I was raised in the city. But every
year, we went to visit my country cousins in Hartwell, Georgia. It was a fun
time—for them. They loved to put me doing farm work, and laughed when I did it
wrong. Once, I rode with them on a
manure truck spreading “fertilizer” over a hayfield. They told me how to use a
pitchfork --“Always use an overhand sling!”
When most of it came down on my head, they thought this was
hilarious.
One thing I learned that day was
that farmers have a great respect for manure. City folks have no use for it, my
cousins had a whole truckload of it. The stuff makes wonderful fertilizer. In some countries,
bat manure used to be almost as valuable as gold. Fortunes have been made and
wars fought over bird manure. If you know how to use it, even manure can be a
treasure.
A treasure doesn’t have to be gold
or silver. It can be whatever we treasure. For a farmer, it can be manure; for
a carpenter, it can be old logs; for a scholar, it’s a stack of dusty books, for
a drug dealer it’s a suitcase full of poison. Whatever we find value in becomes
a treasure to us.
You can tell a lot about a person by
looking at what they collect. If a man is collecting manure, he’s probably a
farmer. If he is buying a lot of books, he’s probably a scholar. If he is buying
crack, he must be a drug addict. The treasures we seek reveal the nature of our
heart.
Treasures come in two kinds—primary
and secondary treasures. Primary
treasures are the things we actually desire, and are usually intangible like health,
joy, well-being, love, or a sense of security. These are the things which give
meaning to our lives.
Secondary treasures
are the things we want in order to get our primary treasures. Farmers really
don’t want manure, but they collect it, so that they can get good crops, and
feed their families. A scholar collects books to gather the knowledge in them.
A junkie steals money to buy drugs, so he can ease his own pain. Money is a
secondary. It’s like manure—its only value comes when we spread it around. This
is true of most of what we call treasure in life. We only seek it because we
want something else.
But here’s the problem--we spend so
much time collecting secondary treasures that we forget what our primary
treasures are. We keep collecting money, but we don’t know why. We gain
knowledge for no reason. We keep partying to ease our pain, but we have
forgotten the pain we were trying to ease. The things we seek for some reason
become an end in themselves. The treasures of the heart are buried under a pile
of secondary.
We have forgotten the hidden
treasures of the heart. But if we would be happy, healthy and whole, we must
rediscover them. These buried treasures are the basic values, hopes, and dreams
that are behind all we do in life.
The spiritual life is like a
treasure hunt. We must dig down deep inside of us to find out the one thing
that really gives our lives purpose and meaning.
In the movie City Slickers there is a scene where Billy Crystal asks an old
cowboy, “What is the meaning of life? He
answers “One thing.”
“What’s that?” Crystal asks.
“That’s for you to find out.” He
replies.
Our buried treasure is one thing. It is never
two things. Jesus says in verse 24,
“No man
can serve two masters. He will either love the one and hate the other, or love
the other and hate the one.”
In order to be whole, we must seek a single thing, and find
it. A person with two treasures can never be happy, because he or she will be
double minded. Something must come before everything else.
So how do we find out what that one thing is, that buried treasure? Here
are some things Jesus says are key to finding our buried treasure.
1. Your true treasure is what you choose over and over again.
We can always find our buried. We
can find it, because we buried it! Over a period of a lifetime, we have been
slowly putting away what is most important into the very core of our existence.
Jesus says our treasure is what we
“lay up.” “Lay up” means to conserve,
hide away, or put into savings. It’s in the “progressive imperative” case—not a
one-time choice, but something we choose consistently, over and over. The
really valuable things we don’t choose once, but we must choose daily.
How do we spend our money? Most
people spend money for today with no thought for tomorrow. They make a one-time
choice to buy something silly, and have nothing left for the future.
But if the things we treasure are
larger than a new dress or a new television, then we must save for it. We must regularly
choose to lay up part of our paycheck, to buy something more valuable. Every
day, over and over, we choose a new house over a fancy meal, or latest video
game. Savings start with a choice, but becomes a habit.
How do we spend our time? You can
sit and watch YouTube cat videos or binge-watch your favorite show, but at the
end of the day you wonder where your time has gone. Or you can spend time on
something more worthwhile like studying, exercising, devotions, or making
friends. Wasting time is a one-time choice. Using time wisely is a regular
habit.
How do we spend our energy? If you only have a little energy, what are you
doing with it? You can burn it fighting,
fretting and grumbling, or you can invest it in exercise, which makes more
energy. We choose to spend the little energy we have making more energy on a
habitual basis.
Whether you do it consciously or
not, you are laying away your treasure in what you consider important. The
problem is that what we invest our time in is not worth having. It breaks down
too fast. We are like people who lays away raw fish and then act surprised when
we discover they smell. We have laid away the wrong treasure, so it is gone
before we can collect it.
2. Your true treasure is either earthly or heavenly---but
not both.
“Do
not lay up your treasure on earth---but lay it up in heaven?
Just laying up time, money, or energy isn’t enough. All of
those are the treasures of the earth. Invest in heaven, not on earth. Spiritual
things last. Earthly things don’t last.
Every day, when you get out of bed, you choose
whether you are going to dedicate this day to the pursuit of God or to
something else. Laying up buried treasure is what we do when we choose to put
God first in our lives on a daily habitual basis.
Everything on earth—fame, fortune,
wealth, health, friendship, security—will never last. Moths eat clothes. Rust
destroys iron. Thieves steal our possessions. Our smart phones and computers
will all wind up in a landfill somewhere. There is no assurance that any treasure
on earth will last.
Jack La Laine and Charles Atlas were
body builders who were incredibly physically fit, who owned gyms all over the
country. They both made fortunes selling physical fitness, based on their own magnificent
bodies. They are both dead now. The bodies that they treasured ceased
functioning. Einstein and Isaac Newton were great geniuses. But now, those
massive rains have ceased to function. Vanderbilt was an incredibly rich man--you
visit his magnificent Biltmore estate. But he’s dead, and owns nothing today.
Elvis and Michael Jackson will sing no more. All their greatness died with
them.
If you want a treasure that will
last, lay it up in heaven. Make a choice of a daily in the pursuit of
godliness. Make the pursuit of God your meaning in life. Nothing—not family,
not security, not status or prestige—will ever be worth more than Godliness. It
is the only thing that survives forever.
3. You find your treasure when you find where your heart
is.
“For
where your treasure is, that is where your heart is.”
What does Jesus mean by “heart?”
Forget the Western understanding of “heart” as the seat of the emotions.
“Heart” in ancient thought is more than just what we feel. “Heart” refers not only to the emotions but to the focus of our
inner being. It includes the mind as well as our feelings.
In this passage Jesus talks about
the focus of our eyes—being singly fixed on something. That is closer to what
He means by “heart.” You know your treasure, because you are always looking
right at it. You may not feel it, but it is right before you.
Children think of feelings as something
that cannot be changed. If they hate vegetables, they think they will always
hate vegetables. If they like cartoons, they will always like cartoons. But as
we grow in maturity we discover that our feelings are always changing. Feelings
are probably the most changeable thing about us. We can’t change our height or
our eye color, but we can change how we feel about things. the time. If we only
go by feelings, then we will never develop any good habits.
Just keep your focus on the God, not
the things of earth. Keep Him before you by choosing habitually to pay
attention to Him.
Focus on God to achieve what we want
in life. Primary treasures can be realized
in more than one way. If you want happiness, then trust God for it instead of
money. All you need you can achieve it by focusing on God first.
The human eye is not as good as we
think it is. There is only one small
part of our vision—the focal point—that we really see well. Our heart has a
focal point as well. It is there where we find our buried pleasure. The focal
point of our lives is like the “X” on a treasure map. It is where we find our
buried treasure. But to keep that focus, we need to keep our minds riveted on
Christ in worship, prayer, and devotion.
Pay attention to Jesus, and keeping
Him at the center of our focus. That’s what it means to lay up our treasure in
God.
·
Studying Him. Read
His Word and learn about Him daily.
·
Seeking His Presence.
Spend time working on your relationship with God.
·
Obey Him first. God
must be our master. Put the service of Him above all others.
What is your treasure? Real treasure
is what you have buried within you. It’s time to dig it up and see how it is
doing.
Let God be the treasure that your heart
craves.
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