Matthew 6: 19-34 August 7, 2011

How do you measure stress in your life?

If you were giving different life events a stress rating, what would you consider to be some of the most stressful things that could happen to you?

Well, the good news is that researchers have come up with a scale that gives different point values to different things that come into our lives and then assigns a value to each of these things. Yes, it’s generalized, but it does give us a glimpse into what may go on in our bodies as various stressful things come along. Of course, when these events pile on top of each other, it can and often does cause other problems in our lives.

I thought about copying these tests for you so you could go along with me, but I was afraid that you’d just read them during the rest of the sermon. So, I did make copies for you, but I’ll hand them out after the service J.

Read through parts of the stress test.

Karen and I joke that we are trying to keep our stress level in the “stroke level” range for as long as possible. But it’s true isn’t it that things that happen in life do cause us struggles!

Today, I want us to look at another familiar passage from Matthew’s Gospel. Many people call this section of Scripture Christ’s Sermon on the Mount. It covers many different things, but the section of it that we’re going to look at today specifically covers the areas of stress about both today and the future.

Jesus says:

Matt. 6:19   “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 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.

I don’t know if you have investments or a retirement account. But if you do, this past week has not been a very good one for keeping your treasures! With the stock market falling like crazy (about 700 points!), it becomes easy to start worrying about the future! For those of you who are retired, the questions come up about whether you’ll be able to survive with reduced income now. Those of you my age wonder if there will be any chance for us to retire if we can’t keep money in our retirement accounts.

So, maybe it wasn’t a thief with a mask and a gun who stole your retirement money this week, but, it still disappeared! That is exactly Christ’s point here…your money isn’t secure. It can come and go and you don’t have much say in what happens to it.

Likewise, our stuff can rust and get messed up by a variety of things. Think about that car, van or truck that you’re driving. What goes wrong? Somebody runs a stop sign and hits you. Somebody opens their car door at the IGA and dents the side of your car. After awhile, some rust does appear. Power options like windows, doors, and cruise control stop working. And this list could go on and on about bad things that happen to our vehicles.

Jesus is telling us to stop focusing on our cash and the other things in life that don’t stay perfect. Rather, we need to focus on things that are of eternal worth. We need to be building up our “retirement account” in heaven instead of in the Goodfield State Bank.

So, what kinds of things count as treasures in heaven?

Did you hear about the rich man who was near death. He was very grieved because he had worked so hard for his money and wanted to be able to take it with him to heaven. So he began to pray that he might be able to take some of his wealth with him.

An angel heard his plea and appeared to him. "Sorry, but you can't take your wealth with you."

The man begged the angel to speak to God to see if He might bend the rules. The man continued to pray that his wealth could follow him.

The angel reappeared and informed the man that God had decided to allow him to take one suitcase with him. Overjoyed, the man gathered his largest suitcase and filled it with pure gold bars and placed it beside his bed.

Soon afterward, he died and showed up at the gates of heaven to greet St. Peter.

St. Peter, seeing the suitcase, said, "Hold on, you can't bring that in here!"

The man explained to St. Peter that he had permission and asked him to verify his story with the Lord.

Sure enough, St. Peter checked it out, came back and said, "You're right. You are allowed one carry-on bag, but I'm supposed to check its contents before letting it through."

St. Peter opened the suitcase to inspect the worldly items that the man found too precious to leave behind and exclaimed, "You brought pavement?"

OK…so taking gold asphalt to heaven wouldn’t count. What things do count as treasures in heaven? Obeying God, telling others about Jesus, helping people come to faith in Jesus, serving the Lord, and so on. It’s basically things from the Great Commandment and the Great Commission…love God, love your neighbors, and make disciples. Those are the things that rust can’t destroy and thieves can’t steal. That is so incredibly important in God’s economy.

One of the things that I’m excited about is that as we move forward with determining the next step for our congregation, we can easily follow these instructions from our Lord! We can keep our minds focused on eternal things…even if the earthly things don’t end up the way we want them to or the way we had hoped they would go.

For instance, can you keep on telling people about Jesus…even if our church closes? YES! Can you keep showing love to others if our church closes? YES! Can you still give money to missions and go on mission trips and worship with other believers if our church is closed? YES!

Let’s drop down a couple of verses to verse 24.

Matt. 6:24   “No one can serve two masters, for 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 God and money.

Boy, these are tough verses. They are very true, but I know many people who want to tell us that they’re following God, but they’re going to try to earn lots of money so they can give it to the Lord’s work, but they keep storing it up for themselves instead of giving it back to the Lord. Do you know people who are slaves to the “almighty dollar”? Do you know people who would rather work some overtime on Sundays than to come to church? There are many people like that, aren’t there?

Matt. 6:25   “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.

What things cause you to get anxious? For my youngest four kids, it’s simple things like seeing a spider or worrying that another kid is going to take their favorite toy. It’s also bigger things…Benjamin and Aaron’s parents often left them alone when they were just four and two. As a result, they get very anxious when we go somewhere new that we might leave them there or when we’re getting ready to go somewhere that we’ll take everybody but them. My grandmother’s house burned down when she was around junior high aged. As a result, she never allowed candles or a gas stove in her house.

What about you? Is it being concerned about your new classes at junior high, high school, or even college? Is it a problem at work that is raising your blood pressure? Is it your own health or the health of a friend or relative? Do the financial struggles of yourself or others cause you anxiety? Do you worry whether you’ll have enough food to eat or whether you’re able to afford the finest clothes? Are you worrying right now about what questions to ask Pastor Barr in an hour or so? Are you anxious about what will happen to our church? We all have things that make us fight anxiousness don’t we?

Jesus clearly commands us to NOT BE ANXIOUS! We need to exercise more faith and trust that our heavenly Father, the Good Shepherd that we looked at last week, cares enough about us to take care of us!

Jesus gives us a few clear examples: Birds work hard to find food, but ultimately, it’s the Lord who provides for them and allows them to survive without storing up grain for the future. God also clearly takes care of the flowers…even if they are very temporary. Therefore, we can and must trust the Lord to take care of us in every fine detail of our lives…even when we don’t see it or feel like He’s there with us.

Jesus reiterates the importance of not worrying about tomorrow in the final verse in this section:

Matt. 6:34   “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

There’s no need to be anxious or to worry about the stuff that’s going to happen tomorrow or next week or even next year…every day has plenty things to wrestle with. Or as one of my grandmothers used to say, “There’s no need to go around borrowing trouble!”

An old chorus from the 40’s went:

Why worry when you can pray

Trust Jesus, He’ll be your stay

Don’t be a doubting Thomas

Trust fully on His promise

Why worry, worry, worry, worry

When you can pray?

It’s a great truth isn’t it? However, I’m afraid that many of us slip into the rut of saying, “Why pray when you can worry?”

This is one of those commands that I think we as Christians sweep to the side as not being a really big deal or one that we argue with the Lord about. “Lord that wasn’t worry, it was genuine concern!” or “Lord You just don’t understand…that was a really big thing, and it’s OK for me to be anxious about that!”

Again, as He stated earlier in the passage, the command is very clear

In case we’ve missed His point up until now, Jesus lays it out very clearly for us again:

33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

As I’ve been praying about what to preach on in these coming weeks, the Lord has continued to bring these truths to my mind. We need to seek God’s righteousness and His kingdom first in our lives…then, everything will be taken care of.

As we have a meeting in a little bit, we have choices to make. Will we worry about the future or trust the Lord to take care of us? Will we seek first the advancement of God’s kingdom, or our own?

How do we tell if we’re working on our agenda or the Kingdom of our Lord’s agenda? Here are some questions I thought about?

Why was this church originally started? (for the sake of children) How are we doing at reaching the children of Goodfield? How are we doing at reaching people in Goodfield period?

What “kind of church” are we? (Baptist) How many baptisms are we doing annually or even in this decade?

How are we as a church doing at making disciples in Goodfield, Illinois, the United States, and the uttermost ends of the earth?

I did NOT write these questions to make us feel bad or to upset people before lunch! I am though quite serious that if we are to be fulfilling our purpose of reaching children and families in Goodfield; if we are to be fulfilling our purpose of seeing new converts come to Christ and then getting baptized; and if we are to be making disciples both locally and globally we might need to determine how to build up God’s Kingdom in a different way than what we’re currently doing.

I know that can mean the death of our vision…even as we’ve talked about that the last three weeks or so. But, for the sake of God’s Kingdom…and NOT our own kingdom, how can we best move ahead to fulfill those purposes that have been part of our core values for over one hundred years?

As we meet with representatives from these three churches in the coming weeks, we need to answer these questions: Which church will help us best build up God’s Kingdom for the future? Despite the potential struggles or the pieces that we’re uncomfortable with, or the frustration that I feel, which church has the best potential for being a success in making disciples and making eternal investments in heaven where moth and rust won’t destroy and where thieves won’t steal?

Today’s closing song is by Ethel Waters. I think most of you should be familiar with it. It’s a great reminder that just like God carefully watches sparrows, He is watching us so we don’t need to be anxious or worry!