Collide – Doing It Wrong

Automated transcript, lightly edited for readability. Scripture appears as spoken; the video is the authoritative teaching.

Well, today we're continuing, as we have been, in a series that I did not feel would last this long. It's the Collide series, the series on the Sermon on the Mount. Has it been good so far? It's been challenging for me, and I'm sure for you as well. It's just the words of the Master—they cut deep. They're so few, yet so full of intention. Today we're going to read a section of the Sermon on the Mount where Yeshua introduces us to the idea that you may be doing it wrong. You may be living your life in the wrong way. He's going to expose our hearts once again and ask the question: what is your mission? I know all of us would say we're onward Christian soldiers, focused on Yeshua, and we love him, and that's our mission. Really, I'm not asking you to raise your hands. But seriously—when you wake up in the morning, what's your mission? What's your pursuit? What is your purpose? This is something that Yeshua is going to challenge today. Let's jump right in. Matthew chapter 6, starting in verse 19.

Do Not Lay Up Treasures on Earth

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. And 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. 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. You cannot serve God and money, or some of your translations will say mammon.

So we're ready? There have been a lot of sermons preached. Some have been very convicting, some have been very solid, concrete, profound, revolutionary. This sermon, the Sermon on the Mount—this sermon changed the world. This sermon changed the world. Not only that, it started a radical subversive alliance of people who have pledged their allegiance to a kingdom not even of this world. And this king, their king, is a radical rabbi from Galilee that changed creation 2,000 years ago. Isn't it good to be a part of that? So treasures in where? Heaven. Treasures in heaven. Do not lay up treasures on earth, but store up treasures in heaven.

In the God's mission series we did probably about a month or two ago, we spoke about the mission of God as told by the unified story of the Bible. God intended us to live within his good creation that he created in Genesis 1 and to be a part of it. The Bible reminds us many times that the Christian hope is the future resurrection into God's renewed, restored, and recreated world on the other side of death, of course—the second coming and the final judgment and all of that. The biblical climax is not merely going to heaven when you die. The story is not about that. That simply pales in comparison and doesn't do justice to the actual message that the Bible tells us.

We were made to live in God's good creation, as a part of God's good creation, not escape it. This rabbi from 2,000 years ago, Yeshua, he says that despite the world resembling more of hell than heaven, you can join him in not only experiencing God's reign now on earth, but being a witness of it to the rest of the world. I bring that up because when we read this verse, it is far too easy to allow modern imagery and concepts to attempt to make sense of it. We've read this verse so many times with different mindsets that we lose what it means.

Modern Images of Treasure

When we think of storing up treasure in heaven, what is the image that comes to your mind? Stuff? Stones? Souls? Okay, souls—that's good. I'm just carnal, I guess. I think of money in a bank. Just money in a bank. Or maybe some of us have images of the streets of gold or mansions or a car. Some of us might imagine that's where our crowns are, the crowns that we're going to hand over. Still materialistic crowns with jewels. It's as if we're playing a video game and we're racking up heaven points. I know that's the imagery we get when we think of treasure. But what if I told you that Yeshua is speaking about something greater than what our molded imagination subjected to modern ideas can come up with?

Yeshua is once again speaking about two different planes here. He's speaking about heaven and earth, which he does many times throughout his ministry. It's the whole herald of the gospel of the kingdom of God. It's that heaven is coming down to earth now. It's being birthed here. He's not speaking about a faraway, outer galactic domain where naked angels play the harps. Yeshua is speaking about a place where God is present. That's heaven. God is present. Where God is revealed, where he is tangible in some way, shape, or form. Where God's presence and majesty and his reign. Heaven is where God's kingdom is. Heaven is where his reign is recognized and is implemented.

Heaven Is Where God Is

I don't think it's a command for us to make preparations now so that we can have everything we want in the future. Heaven, in this verse, is where God is. If you learn to love and serve God right now, you will experience treasure now. Not just in the future bliss of the fullness of the kingdom. Yeshua taught and believed just as most of the Judeans of the day thought. They thought of this time when God's kingdom would fully engulf the world, just like the end of Isaiah speaks about and the end of Revelation speaks about. But they didn't really call that heaven. They called that the coming age or the world to come, the Elam Haba.

Heaven is the reality of God's kingdom. What Yeshua is telling us here in this section of scriptures is that as his followers, we have chosen to pledge allegiance to this kingdom that is not of the world. We have one leg in this coming kingdom, this age to come. And we have the other leg stuck on earth. We're the inbetween people, if you will. We wander this world, and instead of responding to things like this world would, instead of acting like the governments of this world, we've pledged our allegiance to another kingdom. That is what we live out. That is what we represent. That is our faith— living out the world that we know is coming and is being birthed and has been birthed through this king.

The Bridegroom Is Here

It's fascinating because, remember, John's rabbis came up and they were like, "We're fasting all the time. We're fasting all the time, morning and praying. But your disciples, they don't fast. How come they're not hungry if you're so righteous?" And what Yeshua would tell them, he says, "Because I'm here. Why would they fast if I'm here? When I'm gone, they can fast. Why would they fast if I'm here?" And we always wonder, well, what does that mean? The bridegroom's here. Every step Yeshua took was a place where heaven kissed earth. The world to come was fully present in everything that Yeshua did, every step that he took, every person that he healed.

These are the prophecies that Isaiah speaks about—they're going to happen in the age to come. The kingdom is here in Yeshua. Why would they fast? I'm here. I'm here now. I found that so fascinating. As believers, we've partaken of the greater Passover in Jeremiah 23, but we still find ourselves wandering, hoping, anticipating the fullness of that glory come to earth. We've left Egypt, but we haven't quite entered the land yet. We're wandering. Yeshua's trying to explain that we have a different set of priorities than the world does. We have a different mission because of this and because of him.

Priorities That Last Forever

What Yeshua's saying is that if you are not doing life the way he's telling you to, you're doing it wrong. You're doing life wrong. What Yeshua's focusing on here is priorities. Don't think that storing up treasure, don't think that accumulating stuff—money and toys and a big house and cars—that stuff is not going to get you anywhere. It won't. In fact, it will hinder you severely in your pursuit of God. It won't last. The fact that it won't last is a very clear indicator that it's not a divine pursuit, according to Yeshua. It's not a divine pursuit. The moths will take it from you. The rust will eat it from you.

And it will be gone. Instead, focus on storing up the things that will last forever. Store up the things of heaven, the things of God. You alluded to it just a few minutes ago—it's not materialistic, it's souls. It's an impact of God's reign on earth and individuals on earth. And Yeshua is carrying the same thing that he's been carrying throughout the gospel accounts. He talks about being a light to the world. He talks about letting your good deeds be shown before men. Why? So that they can see God in them. He just prayed in the Lord's Prayer that your kingdom come to earth now. That you would use us to do that.

Guys, have you ever done something nice for someone before? Just something nice. Does it ever make you feel nice? But you don't have to tell anyone about it because then it makes it about you and you don't want that. But it feels nice, doesn't it? It feels good to be able to show someone else what God's love feels like through your actions. It feels good to be that ambassador of God's kingdom, right? Do you ever wonder why you feel so good, why you're so at peace, why you're just so renewed in life? Because in that moment that you chose to facilitate heaven flowing through you to someone else, you have experienced a piece of heaven.

And that impact that you made on someone else's heart with the love of God, despite whatever it could be, saving someone's life or buying someone's coffee drink or whatever for them, I don't know. That impact cannot be taken away by moths or rust. It will echo for all of eternity. And it starts here, and nothing can ever take that imprint of heaven that you've placed on God's good creation. Imagine, one thing that we get confused a lot about Yeshua is Yeshua does not say that he's against having stuff. You ever notice that? He doesn't say give up all of your stuff, materialistic possessions. He's not the Buddha.

He didn't say that. Yeshua says you need stuff. You need a lot of stuff. You need to get a lot of stuff. This is what he says right here. You need to get a bunch of stuff. You need to pour your time and your energy and your pursuits to getting stuff. But what Yeshua says, he says it's a good thing to have a lot of stuff if it's the right stuff. It's the right stuff. You need to have a lot and you need to pursue a lot of the right stuff.

What Are Your Priorities? Imagine a college student who's majoring in medicine. I don't know. But he's also on the football team, and he's also in a band that plays around town as a hobby, and he loves to read fiction books about Star Wars or something. And he just has a lot going on in his life. And he thought he was doing pretty well, but his grade trends kind of say something differently. And so the professor, he sits down with him, and he looks him in the eye, and the professor looks at him and says, what are your priorities? What are your priorities? What are your priorities? Either you're going to get an education, get your doctorate, and pursue this path of education, or you're going to keep pretending that you're playing around at summer camp.

What is your priorities? Because you can't have one or the other. You have to choose. I remember my days in college. I was so preoccupied when I was a teenager. Gosh. So preoccupied about so many things at that age. Cars, cars. Anyone else do stupid stuff when they were a teenager in a car? They just thought they were invincible? A couple people were going to fess up to it? Okay, that's fine. Yeah. Thank, praise God that I am here today. So, cars, we got video games, right? There was this girl I met at this Bible study that I was completely, completely obsessed with. Really had a thing for her and married her.

Anybody ever look back like 10 or 15 years ago or 20 years ago and have regrets about not focusing on certain things in their life? Maybe it's school. Maybe, I don't know, it's a job. Maybe it was that job that you shouldn't have gotten, but you didn't give it your all. Those relationships that you didn't really put that much into. Wondering why you thought everything else in your life was so much more important than these things. Granted, my marriage is an exception. I'm very glad that I put energy into that during college. Yeshua is asking why you don't feel that way towards him and his kingdom in this section of scripture.

Why do you not feel that way towards him? Why do you not have those regrets for the kingdom that you haven't pursued? And Yeshua is asking a first century Galilean here, what are your priorities? If you follow me, your pursuit is going to be towards the right stuff. That's what you're going to be focused on. What stuff are you pursuing? What's your treasure? It's amazing. I had an iPhone 4. Jason remembers this. I had an iPhone 4. I went over to the hospital, and this thing was legit, legit. Anyone else have the 4? That was kind of a turning point, I feel. That was great, right? Top of the line. I showed it off to everybody.

I got the extra warranty on it. I love this thing. And I got the life-proof case because this is special, right? And I got it, and I was just so excited I finally got it for the first week. And then what happens after you buy something new and you put all this effort into it? It doesn't fill the void of your pursuits, so it fades away. So I began to drift elsewhere. And about a year later, I started researching and studying and saving up, and Samsung had a new Galaxy phone. This Galaxy phone had an infrared sensor in it. Gotta have it. Gotta have this. I got rid of my iPhone 4 as soon as that Galaxy was out in the market.

Like it was nothing, because it was no longer anything to me. Despite the hours I had spent simply Googling iPhone 4 specs and reviews and just pouring my time and energy into that, right? And so I sold it for whatever it was worth, $30, $50, who knows, $100. And so I went and got this phone, and what was so special about this phone was you could walk into any restaurant and you could point this phone at the wall and you could change the channel or turn off the television. Or if you were at Buffalo Wild Wings, you could do all of them. This was the height of excitement in my life. I'm a troublemaker.

Jason remembers. He says, what are you doing? I don't know. What am I doing? About a year passed. Phone wasn't really doing it. Phone worked fine. Phone had plenty of space, had the bright screen. I could save stuff. I could take pictures. I could call people. I could text, get on Facebook, whatever. It was working fine. But a year later, it passed. And guess what? It wasn't my pursuit anymore. It wasn't my pursuit. And I'm so happy that I got rid of my Samsung and gladly went back to my first love, the Apple. Prodigal returned. Why do we do this? Everyone does it, right? I bought a new car once. It was great for the first two weeks.

And then I had to remind myself, this is a new car, right? And that only works for a couple months and it's just, eh, it's dirty. It is what it is. Why do we do that? Why is it that we put so much energy into stuff? And even though stuff that we have is not broken and it fills the needs in our life, why is it that we put so much energy into pursuing other things, new things, every so often? Why is it that we're never content with our purpose? And we want to give our hearts and our time and our money away to all of these other things because the culture we live in is not of God. That's why. That's what our culture does. That's what our culture teaches us.

Where Is Your Treasure? And Yeshua here is addressing the pursuit of the heart, the mission that you're on every morning when you wake up. And it's so easy to do because we've all done it. Where's your treasure? When you wake up every single morning, where's your treasure? Where's your treasure? Where's your treasure? Maybe you get up and you go make the coffee and then you start thinking about work for the day so you get ready for work. So you drive to work and you get out and you work and you spend your time and your energy all investing into work. And then you turn your life into money, which is how this works in the ancient world and now.

You spend your time and your energy converted to money. And then what do you do? Well, you take that money, and maybe it's a security thing for you. The more money you have, the security. Maybe it's the car. Maybe it's the house. Maybe it's the phone. What is your pursuit, is what Yeshua is asking. Why do you wake up every day? And we can all kid ourselves and say, oh, I wake up to serve God, but do we? Because Yeshua says, wherever your treasure is, that's where your heart is. It's visible. It's visible. And if your treasure is not the things of God, then your heart is not God's. And Yeshua doesn't have a problem with money here.

Money's not bad. Yeshua never says that. Yeshua says that the idolatry of money, the giving of one's power and authority over to money to allow it to enslave you, this is what's bad. This is what's evil. Yeshua actually personifies money as this demonic character, mammon. You're serving another. Where does your energy go every single day? What is your money converted to? Yeshua is saying that if your daily pursuit, your time, your energy, and your money are not converted to the things of God, the treasures of the kingdom, if your money, which by this equation is your effort and your heart, if it's not being converted into the things that will never fade, then Yeshua is making the assertion that your heart's not God's.

If your time is not being converted into the things that will never fade, then Yeshua is making this assertion that you better check where your heart is and whose it belongs to. If your energy is not being converted into the things that will never fade, Yeshua is saying you need to audit who your heart is serving. What's your pursuit when you wake up? Is it with your godly duties as a father and a mother? Is it with your godly duties as a spouse? Is it too devoted to your neighbor? Is it devoted to your community? Is it devoted to your friends? Is it devoted to your fellowship? Is it devoted to those in need?

Is it devoted to helping others and showing forth being a vessel of God's love and justice, the kingdom reality to others? Or is it a phone? Or is it a car? Or is it a computer? Or a game? Or is it to Christ? Meanwhile, your wife is sick. Your kids are struggling in school. Meanwhile, foster care needs volunteers to spend time, money, and energy showing love to children that have been ripped away from their families by no fault of their own. Meanwhile, that new guy or girl in the fellowship, that younger family that really needs someone godly to walk beside them, they're waiting on someone to join them.

But we're too focused on our false security of mammon that mammon gives us. We're too focused on that car. We're too focused on that game. We're too focused on that phone. We're too focused on that XYZ. The moths will take them from you. The moths. But you got a phone, guys. Idolatry will always sacrifice loving, fully human relationships. Always. And idolatry is defined essentially as handing over. In the beginning, God said, "Listen, you're going to rule over this creation alongside me. I'm giving you the authority over the animals and the earth. You go out there. Even the birds, they're way up in space.

You have dominion over them too. You have dominion." Idolatry is when we give our God-given dominion and authority over to the created things. And we are made slaves as a result. We never think of ourselves as idol worshippers until we get a definition like that, huh?

Auditing Your True Pursuit

We fundraised recently for an organization that meets the needs of foster parents a few weeks ago, and that was just the beginning. That's a primer. I'm super excited to know about this agency and to get involved here. And foster care is truly something I didn't understand until Jenny and I went to a meeting out in York for a couple hours—a free meeting, just to see what it is. I know a couple families in here have been sold out and spoken about foster care and the needs. To be honest, I don't really understand it all. Sounds like it's really complicated. That was me. It's kind of oblivious. So we went to this meeting place.

And after I went, I never actually prayed whether or not we need to be involved with this program. And the more I think about it, the more I wonder why. Maybe it's just because I was embarrassed to ask God whether I should be used to show his love to children that need his love more than ever. Maybe that's why I've never prayed about it. And some would ask, "Well, how do you know if it's God's will for you to be involved in that?" And I guess I'll just say, because the Bible tells us so in the Torah and in the Gospels, and James makes a big deal out of showing God's love to those who are forgotten in the waves of pop culture, in the waves of our culture today.

How many of us on a daily basis think about children who, for some reason or another, have been traumatized by someone else's fault? And how many of us think, "I wonder, is there a way, any way possible I can be involved?" And not just foster care, not just adoption, not just volunteering at shelters, but just fill in the blank. Fill in the blank. As Christians, we're called to show forth God's kingdom through our lives to be a light.

The Biblical Call to Love the Forgotten

At that foster meeting, I saw several couples in there, and I don't know what their religious background is, but one of the couples in there, I can honestly say, likely does not claim to be a Christian couple, and were very likely not raised as Christians. And they were so excited to have the opportunity, some way, shape, or another, to show love and affection and mercy and justice to children that have a perverted sense of what those words mean. And it was at that moment that I realized that the ungodly are doing a better job at doing godly things than the godly. When the Christians walked outside of Ephesus and they saw the children left in the fields outside of the temple of Artemis. See, abortion was illegal in the Roman Empire, right?

Allowing your child to be exposed until they die in the field—since that wasn't you killing them —was completely legal. So if you had, say, a girl that wasn't very desirable, an unexpected pregnancy and child, you could just leave them there. And it's not your fault if something happens. A wolf comes out. They get cold at night. The Christians in the second and third century did not walk past the field and think to themselves, "Huh, I don't think that's the pursuit that God has for me today or in my life. Maybe we should go home and pray about it." No. They were like, "Oh, look at that. An opportunity to follow Christ."

Called to Inconvenience and Sacrifice

I have news for you guys. Yeshua did not call you into a convenient life. He called you to a life of inconvenience. He called you to a life of giving of yourself. He called you to a life of very possible suffering. Because that's the vessel where God's love is most potent. Why should we expect this? Because he told us two words. He said, "Follow me." And maybe your circumstance... I highlighted foster care just because I'm really excited about it. Jenny and I are in the process of getting started with foster care any way we can. If you are incapable of sheltering children in your home, that's not the only way to be involved. Good news, right? They have a list of other volunteer opportunities that you can get involved in and make an impact on children's lives. And this is just one of the many programs that our local county offers. For us as believers, we have a chance to show God's love to others.

Yeshua is asking us, "When you wake up every single day, what is your pursuit? Are you working to build treasures and make an impact on the earth? Or are you working to make an impact in the kingdom of heaven?" Because one will fade, one will be forgotten, one will not.

Making an Impact That Lasts

Spending time reading a book with a child that has just been separated from all of his brothers and sisters, confused, doesn't know what's happening, giving that comfort and the peace to them—doesn't sound like that big of a deal. I mean, I'm not actually doing anything. You're making craters in this world with a substance and a treasure that will never be affected by rust, moths, or be broken. What are your treasures? What are your pursuits in life? What do you think about when you wake up in the morning? This isn't just about foster care. It's just the example I'm passionate about right now and I'm excited about it. I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, but I'm stepping forward. It could be other volunteer opportunities in the area. It could be your outlook on life. Do you pray every morning the Lord's Prayer like we discussed last week? Because this is what Yeshua is talking about. What he's talking about with treasures of heaven has more to do with the Lord's Prayer than storing heaven points up.

Thy Kingdom Come

Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. God, use me today. Use me as your lamp, as your lantern. Shine your light through me. Allow me the ability to show people Yeshua. Allow your kingdom to come, even in a small substance, even with a small act, even with a few short words at the right time. Allow your kingdom to be seen. That's the prayer that Yeshua tells us to pray. In Luke, he says, pray this every time you pray, not just once a day, every time. It's a big deal. It's a big deal. This lifestyle is not an optional circumstance for followers of Yeshua. And I wish I could say there's a gray area. I'm still looking for it. Trust me, I can't find it. Yeshua is black and white on what our pursuit should be and our mission should be. When you choose something to die for, he says this should be it. Being ambassadors of the king should be it.

The Light Within

The eye is a lamp of the body. So if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of... But if your eye is bad, your whole body is full of darkness. Or some translations say, "Your whole body is full of darkness." Darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great the darkness. So I'm getting excited because Bible Geek time. In the ancient world, anatomy was still being worked out, just a little bit. And this is why I'm not really a concordantist. I'm not for making the Bible into a science book because science is often changing. I make the Bible about a story told by people who were inspired by the Holy Spirit to testify of God's greatness and majesty.

And so in ancient Israel, and even in the Bible, it talks about the seat of emotion and logic— where is it? In your kidneys and your bowels, right? That's what it talks about. That's where our thinking goes on, and that's where our emotions come from. And although such things can cause spikes of emotion, we know this not to be true. In Greek culture, the heart was the seat of emotion. That's where we get the phrase "in your heart." It's a Greek-minded concept. It's beautiful because we understand what they're saying. But during this time, they actually thought the brain was a cooling system for the blood.

It's a Radiator

It's a radiator. Until about the second century when Galen of Pergamon, he came down and he was a doctor and he treated all of the wounds of the gladiators. And he was very well known because only like five or six gladiators died when he was in his role, and the last guy, like a hundred. He was good at being a doctor. You lost the fight or you won the fight. Come on, let's make sure you can live to fight another day. Stitch you up. And something he started noticing is the guys that were taking hits to the head, they started acting funny. They didn't get hit in the heart. Their behavior and emotions were changing drastically because they got knocked in the head. And that's when the idea began to change, like maybe that's more than a radiator rocking around up there. So anyway, it's neat. I love seeing a glimpse of history when I read the scriptures. And so notice Yeshua is referring to what? He's referring to the eye. And he says the eye is a what? A lamp. What does a lamp do? Shines light, right? Shines light.

Two Big Theories

So there were two different thoughts about how eyes worked during this time period. Two big theories to explain: one was about how the eye functions. One was extramission and one was intramission. There are two different theories on how light worked with your vision. And one of the theories was actually very popular, I think, was it Plato? Plato, I think, was the first one in the 4th century B.C. He spoke about the light actually being emitted from your eyes. And when it hits objects, it translates back to vision in your mind or in your eyes. In other words, the assertion was that your eyes actually shot light out of them.

How many think that's just cool? Like, I opt for that. And how they explain this is because at nighttime, when you see a dog or a cat, what do you see with their eyes? Vroom, vroom. Like as if they're shooting light back at you. It's like, oh, that must be how everyone works, right? Augustine actually affirms, four centuries after this, in his book on the Trinity, in book number nine, where he's speaking about the connection between the body and the soul. And in a quote he says, rays of light shine through the eye and touch whatever they see. This is something that early Christians actually thought.

It was just the world. They didn't know. And so Yeshua seems to be writing on a concept that most people kind of are already familiar with. And he says, the eye is a light-giving lamp. And what fuels that light? The light that shines—what's it fueled by?

The Light That Is Sourced Within

Yeshua kind of steps it up a little bit. If light comes out of your eyeballs, what's it fueled like? Where's the light coming from? It must be a light that's inside, right? Like a gas tank, I guess. What's the entire Sermon on the Mount focused on? The heart. The light that is shined outwardly is fueled by the light that is sourced within. And Yeshua is actually drawing us back to Proverbs 22 when he says, He who has a generous eye will be blessed forever. For he gives his bread to the poor. So that word for generous means tov, good. It's a good eye. It's a healthy eye. It's also a generous eye. It has to do with your eye.

It has to do with something about generosity. And Yeshua's drawing on this to kind of build his point. Generosity is the foundation of what the gospel itself is built on. And Yeshua's saying, yeah. So you think that your eyes shoot lights out of them. Cool. Where does that light come from? It comes from within. So if your eye is shooting light out, right? If your eyes truly are shooting light out everywhere, it means that your body's full of your following. Good. If you're generous in your heart, it means that your heart is given to the treasures of heaven. And it's given to implementing heaven. And it's given to pursue those treasures.

If Your Eye Is Bad

But if your eye is bad, if it's diseased, if it's not healthy, because there's nothing that's shooting out of it, what does that mean about your heart? It means that your heart is stingy and that your heart is not focused on the things that will last for eternity. It's focused on those things that you really like in your life now that the mobs will take away from you and that you're closing God's love on the world, attempting to push back heaven. So there's a debate about this word here, just Bible Geek time, we're still here, about that word, imi, in the Greek. And it could be translated will be, so that's why some of your translations will say will be instead of is.

It has a future sense attached to it, so just a side note. Some scholars don't think this verse is about your eyes seeing good things and seeing opportunities of generosity and then filling you with light. So those are the two debates about this verse. You see which way I lean, that's fine. They all end up the same place. Your eyes, your generosity in how you live your life is a reflection of who you've given your heart to. The light that is in you is darkness. How great the darkness.

The Ultimate Source of Light

So I'd like to believe that Yeshua is speaking about the light of God in this sense. Would everyone agree? The light of God—like there's not a mag light in your belly. Okay. And so you guys know in Genesis 1:1-3, what did God create? He created light. And then the rest of the day, he's managing the light, separating it from here, doing this with it. But God didn't create the sun, moon, and stars until like the fourth day, right? And then on the third day, he created the grass and the vegetation. And didn't it somehow bloom on the earth? Has anyone else ever read that and be like, someone got this wrong?

No. Someone had a typo. Because grass and flowers and vegetation and trees, they just can't grow without photons from the sun. But yet God's like, no, I created light. And this light is actually what made all of creation bloom and blossom and gave grass and everything. And then I created sun, moon, and stars to kind of like manage the light. I love that. So when he creates the sun, moon, and stars, he says the sun, moon, and stars are to be to you as two things. Signs and for seasons, if you will. It's one translation. Signs. Symbols, symbols—symbols that mark the seasons. In a theistic cosmos, light and life all came from one source.

If you believe in the God that created all things, you believe that light and life come from the same source. Which source is this? God. God. God is the ultimate source of life and light. Right? Because they're connected. In the ancient world, the sun comes out and everything comes to life. God is the giver of light. And an ancient Israelite would not have looked at the sun and thought, ooh, the great sun. Like, look at that. Let's worship it because it's the ultimate source of light. No, they would have said, oh, the sun, the sun is a symbol. It's a sign of the ultimate source of light, which was given to it by God.

There is still something greater than that sun. I know all you pagan folks over here are like, the sun, it's the God. It's like, no, it's just a symbol. It just gives us light because God allowed it to. God allowed the sun, moon, and stars to govern that area of the cosmos just like man governs this area.

In Your Light Do We See Light

And I want to read a psalm for you just to kind of, since I got you here, this is great. Psalms 36, if you want to turn there, this is a beautiful, beautiful psalm that is dedicated to praising God for who he is. And it states, God, with you is the fountain of life, and in your light do we see light. In your light do we see light. So we see light because it's in your light. Did I kind of mess with you a little bit? It's like a sci-fi movie, like two dimensions of light. God is giving the light to the sun and the moon and the stars. They're simply signs and symbols of something greater. And so, you know, at the end of the book, Revelation 21, is there a sun? No. No, there's no more sun. It's gone. Because the Lamb is the ultimate source of light there. It's beautiful. It's a beautiful picture portraying this ancient concept. So, I get excited about this neat stuff like that.

Where Your Treasure Is

So Yeshua is referring to light that is pushed out of your heart through your eyes here. And it's kind of a wordplay on generosity as we've seen. So where does the light come from? It comes from God. Because he's the ultimate source of light. When people see our light, they see God's light. And when you have a generous heart, we know who's fueling that. That's the fuel that makes heavenly treasure. And if your eye is bad, it gives no light. Then that means what? It means that you have no capacity for godly generosity because you don't have the light of God within you. And if you don't have the light of God within you, that's not just a dark place. How great is the darkness that does not have the light of God.

Yeshua sure is hammering this thing over and over again, isn't he? And he's actually referring back to Exodus 23 here. You shall not have any other gods before me, right? You can't have two people that you serve. And worship team, you guys can come up to close. So the question whether the audit that Yeshua is giving, both on the mountain and here today, is who do you serve? Who do you worship? Is it God or mammon? That can be answered, he says, by looking at your treasure. I don't know who I serve. It's easy to look at your treasure because where your treasure is, there is where your heart is fully devoted. There is where your heart worships.

Wake Up and Live Your Mission

What is the mission that you have when you wake up? Yeah, you go to work. Yeah, you're fulfilling these duties as a provider in your family. Yeah, you're training your children in school. Yeah, you're doing all these things and you're running errands. What is the purpose of all of that? Your mission should be to wake up, thank God for the opportunity to be his image bearer.

Yeshua's Teaching on Your Heart

And Yeshua shines a light on every aspect of the heart of man. And he says, listen, if you're going to be a part of this covenant that God has founded on forgiveness and grace and mercy, this new covenant of Jeremiah 31, where the Torah is going to be written on your heart, here is how you live Torah from your heart. This is how you become the heart people of Jeremiah 31. And sometimes we have an area of our heart that's like, yes, this is good, like squeaky, squeaky, like this is great. And then you have that area over here that you just want to skip that verse and I'm good on everything else. Yeshua was so bold when he did this.

And maybe that's you today. Maybe God has shown you opportunities to make that treasure for his kingdom. Stock it up. Stock it up. But you haven't taken that first step. I don't know what opportunities God has unveiled for you in your life. I don't know what doors he has put before you one day, but you're probably like me; you see the doors all around you, and you see the witnesses, and you actually see people encouraging you to walk through it, but you're oblivious because your heart is kind of somewhere else.

Yeah, that's a door for somebody else. Have you tried to jiggle the handle? Because it might just open, and you might have the opportunity to walk through it and start storing up some real treasure that can never be taken away.

Storing Treasure and Ruling Mammon

Not only that, it can be experienced now and it will intensify throughout all of eternity. You have that ability now. Mammon is crouching at the door. Its desire is against you. But you can, you must rule over it. That's what scripture says. Don't give the authority that God has given to you over to Mammon. Pray that you are enabled to show God's kingdom on earth. Pray that God enables you to show his love on earth. Pray that God enables your heart to shine his light. Because you cannot serve two masters. If you'd like to donate to this ministry and be a part of what God is doing through it, you can donate through our online giving portal here. We thank you for your continued support, and we look forward to next time. Shalom.