Sermon Tone Analysis

What Do You Treasure?

Intro - After banter…Pope Francis, this past week, tweeted, “Peoples lives should be invested in Jesus, and spent for others.”

And honestly I can think of no better sentiment outside of scripture to really bring home the meaning of this day for every believer.

[memorialdaypic]

Memorial Day - keep it brief but say what is needed…make you you mention that they were able to sacrifice because of what they treasured…move it all towards this idea:

“The balance between treasure and bread wants and needs excess and necessity is at the center of this prayer.

It is at the center of our prayer lives our faith lives and our personal lives.

Because of that it's very important that we understand what the function of what we treasure is in our hearts.

So as you get out your bibles and turn to , want to you, at the same time, think about all those things that you treasure.

All those things you give time to.

All those things that are extra in your life.

And we do honor them.

More than that, we pray for their families, and especially for those left behind.

We pray for God’s peace, love, and mercy to be with them all.

But church, there is such a great example in their lives for us.

And we have to dig it out, because I can tell you from my years in service, and my family’s service, that finding and emulating that example is the best honor we can give them.

And I think we know that.

We know that because we say it.

It is in the movies we watch about war, and in our collected identity as Americans.

“Don’t let their death be in vain,” we say.

Don’t let their sacrifice be for nothing.

I think we can all agree that those thoughts and feelings go through all of our minds when we think of those who gave themselves for us.

And those feelings, those thoughts, they change us, right?

They cause us to honor our service people, no matter their background.

We defend them in weakness and in spirit.

We follow behind them in causes and support them.

And we do that, I think, because we know that in that sacrifice for us is the closest representation to the sacrifice of Christ that we will likely know.

And today, church, I want us to look at this next point in the model prayer, through the eyes of both Jesus, and those we memorialize this day, in an effort to re-frame what we think we need, and especially, what we really treasure.

What about the one who gave His life for our eternity?

What about the very one who exampled for each of us what the ultimate love and sacrifice is really all about?

The one who modeled the sacrifice of all our brave men and women who willingly jumped into the fray to show the world that they treasure freedom, they treasure country, they treasured mercy itself more than life.

Just like Jesus.

And today, church, I want us to look at this next point in the model prayer, through the eyes of both Jesus, and those we memorialize this day, in an effort to re-frame what we think we need, and especially, what we really treasure.

So we join back into that prayer, today, by looking at the next verse, “give us this day our daily bread.”

Tie in Memorial Day early on.

Maybe their prayers?

recognize their love and sacrifice.

Move from there to biblical figures??

And to try to better illuminate the importance of this moment in the prayer, I want to put it in the same light that Jesus put it in, mere moments after giving this prayer to us, there in Matthew 6:19-21

Introduce that then paraphrase..Give us what we really need in this moment…what we need for His glory, for His will…for the cause of Christ to continually press forward…let us not depend on all that we think we have or need, but only on what God has given us…ex 16 story background....collect only how much you need…compare and contrast…move toward idea that God gives us things…freedom, money, cars, jobs, friends, stuff…that are useful for life and for His purposes but sometimes we treasure them over the “bread” that he offers us, that is in fact necessary for survival and especially for the survival of His kingdom.

And to do that, we must become like these brave men and women, and value other’s above ourselves, and attend to the needs of those around us while trusting God for what we need.

move to scripture…

move to scripture…

I want you to think about it, church, because we can never grow if we fool ourselves.

We must expose what we are to God, and to ourselves, if we every hope to become what God made us to be.

[use for CTW, for context for the prayer and message, and for scripture]

[other scripture…john 4:32-35…spiritual food…doing the will of God...

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Pray.

What do you treasure?

Ask to think about examples…move toward “AM I INVESTING MY LIFE IN JESUS AND SPENDING IT ON PEOPLE?” or DO I TAKE WHAT I WANT FROM LIFE, AND GIVE BACK TO GOD AND PEOPLE WHEN I HAVE TIME?

We rarely treasure what we need.

Usually we treasure what we want.

It is implied in the word itself!

But I think that is what Jesus is getting at here in this moment.

I think when you look at this prayer, and this explanation given just seconds later, it is clear that Jesus is trying to turn what we think about need vs. wants, bread vs. treasure, on it’s head!

You see, this prayer is asking us, not to pray for our wildest dreams, but to become accustomed to praying for what we need in that moment.

What will give us the ability to move towards God’s goals for us, not this other shiny thing that will only serve to distract us from Christ!

You see, all that stuff we have, all that treasure as we should know it, it only distracts us from God and others.

From family.

That phone takes time.

Being awful at Fortnight, which I am genuinely bad at, it takes away time!

Columbo, whatever you favorite shows are, they take time!

Our jobs, our ambition, while important, they still take time!

Time that is intended to be given to God and neighbor, and especially to our families.

We have to be obedient to God, and want our daily bread more than our daily steak dinner.

[pic of exodus manna]

Explain

Treasure extra vs treasuring obedience and God’s provision and plan.

[memorial pic]

Tie back to Memorial day, “What do you treasure?”

(ask them again about their thing)…now ask yourself this, what did those that served, and died, treasure?

examples

We need to think about both of those, and church, we need to balance them, because they are a very real representation of Jesus’ sacrifice for us!

And we need to think about it, because honestly, our treasure, what we value over everything else, it has a real impact on our lives!

Just as it had a real impact on their.

I want to talk about three ways that i think it has the most impact.

Our treasure determines our direction

Verse 21, Where your treasure is...

Soldiers we remember today treasured freedom more than self, mission more than self, mercy more than life!

And BECAUSE of that, their treasure not only determined their direction, but ours as well.

That obedience, seeking only what God gives them in that moment - their daily bread - it should point us squarely back at Jesus

You see, Jesus’ treasure determined His direction too!

Treasured God’s will (garden)

But the thing that He really treasured.

The thing that no doubt gave Him direction.

The thing that helped him to take the lashes, take the beating, and the thing that fueled Him as He carried that cross up that hill; that thing - that treasure - it is staring you in the face every time you look in a mirror.

It was you.

You are the treasure that gave Him direction, and strength, and purpose.

He loved you so much, that He wanted to not only save you, but to show you how to love others too.

HE WANTED TO SHOW YOU THAT WHEN WE KNOW THAT GOD HAS OUR NEEDS COVERED - OUR DAILY BREAD IF YOU WILL - THAT THEN WE CAN CHOOSE TO FOLLOW HIM! TO TREASURE LOVE! TO TREASURE GRACE!

TO TREASURE PEOPLE MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE APART FROM GOD! AND WHEN WE DO THAT, IT CHANGES OUR DIRECTION TOO.

Our treasure determines our future.

Verse 20 - treasure in heaven

Not that we can earn salvation..

…if we would just treasure what God gives us we could be assured that we are right where He needs us to be, even in the storms of life!

Our treasure becomes like little breadcrumbs leading the way to God’s purpose and path.

Like Hansel and Gretel sort of.

And if we follow that, treasure His daily bread, we will find our way to His will, to love, to eternity!

To our future that is assured through Jesus.

Stuff can’t get us there…only God can…[rich young ruler]