Let us store up for ourselves treasures in heaven.
[Matthew 6:19-24]
Do you have any fears? If yes, what fears do you have? According to Deuteronomy 8:17, Moses, the great leader of Israel, was afraid. The fear was that the Israelites would say in their hearts, “My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.” Obviously, according to Deuteronomy 8:18, Moses was afraid that the Israelites might say that they obtained wealth by means of their own power and strength, even though God had given them the ability to obtain wealth. In a word, Moses was afraid that the Israelites would become proud and forget God (v. 14). When were the Israelites in danger of becoming proud? It was when all they had was abundant (v. 13). In other words, the Israelites went into Canaan, a land in which they lacked nothing (v. 9), a good land (v. 7), and ate and was satisfied (vv. 10, 12), built and lived in good houses (v. 12), their cattle multiplied, their silver and gold were multiplied and all they had multiplied (v. 13), the Israelites could become proud. Moses was afraid of this. We should be afraid too. We too should fear that we will become proud. We should be afraid that we may become satisfied and proud and forget God without knowing it. In particular, those of us who live in this affluent American land where there seems to be no shortage should be afraid of becoming satisfied and proud. We need to be on the lookout for obesity in our hearts. We must beware that our hearts may become obese without our knowledge and become slaves to greed and covetousness.
In today's text, Matthew 6:20, Jesus tells us, “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal.” Focusing on this word today, under the title of “Let us store up for ourselves treasures in heaven,” I hope and pray that we can receive the lessons that God gives us by thinking about the three lessons and obey them.
First, the lesson that the words “store up for yourselves treasures in heaven” teach us is not to store up treasures on earth.
Look at Matthew 6:19 – “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.” What does it mean to store up treasures on earth? In Luke 12:16-21, there is a parable about a rich man who stored up treasures on the earth. This rich man is troubled in his heart because his field is plentiful. The trouble was, “What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?” (Lk. 12:17) What he chose in his troubles was to tear down his barns and build larger ones (v. 18). The rich man made the barns larger and stored all his grain and goods there (v. 18). After he had put up a lot of goods for many years, he wanted to rest, eat, drink, and be merry (v. 19). This is what God said to this rich man: “You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?” (v. 20) And this is what Jesus said: “So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God” (v. 21). In this parable of Jesus, when we say that we store up treasures on earth, it means that when the riches that the people of this world consider as treasures increase, they tear down their barns and store them up on this earth even if they become larger. The first thing we need to think about here is the riches that people of this world consider as treasures. What are these riches? These riches refer to wealth or property or possessions (Walvoord). It could be money or, in modern terms, real estate (buildings). Then, in today's text, Matthew 6:19, when we say that we store up treasures on earth, it means that we store up wealth on earth. For example, when we have a lot of money, like a rich man in the parable of Jesus who breaks down his barns and builds the bigger ones, we open several bank accounts and accumulate that much money in those account is storing up treasures on the earth. However, there is a question we need to consider seriously when we are storing up wealth on this earth for ourselves in this way. I thought of it in 2 ways: (1) The first question is, if God takes me tonight, whose wealth will I have prepared so far? As I asked this question, I was reminded of the words of Ecclesiastes 5. Those words are the grievous evil that King Solomon saw in this world, that is, the owner keeps his wealth from harm to himself (v. 13). But in the end, he can't enjoy his wealth properly, and he loses it all due to disasters and there is no wealth to give to his sons (vv. 14-16). The essence of this Ecclesiastes chapter 5 messages is that God is a God who enables us to enjoy the riches and wealth that God has given us. Can you imagine the end result if God blessed us with riches and wealth, but we did not receive the blessing to enjoy them? (2) The second question is, am I really rich toward God? Clearly, Jesus told the parable of the rich man in Luke 12, saying, “So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God” (v. 21). If we have all the riches we have laid up on this earth, what good is it if we die tonight? Should we not be rich toward God, not rich toward this world?
The Pharisees, the religious leaders of Jesus' day, believed that the Lord blesses those whom He loves materially (Walvoord). And in reality our God is the God who gives us riches and wealth. But God never gives those riches and wealth to those who love silver (Eccl. 5:10), that is, to those who love money. Even if it is given, it is not a blessing but a curse (punishment). How can riches and wealth be a curse (punishment) to those who love money? One of those punishments is the belly of greed. If a person who loves money has more money, eventually the money will make him greedier, and he will have no choice but to live without satisfaction. This is the punishment. This is a great curse to have a belly of greed without satisfaction. There is never peace in the heart of the lover of money who owns a belly of unsatisfied greed. God does not give riches and wealth to those who love money, but to those who love God, that is, to those who fear God and keep His commandments (Ref.: Ps. 112:1-3). But the problem with the Pharisees in Jesus' day was the fact that their eyes were clear. Look at today's text Matthew 6:22-23: “The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, 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 that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” What does it mean? It means that the Pharisees at the time of Jesus had their spiritual eyes darkened and lusted for wealth (greediness), so they stored up their wealth on this earth. So this is what Jesus said about the Pharisees in Luke 16:14 – “Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things and were scoffing at Him.” We must not be lovers of money like the Pharisees. We must not love money. Look at 1 Timothy 6:10 – “For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” Why can't we love money? The reason is because the love of money is the root of all evil. If we covet money because we love it, we will be deceived and depart from the faith. We have to keep in mind that those who want to be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, leading to ruin and destruction (v. 9). So we shouldn't love money. Also, we must not store up money on this earth. Why? This is because, as Jesus said in the second half of Matthew 6:19, moth and rust destroy, and thieves break in and steal. What does it mean? It means that if we store up money or wealth on this earth, it is one of the two. Either all that money or wealth is lost or stolen by thieves (MacDonald). In a word, the reason why we shouldn't accumulate money or wealth on this earth is because it will all disappear. So the Apostle James said in James 5:2-3: “Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten. Your gold and your silver have rusted; and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure!” We must not store up our treasure on this earth in these last days.
Second, the lesson that the words “store up for yourselves treasures in heaven” teach us is that we should live with eternal values, serving the eternal God for eternal things.
Look at Matthew 6:20 – “"But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal.” What do you think Jesus meant by saying that we should store up for ourselves treasures in heaven? How can we store up treasures in heaven? As I pondered this question, I was reminded of a conversation between Jesus and a rich man in Mark 10:17-22. When this rich man ran to Jesus, knelt before Him and asked Him what he must do to inherit eternal life (v. 17), Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone” (v. 17). Then, Jesus told him the commandments: “Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother” (v. 19). At that time, the rich man answered Jesus, “I have kept these things from my youth up” (v. 20). Then looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him and said to him: “One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me” (v. 21). When Jesus saw one thing he lacks, He said to him, “Go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven” (v. 21). Here we can learn from the words of Jesus how to store up treasure in heaven. Dr. Yoon-sun Park summarized the method as follows: ‘The way I have stored up treasures in heaven is by sacrificing all my good things on earth (not only material things, but also effort and talents and everything else) for the Lord’ (Park). In fact, Jesus also said this in Luke 12:33-34: “Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves money belts which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near nor moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” What is Jesus talking about? What Jesus is telling us is to give alms. This is what it means to store up treasures in heaven, and those treasures never run out. Regarding the word to give alms, Jesus said this in Matthew 6:2-4: “So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.” When we give alms, we must do it in secret. Then God our Father, who sees in secret, will reward us. Then why should we store up treasures in heaven? Jesus is telling us the reason in Matthew 6:21 – “for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” In other words, the reason we should store up our treasures in heaven is because only then will our hearts be turned to God (Park). Matthew 6:21 begins with the word “For” and this conjunction tells the reason for verse 20, “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven ….” In other words, the reason we should store up our treasures in heaven is because when we do so, our hearts can be in heaven. In other words, the reason we should store up our treasures in heaven is so that our hearts always can be with God our Father, who is in the eternal heaven. Do our hearts really be with God our Father who is in heaven right now?
In order to follow Jesus, we must deny ourselves, take up our own crosses, and follow Jesus (16:24). No matter what hardships and sacrifices there may be in giving up our own will and obeying the Lord's will, we must sacrifice for it. That sacrifice is sacrificing for the Lord. Then, what does sacrificing for the Lord really mean? A good example is Moses the man of faith in Hebrews 11:24-26: “By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward.” By faith Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. And he chose to suffer with God's people then to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. He also valued being reproached for Christ's sake more valuable than all the treasures of Egypt. How was Moses able to do this? It was because by faith he looked forward to the reward he would receive. Moses had eternal values. As the son of Pharaoh's daughter, he knew that it would be temporary to have all the treasures of Egypt and enjoy the pleasures of iniquity. At the same time, he knew that his reward for standing before the Lord was eternal. Therefore, with eternal values, he rejected and sparingly gave up momentary things in this world for the sake of eternal things. I remember the word of missionary Jim Elliott, who was martyred with four other missionaries at the young age of 29, when he was a college student, for preaching the gospel to the cruel Auca (Wadani) living in Ecuador, South America: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”
Third and last, the lesson that the words “store up for yourselves treasures in heaven” teach us is that we cannot serve both God and wealth.
Look at Matthew 6:24 – “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other You cannot serve God and wealth.” Can “one” (v. 24) or a “servant” (Lk. 16:13) serve two masters? Jesus said that a servant cannot serve two masters. The reason is because if he loves one, then he will hate the other. And the reason is because if he is devoted to one, then he will despise the other. Therefore, we must serve only one master. But for some reason, those who believe in Jesus seem to be serving both God and money (Mt. 6:24). This is syncretism. If it is God, then we should serve God. And if it is money, we should serve wealth. But we are serving both God and money. Maybe we are serving God for riches. This idolatry of materiality eventually makes us slaves to material things, making us live everything for material things. Even if we study, we do it for the material. And if we work, we do it for the material. Even the religious life is for material things. So, we like to ask God for material blessings even when we pray. And even if we receive prayer of blessings from the pastors, we really like to receive material blessings from God. Both our lips and our ears long for material blessings. And our hands and feet are busy pursuing material blessings. The reason is because our hearts are in matter or wealth. It reminds me of the words of Jesus: “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Mt. 6:21). Our hearts have been stolen from the worldly treasures. We are addicted to the treasures of this world.
We must be afraid. We must be afraid of the love of money (1 Tim. 6:10). We should be afraid of material blessings. Therefore, we should not ask God for material blessings in vain. The reason is because after receiving the blessing of material things, our hearts become arrogant, and our hearts turn away from God our Father who is in heaven and no longer depend on God but depend on our material possessions, committing sin of idolizing our material possessions and serving them. Therefore, before seeking material blessings, we must frequently check ourselves before God to make sure that our hearts are always directed only to our Heavenly Father. And we must first learn the secret of being content with the Lord alone, who is the source of the blessings rather than material blessings. In doing so, God will give us material blessings when we live by sacrificing our material things for the eternal Lord. Then we will never serve both God and material things. We will use the material things He has given us for His glory, serving only the Lord.
This is what the Bible Proverbs 15:6 says: “Great wealth is in the house of the righteous, But trouble is in the income of the wicked.” The Bible clearly says that the income of the wicked is trouble. If our hearts are not with our Father in heaven, but only to the material blessings God has given us, our hearts will become proud and we will have no choice but to serve God and Money. If God takes away our money at that time, it is rather a blessing. However, if God does not take the money away and rather our income increases, it will be trouble and pain to us, not a blessing. The reason is because our income will eventually fuel the pride and greed of our hearts to the point of committing the sin of idolizing money. I hope and pray, as Jesus taught us, that we all store up for ourselves treasures in heaven, so that our hearts are only with our heavenly Father and that we can use the material blessings God has given us only for the glory of God. Therefore, I hope and pray that you and I will be able to please our Father who is in heaven.