Financial Peace & Purpose: What Jesus Knows - February 16, 2026

Text this morning is Matthew chapter 6.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

So if you've got a Bible, I encourage you to open it and

land there. This is part of the Sermon on

the Mount where Jesus is introducing so many critical

aspects of life in the Kingdom of God that he's teaching them

what is it like to have life in the Kingdom of God?

And unsurprisingly, he talks about money.

He had already talked about sort of 3 hidden secret disciplines

of the Christian life, that of giving to the needy.

Like he started his series of disciplines with giving.

Secret disciplines, give to the needy, secret discipline, pray

in your closet. Secret discipline, fast from

food, these are secret disciplines.

And then, knowing that this is likely stirred up in people's

hearts some anxiety, he begins to address the question of

money. And so this is what he says.

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths

and vermin destroy and where thieves break in and steal.

But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths

and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in

and steal. For where your treasure is,

there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body.

If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of

light. But if your eyes are unhealthy,

your whole body will be full of darkness.

If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that

darkness? No one can serve 2 masters.

Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be

devoted to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve both God and money.

Jesus understood the reach of Babylon.

We talked about Babylon last week.

If you're like Babylon, where's that?

But it's that move of empire to always draw us in to power and

where the question of money comes up.

There is power, but there's some things that Jesus knows about

us. Jesus knows that your heart will

be owned by your treasures. Notice he said, For where your

treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Will you say it with me? For where your treasure is,

there your heart will be also. In other words, your treasure

will own your heart. Your heart will be owned by

treasure. Your heart, in the conception

that Jesus had in his culture and the history and cultural of

the Bible, is that your heart is this sort of internal governing

center. It is more than just your

emotions, it is your intellect, your will, your emotions, your

moral character, and your spiritual orientation with God.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, your seat of will,

your seat of power. Love God from there.

And he says, where your heart is, there your treasure will be.

Where your will is being oriented, there your treasure

will be. So choose your treasures

carefully because your treasures will also shape your heart.

There's a mighty feedback loop going on here, and he says you

can have earthly treasures or you can have heavenly treasures.

How many of you have some earthly treasures?

Yeah. I'm so glad you all are so rich.

You have earthly treasures? We're grateful for those, right?

We know. And we often treat them in our

circle as blessings from God. In other circles, I have friends

who say I earned it. It's mine, it's mine, it's mine,

it's mine. They're like the seagulls.

It's mine, it's mine, it's mine. Swooping in to take everything,

it's mine. Leave no crumbs behind.

It's mine. And though we may have money in

the bank, though we may have an emergency fund, though we may

have money even invested in companies.

So we own a little bit of a company and we see the

trajectory of what 30 years can do with compounding interest.

I mean, you all know that's like one of the 8th wonders of the

world. It's compounding interest.

Those are earthly treasures, he says.

Where your treasure is, there your heart will be.

And so he says and offers an alternative.

You could have heavenly treasures.

Heavenly treasures, then can can actually be stored up as well.

When you have earthly treasures, you worry about the market.

When you have earthly treasures, you worry that someone's going

to take it or that you're going to spend it all.

When you have earthly treasures, you worry that, my goodness, it

takes so much to have a car. Who knew about insurance when

you're 18? Everything costs and costs and

costs. And so we become anxious there

with earthly treasures. Having earthly treasures is not

the problem. The problem is when you also

lack heavenly treasures that you say are of a greater value and

worth. And so my true energy for

storing up is to store up heavenly treasures.

I'm redirecting my will towards heavenly treasures, knowing and

being known by God, receiving my identity instead of just

constructing it, being loved by God, giving myself to doing the

work and will of God, responding to Jesus rightly, valuing people

as greater than money. The list could go on of heavenly

treasures. In fact, the incredible worth of

the soul is the greatest treasure you personally have.

What does it value and merit? A man to gain the whole world

but lose his soul? Put your soul in the heavenly

bank. Do you know the issue of our

treasures and our heart is that we develop habits of heart that

we're not even aware of? The year before I graduated from

high school, Robert Bella wrote a really famous book, I don't

know if you know it, Habits of the Heart.

It was written in 1985 S. That may seem like a really old

book to you, but in it he was trying to examine America and

North American values and what is happening to the habits of

our heart. And he said this, our culture

does not give us much guidance as to how to fill the contours

of this autonomous, self, responsible self.

In other words, we're incredibly individualistic.

Our culture is always trying to set us free.

If you find yourself trying to differentiate from your parents

when you're 13, you're really absorbing our independent, self

defining culture. Define yourself.

It didn't just start in the 2000s.

It started early, early in North America.

Define yourself. And he says we're not getting a

lot of help with this except in two areas.

One is the area of work, the realm par excellence of

utilitarian individualism. The other area is the lifestyle

enclave, the realm part excellence of expressive

individualism, your work and your lifestyle.

How many of you have little streams of work and lifestyle on

your Instagram? Well, how many of you don't have

Instagram? What else are you looking at on

Instagram? It's about work and lifestyle,

isn't it? How are you going to earn a lot

of money? How are you going to spend it?

Work and lifestyle. Maybe it's not about the money.

Maybe it's about nature, lifestyle.

How many of you have nature? Lifestyle, Art, lifestyle, good

looks, lifestyle, lifting heavy lifestyle.

I mean, it's all about the lifestyle and the work.

And this started and this was known as a as a feature of our

culture. In 1985, the Internet didn't

exist yet. That was back in the days.

Thank you for that, Aidan. Thank you, he goes.

Robert Bella goes on to note the difficulty with this next slide.

He says in the absence of any objectionifiable criteria or

right or wrong, good or evil, the self and its feelings become

our only moral guide. There, each individual is

entitled to his or her own bit of space and is utterly free

within its boundaries. But while everyone may be

entitled to his or her own private space, only those who

have enough money can in fact afford to purchase the private

property required to do their own thing.

It's like having an island where your heart is, there your

treasure will be also. Do you want Treasure Island or

do you want treasure heaven? And Jesus strangely teaches us

to pray, Oh God, may your Kingdom come on earth as it is

in heaven. So that somehow I think even in

that prayer, we get little taste of the experiences of Kingdom

treasures and heavenly treasures even right here on earth.

When your heart is rightly aligned, when you've been drawn

out from just work and lifestyle enclave as the defining features

of your life, Jesus recommends BHT.

This is not a stock recommendation.

BHT next slide, the Bank of heavenly treasures.

BHT remember it. Are you investing in BHT the

Bank of heavenly treasures? Jesus knows not only about our

treasures and our heart. Jesus knows about the health of

your soul. He knows that your soul's health

will be impacted by your gaze. I know it seemed a little

strange that all of a sudden Jesus shifted to talking about

your eyes and and the health of your eyes and what's going on

inside your life. But what do you do when you have

great treasures? You look at them.

If you treasure yourself, you just look at yourself, say hey,

your LG today looking good and you know, this is what we do.

If you're really keyed up about your investment portfolio, you

look at it every day. If you're able to just let it

go, you forget about it. And you look at it once a year

when you do your taxes. What you look at also influences

your soul. Notice what he says.

Let's read it together. The eye is the lamp of the body.

If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of

light. Your eyes are the lamp of your

body. And we are always looking for

treasures, the next shiny thing squirrel.

And we're looking, what we gaze at definitely impacts our lives.

And there has never been quite the time and the generation that

you are currently living in who's been so drawn to fix their

gaze on that which is passing quickly away, it's designed to

do that. Jesus knows this and he knows

there's great competition for your attention.

He knew this before the Internet.

Jesus knows that what you attend to either enlightens or dims

your soul. Jesus knows next slide, that the

lens, the way you see the world, will also affect the health of

your soul. If you see the world primarily

as a competitive environment, that will affect your soul.

If you see the world as always out to get you, that will affect

your soul. If you see relationships as if

someone's always trying to get advantage of you, that will

affect your soul. If something is changed in the

way you see the world, so that you see the world as a place of

great abundance, that will affect your soul.

This is my Father's world. If you see the world that way,

it will affect your soul. If you see the world as if there

is enough for everyone, that will affect your soul.

If you see the world as a place in which you can trust others

and you will risk trust instead of always fearing, that will

affect your soul. A friend of mine was discovering

but that he had cataracts and so he needed to have cataract

surgery. It's not covered under MSP.

So he was figuring out which kind of lens he would have put

in his eye. I was like, Peter, this just

freaks me out. You're having to decide which

kind of lens. He's like, yeah, if I get this

lens, these will be the benefits.

If I get this lens, that'll be the benefits.

And I said, and then what else is going to happen?

He says I won't need glasses anymore.

I was like, man, that's incredible.

The changed lens changed the way he was able to live, and Jesus

actually is offering a change of lens so that He can change our

souls. This too is another powerful

feedback loop and it will affect the way you hold and spend

money. The Desert Fathers said this

about money, that he who is the slave of money guards his money

as a slave, but he who has thrown off the yoke of his

slavery to money dispenses money as if he is its master.

Who gave that idea to that group of Christians?

It was Jesus. You see, Jesus knows something

else. Jesus knows that you are not

made for 2 masters. Let's read it together.

No one can serve 2 masters. If you ever had a situation

where you had two bosses, it's just like what, what, what?

And they each had their own opinion.

It's terrible. You need to know who your boss

is and Jesus understands that. Most of us assume that in having

money, we're are the boss of money, and he's making it clear

that's not so. There's A2 master syndrome, and

this happens when you sort of wave at God, but your gaze is

set on the money, money, money, money.

You're waving at God, Say, hey, God, I see you over there, but

hey, look at that money. Look at that great salary.

Look at that opportunity and you just wave at God with no wisdom,

with no sense of where your treasure is.

In fact, your heart is being dominated by guarding your

treasure. Now, some of you don't worry

about this a lot because you don't have a lot of treasure at

the moment. I know this.

I know it's true. Student life is situational

poverty. Immigration is often situational

poverty. It's just a situation for a time

that you hope isn't going to last long, that you're just

going to pass through this time. This is why over 300 student

households a week come to the Acadia Food Hub, a food bank

here on campus. It's situational poverty you're

passing through. I know you're passing through,

but someday somebody's going to try to sell you a security

system because you've got to worry that someone's going to

break in my house and get all the money that I have stored in

my mattress. I don't know, like, how much

treasures are you all keeping in your homes?

Who cares if somebody breaks in? What's really there to take?

Maybe your computer. That's the one, right?

That's the one. I mean, how many forks does it

matter if they take? But when you've got really

wealth, you have silver forks and you're like, oh, you know,

price of silver is going up and so you worry.

In fact, the proverbs tell us that those who build high gates,

high security systems, actually invite destruction.

Because everyone's wondering, well, what are you hiding over

there? Maybe I need some of that.

Better, he says, to just have enough.

And so when you have money, money becomes your master unless

you've let your heart be mastered by someone else.

Flip side of this is not having money.

If can also let money be your master where you say, well, I

see that opportunity out there or I hear God calling me to do

something or I really have this better, better and greater

vision of my life, but I can't do it because I don't have

money. That's money being the master

again, instead of being set free to enter into the abundance and

the opportunity and the provision and the way of God.

Because if you get your head up and your eyes open and your

heart free from anxiety, you can see more opportunities.

But the two master syndrome means that you're either going

to hate the one and love the other, or you'll be devoted to

the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and

money. And so our determination has to

be, I will serve God and God will teach me so that money

becomes my servant. God will free me, so money

becomes servant. Now the word money here isn't

just about cash in your pocket or coins in your pocket.

The word money is actually a word mammon, and some of you in

your Bible translations, it may have actually translated it as

that Mammon. You can say it to your neighbor

mammon. And mammon is this sort of this,

this aspect of stuff. And that stuff develops its own

personality and power and draw. And Jesus is inviting you to ask

the question, who's the money master in your life?

Who's the master of your life? It's very simple question and

principle. During the next 40 days, Lent

will be going on. And Lent is the opportunity to

move towards Easter and the celebration of Jesus.

But Lent actually is a recognition of our own

finiteness that that we actually are going to die.

And the truth is that in knowing and calculating that you're

going to die, you know that you don't take anything with you

naked. You come into the world naked,

you go out from dust to dust. There's great wisdom in

calculating that. And it right sizes the issue of

money and possessions and comforts in our lives.

It right sizes the greater treasures in our life to be

valued beyond just money. It actually invites us to be

freed from greed, which Paul calls a form of idolatry.

And so for the next 40 days, I want to invite you to use the

Lectio app that's on the link tree.

Of course. Use the Lectio app and pray

daily on a 40 day journey with the Desert Fathers and Mothers

with 24/7 prayer. The Desert Fathers and Mothers

lived in the three hundreds and it was a movement to leave the

city, to draw away from wealth and to draw closer to heavenly

treasures. It'll be an interesting journey,

so I invite you with us on that. Who is your money?

Master Zacchaeus climbed a tree, didn't he?

He climbed a tree because he was we.

He was short, and he climbed up in the tree to see who he could

see. Thank you.

Thank you. You're following along.

Why did Zacchaeus climb that tree?

Zacchaeus, the man who was a tax collector.

Zacchaeus, the man who had great wealth.

Zacchaeus, the man who had position but was actually in a

squeeze because he was tolerated by the Romans for his skill at

collecting taxes. He was despised and hated by his

Jewish brothers because he collected taxes.

The tax collectors were known for lining their pockets with a

little bit extra. They were given judicial rights

and privileges to collect more, and apparently he had collected

more. But something was drawing him to

Jesus and because of the crowd, he couldn't get close.

So he climbed up in a tree to see Jesus.

I don't know you. When's the last time you saw a

short, wealthy person climb up in a tree?

Unheard of, right? Sort of humiliating.

And so in that move, Zacchaeus was actually humbling himself.

He climbed up and humbled himself, and Jesus saw him and

honored him. Zacchaeus, come down.

I'm going to go to your house today.

And it says that Zacchaeus gladly welcomed Jesus.

He was so excited. This was probably more than he

expected. You see, his treasure was

shifting, His treasure house was shifting.

His heart was moving, drawn to Jesus.

And ultimately the master of his heart would change too, because

they're at that banquet where Jesus was seated and just

enjoying the hospitality of Zacchaeus, the hospitality of

his wealth. Something completely opened in

the heart and soul of Zacchaeus. Something changed about his eyes

and what he would truly value now.

And notice what he listen to what he says.

Zacchaeus stood up at the supper and he said, Lord, look, look,

Lord, look, fix your eyes on me. Wow, this is really interesting.

He already knew that Jesus had seen him.

He already knew that Jesus could see his heart.

He already knew that others were missing the transformation that

was starting to happen in his life.

But now he wanted to make it clear here and now he says, I

give half of my possessions to the poor.

Oh, do you see the shift of treasures?

No longer were his his treasures just in his possessions, but now

his treasures were in the life of people.

I give it to the poor. And he says if I have cheated

anybody out of anything, can't you imagine that?

Some people in the room began to laugh.

His his own company around him. What?

Yeah, we all know you're a cheat.

We know you've you've won by cheating.

He says if I've cheated anyone out of anything, I will pay back

four times the amount. A shift of heart.

The first evidence, the public evidence of Zacchaeus

transformation wasn't just climbing up the tree, it was

declaring his freedom by being able to give, by being able to

say that's not my true treasure. People are my true treasure with

God. Look, Lord, he says they've been

a mighty shift in his life and it impacted his money.

When we come to the table of Jesus, we're actually saying

that Jesus is our treasure. When we hold the bread and hold

the cup, we are recalling and remembering Jesus and saying, oh

Jesus, you are my treasure. I'm going to gaze upon you here

at this table. I'm going to remember you.

And This is why it's so important every week that we

realign and shift the allegiances of our heart to

Jesus so that we can go out of here having said to the Lord,

hey Lord, look at me, could you say it with me?

Lord, look at me, what a prayer. Lord, look at me, can you say

it? Lord, look at me.

Lord, see my heart. Lord, look how I'm shifting the

treasures of my life. As we'll see next week, this is

actually the pathway to great peace in our lives.

Even when money is a trouble. Let's stand together.

Going to invite the worship team to come up.

I want to invite you to all be like Zacchaeus, but we don't

have trees to climb. But whatever it takes for you in

this moment to express humility to Jesus, that's what I want to

invite you to do. So if some of you would like to

just sort of kneel in front of Jesus, do it carefully.

We don't want you falling all the way down, but you can go up

to the to the railing up there and you can kneel there If you

want to kneel, if you want to just open your hands and say,

Jesus, I'm humbly opening my hands and or I'm pointing

towards you. You're my greatest treasure.

Whatever it takes for you right now to just physically and in

your heart say to Jesus, Son, look at me, Lord, I'm going to

humble myself in front of you. I want to shift my treasures.

I want to invest in BHT, the Bank of Heavenly Treasures.

And some of you may find along the way that you can't do it,

that you feel like there's too much darkness, too much anxiety,

that you can't do it that that you thought you had a grip on

the money, but money's got a grip on you that you can't do

it. Your future ambitions right now

have more a grip on you than you have a grip on God.

Ask Jesus for help and surrender to him.

He's the kind of master that gives you so much agency.

He's not looking to just control and dominate and squish you

under his great power. He wants to pump you up, build

you up, and to set you free in the Spirit.

What are the gifts of the Spirit?

Lovejoy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness

and self-control. So much agency in the power and

Spirit and gift at the freedom of Jesus when you've been given

freedom in Him. He's saying I'm giving you

self-control. I'm giving you control of your

life. You have the agency in your life

about your treasures, about your eyes, about the health of your

life and what you do with money. And all of that comes about

because Jesus, though he was rich in heaven, became poor for

our sakes, and he gave himself for us.

So whatever it takes, as we sing the song and prepare for the

Lord's Supper, just humble yourself in front of the Lord,

yeah.