Finding out what our hearts treasure
34 And he called to him the crowd with his disciples and said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. 36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? 37 For what can a man give in return for his life? 38 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
Mk 8:34-38
Tonight you will find out what your heart is close to.
And a warning- there will be some hard stuff to hear first, some tough stuff, but get through it, stay with me- there is wonderful, amazing, glorious news at the end!
This passage is one of the hardest passages in the Bible. Think about it- do you hear what Jesus is calling you to? He is saying this: unless you are willing to pick up the instrument of your death- the Cross- and carry it, you can not be His follower. He is saying that unless you are willing to this moment lay your entire life, all that you are and have down, for Him, and the sake of His good news- you can not be His follower.
This passage really makes us stop and consider- what in the world are we living for? To what end are we doing what we do? Jesus is making it clear- it must be that you are living your life for Him. He says this- if you want to save your life- and I assume you do?- then you will have to lose your life for His sake.
So I ask- have you lost your life for Christ? What does that mean? How could you ever even do that?
What does it even look like to live that way?
Let me tell you my goal tonight- my goal is that many of you in here would lose your life because of what I say. That you would die because of these words. My goal is that you would understand this text and it would become your very life. But my goal is that you would understand how your heart relates to this passage. If you do not understand how your heart relates to this idea of dying and giving up your life for Christ, you will do something tragic, something I never want to see for any of you- you will do one of two things-
1- you will get frustrated with the demands that God has for you, and you will walk away from God. You will see God as a slave driver, and you will hate him, and you will walk away, and you will feel so free and good when you do.
Or
2- you will spend your life making yourself do something you hate- sacrifice for a God you do not love.
So, it is essential that you understand how your heart factors into this idea of giving up your life for Christ.
So let me explain that to you.
Your heart and worship
The concept is a bit hard, but really it’s something you already know.
Three things your heart longs to do-
1 Your heart longs to find something of great value
Your heart wants to find something of value, it longs for valuable things to latch itself too. Listen to me- this is it’s design. It wants to find something valuable that it can be near. It is always seeking something beautiful, satisfying, something that it can be in awe of, something that will feed it the food it has been searching for it’s whole life. Our hearts are made to be near valuable things. Jesus points this out in Matthew 6.
19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Mt 6:19-21
Where does your heart reside? Near your treasure. It always is the case- never forget this – your heart will always be near what it treasures. It is longing to find something of value. What has it found? Has it found something of value to place itself near? Where is your heart? What do you see as most valuable? You might say “well God is most valuable”, but is that where your heart is? Your heart will be near what it values.
2 Your heart longs to have and enjoy the thing of great value it has found
Oh, how much more of your life would make sense if you would learn this.
Your heart does not just want to find something of value, but it wants to enjoy what it finds. It wants to get more and more of it. Jesus teaches us this in Matt 13-
44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.Mt 13:44
Your heart wants to get this thing it treasures, in fact it will sell everything to get it- it will even give your very physical life if that will guarantee getting what you see as most valuable. This is how we know what our heart is valuing most- we only have to ask “what is my heart trying to get, what am I willing to do most anything to have more of?”
Think about it. You all do this, so do i. We have hearts that try and get more of what they are treasuring. We are even willing to enslave ourselves to things to get what we see as valuable. Think about it. Every high school boy that tries to impress the crowd, he has enslaved himself to them, he longs for their approval, he longs for them to think he is something he is not- and that is the treasure, that approval, that love, that acceptance, and he will sacrifice anything to get it. Consider the girl who gets up extra early every day and spends tons of time getting ready to look a certain way at school. Why? Because the treasure is the love and the applause she gets, this is valuable to her, and she will be the slave of the crowd- asking what they want to see her look like, asking what they want her to act like, and then she will do it, all to get what her heart treasures- their smiles, their love, their approval.
This is what we do- this is why we do all we do- our hearts treasure, they value, and we want to get and enjoy what they value, and we are willing to do whatever is needed to get it.
Now, there is a word that describes this. There is a word that describes what it is when we think something will satisfy us, and we will do whatever we can to get it, because we value it and love it. That word is “worship.”
That is what worship is- seeing the value of something so much that we are willing to trade away anything else to get it.
And why do we want this thing we value? Because we want to enjoy it. We want to get more of it because it brings us joy and happiness. God knows that this is what our hearts do, because he made them that way, and he also knows that He alone is what should be the object of that desire, because He alone is most valuable. To value anything else in His place is an insult to him, and leaves our hearts looking like this plant. He knows this, that is why he says this-
“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
Is 55:1-2
His appeal to you is to consider what will most satisfy. He tells you it will be Himself. He is telling you that He is the most satisfying most valuable thing, and that your heart should latch on to Him, and when it does, you will stop spending yourself on that which does not satisfy, and will instead spend yourself on getting more of Him.
Do you want to know how to worship or glorify something? Seek it most. Believe it will most satisfy. God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in Him. Do you believe He is most satisfying?
3 Your heart longs to tell the world of the value of the thing it has found.
The third thing your heart will do is speak and proclaim the value of what it has found. Our hearts take great joy in doing this, our hearts long to do this. This is why we like to sing together, this is why fans love to celebrate a team together. We do dumb things that express this need all the time. Think about a graduating class- they get all proud about their graduation- “yeah, class of 2000 man! Woo! We rock! 2000 all the way!” What does this even mean? What are they celebrating? That they happened to be born in the same year? It’s just something to praise together, because we long to do it- we long to find something we can praise together, it is how we are made. The problem is if we praise that which is not worthy of praise, our hearts grow sick. They are not meant for that.
When we tell the world of the value of the thing we have found that is called “praise.” You praise things all the time- your spending of your time, of your energy, of your thoughts, of your words, they all tell the world what you value most.
This is why in this passage Jesus says this-
38 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
He knows that we are never ashamed of the things we treasure. We will with all our might- in the face of any shame or pain- live to show their worth. So if we are ashamed of Him, if we are not willing to even suffer losing the approval of people in order to gain Him, we show we value the approval of people more than Him, and that we really do not love Him.
So we have another test. We might fool ourselves into thinking we value Him, or that we would even enjoy Him, but does our life and all we do show His worth? What is the goal of what you do? To what end do you do it? Is it to show how much He is worth to you?
The right motive
So your heart longs to find something valuable, to enjoy the valuable thing it has found, and then to let the world know of this valuable thing. You are made to do this, this is what you will do, this is what you are doing. The problem is that many of you are not doing it with God. And so when we come to this passage you think “that cant be, I cant give up everything in order to follow Christ.” You think that because He is not your treasure, because you will give up everything for what your heart finds most valuable.
And if you do not realize that this is what God wants to be behind your giving your all for him, you will be so frustrated trying to live like someone who loves God most when you really don’t. you will try and obey, and you might even be able to make yourself do right things, but you will not be happy. You will not be doing it out of love for Him.
God does not want you to do the right thing and not love Him, he wants you to give up your life for Him because you love Him.
3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
1 Co 13:3
You can give your life, but if you have no love, you are gaining nothing.
I fear some of you would try and live Christianity but have no love for Him, or certainly not love Him most.
Are you willing today to lay down your life if it would get you Him? Do you value Him most? Do you think of Him as what you want to enjoy forever- enjoy being with Him, seeing Him, being loved by and loving Him? Do you proclaim that to the world?
How could you ever come to have a heart that values Him?
This is a work that He must do in your heart. You have to understand this is about your heart, not about what you do. This can quickly become about rules and trying to sacrifice and give, and not about love, and that would be wrong. God must do a work to change your heart.
He does this work through people hearing the message I am about to share with you. Perhaps He will do this work in you today? Do you want to value Him most?
Listen-
You will only love him when you understand his love for you.
You will only understand his love for you if you understand the gospel.
This is how we learn to value Him, by hearing the message of the gospel, and loving Him because of the love He is showing us there.
So listen, and consider.
Your sin. Think of the ring in Lord of the rings. The deep value it had for all who wanted it- how sick a valuing it was. This is like us- we have a sick valuing, an obsession, but not with God. But with what He made. That obsession was made to be for Him, but we have not had hearts that have valued Him. Let’s admit that together- our hearts do not value Him anywhere near what He is worth. We should be honoring Him by wanting Him more than anything- and we don’t.
We insult His worth by having hearts that say other things are worth more than Him, and we show this by what we spend ourselves to get and enjoy, and by what our lives show the worth of.
Worst of all, we have simply ignored Him. This great king of kings, the most valuable Being that exists, we have forgotten him. We have pushed him out of our minds and our lives.
“They have forgotten me” he cries out in Hosea. We have abandoned Him.
Every day he still pours out so many blessings on us, even while we forget him. You this day had food, and a home, and clothes, and love, and comfort, you probably smiled or laughed or had pleasure, and all of that was a gift that He provided. While He is forgotten, and while His name is used as a curse, he still blesses and gives good things. And still we ignore Him.
The penalty. Because of this, because we have so neglected and dishonored Him, because we live in a world where every day we should all sing songs of praise to Him together, but instead we curse Him, we are to be punished. What punishment seems fair to you?
We have insulted and ignored a God who is eternally worthy of praise, who has infinite value. We have continued to disobey and ignore Him and value other things more than Him while He has been simply being kind to us.
His infinite goodness and value has been ignored, and our punishment will be infinite as well. So we have this punishment over us.
And not only that, even now when we think of these things we know that even if we tried our hardest we could not for one day honor Him like he deserves. We cant be good. So we have this problem- the punishment we have to pay, and not just that, but even if it was gone, two minutes from now we would dishonor Him again and need to be punished again.
What he did about it.
Doesn’t it make you just want to give up? Doesn’t it make you want to say “please, please, cant some one do this for me? Can’t someone just take over, and be good for me, and cant someone come and do something about this anger that hangs over my head? Cant someone help to make peace between me and the perfect Judge, this One of such great value that I have so ignored and offended? Can’t someone come and obey Him perfectly, and honor Him perfectly for me?”
I need someone to rescue me, and you need someone to rescue you.
Let me tell you what my Jesus did for me.
Isaiah 53 tells the story of what my Jesus did for me. While I hated Him, and while I ignored Him, while I was bringing more and more anger down upon myself, He loved me.
Let me explain to you how much He loves me- I am about to read to you about His being punished in my place, and my heart will be barely moved. This room should erupt into applause, into cheering at the reading of these words, and it wont. After I read this we all should be completely transformed forever, and yet we wont be. I should never sin again after hearing what I am about to tell you. I should never again want anything else more than Him after I see this truth, and yet, tonight, I will sin. And He will still love me. And he will still save me. This is love, this is love!
2 For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men;
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Do you understand what this means? This should undo me. My Jesus, this King who is so glorious in heaven that you could not look at Him, he set aside all the beauty, and all the majesty. Where was Jesus’ majesty on earth? Where was His beauty? He left it behind, and not only that, but this Jesus who I could not look at because He beauty was too much, He became so ugly and so vile that I would have hidden my eyes from Him. So would you have. On the day he picked up that cross and walked up that hill he was like one that we hide our eyes from, it says- why? Because all of my sin and all of my shame was on Him. And just as you want to hide your eyes from your sin and shame and all the ugly parts of you, you would have wanted to hide your eyes from Him. This one of perfect beauty was deformed and ugly under the burden of my ugliness. He carried my ugliness and shame, and it deformed his beauty. All the while I was hating Him, ignoring Him. Yet He still did it.
Do you understand how this section should read?
It should read like this-
3 I am despised and rejected by men;
I am a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
I am one from whom men hide their faces
I was despised, and I was not esteemed.
4 I should bear griefs
I should be carrying sorrows;
I should be stricken,
I should be smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 I should be wounded for my transgressions;
I should be crushed for my iniquities;
That is how it should read, that is how it should be. You see, it does not read that way- listen, it does not say that! Praise God, friends, it does not say your name in there- it does not say your name! Rejoice, friends, rejoice, it does not say your name, it is HIS name, He is the one-
3 He was despised and rejected by men;
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his stripes we are healed.
How amazing is this verse- with His stripes, we are healed. Do you know what stripes are? Stripes are the scares you get when you are whipped. When he was whipped and tortured, he was purchasing your healing. Your mercy. His punishment brings you peace.
All of God’s anger at you is poured out on Him, he takes it for you.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned every one to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
It is all laid upon Him. All of our sin. Carried away. He does it for you.
God the Father speaks in verse 11-
11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and makes intercession for the transgressors. Is 53
Do you see what verse 11 says, that he will make us be counted as righteous. That is, though we still do not honor Him as we should, He will not see it, he will consider us perfect! The son will make intercession for us- what does that mean? It means that the very one we offended and ignored will stand before God in our defense, and argue that we should be set free, and forgiven. And when the Father asks “Why”, Jesus will show the scars on his wrists, and point to His perfect life of obedience, and say “these count for them.” And the father and son will smile, and welcome you forever.
See His worth in this, friends. See it. Who is like Him? Who would do such a thing for you? He has taken away all your sins, and he has dressed you in His goodness. He loves you, perfectly.
Believe that this mercy is for you- that is what you must do- it takes faith- you must believe that this mercy really is for you, that He really will wipe away your sin, and give you new life. And you will know if you really believe it, because your heart toward Him will change!
What this looks like if you get it
Have you ever heard of John Leonard Doper and David Nitschman? I am going to explain this text we read tonight by telling you their story. Their story IS this text, they get it- if you want to know what it looks like, this is it.
John Doper was an ordinary guy. He was a potter. He was a Moravian, a group of German descent that lived in Europe. They had a tight, very religious community led by a man named Count Zinzendorff. Zinzendorff was a neat man, totally on fire for God, in love with His savior. His life’s statement was something like “Jesus, only Jesus!” That is what made this man tick- Jesus Christ, and his love for him. They were experiencing a revival in their midst, God moving powerfully, and they as a church committed to pray 24 hours a day every day, and they did, the church did this for 100 years! And out of this prayer and devotion to God John Doper’s heart was stirred with love for God.
One day Zinzendorff met a man named Anton, a former African slave, and was so moved by his testimony that one day in 1731 he sent Anton to speak at Hernut, the town in which John Doper lived. And when John Doper heard Anton speak, it changed his life forever. Anton had been a slave on an island called St Thomas before his escape, (the island today is a resort), where he and 3000 other slaves lived. Their master was an atheist, who swore that no one bearing the gospel or the name of Christ would ever set foot. Here, on this island, were 3000 souls that would never hear the name of Jesus. And Anton said to the congregation that his sister remained on the Island, and she was eager to hear about Christianity, but she had no one to teach her. At that moment John Doper knew he would be the one to go and teach her.
How could he do this?
He decided that he would seek out a brother to go with him to the island, that they would sell themselves to the landowner as slaves, and serve alongside the 3000 who were there, in order to share with them the gospel of Jesus Christ, so that they would know how much God loves them. The church was not sure about this idea, and it took a year for them to give him permission to go. Even then, his family (he had a wife and 2 children) were not sure if it was the right thing. David Nitschman, a carpenter, volunteered to go with him. He had to write a letter to the church explaining why he should go. He wrote this-
“Since it is desired of me to make known my reason for going, I can say that my desire was never to travel during this time in my life, but only to ground myself more steadfastly in my Savior. But when the gracious count came back from his trip to Denmark and told me about the slaves, it gripped me so that I could not get free of it. I vowed to myself that if one other brother would go with me, I would become a slave, and tell everyone what I had heard from our Savior: that the word of the cross when shared in suffering and humiliation shows a special strength to the lost and perishing. As for me, I thought: even if helpful to no one in it I could still give witness through it of obedience to our Savior! I leave it to the good judgment of the congregation and have no other reason to offer you than this thought: that on the island there still are souls who cannot believe because they have not heard.”
The two gained permission, and sold themselves as slaves. They left on August 21, 1732. They were not going on a 30 day trip, or a 4 year tour, they were going for life. They were sold, not their own anymore. And as the ship pushed away from the dock, the congregation on shore, still not sure this was the right thing, and John’s family weeping bitterly, never to see their husband and father again, the two men stood on the deck, and joined arms, and as boat slipped into the sunset, John, the slave, raised an arm to the sky, and at the top of his voice he said these amazing words that changed the hearts of all who were on shore- his words were these; “May the Lamb who was slain receive the reward of His suffering!”
There were many more missionaries that went after them, and they called the same words- it has become the call of the Moravian missions. And those who went after these two went with just as much love for the Lamb, just as much desire to see Him honored. Because they valued him above all else, and because they wanted more of Him, they wanted to enjoy Him, and they wanted to show the world how much he is worth.
What about you? To what end are you doing what you are doing? What is your heart treasuring? What do you love most? What is your life showing the worth of?
Do you understand the gospel, and His love for you? If so, go live in such a way that the Lamb would receive the reward of His suffering. This is all that is worth living for, this is all that we exist to do. May the Lamb receive, even tonight, even in your life right now, the praise and love and longing and worship that He alone is worthy of! Give up your life, let tonight be your funeral. Those men who went to the west indies, they brought with them a slab of stone apiece. You see, there was no stone on the island out of which to carve a gravestone. They planned on dying there. They were already dead to themselves. They lived for one thing only- the Lamb, and seeing Him exalted. That was their joy. Tonight, deny yourself. Deny yourself the empty dreams of the world, and deny yourself the polluted water of the world, so that you can get the pure water and satisfying food that He is. Believe that His mercy is for you, trust Christ, and live a life of worship, finding your joy in Him.
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