I recently heard a preacher say in his sermon, “The time is coming when the things we value most in this world will be gone.” We all know we can’t take it with us.
This time of year it seems everyone is concerned about what to buy for someone, what gifts to ask for, and how much they are going to spend. ‘Tis the season to be jolly,’ but not everyone is feeling jolly.
There is an eleven-year old boy lying in a hospital room today because someone decided last Saturday evening to stand on the street and shoot at his house. There was no real reason. The person just wanted to shoot at something.
Sunday evening one of our men spent the evening in our benevolent room at the church building with a stranger. The man washed and dried his clothes using our facilities. He had no other place to go for help.
This morning my husband and I visited with an elderly lady who fell last night and broke her hip. She had been enjoying a birthday party for her granddaughter. Today she faces hip replacement surgery.
All the things these three value on this earth have been put on hold. They may or may not get them back; but if they do, it will be temporary. Eventually all the physical things we all cherish will vanish away.
Jesus said, “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. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:10-21 ESV).
This passage is part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. We find many valuable lessons in this sermon, but this one is especially valuable. It is the kind of thing we need to think about often. The lesson—don’t treasure things of the world.
There is a young man, the son of a friend of ours, who has turned against his father because he did not receive the inheritance from a relative he thought he should receive. Because the inheritance was less than the father told him it might be, he accused his father of lying to him and saying he would never trust him again.
This young man has let the treasures of this life cloud his judgment. He has allowed money to be more important than a relationship with his earthly father. The father of this young man is devastated. He has lost a son for the price of a few thousand dollars.
If our earthly treasures are not important, what is? The passage in Matthew 6 tells us the treasures we should seek are in heaven. Other writers of the New Testament tell us the same thing.
Paul told Timothy, “As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life” (First Timothy 6:17-19).
Prior to this passage, Paul told Timothy to pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, and gentleness (First Timothy 6:11). These are things that are true treasures.
I have no idea what is in the hearts of those I have mentioned. This I do know; when the Lord returns, the things we thought were so important in this world will no longer matter.
The Christmas that the eleven-year old looked forward to will not matter. The dirty clothes of the stranger will not matter. The new hip for the precious grandmother will not matter. And believe it or not, those extra thousands of dollars will be of no use to the young man.
May the Lord help us to live for today, laying up treasures in heaven by the good deeds we can do for others and by giving ourselves in His service.
Sandra Oliver