Are You Laying Up Treasure in Heaven?

Happy Sabbath, everybody! Good to see you. I hope that you have had a good week. I was thinking about those cookies. When I ate some of the cookies, I got as high as a kite. I was like the Red Bull advertisement that started flying. I'm like a little kid running around the living room when I eat too much sugar. But you young ladies do a very good job at that. Every child enjoys candy, don't they? Parents occasionally allow their small children to have sweets like that, in a balanced way, hopefully. Not like sometimes I ate it when I was a kid.

Every child, I think, has a fantasy of living in a world of candy and chocolate. You think about dreaming about, in fact, some of these things about a city made of chocolate where you can rip off a shingle and eat it. You know, and have your candy that way. This is why Charlie the Chocolate Factory was a hit with kids. Because Disney, Hollywood, knows that children enjoy candy. Well, brethren, have you ever had a time as a child where you had all the candy that you could eat?

I mean, you had bags full of candy that you could eat. And you ate, and you ate, until your hearts content. And candy was there before you. You had candy bars, you had jawbreakers, you had M&Ms, you had suckers, you had everything imaginable that could be had as far as candy is concerned. And what was the result of this gluttony on these sweet things? What happened afterwards? I remember this happened to me when I was a little kid. Well, most children end up feeling sick, don't they? They feel nauseated. I remember, you know, when I was a little kid, we had a time where we had a picnic, and we had cold drinks.

You know, we had different beverages, and oranges, and great beverages, and different things like that. And I drank those things all day long. And at the end of it, oh, I just felt awful. Because my body was just overtaxed by all the sugar intake. And, you know, what began as a satisfying experience, oh, fantastic! We've got this today. We can really enjoy ourselves. Maybe it was the Fourth of July, or whatever. And, you know, we downed all the sweet drinks, ate all the candy, and you just end up, don't you, feeling miserable with, oftentimes, a stomachache.

And I am like that Red Bull advertisement when I was a kid. I remember it was that way. Well, what is the point of what I'm talking about here today? What is the point of this illustration? Well, life tends to be that way, too, doesn't it? You know, about life, when we live it, when we overdo just about anything, it tends to be that way, the same as, again, over and biting of sugar.

King Solomon experienced these very same things. Let's go over to Ecclesiastes chapter 5 and sort of set the stage here for the message today. But Ecclesiastes 5 and down in verse 10 notice this. And, again, it's talking about the worldly accoutrements of life. And it says in verse 10, He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver. You know, you can accomplish, maybe, having discovered silver or made enough money to buy all the silver in the world, and you can have that. But it is not going to be satisfying. And it says, Nor is He who loves abundance with increase.

And it says, This also is vanity. And so, just in the same way, it turns out to be just something that's useless. And in the case, of course, of sugar intake, it can make you sick. And, frankly, when we overdo even the things such as He's talking about here, we're not going to be satisfied.

And in the end, it makes us sick in many ways, in a similar way. In verse 11, it says, When goods increase, they increase. Who eat them? It's amazing, isn't it? The more you've got, the more people want to come and visit you. You know, I'm certainly glad, frankly, that I'm not a wealthy person, because when people accumulate a lot of wealth, then all the relatives want to come and see you and live with you. And that can be a bad situation. Not bad to see your relatives, but, of course, we don't want them to come and live with us, do we?

But it says, So what profit have the owners, except to see them with their eyes? And it says, The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eats little or much, but the abundance of the rich will not permit him to sleep. He's got so much, he can't even close both of his eyes.

You know, he has to sleep with one eye open, wondering who's going to steal from him. And it says, There is a severe evil which I have seen under the sun. Richest kept for their owners to his hurt. In other words, it hurts us in the end to have so much wealth, and those riches perish through misfortune. When he begets a son, there is nothing in his hand. And as he came from his mother's womb, naked, it says, Shall he return?

To go as he came, and he shall take nothing from his labor which he may carry away in his hand. And this also is a severe evil. Just as exactly as he came, he shall go. And what profit has he who has labored for the win? So this is the problem, isn't it? You know, no matter how much you might pile up and you might amass and think about the tremendous wealth of Solomon, he still left this world naked. He had nothing at all left over.

And you know, those things that we tend to treasure in our lives ultimately come to nothing. They come to nothing in the end. And Solomon came to realize that even though you could have everything, you can't take it with you. Let's go to Matthew 6. Matthew 6, again, has sort of set the stage for the message here today for us, brethren, in Matthew 6 and verse 19 over here. This is what Jesus Christ says to us in verse 19. He said, Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.

He says, 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. I think it's a time for us to reflect upon where is our treasure. Here in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Christ admonishes His disciples to not lay up treasures here upon this earth, but in heaven, as it says. And the reason for that is where they're going to endure.

God wants us to be with Him forever. He wants to have a relationship with us forever, brethren. He doesn't want to have a temporary relationship with us, but a relationship that goes on forever more, on out into the future. So, brethren, why should we lay up treasures in heaven? Surely a man of the world would ask that question. Why don't I want to lay up treasures up in heaven? I can't see them up there, you know, in heaven. You know, maybe if I have those treasures up there.

And how can we, brethren, lay up treasures? How can we do it in our lives? You know, I've heard people talk about this particular verse, and I've read it myself hundreds of times, but how can we lay up treasures in heaven? If somebody asks you that question, could you answer it? What do you need to do to lay up treasures up there in heaven?

Well, is Jesus Christ saying we can't have treasures here upon the earth, brethren? Well, no, certainly He's not saying that. You know, we do have to live here in the world, but He's saying our focus should not be accumulating wealth down here upon this earth, earthly treasures. You know, men in this world work long and hard hours to accumulate things. I know that in this very audience here that there are men who have worked all their lives, put their very being into working, supporting their families, and so forth.

Some people, of course, spend their lives just simply accumulating, you know, collecting things. And no matter how much they acquire, what good is it in the end? I mean, when you go the way of all flesh, what good is it? What benefit will it be? You know, one of the people I enjoyed listening to in terms of his songs and his messages in his songs was Johnny Cash. I don't know if any of you like old Johnny Cash or not, but he was just a common kind of a fellow.

But Johnny Cash, toward the end of his life, he began to look like his health was deteriorating very quickly, in fact, when he was in the process of writing this song. But he did a rewrite of a song called Hurt. And I understand the Nine Inch Nails band originally came up with this song, but he rewrote it, because you probably wouldn't want to listen to it the way the Nine Inch Nails people sang it, because it had a lot of words in it that were not appropriate.

So Johnny Cash rewrote the song. I want to read to you the lyrics of this song called Hurt. He said, I hurt myself today to see if I still feel. I focus on the pain, the only thing that is real, he says. The needle tears a hole, the old familiar sting.

Of course, Johnny Cash had a problem with drugs in his life. Try to kill it all away, but I remember everything. What have I become, he said. My sweetest friend, everyone I know, goes away in the end, and you could have it all, my empire of dirt. He said, I will let you down. I will make you hurt. I wear this crown of thorns upon my liar's chair, full of broken thoughts. I cannot repair beneath the stains of time. The feelings disappear. You or someone else, I am still right here. What have I become, my sweetest friend, everyone I know, goes away in the end, and you could have it all, my empire of dirt.

I will let you down. I will make you hurt. If I could start again, a million miles away, I would keep myself. I would find a way. Quite a pointed set of lyrics. I think you would agree with that. Here is a man, Johnny Cash, like I said, who was a failing health.

He was 71 when he recorded this song. Many consider this an epitaph of his life in his younger, hard-living days of drugs and alcohol, expressed in his state of decay, in his old age, when he became an old man. He died about eight or nine months right after this song was released. It turned out to be an award-winning song for him. He considered all that he had done, all that he had accomplished, an empire of dirt.

Not worth very much at all to him. Reflecting on the latest tornadoes which went through Joplin, Missouri, which wiped out homes and displaced thousands of people. I understand 75% of the people have been affected down there, who have been displaced in the community there of Joplin, about 50,000 people or so. Reflecting on the Japanese tsunami, where people's homes and everything that they had was wiped out, and thinking about Hurricane Katrina. I think probably we might agree with Johnny Cash here, that all that we build up in this world is an empire of dirt that can fall flat, and we can lose everything.

Now, I like the way that Johnny Cash refers to this earthly treasure of life that we have as an empire of dirt. And in the end, everybody goes away. In the end, everybody goes away. Well, brethren, why does Jesus Christ put so much emphasis on our laying up treasures in heaven? Well, he expressed it, didn't he? He said that earthly treasures are not secure. They're insecure. If you're building up your life, and this is all that you have, if this is what your life is, in other words, this world that is out there, it can all disappear in one day. It can disappear, in fact, in just a short period of time, a matter of minutes, depending upon, again, what happens, like the tornadoes that went through parks there of Missouri, and cut swaths through the city of Joplin that wiped out so many people there, and the tornadoes that happened before.

Those things happen quickly. I remember they used to compare tornadoes to basically a freight train, that you hear a freight train come, and it's like it smashes through the town, and it's off, and it's gone to hit another town. On this earth, brethren, on this world that we live in, money can be eaten away by unforeseen events. In 2008, we had a major market crash. People who were heavily invested in the stock market, and the funds that are existing in this world for people to make investments, they saw their wealth go down dramatically.

Americans saw their wealth diminish a good deal during that time. People can lose money as a result of inflation. They can lose money from deflation, or bankruptcies, or just plain bad investments. And it's like they say, all the plans of mice and men can come to nothing, can come to naught. And in the end, all you have is nothing at all. And so Christ said, look, don't build up your life up here, or out here, that we have to live.

Don't build it up on this earth. You better have some treasures up in heaven. And, of course, the reason that it is good to have treasure in heaven is because it is secure. It is secure up there in the hands of God. Let's go to 1 Peter 1, and we see again what the Bible says about this. I think it's important for us to really understand this.

I think most of us probably have a grasp of it. But we need to be reminded again about... You can't win, quite frankly, in this world. Your best investment, brethren, is in the calling that God has given to you.

But notice in 1 Peter 1 and verse 3, it says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

I think it says, Lively Hope, you know, in the King James version there in verse 3. So we have a living hope, brethren, that is alive now, and it's going to be alive forever. And it says, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you. And so we have a secure reward, brethren, in heaven, when we are living our lives in the right way, in the proper way, in this world.

And it is never going to fade away. Think about that word forever, that it's going to last forever. And in verse 5, let's notice, Who are kept? Notice this. We've got a banker in heaven, and he is the keeper of that secure bank where the treasures that we have are kept. It says, Who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. And so through God, we have the security for the future. God guards the treasures reserved for us in heaven.

You know, our lives in this world need to be built on a firm foundation that can never be taken away. And if our treasure is secure in heaven, it will be. Let's go to Matthew 7, over here. Again, talk about, here, are we laying up treasures in heaven? And how do we do that?

We're going to again lead up to that. But in Matthew 7 and down to verse 24, Jesus Christ again spoke this parable. In Matthew 7, verse 24, it says, Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine, and what is being preached to you today, brethren, is one of the sayings of Jesus Christ, one of His parables to us. So whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock.

You know the account here, but he goes on to say, And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the wind blew and beat on that house, and it did not fall, for it was founded on a rock.

And of course, he goes on to talk about how if we build on sand, how it can be washed away, and the loss is going to be gargantuan. It's going to be a great loss, as he goes on to say in this particular parable that he spoke. And so, brethren, we need to build our lives on a firm foundation, making sure, again, that we have that foundation.

And I spoke about last week about how we need to reside in Christ as God's people, that we need to be in Christ in terms of our personal lives, that as it talks about in John 15, that we have to live in Christ. But that makes it the foundation that is sure. And then we have to build on that foundation. When we're converted, first converted and brought into God's church, that foundation of Christ is laid there in our lives. And then we have to begin to build on that, and we're admonished to be careful how we build on it. You may have seen over the years, if you've been in the church for a very long time, that some people just drop by the wayside.

And it's because, again, that solid foundation has not been built, because they just wouldn't do it if they had the foundation they built on that foundation in the right way and the right manner. And you are here, so evidently you have been building in the right manner and the right way. But we always need to, again, be admonished about it. 1 Corinthians 3. 1 Corinthians 3, verse 10. You know, when we were over in the Wahoo, by the way, for the Days of Unleavened Bread, first part of the Days of Unleavened Bread, we were able to drive up the coast, which is west of Honolulu there.

And as you drive up to basically the end of the road that turns into an impassable road up that way, there are a lot of lean-to's that are erected right on the beach. Kind of interesting, actually, that I guess these were hippies that went to Hawaii and never came back. You know, they built these lean-to's, and I mean, there are just hundreds of them. It's surprising, in fact, that the state of Hawaii would let them do it.

But they've got prime real estate. I mean, they're right there on the beach. But they've got tents, and they've got different building materials that they've used. Ten plywood, tarp type things, tarp paper. No matter what it is, they built these houses that are makeshift, obviously. All it would take was it would be a big wind to come through there, and they would be wiped out entirely. But, you see, God doesn't want you to build that kind of house. He doesn't want to do that. You know, in our building, He wants us to build a solid house, a sound house.

But in verse 10, notice it says, "...according to the grace of God which was given to me..." Paul says, "...as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how He builds on it." So every one of us, no matter who we are, whether we are part of the church or not, as human beings, we all have this book to read that better heed what God says here through the Apostle Paul.

We've got to be careful how we're building our lives. And specifically, if we're called and we've accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior, as that foundation, we build on that in the right way. It says, "...for no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ." Now, if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, in other words, you are very careful about how you're building on your life, and you're building with gold and silver and the precious stones.

In other words, things they're going to endure. You want to build with that. Or, as he says, would, hay, or straw, which is not a very enduring quality product, products. And it says, "...each one's works will become clear, for the day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire or by a trial in your life. And the fire will test each one's work of what sort it is.

And if anyone's work which is built on it endures, he will receive a reward." And so, what we're building, brethren, we're going to be rewarded for in the Kingdom of God. God is going to reward us for the work that we have done as God's people, and building, again, on the foundation of Jesus Christ. So, we are to skillfully build upon that foundation that God has given us. And use, again, the materials that endure, that really do endure, that make it through to the very end. You know, and the way that is done, brethren, is by learning those things that are necessary to help us to stand in the day of battle.

You know, there are going to be battles in our lives, and we want to be able to stand when it's all said and done. You know, when every, you might say, shot has been fired, every sword has been drawn, and the battlefield has, you know, the battle has been settled, you want to make sure that you're still standing every time.

You know, you want to be able to go on and live to fight another day when the time and the opportunity comes, and of course, we learn more lessons as the time goes on. And building, by the way, on that foundation, brethren, beware of covenants.

Beware of covenants. You know, sometimes people start out in the right way. They start out realizing that material things are not that important, that what is important is the spiritual. See, God can actually call us into the church, and then we can begin to think in a different way. Maybe our lives change where we have a little more money coming in. Maybe out of frustration we want more money in our lives, more things, more of the cooptrumess of life, and we can become covenants as a result of that.

I saw it happen, by the way, when I was a young man. You know, I decided, as I've told you many times about my conversion, I was very, very serious, by the way, about my calling when God had called me, and I had to make some very hard decisions in my life.

And then I went to Ambassador College, and I was a very serious student there as well. But, you know, Ambassador College at the time had, in Big Sandy, we had about 250 students or so.

But during the course of four years of Ambassador College, I observed young people, an ambassador, and pretty soon some of them began to have these covetous attitudes, and their goal was to make money. And many of those people, by the way, did not remain even in the church. And so I just used that as an example of how these young people probably started where I did. You know, had the same calling that I had, or that you have been given.

But somehow they got off the track, and money became an all-important thing. You know, not to talk about specifics, but I could talk to you about specifics of what I'm discussing, because some of my own friends took that mentality. And I had to be careful myself, because, you know, our friends affect us, and they can cause us to do the wrong thing. And so I had to hold myself back. I must say, even at that time, I got some of those attitudes that I had to overcome. I had to come to face. I'm just being open and honest with you about my own change, and how I began to realize again, once again, that look, the material, physical things just don't make that much difference.

And you know, I would say this too, even though I've had that mentality, and you have had that mentality, I can't complain about what God has done for me. Nothing whatsoever can I complain about. Luke 12. Let's notice in Luke 12 and verse 13. You know, here Jesus said, then one from the crowd said to him, teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.

And he said to him, man, who made me a judge or an arbitrator over you? You know, a lot of times people come to the ministry about things like that, and here they went to Jesus Christ, and he said, what do I have to do that?

That's not my job to do, to divide out inheritances. And he said to them, in verse 15, take heed and beware of covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of things he possesses. That's not what life is about, Jesus Christ is saying. That's not what it consists of. And then he spoke a parable to them, saying, the ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully, and he thought within himself, saying, what shall I do?

Since I have no room to store my crops, you know, all the silos were filled, everything on his farm or whatever he had was filled. And so he said, I will do this. You know what? I'll pull down my barns and build bigger and greater barns. And there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say, it says to my soul, soul, you have many goods laid up for many years. Take your ease. Eat, drink, and be merry.

You know what people do oftentimes? They just heap up all this wealth, you know, so we can eat, drink, and be merry. But God said to him, fool. He called him a fool. This night your soul will be required of you. Then whose will those things be which you have provided? So it is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. In the end, you know, you could have my empire of dirt, like Johnny Cash said. So we have to beware, brethren, of covetousness.

And, you know, sometimes people in this life, though, they make a lot of money. You know, not to emphasize that way, just money, but, you know, people sometimes have jobs that pay very well to them, and maybe they are blessed in a way. Maybe they're in the right place at the right time, and you know how sometimes some of those things work out.

And, you know, they just are blessed so much more abundantly. But what do you do when that happens to you? Now, I don't think there's anybody here that's in that position, but maybe so. We've got a closet millionaire here, you know, in the auditorium. Maybe a closet billionaire. But I doubt we have a closet millionaire, but maybe so.

But 1 Timothy 6, kudos to you, by the way, if you're a closet millionaire. Because, you know, at least you haven't flaunted. And that's a wonderful thing. But in 1 Timothy 6, and down here in verse 9, notice, he says, But those who desire to be rich, you know, the people that really want to be rich, fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts, which ground men in destruction and perdition. He said, For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. The money's not, you know, evil, as some people call it, filthy lucre. You know, the money's not evil.

It's what people do, the greed and all of that that they have. He says, The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith, in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. You know, many sorrows. So, we get covetous, and we want to accumulate wealth, and that is our goal in life.

We live, eat, and drink, becoming wealthy. It's like Herbert Armstrong used to say that the world is filled with envy, lust, and greed. And that's what makes the world go round. But, brethren, refuse to get caught up in this world and the society that is out there. Be wise in the pursuit of making a living. And, you know, as a godly person, you know, to do so and just to take a slow approach to it, you know, if people have a get-rich-quick mentality, usually this causes what Paul is describing here.

You're going to have a lot of hurt. You're going to have a lot of pain. And you're going to crash and burn, if that's the kind of mentality that you have. You know, I hope you young people, if you think about that, here at the very beginning of your life, to not get into that kind of mentality and realize that no one is going to make you rich. Remember, Abraham would refuse to take the spoil from the spoil of, you know, the kings of Solomon and Gomorrah for what he had done. He said, because I don't want anybody to say that they made Abraham rich. Even though God did make Abraham rich, by the way.

He blessed him abundantly in his life. So, brothers, stay away from, again, these gimmicks to make you rich instantly, because usually they do not produce anything anyway. You know, if you want to get rich in real estate, what I recommend to you is study it. And be very careful, especially these days. In this time, you can lose your shirt and be very slow about decisions if you're going to do something like that, or anything, by the way, to make a living.

So, our pursuit, brethren, in this world should be a balanced approach of working hard, working smart, and not devoting everything to it. Not devoting our entire life to it. I mean, what about our families? What about relationships within the church? What about, again, God's church? We need to keep that, again, in a balanced way, if we're going to make a living doing something, that we're not spending all of our waking hours doing our job, whatever it is, to the neglect of the church and our families.

Now, one thing we have to keep in mind, brethren, when I'm talking about laying up treasures in heaven, is that we cannot earn salvation. I think a lot of times people have totally misunderstood works and faith and grace. I think people have totally misunderstood what God's intention is. If you read the Bible and you come to understand the Bible, if somebody asks you the question, are works necessary, you should be able to answer that just like that. That absolutely works are necessary. The works of the law, the ergon, are necessary.

We need to do that. But let's go over here to Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2, I think, is a very important preface to how we can lay up treasure in heaven, so that we don't get to thinking somehow that we're earning our place by laying up treasures in heaven, that we're going to be in the kingdom if we just earn enough by doing enough works in this world that we live in. In Ephesians 2, verse 8, notice here it says, For by grace you have been saved through faith. So it's through grace, brethren, that we are brought into God's church and we have the opportunity for forgiveness after repentance. And that not of yourselves, not what you or I have worked up, brethren and done, it is the gift of God.

And it goes on to say, not of works, lest any one should boast. And so, brethren, we cannot earn salvation. You know, God does not want us to think that at all because we simply could not. As I've said to you before, how long would you have to work to earn eternal life? Forever, wouldn't you? It would take forever for you to do it. So you could not do it. It could not be accomplished. And, you know, the Bible tells us in James 2, verse 27, the apostle James says, For as the body without the Spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead.

And so even though works do not earn us salvation, what is it an evidence of? It's evidence that we have faith. It's evidence, brethren, that we believe what God says about, frankly, forgiveness of sin through grace. It shows that we believe. And faith without works is dead. You know, like Rover. Dead all over. You know, when our faith is dead, if we do not have works. So works are necessary to show we have faith in the promises of God, but they cannot earn us eternal life. So why do we have works, then? Well, like I said, it shows that we have faith, for one thing. But, you know, eternal life is a gift, as it says in Romans 6, verse 23.

It says, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So what we need to understand, brethren, is that salvation, then, is a free gift. But what we are doing in earning through works, brethren, is a reward in the kingdom. A reward in the kingdom.

You know, there are going to be different rewards in the kingdom of God. This is what, by the way, the parable of the talents. If you study the parable of the talent and the parable of the pound, it's all about. Remember about the fellow that, you know, had five talents and he doubled his to ten talents? And what did Jesus Christ say? He said, well done. By good and faithful servant, you shall rule over ten cities. And so we're going to be rewarded, brethren, for our work. So we are saved through the grace of God as a result of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, but we are rewarded, brethren, for our works. And, you know, it's not going to be good enough for us to say, well, I don't want anything in the kingdom. I just want eternal life. Well, if we have that attitude, let me tell you, we will not be in the kingdom. Because that's an evidence that we don't have faith as well. So we have to all, all of us, brethren, have to have works. Even as we look in John 15, it talks about the fruits that God expects us to bear fruit. And, you know, that vine, you know, that main vine that does not produce fruit, what did Christ say would happen? It would be cut off and it would be burned in the fire. And so we have to have works, brethren, in our lives. Well, brethren, with that foundation there, in our lives, let's talk about how can you lay up treasure in heaven? How can you do it? What do you need to be doing as a Christian in your life?

Well, first of all, brethren, the thing that we need to do is make God our Lord and our Master. You know, we need to decide, brethren, which side of the equation we want to be on. Do we want to be on Satan's side as he leads this world out here? You know, you look at the world out here and you can see the way it is. This is the way that Satan the Devil would live if he was a human being. Out here, the way people live. You know, he would live this life.

Do you want to be on his side? In the way that the world is going? And you want to put faith in the way the world is going that it's going to survive? Or do you want to be on God's side? That's the question. Hopefully you've already made that decision. If you have, again, been baptized, if you have turned your life over to God, you've made that decision. Now it's a matter of executing the decision to decide which side you're going to be on. In Matthew 6, let's notice what Jesus Christ himself said. You know, Christ came and he gave us knowledge that we could not understand or come to know unless it was given from God.

Our question would be, well, what do we need to do in this world and in this society? You know, isn't that what Paul himself had to say when he was struck down on the road to Damascus? And he said, Lord, what will you have me do? What do I have to do? What do you want me to accomplish? Well, we have to, again, seek God in directing our paths with regard to what we shall do. But in Matthew 6 and verse 24, let's notice it says, No man 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. He says, You cannot serve God and Mammon. Mammon, of course, is money. It's materialism. It's what the world, what makes the world go round. And so he says, You can't serve two masters.

And so Christ, again, wants us to understand that we have to make a decision. If we're committed to the world, if we're committed to money, that is our slave master. That is our God. There's only two gods, by the way, and there's... We know that Satan is a little G. He claims to be God in that fashion. But God, then, is the big G. He is truly the God of all the universe. And so we can only serve one. And Satan represents this world. He's called the God of this world in 2 Corinthians 4.4, as a matter of fact. So, brethren, we need to decide, again, which side we want to be on. What is the driving purpose of your life? Is it to make money? Is it to make it in this world and society out here? And gain the approval of men in the world? And maybe whatever your job is so that they're patting you on the back? Or is it to serve God? Those two things. And then Jesus Christ on down through here, let's notice in verse 33, He says, But seek first, seek you first, the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. He's talking about all the physical things that we have need of that are going to be added to us. He referred to the birds of the air, how they're taken care of of God. They don't have to worry. The lilies of the field and so forth don't have to worry. God takes care of them. And they were, of course, taken care of and arrayed more than Solomon was, according to what Christ spoke in terms of this parable here in discussing this particular thing. I think Mitch is adding another parable, which Jesus Christ spoke. But seek first, the kingdom of God. So, brethren, are we committed to our Lord and our Master? Are we committed to God? Are we committed to Him with all of our heart and soul and mind? It's when we equivocate, where we are undecided about what we're going to do when we begin to make mistakes. Decide which side we want to be on. Then, brethren, then what we need to do? If we're going to lay up treasure in heaven, yield yourself to be an instrument of righteousness.

Yield yourself to be an instrument of righteousness. Let's go over to Romans, the book of Romans, chapter 6. Would you consider yourself an instrument here upon this earth, brethren, of righteousness? I know none of us are paragons of virtue. None of us measure up to Christ's stature. That's what we're working toward. None of us have arrived there at that point. But do you consider yourself an instrument of righteousness? In Romans 6 and verse 12, notice it says, Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lust. You know, how we are supposed to control ourselves and have character about ourselves and not let it control us. That we have to, again, hold at bay our lust. You know, when we have a problem with that, we have to, again, mortify the deeds of the flesh. In verse 13, This word, by the way, for instrument is tool. If you look it up in the Greek, it means tool. You ever looked at yourself in this world as a tool of the devil? Of course, that's an expression that people use as a tool of the devil. Maybe that's where this came from, the idea that people can be a tool of the devil. I imagine there are a lot of people in this world that do not think that they're tools of the devil. And yet, they are. You know, of course, we know that Bin Laden, though he wouldn't have accepted that, he would have thought he was a tool of God. He was a tool of the devil because, again, of the destruction that he left behind in his life. But present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

And so, we should be tools of righteousness here upon the earth. In other words, we've decided that we want to be used in the hand of God and be implements of righteousness. And by the way, this word, the Greek word for instrument applies very often to warfare. And, you know, we are very much involved in warfare here upon the earth. And, brethren, we are either a tool of the devil or a tool of God.

So, we need to use our minds, we need to use our tongues, use our bodies to further God's way of life upon this earth that we live on as instruments of righteousness. So, are we yielding ourselves in that way, brethren, as an instrument of good here upon the earth? Trying to, again, to be an example to others of God's way of life and being a light to the world that Jesus Christ said that we should be. Let's go to Ephesians 5. Ephesians 5.

Because we came out of this world of darkness out here, and, you know, we had to make a great effort to, in our lives, of course, God's Spirit allowed us to break free of this world and society. But it says in verse 8, For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. So, we need to walk as God's people, as children of God. And it says, For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth. And it says in verse 10, Finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And so we, as God's people, need to, again, walk in the light. We need to be a force for good in this world and society that is here. You know, whether you are at the workplace, you know, are you a light where you work? You know, when maybe some may be telling dirty jokes, are you there sort of rah-rahing it on? In other words, are you a force for good? And maybe turning away from that type of thing. Again, not that you've got to barge into a group of people and say, Well, hey, you guys shouldn't be telling these dirty stories. But rather than at least show that we don't really go for that. You know, not to laugh if something's off-color.

Or do we somehow get in with the boys, you know, at the workplace? Or how about you young people when you go off to college or high school? I know sometimes in the schools, not just even high school, but in middle school and other schools, the language on campus of these schools is atrocious. How about you young people? Do you sort of get in with the gang?

And your language is not good? Are you a force for good or a force for evil in your life? You know, it can be many places and many occasions, too many to actually name. So again, how can we lay up treasure in heaven, brethren? The most important thing then next, brethren, is making yourself a living sacrifice.

Are you a living sacrifice? Let's go to 1 Peter 2.

You know, sometimes when we go through life, we can have selfish times, obviously. And I think that sometimes we do need to have personal time. But by and large, you know, when we're converted and called of God, we are like a sacrifice. Our lives are not our own. They don't belong to us. They belong to the Creator, God. We're a tool, remember. And we don't get to do the things that maybe we like to do. We have to do the things that are needed in our lives to take place. 1 Peter 2 and verse 5.

1 Peter 2 and verse 5. Here Peter says, You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. So, you know, we are to offer up these sacrifices, and one of the sacrifices we offer up is our own life.

And, you know, when we offer these sacrifices, it means sometimes that our time is not our own.

You know, some people wonder sometimes how a pastor and his wife survive in a glass house. You know, frankly, I don't know of any other way to live anymore. You know, so you've got to be careful, obviously, about what you do all times, because people look at you and tend to judge the ministry a whole lot more harshly than they do their own selves.

Well, brethren, it's because, again, it is a sacrifice. We become a sacrifice to God. And so you take, again, the good with the bad. They're good things that we certainly have to sacrifice ourselves for and are very much needed, and sometimes it can be difficult. It's not easy. But here, he says that we are to, again, offer up those spiritual sacrifices in our lives. Down in verse 9, he says, but you are a chosen generation. That applies to every one of us, brethren, here in the church.

You know, so God has called us, brethren, so that we proclaim to this world how wonderful God is and how His way is so wonderful. And how, brethren, we present God, again, as His tool upon the earth in a way that people realize that God is great. The world is filled with people very much these days, particularly, not as much in years gone by, but it seems like they poo-poo the idea of their being a God. You know, they denigrate the Bible itself. They tear it to pieces, like the Jesus seminars that want to rip out most of the New Testament and say, well, that wasn't said by Jesus Christ. I want to know how they know. Were they there? When it occurred and when it happened? I say, let every man be a liar and God be true. There are people today, of course, that would a whole lot more be ready to believe that we were put upon the earth by aliens than that we were created and put here by God. And so that's the kind of world that we live in, brethren, and we need to, again, be a force for good in this world and by doing that, of making ourselves a living sacrificing and seeing the praise of God in our lives. In other words, let our life be a testimony of how wonderful God is and His way is and how true God is and how merciful God is. Let's go to Romans, back to the book of Romans, chapter 12. I think this says it totally up front, exactly what God expects of us. But in Romans 12, in verse 1 and 2, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. That you do this, he says, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. It's reasonable if God gave His life for us, brethren, that we should surrender ours to God. And it says, and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. And so, brethren, that's what we need to be doing as God's people. How can we be a living sacrifice, brethren? Let me tell you how we can be a living sacrifice. Being a good mother is a living sacrifice. Being a good father. Father and mother, parents who teach God's way of life to their children and model it for their children. That's a sacrifice in this world and in this society. A sacrifice is a mother providing a good home environment for her family. That's a sacrifice. And then some, of course, devote their entire lives to doing that and are praised as Proverbs 31 talks about, that her family rises up to praise her. A father providing for his family. That's a sacrifice. I hope that we realize that. Young people, your dad getting up and going off to work every day, every day, to take care of you and to feed you and to clothe you and to provide for you an opportunity for an education. He lives that kind of life himself, maybe for 40 or 50 years, and then he retires. I think that's quite a sacrifice, isn't it? On the part of a father to do that. Children being obedient and respectful to parents and grandparents. That's a sacrifice. To do that is God's people to not be caught up in this world and to refuse that way of life where disrespect for elders takes place so often, but to be obedient, to be submissive like Jesus Christ was, remember? In Luke 2, where he, at 12 years of age, went back and was submissive to his parents.

Brethren setting up for services. Before you got here, there were people that set up the chairs, people that put this lectern up here, put the water there. People brought the flowers. People set up for the PA system. All the things that take place here on the Sabbath. That's a sacrifice. People that do it every day, brethren, and realize this, that are consistently doing it every Sabbath. That's a sacrifice. That really is a sacrifice. Playing the piano for services. You have no idea how hard and difficult that is.

But to do that every Sabbath, or even every other Sabbath, or however often someone does it, is a sacrifice to do that. It's a lot of pressure. Being a choir director is a sacrifice for someone to do something like that as well. You think it's hard to listen sometimes to everything, maybe things that you may not like.

But it's very hard to work with different people and to make, again, the work come together. I think that Mr. Moritian does a great job of that, by the way, in this area. He's always done a wonderful job with the choir. But it's a sacrifice. Special music, standing up here and saying, is a sacrifice. How many of you have ever done a solo in front of an audience before? Look at the hands, brother. Would you raise them high? How many are in this room? Just a few.

Now, why don't you volunteer, brother? Because it's a sacrifice, isn't it? It's a sacrifice. Men speaking, getting up and giving a sermon at or a sermon is a sacrifice, brother. Song leading is a sacrifice.

You know, sometimes I've threatened to bring a mirror with me to church. And rather than you looking at the man speaking, you get to look at yourself, what you look like. But it's a sacrifice. Being a signer for the death is a sacrifice on the part of those who are involved in that. Being a greeter, working in the kitchen, helping with potlucks, writing a blog for the church website, serving at camp, participating, helping to work with and present church activities. You know, the list could go on and on and on, brother. How, in fact, are we going to, again, lay up treasure in heaven? This is how we do it.

This is how it's done. It's not really very complicated, is it? 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 58. You know, the Apostle Paul says here in 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 58, Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. In other words, what you do. You work with the Good News magazine and distributing the Good News magazine, as some people do.

Brother, your labor is what you're doing, what you're accomplishing. You know, it is not in vain. God will reward us for everything we do if we have the right heart and it's done out of love. Now, another way, brethren, to lay up treasure in heaven is help in doing the work of God.

Jesus Christ said His meat, His food, was to do the work of God. Is that our meat? What is the work, by the way, that Jesus Christ came to do, came to accomplish when He came in the form of a man, as we know, called Immanuel, which is God with us. What was His work that He had to do? Let's go to Mark 1.

Mark 1, and we see what His work was that He had to accomplish. And He said it was His motivation in His very life that He put that, of course, as the number one job that He had when He came. Mark 1, verse 14 and 15, and it says, And so our work, brethren, is to do that, to preach the gospel of the kingdom to the world.

That is the mission of the church that was given, remember, to the apostles and to make disciples. So how do we help, brethren, with that? How can we, again, lay up treasures in heaven? By our prayers for God to open doors. That's one way that we can actually lay up treasures in heaven.

And our prayers go up before God as a sweet-smelling incense. And, you know, we need to be praying that God will open doors and give response to the church. We can help, brethren, with the preaching of the gospel by our tithes and offerings, contributing to help, again, to accomplish the work, allowing us to put it on television. And, by the way, we have renewed the contracts for the WGN in Chicago for two more years. And, again, our responses are coming up, and the cost per response is coming down.

So, again, by our tithes and offerings, brethren. Also, brethren, by our encouragement and our support. We really appreciate the young ladies, you know, helping with making the cookies, because I'm sure it's very encouraging to those in the home office there.

Because sometimes they get battered, you know, by people that say discouraging things. And also, brethren, the way we can help in the preaching of the gospel is by participating in local efforts when we have them, of supporting them, of being a bright and shining example. For instance, when we do the King of God seminars, to support that and help to make it successful. And so, brethren, this way we lay up treasures in heaven. And then, finally, brethren, a way that we lay up treasures in heaven is a willingness to give to the poor and the needy.

The Bible tells us that we need to be willing again to do that. You know, indeed, God has been kind to us in every way. He's blessed us. But even so, we sometimes have those who are needy within the church. And, of course, we know that there are many that are needy in the world. In situations where we can help, we should be able and willing to toss in our help and to contribute to helping in some way, as we have done as God's people through the years. But let's go back to 1 Timothy 6.

1 Timothy 6 and verse 17. I know he's talking about how we need to, as God's people, to be willing to help others, to share the wealth that we have with others. But here in verse 17, let's notice it says, And it says, And it says, In other words, by being willing to give to the poor and the needy, brethren, we lay up treasure in heaven. And those who have been abundantly blessed, brethren, in this world need to have a sharing attitude. God is a giver, and He wants us to be cheerful givers like He is. In the Proverbs, Solomon wrote this, and he said, He said, No, a miser is begrudging the very crumbs that are going in your mouth. If he is before you, he doesn't want to share. And so Solomon realized that he should not, he should not, again, we should not be misers, that we shouldn't be stingy with what we have. And frankly, even though we are not rich here, we may not have millionaires in the church, brethren, we have been all abundantly blessed. And so, to a degree, all of us can help the needy and the poor, and we absolutely should do that. Let's go to Luke 18.

So again, this is one of the ways that we can lay up treasures and have Luke 18 and verse 18.

Here, remember, there was this ruler who came to Christ and said, Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And so Jesus said to him, Why do you call me good? No one is good, but one, and that is God. He says, You know the commandments. Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not bear false witness. Honor your father and your mother. And he said, All these things I have kept from my youth. And so when Jesus heard these things, he said to him, You shall still lack one thing. So all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me.

And of course, you know the story about how that he went away very sorrowful because he was a very rich young man here. But again, we see here that we do lay up treasures in heaven by a willingness to give to the poor and to the needy. And we should not place riches above our calling. No, we should not place riches above our calling. But we must be willing to be givers to help other people. You know, God may not require us to sell everything. He may not require us to sell everything, but all of us, brethren, need to be willing to share. All of us need to be willing to share, if need be, when the opportunity comes around.

You know, those who will be in the first resurrection, brethren, are those that are willing to give of themselves to other people. Again, God is a giver, and we are to be like God. The Apostle John says, look to yourselves that you do not lose those things which we've worked for, but that we may receive a full reward. And so this is one of those areas that we need to be sharing with others in our lives in a way that we lay up treasures in heaven. And finally, let's go over to Luke 14. Luke 14, verses 12 through 14. Luke 14, verses 12 through 14. Again, Jesus Christ said this. We need to, again, keep our eyes open to what Jesus is saying to us and instructing us. He says, then He also said to him who invited Him, talking about a dinner that He had gone to of someone who was of great reputation, I guess, in the community. And it says, and when you give a dinner or supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, and the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed because they cannot repay you, for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just. In other words, there's going to be a reward at the resurrection of the just, which, brethren, is that first resurrection. And so, brethren, we as God's people need to strive to show love for all of God's people. Now, the principle here that Jesus Christ is giving is that we shouldn't, if we have a dinner, we shouldn't just always invite our friends over. What we need to do is to realize that we need to love all the brethren in the congregation, that everybody is important, and that, again, we should not be people that are respecters of persons.

Sometimes people make friends in the church, and sometimes they spend all their time with those few friends. But we need to, again, branch out and be willing to expand our horizons and consider everybody in the congregation. And maybe sometimes there are occasions, even in the community, where we do the same type of thing as God's people. We should certainly be trying to have neighbors that we have good relationships with, and that we are developing those relationships, maybe having them over for dinner, maybe having them over just to sit down and talk and maybe have some snacks or whatever with them to keep relationships open. There are many ways in which, again, the principles that Jesus Christ is talking about can be applied. So, brethren, do you want to have your treasure here upon this earth, where moth and rust can get in and corrode it and it can be destroyed? You know, people in this world often spend their whole lives, again, laying up the treasures upon the earth. And in the end, multiple millions may be amassed, as Johnny Cash said, as an empire of dirt. There's just nothing left that is really of any importance whatsoever. See, ultimately, if we build up treasures upon the earth again, it's going to come to nothing. So, brethren, our challenge is to lay up treasures in heaven where nothing, absolute nothing, can destroy our good works here upon the earth. Jesus Christ tells us in Revelation 22 and verse 12, and I'll simply conclude with this, And behold, He said, I am coming quickly, and my reward is with me to give every man according to his work.