Gather your treasure in Heaven 

The theme for today is more of the blessings of God in our lives, and this sermon wants to show the way to get the most valuable blessings we can have: the spiritual blessings of Jesus Christ  and to have a treasure waiting for us in Heaven, a place where the joy is unspeakable and the glory indescribable, and it lasts forever. Whatever we gather here on earth will vanish, but what we gather in Heaven will never vanish. but also here on earth the spiritual blessings are so much precious than earthly things. 

If I had a million dollars but I didn’t have Jesus, I would be a poor man already here on earth, and lost for Eternity. But if I have Jesus, the police can take my house and put me in jail, but I will still be rich, already here on earth, because I still have Jesus, and in Heaven I would have an amazing indescribable glory waiting for me, because I had suffered for Jesus. 

This sermon wants to help us to lift our eyes up to Jesus and Heaven, because our inheritance is waiting for us there. The apostle Paul says that he prays that God the Father should open up our eyes so we can understand what great hope God has called us to and the riches of glory of God’s inheritance for the saints. If we realised what was waiting for us in Heaven, the glory, the joy, the freedom, we would leap and shout with joy, at least on the inside. 

Jesus will come back soon, and in Mathew 24 Jesus speaks about the signs of His Coming, and one sign is persecution, and today Jesus’s disciples suffer for the Name of Jesus in many countries, and I believe it might come to Sweden also. But, Paul says, our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and Eternal weight of glory. Remember: Suffering is temporary, but the glory and joy lasts forever. 

Already today in Sweden the society rejects us, call us intolerant and judgemental, but then I have a choice. Listen to my feelings, be sad and weep. Or listen to Jesus: blessed are you when they hate you and exclude your for My Namesake. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for indeed your reward is great in Heaven. Listen to the Words of Jesus, and not your feelings. Think about your life in the perspective of Eternity and your treasure in Heaven.

I believe that before Jesus comes, testing is waiting for us, especially for Western Europe and USA, but we have to hold on for just a short moment and set our eyes on Jesus and the reward in Heaven, because then we get strength and hope. 

Romans 5 says that through Jesus we have access by faith to this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. The glory of Heaven is something we can rejoice over. And Paul even continues: and not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulations produces perseverance, and perseverance character, and character hope. And hope does notdisappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Think about what God is really saying: the hope of Heaven will not disappoint, it’s real! We have something wonderful waiting for us. 

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The greatest blessings in your life is waiting for you in Heaven, it’s our homeland. Jesus said: do not lay up for yourself treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourself treasures in Heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 

When you gather your treasure in Heaven, no one can take it away from you, and your heart will be with Jesus, and the spiritual blessings of your life will be great. We can be given earthly blessings also, so if God gives you a wife, children, or a good job, thank God for it, but don’t let it take away your heart from Jesus. Give Jesus your first love, give Jesus the first place in your life, and that will give you blessings. 

Then, What does it mean to gather a treasure in Heaven? I believe it means many things, but the most obvious is to testify about Jesus, and win people for Christ. Carter Conlon, today a great American preacher, was born again, saved and baptised in the Holy Spirit, and he was totally changed. The Spirit made him speak about Jesus all the time and many of his colleagues were saved. One colleague once said: Carter, don’t you speak about anything else but Jesus? And Carter looked at him and said: no, I don’t. That man gave his life to Jesus later. To win people for Jesus Christ is to gather a treasure in Heaven. 

But it’s not only to lead people to Christ. We all have individual callings from God. One can be called to be a soul winner for Jesus Christ, others to be strong in prayer, someone to be a loving mother. 

The calling is individual, so seek God’s will for your life, and do what He calls you to do with love, faithfulness and devotion, because the reward in Heaven depends not upon how “great” your calling was, but upon how great you were in faithfulness and love. 

But I believe that the greatest calling we have, and it’s the same for all of us, is to gather more of Jesus inside of us here on earth. David Wilkerson, a great American evangelist, said in prayer: Lord, I want to win the whole world for You! But Jesus answered: David, that’s good, but I Am more interested in winning all of you for Me! 

Jesus is more interested in you, as a person, than in what you can do for Him. So our first calling is to become more Christlike, to come closer to Jesus. But the more we gather of Jesus inside of us, the more it will flow out from our inner man and affect the people around us. When you have Jesus inside of you, people will sense it, even if we don’t even mention the Name of Jesus. They will feel your love, they will see you spreading good things from God around you, even if you don’t  notice that yourself. And it can be small things: a kind word, visiting someone who is sick, just listening to somebody. Jesus said that whoever gives just a cup of water to one of His disciples, he shall not be without reward in Heaven. Our God is so generous, and what seems small in your eyes can be great in the Eyes of Jesus, if it’s done with love and kindness, and the reward in Heaven can be great. 

This is to testify about Jesus with my life, my personality. 

But to testify with my life must not take such a great place that I never speak about Jesus. But do it in the Spirit, lead by the grace of God, not by the Law or the flesh. When I am lead by the Law and the flesh, I think: I MUST speak about Jesus, it doesn’t come natural, I force it and will bear very little fruit. But when I am lead by the Spirit and by God’s grace, then it comes like a river from inside of me, Jesus gives me such a love for Him so that I feel a longing, a desire to speak about Jesus, and then it will bear more fruit. But ask Jesus to lead you everyday and give you the right words to speak about Jesus. 

The apostle Paul was forgetting those things that were behind, and reaching forward to those things which are ahead. He said: I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Paul was really looking for the reward in Heaven, not living for this world, and not being lazy. But sometimes the Lord let Paul go to jail for a while, and I believe it could have many reasons, maybe to strengthen his faith through testing, test his faithfulness, but maybe sometimes to slow him down, make him pray and seek the Lord more to write some letters. The churches Paul founded are all long gone, but the letters are still here, affecting the lives of billions of people through history. God knows what He is doing. 

Because we also need to slow down sometimes, just do as the disciple that Jesus loved, John, who loved do just sit beside Jesus and lean his head towards Jesus’s bosom, just being with Jesus, just getting to know Jesus. 

Because There is nothing more important for us than getting to know Jesus more and more, it’s even more important than to serve Jesus, and the more we know Jesus, the more we will be filled with Him, and we will be more like Christ in our personality. So we sometimes need to just enjoy the presence of Jesus, just let Him lead us to still waters, just let the love and grace of Jesus flow over us and fill us, clean us, restore us and let His face shine upon us. 

Because God is a rewarder of those who seek Him. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you! The more we seek Jesus, the more He will come closer to us. 

being saved, born again, is the greatest thing that can happen to you in life, and that is more clear to those who have also lived without Jesus. To be a follower of Jesus Christ also means that we face testing and sometimes suffering here on earth, but to be a child of God and to be loved by Jesus is still the greatest thing in our lives. 

And if that is true already here on earth, how much more will it not necessarily true in Heaven, where all the suffering and tears are gone, and we only have the blessings of Jesus? In Heaven everyone will say: thank God that You sent Your Son and thank You Jesus for saving me! The joy waiting for us in Heaven is unspeakable, and it lasts forever and ever. Remember that! 

As followers of Christ we can also say: it’s more of the Glory of Jesus Christ that I long for! The Holy Spirit is also called the Spirit of Glory. It’s said in 2 Corinthians that the glory and radiance of God from the face of Moses was so strong after he had been speaking with the Lord on the Mount Sinai, that the children of Israel couldn’t look steadily at his face, and that was the covenant of the Law, how much more glory wouldn’t the new covenant of the Spirit have? To some extent this shining in the face is today upon preachers like Wilkerson and Conlon, who I have mentioned. 

But Our God Is very generous, and He is willing to give yo anyone who asks and is willing to receive, to you and me! And Paul says that if we daily behold Jesus even we are transformed into the image of Christ, from glory to glory. Behold Jesus, and You will be more and more like Jesus, with an indescribable inner beauty in your personality and radiance of your face. And this is true for everyone, men and women, so we are all becoming younger and younger and more and more beautiful for every day, so now I made myself popular here today, especially among the women. So remind yourself and your husbands, that you are getting younger and more beautiful on the inside for every day! Some spiritual humor… 

I will close soon, but finally, what is the reward in Heaven? Jesus speaks about reigning over five or ten cities, so that’s one part of it. But what I wish more than anything else, is that my reward would be to be close to Jesus for all of Eternity. To see the Face of Jesus Christ, to be filled and surrounded by Jesus’s love and to have the joy of Heaven for all of Eternity. There is no greater reward that that. 

The reward in Heaven that awaits a believer in Christ is indescribable, and Jesus is coming back very soon now. We see all the signs of His Coming, and Jesus doesn’t tell us to fear, no, to look up and lift up our heads, because our redemption draws near. I personally believe that some testing are ahead of us before Jesus comes, especially for the Western World, but maybe for most of the believers in Christ. Then we need to take courage and think about Heaven and the Coming of Jesus, because that gives us hope, strength and courage. 

Because the reward in Heaven is so great, and Eternal, so it’s worth any sacrifice here on earth. And the reward in Heaven is all by grace. Paul said that he had worked more than all the other apostles, but then he said: but not I myself but God’s grace. Even when we serve the Lord, it’s the grace and power of God who is at work, not our own efforts. So think about this: we serve Jesus here on earth, but He gives us both strength and grace to do it, and then Jesus gives us a reward for it in Heaven! What a good, generous and Mighty God we have, full of grace, love and mercy. So live for Jesus, gather a treasure in Heaven, and think about the reward in Heaven. Amen.