Faithful Focus
Matthew: God's Promises Fulfilled • Sermon • Submitted
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Happy New Year!
Happy New Year!
It’s the very first day of the year 2023, and I’m so glad you have chosen to spend a little bit of it with us.
It’s the very first day of the year 2023, and I’m so glad you have chosen to spend a little bit of it with us.
We enjoyed a wonderful Advent season— although the weather and snow and ice kept us from gathering for the big finish— but we are thanking God none-the-less for His presence with our families, for heaters that hopefully worked most of the time, and for his goodness to us this time of the year— I hope it was memorable for you.
We will jump back into our study of Matthew— picking it back up where we left off back before Advent.
It was Matthew 6:19-24. God has a great plan for us — to begin the brand new year, 2023, talking about ...
Money. One of the most difficult things for Pastors to address— but we can do this— we here are into doing hard things here, right? We’re not afraid to unpack what our Lord Jesus, who loves us— and wants the best for us— says about this critical part of our lives.
Let’s face it— Money is a very important thing. Not just the “concept” of wealth or the finances— but the “real life” aspect of money— its the currency of the world.
I want to tackle this by beginning with three important questions to guide our thoughts:
But before we do that: Let’s read this passage:
19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin 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 healthy, your whole body will be full of light.
23 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!
24 “No one can serve two 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.
Three Important Questions
Why not accumulate stuff?
How do I know if I’m a slave to money?
What does Jesus tell us to do instead?
First, Jesus warns us against laying up perishable treasures, of being mastered by treasures, of putting our hearts in earthly treasures. So we’ll ask: Why not? And: What does that mean?
Then we’ll see how it is that we can know if we are caught by the allure of money. If treasure can enslave us, how do we see the chains? Jesus gives us a window into our own hearts that will help us.
Finally number three, Jesus doesn’t just give us something to avoid, but also something to do, namely, to lay up treasures in heaven. So our final question is simply: How do we do that? How do we lay up imperishable treasures?
Temporary Treasures
Temporary Treasures
Let’s start with that first section. Again, Jesus warns us not to lay up treasures on earth, to be mastered by wealth, to put our hearts in perishable treasure. Let’s walk through his words here, and we’ll find out what he means by this and why it is a deadly peril. Jesus gives us three basic reasons why it is deadly to put your heart in storehouses of earthly treasure. First, he warns us that:
Earthly treasure is temporary and does not last.
-Matthew 6:19–20
The problem with putting your heart, your hope, in earthly treasures is that they are radically vulnerable. They’re not solid. You can’t depend on them in anything like an absolute sense.
Take a look here at a simple graph —NO this is not a graph of the temperature leading up to Christmas Eve here in NE Ohio----It actually shows the daily trading value of the company FTX— and how literally the company lost an estimated 6 billion dollars of value in about 48 hours. If you’ve been watching or following this story— FTX declares bankruptcy shortly later— and now huge lawsuits and probably jail time for several people is in the future.
Many of us— if you’ve done any investing, have seen this fluctuation, and you can’t depend on it. It’s like the weather here in Ohio this time of the year— right? Hang around — it will change.
This reminded me this week of the great words of a very wise King Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes:
11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
This is the root verse that Blaise Pascal refers to in his description of the “God Shaped” hole in our hearts. We just completed a wonderful series emphasizing that Jesus is that “missing PEACE”.
In fact, a wonderful ministry partner of ours has created an awesome Christmas ornament for you and your family this year. I want all of you to take one or two of these as you leave today— Give one away as a gift and a great reminder that Jesus is the only Lord and savior.
Peter describes the whole gospel like this in the first half of 1 Peter 3:18, that “Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.”
18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.
Our focus should be on God, who is eternal.
Do you see it? The whole end of the gospel isn’t just to forgive us our sins, but to forgive us our sins in order to bring us to God. Not just cleansing, but cleansing for a purpose, namely, to bring humanity to the one thing that God set in our hearts as our deepest longing, himself!
This is why it is so important to understand what Jesus is doing here in this teaching about money. The reason he grounds his warning against trusting in wealth—in created, earthly treasures—is because they are not eternal. They are not the thing our hearts were made to latch onto to get any satisfaction.
And we need to know this, because we are basically convinced, most of the time, that they are. Money and the things money can get you has the strong illusion of permanence. Of strength. Of durability. Of the ability to grant contentment. Be honest. Don’t you think that? Don’t you find yourself thinking, “If I had money like ______, I’d be happy. I’d be set. If my stocks had performed like that guy.”
And what the Lord would have us see is that all of that is an illusion. It is vulnerable. Even if your wealth doesn’t seem to let you down in the next 50 years, you are going to die. And your wealth will get you nothing. And so number two, don’t trust in ephemeral wealth…
Your heart will go with your treasure, either to corruption or to heaven!
21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Listen, greed is deadly. If your heart is wrapped up in earthly treasures, you will perish with it.
I don’t have time to read all the passages warning us about the lure of money, but know this: The Scriptures overflow with such warnings. So much so that Paul even says that the love of money is the root of all evil. That’s the literal Greek of 1 Timothy 6:10, that the love of money is the root—not of all kinds of evil—but all evil.
10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
I think that root is the desire to be separate from God, to be our own gods: To be our own protection, satisfaction, shield, reward. And money can fool us into thinking that it can provide all that.
If you embrace this lie, and bury your heart in your own wealth, of real estate, of stocks, of business investments—then you will perish along with all of it.
That’s why all of this matters—and this is why money comes up so often in Jesus’ teaching—because we are created to be free. It is because God loves us that he warns us against tyrannical treasures, against greed with can catch us and hold us as a slave.
Jesus spoke about this freedom in John chapter 8— he was speaking to the Pharisee’s once again about what is true — both about himself and about us.
We were created to be free.
Jesus said these powerful words later in John 8:31-32
31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
33 They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”
34 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.
36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
Now- Look at verse 24
24 “No one can serve two 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.
It’s not whether you will be a slave, but only which master you will be a slave of: God or money. God or money, some translations put “Mammon” there— which actually was a false god of wealth.
So— Pastor C--- are you telling me all wealth is bad? Is saving, investing, or preparing for the future an evil thing? Let me balance what you might be hearing--
Proverbs 13:22 is one of the guiding passages of my life. It says:
22 A good person leaves an inheritance for their children’s children, but a sinner’s wealth is stored up for the righteous.
Money is not evil, but the love of money is.
So the answer is no. Money is not evil. Remember Paul's words to Timothy---The love of that money is what is evil. Money itself is not evil, but it is the tool! Being mastered by money is evil. In fact, if you properly obey Proverbs 13:22, you will not love money. You will not use your money to serve your whims and pleasures, but you will make money your servant as you serve God. You will put a collar on it, and you will lead it. You will be mastered by Christ, and then you will not be mastered by idols.
Make your money bend the knee to Christ, and it will be your servant. Bend your knee to your money, and you will be it’s slave.
This brings us to the second great question for today:
Is there a way I can know if I’m being mastered by money? How do I know if I’m thinking correctly?
Seeing the Chains
Seeing the Chains
Jesus gives us one of the defining characteristics of a slave of money in verses 22 and 23:
How do we know if we are a slave to money?
22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. 23 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!
On the surface, this is a confusing couple of verses, but it’s only confusing because we don’t understand the exact way Jesus is trying to teach 1st century Jewish people. Jesus is employing a very well known cultural idiom (or an illustration) that would have been clear to all of his listeners, the idiom of the one with a bad eye. A parable Jesus tells later in Matthew 20 helps us understand the saying, what it means to have a bad eye. Do you remember this little story Jesus uses?
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ So the last will be first, and the first last.””
-Matthew 20:15-16
Matthew 20:15–16 (ESV)
15 Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ 16 So the last will be first, and the first last.”
To have a “bad eye” was a Jewish phrase meaning envious and bitter.
Now, that second to last sentence, translated in the ESV as “Or do you begrudge my generosity?” is literally in the Greek, “Is your eye bad because I am good?” A “bad eye” in Jewish expression is someone who is bitter and envious, who looks on someone else’s prospering, someone else’s blessing, a gift given by God to someone else and says, “That should be mine.”
Jesus is talking about the tenth commandment: You shalt not covet what your neighbor has. See how this middle part, verses 22 and 23, might seem disconnected from the first part of the text and the last part, but it’s actually very much on topic.
Are you a covetous person?
How do you know if wealth is your master? How do you know if you are a slave to money? Jesus answers: Is your eye bad? Are you a covetous person? Are you bitter and jealous when you see someone else receive or obtain the blessing of God? That’s the chain. That’s probably the indicator of what your status with money really is.
Remember— you can’t serve two masters— you will hate one and love the other.
Imperishable Investments
Imperishable Investments
Now lastly, Jesus doesn’t just give us something to avoid, but also something to do: To lay up treasures in heaven. So our final question is simply: How do we do that? How do we lay up imperishable treasures?
To explore this answer a bit deeper— let me take you to an interesting part of the gospel, where Jesus asks his disciples for a coin:
20 and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?” 21 “Caesar’s,” they replied. Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
Now this is Jesus’ direct response to the question of whether the Jewish people of that time should pay their taxes to Roman authorities.
Basically, Jesus is saying “yes, follow the governmental rules”— render what is theirs to them— Ownership— but reminds them also to “render unto God what is God’s then also”. Ownership. The coin had Ceasar’s image on it— making a statement that it was his currency.
Do you realize you have God’s image on you— and every human has been created in God’s image? What’s that say about who owns you?
God’s image imply’s his ownership.
What is the currency of this world? Some would say money, influence, time, perhaps you could list a few other valuable things… That is what we would use to store up treasures here on earth—
Worldly treasures are measured in worldly currency.
Heavenly treasures are measured in heavenly currency.
The currency of heaven is our faithful obedience to and pursuit of God’s will on earth.
When you obey Christ and seek the Father’s will, you lay up treasures in heaven.
We can make something that is on earth simply a transaction— into something that God uses as transformational.
It means you can convert perishable treasure into imperishable treasure by using it for the sake of God’s Kingdom and people.
Be generous with your money in the name of Christ, and you will never be its slave. You will be it’s master— and you will experience the freedom Jesus teaches about.
God and people are eternal, so relentlessly use the perishable things we have control over--to love God and your neighbor.
That’s why leaving an inheritance to your children’s children in Jesus’ name doesn’t contradict Jesus’ teaching. God blesses people with gifts and talents and wisdom and experience— and that often translates into increases in money— People are gifted to invest that money and bless dozens, hundreds, maybe even millions of people— but they are NEVER a slave to that money.
So give your money with a generous spirit to serve His people, to serve the household of faith. Give a tithe, set your table with good food and invite your neighbors over. If you see someone who is in need— and you have something that they could use— give it to them. Don’t hesitate when God gives you that idea---
Set a watch over your heart against envy, or covetousness, or greed, and for the obsessive love of money—because it is a subtle and crafty snare.
Randy Alcorn is a well-known Christian author— he is quoted here reminding us that God’s currency of faith, grace and love, are unending— infinite.
Many of you know this truth— If we hold what God has given us with an open hand, God may take away what we have— but this open hand allows him to both take, but also to Give to us!
Hold everything you have with an open hand, this allows God to give and take away freely!
God has so blessed many of you in your giving—
But if you feel like you’ve been struggling— there are folks here among us who would love to give you good counsel and encourage you to use what God has given you for His kingdom— it’s just the tools he has given us.
Be faithful and mindful to store up treasure in heaven— that’s where your heart belongs anyway.
let’s pray: