How is Your Vision?

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How is Your Vision? Keith Duff | March 23, 2014 | Matthew 6:19-24 The Upside-down Kingdom Series, Lessons Learned from the Sermon on the Mount, Part 23 We’ve been studying the Sermon on the Mount in the Book of Matthew for 23 weeks. This is a very powerful message by Jesus and we’re currently in chapter six. So far, we’ve studied many inward-focused things. We began the chapter with looking at giving to the poor. Then we moved to the Lord’s Prayer and learned about how, when and why we ought to pray. Then last week we talked about the importance of fasting—not just fasting from food but also fasting in our spiritual lives. In today’s passage, Jesus turns the focus from those personal, inward things to more external, visible things that people can see. Beginning in verse 19 and going through Matthew 7:6, Jesus warns against things like love of earthly treasures, anxiety, worry and our judgmental attitudes toward others. When we looked at fasting last time, we saw that it has a real component in our reward in heaven. Our passage today also has a continued focus on heaven. Really, every passage we have looked at in this series has the underlying theme of the Kingdom of Heaven and Kingdom living. Today we’re going to look at two types of treasures: 1. Earthly treasures – These are temporary; they fade away and will burn up or disappear. 2. Heavenly treasures – Christ says these are forever. They will not fade away; they’ll last forever. I’d like to start with an interesting story. You may have heard it already in your small group. This true story comes from the book by pastor Kent Hughes that our small group leaders are using. Hughes tells the story of a woman named Bertha Adams. She died alone at home in West Palm Beach, Florida on Easter Sunday at the age of 71 years old. The coroner’s report said, “Cause of death: malnutrition.” After wasting away to 50 pounds, she could no longer stay alive. When state authorities made their preliminary investigation of her home, they found a veritable pigpen. It was the biggest mess you can imagine. One seasoned inspector was quoted as saying that he had never seen a dwelling place in greater disarray. For all appearances, Bertha was a penniless recluse, a pitiful and forgotten widow. She had begged food from her neighbors and gotten clothes from the Salvation Army. But there was more to Bertha than met the eye. As they began to clean up the jumbled mess and filth, the authorities found keys for two different safety deposit boxes at two different local banks. When they opened the boxes, they made an unbelievable

discovery. The first box contained over 700 AT&T stock certificates plus hundreds of other valuable notes, bonds and securities. In addition to that there was also about $200,000 in cash. The second box had no stocks or bonds, just $600,000 in cash. Bertha Adams was rich. She was wealthy times over yet she died of starvation. I don’t know her personal story. I don’t know if she died with or without Christ. It is possible she died without Christ, which is an even more tragic end for her life. Hughes goes on to make a great analogy: Bertha’s life is an extreme parable for the lethal dangers of materialism that promise so much but give us so little. They can’t give us what we really need. Our consumer society tells us constantly that life at its best consists of having more and more possessions and pleasures. We know that’s not true as Christians but the world’s tug is so strong. Many of us try to maintain a balancing act between what the Bible teaches and what the advertisers say. We try to balance the spiritual riches of God and the worldly treasures that can’t feed our souls. Sadly, many of us lose our balance and the results are devastating. They may be eternally devastating from our soul’s standpoint or they may be externally devastating because we miss earthly treasures; either way they’re devastating. So let’s learn something from Bertha Adams today. Let’s read our text. Matthew 6:19-24 says: 19

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where

thieves break in and steal,

20

but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth

nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.

21

For where your treasure is,

there your heart will be also. 22

“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of

light,

23

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! 24

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will

be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” In verse 24, some translations interpret mamōnas as “mammon” instead of “money.” But you can’t serve both. Let’s pray. Father, we come again to these sacred words of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. We seek to know Him today and to hear Him through these words. We ask that You would help us understand. We pray that this mind that was in Jesus Christ would be in us as we consider these things today. We pray them in Jesus’ name. Amen. Some people say that the New Testament teaches more about money and possessions than any other subject and I think that’s true. There are a total of about 8,000 verses in the New Testament. One reputable source says approximately 500 of these talk about faith and another 500 talk about prayer. That same source says there are approximately 2,300 verses that talk about money and possessions. That means a little more than a quarter of the verses in the New Testament are devoted to talking about money

and possessions. If you look at Jesus’ own teaching, 16 of His 38 parables deal with money and possessions; that’s almost half. Then if you look at Paul and his writings, a lot of them talk about money and possessions. He says in 1 Timothy 6:10, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.” We see this idea repeatedly in Scripture, that the love of money is the root of all kinds of issues. As I was studying our passage for this week I thought, “Why does Jesus talk about money and possessions right here in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount? Why does He even mention it?” At the beginning of Matthew 6, we talked about money in terms of giving to the poor. But now Jesus talks about money in a much blunter way. Again, it comes back to the whole theme of the Sermon on the Mount: the Kingdom of Heaven and Kingdom living. So it seems rather obvious to me why Jesus is talking about money in the middle of a message on Kingdom living. Our money and our possessions are probably the major competitors to our focus on God’s Kingdom. So our faith and our finances are linked together closely. Many of you know I’ve been to Africa several times. My wife is going there for the first time this week. Whenever I go, it’s interesting to see people who have very little yet their faith is so strong. We often see the reverse of that in our culture where people have a lot. We don’t really need to have faith in God because we have faith in ourselves. The more money we have in the bank often means the less faith we have in God. As we look at what the Sermon on the Mount says about money in terms of Kingdom living, we will see that God and money have two things in common that Jesus is addressing in our passage: 1. Both God and money can grip your heart. 2. Both God and money can grip your focus. As you look throughout the Bible you will see many examples of money ruining people. We see in Joshua 7 the example of Achan who stole from the plunders of Jericho. God had given His blessing on the Israelites to overtake Jericho but He had said, “Don’t take anything from the plunder. Give it all to Me.” But Achan saw some clothes that he really liked, along with some gold and silver so he took those things, hid them and was found out. The Israelites lost their next battle because of Achan’s sin. So judgment came to Achan and his household. Solomon’s later life was dominated by his love of money and of women. Those two downfalls led to his ruin. Look at the story of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5:1-11. They sold their land. It was their land; they could do what they wanted with it. After they sold it, they took their money from selling their land to the leaders of the church and said, “We’re giving you all the money from the sale of our land.” But they only gave half of the money from selling their land. Then what happened? They both fell down dead immediately because they lied to the church leaders and thus to the Lord. It’s crazy because it was their money. They

could have given half. If ant one of you were to sell your house tomorrow, bring $100,000 to church and say, “Here are half of the proceeds,” we’d say, “Praise the Lord!” You don’t need to lie and say, “This is all of it.” But that’s what Ananias and Sapphira did. They lied about it because they wanted to hold back. Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 4:10 about a man named Demas. Paul said, “For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.” Presumably, Demas also left the pursuit of the Kingdom. So there are many biblical examples of how money influences us and pulls us away from God’s Kingdom. A question came up in the small groups this week that I think is a good place to start. Before we even look at the text, let’s address the question, “Is money right or wrong?” The reality is money is neither right nor wrong. Money isn’t good or bad. It’s what we do with the money that makes it good or bad. Scripture doesn’t say anything against owning property. It doesn’t say you can’t own things. It also doesn’t say anything against saving. It doesn’t say we shouldn’t save for a rainy day. In fact, you see the opposite idea throughout Scripture. Proverbs 6 praises the ant for saving in the summertime to be prepared for the wintertime. It is the idea of saving for when times are lean. Paul implores us in 1 Timothy 5:8 to provide for our own family. He says, “But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” Then in 2 Corinthians 12:14, Paul says that parents should save for the needs of their children. So we see the idea of saving in Scripture. Then in 1 Timothy 6:17-19, we see God’s view on money. He says: As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life. It doesn’t even require a lot of money to use money poorly. Somebody with the lowest of incomes could be a greedy, covetous miser. A wealthy stockbroker could be very generous and give away his money freely. Having possessions isn’t wrong. Making provision for the future isn’t wrong. Enjoying gifts from our Creator isn’t wrong. Scripture tells us those things are good. Another question that came up was, “What about the rich young ruler in the New Testament?” In Matthew 19 the rich young ruler came to Jesus and said, “What must I do to have eternal life?” Jesus said, “Sell everything and give it to the poor.” We look at that passage and say, “See, money is bad. We need to sell everything. We need to live a life of poverty because Jesus said, ‘Sell it all and give it to the poor.’” But if you think about it, Jesus didn’t say that to Martha, Mary and Lazarus. They were people who seemed to have some level of means. Jesus said it to the rich young ruler because He knew that was the chief obstacle for the rich young ruler. The reality is this would probably be true for many of us as well. It might be the biggest blessing in our lives if Jesus took away our treasure of money. But it doesn’t mean that treasures are wrong.

So as we think about how money permeates all areas of life, the true solution doesn’t lie in abstinence— not having any money—just like the rest of God’s blessings. It is not about withdrawal. It is about properly using the things God has given us. We’re called upon to relinquish things as much as we’re called to use them under God’s direction. We’re to use them for the health and well-being of our family. We’re to use them to aid others in need. We’re to use them for the great task of proclaiming the gospel. As we proclaim the gospel around the world, it takes great resources of time and money. The big picture as we look at this passage is the reality that God is trying to get our attention. He wants to teach us that there are a lot of really good things in this world. The world is full of good things but the risk is that we invest too much time in the good and we miss the great: the Kingdom of Heaven. As we go through this passage I want to keep coming back to the idea that we’re not investing all our energy in the good and thus missing out on the great and the eternal.

1. Choice between Two Treasures Let’s look again at verses 19-21: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” So we can choose between two treasures. We have to choose where we are going to lay up our treasures. In this text we’re comparing the durability of these two choices. Which one is built to last? It’s simple but it ought to decide which one we collect. We’ve already talked about how treasures on earth are corruptible and insecure. We can lose them. There’s no eternal Castle Bank to keep them forever and ever. They will not last. On the other hand, treasures in heaven are incorruptible and secure. So the wisest thing is obviously to say, “We’ll store them up in heaven.” But what does that look like and how do we walk through that?

Negative: Treasures on Earth Are Corruptible and Insecure The first verse is a negative. Jesus does this a lot. He goes from the negative to the positive, doing a good job of comparing and contrasting. In this passage He starts with the negative and says, “Do no lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.” Rewind 2,000 years to Palestine in Jesus’ day and think about these three things: moth, rust and thieves. What is the concern with moths? This isn’t as much of an issue today but I know my grandma had mothballs in her attic to keep moths from eating the clothes. It was also an issue 2,000 years ago in Palestine. Your clothes could be eaten by moths. A person’s wealth was partially stored in their clothes. We see this in the Old Testament. Clothes were often the coveted object of choice. There are several examples. For instance, Joseph and his coat or Achan stealing the clothes.

As I was preparing this week, I thought, “Boy, that’s not true today.” Then I thought, “Wait a minute! That is so true today.” Isn’t it? Clothes are a coveted item of choice. Our image is a pretty big deal for most of us. It’s a treasure. We spend a lot of time acquiring the right clothes, the right haircut and the right body shape. We treasure how we look and we spend a lot of time on our appearance. Advertisers tell us we need to have a unique look, which is funny because they’re telling all of us we need to have the same unique look. They tell us that we need to go here and buy this stuff. We treasure our clothes because we treasure our looks. I struggled this morning when I got dressed. I thought, “I’m talking about clothes today, so what am I going to wear?” In thinking about clothes, hair and working out, I realized that those things take a lot of time. I don’t know about you but I spend a fair amount of time on those things. How much time do I take every morning from when I get up to when I walk out the door on preparing the way I look? Here’s a gut check for us: how does that compare to the time I spend with my Lord? My appearance wins out and it shouldn’t. It’s a treasure that doesn’t last. It certainly lasts less than 100 years. That’s not long at all. It really doesn’t even last a year because the styles we wear today will not be in style next year and we’ll want to go buy new things. They don’t last. Next is the concern of rust. I think this is a good translation because rust eats away at things. The Greek word brōsis means eating away. In Jesus’ day they didn’t have an issue with rusting steel like we do today. The issue of eating away then was focused on grain or corn. They had issues with mice, rats, worms or other animals eating away at their treasures stored up in the barns. Jesus is saying, “This stuff doesn’t last either. You can’t store your grain forever.” Then Jesus talks about where thieves break in and steal. The word for thieves (kleptēs) actually means “mud digger.” Think about a home being made out of mud, whether it’s mud bricks or just mud caked together. In Jesus’ day there were “mud diggers” who would break into your house and steal things. They would just dig through the wall because there wasn’t much to stop them from doing that. There was no permanence. There was no bank where you could go to deposit your gold or your treasures. You had to hide them, maybe underground. But people would dig through your walls and dig through your dirt to find them. Jesus is talking about these different things—these treasures we invest in—that don’t last. Again, it’s not that money is bad. Having possessions isn’t bad, making provisions for the future isn’t bad nor is it bad to enjoy those things that God has given us. What Jesus is prohibiting here is the selfish accumulation of stuff. In Luke 12:15, Jesus says, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” It seems like Jesus is talking about people who get all their satisfaction from the things that belong only to this world. It’s a warning to the rich but it’s also a warning to all of us. It’s not just about money. He doesn’t say, “Don’t store up for yourselves money on earth.” He says, “Don’t store up treasures on earth.”

These are simple verses. If you’re like me you’re thinking, “Alright, this is about people who have lots of money and could be doing something better with it than they seem to be doing from my perspective.” But Jesus isn’t talking only to those people. He’s talking to us as well. Jesus is fighting against our attitudes toward our possessions. Here is a silly example that came to my mind while I was studying this passage: Two years ago I bought a new car for the first time. We bought a new car when we were first married but it was Kate’s car so that was different. I’ve been a believer in used cars for all these years. But two years ago it seemed to make the most sense for me to buy a new car. So I did; I bought a brand new black car. For the first four months, I washed that car every week and waxed it probably every other week—which is silly. It’s a car. I spent a lot of time taking care of that treasure. The best thing happened to that car four months into it. I took it through one of those automatic car washes and the car got a big scratch across the top of the roof—a big, deep scratch. They say those car washes aren’t supposed to do that but it did. When it happened, I was rather upset. I was getting ready to write a letter to the franchise and say, “What can you do to fix my car? It’s not perfect anymore.” But it really was a good thing this happened because it took my focus off the treasure. I had previously spent a lot of time on this treasure. Once it was scratched, I didn’t care as much. I’ve washed it since then but not very often. It’s not my perfect treasure anymore. There are all kinds of treasures in our lives. Jesus warns against focusing our ambitions, interests and hopes on the things of this life. I’m going to list five P’s—in honor of Tim, they’re all the same letter— against which to be on guard. I think at least one of these—if not all of them—will resonate with you as the treasures you store up and place above God.

Possessions The first one that comes to mind is possessions. We think about possessions being treasures but sometimes possessions can be a good thing. Think about a young newly married couple who longs for a house. They want to get out of their apartment and have a house they can call their own—a place they can grow into and decorate. These are all good things. If I think back to the early days in our marriage, I wonder if it was the right pursuit. Maybe it wasn’t a bad pursuit for some of you. But I wonder: did we sacrifice too much? Did we put too much into that house? Once we got in there we realized it was just a place to live. We still had the same things plus then we had all the problems and financial challenges that go with owning a house. Did we sacrifice too much? Did we sacrifice the great to get the good? Did we sacrifice dreams and all those things? The possessions we’re looking for aren’t bad but do we have our right priorities? Are we putting too much value in those possessions?

Praise of People I don’t know about you but I struggle with seeking the praise of others. Why am I doing good things? Am I doing them because God has called me do them or am I doing them because I want somebody to recognize me? I want to hear them say, “Hey Keith, good job! You’re really doing well. Way to go!” God calls us to encourage each other. But is my treasure the praise of men? Am I doing things because I want the praise of man or the praise of God?

People Another treasure can be people. We dedicate beautiful little children in our dedication services here at Village Bible Church. One struggle for us as parents—Kate and I struggle with this—is placing too much treasure in our kids. We do this in a couple of ways. In our dedication services, one of the commitments we make as parents is to “surrender all worldly claims, allowing God to take our children and do with them as He wants.” Do we surrender them to God whatever His plan is? Maybe it’s to take them to Africa. Maybe it’s to take them to heaven. We need to surrender them to God, knowing He has entrusted us with them. Here’s another question: do we place our all in our children? There’s a lot of child-worship happening in our culture. There are a lot of families―I struggle with this too―who place all our priorities in what our kids want: giving them the best life opportunities—the best sports opportunities, the best music opportunities and the best schooling opportunities. We rearrange our whole schedule and fill our lives with our kids. It’s a good thing to spend a lot of time with our kids and give them good opportunities. But if it takes our primary focus away from our impact in this world, then we need to reevaluate. Are we losing our ability to impact our neighbors and the lives of those around us? If we’re only living for our kids and not living for God and to impact this world for Him, then our kids have become an unbalanced treasure.

Power & Prestige Another common treasure is seeking jobs that have status, prestige and power. We seek positions of authority, roles where people will look up to us. We like having that power and prestige and then we fight to keep it. That’s a treasure. Again, power and prestige may not be bad by themselves but are they unbalanced treasures?

Pleasure Pleasure is another good example. It’s not bad for me to go to the beach but if I live my life for the beach and am sacrificing everything else for weekends or vacations, am I unbalanced? Am I seeking the good over the great? Anything in the world that is everything to us becomes a treasure. Why did Jesus prohibit storing up treasures? Because they will be destroyed. Our earthly treasures are going to disappear. You can’t take them with you. They’re temporal.

Kent Hughes has another good story to illustrate this. I don’t know if it’s true or not. An old miser was on his deathbed. He called in three of his most respected friends: his doctor, his lawyer and his pastor. He said, “They say you can’t take your wealth with you but I’m going to try. I have three envelopes. Each one has $30,000 in cash. I want each of you to take an envelope and throw the envelope in the casket as they lower it into the ground.” After the man died, the doctor, lawyer and pastor were all there as he was being buried. As the casket was lowered into the ground, each man tossed in his envelope. When they were riding home from the cemetery, the pastor was the first to confess. He said, “I needed money for the church. We’re struggling right now so I took $10,000 out of the envelope. I have to admit that I only threw in $20,000.” The lawyer just listened while the doctor spoke. He said, “I have to confess, too. I’m building a clinic in Haiti so I took $20,000 out. I only threw in $10,000.” Then the lawyer was offended. He said, “Gentlemen, I’m ashamed of you. I can’t believe you didn’t do what he asked of you. I threw in a personal check for the full amount of $30,000.” The old miser’s fixation on keeping his wealth didn’t even last beyond his burial because of the materialism of his friends. Think about the story of Job. In Job 1:21 he says, “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return.” This is true. As we consider the Lord’s arguments against laying up treasures on earth, we need to recognize that everything on earth—even though it may be good—is diseased. Everything is going to decay. Things will lose their luster and excitement even before they decay. That was certainly the case with my car. It happens with many things. The things are good but they are inherently diseased because of sin. It will all perish. Think about the most beautiful flower. In the early spring there are poppies that grow along the woods around here. If you’ve ever picked a poppy then you know that it wilts by the time you get it home. There isn’t time to get it into water. It wilts right away. I don’t know if other flowers wilt that quickly but it is amazing how quickly poppies do. It’s always fun to be here in poppy season because the college students try to pick the poppies. I think they think they can turn them into opium. But they find out that the poppies don’t last. As we think about our earthly treasures, think about the most perfect things: a flower, a person, a car, a house or whatever else. No matter what it is it won’t last. It all fades away, no matter how wonderful or glorious it may be. Everything perishes.

Positive: Treasures in Heaven Are Incorruptible & Secure Jesus talked about the negative side of storing up treasures on earth and said, “Don’t do it.” He spoke passionately like a father pleading with his son, “Don’t do this. It’s not going to last.” Then He flips to the positive side and talks just as passionately about treasures in heaven being incorruptible and secure. He

says, “But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.” When we lay up things in heaven they last. Last year we studied 1 Peter 1:4 which referred to treasures of heaven using the words, “imperishable, undefiled, and unfading.” Those three words are powerful. The things of heaven are imperishable, undefiled and unfading. Jesus says, “Do you want to do the wise thing? Then build your happiness on things you can’t lose, things that are independent from the chances of life. Build your happiness on the treasures of heaven.” There was a saying in the early church that “What we keep we lose and what we give we have.” That sounds a lot like what Jim Elliot said, “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” There’s a story from the early church in Rome when the church was being persecuted. The Roman authorities broke into a church and the commander demanded to see the treasury. They wanted to steal the church’s money. A deacon named Laurentius was told, “Show me your treasures at once.” Laurentius pointed to the widows and the orphans who were being fed, the sick who were being nursed, the poor whose needs were being supplied and said, “These are the treasures of the church.” That’s cool. The church didn’t have lots of money. They had money coming in and it was going out. They weren’t sitting on a storehouse of cash. It was being used to meet needs. When Jesus says, “Store up treasures in Heaven,” He’s not saying that’s the way to earn your salvation. That would deny the New Testament’s central doctrine of justification by faith alone. He’s not saying, “Store up treasures here that you can use later for your salvation or for somebody else’s.” He is saying that believers are positively rewarded in Heaven according to what they do in their lives here. That’s a big deal and we can miss that. First Corinthians 3:11-14 says: For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. In other words, this passage says store up treasures where they won’t be destroyed. Nothing in Scripture tells us what those treasures are. If you look through the New Testament you see treasures and rewards promised but we never see what they are. That’s probably for the best. Can we really even fathom Heaven? Can we fathom the rewards that will be in Heaven? I don’t think we can. But we know there is some type of treasure and reward for our lives here. The questions we should ask ourselves about our pursuits today are, 

How important will these things be in 100 million years?

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How important will the things we treasure today be in eternity?

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How important is our wallpaper, our promotion or our fame?

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Are we making the right investments now?

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Are we making the long-term investments that are going to bring rewards for eternity or just for the next 50 years?

Go back to 1 Timothy 6:17-19. It says: As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life. Here’s another story which I think is true. Pastor R.T. Williams told the story of a layperson in his church who had a good year. He earned over one million dollars. This story took place about 60 years ago so it was worth even more back then. The man tithed from his earnings and gave $100,000 to the church. He may have given more than that to other things as well. Then something happened to this man the next year that caused him to go from being wealthy to being poor. He lost everything he had earned. The one million dollars was gone. I guess that speaks against the prosperity gospel because rather than giving and getting more, this man gave and ended up getting less. All the money was lost. After this happened, some of his friends—they sound like Job’s friends—said to him, “I bet you wish you hadn’t given all that money to the church, don’t you?” I like how he responded. He said, “Oh no. That’s the only money that I kept.” There’s truth to that. He gave his money to God’s work and he knew that was the money he was truly keeping. The rest was lost. The other $900,000 was gone but that $100,000 was stored up as treasure in Heaven.

Our Heart Always Follows Our Treasure In verse 21 we read, “For where your treasure is, there your heart is also.” We’ve talked about this before. Our hearts follow our treasure, not the other way around. That is true whether our treasure is our money, our time, our passions, our hobbies, our bank accounts, our jobs, our kids or whatever else. Our hearts follow where we’re investing our time, talents and treasure. This verse is a gracious mirror that can show us where our heart really is. Someone said, “It’s natural and right for our vocations, our education and our homes to occupy a large place in our thoughts but Christ warns against total earthbound absorption with them realizing that where our treasure is there our heart is also.” I want us to consider five questions:

1. What occupies your thoughts when you have nothing else to do? What do you dream about? What are you daydreaming for and hoping to get? What are your plans? Are they things of God? Is it a new boat, a new car or a new house? What is it for you? Maybe it is an investment or a certain job. Maybe it’s a spouse. Maybe that’s where you’re putting all your hopes and dreams. That’s your treasure above God. 2. What do you fret about most? What do you worry about most often? Is it your home, your clothing, your things or your job? Whatever we spend our time worrying about, that is a good indicator where our priorities and treasures are. 3. Who do you dread losing most? Your loved ones, your kids and your spouse. Is there somebody in your life who is an unhealthy treasure? How would you answer that? 4. What do you see when you look at other people? I like this idea of how we measure others. That really reveals the heart of what’s important to us. Do I look at someone and ask, “Does he have athletic ability? Does he have a certain type of car? Does he have a certain position or level of wealth?” How do you measure somebody else? What do you ask when you meet them? What things are important to you and are those the right things? 5. What do we know we cannot be happy without? What makes us say, “If I was Job, God could take everything except ______. I can’t be happy without that”? What is it that thing we have to have? We know it’s not God. We’re never going to be without God. So what is taking priority over God in our lives? If my treasure is in the things of this earth then I’m really not going to have any interest in the world beyond because I’m going to be reluctant to leave behind the things I have here. On the other hand, if my sights are on Heaven I’m going to be eager to see it. Our friend Lloyd Lauger who passed away this week was a great example of this. We had a great service for him with a great testimony of how he impacted people’s lives. If you weren’t here, Lloyd made a recording four years ago that we played at the service. In it, Lloyd greeted us and spoke to Martha and his kids. It was neat. One thing that strikes me about Lloyd is how he’s been planning his funeral for a while. We joked about how we’ve been planning it with him for ten years but we really were. He was 94. Back when he was 84 he started saying, “I’m not going to live forever,” and started planning his funeral. He talked with me, Mary Ann and a couple of others about what he wanted his funeral to look like. Then about three years ago he started to get worried. He figured that because he was in his nineties it was really coming. So he got us all together in my office and said, “I want to make sure we have the plans figured out and everything is taken care of so nobody has to worry about anything.” Over the last couple of years Lloyd was known to say, “I am ready to meet my Savior. I love the things of this world. I love my family. But I am ready to meet my Maker and see Heaven.” Lloyd was Heaven-minded. He wasn’t holding onto the things of this world; he was ready to go home. He was approaching life like a pilgrim. When we studied 1 Peter last year we talked about being strangers in a strange land. We’re pilgrims passing through and this world is not our home. That was Lloyd! That was how I would describe his life, especially his last few years. Hebrews 11 talks about pilgrims—the great men of faith. It says their eyes were on the city whose architect was God. Their eyes were on Heaven. That’s how we must see ourselves. We’re stewards of the things God

has given us: our money, our intellects, our education, our homes, our positions and our personalities. Whatever God has given us can be used for God’s service and not just our own. I can’t take those things with me. None of us can. So how do we store up treasures in Heaven? By growing in the knowledge and grace of our Lord Jesus. By knowing Him. We grow our treasures in Heaven by investing our time, treasures and money in things that have eternal value. When we’re investing money in God’s people and God’s bank, we’re storing our treasures in Heaven. It has eternal returns.

2. Choice Between Two Visions I have a couple of concluding thoughts with these last couple of verses. Verses 22-23 talk about our eyes. They’re very interesting. They say, “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!” In a way, it emphasizes the negative twice. But as I look around here, we all have two eyes. We can’t make one eye go one way and the other a different way. Well, maybe some of you can. But the point is you can’t see unless your eyes are focused on the same thing. Unless your eyes are focused on one thing, you can’t see or walk clearly. If your eyes are healthy and they’re focused on seeing then you can proceed. So what are we focusing on in our lives? Are we focused on two different things or are we focused on one? Do we have one eye toward Heaven and one eye toward earthly treasures? If we do, then we’re cross-eyed and mixed up. We can’t focus. We need to have our eyes focused on Christ. I think many of us find it very easy to be focused on the things of this world and have no vision for Christ at all. We’re thinking about all the things we need to do: we need to clean up our yards, we need to take care of things at home, we need to take care of things at work and we need to take care of things with our families. We’re not even focused on Christ while we’re here at church. Our eyes aren’t focused on the one thing that matters. Maybe they’re focused on earth. Or maybe we are trying to focus on both and we can’t. First John 1:7 talks about walking by the light. During the day, we walk by the light of the sun. When it is dark, we walk by the light of a flashlight. When we walk by the light, we can see. These verses reminded me how we need to guard our eyes. We need to keep our eyes healthy. We need to watch what we’re allowing to go into our eyes. The good goes in and the good comes out or the bad goes in and the bad comes out. What causes bad eyesight? Watching, listening to or reading ungodly things. Spending time on things that don’t honor or glorify God. Spending time with wrong company. If we do those things, how can we focus our eyes on God? Some people focus their eyes on money because that’s their god. Others have just fallen into bad habits. Maybe we’re not really focused on money; we’re just out of focus. We spend too much time looking at, thinking about or longing for the wrong things. Sometimes it is even good things like a car, a house, furniture or clothes that have become our treasures. Advertisers are good at helping us focus on the wrong things.

3. Choice Between Two Masters Lastly, verse 24 says, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” The translation of money (mamōnas) is probably best understood as “mammon.” It’s talking about treasure, something that we put all of our trust into and cherish. Many of us put our trust in money but we put trust in other things too. Jesus says we can’t serve both God and another thing of ultimate trust, whatever that thing may be. There are a few challenges to loving God with our minds. We need to strive to think God’s thoughts about our money, our wealth and our treasures. We need to believe that riches are a good servant but a bad master. There’s profit in learning contentment whether we have a little, a lot or somewhere in between. Really, all of us in here have a lot. If you remember the last time I talked about this, I showed you a statistic that everyone in here is in the top two percentile of the wealthiest people in the world. Most of you are in the top one hundredth percentile. We’re rich people even if we don’t recognize it. We need to accept the laws God has for us about money. We need to use money to meet our basic needs: providing for our families, our kids and those in need around us. We need to use money in ways that glorify God. We should be generous and willing to share it as stated earlier in 1 Timothy 6. Here is a good question to ask ourselves when we think about money, “Does it glorify God?” We often think about our financial decisions and ask, “Can I afford it?” I do that all the time. I think, “Is there room in the budget for this?” Instead, we should ask, “Does buying this help me serve and glorify God better? Does it make me a better servant?” This is also how we should be teaching our children to think. When our kids ask for something, we too often say, “We can’t afford that.” But when we say, “We can’t afford it,” the subliminal message is that the adults don’t make the decisions in this family, the money does. We just don’t have the money so we can’t do it. Instead, we should be teaching them to ask, “Does it glorify God? Does it make me a better servant?” It’s a good question to ask our kids because we need to train them as well. We need to raise our kids up to know, understand and serve God. So we have a choice to make: we can serve God or money. Here’s our application. Jesus says, “Look at your checkbook and your calendar. What do they say your treasure is? Where are you spending your time? Where are you spending your money? Is that okay? If not, what are you going to do to change it?” A choice needs to be made. We can walk away from here and say, “I have no extra money or time. I can’t change how I spend it.” But the reality is we’re choosing to prioritize where we spend our money and time. We’re doing the things that are important to us and we’re spending money on the things that are important to us. But are they the things that are important to God? That’s the question. I was joking with a friend yesterday and said, “Do you know what? I’m just ready to go home. Lloyd was ready to go home. I’m ready to go home.” These verses talk about storing up treasures in Heaven and I do

feel like I’m ready to be home someday. But at the same time, I still have a lot of work to do. I have to store up some treasures. I’m not content with where I’m at and the Lord has given all of us more time right now. Are we using that time to build our kingdoms here on earth or are we using it to build up treasures that will last forever? Are our treasures focused on the eternal or are they keeping us from eternal investment? I’ll close with these words from John Bunyan, author of The Pilgrim’s Progress. He wrote a poem that said, “There was a man, some called him mad. The more he gave, the more he had.” I think that’s true. How do we consider that in our lives this week? How are we doing in our giving? Again, it doesn’t matter to me where you’re giving, whether you’re giving to the ministry of the church, the ministry of missionaries or the ministry of Wayside Cross Mission. God does give us some priorities in Scripture about those things. But the big thing is that we’re being generous with what we have, we’re giving to people in need, we’re giving to God’s work and we’re giving to His Kingdom rather than our own. We need to find the balance: we have to live, eat, provide for ourselves and save. But we need to find the balance between our treasures and God’s treasures. Before I close us in prayer, I want to tell you about the Sunday evening class we’re starting for the next six weeks. It’s an “Equipping U” class by Randy Alcorn called “The Treasure Principle.” It focuses on these very passages. It focuses on how to take it to the next step. How do we invest our treasures in heaven? So if you’d like a further challenge in this area and want a return that lasts forever rather than just 100 years, come to this class. Let’s pray. Lord, as we come before You I’m challenged by Your words. I’m sure I didn’t communicate them as well as others may have but I am struck by the power of them just as they’re written on the page. I’m struck by the things that You promise to us: the rewards You have planned for us and desire to give us. I’m struck by my own pursuit of things that will not last—some things that will not even last to this time next year. So I ask that You grow us, stretch us and cause us as a church to trust You that there really is a Kingdom of Heaven. Help us trust that we really will be there with You. Help us believe that You really are setting aside a mansion for us and treasures beyond our comprehension. Help us trust that as we turn to You and focus our eyes on You, You will bless us in incredible ways in this world and the world to come. We pray these things in Jesus’ name. Amen. Village Bible Church | 847 North State Route 47, Sugar Grove, IL 60554 | (630) 466-7198 | http://www.villagebible.org/sugar-grove/resources/sermons All Scriptures quoted directly from the English Standard Version unless otherwise noted. Note: This transcription has been provided by Sermon Transcribers (www.sermontranscribers.net).