Heart, Eyes, and Hands...Matthew 6:19-24...A hefty challenge from Jesus.

Evidence that I was there.  3 hours up and 2 hours down to make it a 6 hour trip from van to van after a little time exploring around this alpine lake.  The mountains tower over and around it and the streams pour into in continually.  Next year I hope to have a fly rod attached to my backpack for this ventures.  It was a challenging hike at 12 miles round trip and a gain of over 2,000 feet in elevation.  Stephanie says I have always been drawn to challenging things.

Jesus puts down a big challenge before His disciples on that hillside as He continues to deliver the Sermon on the Mount as we call it.  He wants them to have a kingdom loyal heart, kingdom focused eyes, and kingdom active hands.  The eyes nourish the heart that enact the hands but will it be for your kingdom or His kingdom?  Will your treasures be of this earth or of heaven?  Will your eyes be on seemingly benefits of the bad of this world or on the good of God?  Will your hands be activity for more mammon or for more of God?  Who is your master?  Jesus says you can only have one.

The passage should prick us to look closely at our heart, eyes and hands.  He is telling His disciples that disciples of Him live very differently than the rest of the world.  Our hearts' desires are to be heavenly; our eyes' focus is to be on the only good One; and our hands are to be active serving our Master who has saved us from His wrath by Jesus' death and resurrection, forgiving us of our sins, and providing us eternal life.  It will be a challenge but it is not without its rewards.

The next passage shows us what our Master is like but it also shows us the what He provides (these things) are the essentials of this life and doesn't emphasize the "more."  Our focus as a disciple of Jesus is on the kingdom and the "more" can get in the way.  The "more" that we have been given by Him is to be used for Him and not seen as a ticket to focus solely on ourselves.  The "eat, drink, and be merry" of the rich man whose land produced plenty and tore down his barns and built bigger ones to store it all for himself is the wrong response.  What God gives we need to use for His glory and that will happen when our eyes are focused on Him and that fuels our hearts to seek treasures of eternal value (where moth and rust don't destroy and thieves don't come in and steal) and that enacts our hands to serve our Master by loving others. 

The sermon link is below.

Adam 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=do6BOP0hwZ8

A simple man serving a great God and the local pastor of Stillwater Community Chapel (stillwater-chapel.org). We are in our 38th year of full time ministry. God directed us to this local body of believers on the Western Range of the Rockies to grow with them in mission and mindedness of Christ.

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