Treasure

Matthew chapter 6 verse 19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and dust is corrupt and where thieves break through and steal But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust Nor doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal For where your treasure is there will your heart be also The light of the body is the eye and if therefore thine eye be single thy whole body shall be full of light But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness? No man can serve two masters I'll hold it there Father we thank you for your word and Lord. Thank you for worship So wonderful Lord just to come and open our hearts and worship you Lord tonight I just need I thank you Lord for this worship team and their hearts and the blessing just worshipping Lord, we don't want to take it for granted It's a gift and and we thank you we can enter in and are drawn in and our hearts are blessed in Now Lord for your word. We ask that as we would open it at the you would open your word to our heart Minister to us Lord some truth that would strengthen us in our fellowship our relationship our communion with you for father We ask this in Jesus name Amen You may be seated Well, here we are as we continue on a course through this tremendous sermon the Sermon on the Mount And maybe just to back up a little bit because I haven't done this in for a little while But here once again, this is one sermon.

It is one message and it is a message that essentially is there to teach us How to live godly in an ungodly world how to maintain a relationship with Jesus not just to enter into it But to maintain it to strengthen it to see it grow And thus we began of course with what is known as the Beatitudes were there Jesus, you know Oh how happy remember the secret of the greatness of the happy the greatest happiness in the world the happiness that only God can put within the human heart and When the human heart is its happiest is when as Jesus said Oh how happy are the poor in spirit and know how happy are they who mourn and know how happy are the meek and here? When somebody is poor in spirit when they're utterly spiritually poverty stricken and they mourn over it God what is wrong and it produced some produces a meekness within our hearts where we come before God Not in pride or an arrogance or hostility or an anger. We realize God I've blown it I'm the one that's at fault. I'm not here to blame the whole world for my problems.

I realize my problem is me and There Jesus said this person is on the road to happiness He then goes on and he said oh how happy are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled Now when a person essentially drained of themselves but hungry for God God loves to take him He loves to bless him. He loves to fill them. And then when he fills them, he says, oh, how happy are the merciful? Oh, I appear the pure in heart and oh how happy are the peacemakers and then oh, how happy are they that are persecuted for? Righteousness sake theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

He says now when somebody is filled with God There will be evidence to a merciful spirit a purity of heart There'll be a peacemaker in a world that is desperate to find peace and enter into it and then even then they'll they'll even be Persecuted for it people look at it when Christ is so alive so real within them Some won't like it but here through the Beatitudes We have essentially been dethroned in Christ is enthroned and there we find ourselves to where that's how lordship really happens If I'm still running my life if I am still living in my own Nature my own behavior. I'm not humbled. I'm not meek.

I've don't mourn over any of my own internal weaknesses And still want to think that somehow another Jesus can be Lord. It can't happen can't happen not until I Can't be Lord over a life that is still Disputing who he is in the need for him and his power to forgive and love and cleanse And thus if I don't have anything to be cleansed up, I like myself. I'm fine.

Nothing wrong with me Well, I'm not gonna know his lordship, but when I'm broken and I'm humbled and I hunger for him I'm filled he then goes on and he says you are now the salt of the earth You're the light of the world And he tells us now this is the life that the world is is both thirsty for salt brings out thirst and Light brings out an awareness and knowledge and here he says you're what the world is thirsting for You're what the world is looking for with this is the life that everybody that's pursuing all these other avenues of pursuits all these other Things that people are looking for to find identity and fulfillment. You're it This life that you have discovered and then as he continues on in chapter 5 He tells us there some of the things now that I've that he's enthroned within my life There are some internal things within me That are gonna kind of step up strut their stuff around and and try to dethrone him essentially try to take over Behaviors that can happen in my life and thus he said, you know You've heard that I've been said by them old time thou should not kill But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother and now he looks at there and he says you've heard You know that thou should not commit adultery But I say unto you whoever lust is after a woman and here is Jesus now looks there Things that'll get in your heart in life and it'll dethrone me you'll be back running your own life Back to the old behavior is there when you find yourself getting angry Hostile upset with people and you can just live that way Won't work if you want to go on lusting you want to go on in this world coveting taking things unto yourself You don't want to maintain your commitments in your relationships you can give it, you know You have heard that have been said that if a man put away his wife let it and give her a ride in a divorcement as if somebody just makes a relationship you walk in and out of them just Casually and he says you can't just make relationships and just forget about them They've got to be deep and they've got to be powerful if you want to continue on in a great relationship You have heard let your you know how to make an oath and you know He goes on and as he talks about whether turning the other cheek and walking the second mile and all of these things that are Attributes of a person there and he's a humble person He says he cares for people. He's not driven by his pride.

He can turn the cheek He doesn't have to win every argument when somebody needs something. He can give it to him He can walk a second mile and he loves people here. You can go back and you can study That stuff if you want, but that's basically chapter 5 I could have done that probably in one night, but I think I took at least three months on it.

But anyway Wouldn't know what to done after that I suppose but anyway then in chapter 6 as he looks He says still to maintain a deep relationship. You want a living vital strong Relationship with the Lord. There's other processes that can get into your life and where you've got to learn how to give Not only to give but how to give and so he says Jesus said when you when you serve when you minister when you give Don't do it to be seen him in And he says people like that.

They're hypocrites. They have their reward. I'm the one that saved you.

I died on the cross I've come in I'm forgiving you. I'm working within your life. I'm the one that's blessed and you do it for me Let's keep this simple just between you and me and forget the rest of the world or what they think about it And he says and when you pray Talk to me Communicate with me pour out your heart to me Don't have to go around do you know things in the streets where you're seen of men and love to be seen of other people Pray and he says that's hypocrisy.

Tell me your needs Talk to me about stay close to me and then he goes on and he says and when you fast There'll be times in your life. You just want to draw close to the Lord You just need a work of God and we went through this last week there But he says keep that relationship, you know close and keep it strong But now tonight he continues on helping us maintain a strong relationship with him and in there in verse 19 Again, knowing the battles so well as only Jesus knows them perfectly well But he says lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth We're moth and dust as corrupt and thieves break through and steal but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth Nor rusteth corrupt and thieves do not break through and steal and now Jesus He's wanting to help us understand a little bit more of some of the pressures some of the temptations Some of the things that take us ever so subtly sometimes away from him But nonetheless they do it and that is that somebody finds himself now They come to him and they're growing and he's blessing and he's doing wonderful things and they've got a walk going and they're learning to love and care and hold their Commitments in their marriage and their family is being changed and transformed and wonderful things are going along and happening They've even you know learned there some things about giving and serving and they learn to love serving and then they've learned to pray and they've Learned to seek God, but all the time out here. There is still an issue That's always been around that isn't going to go away.

And essentially that's the issues of the earth The issues of the world around us In here it is something we're now Jesus there that world is still there while I'm seeking while I'm growing the world just sits there as if to wait me out I Know you used to be in me and used to love me and some's happened and you've run to Christ, but don't worry I'll get you back sooner or later and Jesus seeing this world essentially what it is. It's going on. They're always around there He now gives us another great key to maintaining a relationship with him And he says lay not up for yourselves treasures on Earth where moth and dust is corrupt and thieves break through and steal Now, of course back in Jesus's time There was really no banking institutions as we know them today they're virtually unknown and if a man possessed much of anything he was essentially for the most part his own banker and And it's interesting enough when somebody had wealth back then they used to have all sorts of obscure places that they would hide it That they would go put it in later on in Matthew chapter 13 Jesus gives a parable a man who had a treasure and and it was found a tray hid in a field That was not uncommon People would oftentimes go out they had they with they had a treasure they would someplace on their property.

They would go bury it They would hide, you know what they had and they would always okay These series of rocks and over there two paces from that, you know is where they've buried and hidden something so it's as safe as that they could kind of have it and Some may have enough money beyond even you know Certain amount of wealth that they would hide They may be able to go add to their property and add things like clothing or cattle. It's interesting back You may remember the story of Achan in the Old Testament who there for a Babylon ish? Garment, you know these things that he wanted the children of Israel were to destroy all these things He went and he took it and there was something just clothing There's something there did that he just had to have it and there he went and he buried in his tent That was not uncommon people would go in their house. They'd hide thing They'd you know bury it in their own house or under there, you know tent or wherever else and This was this was common and here the Lord he wants to talk to us and give us some very basic Truths about first of all riches for one thing and what to do with them and here as Jesus talks about it He says in this life.

He says a moth and dust is corrupt and thieves can break through and steal But the word for moth There and essentially something there it just the ruins eats it up rusted Essentially it's the same word. I mean, it's a word Greek word brosis, but it means to eat away rust has this way of you know, it eats away at metals and Moth eat away at fabric and things there but and then of course thieves come along and they find a way to break in and steal and That wasn't a hard project back then because a lot of the homes were very easy To get into they had no sense of real security systems whatsoever Of course and even ways to really lock them down tight and then a lot of them almost mud For plaster and to break into a house. It was never a difficult thing to do and it's anytime somebody had some wealth You know, there was some moth or some dust or some steel or some thief that would find it and find a way that they're gonna go get it and Here is Jesus though it it's it's an interesting thing as he kind of points out this tendency He realizes our nature.

I is I gotta have They gotta have and I never have enough I think Sunday morning Chuck was mentioning, you know, whether Bill Gates or Ted Turner and others no matter how much you get It's never quite enough. I think before Howard Hughes died they asked him if he was rich enough and he wasn't and not happy yet But nonetheless there is still this great illusion that sits out there that that it'll make you happy and it but interestingly enough for the most part usually the more people have the greater their fears and The greater their their concern, you know about things and it's a it's a deceptive sort of a thing You know the guy that doesn't have much He just goes to bed and goes to sleep He didn't have to even lock the door or wonder if anybody's gonna come in. They look at what are you doing here? If you're looking for something you got the wrong joint, you know, I mean it's something there that Somebody that doesn't have a lot doesn't worry a lot about being broken in and having everything taken away And but I've noticed oftentimes the people that do have a lot sometimes the fears increase With the more you have almost Some years ago.

I was actually teaching on I believe this very text if I remember it correctly But I remember I was just talking about the nature of man. It's interesting about us. God put Adam in the garden He sinned and the Lord threw him out of the garden He says now you are going to work by the sweat of your brow You're going to go to work and ever since then man, and we've been trying to figure out a way not to work You gotta be away not to I know he said we're supposed to but I'm gonna get out of it And we're always working on it somehow another I know I'll tell you what I'm gonna get this thing going and then I'm gonna buy This guy's field over here I'm gonna get his field over here and then this field over here and then I'm gonna hire them to work all the fields and Then if I get enough fields and everything then I can just you Have all these fields and then interestingly enough a lot of people they succeed at that And they actually can get a lot of fields But at the same time I've noticed though that on one hand and then they look like it's great I mean they go off and they know they do whatever they want to All day any day every day, whatever day the only thing I've noticed about while the other guy that's just plowing the field He's just working the field You know, I mean he goes and works and he keeps a man I wish I could get out of this field But he goes home every night and he eats his dinner and his head hits the pillow and he just falls asleep He usually seeps pretty good But I noticed the guy there that didn't work during the day that got out of it.

I got out of it I see I have to work boy. It's worked for me. And those guys usually work at night.

I Found and you know, they they lay in bed at night and their whole financial statement It's up there on the ceiling and they're looking at this who's trying to break in here Now I got to do to protect it if I move this thing over there and they're doing all that while they will you know? They the guy that plowed the field he's sawing logs. He's just happier and Anything sleeping great, but you work everybody works You don't you just shift it around but but we're always trying to get to where I don't have anything to worry about in life I don't have any concerns It's all gonna be taken care of But the thing is is that I don't believe that ever really happens and here Jesus He's he's just trying to tell us there how to handle and how to deal You know with with the blessings that God does give to us and here as as he states there essentially Moth and dust one day it takes everything You know, it's like the story, you know of the fella who made himself Hundred million dollars or whatever and nobody ever knew for sure how rich he really was and but his funeral That was the question everybody had how much did he leave? How much did he leave? Everybody had to know? till finally somebody turned and he said everything and No matter what you get naked came I into this world and naked go I out You know sort of a thing and and you can you don't take anything with it as far as anything that you've achieved here In the earthly sort of a realm even though we're constantly wanting, you know, they to find a way to do it kind of like the story of the fella there who is really a good man and he did a really a great life and Very very good and he all the time. He just begged the Lord.

I just want to take a suitcase with me to heaven Please it's all I want. No, no exceptions, please. I just well, please let me take a suitcase and that's all I want Well, he'd lived such a good life.

Finally the Lord just okay bring your suitcase this guy He carted his suitcase around never knowing when he was gonna die. He took it everywhere with him It's huge heavy suitcase with him. You never know.

I don't want to die without my suitcase I got to have it to go to heaven and then finally one day the guy dies and there he is he's in heaven first guy to arrive with the suitcase and Everybody in heaven is all gathered around to see this site. What does he got in this suitcase? And here finally they open the thing up to look at it and it's gold Solid gold bars. He'd been hauling around and they're looking around at each other.

So what is that? What is that? funny one of them looked and says I think that's asphalt, isn't it and What do you want to bring a bunch of asphalt up here to heaven for but that's what the Bible says in heaven The streets are paid with gold The highest thing so often in this life that will walk on it in heaven. It'll just be dirt There in a sense, but but we are values essentially is what he's talking about here And then Jesus goes on as he looks at these values So I'm well aware of all of these treasures and all these things But you can go build and build and build and build and then leave it All of it and have nothing that has gone before you He says on the other hand you can take of your life and have much of your life go before you You can lay up for yourself Treasures in heaven where neither moth nor dust is corrupt and thieves do not cannot will not break through and steal and whatever you put There it's there and it's gonna remain there. It's gonna sit there.

It's gonna be guarded You don't have to lay in bed at night and wonder if the things that you did for the Lord and your service or your life or your offering of your Of your time or your energy or your talent or your efforts or whatever it was it were for his kingdom You wouldn't you don't have to worry if it's still there. It's there And it's it's something there to realize that one day We'll actually stand before the Lord and they one of the most amazing statements to me in the Bible I wouldn't believe it if Jesus didn't say it himself, I suppose but one day we'll stand before him and he'll say thank you You can you imagine a scene like that Jesus looking at likes of you and me and saying thank you and we'll be saying what? Hello You know, what are what do you mean? Thank you. What are you thanking me for? And he said what do you mean when I was in visit when I was in prison you visited me when I was hungry He fed me.

I was naked you clothed me We'll look at him and say Lord When did we do that to you and he'll say when you did it under the least of my saints you did that for me Those acts of service and of love and a ministry There were you found your heart in your life being offered up to the things of the kingdom of heaven Jesus said I'll tell you that is something that will never go unnoticed And then he kind of summarizes though the great truth of this when he says for where your treasure is there Will your heart be also? And he gives us to me I think one of the great keys almost to the whole of the Sermon on the Mount The whole of the Christian life a sense a whole of existence I suppose in the sense and that is is that one of the things that the Bible has a way of bringing out for us is that Essentially if man's interests if man's if they're centered on earthly things There's the result of it then then if that all of my time in My talents and my energy and my efforts will be focused on this. I won't be able to stop it It's just kind of like a fixed if my treasure is here. I'm doomed to be concerned worried Working at it pouring my attention into it my efforts into it of taking care of this but if heaven has become the great attraction of my life of my heart if Heaven something has happened through my life where I look at heaven.

I look at the kingdom of heaven I look at the God of heaven and I found myself Absolutely thrilled about who he is and I look at the rest of this down here and it's just lost its power It's lost its emphasis. He's taken over the Beatitudes of worth that transformed life is happening Circumstances are so overwhelmingly wonderful that our God is doing in my life when I'm trusting and following and yielding I'm falling in love with him over and over and as this is happening Eternity becomes the great attraction and the heart Which is so important to the Bible It just a godless seed like he looks at everybody and we walk in here and we all look different You got men and women and we're young and we're old and you can put any other description you want But every one of us are different Some of us were born privileged. Some of us were don't know where we were born.

We were adopted or Transferred here and there and some of us have had great wonderful lives and great blessings and comfort Some have just struggled and struggled and struggled some every, you know got great education Some were denied some inherited all sorts of things and some sat there and inherited bills, you know or something But also everybody's different and we want to say life isn't fair But as far as God's concerned God has this way as he told Samuel man looks at the outward countenance, but God looks at the heart You see when it comes to the heart all of life is a level playing field. It has nothing to do with where you've been That's the one thing that is exclusively yours You can do with your heart whatever you want to you can look at this world and say I love it and I want it And I'm gonna gain it. I'm gonna pour every bit of energy and effort I can into it and it's gonna pay me well for it You can look at your heart and you can love God you can love yourself.

You can love the devil you can love pleasure You can love anything God just gives everyone a heart and that's what he looks at man looks at the trivial Superficial the circumstantial the things that we think are unfair But God says that has nothing to do with it It has to do with the heart and where a man's treasure is there is where his heart God sees Where is the human heart going? What is it really motivated by what does it look at and that's what he looks at over 830 times in the Bible the King James any rate the word heart is mentioned You want to know if something's important to God you look at that and you realize God looks at the heart and And what does it do and it's something there that in the midst of it? You know, that's where behavior really happens as a man is in his heart as a man thinketh as a man is in his heart, so is he and the Bible talks about a humble heart a broken heart, you know hardened heart a rebellious heart a submissive heart You know a loving heart a merciful heart a generous heart a seeking heart a worldly art a hardened art all sorts of hearts It list goes on and on through the Bible But God always he looks at the heart and what did he sees is what he sees as Jesus said he says for out of the heart proceeds evil thoughts murders adulteries fornication thieves or thefts false witnesses blasphemies and Here he says the heart has the capacity To go and do the most wretched and terrible and pathetic things or on the other hand Jesus, you know he taught and thou shall love the Lord thy God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind the heart has The capacity either to give itself over to everything that is wretched or to turn itself and to offer it up to God and say I choose with my heart. I choose to love you Jesus talks, you know, but the end times that he says that servant there'll be those that believe their gods Belonged to him and serve him but he says there'll be a servant They're so saying his heart my Lord delays is coming and he goes on he talks about the terrible repercussion Of somebody who in their heart say wait a minute. I got some more time and some other things I can do Before he comes he's not coming yet And I've still got plans here that I want to get to and what a tragic thing that can happen to the heart And when it's hardened and it finds itself looking at something else rather than just wanting to look to the Lord and And and to see him and to grow in him Jesus and Lou and Luke 6 He says a good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good But an evil man out of the tree out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil For of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.

You see God looks there and you and I we have a heart And with this heart we can do whatever we want. We can harden it We can we can let it become evil and corrupt or we can say God take my heart and do a word But essentially when the world to get captures the attention of the heart and that's of course that's always been around ever since the garden Ever since the garden you might say God literally put a piece of the world in the garden I suppose there when they're in the midst of the garden was a tree of the knowledge of good and evil and God told him The dear of course to the day in which thou eatest You'll die.

It'll cost you terribly And they're essentially, you know, what happened there in the garden It tells us in Genesis 3 6 That when the woman saw that the tree was good for food that was pleasant to the eyes the tree was desired to make one wise She took of the fruit thereof and did eat And gave it to her husband But here there's something that she looked there and she saw interestingly enough three things that she noticed in that The tree was good for food pleasant to the eyes and able to make one wise those are really essentially the definition of worldliness a worldly person in first John 2 15 and 16 John writes and he says love not the world Neither the things that are in the world For if any man loved the world the love of the Father is not in him And he says that for all that is in the world the lust of the flesh The lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the father But it's of this world the world passed away in the lust thereof But he that doeth the will of God abideth forever, but there John he tells us he says look out for the world Don't ever allow yourself to love the world And have you find yourself getting caught up in any great affection for it and he says for the things are the world they are the three things the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes in the pride of life and Essentially what the lust of the flesh is Is number one to me at any rate the lust of the flesh are your passions? passions They're the physical appetites the physical passions of life when somebody there though the physical world takes over the lust of the eyes Are your possessions?

Being able to look I want this I want this I want this things There that so often we look at or the pride of life as he says lust the flesh lust of the eyes the pride of life the pride of life is position and There are three things all of these things define a worldly person a person who is finding their treasure in this world If you're living for your passions or your possessions or your position in life It's worldly and that's essentially what was right there hanging on the tree when she saw that it was good for food There's her passions pleasant to the eyes Possessions the pride are able to make one wise position and Here it is something in the pride of life and these things have always been around and it's always always been there It's interesting the Lord told a king in Deuteronomy three things he says I when somebody rules and you set him on the on the throne and they rule my people He says there's three things.

I don't want the king to do. I don't want him to multiply wives unto himself I don't want him to multiply wealth unto himself, and I don't want to him to To employ to to add horses into himself though Those are those were three things now the wives obviously passions lust of the flesh a King there if he's gonna rule my people he can't be driven by by you know multiplying wives multiplying wealth position or possessions pardon me and Or else horses now horses back in those days. That was position Some trust in horses some trust in chariots, but when somebody boy if they've got a big army They've got a position in the world There are forced to be reckoned with and here God told a king he says don't ever worry Don't ever you know try to find your strength in your horses You know or your or your position or your possessions or anything like that? And then the Lord of course told all the children of Israel in Deuteronomy 8 He says and when thy herds and thy flocks Multiply and thy silver night gold is multiplied and all that I asked is multiplied Then thine heart be lifted up and I'll forget the Lord thy God which brought thee forth out of Egypt from the house of bondage Here God looked he says there's a great tendency It's always with us right going through this life as we're wanting to grow in the Lord surrender to him But this world sits over there within as soon as God so often blesses us There's so funny the children of Israel when they're in bondage.

They cried out to God. Please get us out Please get us out. Get us out.

We'll love you forever And then he gets him out But while he's even bringing him out knowing the trials that are ahead of me says listen When you get in and you're how homes and your blessings and your wealth and your cattle is being multiplied Don't forget me Don't forget me David once said he said Lord, please don't give me so much. I forget you or so much or so little I curse you But there he looked there. He says God.

I just want my life to where I constantly need you I constantly you're constantly the focus of my life that nothing will ever threaten that that's it what it is that I want These are the same things that Jesus himself actually went through himself at his own temptation in Luke chapter 4 You know the devil took him out there And said into him he says, you know, if you're the Son of God, he said turn this stone to bread here Jesus afterwards He hungered 40 days He's hungry Starving to death Literally and Here is now the body is sending a message you feed me or I die The devil comes there to Jesus and he tells him he says he says, you know, you're about the end, you know Sort of he says he says if you be the Son of God, that's the way it reads in the King James but it is not a question as if He's wondering, you know if you're the Son of God as if there was any doubt in the devil's mind as If you know, I was hanging around the break room the other day and a bunch of demons were saying you might be the Son Of God, I just thought I'd check it out You know He knew exactly who he's talking to and he says you prove you're the Son of God by turning the stone to bread Satisfy your passions if ever anybody's had a passion you either eat now your body is crying out to be satisfied Satisfied you're God now turn the stone to bread Wonderfully there though Jesus's response that when the most thrilling response of the Bible he looked right back at him. He says man Shall not live by bread alone But by every word that proceeds out the mouth of God just looks I don't have to be God to whip you It'd be God to win just a man filled with him Just a man surrendered to him just a man who loves him with all of his heart Man should not live by bread alone. But here he's tempted.

He first his passions Then he takes him up and do I'm out and he shows him all the kingdoms of the world the lust of the eyes Shows him there the wealth of the world all the kingdoms. He says here All this you can have it you want it and there is he's now tempted with possessions the lust of the eyes Offered to him and then from there. He takes him to the pinnacle of the temple.

He says here Cast yourself down Go ahead. His angels will give charge over thee lest I dash that foot against the stone. I just written I know the Bible I can quote it, too But here now its position show me your position over all of the angelic powers of heaven and earth Bring them to your beck and call they're all submitted to you show yourself and in every one Jesus had no interest in the world and it was something there that was just such a Amazing thing all through time ever since the garden until finally when the Lord comes to take us home and conform us to the to his image the world is here and There as it sits it was in the garden Every King has had to deal with it every child That's ever been brought out of bondage and into any form of stability and blessings of God has still got it to deal with Still has to look there.

What am I going to do when I don't have a desperate need for God? on an earthly plane Has something happened during that process of my need for him while I was in trouble under my home or my marriage was there? I was in bondage here or I was in terrible situations. God save me help me and now he brings me out Looking there the great tendency says now when you're out The issue isn't can you cry out for me when you're desperate? Most men will but now when you don't need me on a worldly terms You got the world By the tail, it's been good to you. Look at what you got now There to keep the passion for God Now then Jesus he you know, God tells him he says will you remember me then? And you see God has always allowed this ever since the garden we you know He's put there and here I here I am and here's the world and he lets him run right next to each other all the time He doesn't seem to mind it He sets it up there and we don't like it, but he didn't mind it You know, we come and how many times do we turn say Lord, please just take the world away God just take the world away.

I just hate the world. That's messing me up. Please please please all these things They're ruining my love for you.

They're attacking. They're bringing it down. I can't handle it God.

I'd make me a robot How many of us ever pray God just take my will take everything away take the battle away Just make me a robot that I just live perfect for you, you know, or whatever else like that God just take it away. I Don't want I want to love you. I want to serve you You know, it sounds great and sounds like it's a commitment and it sounds like it's real and it sounds like it's spiritual and all Of this but at the same time Jesus doesn't take it away At least not for now Interestingly enough in John 17 Jesus said father.

I pray not that thou would take them out of the world Jesus looks and he says no We're gonna let you and all this world. I'm willing to compete with it I'm willing to be in there and you don't know I'm not asking that the thing be over But it's there to where you know the as Jesus looks and he watches us and we pray like this he says no and We think well Lord, please help me. Don't you care? Oh Yes, I Care with all my heart.

I Totally and there is we're saying Lord to get the distractions get the world get the pressures away He says no, we're gonna let it go on You see because he wants ultimately my heart to determine what it truly wants Not what it needs when it's in bondage to get out what it wants for eternity What it wants forever and ever and ever where is it really truly fixed? What's this great desire? And you know the interesting thing, of course Jesus as far as he's concerned He could have had everything he was offered everything but he could look there and he didn't have any trouble denying all the other offers He didn't have any trouble there because of the greatness and the reality of his love for us We're where here's says you're where my heart is I didn't have any trouble living dying serving caring for you keeping you, you know the center of my heart Because of the sheer magnitude of his love he looks there and he says I was offered everything world all of it Wasn't interested in you see I was interested in you Didn't mind living didn't mind dying Didn't mind going through offering up myself on the cross you see because greater love hath no man initially lay down his life For his friends and so Jesus didn't mind any of this Jesus didn't go You know when the temptation come and say father Man, Satan's just offered me the world. I mean the whole planet Oh Look over here at me McClure or The Man help me, please God, please. I'm about to crack.

I'm about to give up. No You see his heart His heart was totally fixed on you and upon me and you could offer him anything. I Don't want it.

I want you Thank you what I'm offered Doesn't make anything at all any difference And you know and whether we know it or not, I mean we ought to desire You know the same things for our own lives instead of praying Lord take me out You know this trial or get the world out of here or make me a robot You know, did we ought to be coming saying Lord? I want in the face of all of this to give you my heart Could you imagine if tonight? You know, I was to go home tonight and said Jean my wife down Just have a conversation honey, I got to talk to you. I need your help You know, there's three billion other women on the planet and I mean if 35 year I mean you've been at the top of the charge for 35 years really honey, but I mean there's some really pretty women out there all of a sudden I don't think this illustration is the one I'll be using but the I better change it Brian Broderson goes home tonight Cheryl you know or what? I mean if you imagine yourself going on to your wife and sitting down there to her and saying hey, honey I gotta tell you I this temptation all day long. There's these women and they're so pretty And they seem to just get prettier and prettier or something.

I just got this terrible attraction And I don't know, you know, but I want you to just pray for me Just pray that I'll just that I did it. I'll just stay with you. I'll just stay with you till the end You know or something.

I'll just abide Okay, let's just agree together that I'm not gonna give way to one of these, you know or something, you know I mean I should you know, or if I turn to her and I said honey, let's just pray God will make me a robot And I just come home every night I love you Hello. Hi dear missed you, you know, or whatever and I'm not out carousing not out looking or wondering Not out at other checker, you know churches checking out the prayer room women or something in them Or whatever pastors do, you know, but the you and but anyway But if I turn to Jean said Jean here's the deal I got to figure it out honey Would you mind Killing all the other women on the planet That then take them all away You know, I do I don't I don't even want to wonder what the response was be I Think she give me what she commonly calls slap therapy, you know, or either that or Arsenic therapy or strychnine therapy or something? I Remember one time we were actually with her parents at the time having dinner with them and somehow another we had talked about why the men who had left their wives or other women and Jean says, you know, you know, she says there I'll tell you if Don ever did that she says to her parents She said if he ever did that I'd feed him arsenic And her dad says give him strychnine. It's faster, you know, but anyways, so I've been a scared man ever since but the But here Jesus though.

He said I pray not that thou would take them out of the world He looks there and he says I am totally willing to be to be compared with anything you want to compare me with I'm not gonna force anybody to heaven for the next rest of eternity there to sit there and wonder if they made the right choice Wonder if this was the best way to go to wonder if they should let me capture their heart to wonder if this was something worth waiting out their life for or whether it Was something with all their heart they wanted to and here is he Looks at us he gives us that opportunity All of a sudden I'm out of time but I'm gonna just mention one other thing and then we'll pick it up next week because it's too extensive dude, but here He says if you know if I and I be single Here is Jesus as he looks at all this whole thing He says the light of the body of the eye if therefore then I be single the whole body shall be full of light Here he says, you know, and there's two things we'll look at one of them briefly tonight in the second meaning next time But here Jesus said you have choice You've got to decide whether you love me You know, and he's the amazing thing. He sees I'll be at the church and I'll be the bridegroom and I'll be there But I'm gonna be there for somebody that is on the process that says I want you aware of all other options I'm not interested in it. I'm interested in you You've captured my heart You've captured my desire.

You're the one I want to live for and so often what it really is is our eye isn't single And it's something there where we find ourself with two masters and we'll look at this next week when we want to go back But Jesus said you cannot serve to Doesn't work You've got to decide who it is that you want to love And I think so often and if we can just with our heart in our life and Maybe maybe right now tonight. You may be in trials you the world there is making its best shot It's always been there nothing new about it And it's making a run for the money with you and it's got some it's offering some it's doing this been doing it for thousands Of years now, what do you want? passions possessions Position I got it all Tell me what you want. Tell me what your price is You know, tell me whatever it is that you that you want and In I'll pay it And for somebody that you know that that's what they want many people they can get it But there's also somebody that when we're wise enough to realize I see the game here This world never loved me never died for my sins never comforts me never cleanses never forgives never has mercy Never is there day by day to lead me and guide me never quick to forgive Never somebody that I can just simply even tonight.

You may have a hardened heart. You can have a calloused heart You can have an unmerciful heart an unforgiving heart. And yet the amazing thing is you have this Unbelievable thing that you could sit here with all of its of its hardness And you could lift it up to him and say I want to give my heart to you And he says I'll take your stony heart and make it a heart of flesh If you want me to Well, you can keep your anger.

You can keep your lust of the flesh or your lust of the eyes the pride of life Well, you can have me But I can transform your heart if you want it and When we find ourselves Sometimes I think it's interesting. I moved in the last 30 years a few times around And I'd last just until they figure out me and didn't ask me to leave but anyway, you know Well, maybe I don't know. But anyway the But I've been around and I will tell you just my own observation After being up in Lake Arrowhead Out in San Bernardino area up in Northern, California This right here is a tough place to live In a sense that there's a lot of the world right around us God is blessed.

He's a lot of people I mean houses homes lands and goods and cattle and sheep and in Amazing things and I didn't I think God loves to do that He loves to bless he loves to give but I don't think he loves to do it more than it keeps the heart We're not to be And when the heart is jeopardized and its ability to go on love God has a way of pulling it back I can't give you more because I know you want me, but we live in a very worldly world It's only gotten more worldly seemingly and the offers are out there things that were yeah I was offered in high school in a sense. I mean kids now in fifth grade are tempted by The the world around us and the desires and the attitude and the wickedness of it It's right. It's carte blanche out there and it never leaves to the day.

We'll our heart beats for the last time. It's there But still the Lord says that's that's okay In the world, you'll have tribulation but be a good cheer. I've overcome it You can love me.

You can give me your heart And you can ask me to soften it to strengthen it But most of all the Lord looks at us and he says you can love you can take your heart You can love the Lord your God with all of it If you want and when we choose to do that the things of earth Grow strangely dim in the light of his glory in grace Amen dear father, I Pray that you would take your word tonight and as we do live in a world that it's always been there Lust of the flesh lust of the eyes the pride of life. It was in the garden it drew every King Every child coming out of bondage into any blessing at all any stability any sufficiency Now that the trial is over now, there's a new trial Do I really love him? Did I just need him or do I love him? Is my back against the wall? Um My just no other options And Lord you look at us and you give us oftentimes many options You give us many blessings But Lord those blessings can become options For which we can be torn away in Lord I pray that we would find it tonight to be able to come and Regardless of where our heart may be been how wonderful it is to realize we have a God that if we just offer up our stony hardened Whatever else it may be But to say Lord You don't have to take the world away You don't have to I Just want you to take my heart, I love you and it's gonna be there and Ultimately seeing you and we're like you and the world passes away and the last thereof one day in heaven all of it It'll all be gone. It'll all be over But for now you look and say I'm willing to compete with all that stuff I'm willing to be there for them.

I'm willing to watch them go back and forth and struggle I'm Willing for them one day to realize he's always been there The world is toyed and tinkered with me my whole life It's promised me never delivered sets things up only to weaken and destroy Lord, may we see that and may we fall in love with you. May we give you a heart even a fresh tonight May we let you take it and make it soft the heart of flesh Filled with your love and Lord, may we be able to look and say Lord I choose you in the with all the other things being offered. May we turn and say no Lord.

You don't have to take him away. I Choose you I Love you. So Lord, may you just bless and strengthen everyone Maybe some night night now tonight just need to soften the turn and say touch me afresh.

May you do that in Jesus name? Amen