Restraining Materialism
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Restraining Materialism
Restraining Materialism
matt
19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: 21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 22 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. 23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! 24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
19 And Jesus arose, and followed him, and so did his disciples. 20 And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment: 21 For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole. 22 But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour. 23 And when Jesus came into the ruler’s house, and saw the minstrels and the people making a noise, 24 He said unto them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn.
Religionists of the day of Jesus had the same problem.
They were totally consumed with things.
Among all of the other problems of the Pharisees, this was also to be included.
They were thing-oriented.
They were greedy. They were covetous.
They were manipulative, and they moved toward grasping more things.
And so as we come to this element of the sermon on the mount in , Jesus directs some statements about things to the Pharisees who were abusing this whole matter of possessions
WE are in Debt - 40-60% last Christmas were paying off CC from the previous Christmas
Parent will go into debt to buy plastic toys for Christmas that end up in the local landfill by June
People will spent $1,000 on a Disney vacation for children but don't tithe
Student load debt is sumthering
God has a plan for money - and does not mean you cant possess things.
Look people drive to the mall in cars they can not afford, to spend money they do not have , to buy things they don't need, to impress people they don't like.
Tithing will take the back seat to:
vacations
sports for kids
restaurants
I Your Heart
I Your Heart
19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: 21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Matt 6.19-
Now that is very simple statement
Now that is very simple statement
Two treasuries you have the option to choose
You have treasuries on the earth , you have treasuries in in heaven, Jesus said put it in heaven not o the earth.
What do you do with your wealth ?
invest it here invest it there
21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
matt 6.19
What do you do with your wealth? Don’t invest it here. Invest it there. “For where your treasure is, that is where your - ” what? “ - your heart is going to be, also.”
Let’s go to verse 19, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth.” What does that mean? Well, let me give you a little word study on this,the word is thsaurizete.
We get the word “thesaurus,” which is “a treasury of words” from that.
But thsaurizete, it’s a play on words. It means “treasure not up treasures.”
Don’t stockpile, if you want it in a simple sense. The idea of the word “treasure” is to place something someplace, to stick it somewhere, to stash it somewhere.
How much is enough
Martyn LloydJones tells the story of a farmer. The farmer bounded joyfully into his kitchen one day and confronting his wife with a great big grin on his face he announced to her that their finest cow had just given birth to twins, one brown and one white. He said, I feel the impulse to dedicate one of these cows to the Lord, we'll bring them up together and when they are at a marketable age we'll sell them and we'll keep the proceeds from one and we'll give the proceeds from the other to the Lord. His wife went right to the issue as wives are prone to do and said, which is the Lord's cow? The white one or the brown one? He replied, well there's no need to worry about that dear, or to decide that now since we'll raise them together.
Dave Ramsey Financial Peace - tithe first, then four walls then savings ...
Some months later he entered the same kitchen a little more slowly, looking very sad. His wife asked why he was so sullen, to which he replied, I have bad news, the Lord's cow died. Why is it always the Lord's cow, that dies? I guess we laugh at that because we identify with that kind of approach. We could even say, the Lord took His cow home. I guess the fact is we all tend to lay up treasure on earth. The pull of the sin that is in us drags us down to the earth, it is like a magnet, it is like a gravity, and we want to be rich towards self and poor toward God. So it's usually God's cow that dies. Jesus I believe speaks directly to this perspective on life in these verses, and I think He gives us a tremendous insight into ahow we are to really see the matter of wealth, the matter of money, the matter of luxuries.
Garments - and moths
Two treasuries, why should we choose the heavenly one? Because in the earthly one "moth and rust corrupt, and thieves break through and steal." Verse 19 says.
But in the heavenly one there's no moth, rust, and thieves don't break through and steal.
Now listen to this, in the Orient in Bible times wealth was basically kept in three ways, all right?
John MCauther - says
Basically wealth was kept in three ways,there was no paper, there were no ah, bank books, there, there was not the kind of system we have, wealth was identified in literal commodities, and basically there were three, garments, grain, and gold or precious metal.
Garments, grain, and gold.
Take for example garments, in biblical times garments were a very, very important commodity.
You will remember for example that Gehazi the servant of Elisha wished to make some forbidden profit out of Naaman's curing of leprosy, and so he asked for a talent of silver and two changes of garments because that was substantial wealth.
Wealth had to be in a commodity, and wealth was expressed in fancy, rich, extravagant garments. Do you remember Achan?
In Joshua chapter 7 said, I, I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment and I coveted and I took it.
You will remember that Joseph when he bestowed upon Benjamin his affection gave him five changes of garments.
Grain - and rats
Grain - and rats
Another way they stored their wealth was in grain. Do you remember the rich fool said, I will tear down my barns and I will build what?
Bigger barns, to hold more of my wealth. And his wealth was in grain, and you notice the word rust?
Rust - polarity causes metal to be eaten away
In verses 19 and 20, actually the word means eating, eating. -No where is it used to mean rust, no where in the Bible at all, in fact I don't think there's anyone who's ever found a place where it's used to mean rust.
What it basically means is eating, brosis. And you know what the problem with grain is? Mice, rats, worms, vermin, they eat it.
I told you a few months ago that 15% of all of the stored grain of India is eaten by rats and mice, even today. And the problem if you have all your money in grain is that the little things that get in there can eat it.
Gold - and stealing +
There was a third commodity that they put their treasure into and that was gold or precious metal, you know what the problem with that is?
How are you going to hide it?
Well you might keep it in your house, but a thief could break in and steal it or as was most common they would find a place in their field that only they knew, in the dark of night, go out dig a big hole in the field and bury it, that's why in you have the treasure stored in a field, remember that?
The parable. Because that's where they put their wealth, they put it in bags and stuck it in the ground and covered it over, and thieves would lurk around at night and watch where they did that and they'd go and dig it up. And not only that when a thief brokeinto a house the word literally means to dig through, mud diggers, thieves were mud diggers, why? They would literally dig through the wall of a house, or dig through the dirt in the ground to get it.
So your garments would be eaten by moths, your grain would be eaten by whatever kind of animal or insect or vermin got in it, and your gold would be taken by mud diggers.
The point is this, you hoard it you lose it, it's unsafe and insecure. And what do we do today? Boy, we got our moth balls and we got our rat poison and we got our burglar alarms.
II Your Eye
II Your Eye
22 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. 23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!
matt 6.23-
He wants us to have our heart fixed single mindedly and totally devoted on the kingdom of God, so that our treasure is there, our heart is there, our love is there, our passion is there, our burden is there, our investment is there,our all is there, and we're to have that single minded heart.
And then He illustrates that with the eye, the eye then becomes the illustration of the heart.
And the eye is like the lamp of the body. When we can see with our eyes, sighted people their body is filled with the light that comes in from the world by which they perceive, and understand what's in their vision.
Tremendous principle. He takes a physical illustration and He says that the eye is like a window, if that window is clean and clear the light floods the body, if the window is blacked out no light enters.
This is a spiritual metaphor.
Look at the word healthy or single; I don't know what your version says in verse 22.
(single or) healthy,"
The word is literally from the root of haplous which means generous, okay, it means generous.
It is used that way many, many times, just give you three illustrations,
, "God who gives liberally." Or generously.
Paul urges us to "give liberally." Or generously.
he talks about the liberality or the generosity of the Macedonians. It is a word that means generous or liberal.
He is saying then, if your eye or your heart, because the eye is illustrating the heart, if your heart is generous your whole spirituallife will be flooded with spiritual understanding. Isn't that a great truth?
You know there are people who come to church and leave church, don't seem to change and they never grow and never seem to love the Word and never seem to be a witness to others and never seem to be productive in their life and they just stay the same way all the time,and when I see somebody like that they never seem to understand what's going on, they never perceive spiritual realities, I wonder to myself so very often if it isn't because they are so focused on the earth and so earthbound and so oriented toward treasures here that the blinds are down and they have no spiritual perception at all.
23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!
Verse 23, "If your eye is evil, your whole body's full of darkness." And there you're introduced to the evil eye, you've heard that phrase, haven't you? Gave 'em an evil eye.
Verse 23, "If your eye is evil, your whole body's full of darkness." And there you're introduced to the evil eye, you've heard that phrase, haven't you? Gave 'em an evil eye.
You know what the evil eye is?
That's a Jewish colloquialism, to mean grudgingly. For example in it talks about when you have a slave and it's coming to the Jubilee Year and he is to be freed, that you have an evil eye toward him. That is you are ungenerous,stingy and you grudge him that freedom. In it says, "Eat not the bread of him who has an evil eye."
6 Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, Neither desire thou his dainty meats:
In other words don't eat a bite of somebody's food if they grudge you every bite.
22 He that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye, And considereth not that poverty shall come upon him.
In other words don't eat a bite of somebody's food if they grudge you every bite. How about , this is a tremendous statement, it says, "He that hastens to be rich has an evil eye, and considers not the poverty that shall come upon him." You hurry to be rich andyou will be ungenerous, grudging and selfish, that's the contrast. All right He says, you have two treasuries in heaven or in earth.Wherever you put your treasure that's where your heart will be, and if your heart is in heaver where your treasure is you're going to have a generous spirit and that generous spirit is like a seeing eye that floods your spiritual life with perception. If your treasure is in earth you're going to see nothing because the blinds come down in the darkness of your greed and covetousness and you will see nothing, and if that's the case the end of 23 says, "If the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!" It's just an exclamation where our Lord is saying, how total or how great is the darkness of one who should see spiritually but pulls the blinds through his own covetousness. The call then is to exclusive heavenly mindedness, devotion to God, an undivided laying up of treasure in heaven. Let me simplify the whole thing,one statement, how you handle your money is the key to your spiritual perception. That's the message of verses 22 and 23. And so you have two visions potentially, two treasuries and you make a choice.
How about , this is a tremendous statement, it says, "He that hastens to be rich has an evil eye, and considers not the poverty that shall come upon him." You hurry to be rich andyou will be ungenerous, grudging and selfish, that's the contrast. All right He says, you have two treasuries in heaven or in earth.Wherever you put your treasure that's where your heart will be, and if your heart is in heaver where your treasure is you're going to have a generous spirit and that generous spirit is like a seeing eye that floods your spiritual life with perception. If your treasure is in earth you're going to see nothing because the blinds come down in the darkness of your greed and covetousness and you will see nothing, and if that's the case the end of 23 says, "If the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!" It's just an exclamation where our Lord is saying, how total or how great is the darkness of one who should see spiritually but pulls the blinds through his own covetousness. The call then is to exclusive heavenly mindedness, devotion to God, an undivided laying up of treasure in heaven. Let me simplify the whole thing,one statement, how you handle your money is the key to your spiritual perception. That's the message of verses 22 and 23. And so you have two visions potentially, two treasuries and you make a choice.
That's the message of verses 22 and 23. And so you have two visions potentially, two treasuries and you make a choice.
1994- Bigger barn
1995 - move to TN no job
1999 - Move to Erie,PA
I want to see spiritually
III You Master
III You Master
24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
Because slavery by definition means single ownership and full time service.
A slave was not a person a slave was a thing, a slave had no rights, a master could beat a slave, kill a slave, sell a slave.
A slave was a living tool, no different than a plow or a cow or anything else. A slave was a thing. To be a bond slave, to be the property of a master was to be constantly, totally, entirely, 100% devoted to obedience to that one master, it would be utterly impossible to express that to two different masters.
Let me illustrate, some of you may be sitting here today and you've been hoarding your money, and you've been selfish about it and you haven't been investing it in God's causes, and you haven't been giving it to those in need and you've just been piling it on for yourself, and so while I'm preaching this and you're hearing God's Word and the Lord's saying do this and do this, you're beginning to resent God's claim on your life.
You're fighting that.Because you can't serve those two things.
And you're, you're starting to justify yourself, right? And worm out of the deal, and say, well I mean this is a little ridiculous, Lord. And you begin to resist and despise.
On the other hand, if everything you have you want to give to God,if every treasure you own in this world you want to pour out to Him, you despise the system that takes so much of it away from you, and it bothers you that gas prices keep going up and for the right reason.
Because maybe you feel it's infringing on what you want to invest eternally. You see you can't have both of those things.
Single mindedness, you've got to choose your master. The orders of these two masters are diametrically opposed.
The one commands you to walk by faith the other to walk by sight.
The one calls you to be humble the other to be proud, the one to set your affections on things above and the other to set them on the things of the earth, the one to look at the things unseen and eternal, the other to look at the things seen and temporal.
John Calvin said this, "Where riches hold the dominion of the heart God has lost His authority."
That's the issue, plain and simple. If I have my choice I want to take the money I have and I want to give it to friends who someday will meet me when I enter the eternal habitation.
John Calvin said this, "Where riches hold the dominion of the heart God has lost His authority." That's the issue, plain and simple. If I have my choice I want to take the money I have and I want to give it to friends who someday will meet me when I enter the eternal habitation.
MLJ -
Martyn LloydJones tells the story of a farmer. The farmer bounded joyfully into his kitchen one day and confronting his wife with a great big grin on his face he announced to her that their finest cow had just given birth to twins, one brown and one white. He said, I feel the impulse to dedicate one of these cows to the Lord, we'll bring them up together and when they are at a marketable age we'll sell them and we'll keep the proceeds from one and we'll give the proceeds from the other to the Lord. His wife went right to the issue as wives are prone to do and said, which is the Lord's cow? The white one or the brown one? He replied, well there's no need to worry about that dear, or to decide that now since we'll raise them together.
Some months later he entered the same kitchen a little more slowly, looking very sad. His wife asked why he was so sullen, to which he replied, I have bad news, the Lord's cow died. Why is it always the Lord's cow, that dies? I guess we laugh at that because we identify with that kind of approach. We could even say, the Lord took His cow home. I guess the fact is we all tend to lay up treasure on earth. The pull of the sin that is in us drags us down to the earth, it is like a magnet, it is like a gravity, and we want to be rich towards self and poor toward God. So it's usually God's cow that dies. Jesus I believe speaks directly to this perspective on life in these verses, and I think He gives us a tremendous insight into ahow we are to really see the matter of wealth, the matter of money, the matter of luxuries.
M.E. Burns said this, "Riches I heed not nor man's empty praise, Thou my inheritance now and always." A great thought. Let's pray together.
Father, every baby born into the world comes into the world with its little fists clenched tightly as if grasping, clutching what is his. Some of us never open that grasp until it's opened in death. Father help us to learn to give, for how else can we respond to one who has given all for us? I think of the words of the poet who said, "Go break to the needy sweet charities bread, forgiving is living the angel said. And must I be giving again and again; my peevish and pitiless answer ran. Oh no said the angel, piercing me through, just give till the Lord stops giving to you." And that shall never be. Help us to lay up treasure in heaven. We thank You for such a privilege that we should know the fullness of eternal glory as dividends of our investment. Bless every life here Father. Apply these things to us all. In Christ's name, amen.