What Motivates You?

Transcript

GR 667
4/29/1984
What Motivates You?
Matthew 6:19-24 Gil Rugh

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus addresses a variety of issues showing how the conduct of a believer should be consistent with the character of God. The matter of worship has been considered and how those who are going to be part of the kingdom should carry out their religious activities. Jesus turned the focus of the Jews of His day to prayer, fasting and the giving of alms and said these activities should not be done with the goal of being seen by men, rather, they should be done with the goal of pleasing God. In Matthew 6:4,6 and 18, Jesus repeated the statement, “your Father who sees in secret will repay you.” The focal point in religious activity and the worship of God is not to be upon what is seen, but upon being pleasing to God and honoring Him. If you perform your actions for the praise of men, you can expect no reward from God. But if your activities are done to please God, then He will reward you.
Beginning in verse 19 of Matthew 6 and running through the remainder of the chapter to verse 34, Jesus moves into a new and important area -- the believer and his material possessions. Its importance is emphasized by the extended discussion Jesus gives the topic. In these verses, Jesus addresses how the one who is indeed a child of God and is anticipating being part of His kingdom should conduct himself in relation to material possessions.
The world places a strong emphasis on the acquisition of material things. Your value and success as a person is often measured by how successful you have been in acquiring material things and getting ahead in life. The direction Jesus gives in the discussion of material things is basically the same as He gave regarding religious activities, “your Father who sees in secret will repay you.” As a believer, the goal of my life is to be pleasing to God, and I must be willing to wait for His reward and His provision. In the consideration of material things, the focal point will not be primarily upon material provisions, although God provides for material needs, but the emphasis will be on the pursuit of righteousness and godliness.
Perhaps verse 33 best summarizes this section, “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.” God will provide for your basic, daily physical needs, but the goal of your life is to be the pursuit of His kingdom and His
righteousness. The goal of the Jews to whom Jesus is speaking is to share in His kingdom and to partake of and manifest His righteousness. As believers, we can anticipate sharing His glory in eternity while we manifest His righteousness in the way we live day by day.
The section encompassing verses 19 through 24 is built around a singleness of purpose which should motivate our lives. The one thing that should consume us is the pursuit of God and His righteousness. As Jesus has done throughout this study, He gives both the negative and positive aspects; the negative usually coming first followed by the positive.
Jesus said in verse 19: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.” His point is that all earthly treasures are transitory. They are subject to decay, to destruction, to being stolen or to being eaten by moths. Much of the treasure in biblical times would have consisted of costly garments, things obviously subject to destruction by moths and related insects. Verse 19 also refers to rust. This is perhaps not the best translation of the Greek word which means to eat at something. The word is also used of food in the New Testament. The phrase is more literally translated, “where moths destroy and where [goods] are eaten away and are destroyed.” It refers to anything that consumes the treasure. This expression may have been used of grain which was stored where it could be eaten by rodents. The wealth would be consumed in this manner. Today we talk about how inflation eats away at our possessions.
The treasures are also subject to stealing by thieves. The phrase “where thieves break in” could be literally translated “where thieves dig in.” The houses of biblical times were constructed of dirt, so thieves would often dig through the walls and steal the treasures. Many of us know an individual whose money or possessions have been stolen. When that happened, they lost the possessions they had stored up for the future.
The point Jesus is making in this verse is that wealth in the human realm is transitory. No matter what you do, no matter how hard you try, you cannot guarantee that you will not lose your possessions. You must recognize earthly treasures in that light. They are transitory and passing. Many people who have had great wealth have been reduced to poverty in relatively short periods of time. Jesus is not giving new information in this passage, but is drawing attention to what the Old Testament had already said about how a true child of God is to conduct his daily life.
We live in a materialistic society. We sometimes feel that the emphasis of materialism is something new, but it is not new at all. Materialism has with it certain pressures. This has always been the case. We would expect unbelievers to be materialistically oriented. They have nothing but their material things to which they can orient their lives. As believers we live in the midst of materialism, and we face the unrelenting pressure to conform to the world’s standards, to accept what the world says is valuable and to make that significant in our lives also. That is why the Bible gives such strong warnings about the dangers of wealth and possessions.
Proverbs 23:4,5 gives clear exhortation on this subject, “Do not weary yourself to gain wealth,
cease from your consideration of it. When you set your eyes on it, it is gone. For wealth certainly makes itself wings, like an eagle that flies toward the heavens.” We should not devote our lives to the pursuit of things and the acquisition of wealth, because no sooner do we acquire these things than they are gone. Such things are only an illusion. When we have possessions, we sometimes think we have what gives security, but in reality we do not, and our possessions may be gone very quickly.
The Book of Ecclesiastes gives a perspective on worldly wisdom and worldly wealth. This book was written by Solomon, the wisest man and one of the wealthiest men who ever lived. It describes the futility of only seeking after things. Solomon said he did not restrain himself from anything he wanted for himself -- he indulged in everything! He wrote in Ecclesiastes 2:4-7, “I
enlarged my works: I built houses for myself, I planted vineyards for myself; I made gardens and parks for myself, and I planted in them all kinds of fruit trees; I made ponds of water for myself from which to irrigate a forest of growing trees. I bought male and female slaves, and I had homeborn slaves. Also I possessed flocks and herds larger than all who preceded me in Jerusalem.” Solomon claimed to be the wealthiest king who had ever ruled in Jerusalem, even wealthier than his father, David.
Solomon continues in verse 8, “Also, I collected for myself silver and gold, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I provided for myself male and female singers and the pleasures of men -- many concubines.” The women in his life were the ruin of Solomon. Then notice the statement of the next two verses, “Then I became great and increased more than all who preceded me in Jerusalem. My wisdom also stood by me. And all that my eyes desired I did not refuse them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart was pleased because of all my labor and this was my reward for all my labor” (vs. 9,10). Whatever Solomon saw and wanted, he got. Whatever was valuable to him, he acquired.
After amassing all of these great fortunes, notice his evaluation of them in verse 11, “Thus I considered all my activities which my hands had done and the labor which I had exerted, and behold all was vanity and striving after wind and there was no profit under the sun.”
What a thing to say! As he stood back and evaluated everything he had done with his life and all that he had acquired, he realized it was like someone chasing the wind and trying to grab on to it. It was vanishing; it was emptiness. In all that he had acquired, he had nothing of great profit. Such was the evaluation of the life and possessions of the wisest man in the world.
Later in the same chapter, Solomon gives a different perspective which is a good reminder for
us, “Thus I hated all the fruit of my labor for which I had labored under the sun, for I must leave it to the man who will come after me. And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the fruit of my labor for which I have labored by acting wisely under the sun” (vs. 18,19). Even if you were smart enough or clever enough to hold your wealth in tact until you die, you are not going to take any of it with you when you leave.
Some time ago, my wife and I had wills drawn up. The attorney wanted us to specify where everything we own is to go when we die. We could have said, We plan on taking these four things with us, because we really like them! Such an approach is useless. We might as well list everything in our wills, because we are not taking anything with us. Furthermore, you really do not know who is going to have it when you are gone. Oh yes, you say, I’m leaving it to my kids. But they could be killed in an automobile accident going to your funeral. The point is that you do not know what is going to happen to your wealth after you die. Your children may survive and squander it so that it will all be gone in a short time. Many who have died leaving great wealth have left it to be squandered away by those who inherited it. After you die, you have no control over your possessions.
Wealth is not secure. Even if you secured your wealth for your lifetime, someday you are going to die. What difference will it make whether you had little or much? Archaeologists sometimes make great discoveries in the tombs or graves of wealthy people. The amazing thing about all of these discoveries is that usually we do not even know who the people were or what their significance was. Now their treasure is gone. It does not really matter what they had.
Consider the wealthiest, wisest man recorded in Scripture -- Solomon. Where is his treasure today? Nobody knows. It is all gone. It has been frittered away. No one is standing around saying, Well, I am the great-great-great-great grandson of Solomon, and here is all his wealth! Whatever happened to Solomon’s wealth? The same thing that happened to other people’s wealth. It is all gone. That is the point of Matthew 6:19.
With that emphasis, Jesus’ gives a command in verse 20, “But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal.” You must focus your life on something. For those who do not know God and Jesus Christ, their lives are focused on things in the material realm. They must have a reason to get up in the morning. They have to have something that drives them on through the day. When people lose that, they begin to contemplate suicide. Why get up in the morning and drive yourself through the drudgery of another day if there is nothing to drive on for? The motivating force for those who do not know Jesus Christ has to be things in this life -- more possessions, more influence or more something. Believers are challenged in verse 20 to focus on heavenly treasure that is permanent. It is not transitory or subject to destruction of any kind; it is secure and safe. Believers are told to store up for themselves treasures in heaven where they are safe and secure.
These concepts relate to the focal point of life. The focal point of the unbeliever’s life is in this world -- what he has and what he can get. The focal point for the believer in Jesus Christ is beyond this world -- the glory of God’s presence and the treasure that God promises there.
In his first epistle, Peter describes the inheritance the believer can anticipate in heaven.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you” (1 Pet.1:3,4). Those of us who have believed in
Jesus Christ and have been born again through His death and resurrection have been raised up and given new life. We have been given an inheritance in heaven that is imperishable, undefiled and reserved for us in heaven. It will not fade away, it will not be eaten by inflation, and nobody can steal it. It is permanent and secure. The moment I trusted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior, I came into a personal relationship with God. I became His heir and was guaranteed the glory of His presence. As I serve Him and devote my life to honoring Him, I am adding to that treasure. I do not get a statement from God every three months telling me what I have there, but it is there because I serve Him. It is somewhat like a blind trust, if you will, with God managing it for me. He assures me that as I devote my life to serving Him, it is there. It is mine because I have faith in Him and in the finished work of His Son, Jesus Christ. In a hundred years, it will not matter what part of town I lived in or what my bank balance was, but it will matter what kind of inheritance I have in heaven. It will also matter in a hundred million years.
The writer of the Book of Hebrews addresses Christians who have suffered the loss of many material things because of their identification with Christ. He wrote in Hebrews 10:34, “For you showed sympathy to the prisoners, and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and an abiding one.” Theirs is a permanent possession. They could suffer the loss of their physical possessions because they knew they had something permanent and eternal in the presence of God in glory. This is not a new concept. The saints of the Old Testament were motivated by this inheritance. Hebrews 11 lists some of the great individuals of faith in the Old Testament. Abraham was one of those mentioned. Verses 9 and 10 tell about his faith and his possessions, “By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” He had his eyes looking beyond the things of this life to the city that God would establish and prepare for him.
If you have believed that Jesus Christ loves you and died for you, then you are identified with Him in His death, burial and resurrection and God gives you new life. You are a new creation in Christ. Colossians 3:1,2 states what is to be the focal point of your life, “If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.” Fix your attention on heavenly things, not on earthly things. The things that should drive believers are to be the things above, not earthly things. We are not to be caught up in the things of this world or in the activities of this life.
The reason for all of this is given in Matthew 6:21, “for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Where you build your treasure is where your heart will be; that is where your love is and where your mind is focused. Recently I have been reading some secular books on finances and wealth. One thing that came through to me in all of my reading is that you have to be willing to pay the price to acquire and maintain wealth. You must give time to it and think about it if you want to become successful in that area. Such an approach draws you in. If the pursuit of material things occupies you, that is what drives you on and that is where the affection of your heart and the center of your attention will be. Everything else becomes peripheral because your life is built around your treasure. If material things are what matter to you, then your life will be built around those things, and you will measure everything in light of how it will affect your pursuit of that goal.
Believers are not to have their hearts fixed on things of this life. If you build your treasure here, then your heart will be here.
Notice that Scripture does not forbid us from having possessions. This section is sometimes grossly misunderstood. God puts no particular premium on poverty. He does not say that the more spiritual you are, the poorer you will be. He is dealing with the focal point of our lives; the possessions are to be a secondary issue. If you make possessions the prime issue in your life, then you are wrong. You are in rebellion against God. But possessions themselves are not wrong.
In the Old Testament, God told Israel about the prosperity that He would give them in the Promised Land if they would remain faithful. But He also told them of the danger they would face in prosperity in that their attention may become diverted from the God who brings the prosperity to the prosperity itself. He warns them of becoming absorbed in their possessions in Deuteronomy 8:17,18: “Otherwise, you may say in your heart, „My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.’ But you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.”
God is the One who gives the power to make wealth. Israel will experience wealth. That wealth in and of itself will not mean that they are not spiritual, but the danger is in their attention being diverted from God to the wealth that He provides. God gives the ability to make wealth, and He blesses many with wealth. In Hebrews 11 Abraham is described as one who had his attention fixed on the city that God would establish, but Abraham was one of the wealthiest men of his time. God prospered him with material possessions, but Abraham kept the focus of his life in the proper place. He did not become absorbed in his material possessions. Instead, he was absorbed in the city that God was going to provide for him.
The Bible exhorts us to be wise and to plan and make provision for our future needs. It gives us the positive example of the ant in Proverbs 6:6-8, “Go to the ant, O sluggard, observe her ways and be wise, which, having no chief, officer or ruler, prepares her food in the summer, and gathers her provision in the harvest.” Then it speaks in the following verses of the sluggard, the lazy one, who does not want to be bothered. It is easy to fall into the trap of saying that we are going to trust God to provide for tomorrow. He will, but He also demands that we be diligent and work as those who desire to please Him. As we work hard, the goal of our lives is not to acquire more, but to be pleasing to Him. God often provides material blessings and prosperity. But the warning Jesus gives is against focusing our lives on material things and becoming absorbed with them so that we build our lives around them.
Paul wrote to Timothy about those who use godliness as a means of gain. In other words, they are hucksters; they are selling Christ and Christianity. He wrote in 1 Timothy 6:6,7: “But godliness actually is a means of great gain, when accompanied by contentment. For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either.” This is similar to Solomon’s statement in Ecclesiastes 2. You did not come into this world with anything, and you are going to leave the same way. They may bury you in an expensive suit of clothes and in an expensive casket, but you are going to leave all your possessions behind. You will leave the same way you came - taking nothing with you.
Paul speaks of contentment in 1 Timothy 6:8, “And if we have food and covering, with these we shall be content.” But he gives the example of those who are not content in verse 9, “but those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction.” Such individuals build their lives around the desire to get rich.
Verse 10 tells how even believers can be affected by this desire, “For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith, and pierced themselves with many a pang.” Paul does not say that money is the root of all evil. Rather, “the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil.” Some believers, feeling the pressure of the world, have become conformed to the world and have devoted themselves to the acquisition of possessions. In so doing, they have destroyed their testimony for Jesus Christ and brought ruin to their own lives. The warning is clear: Do not make riches the goal of your life.
Paul does not tell those who become rich that they have to give it away. He wrote in verse 17, “Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited.” They are not told to give it all away and take a vow of poverty. If riches in and of themselves were wrong, then God would have demanded that they give away their possessions. He demanded it of the rich young ruler in the Gospels because that young man’s life was built on his riches which created an obstacle between him and Jesus Christ.
Paul continues in 1 Timothy 6 to warn of a special danger which riches introduce. Those who are rich are not “to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches” (v. 17). If God blesses you with great material wealth, praise Him, but do not build your life upon those riches, “but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy” (v. 17). It is not wrong to enjoy material blessings, but it is unbiblical and ungodly to build our lives on material things and make them the focal point of our lives.
If all of your possessions were gone tomorrow, how would it affect your life? Would your focal point be any different? If the focal point of my life is to honor and exalt Jesus Christ, would that change if all my material possessions were gone tomorrow? No, it would not! The goal and pursuit of my life would still be to honor and exalt Jesus Christ in the way I live.
The presence or absence of possessions should not affect or control our lives. God has blessed many of us materially. Praise Him for that. But we need to be careful that our attention does not become diverted by those material things. If the focal point of our lives is where it should be, then the focal point will remain unchanged if God takes away all of our possessions. Our attention is to be focused on a heavenly goal with the desire to be like God and to honor and exalt Him. Psalm 62:10 puts it this way, “If riches increase, do not set your heart upon them.” Do not desire to be rich. If you do become rich, do not set your heart upon your riches. It is possible that as you pursue godliness by being the person God wants you to be, He may prosper you greatly and make you rich many times over. Be careful that if He does, your heart does not become fixed upon those riches. Keep your attention focused on thanking and praising the God who provided them.
Paul gives special instructions to those who have great wealth in 1 Timothy 6:18,19, “Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed.” The presence or absence of possessions is not the crucial thing in life for one who is a believer.
Jesus draws two pictures in Matthew 6:22-24 to illustrate this issue for us. His first illustration, the eye, is in verses 22 and 23, “The lamp of the body is the eye; if therefore your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” The points of the analogy are that believers must have singleness of purpose and undivided loyalty.
Light comes into the body through the eye. If the eye is closed, or if it is unsound or not working, then the body is in darkness. Even if there is light in the room, if you close your eyes, you are in darkness. The eye is the focal point to bring light into the body. But if your eye is bad, evil or unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. “If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” (v. 23).
Keep in mind the statement of verse 21, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” The focal point of your mind and affections will be where your treasure is. If the focal point is where it ought not to be, the result is spiritual darkness. It is only as our attention is focused on Christ that the fullness of revelation and the light of the glory of God will shine. If we have our eyes fixed on material things, we will not have spiritual light and perception and we will be in spiritual darkness and blindness. The heart set on earthly treasures is in spiritual darkness.
While writing to the believers at Philippi, Paul informed them that when he became a follower of Christ, it cost him everything materially. “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead” (Phil. 3:7-11). Paul said his life was built around knowing Jesus Christ and becoming like Him. That was the goal of his life. The fact that he had lost everything of material value did not really matter to him. He counted it all as garbage in light of the joy of knowing Christ.
Paul continued in verse 12, “Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect.” If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, then the moment you believed in Jesus Christ, you were buried with Him spiritually and you were raised up with Him to newness of life. His intention now is to bring you into perfect conformity with His Son, Jesus Christ. Paul says he has not yet attained to that perfection, to the full realization of what it means to be raised with Christ from the dead. He is positionally perfect, but he is not practically perfect. He has not yet obtained that perfection in all areas of his life.
In addition to stating that he has not yet obtained that perfection, Paul goes on in verse 12 to describe his present action, “but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.” He was laid hold of by Christ that he might be conformed to Christ’s image. The goal of Paul’s life now is to be like Christ. “Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do” (v. 13). That statement is the emphasis of Matthew 6:22-24. “Forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:13,14).
That is what my life is all about, Paul says, being like Jesus Christ. Paul went on to say in verse 15 that as many as are perfect ought to have this attitude or mind set -- a singleness of purpose. Whether or not we have material possessions is not the significant thing. Paul says the goal of his life is to be like Jesus Christ. He has entered into Christ’s righteousness by faith in His finished work, and he is being conformed more to the image of His glory. The fact that it has cost him everything in the material realm is not significant. He does not really mind losing the garbage. It does not change anything about his life. His focal point stays the same -- with possessions or without possessions. Later in the book, Paul will tell the Philippians that he has learned how to live in great abundance and with nothing. This is possible because his life is not built around his possessions.
If your life is built around the things you have and tomorrow you have nothing, your life will be shattered. But Paul could handle abundance and he could handle a lack of abundance, because his life was focused on Jesus Christ and in what He had done for Paul.
In Matthew 6:24 Jesus says that you cannot have divided attention. You cannot have your mind set on earthly treasures and also on heavenly treasures at the same time. “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (v. 24). The word translated “mammon” means treasures or riches. It came from a word that meant to put your trust in something and then came to mean riches or treasures, some of the things in which people put their trust.
The two masters of this verse are God and mammon. It is important to see this in the context Jesus is talking about. He is not talking about working at two jobs, like many people do today. He is talking about being the slave of a master, being the master’s total, absolute possession.
The slave has no time of his own and no possessions of his own. It is impossible to serve two masters because as a slave you are obligated to give your entire self to one master who demands your entire being. God and mammon are opposing masters. You will be drawn to one and against the other.
Mammon, riches or treasures, obligate you to build your life around them. They force you to invest your life in them and to measure everything in light of how it will affect your goal to acquire more things.
An interesting transition has been made here. You may now be pursuing treasure for yourself, but in so doing you have become the slave of that treasure. The treasure becomes the master because now you are dominated by thoughts of whether your activities will enhance your treasure. Will this enable you to make more? Will it secure your treasures? With all of these thoughts, you have now become the slave of your treasures.
You cannot be the slave of earthly treasures and the slave of God, because God demands service to Him regardless of the cost. He demands absolute obedience regardless of the consequences.
It is impossible to be a slave for two masters. The demands are opposing and opposite. If earthly treasure is what your life revolves around, Jesus Christ is saying very simply that you will not be part of His kingdom. You do not belong to Him.
There is a danger that even believers can become absorbed in things. But if you are absorbed in this way, you need to ask yourself if you are truly a believer. Paul’s consuming ambition was to be pleasing to Christ. “Therefore also we have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him” (2 Cor. 5:9).
If I were asked to summarize my life in one statement, it should be, To be pleasing to Jesus Christ. My goal is not to have more or to be more famous. It is to be pleasing to Jesus Christ.
There are many ambitious people who want to get ahead in the world. They want to acquire more. We need ambitious Christians in a godly sense, motivated to pursue the one goal in life of being pleasing to the Lord. That is what life is all about; that is what makes life meaningful. Everybody has to have something that makes his life go.
Who is the master of your life? What makes you go? What makes a new day worthwhile for you? What gives your life significance and meaning? What is the focal point of your life?
You must have one. Have you devoted your life to the things of this world? I am not asking if God has given you many things in this life. He may have prospered you and given you great wealth. But I am asking you, what is the focal point of your life?
On the other side of the coin, just because you may be very poor and have very little does not mean that Jesus Christ is the focal point of your life. You may be seething with resentment and bitterness; you may be jealous and envious because you do not have material possessions. Therefore, being poor is not synonymous with being godly. Possessions really are not an issue except as they absorb our lives and our attentions.
Is your life focused on Jesus Christ? The starting point is being born into His family. Peter wrote about those who have been born into His family as those who have an inheritance. You must be born into God’s family if you are to understand this new perspective. Because I trusted Christ and was born into His family, I have an inheritance in His presence. Now I am to remember that I am part of His family as I serve Him and live my life pleasing to Him.
Do you have that inheritance? Have you ever believed in Jesus Christ who loves you and died for you? Do you know what it means to be liberated from the tyranny of material things? Or are you trying to build your life around earthly security and earthly possessions?
If you are a believer, you are not above the danger of being diverted from the goal that is before us. The world tells us that certain things are valuable and worthwhile. It asks us what will happen to us if we do not have all of these things. But Jesus will take care of them and provide for us. That does not mean we do not work hard. It does not mean we do not need to make provision for our families as the Bible says. But the focal point of our lives is not things -- it is Jesus Christ.
When we think about that, it gives us security. We do not have to worry about the stock market or the price of gold or silver. We do not have to worry about inflation. Our security is not placed in those things. It is placed in Jesus Christ.
If all of our possessions collapse and are gone tomorrow, the focal point of our lives will not change if the focal point is Christ. External changes will not change our purpose of life or our reason for being if He is the center. What a privilege to live in this transitory world but invest our lives in something that is eternal. Invest your life in something that will matter in a hundred million years and share the glory of God’s presence. What a privilege to devote our lives to those things that really matter! My prayer is that we might be a people whose lives are built around the ambition of being pleasing to God and honoring Him in all things.