56. Sermon on the Mount Secrets - Where is your heart? Part 1

Do not 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. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:19-21)

Some people, who preach prosperity, believing the Lord wants us to be financially prosperous while on earth, teach the principle of sowing and reaping.  The more money we sow into the church, the more money God will bless us with.  I don’t want to offer an opinion on the validity of this principle, but I want to talk about our focus or motivation.  When we sow money with the purpose or motivation of reaping money, we violate at least three principles laid down by the Lord:

So do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?’  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matthew 6:31, 33)

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. (Matthew 6:24)

The third is our passage under discussion.

Why are we on earth?  What is our purpose for living? 

When we lived in the United Kingdom, there were many people from countries in the EU who came to live in the UK following the opportunity to make more money.  However, they did not come to stay indefinitely, but send all their money back to their own country to be stored up for them when they returned.

So it is with Christians.  We are only ambassadors sent to this foreign

“country” (earth) to accomplish the purpose, which the King of our “country” (God’s Kingdom) wants us to accomplish—the winning of citizens (souls) for our Kingdom.  We are not to store up treasures here.  We find a few reasons in our passage for this.  Verse 19 mentions destruction by moth and rust. Inflation and aging devaluate our treasures.  It also mentions theft.  Many people in many ways want a cut of our treasures.  Men will make a plan, whether illegally or “legally,” to take others’ money for themselves - they say business is business.  This makes us worry about our treasures.  When we have much to protect and worry about, the time and energy that we are supposed to use for Kingdom work are consumed by our earthly treasure, (Matthew 6:31-33).  That is why we need to have our treasures in heaven.  Those treasures are kept safe so we don’t need to worry about them, but can focus on our task of being busy with those things that are important to the Lord.

Verse 21 tells us another reason to store our treasures in heaven.  That which is important to you, occupying your thoughts all day, will also occupy your heart. 

How do you feel about the god of money, Mammon?  What do you make of him when he lures God’s people away from Him, making them dependent on money for meeting their needs?  Do you like it when he puts glittering temptations before people, enticing them to desire more than they need, and getting corrupted by lust after money? 

How do you feel when you see people obey God’s principles, when people live according to His principles of interdependence, of giving and receiving, of trusting God to provide so that He, not Mammon, gets the glory?  Do you enjoy being used in the gift God gave you, seeking first His Kingdom, and being in right standing with Him? 

When we seek to have our treasure in heaven by doing what the Lord expects of us, He will keep His promise in Matthew 6:33.  We can testify that the Lord is taking care of our financial needs because of the principles in the passages above.  We have endless testimonies of how we looked at our budget and realized that there is no way we could pay our bills, but we did. I always say that with the Lord, a bookkeeper will be confused, trying to figure out where the money came from.  The car’s tyres last longer, and so do food and other consumables.  The Lord’s protection, especially against the constant attacks of Mammon, is obvious.  We trust that in the end, a treasure awaits us in heaven.  This is my story.  Someone else might love making money and giving it away.  To be continued.

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