What Holds Your Heart Part One

Matthew 6:19–24 ESV

19 “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 eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! 24 “No one can serve two masters, for 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 God and money.

Last week celebrated the heart transplants of 10 people who publicly declared that their lives are now God’s through faith in Jesus Christ. Two weeks ago we began with the idea that beginning to follow Jesus is a transformational experience. It changes everything. Paul says it like this…

1 Corinthians 1:18 ESV

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Everybody needs a new heart that God can give. When you get it? What do you do with it? (Reference Jay’s scripture reading of Matthew 6:19-24.

Treasure not treasures. (19)

Moth-bugs devour fabric.

Moth larvae are what eats up the fabric. They need the keratin protein found in natural fibers like wool, silk, and fur for nourishment. Natural and innocent.

Rust-oxidation of iron and steel

Rust is formed because of oxidation. Chemical reaction when oxygen and water come in contact with iron and steel. This process weakens the metal and causes flaky. Rust is visually unappealing. It potentially can lead to structual failure. Natural and from neglect.

Thieves-breaks in to steal.

Thieves are formed because of sin, desire, and desperation. A person believes if they had something someone else has it would help them and provide for their needs, make them happy, fulfill the desire of their heart. Stealing results in harm to self and others. Natural and intentional.

What do these three have in common? What do these three not have in common? Ask the question: What do all of these have to do with Matthew 6:21.

Matthew 6:21 ESV

21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

When God gives you a new heart, it is important to take care of it. If the heart is the center for will, decisions, values, and that if we treasure our treasures then our heart is in the same place where moths, rust, and thieves can get to our the heart. Imagine a box with moths larvae, rust, and thieves. Would you put your hear there too.

[Box Illustrations. Shirt, Steel Beam, Pocket Watch from PawPaw]

Moths devour clothing, rust eats metal, and thieves steal belonging so goes the heart when you treasure your treasures. If where we place our treasure is where our heart is…Why would we put our heart somewhere where moths, rust, and thieves could get it? But that is what we do when we treasure the wrong things. Our heart gets tainted by all that destroys, eats up, and breaks in.

Illustration…The Chosen…there is this dramatized the season where Peter is struggling with this very thing… Simon Peter is having a marital discussion with his wife. Peter has been working on the Sabbath to pay off bills. Working on the Sabbath, which is a no go according to Jewish law. She doesn’t want him to work on the Sabbath and he knows it. Hence the marital discussion. And the wife asks, “Where is your FAITH?” You keep trying to fix this on your own. And then she says this amazing line. “You always have to answer to God. But if you do this again, You’ll have to answer to the both of us.”

This scene is so true to life. We work, earn, save, buy, purchase, spend, dress, build, drive all kinds of things that make us feel safe and secure and “happy.” And if any of things are in jeopardy we often will do whatever we got to do in order to make more in order to keep the standard of living we desire. And we compromise our integrity to provide. When we could trust God to provide for us and stay obedient by not depending on ourselves and on Him!

What do you treasure? That is where your heart is?

Matthew 6:21 ESV

21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

If you are like most people, you have different things that you treasure. Some are noble. Some are not. The passage goes on to describe the relationship between what we treasure and MONEY! It ends with the following verse…

Matthew 6:24 ESV

24 “No one can serve two masters, for 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 God and money.

Pursue your purpose over passion.

Purpose: to glorify God. PERIOD. It is okay to have things. It is good to have passion for things. It is good to like nice things. It is good to want to provide for yourself and others. But our purpose is to glorify God. Obedience is how you glorify God. Loving God and people is how you glorify God. Caring for the poor, widow, and orphan are how we fulfill our purpose. Humbling ourselves is how we fulfill our purpose.

Another way to say this…Chase your purpose, not your heart.

The oldest trick of the enemy is for him to get us treasuring our treasures, instead of trusting God.

But stuff, possessions, trucks, homes, land, guns, gear, things we have always longed for, get us all twisted up inside. They can lead our heart astray. They can lead us down the wrong path. They can turn the new heart we have in Christ into a heart of stone, day by day. One step at a time. Hardening along the way.

So what do we do? Is there any sort of practice that can help us not trust in this world and the things of this world or money? YES! Yes there is!

Obediently Tithe as a baseline or better yet BE GENEROUS which is do more than required.

The tithe is an Old Testament principle that the church carried over from the old law in order to provide for the ministries of the local churches around all the world. It is practical. It is systematic. And yet it is amazingly spiritual.

A tithe is a tenth of your income. If you make $100/week. You give $10/week away to the local church. The local church uses that tithe (along with al the others) to care for the ministries of that local church and often times more! The tithe benefits you and others.

The scripture says…

Malachi 3:10 ESV

Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.

Statistics:

20% of church members tithe.

Which means that 80% of church members are not living the principle of the tithe. Which also means that the whole tithe is not in the church to be used by the church. It also means that peoples hearts are vulnerable to be tricked into trusting in money other than God. Whenever, I see a statistic like this, I say, we don’t need to settle for that. And I do my best to hit it and not avoid it with fancy spiritual talk, but instead talk openly and honestly about it to anyone who will let it sink in.

According to our church treasurer, they have done this research to find out the details. While I don’t know individual giving records, as the pastor, I oversee the finances to make sure we are spending effectively and efficiently to make sure God’s mission is accomplished.

[2023 Statistics]

36 of 190 active members tithe.  (Regular amount / regular basis) (18%)

154 of 190 active members do not tithe. (82%)

12 non-members tithe

[2025 Statistics]

96 of 195 active members tithe (49%)

99 of 195 active members do not tithe (51%)

18 non-members tithe

Application:

Tithing is not going to get you into heaven nor will it prevent you from heaven. BUT you miss out on some of the blessings that you could experience if you faithfully tithed. Here are some of them…that you miss out on being part of…

TITHING PROVIDES FOR GOD’S MINISTRY: Every organization has dues. Football teams, Chamber of Commerce, Costco, and so on. And I know that the church is not the same as other organizations, but the TITHE pays for everything that you and others benefit from. It pays the salaries of pastors who have been trained, educated, and give their lives to teach, preach, care, lead, organize and oversee everything you experience through the church. It pays for the pews, food we give away, labor to repair and deliver things, the ac, the books, the curriculum, the toilet paper, the repairs, the carpet, everything. And without the tithe these things practically speaking would not exist or be in the shape they are in today.

I see so many of my friends who want to criticize politicians who give away their tax dollars to those who aren’t contributing themselves. Their concern is that taxes are supposed to be a shared burden that we all do together in order to provide for things that we all benefit from. I often wonder if we feel the same when someone doesn’t contribute to the tithe. You see the tithe provides for all of us. Thought not a burden like taxes, tithing is a shared opportunity. To help the WHOLE community!

The tithe provides for God’s house and God’s ministry. And it prevents your heart from being selfish.

TITHING CREATES AN OPPORTUNITY FOR MY FAITH TO GROW: When you tithe, you say, I am going to trust God to provide for me. I am going to give this 10% to him, since it belongs to him and I am goign to trust that He will provode for anything I might need. When you begin to tithe regularly, you will see God provide over and over again. Stuff will happen for you. You will stumble upon more hours at work, you will find someone provides for you in a supernatural way, someone will buy your lunch. You will practically rearrange your spending so that you can live off of less and live more simply. And all along the way you will trust God more.

If you never tithe, you never get to experience the Lord providing for you in this way. It creates an opportunity for your faith in God to grow.

TITHING TRANSFORMS MY MONEY INTO A TOOL FOR THE KINGDOM OF GOD: Money is something that we use all the time for food, bills, taxes, uniforms, tools, repair bills, and so on and so forth. But when you tithe, it takes that money and turns it into a spiritual tool that makes disciples, changes hearts, creates opportunities for spiritual growth, worship services, evangelism. Al those things sound practical like purchases, but they are so much more than that. Everything your dollar is spend on is a tool to advance the kingdom of God.

TithIng reminds us of the grace God has given us. We remember God has done so much for us and we want to help the same grace that we received be advance to to others. Tithing helps us know and love JEsus and helps others do the same.

TITHING HELPS REMOVE GREED AND SELF-RELIANCE FROM MY HEART: The heart is impacted by so many things. Take self-reliance for example. Self-reliance is a good principle to live by. But if abused or misused, it can lead to selfishness and isolation. It can also lead to greed. If we start to store up, store up, store up, store up for ourselves, we can start to build bigger and bigger storage buildings to store up and store up and store up for ourselves. The motive may have started out as good, but can easily slip into greed. IT doesn’t happen overnight. But it happens over time. And then years go by and you haven’t been obedient to the Lord when the Lord has said give. Tithing is a regular practice that helps remove the barnicles of greed and self-reliance from your heart. (Writing checks vs online giving)

[Instruct people to hand out cards]

You may not think the ministry of the church is deserving of your money. Few churches may waste money. I guarantee you we don’t. You may think you have earned it. You may believe that you don’t need to and you may be able to make it without tithing and God’s will will be accomplished without you. And the truth is, God doesn’t need your money. BUT HE WANTS YOU TO WANT TO TITHE to the church to care for the ministry! Like a parent wants a child to obey. God wants you to glorify Him in all ways.

Never forget this truth, while you were a sinner, Jesus died, mocked, beaten, spit on, conspired against, humiliated, stabbed, insulted, betrayed for YOU!

Conclusion:

One very clear way to care for the heart you have been given is to tithe. Today I want to challenge all of you to start or continue. God doesn’t need your money. I promise this isn’t a fundraising technique. When I saw that the percentage of members increased from 18%-49% and God is growing our church. And needs are being met more and more. I just wonder what would happen in our lives as individuals and as a community and a world, if the whole tithe came in.

HEAD AND HEART-CONNECTION-If God is speaking to your heart.

Battle because you have the desire of the flesh/money competing with a desire to practice the principle of the tithe.

Battle because you have the desire of the flesh/anything else competing with a desire to please God.