I want to start off this morning, but you guys have a bad reputation. We're going to kill that reputation this morning. All right, the bad reputation is that you're a quiet group. Come on, everybody. You are not a quiet group, right, right, come on. No, no, no, no, no, we're going to kill that this morning. You are not a quiet group, right? Come on. All right. You guys are well awake. Many cups of coffee. You're ready to go, right? All right, come on.
Well, I am excited to be here, and I'm excited to start by introducing myself. I'm Shannon Hurley. I am a missionary in Uganda, Africa. And here is my wife, right here, Danielle. Stand up, sweetie. That's my princess that I took to live in a small, little village called Kuba Mitsui. Crazy, right? Well, here is my family right here. Come on, clap for my family. Look, this is an alive group, uh huh. So right there, this girl all the way to the right. She is right here. Real African Ugandan girl right here. Come on, Ella, stand up. And there's her brother, Emmett. Come on. Emmett, stand up. And I think Elijah's climbing a tree somewhere. I don't know where Elijah is, but he's the small little guy right there in the middle there with me. We're here to drop my daughter Ella off right there. The rest of these boys are single and at the Masters university, so you need to go there to go and get them. So, I have a couple married. The one in the middle. Emma is married, and the one to her left is Elisa, and her husband is right there. That's my family. I want you to do me a favor. Take your cameras out. Will you take your cameras out? Hit that QR code. Come on, everybody doing it. It's part of just godly living. All right? So that right there is a QR credit. It's going to take you to my website. I want you to scroll all the way down to the bottom of my website and put your email address to get updates on everything going on, because we want to encourage you to live for our Master. We want to encourage you what God's doing on going what he's doing in Uganda. Let me just say to you, we are living in Disneyland here, and I don't say that because you're near Orange County and you’re Angels fans. Let's pray for those individuals. That was a test. Now I say that because there's a whole other world that is suffering, that is going through unbelievable suffering, and we have no idea. The reason I'm a missionary in Uganda is because I went to Uganda, I saw that for myself, and I said, wait, well, someone's got to be a solution, and I'm looking around and I'm not seeing the answer. We know how Bible churches are not really prevalent too much here. Well, how much more in Africa? How much more in Uganda, but it is the most hungry place in the world. And God is at work in Africa because he wants dancing in heaven. He's at work in East Africa in a way that really is unknown. I think within church history, when you look at church history, you don't see his church well established in Africa. Well, today is the hour, and I want to be there, because I want to be a part of what God's a part of. And we're inviting everyone to participate. And I want to thank this church. Listen, Bobby is hiding behind his suit. In reality, he's like Superman, Clark Kent. I don't but this church right here is a part of something bigger than just what's going on in Huntington Beach, just what's going on in Long Beach. You guys really have partnered with us and in a real, practical way, trying to advance God's name, God's fame in East Africa. And I want to thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for it. Can you clap for yourselves? Honestly, your contributions, and even that building that I'm in there, that's our new local church, and we have a grand opening November 23. Who's going to come out and see it? Come on. You can come out and visit us. November 23 we're going to open that church, and honestly, we're going to get the whole community, the ministries that we talked about. That is what we do. In our village community, we have a primary school, we have a medical center, we have a disability ministry, and today, having gone into this community that nobody knew Christ, today, we have six hundred people worshiping the Lord on a Sunday morning. And as we continue to build out the schools and continue to see people saved, we want that building just maximized. But in addition, I've been working with the Baptist union of Uganda Baptist Convention of South Sudan, and with that, we're strengthening these denominations and getting pastors all throughout Uganda and South Sudan to come to our property and be trained in the most elite pastoral Training Center available in at least East Africa. We house them. They reside there. We pay them to go. Why? Because we want to make sure that we get the pastor to follow the king. We get the family to follow the king so that we can launch them from our place there in Kuba Mitsui and establish churches all throughout the country to help those communities follow the king, just like we're doing in our own village of Kuba Mitsui. Sound like a good plan again? You can rejoice, because this church right here is partnered with us to make that happen. And I tell you, I am proud to be a part of this church, proud to be a partner of this church. And so, listen, you've got the real deal, guys leading your church, and so you should be thankful to the Lord for that as well visionaries who are committed to Christ. Amen.
Well, what a joy it is to be here and open God's Word we are coming. My job is to be a herald, a herald of the King's message. That's what a preacher is. And so, I'm going to Herald to you the message of Jesus Christ from the Sermon on the Mount. Well, if you would open your Bibles to Matthew, chapter 6, we're going to look at verse 19 and following. Verses 19 and following.
And I want to start off by giving you my favorite hymn. My favorite hymn is read like this,
Once earthly joy I craved,
Sought peace and rest;
Now Thee alone I seek,
Give what is best;
This all my prayer shall be:
More love, O Christ, to Thee,
More love to Thee,
More love to Thee!
Come on. Remember you're a loud crowd. More Love to thee is the cry of every believer. If the Spirit of God has truly, truly transformed you from being a slave of sin to a slave of righteousness, and his spirit is really residing within you, which is called being born again. He has put this yearning; he has put this longing in you for more love. Oh, Christ too. That's the longing of our hearts. But if we're honest with ourselves, that is the longing of our hearts, but very seldom the reality of our lives. Am I right? And with that, Jesus knows that. Listen, Jesus knows that we are not perfect. That's why he sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to be perfection in our place. Right, right?

And so, in light of that, he comes and gives us a sermon right here to help us have a Christian mindset, help us have a real mindset that will aid us in our Christian devotion. And I'm going to take you right to the heart of the sermon and show you that Christian mindset. Listen, in Christianity, we should want more love to Christ. Our whole purpose of living once we're born again is eternal. It's living for our master. It's surrendering all for him as King. We're not interested in our momentary pleasures.
I left for Uganda 20 years ago, in January. I had a three-month-old kid, a three-year-old, a six-year-old. And looking back, it was like a suicide mission. What was I thinking? I didn't leave. I left having was went to, went to seminary. While in seminary, I was in the toy business and in God's kindness and God's sovereignty before Aflac was ever known, I started a friendship with them, and they just asked me for a duck. I had no idea who Aflac was. I sent them a duck. Everybody loves ducks, right? And they said, hey, I need two thousand of them, and I need a bandana. I said, no problem, I'll do that. That's weird. So, I sent them a duck. And then what happens? They start say, I need fifty thousand of these ducks. I say, no problem, I'll provide them. They say, air them in. I'm saying that's crazy, really, just air man. No problem. I turn around and I realize, wait, this is that commercial that I saw called Aflac. And I said, Hold on a second. Are you a black they say, yes. They said, send me. I said, send me the dad chip from that commercial that says, right, you guys know it. And they said, I put that in the duck, and it was like a gold mine. They said, Give me two hundred thousand of those pieces. And then they ordered fifty thousand every month after that. Can we say Praise the Lord? Anybody have one of those ducks? Huh? I was going to thank you for your support, but it looks like Aflac didn't get here. I was in seminary saying, what in the world is the Lord doing? But at the end of seminary, I knew that the Lord didn't call me to sell ducks, but I was burdened that people would know the truth, and I felt a calling to go to Uganda. And when I get on this plane and I get asked to come and train pastors, I land back on this plane thinking to myself, do I really believe this Bible to be true? Because I realized, to leave America, leave the business world, and go to Uganda, is crazy. Nobody does that, and the only reason I'll do that is because I know this is the truth, and I know that heaven is worth living for more than anything. And that's the heart behind the message and the encouragement.
This morning, we're going to look at Matthew 6:19-24. I'm going to read it very quickly with you. I want you to follow. This is Jesus speaking to every one of us as his disciples. He says this.
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
This morning, to guide our time together, what I want to provide for you is I want to provide for you two commands, two. Hello, two. And I want to provide you three illustrations. Two commands and three illustrations. I want us to jump in, right in the middle and look at the first command together again in verse 19, it says, “Do not lay up” what for yourselves? Treasures on earth. Do not. There is the command. And when you see a command, know that that command is there for our good, for our joy. God never commands us anything other than for our joy, because he loves us.
In Uganda, we have a saying that we say all the time, and I propagated here, and that is, there is a king. His way is the… we're going to try that together, because we're like, alive here. So, his way is the best. And so, when he asks us to do things, he's doing it because he loves us. And this command is there for that purpose. This is the first command he gives us. He says, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth.” You see Shannon. What does he mean by that? Well, the context makes it very clear what he means. You see Matthew writes this gospel in the first four chapters. He goes with this message, I am the King, Jesus is the Messiah. He is the King. Jesus is that is that you guys won't sleep this morning. I promise. He is the king. Chapters 1 to 4 is, I'm the King. Then in chapters 5 through 7, he shows Jesus is teaching about the King and his Kingdom. And he starts the whole sermon off by saying, hey, listen, who's in the kingdom? Those who are poor in spirit, those who mourn, those who hunger and thrive for righteousness. These are those who are in the kingdom.
Then he goes and he continues to talk about service. And he says, look with me in chapter 6, verse 1, he tells them what he doesn't want in verse. In verse I'm sorry. In chapter 5, he tells him how he wants to live. And then in chapter 6, he tells them how he wants them to serve. And in order to understand what he means, here you got to see chapter 6, verse one. Are we ready? This is a beautiful crowd. I like it. Beware of what, practicing your what, who before other people in order to be, huh? Don't you dare practice your righteousness for the motivation of others seeing you. Why? He says, then there will be what there's no reward from your Father, who's in heaven, and then he gives an example. Look in verse 2. “Then when you” what? “Give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as hypocrites do in the synagogues, in the streets, truly, I say to you, they have their reward, but when you give to the needy, do not let your hand left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret, and your Father, who sees in secret, will” what? Rewards you. And then he goes and he gives a second example, praying. Look at Verse 5, “But when you pray, you shall not be like that. Don't be like them, for they stand in the synagogues and pray in the street corners, and truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who's in secret, and your Father, who sees in secret, will” what?
And he gives a third illustration. In verse 16, he says that “When you fast, do not” what? Don't “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
You see three examples of people doing their motivations, their service to be seen by others. Then what does he say in verse 19? “Do not lay up for what treasure is on.” Well, what's he talking about? He's saying, when you serve the Lord, don't do it for others to see. That's not the motivation, don't you. Let that be your motivation. These treasures on earth must be what these hypocrites are doing. And as a result of their service, they proclaim for they perform for the eyes of others. Listen here, at Huntington Beach, there's so many. This is an incredible church, because you have a full Church of people all serving the Lord. But you see, you can easily do your service so that others can see, am I right? There's no reward in that. You may get position, you may get notoriety, you might even benefit and get exalted the positions where you can then benefit financially. But do not do that, according to Jesus, don't seek things on this earth and we know that it's more than just being seen by others. Because the context reveals that there's some sort of physical reward. And look at what he says. “Don't lay treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, where thieves break in and steal.” So, somehow these treasures result in monetary gain that where a rat can come in and eat literally. Don't let them eat it away. Or a thief can dig in literally and steal, because in those days, houses were done with mud or they buried their treasures outside, and people would dig and steal your treasures. But don't be literally stockpiling things on earth. Here is an exhortation, and he's going to tell us why, but here is the command of what not to do. Don't get caught up storing treasures or stockpiling treasures on earth. Don't live like the hypocrites, performing for your friends. Don't do it. Don't live for such treasures. Don't live for such temporary realities.
Listen, I was a businessman, just like many of you, and I know there's many men who are just focused on work, focused on building their security, focused on their retirement on this earth. And he says, don’t do that. That's not what this is about. Earthly possessions don't last. They're here temporally. He's commanding us as his servants to live in a different way, for a different kingdom, for a different reward, amen.
And that brings us to the second command. You ready for the second command? Look in verse 20, “but lay up for yourselves…” What? Treasures. Where? Come on, treasures. That was really weak, treasures where? That's what you're supposed to do. Come on, ready, treasures in heaven. Treasures in heaven. Listen, look at your neighbor. Tell them to build treasures in heaven. You know, we talk tons of retirement plans. Where is the guy turning around the financial counselor saying, hey, let's talk about your treasures in heaven. They always want to talk about storing for a day that some of us, for some of us, may never even come. Well, who's there to say? Let’s talk about storing treasures in heaven. I want to talk. I'm going to be your financial counselor this morning. Because, see, our faith has to take us beyond the day in which we're living. It has to take us into eternity. Listen, we have twenty-five, thirty-five kids live in our home. And is it hard? It's super hard. But I have one life. It's a short one, and my wife and I say we can endure through anything because of a future reward. You see, we, as Christians are living for a future reality, not a present one. And we know there's heaven. We know it, and so we're going to live for that day and store treasure in heaven. And that's exactly what he's talking about. We're going to live for our master. You see, it's doing our service unto the Lord. He's talking about here. What is it to store treasures in heaven? What is it to stockpile treasures in heaven? It's to perform your righteous service to God in secret, giving to God alone, praying to God alone, fasting to God alone, doing your righteousness, your righteous deeds of love to God, motivated to and love people in secret unto God,. This is what it is.
Oh, dear friends, I'm so thankful. I've been told many times about people are praying. Listen, when you pray unto God, you're storing treasures in heaven. There are some people who are older, who may not be able to be as active, but you can be on your knees. And when you're doing it to the Lord, you're stockpiling in heaven. When you're out evangelizing, not to be seen, but as under the Lord, you're stockpiling in heaven. When you're loving your neighbor, as under the Lord, you're stockpiling in heaven.
You know this is extremely encouraging, even for Africans because it's not what you have exclusively in terms of money. It’s what you do with anything you have. You see, I'm not the command here isn't causing us to change anything in terms of our day to day. It's causing us to change the motivation for everything, so that our we're motivated by do my job, not for the earthly. I do my job for the heavenly. You see, when I got this account, like account, I started making all kinds of money. I'm like, wait a second here. Why Lord? I went to Uganda since the calling that the Lord had upon me, and came back here, and I was, I think he's blessed this duck stuff for Uganda. So, I started SOS ministries, so I can give. Well, then it became exciting, because the more money I made, the more I can give. And all of a sudden, I'm not living for some bigger house or some bigger toys. I'm now living for the advancement of the king. And now, all of a sudden, my business became motivated for Kingdom advancement, and not personal advancement. And then, all of a sudden, I become an example to my kids of heavenly living, not earthly living.
Listen, I've been in those business lounges. I've been flying all over, and I realize this, there's so many people that have abandoned their families for money, and they're bored out of their mind because they're living for a purposeless reality. But when you live for heaven, you take what you're doing and you live for heaven, it changes everything. And it's extremely exciting for me to tell African individuals that listen, your future inheritance can be great though your current existence is poor. Do you know that one could be extremely rich in his heavenly home and very poor in his eternal home, while others can be exceedingly poor in their earthly home and super abundantly wealthy in their eternal home, because one lived for a different purpose. And that's why Jesus saying, don't get caught up in the earthly, but rather, live for the eternal. Live for me. Riches don't profit anyone in the day of wrath. Proverbs 11:4, Proverbs 23:5 says, when you set your eyes on money, it is gone. For Wealth certainly makes itself like wings, like an eagle, and it flies toward the heavens. And we, as Christians, we do not love the world, nor the things of the. This is not us because the world is passing away and it's lust, but the one who does the will of the Father lives forever. Dear friends, hear it loudly and clearly. I want you to hear this loudly and clearly. To live for Heaven is not everyone becoming missionaries or pastors. To live for heaven is to use whatever resource you have to love and serve God and people. It is using your time and your energy and your money and your mind and your pen and your skills and so on and so forth for the purpose of serving and loving people with the motivation of glorifying God. It's doing everything you do for God as your boss, God as your master. God is the lover of your soul.
So, listen. When you, as a teacher, take your skills of a teacher and your knowledge of a subject, and you invest it as unto the Lord, and you love that student as unto the Lord. With the motivation of God, you store treasures where? In heaven. When you, as a student, you study all you have, and you do it under the Lord. And you want to be the best student you can as unto the Lord, not for the passing of a greater not for a good grade, but just as under the Lord, you store treasures where? In heaven. When you're a mom, loving God, by serving your family, your children and your husband, you do it as unto the Lord. You store treasures where? Listen, it's even when you're a sports player and you do it as unto the Lord for his fame, you store treasures in heaven. Even a casual worker, when your energy is to serve God as your boss. Yes, you store treasures in heaven. It's using any resource for God to serve others. Let me ask, can you, as children or young people, can you go home today and wash dishes for your mom, for the sake of the Lord and his glory? Can you do that? Hello, come on. Say a little louder so your parents can hear. Parents can hear. Oh, you don't do it for them, but do it for the Lord, right? We just messed up our motivation. But yes, you can do that. And listen, when you do it in your heart as unto the Lord, you store treasures where? You see, it's changing the motivations for why we do everything.
Can we disciple somebody? Yes, can we give resources for eternal purposes? Yes, anything done for God and to love his people in secret, motivated for him is to restore treasures in heaven. Amen. So, he says, don't store treasures where? Oh, you're beautiful. You're better than Saturday night, by the way. Just let that be known. All right. Now listen, then he goes here, and he does an incredible thing that everybody must see. He goes and this sermon takes a turn, and he provides three illustrations, providing the reason or why he doesn't want you seeking this and he wants you seeking this.
Look with me in verse 21, and let's see the first one: “The treasure.” The treasure is the first illustration, and I'm going to just take out this $20 bill as an example of it. Here's the treasure. Look at what he says in verse 21. He says, “for and that four is there to explain, for, wear your what, everybody wear your treasure there what? This is the Messiah. This is your King telling you why I want you to see Kevin. It's because where your treasure is there your heart will be also. Listen, dear friends, what you grab as your treasure will grab your heart. What you grab as your treasure will grab you. Listen, I want you to think right now, what is it that you treasure? And I want you to just come on, everybody where this is weird, but you're in Africa right now. You're not in America. All right, everybody, grab a treasure. Just think in your mind, come on, everybody, grab a treasure. Okay, grab it. And when you grab it, then now grab your heart, because whatever you grab here will grab here. For some of you who are single, maybe it's that girl, and all of a sudden, you know, right? You grab that girl, and all of a sudden, all you can think about in your heart. You see these girls are laughing because they know that to grab a boy is to grab your heart. For some of you guys, it's that promotion. For some of you, it's that money when you grab it. Now, all you can think of is, how do I get the money? How do I get the sale? For some of you moms, it's, oh, it's the best children in the world. And you're grabbing it, and it's what it's grabbing your heart. Where your treasure is there your heart will be also.
So, I want you to seek heavenly treasures. I want you to seek me so that I have your heart. You see, the motivation for heavenly living is so that we would love God. You see, we can want more love to thee, but that more love to thee comes when we grab what is important. Listen, we all like politics, right? Come on. And so, what we do is we grab and we get in the car and we turn on politics, and then what do we do when we go home? All we're talking about is Trump. People don't know whether to laugh or not. You Americans are weird, you know. You don't even know, you know, but you see if you turn on sports, I mean, if you turn on the Dodgers, then what are you going to talk about? Hello, what are you going to talk about? And everyone godly talks about you. But it Is true that what we grab grabs what? Our heart. And that is why we must grab Christ and we must fill our minds with heavenly realities, we must live with heavenly motivation.
Anybody that knows me knows that I feel like I married a supermodel in my wife and I just feel like she's the best thing since sliced bread. I mean, look, she's so beautiful. And, I mean, if you even know her inside, wow. And I adore her. I've been married 27 years to just a princess. But, you know, I can love and adore her, and then all of a sudden I could say, wow, well, look at that pretty woman. I mean, look, she's got orange on and I could start what looking at her and thinking about her. And then all of a sudden, what fills my heart? Her. You see, listen, dear friends, the greatest remedy for not having an affair is not just by loving my wife, but loving and hating anything else that would hinder me from loving my wife. And that's why Jesus says, don't love this, but live for this. And so, it's in difficult because you go to work, you go to school, but how do you do these things? It's changing the motivation. I'm going to do my school as unto the Lord. I'm going to do sports as unto the Lord. I'm going to do my work as unto the Lord. He is going to be the goal, and I'm going to do the best I can, because I want to please him, and thus store treasures in heaven. It's not just what you give of money, it's what you give of everything.
Listen, I tell people all the time, listen, some people will say, well, it's more godly if you live in small homes, everybody together. No, that's not true. I think you should get bigger homes and put more people in it. But the problem is, we get our home and we don't let anybody in it. It's got to be perfect for someone to come in. That's weird. It's not perfect when you're in it. So just open it up and use it for kingdom. We need big homes, and by the way, bigger homes inflate better and are better investments for long term. So, it's using what we have for Kingdom instead of charging rent for everybody to come in your home. Why don't you just open it up and let these people, these young people, live, save up money so they can get a home, too. It's living radical for our master as a Christian, Christ must be the center of our hearts, and everything we do is motivated for him. There's a story Martin Lloyd Jones told about a farmer that joyfully runs in the kitchen and announces that their finest cow to his wife, that their finest cow had just given birth to twins. One of the twins was brown and the other one was white. And he said that he felt inclined to give one of these cows to the Lord. His plan was that they would both grow up together, become big and mature, and when he became big and mature, then he would sell them, and he would keep the proceeds from one and give the proceeds from the other to the Lord. And his wife said, well, honey, you know which cow is the Lord's and which one is ours? He responded by saying, it really doesn't matter. Now I'll raise them together. So, months later, the farmer comes in the house, comes into the kitchen, and he slowly and sadly, and he announces to his wife, honey, it is so sad. I have bad news, but the Lord's cow has died. But you see, that's exactly what we do. We have what belongs to us, and the leftovers belongs to what? The Lord. We don't give when it hurts. We give only when it's easy, because we don't give God the first fruits. We give him the last fruits. Well, listen, in the economy of the law, in the Old Testament, God wanted what? The first fruits, not the last fruits. Listen when we give the last fruits, we're no better than Cain, because Abel gave the first fruits. You see, sometimes, then we just brag about the second fruits. Rehoboam, it says in 2 Corinthians, Solomon's son, it says in chapter 12, verse 14, that he did evil because he did not set his heart to seek the Lord. Rehoboam didn't seek the Lord. He sought other things, and therefore his heart became affected because of it. And so, God is saying, listen, my servants, my children, I want you to seek me, that I would have first place in everything, that I would have your hearts. Amen.
There's a second illustration which conveys the same idea. Look with me in verses 22 and 23 it's the second thing. He says in verse 22 and 23… Read with me as to why a Christian must live for the purposes of storing treasures on earth. Here it is. He says this, “The eye is the lamp of the… so if your eye is… your whole body will be full of what? But if your eye is… your whole body will be full of… If then the light in you is darkness. How great is that darkness? Here's the simple point. What you put your eye on will fill your body. If I look at pornography, what will fill my heart? Pornography. If I look at sports all the time, that's what's going to fill my heart. Let me give you an illustration of what we mean here. Okay, here, it's the same concept with my mind. When I put it in something and I meditate on that, what's going to happen, it's going to what fill me and what's going to come out. What's going to come out is, what, huh? What's going to come out is water. Hey, this is a splash bill, right? You got young people, you guys didn't shower this morning. Anyways, there's my wife. I won't go there. I don't want to mess up her makeup. But, you know, I'll have to pay for that. But see, the concept is this, what are we dipping our mind into?
Listen, for all of us, we have these things right here, and they're huge tools, but every time we click, we're setting our mind on something. And this is the greatest means of loving Christ more, or the greatest hindrance to loving Christ more. And then, listen, what we need to do is do it after we spend time with the Lord, saturate our mind in Christ, that Christ might what? Come out. Amen. That's the idea of this illustration of the eye, what you look at will fill you with either darkness or light. And he comes yet again. So, the human eye and its relationship to mankind represents the same relationship of believer’s treasure is to his heart. As the eye controls the body, so man's treasure controls his heart.
So, we need to meditate on Christ, that Christ might dominate our hearts. Remember once earthly joy I craved, sought peace and rest, but now thee alone I seek, give what is best. So, when we grab something, or when we soak or focus on something, something's filling our heart, and so what are we saying? God, may you be our focus. May you be what we grab. And thirdly, he gives a third, third illustration, and that is of a master. Look with me in verse 24, really intense passage. Are you ready to look with me? Look with me in verse 24. “No one can” what? Little louder. “No one can serve” what? What does he say again? What does he say? No one can serve. You see, there's a reason why in business, we don't let somebody have multiple jobs. You know, today, people all work from home, where you can easily get two jobs. And if I find somebody with two jobs, what do I do? Thank you very much. I fire them. Why? Because we all know you can't do two jobs. Well, you can't do two jobs. And that's the same point here. And what is he saying? You can because in the end of the day, if I'm serving this one, then I'm not serving what? And what is Jesus saying? Listen, no one can serve them. I want you to hear this, and I want you to hear it loudly and clearly. No one can serve two masters. No one can serve what? No one, no one, no one. And I want you to get this in your head, because I need it in my head. I can't serve two masters. And you see, the reality is, we all think that somehow I can love Christ, but still really love all these other things. Don't we think that? And we wonder why we don't have more love to thee, why Christ isn't dominating everything. It's because we're trying to love two what? Masters. And what is Jesus saying? No one can do that. No one can. You can't. You can't. You can't love your boss and your work and love Christ, you can't love sports and love Christ. One must dominate, and so you take the one and you make it motivated out of love for it. And we're not saying you can't enjoy. But see, I can go and enjoy sports, but with the heart for what enjoying life, because my master made life to be enjoyed. Listen, everything was made for our enjoyment. So, everything needs to go upward praise unto our Master. No one can serve two masters. Look at what he says. He gives us very specific instructions. He says, Listen, you need to choose one. He gives us two positives and two negatives. It's either you love and are devoted to the one, and you need to do what? You need to hate and despise the other.
And this is where the challenge is. I believe, for all of us, we want to love, and we want to be devoted. What do you mean? Love Speaks of this attachment, this cherishing, this clinging, this holding fast, to taking pleasure in God, being devoted to him, zealously engaged with him. This is what it takes to love Christ. This is what it takes to be servants of his majesty, not halfhearted, but fully devoted. This is what I want for my servants, Jesus says, but not only that, it involves you also hating. Hating, despising the other. To hate something is to despise it. To have indifference to it, to look down on it is to despise. See, just like in our relationship with our spouse. I need to be loved and cherished, but I also need to despise and hate anything that's hindering. Well, Shannon, get more practical with me. Well, let me do that. What are you clinging to? What are you meditating on? It should be Christ. First thing you know, the Bible says to pray ceaselessly. I think our prayer lives stink, but I think the way the Lord would have it is all throughout our day, we're saying, Lord, I'm going to go and make this sale, but it's you, I hope in it's you I need, and it's sad setting around your whole mind, everything inputs that are all going upward with love and affection to him, and pushing everything that would hinder us from such love and affection. Putting godly music and church activities and Bible studies. Listen, it's saying, you know what? This psalm thing, I'm going to nail it. I'm going to be awesome. I'm devoting myself to the Psalms. As a young boy, first psalm I ever read, Psalm 1, it said that I could be his tree, planted by the streams of water, yielding fruit in due season, sleep, not withering. And whatever I do, I prosper. And I said, as a young boy, twelve years old, no parent, no nothing. If I delight myself in God's law and meditate on it day and night, I will be that tree, or I want to be that tree. At 12 years old, I dedicated every day I was going to be in God's Word. Let me tell you that set the trajectory of my whole entire life, because I chose to seek God first and his Word first. What does it mean to love Christ? It's grab Christ, grab his Word, grab prayer, grab these things. So, Christ is our all in all. And listen, get rid of these other things that are hindering us from such devotion. And it could be what we're looking at on the phone, it could be that we're idolizing our children and our likeability to say, oh, this kid's so godly. Let that stuff die, and you be a faithful mom who just loves your children and worries about you loving Christ, not them loving Christ, because the greatest example you can give your children is your own love and affection for Christ and your own heavenly living. Your kids don't need more toys. They need you being godly and living for heaven, the heart behind our Savior's exhortation is he wants total allegiance. He wants exclusive loyalty. He wants love from his servants.
And so, with that, he's saying, listen, grab me. Don't store treasures on… but store treasures… What? By grabbing me? What is your heavenly storage looking like? What is your heavenly rewards looking like? Are you caught in Disneyland, where all you can see is what is in front of you, and not seeing reality, that there's a King on a throne of whom, when we die on this earth, we go and we reside throughout eternity, and that you actually store up treasures in eternity. Now listen, don't get caught up in today. Let us live for tomorrow. Jesus said to Israel, I mean God said to Israel, that I am a jealous God, and you shall have no other God besides me. And Joshua stood before Israel and said, as for me and my house, I will What? And then he says, “So, put away any other god and make me your own awe.” Make God your own awe. Listen, you might be here today, and you've never surrendered your life to Christ. I want to tell you this morning that you're missing out on the greatest joy and thrill of life. Oh, how thankful I am that I love Christ as a young kid. Listen, I want to call you to stop loving the world. And I want to call you to love Jesus Christ preeminently, that you would look beyond and realize there is a King on his throne, and everything we do is either in allegiance to him or denying him. And I want to call you to acknowledge him. Bend the knee to him. Surrender your life to him.
Listen, Jesus tells us how he wants us to serve him. I don't want you to serve for the eyes of others. I want you to serve me exclusively, and so I don't want you to live for treasures on earth, but treasures in heaven. And may the Lord, the master and our King, may he help us to that end. Amen. My desire is to meet you. Those of you, please come give a hug. Let me get to know you a little bit in a few hours, we're here. We're dropping our daughter off at the college, and then we're back to Uganda, and I want you to pray for us. We have a prayer card in the back there. Please, nine o'clock service. We like you more than any other service, so please grab those cards. We also have two books, and we don't only have a few of them. But here is this. If you have someone that doesn't know Christ and you want to take them step by step just to know the gospel, this is here. If you want to meditate on the gospel, this is here for you. But no matter what I ask, get our updates and pray like crazy for us. Listen. We want to see God's name advance as far and wide in East as possible, and you guys are a major part of that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Let me pray you.
Amen, Father, we come to you and we say, Lord, more love, oh Christ to thee. More Love to thee. This is my earnest cry, more love, oh Christ to thee. Lord, I look in my own life and try and analyze, what do I need to get rid of? What do I need to hate and despise? Lord, you’ve told me I cannot love two masters, so I don't even want to attempt to do that. So, Lord, help me hate the one that I might love you preeminently. Lord, we love you. We know that we're going to go and pass on our present existence and step into eternity, and we want to live for that day. Help us to that end. We pray. Amen. Amen.