Background Story: Jesus is teaching the crowd and His disciples.

Read Matthew 6:19-21

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰ But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Big Idea: Help us every day to have an eternal heaven focus.

The American dream…a nice car, house, job, family, and a trip to Disney World. While there is nothing wrong with owning a pretty house or meeting Mickey, Jesus tells us in this passage about a different eternal focus and treasure. Not sure about you, but even though I want to keep my focus on heaven, it can be easy to become distracted by all the material stuff we see everyday.

In Psalms 9:4-6, David seemed to have the same issue and prayed, “Show me, Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is. You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Everyone is but a breath, even those who seem secure. Surely everyone goes around like a mere phantom; in vain they rush about, heaping up wealth without knowing whose it will finally be.”

Those words, “in vain they rush about heaping up wealth” really identifies with me. We rush through high school, to rush through college, to rush into a job, to rush for a better job, then rush to buy nice things, then rush to save money for retirement, only to get to retirement age and look around realizing we haven’t done much to prepare for eternity.

So let’s pray today. Lord, guard my heart from pursuing the temporary above the eternal. Show me areas where I am relying on things that break and fade instead of trusting in You and You alone. “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalms 139: 23-24). I pray that You would be my greatest treasure and my heart’s focus. Help me care more for hurting people than for material things. Help me hold all my blessings out to You with an open hand. Show me ways to use these blessings for an eternal purpose. Lord, today I surrender everything I have and everything I am to You and pray, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done” (Matthew 6:10).

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