"Let's Make A Deal"
Matthew 6:19-21
Sunday, Novermber 5, 2006

Introduction: In the early 1960’s there was a game show called “Let’s Make A Deal.” This show was hosted by Monty Hall, and was made popular by contestants trying to win what was behind one of three doors. Typically there was a really nice prize (ie. a car) behind one of the doors and a not-so-nice prize (ie. a goat) behind the other two. After selecting a door, Monty would then proceed to open one of the doors they didn't select. It is important to note here that Monty would NOT open the door that concealed the car. At this point, he would then ask if they wanted to switch to the other door before revealing what they had won.

LET’S TAKE A MOMENT AND PLAY THIS GAME A LITTLE!

I. The Price Tags Have Been Changed- (Matthew 19:16-22)

a. Changing values- There is a true story about some thieves who broke

into a jewelry store one night. They didn’t take anything, they simply switched all of the price tags. The next day no one could tell what was valuable and what was cheap. When the thieves came in posing as customers, the expensive jewelry had suddenly become cheap, and the costume jewelry was suddenly of great value. It took a while for the Jewelry store employees to discover that this switch had been made. In the meantime, the thieves got away with thousands of dollars of jewelry for almost nothing.

If you look around the world you can see that this is happening in real life. What should have value doesn’t seem to anymore, and what shouldn’t have value seems to have increased in value. Just on a business level, it is not the main product that is of great value any more. For example, software companies have lowered the price on their products because they realize that the real money comes from customer service and technical support./ A couple of years ago many of the theme parks (Sea World, Universal Studios, and others) were allowing people to receive an annual pass for the price of a single day admission. WHY? Because the parks know that the real money is what gets spent on food and concessions once a family is in the park. THE PRICE TAGS HAVE BEEN CHANGED.

We can look at it in what we support in this world. We value entertainment, and so we will pay a great amount of money to go to the movies and purchase DVD’s. We also love sports, so we will pay a good amount of money to go and see our favorite sports teams play. Because of this entertainers, athletes, and corporate executives make millions and millions of dollars, while a teacher (who teaches our children) barely makes enough to support their family. Now I’m not necessarily saying that these things are bad, but we don’t support the things we really should support. THE PRICE TAGS HAVE BEEN CHANGED.

When I was a kid I used to play my own version of “Let’s Make A Deal” with my mom. I would go up to her and literally say: “Okay mom, let’s make a deal. I know that I’m not supposed to get to go out today, but if I clean my room and do my homework, and promise not to do what I did again, can I go see a movie with my friends?”/ And it was amazing how often I could talk my mom into letting me do what I wanted. You see, I didn’t value what my mom was trying to teach me when she was disciplining me, I only valued what I wanted to do. And we do this all too often in life.

b. The rich man- The rich man- READ Matthew 19:16-22. “Now a man

came up to Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?" "Why do you ask me about what is good?" Jesus replied. "There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments." "Which ones?" the man inquired. Jesus replied, " 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,' and 'love your neighbor as yourself.'" "All these I have kept," the young man said. "What do I still lack?" Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.”

Here we have a story of a rich young ruler. He had wealth, position, and power. He had all the things that he valued. But then he realized that there was something else in life that could be of value, and that was eternal life. Now that he had all that he wanted, now that he had achieved what he believed was important, he was now thinking about that time after he died. And so he posed this question to Jesus: “What good deed must I do to have eternal life?” It is interesting to see how he words this question: “What good deed.” In his life it was hard work that got him what he wanted. He was assuming here that a good deed, that hard work, that doing the right things could lead him into heaven.

So Jesus starts off by playing the game with him by listing off some of the commandments. And the rich young ruler confidently states that he has kept all of these commands. Now Jesus could have easily called the man on this, because nobody can keep all the commandments perfectly; we all struggle in life. But I think Jesus didn’t go there because it wouldn’t have made the point He was trying to make. Jesus knew that eternal life comes from valuing faith in Jesus, and a true desire to follow Jesus. And Jesus knew that if we value money and possessions, then we can’t have faith and we won’t have eternal life. So Jesus tells the man basically to get rid of what you value now so that you can come to value what is really to be valued.

II. What is the real treasure?- (Matthew 6:5, 19-21, 13:44-46; 1 John 5:12)

a. Where is your heart? Which leads us to the scripture I read at the

beginning of the sermon; Matthew 6:19-21, which talks about what we should treasure. Jesus tells us that what we should treasure is that which has eternal value; that which can be stored in heaven; that which cannot be stolen or broken, or consumed.

But before I talk about what this treasure is, let us understand how we know what we treasure. And Jesus tells us that there is a simple test; your heart. Your heart determines for you what is of value to you./ EX. If you have ever seen an action/adventure movie, you know that there is always a scene where the bad guys are trying to manipulate the good guy into giving them what they want. And so they threaten his life. But since the good guy is always tough, he won’t give in to this threat. So then the bad guys change their strategy, and they threaten to harm his wife and kids. This gets the desired result, because the good guy values his family above himself; his heart shows what he truly values.

This is true for us as well. We can talk a good game about what we value, but in the end, our heart will lead us to what we truly value, and our heart will determine where we spend our time, money, and energy. So the key is for us to figure out what should be of great value, so that we can make sure we set our priorities straight, and put our time, money, and energy toward that which matters.

b. Great Value- So what should be of great value to us. That which can

be stored in heaven; that which has eternal merit. In Matthew 13:44-46 we are told by Jesus, "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.”

"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.”

Jesus tells us that the Kingdom of heaven is what is important. And while the Kingdom ultimately will be fully experienced in heaven, we can experience it here on this earth and have an impact on it here on earth. We can have impact in several ways: supporting the church with our money so that the church can be a place of teaching and training and leading people in the Kingdom./ The church is to be the place where we are sent from to go out into the world to share the love of Jesus, which is the second way we can impact the Kingdom here on earth. As we just learned in the Lord’s Prayer the last couple of weeks, God wants to see His Kingdom taking shape. And it is our living out God’s will, and sharing God’s love and the message of salvation that helps those around us to live it out as well.

And so we see that things like love, loved ones, and the message of salvation are what cannot be stolen or destroyed, and what will last for eternity. These are the things that we should treasure in our hearts, and this is what we should value.

c. Reward- And Jesus tells us that we will get our just reward in the end.

But the problem is, when we seek the wrong treasures, we will get wrong rewards. In Matthew 6:5, Jesus tells us not to be like the Pharisees when they pray. When the Pharisees prayed, they would stand out in public, and they would have the elaborate outfits that made them appear to be holy, and they would lift their hands to the Lord to get attention, and they would pray out loud with fancy language to sound all spiritual. But of this action, Jesus said: “…Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.” Their reward was the false public adoration they received, instead of having the reward of God hearing their prayers and answering their prayers.

Or the reward Judas, who was upset that Jesus wasn’t leading the Jews to overthrow the Romans. Judas had hoped that he would gain wealth and power. But in the end when he realized that Jesus was not going to do this, Judas betrayed Jesus and turned Him over to the Romans. Judas’ reward was grief, which led him to suicide!

But when we seek after the right treasure, then we will get the right reward. And there is so many scriptures that show us this promise, we don’t have time to talk about them now. But here are a couple: 1 John 5:12, “Whoever has the Son, has life…” The life that is talked about here is eternal life. When we believe in Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord, the guaranteed reward is eternal life. And also, the 2 great commands of Jesus, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor like yourself.” Jesus tells us that there is no greater action than to love, and we are created to love God and each other. When we do this, the reward is peace, joy and satisfaction in life. And this will carry over into heaven!

Conclusion: Let’s Make A Deal. We began this time together playing the old Let’s Make A Deal game. And we had some fun, and some of you gained some prizes. Prizes that you can either use yourselves, or pass on to someone who can. But more important than these prizes, is having love, joy, and peace fill our lives. More important than material goods is having the rewards of heaven. So here is the deal: you can choose door 1 or door 2. Door 1 is the door which is seeking after the things of this world (wealth, power, material goods, fancy trips, big cars, etc…), but door 2 is the door to the Kingdom of God (sharing love, giving forgiveness, being content with what we have, eternal life). If you would choose door 2, if you would treasure door 2, then the Bible promises that you will have a great reward in heaven. Which door do you choose? I choose door 2. Amen.