Title: How Do You See People?
Text:
Matthew 6:19-21 (ESV)
19 "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal,
20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.
21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Observation:
I read this passage this morning, and the thought that leaped off the page and into my heart was the word deposit. I thought about what God had on His mind in creation.
In creation God chose to do something for the first man and woman that He did not do for any other part of creation. Why did He do it?
Genesis 1:27-28 (ESV)
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth."
Being created in the image of God makes us different, special, blessed, and highly favored. With this blessing comes a responsibility in how we value people.
The letter of James talks to us about how we should use our tongue. Notice the exhortation about the use of the tongue in our relationship with people.
James 3:9-10 (NLT)
9 Sometimes it praises our Lord and Father, and sometimes it curses those who have been made in the image of God.
10 And so blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth. Surely, my brothers and sisters, this is not right!
Think about this before you open your mouth. Why not make a deposit in the life of someone today because by doing so you will not only make a deposit in the life of that person; made in the image of God, but you will be making a deposit in the Bank of Heaven. How we see others will determine how we treat them. Let's see others the way God made them, and speak words of blessing, and encouragement to them.
Prayer:
Our Father in heaven, I ask that You would help each of us to see others as people made in Your image.
Father God, I pray that the words of James would be stored deep in our hearts, and that they would inform our mouth before we speak. In the mighty name of Jesus I pray, Amen.
James 3:9-10 (NLT)
9 Sometimes it praises our Lord and Father, and sometimes it curses those who have been made in the image of God.
10 And so blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth. Surely, my brothers and sisters, this is not right!
Matthew 4:4 (HCSB)
4 But He answered, "It is written: Man must not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God."
Psalm 2:8 (HCSB)
8 Ask of Me, and I will make the nations Your inheritance and the ends of the earth Your possession.
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