The Greatest Treasure of All

The Greatest Treasure of All

Good Morning Friends,

If we take our everyday life, nothing out of the ordinary, just our eating and sleeping and gardening and shopping and driving around and working and talking and put it before God as an offering…if we embrace what God is doing in our life, not the world’s values and acquisitions, but the presence of God…if we fix our attention on Jesus each day, it will be one of the best things we can ever do. With that in mind, today we face the reality that if we seek the wrong things it can rob us of the best of life and even kill us. Friends the goal is to free our hearts, to have patience and partnership with people of faith, listening together to so God might reign in our lives and shine forth The Greatest Treasure of All.

Scripture: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. “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 unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

Matthew 6:19-23 (NRSV)

Now when Athaliah, Ahaziah’s mother, saw that her son was dead, she set about to destroy all the royal family.  But Jehosheba, King Joram’s daughter, Ahaziah’s sister, took Joash son of Ahaziah, and stole him away from among the king’s children who were about to be killed; she put him and his nurse in a bedroom. Thus she hid him from Athaliah, so that he was not killed; he remained with her six years, hidden in the house of the Lord, while Athaliah reigned over the land. But in the seventh year Jehoiada summoned the captains of the Carites and of the guards and had them come to him in the house of the Lord. He made a covenant with them and put them under oath in the house of the Lord; then he showed them the king’s son.

2 Kings 11:1-4 (NRSV)

The captains did according to all that the priest Jehoiada commanded; each brought his men who were to go off duty on the sabbath, with those who were to come on duty on the sabbath, and came to the priest Jehoiada.  The priest delivered to the captains the spears and shields that had been King David’s, which were in the house of the Lord; the guards stood, every man with his weapons in his hand, from the south side of the house to the north side of the house, around the altar and the house, to guard the king on every side.  Then he brought out the king’s son, put the crown on him, and gave him the covenant; they proclaimed him king, and anointed him; they clapped their hands and shouted, “Long live the king!” When Athaliah heard the noise of the guard and of the people, she went into the house of the Lord to the people;  when she looked, there was the king standing by the pillar, according to custom, with the captains and the trumpeters beside the king, and all the people of the land rejoicing and blowing trumpets. Athaliah tore her clothes and cried, “Treason! Treason!”  Then the priest Jehoiada commanded the captains who were set over the army, “Bring her out between the ranks, and kill with the sword anyone who follows her.” For the priest said, “Let her not be killed in the house of the Lord.”  So they laid hands on her; she went through the horses’ entrance to the king’s house, and there she was put to death. Jehoiada made a covenant between the Lord and the king and people, that they should be the Lord’s people; also between the king and the people.  Then all the people of the land went to the house of Baal, and tore it down; his altars and his images they broke in pieces, and they killed Mattan, the priest of Baal, before the altars. The priest posted guards over the house of the Lord.

2 Kings 11:9-18 (NRSV)

Message: A purposeful strategy of life should not be about money, power, beauty and fame. These do not make us happy. The real treasure is in the rich value of a life of love, patience, service to God and others. The message here is simple. Accumulating treasures for yourself steals ones soul. It serves no long term purpose and wastes the time we have on things that are not secure. It can be and will be taken from you if you do not put it to use for a Godly purpose. Putting hope in wealth is a sort of treason against God’s reign. It is not useful to give your heart to things that do not last. True treasures should not be hidden forever but adorn us with a power that is not from us but is in us thanks to the grace of God.

Pray our treasure does not become the food of worms. Pray we do not become slaves to vanity, pride and wealth. Pray we have a heart that is free to experience life to its fullest. Pray our covenant is with Christ not cash. Pray Christ’s light shine out of the darkness. Pray the light of the Lord shine in our hearts giving us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory. Pray we realize that it is not the treasure we store up but the one we live up. Pray we learn the treasure of trust. Pray we are rich in good works. Pray the treasure in these jars of clay we call our bodies be freed to shine forth the light of the King. Pray God turn our treason into treasure. Pray we store up treasure in all the right places.

Blessings,

John Lawson