All right, my name is Eric, one of the pastors here.
If I haven't met you yet, glad to have you here, as well as
everyone who is regularly here with us.
And we are in the book of Matthew, as we have been for
quite a while. And we're in the Sermon on the
Mount, and we're in chapter 6, and we'll be in verses 19
through 24. So let me read those to you.
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 destroy,
and where thieves do not break and steal.
For where your treasure is, there 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 2 masters, for he will either 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.
Today I've titled this message Treasuring Christ because in the
world there's this problem with materialism.
Materialism is really idolatry or a love of possessions over
loving God. And that is normal, a normal
thing out there in the world, especially people that don't
believe in God or follow God's laws or ways.
Who else would they worship other than themselves and the
things that they can acquire? But it's also a problem in the
Christian Church and, and in context of the Sermon on the
Mount. Again, Jesus is teaching his
disciples about what to do, what not to do, what it looks like to
live in this new Kingdom that he is.
He is starting when he touched down on earth 2000 years ago.
And this is still for us today, how to be good disciples, good
Christians. And if you are a Christian, this
stuff will work out in you and, and through the preaching and
the reading and the hearing of God's word, we will be
sanctified or, or that word just means to be made more holy, to
become more like Christ, to sin less and to obey God more.
That is what God is doing in our hearts.
And but it does happen through understanding his words.
And so the main idea I want us to get today is this, that the
obsession with having possessions leads to depression
and idolatry. When Jesus holds the highest
value in your heart, materialism won't have control over you and
generosity will lead to having true treasure.
So we are going to talk about treasuring Christ, not the
things that we possess here on earth.
And that leads to so many wonderful blessings and rewards
both now and in eternity. In John MacArthur's book
Overcoming Materialism, he offers this analysis about kind
of the way in which the world and and even Christians deal
with having possessions, and he calls it things, just having
things. And he goes like this.
Mr. and Missus Thing are a very pleasant and successful couple.
At least that's the verdict of most people who tend to measure
success with a thingometer. When the thingometer is put to
work in the life of Mr. and Missus Thing, the result is
startling. There he is, sitting down on a
luxurious and very expensive thing, almost hidden by a large
number of other things. Things to sit on, things to sit
at, things to cook on, things to eat from, all shining and new
things. Things, things, things to clean
with, and things to wash with, and things to clean, and things
to wash, and things to amuse, and things to give pleasure, and
things to watch, and things to play.
Things for the long hot summer, and things for the short cold
winter. Things for the big thing in
which they live. And things for the garden and
things for the lounge and things for the kitchen and things for
the bedroom. And things on four wheels and
things on two wheels and things to put on top of the four thing
with four wheels and things to pull behind the four wheels.
Things to add to the interior of the thing on four wheels.
Things, things, things. And there in the middle are Mr.
and Missus things, smiling and pleased, pink with things,
thinking of more things to add to their things, secure in their
castle of things. Well, Mr. Thing, I have some bad
news for you. Oh, you say you can't hear me
because of the things are in the way.
Well, I just want you to know that your things can't last.
They're going to pass. There's going to be an end to
them. Oh, maybe an error in judgement,
maybe a temporary loss of concentration.
Or maybe you'll just pass them off to the second hand thing
dealer. Or maybe they'll wind up a mass
of mangled metal between and being towed off to the thing
yard. And what about all the things in
your house? Well, it's time for bed.
Put out the cat, make sure you lock the door and hope something
taker doesn't come and take your things.
Doesn't that describe most of our lives, if we're being
honest? All the things that we think
about that we want or taking care of the things that we have
takes up probably, if we're honest, too much of our time in
life. And I believe that Jesus is
helping us today understand how to put those things in proper
priority if we're going to worship him properly.
So got three points for us today actually with a closing point as
well. And my first point is this.
There is more value in eternal things than temporary things.
It's better to work for rewards in heaven that last forever than
to save up money for possessions here on earth that will wear out
and we can't take them with us. So going to the context of this
passage again, Jesus has been talking about what it looks like
to be a hypocrite and receiving praise from people for looking
righteous, but having the wrong heart or the wrong heart
motives. And Jesus is now going to
motivate us out, out of becoming or not being that Christian
hypocrite, but now continuing to live for him and to put him
first and to give him the proper glory that is due.
And there's a way to to give it all all you've got for heaven.
And that's what Jesus is going to get into here.
Rather than being duped by the world or held back by from the
world or being kind of a, a defeated Christian that is
consumed with or overpowered by, you know, all the cares of this
life. Jesus has something for us
today. And so we'll get into the first
couple verses. He 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 destroy,
and where thieves do not break in and steal.
So what's he saying here? Lay up?
That means to save, right? Don't.
Don't save up treasure on earth where it's not going to last.
And I know we all know this, right?
Everything that we have seems to wear out and we spend a lot of
our time fixing things. It's so weird over the last
month, like random things have been going out in my house.
Like we had our, our water heater go out, you know, and
then we had just different, different things around the yard
and, and leaks in the house and the windows bugs getting in.
I mean, things are, it's just, you're constantly trying to
protect the things that you own and cars breaking down and
always needing gas and maintenance.
We know that things don't last forever.
Even our own bodies, they're wearing out and they're not
going to last forever. And, and, and, and if we think
about that, it just brings a little bit of depression, if
we're honest, right? Like, why does nothing work the
way it's supposed to? Why is my body not working the
way it's supposed to? That's the, the essence of what
Jesus is reminding us is remember, there's a, there's a
curse on this, this earth and this world.
This is not our home. We are supposed to be living for
eternity. And we get so stuck in the
temporary. And so we want to save up
treasures around us and accumulate things to make us
feel safe. That word treasure there is
talking about possessions like a store room, a a treasury in the
Old Testament. And in this word was used
talking about the, the treasuries in the House of the
Lord, the cups and the, the Shields and the, all of the,
the, the holy furniture in the temple.
It's talking about gold and silver marble.
Joseph used this word when he was given second in command over
Egypt and he managed the, the storehouses of, of food and the
treasury in Egypt. And that's what Jesus is saying.
Don't have storehouses and and treasury so concerned about this
life that you spend too much time on that and not not enough
time on your eternal life. When I think about these
storehouses, I think about the movie Aladdin, the first, the
first cartoon, you know, when he's they, they find that
little, you know, they're going through all that gold and rubies
and everything and finally find the lamp and he rubs the lamp
and he gets those 3 wishes. And everybody always wants to be
rich, right? When they get 3, which 3 wishes
and or I think of, you know, pirate treasure, how how people
get so consumed. Their whole life is spent on
hunting treasure. We went to Treasure Coast a
while ago on a vacation and we went on a tour of all the
different shipwrecks that had happened on this beach.
And, and after we went through this presentation and walked
around and saw all these like valuable pieces of metal and
things and read about it the rest of our vacation, it was
like some kind of weird trance came over us.
And now we spent like all this time on the beach looking at
every Pebble and rock, thinking we were going to get rich, you
know, And we even, we even brought a bunch of worthless
rocks home that looked like, like rusting coins, you know, I
don't know if you've ever done that.
Or the Lord of the Rings. I think of The Lord of the Rings
and Smeagol, you know, when he finally is, he's so obsessed
with my precious, you know, and it turns him into this weird
little ugly creature because he's consumed, almost possessed
at getting this treasure. That's like us, right?
When we get so consumed with that next thing that we want to
buy that, that, that it turns into this obsession.
Now what can these things be? You know, home, right?
Right now, it's very hard to afford a house.
And I know for especially for the younger generation looking
at buying and they're looking at all of, you know, the older
generations and they're mad at mad at us.
You know, I guess I can put myself in the older generation.
You know, the younger people like you guys have it so easy.
You bought it a great time and now we can't afford and I
honestly, I, I mean, don't blame us, but yes, I, I feel for you.
You know, I feel for you that it's the economy and inflation
and the price of houses. And so I can understand the
concern of, of will you ever be able to afford a home?
Hopefully we can right those wrongs in our country or cars,
right. I don't know if people still
like cars anymore and trucks, but I'm sure you do.
How big of a truck can you get? You know, that shows how manly
you are, right? Or how nice of a van can you
have, right? Shows how great of a family,
family person you are, right? Toys and clothes and all of
these things. You know, our neighbors get the
new side by side now. We're like, man, I wish I could
have one of those. Like our lives would change.
We would have so much joy and fun if we could just have what
they have or think about this. This is one that popped up in my
mind as I was preparing for this.
The idea of retirement, right. You know, it's something that
just has to be talked about it here in America.
There are more millionaires than anywhere else in the world
because of four O 1 KS and Iras and, and the dream that is sold
to us that one day you're going to be able to quit work and just
live it up, you know, travelling the world with your, with your
spouse, right. And maybe that's your dream.
And of course I, I've told my wife that like, I hope one day
we get to go see the world right.
But and you know, the problem is, is that first of all, I
don't think while we might get to to change occupations and we
may not have to, you know, work in the same capacity that we had
to, if we're smart with our money, I don't think we're ever
supposed to stop working. In fact, you know, my wife was
reminding me of a study recently that's been done, you know, in
retirement, when people just up and quit their job and then have
no plan, no purpose, no work that they're doing it, it, it,
it actually becomes depressing and it might end your life
earlier because you wake up and, and you don't quite have the
same purpose, the same prestige, the same title that you worked
so hard for in your life. And so when we think about
retirement, I think this challenges us to think about it
maybe in a deeper way. How can God use me?
In fact, I often tell people and, and actually, you know,
we're so blessed with many people at our church that are
probably near that age or, or maybe even already tired.
And, and I've been in ministry for a while.
And some of the the sweetest, greatest servant hearted people
that I've ever served alongside are people that are retired.
And they've, they've said, look, I don't have to, you know,
provide the same way I had to before.
And I want to give my time, my talent, my treasure to more to
the Kingdom than I could before. And, and certainly when I think
about that, I think of Psalm 7118.
So even to old age and Gray hairs, Oh God, do not forsake me
until I proclaim your might to another generation, Your power
to all those who come. I think we need to think about
this as we're thinking about our investments or our long term
strategy to survive to the end of this life till till we till
we get to the next one. And I'm not saying it's wrong to
save up. Of course, the Bible has a lot
to say. It does not say that poverty is
a virtue, right? That you should just become
poor. No, it it, you know the Proverbs
6/6. I love this about the Ant.
We can learn from an Ant. Oh Sluggard, consider her ways
and be wise without having any chief officer or ruler.
She prepares her bread in the summer summer and gathers her
food and harvest. We can learn that the even the
Ant saves up and is wise for survival.
But we must not get caught up in the worldly idea of the, you
know, travel the world, never have to work ever and a day in
our life again. And God wants us to store up
treasures in heaven. And I'm going to get to that,
you know, towards the end. I want to keep walking through
this passage, though, where it says moth and rust destroy.
Now the the moths again, just getting into the visual
analogies or illustrations that Jesus is using here.
In the ancient times, you know, fabrics were one of the great
sources of wealth and and and treasure in the ancient Middle
East. And actually in Joshua 721, you
know, one of the things that caused him, he got caught after
breaking a command of gods. They went and Joshua, the whole
book is about going in and taking over the promised land.
But they were there were Babylonian and and secular
nations that needed to be taken out or destroyed so that they
could have their land. And a man named Aiken.
Aiken, you know, found a beautiful cloak from Shinar and
some silver and gold and hid it in his tent and eventually was
found out because the sin in the camp that he brought into the
camp ended up kind of hindering all of the nation of Israel in
their wars, his greed for possessions.
Moths get into fabric. By the way, I didn't really know
this I but the larvae, the way they, they plant their larvae
to, to, to eventually, you know, turn into a moth.
Or is that they, they, they like to be in like cotton or
different fabrics And they as it's making that little cocoon
it, it's eating away the material at the same time.
So it's really just talking about how, how the earth and,
and, and nature and animals really just wear away or eat
away at things that are valuable to us.
And in fact, recently we had mice like infesting our home.
And it was like I, I had had this panic because I had caught
too. And they just kept coming, you
know, I at first I was catching them and throwing them out some
idea, you know, and so eventually got some traps and it
was, they were in between the two levels of our house, you
know, And so I got up in this bathroom vent and I'm, I'm
putting up traps and like, it's like, I mean, we're getting up
to 4-5 and I'm thinking, how many of these do we have in
there? And I'm thinking we got to sell
this house. But, but I got to be honest with
the sellers. There's a mouse infestation.
I mean, we're ruined, you know, all my equity's gone.
You know, I'm thinking all that type of stuff, right?
And we can't. This is just how the world
works. We've got to be aware of it.
Rust, again, the literal word for that word used there is
eating or consuming. It refers to the process of
deterioration and metal caused by oxidation or chemical action.
But it can also refer to again, vermin eating valuable food
stores and and again, coins in metal in that day eventually
rusted away. And then there's the thieves.
Obviously we know what a thief is.
Thief is, is someone who uses stealth or slyness to steal
property or wealth. And certainly we have those.
I remember, you know, when we lived in Ogden, we had our cars
regularly broken into on the street.
And thankfully we didn't have, we weren't, we didn't have a lot
of money. And so they didn't really steal
a whole lot. In fact, one time this is really
cool. Apparently this car thief was
was all throughout these different cars in the
neighborhood and he must have been stealing change out of the
ashtray. So we had this bag of coins and
and we wake up and our car doors open and the whole car had been
rummaged through. And this car was like a 1990
something Nissan Sentra, you know, faded.
And I was like, yeah, there's nothing valuable in there, but
we find this bag of coins in there.
And so it was really a gift. He, he gave us a gift, gave it
to one of my kids, you know, said go, go have a heyday.
You know, it was a blessing, but think about all the other
thieves in our lives, the other, you know, scammers.
Oh man, how many scammer calls do we get nowadays?
Or, or investors, people who want to invest our money as we
think about our four O 1 KS and our our wealth and and and
hiring somebody to help us with that, Can we really trust them?
Sometimes that's the thought in my mind or, you know, the
different scams out there with, you know, big, big drug
companies and taxes and inflation.
And you've heard that that saying this is Hwy. robbery.
You know, you go into you go into the store and things are
just costing so much more money. It's like this is I'm being
robbed by you. But I guess I need this, you
know, so maybe, maybe some of us might say, Oh, I'm doing fine,
you know, and I'm, I'm, I'm doing OK.
And, and you might get some success, success in the world's
eyes. Maybe your stuff isn't wearing
away or you're taking really good care of everything and
you're maintaining everything. But it might feel a little
humbling when we all get to the gates of heaven and we have that
first glimpse of all the things that flashed before us, all the
things that we had done for the Lord in our lives, you know,
compared to all the things that we had done for our possessions
and maintaining those. You see 40 times Jesus in the
New Testament mentions this word rewards.
And that's just Jesus all throughout the New Testament.
There's, there's this reward thing talked about in the New
Testament, there are rewards. And all throughout the Sermon on
the Mount, we've heard him talk about your, the tone, the
hypocrites. You will, you'll lose your
reward if you do it hypocritically.
Well, there are rewards. There are treasures the Bible
talks about. There are five different crowns,
things that we are working for here on earth.
Now, don't get that confused. We're saved by faith alone, not
by working. But there is a concept in the
New Testament but that that some of the things that he's
empowering us to do are earning us eternal rewards in heaven.
And so we should think about that if we really want to be a
good saver, rather than saving up the things that we have on
earth, we should start thinking about our four O 1K spiritual
4O1K, our spiritual IRA, our spiritual savings.
What will that look like? And my next point then is this.
Whatever has the most worth in our lives to us gets our
worship. Jesus goes on to say for where
your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Whatever is a treasure to you and you place your value in your
heart is going to be close to that at all times.
And your heart, remember your heart is is your mind, your will
and your emotions. It's not the thing that just
pumps blood, but when the Bible uses the word heart, it's the,
the mind, the will and the the emotions.
And when you have something of high value, you are constantly
thinking about it. It brings you feelings.
It helps it, it, it, it, it influences the way you make
decisions about life. And these things that we
treasure determine the course of our lives.
That's what Jesus is saying here.
And so you've heard this phrase. Put your heart into it, right?
Well, we will put our heart into the things that matter most.
I know the, the, the ability of humans like we can do some great
things, some amazing things. God has God has gifted us with
just natural abilities to, to work hard and to be successful
and to accomplish goals in life. And, and we can really put our
heart into something. And that's what Jesus is saying.
You really value something. You can and you will put your
heart, but make sure that that what you put your heart into or
what you value, what is the highest worth of your life is
the right thing or the right person.
Because thinking of planning for or spending considerable amounts
of time of of physical and emotional energy towards these
things. Anything other than God can be
idolatry. Remember the greatest commands.
Deuteronomy 65. You shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Jesus again reiterates, saying that those are the greatest
commands. And then to love your neighbors
yourself. So we are supposed to love the
Lord God with all of our heart, to treasure God.
He is of the highest worth. In fact, let me just tell you
where the word worship comes from.
The word worship comes from the word worth ship.
So when you think about worship, it's not oh, this is just music.
No, my worship is is praising and honoring and living for and
and thinking of in the utmost regard because God is worthy, He
is worth it and he has the highest worth as being the
creator of all things, the owner of all things, the sovereign
ruler and king of all things. He is the most valuable being.
He is worthy. He is has the highest worth and
deserves our worship because of that.
Again. Well I'm going to jump to verse
24 because it fits right in this.
No one can serve 2 masters for either.
He will hate the one, love the other.
He will be devoted to the one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and money. You cannot literally have two
things in your life that are of the of equal value and priority.
You just can't. We talked about this a few maybe
a month ago about this idea in the Christian's life ordered
loves and that we have to order our or prioritize our love that
we give away. Now we're supposed to love
everybody, even including our enemy, but but first and
foremost, love God. Then if you're married, your
spouse, if you have kids, your kids, love your church family,
love your city, your neighborhood, your state, your
nation, and then everyone else, the whole world.
And and so when he says you can't have two masters, you
can't have two that are in the same position and money should
not be high up on the list at all.
In fact, the Bible says the love of money is the root of all
kinds of evil, and so it's not. He's not saying you have to hate
money either though. It's saying you love it less.
You value money less than all the other things and the people
that you're supposed to love. 1st and importantly, first and
foremost, God is your Lord, your Master.
Don't you know it's not just all about Him being our master and
we're his slaves? But don't you know, Christian,
that he loves you like a valuable treasure?
You are a valuable treasure to God, the most valuable being in
all of the universe. He calls us his treasured
possession out of all of his creation in Deuteronomy 76.
I want you to see this, for you are people holy to the Lord your
God. The Lord your God has chosen you
to be a people for his treasured possession out of all the
peoples who are on the face of the earth.
If you are a child of God, if you are a believer, you are a
treasure, the highest treasure to him.
Then you might say, well, that's talking, yeah, about the nation
of Israel. But then, you know, Jesus goes
on and in the New Testament and says similar and the same
things, that we are a treasured possession.
In fact, Peter says we're, you know, a holy nation, a royal
priesthood, a people of his own possession.
He set us apart. He's making us even more.
He made us valuable by the death of his son, and now he's made us
his children. And you know how valuable your
children are to you, right? And God looks at every one of
his sons and daughters and says, man, they are so valuable for me
to me enough to die for, enough to send my my one and only son
to be the sacrifice. I treasure you that much.
This blew my mind as I was studying about this in, in, in
Matthew 1344, There's this short little parable.
The Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field which
a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and
sells all that he has and buys that field.
And at first glance, and in many interpretations, you know, one
can say, you can say that this is talking about you value
Christ and the Kingdom and his words so much that you're
willing to give up everything and to go put put it all on
Jesus, right? Like I am going to not put my
trust in my hope in and and anything in the world, I am
willing to sacrifice it all for Christ.
And that would be a right interpretation of this passage.
But you can look at this another way, that this is actually
talking about us being that treasure hidden in a field and
the man is Christ and this man Christ, God said, I love this
people so much. The Father says, I love these
people so much. They are so valuable to me that
I'm going to go give it all. I'm going to sell it all.
I'm going to give away even the life of my son for this treasure
that I found in the field. And I thought, wow, isn't that
true though, right? Because we don't find him, He
finds us. We were bought with a price and
we have a wonderful master who loves us.
He gave it all in the person of Jesus.
He died on the cross, and that purchased us away from our
slavery to sin so that now we could come and be sons and
daughters of God. And so why would we want to now
put ourselves back into slavery to possessions and materialism
and just wanting things and idolatry of thinking that that
next thing is going to make me happy.
We're always thinking that, right?
Like we're not content in this life.
And we're always thinking, I need that next car or that these
clothes or this new toy or this new thing to just solve my
problems or to take my mind off of my troubles.
And we forget that we've been purchased and redeemed and
bought by our Lord, and if we would just go to Him and seek
the heavenly treasures that He has, a whole store room and a
storehouse full to just shower upon us of His grace and His
love and His mercy. I don't know about you, but God
answers my prayers on a regular basis.
But it does require going to Him in prayer and talking to Him and
relying on him, keeping in relationship with him to see his
work in your life. So I want to move on to my third
and final point, which is how to have a healthy view then of
earthly possessions. Because we got to have things,
you know, we've got to have a car.
Your car got you here and thank God you're wearing clothes.
You know, we've got we've got to feed our families, you know, we
got to have cookware. We've got to have things OK, but
we can have a healthy view of these things, not have them be
our gods or our masters or our idols.
And in fact, I believe Jesus tells us that we can, we can
fight this depression that we have of discontentment and and
selfishness with generosity and accepting our life
circumstances. In fact, I love in the book of
Ecclesiastes the wisest man on earth.
Solomon, you know, he said this. He says in chapter 5, verse 18,
Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and
drink and find enjoyment and all the toil with which one toils
under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him
for this is his lot. We've got to find enjoyment in
the work that we're doing now. We've got to find enjoyment in
the possessions that we have now.
We've got to find enjoyment in the things that God has already
given us, take care of those things to the glory of God, have
a a general acceptance again of our life circumstances.
I was talking to someone who's very dear to me, who, you know,
knows some, some kids at a school that are transgender.
And this conversation, we were talking about how he says that
they, they literally hate being in their own body.
They literally believe and have these feelings that they're
disgusting. They don't like it and they want
to be someone else. They want to, they want to have
an identity of someone else other than what was given to
them. And you can, you can just really
look at that and say first you can have compassion.
But then you can say, yeah, I could see why you would be sad.
I could see why you would be depressed, why you wouldn't be
happy in life. If you can't just accept the lot
in life that you were given. If you can't accept the family
that you have, the name that you have, the gender that you have,
and you think that you need something else to fulfill some
desire or thought in your mind, then of course you're just going
to be miserable. And so part of this, this whole
thing about even our possessions, and I know that
that's, that's a, that's an analogy outside of this, but it
really goes to the general idea that if we can't be happy or
accept the things and what we have and who we are, and we're
constantly wanting new status, new identity from a new position
because we're not happy in the place where we're at.
I mean, we are going to be depressed.
Let's go on. In this passage, he says 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. But if then the light in you is
darkness, how great is the darkness?
Now, at first this is like some kind of a little bit hard to
interpret parable in a sense. And So what is this saying?
Well, the eye here represented is what you focus on and it's
the it's the lamp. It's it's the window to the
heart, the what you look out at with desire or want.
It's the window to seeing what your heart really wants, right?
And So what you take in with your eyes and what you focus on
kind of informs your heart to what to want.
OK, Like in Psalm 119, heart and I are very close used close
together. 36 it says incline my heart to your testimonies and
not to selfish gain. Turn my eyes from looking at
worthless things and give me life in your ways.
It's the gate of the heart the the mind of or the the the the
mind's eye. It's the the knowledge that
informs our mind will and emotions right.
So if you have a healthy eye, then right, The healthy eye
would be AI that is full of light, full of and light and
darkness here are often always used in the Bible as good and
evil, truth and sinfulness. And so if we have a a healthy
eye, then it will inform our hearts of the the righteous
things, the good things, our bodies will be healthy, will be
whole. And that word healthy actually
there in the Greek means to be sincere, healthy or generous,
which is interesting if you think about that.
If you have a healthy eye or if your eye is is not all about
materialism and possessions and consuming rather that it's more
generous. Like I don't need, I can give.
If you have more of a generous eye, then your body will be
filled with light or goodness or truth, like you will be a whole
and healthy person. In the contrast, then you can
figure out if you have a lustful eye.
And the word lust isn't just about sexual desire.
It's also about physical things. Just looking at things out there
in the world and and wanting them.
In fact, in first John 215 and 16 in the CSB, I'll read, I'll
read ESV and 15, it says do not love the world or the things in
the world. If anyone loves the world, the
love of the Father is not in him.
And then it says for everything in the world, the lust of the
flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one's possessions
is not from the Father, but it's from the world.
So there's a lust that comes from the eye that is evil,
wicked, selfish instead of generous.
It's a selfish eye that informs the heart and then makes the
body sick or the soul the being sick, Right.
So the point of this then is if you want to have a healthy view
of possessions, then we are to be first and foremost informed
where these possessions came from, who owns them, and
therefore what am I supposed to do with them?
I love this job. 1/21 it says naked I came from my mother's
womb and naked shall I return. The Lord gave and the Lord is
taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord,
He, he can't take any with anything with him when he goes.
And it's God who's the giver of every good and perfect gift.
Everything comes from the Lord, because God owns everything.
Psalm 5010 for every beast of the forest is mine, and the
cattle on 1000 hills is mine. He owns everything, all the
silver and the gold, the Bible says.
And so if God owns everything and we get to have some things,
although it seems like we worked for them, God ultimately gives
us the ability to get them. So therefore we are the
managers, and He's the owner of everything.
And if we're to be good managers of the things that God has given
us, then we ought to not have the lustful eyes of selfishness
to store up for ourselves, but instead look at our things as
temporary, not that valuable. And actually, I could give some
of this stuff away. So money again, is a tool.
It's not bad. It's a neutral thing.
You know, everybody often misquotes what First Timothy 6
says about the money is the root of evil.
Well, it says the love of money is the root of all kinds of
evil. It is through this craving that
some have wandered away from the faith and Pierce themselves with
many pains. Again, Jesus is saying to his
disciples look to, to to to remain faith.
Christian, get caught up with what the world is doing with
materialism and amassing for yourself, gaining possessions
and storing up for yourselves only treasures on heaven, in
heaven or on earth and not in heaven.
But it's not saying that money in in itself is is evil.
It can be used for good money is a tool.
And so I want to close with this how, how to store up treasures
in heaven while on earth. Matthew, in Matthew 25, there's
the parable of the talents. And, and each one of them,
there's three guys, they each get a sum, you know, 15 and 10
and, and, and, and two of them go and invest and they get 2
fold from their investment. You know, God comes and rewards
them for investing their talent, which is a form of money back
then. And then what the one said, you
know what, he went and buried it and didn't, he didn't do
anything with it. And so God comes and asks what
you do with what I gave you. These other two went and took
what I gave them and doubled it. They, they, they invested it.
Well, they used it the way in which I wanted them to use it.
And this one guy says, well, you know, I didn't want to mess
things up. I knew that you, you know, in,
in lack of a better term, I knew that, that you would want
something, want what you gave me back.
And so I went and buried it and here it is for you.
And he says, you wicked servant, I gave you this and you did
nothing with it. And it says that he's, you know,
cast in doubt or darkness where there's weeping and gnashing of
teeth or cut in place, cut in pieces and put in the place of
hypocrites. Like he didn't use what God gave
him as a tool to worship and glorify God.
And that's what we need to use our money for.
And now I'm not saying that to scare the Christians in the
room. Like if you, if you, you know,
don't use all the stuff for the glory of God, you're, you're
going to be in that place. You're going to hell.
No, that's not what I'm saying. If you're a Christian, God will
work this out in your life as much as you even fight him on
it. He will be working this out in
your heart. It will bother you.
You'll be at war with him in this.
You'll be like, you know, when you want to give something away,
but you hold with the clutch in your fist, you're like, yeah,
sure, here, I want to give this away.
You know, God will work this out.
That's what the whole Sermon on the Mount is, is helping us
understand. True believers will be like
this. Not perfectly, but we need to
hear this in order to inform our wills and our hearts to align
with God's will. Right.
So money's a tool and we use it. We use our tools like time,
talent and treasure to work for Jesus and so I've just got three
quick things how to store up treasures in heaven time.
We can give our time, right? Bible study, prayer, worship.
This is discipleship. We're storing up treasure in
heaven when, when we're meeting with another person, when we're
reading scripture with another person, when we're studying the
Bible with a group of people. And, and you might have a little
bit more knowledge than they do. And you're, you're storing in
their souls, which will eventually be rewarded one day
in heaven. And that might just be being
able to see them in heaven one day because you shared the
gospel, you prayed for them, you taught them how to worship
discipleship. And let me say this, parents,
men, specifically spiritual leaders, we need to be focused
on doing this because often times in our world, men are
like, oh, I got a job. That's I'm the provider of my
family and that's all I have time to do that I have to focus
on. And so I'm doing my part.
Well, here's what psychologist James Dobson.
He's is so concerned about the recovery of the leadership of
husbands at home that he calls it America's greatest need.
A Christian man is obligated to lead his family to the best of
his ability. If his family has purchased too
many items on credit, then the financial crunch is ultimately
his fault. If the family never reads the
Bible or seldom goes to church on Sunday, God holds the man to
blame. If the children are
disrespectful and disobedient, the primary responsibility, a
lot relies with the father, not his wife.
In my view, America's greatest need is for husbands to begin
guiding their families rather than pouring every physical and
emotional resource into the mere acquisition of money.
If, if we've amassed a great bit of wealth to leave behind to our
kids in the future, but we have not stored up or invested in the
heavenly things, in the spiritual things, in the truth
of God in their lives, we've failed.
And again, I know, I know some of us, all of us who have
children, have children that are walking wayward or not close to
the Lord or as close as we want them to.
And we can't take all the responsibility that their
direction is our fault. I want you to say that.
I want you to know that. But while we have them in our
home now, you cannot make up for the sins that you did in the
past. Just receive forgiveness and
grace for that. But right now is the time to
start talent. We can give away our talents,
right? That means serving, serving in
and for the church, using your abilities to advance the
Kingdom, right? We've got, you know, church
takes a lot of people to do. In fact, we have 73 volunteers.
Can you believe that? Thank you, by the way, to all
our volunteers at this church, 73 individual people that serve
here at our church. And we need more all the time.
So, you know, we've got Sunday teams, you know, the hospitality
team, we've got food every every week that people provide and
bring in that we can have fellowship.
We need more people to serve our kids and kids church set up and
tear down music, youth group greeting.
I mean, I could go on and on, but you know, there's also you
got skills from your job again, talents that translate to
helping further the Kingdom, whatever that looks like.
You're a politician, you know, start fighting for morality, you
know, if you're have your electrician and eventually we
get to the place where God gives us a building, we're going to
need that. We're going to need people who
have special skills. I mean, there's there's ways to
do that to the glory of God, to store up treasures for heaven,
hard work. And lastly, treasure giving
regularly, sacrificially and deliberately.
That's what the Bible says that a Christian should do, giving to
the financial needs of the church and those inside the
church who have needs. And so I'll end with this.
Remember, our worth or our value is not in what we own.
Our value and worth comes from the most worthy God who
purchased us by dying on the cross.
Do not find your value and worth and your title, your position
and all the things that you own. Find it in Jesus Christ.
And when you get to heaven, you have all the riches and the
heritance that you could ever dream of.
And most importantly, we will get to see him and have him face
to face. Let's pray.
Father, thank you, Lord Jesus, Holy Spirit, help us to walk in
the words that we've just heard and read today.
Thank you for loving us so much even when we were yet sinners.
We weren't worthy, we weren't worth anything.
The value we had lost our value in the fall because of sin and
in your eyes it would be just to condemn us to eternal
destruction. But yet you valued us by your
grace, so much so that you sent your Son to come and die for us.
Help us then to honor you and to love you back Lord, with the
things that you've given us. Father, and forgive us for all
the times that we have failed and will fail.
We pray that in Jesus name, Amen.