Are You Building a Life or Just a Lifestyle? | The Gospel of Matthew

Thanks for tuning in to the Sandals Church podcast. Our vision as a church is to be real with ourselves, God, and others. We're glad you're here, and we hope you enjoyed this message.

Welcome Sandals Church. You know, our vision here is to be real, to be honest, and so I'm gonna go first. One of the last fears and lingering worries in my life is this worry about money, this worry about financial security. I'm sure we can all relate to that, and maybe there's a lot of zeros around that, or maybe it's just zero, okay, in your account. You're worried about that.

How many of you would want less worry in your life? Like, anxiety, more trust in God? Here's the good news. In Matthew six, we're going to talk about all of that next week. Okay?

So when you come back next week, the first words you hear of Jesus are going to be, therefore, do not worry. And you're going to wonder what you missed. The promise is coming next week, but to get there this week, we're gonna have to walk through the doorway. And I'm going to tell you the doorway is narrow because we have to leave everything we love in this world on one side of it. And I'll be honest, man.

I still love the stuff in this world. I I love it. I also hate that I love stuff so much, but it's like I have a cluttered heart.

I don't like clutter. I don't like clutter in my car.

I don't like clutter in my house. I don't like clutter in my heart. Sometimes I look around my house and I wonder, am I the only person that throws stuff away, like in this house? You know, I'm always stuffing things into a drawer. I'm throwing stuff away.

Sometimes I throw my wife's stuff away, which I find out she doesn't like. My kids never wanna throw things away. You know, I created what I call Thanos Day, which is where we try to get rid of half. You know? I'll go in my kid's room, and I'm like, we gotta get rid of half your toys.

And hopefully dad doesn't snap, you know, at the end of it. And they don't love this. And so I'm, like, trying to figure out how do I get my family on board. And let me tell you something. When when all else fails, use TV.

And I remember there was this show called Hoarders that used to be on. Do you remember this show? I'd never even seen it, but I'm like, I'm gonna sit my family down, and we're gonna watch an episode of this because my family has a problem. And so we sit down, and it's actually a very dangerous, you know, DSM five disorder. And people collect newspapers and, you know, appliances, birds, everything.

And it's dangerous. Sometimes things collapse on them. Sometimes the very air that they breathe and mold can cause problems and kill them. And what I was surprised was that they didn't bring in like a hazmat team or the police. You know what they brought in?

A counselor because this disorder is rooted in fear and worry. There's a fear that keeps and holds on to what we have because they're afraid it won't be there. They're afraid they'll need it in the future. There's a a fear that just keeps adding because we're afraid they won't be on the shelf someday, like your Trader Joe's, you know, your herbal tea that they discontinued, and so they stock up. And so we're watching the show, I'm like, hey, guys, man.

Look at these weirdos. And my son goes, yeah, dad. They're like, we need to get rid of some books, some of your books. I was like, well, hold on a second. I might I might need those.

I literally said exactly what the hoarder said. And then my other son goes, well, dad, what about your Vans shoes? Like, how many pair of Vans shoes do you need? Yeah. Like, are you afraid they're gonna stop making shoes?

I'm like, hold on, bro. You know? And I'm like, okay. Yeah. I have a lot of Vans.

But hey, shut up. So we're gonna watch another episode because y'all aren't getting the point of this that you guys have a problem. And they're like, yeah, we need to watch more. We should watch this whole season, dad, because you're becoming a hoarder. And I was like, man, they're right.

Like, I'm part of the problem in our home because stuff owns me. You know, I have this fear of letting go of some of these things. Now, for you, maybe you don't have the DSM five disorder, but I think all of us have a disordered heart. Like we have put earthly things first and eternal things second. And God wants us to reorder some of those things.

The message of the world is more stuff's going to make you happy. Jesus says more stuff's going to make you sad. It's going to lead you to worry. You know, one of the saddest things about that show is that usually there was a person who loved them the most, a spouse, a child who loved that person and would sit them down and say, you know what? We can't coexist like this.

This is dangerous for me. We can't live together and you're going to have to choose me or trash. And almost every time the person that show would choose trash. Listen, Jesus, at the end of today is going to ask us to make a choice. And I want you to know right now that the voice that you're going to hear today is not guilt.

It's not shame. It's the counselor. It's the counselor who loves you and wants to set you free from worry. This is in Matthew chapter six. We're going to start in verse 19, and we're just going to go one verse at a time.

But verse 19 says this, do not store up treasure here on earth where moths eat them and rust destroys them and where thieves break in and steal. Now let me just be honest. When is the last time you've thought about moths eating your clothes? Okay? I don't think I've ever worried about a moth my whole life.

I don't keep stuff long enough. You know what I mean? Like, we cycle through our clothing. We have such a fast fashion culture. You know, at one point, they asked someone when did as you know, when do clothing when does it become old?

They said, If I've worn it two times or more, it's become old. Really, the landfill has become the new moth, the new rust in our culture. What's worse than that, if it doesn't get eaten by a moth, people steal it. You know, one of the tragedies of the fires in Southern California were not only did people lose their homes, but thieves came in and stole what was left. Like, they lost everything.

And what's crazy about that is whether you lived in the Palisades or Altadena, it didn't matter. Like, both houses burned down. The the idea of financial security is an oxymoron. It's a lie. You're gonna have to let it go.

So point number one, I want you to write this down, that I must learn to let go sooner or later. The first problem we have is that you're gonna face 100% loss at the end of your life no matter who you are. You're gonna have to let it go. Ecclesiastes five says this, everyone comes naked from their mother's womb, and as everyone comes, so they depart. Like, five minutes before you die, you're gonna look around and go, man, I wish I would have given more.

They take nothing from their toil that they can carry in their hands. You know, I'm learning that a lot of life and growing older is letting go. I turned 50 this year. And so, man, I'm realizing there's a lot of letting go going on. Some of us are learning to let go of our looks.

You know, I looked in the mirror the other day and had one of those magnifying, like, circles. I was like, where's the football? I'm like, oh my gosh. That's my face. You know?

I'm learning to let go of, like, abilities. You know, I had to increase the font size on my phone this year. I don't know if you've done that. That's embarrassing. Then I saw pastor Matt's phone and his font's so big.

Can read the text he's gonna get like tomorrow. But we're letting go of our abilities. I I've told my friends, like, I've started working out, and the sounds my body makes sounds like a dinosaur crushing a car, you know? It's like glass shattering. Probably one of the hardest ones is letting go of our identity.

I've always got my identity in a sport, in BMX, and BMX is just who I am. It's what I've done. And, man, a lot of athletes are like this. They're learning to let go, like injury, age, something is gonna pry that out of your hand. And I've had to learn that really what we value, if it's not secure, my heart's not secure.

That's why we worry. First Corinthians seven says this, what I mean, brothers and sisters, is that the time is short. And from now on, those who buy something as if it were not theirs to keep, and those who use the things of this world as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away. It's a % loss.

Now we have another problem, and most Christians don't know this because you haven't read your Bible. You're going to face loss in this life, but did you know you're going to face loss in the next life? Paul tells us that your life as a Christian is built on this foundation. Jesus is the foundation, but what we do builds on it with either gold, silver, precious stones, or wood, hay, straw, and your life is going to be tested with fire. How do you think those two things are going to last?

And in first Corinthians three, he says this, if the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he'll receive a reward. Right? That's great news. California is gonna take 15% tax on that, but it's still great news. But if anyone's work is burnt up, listen to this, he will suffer loss even though he himself might be saved, but only as one through fire.

If you live for the things of earth, you lose it twice. You lose it twice. Now, here's the good news. In verse 20, Jesus says, don't store up your things on earth, store up your treasures in heaven where moths can't eat them, where rust can't destroy them, and where thieves cannot break in and steal. In other words, the only thing secure in our life are the things we've stored in heaven.

Matthew six has given us some ways to do that already. If you wonder, how do I build treasure in heaven? Like there's 50 other places through the Bible, where it talks about reward, treasure. But here what Jesus has moved on to is why we need to build treasure in heaven. First Timothy six gives us a glimpse of that.

He says this, teach those who are rich in this world not to be proud and not to trust in their money, which is so unreliable. You ever trust somebody that's unreliable? Right? That'll make you anxious, won't it? But their trust should be in God who richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment.

Listen to me today. Money is not evil. It just makes a horrible god. You can't trust it. In fact, on the dollar bill that you have, you pull out of your pocket, it tells you what?

In God, we trust. Like, don't trust in me. We don't trust money. We use it. This is what the rest of first Timothy says, tell them to use their money.

Use their money to do good, that they should be rich in good works, generous to those in need, always being ready to share with others, and by doing this, they will be storing up treasure as a good foundation for the future so they may experience a true life. This is the real life that you're looking for, and it's not disappointing. Most of you probably know a quote from Jim Carrey where he got up and just said, you know what? I I wish everybody could be rich. I wish everybody could be famous.

I wish everybody could get everything that they think they want so they would realize it's not the answer. Most of the things we think we want are really disappointing. You know, I've got to travel a lot. I've been to 17 countries. I've been to 49 of the 50 states, and there's some beautiful things.

The Great Wall Of China, you know, Yosemite, the West Coast, but a lot of things were disappointing. Like, lot of things on your bucket list are on my disappointment list. You know? Plymouth Rock looks like a beanbag. I'm just telling you.

Okay? Mount Rushmore, no offense. I mean, when I went there, was like, okay, where's the real one? You know? We had 25 students that we brought out from Arkansas to Los Angeles.

We do this every year as a training project for our ministry. And they drove out from Arkansas to Southern California. And when they got here, was asking my staff, what are you guys gonna do? And he's like, well, tomorrow, we're gonna go hike Mount Rubidou here in Riverside and see the top of that. Tuesday, we're gonna go to the food lab and go downtown.

Mission Inn area Wednesday. And I was like, wait a minute. Like, tell me you're gonna see the ocean. You know? Can you imagine if they drive all that way and stop here?

The only thing green here is fake. You know? Like, don't stop here. You got one more mountain and it's the ocean. You got one more mountain.

It's like San Diego and beautiful and sunset. And listen, Jesus is saying to you and me, don't stop here. Man, don't stop here. You got one more horizon and you can't even imagine what's over it. Listen to first Corinthians two.

This is what the scriptures mean when they say this. No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him. A guy named CS Lewis said, you know what? Our passions, it aren't It isn't that our passions are too strong. He said, we are just far too easily pleased with the things in this world.

Jesus gives this warning and it leads up to verse 21. He says this, where your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be. The reason this is dangerous is because your heart become links linked to your treasure. Your heart grabs on and grips onto your treasure and it doesn't want to let go. You don't own your stuff.

Your stuff starts to own you. You know, when I was, like, 10 years old, I wanted a pet raccoon. Okay? This is the most Oklahoma thing I'm ever gonna say. Okay?

I wanted a pet raccoon, and you may not know this, but raccoons are actually super smart. You know, they're they're right under monkeys in how smart they are. They can pick a lock in 10 tries. You know, if the rats had a Jason born, it'd be a raccoon. And so I was like, I want a raccoon as a pet.

And there but here's the deal. Even though they're so smart, they're really easy to trap. And I learned this from another great Oklahoma book, Where the Red Fern Grows. And so my dad helped me build a raccoon trap. You get a log.

You drill a little hole in it. You put nails in like this just leaving a little space, and then all you have to do is drop something shiny down in there like a nickel. And the raccoon will reach in and grab it, never let go. Like, it will stay there stuck and literally until the next morning when you come back and even put up a fight rather than let go. Can you imagine being the third or fourth smartest animal on the planet and you get trapped by a 10 year old with a nickel?

Right? That's got to be embarrassing. But Jesus is saying, listen, that's you. Right? That is you.

You are trapped. You're you're smart enough to make money, but you're not wise enough to know when to let it go. And this is what he's saying to us. Nobody's trying to take your nickel. Jesus wants to set you free.

Number two, I want you to write this down. Jesus offers a life of freedom from worry. First Timothy six says this, But people who long to get rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into destruction. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, and some people craving money have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows. Listen, when your treasure is not secure, your heart is not secure, and that's why you worry.

That's why you have anxiety. Now, I just want to stop right here for a second. Making money is not bad. There's nothing wrong with making money being successful. In fact, I hope that you're blessed.

I hope that God blesses you and increases your wealth. Some of you give to missionaries, some of you support me. So I hope God blesses your life. But I want you to listen to this. Second Corinthians nine says, God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and bread for us to eat.

He's he's the one doing this. And in the same way, he'll provide and listen to this, increase your resources. God wants to make you successful. He wants to bless you with resources, and then it's gonna produce in you a great harvest of what? Generosity.

That's why he wants to bless you. Yes. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous. And when we take our gifts to those who need them, they will thank God. Listen, it's not wrong to make money, but it's wrong to keep it.

It's wrong to keep it. I think the people who are most free in our world are the people who've disconnected God's blessing and profit in their life from their lifestyle. And we got to disconnect those two things. Maybe you remember earlier this year, football player, AJ Brown, Eagles, you know, he showed a playoff game driving a $30,000 Honda Accord, and the Internet, you know, lost their mind. Like, what is he doing?

And, you know, nobody's jealous. A guy makes millions of dollars a year. Nobody's jealous of his car, but I guarantee it, everybody was jealous of his freedom to disconnect those two things. Jesus gives us a warning though. He gives us a warning that there is a con man on the loose who wants to trick you.

We all think we're more free from this than we actually are. And he's going to take this turn and talk about an eye. Your eye is like a lamp. And it's a really strange two verses. But when Jesus talks about our eyes, a lot of times He's talking about our self awareness.

Can you see the plank in your eye and the speck in someone else's? So I want you to see these two verses in this context. He says, your eye is like a lamp and it provides light to your body. That's a good thing. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is filled with light.

Like you're self aware. You can see yourself. But he says, when our eye is unhealthy, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light, listen to this, you think you have is actually darkness, How deep is that darkness? In other words, there's a con man on the loose and it's me.

We lie to ourselves when it comes to this. Can you see how money has affected you? Can you see how much you're living for this treasure or the next? And I guarantee you other people can see. I guarantee you they can.

When we moved here, a missionary friend of mine, as we were looking for homes, he said one thing to me. He said, Claude, buy a house you can preach from. And I knew exactly what he meant. He he was saying, Claude, your your loudest microphone is going to be your money, and people can see whether you have a love for this world or the next one and what we do with it. I want you to ask yourself this question.

Have I been real about the influence that money has on my heart? Who's driving? Who's behind the wheel of your life? Jeremiah seventeen says this, The human heart is the most deceitful of all things. It's desperately wicked.

Who really knows how bad it is? Our heart and money are constantly trying to hijack the wheel from us. And, you know, I I think a lot of people that are listening to this right now are going, you know what, Claude? I I don't worry about money because I don't have any. Right?

Like, I I'm not list this is not for me because I'm not rich. And here's what I'm saying, you might not be rich, but you're not different. Like, you're not different. You have the same driver behind the wheel that everybody else in the world does. And you need some things in your life that surprises the world.

You know, there's been times I've been offered jobs, you know, and I've said no. And it surprised my friends because they said, Well, how much was the salary? I said, I never asked. They said, you never asked? I was like, there's no amount of money someone could offer me to stop doing what God's called me to do.

Listen, godly people know when to say yes to money and when to say no to money. Proverbs 30 says this, give me neither poverty nor riches. You ever hear anybody say this? Give me neither poverty nor riches. Give me just enough to satisfy my needs because if I grow rich, I might deny you and say, who is the Lord?

But if I'm too poor, I might steal and thus insult God's holy name. Listen to me today. The the rich and the poor both have to trust God. They both have to trust God. Paul puts it like this in Philippians, I know what it is to be in need and what it is to have plenty.

I've learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in one, and I can do all these things through Him, Jesus, who gives me strength. Contentment is like a superpower for us. The Christian life is not It's not the pursuit of money. It's not the rejection of money. It's learning to trust God in all circumstances.

The Christian life. Jesus is addressing now really the last lie in our culture. And I would say even the last lie in the church is that I can balance treasure in heaven and still have treasure on earth. And what we call balance, Jesus calls blindness. This is what he says in verse 24.

No one, no one can serve two, two masters. For you will hate one and you'll love the other. You will be devoted to one and you'll despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money. He's asking you to make a choice.

God's saying, it's either me or trash. And you know, when people ask me how much should I give, I've seen this in the New Testament. A lot of times Jesus would tell people, go and sell and give to the poor. Go and sell this and give to the poor. I think what he's saying is that real giving involves a cost for us.

Some of us give out of our abundance. But I think Jesus is saying, man, it should cost you something. We should be giving sacrificially and give up something. You know, we this week did a campaign in our church called five twenty, and you guys did amazing. But I knew months ago what I was supposed to give.

Because as soon as we announced this, you know, charity to help kids out of slavery, I had something pulled up on my phone for months that I wanted to buy. Literally had the tab open on my phone, and God said, I want you to give up that that you don't need, and And I want you to give that exact amount of money to this. I want it to cost you something. I want it to cost you something. Giving forces me to choose between heaven and earth.

And what Jesus is saying is, man, we didn't just give to set kids free. Giving sets you free. Number four. Last point is this. My giving is this discipleship tool.

It's In my giving journey, it can be a tool to grow my faith journey. Giving is a tool that helps us. It actually helps this disorder we have because it helps us reorder first things first, second things second. And listen, I want to challenge us. We've got to learn to give sacrificially.

We've got to learn to get over our fear of giving. It takes courage to give, but it helps us reorder our heart. Listen to what second Corinthians four says. He says, we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen since what is seen is temporary. It's not going to last, But what is unseen is eternal.

He's saying, fix your eyes. There's one more horizon, and you can't see what's over it yet. When I think about treasure in heaven, I think about a friend of mine, Dustin. He's a BMXer. I've known him for a long time.

Faithful Christian, single guy, you know, into his thirties, and finally he met this girl, and this girl's a runner. She does marathons and all this stuff, and he's like, man, I'm going to propose to her, but I'm going to do it at the end of this half marathon. And I thought, Dustin, that's a horrible idea. Okay? Like, I know you don't run.

You only own vans and Dickies. Like, what what's your plan? And so he's like, no, man. I'm gonna do it. He's like, actually, it's worse, Claude, because the end of this run, it's in Arizona, it's at the top of this little mountain path.

And so I'm like, this is horrible. So later, he's showing me pictures, and there's Dustin, and sure enough, he's, like, wearing his vans and his dickies. He's sweating. You know? And I was like, bro, what was your plan b?

You know, what were you thinking? He's like, oh, my knee was given out. I was dehydrated. I was like, dude, what what was the backup plan? Are you gonna pull the ring out of your cargo pants and just kinda throw it at her or what?

He goes, no, man. I had to finish. And I was like, what do you mean? He goes, I didn't have the ring. I sent the ring ahead to the finish line.

I had to finish. Everything was there. You know that the end of this race, the prize is a person. The reward is a relationship. And I got to imagine my friend Dustin wanted to quit, but told himself, man, one more turn, one more climb, one more horizon, and soon it's all gonna be worth it.

Listen to what Jesus said. Revelation 22. I am coming soon, and my reward is with me to repay all people according to what they've done. You know, five minutes before you die, you're going to look around and wish you'd given more. But five minutes after we enter the presence of God, we're going to wish we'd given everything.

And we can't do that. It's impossible for us. We need God. So let's pray and ask him to help us do that. Let's pray.

God, this life is hard and there's a lot to worry about. Would you help us grow in our trust in you by laying up treasure that's truly secure? God, keep us from lying to ourselves about trying to serve these two masters. Set us free, God, from the love of this world and the fear of giving, and God help us grow in our endurance to to wait for reward that is much better than anything in this world. God, give us a peace that you will come back soon and it'll all be worth it.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Thank you guys so much for joining us here at Church online. I wanna encourage you to receive the grace of God this week as you learn to go on this journey of serving one master, the master that can actually give us an eternal reward. Here at Sandals Church, one of the ways that we practice this, as Claude mentioned, is through giving. And so wherever you might be on your giving journey, we wanna encourage you to take a step today. Even if you attend another church and give there, but you enjoy and are benefited by the ministry here at Sandals Church, I wanna encourage you to continue to support the work that God is doing in and through us by going to sandalschurch.com/support.

We love you guys. Grace and peace, we'll see you next week.

Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you want more content from this series, we have a YouTube playlist linked in the description. And if you want more information about who we are and what we do, you can go sandalschurch.com.