Where Is Your Treasure?
This morning we are covering a famous passage with a timeless question: where is your treasure? What do you value the most in this life? So many things vie for our attention and pull for the affections of our heart. We know that Jesus and the kingdom of God is the right answer to this question, but is he genuinely the answer in your life?
Leo Tolstoy, the great Russian novelist, captured this in his short story, “How Much Land Does a Man Need?” In the story, a peasant farmer wants much more than what he has. One day he receives a too-good-to-be-true offer. For only one thousand rubles (currently about eleven American dollars), he can buy all the land his heart desires. The arrangement is that whatever land he walks around in a day becomes his if he’s back to his starting point by sundown.
The next day, the man moves quickly to cover as much ground as he can. He is exhausted from the walking, but with every step, his territory grows larger. A few hours later, he realizes he is quite far from his starting point, so he starts to run. As the day fades into night, the farmer sets his eyes on the starting point. Knowing that all the land he’s traversed is about to be his, he strenuously crosses the finish line right before the sun sets.
Tragically, a few minutes after arriving at the starting point, he collapses and dies. His servants dig a grave that’s six feet long and three feet wide. So, how much land does a man need? Just enough to be buried in.
Here’s the principle: If we spend the best of our energy and passion to gain wealth and the world, it ends up owning us. When our lives are absorbed with money and what it can get us, we end up serving it to our own demise. Our lives are to be caught up in loving attentiveness to God. Our decisions are to be guided by the inner witness of the Spirit. Our ethics are to be shaped by the values of the kingdom. So this leads me to our first point, what is your greatest treasure?
Matthew 6:19-24
Your greatest treasure
Jesus is calling us to think above our earthly desires. If you are having a hard time identifying what you value the most you can measure it in what you give your attention to (or your time), what you give your money to, and what you give your affections to.
Our time. The most valuable commodity that we have. It is something far more precious than money, property, or things, but it is limited for all of us. Because we don’t know how much time we have, to give of our time to something is one of the greatest sacrifices that we can make.
Our money. What we spend our money on can reveal the true desires of our heart. I don’t ever want to twist your arm to give to God that which is God’s, in fact the Bible says God loves a cheerful giver. It should be a natural outflow of our love for God that we give to God what is God’s.
Don’t talk about my money. That’s the problem, it’s not your money. in our family 10% has been the floor not the ceiling. “Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the first fruits of all your produce;” Proverbs 3:9. A tithe literally means “a tenth”. Giving all over 2 Corinthians 8-9 you can read it, God loves a cheerful giver.
There is not a single instance in the Bible when people came to worship God and didn’t bring a gift with them. Not only do you rob God when you don’t tithe, you rob yourself of God’s blessing and work in your life.
Our affections. If football games, raises at work, or entertainment pulls more emotion than God does it might indicate a problem in what we are treasuring. Now, I have a German Lutheran grandfather that is as stoic as ever. I’ve never seen him cry, dance, or scream hallelujah from the back row.
You don’t have to pretend to be a loud extravert if that is not who you are. But your affections should be deeply affected by God. This is evident in love for him, pouring out of our lives to him, care and brokenness for lost people and tragedy. When we don’t have any response at all to him but share that for other things, it might mean our treasure truly isn’t found in him.
What you feed, grows
Healthy eyes are fixed on the pursuit of God’s priorities. Unhealthy eyes are fixed on the priority of the world. Jesus longs for us to live with clear eyes, not clouded vision.
Beware of your eye-gate and your ear-gate. What are you pursuing? What do you allow into your life? What you feed grows. I had a premarital counseling appointment on Friday and I told the couple, what you feed grows. If you start focusing on that thing your spouse does that you hate, if you complain to your friends about the things they do, if you stare at the physical attribute you don’t like… it all grows. But if you water the great things about them, the qualities that are pure and good, and you see the gift that your spouse is, your relationship will grow.
The same is true of our relationship with God. As we journey through God’s word together this year, think of your daily reading as a pile of miracle grow you are adding to your relationship with God. Think of prayer as a perfectly placed sprinkler that will continually water and refill your love for God and grow your affections for him.
But when we are in the world and when we take in its things, our relationship with God deteriorates. The eye is the lamp, whatever it takes in, the body becomes full of. Your eye gate and your ear gate are vital to your spiritual potency. We cannot take in the entertainment of the world, its news and agendas in copious amounts, social media in large doses, and think we will remain unaffected. We are what we consume! What are you choosing to feed in your life? What are you bringing in and allowing your life to be full of?
All of life, for all of life
Money here means mammon, also known as “the treasure a person trusts in.” Worshipping God is an exclusive act. It is impossible to worship God and something else is the exclusive claim that Jesus is making here. John Wesley said this: “you can’t serve both God and mammon comfortably, consistently, and without being contrary.”
In Revelation 3:15-16, Jesus is speaking to the church in Laodicea and he says, “‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.” Does this describe your spiritual journey with Jesus? Because his reply to that kind of discipleship is not one that I would want to receive.
In Matthew 7:13-14, Jesus speaks of the narrow path and the wide one. To follow him is to take the narrow path, few will find it and it is the road to life. The broad one is traversed by many and leads to destruction.
Throughout the whole Bible, there is a continued theme of either being all in or all out. Lukewarm Christian is an oxymoron. It isn’t a reality, and this passage in Matthew 6 makes it abundantly clear that we can’t serve two masters.
Who is master over you? We are all made with a desire to worship something. If it isn’t Jesus it’s the American dream, climbing the corporate ladder, an addiction to a substance or sinful habit, or it can even be ourselves.
The reason why we say all of life for all of life around here is because if following Jesus isn’t that for you, then you aren’t following Jesus. You are following the Americanized Jesus. You are interested in life coach Jesus, socialist Jesus, or get out of hell free card Jesus. But the Jesus of the Bible is very clear: deny yourself, pick up your cross, and follow me.
Conclusion
USC did a study that found interesting data on the science of generosity. It found that those that give and live lives of generosity, delays mortality and produces a longer and fuller life. It also found that those that serve others and volunteer reported a greater quality of life. And here’s a shocker, not really, but a study also found that people are happier when they spend money on others rather than themselves. They’ve found it leads to longer lasting joy in the workplace and more romantic and fulfilling relationships.
Acts 20:35, it is greater to give than to receive. It’s amazing to me that time and time again science is catching up to what the Bible has been saying for thousands of years. So again, I ask you the difficult, but most important question in this Bible today: where is your treasure?
Does Jesus have your time, your finances, and your affections? What are you feeding in your life? Do you give space to feed your relationship with God above and else? And lastly, is your walk with Jesus in every area of your life, for the entirety of your life?