Stewardship Sermon

6

STEWARDSHIP SERMON

“Treasures in Heaven” - Matthew 6:19-24

PRAY

Treasure is exciting isn’t it?

·  The thought of finding hidden hoards of treasure has led people on great adventures,

·  involving time, cost and risk in order to find it.

Children’s stories about seeking and finding treasure are very popular and made good films.

Treasure seeking and finding is exciting, and this morning we are going to look at what Jesus has to say about treasure,

·  thinking about “treasures in heaven”

The first thing that Jesus says in this passage is that there are 2 types of treasures to be sought and found.

·  There are treasures on earth and

·  There are treasures in heaven.

The question Jesus lays in front of us is this: “Which treasure are you seeking and storing up?”

·  This is an important question because the acquiring of treasure takes effort, time and resources.

·  We may suffer to acquire it.

·  We will certainly need to be focused to acquire it,

·  so we need to make sure that we are pursuing the right treasure.

The way that Jesus gives us to determine whether or not we are seeking the right treasure is to ask the question: “Is the treasure I am seeking durable? Will it last?”

·  There is no point seeking something that will melt away like snow,

·  We need to pursue treasure that will last and endure.

So let’s look at earthly and heavenly treasures and ask that question – “Will this treasure last?”

·  When Jesus talked about earthly treasures in v.19 of chapter 6, he was referring to the treasures of money and possessions.

·  In Jesus’ day, part of a man’s wealth often consisted in fine and elaborate clothes,

·  But Jesus warned that putting money into clothes isn’t wise as moths can get in and destroy them – there is no permanence in possessions like that.

In Jesus’ day, many a man’s wealth consisted in the corn and grain that he stored away in barns.

·  But into those barns would come rats and mice and worms who would eat the grain.

The Greek word for rust in v.19 actually means, “eating” and could refer to these devouring pests,

·  So Jesus says that there is no permanence in possessions like that.

Another way that accumulated wealth was lost in Jesus’ day was to thieves breaking in and helping themselves.

Earthly treasures are vulnerable says Jesus.

·  They can easily be destroyed through pests,

·  Damage,

·  Or stolen.

·  They are not durable…..they don’t last.

It is the same today as it was two thousand years ago isn’t it?

·  Moths destroy our clothes

·  Mice and rats can destroy our possessions

·  We have plenty of thieves who are more than happy to relieve us of our possessions in a whole variety of high tech ways,

·  As well as the obvious way of breaking into our homes.

Money and possessions are not durable, says Jesus.

·  They don’t last.

·  I think that we have been made very aware of that fact over these last couple of years as the economy of our country has been going through turmoil,

·  and overnight many people have lost thousands of pounds.

·  Yet…..many many people are still seeking this earthly treasure, and will give their whole lives over to making money,

·  obtaining and storing more and more possessions.

The sad thing is that even though money and possessions may be useful for a season of time,

·  When we die we won’t be able to take them with us, for as Job said, “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart.” (Job 1:21)

·  At the funeral of a wealthy business man a mourner asked another, “How much did he leave?”

·  “Everything he had” came the reply.

So if earthly treasures aren’t durable, what about heavenly treasures?

·  Are they durable?

According to Jesus, treasures stored in heaven are safe from destruction.

·  They can’t be destroyed or stolen….

·  In other words they are worth seeking and acquiring.

·  So let’s turn our attention now to finding out how we can obtain this heavenly treasure.

The first thing to say is that the greatest treasure of all is the gift of Jesus.

·  His unconditional love for each of us,

·  His acceptance of us

·  His welcome of us into His kingdom,

·  His dying for our sins on the cross

·  And His gift of forgiveness to us is an amazing treasure.

His presence with us through every day of life

·  His gift of the Holy Spirit living within us

·  His gift of eternal life

·  His peace

·  And His adoption of us as His children is an amazing treasure.

The wonderful thing is that when we respond to Jesus,

·  When we lay our lives before Him as a sacrifice and choose to obey Him,

·  Doing the things He asks us to do,

·  We store up for ourselves treasures in heaven.

Look at what Jesus says in the earlier part of chapter 6 about rewards in heaven, in other words treasures:

1) “When you give to the needy, do not left your left hand know what your right hand is doing so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret will reward you.” (Matthew 6:3-4)

2) “When you pray, go into your own room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret will reward you” (Matthew 6:6)

3) “When you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face…..Your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you” (Matthew 6:17-18)

So giving to the poor is a way of storing up treasure in heaven.

·  Praying is a way of storing up treasure in heaven

·  Fasting is a way of storing up treasure in heaven

But there are also other ways of storing up treasure in heaven. Listen to what Paul says to Timothy in 1Tim 6:17-19

“Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life”

Serving the Lord, in other words doing good deeds is a way of storing up treasure in heaven, which reminds me of what Jesus said in Matthew 25:40 when he said, “‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me”

·  Being generous and sharing what money and resources we have with others is a way of storing up treasure in heaven.

·  Leading people to Christ is another way of storing up treasure in heaven,

·  as is the development of godly character

To summarize, following Jesus and living a life of radical obedience to Him is the way to store up treasures in heaven,

·  and for these treasures we need not worry about obtaining burglar alarms, or insurance policies,

·  We don’t need to worry about stock markets going up and down,

·  Or infestations of vermin,

·  For they are utterly secure.

In the days of the terrible Decian persecution in Rome, the Roman authorities broke into a Christian church.

·  They were out to loot the treasures which they believed the Church to possess.

·  The Roman prefect demanded from Laurentius, the Deacon, “Show me your treasures at once”

·  Laurentius pointed at the widows and orphans who were being fed,

·  The sick who were being nursed,

·  The poor whose needs were being supplied.

·  “These” he said, “are the treasures of the church”

You see Jesus teaches that what is selfishly hoarded is lost, whereas that which is generously given away,

·  In terms of time and resources always brings treasure in heaven.

Having shown the difference in durability of the two different types of treasure, Jesus then went to say, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

I wonder where your treasure is this morning:

·  Are you acquiring and storing up earthly treasure which isn’t durable and ultimately doesn’t last or

·  Are you acquiring and storing up heavenly treasure, which is durable and will last for all eternity?

If you don’t know, listen to your heart…..because your heart will show you what is really precious to you.

Jesus then moves on to challenge us about where our eyes are fixed.

·  The challenge is, “Are our eyes fixed on the right thing or not?”

·  This is really important because the direction of our lives is set by whether we are focused on the right things or not.

In the authorized version of the Bible Matthew 6 verses 22-23 read like this: “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness.”

·  In the greek the word for single is haplous and this regularly means generous.

·  Conversely the word translated evil is poneros and this regularly means grudging.

So in this small passage Jesus is saying that if we fix our eyes on walking the generous path, we will walk in the light.

·  Our Heavenly Father who lives in unapproachable light, walks the ultimate generous path,

·  He is extravagant in His giving

·  You only have to look at creation to see how generous He is.

Conversely Jesus says that if we fix our eyes on walking the grudging and miserly path….we will find ourselves walking in darkness.

So which path are your eyes fixed on?

·  The Generous path or

·  The Grudging path?

If our treasure is in heaven, then it won’t be hard to walk the generous path,

·  However if it is on earth, then we are more likely to walk the grudging path.

Jesus then moves on to tell us in verse 24 that “No-one can serve two masters”

·  The question here is: “whom do you belong to?”

The word “Master” in this passage means slave-owner

·  It doesn’t mean employer.

·  As McNeile puts it, “Men can work for 2 employers, but no slave can be the property of 2 owners; for single ownership and fulltime service are the essence of slavery”

Jesus tells us that we are either owned by God,

·  Or we are owned by money.

·  These 2 masters are mutually exclusive

·  We cannot serve both of them.

·  We either follow the Lord’s orders or we follow money’s orders.

If you are surprised about the thought of being owned by money, think for a moment about contentment.

·  When we have money in our possession, we rarely think that we have enough do we?

·  We are rarely contented with what we have.

·  Whether we are earning £5000 a year or £5million a year, the temptation is always to want more…..to be discontent.

Money is a bit like salt-water…..when you drink it, you thirst for more,

·  And in fact the more you drink, the thirstier you get.

·  The problem with a lot of salt-water in your system is that it makes you sick.

·  Ultimately money can make people very spiritually sick.

Conversely when we are owned by the Lord, he gives us the life-giving pure water of His Holy Spirit to drink.

·  And the more of Him that we receive, the more whole we become.

Going back to treasure,

·  Ultimately where our treasure is stored will affect how we live,

·  Whether we lead a generous and giving life or a grudging and mean life

·  And it will also affect who we are owned by.

So who do you belong to?

·  Do you belong to the Lord

·  Or do you belong to money?

You choose – you cannot belong to both.

Now before we move on, I want to briefly mention what this passage is not saying.

·  Jesus is not saying that we cannot have wealth as a Christian.

·  He is not saying that saving and making provision for the future is wrong.

·  What he is saying is that money and possessions need to be in their rightful place.

·  They are not our God, our security or our real treasure

All that we have actually belongs to the Lord anyway as Psalm 24:1 says, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it”

·  The ability to produce wealth even comes from him as Deut 8:18 says: “ it is he (the Lord) who gives you the ability to produce wealth”

·  And so our attitude to our money and possessions is surely, “What do you want us to do with the money you have entrusted us with?”

And that is what we are going to finally look at.

·  Throughout Scripture, God’s people are called to give a proportion of the money entrusted to them, to God’s work

·  In the Old Testament, Israel was commanded to give a 10% tithe to the Lord

·  In the New Testament, the principle is more around generous and sacrificial giving in response to what the Lord has given to us,

·  But 10% is still a good start point.

The Lord wants us to give first to the place of worship where God has called us to belong.