Greentree Community Church

Well, I’ve been out of town for Thanksgiving and not been attending to the blog very well.  I’m sure all of you just used that opportunity to go through the archives and catch up on old posts though!  Anyway, last time I wrote about how the bad economy can expose the fact that we are over attached to money and consumerism.  Now the question is, how would we change?

Jesus has lots of comments that would be pertinent here but I just want to give you two.  Whether you’re a Christian or not, this is true for you:

Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (Matt. 6.21)

No man can serve two masters.  You cannot serve God and money.  (Matt. 6.24)

 This is a bit more diagnosis before the cure, but notice the relevance of Jesus’ words.  Your heart will always follow your treasure.  If  money and/or possessions are your treasure, then it has captured your heart.  Your heart will follow; it is captive to the treasure.  That means your desires, affections, longings, wants, etc. are built around money and possessions.  The second statement shows that all of us have a master.  Notice that word ‘serve.’  It doesn’t say you can’t love God and money or you can’t enjoy God and money; it says ‘serve.’  If money is your treasure you serve it—it is the master and you are the slave.  According to Jesus you are enslaved to do its bidding.  This does not mean that you serve the needs of money as if an intangible object has needs.  It means that you are enslaved to needing money in order to be satisfied, fulfilled, competent, and happy.  In the same way that we seek to rely on (or “serve”) money, God calls us to rely on Him as our help, satisfaction, joy, fulfillment, etc.  So, Jesus is clear to say that money enslaves us, either by fear or by greed.  We’re greedy to have more and fearful of losing that which we’ve already gained. 

Now, how can one change?  Of course, this supposes that someone wants to change.  Many will say they are very happy with their master/slave relationship with money, thank you very much.  That may be true to a degree, but if all of us are honest we will admit that another statement of Jesus in this passage is true:  “Do not lay up for yourselves treasure on earth where moth and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal.”  Of course it is true and beyond argument that none of us can take our money with us when we die.  We will lose it all at that point.  And of course it is true, as most of us realize with this recession, that what we do have can be gone in the snap of a finger (thieves break in and steal).  But what is often not recognized in Jesus’ words is the fact that the enjoyment of those things are also lost or eaten away (moth and rust destroy).  If we’re honest, we know that once we get that thing we’ve sought after for so long, it quickly loses its luster and we become dissatisfied again, and move on to the next thing to seek after.  But as long as we are the slave and money is the master, the moth and rust will destroy; it will eat away the long-term enjoyment.  We will be like children at Christmas who finally get that toy they’ve been talking about for months, and before the day is out, they’ve thrown it in the corner to find a new thrill. 

Ok, I’ll ask the question for a third time, how can we change?  Well, I want to answer that question over a few entries but I will leave you with two hints from the verse above—1) If you’re not yet a Christian and if you want to change, ask yourself what your real treasure is.  That sounds all religious, but what do you value, admire, long for, work for, sweat for, fight for?  The answer to that question will tell you what you worship and as Jesus says, where your heart is (what you’re “in to”).  Tell God that you don’t want to be enslaved to money anymore and that you want Him to be the One whom you admire, value, treasure, and fight for.  2) If you are a Christian, one of the ways you can begin to change is to give more money away to the church, the poor, kingdom purposes, etc.  If you put your treasure in heaven, then your heart will follow (where your treasure is, there your heart will be also).  Your heart cannot be in heaven if you put all your treasure on earth; it is a Biblical impossibility.  Start putting your treasure in the right place and the heart will run after it.  The more vested interest you have in the Kingdom, the more your heart seeks its fulfillment there, but more on this next time…