Harmony Christian Church
Harmony Christian Church
True Riches
Loading
/

Jesus spoke about storing up treasure in heaven, but how exactly do you go about doing that?  Join us for worship and learn how you can impact eternity in a very real way!  Want to help make a difference? Join us in bringing the gospel to Georgetown by supporting our online ministry (harmonychurch.cc/give
——————-
Sermon Notes Slide Key:

  • Sermons always start with “OPENING ILLUSTRATION:” and end with “CLOSING ILLUSTRATION:”
  • Red = Scripture slides (reflect formatting of scripture on slides, ie – underlines, bold, etc.)
  • All scriptures are NIV unless otherwise noted
  • Bold = Slide text
  • “b” or “B” on a line by iself = Slide break/New slide
  • Bold ALL CAPS WORDS = heading to be ignored
  • [some text] = programming notes to be paid attention to

—————————–
OPENING ILLUSTRATION:Years ago I went to Colorado and did this thing called the Pamper Pull.  It was this telephone pole that you had to climb on top of, and at the top was this little box you had to figure out how to stand up on.  I’ll never forget climbing up there and getting up on that box, I got on my knees which was a huge problem because the box was just big enough for your knees and that’s it.  I had to figure out how to stand up on this pole, 30 feet in the air, swaying back and forth.  It was terrifying.  Once I stood up, I was supposed to jump out 6 feet and grab a trapeze bar.  This is pretty much the definition of insanity.  No one in their right mind does this.  I’m telling you, I thought about faking a stroke and being like, I need to come down…  I’ll never forget standing there and counting, 1, 2, 3 and jumping out to that bar.  In that moment it was like I was an angel floating in the air, until my hands hit the bar and knocked it out of my reach…  Ha, then I was more like a fallen angel.  I started plummeting to the ground until this moment where my safety rope caught and stopped my certain death…
I’ll be honest with youI would have never taken that jump without a safety netor in my case rope
We all have safety nets for life:When I was young, I thought of my parents like this, I was always like, “well, could always move back in with them…-some of you keep a list of open jobs people try to recruit you for on LinkedIn, just in case things go sour at work-some of you even keep a safety net in your relationships, “if this doesn’t work out, I can always make it on my own…”
This morning – I want to take you to a passage where Jesus is going to prick at one of your safety nets.  
I’m telling you, if you are listening to Him, what He says is going to challenge you…
We come into this discussion in the midst of what is called “The sermon on the mount”.  Jesus is giving practical teaching that pushes the boundaries of the way these people have thought about their relationship with God and then He says this…
Matthew 6:19-2419 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
For most of us, money is perhaps, our biggest safety net of allAnd here’s how I know
When you have money, you feel more secureWhen you don’t have money, you don’t feel as secure
right?  Money is what gives you the ability to do things, to be places, to dream about your future.
If you didn’t have money, you wouldn’t be able to eat, cloth yourself, put a roof over your head and a million other things…
Money is what makes the world go round…bSo what is Jesus’ problem?
Oh man, I know it seems sacrilegious for me to ask that – but be honest, that’s what you were thinking right?  
Actually, this teaching brings up a bunch of questions for me, but I want to explore 2 of them and show you that maybe Jesus wasn’t as crazy as He seems…The 2 questions:

  1. Why is it a problem to store up treasures for yourself on earth?
  2. How in the world do you store up treasures in heaven?

b

  1. Why is it a problem to store up treasures for yourself on earth?

ILLUSTRATION:In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s there was a woman named Hetty Green who was one of the wealthiest women to have ever lived.  Hetty turned a few million dollars into the equivalent of billions of dollars.  What’s interesting thought is that you would have never known Hetty was rich from the outset.  It’s said that she told the woman who washed her clothes to only wash the bottom of her dress because that was the only part that got dirty.  She one time dressed as a poor woman to try and deceive the hospital that she wasn’t rich, worried they would over charge her.  When they realized what she was doing, the denied her service for her son whose leg was injured.  He ended up having it amputated later.  When Hetty died, she was buried in a cemetery that she had chosen because it was free to be buried there.  
to understand why storing up treasure for yourself on earth is a problem, you need to hear something Jesus says at the end of this short passage:21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
some people will claim Jesus is a pie in the sky thinker, but I don’t think that’s it…-Jesus is as practical as you can get
He’s saying, “want to know what someone cares about?  Look at their bank account”
If you are not a Christian, it’s not a problem to store up treasure for yourself…  Heck, that’s what I would doBut if you’ve actually come to understand that there is something greater going on here, and you are still Hetty Green storing it up for yourself only, you are missing the boat…
ILLUSTRATION:It would be like having a friend who was in a play and was a millionaire in the play, they had stuffed his pockets with tons of fake money for the play.  And afterwards he tried to buy your dinner with that money and believed he was something because of the role he played in the play.
A follower of Jesus has come to recognize that this world is not their homeBWe don’t seek to live for the present as much as for eternity…That brings me to the second question…

  1. How in the world do you store up treasures in heaven?

Matthew 6:19-2119 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
What Jesus is saying makes sense to you, right?  If he was saying it today, he’s saying “your money isn’t safe in this world”
ILLUSTRATION:I’ll never forget having an older gentlemen come into my office during the great recession in 2008.  He came in to talk because his retirement was still in the stock market and he lost almost everything.  He looked at me with tears in his eyes and said, “I thought we were going to retire this year, but I’m going to have to keep working…”
Jesus is making a statement of factAs long as your treasure is in this world, it is uncertain-it can be taken from you as quickly as it was given – and so Jesus tells you to put your treasure in a place where it can’t be touched…
But how do you do that?To answer that, I need to tell you another instance from Jesus’ life – we actually touched on this a while back, so I won’t go into a lot of detail.  But there was a rich young man who came up to ask Jesus what he needed to do to get eternal life and Jesus told him, Mark 10:21“One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasureinheaven. Then come, follow me.” 
Invest in life change rather than investing to get changebJesus was saying, use your money to impact people
Not sure you believe me, listen to this verse – I’ve never heard another preacher preach on this EVER, but it’s SO powerful to me…Luke 16:99 I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.
Jesus is literally saying, “use your worldly wealth to buy friends for the Kingdom”
How do you store up treasure in heaven?  You stop seeing your wealth as the means to make you rich and you see it as the means to making disciples.Treasure in heaven = investment in people, because people are the only thing that will translate from this life to the next.
CLOSING ILLUSTRATION:My dad would rip up 10 dollars, get half now, half later…  He’d tell us if we did the work we’d promised that we’d get the other half of the $10 bill, so if you ever got a $10 bill that was taped together, I’m sorry…  🙂
but there was something to realizing that the work I was doing would be rewarded later…
Listen, this whole series is about being rich, and the very premise of it is that In the Kingdom of God, what makes you wealthy is not the balance in your bank account, but the impact you have on eternity.
My goal has been to put half the $10 bill in your hand and say, don’t miss the reward God longs to drop into your hands if you change the way you live now and start to think about how to make investments in heaven…
My hope today is to move you and I to start actively looking at our generosity and to make it a priority in our life.