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What are the things that people treasure the most? According to a Google search the top 4 things people treasure are: the beauty of nature, the joy of friends, the love of family and the thrill of learning. However, I would tell you that all you need to do is take a quick look at someone's check book ledger and you will soon learn what they truly treasure, what is most important to them. If you look at my checkbook you will see that I spend a lot of money on groceries. One thing that I treasure is a good meal! Around Christmas time if you look at my checkbook ledger you would soon learn that my children and grandchildren are very important to my. During the spring and fall I enjoy going camping, cooking over and open fire and relaxing around the campfire with my wife, family and friends. My difficult question for you is this; would you still love Jesus if the things you treasure the most in life were taken from you?

John 21:15 ESV When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.”

Honestly, it’s hard for me to even imagine what my life would be if certain things or people weren’t in it. God forbid if something unexpected were to happen such as the death of my wife. That would rock my world and shake the foundation of my life and make me question God. What if my house was to catch fire, I was suddenly homeless and all had was the clothes on my back. What if I faced a serious health diagnosis like a terminal cancer diagnosis. These are things that have happened in life to people I know and love, but what if they happened to me....what if? As a true believer, no matter what happens in my life I am supposed love Jesus, even if the thing I treasure the most is taken from me! The core of the Christian faith is that love for God is unconditional and not dependent on external circumstances. Love is not just a biblical principal. It’s the foundation of who God is.

Matthew 22: 37-40 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Is it possible to love God more than the person I love the most in the world, more that even my wife? The answer is not only yes it is possible, the answer is, I absolutely must! This is what it means to be a Christian. I must love God first and love God most. I must love God with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind, and all our strength. Being a Christian means that I love God with everything I have and everything I am. I cannot do that if I love something in this world more than I love God.

Luke 14:26 ESV If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

Jesus doesn’t want us to despise our families, our spouses or our children. He wants us to know that following Him means choosing Him over anything and everything else. If you want to be a Christian, to be God's disciple, you must love Him more than anything or anyone else in your life, in fact you must treasure God more than even your own life. So what do you treasure most in life?

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