Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
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Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in His wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace
-Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus by Helen H. Lemmel
What would you rather to look at?
Jesus or Treasures?
the Sunday school answer says “Jesus”
but treasure has an incredible pull on our hearts and minds
How can we learn to love gazing upon Jesus, and planning our lives for an eternity with him, rather than to look at our treasures on earth with such devotion?
In Matthew 6, Jesus isn’t speaking against possessions, things like money, clothing and food.
Instead, he is warning us about how a preoccupation with these things will bring about our ruin.
Trusting Jesus
Jesus will give us some hard hitting questions today.
His eternal words will challenge us, and force us to look at our lives from heaven’s viewpoint.
But I want for you to trust Jesus as we go through this process together.
Jesus lived out perfect obedience.
I believe that he lived out an abundant life.
He knows happiness and joy in its fullest state, and he offers abundant life to each of us.
Will you demonstrate your trust in Jesus?
Trust him in this proces.
Trust him that he loves you, that these questions are for your good.
They are to bless you, and save you from ruin.
Lets pray that God will give us His grace that we would trust him with all of our hearts and all of our minds this morning.
Here are the words of the Son of God, spoken to those who want to be disiplces, as he continues to teach them about what it is like to live as a citizen of the Kingdom of God.
$1,000 today or $10,000,000 in a year?
What if I had to cheques to offer you, and you could only pick one?
$1,000 today OR
$10,000,000 in a year.
Instant Gratification
Instant Gratification isn’t just a problem for kids.
We all suffer from the allure of instant Gratification.
Even though the wise decision is to forgo the $1,000 now, we are surrounded by a culture that values the temporary over the eternal.
Our hearts are conditioned to see the treasures of this earth and be drawn towards them.
We can’t see heaven nearly clearly enough, we can’t see the glory that is waiting, and so we jump at the $1,000, storing up our treasure in the wrong place.
Then we build up justifications for why riches on earth are necessary.
Jesus brings us truth.
Jesus taught this sermon in first century Israel.
If you lived then there two different ways to show your riches.
Clothing and Treasure
Moth - A Symbol of Earthly Destruction
when you hear the word Moth, you might think of a nice piece of clothing being ruined as the result of a moth eating a part of it.
Wealth was shown through beautiful clothing, (then and now).
Its very dissapointing to find a hole in your favourite sweater.
For me, the incompetent dryer has replaced the moth.
nice clothes go in, and where do the holes come from?
Thieves
If you trust wikipedia, then the first bank was established in 1397 by Giovani Medici.
First century, the bank looked like a hole in your floor that you put your money into.
“Breaking In” was what thieves did.
Right through the mud walls, etc.
Don’t store Treasure where it will surely be lost.
Jesus point is clear, all treasure gained on earth will be lost.
You will either have it destroyed or stolen.
Or the same thing will happen to you that happened to John D. Rockefeller.
You will die.
John D Rockefeller was one of the richest men that our world has known.
When he died, curiosity got the better of one person who asked his accountant, “How much money did he leave”.
The answer is perfect for us today,
“He left all of it”.
When noone buys your stuff at the garage sale.
Last summer I had a garge sale, and has a result, I’ve pledged to never have one again.
I have all of the stuff that it would seem nobody else wants.
I look around, and realize that weather its one month or 40 years from now, everything that I own is headed to a landfill.
Jesus says, why do you care so much about this stuff?
Wouldn’t it be better if you could store up treasure in a place where theives don’t exist, and where what is good is eternal?
God has created with to chase after incentive.
Communism, which denies God, failes people in large part because it removes incentives.
You aren’t working for your wage, instead you work for the good of everyone.
But we are created to work towards goals, and Jesus our creator is asking us to work towards eternal rewards.
Just earlier in this sermon
GIVE, PRAY, FAST in Secret
your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
In fact, because this passage follows those instructions we can easily connect the two.
When we are charitable towards the poor, that is a concrete way of storing treasure in heaven.
Its not merely a question of ultimate rewards.
Its a question of what motivates us.
Treasure Marker
Its very hard to walk in a straight line when you are looking at your feet.
Instead, have a marker in the distance, keep your eyes fixed on the marker, and you will walk in a straight line towards it.
Jesus is teaching us that Treasure is our Marker that we are walking towards.
Are you living for a promotion?
Is your priority to afford a new house, car.
Is retiring with a certain amount of wealth your main priority?
You can tell because whatever your treasure is, that is what you are moving towards.
That is what is pulling at your heart.
Where are you pulled?
Show me your treasure, and I’ll show you where your heart is.
- Tom Wright
We all want to be pulled towards heaven.
We all want for our treasure to outlast this earth and live on for eternity.
What rewards are you looking at when you walk through this life?
This passage is about so much more than Rewards, its about the condition of our souls.
Gaining a proper perspective on our finances is important, but doing the right things with the wrong motivations is a trap that we don’t want to fall into.
Jesus starts in on motiviations and perspectives in the following verses.
This metaphor takes a little bit of work for us to understand.
It has to do with seeing, how you see the world, and more specifically, how you see your treasures.
The metaphor compares the eye to a lamp, which gives light to the body.
Imagine a lamp in the middle of a room thats casting a light.
Now, add to that the ancient way of thinking about light.
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