Go ahead and turn to Matthew chapter 6, starting at verse 19. We're just going to be looking at five verses today, and we'll slowly walk our way through these. It says, "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body, so if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money." So, let's pray.
Father, we come before you today, and as we talk about money, as we talk about treasure, as we talk about finances, Father, give us ears to hear what you have to say. Give us a kingdom perspective on the resources that are entrusted to us, and Father, I pray that we would come away with a healthy relationship not only to money but more importantly to you. And Father, that things would be in the right priority and the right perspective when it comes to this area of our lives. And Father, we ask all of this today in Jesus' name, Amen.
So, you know, you come to church, and you're talking about money, and some people go, "Oh, good grief. Talking about money." But let's talk about money for a minute. So, $20 bill—currency. For some of you, you've placed a meaning on money. Some of you understand it's just a tool. For others, though, it's security; it's freedom. There's a lot of words that would get attached to money. When I ask business people, "What does money mean to you?" Security and freedom are generally the two things that are thrown out.
Here's the thing about the meaning you assign to money: generally, it's misplaced, and generally, it's unhealthy. If it's nothing more than a tool, you have to examine why have I associated that meaning to money. So what happens in most people's lives is if we have a lot of this, we feel pretty comfortable and good; if we don't have much of this, we get stressed out, and that's never the role that resource was meant to play in your life. It is never meant to dictate how you feel about the world. What Jesus is going to teach us here is how to be content.
See, here's the real challenge with money: if you study our economy, a hundred dollars in 1900 had the same buying power as three dollars and sixty-four cents in 2010, right? So you can gain all the twenty dollars you want, but as time goes on, those twenty dollars become worth less and less because you're on a monetary system. And the reason I'm educating you for a minute is this will make more sense: you're on a floating dollar monetary system; there's nothing backing it. So when the government needs more money, they kick on the printing press, and the more of these in circulation, the less valuable they become. Makes sense?
This is what Jesus is really getting into: we're putting our trust in things that have no lasting value. If you actually study the American monetary system, it's been wiped out twice; we're on our third run with the Federal Reserve. Monetary systems were never meant to be a permanent thing.
Here's another thought for you: a couple of studies—a lot of people say, "You know, if I could only win the lottery, I'd be doing great." Now, years ago in my business life, I was a financial advisor. One of my clients was a lottery winner, and he many times told me it was the worst day of his life. I said, "Why is that?" He says, "Because then all of a sudden, I had to worry about it. When I didn't have a lot of money, I didn't have to worry about that. I started making friends I didn't know that I ever had. I had relatives I hadn't heard from for years. This started showing up. Everybody wanted to take from me what I had," and he said, "It's the worst day of my life."
Here's a real statistic for you: lottery winners are more likely to declare bankruptcy within three to five years than the average American. You go, "Okay, well, that's lottery winners." Alright, let's take professional athletes. Their numbers aren't very stellar either. This came from Sports Illustrated, an article in 2012: 78% of former NFL players are bankrupt or under financial stress after having been retired for two years. 60% of former NBA players are broke within five years of retirement. Now, fortunately, the baseball guys came through; they file for bankruptcy at a rate of four times the national average within five years of retiring. Hmm, surprising, right? And it's not an indictment on the profession; what it is, is the focus is in the wrong place.
And this is what Jesus is going to get at here with us. Let's go to chapter 6 of Matthew, verse 19: "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, where thieves break in and steal." So, we've been talking about money, but treasures can be other things. So, when my wife and I got married 30 years ago, I'm a child of the 80s, and the coolest car on the road, of course, was Knight Rider. And so, I'm selling cars at Schofield Hyundai, I helped open the dealership there, and a black Pontiac Firebird with a spoiler came on the lot. "Baby, I gotta have it." Alright, I gotta have it, and it was my treasure until the paint started fading, and then I wrecked it on Douglas making a left turn, and then it wasn't a treasure; it was a burden, and I couldn't wait to get rid of the stupid thing, and to this day, thirty years later, we still talk about that car, right? The treasure became a burden.
Another example, I love this: my dad passed away six years ago, and the pride possession in the family is some ground in Matagorda County, Texas. You go, "Great, on the coast?" No, it's actually swamp ground. And so, yes, he passed on, my aunt, my mom, and I inherit this swamp ground, and I finally get an offer or two from somebody, "Hey, I'd like to buy your swamp ground." Yes! Until we research the title, the title was in my grandmother's name and had never been changed through probate to my dad's name and had never been changed beyond that. So, I was going to have to probate two wills to get legal title to my swamp ground so I could sell it. It would actually cost me more to retitle the asset than I would ever get from selling it. What somebody thought was a treasure became a burden.
After he passed away, we were going through the garage, and I was going through boxes of photos that nobody knew who these people were, and that's why they were out in the garage with the mice and the brown recluse spiders because they weren't really a treasure anymore. They were very meaningful to somebody along the way, but they lost their value as time went on. This is where Jesus is getting at: if you think about where we spend our energy and our efforts, the treasure that we're trying to accumulate generally is not a lasting treasure. That new house is wonderful until the basement floods, huh? Then it's a burden. My daughter, after she began driving and learning about car repair expenses, said, "Adulting is kind of hard because everybody's going after your wallet," right?
See, here's the thing: "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal." And so the question is, what are you working so hard to keep? And once you've answered that question, the second question is, why? Because along the way, you find out somebody doesn't really want what you have.
Let's give you another practical example: the United States is one of the few places in the world where we have self-storage units full of treasure. If you don't believe me, watch Storage Wars, right? Full of treasure, brown recluse spiders, and mice. That's how valuable the treasure is. Why do we do that? Why do we, as a consumeristic society, hoard things? Because we've put too much value in the treasure, and ultimately, here's what happens: you don't get to keep the treasure anyway because your life comes to an end, and if you really are a student of finances, if you have enough treasure, Uncle Sam will take fifty-five percent of it. So you've worked all your life to accumulate stuff to give to the government. That's not a good feeling, right?
Here's the thing we want to realize: there's a better way, and this is what Jesus is teaching us. "But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal." Years ago in my financial advisory practice, the favorite question a new client would always come in with: "Can you give me something that gives me good returns and doesn't lose money?" No, but the good news is, the broker always gets paid. I'll be happy to guide you, right? Jesus is giving you an investment that pays lasting dividends and never loses, and you go, "Well, what is that?" Well, the real lasting thing is people. "Store up for yourself treasures in heaven," things that can't be taken away. And then what that brings you to is people.
When my dad passed away, the most valuable thing that I received from him was not monetary; he had handwritten his memoirs in a book, and I was given that, and my children were given a copy of that. Most valuable possession I own, and it's not because it was monetary. I couldn't sell it for anything, but it helped me to know the man; it helped me to understand why he trained me the way he trained me, and it helped me to understand his faith because my dad wasn't a Christian early in life. He became a Christian as an adult, and so I began to learn things about his journey that are life lessons that not only have I passed on to my kids, I'll pass it to my grandkids, and it's prompted me to do the same thing. I don't write memoirs; I write books, but it's for the same reason. It's to pass down experience, and that's what's been valuable.
The second piece of this is the faith impact we make on people. When our interaction changes somebody's life for eternity, that pays lasting dividends. When you think about the resources God entrusts, because it's all His anyway, He's got a specific purpose in mind.
Here's the real danger, and this will kind of give you an idea where your financial thermostat is: that some people, when they get one of these in their hand, they hang on tight. When money comes in, they're hanging on to it for dear life. The counterintuitive thing that Jesus is teaching is, don't do that. Hold it with an open hand so that you can pass it on to the things that matter, the lasting things that matter. None of my kids will enjoy my 1987 Pontiac Firebird, mm-hmm, probably a good thing. There are better things to pass on; there are better things to flow through. Here's the real thing I want you to get: when you hold everything in a clenched fist, God can't put anything into your hands. When you open them up and release everything, guess what? He can put more there. Sometimes what He really wants to do is take this $20 and put a thousand there, but you're so busy hanging on to what you think is yours that He can't do what He wants to do with you.
Here's been my experience in life: that the more you open your hands, what He does is He pushes them further out so that more can flow through. God's principle is, let me create a pipeline with you. It's not for you to hang on to; it's for you to be a conduit of His resources.
Lay up your treasures in heaven. Think back through history: the Pharaohs used to be buried with their treasure so it could go with them into the afterlife, and it works so well that you can go see it at the Smithsonian, right? And the Chinese emperors—there was an archaeological excavation—I wasn't gonna get that outright—that happened about 15-20 years ago where when they unearthed this Chinese ruler's tomb, he had a clay army surrounding his coffin, his burial area, and the whole point was to ward off those who would come steal his treasures. You can see those at the Smithsonian as well. It didn't work so well, right?
Here's the thing: the age-old saying, "You can't take it with you." There are no hearses pulling U-Hauls; it just doesn't work that way. "Lay up for yourself treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal." Who here has some nice things? You don't have to admit it; just think about it. Things that you get a little concerned if somebody scratches that, or dents it, or steals it, it might wreck my day. It raises your stress level.
So, we've got a Japanese table with inlaid pearl that my grandfather brought back from World War II, and one day we had some friends over, and my friend like threw her keys down on it, and I thought I was going to come unglued, and then when her little rug rat crawled over the top of it, I was about ready to throw everybody out the front door. It raised my stress level, and the sad part was, it's a thing; at some point, that table is going to disintegrate, but it's a treasure, and what I realized in that moment was my compass was off. I was more concerned about the table than I was about the relationship. I missed what was lasting.
So, let's keep going here: "For where your treasure is, there your heart will also be." And this again may be a little counterintuitive because you would think, well, where my heart is, is where my treasure is, but it's actually the opposite. It's where your treasure is; your heart tends to gravitate. That becomes true north, and that's what Jesus is pointing out. So part of what we have to look at is the true north in my life. Where is the treasure guiding me? What decisions am I making because of the treasure? If I'm looking from an eternal perspective, those decisions look a lot different than if I'm looking from a wealth acquisition viewpoint.
So here's the reality of this: Jesus is not saying, "Hey, don't have money." He's not saying, "Don't have a financial plan." He's not saying, "Don't accumulate assets." What He's saying is, what are you going to do with them? What's the reason? What's the purpose behind that? Whose life is going to be changed because of the treasurer? And this is the place that we want us to walk into as He's teaching here because it's so counterintuitive. One of the things that I think is fun, when this concept really hits home, is you start looking for how can I make my resources create even greater impact than they do today? But most of the time, the temptation is, I'm just looking out for number one. But that's not a kingdom perspective. A kingdom perspective is outwardly focused. What do I do to make sure it's moving in the lives of others?
Let's take this a step further: verse 22, "The eye is the lamp of the body, so if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!" Jesus is talking about your focus, back to your compass. When you're focused on the Kingdom of God, when you're focused on Him, it illuminates every area of your life. It's visible in your countenance, in your words, and your actions. It affects every area of your life. But when you're focused on things that have no lasting value, that light dims.
Think about it: you go to a funeral; you look at the casket; there's a reason they closed the eyes. There's no life; nobody wants to look at dead eyes. But if we were to be honest, a lot of us go to work every day, and we look at a lot of people with dead eyes. I'm just here to make a living so I can survive, so I know maybe someday retire. Ok, great. But then what? The reality is, so many times, we're working for things that have no lasting value. I've known older people over the years who worked and worked and worked and worked and worked to save up an amount of these that they thought would be sufficient, and they decided they're going to retire at 65, thinking they probably wouldn't live more than five or six years, and here they are in their late 80s on the ramen noodle program because those dollars don't buy what they used to. Their hope was placed in, "I'm gonna have this pot of money that's going to get me through," and it doesn't.
Now, I'm dealing with an aging parent, so one of the conversations we have a few times a year is the cost of long-term care and nursing homes, and I've had to discuss that faucets are more important than buckets because a $10,000 a month nursing home bill will go through your bucket very quickly, right? And yet, part of the trap people get into, what Jesus is talking about, is that bucket mentality. I just want to fill a big bucket. Great, that's easy to pilfer. But a flowing resource, a flowing stream of God's resource, that's inexhaustible, that flows long after you're gone, and that's the point that He's making here.
"The eye is the lamp of the body. If you're looking at the right things, it illuminates every area of your life. If your focus in life is just making money, you're going to be disappointed; it's going to be dead." It's kind of interesting because in my life, I'm both a pastor and an entrepreneur, so I run both sides of the equation. It's very tempting at times not to go a hundred percent one direction or the other, but to do so would shortchange my effectiveness, although the temptations there. I always have to check the compass: am I investing in people, or am I just buying more stuff? If I'm just buying more stuff, then I've got to reset the compass. If the stuff isn't making an eternal impact, I've got to reset the compass. So for me, what I've done with my business is decided, let's make this a kingdom business. So, God, show me how to use the skills You've given me to do Your work, but it's a shift. It's different; it's not what people teach.
So here's the thing; He finishes up with this: "No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money." And here's the reality of this: when we think about it, it's a little hard for us to get our mind around this because we think, well, I can work for two people at the same time. Well, that's not the context He's coming from. In His day and age, slavery was commonplace, and if you were a slave, you were fully devoted, 100% to your master. You couldn't serve anybody else. The easy way for me to really kind of get my mind around this concept is if God is here and money's here, I can't give Him a hug without turning my back on the other one, right? There's no way for me to embrace money and God at the same time. I have to choose one or the other, and this is where Jesus is pushing us because where we're gonna go in this teaching next week is, He's going to talk to us about not being anxious for these things in the world, not being stressed out over the bills and the stuff, but looking for His kingdom first and letting God be the provision. See, the reality is, God owns it all anyway. It was never mine; it's His to give; it's His to take away, back to the open-handed principle.
But what we find is when we're faithful with the things He entrusts to us, invariably, He gives more, but it's not for me to hang on to. It's for me to do more lasting work. It's for things that will outlive me, things that will outlive my family, things that are eternal. So what I want us to consider today is this: where's your compass pointed? What meaning have you assigned to money? If freedom and security are what you've assigned to money, you've got an idol because those things were always meant to come from God, and when you put something in His place, what generally happens is it gets put to the test, so that your perspective shifts back to the proper perspective.
See, the real challenge of the Sermon on the Mount, what He's saying here, is that where you put your treasures, where you put your energy, is where your heart goes. You can't serve two things at once. It's been said that the greatest indicator of where your compass is pointed is your calendar and your checkbook. It'll show you very quickly what your priorities are. Maybe today is one of those days where you just need to open up your calendar and your checkbook and go, "Who am I serving? Where does my time and energy go? Where do my resources go? And am I making a lasting impact? Am I laying up treasures in heaven?"
I want to finish with this thought: as I said before, He's not saying don't accumulate; He's not saying don't invest; He's not saying money's a bad thing. What He's saying is money's a tool, and that's the scriptural principle of money. It's a tool. It allows me to do things for other people. It allows me to take the gospel to places it needs to go. It allows me to bless someone in need.
I want you to think about it: that $20 bill, I have two choices. It comes into my hand, I go, "Great, twenty bucks. I think I'll go to the movies today." There's no lasting impact in that. I can take that same $20 and go, "You know what? I wasn't counting on it anyway. Let me go put gas in somebody's car. Let me buy somebody's groceries for them." There's a lasting impact in that. Does that make sense? Not that you have to give it all away, but examine: where's your heart? Do you sweat and cringe at the thought of having to give it away, or do you get excited?
One of my friends and business mentors is an extremely wealthy man who taught me a lot about generosity, and part of the reason he's able to do that is he's made and lost millions of dollars on multiple occasions. So he's been broke and homeless and been a millionaire and then broke and homeless again, and he's on his third trip to being successful. He knows it's not a lasting deal that God can take it away at any moment. He gets that. He's also said, here's the real problem with money: that wherever you land, it's never quite enough. He says, "So for me," and I won't go into his overall wealth, but it's nine figures worth, "I'm just a frustrated billionaire, mm-hmm," even though he's got everything he'd ever want.
The world, there's a study that was done a few years ago, I think by CNBC, where they went to people at different income levels, and they said, "What would you need to be satisfied?" So they went to people at $25,000 a year, and the average answer was, "I would need $45,000 a year to be ok." And then they went to people making $200,000, "I'd need $190,000 to be ok." And here's what happened: people would hit those levels, and guess what? Wasn't enough, right? Because you get there, and you look around, and you go, "Ha, there's more that could be obtained." So it's never quite enough, and that's the danger. That's why Jesus is saying, "Don't put your trust there," because you get disappointed. You'll hit the dollar amount, and all that will happen is your dollar will erode, or other things will happen, or inevitably, you're going to pass on, and somebody else will get to spend it. So be wise in what you do.
Let's stand and pray this morning. More than anything, God wants your heart. Jesus died on a cross for you, and when we come to Him, we give Him our life and say, "Here you go, Jesus, it's yours. You can have it," and He takes it, and He does amazing things with it. The part of the deal is, when I give Him everything, I give Him everything, including my finances. And so, this morning, as we pray, I just want you to consider: where are you at today? Are there things you're holding back from Him? And if there are, surrender them, hold them in an open hand, and let Him do something amazing with it.
