Where’s Your Treasure?
Matt. 6:19-24
A while back, Fortune magazine did their cover story on Mr. Warren Buffet, who in June was the world’s 2nd richest man. It was then he announced he will donate 85% of his $44 billion fortune to 5 charity foundations. Commenting on his generosity, Buffet said: "There is more than one way to get to heaven, but this is a great way."
Mr. Buffet may know a lot about making money, but if he really means what he says, he knows absolutely nothing about how to get to heaven. The Bible says salvation doesn’t depend on our generosity, but on God’s generosity. You don’t get to heaven by what you give to God, but by what God through Christ gives to you.
Many Christians make the opposite error of Mr. Buffet. They assume because you can’t buy your way into heaven, God doesn’t care about your money or your possessions. We think God is concerned about our prayers, our Bible reading, and our church attendance, but not about what’s in our wallet, our bank account, or our investments. But is that true?
Howard Dayton, Jr. writes 16 of [Jesus’] 38 parables were concerned with how to handle money and possessions. In the Gospels, an amazing 1 out of 10 verses deal directly with the subject of money. The Bible offers 500 verses on prayer, less than 500 verses on faith, but more than 2,000 verses on money and possessions.
Jesus says a lot of important things about your money and possessions- maybe a lot more than you and I would like for Him to say. You can’t buy your way into heaven, but Jesus says your attitude towards money and possessions has a lot to do with your relationship with God. This morning, I want to look at some very familiar, very important words of Christ about your wealth. Look with me at 3 things Jesus says about your wealth in Matt. 6:19-24
PRAYER
I. YOUR HEART IS WHERE YOUR WEALTH IS. (v. 19-21)
Our culture is in love with wealth. We are glued to gossip about the lives of the wealthy. We envy them. We dream about what we’ d do if we had what they had. We dream of more.
1 Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
The problem is not with wealth itself; it’s with the love of wealth. It’s not wrong to have money or own things; but there’s a big difference between using wealth as a tool or hoarding it as your treasure. But how do you know whether you’re using wealth or loving wealth? Jesus says if you want to know where your heart truly is, follow the money. He mentions two options:
You can choose to store up earthly wealth. (v. 19) Lay up= store, as in a warehouse. It means to accumulate, to collect, to store up something. Treasure on earth is simply earthly wealth—your money and material possessions.
Jesus says you can focus your life on accumulating money and stuff. He’s not saying it’s wrong to make a living, or sinful to buy things you use or need. He’s not saying it’s wrong to save money. He’s talking about accumulating more and more just because you want it--what the Bible calls covetousness- wanting more of what you have enough of already. Jesus says laying up earthly treasures is a bad investment. Why? Because no matter how much earthly wealth you accumulate, you can’t hold on to it. Moth, rust, thieves represent all the forces that take away what we try so hard to hold on to. Things wear out, they break down, somebody steals them. Sooner or later, you lose every earthly possession. On the other hand, Jesus presents another option:
You can choose to store up heavenly wealth. (v. 20) What does Jesus mean by storing up treasures in heaven? How do you accumulate wealth in heaven while you’re still living here?
Luke 12:33 Sell what you have and give alms; provide yourselves money bags which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth destroys.
Jesus told the rich young ruler:
Matthew 19:21 …sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven….
The main verb in these two statements is not sell; the main verb is give. Jesus is not commanding all of His followers to sell everything they have; what He is saying you store up treasure in heaven by giving. This our Lord says is a wise investment. Why? Because no matter how much heavenly wealth you accumulate, you can’t lose it. Heavenly wealth cannot be touched by moth, rust, or thieves; the treasures of heaven never wear out, break down, or lost. They are eternally lasting. But Jesus says one more thing about these two options:
Where you store your wealth is where your heart is. (v. 21) If you choose option # 1- storing up earthly wealth—you demonstrate your love for earthly things. You love comfort, pleasure, fun, --or of you boil it all down, you love yourself.
Why do you get all of that stuff? Not because you need it, not because you can use it, but only because you want it. The sad thing is, you can’t keep it. Storing up wealth on earth is both selfish and stupid. What you try to hoard you cannot keep.
If you choose option # 2- storing up heavenly wealth- you demonstrate your love for God and for your neighbor. You give to God because you love Him; you give to the poor because you love your neighbor. What you give you cannot lose.
If you want to know where your heart is, Jesus says, follow the money.
Look at your next bank statement. Look at how much you spend on what you need; look at how much you spend on what you want; look at how much you give to God and the poor. That will tell you where your heart is
Walk out to the garage, walk through your house, wherever else you keep all of your “stuff.” Take a look at all what you’re accumulating, and then ask compared to what I have on earth, how much do I have stored in heaven? That will tell you where your heart is.
A pastor took his 7-year-old daughter to the town dump. Backing his Oldsmobile up he placed his daughter on the roof and with pencil and paper, they began listing all the items they could identify. There was a plastic swimming pool,…Barbie dolls, bicycles, refrigerators, radios, TVs. On the way home, they pulled alongside a tractor trailer piled high with hunks of scrap—cars that had been crushed. He reminded her the beautiful car they were riding in would someday end up in a scrap heap like that. He later wrote, “…someday everything we own will be junk…the things that have captivated our attention and dominated our lives will smolder beneath a simmering flame, amidst stinking mounds of rotting garbage. *
You cannot keep what you try to hold on to on earth; but you can send your treasure ahead to heaven by what you give. Who do you love? Follow the money, and you’ll know for sure.
II. YOUR WEALTH AFFECTS YOUR PERSPECTIVE (v. 22-23)
Many times I’ve read these verses and thought this doesn’t fit, but the context make it clear the Lord is still talking about wealth. What He says is your wealth affects how you see life.
Jesus uses the image of eyesight to make His point. Just as our eyes are the organs of our sight (…the lamp of the body is the eye…) so also wealth is one of the factors in how you see the world. Jesus suggests two perspectives, two “eye conditions”:
a. Wealth can help you clearly. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. If you keep a proper perspective on your wealth, you see everything else clearly. If you see your money and possessions as tools to be used to provide for your needs, to help others, to do God’s work, then you have a healthy perspective on life. On the other hand, Jesus says
b. Wealth can blind you. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness…
Without a proper perspective on wealth, you are blind. When you see your money and possessions as treasure to be hoarded and accumulated selfishly you have an eye problem. You have been blinded by your wealth. Wealth can blind you about many things:
What’s truly important. Luke 12:15 Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.
What’s right and wrong.
1 Timothy 6:9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.
I once heard of an old preacher who always kept two $1 coins with him wherever he went. He would often take them out during a conversation, hold them over his eyes, and comment, Isn’t it amazing how these two coins can blind me to everything else in the world?
How many of us are blinded by wealth?
If only I could have a new car, a new truck, a new tractor, a new house, a new computer---if only I could get a better job, a higher pay, if only I could win the lottery, THEN I would have it made, THEN I would truly be happy and content THEN I wouldn’t worry about anything. Haven’t we all been blinded by wealth sometimes, thinking that having more money or more possessions would make us more happy? What would I do to get more money and more stuff?
For $10,000,000 2/3 of Americans polled:
• Would abandon their entire family (25%)
• Would abandon their church (25%)
• Would give up their American citizenship (16%)
• Would withhold testimony and let a murderer go free (10%)
• Would kill a stranger (7%)
• Would put their children up for adoption (3%)
On the other hand, think of how many people see wealth the way God sees wealth: a tool to be used to provide for our needs, to bless others, to do God’s work in this world.
Truett Cathy is the founder of Chick-fil-A restaurants and a successful businessman. But for many, he is even better known--and respected--for letting his faith guide his business operation. Here are a few examples: Mr. Cathy’s restaurants have been closed on Sundays since 1948. The 79-year-old CEO of the nearly 1,000 Chick-fil-A restaurants doesn’t mind losing millions of dollars of business to honor the Lord’s Day. Cathy developed a successful foster home system called WinShape Homes—11 homes in the U.S. and 1 in Brazil. His Camp WinShape and the WinShape Foundation provide scholarships for kids and college students. Chick-fil-A Kids Meals don’t come with promotional toys from the latest popular movie. Instead he offers VeggieTales books, audiocassettes of Focus on the Family’s "Adventures in Odyssey," and other character-building materials.
It sounds like Truett Cathy has a clear perspective on wealth. Do we? Does your wealth blind you, or help you see more clearly? That depends on whether you see wealth as a tool, or as a treasure. If you want to know where your heart is, follow the money; if you want to discover how you see life, discover how you see wealth. Finally, Christ says
III. YOUR WEALTH IS DETERMINES WHO YOUR MASTER IS (v. 24)
A Baptist preacher tells the story about the time he received a call from a woman who wanted him to conduct the funeral service for dead cat Homer! The pastor referred her to a Presbyterian pastor down the street. When the other minister refused, she called the Baptist pastor back, still upset. The woman said she didn’t know what to do. She said she planned to give $5000 to the church of the minister who performed this service for Homer. It didn’t take long for the preacher to reply, "Well, why didn’t you tell me Homer was a Baptist cat in the first place?!"
Nobody would argue that money and possessions have an important place in life. The question is where is that place? What priority should wealth have in your life? Again, Jesus presents two options which are mutually exclusive.
First He says when it comes to wealth, you must choose your master. The words love and hate are often used in the Bible to picture a choice—in this case, between two masters. Just as a slave cannot offer their ultimate allegiance to two masters, so, Jesus says, you cannot offer your ultimate allegiance to both God and mammon= wealth. Randy Alcorn explains it this way in his book Money, Possessions, and Eternity:
I might have two jobs, three sisters, or five friends, but I only have one spouse. Some relationships by their very nature are exclusive. The most basic of these is our relationship with God. There’s a throne in each life only big enough for one. Christ may be on that throne. Money may be on that throne. But both cannot occupy that throne.
You don’t have to be rich for wealth to be your master. If wealth is on the throne it doesn’t mean you never think about God, or that you never read the Bible or come to church. Outwardly you can be a pretty religious person and still be a servant of Mammon.
You don’t have to be poor to be a servant of God. If God is on the throne it doesn’t mean you never think about money, you never buy anything you need or want, or that you’re not concerned about your finances. You can handle money well and still be a servant of God.
The big difference is this: who or what is your most precious treasure? A. W.Tozer asks it this way:
What/who do we value most? What/who would we most hate to lose? What/who do our thoughts turn to most frequently when we are free to think of what we will?...what[who] affords us the greatest pleasure?
Whatever/whoever that is, this is our ultimate treasure—this is your master. Jesus illustrates this principle in another parable:
Matthew 13:45-46 45“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, 46who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.
Jesus Christ is this Pearl of great price. He is worth more than all of the wealth in the universe. When He is your Master, He is your treasure. Whatever else you lose, you never want to lose Him. When He is your Master, nobody else can fill your life with more joy than He does. When Christ is your Master, you are rich; without Him, you are forever poor.
Right now, I ask you to honestly ask yourself: where is your heart? Is it set on the things of earth, or the things of heaven? Are your money and possessions blinding you? Is Jesus truly your Master? Nobody else can answer these questions for you—you must answer them. It’s not too late to change your mind about where you keep your treasure.
