Material Management | Matthew 6:19-34 | Gary Hamrick

[Applause] [Music] so [Music] [Music] well let's take our bibles we're continuing in the sermon on the mount we're in matthew chapter six so if you'll open your bibles there to matthew chapter six uh i will set the stage again for where we are in our bible study this again is the longest recorded sermon of jesus in the bible called the sermon on the mount because jesus delivered this sermon on somewhat of a mountain side it's more like the slope of a hill but on the northern coast of the sea of galilee so that's the backdrop behind me that's the location where this sermon took place on the northern coast of the sea of galilee and the last half of chapter six that we're going to be looking at today has a common theme and it has to do with the material aspect of life you know the bible is not only about the spiritual it is also about the very practical and um practically speaking we all need material things as a matter of life and so jesus is going to address the proper use of and management of material possessions as followers of his remember the sermon on the mount is a sermon that jesus delivers to people who want to be followers of his and it is not for the faint of heart so jesus raises the bar here and he says listen if you want to be followers of mine your life is going to have to look like this and last week we talked about some of the spiritual disciplines that jesus addressed giving and praying and fasting and today we're going to look at some of the material disciplines of the faith in other words how as christians are we to manage and be good stewards of the material aspects of life so that the need for material things does not become the greed for material things which is often the case in the world in which we live people in our world are living very materialistic lives people who don't know the lord are consumed with questions like what can i buy what can i wear what can i drive where can i live how much money can i make i mean we are living in a very consumer-oriented materially driven world and so as followers of christ we have to say okay we need material things to survive material things are not sinful in and of themselves but we have to make sure we're we're good stewards of those things we want to make sure that we own material things and they don't own us albert schweitzer once said quote anything you have that you cannot give away you do not really own it owns you and quote and so it's something we have to be careful of because it is possible for the material things which are again not sinful they're needful but it's possible for those things to become obsessions or pursuits in a way that they start to own us rather than us owning those things and so again whereas last week we looked at some of the spiritual disciplines jesus jesus talked about in the first part of chapter six in the last part of chapter six he talks about material disciplines and so that's what we're going to look at today starting here at verse 19 of matthew chapter six this is what jesus says verse 19 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 the lamp of the body is the eye if therefore your eye is good your whole body will be full of light but if your eye is bad your whole body will be full of darkness if therefore the light that is in you is darkness how great is that darkness 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 mammon verse 25 therefore i say to you do not worry about your life what you will eat or what you will drink nor about your body what you will put on is not life more than food in the body more than clothing look at the birds of the air for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns yet your heavenly father feeds them are you not of more value than they which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature so why do you worry about clothing consider the lilies of the field how they grow they neither toil nor spin and yet i say to you that even solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these now if god so clothed the grass of the field which today is and tomorrow is thrown into the oven will he not much more clothe you oh you of little faith therefore do not worry saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear for after all these things the gentiles seek for your heavenly father knows that you need all these things but seek first the kingdom of god and his righteousness and all these things shall be added to you therefore do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow we'll worry about its own things sufficient for the day is its own trouble well that's true isn't it let's have a word of prayer and then we'll dig out this passage together lord we thank you for your word and we pray that as jesus speaks these things to us that we will take them to heart that we will learn to be good managers of all that you've entrusted to us in terms of material things that as followers of yours we want the world to look at us and recognize that our lives are exemplary in that we we want to honor you in every way including how we manage things and lord we we know that things are needful but we don't want those things to become greed in our hearts and so we pray that you'll protect our hearts help us to take to heart these things that you're saying to us that we might live lives that bring honor and glory to you in every aspect lord including our material things so bless this time in your word today we pray in jesus name and everybody said amen if you're if you're reading from the new king james version which is what i'm reading from you'll notice in your bibles that this what i just read from verses 19 through the end of the chapter are divided into four sections and there are four subtitles to each of these sections and so that's how we're going to be looking at these uh last many verses of chapter six we're going to be gleaning one key takeaway from each of these four sections and the first section that jesus addresses here between verses 19 and 21 has to do with the subtitle says lay up treasures in heaven and again i'll just read those three verses quickly he said in verse 19 do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy 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 and so jesus speaks here about treasures treasures in heaven versus treasures on earth and and what he means here by treasures on earth is the accumulated excess the accumulated excess because it's beyond the things that are needful these are things that are in excess the accumulation of stuff that we don't really need now americans are experts at accumulating stuff we don't really need i mean let's just be real about it you know that's it's called a garage sale right or a yard sale and and it's just shuffling our junk to from one family to another that's what a yard sale is um and and flea markets you know flea markets stuff nobody wants that are full of fleas i don't know why you would go there but anyway people like to do these things go to flea markets go to yard sales my wife loves to go to yard sale she drags me along i mean i accompany her once in a while rarely but once in a while i remember one time she came home from a yard sale thought she had made the find of the day she said to me here you go honey i bought you a bathing suit at a yard sale at a yard sale i said do you know that that's been worn by a man before me i ain't wearing it anyway it's kind of an american phenomenon we just go oh i don't like my junk you want it yeah i'll pay you for it and now i'll go buy your junk i don't know it's an american phenomenon that's kind of weird but we do it but here are some real statistics on the excess that americans have the average american throws away 65 pounds of clothing every year on average we have so much excess stuff that one out of every 10 americans rents off-site storage you know who you are the united states has upward of 50 000 storage facilities currently there is 7.3 square feet of self storage space for every man woman and child in this nation thus it is physically possible that every american could stand all at the same time under the total canopy of self-storage roofing that's how much stuff we have how much stuff is enough stuff now at the turn of the 20th century john d rockefeller was the wealthiest man on the planet in fact he was so wealthy that in today's dollars he would be wealthier than jeff bezos bill gates and warren buffett combined and he was once asked rockefeller was once asked how much money is enough money and he replied just a little bit more truth is no matter how much money any of us makes or how much stuff we own we all think that way if i had just a little bit more i'd be better off and jesus is cautioning us that if we have so much clothing that moths are eating it and we have so much silver and gold that it's corroding because that's really what the word rust means in the original language some kind of corrosive then maybe we have too much stuff and that what we really need to be doing with our excess is is not redistributing the wealth okay that's socialism socialism is not biblical by the way the bible says if you don't work you shall not eat okay socialism is a real trendy thing especially among millennials right now that they think of this this seems to be a wonderful way of life to redistribute stuff it's not biblical it's not right and and it's a dangerous practice but what we need to do with what god has given us is not to redistribute it per se but it is to use it for god's glory to make an eternal difference by making an eternal investment what do i mean by that in contrast to the treasures on earth that jesus says regarding that that are easily destroyed by moth and rust and thieves breaking and steel versus the treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroy and thieves can't break in and steal he is drawing a distinction between earthly temporal things and heavenly eternal things so he's saying the better investment is in things that are eternal now since we can't take it with us what does he mean by this when when he speaks in this way so i'm going to give one takeaway point from each of these four sections and here's the first takeaway jesus is basically saying use what god has given you now to invest in kingdom work that impacts people for eternity that's how you that's how you lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven you use the resources god has given you now to impact the kingdom in a way that makes eternal differences in the lives of people and so for example when you when you give to your church to support ministries that impact people you are laying up for yourselves treasures in heaven when you give to support ministries like fca and samaritan's purse and mobile hope and tree of life and mosaic crisis pregnancy center you are making an investment in the lives of people for an eternal difference that is laying up treasures in heaven when you when you support um projects like uh building a girl's dormitory in uganda like our church has done you are making an eternal difference laying up treasures in heaven when you are building medical clinics like our church has done in haiti you are making an eternal difference with the treasures that god has given you on earth now that will impact people for eternity so that's the idea here that's the concept when when we have a kingdom mindset about earthly goods and therefore use them in a way that glorifies god for the sake of the eternal lives of people then we are making an eternal difference and laying up treasures in heaven and jesus adds in verse 21 in your bibles he says for where your treasure is there your heart will be also in other words wherever you are heavenly rather heavily wherever you are heavily invested is an indication of where your affection lies and people can tell a lot about us by the way that we spend our money it will indicate the things that we really love and so what does it say to people about the way that we spend our own personal resources so that's the first thing in the second section in just two verses verses 22 and 23 jesus says the lamp of the body is the eye if therefore your eye is good your whole body would be full of light but if your eye is bad your whole body will be full of darkness if therefore the light that is in you is darkness how great is that darkness now again he's continuing in the same theme he's talking about material things and we have to understand some hebrew idioms to really understand what does he mean by those two verses your your eyesight if your eyes are good if your eyes are bad and darkness and light so the jewish people had and still have uh two idioms about having a good eye and having a bad eye they would say in hebrew a good eye is iron hathawa to say you have a bad eye it is ayan hara and the idioms basically meant this one with a good eye is optimistic and and sees the good in things and in people and in circumstances has a positive disposition in life you have a good eye okay and so therefore your life kind of reflects light versus the opposite if you have a bad eye if you have an eye and it means that you you you don't see life that way it you you see things through the lens where you know life is bad and negative and things are are terrible and and so uh that idiom could be used in a variety of ways the way that jesus intends it to be understood is within the context here and the context in the previous verses we just read is talking about treasures in heaven versus treasures on earth and the verses that follow this discussion about good eye bad eye is the part we'll get to in a minute about you can't serve god and money so sandwiched in the middle of the context here is this discussion jesus is having about material goods and and money and possessions which means that the idiom that he intends us to understand in terms of its use is this having a good eye in hathaway means that you have a good perspective of god and that you see him as the source of every good and perfect gift and that every blessing has come down from the hand of a beneficent father and that god is the owner of everything and we're only the stewards of it and because god is so generous god so loved the world he gave okay obviously his son but then in terms of every material thing we own comes from the hand of god when you have that good eye and recognize the goodness of god what happens is it shapes your perspective of material things and therefore when you have that good eye of god you mimic him and you're generous like he is if however you have a bad eye you have you then don't see god as the source of blessing you don't see god as the source of all that you have you think you're the source of all that you have and so your life really reflects darkness instead of the light of the lord it's so it's just it's just basically opposites in terms of the idiom but in the context here in which jesus uses it he's talking about one's perspective of god do you have a good eye towards god or a bad eye towards god because if you have a good eye you will recognize everything comes from his hand and you just simply want to be as generous as he is if you don't you won't you'll be stingy you'll be selfish you'll be covetous and so that's what he means here and that's the takeaway from this from these two verses he's basically saying we need to see god as generous and be generous too when you realize that god is the source of everything that we have and and that we're just supposed to manage it giving him glory for it using it in a way that honors him uh then then we will be vessels of generosity we will be just conduits you know his his good gracious hand of provision to us and then through us so that's that's what he means here and and if we if we live that way then we reflect the light of the lord if however we have a bad i'm like i don't you know i don't really buy any of this stuff and i'm the one that worked hard for all my stuff and my stuff is my stuff then your life is full of darkness and you don't really see what god has been doing so as followers of christ jesus says listen you're gonna be followers of mine you need to be generous because god is generous that needs to be your perspective in terms of material things in the third section if you look in your bibles it's only one verse it's verse 24 he says 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 mammon now we'll talk a little bit about what mammon literally means but basically he's talking about money in general you cannot serve god and money and you know someone once said that money is a wonderful servant but it's a terrible master in other words if we use money for good purposes then it serves us well but if we are consumed with the almighty dollar then we will be in bondage to a terrible master and so the question that jesus is confronting us about here in terms of god and material things is who is your master because you can't have split devotion you can't say well god is my master but not in regards to my stuff i'm the master of my stuff uh either either jesus is lord of everything in our lives or he's lord of nothing right and so when god when jesus talks here about who who are you serving you're either going to serve god are you going to serve your possessions you you're either going to be consumed with him as your master or you're going to end up serving and and and money's a terrible master you're going to end up serving and being consumed with material things now when he speaks here of mammon the word mammon is a a term that is of the syriac language which um aramaic is part of that syriac dialect so jesus is speaking aramaic and it is a word that would have been familiar in his day that the jewish people would have understood mammon was a reference to an idol that was the idol of materialism and so there's no historical reference point that the jews ever worship the god of mammon but they would use that term to describe something that was materialistic in terms of either money that you owned or or in terms of anything that you served more than god that was their idea behind mammon and and it isn't just money you know when we think about things that we can end up serving it isn't just money it could be we could sell ourselves to a lot of things in fact that was i was reading matthew henry's commentary on this section and matthew henry was a a british pastor in the 18th century and and he said this he said quote to some their belly is their mammon and they serve that to others their ease their sleep their sports and pastimes are their mammon to others worldly riches to others the praise and applause of men in a word self sensual secular self is the mammon which cannot be served in conjunction with god for if it be served it is in competition with him and in contradiction to him so the takeaway here from what jesus is saying number three is we need to serve god as the only true master he is again either lord of everything or lord of nothing in our lives and we have to be careful that our material things we're not serving they serve us and that the only one we really serve is the true and living lord the last section that jesus addresses here in chapter six has to do with our material well-being and the problem of worrying about it so this last section is the lengthiest section it's verses 25 to 34. i'll not read the whole thing again but let me just highlight a few things i will read verse 25. he says therefore i say to you do not worry circle that word in your bible he says that word six times in the next few verses therefore i say to you do not worry about your life what you will eat or what you will drink nor about your body what you will put on is not life more than food in the body more than clothing and then he's going to use two examples to help bring the point home and he's going to use the example of birds in verse 26 and he's going to use the example of lilies in verse 28 and then in verse 31 he says therefore do not worry saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear for after all these things the gentiles seek and in that context it just means worldly people they go after all those things he says but your heavenly father knows what you that you need all these things okay they're again they're not bad there's nothing wrong with material things god wants to take care of us but he says in verse 33 but seek first the kingdom of god and his righteousness and all these things shall be added to you therefore do not worry there it is again about tomorrow for tomorrow we'll worry about its own thing sufficient for the day is its own trouble and so he starts out here in this section in verse 25 telling us don't worry about your life what you will eat what you will wear what you will drink and part of the reason why he ends this sectional materialism with this kind of exhortation about not worrying is because i think he anticipates what people will be thinking if they really take the challenge of being generous seriously you know here jesus is basically saying listen your father in heaven is generous if you have a good eye and you see that way you're gonna be generous in the same way and he talks about laying up treasures in heaven using your earthly possessions now to make eternal differences and the tendency is when you hear all that and you want to be serious as a follower of jesus well if i'm that generous and if i start giving my stuff away and if i start honoring god with my material things i'm going to end up naked and poor and homeless and that's what people start to think and so he anticipates this and he's like listen don't worry don't worry your father's got this okay you can't out give god you can't out serve god he's going to take care of you don't worry about this and and then he uses these two analogies to help drive the point home and the first one is about the birds in verse 26 when he says look at the birds of the air they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns yet your heavenly father feeds them and he says are you not of more value than they okay so so he says listen just take a look at the birds now again this backdrop behind me is the landscape and so jesus you have to imagine him as he's teaching the sermon he's using the the natural elements of the environment as illustrations to his sermons so i want you to picture birds just kind of you know flittering around the field there and landing on little stalks of wheat on the hillside and any and jesus just naturally uses them to illustrate the point so he turns to them he's like consider the burdens you see the birds all around you he says no listen they don't they don't sow they don't reap they don't they don't know where their next meal is coming from but your father in heaven takes care of them you see them see how that works and he's wanting to encourage us to to learn from the birds now now listen you know listen don't think to yourself well i guess the illustration is i don't need a job that's not what jesus is saying here well god's just going to take care of me i can just sit back in my lazy boy and god's going to bring meals to my front door like he does the birds listen the birds work the birds work hard the birds work every day but the point is there's not a single bird on prozac there's no neurotic bird like chewing on its claws like where's my next mosquito coming from they just they're just at rest they're a piece that's what jesus is saying like don't worry don't worry do you see how peaceful they are now they work but your father in heaven takes care of them and he adds there by the way and are you not more valuable than they okay so all the pita people who think that animals are just as valuable as we are they're wonderful creatures that god has created but you're more valuable than animals and jesus says this you're more valuable than the birds god's going to take care of you and then he uses the idea of lilies here he says god dresses in verse 28 god dresses the lilies of the field so beautifully he's going to certainly clothe you i mean in all of solomon's splendor they were not arrayed like like these lilies and again in the springtime on the hillside here on the northern coast of the sea of galilee are all these wild lilies that just grow there and so jesus has just pointed the lilies he said you see the lilies they're not they're not fretting and see how wonderfully they're taken care of god is going to take care of you in the same way and you have to remember that he's speaking to a a society that didn't know where the next meal was coming from and probably uh the clothes that they owned on their back was was the only thing in their wardrobe so we don't in loudoun county really have that you know constant worry about where our next meal is coming from or i and i suspect that what you're wearing is not the only outfit you own so our our concern is not where's our next meal coming from our word but our the issue facing us is how can we be grateful for the abundance that god has given us because we all have the tendency to still talk like we got nothing like have you ever been hungry and gone into your pantry and said there's nothing to eat in this house you have kids because if you haven't said it they have you ever gone into your closet said i have nothing to wear here yes you do you have plenty to wear here the issue is are you grateful for all that you have in your pantry and grateful for all that you have in your closet that's the challenge for us in loudoun county it's not where's my next meal coming from or where where the clothes gonna come from we have an abundance and we need to be grateful for what god has given us well in between these two illustrations about birds and lilies jesus says in verse 27 which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature in other words he's saying there's absolutely nothing beneficial about worrying worrying is not going to change anything corey ten boom once said quote worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow it empties today of its strength because you see worry turns our heart away from god that said we are all plagued to some degree by worry our flesh worries about things we worry about making ends meet we worry about our health we worry about our kids we worry about our future some people are so bound by worry that if they realize they're not worrying about something they start to worry and here's the remedy for worrying he tells us in verse 33 but seek first the kingdom of god and his righteousness and all these things shall be added to you the takeaway last one number four is seek first the kingdom of god and his righteousness and god will take care of you when we submit ourselves to the rule of god and when we pursue the righteousness of god he promises to take care of us and david said in psalm 37 25 he said i have been young and now am old yet i have not seen the righteous forsaken nor his descendants begged for bread god takes care of us this word worry as i mentioned found six times in this in these closing verses it is the greek word merineo is the same word found in philippians 4 6 when it says be anxious for nothing same word in the greek don't worry but in all things through prayer and supplication with thanksgiving make your request known to god and then this is the next verse philippians 4 7 and the peace that passes all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in christ jesus it's a wonderful passage philippians 4 6 and 7. what what god tells us is listen the answer to worry is prayer pray now jesus tells us seek first his righteousness his kingdom if we if we seek first to submit ourselves to the rule of god and we pursue the righteousness of god and we couple that with prayer like philippians 4 6 and 7 tells us it's going to guard our hearts and our minds in christ jesus and what does that mean when it says and the peace that passes all understanding will guard our hearts and minds in christ jesus what it means is that in the midst of whatever you're going through when god visits you in a wonderful way with his peace it won't make rational sense people will look at you and say why do you seem to be so at peace even though bombs are going off in your family and you're going to be like well that's because god's peace passes all understanding like it doesn't make necessarily sense it just is that god's peace is guarding my heart and my mind in christ jesus because god is a good god and he promises to do that when i lay my cares at his feet and i pray and i seek him with prayer and supplication and giving him thanksgiving he guards my heart my mind in christ jesus with his peace amen and that's and that's what we are to be about bring all those burdens to the lord in prayer joseph scriven in 1855 wrote a poem that became a hymn of the faith what a friend we have in jesus all our sins and griefs to bear what a privilege to carry everything to god in prayer oh what peace we often forfeit oh what needless pain we bear all because we do not carry everything to god in prayer let's pray lord we thank you for your words through the sermon on the mount and when it comes to material things we want to be good stewards of all that you've given us we want to manage well the resources our possessions the money that we have all of it has come from your hand lord so we want to be careful to use it wisely and properly in a way that glorifies you not serving those things but those things serving us for your glory and when we start to worry lord we pray that you would visit us with your peace that passes all understanding that we wouldn't carry around the burdens the anxiety but we would give those things to you in prayer because we know that if we pray if we seek you that you promise you will guard our hearts and our minds in christ jesus with your perfect peace and some people really need that today lord and i pray that you would just pour out your peace into their hearts that we would not worry lord you will take care of us just like you take care of the birds you take care of the lilies of the field you're so faithful to take care of us lord and you've abundantly blessed us may we be good stewards to be funnels of your goodness and of your blessing to people in this world to make an eternal difference for the kingdom we love you lord and we praise you in jesus name and all god's people said amen and amen you

Channel: Cornerstone Chapel - Leesburg, VA

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Length: 35min 46sec (2146 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 21 2020