Sermon OTM – Matthew 6:19-24

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Welcome and Prayer: Jim Calhoun

Come Lord and join us here today

As alliances collapse
And friends and enemies switch places
And repairs are attempted
And new alliances formed
Please Lord, remember the children of Ukraine.

Every child that has lost their life
Every child wounded
Every child displaced
And particularly the tens of thousands of children that have been abducted and relocated.

We ask you keep their families strong
Give them hope that they will be reunited
And their families restored.

We ask you end the shelling of schools
Of hospitals
Of homes
And give the children rest,
peace
We ask that the powerful also become wise
That the powerful also become compassionate
That the powerful also become good.

We ask that leaders bind together with courage
Dedicated to the restoration of the lives of these children
That the criminals of war be held to account
That you establish a just peace

We ask you to care for our friends,
Steve and Oddny,
And for their friends as well
Who care for the children of Ukraine
Give them faith, courage, wisdom and grit
Give them every resource they will need
Money, ideas, new friends, and opportunity
So in the mess of this world
These children are loved and not forgotten.
Amen

Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.

Intro: We’re still in the Sermon On the Mount,

But I’m going to begin by reading a of couple verses from Psalm 139
– this is one of the very popular Psalms
• its beautiful and haunting poetry are easy for us to follow
◦ and at the same time, carries us from heights of the heavens
◦ and depths of the ocean, to the abyss of our own souls
• it begins:
“ O LORD, you have searched me and known me!”
◦ but then it ends:
“Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting!” (Ps. 139:1 and 23-24)
– although David begins confessing God has searched him and known him,
• he ends the poem with a request that God will search him
◦ I think that’s because he realizes God knows his heart,
◦ and he does not know it as well as God
• the truth is, we can fool our own hearts about how righteous we are

“The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?
‘I the LORD search the heart and test the mind . . . .’” (Jer. 17:9-10)

I began with this probe into the human heart for my own sake
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:19-21

I have always been captivated by what Jesus says in these verses
– there is no other instance in which he makes it so clear that whatever we treasure, owns our hearts
• Jesus’ Sermon is an invitation to the kingdom of heaven
• my immediate response is, “Yes! That’s where my treasure is”
◦ but when I think about concerns that fill my mind most often,
◦ I have to question myself, “Where is my heart?”
– I don’t want to pretend that I practice this perfectly
• so as we go through these verses this morning,
◦ it’s with the prayer, “Search us, O Lord, and know our hearts”

Jesus threads a theme through the Sermon: There are two ways

What we’ve been tracking since chapter 5, verse 20,
– is an inferior righteousness and a superior righteousness
• the inferior righteousness wins inferior rewards:
◦ they are located in this world, short-lived, and come from other people (Mt. 6:1)
• the superior righteousness wins superior rewards
◦ they are heavenly, eternal, and from our Father who is in heaven
– so today we look at three other instances in which the two ways contrast:
• what we treasure – the contrast is between what is earthly and what is heavenly
• where our attention is focused – the contrast is between light and darkness
• who is our master – the contrast is between God and Mammon

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth”

In the 1979 movie, “The Jerk,” Steve Martin plays Navin and Bernadette Peters plays Marie
– Navin happened into making millions of dollars, so he and Marie purchased a mansion, cars, and lots of luxury items
• then after millions of law suits, the lost everything lamenting their descent into poverty,
◦ lamenting their descent into poverty, Marie moans,
“I don’t care about losing all the money. It’s losing all the stuff.”
• besides “the stuff,” the temptation of money is the promise of:
◦ security, opportunities (for travel and entertainment), and status
– in our world, we must have an income to survive
• but like bread, we cannot live on money and stuff alone
Amy-Jill Levine, “Stuff cannot save us. Instead, it draws us in. . . . and we generally find it easier to take in than to give away. Those of us who have known poverty and hunger want more stuff because we know what it is like to be without, and we never want to experience that feeling again. The problem then becomes that we can never have enough.”
• the promises of money are actually a chimera
◦ wealth does not guarantee security, but only the illusion of security
◦ the pleasures it affords are no greater than what a poor family enjoys at the beach
◦ and worst of all, you are forever driven by greed for more

“He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is emptiness” (Ecc. 5:10)

If we’re not rich, if we live paycheck to paycheck,
– we can imagine we’re already living Jesus’ teaching
• that our treasures are in heaven, because they’re not here
◦ that may simply be our reality and not an advantage
◦ nor does being poor mean it is easy to accept poverty
• we can have nothing, but still be thinking about it constantly
◦ or long to have more or better stuff
◦ so then our hearts are stuck on here earth as much as any wealthy person
– Jesus undermines the security of wealth by describing the ways it can be lost
• moths, rust (anything corrosive), and thieves are typical
◦ the phenomenal proliferation of scams today puts anyone at risk.
◦ there are other risks too
My meditation, “Besides moth, rust, and thieves, there is also flood, fire, and economic downturns that can erase wealth and possessions. The things we own and the possibility of losing all can be a source of intense and ongoing anxiety. In fact, we can lose our possessions–in the sense of our enjoyment of them, while we still have them through worry. So Jesus could have added anxiety to the list of the ways our treasures could be lost or ruined. Jesus wants to protect us that distraction, and he continues this emphasis to the end of the chapter.
What if worldly treasure comes to you? I hear Jesus saying, “Don’t store more than what you will need in your lifetime. Live simply and give away as much as you can without impoverishing yourself. Understand that whatever money comes to you, it is a resource for doing good in the world, that in fact its only value is in this world, and whatever is excess, you can use to bless and save the lives of others.”
• our “heart,” in this context, represents our attachments
◦ what we value, what matters most to us,
◦ stirs our deepest feelings, and drives strongest commitments
– superior righteousness is a matter of the heart,
• and a righteous heart belongs in heaven and to heaven

So how do we lay up treasures in heaven? How do we add to our heavenly account so that we are looking forward to drawing on that, or relying on that account to deal with the present challenges of life?

“The eye is the lamp of the body”
 “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” Matthew 6:22-23

Some commentators shift the metaphor from “lamp” to a window
– meaning, we can see what is in a person through their eyes
• there is another verse that may help shed light on this
The spirit of man is the lamp of the LORD,
searching all his innermost parts (Pr. 20:27)
◦ in this verse, the lamp is illuminating what is inside a person
My meditation: The eye being like a lamp means that whatever you look at is what you let in. The eye is frequently the organ that focuses our attention on a particular object or person. Of course, there is more than the organ of sight. There is also intention, concentration, motivation, and so on. All of these actions ca be related to what do we choose to look at and from what we choose to look away. What I choose to set before my eyes—to desire, possess, or become—will either admit light into my inner self—whether a small dim ray or a flood—or it will block any light from entering at all. Ponder the metaphor of the eye. Let it speak to you and enlighten you.
• let’s jump back to the Beatitudes – specifically,
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God
◦ there, a person’s inner state affects their vision — a pure heart sees clearly
◦ and their vision affects their inner state
– the eye represents where we focus our attention
• what catches our eye? what interests us the most?
◦ what do we focus on when look outside?
• so like the previous contrast, this one also has to do with our hearts

Lots of things call for our attention
– some of us have become addicted to most recent news stories
• especially anything political
◦ how much of that is light and how much of it is darkness?
• what grabs my attention?
◦ is it enlightening? or is it blinding?
– Paul had several prayers for the Ephesians in his letter to them
• the first one is in chapter 1, where he prayed,
that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you . . . (Ep. 1:16-18)

“No one can serve two masters”
“No one can serve two masters, for 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 God and money” Matthew 6:24

In this instance, Jesus suggests the two masters are enemies
– in the Bible version I’m using, it has Jesus saying,
You cannot serve God and money
• misses the point that an Aramaic word is used in Greek text
• it may be that Jesus is using Mammon as a proper name
◦ either referring to an ancient deity or personifying wealth
◦ the point is, materialism can become a god to some people
– it feels like Jesus is moving again into the area of the heart
• he uses words full of emotion: love/hate, devoted/despise
• so what, or who owns my heart?
◦ each day, what gets most of my thought and attention?
◦ what are my most intense concerns and desires?
My meditation: The attempt to serve two masters (the requirements of each of whom are contrary and opposed to the requirements of the other) would result in an impossible division. This is exactly the instability of the “double-minded” person James describes. This verse, like the previous verses, has to do with wholeness. We are wholly God’s or wholly Mammon’s. One or the other, but not both.

Conclusion: Jesus has given us a lot to chew on

I will not pretend that any of this is easy
We live in the tension between our immediate needs
(and those “needs” can easily become obsessions)
and the call of Jesus to the kingdom of heaven
It is not difficult to want heaven more than the world,
it’s just difficult to keep that in focus all day every day
For myself, the first challenge is to examine my average day
What is my first concern in the morning?
What are my thoughts in the afternoon?
How am I unwinding in the evening?
What is on my mind as I fall asleep?
I am looking for my heart to see whether it is in heaven
And that is my next challenge,
because if not, then I need to make an immediate adjustments

We won’t meet this challenge overnight,
but between here and there,
grace will carry us forward