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[0:00] Good morning, church. Our scripture lesson this morning is taken from Matthew chapter 6, verses 19 through 34.

[0:13] ! Do not lay up for yourselves treasure on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal.

[0:31] For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body, so if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light.

[0:42] But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.

[1:02] You cannot serve God and money. Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on.

[1:17] It is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing. Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

[1:33] Are you not of more value than they? And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to your span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing?

[1:46] Consider the lydies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

[1:59] But if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you? O you of little faith, therefore, do not be anxious, saying, what shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear?

[2:18] For the Gentiles seek after these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

[2:31] Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

[2:42] Amen. Amen. Thank you very much, Michelle. Well, this morning we are continuing our sermon series in the Sermon on the Mount.

[2:54] We have come to a new section in the Sermon on the Mount. And it's a section in which Jesus addresses a reality that we all face, and that we will continue to face until the day we die.

[3:15] And so let's open our hearts this morning, and let's hear what the Lord has to say to us. But first, would you bow in prayer with me? Lord, we thank you this morning for your word, and we ask that you would help us to posture our hearts to hear what you would say to us.

[3:40] Lord, it is not by accident that you have gathered us in this place. Yes, we came by our own decisions, but ultimately, Lord, you're the one who brought us here.

[3:51] Would you cause each of us to hear in our own context, Lord, what you're saying to us today? We ask that you would use the preaching of your word to conform us more and more to Christ, those of us who belong to Christ.

[4:12] And would you use the preaching of your word, Lord, to save those who do not know you? Lord, I ask for your grace to serve your people this morning.

[4:30] Father, would you superintend the words of my lips? And I pray that they would be faithful to your word before us.

[4:42] We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. In this passage before us, Jesus brings us face to face with a reality.

[4:55] I think that we all know very well. And the reality is that this life can be filled with many anxieties.

[5:06] And in this passage that we are considering this morning, Jesus addresses financial anxieties. And here's how I would summarize what he says in these verses.

[5:21] Rather than be consumed by life's anxieties, God's people are to pursue kingdom priorities. Or to put it another way, what Jesus is saying to us, above all else, set your hearts on God and the things of God.

[5:53] And I pray this morning that this would be the motivation of all of our hearts. So how do we pursue kingdom priorities? I want to suggest from this passage two very simple ways that we are called to pursue kingdom priorities.

[6:12] And first, we must avoid common anxieties. We pursue kingdom priorities first by avoiding common anxieties.

[6:24] And one of the most important lessons that we should not miss is that, again, the anxieties that Jesus addresses in this passage, they're relevant to all of us.

[6:40] There's not one of us who can stand and honestly say, those are not relevant to me. In fact, they're common to all people everywhere.

[6:52] In different shapes and forms to different degrees. No matter if they're wealthy or poor or somewhere in between, we all face these anxieties.

[7:03] And the most basic one is, how do we care for ourselves and provide for ourselves and our families? And because we live in a fallen world, financial problems can be compounded because of job loss.

[7:22] Because we find ourselves unemployed. Sometimes it comes through business failure and other financial reversals.

[7:35] Maybe sickness brings it on. Or drought. Or hurricane. Or maybe just economic recession.

[7:46] And even when our current needs are met and we don't face those immediate challenges, there tends to be in our minds anxieties about the future.

[8:00] Maybe thinking about educating children. Thinking about acquiring a home. Thinking about going back to school. Thinking about something in the future that requires money.

[8:12] And it can become a preoccupation of our souls. How am I going to do it? And bottom line, we attempted to worry about, am I going to be able to put food on the table, clothes on my back, and a shelter for my head?

[8:37] And for my family as well. And even when we think of someone who might be just down to the basics of food and clothing and shelter, while it would appear that that's the anxiety, no, the anxiety is still rooted in money because money is required to acquire those things.

[9:05] To secure those things. It's quite interesting that in the United States, on their currency, it says, in God we trust.

[9:18] And it's interesting that it's on the currency. That's their motto. It's on their currency. In God we trust. And I think, if it were a truer statement, it would probably say, in God we should trust, but we trust in money.

[9:34] And not just for them. I think that's true all around. We are people who generally trust in money. We have a belief that if we can acquire enough money, if we can accumulate enough wealth, we will be secure.

[9:52] And we don't have to worry about much of life that causes people to worry. But the truth is that that's not true.

[10:04] And Jesus helps us to see it in the very first verse that was read this morning in verse 19. Jesus points out two reasons why we should not trust in money. And the first reason, he tells us, is we should not trust in money because they're not valuable.

[10:29] They're not permanent possessions. Look again at what he says in verse 19. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal.

[10:49] I think we've all lived long enough to know that there are any number of different situations that can arise that can cause us to lose our money and lose our investments. Lose the material possessions that we have.

[11:03] I think many of you would have seen the devastating fires in California. and you took the time to look at some of the interviews of some people who lost everything.

[11:16] You'd see the utter devastation that all that they had, the most valuable possession, a home, and the things in it was just gone in a moment.

[11:29] And that's the reality, brothers and sisters, that there is no, there's nothing material in this life, no amount of money that we have, no amount of investments that we have, no amount of property that we own, that has permanent and lasting value.

[11:49] Sometimes thieves take it. Something that some of us have experienced in this congregation. Sometimes a government decision or policy can wipe out massive amounts of wealth.

[12:09] We saw this some years ago with the major road redevelopment project that we had that just killed many, many businesses. And Jesus reminds us that even though wealth and possessions are not permanent and lasting, we still trust in them.

[12:36] We trust in them more than we should. And so he reminds us not to do so because if we do, we will be disappointed. And he tells us rather than storing up for ourselves treasures on the earth, he tells us to do something else in verse 20.

[12:54] He says, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys nor thieves break and where thieves do not break in and steal.

[13:08] And so what Jesus helps us to see is there are two treasures. There are earthly treasures and there are heavenly treasures. And earthly treasures are not enduring and heavenly treasure is.

[13:21] And Jesus calls us to store up for ourselves treasures in heaven that are secure and that are enduring and that cannot be lost in the way that earthly treasure is lost.

[13:34] So what are the heavenly treasures that Jesus is telling us to store up? Well, these heavenly treasures are really heavenly rewards.

[13:47] they are the rewards that the Lord has for his people as they labor for him. And you can think of it this way.

[13:57] The way that people amass money and wealth generally speaking is through their labors. They work and they are able to as a result use what they need for their lives and they're able to store up the rest.

[14:13] Well, the idea is that if we labor in Christ's name, if we labor for Christ's sake, in the same way, there is a return on that labor for us.

[14:29] Jesus is telling us that as we live in this life for him, as we engage in his service, there is a reward that we are storing up.

[14:41] We are earning heavenly rewards. that are secure in heaven. That will not be dissipated, that we will not lose in any way.

[14:57] Now, when we think of that, exactly what does the Lord reward us for on this earth? I think for many of us, we tend to think that, okay, what God rewards us for is ministry.

[15:12] When we do ministry, when we serve in the church, we do something related to the work of Jesus Christ, continuing that work.

[15:23] And we think as we do that, God will reward us. That is true. That's only partially true. And for the overwhelming majority of people, that is not true.

[15:39] Because the Bible sees service to Christ in a much bigger and broader way. The Christian vision, the biblical vision of the Christian life, is that all of life is to be lived in service to Christ.

[15:57] Christ. So that whatever we engage in, whatever activities we are doing, that we are to be doing it in service to Christ because we belong to Christ.

[16:11] We've been created by God, we've been redeemed by Jesus Christ, and we are no longer our own, we belong to Him. And so, the biblical vision of the Christian life is that it is to be all done in Christ's name for God's glory.

[16:32] And so, it is from the life that we live on this earth in Christ's name for His glory that God rewards us for. The normal life that God has ordained for us is what we are to be engaged in and living for Him in, and in so doing, storing up heavenly treasure.

[17:01] Listen to the way Paul says it in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 31. He says, so whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God.

[17:16] Everything, everything, the biblical vision of the Christian life is that everything can be done for the glory of God, whatever we do.

[17:29] He used these basic things, eating and drinking, something we do every single day and we can do it to the glory of God. He also says in Colossians chapter 3, 17, and whatever you do, saying the same thing but a different way, whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

[17:56] Brothers and sisters, we are called to live all of life in Christ's name for God's glory and nothing is excluded.

[18:06] This must be our aim. There is an account in the gospel of Mark, in Mark chapter 9, where John comes to Jesus and he says to Jesus, we saw a man who was casting out demons in your name and we tried to stop him because he was not one of us.

[18:30] And Jesus said to him, don't you stop him. Don't you oppose anyone who is doing anything in my name because they cannot do something in my name and then the next woman turn and speak evil of me.

[18:48] And Jesus said to him, he said, if someone gives one of you a cup of water because you're my disciple, that person will not lose his reward.

[19:06] And the whole idea behind that is to show that God is concerned about the smallest act done in his name. The smallest act, the most insignificant act, the most mundane act that is done in his name.

[19:22] He says, if anyone gives a cup of water in my name to one of my disciples, that person will be rewarded for that.

[19:33] And we know he's the God who cannot lie. And you know, one of the biggest areas that we neglect this important truth is in the work that we do every single day.

[19:49] We do it and we do it absent mindedly and we don't see it as service unto the Lord. We don't work as unto the Lord. And in our homes as well.

[20:01] Two places where we spend a whole lot of time on the job and in the home and we're just not conscious that all that we do is to be done in the name of the Lord Jesus and for the glory of God.

[20:22] Billy Graham's wife, Ruth Graham, had a sign over her kitchen sink that said divine service held here three times a day.

[20:39] Over the sink where she would go and she would wash dishes for a large family three times a day and God enabled her to see this is divine service, this is service done in the name of the Lord, divine service.

[21:00] This is God calls us to sanctify all of life and to live all of life in his service and as we do that he says you will not lose your reward.

[21:10] This is how we store up treasure in heaven. This is how we labor for heaven and Jesus said that we are to be more concerned about that than treasures on this earth.

[21:24] Our little lady is going to tell us why we don't need to be overly concerned about treasures on this earth. And so dishes can be washed in the name of Jesus.

[21:40] Husbands, we can be husbands loving our wives in Jesus name. Wives, you can be wives submitting to your husbands in Jesus name.

[21:51] It is service offered to the Lord and it is rewarded. Children, you can obey your parents in the Lord in Jesus name and it is labor to be rewarded by the Lord.

[22:12] All that we do, we are called to do in his name and for God's glory. Jesus wants us to see that a life that has lived in service to him is eternally more valuable than any amount of wealth that we could amass in this life.

[22:35] Because even if we are able to still retain it and all the perils that would dissipate wealth don't affect it, we're going to leave it one day.

[22:51] Now what's the concern of Jesus behind this? Why is Jesus telling us not to store up treasures on this earth? He tells this in verse 21 at the very end.

[23:07] He says, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Wherever our treasure is, our heart will be also. If we value the material things of this earth, the accumulation of wealth and material possessions, we value that, our heart is going to be set on it.

[23:29] But if we value a life in service to the Lord, then our hearts are going to be set on that, and the result of that, which is a heavenly reward for our heavenly father, who will welcome us one day and say, well done, good and faithful servant.

[23:51] It is a heart that is set upon what is eternal versus what is temporal. Now, when the Bible talks about heart, it's not talking just merely about certainly not the physical organ and not our emotions.

[24:10] talking about our whole being, the total person that we are, and whatever is a treasure to us, our whole being will be intertwined with it. Our whole being will be wrapped up in it.

[24:25] Brothers and sisters, what we treasure is not determined by what our mouths say. what we treasure is determined by what our hearts love.

[24:41] And even in this moment, we can think about that. What is our heart set upon? What makes our heart be fast? What are our true affections?

[24:57] It's not determined by what we say. It's determined by what our heart loves. Whatever we truly love, we will be absorbed with.

[25:08] It will be the center of our lives. I'm sure you will all agree with me that it is unwise to have hearts and lives that are absorbed with things that will rot and will not endure.

[25:31] while neglecting what does endure. So why then do we still find ourselves following the human tendency to store up treasures on this earth rather than to store up heavenly treasure?

[25:53] Why don't we get it? God is going to do it? I think we can mentally agree that yeah, it doesn't make sense to invest in what is going to be passing away and indeed can go away in any moment versus that which we have been told by a God who cannot lie is eternal.

[26:12] And yet we find ourselves not getting it. And so Jesus has to stress it and teach it though it should be obvious to us.

[26:27] I think the reason we don't get it is in what Jesus says next in verses 22 to 23.

[26:38] Look at what he says. He talks about two visions, a good vision and a bad vision. He says the eye is the lamp of the body so if your eye is healthy your whole body will be full of light but if your eye is bad your whole body will be full of darkness.

[26:55] If then the light in you is darkness how great is the darkness. Our eyes function like a lamp for our bodies.

[27:10] The same way a lamp will light a path to guide our eyes guide our whole bodies. Show us where to go. Show us what we can do. Our eyes would guide our hands to pick up things and coordinate them and do all manner of things and when we aren't able to see that well then we are in darkness.

[27:33] And Jesus is here addressing spiritual sight. And it is only when we have spiritual sight that we are able to see what Jesus is saying to us about treasures.

[27:50] If we have bad spiritual eyes treasures, we will not be persuaded that what Jesus says to us about treasures, earthly treasures versus heavenly treasure is true.

[28:04] Because it is only when we have good spiritual eyes that we're able to see what Jesus is saying about heavenly treasures versus earthly treasures, the unpredictability of earthly treasures, the durability of heavenly treasures.

[28:17] That's the only way that we're going to be able to see it when we have spiritual eyes. And Jesus says, if there is darkness in us, how great is the darkness?

[28:33] We are groping through life and we're not making these connections that Jesus wants us to see in terms of how we need to live our lives because we're not seeing as we ought to see.

[28:47] You think of a person, for example, who is given two job opportunities they have to think through.

[29:00] And the compensation is laid out, the benefits are laid out, and the demands are laid out. And they're able to weigh the impacts of those various options on their lives and on their families.

[29:12] In order for us to be able to properly make those assessments and to land on the right side, of one of those two jobs, we need spiritual eyes. And when we have spiritual eyes, we will be guided more than by compensation.

[29:33] We'll be guided in a broader way because we have eyes that are in tune to what really matters, what is really important.

[29:48] When we have spiritual eyes, we don't set our minds on the non-enduring earthly treasures, but on the enduring heavenly treasures. And then Jesus goes on to help us to see that behind the two treasures, and where we lay them up, and behind the two visions, and how we see and value things in this life, is a more fundamentally basic choice.

[30:17] He points it at verse 24. He says, no one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.

[30:28] You cannot serve God and money. Some translations use the word mammon, like the King James or the New American Standard or the Revised Standard.

[30:40] They use mammon. And the reason is that mammon, mammon in its original context, was any thing that people put their trust in.

[30:52] It was something that people had confidence in. It was called mammon. And because we tend to put our trust in money more than anything else, over time, money and mammon just became synonymous.

[31:06] So Jesus uses the term in the King James, the mammon, but here it's translated for us in a more modern translation as money, because we tend to trust in money.

[31:17] It's very interesting that Jesus doesn't reduce the choices in life, in terms of the two wheels serve, as God and Satan. He says it's God and money.

[31:30] Because both of those are options for trust. We can put our trust in the Lord, or we can put our trust in money. Jesus says we can't serve both.

[31:43] He says you will serve one, and you will, or you will despise the other. Serve God or serve money.

[32:01] Theologian John Stott insightfully comments on this choice between God and money this way. He writes, when the choice is seen for what it is, a choice between creator and creature, between a glorious personal God and a miserable thing called money, between worship and idolatry, it seems inconceivable that anyone could make the wrong choice.

[32:37] And yet, left to ourselves, we make the wrong choice. and this is why these words are to disciples of Jesus Christ, because these are realities for us.

[32:59] And Jesus goes on in verse 25 to help us to see why he has told us about these two treasures and told us about these two visions and told us about these two masters.

[33:18] Notice how verse 25 begins, it begins therefore. And so Jesus is connecting what he has said to us in verses 19 to 24, and he is now going to bring the point home very clearly to us.

[33:32] He says in verse 25, therefore I tell you to not be anxious about your life. What you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on.

[33:44] Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? And then he calls us to consider the birds of the air and the lilies in the grass and how he cares for them.

[34:00] And he's seeking to convince us that we are more important than his other creation, birds and grass and lilies.

[34:16] He wants us to put our trust in him because he cares for us. And so he asks in verse 30, but if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is today alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothes you, O you of little faith?

[34:37] He addresses these words to you of little faith. He addresses them to us, those of us who struggle at trusting things, the God who spoke everything, and it came to being, and attempted to put our trust in money, that can just disappear in a moment.

[35:05] A repeated theme in the Psalms is when riches increase, don't set your heart upon it, because it will take on wings and fly away.

[35:16] And yet, we find ourselves wanting to put our trust in it, rather than to trust our heavenly Father. And we are engulfed in anxieties because of that.

[35:34] In verse 32, Jesus gives us two reasons why we should not worry. he tells us, first, for the Gentiles seek after all these things, and second, your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.

[35:53] This word for Gentiles means unbelievers. That's what the unbelievers do. The unbelievers are running after those things. He says, I'm your heavenly Father, I know that you need those things.

[36:06] I don't want you acting as unbelievers being anxious and preoccupied with what am I going to eat and what am I going to wear and where am I going to live.

[36:19] Jesus doesn't want us to be consumed with how we're going to pay the rent, how we're going to pay the mortgage. He wants us to avoid these common anxieties.

[36:35] Instead, what he wants us to do is he wants us to pursue his kingdom first and foremost above everything else. And this is my second and final point. Jesus calls us to do this in verse 33.

[36:52] This is the ultimate reason that he doesn't want us to worry and to be anxious so that our energies can be fixed on pursuing kingdom priorities.

[37:07] Look at what he says in verse 33. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. Jesus calls us to pursue the kingdom of God and a right relationship with God.

[37:25] God and he knows that if we are engulfed by and if we are distracted by life's common anxieties, we just can't do that.

[37:37] We will not have that as our first concern. And when he talks about the kingdom of God, what is the kingdom of God? The kingdom of God is not some worldly humanistic concept that we often hear so many people try to reduce it to.

[38:00] The kingdom of God, best understood, refers to the sovereign rule and authority of God over all things. It is the sphere over which he is in absolute control.

[38:13] He's certainly in control of everything, but even under his sovereign control, there's disobedience and all manner of other things. Seeking the kingdom of God is us coming under the submission of the lordship of Jesus Christ under God the King.

[38:31] It is seeing ourselves as citizens of that kingdom and living in accordance with that kingdom and the Sermon on the Mount is as where the constitution of that kingdom that Jesus has given to us.

[38:48] I was reflecting on the Sermon on the Mount just recently and the thought came to me that the Sermon on the Mount to the Christian life is what ABCs and counting are to getting an education.

[39:07] The Sermon on the Mount is so foundational for us as Christians, brothers and sisters, that if we try to live the Christian life away from it, we're going to utterly fail. We're going to utterly fail.

[39:19] Jesus, when you consider the Sermon on the Mount, the things that Jesus addresses, he could have addressed all manner of things, but he addresses these things. And one of the things that he addresses is this area of money.

[39:35] We can say it's anxieties, but ultimately what he's addressing below that is money, financial means, that which we are so prone to trust in.

[39:48] If we're going to live the Christian life with some degree of stability and strength, brothers and sisters, we have to get the Sermon on the Mount in the foundation of our lives, and we have to have a biblical view of money.

[40:04] We have to see it for what it is, not put our trust in it, and we have to put our trust in the Lord. And you know, one of the things I've learned and seen in life, part of God's dealings with us is to cause us to come to this place.

[40:22] And sometimes the Lord will cause financial circumstances to be such to cause us to grow in trusting him as the one who supplies our needs.

[40:38] And that's not because he is punishing us, that's because he's a good, kind father, and he knows that's a better place for us to be than trusting in money just because we have it, trusting in wealth because we've accumulated it.

[40:53] He wants us to repose our trust in him. Look at the promise at the end of verse 33.

[41:05] The promise is that all these things will be added to you as well. Jesus promises that as we seek the kingdom first, we seek God's righteousness, our heavenly father will add them to us.

[41:21] Why does he just add them? He adds them because he wants us to seek the kingdom first. He doesn't want us to be distracted by all manner of things. And so he concludes in verse 34 by reminding us not to worry about life but to keep seeking the kingdom first.

[41:42] I want to close quickly by just commending to you three spiritual habits that we can all seek to cultivate to help us to pursue kingdom priorities.

[42:01] These are taken from an excellent book that we read more than a few years ago here, The Church Habits of Grace. Some of you may remember that by David Mathis.

[42:14] And he offered three particular habits that Christians need to cultivate if they're going to experience growth in godliness and growth in trusting the Lord.

[42:30] The first one is the habit of reading God's word. Brothers and sisters, that needs to be a habit for us. We need to have a habit of being in God's word. And I think most of us know habits.

[42:42] We know habits that we have. My question to you this morning is, is the reading of God's word a habit for you? If it is not by the grace of God, make it a habit.

[43:02] The reading of God's word is foundational to how we grow as believers and how we seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness because he reveals it in his word.

[43:15] He shows us in his word. And we are transformed, our thinking is transformed, our minds are renewed as we read God's word. So we need a habit of reading God's word.

[43:30] And then we need a habit of prayer. Prayer needs to be a habit for us. Is prayer a habit for you?

[43:45] We've heard it said many times here prayer. That when we don't pray, it's an expression of self-sufficiency.

[43:58] It's an expression that really don't need the Lord. When we do pray, it's an acknowledgement that we are needy people, that we need the Lord. Brothers and sisters, we need to cultivate a habit of prayer.

[44:10] You know, one of the best ways I know to cultivate a habit of prayer is to pray with other believers. I remembered when I was in college, I'd been serving the Lord about six years before college.

[44:28] But in college, there was a brother who was a few years older than me, and he was an upperclassman, and he took an interest in me in the small group that we were a part of, and he would come to my room, and we would pray together.

[44:43] And I learned to pray as he and I prayed together, and as the others in the group, as we prayed together. And brothers and sisters, I'm saying to you this morning, if you're wrestling with making prayer a habit, I want to encourage you.

[45:03] Pray corporately. That will help you. That will strengthen you. It will encourage you to pray. It's not going to come by doing all that you have been doing.

[45:14] It's not going to come by continuing to do the same things that you have done. We need to be cultivating prayer.

[45:26] And one of the wonderful things that happens is when we are reading God's Word, God's Word acts as a fuel to our prayers. They inform our prayers.

[45:38] And then third, we need to cultivate the habit of belonging to Christ's body. We need to cultivate the habit of being in community, being with brothers and sisters of like precious faith.

[45:55] It is seeing that known rangerism, like being by ourselves and being to ourselves and living the Christian life on our own. That's not God's design for us. the children of Israel when they were leaving Egypt and they were journeying in community, when some of the community, they lagged behind, the Amalekites picked them off.

[46:24] The enemy came and was able to pick them off because they were no longer connected to community. brothers and sisters, I want to encourage us, let's cultivate the habit of belonging to the body in a vital way, not just in a nominal way, but in a vital way, a place where we are able to receive encouragement and give encouragement, be able to receive counsel, be able to receive correction and give correction, receive support and give support.

[47:01] And it is a blessing to be on both ends of the life of community, both giving and receiving.

[47:13] And so I pray that we cultivate these things and as we do, we will find that our spiritual side is sharpened and we will find that we begin to treasure more the things of God than the things of this earth.

[47:31] you know, one of the things that I observed with my mother as she aged, as she got older, my mother, it was evident to me, the life to come was becoming increasingly more real to her, more than this life.

[47:59] life. I was very easy for her to go. It was very easy for her to go. It was almost as if she was touching the other world.

[48:12] As I'd have conversations with her, she'd sometimes just call me in the day and talk about a particular scripture. I pray that that would be true for all of us. I pray that our longing for heaven would increase.

[48:30] As we cultivate these habits, as we begin to treasure spiritual things, more than these earthly things, as we begin to see the vision of a life lived in service to Christ as the most precious and valuable thing, and that we will give every waking breath to that endeavor.

[48:56] Let me pray for us. Heavenly Father, we are so grateful that we have your word that calls us away from trusting in treasures that don't last to trusting in a treasure that is enduring.

[49:21] Lord, thank you that we have found the ultimate treasure in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I pray, Lord, that having found the pearl of great price, that we would treasure the life that he gives us and we would live it in service to him.

[49:48] Lord, would you work in all of our hearts this morning, speak to us as we need to hear from you. Amen. And help us to pursue the priorities of your kingdom.

[50:02]  We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. It's not our closing song.