(Based on a message preached January 8, 2023 at First Baptist Church of Chamois, MO, but is not an exact transcription)
Introduction: Good morning to you all and Happy New Year plus a few days! You know, I had planned on preaching from a different text this morning but I believe the Lord nudged me into this direction. Besides, the message from this text is something we can follow every day.
Our text this morning comes from Matthew 6, part of the Sermon on the Mount, one of the longest and most detailed messages Jesus ever preached. I’ll read from verses 16 through 34:
Text: Matthew 6:16-34, NASB: 16 “Now whenever you fast, do not make a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they distort their faces so that they will be noticed by people when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. 17 But as for you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18 so that your fasting will not be noticed by people but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. 19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; 21 for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22 “The eye is the lamp of the body; so then, if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. So if the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! 24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. 25 “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is life not more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the sky, that they do not sow, nor reap, nor gather crops into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more important than they? 27 And which of you by worrying can add a single day to his life’s span? 28 And why are you worried about clothing? Notice how the lilies of the field grow; they do not labor nor do they spin thread for cloth, 29 yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! 31 Do not worry then, saying, ‘What are we to eat?’ or ‘What are we to drink?’ or ‘What are we to wear for clothing?’ 32 For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided to you. 34 “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
<Prayer>
Let’s remember that the Sermon on the Mount has several sections and several topics. Now, in this first section, the Lord is speaking about fasting, and that’s simply not eating food for a certain period of time. I had to laugh when I found out that “breakfast” really means “break (a) fast (https://www.thefreedictionary.com/breakfast )”! I do have to confess that for a VERY brief period I worked the midnight shift (6 pm to 6 am) and once that shift was over, breakfast didn’t come to around noon on some days!
There is nothing wrong with fasting, in and of itself, and there were several times when Old Testament saints fasted. Moses did this a few times, when he was if fellowship with God on the mountain top, and Daniel fasted on several occasions. What they never did, though, was boast about it. Later Jesus would tell the story about the Pharisee or very religious person, and a tax-collector, one of the most hated men in Israel, and how they went to the Temple to pray. The Pharisee tried to impress God, we could say, by saying “I fast twice in the week!”—but that didn’t work; as he came to the Temple a sinner and left a sinner (see Luke 18:9-14).
Just when people began to bring attention to themselves when fasting is not clear, but apparently this “display” was in full force during the days of Jesus. What Jesus does condemn is the open and obvious attempt to draw attention to what you’re doing and why. It’s frankly a guess as to what these folks did to “distort” their faces when they fasted. That’s what Jesus was saying was wrong, not that there was ever anything wrong with simply not eating for a specific reason.
And the remedy for all that is simple: just don’t call attention to yourself. As Jesus said, if you do anything, including fasting, just to be noticed (oh, look how they’re fasting, such poor people!)—then that’s the only reward you’ll ever receive. One further example: I remember hearing a certain Christian leader say he or she went on a 40-day fast, and, later, another 40-day fast. Only that person and the Lord know the reasons why this person did this fasting, and why this deed was mentioned. In sum, any deed, including fasting, done just to be noticed will never be rewarded by the Lord.
Now in verses 19-21, Jesus changes the focus from fasting to personal belongings. Please remember there is nothing wrong, in and of itself, in having things, your own property. There’s an old quote that goes something like “You can live in a hole but that won’t make you holy.” The problem comes when, as I heard someone say, “when the things you own come to own you!”
That was some of the mindset a lot of people had in those days (well, these days too, come to think of it). It’s absolutely true that the Lord had promised Israel—and only Israel—all kinds of blessings if they would follow Him. There are chapters in Deuteronomy, especially, where God explains in detail what would happen if they stayed faithful and what would happen if not. We know the rest of the story, don’t we, how there came a time when God had had enough and allowed the nation to be taken into captivity.
But still, there were those, and some still believe this way today, that if you have a lot of “stuff” or material goods, well, then, you and God are on very good terms! In the days of Jesus, truly there were a number of rich folk and multitudes of poor people! Unemployment was high, opportunities limited, and the prospects of getting ahead, frankly, were bleak according to some of the commentators. In view of this, it’s no wonder people tried to hold on to all they could get!
And that was the problem Jesus is talking about here. He’s literally saying “STOP doing this (because that was what they were indeed doing)”! Have you ever heard the saying, “You can’t take it with you?” This is what Jesus is stressing in importance. He’s not denying that we can have personal items, but He is warning people about what could and did sometimes happen.
Take a look at what He said about moths and rust destroying things. If ever you’ve owned anything made of wool, you may have heard about moths destroying wool items. I sometimes wondered what that meant—after all, I’ve never been bitten by a moth!—and found out that moths lay their eggs in wool garments. When baby moths hatch, they’re hungry, and munch on the first things they can find—namely, the wool garment or item where they were born. There were no “moth-i-cides” or mothballs or whatever is used these days to prevent a wool garment from looking like a Swiss cheese or whatever. Additionally, this hit home for the people because their outer garments were—you guessed it—wool and if that garment was ruined, they would be “hurtin’ for certain”!
“Rust” in this passage could mean literal rust, if anyone owned anything of iron or steel, but it could also mean something like gangrene or mildew. Leviticus 13:47 and following describes what to do if “leprosy” is found in a wool or linen garment, and 14:33 and following tells about what to do if a house becomes contaminated. Problems, for sure, and sometimes that meant loss of something once held precious.
To give you an idea or illustration that this kind of thing still happens, let me share an incident that happened during my Air Force days. I received a three-year vacation—oops, assignment—to Okinawa, Japan, to begin around January 31 of that year. We made it across the ocean and soon found a place to live off base, or “on the economy”, as GI’s sometimes call it. Now, January and February are part of the rainy season over there, at least in those days, and rain it did, nearly every day. What’s worse is that not only did it rain on the outside but on the inside of the house! Like many houses in those days, this one was made of concrete, designed, I guess, to stand up to the winds (ever hear of typhoons?) and earthquakes (we experienced several!). It also rained on the inside—the condensation formed a line of droplets right across the center of our bed and there were several times I thought I was going over Niagara Falls in a washtub or something.
What was worse is that my wife, in those days, had a beautiful pair of black, patent leather shoes, which she really liked. After a week or so of her shoes being in a closet or shelf or something, she picked out her shoes and found that instead of a nice, shiny black they were now a dull, dingy green. Mildew or mold or something had ruined a good pair of her shoes and, understandably, she never wore them again—I couldn’t blame her! This just goes to show that it doesn’t take much and it doesn’t take long for something good to become ruined, even when you haven’t really done anything wrong.
Even worse was the warning about thieves breaking in and stealing—just about anything they could find of value (implied, of course). What thief would break into a house if he knew there was nothing of value in it? Dr. A. T. Robertson in his “Word Studies in the Greek New Testament” mentioned how the Greeks called thieves like this a “mud digger” because of how easy it was to dig through sun-dried bricks or mud walls. (Note: If you’ve ever been to the “Holy Land Village” in Eureka Springs, AR, you’ll get an idea of how houses were built in those days). The link is below: (https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/rwp/matthew-6.html )
Then Jesus explains it in a simple but profound manner: “Your heart is where your treasure is!” Too many people, probably including us, are so busy with living that we forget about life. We do tend to place too much value on what we own, instead of what is really important: children, a good reputation, a close relationship with the Lord, and so forth.
Maybe pausing for a moment so that His words would sink in, the Lord moves on to a related train of thought. He describes in a few words that if the eye is “clear”, your body will be full of light; but if the light is or has become darkness, as the Lord said, “How great is the darkness!”
With this in mind, the Lord now begins another subject, tying it all together as only He could. He says nobody can serve two masters, either loving the one and hating the other or being devoted to the one and despising the other. Modern management would do well to remember this, no?
Now, the Lord used that example to lead into something people, including us, have struggled with for generations: “You cannot serve God and wealth (“mammon”, KJV)”. Jesus even gave a couple of real life examples, such as the birds in the sky. Some of them were dirt cheap, such as two for one “farthing (Matthew 10:29, KJV)”, a very small sum; and five of these sparrows went for two of these farthings (Luke 12:6)! One preacher said, humorously, during a sermon that sparrows weren’t good for much of anything except cat food!
And the Lord also mentioned flowers. They’re so pretty, aren’t they? Now, even with my brown thumbs—and if you have green thumbs, great!—I can grow some irises and they’re lovely. Trouble is, just like roses or any other kind; they don’t stay in bloom for very long. After only a few days, a week at the most, they fade away. But Jesus said Solomon in all of his own glory was clothed or clothed himself like the flowers of the field.
Then Jesus closed this section by saying the Lord knows what you need, and always will; and for us to stop worrying about things we really don’t have any control over. The whole driving factor, driving reason, driving purpose—you may remember this from recent management concepts and things like that—what drives the heathen, the “Gentiles” as the Lord says, are exactly what motivates them!
But the Lord summarizes this whole chapter, so to speak, when He said to “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Part of the reason is implied, in that everything in this world and everything this world has to offer will eventually wear out or go away. The kingdom of God, though, will last forever. Another part is that the Lord doesn’t want us to throw away our resources, which He provides, in running after things that are not helpful or aren’t useful or just don’t satisfy when it’s all said and done.
No, the best treasures aren’t those we get—but what we give. The greatest activity any of us can do is to seek God’s kingdom and His righteousness. We may never get the rewards down here, but please remember, this life on this earth isn’t the end. One day we will stand before the Lord to have our deeds judged or evaluated, and that’s when we’ll get the promised reward.
Let’s make the most of this New Year by making this passage our “driver”, our motivation, and always seek God’s Kingdom first. We’ll be blessed, for sure, if we do!
Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Version of the Bible (NASB).
