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[0:00] I know it's what they call Father's Day.

[0:10] I guess I'm kind of at that age of 60. I don't know what I've got so far. I don't know how I'm being a father.

[0:21] I'm a good father. So, yeah, I'm not what I'm going to do. I'm not what I'm asking for those people to us, but I don't know what I'm saying.

[0:33] I apologize. As such. But, anyways, yeah, thank you for talking to me. I actually laid a good foundation for starting for what I want to get into.

[0:50] I'm rich. I'm rich in love, but not from the devil's wages.

[1:06] I was going to get into it, not from Satan's wages. And that is my theme this morning. My thrust is, where's your treasure? You can turn to Matthew 6.

[1:19] Yeah, there's a distinct difference there between every, it seems like basically in the world today anymore, if you talk about rich, being rich, right away it goes to money.

[1:33] I mean, everybody thinks about, but that's not the riches that God's talking about, and that's not what he has in store for us. I think he does, that we can enjoy the things of today, but right away that's the thrust of everything it seems like in today's world is the thrust is so wrong, and the riches that the world gives will be of Satan's wages.

[2:02] And that's not the riches we want, but Matthew 6, here's where I want to start, Matthew 6, verse 20. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.

[2:19] Sorry, I have to get used to this. Bear with me. Where neither moth nor rust doth pour up, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart be also.

[2:34] Will your heart be also. The light, okay, well that's as far as I was going to read for now. Well, verse 24. No man can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other.

[2:49] He cannot serve God and man. And, you know, it's easy for us, you know, well, first of all, another thing I wanted to mention, too, is that this morning that I'm speaking to myself, if after I'm done, y'all feel any bruised or beat up at all, join the crowd.

[3:06] I'm speaking to myself through this, and I just think this is one of the things that, something here that we just got to look at, plain, and it's probably going to, if you're honest with yourself, somewhere in this it'll step in your toes.

[3:19] I know it did me. And, but it's so easy to come, at least if you're anything like me, to church, and, you know, yeah, we feel, yeah, my treasure is in heaven, and the offering comes around, and I put in the offering, and I'm putting in for my treasure in heaven.

[3:37] And that's all good things, don't get me wrong, but Monday through Saturday is where we have to look at our lives, and that's what's going to tell us where our treasure is. It's not Sunday. Sunday we can make ourselves feel pretty good about ourselves and what we're doing and all that, but during the week is when it tells the tale.

[4:00] There was this man, this, and this is based on a true story, there was this man that he had about a 350-acre farm, and he had a wife and several children, and he was a deacon in the church, and when the church doors were open, him and his family, they were there.

[4:17] They were, you know, strong people in the church. And as time went on, it became where he could acquire 3,000 acres on this farm, and he did.

[4:29] And, you know, as most of us, whatever, he thought God was blessing him. I think sometimes we've got to stop and look at these things. Maybe not all the time God's blessing us just because we can get bigger, just something to keep in mind.

[4:44] But anyway, and as time went on, of course, he had to give up his position in the church. He didn't have enough time. And then they were missing a lot of services.

[4:56] You know, they were so busy, they couldn't make it. And some years later, the man finally died of a heart attack. He just worked himself out.

[5:07] He worked himself so hard, he died of a heart attack. And the children ended up squabbling over the farm and lost everything that the man had worked all these years for.

[5:20] He had worked hard. They lost it all. And his wife just ended up dying a lonely person. The children didn't pay her attention because of their squabbles. And, you know, if you can just get the picture there, it was wasted.

[5:35] It was a total waste. That man, he had something when he had the 350 acres. He had nothing when he had the 1,000 acres.

[5:45] But we forget that. We forget those things. Luke 12, 16 through 21.

[5:57] And he was talking to them about this parable of a rich man that his place brought forth plentifully.

[6:13] And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do? Because I have no room where to bestow my fruits. And he said, This I will do. I will pull down my barns and build greater.

[6:24] And there I will bestow all my fruits and all my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years. Take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.

[6:36] But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee. Then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?

[6:48] So is he that layeth up for himself and is not rich toward God. And that's what I want to stay focused on this morning is are we rich toward God.

[7:00] You know, so whose were those things? Like I say with that story that I just talked about, everything was lost, which the man had provided.

[7:12] But lay up treasure for yourself and not be rich toward God. We want to be rich toward God. But this is a little here thing that I've seen.

[7:26] But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world and can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.

[7:37] That's 1 Timothy 6. Our generation wants it all. Many people who are 30 and under have always had it all. The lack of material things during the Great Depression has affected the attitudes both young and older.

[7:52] Of many older people. So many, both young and older, are concerned with driving the right car, wearing clothes with the right label, and vacationing in the right places.

[8:06] Yet having all these only leads to a desire for more. How we accumulate. The man who has everything needs a place to put it. Our closets are running over.

[8:18] We buy houses with two car garages and then leave them outside. A lot of us can't relate to that. The garage is full of things.

[8:28] Many warehouses and storage facilities are a growth industry. Is this accumulation perhaps one reason? Vans, pickup trucks are so popular.

[8:39] We need bigger vehicles to carry what we have. But has it richer life produced a better life? The popular prescription drugs relieve anxiety and hypertension.

[8:50] The most popular over-the-counter drugs are aspirin and related painkillers. Also, if abundance of things brings happiness, we would assume that the people who have the most possessions have the greatest happiness.

[9:06] Yet even the most casual observer can see this is not true. In his accumulation of things is not man searching for contentment. The bottom line, according to Paul, is not how much you have.

[9:20] The bottom line on personal profit and loss is finding godliness with contentment. We do not, what we do need, what do we need to be contentment?

[9:32] That's the question. What do we need to be contentment? Paul's statement is almost heretical in our materialistic years. All that is necessary is food and clothing. These should be the limit of our earthly desires.

[9:48] Matthew Henry well said, The necessities of life are the bounds of a true Christian's desires. Truly, the secret of contentment is not having much but wanting little.

[10:01] We can understand that it's not, the true contentment is not in having much but wanting little. This is not to say that we cannot have more than food and clothing.

[10:11] It means that with having more than these presents a temptation. 1 Timothy 6, 9. May we as God's children refuse to let the world squeeze us into its mold and refuse to imitate as it seeks to live, as it seeks everything to live with and nothing to live for.

[10:33] And again, let's let that sink in. The world, it seeks everything to live with and nothing to live for. So that's the real problem in this world of why we see so many people.

[10:46] It looks like they have everything, but they act like they have nothing. They're on prescription drugs and all kinds of things.

[10:57] Luke 6, 24 says about, it just says, but woe unto you that be rich. You know, there's just a lot of these scriptures in the Bible.

[11:09] If we stop and look at them, Luke 18, 23. Or no. Yeah, okay.

[11:23] What I was going to say more than about Luke 6, 24, it says, but woe unto them to be rich. In James 5, verse 1, and I'm not going to go on into it. There's even more, but 5 and verse 1, he says, Go to now, you rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.

[11:42] You know, there's, and he goes on to talk about that, what brings them on. You can read that later sometimes if you want to. But riches bring on a lot of trouble and a lot of sorrow.

[11:57] Luke 18, 23 is the one, and I'm not going to really get into it because we all know the story about the rich young man. And when he had heard this, he was sorrowful for he was very rich.

[12:11] And it uses the word very rich. But we all know that story about the rich young man. But Jesus pointed to what he knew was the issue with that young man.

[12:23] And it was he couldn't give up what he had, the things, the earthly things he had. And it's just, I want us just to be thinking about those things.

[12:33] It's not in a way to make any of us, yeah, I'm not trying to point at any of us or any one person looking at myself.

[12:45] But we all need to look at that. When God points at these things to us, can we accept it? Can we look at what he's showing us? Proverbs 10, 22.

[13:08] I like that verse. The blessings of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it. But I really, that verse there, the riches of this world, there's sorrows that are added with them.

[13:24] But the blessings of God, it maketh rich. But it's the true, it's true blessings. It's the real blessings. And there's just so many verses that people jump to and take out of context.

[13:40] 2 Corinthians 8. Because you just, you hear it so much today in today's world of God's blessings.

[13:57] And right away, how they twist it, but 8, in chapter 8, verse 9. For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that through his poverty might, that ye through his poverty might be rich.

[14:23] And right away, people take that, and they, so many people, and they take it to earth, the riches. But if you look back up in the chapter a little bit, he's talking about being rich in faith and love and the things of God.

[14:38] But right away, they want to take it out. And Jesus, yeah, he gave up the riches of heaven. That's what he gave up. He came down here to be poor. Jesus was not a rich person here on this earth.

[14:50] He lived to serve others. But right away, people want to snatch that. And then, you know, by his poverty, we might be made rich.

[15:01] And it's different. It's not the riches that they're thinking about through that. One of the things that had made me kind of think of this a lot more, too, was you can turn to, if you would, Deuteronomy 8.

[15:22] I've been looking here a lot more at different stuff here in the Old Testament. And this here, he's talking to Deuteronomy 8. He's talking to the children of Israel.

[15:34] But if you'll stop and see through a lot of this stuff, he could have been writing it to us, I believe, to us today. But anyways, we're going to just start reading here. Verse 1.

[16:13] He was trying to find, you know, to humble them. So he had a reason for this. And he humbled thee and suffered thee to hunger and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not.

[16:24] Neither did thy fathers know that he might make thee to know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.

[16:39] Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell these forty years. But I've never had that. I've never had clothes that lasted forty years.

[16:50] That, to me, seems pretty whatever. But, you know, we've had a lot of things. We've had the blessings. Well, for one thing, salvation, you know, being saved. What a greater blessing can we get?

[17:02] You know, to me, I sit here and I look at these people and I'm like, how could they so quickly forget? But then I look at us and from one, it doesn't even take a generation, but for sure, one generation to the next.

[17:13] There's so much change and so much. But even in our one generation, what we forget. Verse five, thou shalt also consider in thine heart that as a man chasteneth his son, so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee.

[17:31] Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God to walk in his ways and to fear him. For the Lord thy God bringeth thee unto a land, a land of brooks, of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley and vines, of fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive, of olive and honey, a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness.

[18:02] Thou shalt not lack anything in it, a land where stones are iron and out of those whose hills thou mayest dig brass. When thou has eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which he has given thee.

[18:19] But this here is a warning. This is what I think we need to, to me, this could be a warning right to us. Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God in not keeping his commandments, his judgment, his statutes, which I commanded thee this day.

[18:37] Lest when thou hast eaten and art full and thou hast built goodly houses and dwelt thine in. And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply and thy silver and gold is multiplied and all that thou hast is multiplied, then, here's the problem, then thy heart be lifted up and thou shalt forget the Lord thy God which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness wherein were fiery serpents and scorpions and draught and where there was no water who brought thee forth water out of the rock of Flint who fed thee in the wilderness with manna which thy fathers knew not that he might humble thee and that he might prove thee to do thee good at thy latter end.

[19:32] And that thou, and thou say in thy heart, my power and my might of mine hath gotten me this wealth. And here it's obvious that God, he was saying he wanted to prove them in the latter end but that he knew good and well that as they got these things that that would be the temptation.

[19:56] And I think if we're honest with ourselves, you know, I look back for myself and, you know, back when I had the dairy and had a lot of equipment, yeah, I had a lot of debt that went with it and all that stuff too.

[20:12] But there's something about it and I wouldn't have said this at the time because I did, I liked helping people and whatever, but there was still something about I could help others but I didn't need other people's help.

[20:29] And I didn't really want people too much speaking into my life or whatever, you know. But I would help others, I would, and it's that, it's that whole thing, that mentality that we tend to get as we accumulate.

[20:45] It's, we forget that God blessed us with these things. If we're truly following God, we forget that he blessed us with these things. And it's that thing here that he talks about, what is it, verse 17, that we get to thinking my power and might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth.

[21:06] That's the, that's the, we don't mean to be that way, but that's where our minds tend to go. We look down on others way. You would have just done something different.

[21:17] You just would have worked a little harder, done like I've done. You could be, just, you know, have what I have. And, and we forget that that's not, that's not everything.

[21:29] Verse 18. But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, for it is he that giveth thee power to get well, that he may establish his covenant, which he swear unto his fathers as it is this day.

[21:44] And it shall be, if thou do all, and it shall be, if thou do all, at all, forget the Lord thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day, that ye shall surely perish.

[22:04] As the nations with your Lord destroyed before your face, so shall ye perish, because ye would not be obedient unto the voice of the Lord your God. And that's for us today.

[22:18] That, that to me, I know this is the Old Testament, but we can look back and we can see what happened to them. We can see that they, how quickly they walked away.

[22:29] And this is, this is for us today, that, that when, when we, when we look away from God and get to look in focusing on the things that we have, that, that how quickly we will perish.

[22:49] First Timothy six. First of all, I'm going to read verse 10.

[23:01] And I'm guessing we all know this verse. For the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

[23:17] I'm guessing we all know that verse. It's a pretty well-known verse, but there's so much truth there. And we don't, we, we don't want to, sometimes we don't want to think about it because of, of, of our drive.

[23:33] And, and our, we don't want to think that we are, uh, actually maybe being caught up in the love of money. Um, and then in verse 17, charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy, that they may do good, that they may be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate, laying up and store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.

[24:11] And that's my focus this morning. We were, like I said, he sang that song about standing on the solid rock. And this, this, that just went so much with where my thrust is, I want, I want it to be this morning, is that we're laying hold on eternal life.

[24:30] Um, if, if we do have, if we do have, these are some earthly possessions, it's saying in verse 18, um, that, that we do good with them, uh, they be, that we be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate.

[24:51] Um, that's, that's where we're going to find true happiness is, is when we're rich in those kind of things, rich in good works. Um, I had, uh, missed the verse then that I, I was going to talk about and not sure if that was, I guess it would have been a week.

[25:14] Let's see where I find it. Oh, yeah.

[25:25] Yeah. I had never ended up, I didn't read the verses that I was going to read in Luke, um, six, uh, 45 through 48. Um, a good man out of the treasure of his heart, bring it forth that which is good.

[25:40] And an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart, bring it forth that which is evil for from the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaking. And why call me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say, whosoever cometh to me and hear my sayings and doeth them, I will show you to whom he is like.

[26:02] He is like a man which built in house and dig deep and laid the foundation on a rock. And then when the floods arose and the stream beat vehemently upon the house, it could not shake it for it was founded upon a rock.

[26:16] And we all know the story there about the, uh, the house that was built on a rock, what was built on the sand. Um, but that is the thrust of what I want this morning for us to be in thinking about these things, in laying up treasures in heaven and not here on earth, is that makes, that we make sure our foundation is built, uh, on, on the rock.

[26:41] Um, another little, uh, uh, story. There was a company in the early days of mining in South Africa. They sank shaft after shaft in different locations, finding only a small amount of gold in each shaft.

[26:57] They were looking for gold. Ultimately, the prospectors discovered that all they needed to have done was to go deeper in the first shaft, whereas they did so, they found gold in abundance.

[27:08] You know, here they were looking for something. This is to, to, uh, and that, well, here, um, Roy Heisen is the one who writes this, and then he said, I testify that also, though I have tried all sorts of different shafts, hoping for greater results in my life, Christ has now become the end of all my searching.

[27:28] Reveal, revival for me has meant coming back to the place where I first began and intend to stay there. Tell me not of any other way. I need to go deeper at his cross, much deeper.

[27:41] And that's what we see so much today is people that are always looking, always looking for something, something else, chasing something else. And then it, to me, I think it often leads to, to chasing the world's substances too.

[27:57] but we need to come back, come back to the cross, come back to where, um, where it all started. Well, if, if you have been, if you have been saved, if not, you need to come to the cross, but we need to come back to that.

[28:13] Um, Psalms 37, 16 is a, is another verse that I like. A little, the righteous man half is better than the riches of many wicked.

[28:25] The little that a righteous man half is better than the riches of many wicked. And, um, I had actually, um, heard a guy that, uh, this was a preacher that was, that was preaching in this thing about, uh, laying up for yourselves treasures that how twisted this thing.

[28:45] Yeah. He was actually teaching that if you gave, so to his ministry, that actually put receipts for you in heaven. And later on, if you're in trouble, you can call upon these receipts for you that were laid up in heaven.

[29:00] And that's just so backward and so carnal. Um, God does care about us. Um, he, he talks about, um, um, I'm not sure where that is.

[29:12] Is it Matthew or where they talks about, uh, um, not worrying what you're going to, uh, eat or drink even tomorrow that, you know, what the lilies, how they either pull or spin.

[29:24] And we're laying up treasures. It's, it's eternal life. It's, it's, it's eternity with God. That that's, that's what we're laying up in heaven.

[29:35] We're not laying up receipts that later on that we can call on God and say, you know, Hey, I need that. You know, I've given this now and I need this that it's, it's a, it's a carnal and backward way that so many of them today look at things.

[29:51] And, um, so that, that's just what was on my mind for this morning that I just, that we can, um, Ephesians two, four, uh, but it was another verse, but God who is rich in mercy.

[30:02] Um, it's, it's those things that, that I want us to be focusing on this morning is, is, is the richest, of God. It's, it's the, his mercy and love and blessings to us.

[30:15] Just me, just us having eternal life and be able to at night lay down in peace and rest. Um, that's worth way more than having a million dollars in your account and sit there worrying he's going to steal it.

[30:30] He's going to come and take it away or whatever. Um, it's just that, that, that rest that we can have in him. Uh, you know, we have eternal life.

[30:41] and, and so that, that's what I wanted. Let's, let's each of us just look at what foundation we're building on. Let's build on the rock and, and not be chasing after the, the, what the world called riches, what the world, the world's treasures.

[30:57] Um, um, like I say, that song that just, that still is ringing through my head this morning. I'm rich. I'm rich in love, but not in Satan's ways. And I just want to leave that with us, that we, that we ponder that.

[31:10] Uh, if we're rich from Satan's ways, it's going to have consequences. It's going to, um, you know, have the problems that there is. and, you know, he said, that just because just becomes a God for God.

[31:28] Of course. So, that's what they say. If, it doesn't involve him where you were able to draw you, there's what his, it does N to B, there that's a God for God.

[31:40]  This is a God for God. Thank you for God.