Serving the Right Master
Tom Shrader walks through Matthew 6:19-24, contrasting earthly treasure—subject to moths, rust, theft, and death—with heavenly treasure that carries no risk and guaranteed eternal return. Drawing on 1 Timothy 6, 2 Timothy 4, and the story of Demas, he argues that the love of money, not money itself, corrupts the heart and can pull a person away from faith entirely. The session closes by framing contentment as the key missing ingredient in most Christians' lives, with a promised continuation the following week on what true contentment requires.
“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: The Sermon on the Mount
Recorded: 2005 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 49 min
Themes: money, contentment, treasure, greed, priorities, eternal perspective, serving god, materialism, struggling with greed, chasing wealth, feeling spiritually stuck, young adult, new believer, career driven, straying from faith, overwhelmed by finances
Scripture: Matthew 6:19-34, Matthew 6:19, Matthew 6:20, Matthew 6:21, Matthew 6:22-23, Matthew 6:24, Matthew 6:25, Isaiah 55:8-9, Romans 12:1, 1 Timothy 6:10, 1 Timothy 6:17, 2 Timothy 2:4, 2 Timothy 4:9, Colossians 4:14, Philemon 1:24, James 4:4, 1 John 2:15
Theological Themes: mammon, eternal rewards, sanctification, lordship of christ, covetousness, stewardship, biblical contentment, apostasy
Full Transcript
Introduction: The Problem of Motivation
Open your Bibles, if you would, to Matthew chapter 6, verse 19. I said last week we would be looking at verses 19 through 34, and we are going to spend some time in this section. I honestly cannot tell you if it will be two weeks, three weeks, or four weeks. This is a section of Scripture that is so important to me because of the idea it communicates.
The Scripture shares with us so often what we are to do, how we are to do it, and how we are to live. But I need more than that, in the sense that I need a motivation — something that keeps me on track. I will speak autobiographically: for me, this is crucial stuff.
The Gym Illustration
I use my own physical condition, or lack of it, as an illustration all the time. Two people this morning said to me, "Man, you are losing weight, you are getting skinny," and I am saying, are you nuts? This is the fattest I have ever been in my life. Everyone has their area, and this is mine.
You say, "I want to get in shape," and then you begin to do things. You decide what you will eat, you join a gym. But then there is a big gap between joining a gym and going to the gym, and when you do go, there is a big gap between going and sustaining it.
There is one ad I love, and it is the guy who comes into the gym, gets on the scale, and it reads 269. He takes a run around the gym, towels off, looks down, hits the button again — still 269 — and he just loses it. That is what I want to do. I want to go once or twice or three times and see those results right away. But it does not sustain that way.
The Parallel to the Spiritual Life
That picture is a very interesting parallel to the Christian life. Your presence here today probably demonstrates some desire to be in spiritual shape, and coming in here is something like the equivalent of joining a gym.
When I go to the gym, I almost instinctively eat better. I eat better, I feel better, I sleep better, I think better, and I marginally look better. Knowing all of that, wouldn't you think I would be in the gym every day? Isn't that fascinating?
The same thing happens spiritually. When I spend time in God's Word, when I gather with God's people in a meaningful way, when I stand up for Him and share my faith at work or at school, I am on a spiritual high. Wouldn't you think I would just stay there?
And yet one of the great frustrations I have had in my own life, and really in dealing with other Christians, is that I will see people explode out of the box and start doing all these things — and then after a short period of time, they just stop. We see it at summer camp. The kids come back fired up, saying, "This is the year we are going to take Mesquite." And within two or three weeks, many of those students have simply faded.
What happens there? What is the thing that keeps me on track? What is the motivation?
The Key: Thinking Correctly
The key is found in Isaiah 55, verses 8 and 9: *"My thoughts are not your thoughts. My ways are not your ways. My thoughts are higher than your thoughts. My ways are higher than your ways, says the Lord."*
All of a sudden, I need to begin to think correctly. Romans 12 tells us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, and not to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed — how? By the renewing of the mind. One paraphrase puts it this way: "Don't copy the behaviors of this world." Another says, "Don't let the world squeeze you into its mold." The call is to begin to think differently, and that is the key.
I will tell you that outside of the gospel itself, I do not know that there is any topic that fires me up more than what is here in this passage. From the time I was converted, it became obvious to me that at least in my life, and in the lives of the people I spent time with, this was the missing ingredient. I can even tip my hand and say that the missing ingredient in most people's lives — even Christians' lives — is this idea of contentment. Not apathy, but satisfaction.
Let's read these six verses together. I want to do an introduction, and then I want to talk through this passage, take some rabbit trails, and come at it again and again.
Introduction and the Passage
This is one of those Sundays that has generated extraordinary reaction and response from people, and I think it is because it is so important. As I said, Jesus tells us what to do, He tells us how to do it, but this is the motivation. Let us read these five or six verses.
"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy them, 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 or steal."
There is a principle here. Look at verse 21: "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Then verses 22 and 23 give us an illustration: "The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore the lamp is clear, 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 that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness?" It sounds a little confusing, but we will clear that up when we get there.
Then verse 24: "No one can serve two masters. You either hate one, love the other, or hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." Right after this, beginning in verse 25 and through the balance of this chapter, Jesus then begins to talk about anxiety and worry.
Why This Matters
Maybe you are a person who is anxious, a person who worries. Here it is, right here, and we are going to deal with it today. This is so important, so key, and I think this is one of those areas where we just struggle and struggle and struggle. It seems to me that for the vast majority of us, we never quite get this issue settled.
It is like a toy that when our kids were young they used to have — the pegs and the hammer, where you pound the pegs through and then flip it over and there are all the pegs again. Somebody who never had kids invented that toy. In fact, somebody gave me one of those, and it is in my office up on the top of my bookshelf. That is what a lot of these issues are like. We pound them through and say we are done, and then all of a sudden life flips it over and there are these issues again.
Turning to 1 Timothy 6
I want you to keep your finger in Matthew 6, but turn to the right through the Gospels and the book of Acts and Romans and 1st and 2nd Corinthians, and on through Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians, because what we are heading for is 1 Timothy. That is what we want — 1 Timothy chapter 6. We will spend a little bit of time there today and a little bit of time there next week.
When I talk about not laying up treasure, and I read what the Scripture says, what do you begin to think about? Money. Stuff. Material things. And the minute we go there, we tend to have this idea that money is dirty, that money is bad. Money is not bad. Here is what Paul writes to Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter 6, verse 10: "The love of money is a root of all sorts of evil." It is not money itself — it is the love of it.
The Love of Money Across Every Economic Level
We have people across all sorts of different economic situations in this room. We have students who have little or no money. We have families who have far more than they could ever use. Some of you have more than enough and are putting some aside for the future and trying to figure out what to do with the excess. And some of you are just moving along.
There is a tendency to say that rich, greedy people are the problem because they have the money. But it is not the having of the money — it is the love of money. I have met many people who do not have a lot of money who are absolutely in love with it. That is the problem. It is the love of it, the desire for it, the passion for it.
He says the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil. That greed will drive us to do all sorts of things we might never do otherwise. All sorts of sins just flow out of it. I do not understand why someone with enormous wealth would risk everything for a few hundred thousand dollars, but it is greed. If I love this money, if I love this stuff, there is never enough. That is what he is saying. There is never enough.
The Problem with Defining "Rich"
The problem is further complicated by the fact that money itself will not do what you want it to do. Look at verse 17, which is strikingly familiar to the passage we just read: "Instruct those who are rich in this present world." Now, who is rich? I have discovered over the years that this is a tough term to pin down. Here is the way we tend to define it: anyone who has more money than us. That conveniently allows me to avoid dealing with what this verse actually says. I am not rich — they are rich.
I have had the experience of sitting with a man who had ten or eleven million dollars...
The Uncertainty of Riches
On a worldly scale, if we were to do this comparison, everybody in this room is rich. The command to those who are rich in this present world is not to be conceited, because our tendency is to be conceited. Even when we put it in spiritual terms — "God has blessed me" — the undercurrent is, "Why wouldn't He? Look at me." The second temptation is to fix our hopes on the uncertainty of riches.
The uncertainty of riches works in two ways. The first seems obvious: money is like a greased pig. You can have it, and it's gone. You can be doing all your planning, and all of a sudden something happens in the stock market, or a September 11th happens, and your pile is suddenly a third of what it was. The second way riches are uncertain is that they cannot do what you are trusting them to do — if you are trusting them to make you happy, to make you fulfilled, to give you meaning and purpose.
So don't put your trust or your hope in the uncertainty of riches. Where should you put your hope? On God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. This is not an anti-material message — it is anti-materialism. He gave you these things to enjoy.
The Tension of Enough
I look at my life and God has given me some great blessings, great perks. I know some people who feel guilty enjoying those things, and I am simply saying: enjoy. But here is the problem — what is a legitimate thing to enjoy, and what is excess? What is enough, and what is too much?
Is there anything wrong with having a car? No. Is there anything wrong with having an expensive car? Is there anything wrong with eating food? No — we need it to live. But you can go to McDonald's and get a hamburger for a dollar, or pay five dollars somewhere else, or ten, or twenty, or twenty-five, or thirty. There is nothing inherently wrong with any of that. The tension is in how much. We are going to try to unpack that even more next week.
God instructs those who are rich — and that is you — to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves a treasure. And there is that thought again: I am storing up a treasure.
The Story of Demas
Now go back to verse 10: "For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith." Let me give you a great example of that. Turn from 1 Timothy 6 to the next book, 2 Timothy, chapter 4, and Paul reintroduces us to a friend of his named Demas.
We first meet Demas in Colossians, chapter 4, verse 14, where Paul is saying goodbye in his letter: "Luke, the beloved physician, sends you his greetings, and also Demas." The same idea appears in Philemon, verse 24. Here is this man in a healthy relationship, part of the executive team traveling with Paul, functioning as his support. And I don't just mean financial support — he is with them. He is listening to Paul speak.
I am convinced that Demas had the privilege of being behind closed doors. When they sat down at the end of the day to debrief, they had those conversations — like the ones you have at Starbucks, or the ones where the service ends and you find yourself standing under a light in the parking lot, talking about the real issues of life, going down all these different rabbit trails. Paul and Demas had those conversations.
Then Paul writes to Timothy in 2 Timothy, chapter 4, verse 9: "Make every effort to come to me soon, for Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me." The King James says "has forsaken me." The Greek word means to utterly abandon — it carries the idea of leaving someone in absolute dire straits.
What drove Demas away? He did not leave because of persecution. He did not leave because of hardship. He was not driven away by suffering. What drove him away was the love of this present world.
No Spiritual Switzerland
James says it this way in James 4:4: "Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." John writes it this way in 1 John 2:15: "Do not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him."
That language is very clear. It is very black and white. It is along the line of what Jesus said: if you are not for Me, you are against Me. Jesus, Paul, James, and John all take away neutrality. There is no spiritual Switzerland here. If you love the world and you are a friend of the world, you are an enemy of God. If the love of the world is in you, then the love of the Father is not in you. This is dramatic terminology. That is what is at stake, and that is heavy.
The War Within
There is a struggle I feel but don't fully understand. I know what to do, and when I do it I get a sense of gratification, and yet there is this struggle. Why is there this struggle? In one pocket I have a passport that says U.S.A., and in the other I have a passport that says citizen of heaven. I am in this body, I am material, and yet there is a spiritual component to it, and this war plays itself out in our life.
It is not a war over the faith. It is not a war over salvation. It is a life that says, if I am truly converted, then it is going to affect my money, my possessions, my resources, my time, my energy, my effort. Romans 12:1 puts it plainly: "present your bodies as a living sacrifice" — all that you have, all that you are.
I want you to wrestle with this. I want you to grapple with this, because you can sit there and maybe money is not the issue for you. When we talk about money, we have great discrepancy in this room, and some of you can sidestep it. So let's talk about time. Every one of us is exactly equal here. We all have 144 hours to invest this week.
Unpacking Matthew 6
Now let's go back to Matthew chapter 6 and unpack this. Matthew 6, verse 19 — if we just took a quick read through this, we might conclude that Jesus has a problem with laying up treasure altogether. Look at verse 19: "Do not lay up treasure for yourself." But then look at verse 20: He says He does want you to lay up treasure for yourself. That is interesting.
If I just blow through this passage, I might say it is anti-treasure. But Jesus is acknowledging the obvious: if you are moving, living, and walking, you are investing your treasure. What He is saying is, don't lay up treasure for yourself on earth — do lay up treasures in heaven. His problem is not the laying up of treasure. The problem is where we are putting it.
The Meaning of "Lay Up"
Let's look at the words. The phrase "lay up" and the word "treasure" come from essentially the same Greek word from which we get the English word "thesaurus." A thesaurus is a treasury of words. A literal translation of this phrase would be: "Do not treasure up treasures for yourself."
The idea of laying up is stacking up. The picture I have is the World Poker Tour — all those chips stacked up, especially when it gets down to the last two players and they carry in the million dollars and set it on the table. There is nothing wrong with having some chips set aside for saving, but the language here goes well beyond prudent savings. We are now into stockpiling and hoarding — wealth that is not being used, seeing how much one can accumulate.
So make sure we get this. Jesus is saying you need to lay up treasures — the question is where you are going to lay them up. He does not want you to lay them up on earth. He does want you to lay them up in heaven.
Why Not on Earth?
The answer is right there in verse 19: because the moth and the rust will destroy them, and thieves will break in and steal them. One of the great ways to display wealth in that day and age was through clothing. As we discussed a couple of weeks ago, the average person might have one, maybe two shirts and one outer garment — that would be it. So seeing someone with a vast wardrobe, or garments made of a certain material sewn in a certain way, was a great display of wealth. It was expensive. It cost a great deal to achieve the status of the right clothing. Jesus said, don't lay up your treasures on earth in a collection of clothes, because moths will eat them.
The Argyle Sweater Illustration
This past winter I did a talk for the ladies on what a woman wants from a man, and I had to do a little research. I went to the bookstore and made my way to the magazine section — areas I had never visited before. I went to Women's Health. I went through all kinds of different magazines, and finally I decided I would just buy some. I got a Cosmopolitan, a Cosmopolitan for Teens, a Mademoiselle, and a few others — five or six in all.
So I am checking out, next in line, walking up to the cashier, and I put them down and said, "I'm doing research for a project." She said, "Yeah, that's what they all say when they buy those things." I really was. I'll send you the tape. Now, though it may be embarrassing, I will still spend a little time in those women's magazine and fashion sections, because I think it does help you stay current with the culture.
As we were coming into fall and winter last year, what I kept seeing in those magazines was that argyle sweaters were the hot rage. I thought, I have two of those — I have been cool for twenty years and did not even know it. I have one that is powder blue that I figured would really be something. So I put it on, and it was really tight in —
The Moth, the Rust, and What Remains
I was looking at this sweater, and there was a big hole in the chest and shoulders. Over the two decades that sweater had been sitting in a drawer, a moth had eaten it. I immediately thought of that passage. Moth destroys.
Then Jesus says rust. When we hear rust, we think of metal corroding — a car rotted out around the wheel wells, some vehicle from the Midwest. But the word used here literally means an eating away. In that day and age, it probably had more applications for those who had gathered grain and stored it, only for rodents to get in and begin eating it. But it certainly makes the transition to the things we would accumulate today. Jesus is saying, here you are with all these clothes, and the moth is going to eat them, or all this grain you have been saving, and the rats are going to eat it — and if they do not get it, thieves will break in and take it.
James Boyce takes this idea and expands it a little. He said moths destroy clothing, rodents destroy things, and it will even ruin an expensive Ferrari in time. What the moth and the rust do not ruin, thieves can steal, or the government can take through excessive taxation. And even what you manage to escape from moths, rust, and the IRS — even if its value keeps rising — eventually heaven and earth pass away, and every material thing passes with them.
A Guaranteed Investment
Start to get your arms around what Jesus is saying. He has no problem with you investing. In fact, you have to invest — it is inevitable. You invested today. The question is where.
Martin Luther wrote these words: "I have held many things in my hand and I have lost them all, but whatever I have placed in God's hands, I still possess." That is the idea. Do not lay up treasure for yourself on earth, but do lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.
There is a man by the name of Jim Elliot. Some of you know Jim Elliot, but unfortunately most of you probably do not, and you should familiarize yourself with him. Stop by the bookstore or go to Amazon, and if you can only order one book, order *Shadow of the Almighty*. It is a magnificent book — his diary, with profound words from a very young man, along with letters he wrote and communication between him and Elizabeth Elliot, who would become his wife. He leaves Wheaton, goes to South America, decides to be a missionary, and on one of his very early mission trips he and his team are killed. In the course of that diary, Jim Elliot wrote these classic words: "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."
That is the idea Jesus is pressing. What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul? There is the tension. Do not lay up for yourself treasures here. You are no fool to give away what you cannot keep in order to gain what you cannot lose. Lay up for yourself treasures in heaven. It is a good, solid, safe investment.
Risk and Return
If you go to an investment advisor, he is going to sit down and ask you a series of questions. One of the things he wants to establish is your risk threshold — your risk tolerance. Because typically, if he asks what kind of risk you want, you are going to say none. And if he asks what kind of return you want, you are going to say a big one. He will tell you it does not usually work that way. There is a correlation between the amount of risk you are willing to take and the level of return. High risk, which means you could lose, typically carries a higher return. Low risk typically carries a low return.
But in an ideal, perfect environment, we would all walk into that room and when the advisor asked how much risk we wanted, we would say none — and when he asked what kind of return we wanted, we would say through the roof.
I get up every Saturday morning around 6:30, read for an hour or so, and then watch the financial programs — Forbes, Cavuto, Cashing In. I love those shows. They will go around and do their stock picks of the day. One fellow said GM, and the others pushed back immediately: GM? They are going to be in bankruptcy in a year. They cannot make a vehicle anybody wants. The cost of gas is through the roof. GM? Thumbs down. Then the skeptic recommends a stock and the others turn it right back on him. Nobody seems to agree.
But I think we would all agree on this: nobody is going to call their broker tomorrow and say, "I have been looking at this stock. It is at fifteen, and I think there is a chance it could be at five in a month — let's buy now." Nobody is going to do that. No risk, guaranteed return — that is what everyone wants.
Jesus comes along and says, is that the deal you are after? Are you looking for a guaranteed winner with no risk? Then He has it for you. Lay up your treasure in heaven. Every one of these other investments, even if they cash in for you, is a guaranteed loser — because the moth is going to get them, the rust is going to get them, the thieves are going to steal them, the IRS is going to get them, and if none of that happens, you are going to die. That is really what He is saying. It is that simple.
Randy Alcorn has written extensively on the whole topic of money and eternity, and he returns to Jim Elliot's words: he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.
Treasure, Heart, and Where You Invest Your Life
Without question, Jim Elliot was looking for profit. Did you ever think about that? These missionaries go out and they are looking for profit. What separated Jim Elliot from the common Christian was not that he didn't want treasure, but that he wanted real treasure. He was not satisfied with treasure that would be lost. He was content only with treasure that would last.
What does it mean to lay up treasure in heaven instead of on earth? It means that Christ offers us an incredible opportunity to trade earthly goods and currency for eternal kingdom reward. By putting our money and possessions in His treasury, we assure ourselves an eternal reward beyond all comprehension. So that is what those two verses are saying.
Now it raises all sorts of questions. How do I lay up treasure in heaven? How much is a treasure on earth? Is my automobile a treasure on earth? You should feel this pressure, this tension. It gets into the whole idea of giving — how much money should I give, and where should I give?
You may be sitting here saying this does not apply to you because you do not have much money. But listen, He is not saying just money. The question is where are you going to invest your time, your energy, your money, your life — where are you going to put your life?
The Eye, the Heart, and Singleness of Purpose
Verse 21 says, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." He is not saying to put your money somewhere and your heart will follow. He is saying your treasure will follow your heart. So if someone wants to understand what you are all about, all they have to do is look at where you spend your time, your energy, your effort, and your money.
He then gives us an illustration about the lamp of the body being the eye. He is talking about physically seeing. If the eye is clear, the whole body sees clearly. If the eye is foggy, it does not see so well. The word translated "clear" means single, or singleness. J.C. Ryle writes this: "Singleness of purpose is the great secret of spiritual prosperity." What is your heart focused on? That is what He is saying.
No One Can Serve Two Masters
Then He brings us to verse 24. Whether you are here as a single person or as a couple, open your Bible and look at that verse. "No one can serve two masters. You'll either hate one and love the other, or hold the one and despise the other. You can't serve God and mammon" — God and money, God and stuff.
There is one very important thing we need to acknowledge from the very beginning. In either situation in that verse, you are a slave. You are never the master. The word "master" here could also be translated Lord — it carries the idea of slave owner, not an employer. This is not an employee-employer relationship. You and I are slaves, and we are going to be the property of one of two masters.
He says no one can serve two masters. He is not saying it is tough. He is saying it is impossible. Just as James said it, just as John said it, just as Paul says it, Jesus says it here: you cannot serve two masters. You are always a slave. He is essentially asking, who is your master? Because it is either going to be God or it is going to be stuff — it cannot be both.
The Tension of Living in Two Worlds
There is real tension here. We carry a passport that says USA and a passport that says heaven. We are physical and material, yet we are spiritual, and those realities are battling each other. You cannot serve them both.
He is saying, do not try to kid yourself anymore. You cannot straddle the fence. There is no spiritual Switzerland. You cannot claim neutrality. You are either going to be a slave to God or a slave to money. These are two things Scripture tells us are incompatible — they have whole different goals, whole different ideas, and whole different desires for us.
What is the driving force in your life? That is what He is asking. And this passage gets right in your face and demands an answer: who is your master?
Examining Where Your Heart Actually Is
How would you know who your master is? Look at where you spend your time and how you spend your money — that is a clear indicator. Ask yourself some tough questions, and do not give the polished small group answer.
What is most important to you? If God truly is most important, you ought to be able to back that up — to say, "Here is exhibit A, B, C, D, E; here are the things that would indicate that." What would you hate to lose? When you have a quiet moment to think, what does your mind go to?
When you are in bed at night, not quite asleep and not distracted, where does your mind go? Or first thing in the morning, jumping in the shower, your mind drifting — what are you thinking about? That is a great indicator of where your heart is.
What this book is telling us is that the world has a tendency to want to invade our lives and entangle us. I come back over and over again to the same verses because they are so significant. Second Timothy chapter 2 verse 4: "An old soldier in active duty entangles himself in the affairs" —
Serving the Right Master
What fills everyday life? I don't know exactly what those things are for each person. But it is going to be either the things of the world or the things of God — it is not going to be both. That is what He is saying, and that is why this is revolutionary to me.
If you are sitting around thinking, "I really want to see God take control of my life, I really want to live for Him, I really want to be His," then here is the deal. You can lay up treasures in heaven and say, "Here is my master — it is God, not money." It is simple to understand because those are the terms. It is hard to do, but the terms are clear.
It is hard because life keeps moving along well, and then the phone call comes. Someone tells you the thing you sold them is not working, that you had better get support out there within a day, or they will put it on fire in the front yard of the office. That is real life pressing in on you.
The "When" and "If" Trap
Here is what I have observed in most people's lives. As they are defining what they intend to do for God — and I do not mean that negatively, I mean this is genuinely what they want to do for God — at the end of that sentence there is always a key word: "when" or "if." It goes, "This is what I want to do for God when this deal gets done, because this is a really big deal."
We even start reasoning that way with God: "God, even this deal is for You — because if You close this one, we are talking 12.5% to You, God. Close it if I were You." We start thinking that way, trapping ourselves, and in some sense we even begin to think that our worldliness is somehow godly.
Money in God's Kingdom
I want to be clear: money is important in God's kingdom. This whole ministry works because of it, and it amazes me. I looked in the back of the bulletin this week and smiled from ear to ear when I saw it — year to date need: $1,416,224; year to date received: $1,416,713.
On top of that, the people who watch our finances tell me the most encouraging thing is that every week somewhere between $10,000 and $20,000 is being given to the building fund quietly, without much being said about it — that is almost $1,000,000 a year going there. The ministry of priority living does not exist if people do not give money, and the radio show does not exist without it. So money is not the problem here.
The problem is: where am I investing it? Sometimes I can go and say, "Look, God, I did this and this and this," and think I am okay. But am I? That is what makes this so difficult, because you want someone to sit down with you and tell you it is okay — and I cannot give you that answer. I think it is okay to have a car. What kind of car? That is a whole new question. I think it is okay to have a house. How much house? Those are harder questions.
The Comparison Game
Here is what we love to do — and this is where we are going next week, so you can already start thinking of an excuse not to be here. Because there is no single right answer, you start looking around at everyone else, and all of a sudden you become the judge of everybody and say, "Well, I must be okay — look at what they have." But here is the thing, and we will tip our hand a little: God is not going to judge you by how everyone else spends their money. He is going to judge you by how you handle yours.
Moving Toward Contentment
I love this section of Scripture. I love this conversation about where you invest in your life. I love the conversation about contentment. Remember verse 25 — look at this, next week: "For this reason I say to you, do not be anxious." Are you anxious? Are you a worrier? Are you concerned? I will bet there is a correlation between that anxiety and stuff — between that and what you are going to wear, what you are going to eat, where you are going to live, whether there will be enough when you retire. He says do not be worried about this.
How can you not worry? Because you are laying up your treasures in heaven, not on earth. Your return is guaranteed and it is secure. And that is what moves us into the idea of contentment, and we will go back to 1 Timothy chapter 6 as well. We are going to have to learn to be content, and that is genuinely difficult.
Here is something you need to know. If you are ever going to be content — and I mean this, I have spent 25 years on this — there is one single thing you need to figure out. Take every conversation about contentment and it comes down to one thing. When you get it down, you have a shot at being content. Without it, you will never be content. What is it? That is what we are talking about next week.
A Word Before We Close
This is big material. And I know there is a temptation to run from it. You look at the calendar and think, "If we can just find an excuse for next week — the following week is Mother's Day, nobody goes to church that day, and we can come back on the 15th and he should be over this by then." Do not do that. This is the key material for an effective Christian life. I am convinced of it, and I cannot wait to get at it next week.
Father, help us see this truth. Let it transform the way we live — whether we are students who look at material things and feel we do not have much, or whether we are people who feel we are just struggling.
A Matter of the Heart
This isn't just about money. This is about our heart — what's driving our heart, where our heart is, what our heart condition is. This isn't a study of economics and investment. This is a study of spiritual things.
God changed our heart. To have a conversion that doesn't affect the way we invest our life is no conversion at all. And yet there is struggle. Oh, Lord, we do struggle in this struggle.
Let us find peace and comfort because we're pursuing Him and laying up treasures in His economy, not ours. God, we ask it of You. In Jesus' name, amen.