Where Your Treasure Is Series

Sometimes we’ll hear talks on stewardship that basically try to guilt us into giving. That’s not our intent today. I want to follow the example of Jesus and remind us how to increase our joy in giving because we know that we are getting more and more for our future.

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 neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is there will your heart be also.

Matthew 6:19-21

Wherever your treasure is, there your heart and thoughts will also be.

NLT

For your heart will always be where your riches are.

TEV

My heart always goes where I put my money. Our hearts always follow our treasure. Jesus is saying, “Show Me your checkbook, your Mastercard statement, your online banking account, and your receipts, and I’ll show you where your heart is.

Suppose you buy shares of General Motors. What happens? You have an interest in GM. You check the finance pages. You see an article about GM and you read it. Only days before, you would have ignored it. You care about GM because you’ve invested in GM.

As Pastor Randy Alcorn says, “As surely as the compass needle follows north, your heart will follow your treasure. Money leads; hearts follow.” Your heart moves toward what you cherish, and God wants you to move toward Him.

You want to care more about the poor? You want to care more about world missions? Give some money to the poor. Give some money to missions. Your heart will follow.

If you want to have a heart that’s focused on spiritual and eternal things, then reallocate more of your money away from material and temporal things to God’s work.

…where your treasure is there will your heart be also.

Where your treasure is

Series: Cath Lab

(Cardiac Catheterization Lab)

Where Jesus does battle against your heart disease

Texts: Matthew 6:19-21, Luke 12:13-21

A few years ago, I was out running on a cold morning and felt a pain in y chest. I drove myself to the emergency room for an EKG – an electrocardiogram. It turned out that my heart was OK.

Periodically, we all need a heart check – especially a spiritual heart check. There is a connection between our hearts and how we handle our money. We can’t divorce our faith from our finances.

1. Guard against your greed. v. 15

Then He said to them, "Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions."

The fight against greed is a constant, ongoing struggle. We must be constantly vigilant against greed. It simply does not go away. Just when we think we have greed licked, Satan will dangle another prize in front of us.

A financial advisor named Ron Blue visited a rural village in Africa. He asked one of the villagers, “What is the biggest problem in your village?” He fully expected to hear about a food shortage or lack of medical supplies. He was hot prepared for the response he received. The man said, “materialism.” He explained, “If a man had a mud hut, he wants one made of stone. If he has a thatch roof, he wants a tin roof. If he has one acre, he wants two. Materialism is a disease of the heart.” You see, friends, even in a place that is completely lacking in all of the luxuries that we take for granted, materialism is alive and well.

A young couple had been married for about a year. They were struggling financially and decided to do something about it. They would develop a strategy. They sat down one day to talk about their finances, and after much analysis, the young wife said to her husband, “If we miss two payments on the refrigerator and one payment on the washing machine, we’ll have enough money to make a down payment on a new television set.”

We always want more that we already have.

“I think I’ll go to Radio Shak and get something that will make me happy.” More square footage will not bring greater happiness. More clothes will not bring greater happiness. Empty lives are still just as empty.

Someone once asked John D. Rockefeller the question, "How many millions does it take to satisfy a man?" The answer was: "The next million."

Write a big check!

Guard against your greed.

2. Give your stuff to God. vv. 16-18

And He told them a parable, saying, "The land of a rich man was very productive. "And he began reasoning to himself, saying, ’What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?’ Then he said, ’This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.