MEMORY VERSE: ‘And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.’ Luke 11:9.
LESSON SCRIPTURE: Matthew 6:19-24.
STUDY HELP: Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, pages 88-95.
LESSON AIM: To study Christ’s words about treasure.
‘We are permitted to unite with Him in the great work of redemption and to be sharers with Him in the riches which His death and suffering have won. The apostle Paul wrote to the Thessalonian Christians: “What is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming? for ye are our glory and joy.” 1 Thessalonians 2:19, 20. This is the treasure for which Christ bids us labour. Character is the great harvest of life. And every word or deed that through the grace of Christ shall kindle in one soul an impulse that reaches heavenward, every effort that tends to the formation of a Christlike character, is laying up treasure in heaven.’ Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, pages 89-90.
1. What counsel did Jesus give about accumulating possessions? Matthew 6:19, first part. Compare 1 Timothy 6:9-10.
NOTE: ‘Treasure laid up on the earth will engross the mind to the exclusion of heavenly things. The love of money was the ruling passion in the Jewish age. Worldliness usurped the place of God and religion in the soul. So it is now. Avaricious greed for wealth exerts such a fascinating, bewitching influence over the life that it results in perverting the nobility and corrupting the humanity of men until they are drowned in perdition. The service of Satan is full of care, perplexity, and wearing labour, and the treasure men toil to accumulate on earth is only for a season.’ Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, page 88.
2. What may happen to worldly possessions? Matthew 6:19, last part.
NOTE: ‘Great prominence was given last week on the hoardings and in the newspapers to the robbery of jewels valued at £80,000 from an Englishman in a railway carriage in Austria. There is where poor people have a decided advantage; they are insured against any such loss, by the fact that they do not have it to lose. But no matter how much any man has, he can easily insure himself against its loss, if he will follow the Saviour’s directions: “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth or rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.”’ E. J. Waggoner: Present Truth, March 27, 1902.