Treasures – Matthew 6:19-24

At the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation website we find these words:

Bill Gates and Melinda French were raised knowing it’s important to give back to the community. Both the Gates and French families instilled the values of volunteerism and civic engagement. Our families believed that if life happens to bless you, you should use those gifts as well and as wisely as you can.

Along with Bill and Melinda Gates, Warren Buffett is a foundation trustee, helping to shape our vision and develop strategies to address some of the world’s most challenging inequities.

In 2006, Buffett pledged most of his fortune to the Gates Foundation and to four charitable trusts created by his family—the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, the Susan A. Buffett Foundation, and the NoVo Foundation (led by Peter A. Buffett). His gift to the Gates Foundation of 10 million shares of Berkshire Hathaway stock, to be paid in annual installments, was worth approximately $31 billion in June 2006.

Why is it that some of the wealthiest people on earth are not satisfied with storing up their treasures? Is it that you can only spend so much on yourself? Or is there something built into us by God that cannot rest with mere accumulation of wealth for personal purposes?

“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 eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, 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 in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. (Matthew 6:19-24 ESV)

Jesus could not be more clear than he is here that accumulation of wealth is foolish and dangerous. It is foolish because such wealth is not a true hedge against the futility of life. It is not a guarantee of peace. And it is dangerous because it bends our hearts towards selfishness and self-protection, and away from trusting in God.

Getting a bank account is normal procedure for most people, but what if you could open an account in heaven?  What if you could get God’s interest rate for your deposits?  You can, Jesus says.  Everything you do to serve the Lord from a pure heart, a healthy eye, is safeguarded as a reward that thieves could never successfully heist from you.

If your eye, however, is bad, if your heart, that is, is bent toward earthly reward for personal and selfish concern, every bit of you is dark and such service to money and earthly concerns will lead you to despise your heavenly master, the Lord Jesus.  You can’t serve both at once.  Whatever treasure you are amassing is where your heart is centered.

Is it possible to get rich and not serve money?  Very difficult, if not impossible.  But with God, all things are possible.