July 15, 2001
The Treasure Chest – Part 3
INTRODUCTION
An elderly man was desperately ill. Knowing the time for his departure was near, he called for his closest friends to come see him one last time. Attending him were his doctor, his pastor and his business manager.
The old man said, “I know you can’t take it with you, but who knows for sure? What if the experts are mistaken? I want to account for all possibilities. So I’m giving you each an envelope containing $100,000. When I die, I want you each to slip the envelope in my jacket pocket at the funeral service. Then, if I do need money in the life to come, I’ll be ready. And I’m giving the envelopes to you because you are my most trusted friends.”
Shortly thereafter, the man did die. Each of his three friends was seen slipping something into the deceased’s coat pocket as he walked up to the casket to pay his final respects.
Following the service, while these friends were visiting with each other, the doctor, with a sheepish look on his face, said, “Guys, I have a confession to make. You know with the cost of medicine today, I don’t make that much money. The hospital is desperate for funds. We can’t even replace the CAT scan machine that’s broken down. So, I took $20,000 for the new CAT scan and put the rest in the coffin.”
The minister cleared his throat and looked down at his shoes. He said, “I, too, have a confession to make. As you know, our church is seriously overburdened by the needs of the homeless.
I couldn’t just see burying that money. So, in hopes of helping the homeless, I took $50,000 out of the envelope and put the rest in his pocket.”
Looking sternly at the doctor and the minister, the businessman exclaimed, “I can’t believe what I’m hearing. I am astonished and deeply disappointed that you would treat a solemn trust so casually. He was our friend. I want you to know that I placed in his casket my personal check for the full $100,000.” (From Sins We Love, by Randy Rowland, p. 125-126)
That’s not a knock on businessmen. It could have been anyone. But it illustrates that inside each of us, there is a tendency toward greed.
In Matthew 6, Jesus has been teaching on treasures. He’s reminded us that treasures on earth aren’t safe, and that treasures in heaven are the wisest investment possible, because they truly are a bargain.
Now he wants to help us achieve the perspective required of one who stores up treasures in heaven.
Big Idea: I will let nothing cloud my vision.
***READ TEXT***
“I will let nothing cloud my vision.” This morning we’re going to learn from Jesus, why this is an important statement for us. Then we’ll finish up by looking at some steps we can take for better spriritual eyesight.
TRANSITION: To have this kind of perspective (where nothing clouds our vision) we need to understand what Jesus is saying about our eyes. He would have us realize…
I. MY FOCUS IMPACTS MY LIFE
Where we fix our eyes and heart affects our life. In fact Jesus, says, If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light.
When Jesus talks of eyes being “good” he uses a word that is difficult to translate. Its various meanings are healthy, undivided, generous or single. Here . . .
A. The “good” eye represents a single focus
Jesus says, The eye is the lamp of the body.
Of course, this isn’t literal, because the eye doesn’t let light into the body. However, almost everything the body does depends on our ability to see. The eye “illumines” what the body does.
ILLUS - Last Sunday night after the church picnic, Greg and I were returning some things to the youth house with Keith Grundhofer. I went in the back door, flipped on the light switch, no light. So dark in there I couldn’t see a thing. But I knew the basic layout of the house so I walked through the kitchen with my hands out in front of me, bumping into the counter, the refrigerator, finally made it to the door, opened it, and light came in. I needed my eyes to guide me where I was going – but there was no light.
Jesus is comparing “heartsight” to eyesight. To “set the heart” and to “fix the eye” are synonymous. Earlier we learned that Jesus talked about the importance of having our heart in the right place (Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also). Now, he wants us to realize the importance of having eyes that are sound and healthy.
The reasoning goes like this: Just as our physical eye affects our whole body, so our ambition (where we set our eyes and heart) – our focus – affects our whole life. Our minds determine the direction of our lives. Whatever we focus on, we prioritize.
If I’m focused on money, I’ll find more ways to make it, invest it and spend it. If I’m focused on being an athlete I’ll train, practice and live my sport.
If I’m focused on gardening, fitness, cars, antiques, or electronic gadgets – each will affect my life and what I do, because whatever I focus on, I will begin to prioritize.
ILLUS - Charles Paul Conn writes about an actual experience one man had in the Deep South. He says, “When I lived in Atlanta several years ago, I noticed in the Yellow Pages, in the listing of restaurants, and entry for a place called the The Church of God Grill. The peculiar name aroused my curiosity and I dialed the number. A man answered with a cheery, ‘Hello! Church of God Grill!’ I asked how his restaurant had been given such and unusual name, and he told me: ‘Well, we had a little mission down here, and we started selling chicken dinners after church on Sunday to help pay the bills. Well, people liked the chicken, and we did such a good business, that eventually we cut back on the church service. After awhile we just closed down the church altogether and kept on serving chicken dinners. We kept the name we started with, and that’s Church of God Grill.’” (From Swindoll’s Tale of the Tardy Oxcart, p. 214)
Whatever we focus on, we begin to prioritize. Maybe, if we’re not careful, like the Church of God Grill, our focus could lead us to cut back on our service to God, our love for Him, or our loyalty to Him .
That’s why the idea of treasure of the treasure chest in v. 19-20 points to our scale of values – The way in which we establish what is most important to us.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is calling for unswerving loyalty to the Kingdom of God. He’s calling for a single purpose in our hearts.
The way that we look at our stuff and the perspective we have on it, is a sure indication of our spiritual condition. Just as a seeing-eye gives light to the body, so a noble and single-minded ambition to serve God adds meaning to life and throws light on everything we do. The “good eye” is fixed on God, unwavering in its gaze, constant in its fixation.
Paul says in Colossians 3:1-3…
Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits at God’s right hand in the place of honor and power. 2Let heaven fill your thoughts. Do not think only about things down here on earth. 3For you died when Christ died, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:1-3, NLT)
And Philippians 4:8 says…
Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. (Philippians 4:8, NLT)
Then we understand what Jesus says, If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light (v. 22).
Or as it reads in the New Living Translation…
A pure eye lets sunshine into your soul. (Mt. 6:22, NLT)
If light is taken with its usual biblical connotations of revealed truth and purity, then a person whose gaze is fixed on God will be characterized by maximum understanding of revealed truth and uncompromisingly pure behavior.
The commands of the LORD are radiant,
giving light to the eyes. (Psalm 19:8)
This light for the soul allows us to be what Jesus talked about a little earlier in this sermon of his – Matthew 5:14, “The Light of the World.”
It’s all a question of vision. Physical vision allows us to see what we are doing and where we are going. If we have spiritual vision, and if our spiritual perspective is correctly adjusted, then our life is filled with heavenly purpose and drive.
If all that is within us is stripped away to the single treasure of Christ and His Kingdom – THEN we have the proper perspective on things. Then our eyes are “good.” But the flipside is. . .
B. Selfish ambition plunges me into moral darkness
If our vision is becomes clouded by the false gods of materialism and we lose sense of our values, then our life is in darkness and we cannot see where we are going. Greed shuts out the light for our souls. It closes off the inlet for God’s revelation and a life of purity.
So Jesus says…
If your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. (v. 23)
As blindness leads to darkness, so selfish ambition (greed – laying up treasures on earth) plunges us moral darkness. It can make us intolerant, inhuman, and ruthless. And greed will deprive life of its ultimate significance.
I want to show you an example of what I’m talking about. In the movie “Wall Street,” Michael Douglas plays a millionaire corporate raider and savvy Wall Street shark. His name is Gordon Gekko, the name no doubt inspired by the lizard that feeds on insects and sheds its tail when trapped. Though the film was made in the midst of the 1980’s, this now-famous little speech that Gekko makes at a shareholders meeting has remained rather timeless.
***SHOW VIDEO CLIP***
Greed means that we see something we want and it takes control of us. We act on greed. We justify our greed. Greed is a desire to have more and more material comfort. Greed wants it all.
How much is enough?
Greed says, “Nothing is ever enough.”
In the Bible, the writer of the book of Ecclesiastes says this in chapter 2, verse 10…
I denied myself nothing my eyes desired;
I refused my heart no pleasure.
My heart took delight in all my work,
and this was the reward for all my labor.
(Ecclesiastes 2:10)
And again in chapter 1…
Everything is so weary and tiresome! No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. (Ecc.,1:8, NLT)
Greed is not good. Greed is not right. Greed isn’t just about having. Greed is about holding. To own for the sake of owning. And that, Jesus says, can plunge us into moral darkness.
In Dante’s Inferno the residents of Hell are being punished for the deadly sins that characterized their runaway lives. The picture drawn for greed is an image of a person in Hell with his head pushed down in the dirt with a caption saying, “I have turned my back on heaven.” (Randy Rowland, Sins We Love, p. 134)
Greed is too much love for things that don’t matter and not enough love for the things that do.
Or again, as Jesus says it, “It your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.”
When our eyes are focused on material concerns they are blind to spiritual concerns. The person who treasures things in heaven sees everything in its true worth – sees everything from an eternal perspective.
The person who treasures what is on earth, by contrast, sees everything from a perspective that misperceives the relative importance of things.
If the eye of your soul is not functioning, then you are in the dark about everything. You are simply lost. You don’t know where you are or where you are going.
Or as Jesus says, “If the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!”
If where there should be light, there is only darkness – that means there is a perversion at the very heart – the very center of a person’s life – a complete lack of vision. This is truly a “lost soul.”
But, again, focusing on the single treasure of Jesus Christ and His Kingdom will mean we view our wealth as a resource to be used for His purposes.
TRANSITION: Now that we understand a little more of what Jesus is saying about perspective, let’s look at…
II. FIVE STEPS TO BETTER SPIRITUAL EYESIGHT
Could also call these “Greed busters”
Indebted to Charles Stanley and his book, “Success God’s Way”
To bust greed and have better spiritual eyesight, I’ll have to…
1. Check my preoccupation
I’ll have to guard mind diligently against a preoccupation with getting and spending.
This preoccupation can expose itself in numerous ways. Perhaps in a constant concern with what the stock market did in the last hour, or a concern with shopping all of the latest stores at the mall.
It can show up in our conversation – Ask ourselves, “What do I talk about the most?” Is it money, things, e-trading, what we’re saving up to buy someday? So we need to examine our conversations.
This preoccupation also exposes itself in our thought lives – We should ask ourselves, “Is money or acquisition of things on my mind when I fall asleep and when I get up?”
ILLUS – My 5th grade teacher was Mrs. Arends. During class she called on Terry Duffy to answer a question. Terry was an aspiring musician – his parents had just gotten him a new set of drums. When called on, he seemed a little lost. So Mrs. Arends said, “Stop daydreaming about that new set of drums and concentrate on your math!” While her classroom correction methods may have been a little questionable, she did understand how a preoccupation with things can grab a person’s focus.
The problem with a preoccupation with things is that it will take our focus off of Jesus Christ. We never ever want that to happen. The Bible encourages us with these words…
2 Corinthians 4:18...
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
Hebrews 12:2
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith…
So, to have better spiritual eyesight, we have to check our preoccupation. #2…
2. Check my attitude
I must guard my heart against loving money.
Our culture idolizes money.
A sign carried by an employee on strike bore these words…
“Time heals all wounds. Time and a half heals them faster!”
Our culture loves money. But the Bible says in 1 Timothy 6:10, “The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.”
The Bible doesn’t oppose money or its proper use. The Bible doesn’t even oppose wealth. The Bible says God is opposed to the love of money – an attitude of lusting after material possessions to the point of greediness.
We might want to ask ourselves questions like these…
Do I have a strong desire to be around people with money?
Do I act differently around people with money?
If so, those are signs of poor spiritual eyesight. Indications of a focus in the wrong place.
When we check our attitude, we may also want to ask ourselves, “Am I dissatisifed?” If so, we are subject to having our focus shifted.
Tom Eisenman says in Temptations Men Face that advertising has 2 basic messages: 1) You do not yet have all the things you need to be happy, and 2) The things you already have are not good enough.
The Bible helps us with our attitude toward things with these words from Ecclesiastes 6:9…
Enjoy what you have rather than desiring what you don’t have. Just dreaming about nice things is meaningless; it is like chasing the wind. (Ecc. 6:9, NLT)
To bust greed and obtain better spiritual eyesight, not only do I need to check my preoccupation and my attitude, I also need to, #3…
3. Check my spending
I need to watch what I do with money.
Money can be used for many good things, but it can also fund harmful lusts and addictions.
Do you purchase things in an attempt to make yourself happy?
Are you careless or frivolous in your spending habits?
These might be signs of a focus that needs to shift.
Do you gamble? Do you buy lottery tickets or go to the river boat casinos for entertainment? If so, I’d encourage you to think about your focus. When you do this, can you honestly say you are pursuing eyes that are full of light?
What about shopping?
Shopping is the great American pastime. Just to go shopping for the sake of shopping instead of going out to compare prices on or purchase an item you need opens up possibilities for frivolous spending.
3 things have helped me:
Don’t go shopping just to look around – gets me into trouble – plenty of other productive things to do
Pray before going shopping – especially at certain stores (God you already know what things I will see at Banana Republic, Home Depot and Sports Authority – guard my eyes so I will not take my focus off of you and unwisely use the wealth you have entrusted to me.)
Resist the temptation to charge – Kim and I put new carpeting in our house a couple of years ago. After receiving a measurement and cost, we were presented all kinds of financing options. No payments for 6 months, 12 months, 2 years and so on. But I wouldn’t do it. We opened a savings account and built up enough for the carpet over a year or so, then asked ourselves and God one final time if this was a good investment – sensing it was, we went ahead and purchased the carpet.
You’re familiar with the old saying, “A fool and his money are soon parted.” There is a lot of wisdom in that.
There is even more wisdom in what Jesus says in Luke 12:15…
“Beware! Don’t be greedy for what you don’t have. Real life is not measured by how much we own.” Luke 12:15, NLT
So check your spending.
#4, to have better spiritual eyesight, I need to…
4. Always give thanks
No one is truly a “self-made man.” Everything we have comes from God. So for a proper focus on things, we need to remember that and give credit to where credit is due.
The Bible says in 1 Th. 5:18…
No matter what happens, always be thankful, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. (1 Thessalonians 5:18)
This will help to bust greed.
And #5, for better spiritual eyesight, I need to…
5. Maintain appropriate priorities
I need to guard against the tendency to make work and the earning of money more important than my pursuit of God and the study of His Word.
If I’m to be a follower of Jesus, nothing can become more important to me than Him.
How did things go this past week? Did you start off each day in private on your knees before God – asking for His will to be done instead of your own. Did you block out time to go before God in humble submission denying yourself and taking up your cross each day this past week?
If not, I have to wonder if things got in the way. Perhaps the pursuit of things, the maintaining of things, the washing, cleaning, using, enjoying or playing with things.
If you missed a day of laying down your life before God and picking up your cross, what was so powerful important to let that get pushed aside?
Jesus reminds us of priorities when he says…
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:21)
And in a few weeks, we’ll look at the section where he says…
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matthew 6:33)
To have better spiritual eyesight, I have to maintain appropriate priorities.
TRANSITION:
WRAP-UP
ILLUS – Many years ago a major American company had trouble keeping employees working in their assembly plant in Panama. The laborers lived in a generally agrarian, barter economy, but the company paid them in cash. After a week’s work, the average employee would have more cash than he’d ever seen – so many of the workers were quitting – completely satisfied with what they had already made.
What was the solution? Company executives gave all their employees a Sears catalog. No one quit then. Because they all wanted the previously unimagined things they saw inside that book.
Their focus changed – and so did their priorities.
I frequently get concerned about my focus. Because there are so many things – so many objects and interests that compete for my attention and my loyalty. Maybe the same is true of you.
So, if you’re to have better spiritual eyesight – if you’re to have a good eye that makes your body full of light – if you’re to honestly say today, “I will let nothing cloud my vision…
Which of these five things most urgently needs attention in your life right now?
Preoccupation? (I think too much about things)
Attitude? (I love money)
Spending? (It’s been out of control lately)
Giving Thanks? (I have been too proud of my own accomplishments and earnings)
Priorities? (Things are pulling me away from my service to God)
Let’s pray
