Treasuring Christ - Matthew 6:19-24

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.