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EP 131: Where is Your Treasure? (Matthew 6:19-24 -Sermon on the Mount Series)

byMarci Ferrell

Inside: When the world and its treasures are your desire, you’ll find yourself storing earthly treasures. When Jesus is your treasure, you will be devoted to living for His glory and the good of others.

There are many earthly treasures we can get caught up in when we forget we are sojourners and exiles on this earth. Jesus is concerned about our attitude toward our possessions.

When the world and its treasures are your desire, you’ll find yourself storing earthly treasures. When Jesus is your treasure, you will be devoted to living for His glory and the good of others.

Being in Christ, we now need to look at our possessions in a different way.

“Our Lord is dealing here with people who get their main, or even total, satisfaction in this life from things that belong to this world only.”

~ Martyn Lloyd Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount

There are many earthly treasures we can get caught up in when we forget we are sojourners and exiles on this earth.

We can treasure our family and look to them as everything. We can treasure our standing in society or the accomplishments of our children, or our position in our workplaces. All of these things we can’t take with us when we die. They are all temporal and not eternal.

There are many earthly treasures we can get caught up in when we forget we are sojourners and exiles on this earth. Click to Tweet

Matthew 6:19-24:

19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 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!

24 “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.

When we think of where moths and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, it reminds us there is no security in material things. They can be gone in an instant.

There is no security in material things. They can be gone in an instant. Click to Tweet

Our security lies when we lay up our treasure in Heaven.

We need to major on the internals rather than the externals.

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”

~ Jim Elliot

We need to guard against materialism. We need to be aware of the needs around us and use what the Lord has given us to do good to others and help those in need. We must remember to live in light of the fact that this world is not our home.

One commentator stated it:
“Hold tightly what is eternal
Hold lightly what is temporal.”

Jesus is concerned about our attitude toward our possessions.

Listen to the Podcast:

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Resources Mentioned:

Sermon on the Mount Podcast Series

Justin Peters Ministries

Planning a Christ-Focused Thanksgiving Mini-Course

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount by Martyn Lloyd Jones

Show Notes:

It is easy for us to condemn Ananias and Sapphira for their dishonesty, but we need to examine our own lives to see if our profession is backed up by our practice. Do we really mean everything we pray about in public? Do we sing the hymns and Gospel songs sincerely or routinely? “These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me” (Matt 15:8). If God killed “religious deceivers” today, how many church members would be left?

~ Warren Wiersbe, Bible Exposition Commentary, Be Dynamic

“it doesn’t lie in abstinence or withdrawal. It lies in the proper use and proper estimate of the things which God has proved. In other words, we are not called upon to relinquish things but rather use them under God’s direction. We are to use them for the health and well-being of our family, for material aid to others and for the great task of proclaiming the gospel and promoting Christian verities.”

~ James Montgomery Boice, The Sermon on the Mount: Matthew 5-7 (Expositional Commentary)

“During his exceptionally long ministry, which spanned most of the eighteenth century, John Wesley earned a considerable amount of money from his published sermons and other works. Yet he left only 28 pounds when he died, because he continually gave what he earned to the Lord’s work….It is right to provide for our families, to make reasonable plans for the future, to make wise investments, and to have money to carry on a business, give to the poor, and support the Lord’s work. It is being dishonest, greedy, covetous, stingy, and miserly about possessions that is wrong. To honestly earn, save, and give is wise and good; to hoard and spend only on ourselves not only is unwise but sinful.”

~ John MacArthur, Matthew 1-7 (The MacArthur New Testament Commentary) (Volume 1) 

“You store up treasures in heaven by investing your money in things that will last for eternity.”

~ Ray Pritchard

“Jesus goes on to point out that a person’s cherished possessions and his deepest motives and desires are inseparable, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. They will either both be earthly, or both be heavenly. It is impossible to have one on earth and the other in heaven. As always, the heart must be right first. In fact, if the heart is right, everything else in life falls into its proper place. The person who is right with the Lord will be generous and happy in his giving to the Lord’s work. By the same token, a person who is covetous, self-indulgent, and stingy has good reason to question his relationship with the Lord. Jesus is not saying that if we put our treasure in the right place, our heart will then be in the right place, but that the location of our treasure indicates where our heart already is. Spiritual problems are always heart problems. Sinful acts come from a sinful heart, just as righteous acts come from a righteous heart.”

~ John MacArthur, Matthew 1-7 (The MacArthur New Testament Commentary) (Volume 1) 

“If the heart loves material things, and puts earthly gain above heavenly investments, then the result can only be a tragic loss. The treasures of earth may be used for God. But if we gather material things for ourselves, we will lose them; and we will lose our hearts with them. Instead of spiritual enrichment, we will experience impoverishment.”

~ Warren Wiersbe, Be Loyal (Matthew): Following the King of Kings (The BE Series Commentary)

“The idea here is simple but beautiful. The eye is pictured as the window through which light comes into the body. If a window is clean and the glass is clear, the light that comes in will properly light every part of the room. If the window is dirty, or if the glass is uneven or tinted, or discolored, the light will be hindered, and the room will not receive the full benefit of the light. The amount and quality of the light that comes into a room depends on the condition of the window through which it comes. So it is with the eye. The condition of the eye determines the quality of the light that enters the body. If you are color-blind, all the reds and greens of Christmas decorations are lost to you. If you have cataracts, you may sit next to someone and perceive only a shadow. If your eye is blind, “how great is that darkness.” There are no colors, no forms, no motion. Of course, Jesus is not giving us a lesson on optics. He is saying that the light that comes into a man’s soul depends on the spiritual condition of the eye through which it has to pass because the eye is the window of the body.”

~ R. Kent Hughes, The Sermon on the Mount: The Message of the Kingdom 

The man who thinks he is godly because he talks about God, and says he believes in God, and goes to a place of worship occasionally, but is really living for certain earthly things—how great is that man’s darkness!

~ Martyn Lloyd Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount 

Scripture References:

  • Matthew 6:19-24
  • Job 1:21
  • Acts 5:3-4
  • Exodus 20:15
  • Matthew 15:8
  • Matthew 19
  • Matthew 24:35
  • 1 John 2:17
  • James 4:4
  • Colossians 3:1-4
  • Genesis 41:33-36
  • Genesis 13:2
  • 1 Timothy 6:6-8
  • James 1:5
  • Proverbs 28:22
  • Deuteronomy 6:5

Recommended Resources:

Planning a Christ Focused Thanksgiving Mini Course