Sermon on 24 November 2024 by Pastor Gaius
Introduction
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. - Deuteronomy 6:5
Our hearts must be with the Lord. Whatever is in the Lord, is our treasure. This is not easy to achieve. What we devote our time, might, and heart to, is what we place importance on, what we value as treasure.
Message
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. - Luke 12:34
What are our treasures?
Money is important. We need it to survive. But we should not love money. Money is not the root of evil, but it is the love of money that is.
Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” - Luke 12:13
Jesus was asked to judge the splitting of inheritance amongst siblings.
And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” - Luke 12:15
And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” - Luke 12:19-21
There is nothing wrong with money. What you have is a blessing from God. But the teaching here is that you cannot love both money and God. Let us think carefully about what the Lord wants us to do with our money.
“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. - Matthew 6:24
And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. - Luke 12:22
Do not be greedy. We have what we need.
For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. - Luke 12:30
Do not be anxious. Everything is taken cared of. The Lord knows all our needs.
Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the good that is needful for me, - Proverbs 30:8
1. Seek God, not the world
Instead, seek His kingdom, and these things will be added to you. - Luke 12:31
2. Trust God, not the world.
“Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. - Luke 12:32
3. Help others, not for oneself
“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. - Matthew 6:19-20
Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. - Luke 12:33
Closing
Things on earth are temporal. Let us lay our treasures in heaven.
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