Treasures in Heaven (Part I)

News alert! The treasures that we lay aside in heaven are not laid aside in order to make us richer in heaven. They belong to God and not to us. I want to talk about that today, but first I want to tell you a story. When I was in the sixth grade, I somehow got a small paperback on buried treasures, and I read and I reread that little book. One of the stories was about a little boy, perhaps in about the sixth grade, who was walking on a rocky beach in Northern California. He noticed that in the side of a rock wall, he saw a small cave, just large enough to put your hand inside, really, and not giving much thought to what bad might be inside that little hole, like a dead fish or something worse. He thrust his hand inside. He felt something smooth and round, like a small ball. He pulled it out and found it to be a small round clump of hardened clay. He reached back in and he found out that there were a dozen or more of these small rocks. He emptied the small cave and he continued on his walk, tossing a couple of his newly found rocks into the surf. After a bit, he wondered if there was something inside the clay, and not thinking too much of it, he crushed it with a beach rock, and to his amazement, he found a small cut stone, and actually not that small, about the size of his thumb. And what was surprising was that it was a cut ruby. So he quickly opened up his other treasures that were still in his pocket, and he found precious stones of sapphire, emerald, garnet, ruby, and diamond, a priceless haul. Travelling with his family to a local museum, they learned that Russian pirates used to trouble the water of Northern California. By the way, that's why there is a Russian river in Northern California, in case you were wondering. And every once in a while, stolen treasures are found on the coast and inland in California, hidden with the intention of these pirates coming back for them later. And either they could not find this small hole again, or they just didn't make it back. So this is Dave Scherrer, and this is also Kingdom Offerings, the 100-fold contribution to the world of podcasts. And I don't know about this story. Maybe it wasn't true. It's hard to know. But it did capture my imagination, especially since I lived about 60 miles from this spot in Northern California. Since that day, I have been enamored with the idea of buried treasure. But so far, I haven't had any luck in finding gold, or silver, or gems. I did think about becoming an archaeologist for a while. I thought that might be fun. But while I don't have gold, or silver, or gems, here is what I do know, and what you can know as well. I know that I have laid aside treasures in heaven. I have been hunting and seizing, as best I know how, spiritual treasures for over four decades. So let's talk about that discipline of seeking and laying aside treasures in heaven. You'll remember that we pulled the disciplines of the kingdom from the teaching of Jesus, directly from his famous Sermon on the Mount. And I said from the beginning, I wanted to explore this, that one of the disciplines is called treasure seeking. You probably know that in the market today, the Christian book market, publishing market, there must be a dozen or more fairly famous books on the spiritual disciplines. Richard Foster, Dallas Willard, Don Whitney, wonderful studies, all. But in my studies, and even in reading these books, I have not seen someone distinguish the discipline of securing or investing in the effort to lay aside spiritual treasure. A little bit I can understand why. I think that most of us think that if we practice prayer or evangelism, or we prioritize our witnessing, that that's going to lay aside treasure in heaven. And someday, there's a book that I want to write about the misconceptions of laying aside spiritual treasures. But there are some misconceptions. First I think on the list of misconceptions is the falsehood on what qualifies as treasure and really what is the most valued treasure. I don't think it's what you may think. God's economy of spiritual profit, which he's interested in, is not based on anything that has a worldly value associated with it. We think of bigger ministry, more public ministry, bolder ministry, maybe a ministry that's prettier or more famous, more visible. I think maybe we think that someone who's on stage or in the pulpit, they're laying aside treasures in heaven. Actually, none of these is assured of being a valued treasure in heaven. It depends. Secondly, by way of misconceptions, I think we kind of think that treasures laid in heaven are supposed to be kind of invisible and not on purpose, and almost, I didn't even know I did that. And there's reasons that we think that way. The trouble is that's just not good theology. Reading the parable of the talents, we can see that idea differently, that God truly is a God of profit. All right, coming back to that original idea, news alert. The treasures that we lay aside in heaven are not laid aside in order to make us richer in heaven. There is no economic status structure that I know of in heaven like there is on earth. We're told that there's no rich or poor, male or female, Jew or Greek here on earth, and that would include heaven then, right? As we measure things, things are different in heaven. So the treasures we lay aside in heaven are treasures that we bring before the king for his kingdom purposes. They belong to God, not to us. And it's God that establishes the value of the offerings. It's not us that's all about the business of trying to figure out how much my spiritual treasure is worth in heaven. I simply strive to lay them aside. And all that being said, there are things that we can know for sure that are, I guess, the value sets of our heavenly Father, things that we can go to the bank on, so to speak. For instance, we know that deeds of justice, compassion, and mercy are critical. We read about that in the Old Testament and the New Testament. He loves it when we are just and when we are compassionate to others less fortunate. To our fellow members of Christ's family, we know that in those pursuits, we are laying aside treasures in heaven because those are the value sets of God. So real quick, just to make sure we understand how important this is, let's check out this pretty small survey, really, of verses that focus on this topic of treasures in heaven. And that will help kickstart our idea of the kingdom discipline pursuit. We're going to use the verse that is our source verse for this discipline that, again, we found in Matthew chapter 6 of the Sermon on the Mount. It's verse 19. And Jesus gives us a command. He says, Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, where thieves break in and steal. Rather, he says, lay aside treasures in heaven where moth and rust cannot destroy and thieves cannot break in and steal. He then goes on to say in verse 21, For where your treasure is, there your heart is also. We're about treasures. A little bit later in Matthew, in chapter 13, he's talking about the kingdom of heaven and he uses a treasure metaphor to help us to understand it. He says the kingdom of heaven is like a hidden treasure in a field which a man finds and covers up and then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. In a conversation later, also in Matthew, with that rich young ruler, we hear Jesus give us these clues to treasures. He says to that young man in Matthew chapter 19, If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess, give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me. Treasure in heaven. This is not a small idea. In Luke, he says to the disciples, Luke 12, Sell your possessions and give to the needy. Provide for yourselves with money bags that do not grow old, with a treasure in heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. Again, Jesus taking this kingdom mindset forward. There's a verse in the Old Testament that lets us know that this is a theme throughout all of Scripture. In Proverbs 2, starting in verse 3, we read, Indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. See, this verse seems to understand that we really do want silver. We want riches. We want hidden treasures. And so God is saying, if that same longing is set aside to cry out for understanding, then we will find the knowledge of God. Paul writes a letter to Timothy, his disciple, and in chapter 6 of the first letter of Timothy, he says this. I think it's really, really good news for us, largely. As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. No, instead, they are to do good, to be rich in good deeds, to be generous and ready to share, and thus storing up treasures for themselves as a good foundation for the future so that they may take hold of that which is truly life. The inference there is laying aside treasures in heaven, which is a good foundation for the future. So I think this unexplored discipline of kingdom treasure hunting deserves a lot more attention. The next time we're together, I want to unpack that little verse about offering a cup of cold water in the name of Jesus. I think this verse rightly gives us understanding into several insights about the prospect of laying aside treasures in heaven. So we're going to explore that. Tune in next time to 100-Fold Ministries, Kingdom Offerings, and this is Dave Scherrerrer, and peace to you. We'll check in again with you soon.