What Do You Treasure?
This past Sunday’s sermon was over Matthew 6:19-24, where Jesus talks about pursuing God as our supreme treasure, rather than money. Go back and listen to the sermon if you weren’t able to be there.
The difficult task after reading a passage like this is determining whether your treasure is money or God (verse 21), or if you are mastered by money or mastered by God (verse 24). Here are some questions to help identify these things:
When you think of money what feelings or emotions does it produce within you? (Examples might be anxiety, comfort, control, hope, and fear.)
If someone were to look at your bank statement what would they say you value?
Do you find it easier to obtain security, comfort, control, and approval from or by using money, rather than finding these things in Jesus?
Paul says in 2 Corinthians 8:9,
“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 by his poverty might become rich.”
Paul rightly addresses the topic of giving with Christians in Corinth by appealing to the gospel as their motivation to be generous. Jesus became poor in every way so that we might become rich spiritually. Followers of Jesus being spiritually rich are now able to be “open-handed” with earthly wealth and possessions, because we don’t need these things to be rich. We have all the wealth we need through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! This is why Paul is able to exhort the church in Corinth to give generously to the mission of God.
Becoming a person who treasures Jesus above material wealth is a discipleship issue. Most of us need help in this area at some point in our lives and as a church, we want to equip you in this area.
If you are open-handed and want to be generous, but something is getting in the way of that, we want to help. There is no shame in this; this is part of discipleship. We all need help, and most of us need some measure of it in the area of money. Maybe you need help with debt, budgeting, wisdom in making big decisions, or maybe you would like prayer. Whatever it is, we want to help. We have people in the church who can function as financial coaches. If you’d like help, email finance@provroad.org and briefly tell us what you feel you need help with and we will follow up with you.
May we all see God as our ultimate treasure! For we cannot serve God and money.
