House Money- Practice Makes Perfect (a series on practical righteousness) #6; Build your Life #25

Kid’s Minute: Today we’re going to talk about money (money, money). I’ll bet you hate money, don’t you? You don’t want me to share some of this money with you, do you?

· Do you think money is important? or not important? Why?

· Where do you think our money or stuff comes from? (God)

· How do you think God wants us to use our money? (to help others, or to spend it on us or keep it?)

Do you think God wants us to give back to Him?(yes) I give you $1 each, in 4 quarters just because, you give 1 of those quarters back to God.

Intro: You’ve heard the term house money. If someone gambles & wins big, their mentality about how they play changes. They start playing with “house money.” The same term applies to investments (e.g., playing the stock market). People are willing to risk more with their winnings than they would with their own money.The effect is attributed to the perception that the player or investor has new money that wasn’t theirs.

If you are a Christian that holds to a biblical worldview then you know that everything we have is “house money.” It all comes from God. Psalm 24:1, The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness, The world and those who dwell therein. James 1:17, Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.

So, if everything belongs to God, & everything we have comes from God, then that means what the Lord has given to us to steward for Him is not ours at all- it’s His. We are playing with house money. Jesus teaches us how to have a righteous approach to the use of money.

Matthew 6:19–24, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22 “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. 23But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness! 24“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

In your Bible you may notice these verses are divided into 3 separate and seemingly disparate paragraphs. The editors may have even given each paragraph a separate heading. The headings give us an idea of the content but not how it fits together. They don’t show us, for instance, that the word treasures (19) is the Greek word for wealth- money, jewels, valuables, etc. or that the word mammon (24) is a transliteration of an Aramaic word (the language of Jesus) for wealth, riches, and money. These two words set the bookends of this section, so that what we are talking about is how to use money in a righteous way.

1. How we VALUE Money, vss. 19-21

Jesus tells His followers to not “lay up” (i.e., store away) treasures on earth.The word for “lay up” is the verb form of the word “treasures,” i.e., don’t treasure up. Jesus is very specific about where- don’t treasure up treasures on earth. Why? Because moths and rust destroy.

You know moths are those annoying little insects that chew up clothing. Rust (lit.)- that which eats, consumes; e.g., LXX Malachi 3:11- devourer, And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, So that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, Nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field… You’ve seen how locusts can consumea field, or how rust can corrode metal, they eat away until nothing is left.

Jesus’ 2nd illustration is not about what can destroy our treasures, but who can displace them. Break in or break through- lit. dig through, a typical house in Jesus’ day would have been made of mud or clay; Gr. the word for burglar is “wall-digger.” Job 24:16, In the dark they break into (dig through) houses Which they marked for themselves in the daytime; They do not know the light.

By contrast, Jesus says that His disciples are to treasure uptreasure in heaven (the abode of God), where nothing can consume, corrode, or carry off our valuables.

ILL: Storage Wars- treasure hunters bidding on repossessed storage units. Imagine an episode where they raise the door & a cloud of moths fly out, leaving behind a closet full of holey clothes; inside there’s a $30 mil rusted out Rolls-Royce, & a hole in the wall where a thief broke in & stole all the jewelry.

Now imagine arriving in heaven, at the Father’s house, where Jesus has been preparing a place for you.You go to your room & open up the door to find treasures beyond all earthly comprehension- eternal life, rewards, crowns, & best of all, Jesus Christ- “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3).

Where is your treasure? in heaven or on earth? Bonhoeffer said to find out, reverse the words treasure & heart- where your heart is, there your treasure will be also. Bonhoeffer- “Where our treasure is, there is our trust, our security, our consolation and our God. Hoarding is idolatry.”

1 Timothy 6:17, Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Have you trusted in Jesus?

1 Peter 1:3–4, according to God’s abundant mercy through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,we have “an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you...”

Heaven’s treasures aren’t consumable, they won’t corrode, & they cannot be carried off. They are incorruptible, undefiled, unfading, & secure- through Jesus, they are reserved in heaven for you.

How do you value money (wealth)? Is that what you treasure? Is that where your heart is? Or is heavenly treasure of more value to you? The answer will depend on how we view money.

2. How we VIEW Money, vss. 22-23 hard to understand riddle

Lamp & eye are exactly what you think they are, but a “good” eye is harder to understand. Goodgives the sense of whole or health, but the word (aplous)- sincere, single. It’s hard to decipher the meaning unless you contrast it with the “bad” eye in vs. 23; bad- evil, wicked (e.g., evil one, 5:37; evil person, 5:39); this is an evil eye. If we understand the evil eye, we can understand the good eye.

OT Judaism, as a theocratic system under God, had built in protections to relieve the poor, cancel debts, & release servants every 7 years (Sabbath year).If anyone was in an economic hardship and had to sell their land, it must be released to them in the 7th year. If a debt could not be repaid, a person could sell themselves into indentured servitude to work off their debt, but they must be released in the 7th year.

Deuteronomy 15:9is a warning to anyone who sees a poor person but doesn’t want to help them. Instead of meeting their needs, this person is calculating that the year of release is close & this poor person will be taken care of then. Beware lest there be a wicked thought in your heart, saying, ‘The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand,’ and your eye be evil against your poor brother and you give him nothing, and he cry out to the Lord against you, and it become sin among you.

Matthew 20:1-16, Jesus told the parable of a landowner who hired laborers to work in his vineyard. He hired the 1st group at 6 am & agreed to pay them a day’s wage (denarius). He hired a 2nd group at 9 am, a 3rd group at noon, & a 4th group at 3 pm, for the same day’s wage. At 5 pm (quitting time is 6) he hired a 5th group of workers.

When the day was over, the owner told his foreman to pay the workers, starting with the ones hired last. The last hires received a full day’s pay, & so did all the other workers. But the ones who were hired first thought they should have been paid more than the others, because they put in a full day’s work & the others didn’t, even though they got what they had agreed to. Matt 20:15, Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good?

Proverbs 28:22, A man with an evil eye hastens after riches, and does not consider that poverty will come upon him. Proverbs 22:9, He who has a generous eye will be blessed, For he gives of his bread to the poor.

An evil eye is a greedy, stingy eye. A good eye is a generous eye. You’ve heard the phrase- eyes are the window to the soul. How we view money, and wealth has a lot to say about the condition of our soul. A greedy, stingy person views money with an eye of scarcity. They are full of darkness. A good, generous person views money through a lens of abundance. They are full of light.

Matthew 5:16, Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. How we value money & wealth depends on how we view it- with greediness or generosity? How we view it determines what we do with it.

3. How we INVEST Money, vs. 24

Having money and wealth isn’t a problem, it’s what it does to us, & what we do with it that can become a problem. Jesus is telling us that how we value & view wealth may divide our loyalties between God & money. Mammon is the personification of wealth, riches, and money as a deity.

You can use your money to serve God, or you can serve money as your god, but you can’t do both. Disciples of Jesus must have a righteous approach to how we use our money. ILL: Jesus told a story in Luke 16:1-13, parable of the unjust steward- a rich man called out his manager for mismanaging the rich man’s money, maybe he even embezzled it, either way, he was about to get fired. He thought to himself- I cannot dig, I’m too proud to beg, so I will win favor with the master’s debtors so that when I am released, I’ll have a place to stay. So, he called all the debtors & slashed their bills- 100 measures of oil became 50; 100 measures of wheat became 80, what did he care- he was playing with house money. The master commended the manager for being shrewd (wise, prudent), & Jesus commends worldly people for being shrewder than His disciples.

Jesus isn’t endorsing the actions of the manager, it’s the moral of the story that counts. Luke 16:9-11, And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home. 10 He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. 11 Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?

The point is to use what God has given us for His purposes- Either we make our money serve God, or our money makes us serve it.

How do we pull this together? 1 Timothy 6:18-19, Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, 19 storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.

We’re all playing with house money, but this isn’t a game. How we invest God’s resources depends on how we view it & how we value it.

If we want to store up treasure in heaven, it starts by treasuring Jesus more than anyone or anything else on earth. We freely and generously share of what God has given to us, investing in eternity.

What’s more important- treasure on earth or treasure in heaven? More for you or some to share? Loyalty to the green stuff or love for God?