Materialism – Treasures Of The Heart

Materialism – Treasures Of The Heart Podcast

Good Master, what have I to do to inherit eternal life?

materialism | treasures heart | heaven | world

Matthew 6:19-21 ‘Do not store up treasure for yourselves on earth, where moths and woodworms destroy them and thieves can break in and steal. But store up treasure for yourselves in heaven, where neither moth nor woodworms destroy them and thieves can break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

The Treasures of the Heart

What treasure is stored up in your heart? What’s attached to my heart?, Worldly things?, Things of the flesh?, People?, Places? You could find a number of things if you look. These things are what keep God out of your heart.

God is a jealous God and loving someone or something above Him is not loving God. You can test yourself to see what’s attached to your heart by seeing if you can live without whatever you have. All the different things you do, people you love, and things you have.

Luke 18:18-23, ‘A member of one of the leading families put this question to Him, ‘Good Master, what have I to do to inherit eternal life? Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call Me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments : You must not commit adultery ; you must not kill ; You must not steal ; You must not bear false witness ; Honour your father and mother.

He replied, ‘I have kept all these from my earliest days till now. ‘And when Jesus heard this He said, ‘There is still one thing you lack. Sell all you own and distribute the money to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven ; then come follow me.’ But when he heard this he was filled with sadness, for he was very rich.’

It’s that attachment thing, his heart was full of temporary love. Not the everlasting love of God. Rich doesn’t always apply to people with millions. If you have more than someone else, you are rich.

Detach Yourself From the World

Detachment from materialism and the world is the way to a spiritual life and true spiritual love for God and your neighbor. Luke 18:24, 25, ‘Jesus looked at him and said, ‘How hard it is for those who have riches to make their way into the Kingdom of God! Yes, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.’

In Jerusalem there was a gate called “the eye of the needle”. It was only big enough for one person at a time to pass through. It was the only gate open at night, in case of an enemy attack.

If a person wanted to bring his camel into the city at night he would have to unburden the camel. Removing all items attached to the camel. Then he would have to get the camel down on all four knees and have him crawl through the gate willingly.

Now, we know that camels are pretty stubborn animals, probably the most stubborn. In this scripture Jesus is using a camel to describe us. We can be pretty stubborn when it comes to giving up our petty little lives. When we follow Jesus and in our walk with Him, we need to unburden ourselves, by lightening the load we carry.

How about your mind? We constantly occupy our minds with meaningless thoughts. Things like, how much better things would be if you had a lot of money or a better job, daydreams, things we lust for, etc., etc.

Our life is supposed to be in Gods hands and we are supposed to do His will. But how are we supposed to find out what God’s will is for us if we keep our minds occupied with frivolous things?

Our minds should be occupied on spiritual things, like proving God’s promises and fulfilling the laws of righteousness. Is your carnal mind corrupting your heart and soul with unspiritual things?

Den of Thieves

John 2:13-16, ‘And pasch of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found in the temple them that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting. And when He had made, as it were, a scourge of little cords, He drove them all out of the temple, the sheep also and the oxen, and the money of the changers He poured out, and the tables He overthrew. And to them that sold doves He said : take these things hence, and make not the house my Father a house of traffic.’

The body is a temple and it houses your soul. What you bring in can corrupt your heart and soul. Your eyes are the windows to your soul. Your other bodily senses can also corrupt your soul.
Just like the Jews corrupted the temple of God. They’re scales were not true, they sold blemished animals (like buying a lemon). They were con artists and thieves.

The things of the world and also your carnal self will rob your soul of the love of God and everything He promised us. We need Jesus to come into our temple and clean house(Colossians 2:11 circumcision of the flesh).

Stand Upright and Not Bent Towards the World

Love God with all your strength. God loves people that are strong and brave, ones that can cut it. Ones that are not afraid of tests and trials. He does not want a kingdom full of wimps. God wants people who can stand up to satan and everything he can dish out (read Job). Not people as in the parable of the sower.

Mark 4:14, ‘What the sower is sowing is the word. Those on the edge of the path where the word is sown are people who have no sooner heard the it than satan comes and carries away the word that was sown in them.

Similary, those who receive the seed on patches of rock are people who, when first they hear the word, welcome it at once with joy, but they have no root in them, they do not last; should some trial come, or some persecution on account of the word, they fall away at once.’

God will give you the strength you need to face tests and trials, provided you have faith. God will never give you more than you can handle or give you a way out. Overcome your weakness’.

Don’t gloat on your victories or satan will have the last laugh (believe me, I know). Keep your guard up. Satan will be back and he will hit harder. Be Strong!

Men of Little Faith

Jesus says in Matthew 6:24-34, ‘No one can be the slave of two masters: He will either hate the first and love the second, or treat the first with respect and the second with scorn. You cannot be the slave of both God and money.

That is why I am telling you not to worry about your life and what you are to eat, nor about your body and how you are to clothe it. Surely life means more than food, and the body more than clothing!

Look at the birds in the sky. They do not sow or reap or gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they are? Can any of you, for all his worrying, add one single cubit to his span of life?

And why worry about clothing? Think of the flowers growing in the fields; they never have to work or spin; yet I assure you that not even Solomon in all his regalia was robed like one of these. Now if that is how God clothes the grass in the field which is there today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, will He not much more look after you? you men of little faith.

So do not worry; do not say, What are we to eat? What are we to drink? How are we to be clothed? It is the pagans (worldly people) who set their hearts on all these things. Your heavenly Father knows you need them all.’

The Kingdom of Heaven

Set your hearts on His kingdom first, and on His righteousness, and all these other things will be given you as well. So do not worry about tomorrow: tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.’

You have a choice of two lives to live, one is worldly and the other is spiritual. Problem with the worldly life is that when you die, it dies also and you are left with nothing.

The nice thing about the spiritual life is that when you die only your flesh dies and you keep on living because you stored up your treasures in heaven. No more tears or sorrow.

We will finally be home with God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, also with all those that made the choice of life. The ones that decided to love God over the world and their own self.

Pride Can Lead Us To Spiritual Death

We spend to much time for ourselves, and self is pride. Pride is the root of all evil. Pride is the root of the tree of death. All sin comes from pride. Give up yourself, your life, pick up your cross and follow Jesus to the tree of life.

Too many people believe that there is nothing wrong with enjoying life’s pleasures. And that God wants us to. And they say, ‘He made all this for us to enjoy.’ Well, Jesus says in John 18:36, ‘My kingdom is not of this world.’

There is nothing wrong with enjoying what God has created as long as we give Him the glory for His creation. It’s when we add things to His creation to make it more pleasurable for ourselves.

Things are harder to understand when our carnal self is dominate over the soul and the spirit. When it is, we can’t see or know truth. That is why Jesus needs to be a part of our lives, to teach us truth and lead us to a spiritual life.

God’s Creation

Go back to the beginning before the fall, and read what God created. 1John 2:15-17, ‘You must not love this passing world or anything that is in the world. Don’t get caught up with materialism.

The love of the Father cannot be in any man who loves the world, because nothing the world has to offer – the sensual body, the lustful eye, pride in possessions – could ever come from the Father but only from the world, with all it craves for, is coming to an end; but anyone who does the will of God remains for ever.’

So, for the pleasure seekers, the ones that say, ‘There’s nothing wrong with this or that,’ Have a nice trip! But for those that follow Jesus and give up their worldly life for the sake of loving God, see you soon.

Materialism: Don’t let it get the best of YOU.

God Bless You All

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One Response to “Materialism – Treasures Of The Heart”

  1. John Park says:

    It’s not hard to get caught up into materialism. We tend to keep adding more and more stuff to our possessions. Some of it we may not be able to let go of. For example, watch American Pickers sometime and you will see just how people become attached to objects that just in shed or other type of building that has absolutely no use to it. Examine your heart and see how much temporary objects or people it is attached to.

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