The Lord or the Loot?

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Steven Lee
Pastor for Preaching & Vision

0:18Well Good morning. It's good to see everyone with one hour less of sleep. It's uh, good to see everyone gathered together and it's everyone's favorite today, a pastor preaching on money. So would you join me as we ask the Lord for help as we go to him in prayer? Father in heaven, we want to hear you speak this morning. So open the eyes of our hearts to see the wonder of your word. Open our ears so that we would hear your voice and then teach us to treasure Christ above all else. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

1:07How many of you like to collect stuff? Maybe the kids here in the room? How many of you don't raise your hand? Just curious. How many of you have a little collection of Legos at home or maybe some hot wheels or maybe some squish meows? I think there's those squishy stuffed animals. Or some of you ladies grew up with a little Beanie baby collection, or maybe you still have a American girl doll lying around. As a kid, I collected basketball cards and my peers collected baseball cards and today it's Pokemon cards. People find all sorts of things to collect, don't they? You can collect bottle caps and stamps and coins, comic books, autographs, vinyl records, and even stickers to put on your water bottle.

1:55Some of you might even have a seashell collection if you're willing to admit it. Accumulating stuff isn't necessarily bad, but when it becomes all consuming, it can become dangerous. I read a story of Beverly Mitchell of Cheshire, Connecticut, age 66, who died after the first floor of her home collapsed under the weight of her clutter after decades of hoarding. Most of us are not at risk of being crushed by our stuff, by the collections of our things, but Beverly Mitchell is a parable of the danger of materialism. And in our passage, Jesus warns his disciples not of the physical danger, but of the spiritual danger of laying up treasures on earth.

2:50We see that in verse 19. Yet this is a balancing act, isn't it? We, we kind of all just feel this instinctively. We need money to live and to eat and to survive. We need money for everything as we age, healthcare assisted living. And yet money comes with the great danger of greed, of miserliness and of self-sufficiency. Whether we have a lot or a little Jesus warns of the great temptation of money. Notice that Jesus in verses one through 18 of Matthew chapter six, was warning against the danger of these religious good deeds, alms, giving in praying and fasting, wanting others to see your righteousness.

3:40And now he turns his attention from verse 19 all the way to the end of chapter six, to the kind of opposite end of the spectrum, the sins that stem from worldliness, greed, and materialism and worry. You can get it wrong by focusing on yourself, but you can also get it wrong by focusing on the things of earth. So the main point of our passage this morning is to serve God to use money and don't get the two mixed up. Serve God, use money and never get the two confused. Jesus' disciples are to be wholly devoted to God alone and then to use money in order to lay up treasures in heaven. This passage is a warning to beware of the love of money, but it's also an invitation to store up heavenly treasure with our earthly treasure.

4:41So the main question for us this morning is what is it that we treasure? Who or what do we serve? Who or what is our master? Will you serve God or will you serve money because you can't do both? That that's essentially what Jesus is laying out for us this morning. And we're gonna see this teaching repeated three times in three different kind of wisdom. Metaphors treasure an I and a master in verse 24. So why don't we look again at the treasure in verse 19, Jesus begins with this opening command. You can look with me in your Bible. Verse 19, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.

5:30Jesus' audience would've instinctively known exactly where he was going. He was referring to three aspects of wealth, clothing, food, and jewelry or maybe precious metals. And he's pointing that all earthly wealth is susceptible to decay. Mths and their larvae terrorize these natural fibers. Some of you probably remember using mothballs and putting those in your closet or maybe you have a cedar lined closet to keep away the moths that would've devoured any natural fabric like wool or cashmere or silk or fur. And a wool cloak in Jesus day was very costly. It was maybe 10 to 20 Ari for a wool cloak and a ari was a day's wages and a really nice woven wool cloak would've been probably several months of wages.

6:24So you can kind of equate it to how we might think of the cost of a car today. And even the finest garments are susceptible to mods eating their fabric. The word for rust here, if you have an ESV Bible, you might notice a little kind of note there. And if you look down in your Bible, it might say worms. And so rust is the Greek word for eating or consuming or corrosion. The new international version of the Bible translate it, sit as vermin. And so the idea is that whatever food you have stored up, it's susceptible to rats and mice and mold and mildew and spoilage and natural deterioration. Even canned spam has a best buy date, doesn't it?

7:09And then there's the threat of Steve's thieves, excuse me, breaking in and stealing one's jewelry. In those days, they didn't have safety deposit boxes. And so you would've buried your treasure, your gold coins and your money in the clay walls of your home or maybe in the floor. And thieves would come in and dig those things up and steal. And the point is that everything is vulnerable. All your earthly treasures are vulnerable to being eaten or spoiling or being stolen. All earthly treasures have a shelf life and they are at risk. Accumulating earthly wealth is a dangerous preoccupation. The dangerous echoed in the book of James James five verse two and three says, your riches have rotted and your garments are moth eaten.

7:58Your gold and your silver have corroded and their corrosion will be evidence against you. And in that context, James was speaking to the rich who lacked justice, lacked mercy, lacked righteousness. They lived in luxury and self-indulgence. So Jesus gives us the contrast and the lesson now in verse 20 and 21, look there with me, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal for where your treasure is there, your heart will be also the contrast to laying up earthly treasures is not living this monastic life of self-denial is not taking this vow of poverty where we say, well, we'll never make any money.

8:48He's saying instead, seek the greater riches that are a guaranteed investment that are safe from being eaten, stolen or spoiling. Jesus knows that money is needed for life, but he warns us for loving and laboring for the treasures that will ultimately disappoint. So he's trying to teach his disciples what to value and how to value it rightly. Don't put your investments into things that not only will underperform, but that will actually go to zero. When you die heavenly treasures reap infinite dividends which you will enjoy for all eternity. So he's not saying don't invest in the future. He's saying use the right investment vehicle.

9:42Jesus gives the heart of the matter in verse 21, where your treasure is there, your heart will be also the idea there is whatever you treasure it is gonna sit in the driver's seat of your life and it's gonna steer you wherever it wants to go. And and whatever you care about most, whether it's God or money or even something else, it will dictate how you live. Whenever I do premarital counseling, one of the things we'll try to talk about is money. That's one of the top three reasons people get divorced because they fight over money. Why? Because money reveals your values and your priorities and your fears and your anxieties.

10:29Our attitude towards money reveals our heart. So Jesus teaches us to use money and to worship God. Don't worship money and use God. Now, don't get me wrong, money is a great tool. We need money to live to buy our essentials. Money itself is not evil. The Bible teaches that believers are to provide financially for their families. First Timothy five, eight, you're worse than an unbeliever if you don't care for your kind of aging relatives and view. There was speaking of widows, the Bible commands, or excuse me, commands and commands hard work. In Proverbs six, go to the ant. Oh slugger, consider her ways like work hard.

11:10Look how ants work, storing up food you also should save. Were to call to enjoy God's provision one Timothy four, four For everything created by God is good and nothing is to be rejected if it's received with thanksgiving. So we're to work hard to earn a living, we're to earn money to support our families. We're to enjoy the things that God provides, which money often buys. And yet the warning is to beware of the love of money, which is the root of all evil one Timothy six 10. So the Bible does not generally teach. Taking this vow of poverty does not condemn being rich, but it warns against making money, your God, through greed and coveting and hoarding.

12:02Selfish materialism is a great temptation. Whether we have a lot of money or whether we have very little, Jesus says one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. Luke 12, verse 15, he who dies with the most toys, the old saying goes, wins, and yet he still dies and he can't bring any of it with him. So Jesus disciples are to beware and rather they're to lay up treasures in heaven because those investments are safeguarded forever and they will reap infinite and eternal dividends without risk and with a guaranteed return. So the the exhortation this morning is not just to beware, but it's an invitation to actually invest your riches in the things that will reap infinite rewards.

12:58It it's gonna outperform the magnificent seven if those of you who follow the stock market, right? Those seven stocks, Google and Amazon and Apple and Meta and Microsoft and Nvidia and Tesla are just kind of outperforming all the others. And yet a believer's failure is that we have too short of a time horizon. Actuaries say on average people will live 76 years, but when you run your retirement calculators, you kind of throw in 95 years. 'cause you don't wanna run outta money when you hit your eighties or nineties and when you need assisted living and all of those other things. And yet for believers, those 95 years are just the beginning of what we will experience with God for forever in eternity.

13:45Will you have any leftover when that time arrives? Jesus tales a parable of a rich man who went to build bigger barns and his trust was in his wealth. And God said to him, full this night, your soul is required of you and the things you have prepared, whose will they be? So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. So the question for us this morning is, are we rich towards God or do we love the comfort and security of our growing net worth? Now look with me now at the second section, this middle section 22 and 23, it speaks of eyes. The eye is the lamp of the body.

14:34So if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. 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? First, just notice that this is in, in the context of Jesus teaching about money both before and after second. The plain reading of this metaphor, I think is rather simple. The eye is pictured as a window into the body in which light enters in. So if the window is clean, a lot of light gets in. But if the window is dirty or foggy or tinted, the light doesn't get in and the room remains dark. Now it's not entirely clear at first glance what this has to do with money.

15:23The next step to understanding it is what it means to have a healthy or a bad eye. The Greek word that's translated healthy here has the connotation of being single-minded or generous or sincere or without guile. And I think in this context, the best translation would be a generous eye. It's speaking of generosity. If you turn with me to James chapter one, verse five, look, look there with me uses the same word in adver form and it's translated. Lemme just read it for us. James chapter one, verse five. It says, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God. And this is the same word here, who gives generously to all without reproach and it will be given to him.

16:10So the idea here is a healthy eye is a generous disposition. The eye and heart can often be kind of synonymous here. And then the word for bad is often translated as wicked or worthless or evil. And it's often used kind of before something else like an evil spirit or an evil age or even an evil eye. And there actually is one occurrence of that here in Matthew chapter 20, verse 15. And that speaks of Jesus or actually, uh, a master sending out people to work his fields and they all come back and the ones who work the least amount of time get paid first. And then the ones at the end, they get paid the same amount and it says that they have an evil eye or they begrudge the master's generosity.

16:59Uh, Proverbs 28 22 says, the stingy man, same, same phrase, an evil eye, the stingy man hastens after wealth. So I think what this is pointing at is that Jesus is teaching that we can have either eyes or heart dispositions wired towards generosity or we can have bad eyes, evil eyes that are wired towards being stingy and miserly and not generous. And and so the teaching here is do we see others and respond with compassion and a desire to meet others needs, especially when it comes to our money? Or do we instinctively close our fists around our money when we see others in need? It's the ebenezer, scrooge, ba humbug whenever we hear of someone being in need or maybe a financial request is made of us, or do we at least prayerfully consider, would this be wise stewardship of our wealth?

18:05I think that's the point that Jesus is making. So are we guided by an healthy eye and a generous spirit that rejoices to do good to all? Like I, I would love to find ways to bless others with my riches or are, are we guided by an evil eye that's gr grudging and stingy and ungenerous? And if we possess this eye, it's gonna shut out the very light of the gospel of Christ. This is the picture of golum in Lord of the Rings that obsesses over his precious right?

18:43And this in leads him to insanity and greed and this fixation leads to his destruction. So are we like golum and scrooge when it comes to our treasure and wealth? The lesson here is that a man or woman who lacks generosity ultimately cannot see where they're going 'cause they're blind, they're spiritually blind, they're morally blind. Proverbs 22, 9 puts it this way, whoever has a bountiful eye, a healthy eye, a good eye will be blessed for he shares his bread with the poor. And then Proverbs 1124 puts it negative, negatively, one gives freely and yet grows all the richer. Another withholds what he should give and only suffers one.

19:31And so Jesus is giving us the antidote to this evil eye, this stingy ungenerous heart. And he's saying, give it away. It's more blessed to give than to receive. So sobering truth is that our heart attitude or our eye disposition towards money will often determine the direction of our lives. And then we come to verse 24. Jesus speaks this concluding decisive word. 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. He sums up the previous two sections and he puts it as a very stark binary.

20:21You cannot serve two masters. Now we know you technically can, you can serve two masters. But what Jesus is saying is you can't be devoted to both in the same way. You can't be devoted to God and you can't be devoted to money. We're gonna despise the one if we love the other. One of the pastors, when we were discussing this passage, said this, it would be a little bit like saying, I really love my wife, but there's this other woman who is a close second just to even utter the phrase calls into question, your devotion to your wife.

21:03Jesus is saying either God or money will get your total devotion. The reason it's impossible to serve these two masters is because they demand contradictory things. Just think about it with me. If money is in the driver's seat, it demands that you accumulate more and more. It pulls you in this direction. More comfort, more security, more status, more spending, more saving. People don't go out to make money their master, but it eventually takes over and it becomes their sense of identity, their peace of mind. And many have sacrificed their family and marriage and time and energy and integrity and even their values in order to make more and more money.

21:48Whereas God, if God is on the throne of your heart, he demands complete and total loyalty and he pulls you in the other direction to say, don't treasure money. You don't necessarily need to accumulate more and more and more. Give some of it away. Be a blessing to others. Be generous. Find ways to, to not love it in order to be a blessing to others. It calls for eternal treasures and and money pools for more and more temporary wealth. And Jesus teaches that we're gonna serve someone or something. It's either God or money, it's ourselves or it's the Lord. This is illustrated by the rich young man who comes to Jesus.

22:30You guys know this story. He comes, he says, what must I do to inherit? Inherit eternal life? And Jesus says to him, sell everything that you have, give to the poor and then follow me in order to have treasures in heaven. And what did the man do? The man left in great sadness because he was very wealthy. Jesus did not call everyone to do this, but he did this to this man in order to expose where his heart truly was. He was owned by his possessions and it dictated the direction of his life. It wouldn't have made any difference if Jesus said, sell half, sell a fourth of your stuff. The point was he was mastered by his money.

23:16So how do we know if we're mastered by our money this morning? Here, here's a very simple diagnostic. If someone did a full audit of all of your financial transac final financial transactions over the course of your life, would they find ny evidence that God is your master? And money is not. If everyone, if someone could see all your financial transactions, everything that you spend, would they find evidence of kingdom investment? Would they find evidence of generosity and good works and sacrificial giving? Or would they look and look and look in vain? The main point here is that we are to serve God and we are to use money and not to get the two switched around.

24:12Are we rich towards God? Are we laying up treasures in heaven now? And what we've made a big deal about laying up treasures in heaven? And many of you may wonder like, how do we do that? Like what does that actually look like? Because I know how to collect basketball cards and I know how to calculate my net worth, but like what does it mean to calculate my treasures in heaven? To explain this, I wanna invite you to turn to one Timothy six verses 17 to 19. I think this is probably the most helpful verse to explain what it means to lay up treasures in heaven. So that's one Timothy chapter six verses six 17, excuse me, two 19.

24:55And I'm gonna read it for us First Timothy six, verse 17. As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, prideful, not to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous, and to be ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future so that they may take hold of that which is truly life. So that verse instructs the rich. And in this context, if, if we take all the people in the history of the world across our world, we're probably the rich.

25:48Uh, they're not to be haughty or prideful or to put their hope and trust in their riches. Don't lean on those things as your God rather enjoy those things. God richly provides us those things to enjoy. And then what else are they to do? They're to be, they're rich in good works, to be generous, to do good and ready to share. And that is how we store up treasures in heaven. We're to use earthly treasure to store up heavenly treasure by giving it away and to being a blessing to others. Money is a great tool, but it's a terrible master. In, in Luke 16, Jesus tells this parable of the dishonest manager and there's this manager who's about to be fired by his master.

26:44And so he's like, I, I got nothing if I get fired. And what does he do? He goes out, finds all the people who owe his master money, and he says, whatever you owe him, cut it in half, pay it now, and then your debt's forgiven and it's totally unethical. If you did this at work, you would get fired. It's dishonest. But the surprise comes, Jesus commends him for his shrewdness. And I think the point is this, by all means use money, but use it the right way. He uses unrighteous wealth mammon in order to obtain eternal dwellings. And Jesus commences him. He he's using things that just don't ha have that much lasting value in order to gain things that have eternal lasting value.

27:31And he's commended. And so in the same way, Christians should work hard to earn money in order to use it for God's purposes, to share, to be generous and to be a blessing to others. Use earthly wealth in order to lay up heavenly treasures. So how do we apply this text? I have three things I wanna draw out for us this morning. And we don't sell everything. We don't strive for a life of poverty. So consider these three app, excuse me, two applications. I just have two, cultivate a heart of generosity. That's the first cultivate a heart of generosity. So often we want legalism. It, it would just be easier if you told me a dollar amount that I have to pay and then I could just check that off my list.

28:16Very often we, we like it that way. And yet the Bible examines our motives and our hearts. This is not like your taxes, where you get all these complicated kind of formulas and deductions. Oh, you served at church in the nursery, you know, knock off a thousand dollars on your bill. That's not how it works. Instead, the Bible gives us principles as we do business with the Lord. And so how do we cultivate this heart of generosity? We examine our spending. Do I spend everything on me? Or is some of it earmarked for generosity and to bless others to support the ministry of the church and to advance the gospel?

28:54There is no one size fits all that I could say. Well, here's exactly how much you should give and how you should give it. We are all entrusted with different resources and we should all seek to grow in generosity and giving. It's how it's one of the ways we are conformed into the image of Christ. And so you might be growing in your knowledge of Christ, but are we growing in our generosity to look more and more like Jesus? Barnabas sold the field and gave it to the apostles in order to support the early church, whereas the poor widow gave two small copper coins that were worth a single penny, and they both gave lavishly.

29:41The Macedonian church in two Corinthians eight gave out of, uh, gave a wealth of generosity out of their abundance of joy. And it says their extreme poverty. Those two realities are not often put together, abundance of joy, extreme poverty, and a wealth of generosity overflowed in that. So are we seeking to be cheerful, lavish, generous givers ready to do good? Amazingly giving is God's antidote to the love of money because giving exercises our muscles of faith and trust and dependence and keeps us from putting our hope and our joy in riches. So giving is one of the ways we become more like Jesus, growing in generosity, becoming more heavenly minded, freeing our souls from the mastery of money.

30:41So are we embracing God's primary means to grow in generosity and to resist the love of money? Number two, are we striving to be good stewards? Are we striving to be good stewards? Do we fundamentally believe that all that we have belongs to God? Do we invest in order to earn a return? Do we provide well for our family? Are we balancing the tension between needing money to live and using money for God's kingdom purposes? Do we see ourselves as stewards of God's resources? Or do we believe that it all belongs to us and that we hoard it all because I worked hard for it? Do we see money as something to enjoy and to share and to use, or is our kind of hope is our identity bound up in it?

31:41O one of the ways we can grow as stewards is are we intentional with our money? For some you just lack intentionality. You know, we're we're just gonna spend what we can spend. And then if there's any leftover, we'll throw a 20 in the wooden pillar. Do we have a plan for generosity, for regular giving? Are we budgeting? Are we setting goals? Are we just spending, I find it helpful to schedule my giving as a regular pattern and to have it auto deducted, uh, for some may, maybe some of the teens among us. You have your first job. Have you begun the practice of giving, of generosity, of learning to tithe with early income?

32:24This is a discipline for those who are paycheck to paycheck as well as those who have vast sums of money. The goal of this message is not to get your money, but it's for us to pay attention to our souls. I would also be remiss to mention that I know many of you here in this room give to enable the gospel ministry of the North Church. And for that I want to primarily say thank you. We are grateful for the way in which the Lord continues to work through this congregation. You keep the lights on, you enable our global partners to minister in far away places and to share the gospel. You enable our ministry to our children and youth and outreach to this community.

33:11And I know that that has been happening for decades long before I arrived and Lord willing, long after I leave. And so I do wanna invite you to prayerfully consider how you can continue to partner with us in being good stewards of what the Lord has entrusted to us. Jesus aim in this teaching is not to get his disciples money. Jesus doesn't need anyone's money. Uh, when they get to the temple and they're like, are we gonna pay the tax? He's like, go fishing. You'll find a coin in the fish's mouth like cattle on a thousand hills. It all belongs to Jesus. He doesn't need it. But what he's saying is, I want what's best and good for you.

33:56I don't want you to get to the pearly gates at some point and say, nothing in my pockets, no heavenly treasure. I didn't know I was supposed to be saving up for this moment. Jesus is teaching and warning his disciples of the parasitic power of money. No one starts out thinking, you know what, I I'm gonna throw my life away and pursue money until I make a shipwreck of my faith. No one starts out that way, but it happens. So let me try to illustrate this. There's something called the emerald cockroach wasp sounds really lovely. Uh, the emerald cockroach wasp, it has a very unusual way of feeding.

34:39Its young. It this wasp finds a cockroach and it injects venom into it in order to paralyze it so that it can't run away. And then it administers a second venomous sting in order to disable the cockroaches escape reflex. And now it's kind of hazardous sitting there. And so then the was chews off one of the cockroaches antenna, and then it pulls on the other and order to lead it back to its burrow. And there it will lay an egg on that roach so that the larvae can feed on it until it is ready to enter the pupil stage and then to become a full grown wasp. I think that's the parasitic power of money.

35:24It it leads us where we don't want to go in order to devour our lives and our hopes and our dreams. No one starts out saying, I'm gonna become a slave to my riches and be pour towards God. And yet that's exactly what happens again and again. No one wants money to consume them. And yet the love of money has this parasitic power that overcomes our hearts and leads us to destruction. May it not be among the people of God this morning. So how do we free ourselves from it? We use it for God's kingdom. We hold it loosely. We give it away wisely. We view ourselves primarily as stewards and we store up treasures in heaven through generosity and sharing.

36:17And how are we able to give away something that feels at times so precious, like we need it, we, we need it to fix the car and to pay the mortgage. Here's two Corinthians eight verse nine. It says, for you know, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake, he became poor so that you, by his poverty might become rich. That verse puts it all in perspective. Jesus owns everything. He had all the glories of heaven, yet he emptied himself coming down to earth, becoming poor in a sense so that he might make us rich. And so all those who are in Christ this morning, we are not beggars, but we are so blessed with the infinite riches that come in Jesus Christ.

37:14We have an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. And Jesus has purchased it all by his blood so that we would take hold of it. And so we're being called not just to resist something that seems really nice and really tempting, but we're called to set our affections on the greater thing. We have Jesus and we have all the riches that come with him. If God has given us the Lord Jesus Christ, how will he not with him? Graciously and gloriously give us all things. And so we're not beggars this morning, brothers and sisters, we don't go scrounging. For more and more we come because we have been lavished grace upon grace.

37:59We have the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says, beware, there's better in store for you. Oh, that you would take hold of the great riches that are found in Jesus. And if you don't know Jesus this morning, we don't want your money. We have riches to share with you this morning. Our aim, our goal is that we would introduce you to the Lord Jesus Christ and that you would take hold of the riches that are found in Jesus. And Jesus alone. He can transform your life and pull you back from the edge and from making a shipwreck of your life and giving yourself to things that don't matter at the end of the day, that when you die, you won't say how much is in my net worth?

38:48You wanna be ready to face God and to have a Lord and Savior that you're leaning upon. And so for all those who are in Christ, may our lives and our money proclaim that Christ alone is our hope, both in life and in death. Amen. Let's pray. Father, for some, this is a hard word this morning, and for all of us, we want to examine our hearts and say, oh, I want to be conformed into the image of Jesus. I wanna look more like the Savior. I want to be freed from the love of earthly treasure and invest more and more into heavenly treasure and to love to do that. And so make us more like Jesus. We pray.

39:38In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

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Sermon Text

Matthew 6:19-24