Where Is Your Heart?
If I say that I love someone with all my heart what do I mean? Or if I say I mean this from the bottom of my heart? What does that mean? It means I really mean it. The heart is sometimes identified with our emotions. We say things like this …sometimes we say I feel it in my gut. In other words it is a strong feeling.
Who knows what this is? It is a checkbook. You probably don't have a checkbook, but your mom and dad do, and I am sure that you have seen them use it many times. Most of us don't like to carry a lot of money around with us, so we put our money in the bank and when we need to buy something, we just write a check to pay for it. I heard someone say years ago I must have money in the bank because I haven’t run out of checks. Well it doesn’t work that way. You can have a bunch of checks but might not have any money.
Now, it is very important to keep track of all of the checks we have written so that we don't spend more money than we have in the bank. Every time we write a check or use a debit card we need to write down in this checkbook who I wrote the check to and for how much money. That way I have a record of exactly how much money I have spent and how I spent it.
So let’s connect these two thoughts. You know, you can tell a lot about a person by looking at their checkbook. You can tell what is really important to a person by how they spend their money. I looked back at my last ten purchases I made…where I spent my money. (last ten transactions)
Hmmm, Yes, you can tell a lot about a person by reading their checkbook. Show bank statement. Last 10 purchases: Gas for truck, offering for church, food at Winn Dixie, Dr. Pepper,
$ General (home supplies), Lowe’s (light), Dr. Pepper, Dr. Pepper & Kit Kat bar, Duke energy and WaWa for lunch.
Jesus once said, "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." The heart is a symbol for love, isn't it? So what Jesus was saying is that you can tell what a person really loves by what he treasures the most. How do you know what a person treasures the most? Do you ask them what the most important thing is in their life? No, there are two ways you can tell what is most important to a person. The first is how they spend their money and the second is how they spend their time.
If we say that we love God, but spend every cent we have on ourselves, do we love God or self? If we say that we love God, but we never spend any time with Him, do we really love Him? Jesus said that we should love our neighbor as ourselves. If we say that we love our neighbor but we never share what God has given us with them, do we really love our neighbor? You don't learn what a person's treasure is by asking them. You learn by watching how they spend their time and their money. Look at the things you spend your time and money on and then ask yourself, "What do I treasure? Where is my heart?"
Dear Jesus, help us to make sure that our heart is in the right place. Help us to show our love for you and for one another in the way we spend our time and our money. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
