Seeing The True Treasure – Serving The True God | Matthew 6:19-24

Scripture

• Matthew 6:19–24

About this sermon

Introduction: To live in a way that you don’t waste your life requires salvation’s sight — it requires healthy spiritual vision. Look at what you are treasuring, and you find your treasure. Look at what your treasure is, and you find where you heart has been. Look at where your heart has been, and you discover the state of your spiritual vision. That is what our Lord is teaching us here. We saw the prohibition (vs.19) We saw the prescription (vs.20) We saw the promise (vs.21) And now we see a lesson by analogy in the realm of sight (vs.22-23), and a lesson by analogy in the realm of service (vs.24). • A LESSON BY ANALOGY IN THE REALM OF SIGHT (vs.22-23) The analogy is a simple one, but an important one. It begins with the body, but its lesson is for the soul. Let’s walk through the analogy. • THE HEALTHY EYE (vs.22) The healthy eye is the eye acts like a lamp. As a result, the entire body operates in the light. Simple enough. The eye is the “lamp” only in the sense that it is by our eyes that light is perceived. If you have a healthy eye, you have vision. Your world is enlightened. The entire body, then, operates in the realm of light. Everything you do with your body is INFORMED by what you can see. It is because you have a healthy eye that you can cross the street effectively. Move through a room effectively. Identify whom it is that speaks to you. Tell what time of day it is. Pick items and set them down in places where you want to leave them. Everything you do, in your body, is enlightened when your eye functions. • THE BAD EYE (vs.23) The bad eye is the eye that doesn’t perceive light. A blinded eye. The result is that the body functions in darkness. Now it is true that those who are blind can often function quite well. But it doesn’t negate the point. They function well, but not with the same ease that a seeing person can. It is a way that must be learned, and it is a way that still has its own unique difficulties, and LIMITATIONS. So far, we should have no problem understanding the picture. I SUFFER FROM SOME NIGHT BLINDNESS. So, when we first turn in for sleep at night, and all the lights go off, and I want to get something from another location (like my IPAD), but I don’t want to aggravate Jacquelyn, so I try to navigate through the dark, MY BODY OFTEN FEELS THE EFFECTS. I might square up an open door, right on my forehead. I might wish to have my toe severed after I crunch it on a wall. I might feel like the clumsiest man alive after I stumble over something in the floor. My body is operating in the darkness. • THE EYE OF THE SOUL (vs.23b) What does He mean by “the light within you?” If the SOURCE OF LIGHT in your SOUL is darkness, or... IF WHAT YOU CALL LIGHT ISN’T REALLY LIGHT, this is a MORE PROFOUND DARKNESS. Either meaning arrives at the same place. The reason why someone would declare that they see, when they don’t, is because their blind. Either way, the point is that darkness in the soul is an even greater darkness than darkness in the body. Better to be blind in the body than to be blind in the soul. Better to operating in a physical world of darkness than in a spiritual world of darkness. If I crunch my toe, and I’ll survive. I crash my soul, and I lose everything. BUT GET THIS. WHERE THERE IS SPIRITUAL DARKNESS, THE LIFE LIVED IN THE PHYSICAL WORLD IS A LIFE OF DARKNESS. My life in this present age reveals what kind of vision I have in my soul. THE WORD “HEALTHY” IS A GREEK WORD THAT MEANS SINGLE. ἁπλοῦς, ῆ, οῦν (Att. contr.; Aeschyl., Thu.+) pert. to being motivated by singleness of purpose so as to be open and aboveboard, single, without guile, sincere, straightforward i.e. without a hidden agenda (Plut., Mor. 63f: the gods take delight in beneficence for its own sake, but a flatterer’s performance is with mixed motives) Show me someone whose vision is singular in the sense of without mixed motives. Single in the sense of sincere discipleship. A singular ambition (2 Cor 5:9). That’s a healthy heart. THE WORD “BAD” IS THE GREEK WORD FOR EVIL. πονηρός, ά, όν (s. πονέω, πόνος; Hes., Thu.+) comp. πονηρότερος Mt 12:45; Lk 11:26; superl. πονηρότατος (Diod S 14, 4, 2; PRyl III, 493, 89) Hm 3:5.—Freq. in Gk. lit. the opp. of ἀγαθός/καλός or χρηστός. ① pert. to being morally or socially worthless, wicked, evil, bad, base, worthless, vicious, degenerate The heart of singular discipleship is the enlightened heart. The heart that is wicked, evil, worthless, and therefore set on worthless things, is the darkened heart. How do you explain a false perception of what is most important in life? How do you focus on gifts but not on the giver? How do you cherish what will not last and care not about what lasts forever? How do you explain people treasuring up their treasure on earth instead of in heaven?

Topics

• Service & Ministry