The Disciple’s Life: Treasure Hunt
Matthew 6:19-34
How many of you have ever done a treasure hunt. Not sailing around the Caribbean looking for sunken ships with their holds full of gold and jewels or scouring islands for buried chests filled with the same, but the game. If I remember right, you divide up into teams and each team is given a list of items and then sent out to find each item on the list. It was also called a scavenger hunt I believe.
Here’s a short clip from the epic film …. Popeye: The Sailor Man With The Spinach Can! In this scene Pappy’s long hidden treasure is revealed. By the way, Pappy is Popeye’s dad which also makes this an appropriate clip for Father’s Day! (this sermon was preached on Fathers Day, 2011)
Role the clip! (Popeye: The Sailor Man With The Spinach Can!, Paramount Pictures, 1980, Robin Williams and Shelley Duvall. Time frame 1:45:14 - 1:45:52 If you don’t want the sword play in the middle of this clip you can end at 1:45:32.)
Treasures and treasuring are central to our humanity. This morning we will see how the disciple’s life is a treasure hunt.
Turn with me to Matthew 6:19-34
19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; 21 for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
22 “The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
There you have it: The disciple’s life is a Treasure Hunt! The question is, what is the treasure you are hunting for?
In our world of unprecedented choices I want to suggest to you this morning there is really ONE choice you are faced with in the life you have been given to live. Solomon gives a rather graphic depiction of this choice:
Proverbs 9
1-6 Lady Wisdom has built and furnished her home; it’s supported by seven hewn timbers.
The banquet meal is ready to be served: lamb roasted,
wine poured out, table set with silver and flowers.
Having dismissed her serving maids,
Lady Wisdom goes to town, stands in a prominent place,
and invites everyone within sound of her voice:
"Are you confused about life, don’t know what’s going on?
Come with me, oh come, have dinner with me!
I’ve prepared a wonderful spread—fresh-baked bread,
roast lamb, carefully selected wines.
Leave your impoverished confusion and live!
Walk up the street to a life with meaning."
13-18 Then there’s this other woman, Madame Whore—
brazen, empty-headed, frivolous.
She sits on the front porch
of her house on Main Street,
And as people walk by minding
their own business, calls out,
"Are you confused about life, don’t know what’s going on?
Steal off with me, I’ll show you a good time!
No one will ever know—I’ll give you the time of your life."
But they don’t know about all the skeletons in her closet,
that all her guests end up in hell.
Jesus is identifying the same choice when he talks here about:
• Two Treasures
• Two Eyes
• Two Masters
• Two Providers
1. Two Treasures: Treasures on earth and treasure in heaven
A. How do we lay up treasures on earth?
1. Reputation
2. Wealth
3. Power
B. How do we lay up treasures in heaven?
1. Peter later describes the process this way:
3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.
10 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, 11and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Why is this treasure hunt so important?
Where your treasure is there your heart will be also – It’s a matter of the heart.
Transition: Isaiah 58 - God’s chosen fast – give to the needy. Work for the sake of those who are in need, treasure what God treasures and you will be filled with more and more light – or as Jesus puts it, you will have a good eye
2. Two Eyes: A good eye vs. A bad eye
A. Or more accurately
A single, generous eye
An evil, envious, covetous, greedy eye
One eye sees the other person and wants to take from them. The evil eye wants to use the other person for his or her own ends.
One eye sees the other person and wants to give to them. The single eye wants to serve the other person to their benefit.
B. Haplos is the Greek word that was used to translate the Hebrew word for “perfect.” Single, whole-hearted, greatest commandment love for God.
Transition: Which leads us to Jesus’ next point – which master will you serve?
3. Two Masters
A. “Hate” and “Love” here are NOT simple emotional reactions
As Jesus uses these words here, he is using them to speak of “patterns of life.”
B. Here is another example of the “unbalanced-ness” of a life shaped by following Jesus- the disciple’s life.
• Matthew 10:37-39: 37 “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.
• Matthew 12:30: 30 “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
• Luke 14:26: 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple.
Transition: What is the source of our value, our provision, our identity, our meaning? Who provides for us?
4. Two Providers: Yourself or God
A. Worry and adding length to your age or life span or adding height to your stature.
Instead, worrying, anxiety actually can shorten your life.
B. The disciple’s life is one in which we seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness
We enter the Kingdom through faith in Jesus.
Seeking is not seeking something that is not already there.
Seeking does not mean to pursue salvation.
Seeking is the active cooperation of the disciple with the Holy Spirit through practice of the “acts of righteousness” Jesus described in 6:1-18
• Alms
• Prayer
• Fasting
• IN SECERET!
Conclusion: The Bold “NEW” vision of Jesus!
Perhaps it is close to impossible for us sitting here and living in our world to even begin to imagine or grasp the living conditions of those who Jesus was addressing here. There weren’t that many rich people around and there was no “middle class.” Open sewers, dead bodies disposed of on the street...
Remember our young friend from last week? (The rich young ruler)
The courage to embrace this bold new vision – Acts 2 and 4
Galatians 6:8-10 8 Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. 9Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 10 Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
The disciples life is shaped by a treasure hunt and the true treasure is the Kingdom of Heaven- GOD! Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And as we discover and begin to live out of that treasure we become a GENEROUS people with our time, talents and treasures.
(Sources used in this sermon are Dallas Willard’s "The Divine Conspiracy" and Jack Fortin’s "The Centered Life: Awakened, Called, Set Free, Nurtured.")
