What makes you happy? (tell neighbour)

Watch this video

Great little video – now let’s think about the message it’s conveying: Words

“Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof”

Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth

The ultimate truth, the ultimate achievement is happiness.

Jesus is talking about how to be happy in life. But he says nothing about searching for happiness. Happiness is a by product of getting other things in life in place.

Jesus implicitly talks about several pairs of things:

TWO KINDS OF TREASURE

Matthew 6:19. “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.

What is your treasure?

• We think of it as those things, people, relationships that I won’t let go of lightly.
• things / people / relationships that I put my best, most valuable time and effort into

that’s my treasure.

So if your house was on fire and you could only grab one thing before you ran out – what would it be

• that is what’s precious to you!

Jesus teaching has two nuances here …

• “Do not store up …” implies “don’t get into this habit of amassing wealth & stuff
• (e.g. man who was a hoarder)
• The verb can be taken either way so it could well indicate “stop storing up!” – you’re doing it already, and now the time for a decisive break has come.

the love of things / stuff / objects and people can warp us spiritually. The Bible contains frequent warnings about it.

1Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

Don’t misinterpret this verse: Wealth itself is not bad / evil. It’s the love of wealth that is the challenge to us.

This creeps in when my allegiance to my wealth is stronger than my allegiance to my Lord

• after all, elsewhere we’re told to work for our provisions and provide for our families 1Tim 5:8,

1Timothy 5:8 If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

Delightful picture of ant!

Proverbs 6:6. Go to the ant, you lazybones! consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or rule yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.

<ppt> Jesus’ primary concern is with selfishness – “Do not store up for yourselves“. So Jesus is challenging two types of people

• the miser – who hoards up wealth for its own sake
• the materialist – who always wants more and relies on his material possessions for his personal security – “I’ve got lots of stuff, therefore I’m a ok”

And he does it by asking “what’s going to happen to sll your wealth?”. A whole catalogue of disasters could befall your wealth – your ‘treasure on earth’ =

• clothing (can be attacked by moths)
• ‘rust’ => deteriorate, includes eating away by mice / vermin. Used of things that went mouldy – eaten by fungus!

Other treasures could be stolen –

• ‘break in’ => dig through. Mud walls could easily be penetrated. Goods in mud houses always at risk.

Jesus is warning us against putting our security in the things of this world.

The radical alternative

20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.How can I be happy? This Franciscan friar’s answer may surprise you ^[1] from BMS World Mission ^[2] on Vimeo ^[3].

 

Be a spiritual capitalist! >>>

• there is a wealth that is worth acquiring
• it doesn’t corrupt the soul – in fact it does the opposite! It feeds the soul, nourishes the heart!

Some of the poorest people I’ve met have been some of the richest in faith and closeness to the Lord.

• in fact, it is sometimes their very poverty that puts an edge on their walk with the Lord.
• they’ve been compelled to trust him

What is heavenly treasure?

• Tantalisingly, Jesus doesn’t say!
• anything that we do or are here on earth that will affect eternity.
• earthly actions with heavenly implications. <ppt>

There are many places in the Bible where we find that rewards are promised in heaven.

We build up treasure in heaven by walking with God.

God-habits (aka Spiritual Disciplines)

Bible study – 3 important ingredients – head / hand / heart >>>

prayer – I love meeting with the Lord – ‘OK Lord, now we can talk’ >>> PACT

writing down the traffic between heaven and earth

worship –

being public – about my faith and the person I follow.

Being a friend with others in a small group (whether or not you’re a ‘groupy’ person)

Principle: for spiritual treasure – make regular small investments!

What does God want to achieve in you?

• to make you like his son!
• anything that contributes to that process stores up treasure in heaven!

This also applies to others!

home group leaders conference.

aim of home groups – to help one another grow to full maturity in Jesus Christ

Haircut – Barber – “Why don’t you go to church?”

“I was forced to as a kid and it put me off”

began talking about the simple facts about Jesus

he was genuinely interested – I think he began to realise that there was more to life

On average it takes at least 6 people to talk with someone before they will really be in a position to begin deciding whether to follow Christ.

I came down the steps “5 more to go!”

Build up treasure in heaven

it’s an investment not subject to recession

“it’s the only guilt-edged security whose guilt will never tarnish! (JRWS)”

TWO KINDS OF VISION

22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light.

Not a lesson in elementary optics! Jesus using picture language

• we know that the eye does not emit any light
• the eye allows light into the body

So the contrast is between eyes filled with the vision of the Father and eyes filled with the vision of self.

All the way through the Sermon on the mount so far Jesus has been talking about issues of the heart.

• the heart that is set on following God’s commands is equivalent to the eye set on receiving the light

Bible uses this image elsewhere too.

Psalms 119:9 How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word. I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.

Psalms 119:18. Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.

“If your eyes are good” (The word carries the idea of being single, single minded, single-hearted) your whole body will be bathed in light! – a happy life!

• James: the person who is double-minded is “unstable in all his ways”

23 But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

And spiritual darkness is all the more serious because a person is often unaware of the darkness of their soul until the Holy Spirit brings light.

It is all a question of vision. If we have physical vision, we can see what we are doing and where we are going.

• So too if we have spiritual vision – our life is filled with purpose and drive and meaning

TWO KINDS OF MASTER

24 “No-one can serve two masters. 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 both God and Money.

2 kinds? The loved one and the hated one

• in 1^st century “Master” implies ownership
• you can’t be a slave of two masters because a slave was owned by his master.

Anyone who divides his allegiance between God and material things has already given his heart to materialism

not a question of whether I have possessions, but whether they possess me.

21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Think of the things that you put your time, money effort into – that’s where your heart is!

TWO KINDS OF WORRY

2 kinds of worry? The worry about this life and the concern about righteousness

Psychologist Rollo May has called anxiety “one of the most urgent problems of our day”

• many doctors will tell you that a significant proportion of the diseases they treat have stress as one of the significant causative factors.
• Anxiety is as old as human life, but the pace of life today has made it much worse.
• E.g. A century ago it would have been acceptable to be within 5 or ten minutes of an appointment – simply because time couldn’t be measured so precisely. But today it’s a different story! >>>

If you want to see this in action, watch John Clees’s 1986 film “Clockwise” (old but quite profound about time and our slavery to it)

• a man whose life is governed by the clock
• terrific increase in stress and anxiety when he is only a few seconds late for an appointment
• generates an extraordinary level of anxiety – just because he runs his life by the clock!

As christians, how should we regard anxiety?

This inner feeling of apprehension, uneasiness, concern or dread which causes a heightened physical arousal

Some Anxiety is healthy

a) It can motivate us to do well –

• e.g. actor before performance>>>
• Preacher before speaking >>>

This “anticipatory stress” helps us to excel

b) Helps us to be alert in dangerous situations

• When I see danger coming, my whole whole body clicks into overdrive
• e.g. getting caught in the middle of the road when crossing

This called “emergency stress” protects us form being too laid back about risky or dangerous moments.

c) can lead to increased efficiency

“I’m better working to deadlines”, called “deadline stress” and it concentrates the mind

Sometimes these are called “first degree stressors”

But some worry is unhealthy / destructive

This is what Jesus is talking about

• BUT – when 1st degree stressors continue to roll in for a long time they can become overwhelming.
• body gets into the habit of operating in stressed mode and can’t snap out of it. (and there is a bio-chemical component to this)

E.g. Student who starts worrying about July exams in May – is sensible, but worrying about July 2018 exams this year isn’t.!

• to make sure that he gets full quota of worrying in!

When stress becomes a consistent physical factor it can become destructive.

• it can shorten my attention span, adversely affect my memory and hinder my performance in tasks I could otherwise do well.

King David reported something like this

Psalms 31:9. Be merciful to me, O LORD, for I am in distress my eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and my body with grief… my strength fails because of my affliction, and my bones grow weak.

Can you hear the link between his mental stress and his physical effectiveness?

In this situation we can find ourselves worried, just because we’re worried! Psychologists call this “free floating anxiety” – it’s worry without a target – it’s just ‘there’

• I sense that something terrible is going to happen, but I don’t know what it is!

Worrying is trying to pay for tomorrow’s trouble in advance and Jesus is describing something like this in

Matthew 6:34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Now what do I hear Jesus saying?

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 important than food, and the body more important than clothes?

Has Jesus got his psychology wrong? Because being told “Don’t worry” is very rarely helpful! No – he who made the human frame understands how it works far better than we do!

so what can I learn from this?

When I’m anxious

a) there is a place for taking myself in hand

e.g. David in Psalm 42 “Why are you cast down, soul, … put your hope, trust in God

• talking to himself
• taking himself in hand

b) ‘therefore’ is a key word

Jesus talking about where my treasure is

when my prayer life is real, when my treasure (heart – the things that matter to me) are in heaven

then destructive worry is needless, unnecessary worry tends to lose its grip.

>>>

Recap & Pray