Key #3 – My Heart Always Follows My Money
Matthew 6:21
• If you want to know where your heart really is look to see where your treasure is
• Check your credit card statement, your checkbook, your receipts, and your schedule, and you’ll find quite quickly where your heart really is
• Suppose you bought a great deal of stock in Microsoft. What would happen?
• You would quickly develop an interest in Microsoft
• You will check the financial pages regularly
• You’ll see a magazine article about Microsoft and read every word carefully, even though a month ago you would have passed it over
• The point is that our heart, focus, and attention follow where our money leads
• Suppose you’re giving money to help children with AIDS. When you see an article on that subject, you’re hooked.
• If you are sending money to plant churches in India and an earthquake hits India, you watch the news and fervently pray
• Where money leads, the heart will follow
• Many people have prayed and wished to have more of a heart to make disciples
• Jesus tells us exactly how to do this
• Put your money where your heart needs to be and your heart will follow – reallocate some of your money and see what happens to your heart
• Move most of your money from temporal things to eternal investments and see what happens
• God wants your heart
• He is not looking for people who give because they have to
• He is looking for disciples immersed in the causes they give to
• He wants people that are so filled with a vision for eternity that they wouldn’t dream of NOT investing their money, time, and prayers where they will matter most
• Many of us give our tithes but beyond that do you have the heart to move as much of your money as you can to invest in eternal things rather than temporal things?
• Does the thought of giving increasingly more of your resources to God and his Kingdom excite or worry you? Why do you think that is?
Hebrews 11:26
• Moses left Egypt’s vast treasures behind because he was looking ahead to the unseen rewards of investing what he had in God’s Kingdom
• Part of the reason that so many ministers, for instance, are so invested in their heart in God’s Kingdom is because many of them have sacrificed salaries and so much else for the church
• Their heart simply followed their investment in the Kingdom of God over and against worldly wealth (as 1 Timothy 6 warns, though, some ministers sadly fall into the same desire to be wealthy and use the ministry as a means to that, which is completely sinful)
• Giving our money away is obviously not the only good thing that we can do with our money
• We need to feed, clothe, house, educate and transport our families…
• But when the basics are taken care of, why shouldn’t the rest go towards treasures in heaven?
• The person who lays up treasures on earth spends his life living for that treasure – to him, his own death is loss
• He who lays up treasures in heaven looks forward to the age to come
• He’s moving daily towards his eternal treasure
• To him death is gain
• If you spend your life living for here, you have all the reason in the world to live in despair when you think of death
• But if you spend your life towards eternity, you can only look forward to rejoicing
• Whether you will live in despair or with much rejoicing is up to you
Luke 12:15
• God warns us of the danger of being greedy and not giving and that he will reward us when we do, so why is it so hard to give?
• There are so many roadblocks to giving: Unbelief, insecurity, pride, idolatry, selfishness, desire for power and control, lack of faith, etc.
• The greatest deterrent to giving will be the next key that we will begin looking at tomorrow
• What are the most difficult roadblocks for you that often tempt you to not give or not give as radically as you could?
Convictions
• Knowing that your heart follows your money are you extremely thoughtful, prayerful, and careful of where you put your money?
• Do you truly see that how you handle your money in every area of your life is part of your act of worship to God?
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In response to what roadblocks tempt me to not give radically, it would be fear. Money can be a source of security for me and I can be tempted not look to God for security, but to my checking/savings accounts. The wonderful thing about being a team with Tony is that he would give away the kitchen sink! He challenges me to find my security in God and trust that God will take care of us if we do what is right.
ReplyDeleteSimilar to Errah, insecurity is also my greatest obstacle. However, I doubt I would give the kitchen sink because it wouldn't fit very well into the collection plate.
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