REVIEW
FLIP CHART: SOM’S KEY VERSE, GOAL, MOTTO
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness ….” (Mt. 6:33a).
The law sends us to Christ for justification; Christ sends us back to the law for sanctification.
FLIP CHART: Show new “Perfect Righteousness” chart explaining steps to coming to Christ (As a worm, mourning, meek, spiritual hunger/thirst with the result of legal righteousness). Explain: moral righteousness, immediate moral change at conversion, gradual change through life’s challenges and speeding up moral change via CCRC (Concentration, Choice, Reflection and Confession/Thanksgiving). Key verse, “By one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (Heb. 10:14).
FLIP CHART: John Stott’s outline of SOM.
19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. 23 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!
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.
REVIEW:
INTRODUCTION
The leading religionists of Jesus’ day were preoccupied with things. They were materialistic, greedy, avaricious, covetous, grasping and manipulative. That “the Pharisees . . . were lovers of money” (Luke 16:14) was not incidental to the other sins for which Jesus rebuked them. Because they did not have a right view of themselves (Mt. 5:3-12), of their relation to the world (5:13-16), of the Word of God (5:17-20), of morality (5:21-48), and of religious duties (6:1-18), it was inevitable they would not have a right view of material things. (MacArthur, 408)
“Jesus moves from addressing hypocrisy in religious practices to the values we hold in life. Kingdom citizens are certainly not to be like the citizens of this world in good deeds, giving, praying, and fasting. But just as importantly, kingdom citizens must not be bound by the values of the world. It is at this very point that our testimony of the gospel proves to be genuine or hypocritical.” (From the Web – Southwood Baptist Church)
In 6:1-18 Jesus talked about how wrong it was to perform the spiritual disciplines in order to impress people. Here he warns against gaining treasure. You may keep your piety secret, e.g. give as unto the Lord, pray and fast without parading it but how do handle your money?
John Stott titles 6:18-34 as “A Christians Ambition.” He feels that in this section Jesus warns us against materialism of the irreligious. You will note that “the Gentiles” are on his mind here and the challenge is to renounce their value system. See vs. 32: For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Fathers knows that you need them.
So if 6:1-18 dealt with the danger of improper practice of spiritual disciplines as illustrated by the religious leaders of the day Jesus now warns against the materialism of the pagans. Kingdom citizens, those who wish to have a righteousness that surpasses the righteousness of the Pharisees must avoid both perils, both pitfalls.
OUTLINE FOR TODAY:
1. Biblical Support for Private Property
2. Our Personal Property is Not Our Own
3. Where Your Treasure is, There Your Heart Will Be Also
WHERE’S OUR TREASURE?
I. BIBLICAL SUPPORT FOR PRIVATE PROPERTY
19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
After reading and studying our text one may start questioning if it is right to own private property. Sincere Christian people from the Desert Fathers of the first centuries to Tolstoy in Russia two centuries ago to Christians living in communes today have wrestled with this question.
READING: Have someone read Matthew 9:16-22.
Some have taken this example of the Rich Young Ruler as proof that it is impossible to be a true follower of Jesus and own private property.
Others refer to Christian communism or communal living in the early church as identified in the early chapters of Acts.
There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need. (Acts 4:34-35)
QUESTION: What support do we have in the Bible supporting the right for Christians to own private property?
Abraham was extremely rich whose wealth vied with that of the Kings of Canaan.
Job, at both the beginning and end of his book is listed as a rich man.
But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today. (Deut. 8:18)
6 Go to the ant, you sluggard;
consider its ways and be wise!
7 It has no commander,
no overseer or ruler,
8 yet it stores its provisions in summer
and gathers its food at harvest.
9 How long will you lie there, you sluggard?
When will you get up from your sleep?
10 A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest-
11 and poverty will come on you like a bandit
and scarcity like an armed man. (Proverbs 6:6-11)
All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty. (Proverbs 14:23)
For drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags. (Proverbs 23:21)
By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established; through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures. (Proverbs 24:3-4)
He who works his land will have abundant food, but the one who chases fantasies will have his fill of poverty. (Proverbs 28:19)
After all, children should not have to save up for their parents, but parents for their children. (II Corinthians 12:14)
For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.” (II Thessalonians 3:10)
If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. (I Tim. 5:8)
We are not to despise the good things of life by becoming ascetics:
They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving (I Tim. 4:3-4).
“The Lord richly supplies us with all things to enjoy” (I Tim. 6:17)
QUESTION: Which of the Ten Commandments gives foundational support to the ownership of private property?
The eighth – “You shall not steal” (Exodus 20: 15)
He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need. (Ephesians 4:28)
So there is no ban on personal property in the Bible. There is no ban on saving for a rainy day, for the future. There is no ban on possessing material things for your personal enjoyment.
II. OUR PERSONAL PROPERTY IS NOT OUR OWN
QUESTION: Can you think of any Scriptures that support this point?
Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine. (Exodus 19:5)
To the LORD your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. (Deut 10:14)
“But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand. . . . O LORD our God, as for all this abundance that we have provided for building you a temple for your Holy Name, it comes from your hand, and all of it belongs to you. (I Chronicles 29:14,16)
The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters. (Psalms 24:1-2)
For every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains, and the creatures of the field are mine. If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it. (Psalm 50:10-12)
“The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.” (I Corinthians 10:26)
‘The silver is mine and the gold is mine,’ declares the LORD Almighty. (Haggai 2:8)
You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today. (Deut. 8:17-18)
I walk in the way of righteousness, along the paths of justice, bestowing wealth on those who love me and making their treasuries full. (Prov. 8:20-21)
For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not? (I Cor. 4:7)
ILL: Gloria and I watched on Nova the other night a program featuring
Dr. E.O. Wilson of Harvard, the man who coined the word “sociobiology.” He noted multitudes of life forms in just a handful of soil and said that millions of species are not even yet identified. He has focused his study on ants and said that thousands of variety of ants around the world have not yet been named.
ILL: A girl who grew up in London and never visited the country was finally taken out of the city. While walking in the country she saw some beautiful flowers and asked her chaperone, “Do you think God would mind if I picked one of his flowers?”
Oh for festal dainties spread,
Like my bowl of milk and bread;
Pewter spoon and bowl of wood,
On the door-stone, gray and rude!
O’er me, like a regal tent,
Cloudy-ribbed, the sunset bent,
Purple-curtained, fringed with gold,
Looped in many a wind-swung fold;
While for music came the play
Of the pied frogs’ orchestra;
And, to light the noisy choir,
Lit the fly his lamp of fire.
I was monarch: pomp and joy
Waited on the barefoot boy! (John Greenleaf Whittier)
The premise of Matthew 6:25-34 is that all is Gods. He feeds the birds. Every seed is His, every worm is His. He clothes the grass of the fields. The bottom line is, that nothing in the world is ours. It doesn’t belong to us.
ILL: My son Dusty will often give large gifts to Christian ministry, especially projects in Indonesia. I will often comment on his gift and thank him for it. He usually responds, “Dad, it’s not my money.”
OBJECT LESSON: Have everyone take out a credit card and/or check book and write on a small sticky note: ITS NOT MY MONEY. Then stick in on the credit card and keep it there. When they pay for something it will always remind them of whose money they are spending.
Someone wrote that if we managed other people’s money the way we managed God’s money, we would be in prison. We need to keep in mind always that it is not my money.
III. WHERE YOUR TREASURE IS, THERE YOUR HEART WILL BE ALSO.
Some call this statement an epigram: concise, clever, paradoxical statement. Others an axiom: A statement widely accepted on its own merits. Whatever the case it is a common and oft repeated quote from the Bible. I typed the axiom into Google and got 75,000 references.
WHAT DOES THE BIBLE MEAN BY “HEART”?
Heart = The seat of all powers of the soul, intellect, sensibilities, will.” (John Broadus)
The entire central theme of SOM is the posture of the heart (righteousness). “My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways.” (Prov. 23:26)
“Heart here means a great deal more than it means in modern usage. Generally we think of heart as a name for the affections. But the Bible uses it for the whole inner man, the core of our total being, the wellspring of all we do. This means that Christ is telling us that where our treasure is, there will be all our total being. Not only will our affections focus on our treasure, but our entire self will be entwined with it. And as a result what happens to our treasure happens to us.” (Hughes, 209)
WHAT IS TREASURE REFERRING TO?
In the narrow sense it is referring to money but in the wider sense, anything that governs our heart. “If anything in the world is everything to you, it is your treasure.” (Hughes, 218)
If you say, “I live to …..” that could well be your treasure.
ILL: A memory, a CD collection, position in workplace, home, garden, car, boat, physique, hair, voice, personality, the weekend, travel, leisure, golf, musical abilities, athletic abilities, books, family, husband, wife, children.
TABLE ACTIVITY: Have each table arrange these five ways of going on a treasure hunt, discovering treasure in the order of importance as to discovering our heart’s treasure.
HOW TO DISCOVER YOUR TREASURE
1. What occupies our thoughts when we have nothing else to do? What occupies our day dreams?
2. What is it that we fret about most? What do we worry about? If someone asked us “What is your major concern?” what would you say?
3. Apart from your loved ones, what or whom would you most dread losing?
4. What are the things we measure others by? Do we measure others by clothing? By their education? By their homes? By their athletic prowess? Do we measure others by their success in the business world?
5. What is it that we know we can not be happy without?
SO WHAT???
1. God encourages industry, commands us to save for a rainy day and seeks to protect our personal property. Personal property is held in high regard in the Scriptures.
2. Our Father owns everything in the world. Everything is His. Therefore we must always remind ourselves that “It is not my money.”
3. We need to continually evaluate our hearts so that we know where our treasure is, what has crept in to become our treasure, the thing that we can not live without.