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Matthew
6:19-24
Today is Stewardship
Sunday. Today we talk about money.
If you’re a visitor
here this morning or just enquiring into Christian things, we really
don’t want your money. This
morning we’re talking really to the church family and if you’re a visitor
or if you wouldn’t yet call yourself a follower of Jesus we’re just very
pleased you’re here. So please just enjoy church this morning, it’s on
us. But please do listen in
though, because wherever you’re from and wherever you are in terms of
faith, I think you’ll be bowled over by the teaching of Jesus.
Now if you are church
family we’re not going to apologize for talking about money because Jesus
talked about money. A lot. He
spoke about wealth and possessions more than he spoke of heaven and hell
combined. About 15% of everything Jesus says in the Gospels concerns
money and possessions. I heard a
preacher this week say “If I preached on money as often as Jesus did I
wouldn’t have a church. No-one
would come.” If we simply
preached the words of Jesus from the pulpit then stewardship Sunday would
come around about every 6 weeks.
Which tells you
something. Money is not an
unspiritual issue. Jesus wants
your heart and soul, yes. He
wants your mind and will. But He
also wants your body, your time, your energy, your talents, your wealth,
your wage, your home and your possessions. He wants your Sunday – but He also wants Monday to
Saturday. He wants your prayer
life but He also wants your cheque book.
The claims of Jesus are total.
Jesus demands utter self-giving because He Himself is utter
self-giving.
This Sunday the Church
around the world celebrates Trinity Sunday. Today Christians remember what is most true about
the living God. And what is most
true is that God is a relationship of total self-giving. John 3:35 says the Father loves the
Son and has given everything into His hands. Jesus says on the cross, ‘Father into
your hands I give my spirit.’
Jesus says of the Holy Spirit that He will take what the Father
has given to Him and give it to us. God is a fountain of giving. From the Father to the Son and then by
the Spirit that giving spills over to us. John 3:16: God so loved the world that He gave His
only Son… The happy Trinity is a
community of overflowing joy because they are a community of
self-giving. God doesn’t just do
giving – He is giving.
And so consider for a second who is saying
these words. Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God is standing before the
disciples. And He is the ultimate
riches to rags story. You see the
Father created all things by Jesus and for Jesus. The whole universe belongs to
Christ. And He was surrounded by
the worship of heaven as the owner and inheritor of the entire cosmos. And how did He use His infinite
wealth? Later in Matthew Jesus
says these words:
SLIDE:
“The
Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life
as a ransom for many." (Matthew
20:28)
Wealthy people get you to serve them don’t
they? Jesus, the richest Person
in the universe, did not come to be served. He came to serve us – the dirt poor. How?
He gave not just His wealth, though the Bible does say ‘He became
poor’. But it wasn’t just His wealth
that He gave up, He gave His life as a ransom payment. To buy you and me out of a deadly
slavery. He gave it all for you
and for me. He was literally
faced with the choice: either lose everything you have or
lose us. Jesus refused to lose
us. He gave everything. Traded heaven for hell, the throne for
the cross, riches for poverty. To
buy us back. Jesus is qualified
to speak about wealth. And He
addresses each one of us as our Lord but also as our Servant. He is
serving us by telling us these things.
He’s paid the utimate price to release us from slavery, and here
He is pleading with His precious, blood-bought people. “Don’t enslave yourselves again to
money.” This morning let’s hear
Jesus say to each of us, ‘Come away from that slave-master money, I have
a much better way.’ That’s the
tone as we read these verses.
Look with me at v19
19 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth
and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But
store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not
destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.
Notice
first, Jesus is not talking about ‘cash’. Jesus never says, “Hey, if you have any spare cash maybe
think about giving it away.” This
is more than just our spare cash.
It’s more than just money – Jesus is speaking about our
treasure. It’s everything we
treasure up in life – all our wealth, whether it’s money in the bank, or
our pension or our possessions or our house, our car – everything.
But notice
what Jesus is saying. He doesn’t
say what you might expect. He
doesn’t say: ‘Don’t store up treasure for yourself, how greedy,
how selfish! No, no store up
treasure for other people.’
You might expect Jesus to say that. But no it’s quite shocking isn’t it? Verse 20, Jesus is telling us how to
get rich – for ourselves. That’s
a command from Jesus. Make sure
you store up lots and lots of treasure for yourself!
If you had all your money in Northern Rock and if I had come to you
before its collapse and said, ‘It’s going under, get out now.’ What would
you do? If you trusted me, if you
thought I really knew what’s what, you’d say thank you, and you’d get out
before it was too late. But if I
not only told you Northern Rock’s going under but that I knew of an
investment with guaranteed and unbelievable returns. You’d move your money in a second
wouldn’t you? Well Jesus is
telling you, you have your wealth in a moth-eaten, rust ridden,
thief-vulnerable account and it won’t last. But I know a certified gold-standard investment with
guaranteed returns. We can switch
our money. We can store up for
ourselves treasure in heaven, which will never rust, never reduce, never
be taken.
How does
that work? Well in Luke Jesus preaches about treasure in heaven again,
and the context there might help us.
Jesus says:
32 "Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been
pleased to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions and
give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a
treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near
and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there
your heart will be also.
Do you see how similar these words are? And here two things are very clear:
Firstly, storing up treasure in heaven is not about earning your place in
heaven. You cannot earn your
place in heaven, look at verse 32.
If we are one of Jesus’ sheep, if we call Jesus our great Shepherd
and God our Father, then He has been pleased to give us the
kingdom. So for the Christian
heaven is a given. But once we
understand the wonder of that gift then we have the resources to
give away our money. Do you see
how verse 32 leads to verse 33?
Your Father has been pleased to give you the
kingdom. So, v33, Sell your
possessions – you’ve already got everything. It’s all been a gift from God, so now you can share the
wealth. So that’s the first
thing, Christian are givers not to earn the kingdom, Christians are
givers because through the sheer mercy of God and the sacrifice of Jesus,
God has already given us everything.
For the Christian heaven is a given. But treasure in heaven is offerered on top of
that.
How do you store up treasure in heaven? Well that’s the second thing to learn
from these verses. Here we see
that storing up treasure in heaven is intimately linked with giving away
treasure on earth.
Sell
your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that
will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted
I saw this
picture last week on a billboard just outside church:
Get rich quick. Give.
That’s
similar to what Jesus is saying.
He’s not saying ‘Don’t get rich’ – He’s saying get stinking
rich. Get filthy rich. Get rich for all eternity where your
treasure will never be lost, never depreciate. Get mind-bogglingly, cosmically, never-endingly rich. Give.
Give away your earthly treasure and you will get rich. How do you get rich in heaven? Give on
earth.
But Jesus
doesn’t tell us how to Get rich quick. He tells us how to get rich later. Which is different to the Oxfam
billboard. He’s not just offering
a sense of moral superiority now, He’s offering real treasure
then.
You’re probably thinking right now – well how does that even
work? How does giving earthly
treasure translate into gaining heavenly treasure. Here’s my attempt to answer that.
A few chapters on in Luke 16, Jesus
says that we should use our treasure on earth, “to make friends for
ourselves [in this passing age and then we] will be welcomed into eternal
dwellings.” (Luke 16:9) And I
think the context makes it pretty clear.
If we open up our cheque books, open up our tables and our homes
in costly hospitality now, if we make friends for ourselves and introduce
them to Jesus now… THEN in time
they will welcome us into their eternal dwellings. Use money to introduce people to
Christ. And in the new creation
they will welcome you into their eternal dwellings. Paul talks about the believers that he
has invested in in this life as his treasure. He calls them his joy, his hope and his crown in which he
will glory in the presence of Jesus when He comes. The people you invest in now with a
view to heaven – they will be treasure for you in the coming age. Your joy and crown in the presence of
Jesus will be the people you’ve invested in now. They will be a treasure for you that
no-one can take away. So don’t
just go to heaven, store up treasure in heaven. Use whatever earthly resources you have so that you will
have more treasure then.
Think about
your joy then. But also
think about your joy now, v22:
For
where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Where we
invest has consequences for now also.
Because whatever you put your money into – your heart goes into it
too.
We all know
how this works don’t we? Make a
big purchase – it could be anything.
Spend a significant amount of money on something and then watch
what your heart does. You’re
wondering if you could have got it cheaper, whether it was wise in the
first place, you’re thinking about the best way to show it off, you’re
worried you’re going to break it, you’re now thinking you probably need
more that just one, you’re absorbed by it. Fact: When you invest money you also invest your heart.
And so
notice the order of Jesus’ words here in v22. He does not say: “Where you heart is the treasure
will follow.” Jesus might have
said that, and there might be some truth to that. But what Jesus says is “Where your
treasure is, there your heart will be.”
Your heart will follow your money. For good or for ill, our hearts follow our money.
And I’m sure
many of you will testify that when you started giving to a missionary for
instance, you gained a fresh interest in their work. Suddenly you’re praying more for them,
you’re more eager to hear how things are going, your ears prick up when
their country is mentioned on the news.
Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. And so the application of this is
quite simple:
Do you want
a heart for missions? Here’s one
way: write a cheque. Do you want
a heart that is more tender towards the poor? Give. Your heart will
follow. Do you want a heart for
the work of All Souls? Do you
want a fresh enthusiasm for this church and its work? Do you want a closer sense of
fellowship with this church family?
Give. Simple. Give.
Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
If we invest
our money in All Souls or in any work of the kingdom then the benefit is
not just monetary. The benefit
will be that we’ll have our hearts engaged in the things that really
matter.
So Jesus
doesn’t just want our money, He wants our hearts. And in verses 22 and 23 we’ll see He
also wants our eyes.
"The eye is the lamp of the body. If your
eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes
are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within
you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
Here is the
gist of what Jesus is saying.
Whatever fills your vision, fills your life. If you’re looking at
the right stuff, you’ll live the right way. If you’re looking to the wrong stuff you’ll be surrounded
by darkness.
Literally
when Jesus says ‘If your eyes are good’, the word for ‘good’ is the word
for single. He’s talking about
fixing your vision, not being distracted by all the darkness around. And in the context it’s clear the
darkness that threatens to distract us is treasures on earth, money,
wealth, possessions, worldly goods.
And Jesus is saying watch out – don’t fill your vision with
earthly treasure. If you do
you’ll be full of it, you’ll be lost in the darkness of greed.
Which means
as I walk into the Arndale Centre the danger for my eyes is not just the
lingerie shop. Because as I turn
away from the underwear model I’m confronted with a flatscreen 40 inch
plasma TV and apparently I need that because everyone else has got
one. And so I turn away and my
eyes light upon a mobile broadband offer, and apparently I need that
because how else am I going to access my email while I’m in the post office
queue. So I turn from that to see
the new line of clothes that I must buy for summer and then see the new
holiday destinations that I must book.
And my vision is being constantly inundated with treasures on
earth. And Jesus says when our
eyes are turned to darkness our whole lives become full of darkness.
Now we in
the west are in a very dangerous position. We are the richest people who have ever walked the
planet. The vast majority of
human beings who have ever lived would consider our lifestyles to be
luxurious beyond their wildest imagination. And even just today, if you earn more than $2 a day, you’re
better off than half the world’s population. 3 billion people earn less than $2 a day. If you own a car you’re better off
than 92% of the world. I mean
forget whether we need mobile broadband, a quarter of humanity lives
without electricity.
And while
there is a world-wide food shortage, last week a study showed that we
waste £10 billion of food every year. It’s the equivalent of putting one out of every three of
your bags of shopping straight in the bin without touching the
contents. But what’s remarkable
about our great darkness is that it rarely occurs to us that we are
greedy.
That’s
always the scary thing about spiritual blindness in the bible, the people
who are spiritually blind, don’t think they’re blind. And that’s so true here. We fill our vision with earthly
treasure and the darkness of greed surrounds us to such an extent that we
don’t even think of ourselves as greedy.
I asked
myself this week, when was the last time I confessed the sin of greed to
God. And before this week, I
couldn’t think of the last time I confessed to being greedy. A hundred other sins, but not greed. How can I be so blind? Ask the 3 billion people who earn less
that $2 a day whether I might be greedy – they would see it, but I don’t
see it. Because my eyes are not
good, not single, I’m not fixed on Jesus as my true treasure. And so Jesus challenges me in v24 to
re-adjust my vision. And to have
that single-sight, single-heart, single-mindedness that I need:
"No-one can serve two masters. Either he
will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one
and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.
It’s God
or Money.
You cannot serve both.
Jesus doesn’t say ‘you must not’ as though it were possible but
just ill advised. Jesus doesn’t
say ‘it’d be a good idea if you didn’t’.
He said it cannot be done.
Because Money – in the old translation it’s called Mammon, worldly
wealth, Money with a capital M – is a competing god in your life. You know what a god does? A god offers some kind of provision
and protection and asks in return that you follow it, that you bow down
to it and worship it. Money is a
false god. It promises provision
and protection, it makes you follow it and bow down and worship it. Money is a Master, a slave-master at
that, that makes you serve it.
And we must
remind ourselves of this because Money often looks to us like it’s our
servant. We think ‘Money gives me
security, status, comfort, power – money is my servant isn’t it? Money makes me a master doesn’t
it?’ No. Whenever we put our trust in Money to
save us, to be the answer, to be our great provider and protector, we
follow money into slavery. And we
will find that we don’t possess our stuff, it possesses us. Don’t you feel the truth of that?
Can’t you see that possessions so easily end up possessing us. Money does not make us masters, it
makes us slaves.
Imagine
all your worldly wealth collected together in a piggy bank. And you have to carry it around with
you. How do you feel, clutching
that piggy bank to your chest?
Free? Empowered? Happy? No you’d be scared stiff about dropping it or having
someone take it. And there’d be a
hundred things you would refuse to do in case you broke your piggy
bank.
But we are
just like that with money and whilever we clutch our wealth to our hearts
we will hate God. That’s what
Jesus says in v24, if we follow after money we will despise God. Because God is not committed to our financial
security. Not in this age. God is not committed to us having a
financial cushion. In fact He’s
into demolishing our piggy banks.
He wants to free us from them.
But if we’ve made Money into our great hope for protection and
provision we will hate God who is in the business of taking away our
piggy banks and urging us to invest in the kingdom.
Allow Him to
call you out of slavery to money.
Let’s read together these verses again and if there’s business you
need to do with Jesus this morning I’ll give you a minute of quiet to
commit before the LORD how we’re going to live free of Money…
19 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth
and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But
store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not
destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For
where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22
"The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole
body will be full of light. 23 But if your eyes are bad, your
whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is
darkness, how great is that darkness! 24 "No-one can
serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he
will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both
God and Money.
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