The High Cost of Cheap Treasure

Audio Transcript

Well, I want to ask you today, please to take your Bibles and turn to Matthew chapter 6. We’ll pick up where we left off in our study through the Bible. We’re now in the Gospels. We’re now studying the life of Christ. And we’ll be today in Matthew chapter 6:19-34.

If we’re honest with ourselves, I think we might have to admit that sometimes it’s easier to read and to hear those sections of the Bible that are very lofty and mysterious and above our heads, because not only is it interesting, but when we hear things like that, Daniel and Revelation and Ezekiel’s wheels, we go, “Wow, how cool.” But that kind of lets us off the hook, because we can hear that and we can walk away and say, “Well, you know, that’s interesting, but boy, it’s above my pay grade. And so I really don’t have to do anything with that. That doesn’t apply to my daily life.” And so we kind of get a free pass.

What’s far more challenging is to hear those parts of the Bible that are so clear, so direct, so simple that they hit us right where we live. They are inescapable. They’re unavoidable. We can’t walk away from them. We know that we have to do something with them. Today is one of those sections. Next week will be as well, as we finish up the Sermon on the Mount here in Matthew chapters 6 and 7. These words of Jesus here are so practical. Honestly, they almost hurt. And we have to do something with what we’re going to hear today and next week. We have to do something with this.

I don’t think I’ve ever quoted Mark Twain in a church service. He’s not someone you would typically include in a sermon, but Mark Twain said this about the Bible. He said, “It’s not those parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me. It’s the parts that I do understand.” You relate to that, right? You get some of those ouch moments and you’re like, “Wow, nobody needs to explain that to me. I just need to do something with it.”

Now, the words of Jesus that we’re going to look at today are so practical that we’re left knowing we have to do something with this. And He’s speaking these words, I’ll remind you, to crowds of people who had gathered on a hillside in Galilee to hear Him teach. This section of Scripture—Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7—are commonly referred to as the Sermon on the Mount.

Jesus is speaking to ordinary people here, to fishermen, to farmers, to families struggling to make ends meet. Families living under the weight of the Roman regime and the heavy taxes that were laid on them, families that many of them knew would possibly face starvation if this year’s crop didn’t come through. These are real people with real problems just like us. And in this sermon, Jesus is, He’s honing in on the realities of daily life, the issues that we all face: money, choices, loyalty. He warns about idols that can so easily hijack our hearts. Have you ever had an idol hijack your heart?

Last time, in the verses just prior to these, we looked at the Lord’s Prayer together. And He taught us not to just recite mindless babble like the pagans do, but He taught us how to pray. Not so much words to repeat like a poem, but a life to be lived out. That’s really what the Lord’s Prayer is. And then He went on in the verses just after that to talk about fasting. And He said, you know, if you fast, and by the way, there’s, this is a whole sermon on itself, but there’s nothing mystical or magical or mysterious about fasting. It’s as practical as the Christian life gets. It’s just simply saying I’m choosing to go without my most basic need in order that I may instead focus on my relationship with the Lord. And every time you feel that hunger pain, it’s a reminder: “I’m putting Him first.”

And Jesus says in the verses just prior to where we’re going to be today, He says, “You know, the Pharisees, these were the religious elite of the day, the religious experts of the day, so to speak, but they were they were botching things horribly.” And Jesus says, you know, when they fast, they disfigure their faces in front of other people. “How are you doing today, Bill?” “Oh, praise the Lord.” “Well, what’s up, Bill?” “Oh, you know, I’ve been fasting for two days.” “You have? Wow, that’s impressive.” And they’d get a pat on the back. And Jesus says they’ve got their reward already. No reward for me. Jesus says, “When you fast, don’t make it public. Just keep it to yourself. Wash your face.” He says, “Put cream on your hair.” He literally says that in Scripture. Look at it. It’s right there. Or pomade or whatever guys use nowadays. You know, “Wash your face. Put a smile on. Keep this between you and Me,” He says.

Now we come to verse 19. These are very familiar verses. I hope we’ll maybe see them fresh today. Matthew 6:19, Jesus speaking, “Do not lay up or store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.” And here’s the kicker right here. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Now, in the verses leading up to this, Jesus has pointed out the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. As I said, they were the religious leaders of the day, the religious teachers of the day. They went around, as I said, trying to show everyone how holy and righteous and godly they were. They made their tithing public. They would announce it with trumpets. “Look at me. Everybody pay attention. Look how much I’m giving this week.”

You know, I don’t want to get into this, but it’s why we chose not to take up an offering here. You—there’s nothing wrong with that. I don’t think if a church does that, that’s fine. But you know how that puts people on the spot? I remember as a little boy sitting there in Australia and the plate was being passed and there was a woman, I think was a visitor, and she just looked poor, and I remember as the plate was passed to her I kind of glanced and I saw this look of embarrassment that stayed with me. So when we started this church I said, “Yeah, we’re not doing that. Leave it between people and God.” That’s why we just have a box on the back wall there. By the way, we have a box on the back wall there. If you—it’s right—it’s right back there.

You know, I don’t know who gives here and who doesn’t. Don’t—never have, never will. Have no interest in it whatsoever. I keep up with the finances of the church, you know, to see how things are going and what we need to do and so on. But this is all up to you. I’ve told you before, if this church closes for lack of finances, it should close. It ought to close. So, you know, don’t—we don’t make—we don’t make our—these things with God public. We keep them private.

And Jesus says, you know, these Pharisees, they let everybody know when they’re fasting. But one of the other things they also did was they flaunted their wealth. And they said, “This is a sign of how godly I am. It’s a sign of how righteous I am. It’s a stamp of God’s approval on my life, my riches.” Good thing we don’t hear that teaching today. I have four videos in my phone right now that I could show you that would make you want to puke, from a pastor saying, “Look at my gold tennis shoes.” Literally saying, “People get mad at me because I have a jet.” And he says, “This is a quote. Got two of them.”

So the Pharisees use their wealth as a sign of God’s blessing. Meanwhile, the average person who wanted to please God, they’re sitting there looking at how little they have, and their only conclusion was, “Well, I’ll never be as righteous as those Pharisees cuz I have nothing.” This was the system of religious teaching that these people lived under. The teacher said, “We’re the ones who are going to get into God’s kingdom, and the only way you’ll get in is if you’re like us.” And then Jesus comes along. And He turned the system upside down. And this entire sermon here is Jesus saying to these people, “Not even the Pharisees are going to get into My kingdom, because it requires a righteousness far greater than what they even claim to have.” Imagine the shock that reverberated through that crowd.

We looked at this verse a few weeks ago. I want to remind you, Matthew 5:20. Just back up a little. In this same sermon, Jesus said, “For I say to you that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” And what Jesus did there in one sentence was to knock the legs out from underneath everybody and say, “Don’t worry about you guys not getting in. Not even the Pharisees are getting in because even their righteousness doesn’t meet the holy standard of God.” And what He’s doing here as He begins His ministry and His teaching is He’s ultimately pointing to Himself and saying, “You have to come through Me. I’m going to live the sinless life you can’t live. I’m going to be the sacrifice in your place.”

So you had these religious teachers living in greed and covetousness and hoarding up wealth trying to prove their righteousness by it. And Jesus says they’ve got the wrong view of possessions and wealth. “Those in My kingdom have a totally different view.” It’s not about hoarding up more than the next guy. Jesus here is trying to show that that’s pointless anyway because it’s all eventually going to rust or decay or get stolen. Your most prized possessions are going to end up in a landfill or an antique store or the back of a closet one day. The thing you treasure most… But then Jesus gives the right perspective. He said, “Instead, what you need to do is lay up treasures in heaven, because treasure there will never rust. It’ll never decay. It’ll never get stolen. That’s the only kind of treasure that will last forever.”

And you know, I’m reminded as I was preparing for this, I’m prone to making a statement like that, but then we talked about this yesterday in the men’s meeting. But then not kind of helping you understand how, like, I get up here and say, “Okay, lay up treasures in heaven. Have a good day.” And everyone leaves going, “How do how do I do that? What does that look like?” Well, look, this will look different for every one of us. So, let’s not compare with each other. God may call one person to give up something that He doesn’t call everyone else to give up. That’s perfectly okay. The Bible says comparing yourselves among yourselves is not wise. That’s a very foolish mission to be on because there are only two outcomes: pride or discouragement. You’re either going to think you’re better than the people you’re comparing yourself to, or you’re worse.

So, I jotted down. How many things did I jot down? Three. Just I I want to just give you three simple things that came to mind that may help you walk this out. Okay.

Number one, view this present world as temporary, not permanent. You know, the very words Jesus uses here—moth, rust, and thieves—are words that mock the illusion of permanence, don’t they? I will tell you, you’ll be less tempted to invest your whole life here when you remember that nothing here is going to last. Man, the amount of energy we expend in life trying to make temporary things permanent. What a waste. View this present world as temporary, not permanent.

Number two, practice obedience that doesn’t pay off immediately. I don’t know how else to word that. Earthly treasure, earthly investments, you know, they give us instant feedback, applause or profit or satisfaction. Heavenly treasure is more like a farmer sewing seeds into the ground and having to wait months for the harvest to come in. He sews the seed. He walks out. The next day, nothing. The next day, nothing. The next week, nothing. Weeks and weeks and weeks, he waits. And finally, there’s a little green sprout poking up through the soil. It’s a long process of return on that investment. Heavenly treasure is like that. I would encourage you to train yourself to live for eternal reward instead of instant gratification. And you’ll have to do that. No one can do that for you. We live in a microwave society where you push the button and you want the result. Now, have you ever yelled at the microwave because it’s taking too long? You realize how insane that is? Train yourself. Train yourself to live for eternal reward instead of instant gratification.

And the third practical thing I would say is aim your life toward what will last when life is over. Every earthly pursuit one day will come to nothing. It doesn’t mean it’s not important. It’s just we must remember every earthly pursuit, no matter what pinnacle we may reach, it will one day come to nothing. Every earthly pursuit. It’s like a man so proud of the sand castle he built. It’s bigger than everybody else’s sand castle. “Look at this.” It’s like a man taking pride in a sand castle until he stands there and watches the rising tide wash it all away. Listen, building things on Earth is fine. Whatever that looks like, it’s fine. Let’s just make sure our ultimate aim is building things that will last when life is over. Have you ever listed out the pursuits and the things in your life that are earthly in one column and eternal in another? It will shock you, but it’s a help because you look at it and go, “I think I’m out of balance.” These are practical steps.

Now, all this ties into that statement Jesus made here, the last one we read in verse 21. He says this—this is key to everything—”For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” This is critical. When this finally clicked with me years ago, it was life-changing. Notice He doesn’t say, “Where your heart is, there your treasure will be.” No, no, no. Your treasure doesn’t chase after your heart. Your heart always chases after what you treasure. Your heart will always pursue your investments. Your heart will always pursue what you value most.

Every time I think about Judas Iscariot. Think about this. He walked and lived with Jesus for three years. He heard the teaching. He saw the miracles. Yet Judas loved money so much that he stole it from the money bag. And for 30 pieces of silver, the price of a slave in the Old Testament, he sold the Son of God. And he got that immediate jolt, satisfaction. “30 pieces of silver, baby.” He traded the eternal for the temporary. Why? Because his heart was pursuing what he treasured. And what he treasured was money. It ultimately ruined his life. So if you and I say that we treasure Christ above all else, how exactly does that show up in our life?

Jesus told this extraordinary parable. It may be my favorite of all. Matthew 13:44. Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.” It’s a picture of a man maybe taking a shortcut away he’s never been before. And he walks through a field and he maybe trips over something just barely sticking out of the ground and he backs up and looks. He says, “What in the world is that?” He starts to dig and he uncovers this priceless treasure and he buries it back up and he runs home and he has a yard sale. He sells everything. He sold everything he owned. Things that just yesterday he never would have dreamed of parting with. What could possibly make such a sudden change in values? It’s because all the things he used to treasure suddenly lost their value when he found real treasure. He found something so much more valuable that he was willing to give up everything he had previously valued in order to have it.

Listen, here’s an important truth. As we go through life, we put price tags on everything. We put values on everything. And what we value most determines what we invest in. I’m not talking about stock investments, that that too, but much more practical. It’s why some dads spend 15 hours a week on the golf course when they have a new little baby at home. Don’t get mad at me. Golf is fine. In fact, I remember when Caroline was born, our first little one, I was on the golf course one Saturday. I’m a terrible golfer. I should not be on a golf course. I’ve been asked to leave a golf course. Actually, I was out there on a beautiful Saturday and I stopped and I said, “What am I doing? I have a brand new baby girl at home. I’m going to be out here at least 4 hours.” I went home, put my clubs in the attic. That was 31 years ago. Never touched them since. Now, I’m not saying that’s what you have to do. I’m just talking about that for me was a conviction. It’s like, “Bro, you’re putting a higher price tag on your leisure than your new daughter. You’re a fool.”

What we value most is what we invest ourselves in. Once you and I have found Jesus and His kingdom mission, folks, we found the one thing worth investing in more than everything else. Paul puts it this way in Philippians chapter 3:7-9. He says, “But whatever was to my profit, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” Wow. “For whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in Him.” Oh, if we had some men, and, man, I’ll just pick on you. If we had some men in this generation who would take this to heart, we could change the world. Oh, forgive me. Goodness. I also want to be very quick to say, listen, please hear this. Please, please hear this. The warning here is not about having possessions. The warning here is about setting our hearts on them.

All right, quickly, next section. Jesus continues this same theme in the next two verses by pointing out something very unusual in our culture but extremely important. Matthew 6:22 and 23. “The eye,” He says, “is the lamp of the body. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light in you is darkness, how great is that darkness?”

So this doesn’t make sense to us unless we dig in a bit. In Jewish thought, the eye was a metaphor for either generosity or greed. A good eye meant generosity. A bad eye meant stinginess or envy. It could be translated. Let me give you two quick examples from the Old Testament. Proverbs 22:9, “He who has a generous eye will be blessed, for he gives of his bread to the poor.” Now, here’s the opposite. Deuteronomy 15:9, “Beware lest there be a wicked thought in your heart, saying the seventh year, the year of increase is near.” I don’t have time to get into that. And here it is. “And your eye be evil against your poor brother and you give him nothing.” Jesus is saying if we view life through the lens of generosity. Now remember, He’s still talking about treasure from the previous three verses. If we view life through the lens of generosity, we’ll be filled with light. If we view life through the lens of greed, darkness will consume us.

But it goes even deeper than just generosity and greed. In the original Greek that we’ve that behind what we’ve just read here in these verses, the phrase “good eye” literally means the word single. Single eye. And bad eye carries the idea of divided. And it ties right back to our heart in the previous section. Did you know that your heart has eyes? Paul wrote to the church and said, “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened.”

Throughout Scripture, we’re called to have a pure heart. And I think we make that much more complicated than it needs to be. I’ve mentioned this to you before, but what that literally means, having a pure heart in Scripture means having an undivided heart. It’s a heart that is single-focused upon God, not divided or diluted or mixed with other things. I’ve used the example of marriage in this before because it’s the most painfully real thing I know. Imagine if your spouse said to you, “Hey sweetie, I love you so much. You’re my number one. You have my heart. But there are some other guys across town who have my heart, too. I’m going to give you more, but they have my heart, too.” I mean, just saying that makes me ill. Yet, God says, “This is what you’re doing with Me.” When He says, “I want you to have a pure heart. Create in me a clean heart, oh God,” it means undivided. It means unshared.

This is why the psalmist said, you know, and this ties back to now the eyes, how we view life. The psalmist said in Psalm 103, Psalm 101:3, “I will set nothing wicked before my eyes.” Instead, he said in Psalm 123, “I will lift up my eyes to You, Lord, to You whose throne is in heaven.” Why? Why is that important? Because what we look at shapes us. What we look at determines the direction we’re headed in. You look at things that are going to give you a divided heart, it’s going to reshape your life. You’re going to end up there.

And the same is true with treasure that Jesus is talking about here. If our eyes are set on earthly treasure, then we have bad eyes and our whole body, our whole life is going to be full of darkness. But if we keep our eyes on Him, we’ll have good eyes, single-focused eyes, and we’ll be filled with light. I think the verse that sums this up beautifully for me is Ephesians 5:8. It says this, “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” And here’s the part everybody misses. “Then live as children of light.” There’s the key. “You were once darkness.” Yes, we get that. We sing songs about that. “But now you are light.” Yes. Praise the Lord. “Now live as children of light.” What are you looking at? What are you focused on? Are your eyes filled with darkness leading them in the wrong direction or are they filled with light?

You can see a theme developing here. Jesus is warning against trying to live a divided life. He says there are two places you can store up treasure. You must choose one. He says there are two ways you can view life. You must choose one. And next He’s going to tell us there are two masters you can serve. You must choose one. This hit me. I’ve never thought about this before, but as I was putting these thoughts together, I I believe maybe there’s a reason that Jesus places this teaching about eyes right between His teaching on treasure and His teaching on masters. Because the eye is the entry point. What you look at determines what you treasure and what you treasure determines what you serve.

And so He goes right on with that thought in the next verse. In verse 24, Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” Yours may say money. That’s a fine trans translation, but not quite 100%. First of all, the word serve here in the Greek is the word duleo. It might sound familiar from our Christmas sermon a few weeks ago when when we looked at Philippians, we talked about Jesus took upon Him the form of a servant. The word is dulos, slave, bondslave, the lowest form of slave. When Jesus says you cannot serve two masters, it’s the word duleo. It means to be enslaved, to be in bondage. And the word money that yours is probably translated in is the original word mammon. It’s an old Aramaic word that it does mean currency, but it’s a lot more than currency. It encapsulates, you know, the entire system of earthly wealth and security. Mammon was actually seen more than money. It was seen as a rival god. Small G.

Jesus isn’t saying it’s difficult to serve two masters. He isn’t saying you shouldn’t serve two masters. He’s saying you can’t serve two masters. It’s impossible. The grammar here, which I’m not great at. I, you know, did poorly in about every subject in school just because I didn’t try. I didn’t care. I didn’t want to be there. Kids, stay in school. Otherwise, you know, this is how you turn out. But the grammar here is emphatic. It’s it translates, “You are not able to serve two masters.” You’re not able to.

I think about the rich young ruler who came to Jesus. He kept all the religious commandments. He was by all accounts, I believe, a good man. He wanted to follow Jesus. But Jesus saw into his heart and saw that he had a mammon there. He had a rival god. And so Jesus said to him, “Sell everything that you have, give the money to the poor, and then come follow Me.” Now, I must insert quickly, this verse has been wildly misunderstood. This does not mean that all of us must go and sell everything we have and become homeless. That’s not what this means at all. Jesus said this to this man because this was his god. Jesus said, “You cannot serve that and Me. Go sell everything you have, give it to the poor, and then come follow Me.” You know what it says? It says, “And the man went away sorrowful, for he had great wealth.” His great wealth wasn’t the problem. It’s that he loved his wealth more than Jesus.

Look, I’ve known in the course of our life on the mission field in Australia and Africa, we’ve known many millionaires. And I’m telling you, these men, they were so inspirational to me because every one of them, without a doubt, I I can think of their names, you know, every one of them, without exception, were humble, quiet, kind, generous men. You’d never know that they had a dime unless you dug, you know, and explored millionaires. There’s nothing wrong with having things. This man’s problem wasn’t that he had great wealth. It’s that his wealth had him. He wasn’t able to serve both masters. The question isn’t whether you have money, it’s whether money has you. The problem isn’t owning things, it’s whether things own you. I’m going to tell you, your heart, man. It is contested territory. Someone or something will be your master. Joshua said to the people, “Choose you this day whom you will serve.” Where are you on this?

And I’m telling you, if one person leaves this service and says, “Phil said it’s wrong to have money,” I’m gonna come knock you upside the head. Don’t you go back and listen to this again, that’s not what I’m saying. It’s not what Jesus is saying. I happen to drive a nice car now cuz my wife made me get it. You know, I almost died a few years ago, y’all know. Right after I stood up here and preached. And, you know, my car was had like over $5,000 in repairs. And she’s like, “You know, you almost died. Go get a car you like. Have some fun.” I’m like, “Yes, ma’am.” And so, but you know, the guilt, the guilt I carried with that. It’s like, I’m a pastor. What am I doing? You know, and someone corrected me like, “Phil, you’ve worked hard your whole life. You like you don’t need to be ashamed of having something that you enjoy.”

But I remember a time when cars owned me. I remember when I moved over here at 21 and had my business and all and I bought my first sports car. Man, I polished that thing every two or three hours. And I remember the day I walked out of my apartment and somebody had put a big scratch on it. I went ballistic. You know why? Cuz that car owned me. Now I don’t care. I mean, don’t scratch my car, but… What owns you? Who is your master?

These verses here that we’ve looked at that they’re all about the danger of living a divided life. Let’s not get hung up on money or possessions. This carries over to every area of life—all of our pursuits, all of our cravings—Jesus calls us from temporary kingdoms to eternal treasure. He calls us from living in darken with darkened vision to the light of truth. It calls us from split allegiances to wholehearted devotion. What are we placing our most value upon? Because that’s what our heart will ultimately pursue.

And then the remaining verses, Jesus talks about how our possessions affect our state of mind and whether or not we’re worrying over just like I did my first sports car. Worried about it. And you know what? I I think I I think I need to stop here. I plan to go through the end of chapter 6. I just I think I need to stop. I am completely out of energy. So, just let me stop here. Y’all can just skip the remaining slides. We’ll pick up here next week.

Jar and Rachel, sorry—the notes I gave you for the sermon next Sunday. Well, I’ll get with you and we’ll work it out. This is so key what we’ve looked at today. It’s so critical. We’ve heard this. Now, what are we going to do with it? Is it going to just be another religious layer upon all the stuff we’ve already heard? I encourage you, take one piece of this or two parts of this and just begin to process it when you leave here. Say, “Lord, You know, You spoke to me about this area of my life. I’d really like some help there. Would You begin to show me where the right balance is, what I need to do?” You do that.