Sermon Tone Analysis
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*What Is Most Precious To You?*
* *
!
Matthew 6:19-21
* *
!! Introduction
We cannot read the Sermon on the Mount without giving serious consideration to the stewardship of life.
It involves a whole lot more than money—it involves what we are, what we have, and what we do with what we have.
In three short verses, Jesus tells us how to make the wisest investment of life.
His words are very pertinent to us who have so much.
“I have no treasure!”
you may protest!
You may think you don’t, but you do.
It may not be cash on hand, silver or gold, stocks or bonds, houses or lands.
Our treasure is anything we desire most to possess, even if we don’t yet own it; or it’s the thing we fear most to lose, if we already possess it.
Jesus’ concern is whatever our affection, our will, our whole being clings to—whatever is most precious to us.
!!!
The Two Investment Alternatives
Treasure may be invested in one of two places: on earth or in heaven.
There is no other place to invest.
Suppose I invest in
!!!! A. Treasures on Earth
We need to ask three questions:
1. */Is it a sound investment?/*
What’s the worst investment you ever made?
Did you recover from it?
A financial planner once advised me to invest in rare coins.
I should have become wary when he described the investment opportunity as “snake oil.”
Talk of a 200 to 400 percent return was too tempting to pass up.
Besides, the company guaranteed an annual return of 20 percent if the value of the coins did not increase.
A year later the company went bankrupt, and my guarantee was instantly worthless.
I learned the first law of investing: “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”
Maybe I’ll recover.
Thankfully, it’s possible to make a bad financial investment and recover from it.
But choosing to wrong alternative in the investment Jesus talks about, and there’s no promise of an opportunity to recover from the wrong decision: the loss is eternal!
2. */Is It Wise?/*
It may seem like a sure thing, but is it really?
Can you guarantee against loss?
And somebody says, “Of course, we have FDIC!”
Every account is insured to $100,000.
As long as the federal government has the money to back those accounts, they’re relatively safe.
We may invest and some to the end of our lives having secured every penny we invested.
But eventually every single one of us is sure to lose every last penny we’ve ever earned.
If our creditors or inflation or recession or taxes don’t take it away, when death comes every penny, every ounce of treasure we have invested in this world will be left behind.
We may take t to the grave, but we can’t take it into eternity!
There are no U-Hauls behind hearses.
This is why the Bible is so careful to warn us about riches (1 Timothy 6:17-19).
3. */Does investing my treasure in earthly things satisfy?/*
Isn’t it true in the material realm that the more we have the more we want?
The story is told of a man who was promised all the land around which he could walk from sunrise to sunset.
When h thought about it, he decided that he could increase the amount of land to be gained if he would walk at a fast pace.
By midmorning he had determined to jog.
By midafternoon, even though he hadn’t stopped for lunch or rest, he decided to run as fast as he could to take in even more land by sunset.
He kept pushing himself to keep running so he could gain just a few more acres.
It will be worth it, he thought.
Tomorrow I’ll be a proud landowner.
So faster and faster he ran, now bone tired, and sunset was approaching.
“I can rest tomorrow,” he said to himself as he kept pushing.
Just as the sun set in the west, the man died of a massive heart attack.
What had he gained in his attempt to la up more treasure on earth?
Nothing!
This story is repeated across our country every day.
If your decision is to lay up treasures on earth, then you’ll push yourself to get and gain just a little bit more.
But let me ask you something: When you get to where you’re going, where will you be?
What will you have?
What price will you have paid?
If you’re saying, “Tomorrow, when I reach my goals, or when I retire, /then/ I’ll slow down and enjoy myself; I’ll spend more time with my family; I’ll do more for the Lord in His Church”—tomorrow may never come.
That’s why God’s Word tells us, “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth” (Prov.
27:1).
Rather, we should make today count.
!!!! B. Treasures in Heaven
There is a second alternative.
It’s the one Christ wishes we would choose.
To be fair, let’s ask some of the same questions of this alternative we asked of treasures on earth.
1. */Is it a sound investment?/*
Treasure invested in heaven is safe and secure; moths can’t devour it; rust can’t corrupt it; thieves can’t break in and steal it.
It’s immune to the ravages of inflation, recession, or depression.
It doesn’t depend on government or what’s happening on the stock market.
It doesn’t depend on the value of the currency in foreign markets.
When we put our treasure in the bank of heaven, we have treasure not only in a “house not made with hands” (2 Cor.
5:1, KJV) but also within our hearts in the here and now.
2. */How do we lay up treasures in heaven?/* /By accepting Christ as Savior and Lord; /Seek . . .
first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness” (Matt.
6:33, KJV).
/By loving and loyal obedience to Him/.
By deeds done for love’s sake, we make eternal investments.
Every time we use our time and talents and resources for the Kingdom with the right motive—“all for the glory of God” (1 Cor.
10:31)—we make deposits in our heavenly bank account.
Laying up treasures on earth is just the opposite, for then we pay ourselves first, instead of God.
We put self first in our thoughts, plans, and affections.
Everything has to revolve around us and how our needs are met.
We place our sense of security on things that are uncertain and insecure.
If, for example, I build my security on bank accounts and holdings, what happens if suddenly they are gone?
Jesus suggests that it’s much better to invest in things that really count.
So it’s really difficult to determine which is
!!!!!
The Wisest Investment Alternative
A.
*Jesus Encourages Us to Invest Heavily in the Kingdom of God*
1. */Do we believe in it?/*
We’re always being asked to invest in things we believe in.
If you believe in Chris’s kingdom, invest in it with your prayers, service, talents, and money.
John Ruskin said, “If you do not wish for His kingdom, don’t pray for it.
But if you do, you must do more than pray for it.
You must work for it!”—and,
I would add, invest in it.
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