27th Mar 26 | 16:08
Studies by Book
Luke 18 18-30 FOLLOWING JESUS TO HAVE ETERNAL LIFE 08 Building our treasures in heaven
📖 Luke 18:18-30
05Oct2020 - *Building our treasures in heaven* - _Luke 18:18-30_ - FOLLOWING JESUS TO HAVE ETERNAL LIFE 8 – Bible reading: _Matthew 6:19-21_
God is calling us to follow Him, to have eternal life. _Mark 10:21 Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, "One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me."_
As we choose to follow Jesus, we must repent of these issues in our lives. Yes, these are matters that undergo change, progressively. Yet, the initial understanding, that these are the turnaround areas of life, must be fully grasped.
1. We will have to let go of the grip and security of money
2. We will have to love and give to the poor to be released from the hold of the self.
3. We will have to consider our life in terms of our eternal destiny and not the temporal
4. We will have to take up the cross
5. We will have to come and follow Jesus - be with Jesus. Make Jesus our abode.
Yesterday we understood that to follow Jesus, we must be released from the grip of the self. Giving is a spiritual law that releases us from the grasp of the self.
The third turnaround that must happen to us is that our life must now have an eternity focus and no more to live for the temporal.
_I Timothy 6:17-19 Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. (18) Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, (19) *storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life*._
It is interesting to note here that Paul wanted Timothy to *command* (not an encouragement), the rich to be eternity focussed and not be temporal in their understanding. _Psalm 62:10 Do not trust in oppression, Nor vainly hope in robbery; If riches increase, Do not set your heart on them. Luke 12:15 And He said to them, "Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses." Proverbs 23:5 Will you set your eyes on that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings; They fly away like an eagle toward heaven._
With intentionality, we need to build our treasure in heaven. This is the turnaround needed to follow Jesus. _Matthew 6:19-21 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; (20) but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. (21) For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also._
There is a spiritual law here. *Where our treasure is there our heart will be also*. It is important to note that it is not the other way around, i.e. it is not where our heart is that our treasure will be. Many of us think that we can give our heart to Jesus and we can continue to be driven by the temporal things of life. This is a fallacy. *It is where our treasure is there our heart will be*.
Living our lives for the temporal will have grave and painful consequences. _Philippians 3:19 whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame—who set their mind on earthly things. I Timothy 6:9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition._
Loving the temporal things of life, clearly pronounces that we do not love God. Let us not fool ourselves into thinking that we are in a love relationship with God when we are continuing to seek the temporal. We even have the audacity to use God as a means to gain the temporal things of life.
_I John 2:15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him._
_Colossians 3:1-3 If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. (2) *Set your mind on things above*, not on things on the earth. (3) For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God._
*Thought to ponder*
What is your mind set on, today? The temporal or the eternal?