Saturday, April 1

Author: Chuck Roberts, Senior Associate Pastor

FROM THE BIBLE

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Matthew 6:19-21

DEVOTIONAL

I don’t recall with clarity everything that led up to the response, but there are some things I do recall. 

It was somewhere during my “first tour of duty” at Peachtree (I was the Minister to Singles from 1989-1995), and I was teaching the Roaring Twenties Sunday school class. I even remember the day well enough to recall that we were meeting in the old gym. 

I remember teaching from the Sermon on the Mount and the particular passage above. I was talking about how we value things and where our culture places value. I made some comment about paying people to make money while teachers—people who shape lives for a living—get paid peanuts to feed the elephants. I hesitated, not for dramatic effect, but likely because I was looking at my notes when someone started to clap. Then more people joined, and before I knew it, the entire class—back when Roaring Twenties had over 200 in attendance every Sunday—applauded. 

The point I was trying to make that day is for us all to think about what we are going to find when we get to heaven. 

People. Souls that will last for eternity. 

And where are we investing ourselves now? In things that will be used for a while, then be discarded? Or lives that hunger for God’s steadfast love?

As we engage in Renewing the Promise, please remember that while we are renovating facilities that are in need of attention, what is behind our renovations is the strategy that we must invest in the souls of people who come to Peachtree to worship, to engage in fellowship, and to grow in their faith. We’re even investing in lives and souls as we help to purchase a church for Iranian Christian refugees in Germany!

How are you storing up treasures in heaven today?

PRAYER

God of every good and perfect gift, I thank You today for the ways You have blessed me and my family. Help me to invest in my family today, and in Your Kingdom with all that I have and all that is in me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.