Using Money To Direct Our Hearts Series

We’re continuing in our series in the Sermon on the Mount and today we’re having the last talk in the series for the time being.

Today, I’m going to focus on the first three verses of today’s passage, verses 19-21, and one phrase in particular. In v.19, Jesus says, ‘DON’T store up treasure on earth’. In v.20 he says, ‘DO store up treasure in heaven’. Then we come to the phrase I want to focus on. In v.21 he says, ‘For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also’.

I find this surprising for several reasons.

First, Jesus is saying that we can decide where our hearts are. Do we really have that kind of control over our hearts?

Second, Jesus seems to take it as a given that we might want to change where our hearts are.

And third, Jesus is saying that how we spend our money will affect where our hearts are.

I’m going to take a look at those three points and then draw out some practical applications.

The FIRST SURPRISING THING is that – according to Jesus – WE can decide where our hearts are!

Do you find that surprising?

People sometimes talk about ‘nature’ versus ‘nurture’. Is who we are the result of our DNA? Or is it the result of our environment – our parents, the country we were born into, and so on?

We often think that our likes and dislikes, the things we set our hearts on, are a deep-rooted part of us. They’re almost part of our DNA. One person likes company; another likes to be on their own. One person likes fishing; another likes motorsports. That’s simply the way we are. That’s what we think.

But when we look into the Bible, we see that people’s hearts are not very fixed at all. God can influence our hearts, other people can influence our hearts, and we can influence our hearts.

GOD can influence our hearts. For example, in the Bible we sometimes read that God hardens people’s hearts. But God can also revive people’s hearts. Or he can incline people’s hearts towards something. There’s a proverb which says, ‘The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will’ [Proverbs 21:1]. On one occasion, God told the people of Israel ‘And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh’ [Ezekiel 36:26]. So God can profoundly influence our hearts.

OTHER PEOPLE can also influence our heart. For example, there’s a psalm where David wrote, ‘Reproaches have broken my heart’ [Psalm 69:20]. People’s scorn and criticism affected David’s heart. But we can also positively influence other people’s hearts, by the things we say, by our encouragement, and by our prayers. Other people can influence our hearts.

And WE can also influence our own hearts. For example, the writer of Ecclesiastes – probably Solomon – wrote that he gave his heart up to despair (Ecclesiastes 2:20). No doubt depression can be a medical condition. But in this instance, Solomon was conscious that he just let his heart go in a particular direction. In the time of the early church, someone called Ananias gave some money to the church. But there was something deceptive about the way he did it. Peter asked him, ‘Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit…? What does that tell us? Satan had filled Ananias’ heart. But Peter asked Ananias how it happened. Ananias had control. He had allowed Satan into his heart.

These examples show that God can influence our hearts. Other people can influence our hearts. And, most importantly from the point of view of what we’re talking about, WE can influence our own hearts. So the idea that is implied in what Jesus is saying, that WE can decide where our hearts are, isn’t actually surprising.

Let’s go on to the SECOND SURPRISING THING. Jesus said ‘DON’T store up treasure on earth … DO store up treasure in heaven … For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also’. The implication is that we might want to change where our hearts are! Do you find that surprising?

Do you know the song, ‘Don't go changing, to try and please me’? The singer is saying, in effect, ‘I accept YOU as YOU ARE.’ There’s another song which is similar. It starts ‘Don't try to change me, or rearrange me … accept ME for the way that I AM.’ A lot of people would agree with these songs. I don’t want you to change. And don’t try to change me. And yet Jesus clearly assumes that we might very well want to change. We might want to change where our hearts are, what our hearts are set on. He’s assuming that we might want to become different people to who we are at present! That goes against the view of many people today. But it’s at the core of the Christian faith. As Christians, we DO want to change. God created us in his image, but that image, to some extent, has been lost. We want to change FROM who we are, but only in ways in which we have drifted from the image of Christ, TO the people God created us to be. People today think, ‘I don’t want you to change. And don’t try to change me.’ But that isn’t the Christian’s attitude. We WANT to change, back to the design God had for us.