Treasure in Heaven

Treasure in Heaven

“Treasure in Heaven”

(Luke 12:32-34)
Series: God on Giving (3 of 3)

Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD

First Baptist Church Henderson, KY

(1-25-09) (AM)

 

  • Take your Bibles and join me in Luke, chapter 12.

 

If you’re visiting with us it has been our practice for the past several years to begin each year with a short series of messages on Christian giving.  The Bible has a lot to say about money so it behooves us to study what it says.  We noted last time that one out of every six verses in the New Testament deals with money or possessions and that Jesus mentions money or possessions more than He does faith, heaven, prayer, or hell.  In fact, our study has been precisely about what Jesus says about money or possessions in the Gospels.  We have studied Matthew and Mark so now we turn to Luke.

 

There are just three verses here in the text but the greater context of the passage concerns our tendency to worry about money.  Let’s look at these three verses in chapter 12:

 

  • Stand in honor of the reading of God’s Holy Word.

 

32 “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

 33 “Sell what you have and give alms; provide yourselves money bags which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth destroys.

 34 “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

 

  • Pray.

 

Introduction:

 

Our culture is obsessed with money.  There’s no denying it.  You can’t read the newspaper or watch the news without reading or hearing about money, especially lately!  With all this talk about bailout plans and stimulus packages, numbers are being thrown around as if there’s no end to how much we can print.  As I understand it, the latest plan is a massive stimulus package to juice our economy, a plan that could exceed one trillion dollars.  A trillion dollars—what is that?!

 

Children’s Author, David Schwartz, tries to help children understand money relative to seconds in his book How Much is a Million?  He writes, “One million seconds comes out to be about 11½ days.  A billion seconds is 32 years.  And a trillion seconds is 32,000 years.”  So a trillion dollars—if each dollar represents a second—is 32,000 years.  Someone else calculated how tall a stack of a trillion one dollar bills would be.  It came out to be a stack a little over 63,000 miles high.  That’s the distance of like two and a half trips around the earth.  That’s a lot of money!

 

In His love for us, Jesus speaks to us about the proper perspective we should have towards money and possessions.  I want to bring out three main actions from this passage, three points of actions for all Christians regarding money and possessions.  First:

 

I.  Be Entirely Fearless (32)

 

32 “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

 

So much of chapter 12 is about being fearless.  If you have your Bible open you can see this.  Jesus says in verse 4 not to fear death.  In verse 11 He says not to fear persecution, worrying what you will say when you’re arrested.  In verse 22 and following He says not to fear and fret over things, worrying about food, drink, and clothing.

 

So this is the context to help us understand why He says this in verse 32, “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”  We look back and we remember that He has just spoken about our not worrying over material possessions.  Don’t worry about these things.  The God who puts clothes on the lilies of the field and gives out food and drink to the birds of the air is the same God who will take care of you.  So don’t worry about getting your needs met!  “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom, and if the Father is giving you the kingdom—big things like that—then He is certainly willing and able to give you little things like food, drink, and clothing.

 

We really have not changed much in 2,000 years.  Jesus is saying not to worry over food, drink, and clothing.  How much today’s television advertising focuses upon these same things—food, drink, and clothing?  Jesus’ teaching may apply more broadly today to our obsession over ourselves and with products to better ourselves.  You see it on TV and throughout the slick colorful magazines.  One commentator (Kent Hughes) notes, “Every product imaginable for the body is promoted—how to tan it, pamper it, clothe it, drug it, and stimulate it.”  Many of us worry over whether others find us attractive or whether we are aging too quickly.

 

But Jesus’ main concern here is our worrying over whether our most basic and simplest needs will be met: food, drink, and clothing.  In fact, if these most basic needs are met, we will be content.  Isn’t that what the Apostle Paul said?  He wrote in 1 Timothy 6:6-8, “Now godliness with contentment is great gain.  For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.  And having food and clothing, with these things we shall be content.”

 

Jesus addresses our fear over whether our basic needs will be met.  But you see, Jesus is interested in far more than this.  Not only does He want us to not worry over whether our needs will be met but then He goes on to teach us about giving.  He says in the next verse, “Sell what you have and give.”  So you see, Jesus wants us to understand that when it comes to Christian giving, whether it’s returning the tithe—10%—or giving beyond the tithe, that we must not worry about whether we’ll have enough money left over to have our needs met.  We must trust the God who can take care of little things like grass and birds to take care of big things like people made in His image.

 

“Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”  Jesus is saying that we can be fearless because the Father who loves us takes delight in meeting our needs.  It is the “Father’s good pleasure to give.”  God loves us.  It pleases Him greatly to give to His children.  Maybe some of you didn’t have an earthly father who loved like that.  But if you’re a Christian, you have a Heavenly Father who loves you and delights in you!  It is His “good pleasure to give” to you.  He loves giving to you.  Look, He has given you “the kingdom.”  The kingdom!  What is the kingdom?  It is everything included in your salvation.  If you have prayed and received Christ as your Lord and Savior then you have received the gift of the kingdom.  You are enjoying some of that gift right now and you will enjoy that gift more fully when Christ returns or you meet Him first in death.  You see, Christian, God loved you so much that He gave you this precious gift of the kingdom—salvation and everything included in receiving Christ as Lord and Savior.  Not everyone this morning has received the gift of the kingdom.  Some of you are still outside the kingdom.  You have not trusted Jesus, but those of you who have, you have been blessed beyond your needs.  How many of you think the kingdom is more important than food, drink, and clothing?

 

So here is Jesus’ point: Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom and if the Father gives you big things like the kingdom He can give you little things like food and drink and clothing, and shelter, and homes.

 

The truth is the reason many Christians do not tithe is not because they fear getting their most basic needs met.  Many Christians do not tithe because they fear giving up stuff they don’t need.  It’s not about food, drink, and clothing.  It’s about living beyond our means, or driving a car that’s too expensive or living in a house that’s bigger than our budget or not being able to enjoy all the “extras,” the recreational stuff we don’t really need.  It’s about falling in love with this world instead of falling in love with the Lord.

 

Jesus warns us about this.  He says you can’t call yourself a Christian and live that way.  He says in Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”  No one can be a Christian by loving both Christ and stuff.  You can’t have it both ways.  Do you hear how serious are these words of Jesus?  In essence, the application is that if we are not giving generously, if we’re not tithing for example, then we need to ask ourselves whether we have truly received Christ as Lord and Savior of your lives.

 

So there’s a connection to this next point.  When it comes to our possessions, we may be entirely fearless and, secondly:

 

II.  Be Exceedingly Free (33a)

 

33 “Sell what you have and give alms;

 

We are free from worry and then free to give.  If we believe it is the Father’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom.  That is, if we believe the God who owns everything and runs the entire universe is going to meet our needs, then we are freed-up to give.  We are free.

 

See you can’t read verse 33 without understanding the previous verse 32.  If I believe God delights in giving to His children the big things of the kingdom like salvation and eternal life, and I believe this same God gives the little things like food, drink, clothing, then I am freed-up to let go of some of the stuff I don’t need and give.

 

Jesus says in verse 33, “Sell what you have and give alms.”  That is, “Sell what you have and give to those in need.”  To whom is He speaking?  Is He speaking to rich people, like the rich young ruler of chapter 18 to whom Jesus says, “Sell what you have and give to the poor and then you’ll have treasure in heaven?”  Actually, here in chapter 12 Jesus is speaking to—verse 22—“His disciples.”  He’s speaking to all followers of Jesus.  He’s speaking to you and me.

 

In Jesus’ day, His followers would not have had bank accounts like most of us today.  In order for them to give anything to anyone, they had to sell something else.  So Jesus says, “Sell what you have, sell your possessions, so you can give.”  I don’t think this is a call to get rid of everything.  But in order for a follower then to give anything, he had to sell his possessions.  The greater point here is that when we believe God will meet our most basic of needs and when we love God more than this world then we are freed-up to give.

 

So if we feel we cannot give—whether it’s the tithe or beyond the tithe or the generous anonymous gift to a person, to the church or to a school—and we feel we simply have nothing to give, we need to look at our possessions.  We need to look at our stuff.  That’s where the money is.  If we cannot loosen our grip on our possessions then we are not free.  We are in bondage.  That’s why we often say, “It’s not wrong to have possessions.  It’s wrong when they possess us.”

 

Do you want to be free?  Do you want to experience the liberating joy of utter freedom in Christ?  Then give.  Trust God to meet your needs and give—and give generously.

 

Be entirely free.  Be exceedingly free.  Thirdly:

 

III.  Be Eternally-Focused (33b-34)

 

This is in contrast to being temporally focused, focused upon this world only.  Don’t live with a focus upon this world only.  Focus upon the eternal things.  Jesus continues in verse 34:

 

… provide yourselves money bags which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth destroys.

 

Things in this world fall apart.  Money bags “grow old.”  Purses and wallets become dry, cracked, and brittle.  Treasures in this life fail.  Thieves can break into our homes and steal earthly treasures.  And if the thieves don’t take away our clothes then the moth will.  That’s what Jesus is saying here in verse 33.  This is all temporal stuff.  Don’t be temporally focused, be eternally focused.

 

So Jesus says, “Sell your possessions and give” and by so doing you will be eternally focused.  Through your giving you will be “providing for yourselves money bags which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth destroys.”

 

When you tithe you are supporting a church whose focus is eternal.  Through your giving you are providing yourselves money bags which do not grow old.  You are “laying up treasure in heaven,” supporting the spread of the Gospel in Henderson and throughout the world, leading souls into the kingdom.  That’s more important and longer lasting then any earthly treasure.  So be eternally focused, setting your heart and affections on things above.

 

 34 “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

 

Jesus says that our heart always follows our treasure.  Heart and treasure always go together.  That’s why so many love songs talk about our “hearts.”  Have you ever noticed how many songs have the word “heart” in the title?

 

I left my heart in San Francisco

Don’t go breakin’ my heart

Achy breaky heart

Your cheatin’ heart

Owner of a lonely heart

“You took the part that once was my heart

So why not take all of me”

 

Song writers know that heart and treasure go together, especially when the treasure is a person.  And that’s what Jesus is saying here.  Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  Our treasure, Christian, is God Himself.  Our treasure is love for God.  Like the deer in Psalm 42 longing for water, so our hearts should long for God.  He is our treasure.  If He is our treasure then our hearts will be with Him.  But if He’s not our treasure, then our hearts will beat for something else—stuff, things, money—temporal stuff.  God help us be eternally-focused.

 

Christian author and speaker Charles Lowery talks about our need to be eternally-focused.  He speaks frankly about the fact that we all are going to die before too long and when we die he says two things happen: they put us in a box and then they go and eat potato salad!  He adds:

 

Life is like Monopoly.  Remember Monopoly?  Remember Boardwalk?  Parkplace?  I mean, those were the good ones and there are some pretty nice homes around here.  Some of you are living on Boardwalk and Parkplace.  It’s a gift of God…Some of you aren’t doing that well.  Remember Marvin Gardens?  The red ones the yellow ones?  Hey, pretty good, way to go.  Some of your life didn’t turn out turn out the way you thought it would, did it?  Remember Baltic Avenue on the corner?  I mean, anyone who landed on Baltic, you’d think, ‘I don’t want Baltic!’  We can be honest—if we had to describe your life today it may be more like Baltic than Boardwalk.  But I want to encourage you: it doesn’t matter.  It doesn’t matter whether you live on Boardwalk or Baltic because life’s like Monopoly: when it’s all over everything’s going back in the box.  The next generation’s just going to play with it or fight over it like a Monopoly game.

 

That’s being brutally honest about our lives and about our possessions, isn’t it?  All the more reason to be eternally focused, giving generously, providing purses that do not wear out, treasures in heaven that do not fade away.

 

So let’s be encouraged this morning to be entirely fearless, exceeding free, and eternally focused.  Bow for prayer…

(Recommitments to give…)

Invitation:

We’ve been talking a great deal about the kingdom…John 3:3, “No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”

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