Matthew 6 (Part 4) :19-24

Jesus beginning in verse 19 here of chapter 6 begins by telling us do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal by the way that that word that is translated rust it really just the Greek just means where it means eating and so rust is put there because that's technically what it does to metal it eats it away but this could refer to vermin you know of any kind that might eat away at something that is precious to you whether and the people back in in biblical times had a real hard time maintaining their possessions because of these things you know moths moths getting into their clothing rats and mice getting into their grain bugs of all kind you know so forth anyway but I just wanted to kind of outline that that it's it's he Jesus is saying store up for yourselves rather not not not things where eating you know takes hold of it or thieves break in and steal but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal for where your treasure is there your heart will be also that that that one verse right there is just doesn't that one doesn't that verse just always lay hold of you and kind of just fillet you you know I mean it really does it exposes you know he goes on to say the eyes the lamp of the body if your eyes are good the whole body will be full of light but if your eyes are bad the whole body we full of darkness if then the light within you is darkness how great is that darkness metaphorically speaking here we'll talk about it and then he concludes by saying that no one can serve two masters either he's gonna hate one and love the other be devoted to the other or devoted to one and despise the other and he says you cannot serve both God and money boy we better pray father God open our hearts Jesus we need you to instruct us in Jesus name just fill us fill us with understanding fill us also God with application we ask it I'm going to kind of take these verses and I don't know if I'm gonna get through them all today because there's a lot here but I'm going to take these verses and I'm going to kind of lay them out in three different divisions and I'll put them on the screen here for you these are the things that kind of captured my heart the first section here in verses 19 through 21 where where Jesus is dealing with the issue of treasures in heaven and not laying up for yourselves treasures on earth we're going to talk about this as a question of treasure what is a treasure in your life the second part of this we're going to look at is a question of vision this is where Jesus talks about if your eyes are good and so forth and we'll discuss that and then thirdly we're going to deal with a question of worth as he deals with in this very last verse that we are seeing here this morning this whole issue of not being able to serve two masters which one is worthy to to bow down and serve and that sort of thing he begins obviously as here as we read by saying do not store up treasures on earth where all kinds of bad things can happen to them you know I thought about I thought about security as it relates to protecting the things that we own and and obviously as I said before in biblical times securing what you own was a very very challenging ordeal just because they didn't have a lot of what we have in terms of protection I suppose we've come up with a lot of interesting ways of protecting what we own today you know we've got bug spray you know and we've got rodent poison you know or or traps you know or rust proof paint or something like that but it's interesting is that the challenge to hold on to what we have is still just as great today the the potential for things to to go away is just as significant today as it was then we just kind of come up with some rather unique and creative ways of preserving what we have you know but even though I think it's probably safe to say that our modern technology has enabled us to make things last a little longer you still can't take it with you and this whole issue of acquiring and protecting things is just totally what life is about for us I mean when you stop and think about it we spend a huge amount of our time acquiring and then protecting the things that we've acquired for protecting them from loss and it's really rather like a dog kind of chasing its tail when you stop and think about it if you've ever seen that fruitless kind of an exercise by a canine it's rather humorous but at the same time I dare say sometimes what we engage in as it relates to this but again as I said it's normal it's normal now I mean when I say normal I'm not necessarily saying good I'm just saying it's just normal it's just the way we do things in fact I found a really interesting quote it's not biblical or anything like that but let me put it on the screen here for I love this Ellen Goodman I don't even know who this woman is but she says normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you're still paying for in order to get the job you need to pay for the clothes in the car and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it now doesn't that sound a little bit to you like a dog chasing its tail it kind of does to me too but that's that's that's normal then I like the way she puts it here normal is doing these things that's normal here's the problem here's the problem normal is killing us okay like we like to say to people today when they tell us about what they're doing we like to say so how's that working out for you and and and when we look at the landscape of the world in which we live our society and our culture and we ask that question so how's normal working out for you the answer is not very good in fact it's killing me slowly marriages have have come to an end because of normal we've become estranged from our children because of normal we've threatened our health because of normal and keeping up the you know the status quo of life which is which is laying hold of possessions and protecting those those same possessions and the message of the Sermon on the Mount is very very simple to you and I it's it's that normal isn't working and that you and I have a calling upon our lives to conduct ourselves to convey ourselves to live our lives in a way that is not normal for this world but is part of rather the kingdom of God because you see normal is connected to the kingdom of this world right what the way people are living of course in this world is normal for the kingdom of this world but that's not how you and I are called to live that's not the way that you and I are called to to to think about life and we are called to turn away from what is normal in terms of the way we act and think toward possessions and we are called to show the world what it means to be a follower of Christ in the midst of all those things in the midst of having possessing maintaining protecting and that sort of thing so here's what Jesus says to you and I if you look with me again in verse 20 the message to you and I as the body of Christ is but you you're my children Jesus says now you store up for yourselves treasures not where the potential of their loss is so great in fact he says store up treasures for yourself where the you will not lose them where is that well he says in heaven he tells us right there store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where thieves aren't gonna break in and steal moth and vermin and and and the eating away of time isn't going to have any effect on those things and and that sort of thing now you might be reading a verse like this or these passages and you might be asking yourself just exactly what is Jesus referring to when he talks about treasures on earth and treasures in heaven well we could probably sit and name things one by one but rather than kind of give ourselves a brain cramp he actually explains it in the very next verse if you look at verse 21 here's what he says for where your treasure is there your heart will be also so what are the treasures that he's referring to he's talking about those things which tether our heart either to the earth below Or to heaven above You see the fact of the matter is your heart my heart. We're going to be tethered to one or the other We're either going to be tethered to the earth or we're going to be tethered to heaven I'm in terms of our heart and what we long for what we treasure. What do we treasure? How do I know well there it's where my heart is it's what I think about it's what I put my energy into You know, it's where my my effort goes It's where my thoughts are my goals my passions my ambitions It's what they're all moving toward that's where my heart is That's obviously where my treasure is Jesus said it made it pretty clear for us there now. I've found that When it comes to what I treasure I have I have found in my own life And I bet you this is true in yours too that it's very much a product or maybe should I say a byproduct of influence? Have you ever noticed that it's how we're being influenced in other words the things I want I want because I'm told that I want them by by others in TV. We call this advertising When we talk about it in schools, we call it peer pressure Doesn't really matter when it comes into your life or how it comes into your life. It is a byproduct of Influence and we're going to talk about that a little bit more in our our second point But you know, I found another you guys remember Will Rogers some of you older people Can't believe I'm saying that anyway, here's a quote. This is really great Whoops next one Advertising is the art of convincing people to spend money. They don't have for something. They don't need I'd say that's pretty accurate Wouldn't you and that's kind of that influence that is in our lives and that's of course just speaking of advertising But you know advertising you can turn the TV off turn the radio off close the magazine the newspaper The your laptop or whatever you're looking at and you there's always advertising all around us Anyway, the the world around us is advertising its wares and and you and I are being allured to those things so the real question that kind of is is is Needing to be answered here this morning is how do I keep my heart from being Captivated by the things all around me by the advertising of the world notice again I remember I put up that lyric from that song and again, I love it. How Lord I'm captivated by your love I want to be and I want to stay Captivated by the love of God, don't you? Don't you too? But I find this battle going on Where this influence From the world is just constantly You know hammering me to look away From the love that Jesus has poured out for me and you on the cross and all the wonderful Promises that go along with that sacrifice and to get my eyes on The things of the world and to long for those things to literally make them my treasure to the point where my heart becomes tethered to them and Then pretty soon is you know, what is a tether? It's like a leash Pretty soon then I'm following those things, you know, because I'm gonna go where my heart goes, you know, it's we're kind of inseparable that way So So here's here's here's again the question I asked a question I didn't answer it yet How do I keep myself? How do we keep ourselves? From being so powerfully influenced by the things of the world How do we keep our hearts from being so overwhelmingly captivated by the things of this were this this world and so forth well, I Have a rather simple answer We could start by just believing what the Bible says now that may kind of surprise you a little bit but It's kind of when you look through the Word of God and really take an objective view of what God has to say on worldly wealth It's pretty overwhelming. I mean, you know, it's not like the verdicts still out It's not like the jury's still deliberating on that particular issue God has God has bent over backwards to inform us about the quality of Treasures upon the earth and in right here in this very passage Jesus gives us a very important aspect to understand and to compare Treasures on earth and treasures in heaven. Look what Jesus said in in the passage that we're looking at here He tells us related to these things that there are two kinds of treasures He says that there are treasures that last and there are treasures that don't last now. That's a statement That's a comparative statement that which is made to two reasonable people and I would assume that we are all of that ilk, I Hope I hope we're reasonable. And and so what he's doing is he's reasoning and he's saying listen If you're gonna invest yourself in treasures You have an you have a couple of options here in front of you can imagine that Jesus is a like a Broker, right and he's talking to you about your financial options for investment and he says, alright, here's the deal. I Got two options for you over here in You know here this option is something that is going to last through eternity this other one here It's not going to last which one would you like? I Mean what? Is it even a question? I mean, I do you have to pause to consider that for a while. Well, let me think about this for a minute Wow This one's going away and this one isn't That's a toughie That's really not a toughie When you stop and think about it Reasonably again member I said Jesus is speaking here to reasonable people or at least he's asking us to reason as reasonable people He's laying this thing out for us in a way that we'll look at it and we'll come to a reasonable conclusion But here's the point. We don't come to a reasonable conclusion quite often in fact We run after the things of the world and the delights of the world and the passing temporal treasures of the world Why because we really don't believe what he said Now that's the fact of the matter and and you really you really can't escape that Conclusion because if you believe you're in your investor, you know, if you believe your financial broker, I mean if you Had 100% confidence in your broker. I'm not assuming you even have one. I Sure, don't but the point is if you had 100% confidence in your broker that I mean everything this guy touches is Golden, you know and every piece of advice he's ever given me is just spot-on Well, you wouldn't even hesitate you'd say that one yeah, sure good fine sign me up right you wouldn't question it Here's the question. Jesus is kind of like acting as your broker here in terms of eternal investments versus temporal investments And he has just simply told you which investment is going to last Now where are you gonna put your effort? Where are you gonna put your energy? Where are you gonna put your money? metaphorically speaking You see The first thing we we sit and we agonize sometimes over oh, my heart is just drawn toward the things of the world and I just don't know how to stop it and We never stop to look inside our own hearts as it relates to the Word of God and Just ask ourselves this very simple question. Do I? Believe it or do I read it and go? Yeah Maybe maybe it's true You know There's another person in the Bible who knew a lot about money. It's because he had a lot of it His name was Solomon guy was filthy rich. I Mean the kind of rich we all want to be without telling anybody about it, but he had it He had it all in fact I dare say that Solomon was probably more wealthy in terms of just Physical wealth than any other human being on the face of the earth Including Donald Trump and Not only that but he had something Donald Trump doesn't have and that is wisdom I'm I didn't mean that as a slam against Donald Trump. I just mean that Solomon it's we're told in the Bible was given more wisdom than any other man on the face of the earth Saving that of course Jesus Christ the God man But so here's a man who has all this wealth and all this wisdom Which he can apply to wealth and To the acquisition of wealth and he can give us some pretty important things to learn about it Well, what are some of the things he tells us? Let me show you one Ecclesiastes chapter 5 He says whoever loves money Never has money enough Whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless now that's what a man said Which was written down in the Bible a man? Who we are told had more wisdom than any other human being and who had more wealth than just any other human being. And he came to this conclusion. He said it was meaningless. It was vanity. It was like chasing after the wind. And here's why. He says, if you love money, you'll never have enough of it. Isn't that interesting? Do you know what's crazy is that people have been asked how much money they need to be rich. Do you know what their answers are? Depends on how much money they're making. You know, people who are making like, say $35,000 a year, they usually say something like, you know, if I was making about $75,000 a year, I'd be rich. Problem is that people who are making $90,000 a year don't think they're rich. They think that if they were making X amount of dollars, oh, then I'd be rich. And it just goes on and on up the scale. Nobody thinks they're rich. Nobody. Do you guys think you're rich? Anybody want to raise your hand if you think you're? I don't do that. I don't want to make a spectacle of any, you know, but you know, if I were to do that, if I were to say, how many of you think you're rich, you know, I probably none of you would say from a material standpoint, yeah, I'm extremely wealthy. Thank you. You know, it's just that we just don't usually think that. But I put a note, I put a little, little fun factoid last night on Facebook as I was studying. And it was the fact that most people living in the world make less than what you spend every month on cable TV. They live on less than what you pay for cable TV that amazing. And those of you who make between like say 35 and $50,000 a year, you probably didn't even know this, but you're like in the top four to two to 4% of wage earners in the world. If you could see that on a pie chart, you'd be overwhelmed. You're this little sliver. And we would probably call that sliver the rich. And guess what? You're one of them. People come from third world countries and they see the way you live and you're rich. You're wealthy. You know, some of you have more than one television. It's unheard of in some countries to even have one, let alone two. And they would look at you and they'd say two TVs. What opulence? And you know, so we, but then we ask ourselves, are you rich? See, that's the thing about money. You can never have enough of it. And you're always, you've always got your sights set higher. There's this kind of consuming thing about it where whereby we're never satisfied. You know, we're never satisfied. Now that's what the Bible says about money. So you still want to run after it. You know, the things of this world, the possessions of this world. And what we're doing is we're just focused on not only having them, but protecting them. I'm going to protect these things so nobody can get to them. You know, sort of a thing. And it's just, well, we go back to that dog chasing his tail scenario. Sort of a situation. So I bring up these passages, first of all, where Jesus makes mention of the fact that there are two kinds of investments you can make, one that lasts, one that don't. I bring up the passage from Ecclesiastes that we read up here on the screen. And the incredible amount of passages in the Bible that have to do with money, to talk about money, Paul writes to Timothy and he says people who love money and have run after wealth have pierced themselves with many griefs and they've run into all kinds of troubles and because the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, Paul says to Timothy in 1 Timothy. We, it's, you see, I bring up these passages to underscore the fact that we are not low on information related to the issue of how negative the negative impact that money has in our lives. It's not information that we're lacking. It's conviction. It's faith and belief in the simple word of God that counsels us on these matters and says, here is my counsel on this. Now are you going to believe it? That's what we lack, you see. The simple faith of saying, I believe that. I believe what the word of God has to say. I believe that anything that I run after in this world is going to be only temporal. And I believe that it's only going to, you know, the running after money and the gaining of wealth. You know, as Christians, there's a passage in Proverbs, I believe it's Proverbs, it might be Ecclesiastes, I can't remember because I didn't look it up ahead of time, but it talks about the fact that an inheritance gained quickly or given quickly comes to ruin. And yet, that doesn't stop us from going and buying a lottery ticket. You see? Again, we're not low on information. The Bible's given us the information about the negative aspects of money. We just don't believe it. We just flat out don't believe it. So anyway, now the second part of our outline, I'm going to go through these rather quickly. Let's put it back up again. The second part that we talked about is a question of vision, and this is where we deal with the issue of influence. What is influencing you? What are you seeing with your eyes? What are you looking at with your heart? The eyes of your heart. Look at verse 22 with me again in your Bible. It says, the eye is the lamp of the body. If the eyes are good, the whole body will be full of light, but if the eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness? As I said before when we read this, Jesus is using metaphor. And your eyes don't literally, you know, they don't literally let light into your body. When he speaks of light and darkness, he's speaking about the byproduct of the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of this world. If you're looking and desiring the things of this world, then your eyes and your heart are fixated on darkness and you're going to be full of darkness because the world is plunged into darkness. The world lives in darkness. That's its address. Darkness Avenue. And so Jesus is saying when you are focused, when your eyes, again, eyes and heart are one of those interchangeable things in the Bible, you know, he's using eyes here just like he would say elsewhere, don't fix your heart or set your heart on, on things down here. It's the same sort of a metaphorical use. When your eyes are fixated on the things of this world to have them, to acquire them, to protect them, what you're doing is you're opening yourself to darkness and you're going to be full of darkness. Your heart is going to be full of darkness. But if instead you have decided to fix or focus your ambition, and this is really the key, your ambition on the things of above, on the things of heaven and on securing, uh, you know, those things above, he said that that's looking to those things which are light and you will be full of light. And there's this kind of this beautiful picture that we, we get from, from this, this thing about this question of, of vision. What is your vision focused on? What is your, what are the influences of your life? You know, sometimes we wonder, we wonder why our Christian life is so difficult to walk. People will come to me sometimes lamenting, you know, my just, just walking with Jesus is so hard and you know, and not that it's ever supposed to be easy, but what they mean kind of is I'm just, you know, I just wanting the things of God, desiring the things of God. That's my vision. It's just hard. I just find myself wanting the things of the world and we want to come back and say, well, what's in front of your eyes all day long and not just physically in front of your eyes, but to the point where it's now in your heart and it becomes a desire, a passion and ambition. What is your ambition in life? You know, I mean, that's, those are the questions that Jesus is getting us attempting to get us to ask ourselves, what are you looking at all day long? Are you watching the shopping channel or are you looking at other things that other people have longingly? I mean, where is your vision? It's because it's a question of vision because vision, what you set your heart on is going to be what influences your life. You know, that lyric that we sang from beautiful Lord says, I'm captivated by this love I see. Is the love of Christ what's in front of your eyes? Well, if that's what you have in front of your eyes, that's what you're going to see. And that's what your heart is going to be captivated by. And your life is going to be full of light. I'm captivated by this love I see. So somebody says, well, Pastor Paul, I'm not captivated by the love of Christ. I got to just confess. I'm just not. Well, then I'd have to say, you're probably not looking at him. It's probably that it's a question of vision. It's a question of where you have your eyes put. Are you looking? Are you focused? Is that your ambition? To see what Christ has done for you on the cross? You know, I was sitting here during worship, and I was doing my level best to not break out in tears because I'm just sitting here thinking about what Jesus has done for me on the cross. And I'm just like, oh. You are so good. So amazing, God. But you know, I also realize while I'm sitting here, I don't do this enough. I don't do this enough. I don't keep that in front of my spiritual eyes enough. I need to do it more so that my heart is full with the light of the Lord and there's no room for the darkness of the world, you know? And then the last question that we're dealing with here, a point on our kind of our three-point outline, is a question of worth. Look at verse 24 with me. It says, no one can serve two masters. 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 both God and money. Now, this is important, guys, because see what's going on here is that Jesus is now explaining what's behind the issue of having two locations for your treasures. He's explaining what is behind the two ambitions that we can fix our eyes on. And he's telling us that there is one final choice that is in back of it all, and it is the two masters. The two masters. And he says that those masters are God and material wealth. And you'll notice that Jesus makes that definitive statement to you and I in this verse that says, it is impossible to serve God and to serve material wealth at the same time. He says it's impossible. Once again, here's a question we have to ask ourselves. Do we believe it? Or are we trying to run after both at the same time without even really knowing it? Because when he speaks of serving, when you look at verse 24, you might want to make a little note next to the word serve because it's used multiple times. No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate one and love the other, or he'll be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Do you know that word serve is where we get our word slave? And so he's not talking about serve in terms of like become an employee of. He's talking about become a slave of. He's talking about that master being your ultimate master to whom you are the sole property of that master. You belong to that master. And he's saying basically here that you cannot, you cannot be the sole property of God and also be the sole property of money, of wealth. It's just not possible. So, and of course, the question we want to ask is who'd want to? Who'd want to be the sole property of wealth? Well, when we think about it reasonably, none of us would say, yeah, I really want to be owned by wealth, thank you. We wouldn't say that. And yet we toy with it. We toy with the reality of the situation. But we can do that. We can deceive ourselves. And we can believe that we are worshiping God, that we are a devoted, committed Christian person, and yet we can serve wealth at the same time, or at least attempt to, and deceive ourselves the whole time. And you know that, I'm not going to take time to get into the whole thing, but that story of the rich young ruler is a case in point. Here's a man who truly believed himself to be a genuine worshiper of the living God. And he genuinely wanted to know what God expected from him. So he comes to Jesus and he says, good teacher, or good master, what must I do? And you know how the conversation goes, I assume. But the point about this is that this man genuinely saw himself as someone who really wanted to worship God. But Jesus, remember? I love that story so much because Jesus saw the true condition of this young man's heart. He saw what was really going there. He saw what was going on underneath all of the religious facade. And he got right down to where the rubber meets the road with this young man when he basically challenged him to see things as they really were. And here's, on the screen, I'll tell you, this is what he said. This is what, Luke, it's in Luke 18. When Jesus heard this, he said to him, you still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. There's that term, treasure in heaven. Then come follow me. But it says when he heard this, meaning the rich young man, he became very sad because he was a man. Why? Because he was a man of great wealth. You see, what happened is that when Jesus challenged that facade of devotion, which the man himself believed, and really pinpointed where this man's love was, his real devotion became clear. And you'll notice that there wasn't even a moment of hesitation with this young man. He didn't kind of go, um, let's see, follow Jesus, hang on to what I've got. Can I get back to you on that? Didn't even do like that Christian thing we like to do. Well, could I pray about that for a little while and just kind of talk to you about it later? He just, there was no hesitation. He was just like, he was just instantly sad because he knew he couldn't choose. Well, no, he knew he already had. He already had chosen. And the question of Jesus simply brought that to the forefront. It simply exposed the whole thing. And so all the pretense of his devotion collapsed in a moment under the crushing weight of the simple question, will you follow me? Will you give it all up in order to follow me? And this whole story raises the question for each of us about the condition of our own heart and where our true devotion lies. You know, sooner or later, we better come to terms with it. And you know, I'm not suggesting in any way that Jesus is telling every believer that you got to go sell everything you have in order to follow him and so forth. This was a question that was pointed to this man because God saw, Jesus saw in him what needed to be addressed, what needed to be confronted. Whether or not the specifics of the way he confronted it applies to you, that's, I don't know. My point is, I think it would behoove us to simply ask ourselves the question, Lord, where does my devotion really lie? What is it in my life that is my ultimate treasure? What is it that my heart follows after in an instant? Where does my mind go when it has nothing else to think about? Where does it naturally take me? Of what things does it dream and long for, whether good or bad? Because Lord, you already know all these things. I just need to come to terms with them. And you know, Christians, there is coming a day when all these things will be exposed. So we would be wise to expose them now before the Lord. We would be wise, like King David, to say, search me and know me and see. Lord, you have that powerful searchlight of your presence and you can tell me whether there's anything in my life that needs to be addressed and exposed. I have the most powerful way of deceiving myself and making myself think I'm doing just fine. But you're the perfection of what you see and what you know is something that I lack. And so I'm gonna invite you to do that in my heart. I mean, I just think that's probably something that we should do. I mean, I'm just spitballing here, but I'm thinking maybe it's probably an important thing. Right? You think? You agree? Sweet. Let's stand together and let's close in prayer. Holy Spirit. Open wide my eyes. And right now I seek you. Does a message matter? Chirsus, I'm so glad you're here. Christe Helen, In Jesus's name. You are a calling, a strength, a light. You are a clear warning light of life. оде you're my salvation, and I am your strength. Christus, I'm so glad you're here. You are a calling, a strength, a light. You are a clear warning light of life. ode