What is your most valuable possession?

Think about it.

Where is your most valuable possession?

Are your valuables safe?

Perhaps the first step in answering these questions is knowing the real value of things. In a 1987 edition of The Atlanta Journal Constitution, there is a story about a rock collector named Rob Cutshaw. The article describes Rob owning a little roadside shop outside Andrews, North Carolina. Like many in the trade, he hunts for rocks, then sells them to collectors or jewelry makers. Rob knows enough about rocks to decide which to pick up and sell, but he’s no expert. He leaves the appraising of the rocks to other people. As much as Rob enjoys the work, it doesn’t always pay the bills. He occasionally moonlights, cutting wood to help put bread on the table.

Here is where it gets interesting. While on a dig years ago, Rob found a rock he described as “purdy and big.” He tried unsuccessfully to sell the specimen, and according to the article, he kept the rock under his bed or in his closet. He guessed the blue chunk could bring as much as $500, but he would have taken less if something urgent came up like paying his power bill.

That’s how close Rob came to hawking for a few hundred dollars what turned out to be the largest, most valuable sapphire ever found. The blue rock that Rob had abandoned to the darkness of a closet decades ago is now known as “The Star of David” sapphire. It weighs nearly a pound, and could quickly sell for $2.75 million.

TRUTH: Things are not always what they seem.

Matthew 6:19-21

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on Earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves 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.”

Jesus says there are two types of treasures. One is good, and one is bad. But we need to know which is which. Sometimes we get them confused. Location one is Earth, where “moth and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal.” Location two is Heaven, “where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.”

I want to ask you another question.

What do you think happens after you die?

1 John 4:17 says, “We may have confidence for the day of judgment.” The day of judgment John mentions is a mystery worth explaining. The Bema Seat of Christ and The Great White Throne of Judgment are the two significant judgments mentioned in the Bible. The Great White Throne of Judgment is for unbelievers, and the Bema (Judgment) Seat of Christ is for believers.

As believers, we do not have to fear the judgment of our sins. Christ took our punishment upon Himself at the cross. John says we may have confidence for the Day of Judgment. OUR SERVICE will be evaluated at the judgment seat of Christ, not OUR SIN.

When we stand before Him, it will be for REWARD, not REPRIMAND. This believer’s payday is where we will receive the treasure Jesus taught about when he said, “Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven” (Matthew 6:20).

The Crown of Righteousness, the Crown of Life, the Incorruptible Crown, the Crown of Rejoicing, and the Crown of Glory are five of the crowns of reward mentioned in the New Testament. Unlike the rewards we receive here in life on earth, the rewards we receive at the Judgment Seat of Christ for heaven are eternal and will never perish.

The thing that a person values most highly inevitably occupies the center of his or her heart. The heart is the center of the personality, and it controls the intellect, emotion, and will. What is your most valuable possession? Where is your most valuable possession? Are your valuables safe?

The body of missionary David Livingstone was buried in England, where he was born, but his heart was buried in the Africa he loved. At the foot of a tall tree in a small African village, the natives dug a hole and placed in it the heart of the missionary they loved and respected. If your heart were to be buried in the place you loved most during life, where would it be? In your pocketbook? Down in the office?

Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Where is your heart?

Jesus said, “Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.”

Are your valuables safe?