Soldiers, Faith, &Thankfulness: A Memorial Day Message

Soldiers, Faith, &Thankfulness A Memorial Day Message  5-26-19  Kelly Durant

Matthew 8:5 When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. 6 “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.”7 Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?”

8 The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that 

10 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. 11 I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 12 But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

2. How are Christians to respond to Soldiers? For one, we can remember and honor them, especially the dead ones! Memorial Day is for that. The death of a son or daughter due to military service does leave a traumatic scar, one that most people never get over until they die! Look how many soldier graves there are in this city! And in this country we would all be peon slaves of the Nazis, worker bees in their horrific death factories, had it not been for the ones who gave their lives in WW 2!  Imagine, we all would be speaking German too!  

Aren’t we as Christians “peacemakers” and against violence? Yes! So if we are against violence, how are we going to defend ourselves? We basically depend on those who are willing to be military to fight for us, to protect our land and families and that is how it has always been since the beginning. We battle in the spirit!

Many great Soldiers in this country have been Christian, and their fight was not for pillage and plunder but rather against evil dictators who were invading, stealing, raping, and killing millions of people seeking world dominion with demons from hell guiding them. There are wars in heaven and there are wars on earth! Only Jesus return will change this establishing the Kingdom of God! 

3. When has there ever been peace on earth? It seems the world has never been at peace for more than a few hundred years. Even as early as Genesis 14, not long after God wiped out all humanity by a flood for their violent & perverse corruptions, Abraham had to go to war with his neighbors to save his nephew Lot!

Abraham, David, & most prophets had to physically fight evil enemies who would kill them and their families and wipe out their entire nation if they did not kill them first.

So all descendants today came from Noah, and the wars began after each of these 3 sons had prospered and produced several dozens of thousands of children and they all strayed from Noah’s righteous teachings. Then they god God’s law through Moses to know, ‘Thou shalt not murder’ (meaning doing it for advantage, not for defense) None of them would have made weapons of war or created a pantheon of pagan gods to worship had it not been for demons, (fallen enslaved angels in chains awaiting judgement) inspiring them! 

When people become arrogant, murderous, proud, and demon possessed, God intervenes, and wars occur, in order to humble, scatter, and slow down the oppression and destruction. This is humanity’s repetitive story due to Satan!

4. In the end of it all, there is a time for everything, Ecclesiastes 3: a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace. Good soldiers save lives by killing evil ones who are murdering for power, profit, and demonic entities who brainwash with evil teachings which contradict God’s Word. 

Notice in the verses of today Jesus praised a high ranking military official, a centurion, that he had more faith than all of the ones of Israel! This was a very big insult to the Jews because they viewed all the Romans as an evil invading army that had stolen their land, enslaved their people, and oppressed them horribly. I am sure the Jews hated him even more because he had mercy and praised a Roman that was on the wrong political and religious side of things!

This Roman soldier was different from your average pagan, despite his military commitments, he was a man who respected and believed in Jesus. He believed more in Jesus than Jesus’ own race of people! He was blessed and he got healing for his servant that he loved! These soldiers were like the police; they were there to maintain order, and order is a blessing as you do not want to be robbed, killed, or harmed without the aggressor being punished and locked up. Sure some are very abusive, but in general we need those who maintain order!

5. So, even though I was somewhat of a hippie in the 1970s, and you know they created an environment of mocking and dissing our Soldiers, I never adopted that attitude because I knew many of them were just doing their job and they were not at fault for the war. Many were broken men, having lost wives or girlfriends due to infidelity, and some addicted to drugs which was a way to sabotage them.

War is evil, but let me give you an example of how we can compare evils. I think the U.S. has prevented many millions of murders by making war with certain nations, yet, obviously some wars have been uncalled for and unjust. God knows all and since you and I will never have access to military secrets, nor be the commanders, we just have to just let it go and support those willing to risk their lives to defend this nation. Those that hate this nation should try other nations and move, but no matter where you live here is the scripture on what God wants:

Romans 13: 1 Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same.

6. When we lived in Chile, under the dictator Pinochet, we knew there were government spies everywhere and that people would disappear. One friend I had who taught English in the Communications building said he saw that there were several hundred spies who listened in on phone conversations all day long. Dictatorships invoke fear, you do not dare to speak up against the government as it means jail, hard labor, or death! Sadly, most of the world lives with this system! 

Today all our conversations are documented by tech companies as well. You and me are spied on by google, facebook, and others, they all admit it, and the government knows all about you and me at all times. So if they were to accuse you of being Christian, is there enough evidence to prove you are? I hope so! Never deny Jesus or He will deny you before His father in heaven! Matthew 10:33

So Pinochet was feared because he killed an approximate 10,000 of his own people who were suspected to be Communists. Let’s compare this to Peru. Peru had a terrible murderous Maoist group, the ‘Sendero Luminoso’ and they killed over 40,000 of the Peruvians trying to inflict fear so they could take over the country. What is worse, to kill 10K evil Communist radicals or to allow 40K Communist radicals kill innocent men, women, and children? Certain soldiers are for good, yet others do serve evil. And don’t get me started on Colombia and what the guerrillas did to the innocent ones there!

7. So contemplate today, if Jesus loved and praised a Roman soldier leader more than those who were so religious in his country, we need to open our minds to respecting those in authority, especially those who have faith!

Have you ever heard that ‘there are no atheists in foxholes’? In other words most every soldier knows he may face God at any moment; so since death could come in a flash while he is in his dugout, he prays and gets his heart right with God everyday! How many times have we seen pictures of soldiers praying? God bless them for seeking God! You must have faith to fight an enemy!

Sometimes I wish I could take some of you here to a danger zone as soldiers face in war so you wake up and see life is no game, you may die at any moment! You may only get 30 years of life or you may get 80, only God knows! Soldiers and everyone will pass on and face God for the judgement. The point is to have faith and live in obedience to Jesus commands so you will go to heaven! 

8. All of you here are like those soldiers under the command of the centurion, when your boss says, do this task, go over there and work over there, you have to obey it and you go do what you are told. It is the inescapable pyramid system of the world. We all have to fit somewhere to have work to have money to survive.

Now imagine if all church soldiers would have the same obedience, to go out and preach the gospel and go out and do acts of service to show their neighbor that you and Jesus love them, wouldn’t our world would be transformed? We beg people to help us with the mission all the time but few respond and God sees all! You had better start letting Jesus give you the word on what to do (that is faith)!

In every army there are faithful obedient solders, and there are lazy soldiers who only obey enough to slide through and stay out of trouble, and then there are obstinate soldiers who disobey. They know is holy and right and they get corrected with punishments often like a stubborn mule or horse! Psalm 32:9

Do not be like the horse or like the mule, Which have no understanding, Which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, Else they will not come near you. Disobedient people who know they are not living right with God live unhappy, frustrated, and unblessed because they are not in God’s will!

9. I often try to correct our Salvation Army soldiers when needed, but some run away from getting into a deep conversation on purpose so they can escape a correction they know they should get.  But God has their number and sooner or later their pride will bring them a hard fall. I have seen this happen dozens of times! God’s children get correction and they need to be thankful they do get it!

So be an obedient soldier full of faith! And whether you like the military or not, respect all soldiers as potential powerful men of God! Memorial day is designed to cause everyone to pause and respect those wo have given their lives for the cause of protecting us from extremely evil empires. Hitler was only one, and dozens are always out there seeking world dominion. Horrendous murderous demons of Satan are always waiting to devourer us! When we are weak enough through sin to be conquered, that is when evil will attack. Evil is only temporarily winning right now though but Jesus will win in the final battle in the end of days!  

In the verses of today, Jesus in the end warned that if you do not have faith in Him, you will be cast into hell for being unworthy! Not having faith in Jesus as the resurrected Son of God is a terrible sin, and not obeying His words brings on terrible consequences. He loves us and wants to save us and give us rewards in heaven, but we must be His faithful soldiers! In heaven there will be a Memorial Day too, to honor all the dead in Christ! Prepare yourself! Prayer…

Help Mothers Be Real Women of Honor!

Help Mothers Be Real Women of Honor!  5-18-14 Re:5-12-19.  by Kelly Durant

Titus 2:3-5 The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; 4 That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, 5 To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.

2.It is a sad truth that women in general are not respected by more than half the world’s people today and it is a fact they never have been! Investigate for yourself how other major world cultures, religions, and communists treat women and you will be outraged and appalled! There is a current war on women in our culture! Modern music has progressed from Elvis that would sing he was “All Shook Up’ in love with a woman to our current music which refers to women as “Bs” and sex objects only, something to own and exploit as property! Denounce it when you hear it!

The quote many men have lived by was what Plato voiced: “'I thank God, that I was born Greek and not barbarian, freeman and not slave, a man and not woman”. Why? The usual case is that women have lived with zero rights, zero respect, and still women are considered property in many countries! 

Some people always want to complain of the discrimination of women in the U.S. but here it is minimal compared to other places! Abortion of girls in China is so extensive that already 35 million young men will not be able to find a wife! What a manmade crisis! Many in several nations fear that the frustration of these men will lead to aggression and war, internal and external. 

Have you ever heard that one should judge a society by how it treats its most vulnerable members? How are the unborn, the babies, the elderly, the children, and the impaired getting treated? And of great importance, how are the women treated? 1 Peter 3:7 Likewise, husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered. (God will not hear the prayers of those who mistreat women!) Identify and condemn those who are to blame for making women into just sex objects and slaves for labor exploitation. Our job is to love, esteemed, respect, and value women as intelligent industrious essential co-collaborators in the home and community! 

3. The verses of focus begins in Titus 2:3 highlighting that God expects women as they mature to be strong influencers with their wholesome (holy) values, living a pure life. Women are exalted in the verses here inferring they are important and useful as teachers and mentors expected to share their acquired knowledge over the years about life and of the word of God with other younger women and to their children (and to the men as well).

Mothers always impact their children profoundly! Many single young men in jail or on the battle front when facing a breakdown or crisis have been known to cry out for consolation from mommy! We all recognize that the woman who incubated us and gave us life 9 after months, and raised us for 18 + years is important to our emotional and physical wellbeing! 

Every mother must recognize that they are very important influencers and leaders in society creating either embittered monsters or sacrificial saints! Each person reaps what they sew and the boomerang of actions does come back to haunt us. I knew one young Mexican man in prison and when I offered to bring his mother there to visit him as a favor he told me “No, I don’t want to see that whore”! Sad, right? She had a history of living with different men and he had suffered from the hand of many of them. We must teach this modern culture to get back to purity and holiness.

4. In history we observe that it has only been the word of God in the Bible practiced correctly that has brought women out of the darkness, of the depths of slavery and debasement, to being equal to the man in position in spiritual gifts and abilities. Jesus, by honoring his women followers, influenced many and eventually as the Bible got translated in many languages; it sparked a Renaissance and enlightenment of respect for women that we benefit from that in our democratic society today. It is a pity that the primitive church and still some churches today never matured in doctrine as the Salvation Army did to esteem women as equals ordaining them as ministers honoring them highly. Sadly still very few churches today ordain and respect women as equals, so you can be thankful that William and Catherine Booth got it right! Women have full rights here! Help us spread this good news!

Did you know when the Salvation Army was founded in 1865 that 60 to 70% of the initial members were young mothers and they were valiant preachers too! And today in this Corps, we expect the women and mothers to be leaders, not just to their children, but leaders in society being influential winning many over to the faith: souls saved for Jesus! Everyone listens when a wise woman speaks!

But I wish women today would start passionately speaking up more against social injustices! Help expose crimes such as rape, child-abuse, sexual trafficking, labor exploitation, domestic violence: women must demand that the people adhere to the standard of family values in the churches, schools, and city halls! If women are not defending the weak and family causes in their role, then they may fall for useless causes wasting time on popularized trends, and standing up for people who later become back stabbers to them. The causes that foment hatred towards men creating division and controversy in the community are against nature; truth is very few agree even though the media lies and says it’s the majority. The truth is the majority are sick of controversy from people demanding rights for things of selfish desires and not for rights of the truly defenseless abused innocent ones.   

5. Men and women have different roles in life. If a burglar is in the house at midnight, it is the man’s role to handle it, right? Or women, do you love a good fight and enjoy tackling 6’ masked men who have guns or knives? Raise your hand, women, if you would say, “Honey, I’ll get it”! Sadly today in a few so called developed nations, some people due to the confusion of laws (non-Biblical) are supporting gender reversals. Such confusion sews the seeds of frustration, and proven statistically, it foments suicidal tendencies!Contrary to this is the defense of the equality of the sexes, and it is correct within the context of equal rights for women. They have gained substantial respect here in the U.S. in the workplace but concerning crimes committed against women, much more needs to be done, in particular abroad in Arab, Communist, and non-Christian nations or in about 4/5ths of the world!   

Again referring to how women are commended to be holy and sober, what happens when women are not holy but rather become loud and self-serving? The progression (as observed in Hollywood children) of the character slides downhill from disrespect on into total chaos! Each person is the principle player in the forging of their own reputation. Those seeking to take advantage of men usually ironically find men with the same nature (birds of a feather..) seeking to take advantage of them! Trying to take advantage of another pretending love (either sex) is nothing new, and everyone gets burned. Many women have a disadvantage though because of their more sensitive emotions and smaller physical size.

In the 90s in Miami we had a nice Peruvian friend in her 50s that was depressed and sad due to a recent divorce. The judge awarded her the house of the ex and she sold it. In the meantime the new boyfriend, who was supposedly a rich man of a rich Spanish family said he would help her by storing her $100,000 cash in his personal safe. We soon found out she had never even been to his house! It soon came to light (after we encouraged her to go to the police) that he had played her and about 5 other women for their money and she felt horribly shamed! He went to jail, she lost it all, and she had to go on with life working minimum wage having nothing too embarrassed to even talk to her family! 

6. Today many people complain about the disappearing family unit but who is to blame? Where is the fighter spirit of couples of, “we will get through this”? Do we blame the deadbeat dads? Or the deadbeat moms? Both sexes share blame in being irresponsible! Take note, young deadbeat fathers were boys who grew up under a mother (or father) that influenced their attitude about women. How the mother treated the child affirmed obedience and good behavior, or rebellion and disrespect. Kids imitate the parent’s example and values, or the lack thereof; values are caught and imitated and must be taught. Parents reap what they sew and get payback for their sins often multiplied through those closest to them.       

Sad as well, some girls and boys have grown up seeing abusive fathers degrade their mothers verbally or physically (or vice versa), and when a guy or gal imitates this horrible behavior, he (or she, as a victim to this) thinks that this is just normal life! They imitate this abuse even though they already know this behavior brings about hurt feelings, much suffering, and even divorce. No one should tolerate abuse ever because you are God’s child and of high value and esteem!

7. Here is where the breakdown begins begging the question, have the older ladies been faithful to teach the young girls at home, in the churches, and in the schools high standards and values? Are the women mentors teaching the girls to dress and act like princesses aspiring honors and achievements? My concern is this, lately women and mothers are letting girls dress too  risqué, even 12 year olds use high platform heels and short shorts, unaware of the dangerous provocations that put the girls at risk for rape and abuse? Some women dress so crazy here picking up their kids in school that the schools are now enforcing dress codes for parents! 

By the time a girl is in college, an estimated 1 in 4 have been raped already! I have also known of many mothers that have prostituted their own daughters for money as well! Take into account that before the 60’s themes of “burn you bra” and be liberated message, only 2 main STDs existed, now there are dozens that are very serious causing cancer, HIV, and destroying the normal desire and pleasure that God intended to last a lifetime between married couples!

8. How sad today as well that in a majority of so called “developed” cultures women are choosing to not be mothers or married wives protected by the law. This lack of security or kids causes both men and women to miss out on many laughs and beautiful emotions, and a needed maturity. Romans 1 :27“In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.” A few societies worldwide, due to misinformation and feminist influences are sadly not supporting women in their roles as mothers and wives. Remember, young pregnant girls need support from us and everyone! Pre 60s and the pill, The Salvation Army had many clinics nationwide for delivering babies! Everyone must always support families because we need one another to survive and to provide for what is needed! 

So these verses of today (vs 4) go against the grain of what the world promotes and it is up to Christians to be very vocal to support women!(I love counter-culture challenges, don’t you?) In general both sexes without faith and obedience to God are horrible abusers of their own bodies and others wreaking havoc going against nature. I thank God again and again for the Christian values taught in the Bible that inherently invoke respect and exalt the women as of great value! And when ‘mama is happy, everyone is happy’! See Proverbs 31

The Bible has inspired women to become the liberated, dedicated, wise, good, and fun loving creatures God made them to be! We must spread this good news!

9. One disturbing part of verse 3 is, “not false accusers”, what does this mean? To invent a lie to muster sympathy and harm someone is punishable by law! In today’s language it could also imply not falsely exaggerating a contentious item being a “drama queen”, spouting out foolish words just for manipulation or revenge. All of these recent TV shows of marriage boot camps and counseling showing the women yelling and red in the face is not helpful in modeling better alternative communication methods to help us solve common relationship issues! Men and women always will accuse each other of their faults but the factor is both often forget to factor in their own irritating provocations usually started with sharp accusatory words. Everyone is always right in their own eyes, but to God we are all in great need of maturity and to be more in control of our words!

False accusations from the woman may be that of accusing the man of having another woman. If the accusation is a true one, then what is she doing with him? She needs to stop thinking that she is going to control him and fix a broken sin nature that does not want to be fixed. Only Jesus changes hearts!

The man a woman choses as a husband must first of all be a man that has proven himself worthy and faithful to God not living an addictive abusive or adulterous life. Never should a woman ever have the need to “falsely accuse” him of having a lover fishing for information to know if an affair is happening. How many men here have had to hear their wife accuse them of liking or cheating with another over and over? (Don’t raise your hands!) These and other types of accusations scar relationships, avoid them! Over time the man might erroneously conclude that he might as well have a lover, since he is going to suffer verbal abuse whether he has had one or not! Just don’t accuse and be guilty in words or in deeds! 

10. One more interesting part, “not given to much wine”. Well, in our case, we are not given to any wine, but this implies that many young women have the tendency to be party girls right? It is human nature for the youth to want to have fun but if having fun includes alcohol and the starting motherhood due to being drunk one night, this is something to seriously think about and avoid! 

Because the body mass of women is smaller than that of men, women get drunk easier than men. They also get addicted to drugs easier as well. This is a warning to women to not let their selves be exposed to any excess as it will create more consequences. Date rape happens often to young girls that are high or drunk and it has always been a problem for millennia not just a recent societal problem. 

Alcohol is a serious problem in this country as an estimated 1 in 10 people are addicted! People who drink or get high are forcing their brains to imbalance and expend in a few hours the pleasure serotonin chemicals and later normal for them is a personality state that is bored, edgy, and violent. Be careful of what may happen to you: drug or alcohol abusers need serious help!

11.  Continuing on to the last part of today’s study, “obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed”. What does it mean? Today, after the feminist movement from the 70s, many people think that the woman being obedient to the husband is heresy! After all, the woman has rights! This is true, but each couple needs to decipher each other’s strong and weak points to keep a balance and common sense. Most women follow the man’s lead anyway unless she perceives a danger or threat, or if he is being totally anti-god and cruel. 

Here is an example of how a man may lead, if the woman gets very excited about getting a nice new car with a $680 a month payment with another $200 in insurance, and the man says, “Oh no, babe we can’t afford that, it would be almost half our income,” then the woman should understand and just trust the man’s judgment on the matter! This is the essence of the idea of being obedient. It does not imply absolute blind servitude as some Christian defamers want to imply! But a woman who demands her way may make the man blaspheme!

12. I love and respect my wife that has for 41 years has been a great fighter for justice defending me and her children and helped a few thousand others in need. She woke up all hours of the night, learned new languages to communicate with us (English, Portuguese, ASL, sign language) and tolerated moving from place to place doing God’s work. I love and admire her as only 1 out of a million would do this! How lucky (God’s plans) that I could meet her!

What did the scripture teach us? Respect the women! Both women and men should study and research what makes the other sex, or their own mates, be secure, stable, and happy. What kills any relationship is a self-centered insecure jealous controlling person who demands that their needs be supplied not considering the needs of the other one. Relationships are always give and take and that must be done in love! Men also have responsibilities but that’s for later!

13. If a woman or wife claims to be a Christian but she is harsh with her tongue, and punishes the man when she doesn’t get what she wants, with addictive or unfaithful behaviors, then the man might conclude that her faith, that her Christian God must be flawed and unjust! This works vice versa, men must also be must be loving examples gentle proving their dedication to their family or their religion will be criticized as useless and hypocritical!

It is the pure, powerful, and holy women, usually mothers, throughout history that have been the ones to bring about a real change in society, starting in their homes with their own children and then out in the community! Remember also that countless women are renowned professionals! Let’s pray the Lord brings us more women to organize and defend the weak, minister to the suffering, and putting into practice God’s word! Let’s pray for the women here to have the strength they need to accomplish great things for their families, church, and friends. We must denounce, expose, and encourage correction for those fallen into weakness, but honor the noble, pure, and wise and holy women! If we do not support them, then more men, women, and children around the world will continue to suffer more and more injustices! Women, and mothers with Jesus and the Holy Spirit are powerful teachers, healers, and influencers: love and support them!

Where is Your Treasure? Will it last?

Where is Your Treasure?                   Kelly Durant         5-2019       

Matthew 6:19-21

19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:

20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

2. I can remember right after Regina and I were married in 1978 we traveled to the south of Brazil. We were traveling from city to city covering at least 30 cities in 6 months time and every day we would come home to talk about the people we prayed with to receive Jesus! Winning souls was our passion and it still is!

All day long we would go around with our guitar in hand to stores, hospitals, jails, and homes of people of prayer groups that invited us and we would pray and share Bible lessons. Our joy, our passion, and inspiration, was our experience with others as they would pray and accept Jesus in their hearts! We lived in the clouds and were in love with Jesus! We only owned a guitar, and our clothes in a few suitcases but we were happy just to experience the happiness of others as they accepted Jesus in their hearts! Sometimes we even would get the people on the whole bus we were on to pray with us too!

Those were days of freedom, days when the devils who hated Jesus could not get you with a lawsuit and since the 1970s, South America went from 4% evangelical to 30% in many parts and that is due to many groups sharing the gospel from day to day! We long to see the church grow again like that!

3. Speaking of sharing the gospel, where is your treasure? Today we are looking at the verses here in Matthew 6 and Jesus makes it clear, the greedy ambition of material wealth and temporary treasures you may have may be in conflict with God’s plans, goals, and values for you.

In the verses just before these Jesus, in chapter 6, Jesus is addressing the hypocrites who pretended to suffer from their sacrifice and spirituality. These were the Pharisees who pretended to give treasure to God, who fasted and wanted people to notice how they were suffering, with sour faces pridefully showing off. However, they like many religious leaders today, were actually rich and were not suffering at all. They were hypocrites!

Jesus knew there would always be these types of fake religious people, the type that wants to be seen as spiritual, but actually have no heart in it. A person who has their heart in the things of this world, anything but loving God with all their hearts, mind, and soul! All their treasure is destined to be lost and be a testimony against them! 

4. Jesus said “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt” In Bolivia in 1978 I had a good Christian friend Aldo Gismonde, who had a very bad, fake-Christian wife. One gets to know people when you stay a few weeks in their house. They had lived in Miami and few years earlier and she thought she was the beauty queen of the city. What ever mood she was in, that was what you had to put up with as she was very domineering. Aldo said when she would get mad at him she would take all his savings and spend them on fancy clothes just to teach him a lesson to not make her mad. She would do this about once a month spending $300 to $500, which was a lot of money back then in Bolivia! 

The point of this story is that one day she showed me that she had 2 gigantic suitcases in her house and explained that inside of  them were some of the finest clothes of Miami. She had had the bag in storage a few months in the tropical humid heat of Santa Cruz. But what do you think I saw? When she opened the bags I saw all her clothes eaten up by moths and blackened by mold! I had never seen that before and it was quite an ugly sight! 

This verse of Jesus of Matt 6:20 ‘about moth and rust corrupting’ became real before my eyes. Imagine, her treasure was worthless!

5. Just as in Jesus day there was an abundance of thieves as there are thieves today. I could talks an hour of all that was stolen from me in South America, but I will spare you that! But how many times have you and I suffered from someone stealing something from us? Raise your hand if you’ve been stolen from! You work many hours, even years of your life that afterwards it’s gone and you’ll never get your stuff back, in a flash it all disappears due to some low life thieves!

There is a quote about stolen goods. The person stolen from will often say, ‘Thank God my life was not hurt, thank God that it was a big loss but it was not everything, and finally thank God because I was stolen from and it was not me doing the stealing!

Imagine in Jesus day, thieves were crucified! And still, knowing what a horrific death it was, they would still do it! And today in a dozen countries your hand will be chopped off in public if you steal. And in many parts of the USA, people with guns can kill an armed intruder and not go to jail over it. Admittedly, thieves are hated, and yet many do not get the punishment they deserve. Why accumulate so much in life if it can be stolen from you?

6. The punishment of the rich is they do not sleep at night worrying about all their wealth! Many rich people, like the ones in Hollywood, are overcome with fears, worries, and a heavy conscious of guilt to the point they take drugs or drink to try and forget it. They have to pay body guards and not go out in public. What kind of a life is that? And then they forget God!

The essence of Matthew chapter 6 is clear; Jesus is telling us to have a simple life, to not have material things as our priority, and to have our treasure in the things of God which will last forever in heaven! Sure we need things, but God supplies all we need but we must seek Him first. Matt 6:33.

What are the things of God that bring treasures in heaven? That is what we will examine today! All scripture is placed in a context. Jesus in the chapter begins with attacking the religious hypocrites, then goes on to the Lord’s prayer and how to pray; then he attacks the hypocrites again that fast only to get people’s attention, not because they really want a connection with God, and then he explains about where your treasure is. Here is the lesson: do not come under the spell of exaggeratedly wealthy false teachers with their hypocrisy, learn to pray to not be tempted, and place priorities on heaven!

7. If we look at the next verse, Matt 6:22 Jesus defines how to identify your focus in life, if your focus is evil, (involving hypocrisy, materialism, or Satanic indulgences) this evil focus will only feed your self-interests, and imprison you into deep darkness. This bad focus seems to encompass the vast majority of people today, who degrade their selves down into repulsive debauchery right into the wide gate of hell! But not so with the redeemed.

22 “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

Consequently, a good person, one who follows Jesus, one who is sacrificial, loving, caring, sharing, and focused solely on being Godly, that person’s entire being is full of light. This is the true light and not some Luciferian one eye counterfeit! Secret societies offer you the light, the single eye, but it is fake esoteric wisdom, only Jesus has the true light of the world!

8. Just one more verse to affirm the point that we must have the Lord as the main focus of our lives, verse 24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

People who love God and others as their selves talk about God and others! But people who love only the things of this world, or their narcissistic selves only  talk about that, about the riches they wish they have or wish they had. 

True Christians love to invest in their church Corps, in their community, and in those who have a need, whereas those who only love this world, who suck up everything around them like a black hole, are destined to lose it all to someone else when they die. Better is it to serve God and have treasures in heaven, amen?Ephesians 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

9. So when have you, I am concerned for your soul, ever with excitement shared with me or my wife about someone you witnessed to about the Lord? When have we ever seen you happy and overflowing with joy because you gave your testimony, or prayed with someone who had a need? When have you ever come to us to tell us that a certain scripture really convicted you and you were enlightened to learn more about God? I pray you are making the things of God your treasure!

There are very few here that do that, but very few in life though that will ever reveal to you that their treasure is in the things of God. This breaks my heart, and it breaks Jesus heart, to be aware of the reality that very few have their heart and treasure with living out a life full of passion on-fire-for-Jesus!

Don’t worry about the material, God will take care of you! I have seen miracles of supply happen over and over, but you have to be seeking God’s will for it to happen. Go for souls and go for the worst! Mark 16:15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” Obey Jesus commands with your heart and you will experience a happiness and bliss you never knew existed! Let God take care of your needs, seek first the kingdom of God! Don’t be like the fools who lose all their investments, who gain the world and lose their souls! Invest in souls for heaven and they will endure forever! This life is passing quickly but heaven is forever!