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| Where Your Treasure Is (1 Peter 3:15) |
| Written by Pastor Fausel | |
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Our Messages throughout this season of Lent this year will have us consider the testimony of the lives of several of the Kings who served as rulers over God’s people. We will be looking at who were they were worshipping by their lives … and why. However, tonight is not about them … it’s about each of us. "Dust you are, and to dust you shall return.” Those words were not addressed to them … but to each of us this evening. We also heard Jesus address these words to us in our Gospel reading: “Where your treasure is … There your heart will be also.” We might think that these rather harsh and fearful economic times would make that statement sort of standout in bold relief at the end of our reading. Because, when we hear that word “treasure” … what always pops into our mind? … Money, right? Would it be a surprise to you … that’s not what Jesus is getting at here? Look again at our text … how does it start? “Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them.” Jesus says… And then, He goes on to cite examples of some of the acts of righteousness He is referring to … number one, giving to the needy … number 2 … prayer… number 3 … fasting. You see, all of them go back to that first verse … about being seen by other people when you do them … or doing them … in order to be seen doing them. Being seen … who’s that all about? God … or Me? Jesus is warning each of us about storing up treasures on earth … And He’s not talking about our dollars or our possessions here … He’s taking about Honor for the sake of honor itself in the eyes of others. Or avoiding shame for the same reason. Now, Jesus was originally speaking to people who came from a culture, which today, still, highly prizes honor in the eyes of others and avoids any semblance of shame at all costs. And so, Jesus draws a line in the sand. Where is your treasure? Is it honor in the eyes of men… or is it honor in the eyes of God? If it’s in the eyes of men … then who are you truly worshipping when you give, or pray, or fast … or do any other act of righteousness, when it’s done for the sake of receiving praise from others? We are worshipping ourselves! And in so doing … we’re storing up treasures on earth. … And so, the praise we receive is just that, empty praise from others who are nothing but dust and ashes … And Jesus says, that’s all we’re going to get. Now, the other side of that line in the sand … is worshipping our Lord. Giving so that the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing … praying in secret … and fasting so that no one would ever know … Why? Because what is being done outside the view of others is being done out of love for the Lord. Not out of the love of honor, or the avoidance of shame, for myself. ‘Why don’t you give … like I give?’ ‘Why don’t you pray… like I pray?’ ‘Why don’t you fast?’ Pride … in the mind of the speaker… and shame cast on the one spoken to. Where is the treasure in either case? In the eyes of those again who are merely dust and ashes.// Our call on this Ash Wednesday, this start of this season of Lent, is to get our treasures sorted out. Where are we trying to store it up? What things do we have our hearts set on? Things of this earth? Things of Dust? Jesus is telling us that, in the final analysis, your “face” in this world is irrelevant. ‘Let those who boast, boast in the Lord.’ You see, when we do a true act of righteousness, as Jesus calls us to do … there’s really more God in it than we might realize. He is the One who gives us the will and the ability and strength to do what He asks of us. In Jesus’ own examples: To Give, to Pray, yes, to even fast. God does call us to do acts of righteousness… expressions of the faith that He has first given us … but He also enables us to do them. And then … He’s active through us when we do them, and He even blesses us for doing them! We, who are merely dust and ashes. Why? For the sake of Jesus Christ, His life, suffering, death and resurrection. Jesus makes our dust and ashes count for something in this world … as He is the one who is also storing up treasures for us in heaven. And so … Lent is a time to take stock of all that. To check and see who’s at the helm of my ship … to double-check where my ship is headed … and to take stock of the treasures God has given me to deliver to the various ports of call He has set before me. Lent is that kind of journey. A journey of repentance? Yes … that’s what all that checking and taking stock is all about; looking to the creator of this bag of dust and ashes into which He has given the breath of life … and to whom He has given the indwelling of His Holy Spirit … that in all humility, it might praise Him rather than magnify itself. May that be said of us all… in this season of Lent. In Him. Amen. |