Matthew 6:19-24 (ESV)

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.

Introduction

This is Pastor Chris. It has been my great joy to be sharing with you on “Jesus Speaks”. I pray and hope with all my heart that you have found it helpful in some way. If you found it helpful, a blessing, please pass this on to others because good news is always meant to be shared, and not to be kept. Today I will be touching on Jesus’ teaching on Treasures in Heaven, and we read from Matthew Chapter 6 Verse 19 to 24.

There was a famous song by a group called ABBA, naming “Money, Money, Money”. And, they say that money makes the world go round. We all know that money is important. But, how are Christians and Believers in Jesus to think about money differently? And not simply to think about money differently, but how to handle money differently to our previous life before we came to know Jesus and to our world which is so forgetful and so rebellious against God. We listen to Jesus: what does Jesus mean when he says do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth?

What do you value most?

The first thing that we need to explain and to understand is the word ‘Treasures’. Treasures simply mean what we value most. So, let me ask you as you listen to this: what is it that you value most? Do you value your husband, your wife, your children, or your parents more than others? I remember years ago when we just got a new car, my wife had to go out one day. She rang me and said she just got into an accident. At the moment, I was so tempted at that moment to ask her “Is the car all right?” instead of “Are you okay?” because the car was barely a few days old. But God overtook me and so I asked her “Mona, are you alright?” I'm sure I'm not the only one struggling with this. Men who love their cars a lot can understand when you have a new car; the last thing you want is for the car, a few days old, to get into an accident.

Say NO to materialism and consumerism as a lifestyle

What do you treasure most? What do you value most? Whatever we value most, we will find a place to store it, to keep it. So, whether you are watching a dog digging a hole for its bone, for dogs’ value bones, or you are observing a child hiding his or her toys from her friends when they're playing, we are actually witnessing the same phenomena – we are witnessing people hiding their treasures. That’s what we do with treasures.

Jesus is warning us of the futility of this. He is warning us about the futility of gathering things, hoarding things as a lifestyle. If that's true, Jesus is warning us about the futility of greed as a lifestyle. As Jesus’ people, we should say NO to greed and materialism as a lifestyle and a life goal.

What is materialism? Materialism is when our lives get reduced to just simply things or stuff. And, if our lives get reduced to stuff, we are really stuffed up, and our lives become only a series of accumulations. Let’s test ourselves: think of when you are most happy? You are most happy when you are buying and accumulating something. And, when are you most unhappy? There is a difference between existing and living. For many of us in a modern-day 21st century world, a world of consumerism, a world of materialism, we are happiest when we are buying. We are happiest when we are accumulating, buying the latest gadget, accumulating something and that would mean that you and I are the least happy when we are not doing that. Once we start on that highway of materialism, once we start on that path of consumerism, we have become miserable and pitiful because your life and my life are made up of stuff. Jesus says “Don't go there”. As Jesus’ people, we are to say NO to greed as a lifestyle.

Say YES to Treasures in Heaven

To say NO to materialism, consumerism and hoarding as a lifestyle, what are we to say YES to then? We are to say YES to Treasures in Heaven. Why? Because this is where moth and rust do not break in and steal. And Jesus says, “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” So, have you worked out your treasure? Take ntoe that Jesus did not say, “where your heart is, there your treasure will be.” He says that where your treasure is, your heart will be also. So, what we treasure has a way of leading, or should we say, misleading our heart. What is your treasure? What is my treasure? We are fast becoming a generation that knows the price of everything: the price of this handbag is $200; the price of this shoes is $100; the price of this car is $50,000; the price of this house is half a million dollars etc. But what is the value of this? Increasingly, people are confusing and exchanging value for price.

We know the price of everything; we know the value of nothing

I think it is one of the NGO advertisements, perhaps World Vision, that featured a mother bringing in a child to a bar somewhere in Latin America. And, she was obviously drunk, and an alcoholic. As she brought that young child in, she set her on the bar counter and asked all the other customers “How much?” By that, she meant, “how much are you willing to pay for this child so that I can get my next drink or next fix.” When we listen to something like that, we think that that's ugly, that’s the cheapening of life, and we would never do it in a first world country where we live in, in America, Canada, Australia, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore etc. We just need to pause and ponder if that is true.

We may not be as crude as that lady selling her child for the next drink. But, many of us live and work as absentee parents, and we are now raising a whole generation of children who are raised either by maids, domestic helpers, grandparents, or by gadgets. Whenever a child needs attention, we just give him / her a handphone or computer. In that way, we don't know the difference between the value of relationships, the value of children; we are all going for the price of this.

I once spoke to a girl who was studying in Sydney, Australia and she was just symbolic of the thousands of students around the world. Her parents are rich and they work very hard. They keep giving her things but she doesn’t want anymore things. She just wants time with her parents, but they don't have time and never have time. If they come and visit her, it's only for a few days. She wants more time with her parents.

There is deep cry of many children; there is deep cry of many of us. We are cash rich; we are asset rich, but we are time poor and relationship poor. We know the price of everything; we know the value of nothing. It is miserable to live this way. For some of us, we need to sort out if this is our treasure, more money, more power, more things, more accumulations, more gadgets, but less time, less meaning, less value. That is the lie of the devil, the lie of the world and the lie our deceitful hearts have bought into.

Our eyes are the lamp of the body

How do we correct this? By listening to Jesus our Lord, our eyes are the lamp of the body. He says in verse 22: If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eyes are bad, your whole body with full of darkness. These are lessons of the eye, and our visual obsession will soon become our heart obsession. Our eyes are the entry point to our body. If we allow in good things, our life will be good; if we allow in bad things, our life will be distracted. Our life may not simply be distracted, but distracted and destroyed.

Visual distractions will lead to heart destruction

I remembered I was driving in Gold Coast Australia on a holiday, and I came up to a huge roundabout. At this roundabout, there were multiple road signages. I found my eyeballs literally darting from left to right, and I had to choose which one to look at – do I turn left or turn right, or do I go straight? It was a time before we had the internet and GPS.

At times, there are so many visual distractions in our lives. We literally find our eyeballs, not knowing which one to focus on. Our visual distractions will lead to our heart destruction. Our eyes are the entry point to our bodies. So, what are you allowing your eyes to look upon today? Whatever we allow our eyes to look upon, we will soon become what our eyes look at. If you are staring at money, you will soon become Mr or Mrs Moneybags or Miss Moneybags. If you are staring at success, that will be your whole goal in life, to be successful. If you are staring at happiness, soon your whole life will be driven by happiness. And if you ever walk through a period of unhappiness, you would then think that is not good for you. So the eyes are the entry point of the body. And Jesus ends this portion by saying, “No one can serve two masters. Either you hate the one or love the other, be devoted to the one or despise the other.”

We can’t serve two masters: God and money

This is a lesson not simply from the eye, but a lesson from slavery. In the world where Jesus lived in, there were many slaves. A slave would know that it is a physical impossibility to serve two masters. Because a slave will be at the beck and call of his master 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It's not possible to be a slave to two households and two masters. We don't have 48 hours and we don't have 14 days.

Whatever we do not know and Jesus’ lesson for us: we have to choose between God and money. Money in that sense is the most obscene idolatry because it offers you the power from money to be in control of your life, and to be in control of others. Have you ever noticed that people with the most money have the most say in families and in day-to-day living?

I was ministering in the Philippines and this man came up to me after the conference. He shared while crying that he hated Christmas, New Year and Chinese New Year because for all the gatherings that he went to, all his cousins would have grown richer but he was still minding the hand-me down business from his father. His cousins would buy new cars, move to new houses, been on holidays to new places but all he can say is that he is still running his father's business. He cried and cried in front of me. What he is experiencing is the power of the idolatry of money. Everybody listened to everybody else in the family gatherings, and everybody ignored him and looked down on him. Jesus tells us that we have to choose between God and money.

May we listen carefully; may we listen humbly. May we be rescued from a life of consumerism, materialism and live a life of trust in God.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, we thank you; we praise you now and always, for teaching us not to store up Treasures on Earth. Thank you for teaching us about the futility of accumulation as a lifestyle and a life goal, of how it distracts us and finally destroys us. Thank you for your teaching about the eye, and we have to watch what we look at because our visual obsession with soon become our heart obsession and destruction. Thank you for warning us that it is a physical impossibility to serve two masters and grant us every discernment and empowerment to be freed from the slavery and idolatry of money. Grant us every discernment and empowerment to choose believing in God by believing in you. Hear our prayers, in your mighty name we pray, Amen.