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"Choose Your Treasure" Matthew 6:19, 2Cor. 9:6-11
by The Rev. Clancy Nixon
February 26, 2006
Church of the Holy Spirit (Anglican)
Open your Bibles to Matthew Chapter 6, starting at verse 19 page 960 of your
blue pew Bibles. Matthew 6-19.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus continually places before us a choice between
two alternatives. There are two treasures either earthly or heavenly; there are two kinds
of eyes people have either generous and filled with light, or grudging and dark; there
are two kinds of masters either God or money; and there are two preoccupations of men
either our own bodies, or God's Kingdom. Jesus says, about these things, we must
choose one or the other. There is no third way here; no place beyond either-or. Jesus is
saying that there are some choices that are so fundamental, so definitive, that we simply
cannot sit on the fence; we can't hedge our bets. These kind of choices are not like
diversifying your portfolio, nor like working two jobs, nor like covering your bases. In
those cases, there are more than two choices. When it comes to what you really value,
when it comes to what you gaze upon, when it comes to who your master is, Jesus says
that there are only two choices. Either your money is on God, or your money is on
money! Think about that--. That sounds funny, I know. Try this one: either your god is
God, or your god is money.
You must choose. In verses 21 and 33, Jesus says he wants your heart. In verse
22, Jesus speaks of your eye, and the eye is often a synonym for the heart in the Bible.
Your heart is what you value, and your eye is what you gaze upon, or your ambition.
Jesus wants to reorder our deepest affections - our love, our ambitions, our hopes he
wants to order them toward himself. When you choose wisely, when you do give him
everything - your heart, your eyes, your stuff, your priorities then, he says, and only
then - everything else falls into place. Jesus says, when God is really your God, you
don't worry about money anymore it has no power over you.
When our hearts are right, when our affections are ordered towards pleasing God,
we understand that everything we have, everything everyone has, finally belongs to God
He is just letting us use His stuff for a while. Psalm 24:1 says, "The earth is the Lord's
and everything in it; the world, and all who live in it." In Psalm 50:10, the Lord says,
"The cattle on a thousand hills are mine." When we let God be God, we can see that God
owns it all. A little girl from inner city Washington was brought on a field trip to the
country, to Philomont, for the first time in her life. She saw a large swath of blue flowers
in a field. She asked her teacher, "Do you think God would mind if I picked one of his
flowers?" That girl got it right. Everything belongs to God.
Let's read Matthew 6, verse 19-21 together: "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." Moths and rust destroy, and thieves break in and steal. He's saying that earthly
treasure is corruptible and insecure; but heavenly treasure is incorruptible and therefore
secure. What does earthly treasure mean here? Jesus is not saying we should not bother
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to save prudently for the future; nor is he saying that we shouldn't enjoy the things of this
earth, like flowers and food. He tells us elsewhere that those are good things. "Our
treasure" is Jesus' way of saying "what we value most highly." The problem, Jesus says,
is selfish accumulation, hoarding, and the greed that always craves more and newer and
bigger. It's that craving in men that wants an even bigger home, the craving in teenage
boys that wants an X-box 360, the craving in women that wants the latest fashion. These
things are not wrong in themselves; it's only we allow the cravings to define us, and they
take first place in our lives, that they are a problem. Jesus says, one problem with
putting your heart into stuff is that it does not last.
Nothing of material value was safe in the ancient world. Take clothing, for
example. Fine clothes were very rare and expensive then, because they were all made by
hand. Fine clothes meant real wealth. When Elisha's servant Gehazi wanted forbidden
profit from Naaman after his healing from leprosy, he asked for a talent of silver and two
festal garments. (2 Kings 5:2) Achan, whose sin caused the disastrous defeat of the
Israelites at Ai, coveted and stole from God a beautiful Babylonian robe. (Joshua 7:21)
To give someone a cloak, as Jesus suggested when they asked for your shirt, was an
enormous gift. But there was no defense against moths, which ate the finest clothes. The
Greek word translated rust is brosis, which means eating away. Wealth was also
measured in the grain stored in great barns. But into the grain came rats and mice and
worms, which ate away the grain. Houses were mostly made of mud, so it was not
difficult to break into them. Possessions were just not permanent back then. The
temptation is to think that in the 21st Century, now that we have pest control services, and
insurance policies, and security alarm systems, that we're secure now. But we know that
is not true. Today we are only one "re-org" away from losing our jobs, one more market
bubble bursting to destroy our savings, one more terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia away
from sending oil prices through the roof.
Jesus says, store up treasure in heaven, for that's the stuff that is eternal. Now
what does "treasure in heaven" mean? It can mean several things. The Jews spoke of
"treasure in heaven" as reflecting godly character. Your character, your soul, your spirit
are eternal, and will one day be united to a new body in heaven. We all know you can't
take your stuff with you when you die. That did not stop one Texan from being buried in
his Cadillac, I kid you not! The old Spanish proverb says, there are no pockets in a
shroud. The Apostle Paul said, "These three abide: faith, hope and love." A second kind
of treasure in heaven we can earn are the seeds we sow in telling people about Jesus.
That work has eternal consequences in souls saved. A third way we can earn treasure in
heaven is to invest our money in the Church and other Christian causes. We can't earn
our salvation through our good deeds; but we do earn rewards in heaven for good deeds.
C.S Lewis' book The Great Divorce paints a marvelous picture of Heaven and the people
who live there. The narrator has just arrived in heaven, and he is blown way by the regal
dress and crowns and large retinue around a particular woman. She looks like royalty,
and the narrator asks who she was on earth. She is identified as a charwoman, a humble
cleaning woman of such godly character on earth, that in heaven she is highly honored.
Jesus says in verse 24, no one can serve two masters you must choose between
God and money. Here is the nub of it all here is where the issue becomes crystal clear.
Choosing your treasure, choosing your vision behind those choices lie an even more
basic choice: between two masters.
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It will not surprise you that some people disagree with this teaching of Jesus.
They say it's perfectly possible to serve two masters simultaneously, and they are
managing this quite nicely for themselves, thank you very much! John Stott suggests
some ways they try to do this. They may serve God on Sunday, and serve money on
weekdays. Or, they serve God with their lips and money with their heart. Or, they serve
God with half their heart and money with the other half. The problem with these theories
is that anyone who thinks he divides his allegiance between God and money has already
given his heart to money, since God insists that he be God. If you have put anything else
in the place of equality with God, then God is not really God for you. When the issue is,
who God is, our God is a jealous God. When you think about it, it makes sense that God
would be uncompromising about his role as God. Isaiah 42:8 says, "I am the Lord, that is
my name; my glory I give to no other." Giving God anything less is not only double-
mindedness; anything less is idolatry. When we see this choice for what it really is,
between worship and idolatry, it's hard to understand how anyone who really knows God
can choose differently.
I have heard people say that power is the driving force in the Washington area,
the dominant spirit of idolatry in this town. I've been here a while, and I don't believe it.
The political class is larger here than elsewhere, but it's still tiny here compared to the
rest of us. I think the main idol in this area, like in most of America, is money. Politics
and government are usually treated as other ways to make money. Matthew 6, Verse 24,
"You cannot serve both God and money" - is speaking to us. There is only one way I was
able to break the power of money over my life: that was to give it away. That's my
advice to you - seriously if money is coming between you and your relationship with
God, just give it away! I let my love for money delay me from answering God's call on
my life to go into full time ministry for several years. I let my stock options at Freddie
Mac drive the timing of my career change instead of God's call. That was idolatry, and I
confess it as sin.
Acknowledge that God owns it all, and then ask God what He would have you do
with it. The Bible tells us that the first thing you do is tithe, and that means ten percent of
your gross income off the top as soon as you earn it. The tithe belongs to God it is holy
and dedicated to Him. Where we need guidance is what to do with the rest. Over and
above the tithe, we give offerings, and that is where the fun begins. God expects us to
give offerings, but he does not give us a set rule about how much we have to give. We get
to seek His will for our own individual giving levels. When our hearts are right, we stand
ready to give whatever he asks of us, like the first believers in Jerusalem recorded in Acts
2, who sold their possessions for those who had need.
Turn in your Bibles to Second Corinthians, Chapter 9, beginning at verse 6
that's page 1147 in the pew Bibles. The Apostle Paul is writing about the offerings he is
collecting for the poor in Jerusalem, and he gives us some great principles about offerings
here. Let's read this together. "Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and
whoever sows generously will also reap generously." This is the familiar law of sowing
and reaping, applied to giving offerings. We know this is true in our own lives.
Generosity breeds generosity in a virtuous cycle. When you are generous to others, they
will be generous to you. This is true whether you are generous with your money, your
time, or your love. Right now we are producing a DVD for our On This Rock Campaign,
and a consistent theme of the people being filmed is that CHS is a welcoming, loving,
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generous community. A home group helped a man find a job, and drove him to work
every day for months. Another home group took up an offering for the relative of one
member who had experienced a tragedy. One woman experienced extended, loving
prayer for her and her sick daughter, who both received miraculous healings. When a
community is loving and welcoming, it's easy to catch that spirit, and be welcoming
yourself. When the Spirit of God manifests in a congregation in a particular way, He
invites us to join in, and come up higher.
We will reap what we have sown. The same will be true with the On This Rock
Campaign. This is an incredible opportunity for God to build our faith. As you and I are
generous in sowing financial seeds for a permanent home for us, it will breed more
generosity. Verse 7c says that God loves a cheerful giver. God gives pure joy as we give
for His glory and the extension of His Kingdom. Verses 7a and b say no one is to give
under compulsion, or reluctantly. We take this seriously. On This Rock is a freewill
offering there is no requirement to participate in this, or any other offering beyond the
tithe. If you are going to resent an offering amount, do us all a favor, don't give it.
Instead, give whatever amount that you can give cheerfully. Resentment can lead to
bitterness. All we ask is that you pray - diligently pray, and seek the Lord for how much
God would have you give, and give cheerfully. Please don't give one penny more, or one
penny less, than God tells you to give. God gives you an awesome promise in verse 8: as
you give offerings cheerfully, God will give you all you need, at all times and in all
things. That is huge in itself our God shall supply all our needs. Verses 10 and 11 are
even bigger. Not only will He supply your need, but God will give you even more than
you need: He will increase your store, enlarge your harvest, and make you rich in every
way so you can be generous on every occasion. Generosity breeds generosity.
I love giving my money away. It was not always so. I was brought up to be
selfish with money and possessions. When I started attending church as an adult at age
26, I'd put ten dollars in the offering plate, and I felt pretty good about it. I saw it as a fee
for service kind of deal. If the sermon was really good, I'd vote with my money and
throw in an extra ten bucks. Then I married Ginger, and she was naturally generous. If
she had her way, we'd probably give away everything we own. She brought me along to
proportional giving we started at 1%, and used our raises the following year to raise it
to 2%. This was getting to be fun, and I heard a teaching on tithing that took the Nike
approach to giving: just do it! So we did, and we have been blessed financially ever since,
just like it says in Second Corinthians 9:11. We also really enjoy giving offerings to
support missionaries and those in need.
I am a saver. I teach the 10-10-80 principle: If you give away 10%, save 10%, and
live on the rest, you will have few financial problems in life. Ginger and I both give and
save more than that. All that saving over the years has added up, so that now I get to
invest a nice portfolio. I have definite plans for how I want to spend that money: college
for my sons, and a retirement home in Alabama. Now when we had our parish dinner in
October, Randy Watts asked us all to pray and ask God how much he would have us give
over a three year period to what we now call our On This Rock Campaign. I got silent
and prayed, really pretty skeptical that God would give me a number in the less than one
minute that he gave us to do that. But God did give me a number, one that seemed
ridiculously high to me. Then he told us to ask our mate later that evening what number