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In our series on Matthew, we have finally reached chapter 6. We're gonna fly through this chapter since the first half we covered while we did prayer. So we're gonna finish chapter 6 and maybe start chapter 7.
And a reminder that this is in the middle of Jesus's Sermon on the Mount. What's up, everybody? I'm Josiah, Pastor Josiah, if you don't remember. Witten Baptist Church, hello to my Witten family. Prayers for everyone this time of year who struggles with the holiday season, whether that's with family issues and then certainly sickness and those type of things.
But what I mostly pray for is that what we're doing here at Witten Media Ministry, at Witten Baptist Church, can be of some benefit and blessing to you, whether you're in the Memphis area or you are not.
Please consider downloading the Witten Baptist Church app. You can help support ministries through giving there. You can access all of our videos and come up and see upcoming events, okay? So, we already covered Matthew 6, 1 through 18 when we did our series on prayer.
But I just want you to be aware that you can go back and find this teaching on the study on prayer. So, we're actually going to start with this next section that I titled, What Should We Treasure? And the Answer to Anxiety.
So, let's start with the treasuring portion of Matthew 6, verse 19. Hear the word of the Lord. 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 will be your heart also. The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. 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 that darkness? No one can serve two masters who either hate one and love the other or who'll be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money or mammon.
Therefore, let's go back to verse 19. And we didn't have a Greek of a week on our handout because this section was all the Sermon on the Mount and the Greek of the week was Makarios, which was blessed or happy.
But if we were gonna have one for chapter 6, it would probably be this word right here. Thesaurus. And I have to double-check my pronunciation on that one. I think I'm right. Thesaurus, I think is right.
But I want you to notice something. In English, it says do not lay up. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. But maybe that's not the best way to translate it in English. Because if you look over here on the Greek side, and I know some of you get nervous when I do this, just focus.
You can do this too. Thesauricete is just the verb form of Thesaurus. Some understand that? Thesauricete is the verb form of Thesaurus. So what it literally says is do not treasure up for yourselves, who mean treasures on Earth.
Do you see that? Do not treasure up. Thesauricete, same word as here. It's just a verb form. Do not treasure up for yourselves. So do not treasure up, may Thesauricete, who mean Thesaurus, do not treasure up for yourselves treasures on the earth.
Or moth and rust, destroying, or thieves breaking the steel. But instead, verse 20, day, but instead Thesauricete, treasure up for yourselves, who mean Thesaurus, treasures in heaven. Urano. So Thesauricete, treasure up for yourselves.
So maybe in English instead of saying lay up, it should say do not treasure up for yourselves treasures in heaven. Do not treasure up for yourselves treasures on earth. So we're supposed to treasure up, store up, stockpile treasures in heaven, not on earth.
For, why should we do this? Gar. For, where your Thesaurus, where your Thesaurus, where your treasure is, there will be your cardia also. All of my athletes and my medical people should know that the word cardia, do you hear that?
Like cardio, cardiologist, cardiac arrest, it's an unfortunate one, but people know what I'm talking about when I say it, means heart. So for where your treasure, Thesaurus is, there will be your cardia also.
So what Jesus' point is here, whatever you're storing up, stockpiling, whatever you're, whatever you're treasuring, whatever you're spending your time doing, that's where your heart is going to be inclined to.
The eye is the lamp of the body. So if your eye is healthy, your whole body is healthy. Excuse me, guys. Sometimes I say alpestor won't work. 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? So the eye is what lets in light, lets in things into the body. So if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. If you are viewing, if you are treasuring, if you are stockpiling, if you are viewing good godly things, then your whole body will be full of light.
But if your eye is bad and full of darkness, if that what you're treasuring is full of darkness, your whole body will be full of darkness. And the very thing that's supposed to light up your body is darkness.
How great is your darkness? We talked about this in our sermon yesterday at church. Jesus says, out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Whatever you're storing up in your heart will come out in your actions and your words.
No one can serve two masters. He'll hate one, love the other, or he'll be devoted one and despise the other. You can't serve both God and mammon, money, physical possessions. Therefore, I tell you, Jesus says, lego humina, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you'll eat or what you'll drink, or about your body, what you'll put on.
Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap or gather in the bonds that your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life or maybe a cubit to his height? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field. They grow how they grow.
They neither toil or spend. Yet, I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. And this is the kicker verse. Pay attention very closely to verse 30. But if God so cloves, present tense, if God so cloves the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow's still in the oven, how will he not much more clothe you?
Present tense. Are you of little faith? Therefore, don't be anxious saying, what will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear? For the Gentiles seek after these things, the ethnos, the ethme. But your heavenly father knows that you need all of them.
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious about itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Amazing passage. So remember verse 30 as we go back to our notes. If God so cloves the grass of the field. There's our kicker phrase. And here is what we wrote down and what I taught a couple Sundays ago.
We're catching up, by the way. Yeah, I noted that verse 21 should probably be memorized by every Christian. Where your treasure is, there will be your heart also. And that's about to come into play. Or that came into play a minute ago when we were looking at the light of the body, which is the eye.
In verse 26 through 27, speaking about the birds, the birds of the air. This is not an argument for laziness, as birds are not idle. The point is that while they work hard, they are not downtrodden about tomorrow.
Their focus is always on what they can control. Fretting about things outside your control produces nothing but wasted time and energy. But so when it says, consider the birds of the air and how they neither toil nor spin.
Or excuse me, how they don't gather into barns, but your heavenly father feeds them. Again, this is not an argument for laziness. Let go and let God in the sense of put forth no effort. No, this is put forth effort with that which you can control, not what you can't.
Now verse 30, God so clothes. And I noted here that anyone who sat in my teaching for any amount of time has probably heard me teach on this verse many times. I wish that I can insert this biblical understanding in the hearts and minds of everyone I teach.
The word clothes is present tense. The Bible does not say if God so clothed the grass of the field, which would still be incredible if it did. As in he created it or created the processes by which grass would grow.
The Bible says that God clothes the grass of the field. Think of everything it takes for grass to grow, for lilies to grow, the sun, and photosynthesis, and insects, and earthworms, and bees, and hummingbirds, and rain, and storms, and light, and just so much that it takes for grass to grow, for lilies to grow.
And it says he clothes them. He actively does it. Not just he created the process and then his hands are off. He does it. He actively makes grass grow. So the Bible says he causes the grass to grow. If God so clothes and does all that work for grass, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown in the oven, how much not more will he take care of you actively, O you of little faith?
If God does it for grass, he'll do it for his children. The conclusion of the passage is simple. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and then after you do that, all these things will be added unto you.
You seek him with your whole heart. Seek him and his righteousness. In other words, by obeying him. And then all these things will be added. That's the rest of chapter 6. Glorious passage. Next week we start on chapter 7.
And we finish the Sermon on the Mount. Go ahead and read ahead on that, guys. Probably one of the most misunderstood verses in the Bible is chapter 7, verse 1. So please read that in context. Love you guys.
I enjoy doing this. I hope it's of some benefit to you. Send me some feedback, comments on the videos, or go on our Witton app, Witton Baptist Church, and you can send messages to me and I'll read them there.
However, we can improve this. I like the Greek. I like the handout. I like the new background. Tell me what you think, okay? All right. Love you guys. Bye.