For the most part, everyone wants to keep their stuff. Yes, there are those people of whom we say, “He’d give his shirt off his back if someone asked for it.” This is true of some people, but in reality, the percentage of people willing to give up everything is quite small.

We had a house fire nearly ten years ago. We were at the church when we received a call about our home burning down. As we rushed to the scene, Julie prayed for our memory stuff. We had a shelf with dozens of photo albums, and a closet that contained the clothing our kids wore home from the hospital after birth, our daughter’s wedding dresses, and several other items of great sentimental value.

All five fire stations in our county responded to the call. When we arrived, we saw an answer to prayer, an act of God’s grace. The house was destroyed, nearly everything was turned to ash, but in the middle stood that closet. As for the contents of the closet, there was some smoke damage. We had to shovel the ashes away from the door to get inside. The fact that the closet was still there was a miracle. When it came to the picture albums, they were all lying in the yard, outside the burnt-down structure. A fireman had seen them on the shelf and risked his life to throw them out the window into the yard. I am forever thankful to God and to the firefighters of our county for the job they did that night.

Other than the contents of the closet and the photo albums, it was a total loss. We were underinsured, so for the next five years, we paid house payments on a hole in the ground. The only reason I included that last sentence is that I do not want people to think that our misfortune turned into a financial windfall through insurance.

What happened to us happens to thousands of people across our country every year. House fires, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, and other things leave people devastated, often everything they have worked for all their lives, sentimental things that are priceless to the family, are here one minute and in the blink of an eye are gone the next.

No one, from the billionaire to the homeless person, and nearly everyone in between, wants to lose their stuff. The billionaire does not want to lose use of his private jet, and the homeless person will clutch the grocery cart they keep their belongings in with all their might if they think someone is trying to take it.

At this point, you may be thinking that the preacher is going to tell us that we can’t take it with us when we die, blah, blah, blah. But I want to talk about an event that is at least 1,007 years away. Next on God’s prophetic timetable is the rapture of the church; shortly after that, the seven-year tribulation begins. When Christ returns at the end of the tribulation, He begins His 1,000-year reign. Once the thousand years expire, Satan is released for “a little season.” Then comes the final victory of good over evil. Then everything melts, followed by the judgment of the unsaved, then a new heaven and a new earth are established, and eternity begins (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18; Revelation 20; Revelation 21:1-2).

I find it fascinating that, in the description God gives of the end of the world, it is embedded in a question about our priorities in life. 2 Peter 3:10-12, “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?”

What’s more important: living a godly and holy life or accumulating stuff that, in the end, will melt away?

Now, before you think I’m suggesting that people sell everything they own, move to a mountain top, sit cross-legged and hum for the rest of their lives, that is the furthest thing from the truth. The Bible tells us we should work to provide food (2 Thessalonians 3:10). It goes so far as to say that the things we acquire in life are the gift of God and should be enjoyed (Ecclesiastes 2:24, 3:13, 5:18).

What God is getting at in Second Peter is that our stuff should not be our priority; living a holy and righteous life should be our aim. Jesus said as much in the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 6:31-33, “Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”

This prioritizing stuff over godliness and holiness is a huge problem among Christians today. When describing the condition of the church of the Laodiceans in Revelation chapter three, Jesus said that their lukewarmness caused Him to vomit, and the first cause listed for their lukewarmness was their attitude, which was that they were “increased with goods, and have need of nothing” (Revelation 3:14-22).

We are saved by the blood of Jesus Christ, not by living righteous lives. However, every Christian should strive to live a holy and godly life. Our goal should not be material gain, but spiritual riches.

Our stuff will melt away someday, our soul and spirit will continue forever, which is more important?

Preacher Johnson is Pastor of Countryside Baptist Church in Parke County Indiana. Website: www.preachers-point.com; Email: preacherspoint@gmail.com; Mail: 25 W 1200 N; Kingman IN 47952.  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Timothy-Preacher-Johnson-101171088326638. All Scripture KJV.