If you’ve seen our son Josiah in the past six months, you may have noticed his smile is transforming.  His two bottom middle baby teeth have been replaced by larger, jagged adult teeth.  Some of our kids’ friends get money for their baby teeth, and we decided that that sounded like fun, and we’d do the same.  Our first transaction came in June.  We gave him a dollar for his bottom right incisor.  So far Josiah has lost three teeth.  He’s thrilled about this, because he’s saving for a lightsaber – one of those glow-in-the-dark Star Wars weapons – so he’s been standing in front of the mirror and wiggling his top incisor in hopes of cashing in.

It reminds me a little of this comic strip from Calvin and Hobbes.  (cartoon)

In the United States, we learn to seek money from an early age.

What were you doing on Christmas, 2002?  That was five years ago.  Let me tell you what a guy named Jack Whittaker of Hurricane, West Virginia was doing.  Jack was 55 years old, the founder of a very successful construction company that employed 100 people in his small town.  He was a self-made millionaire.  When he woke up Christmas morning, Jack was worth about $15 million dollars. He went to breakfast at a local diner, bought some biscuits and with it, a Powerball lottery ticket.  Guess who won the jackpot?!  When he went to bed that night, he was worth $330 million dollars.  Merry Christmas!

When word got out that Jack had won the biggest jackpot in Powerball history, he was quickly inundated with requests for money.  People began viewing him not as a friend or neighbor, but as the answer to their financial problems.  Everywhere he went, people wanted his money.  His relationships went sour.  His granddaughter’s life was threatened ‘for ransom,’ he became a target of local armed robberies, he was sued for everything you can imagine, in 400 separate lawsuits, and in the course of all this mess, his wife divorced him.  For Jack, winning the lottery was a curse!

Unfortunately, this story is not unique.  There is even a cable TV show called “winning the lottery ruined my life!”

People tend to think that money fixes all problems.  Guess what – it doesn’t!

Money cannot buy happiness.  It seems like it might, because it buys us what we need, keeps our stomachs full enough, keeps a roof over our head and other necessities, but apparently, once you’re past the basics, it just makes life complicated.

Why was a self-made millionaire buying a lottery ticket?  Is it possible that no amount of money will satisfy us?  Is it possible that the things in which we invest our money… tend to disappoint us?

We might ask then, “If money can’t make me happy, then what in the world am I supposed to do with it?”

What does Jesus have to say about it?  Fortunately, he had plenty to say about it.  In fact, he preached more about money than he did about heaven or hell.  Often times when disciples asked Jesus how they could obtain salvation, he launched into advice about money management:  “Sell your possessions and give to the poor!” he said.  When Zacchaeus the tax collector announced his plans to give to the poor and make up for all his years of cheating tax payers, Jesus responded with, “Today salvation has come to this house” (Luke 19:9).

Why is that?  What is the connection?  Where do God and money meet?

Here is the key:  Your spending habits reflect your heart.  We spend our money on the things that are most important to us.  Money is a very personal issue.  People don’t go around asking each other how much money they make or what bills they have, because it’s intensely personal.   Our checkbook ledger shows our priorities.  It reveals the choices we make day to day. 

As we look at our text today, we’ll see three ways that we can maximize our joy from money.

Please open your Bibles with me to Matthew 6:19-24.  Today we are looking at this section of Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount.”

Let us begin with the passage.  Jesus said:  “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.  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!  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.”

A popular interpretation of this passage goes like this:

“Jesus is not teaching that money is evil in itself.  What this passage IS teaching is that we should not love money more than Jesus.  It is perfectly fine to have earthly treasures, as long as we don’t put them above God.”

Certainly money is not evil in itself.  Biblically, wealth is rightly seen as a blessing from God.  And it IS certainly true that money should not be more important to us that God – for if it were, that would be blatant idolatry.  And lastly, it IS true that there is nothing inherently sinful about having earthly treasures.

Even though these things are true, I believe that this passage is often misunderstood.

So what does Jesus really mean?  What is Jesus’ point?

Jesus is not giving us some rules to keep.  Jesus is telling us how to invest our money wisely.  What Jesus IS doing is telling us how to maximize our joy from our money.

U.C. Berkeley recently conducted a series of interviews with 124 of their business majors.  After the students graduated, the school continued to interview them about their personal lives.  The study concluded that as these students climbed corporate ladders and saw their salaries increase, they became more and more dissatisfied with their quality of life.  Their money was not buying happiness.

So how do we maximize our joy from our money?

In order to answer this question, we are going to divide this passage into its three parts.  We’ll begin by considering verses 19-21.

Let’s again read these verses:  “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.”

How can we maximize our JOY from money?

The answer to this question from verses 19-21 is simply this:

Just do it!

In this passage, Jesus is clearly giving a command.  He is not making a suggestion.  He is not asking us to weight the options and consider the pros and cons of two different possibilities. He is not saying, “Well, Steve, you might want to invest your life in the pleasures and treasures of this world, and you might want to invest in the Kingdom of God… it is totally up to you; I’ll support you either way.”

Nope.  Jesus says, “Do not (blank)!”

And he says, “Do (blank)!”

So what exactly are supposed to NOT do?  And what exactly are we supposed TO do?

Let’s look at Jesus’ words.

“"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth…”

Jesus is here making a strong negative command, “Do not store up…”

The word here ‘store up’ is a word that means “to keep some material thing safe by storing it.”  The reason is this:  they won’t be safe.  Jesus says that these treasures on earth, though they seem secure, are not safe.  He says of them “where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.”  Basically, if we try to save things just to keep them safe, they will end up being consumed by insects or stolen by thieves. 

There is nothing on this earth that is ‘safe.’  No matter how strong our bank accounts and safe deposit boxes and stock portfolios are, our money is not ‘safe.’  Even the values of our houses is not ‘safe.’  (Though you’d think that they can only go UP from this point).  The things we buy on planet earth are just not safe.  Whether we’re investing our money in stuff, in our comfort, our health, our reputation --nothing earthly lasts.

In the late 1990s my wife Janelle had a coworker who thought he’d found a sure-fire way to become a multi-millionaire.  He took $15,000 and invested it in one of the nation’s hottest trends:  Beanie Babies.  Do you remember how popular they were in the late ‘90s?  He bought thousands of them, and even dedicated a room in his house to this collection of pristine-condition stuffed animals, which his children were forbidden to touch.  He was imagining a future where Beanie Babies were worth gold, where he’d be better off than everyone else, because he made a wise prediction.  What if he had known the future – that Beanie Babies would be little more than yard sale fodder?  Would he have invested it differently?

Unlike Janelle’s coworker, we do know something of the future:  As Jesus said, “All things on heaven and on earth will pass away.”  Nothing earthly keeps its value.  Even if we think our possessions, comfort, and social status are relatively safe, WE aren’t.  You could die today!  And then what of all of all of the earthly things that you’ve saved up for yourself?  You just got zero return on your investment.

Does anyone know who America’s first billionaire was?  Oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller.  When he died in 1937, his accountant was asked, “How much money did Rockefeller leave?”  His accountant’s reply was simple:  “All of it.”

We can’t take it with us.  Jesus tells us not to save up treasures on earth because in the end, it’s all worthless.

We read in James 4:14:  “You do not even know what will happen tomorrow.  What is your life?  You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”

That makes you feel important, doesn’t it?

So when you are lying on your deathbed, do you want to look back and think of your life as one big investment in the Kingdom of God?  Or do you want to see it as a big waste of time?  (Cartoon)

Don’t waste your life!

Jesus tells us how NOT to waste our lives!  Jesus tells us how to maximize our joy from our money.

And then Jesus tells us what TO do.

“But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven.”

And he tells us why:

“Where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.”

Do you want to maximize your return on your money?  Do you want to get the most joy possible from your money?  Invest it in something of permanent value!  Invest in treasures that are never consumed!

And how can we do that?  How do we store up for ourselves treasures in heaven?

I think of Luke 12:33:  “Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.”

We can store up for ourselves treasures in heaven by loving others and by doing good deeds.  Giving to the poor.  Supporting missionaries.  Giving to local ministries and charities.  Using your resources (which God has given you) to spread the gospel.

Jesus is very clear:  “Do not store up treasures on earth, store up treasures in heaven.”

Now some may ask, “Should I save money for retirement?  If so, how much?  Should I invest in stocks and bonds?  How much?  Should I have life insurance?”

Some may even ask, “How much food should I store up in my pantry?”

There is no single answer to these questions.  It’s between you and God.

But we do know this: we are commanded NOT to store up treasures on earth.  And we ARE commanded to store up treasures in heaven.

And in case we are still asking, “Why?”

In verse 21, Jesus says:  “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Question: do you want your heart to be focused on heavenly things?  Or do you want your heart to be focused on earthly things?

Your heart will be where your treasure is.

Is your heart consumed with earthly things?  If so, then so is your money.

Is your heart consumed with heavenly things?  Then so too is your money.

If you invest all of your money in a business, say a restaurant chain, your attention will naturally gravitate toward news of that restaurant chain.  You’ll think about your investment and wonder how things will turn out.  The same is true if you are supporting a missionary, or sending shoeboxes of school supplies and bibles to a child in some far-off corner of the world.  You’ll spend time wondering if they’re using that pad of paper, if they understood the tract -- part of your heart went with that shoebox.

Do you want your heart to be focused on heavenly things?  Then put your wallet there.  Spend your money on Kingdom investments, and your heart will soon follow. 

How can we maximize our pleasure from our money?  Invest in the Kingdom of God.  That is where are treasures are safe.  And that is where our hearts are safe.

Just do it!

As we continue in our text, we’ll see the second thing we need to do in order to maximize our JOY from money.

Let’s look at verses 22-23:  “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 is here talking about good eyes and bad eyes, light and darkness.

Jesus says that the eye is the lamp of the body.  In other words, the body ‘finds its way’ through the eye.  If you have good eyes, your body goes the right way, and is full of light.  If you have bad eyes, your body goes the wrong way, and is full of darkness.

This truth can be turned into a question: what are you looking at?  What are you seeking?  What do you have your eyes set on?

Just a few years ago, when I was in highs school….

I remember watching one of those ½ hour paid-for advertisements on T.V.  For a half hour, this man was talking to ME!  He was telling me that if I just set my heart on it, I could be a millionaire within just a few years!  He was telling me that I had to make up my mind that I wanted to be rich.  He was telling me that I had to make a decision that I’d do whatever it takes, give up whatever I needed to give up, and do whatever I needed to do… to get rich.  He was very convincing!  After a half hour, I was so convinced that I could make up my mind and secure a prosperous future for myself that I didn’t even think I needed to spend $29.99 to buy his book!

So… what do you think?  Is it okay to seek money like this?  What does Jesus say?

Let’s return to our text:

According to these verses, how can we maximize our joy from money?

Here is the answer:

Open your eyes to God!

Make Jesus the focus of your life.

What is going to make you happy?  If you think money will make you happy, you will seek money. You will think and scheme about how to get more money.  Money will be on your mind during the day, and you will dream of money at night.  Money will ever be before you… and your body will be full of darkness.

But if you believe that God will make you happy and satisfy your soul, you will dream of God day and night.  Knowing Jesus and pleasing Him, that is what your life will be all about!

The teaching of these two verses is clear:

Do you want to maximize your happiness from money?  Open your eyes to God!  Watch what he’s doing, pay attention to his ways, and invest accordingly.

We might think of Hebrews 12:2... Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith

So the first thing we can do to maximize our JOY from money is to “Just Do It!”  Obey his command and store up for yourself treasures in heaven and not on earth.

Second: Open your eyes to God.  Focus not on “instant gratification” and the pleasures of this world, but focus on God and using your money to advance the Kingdom.

And third:

We can maximize our JOY from money if we -

Yield to serving God (verse 24)

Consider verse 24:  “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.”

In this verse, God and money are spoken of as slave owners.  At the time of Jesus in the Roman Empire, slavery was not uncommon.  People sometimes sold themselves to a master so that they could pay off debt and have food to eat, a place to live and a secure job.  But a slave could only have one master, and he served full-time.  You can’t be a part time slave!

While we own our possessions, they also own us.  We may have a great collection of jewelry or gadgets from Best Buy, but they came at a price; we worked for them, or continue to work for them.  I like this Bizarro comic:  (cartoon)

And he’ll HAVE to work to pay off the diamond, right?  And this is exactly the point that Jesus is making: you can’t be a slave of two masters!  If you’re going to work to earn things, earn things that will last – things that will bring you joy not just on earth, but for eternity!

If you live and work for money and the earthly pleasures that it can buy, you are definitely not serving Jesus.

But if Jesus is your master and you live for Him, then you are certainly not living for money and the earthly pleasures that it can buy.

Happiness is found not in serving money but in serving God.

So if you want to maximize your joy from money, yield to serving God!

So where do you go for happiness?  Where do you go for fulfillment?

Too many people think that money will bring happiness.  We have learned from this passage that money does not bring happiness on earth.  Only God brings happiness.

God made us, and He made us for a relationship with Jesus.  If we know Jesus, we have life.  If we do not know Jesus, we do not have life.

Money is a tool: we can use it to try to buy the pleasures of this earth, or we can use it to store up for ourselves treasures in heaven.

We can maximize our JOY from money by doing three things:

Just do it: invest in heavenly treasures

Open your eyes to God

Yield to serving God.

If you do these things, you will find JOY.  

_______________

*At the time Pastor Steve York shared this message he was serving on the pastoral staff of Creekside Evangelical Free Church of Merced.  His ministry focused on young couples, college students, and middle school and high school students.  Steve has a B.A. in linguistics from UC Santa Barabara and a Master of Divinity from Michigan Theological Seminary (Plymouth, MI).