Psalm 119:72 – “the law of Your mouth (revelation) is better to me than thousands of coins of gold and silver”.
David is writing, and he's saying: I’ve got lots of gold and silver, but what's more important is revelation, hearing from God personally, because all I have has come out of that. I encourage you to go through the verses around true riches; and then start to look at your own heart. Is your heart set on intimacy with the Lord, and knowing Jesus Christ, in whom are all the riches? Is your heart set on wisdom and on understanding? Is your heart set on the pursuit of those things, or is your heart set on the pursuit of other things? If you get wisdom and understanding, then many other things come to you, or are attracted to you, in life.
The Bible tells us of several ways we can lay up treasures in heaven. You can look at the scriptures on it, but prayer is one. Jesus taught in Matthew 6, that with Prayer - God will reward us. Fasting - God will reward us. Giving - God will reward us. Treasure in heaven! Kindness to the poor - God will reward us. Loving people with no agenda - God will reward us. Faithfulness (Luke 16) - God will reward us. Enduring persecution - God will reward us. Sacrifice, laying down your life to service - God will reward us. Worship lifestyle - God will reward us. You can find the scriptures… all these things give us access to the riches of heaven. Every time you pray, you can access the presence of God and lay up treasures in heaven. You lay up an access to God's resources coming and manifesting in the earth.
The last one I want to look at tonight, and is the area #8, Vindication. Jesus will vindicate us, for following and obeying Him. So what does vindicate mean? It means to clear of accusation, blame, suspicion, doubt. It means to defend you - to insist you are recognised, or to validate you. To clear you of accusation, or blame, or suspicion, take away all doubt - it’s got supporting proof. It means to defend you; insist that you're recognised. It means: to demonstrate, or prove, your value; to justify you.
Revelation 3:9 – “I will make those who persecuted you come and worship before your feet and know I have loved you”.
Frequently during life, Christians who are following the Lord sincerely and deeply suffer misunderstanding. We get falsely accused; rejected; ridiculed for our lifestyle; ridiculed because we don't do what everyone else does, or because of our choices and our values. Part of the suffering that we have, is you can't vindicate yourself; you can't prove that you're right. All you can do is let the fruit be shown over time - but in the end God will vindicate us. Christ will openly vindicate the godly choices you make. Your lifestyle, your choices, He will honour you for what you've chosen to do, in following Him.
1 Peter 4:3-5 – “The time is past enough for doing what the unsaved Gentiles do, living in the course of sensuality, lusts and drunkenness; in connection with this the unbelievers are resentful, surprised you not think like them, value their values, or run with them in the same excesses of dissipation, immoral freedom. They criticise, abuse and ridicule, make fun of you. But they will have to give an account of him who's ready to judge, and pass sentence on the living and the dead”.
As a believer you suffer ridicule, misunderstanding, abuse, and all kinds of accusations, mistreatment, and hardship. However, those who do that, will give account to the Lord, and He will vindicate you. “I will make them know I have loved you”. One of the things that God plans to do is, He wants to make everyone know how deeply He loves you, because of the walk you've had. Jesus said: I will make them know. He Himself will vindicate you, before those who gave you such a hard time. “Those who honour Me, I will honour them”. God has His own way of doing that. As we've honoured Jesus in our lifestyle, and gone through suffering, then He will in His coming again, will honour us before all people.