Hmmmm...

The message in church today has really made me think.

We've been looking at a series called "A Life Worth Living", (nothing to do with Nicky Gumbel sorry!!) which is basically following on from our series on the Beattitudes, where we're now moving on to look at Matthew Ch 6.

Today we were looking at the part where Jesus talked about storing treasures up in heaven:


?19? ?t?“?Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; ?20? ?u?but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. ?21? For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
?22? ?v? “?The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is ?7?good, your whole body will be full of light. ?23? But if your eye is ?8?bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
?24? ?w?“?No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. ?x?You cannot serve God and ?9?mammon.
t ?Prov. 23:4?; [?1 Tim. 6:17?; ?Heb. 13:5?]; ?James 5:1?
u ?Matt. 19:21?; ?Luke 12:33?; ?18:22?; ?1 Tim. 6:19?; ?1 Pet. 1:4?
v ?Luke 11:34?, ?35?
7 Clear, or healthy
8 Evil, or unhealthy
w ?Luke 16:9?, ?11?, ?13?
x [?Gal. 1:10?; ?1 Tim. 6:17?; ?James 4:4?; ?1 John 2:15?]
9 Lit., in Aram., riches
The New King James Version. 1996, c1982 (Mt 6:19). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

Well, it seems Jesus wasn't just talking about money. He was talking about our whole attitude to life, who we put in control of it. Mammon is quite an old word, but Jesus was basically saying "it's him (mammon) or me".

The treasure Jesus was talking about wasn't just neccesarily money. Our treasure is the thing in life we're most passionate about, whether it be our partner, our car, our career, our family, our independance... a whole host of things. What Jesus was saying was whatever that "treasure" is, it needs to be under My control, and given to me to use. Our heart (the seat of our emotions/intellect/will) should be His first.

Will (our Pastor) mentioned the fact that we like to get round this passage by relating it to money, but Jesus was going far deeper than that. He was saying our whole attitude to life should be focused on Him. All this separation of "church is sacred, work is secular" stuff isn't biblical. Jesus wants the whole of our lives under his influence, not just the "religious bits". It really made me think this morning. There's parts of my life (even working in a "christian job") that I with-hold from God, and don't talk to Him about. I need to invite God to be with me every hour of my day, not just when I'm being "religious".

Will quoted Psalm 89:11 The heavens are yours, and yours also the earth;
you founded the world and all that is in it.

In other words, this whole sacred/secular thing we talk about as Christians, is not something God designed! God sees everything in the world, and in a very real sense, he owns it, and everything in it. Jesus, in the passage, is asking for us to put our treasure under Him in priority, whatever that treasure is. It all belong to Him anyway!! :-)