Tag: treasure

Discovering Treasure?: Finding Out What Has Your Heart

Matt EricksonLeave a comment

When Kelly and I were newly married and beginning our life with children we were so financially stretched we didn’t know how we were going to make it every month. We reached out to a pastor friend of ours for help with our finances. He began to help us develop a budget, which we really didn’t have at that time, but he also had us track our expenses for a few months. Everything we spent had to be accounted for; every receipt saved and every online charge written down. At the end of tracking all of that, we had to evaluate where our money was going. It was eye-opening to see where the money really went. It said a lot about us.

I’ve been told that one of the quickest ways to discover someone’s values is not to listen to what they say but to look at how they spend their money. If you can see where someone’s money goes, then you can discover what is really important to them, whether it’s coffee, house expenses, a car, food, retirement, or something else. Where our money goes indicates what is important to us. It reveals what we treasure.

Jesus knows this is true, and that is why in His master sermon on the good life with God in God’s kingdom, He addresses what we treasure. Listen to parts of verses 19 and 20 again:

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth…But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven” (Matthew 6:19-20)

Now we know a few things about Jesus and the early church that provide perspective on this statement. First, we know that Jesus was supported by some people of wealthy means in His life and ministry. He lived simply but He also depended upon the care and support of others. Second, we know that the early church had both the wealthy and the poor together in the church. There were those with houses and estates who served as gathering places for the early church, as well as those who were very poor as part of the church. This tension is addressed in various places, including the epistle of James and Paul’s epistles, such as 1 Corinthians 11. 

So, money as a resource is not in itself what is at issue here. What is at issue is our “treasure” and our “hearts.” Why? Because what we treasure directs, and often defines, our life.

The importance of the heart is the key to all of this.

The heart is the center of a person’s life; what someone desires on the inside that motivates how they live on the outside.

Jesus is constantly trying to bring us back to the heart because our inner life shapes our outer life. This is why the surpassing righteousness of Christ is an inner transformation that leads to outer transformation of life.

The scary thing is what Jeremiah says about the heart:

The heart is deceitful above all things
    and beyond cure.
    Who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9)

Jesus has come to bring transformation to our inner person, which Ezekiel described in this way in Ezekiel 36:26: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you.”

We need a heart transplant for God’s kingdom so that we can live our lives in a different way. When we have a heart transplant through Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit, then we can live with our hearts set on a different sort of treasure.

What we treasure directs, and often defines, our life.

Real Treasure: the heart and the life

Matt EricksonLeave a comment

This past weekend at Eastbrook, we continued our series “Becoming Real” on the Sermon on the Mount by looking at Matthew 6:19-24. This brief passage explores what it means to have our interior and exterior lives unified in terms of what we most value and how that plays out in our material wealth and treasure. Our discipleship is spiritual but always must be worked out materially and tangibly.

You can find the message video and outline below. You can also view the entire “Becoming Real” series here, as well as the devotional that accompanies the series here. Join us for weekend worship in-person or remotely via Eastbrook at Home.

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven…”  (Matthew 6:19-20)

Real Treasure (6:19-21)

  • The reality and limits of earthly storing up
  • The promise and possibility of heavenly storing up
  • The importance of the heart

Real Wholeness and Generosity (6:22-23)

  • The single eye
  • The bad eye

Real Dedication (6:24)

  • Divided loyalties
  • The power of mammon The calling of God

Dig Deeper

This week dig deeper into Jesus’ teaching on real spirituality in one or more of the following ways:

  • Consider memorizing Matthew 6:21 or 24 this week.
  • As a prayerful reflection on this passage, write about, sketch, or paint the visuals from this passage. As you do that, pray about your response to each image, laying your life down into God’s hands.
  • Look at your last month’s expenses, perhaps even checking your credit card or bank account statements. What do they say about what you’re devoted to and what has your heart? Consider this: if someone saw your account statements, would they know you were a devoted disciple of Jesus Christ or not?
  • Consider digging deeper into how our finances and discipleship fit together by reading one of the following books: Richard J. Foster, Freedom of Simplicity, or Randy Alcorn, The Treasure Principle.

The Radical Simplicity and Generosity of Jesus and His People

Matt EricksonLeave a comment

“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9)

One of the most notable things about Jesus was His radical relationship with wealth and possessions. Jesus lived simply and had no tangible possessions that we know of. He relied on the generosity of others but also lived radically generous with what He had and who He was. Jesus’ life abounded with simplicity and generosity.

It is because of this that the early church had a marked freedom in relation to wealth and physical possessions. The early church was a community of simplicity and generosity, living unchained to wealth and possessions. As we read in Acts: “All the believers were together and had everything in common.” (Acts 2:44)

Throughout Paul’s letters we see a radical simplicity and generosity in relation to wealth and possessions. When writing to Timothy, Paul describes how believers can live simply, not holding onto possessions because we know we only need a few things: “For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.” (1 Timothy 6:7-8).

We also read, both in Paul and in Luke’s account of Jesus, warnings about the power of possessions. Paul tells us that a dedication to wealth can destroy us: “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs” (1 Timothy 6:10). And when Jesus warns the rich young ruler, He does so knowing how wealth can take the place of God: “When Jesus heard this, he said to him, ‘You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.’ When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was very wealthy” (Luke 18:22-23).

Jesus and the early church lived with radical simplicity.

But that simplicity overflowed with generosity.

The radical generosity of the church is so clear in Acts 2-6, where the life of the church was marked by an open-handedness with what they owned: “They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need” (Acts 2:45). Whereas many of us may be tempted to turn a blind eye to the needs in our midst, the early believers faced into those needs, not only becoming aware of them but helping to meet those needs. In Acts 4, finances were shared directly with the needy: “It was distributed to anyone who had need” (4:35). And when the Greek widows were facing inequity in the generous distribution, deacons were appointed specifically to address that situation (6:1-7).

The early church’s generosity was marked by sacrificial living. We are told in Acts 2 that early believers were so moved by the compassion of Christ that they “sold property and possessions” (2:45). And later in the account, we hear that “from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them” (4:34). This was then brought to the apostles for distribution to those in need.

There was a radical generosity and simplicity that marked the life of the early church. Where did this come from? It came from an overflow of the grace of the Lord Jesus, who gave everything for them. But it also came from a life oriented around life in God’s kingdom as seen in the simplicity and generosity of life that Jesus modeled on earth.

Real Rich

Matt Erickson2 Comments

Real reach 1

Join us in January at Eastbrook Church as we journey through a new sermon series entitled “Rich.”

What does it mean to be rich? We see get-rich-quick schemes all around us, and the lottery is more popular than it ever has been. But…what does it mean to really be rich? As we start the year, we want to redefine ‘rich’ biblically and order our lives accordingly according to themes of generosity and stewardship of all that God has given us. Hopefully, we can enter into deeper conversation and reflection about what we have and what to do with it.

January 4/5 – “His” – God owns everything. All that we have has been given to us by Him. We are temporary stewards of God’s treasure on behalf of God.

January 11/12 – “Mine” – If God owns everything and we are temporary stewards, we should steward what He has given us wisely. This week we will look at aligning our finances with kingdom values. We will explore the topic of the tithe as a basic move in giving back to God what He has given to us.

January 18/19 – “Less” – What is enough? One famous wealthy individual said: “just a little bit more.” But perhaps the elusive ‘enough’ is something from which we need to step away. “Are we not prosperous enough already and missing a far richer life without the perpetual quest for needless economic growth?” What does it look like to live simply, have margin, and develop a God-honoring budget in our lives?

January 25/26 – “More” – There is something that happens when the radical nature of the Gospel gets ahold of every part of us, even our pocketbooks and bank accounts. When we realize the amazing generosity of God toward us, there is something freeing about moving forward in amazing generosity with God toward others.