Day Ten

Matthew 6:19-24

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.

               The Sermon on the Mount is a passage of Scripture people claim to love. Yet, how many know where it is? How many know it is three chapters long? How many have ever sat and read it all in one setting? This passage is from the Sermon. At the beginning of this series I told you we had done this series five years ago. I had forgotten just how much the writer irritated me. He would take a single verse out of a book and use that verse to state his point. Often the verse had nothing to do with the point if taken in context. The points are good and valid and there is a lot of Scripture to back him up, but as in many devotionals, the writer just gives one verse. The Sermon on the Mount should be read in one setting, starting in Matthew five and going through the end of Matthew seven. Today we want to look at one point of the Sermon, but we want to look at it in context.

         Here, Jesus is focusing on money. Wars are fought over money, nations rise and fall because of money, politicians and religious leaders and lawyers and doctors and such like become corrupt because of money. In churches, sometimes fabulous buildings are built to show the world how much money they have. Other churches sit on their money against a rainy day. In both cases, ministry suffers. In this passage, the Lord is instructing against letting money make our decisions.

           Verses nineteen through twenty one present a new way of thinking for the Jews. They had come to believe that wealth equaled blessing and showed that God was pleased with the wealthy. Likewise, if you were poor then God was not pleased. We see the same thing in Christianity. Ministries grow outside of grace because they make the person in the pew feel guilty while other ministries die because people want to hoard the money. Jesus said this; Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 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.

         Oh my! That last verse indicates we might be putting our heart in with the wrong treasure. Is our treasure the work of the Lord or is it our buildings or bank accounts or the cozy feeling we get on Sunday morning. Maybe it is time to redefine our treasure.

         Look at verse 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. Who do we serve?

         Beginning in 1985 I pastored a church in Warren, Ohio for ten years. In 1995 I went to the church in Geneva, Ohio that I refer to occasionally. But there at the Warren church, sometime in the first year, I preached a sermon on giving. Over the next few years we experienced some real growth. But we constantly had push back from the old guard. They didn’t like change, they didn’t like newcomers in their pew, they didn’t like kids running around the church. It was an attitude. Their treasure was not God’s plan. After nine years had passed, I brought another message on giving. Two such messages over ten years. This church was not like the Yoke with doors everywhere, so after the service I would go to the door and greet people. On this particular Sunday I had our song leader close in prayer and I headed to the back. As I walked down I heard one of our older men whisper to his wife (older folks tent to whisper loudly) “All this preacher ever talks about is money!”

         Today, let’s ask the Lord to redefine what our treasure is and, being honest, does it match up with the Lord’s treasure.