? Fishing? Hunting? Nothing wrong with enjoying activities, right? But what happens when you value your hobbies above your wife?
· Prodigal son. Dad, give me my inheritance now. In other words, I wish you were dead. More on this later when we get to the words of Jesus.
God puts man in the garden.
· , followed by exile.
Man told to enjoy the garden (creation)
· American Christians and Personal Debt…
Man told to be fruitful and multiply (work the garden, multiply, spread God’s glory. This is mission… Gifts are given to be enjoyed and to enable the mission.
Everything man enjoyed regarding creation was a function of his enjoyment of the giver himself.
· American Debt https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/average-credit-card-debt-household/
·
Joy derived through relationships (Adam and Eve) was experienced as derived from the giver of all good gifts and thereby enhanced man’s enjoyment of God.
A Way forward… The Gospel…
A Way forward… The Gospel…
Joy derived through stuff: seeing, feeling, hearing, and tasting God’s gifts in the garden were experienced as derived from the giver of all good gifts and thereby enhanced man’s enjoyment of God.
Treasuring someone who actually has the capacity to bring full joy.
The Fall – The Day man decided the gifts were all he needed…
The Fall – The Day man decided the gifts were all he needed…
Recognize poverty -
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.
He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
The Lord God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this,
cursed are you above all livestock
and above all beasts of the field;
on your belly you shall go,
and dust you shall eat
all the days of your life.
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.”
To the woman he said,
“I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;
in pain you shall bring forth children.
Your desire shall be contrary to your husband,
but he shall rule over you.”
And to Adam he said,
“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
‘You shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground because of you;
in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.”
The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.
Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.
The temptation – you need something the giver won’t give you…
The fall – I can be happy with gifts themselves.
For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,
The Fallout – We forfeit joy when we misplace treasure.
The Fallout – We forfeit joy when we misplace treasure.
Case Study in misplaced treasure Prodigal son.
Younger Brother (vs. 11-15) I wish you were dead, give me your stuff now.
Older Brother (vs. 28-31) I have been waiting patiently for you to die so I could get your stuff.
Principle – Misplaced values always lead to brokenness (our own and others). When a spouse values their job, hobbies, or even their children over their spouse it will destroy the relationship. Imagine a marriage were a husband values the sexual act more than he values his wife. She is objectified and her dignity is diminished. Imagine a child whose performance is valued more than their person by their parents. The child learns they are valued only when they win or succeed.
Irony – in each of these scenarios the individuals pursuing treasure in that which is not really all that valuable never find the joy they actually seek.
A Way forward… Series Overview: The Gospel…
A Way forward… Series Overview: The Gospel…
Treasuring someone who actually has the capacity to bring full joy.
Introduction – Treasure
Diagnosis – Sin, Law, and the Gospel (Old Testament)
Jesus - Treasuring the Treasure
– Treasuring Jesus Together
Paul – Gospel Generosity Part 1
Paul – Gospel Generosity Part 2
A Gift worth Treasuring
A Gift worth Treasuring
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.