Are You in The Weeds?
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Matthew 13:22
Now the one sown among the thorns—this is one who hears the word, but the worries of this age and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
I would like to preach today on living life in the weeds.
When I was waiting tables Saturday nights were the busiest night of the week. Around 8pm each Saturday all of the servers would be “in the weeds.” This meant we were overwhelmed with busy-ness. We were working as hard as we could just to keep up.
To be in the weeds is the be weighed downs with concerns…to be overwhelmed. And in those moments in which we are overwhelmed something eventually has to give. We can only juggle so many balls in the air before one falls.
Jesus teaches on this subject at length earlier in the Gospel of Matthew 7:19-24 and this is where we will focus today…God never intended for us to live a life in the weeds. To do so means your life is out of focus and our priorities are all mixed up.
All of life is going to be one of competing priorities. The question all of us have to answer is simply which one will win. While this may seem an easy enough one to answer it is not always practically easy.
The person living their life in the weeds does so because all of the many things they are juggling seem to be important. The problem is their heart tells them to keep juggling and they can’t stop.
Before you scoff at such a problem think about it a little deeper. We might immediately say God and family are important but what about your job, school, aging parents, bank account, mortgage, car payment and nation? I could go on and on but we have a lot of things and people we deem to be important in our life don’t we?
How can we manage our busy, important lives and not find ourselves in the weeds and choked of all eternal good and value?
If we fail to answer this question we will most likely find ourselves at the end of our life wondering what it was all about…questioning what we lived for and regretting the missed opportunities along the way.
So what are you living for and how can you have a life free of the weeds???
Treasure
Treasure
A rock hound named Rob Cutshaw owns a little roadside shop outside Andrews, North Carolina. Like many in the trade, he hunts for rocks, then sells them to collectors or jewelry makers. He knows enough about rocks to decide which to pick up and sell, but he's no expert. He leaves the appraising of his rocks to other people. As much as he enjoys the work, it doesn't always pay the bills. He occasionally moonlights, cutting wood to help put bread on the table.
While on a dig twenty years ago, Rob found a rock he described as "purdy and big." He tried unsuccessfully to sell the specimen, and according to the Constitution, kept the rock under his bed or in his closet. He guessed the blue chunk could bring as much as $500 dollars, but he would have taken less if something urgent came up like paying his power bill. That's how close Rob came to hawking for a few hundred dollars what turned out to be the largest, most valuable sapphire ever found. The blue rock that Rob had abandoned to the darkness of a closet two decades ago -- now known as "The Star of David" sapphire -- weighs nearly a pound, and could easily sell for $2.75 million.
Treasure is what we deem to be of great importance or exceptional value to us. It is that which we consider precious.
Jesus is first alluding to treasures that are of an earthly or physical nature. He says we are not to “lay up” for ourselves such treasures.
Jesus is not saying we should avoid all savings or retirement accounts. He is not saying it is wrong to have things. But He is saying it is wrong to value them beyond what they are…simply a means to the meeting of physical needs.
Things are not the source of our security, they are temporary, subject to decay and theft…and have absolutely no eternal value whatsoever.
In fact, there is not a single physical thing that we can ever take with us to heaven. Nothing physical has any eternal value or significance…unless we give them away.
This is the paradox, “a person only keeps what he gives.”
Remember the words of Jesus to the rich young ruler, “go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven.”
Jesus told the rich young ruler and us to pursue a different kind of treasure…heavenly treasure.
Heavenly Treasure — Goals and activities which have eternal significance. To use our things, time and attention so we might be a part of what God has prepared for us to do since before the creation of the world.
There is that same word again, “treasure.” If the man would sell his possessions he would in turn receive something of importance or exceptional value. Only in this case, the treasure would not be subject to decay or theft and be eternal in nature.
So there are two kinds of treasure, an earthly one and a heavenly one. Jesus says do not devote your life to the hoarding of earthly treasure…it is temporary, has finite value, fragile and insecure. In contrast heavenly treasure is secure, eternal and invaluable.
And we get to decide which we will “lay up.” We get to decide which type of treasure will have the place of priority and importance in our life.
The Heart
The Heart
Once you decide which type of treasure will have the utmost of importance your heart will follow the decision of the will.
The body of David Livingstone was buried in England where he was born, but his heart was buried in the Africa he loved. At the foot of a tall tree in a small African village the natives dug a hole and placed in it the heart of this man who they loved and respected. If your heart were to be buried in the place you loved most during life, where would it be? In your pocketbook? In an appropriate space down at the office? Where is your heart?
“The heart must and will go in the direction of that which we count precious. The whole man will be transformed into the likeness of that for which he lives.” — CH Spurgeon
Those are truly encouraging or terrifying words! Where we set our heart is incredibly important for it will determine the direction of our life.
Spurgeon went on in his commentary to say, “If our very best things are in heaven, our very best thoughts will fly in the same direction: but if our choicest possessions are of the earth, our heart will be earth-bound.”
Spend a little time with someone and you will soon see where their treasure really is…heaven or earth. And the adage is true, “What a man loves most determines what kind of man he is.”
The Eye
The Eye
This is a strange and probably often misunderstood passage of scripture. But in Jewish thought if you had good eyes they were straight and both focused in the same direction. A bad eye was an eye that strayed or wandered.
Jesus is simply saying you cannot have it both ways. You cannot attempt to focus your life and heart on both types of treasure. You will end up with a life in the weeds, unfruitful and in the end you will be broke…without any lasting treasure at all.
If you have one eye on earthly treasure and another on heavenly treasure…seeking to give both equal value and attention in your life, you will have a life of darkness. You will lack vision, clarity and direction.
To put it another way…you will live a life in the weeds, drowning in concerns and struggling to breath.
In the end we cannot serve both God and mammon or the god of money. We have to choose who comes first…who is of greatest importance…who will have our heart.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Which treasure will you seek to lay up? Earthly or heavenly? Who will you serve? God or the god of money and things? Before you too quickly answer remember the parable Jesus told in Matthew 21:28-32
“What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’
And he answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he changed his mind and went.
And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but did not go.
Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you.
For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him.
When the way of righteousness is clearly presented our head tells us which way is right but too often our heart is drawn to the way we shouldn’t go. We say yes but in the end too often we head the way of “no.”
So how do we choose to follow God and pursue real and lasting heavenly treasure? How do we follow Jesus and have a fruitful life that matters?
Put it another way…How can I stop stressing about stuff, bills and what I do or don’t have so I can just focus on what Jesus really created me to do???
First — We have to genuinely make a choice and a choice means cutting off all other options to live. We must realize a decision is being made and all other potential roads will be closed after it is made. This is the whole We have to die to self thing…we choose to stop living for just ourselves and stuff.
Second — Take up our Cross — Choose Jesus and follow Him regardless the cost. This means Jesus has everything that is me.
We need men of the cross, with the message of the cross, bearing the marks of the cross. — Vance Havner.
The manner of nailing the criminal, or the victim, to the cross was simple. The cross was laid upon the ground, and the one to be crucified was stretched upon it and spiked there. The hole for the cross was previously dug. Then the cross was carried to the hole and dropped into it. This, of course, drew every nerve and muscle into tension and produced the greatest imaginable suffering.
A teacher of a class of working girls showed them a steel engraving of a famous picture of the crucifixion. Three crosses were upon the ground. Soldiers were struggling with the two thieves, and forcing them down upon the crosses, while others drove the spikes. Upon the middle cross Christ lay down quietly and extended the quivering palms to receive the spikes. As the young women looked at the picture, one cried: "Oh, was Christ nailed there alive? I thought that He was dead before He was nailed there." The teacher replied: "Yes, He was nailed there alive for you." The girl, weeping, said: "Then I am His forever."
All of my time, talents and earthly treasure belong to Jesus, is at His disposal and meant for His eternal purposes.
Have you made that kind of commitment to Jesus? Too often folks are living with the evil eye mentality…I’ll take Jesus for life after death but keep my eyes on the earthly treasures I might amass until the day of my demise and departure from earth. Such a life is one in the weeds.
A lot of Christians are drowning today. Choking in the weeds…living a life of divided loyalties, purpose and priority. This is not how God means for us to live.
Make a choice to give your now and forever to Jesus…to live for an eternal, heavenly significance. Commit your life AND your things to Him.
Just rest in what you have, what He gives and keep your eyes fixed on the heavenly value of your time on this earth.