Sermon Series: Sermon on the Mount

In What Treasure Are You Investing?

Matthew 6:19-24

PSBC-5/20/00

In a nutshell: What we treasure determines what we turn to in difficult times. Difficult times can only be navigated well with godly values. Godly values cannot exist with values that do not put God's agenda first.

I. Introduction

A. Story

Dr. Harold Fickett, was pastor of the First Baptist Church of Van Nuys, CA, a number of years ago. Some of you are products of his ministry and that great church. I heard him at a Sunday School convention once, where he told a story of how he went to visit a wealthy businessman who was dying of cancer.

When Dr. Fickett visited him, this man poured out his heart and shared something very significant, over which her was very distraught. 10 years earlier he had been given the opportunity to teach a Sunday school class of 9-year-old boys at the church. Thinking he didn't have the time, he declined the offer.

Now, however, deeply conscious that his life would soon be over, he confessed to his pastor that his most painful regret was that he had missed such a golden opportunity to invest in the treasure of the lives of those 9-year-olds.

He estimated that at least 100 boys would have passed through that class. "My investments in stocks and bonds will stay behind when I leave," he declared. "What a fool I have been."

Well, friends, this morning, I want you to look deep into yourself, and answer one single question very honestly, "In what treasure am I investing?"

B. The Significance of Treasure in the Old Testament

The word "Treasure" in the Bible comes from a Hebrew word that means "to deposit or to accumulate".

The term treasure in the Old Testament, meant the continual accumulation of money, jewels, gold, silver, vessels, ointments, spices, weapons, grain, food, war machines, armor, coins, cloth, and clothes.

Now, the interesting thing is that in those days, the people of a nation were personally poor in those kinds of things. But they still considered themselves rich if their king had accumulated large amounts of these things in the royal treasury.

You see, the things accumulated in the national treasury helped define the entire nation. Because the size of the national treasury dictated what buildings and houses could be built, what kind of services could be provided, and how safe people would feel in times of difficulty and war.

In fact, a key strategy for winning a war with a rival nation, and breaking their will to survive, was for an enemy nation's army to over-run the capital city, and head straight for the palace of the king, in order to loot and carry away the wealth that was kept there.

Once that wealth was gone, the nation couldn't operate. People would struggle to have their needs met. Many would have to do without some of the necessities of life. So, with their wealth gone, their hope was gone, and they were easily taken into captivity as slaves, by the conquering nation.

So, in Old Testament times, a nation's treasure became a person's identity.

C. Treasure in the Time of Jesus

Now, let's move to New Testament times. In Jesus day, when the nation of Rome conquered a country, it still took the contents of the national treasury. But they allow individual persons to keep their freedom in their homelands and accumulate personal wealth on their own. Then instead of having a nation full of slaves, Rome had a nation full of individuals who were taxed on the additional treasure they could accumulate through their own ingenuity.

So, in New Testament times, people were encouraged to accumulate wealth. Because the more wealth they had, the more taxes Rome could get.

But the problem that arose was that people used their new personal wealth to do just what national wealth had done before. They used it to define themselves.

Personal wealth defined ...
–what you could do,
–who you associated with,
–how well you ate,
–what kind of home you could live in,
–your prestige in the community, and
–your perception of yourself.

So, in Jesus' day, even though personal wealth had taken the place of national wealth, wealth was still being used to define a person's basis for hope, their will for living and their motivation to do things.

And in the context of this accumulation of personal wealth and treasure, Jesus injects three word pictures that put human wealth and treasures into God's perspective...

II. 3 Word Pictures

If you have your Bibles, please turn to Matthew chapter 6...

A. Storing Treasure

Matthew 6:19-21
19 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.
21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

1. For a period of time in my adult life, I worked as an exterminator. I saw, first hand, the damage that moths can do to woolen fabrics. Moths eat and destroy wool clothing. Most of the garments that were prized in Jesus' day were made out of wool. And wool clothing was expensive. But if a person invested a large portion of their money and wealth in the accumulation of woolen garments or cloth, they ran a risk... Those clothes and that cloth could be destroyed by moths.

2. Then Jesus uses another example of something that destroys. He talks about rust. The word for rust that Jesus uses here, means more than just the oxidation of metal. In it's fullest sense, it means to wear out, break, fall apart from decay, or be destroyed.

Illustration: We had a house fire, about three and a half years ago, in our home in Missouri. The fire started in our dryer, which we had turned on just before we went to bed. The dryer was reduced to a chunk of melted metal. Inside were the clothes that had been drying. I had to go through that mess to determine our loss for insurance purposes.

The clothes were nothing more than a pile of blackened, melted, unrecognizable hardened lumps that were later hauled to the dump. It was so unrecognizable that I had to rely on my memory to determine what was in that pile for insurance purposes. Not only that, all the cloth and leather furniture that we had accumulated over 20 some years of marriage were also ruined by the smoke.

Well, that's a description of "rust" in the sense, that Jesus uses it here. That's what can happen to our "stuff".

3. However, if you're fortunate to hang on to things and they don't wear out, and moths don't eat away at the fabric–in other words, if your treasure consists of money, gold, silver, precious gems, or investments,... Jesus says, these are things that can be stolen.

In Jesus' day these things were hidden in holes dug in the dirt floors of the home, or placed in compartments in the walls of a home. They were easy pickings for thieves with hammers and shovels.

So, in these verses, Jesus says, the bottom line is this...

–if you're using "stuff" to define your worth as an individual,
–if these are the things that you plan to rely on when life gets tough,
–if these are what you are counting on to give you security and peace of mind...,
...then you've made a huge mistake. Because you've invested in something without eternal value. And you've defined yourself as a fool.

4. The alternative is to store up for yourself a different kind of treasure. The alternative is to treasure and value something different than with things. The alternative is to treasure what God considers valuable. These eternal valuables are listed for us in the verses that we've bee looking at in this entire series on the Sermon on the Mount. Things like...
–Realize your spiritual condition before a holy God;
–Earnestly seek after things that are right;
–Have a pure heart, with God's will as your highest thought, not your convenience or comfort;
–Be concerned with how you personally affect the unique circle of influence that you have;
–Value human beings because they are precious to God;
–Honor your spouse and keep your commitments;
–Look for ways to show the love of God to every person you meet; and
–Focus on a personal relationship with God, not an outward religion to impress people.
Along with a whole lot more that is found in chapters 5 and 6 of Matthew.

These are the TREASURES that will last. These are the things that will have eternal significance.

B. The Eye and Light

In the next verses, Jesus uses another word picture–this one is about light and eyes. He gives it to us so we understand the practical importance of valuing what God values.

Illustration: As most of you know, I have a disease in both my eyes, called glaucoma. It is a disease that damages the optic nerve. And as with all nerve damage in your body, once the nerve is damaged, it doesn't repair itself. Over the years, slowly, the pigment in my eyes have been clogging up the drainage tubes that remove the fluids which normally accumulate in the eye.

When the fluids don't drain, pressure begins to build on the optic nerve, which gradually kills the nerve from the outside, in. So the disease has begun to take away my ability to see things around the periphery of my vision. If left untreated, glaucoma will work its way into all the optic nerve and eventually I could lose all of sight.

Over the years, since it was discovered, doctors have been trying to decrease the pressure and stop the damage by giving me various drops to put in my eyes, and doing laser surgery. But significant damage has been done.

The fact is, I don't see as well as most of you. I need more light than most people, to help me read and see things. I need more light to help make up for my eye's inability to see at 100%. Sometimes, I will walk by an object on my left, where most of the optic nerve damage has been done, and bump into it because I don't see it. I have blind spots, similar to what you have when you rely on looking in the rear and side view mirrors of your car. There is that area on your side that you just don't see unless you turn your head.

The next two verses were always difficult for me to grasp, until I understood what having glaucoma is all about...

Matthew 6:22-23
22 "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light.
23 But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

1. Illustration: (Picture #1 of an object, seen brightly)
Most of you see this much light in a room.
I see this much light. (#2-slightly dimmer version of the same picture)
Let's say it's late afternoon, and the sun is going down behind our mountains. And all of a sudden the power goes out in your house. Your eyes compensate in the darkness and your pupils get bigger and the capacity of your optic nerve allows all the light from the setting sun to illumine the room where you are. You see this much. (#3-an even dimmer version of the same picture)
I on the other hand, because I don't have as much light capacity in me because of the condition of my optic nerve, when the lights go out, the light from the setting sun illumines what I see, only this much. (#4 a still dimmer picture)

Most of you have a benefit in your bodies that I don't have anymore–to use Jesus' words in these two verses, you have a "greater light within you" than I have within me.

2. Meaning of Metaphor

Now, let's put some meaning to this word picture.
–When you value and treasure the things that God values and treasures...,and
–When you in all earnestness seek to apply the principles that are taught in the Sermon on the Mount to your life and live them out with the help of the Holy Spirit...
... you have good eyes. You're allowing a lot of light to come into yourself. And you'll be able to see things, respond to situations and understand circumstances very clearly.

In fact, you'll be able to see and think, anticipate and hope in an eternal context, rather than just an immediate context. Using Jesus' word picture.. You'll have this much light (picture #1 again, at full power) in you.

But, if you insist on valuing things over against eternal values... things like–
–house size or address,
–bank account size,
–investment portfolio,
–job performance or prestige,
–your accomplishments,
–a selfish attitude of "me first",
–living in the past,
–not getting involved in ministry to others,
–and not making your personal relationship with God a priority,
...you have glaucoma. And at best, you're life is only giving you this much light. (picture #2, again)

3. Difficult Times

Now, let's say you have set backs in your life, or difficult times come to you, or you face major set backs or problems. These things will take on a variety of forms.
–It could be that your spouse leaves you, or dies;
–you lose your job;
–your investments tank
–your business take a major financial hit;
–you're injured in an accident;
–a close family member is stricken with a life-threatening illness.
–something you bring on yourself–because you didn't handle a personal decision wisely;
–you get into an automobile accident;
–maybe you injure yourself

Set backs take a variety of forms, and happen to everyone of us. But one thing they always do...they dim our light. We just don't see things as clearly as we'd like to when we go through hard times.

–set backs test our faith in a God who says He love us.
–set backs cause us to evaluate our understanding of God's direction for us or our involvement in His will.
–set backs cause us pain.
–and set backs dim the light of our spiritual resolve and faith and Kingdom effectiveness.

What Jesus is saying is that when we define ourselves by the treasures that last, our light doesn't go so dim during these hard times. (Picture #3, again). We still have a significant amount of God's light to get us through the difficulty and see His way–which is always the best way–out of the set back. Jesus calls this being "full of light" in verse 22.

But what if you've decided to treasure all the stuff that doesn't last. You've already dimmed the light in you. Now, a set back comes, and that incredible bank account is gone, or that loved one is gone, or that relationship is over. The little bit of light you have goes dark (black screen), Jesus says, "Oh, how great the darkness!"

This metaphor is there to give us the very practical reason why treasuring the right treasure is so important.

C. Serving Two Masters

Finally, Jesus tells us something that we may not want to hear, but it is the only way to have the bright light of God, in us...

Matthew 6:24
24 "No one can serve two masters. 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 both God and Money.

The Greek reads, "NO MAN CAN BE A SLAVE TO TWO MASTERS". To understand this statement, we must remember two things about slavery at the time of Jesus' words.

1. Slave was a thing

First, a slave in the eyes of the law was a not a person, but a thing. A slave had absolutely no rights of his own. A master could do anything he or she liked with a slave. In the eyes of the law, a slave was a living tool. His master could sell him, beat him, throw him out in the cold, or even kill him. A slave's master possessed him as completely as any of his material possessions.

2. Slave had no time off

Second, in the ancient world a slave had literally no time which was his own. Every moment of his life belonged to his master. There were no days off, no holidays, no rest. There was no time for hobbies, or personal development, or relaxation. Every moment of a slave's life belonged to his master.

3. Slavery applied

What does that mean in the context of serving two masters? It means simply this. There is no time off from being a follower of Jesus Christ in order to pursue things that are not consistent with being a follower of Jesus Christ. You belong exclusively to God OR you don't receive the benefits of belonging to Him.

You cannot claim to be a Christian and pursue things that are not consistent with the Christian faith, and hope to have a chance of getting through the difficult times of your life with God's divine light and help. It will not happen.

A follower of Jesus Christ cannot have divided loyalties. We cannot have the benefits of a love-relationship with God on our terms. A complete relationship with God is, in fact, conditional. It is predicated on a desire and a tangible effort on your part to strive for personal holiness as you learn about it from God's Word. To put it in modern terms, "it's God's way or the highway." There is no in-between. And Jesus said, you must choose which master you're going to follow–God or money.

III. Conclusion

Illustration: Several years ago, construction workers were laying a foundation for a building outside the city of Pompeii. They found the corpse of a woman who must have been fleeing from the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius but was caught in the rain of hot ashes. The woman's hands clutched jewels, which were preserved in excellent condition. She had the jewels, but had lost her life.

That's the bottom line, friends. Worldly treasures are not wise investments because you can't take them with you–they have no eternal value.

Jim Elliot, a missionary who was martyred for his faith, understood this reality when he wrote in his journal, (front of bulletin) "A person is no fool to give up what he cannot keep in order to gain what he cannot lose."

The choice is yours–just remember, you can't have it both ways. It's God's way or the highway. "In what treasure are you investing?" Amen.