This recording is from Christ Kingdom Church in Avalon Park, Orlando. Visit us online at ChristKingdom.org for our calendar driving directions and more audio recordings. Well, we're going to look at the passage of Matthew 6 verses 19 through 24, which is a fairly common passage that we've talked about in a bet that you've grown up or been involved in a church for any length of time. You probably have heard a sermon on it, but I wanted to address it because or look at it this morning because it does such a great job in showing us what is behind stewardship, what is behind us being faithful in our giving because there's something very profound that we find there. What before we actually read that text? Many of you remember that it wasn't too many years ago that the Puckett family took on a little journey to adopt a little girl from Guatemala. Most of you have met her or at least seen her, her name is Gracie, and a very appropriate name because we prayed for her for 14 long months and many of you walked that journey with us, supported us in all kinds of ways and even supported us financially. Some of you had to help it make it possible. But one of the things that or the challenges not just with introducing a new adopted child was that Gracie had a serious heart condition. In fact, one that could have taken her life if it wasn't corrected. It's part of the reason why she had not been adopted previously to that, but we just felt God had told us she was the one that we were supposed to adopt. She needed open heart surgery. We knew as soon as we were going to get her. She had three large holes in her heart between the two chambers. So her oxygen side of the heart was blending with the non-oxygenated side of the heart. And so she wasn't getting the full benefit of oxygen going through her body because it was being depleted between the two chambers as you can tell. She would not be able to run. She didn't run at all. She had no energy to run. Even in a sleep after the first couple of months we had her, even in sleep, she had a mild frustration across her forehead in the middle of night because her heart was working so hard. Can you imagine if you were perspired just sitting, just sleeping? That's a hard heart was having to work. One of the things that surprised me was when we went in and had her first exam and we knew this kind of coming into it. But as I came into our first pediatric cardiology appointment here in Orlando, when they were going to try to measure and determine what to do, they didn't go looking to the heart itself first, which the kind of surprised me. I thought, all right, we're going to do some ultrasound. You're going to check out the heart and see what can be done. So yeah, we're going to do that. But what we're really concerned about is the pressure of one of the arteries coming out of the heart. Some of you probably know, I don't remember the name of the specific artery or what it was, but they told me that because of her condition, if the pressure was too high and one of those arteries that was coming out, it would make the risk too great to do open heart surgery. And that pressure increases over time. She was already two years old. And so we knew that over that period of time, if the pressure had gotten to a certain point, the surgery would be even riskier than leaving it the way it was. We might have to not do surgery and just hope for the best. For the longest, you know, longevity of life that we could help and trust for in that situation because that could rupture and cause even more serious matter. So they checked that. They checked another part, they had nothing to do with the heart directly to check that pressure. And by God's grace, the pressure was not too high, as you know. She did have the surgery and she's a healthy little girl now to the praise of God as well too. But my point with that is that sometimes if you want to check the health of your heart, you're going to have to look in a little different spot than you thought. And as we look at this passage this morning because it is talking about the heart. And it's talking about trying to figure out what is your heart really long for? What is your heart worship? That's what it treasures. You're going to have to look maybe in a different spot to determine and give you some clues about the health of your heart. So we're going to do that here this morning as we look at that. I want to read from Matthew 6, 19 through 24. This is God's Word. So as I read it, even though it's coming from my lips this morning, hear it in your heart coming from the lips of the Creator God. Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth. We're moth and rust destroying. We're thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven. We're moth and rust do not destroy. And we're thieves do not break in and steal. For what your treasure is there, your heart will be also. The eyes, the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness. How great is that darkness? No one can serve two masters, either who 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. This is God's Holy and Inspired Word. As we look at here this morning, let me ask you, how can you measure your treasure? How can you look at and determine what is your heart really treasure? I want to give you four tips and ways that you can do that. There's an insert inside your bulletin. You can follow along with that helpful there. You'll see an outline there. Number one is this from this passage. You need to see the certainty of treasure. The certainty. Verse 19 started off right away and said, do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth. Remot and rest destroyin' with these breakin' and steal. What did it not say? It did not say if you store up treasures for yourself. They don't do it on earth. They'll make it earthly things. There's no if anywhere in here. If you know the context here, Jesus is on the servant of the mount. He's preaching, he's teaching, and he's teaching very profoundly strongly. In fact, those that are watching and listening will remark oftentimes that Jesus spoke as one having authority. Different than the scribes in the Pharisees. Imagine that same presence of Jesus is speaking there. And he's not saying if it's implied when it's really in some ways not even when it's you are. The question is simply, where are you storing up your treasures? So you understand here there's a certainty of treasureing. We all are treasureing something. It's not a matter of the will, but it's a matter of what you're choosing to treasure. Everyone needs at least two main things. Christians understand this and reading the Bible, but even psychologists have determined this as well too. As they've looked at it outwardly, is that people are constantly looking for two main things. One, security, and two, significance. Basic human nature, and I bet if you're like me, you would say, yeah, I can see that. We've long for security. We long to know that we can take care of ourselves, that we will be okay. That we'll have our needs met. We've got food to eat, you've got a house to live in, clothes to wear. Whatever it is that means security for you, we long for that. And every human being does. But we also long for a significance. We long to think and know that our life has meaning, that our job and our roles in life have purpose, and matter to somebody or for something, that's not just meaningless. And if you are lacking one of those two things, you're not a happy person. If you're missing both, you're desperately not a happy person. But we find that if you have both of those, you live generally a happy, peaceful life. But the question is, how are each of us looking for that? Not a matter if every human being is looking for security. Security is often found in two primary things. Comfort and acceptance. Comfort of knowing again like our needs are being met, but even acceptance and knowing that I'm accepted by others. I fit in. Significance has also got at least two things under it. One is control and one is power. You can't have significance unless you have some sense that I have control over my destiny. And the power to make a difference, my choices, my actions, will impact reality. And I have a role in a responsibility. We're going to look at those more a little bit later on in the service. But don't miss the very beginning here of this text that Jesus is saying everybody is treasuring something. The question is what? But it doesn't stop there because there's a dilemma as Jesus points out. And that's what we see. Number two, the dilemma of treasuring. What's the dilemma? Jesus starts right off and he says, there's a choice of where you're going to store up your treasures. Earth or in heaven. Again, verses 19 through 20 again. Do not store up yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rest destroy, where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth and rest do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. You see, there's a dilemma. There are two choices. There are two options. And every one of us will make a choice of which one we want to do on that. And let me illustrate this a little bit more how to do this, what this looks like. All of us will tend to do this. We will take good things and we'll make them ultimate things. And here's where you see it happen. For example, maybe it's a relationship. Maybe it's with the spouse or it's about your dating. Maybe it's with your children. If you're a parent. But some of us will take relationships which are a good thing. God created those. But when you make a good thing, the ultimate thing, something happens. Something different happens. For example, if you make finding the right spouse or finding somebody to marry, which is a good thing, your ultimate thing, it begins to consume and drive you. What if it's a job? Jobs are a good thing. I mean, many of us are thinking, yeah, this day and age, if I have a job, that is a good thing. We've had some in our own church here, lost jobs. Some are looking for jobs. Some are about to graduate and don't know if there will be a job. And the next step here, a job is a good thing. But if a job, a good thing, becomes the ultimate thing. It begins to rule and drive you. It begins to be the thing that you'll sacrifice things that might potentially threaten that job, like a family. The family requires a time that would hurt your ability to climb the ladder in your job, for example. Or if you're tempted to bend the ethical rules of a place of employment in order to better advance your company or yourself, if your job's an ultimate thing, those decisions get very, very hard. Well, this passage here, we know, because Jesus is going to specifically mention money, because there's lots of things that we can be treasuring. Jesus is going to say, hey, you know what, money. Money is a huge opportunity in your life that can be a good thing, or you can make it an ultimate thing. There's nothing wrong with money. Money is a tool. It's a vehicle. It's a meeting that we use in our society to exchange value, to keep our interaction between exchange and supply and demand working. There's nothing wrong with money. God tells us to faithfully give our money to him and to his purposes. The problem is this. If money, a good thing, becomes an ultimate thing. And something radically different is a control of your heart. Something different, your ultimately worshiping, rather than God himself. And that's what this passage is beginning to point out here. See, the problem is they fail to deliver when they become ultimate things. You make a relationship, your ultimate thing, and it will let you down every single time. Because if all you live for is for a relationship, what happens when that relationship is on, is in the gutter. You feel terrible. You feel like your life is falling apart. What happens if you lose a loved one? If that was your ultimate thing, you don't want to go on living in life. What if it is your job? If that good thing of a job becomes an ultimate thing, then you bow down and you worship it above all else. You put everything out in the way except for that job. And if it's money, you begin to let it rule to dictate, to lead you as well. But it can never deliver as an ultimate thing. Because it was never designed to in the first place. You know, it's kind of money would kind of be like this. Can you imagine? We're not too far away from Thanksgiving. But I bet all of you had some kind of a better than normal, maybe, you know, meal on Thanksgiving day. I mean, some of you maybe go away. Go way out with your family. But probably some of you did something special. Can you imagine the anticipation of a Thanksgiving meal with you and your family? And, you know, thinking through what it might be like to sit down and have this incredible feast before you? How many of you here like cotton candy? Raise your hand. But can you imagine spending an entire Thanksgiving meal just eating cotton candy? Okay, the first few, you know, bites of it, you're like, that's not bad. That's pretty good. All right. But just that, you know, a little sugary, little kind of thing that, I mean, that was, and that was it. That was it for the day. You're cotton candy. You'd be like, I thought I like cotton candy. You don't think I like that anymore? It cannot deliver. Whether you like cotton candy or not, you cannot deliver a Thanksgiving meal experience, can it? It's not made to. It doesn't have the ability to. The money cannot satisfy the deepest longings of your heart because it wasn't designed to. I like CS Lewis's quote in Miracrescianity of Book that maybe some of you have read. He says this, it says, if I find in myself a desire with note, which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. And is that not true of us as a human race? Is that not true of you? That you're longing looking for something to satisfy you deeply. But the more you try this, the more you try that, and if you try money, it ultimately doesn't do it. It can't do it. It wasn't designed to do it. Let's keep looking a little deeper here on what Jesus is teaching. He certainly is teaching the certainty of treasuring. We will treasure something just a matter of what. He's exposed to us the dilemma. We have a choice. Earthly things or heavenly things. But let's look at the method which he unpackages here. Number three, the method of treasuring. Jesus jumps in, and he kind of, all of a sudden goes into this little analogy that may not make sense unless you think about it a little bit. Look what he says in verses 21 through 23. Jesus all of a sudden shifts gears and says, hey, the eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness. How great is that darkness? Jesus says, it's kind of like your ability to see. Anybody here like me have a stigmatism? Raise your hand. There's a few of us out there. One of the things I realized as I was growing up, because you're born, you don't usually discover these things right away. And also as you grow older, as your body grows, your stigmatism can actually grow as well, too. He's going to detect it right away. But I remember as a student, as an elementary age kid, I'd be sitting in the back of class. I'd be trying to follow the teacher writing on the board. And I would think that those teachers are really bad handwriting. I can't read a word of what she's saying. These were back in the not dry race days. You know, they're definitely the chalk on the chalk board. And so I'd be squinting trying to figure it out. And for the longest time, I just thought, man, teachers really need to work on their pitmanship. So I realized that looked around me that my other classmates weren't squinting at all. They weren't having any problem. And I'd have to say, what does that one word say? And I began to realize that, women, there's something about me. There's something with my eyesight. There's not quite right here, because nobody else on this row it seems to be struggling like I am. I mean, when I first got my pair of glasses, because I didn't know what astigmatism was as a young kid, but when I got them, I remember thinking that, at night time, I thought, this is interesting, because my eyesight feels a lot worse at night than it does during the day. And I was thinking, why would that be different? When I realized here, and looking at how, when I had my glasses on at night, I actually things seemed brighter. I thought, well, they're not really brighter. They just seem brighter. I realized, and some of you know, right, that the idea of the whole thing, the astigmatism is that there's actually your eyeball is shaped and it deformed, it's slightly warped. And so when the light comes through the lens of your eye, it actually reflects, not perfectly, if this is the retina of your eye, instead of it hitting it perfectly, it's off. So you literally, if you have astigmatism, are missing part, as I understand it, part of the light that you would get. You don't notice it so much during the day, but at night time, you notice it, because there is a distortion happening. People that are blind, obviously see this very clearly, they're like, hey, you know, it doesn't matter what the lights are on, or the lights are off. I can't see a thing. You get the picture of how important your eyes are and determining reality on the inside. What is Jesus saying? If you are treasuring things here on Earth, best case scenario, your sensory reality is distorted. And more likely, worst case scenario, you're blinded. You can't see. Jesus even says, and prays, give them eyes to see and ears to hear. Because we need them, because our eyes, blinded by a fleshly, simple nature, we have a distortion of a view of reality. And we see temporal things. We see the things of Earth as being what will satisfy us, but they cannot. Because our eyes are really revealing that. Let me give you a tool here to kind of give you a glimpse. If you have your outline, in fact, if you're not using your outline, pull it out and look on the back. Next slide, Michael. There is this chart. And I've used this before. This is actually one that, part of these four categories came from some psychologists. Tim Keller has put together some of it, and I can't blame him. I've actually modified and done some things. So this is not unique here. But I wanted you to see how you can see security. Ooh, we've got a little pointer here. Oh yeah, that's nice. Yeah. Okay. As you look here, the categories of security, comfort and approval, the category of significance, control and power, what we seek by treasuring money are these things. We seek can money give us comfort? Can money give us the approval that we're looking for from others? Can it give us a sense of control? Does it give us power? And if you think about it, yeah, money has the ability to do all this to some degree in a good way. But it doesn't have the power to do it in an ultimate way. Notice, here's where it gets really insightful. Here, the price we will pay, the price you will pay for comfort if you're looking at it for money, is reduced productivity. For approval, less independence. If it's control, you'll be willing to pay loneliness, spontaneity. If it's power, you'll be willing to pay burden or responsibility. What's your greatest nightmare? If you're struggling in these areas, stress demands. If it's comfort. If it's approval, rejection. And that makes sense. If approval is what you're seeking for and looking for through money, if you don't have it, it's probably because you feel rejected. Under control, it's uncertainty. Under power, it's humiliation. Failing to succeed. What do others feel around you? If you're serving and looking for these things through money, others feel hurt often. They might feel smothered if it's approval or condemned or used. What's the problem most in that you personally feel with these? Borden, if it's comfort. Approval, it's cowardice. Under control, it's worry. And your power would be anger. Now, we're going to fill in the last column for you under the next point. But I want you to get a chance here. And I want you to look at that and think, how is that true of you? If you were to look at yourself and be honest here, would you say, you know, yeah, one of these four I bet probably ranks top on your list. Maybe it's like, yeah, approval. I'm always looking to please other people and get other people happy with me. Even people I don't like. Or somebody might say, ooh, it's control. I've got to have control over my reality. And I bet whatever one is a top one for you, if you think about it in terms of money, you will see in a way how you use money to do that for you. You use money as your vehicle, not just as a good thing, but as your ultimate thing to give you comfort. Money can be an ultimate thing to help you find approval. Well, if I just had this and that, then I would feel on par with my neighbors. Or control. Boy, man, that's been rocked this past year and our society hasn't. That money can really give control. Or power through all that. Just giving you a picture. It's an insights into where you're at. Well, let's look at number four, the power of treasuring. Number four, the power of treasuring. We're going to connect that chart in a second. Verse 24, Jesus makes it very clear. He goes, 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. What's the insight here? Whichever one of these you're looking to that you are treasuring is going to be your master. It's going to call the shots. If money is what you treasure, then when you have money, you're going to feel more empowered. You're going to feel happier. And those times and those moments when you don't have money, when you're short and in the month, when you're living through an economy that's in a recession, when you lose your job, you're going to feel impotent. You're going to feel depressed. When you have Christ though, and this is where Jesus is going with all this, when your hope is in heavenly things, the promise is nothing can take you out of my hand. God says, once you're in my hand, once you've given your life to me, nothing can take you away. My promises are good for this life and the life to come. If Christ is what you're treasuring though, no matter what the circumstances that happen in your life, there's no change. God is a constant. He's faithful to deliver you. He's faithful to provide for you. That's what Jesus is setting up here. He's saying, if you're treasuring heavenly things, moth and rust can't do anything to it, including a recession. And thieves can't take it away because it's based in a secure and Christ. So let me ask you some questions. When you are hurting, where do you turn? Because that's where we find out where our source of comfort is. And we're looking for that part of security. When you are hurting, where do you turn? Is it the money to solve your problems? Or something else? Or is it the God through Christ? When you feel insecure and alone, where do you turn? That's the approval category. Where do you turn? When a good friend or spouse or, you know, if you have a broken relationship, do you turn to God or do you turn to earthly things? When you begin to worry, where do you turn? That's kind of under control. When you begin to worry, where do you turn? Do you look to things like money to fix your worry, to get you out of the situation? Or do you look to God? When you feel weak, where do you turn? Because that reveals what you're trusting in for your power. Scripture's back and do all things through Christ. It gives me strength. Or you can be looking to the things of earth that give you strength when you feel weak. Money is just one of those. Well let's review, let's go back to that chart. We talked about here all the things that money makes true of us as we look about us, depending on which of these we struggle with most and which, depending on how they rank up. But let's look at what it means when we get when we treasure Christ and how that changes things there. Next slide. When we substitute Christ instead of money to find and be the source of our comfort, what's the promise from God that he bears our guilt and shame? He's the one that promises to give us what truly is what the comfort that our soul looks for. Don't let your sins are forgiven. To know that your shame that you have so deserved and earned on your own has been placed on somebody else. What about approval? Where money can't deliver, what does Christ do? He was rejected by God in our place. And here as we talked about last week, you're not just brought into the kingdom as a slave, you're brought into the kingdom as a son, as a daughter. And Jesus is treated as the outcast. Jesus is treated as the one that is the shameful, rebellious child. When it's really you and me. As you think about control on your hunger and your desire for that, when we get Christ, he guarantees God's blessing for us by taking our curse. Sorry, I don't know what happened there type of with that. Because when we're looking for control, we're looking to make sure that we can make things okay, that we can take care of ourselves. God guarantees a blessing by taking our curse. That's what Christ provides. That's what Jesus is saying. For yourself treasures through money here, what you're so really looking for is for ultimate confidence of your well-being. God's control. What about if power is the thing you look for in money? What will be getting Christ? He conquers the power of sin and death, and he calls us to be heirs in his kingdom. When you're looking and hungry for power, you're looking for success, you're looking for significance, you're looking to do something that matters in light. Because God says, look, he's taking care of sin, he's conquered it for you, and he's called you to be a son, and an heir, is what the scripture says. That means the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven are all yours. That means the chance to partake in the mission of God to bring the kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven is yours. And there's no worthy or greater calling than that. Because one day we'll look back for the new heavens and the new earth and we'll say, this is the only thing that lasted with the things of God, the things of the kingdom of heaven, the things you want to fight for from the earth, the things that are important to us here from the earth will have been done away with, and nobody is going to care anymore, the things that last, the things that will be for eternity or the things that are of the kingdom of heaven and of God. This is where Christ is getting out here. This is where God is leading us here to understand what he's working at here. And I encourage you to use this chart. This would be a great devotional tool this week. Think through these categories. Because all of us long for those four things, looking for security and significance, but think about how you use money or other things to substitute instead of Christ. You look to things on earth to be what you're treasuring to make it happen instead of Christ. Because Jesus says he's the only one that can do that for you. So my question as we wrap up here this morning is where is your treasure? Where is it? Is it in earthly things? And Jesus just picks probably the biggest one. He says money. Is that your treasure? Or is it in the things of God? And that's why I loved, again, hearing the testimony here at the beginning of our service by Francis here because it's clear from Francis that she's not looking to money to be the source of what she's living for every week. Because she's not even sure she's going to have more than a cake or two each week. But she knows that God is the one that's ultimately taking care of her. And so to come in and to give a faithful offering each week, no big deal because you know what? God's in control of cake orders. So worship him in her offering is Francis' mindset which is encouraging to all of us. Let me tell you something here that most people don't realize. God isn't after your money. He's not. He didn't share the story of Breeze last week when I was teaching him about money. God, Dad, why does God want my money? God really doesn't want your money. He could care less about your money. He could care less about anything that you have in and of yourself to offer him. But you know what he does care about? Your heart. He cares about your heart. And he loves you enough to say, you know, money is just one of the things. It's just one thing that will point to you and show you where your treasure is. So you want to grow in your faith with God. You want to experience his work in your life. You want to be set free as far as Jesus will go on and say, he'll preach not specifically in this passage. He'll say, be generous. Give from what God has given to you to others. Invest in the things of the kingdom. He will go on to say in this very passage saying, hey, don't worry about where your next meal is going to come from. I feed birds. Because I made them and they matter to me. Don't worry about where your next set of clothes is coming from. Why? Because I clothe flowers. Pretty well. But they're here one day and they're going next. He says, don't worry about that stuff. Of course, I'm going to take care of you there. But see first the kingdom of heaven. And all these things will be added to you. So God's saying, yeah, trust me. I do cake orders. Trust me. Oh, I take care of families that have kids. Trust me. If you're out of a job or don't have a job that's adequate, it's okay. I take care of people like that. God is in the business of being concerned about your heart. And your heart is revealed when you discover what you are trusting in. Most for security and significance. But is it God or something else? Let's pray. Follow this morning as we contemplate that as we think about that. Will you by your spirit come and minister and teach us this morning? Will you come and guide us to look honestly? And even in this time, God, as we prepare to come to your table, will you allow us, God, by your grace, to see where we're trusting in the things of the earth? Whether it's in our finances or some other area or a combination. And God, will you give us the hope and the quiet confidence of knowing that just like Francis, you're going to take care of us too. If we trust and put our hope and confidence in you first. If we think, if we make your kingdom first, you're going to take care of us even more so than you do, birds and flowers. Because we are your children. We are co-airs in your kingdom. So God come and meet with us. Come and buy your kindness as we've already sung. Buy your kindness, lead us to repentance. And God, let's experience the joy. I'm knowing that we have a father in heaven who cares for us, who meets our needs. And God, may you be what we treasure above all else. Let me pray this in Christ's name. Amen.