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Text: Matthew 25:14-30; Matthew 6:19-21; 1 Corinthians 3:11-15
Theme: The desire for acquiring more can sometimes blind us from what we already possess.
In his commentary on Matthew, Warren Wiersbe tells an interesting story about William Randolph Hearst.
In 1887 Hearst inherited the San Francisco Examiner from his father, and by 1920 Hearst had become a media titan, owning twenty-eight newspapers across the country, read by over twenty-million people.
When he was alive he was one of the wealthiest men in America.
One of his passions in life was his art collection.
One day Hearst read of a series of painting by one of the great Dutch Masters, and was determined to add them to his own extensive collection.
He instructed his art agent to scour the galleries of the world to find them.
He was determined to have at any price.
After many months of painstaking search, the agent reported that he had indeed found the pieces of art Hearst so desperately wanted.
To Hearst’s amazement his agent told him he already owned the art work, and had for many years.
It was stored in one of his warehouses.
Hearst had so much treasure stored up that he didn’t even know what belonged to him and what didn’t.
Though not to the extent of William Randolph Hearst, many professing Christians are just like him.
They are so busy collecting the treasures of earth that they can’t even keep track of everything they own.
They forget that there is a more valuable treasure worth accumulating.
Let me ask you a question this morning, “What kind of treasure are you accumulating for yourself in the Kingdom of Heaven?”
Is it Treasure or Trash?
That’s a question, I dare say, most believers do not think about these days.
I. OUR FOOLHARDINESS IN ACCUMULATING EARTHLY TREASURES
1. throughout the New Testament Jesus encourages His disciples to make wise investments
ILLUS.
Several of our Lord’s parables are stories about a master who gives various sums of money to several different servants to keep in his absence.
The servants who invest the wealth entrusted to them and earn a profit are commended.
But there is always that one servant who foolishly hides his share and thus earns no wealth for his master.
That servant is always condemned.
2. what’s the point of such parables?
a. the key phrase in the story is always, For the kingdom of heaven is like ...
b.
Jesus is about to teach His disciples a spiritual truth through an earthly illustration
1) does God expect us to make wise and appropriate investments with the material resources He provides for us?
2) of course He does, but that’s not the point of the parable
3. Jesus is trying to teach his disciples that we need to make wise spiritual investments with our lives because some day we will have to give an account of how we invested our lives for the things of God
4. let me ask the question again: What kind of treasure are you accumulating for yourself in the Kingdom of Heaven?
a. is it treasure or trash?
A. THE NEGATIVE INJUNCTION — DON’T MAKE BAD INVESTMENTS
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.”
(Matthew 6:19, NIV)
1. Jesus expressly commands His disciples not to store up earthly treasures
a. the force of the verb Jesus uses means that we are not to have a day-by-day preoccupation that heaps up or hordes material wealth and possessions
“Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income.
This too is meaningless.”
(Ecclesiastes 5:10, NIV)
b. lets be honest, a lot of people in our society — including many professing Christians — have a preoccupation with wealth, and things, and possessions ... we love our stuff
ILLUS.
Jeanne E. Arnold, is an archaeologist who teaches in the anthropology department at the University of California, Los Angeles.
A few years ago, she and some fellow researchers visited the homes of 32 typical American families.
They wanted to look at how people interacted with their environments, at how they used space.
They also wanted to look at how dual-income, middle-class families related to their material possessions.
They systematically documented the stuff people own, where they keep it, and how they use it.
Their conclusion was that “contemporary U.S. households have more possessions per household than any society in global history.”
Our homes are cluttered with stuff.
ILLUS.
One writer calls it the Stuff Paradox.
Most American know they have too much stuff, but go merely along collecting ever more stuff.
The bottom line is that not only do Americans have a TON of stuff, but that they feel they have an inadequate amount of stuff.
c. the culture at large needs to be asking some serious questions ...
1) why does America have 3% of the world’s children, but 40% of the world’s toys?
2) why are new houses in America often built with 5 walk-in closets?
3) why do we have 5 televisions in a house with 4 people?
4) why is the amount of storage space in a house paramount to whether or not someone will buy it?
5) why do one-in-ten American households need to rent a self-storage unit?
2. material things are not bad in themselves
a. they become bad when our relationship with our stuff becomes more important than our relationship with our Savior
3. here’s the issue ... many of God’s people are making poor spiritual investments in the Kingdom of Heaven because they are too preoccupied with treasure on earth
a. are we so concerned with filling our earthly coffers with treasure, that we are filling our heavenly coffers with trash
b. the question is, are you one of those folks?
4. when Jesus teaches about heavenly treasure he begins with a negative injunction — “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth ...”
a. there is a part of our human nature that is insecure about the future and always seeks a hedge against tomorrow
b. we’re not quite sure about the faithfulness of God to provide and so we seek to cover ourselves by "storing up" wealth and material possessions just in case that rainy day ever comes
B. EARTHLY TREASURE IS A GOOD SERVANT, BUT A DANGEROUS MASTER
1. according to Jesus there are two problems with worldly treasure
a. 1st, it is transient — that is it doesn’t last
1) it’s here today and gone tomorrow
a) the bread becomes moldy
b) the cloths wear out
c) the car begins to rust out
d) the fields become weed-infested
e) the roof begins to leak
2) Jesus says that “moth and rust destroy,”
b. 2nd, earthly treasure can be pilfered or stolen or confiscated
1) Jesus reminds us of “thieves” who “break in and steal.”
2. no matter how long a person may live or how rich he may be, money cannot bring him happiness
ILLUS..
In his book For Better or For Worse, Walter Maier tells this story of a New York man who had won the lottery.
A few years later he committed suicide.
In his pockets were found two items: $30,000 in cash and a letter.
The letter read in part: 'I have discovered during my life that piles of money do not bring happiness.
I am taking my life because I can no longer stand the solitude and boredom.
When I was an ordinary workman in New York, I was happy.
Now that I possess millions, I am infinitely sad and prefer death.'"
3. the love of money, and anxiety over material things are attitudes which corrupt God's intended role for material possessions in our lives
a. maybe that’s why in His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told his listeners:
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.
Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?
26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are you not much more valuable than they?
27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes?
See how the lilies of the field grow.
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