Give Up Your Treasures?

Hey, look what I have here. Do you know what this is? It’s my treasure box. It contains some of the "treasures" from my life. When I look through this box, I remember some of the best things that have happened to me.

Like this…it’s my Girl Scout badge sash. That reminds me of when I was about nine or 10 and the most important thing was earning as many badges as I could. I’ve got my varsity letter (for band because we didn’t have competitive girls sports when I was in school). But band was really important to me—till my last year of high school. Here’s a picture of my first car. Probably the only brand new, off-the-assembly-line car I’ll ever own. That Horizon was pretty special to me. But then it got banged up, and it was never as slick as the used car a friend bought a few years later. Look. These are the shoes I wore on my wedding day. That will always be a special day for me. I kind of expected it would be a special day to everyone, but people seemed to take it for granted once Pastor Mike and I got home from the honeymoon. It became just one wedding of many to other people.

It’s quite a collection, isn’t it? All the things in this box are priceless—but only to me. The eBay value of this box is probably…just the box. No one would pay a huge sum for anything in the box.

In that famous sermon that Jesus gave on the Mountain, he told the people not to hang on to the treasures of life on this earth. He told them to look ahead to heaven and all the treasures that wait for them there. He said that holding on to possessions here on earth could lead to missing the great things in heaven.

Why do you suppose he said that? I think one of the reasons is here in this box. Look at all the things in my treasure box. Is there anything in here that I still work on today? Am I still earning badges? Do I still play the flute? Do I still talk to the woman who helped plan this big important conference? No. At one time all these things were so important to me. I treasured them all and thought I would always care about them. But I don’t. As my life went on, different things became important to me.

I think one of the reasons Jesus said to let go of treasures on earth is because they never stay important to us. We always want a better car. A girl is only a bride for one day. But treasures we’ll have in heaven we’ll cherish forever. What we have with God right now and what He’s planning for us in heaven will never wear out, we’ll never grow tired of them. Isn’t that exciting? Think about what you treasure, what you hold on to because over the next few weeks we’re going to talk about these things…and the things that God has for us. Let’s pray.