Where is Your Heart?
Pastor Bill Nichols - April 18, 2010Some source material from two John MacArthur sermons based on Matthew 6:19-24
Introduction
A rich man died. One of his acquaintances said to another one, hey I heard that so and so died. His friend said, "that's right." "What did he leave?", the first one asked, to which the friend replied, "All of it."
This morning I am going to talk about money. According to Pastor and author John MacArthur, Jesus talks about money in the Gospel of Matthew, 109 times. I promise you that I am not going to cite every verse or teach every lesson on this that we can find in Matthew. I am just going to deal with the six verses that Art read for you earlier; Matthew 6:19-24.
Before I do that however, I want to read to you the verses that immediately follow this teaching on money because I want you to understand the context in which Jesus was speaking. You already know part of that context if you have been here for this series on the Sermon on the Mount. You should already know that Jesus primary target in these lessons are the religious leaders of the day, especially the legalistic Pharisees. They possessed "head knowledge" of the Scriptures, but their hearts were far from God.
Read Matthew 6:25-34. In this section of Scripture, Jesus says; "trust me to provide what you need". Of course, it will take me 20 minutes next week to say that, but that is the bottom line of next week's sermon. (I am going to make a mental note of everyone who is here today that does not show up next week because you already know what I am going to preach!
So lets get back to verses 19-24. In this passage Jesus mentions three things in relation to money:
- Treasuries
- Vision
- Masters
Two Treasuries (Verses: 19-21)
Notice in verses 19 and 20 that Jesus mentions two different places that you can lay up treasures. First he mentions an earthly treasury. What comes to your mind when you think of laying up treasures on earth? (Responses)
Jesus describes these treasures as something that moths and rust can destroy and thieves can steal. So now, expand your thinking a little. What other things come to your mind when you think of earthly treasure? (Responses)
Okay, so earthly treasures are basically things! Money, cars, houses, jewelry, clothes, or just about anything else that is a thing that has value and we consider a treasure.
Next Jesus mentions a heavenly treasury. What comes to your mind when you think of laying up treasures in heaven? (Responses)
Isn't it funny how we distinguish earthly treasure (things) from heavenly treasure (actions)? And yet the whole context of this passage from verse 19-34 is really dealing with money!
Now before you go getting all riled up at me, let me say a few things about money, or riches. God is not opposed to riches. You can find in the Old Testament many servants of God who were rich. These men were all made rich by God: Abraham, Job, Boaz, David and Solomon to name a few.
Deuteronomy 8:18 says,
"For it is He (God) who gives you the ability to produce wealth."(NIV)
Proverbs 24:3 says,
"By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established; through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures."
First Timothy 6:17 says,
"put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment."(NIV)
You can see from these few verses that God is not opposed to wealth.
What God is opposed to is our "attitude" concerning wealth! Verse 21 says rather loudly; "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also!"
Let me say it again: "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also!"
You see, the Pharisees attitude was "the richer you were, the closer you were to God." They believed, based on some of the teachings in the Old Testament that riches equated to righteousness. Now that was not what God was saying at all. What He said was; obey and I will bless you, disobey and I will curse you. That eventually got twisted into meaning if you had a lot of stuff you were blessed by God and if you did not you were cursed of God. So they self-righteously hoarded what they had and continually sought to have more.
What about your heart? What about my heart? We in the United States live in a society that says wealth = success. And so our hearts are generally wrapped up in either trying to achieve wealth, or worse, pretending, or maybe deluding ourselves into believing that we have achieved it with the things that we buy.
How much of our wealth are we using to store up treasures in heaven? Do we use our houses, our cars, our possessions, and our money in ways that stores up heavenly treasure? Listen carefully, I do not think Jesus is saying here, get rid of everything you have got and give it all to the poor. But I do think He is saying, do not be so attached to the things you have so that you do not do anything for the poor, the lost, the cynical, the dying. Do not get so attached to things that you do not do anything for me! Why? "The things of the world are passing away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever."
1 John 2:15 So let me ask you, where is your heart?
Two Visions (Verses: 22-23)
Next Jesus says something that just seems to be out of place. He goes from talking about money to talking about your eyes, your vision, your sight.
Please read verses: 22-23
This only makes sense when you understand two things. First, the eye here is really just a metaphor for the heart. In the previous verses, Jesus is saying "where your treasure is, there also is your heart."
So do not get distracted when Jesus here starts talking about your eyes, for what He is really talking about once again is your heart. He says if your eye is good, meaning if you have a good heart, then the whole body will be good.
Second, the focus in this verse is on the meaning of the word good. The word good literally means generous. It is used that way many times in the New Testament, for example, James 1:5 "God who gives generously."
Romans 12:8 Paul talking about spiritual gifts uses this word to mean to "give generously." Jesus is saying then, if your eye/heart is generous your whole spiritual life will be flooded with light or spiritual understanding. Your eyes will be awakened to spiritual things when your focus goes from earthly treasure to heavenly treasure. But as long as your eyes are focused on earthly things, your eyes will be bad and your life will be full of darkness. If your heart treasures earthly things, you will not understand godly things.
Two Masters Verse: 24
Finally Jesus mentions two masters in relation to money. Please read verse 24. In the Greek, the word translated "serve" means to be a slave to. We are all too familiar with the word slavery. We in the United States understand vividly from our nations past history the horrible realities of slavery. Slavery required total devotion to one master. Jesus says that no one can serve (be a slave to) two masters. A slave cannot divide his allegiance between two people or between two things. He must be devoted to one or the other.
Jesus then gives us a choice. We can be completely devoted to God, or we can be completely devoted to money. We can serve God, or we can serve riches. Our allegiance will be to one or the other, but it can not be to both. The Apostle Paul constantly called himself a bond servant (slave) of Jesus Christ, so I do not want you to go away this morning thinking that being a slave to God is a bad thing. It is not the kind of slavery that we think about when we think of the Civil War.
Jesus had a rich young man come to Him one day and asked Jesus what he had to do to be saved. Jesus response was simply obey the commandments. "Which ones?" the man asked. "Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not lie, honor your father and mother, love your neighbor as yourself."
"All of these I have kept, what do I still lack?" (Interesting, he knew there had to be something else standing between him and God.)
Jesus answer was this: "Your heart is in the wrong place." That is not what He said, but it is what He meant. He told the young man, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
How do I know his heart was in the wrong place? The next verse says that the young man went away sad, because he had great wealth." (Matthew 19:16-22) You see, this man's wealth, his money, his earthly treasures were more important to him than his eternal rewards. He was a slave to his wealth.
Conclusion
Speaking of John Wesley, famous theologian and co-founder with his brother Charles of the Methodist movement, MacArthur says: "Now we think of John Wesley as a great man of God and a great man of prayer and a man devoted to the time in the Word of God, up every morning for hours in the Greek text studying and we think of him as a man of some low means. John Wesley was an extremely wealthy man, he gained his wealth from the hymns he wrote and the books he penned. And at one period of time in his life he gave away well nigh 50 thousand pounds sterling ($76,950), just gave it away to people, which was a fortune in his time. (1700's) He was a wealthy man and he gave this fortune away. And when John Wesley died his estate was worth 28 pounds" (about $43.00)
Where did Wesley lay up his treasures? Where was Wesley's heart?
As we close this morning, I want you to know that this is a heart issue that I struggle with. I tell you that because I suspect that many of you struggle with it too and I do not want you to think I stand here today piously telling you that you should examine your heart to see where your treasure is, while playing the Pharisee and ignoring my own life.