Investing For Eternity

Transcription

1 Return To Miscellaneous Topics Return To Sermons On The Mount Return To Lowell F. Johnson Master Sermons Menu Investing For Eternity Matthew 6:19-24 In Matthew 6, our Lord has been dealing with the righteous deeds of those of us who are Kingdom Saints. He has talked about our Charitable deeds; those things we do to help our fellow man. Then He deals with the importance of prayer and even gives us a model of pattern of prayer. Then He spends some time dealing with fasting and the importance of getting along with God and communicating with Him. -Now Jesus moves to a subject that touches all of our lives money. Jesus said more about money than any other subject because it is so filled with danger for both the unsaved and the saved. -In His parable of the soils, Jesus said that the deceitfulness or riches (Matt. 13:22) keeps many from trusting Christ and being saved. -I Kings 10:23-11:7 tells us that wise Solomon let his wealth and his women make him an old fool. -Paul told Timothy, The love of money is the root of all evil (I Timothy 6:10). -Solomon said in Ecc. 5:10, He who loves money will not be satisfied with money. When someone asked John D. Rockefeller, the richest man in his day, how much money it takes to make someone happy, he said, Just a little more. -Most of us spend all we make, just to make ends meet or so we think. Suppose our income increased by $20,000 a year. Would life be easier and would we have larger savings? I doubt it. Right away we would start thinking about a new car, a bigger house, a cabin on the lake. In time we'd be spending all we make just to make ends meet Why? Because as people's income goes up, so do their wants. Money never satisfies, it leaves us wanting a little more. -HAPPINESS IS MORE WANTING WHAT WE HAVE THAN HAVING WHAT WE WANT. Three things Jesus tells us in these verses. I. Be Careful Where You Store Your Wealth 6:19-21

2 Before we were saved, there was only one place where we could lay up our treasures, and that's on earth. A lost man cannot lay up treasures in heaven. -Once we are saved, we have a choice. We can choose to lay up treasures in Heaven, or we can lay up treasures on earth. The words lay up means to invest or to store. The word treasure comes from the same Greek word. Everybody lays up treasures - even the poor. Treasures do not have to be something that you can hold in your hands. A treasure is anything that you place your affections and attentions on. It is that which you value above other things. -It may be money, but it is not limited to money. A treasure is what a person most eagerly strives to attain, and that which he most dreads to lose. What are earthly treasures? An earthly treasure is anything in this world that is EVERYTHING to you; that which is most important to you; that which you believe you cannot do without; that which brings you the greatest pleasure and satisfaction; and that which you think most about. -It could be your reputation. Maybe it's your athletic or musical abilities that have taken over your heart's most valuable list. Maybe it's your looks or your hair or your physique, or your personality. 117 If you are laying up only earthly treasures, Jesus says that you can look forward to only loss, because they are temporal and will not have place or value in heaven. -Jesus gives three illustrations of earthly treasures that the people of his day treasured up. 1.Garments: The wealthy would indicate their importance by having their garments stitched with golden thread. But Jesus reminded them that a single, small moth could ruin a valued garment. 2.Grain: Like the rich farmer that Jesus told about who made so much grain that he said he would build bigger barns to hold all his grain and Jesus told him that he was a fool. Why? Luke 12:21 says that the farmer laid up treasure for himself, and was not rich toward God. Jesus said that rust would destroy it.

3 The word rust literally means, eating. It conveys the idea of decaying or corroding or consuming a product, maybe by rats or some other vermin. 3.Gold: Those who treasure up gold could be robbed. Thieves could break in and steal all he has. Jesus says that if you are laying up treasures on earth, all that you hold dear could be destroyed slowly, by moths and rust, or instantly, by thieves. -If moth or rust can destroy it, if thieves can steal it, if the passing of years can diminish it, then you are storing up temporary, earthly treasures. -Mar 8:36 For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? So, what are Heavenly Treasures? Let me tell you first what Jesus is NOT forbidding. 1.Jesus is not saying that it is wrong to have money or possessions 1Ti 6:17 Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; 1Ti 6:18 That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; 1Ti 6:19 Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life. Do you have a nice home? Enjoy it. Do you drive a nice car? Enjoy it. Do you wear nice clothes? Enjoy them. There is nothing wrong with possessing possessions. What is wrong is when your possessions possess you. 2.Jesus is not saying that it is wrong to save for the future or to prepare for retirement. Proverbs 6:6 says that we are to go to the ant and study her ways. She works hard, gathering in the summer so she will have provisions for the winter. -I Tim. 5:8 says that if a man doesn't provide for his family, that he is worse than an infidel. Then what is Jesus forbidding? The key lies in the little phrase for yourselves. Jesus is forbidding the

4 selfish, self-centered accumulating and hoarding and stockpiling goods as the major end to life. It pictures wealth that is not being used and is wasting away. It is shutting the Lord out of your life. Don't TREASURE UP TREASURES FOR YOURSELF ON EARTH! Jesus now gives us some investment advice in 6:20. -Jesus wants us to store up treasures in heaven. And notice, He wants us to store them up FOR yourselves! He commands us to do what is in our best interest. 118 It is by faithfully serving God and others that we lay up treasures in heaven. -In Matt. 19:29, Jesus says that if we serve and sacrifice for Him on earth, we will receive a hundred times as much in heaven. That's 10,000%! That's an impressive return. -Anything we try to hang on to here will be lost, but anything we put in God's hands will be ours for eternity! Whatever treasures we lay up in Heaven will be waiting for us when we get there. -Every day is an opportunity to buy up more shares in His kingdom. You see, Jesus is keeping track or our smallest acts of kindness while we serve Him here, even if we give a cup of cold water in His name (Matt. 10:42). If you want to see what you have laid up in heaven, add up everything you have that money cannot buy and death cannot take away. -Anything we do for the Lord on earth that has effects that last for eternity will be our treasure in Heaven. We are to live with eternity in view, for one day we will give an account for our lives. We store up treasures in heaven in the day-by-day faithfulness that we exercise in relationship to Christ. It involves our disciplines, our relationships with others, the use of our financial resources, the use of our energies and time, the exercise of our spiritual gifts, and our acts of service to others. Notice 6:21 Show me your checkbook or your credit card statements and I'll show you where your heart is. -Suppose you buy 1,000 shares of General Motor Stock. What happens? You suddenly become interested in how many vehicles they sell; how the GM stock is doing. You may have never looked or cared about GM products before, but now your interested.

5 -Do you want me to tell you how to love Christ and His Church and His Kingdom business more? Put your money and time and energy into it. Where you put those things, your heart will follow. Some Christians dread the thought of leaving this world because they have more treasures stored up on earth than they do in heaven. When you lay up treasures in Heaven, you look forward to eternity. You realize you are moving daily toward your treasure. Death, for you, will be gain! II. Be Careful How You See Your Wealth 6:22-23 If the eye is single or sound or good means a sighted person walks in light, but a person with an evil or blind eye walks in darkness. -In scripture the eye is equivalent to the heart. Just as our eye affects our whole body, so our ambition (where we fix our eyes and heart) affects our whole life. Just as a seeing eye gives light and meaning to the body, so a noble and single minded ambition to serve God and man adds meaning to life and throws light on everything we do. -It's all a question of vision. If we have physical vision, we can see what we are doing and where we are going. So too, if we have spiritual vision, our life is filled with purpose and drive. But if our spiritual vision becomes clouded, we lose our sense of values and our whole life is in darkness and we cannot see the importance of living in such a way as to lay up treasures in heaven. So, what should we lay up as treasures in heaven? 2 Cor. 4:18 2Co 4:18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. 1.Conversion: The first thing I want to deposit there is me. When we trust Christ, in His eyes we are already there Character: Christians will be judged and rewarded according to their works. 3.Contributions: Paul says that if we sow sparingly we'll also reap sparingly, but if we sow bountifully, we'll reap bountifully.

6 4.Conversions: When we win someone to the Lord, we help put the treasure of human soul in Heaven. III. Be Careful Not To Serve Your Wealth 6:24 God can be served only with a complete and exclusive devotion. Some seek to diversify. They want to lay up some treasures on earth and some in heaven. Isa. 42:8a -Jesus said of those folks, I tell you, they have their reward. They have been paid in full on earth. -1Co 3:11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 1Co 3:12 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; 1Co 3:13 Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. 1Co 3:14 If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. 1Co 3:15 If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire. Everyone gains and no one loses who lays up treasure in Heaven! Return To Miscellaneous Topics Return To Sermons On The Mount Return To Lowell F. Johnson Master Sermons Menu