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.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Galatians #15 - Galatians 6:11-18 - "On The Road Again..."

Image
  Another week closer and it involves some more travel for the Wolfgangs.  I feel like the Willy Nelson song, " On the road again... "  I don't know if I agree with the next line though. " ...I can't wait to get on the road again. " One of the members of the church in Wisconsin calculated that I will travel well over 10,000 miles to make this transition.  Traveling mercies prayers please. Last Sunday we will look at Paul's final words to the churches in Galatia.  He brought them the gospel (good news) message of Jesus and what resulted were churches forming throughout the region.  The letter is to defend that message that our salvation comes from and is in Christ alone.  Christ's sacrifice on the cross was sufficient for the forgiveness of our sins.  The summary statement of the letter is found in  Galatians 6:15 (LSB) .  " For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. "  Translated another way earlie...
Read more

God gave us a good weather window to travel...yeah God!!!

Image
  Berthoud Pass Here we are at the top of Berthoud Pass.  It was a whirlwind week to conduct a " hand off " service in Wisconsin on 3/17 and then preach a Palm Sunday sermon in Colorado on 3/24.  We give God all the glory for this happening.  So there are two video links at the bottom of this blog.  One is for the Wisconsin service and the other is for the Colorado service.  I racked up over 12,000 in the last 7 weeks.   I love to take these pictures sitting from the front row of chairs and listening to the one God has provided for the church I had been serving for 20 months.  I now have 3 and I am so thankful for the opportunity God gave us to serve Him in this type of ministry over the last 5 years.  It has been great to add to our daily prayer list Zach in Maine, Chris in Ohio and now Stephen in Wisconsin. This was our set up for the 2000+ mile trip.  No " hiccups " except for the strong eastern winds in Kansas.  Of course e...
Read more

Resurrection Sunday in a new space...Matthew 27.62-28.20

Image
  Resurrection Sunday has come and gone but it was a sweet day to be with the gathered saints of the Stillwater Community Chapel .  We are venturing through the Gospel of Matthew and this Sunday will take us back to Matthew 1.1 but last Sunday we were in Matthew 27.62-28.20.  It was a lot to cover so the white board was truly a help to keep me on track.  This year in my Resurrection Sunday message, I focused on the contrast of the cover-up story of the disciples stealing the body of Jesus fueled by a bride and the commission of speaking of a risen Lord fueled by boldness . After the service upstairs, we ventured downstairs to the lower level and had a great meal together.  The conversations around the tables allowed us to continue to talk about the passage of Scripture we covered upstairs.  Maybe this is a very informal picture of what happens at the  Waushara Community Church called the " Going Deeper " classes of the Come For More hour following t...
Read more