Posts Tagged ‘Treasure’

By now you should be well aware – if you’ve been at RiverStone the last 2 weeks, or if you’ve been following this blog – that I’m praying a bold prayer for God to do some incredible things with us at RiverStone.  In particular, I’m asking him that he would make us a “God is supremely better people.”  If you missed these messages, please visit iTunes or http://www.riverstonechurch.org/media-2/messages to hear what God is teaching us.

We looked at Luke 14:15-33 again yesterday for part 2 of My 2011 Prayer for RiverStone Church.  We peered deeply into the 3 excuses made by the men who were invited to God’s party.  The bottom line of the parable is simply that God deserves and demands the worship of all peoples.  Do you believe this?  Do you believe that God deserves and demands your personal worship?  Daily?  He absolutely does – and he is absolutely the only one who has demonstrated his supremacy to us seen clearly in the cross of Christ.

What did the invitee #1 say?  He said “I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it.”  Really what he was saying is that he valued the field more than he valued being in the presence of God (the master throwing the banquet.)  This invitee #1 was so wrapped up in his possessions (his field) that he didn’t have room for worshiping God on this occasion.  He placed a supreme value on his stuff than he did his savior.  Do we ever do this?  Are we ever guilty of placing a higher value on our commodities than on Christ?

Let me say that the result of placing a more supreme value on stuff always results in sadness and unfulfillment.

See Luke 18:18-23 & answer these questions as you Dig Deeper into God’s Word:

• What was this man known for that came to Jesus? What was he known as?
• On a scale of 1-10 how moral was this guy in your opinion?
• What might Jesus be saying to this man about how ‘works’ doesn’t equal morality in God’s economy?
• What is the hardest thing to you about Jesus’ challenge to this man?
• What would this man be known for if he decided to ‘do’ what Jesus asked him to do?
• What was the result of his decision? [sadness]

Dig Deeper!

PC

I’ve been reading through 1 John in my personal time with Jesus over the past few weeks and it’s been a fantastic time in the Word.  Following up on our study from Sunday with our Big Idea, “Joy results when we are relational unity with our brothers and sisters,” I want to encourage you to read and meditate over 1 John 2:15 at some point this week.  Listen to this:

• ¹⁵Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. ¹⁷The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.

The question that I began to ask myself after reading this was, “What does it mean to not love the world?”  As I pondered this, it was clear to me.  To not love the world is to not love what the world loves…to not treasure what the world treasures, RATHER…to treasure what God treasures, to love what God loves…not stuff, not position, not power, not personal acclaim or accomplishment.  RATHER to treasure people; and loving people!

This becomes clear when we put this next to 1 John 2:9-11:

• ⁹Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. ¹⁰Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him^[c] to make him stumble. ¹¹But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.

Loving what God loves means loving the people he has created.  This is huge in our efforts to love with a purpose.  Love each other in a way that displays what God treasures!  Powerful Stuff.

What do you think about this?  What insights is God giving you through this study?

PC.