Trash or Treasure

TITLE: Trash or Treasure
DATE: February 25, 2019
TEXT: Phil 3: 7-9- ESV - 7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, 

Where is your treasure? What is your trash? Those are reasonable questions for a Daily Devotion.

Did I hear someone say, "My treasure is in security?" Oh, bless you. What a wonderful thought--security. Are we talking about the security of a house? This year too many children have been abducted from the security of their homes and their own front yards.

Possibly, you mean the security of a solid job? Too many of my friends are hitting the streets because employment security has proven illusive.

Are we talking about the security which comes from technology? Are we talking about the technology which kept the crew on the space shuttle Columbia safe or are we talking about the technology which keeps your personal and credit card information safe from thieves?

Where is your treasure? What is your trash?

From what I’ve seen our basements, garages, and attics are overflowing with trashed treasures. Every yard sale is filled with trashed treasures. Every closet is stuffed with trashed treasures, that is because things we once thought to be valuable have been demoted. What we need is to find a treasure we can trust for time and through eternity.
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To that end, might I suggest Jesus?  I know at first glance, He might not look like a treasure.

• When He was born in Bethlehem, He certainly didn't. Wrapped as He was in swaddling clothes, sleeping in an animal's feed trough, He didn't look like much. But He was enough of a treasure that wisemen journeyed many miles to worship Him and His own king tried to murder Him.
• Years later, He stepped out of the Jordan, just having been baptized by His cousin, John. That day, He would have looked wet, nothing at all like a treasure. Yet, John saw Jesus for Who He was, "the Lamb of God who had come to take away the sins of the world" (John 1:29). This was, according to God's own words: "His Son, in whom He was well pleased" (Matthew 3:17).

If you had walked with Him during those years, you might have thought, "This fellow is a treasure?"

• He didn't look like God's treasure when He was tired and exhausted. But He got that way by calling people from their sins and pointing them to a new life of forgiveness and faith. He got that way by loving people so hard He didn't have anything left for Himself.

He gave Himself for you…and that, my friends makes Him a Treasure with a capital “T”.

THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, when I look at the manger and the cross, I see Your Son Who gave Himself for a world which needs Him. Now make ours a world which wants Him. This I ask in the Savior’s Name. Amen.  

The music which introduces and concludes our devotions was written by Guy Baumann, one of my long-ago confirmands. He is singing with three brothers. This song comes from the album: The Baumann Brothers which may be ordered here: http://thebaumannbrothers.com/index.html