We Serve God Alone
Where is your heart? What is your treasure? Whom do you serve?
Our society today is consumed by materialism, greed, and hoarding stuff. I don’t think I need to give examples of this pervasive problem. We see it all around us. And we are all guilty of it to some extent. Therefore, these are very important questions.
When we follow Jesus and live the kingdom life we live for and serve only God. When Jesus is our Lord, nothing should be allowed to come between Jesus and ourselves. In this life and this world it is easy to fall in love with the treasures of this world. We think we can serve two masters, but very quickly these treasures become our idols. We come to love them, and hate God. We cannot serve two lords. We serve God alone. We serve God by keeping our hearts focused on God’s kingdom. We focus our hearts on the kingdom by keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus Christ, the light of the world.
1. Focus Our Hearts on God’s Kingdom
Our hearts are where our treasure is. Therefore, we must focus our hearts on God’s Kingdom.
Treasures are the things that have exceptional value to us. Therefore, we collect them, hoard them, and take great pains to protect and keep them safe. These treasures can be gold and silver, jewelry, money, luxurious homes and clothing, land, cars, boats, and guns. Treasures can also be non-material things. We may put exceptional value on, and go through extreme efforts to keep safe and protect our name and fame, status, power, another person, family, sports, business, school, politics, and country. What are we trying to keep, protect, and secure? That is our treasure.
The problem begins when we put our faith, trust, hope, safety, and security in these treasures. Hoarding, storing up treasures on earth wears us out, creates worry, anxiety, stress, burn out, and sleepless nights. These earthly treasures do not last. They do not provide security. They can disappear overnight. It is very precarious and risky for us to lay up treasures for ourselves on earth. We are then not rich toward God. We are not seeking his kingdom first. We may lose our souls. (Lk 12:13-21)
Jesus does not prohibit wealth and possessions, but he calls us to seek and stockpile treasures in heaven which are more valuable than any earthly treasures and last forever. What are these treasures? The heavenly treasures are the rewards God will give us for living the kingdom life here on earth, serving Him alone, loving him above everything else, and loving others.
1 Timothy 6:17-19 — “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.”
Hebrews 10:32-36 — “Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you endured in a great conflict full of suffering. Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. You suffered along with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions. So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.”
We store up treasures in heaven when we do good and kind deeds, give and share with those in need, help the poor, the widow, orphans, and refugees, work for justice, take care of God’s creation, love and forgive others. Basically, when we follow Jesus, obey his commands and live the kingdom life. Earthly goods are given to be used, not to be collected. When we have more than enough, more than what we need, God has blessed us so that we can share, give and help others.
We stockpile treasures in heaven when we suffer and are persecuted for Jesus. “Blessed are you when people insult you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad because great is your reward in heaven.”
Wisdom, the fear of God, is a heavenly treasure. The fear of God is to know God intimately and to live in a very close, intimate relationship with God, to love God above everything else, and to worship God alone. Many texts call us to seek this wisdom above earthly treasures.
Proverbs 2:2-6 says, “if you look for it [wisdom] 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.” Isaiah 33:5-6 says that the Lord “will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure.”
The kingdom of heaven is the great treasure. It is like a treasure hidden in a field, like a pearl of great value (Mt 13:44-46). Jesus Christ brought God’s kingdom into this world and now rules as Lord of this kingdom. “For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” ( 2 Cor 4:5-7)
In Jesus Christ we have received all the spiritual blessings, heavenly treasures — God’s love, grace, forgiveness, and the greatest gift, blessing, and treasure of all, the new, eternal life. We are children of God, Kingdom citizens. Have you received this treasure? Is your heart focused on the kingdom?
2. Fix Our Eyes on Jesus
How can we make sure that our hearts remain focused on God’s kingdom, on the treasure of heaven? By fixing our eyes on Jesus Christ. He is the light that enters our hearts and gives light to our whole life.
The eye is the lamp of the body. What we look at, what we watch, what we see have a huge impact on our lives. Our hearts are turned to and focus on what our eyes are fixed on. When our eyes are fixed on something else than Jesus, they turn the heart away from Jesus. Earthly treasures, worldly possessions, tend to turn our hearts away from Jesus.
When our eyes are fixed on Jesus they are healthy. Interesting, this word also means good, sincere, and generous. When Jesus’ light shines into our lives we see everything from God’s viewpoint and a kingdom perspective. Our hearts become focused on God alone and his kingdom. Our hearts are filled with love for him and others. We live the kingdom life. We are generous toward others.
But when our eyes are unhealthy, actually it says, evil, then our lives are in darkness. We do not know and cannot see where we are going. We walk around in darkness because the darkness has blinded us (1 John 2:11). Our search for and our clinging to earthly goods has blinded us, and therefore, our hearts. The combination of evil eye also means to be stingy and jealous. We become focused on ourselves. Our selfish desires and greed take over. “As the light cannot penetrate the body when the eye is evil [or blind], so the word of Jesus cannot penetrate the disciple’s heart so long as it is closed against it.” (Bonhoeffer, 174)
Thus, our eyes must be fixed on Jesus alone so that our hearts will belong to him alone and be focused on his kingdom.
3. Be Slaves to God
What is your treasure? Where is your heart? Whom are you serving?
“Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness … But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom 6:16-18, 22-23)
We cannot serve both God and the things of the world. Their requirements, their ways, their values are in conflict. Your efforts to store up earthly treasures will inevitably and invariably lead you to go against God’s will and wishes. We may think we can serve two masters, but slowly and surely our earthly treasures consume us. They become our focus and priority. They take up all our attention and energy. Our whole life is directed towards our treasure, is shaped and guided by our treasure.
What hinders or prevents kingdom living and serving God, is not having money or wealth, but putting our trust in these for our present and future security. Everything and anything that hinders us from loving God above all things, and prevents us from obeying Jesus, that is our treasure, and that is where our hearts are. They become our idols, our gods.
“You shall have no other gods before me,” is the first of the Ten Commandments. “The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” This is the great, first and most important command.
Where is your heart? What is your treasure? Whom are you serving?
Before we answer these questions too quickly and easily we must examine our hearts. There is a test. Are we willing to leave everything behind to follow Jesus? (Lk 9:57-62; 14:25-33) “Any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.” (Lk 14:33)
Not one of us can escape this question and test. We are confronted with this question on a daily basis in small and big ways. Various reasons and circumstances may present us with this choice. ILLUSTRATION — Letting children or grandchildren go when they are called to far away mission fields. Business — run it in worldly ways to make more profit, or in kingdom ways to serve and glorify God. My Simpson experience.
Jesus says, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.” (Lk 18:29-30)
Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus Christ and your hearts focused on the kingdom. Serve God alone. Stockpile heavenly treasures by living and working to make a difference in God’s kingdom in this world. When we live the kingdom life we invest our lives in what God is doing. We invest in heavenly treasures that are forever.