We hope this series we are in is making you think through what it means to live out Christianity.  It’s a very practical series that walks us through specific areas of our lives.  If there is faith, real faith, it will disrupt our lives.  That’s why we are in a series that asks the question, ‘Has your faith disrupted your life?’ 

Let’s read what Jesus’ brother James wrote.

James 1:17 So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless… 19 You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror. 20 How foolish! Can’t you see that faith without good deeds is useless? NLT 

James is saying that if you believe in God and it doesn’t disrupt your life, demons do that too.  Real faith disrupts our lives.

For example, last week, Sam asked the question, ‘Has your faith disrupted your view of people?’  You see, one of the practical changes we make after experiencing God loving us, is how we view people.  Before experiencing God’s grace, we see people through our past hurts and wounds.  When that happens, we can struggle to love others well.  We can stay stuck and like Sam said, we make a hard life harder.  But when we experience God’s grace that changes us, we can be in relationships, and love people where they are.  Remember what he shared last week?   We must learn to let go of our hurts and wounds.  We must let go of our expectations and desires for people, and love them where they are rather than where we want them to be.  The only way we can do that is if our view of people has been disrupted. 

Our daughter plays club field hockey in college.  So, when we had a weekend off, we wanted to drive the four and a half hours to be with her and watch her play.  To stretch out the weekend, we decided to stay in a hotel.  We got in late, crashed, and were ready for the next couple of days.  The whole weekend, we had fun hanging out with her.

Here is what we didn’t do.  While staying in the hotel room, we didn’t repaint the hotel room.  We didn’t run out and buy a nicer mattress to sleep on.  We didn’t throw out the artwork to replace it with pictures we liked.  We didn’t get a bigger, better, flat screen.  We had absolutely no interest in spending time, money, or energy in fixing up that room.  Why?  Couple obvious reasons. 

First, we had limited time, and we wanted to spend our time with our daughter.  We weren’t going to waste our time fixing up a room that we would never see again.  Second, it was a temporary stay, our real home is here in Pa.  We weren’t going to waste our money on a room we would never see again.  Third, we had limited energy and wanted to use it for our time with her.  We weren’t going to waste our energy on cleaning or fixing up the room we would never see again.

Here is what I want you to know about your life.  Brace yourself.  This world isn’t your home.  It’s not your final destination.  If you have placed your faith in Jesus, heaven is your real home.  This world is like a hotel room, a temporary stop.  And while you are here in this world, you have limited time, money, and energy.  

Let’s read how Scripture puts it.

Hebrews 13:14 This world is not our home; we are looking forward to our everlasting home in heaven. TLB

Let me ask you the question for today.  Has your faith in Jesus disputed your view of this world?  In other words, do you see this world as a temporary stop, like a hotel room?  Or do you see this world as your final destination?  A good follow-up question would be, what do you put your time, money, and energy into – things of today or tomorrow?

Here is a great quote.

Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in.  Aim at earth and you will get neither. – CS Lewis

This is what Paul wrote. 

Colossians 3:1 Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. 2 Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. 3 For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory. NLT

When we give our lives to Jesus, it should radically change our understanding of this world and the world to come, heaven.  As Christians, we are no longer living for ourselves in this world, that life is over.  Paul said, we died to that life.  Our real life now is for Jesus.  That changes everything.  Earth and the things of this world are temporary, heaven is our final destination. 

Have you ever thought about that before?  Do you feel like it’s a challenge to live in this world but be focused on the things in heaven?  Do you feel like it’s a challenge to die to this world while at the same time live in this world?  It can be hard.

Let’s read what Jesus said.

Matthew 16:24 Then Jesus said to the disciples, “If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For anyone who keeps his life for himself shall lose it; and anyone who loses his life for me shall find it again. 26 What profit is there if you gain the whole world - and lose eternal life? What can be compared with the value of eternal life?” TLB

Jesus taught, how you view your life has eternal implications.  What does it profit us if we get everything we want in this world, but lose our souls?  How does it help you if you live only for today and give no thought to the Kingdom of God?

In general, I think the modern-day Christian is okay hearing about God’s love and grace.  People always love those Sunday talks.  We are okay with the challenge to be more kind and work on forgiving others.  We are okay attending church now and then.  But I believe one of the biggest struggles is to make the connection between living for today and living for heaven.  It can be a struggle to answer the question, ‘Has your faith in Jesus disputed your view of this world?’  In other words, do you see this world as a temporary stop, like a hotel room?  Or do you see this world as your final destination?  The real struggle is to think through, where am I putting my time, money, and energy?

It's a struggle because we live in today.  Our reality is, we are trying to survive in the world we live in right now.  Through the news and social media, we constantly hear about the world we live in.  Our family, our kids, our jobs are in this world.  But something happens when God’s grace changes us.  It pulls us out of the world we live in to see the bigger picture. 

Let me give you an example.  One of the biggest changes that happened to me was when we had kids.  Before kids, Karen and I just thought about ourselves.  It was wonderful.  We did what we wanted.  We went where we wanted.  Life seemed easier.  But the moment kids came into our lives, it changed everything.  It was like our old lives died for this new life as a family.  All of a sudden, where we lived, mattered, we moved to Northern.  Where we vacationed mattered, we hung out with family.  The movies we watched mattered, we watched kids' movies.  Our family time mattered, we were together all the time.  Why did this happen?  Because our view of family was disrupted.  It was no longer just Karen and me; it was now our family.  Everything changed.  We no longer thought about what we wanted today, we thought, how do we live as a family, raise kids, and be in a relationship with them?  It was like our kids pulled us out of my self-focused living for something bigger and better – family.

Let’s read more about what Jesus taught. 

Matthew 6:19-24 Don’t hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or - worse! - stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it’s safe from moth and rust and burglars. It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.

Your eyes are windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a musty cellar. If you pull the blinds on your windows, what a dark life you will have!

You can’t worship two gods at once. Loving one god, you’ll end up hating the other. Adoration of one feeds contempt for the other. You can’t worship God and Money both. MSG

What does all that mean?  Do you remember what the Pharaohs in Egypt did to prepare for death?  They were buried with all the gold they could collect for the afterlife.  What happened to the gold?  It’s now in museums for people to look at.  They couldn’t take any material things into the afterlife, and we can’t either.  No one has seen a U-Haul behind a hearse.

However, the good that has been done because we gave our time, money, and energy into the kingdom of God, that lasts forever.  That’s what Jesus meant when He said, ‘stockpile your treasures in heaven’. 

And then Jesus said something about our eyes being windows into our souls.  That simply means when our attitude toward material things is God-focused, spiritually, our soul goes bright, generous.  But if our attitude toward giving to God is greed and distrust, spiritually, our soul goes dark, selfish.  Jesus closes with, you can’t live both ways.  You can’t love money and love God at the same time.  No one can be generous to God and selfish to God at the same time, it’s one or the other.

Remember the story that I started with today, when we visited our daughter?  We stayed in the hotel room because we weren’t going to waste our time, our money, and our energy on something temporary.  Think about this with me.  What did we do that weekend?  We gave our time, our money, and our energy to what mattered, our time with our daughter.

When you experience God’s grace, it’s easier to understand what’s important and what isn’t important.  This world isn’t your destination, this world is temporary.  The things of this world have no value because they won’t last.  What really matters, what will last forever, are the eternal things.  Stockpiling our treasures in heaven.  Giving our time, our money, and our energy into the things of God.

Let’s process what Jesus said.

Is this new to you?  Have you ever heard that as Christians, we have died to our lives in this world and are supposed to be focused on heaven?  What do you think about that?  What questions do you have about that?

Has your faith in Jesus disputed your view of this world?  Do you view your time on this earth as your final destination?  Or do you view your time on earth like a temporary stop, like a hotel room?

Where do you put your time, money, and energy? 

Jesus said, stockpile your treasures in heaven, what do you think about that?  Is that easy for you?  Or when you hear that, do you have a ton of follow-up questions?

How would you say you view your time, money, and energy?  Do you feel like you give them generously into God’s kingdom?  Do you feel like you give the least possible, making your soul feel dark or selfish?

What decision do you need to make before you leave here today?