take a look in your bulletin and we have a passage on which the teachings based we're going through the Sermon on the Mount and we come to what Jesus has to say about money and possessions and he has plenty to say more than we can cover but let's read it Matthew 6 do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy where thieves break in and steal but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy 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 if your eyes are good your whole body will be full of light but if your eyes are bad your whole body will be full of darkness if then the light within you is darkness how great is that darkness no one can serve two masters 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 both God and money therefore I tell you do not worry about your life what you will eat or drink or about your body what you aware is not life more important than food and it's not the body more important than clothes look at the birds of the air they do not sow or reap or store away in barns and yet your heavenly Father feeds them and are you are you not much more valuable than they who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life and why do you worry about clothes see how the lilies of the field grow they don't labor or spin yet I tell you that not even Solomon and all his splendor was dressed like one of these if that is how God clothes the grass of the field which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire will he not much more clothe you oh you of little faith so do not worry saying what should we eat or what shall we drink or what should we wear for the pagans run after all these things and your heavenly Father knows that you need them but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well therefore do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about itself each day has enough trouble of its own it's God's Word now the Sermon on the Mount talks about how if we actually take the gospel the essential message of Jesus Christ we actually take the gospel and it we live it out what will it look like and that's what the Sermon on the Mount is about and now we get to the area of money and possessions money and possessions and Jesus tells us three things that we can draw out here he tells us how money has a how many controls us you know how it has a power over us how exercises power so first of all how money exercises power over us and then secondly why money exercises power over us and then thirdly how we can break the power okay how it exercises power why it exercises power and how we break it now first of all how many exercises the power of Rusin one of the curious things for interpreters or anybody is reading and trying to understand the passage is this is this illustration this little saying about the eye it says the eye is the lamp of the body and if your eyes are good your whole body will be full of light if your eyes are bad your whole body before it full of darkness now what that means it's very simple we're in this room and is light in this room and if your eye works it means if it takes the light in you will by the light be able to move your body through the room you know you'll see where the aisle is and you'll move that way and you know you won't stumble in you won't fall and all this saying is basically pointing out is if your eye isn't working even though there's a lot of light all around the rest of your body your whole body is in a sense is in the darkness if your eyes not working there's a sense in which there's no other part of your body that can see or take the light in and say so if your eyes not working your whole bodies and darkness whether or not the whole room is flooded with light see so you say and you know well your reading is you say what's that got to do with anything in fact if you look you say okay verses 19 to 21 is all about money and then verses 24 and following is about money what's the staying doing in here it's a little easier to understand his point if you go to Luke 11 and 12 and Luke 11 and 12 Jesus uses the same discussion as illustration the eye is the lamp of the body if your eye is dark your whole body is dark and he also talks about money in this again it's connected and when you get into Luke 12 you see after he talks about the the eye and the lamp he says that so watch out for greed that's in Luke chapter 12 he says watch out for greed watch out for all kinds of greed now what is he saying very interesting he's saying that greed and materialism materialism is an inordinate desire or dependence on money and material things and inordinate an inordinate desire or dependence on money and material things the materialism has the peculiar effect of blinding you spiritually of distorting the way you see things of it has a power over the way you see everything now what do I mean by that alright well let's let's let me give you some examples first of all for example materialism has the power to blind you to materialism to what Jesus is saying is very interesting but let me cast it in this light Cathy some years ago my wife Cathy noticed that I was doing a series of monthly morning breakfast I was speaking at a in a men's breakfast once a month on the seven deadly sins and you know the seven deadly sins have lust and they have pride and have envy and anger and and so forth and of course one of the seven deadly sins is greed and Cathy says so now are they advertising these things I mean are they saying here's the subject and then people are bringing their friends I said yeah right there Everton he says so they'll know when greedy the month that you're speaking agreed I said write it she says watch the attendance is going to dot drought it's just going to go down they're not going to come out to hear back read and she was right she was right it was the worst attendant of all of them and I thought about that what why what why I'll tell you why it's not that they were hostile it's not that people said oh that's a terrible idea I want to talk about great I want to hear about greed oh no everybody was just so absolutely sure it's not true of them you in other words and see this is different than the other sins this is why Jesus says this is an ice in this makes this puts a this darkens your eye spiritually you don't have to say to somebody Jesus did not say to anybody watch out you might be committing adultery I mean if you're committing adultery you know you're committing adultery you don't say oh you're not my wife I mean you did it doesn't happen you know but Jesus has to say watch out you might be greedy you see because greed hides itself it blinds you in a way that adultery doesn't really mean you know if you're committing adultery over the years as a pastor I've had people come in to talk to me about sins it's a confessed sins that come in and say I want to talk to you about a real problem I'm having something wrong I haven't confesses other people but you're you're a pastor priest rabbi type and I'll tell you about it and and they do they come and I'll talk about anger and they'll talk about bitterness they'll talk about lust and they'll talk about pride and they'll talk about everything but I don't think I ever remember anybody coming to me ever to confess the sin of greed I don't leave anybody came in as a pastor I'm materialistic never done it because it has it now I know what this means is Jesus is saying you don't ask you don't consider the possibility that your greeting you just don't think you are you just Sammy greedy you think of rich rich people you think of people that spend tons of these the trouble is you've all got friends in fact most of you even have a relative who's much more kind of extravagant with money than you are and that's all it takes all you got to do is know somebody who's really greedy and you don't even think that you're greedy you don't even you wouldn't even consider the possibility that you're materialistic you don't even yeah that's the reason why did income not they were bored they're bored they figured this isn't this doesn't apply to me now you see this I if you're there tonight and you say well this is not a problem of mine that's a very bad sign this is one of the sins that has the sign a symptom is that I'm sure it's just not sure of me and therefore Jesus saying watch out is the sin of the eye it darkens your I forgive you some examples of how can darken your eye for example sometimes you choose a job materialism has the power to get you to choose a job not one that you love not one that you're good at not one that helps people but one that just makes you money you do it because it will get you to a certain status in life and you choose the job on the basis of that you know for five to ten years the adrenaline can keep you going and then after a while you just find yourself empty inside why did you choose the job here I was dark I'm not saying everybody does this but so many people do or you let me give you another example in the conduct of your job not only can materialism blind you as you choose your job in the conduct of your job for example many many many many companies many many companies are making money but we all know this they're hurting neighborhoods they're hurting towns they're hurting people we know this now there's all sorts of people in the company and what are they doing are they saying AHA in order to make money I am ruining the environment of that little town haha no you're not doing that what are you doing you're not asking you don't want to go there you don't ask questions you're making you don't want to know you don't want to think out you don't want to ask hard questions about is are the deals that my company is making are the things that my company is really helping people or is it hurting people is it helping the town is hurting the town is it helping the neighborhood is it hurting it you don't want to know you don't want to go that's that's the blindness that's what Jesus is talking about greed doesn't go haha I am you know gouging the poor no but are you asking whether your company is you need to ask that if you're not even asking that that means the blind eye the dark eye do you see that I'll get one more materialism keeps you from asking hard questions about your lifestyle now you see one of the problems with being professionals if you're if you know so many of you are professionals now if you if you go to the bowling alley with the other kind of working-class people you know by and large over there is making a same amount of money by and large however if you're professional one of the problems is the kinds of people you'd come into contact with many many many times you're sometimes your friends are making ten times the money you are or people you go to parties with or circles that you get into and there's always somebody once you're once you've you know got that little you know you know that little ticket into the professional world you're constantly rubbing you know the people you work with you know you might have a pretty good job but here's a person who's three levels above and that person's making ten times fifty times what you're making and therefore you're sure at this the reason why and don't forget the person who is making that you think that's person's rich that person's making seven figures they're hanging out with people who make 10 times more than they do every year and therefore nobody ever feels rich you know it's probably one or two people that know they're rich but everybody else makes them feel ok they probably say I'm rich you know but hardly anybody else does and you don't ask these questions do I really need to spend as much money on this do I need to be putting this much money into my apartment do I need to be spending this much money for my apartment do I you know do I need to be spending as much money on clothes and you say because you because you compare it immediately you think of other people who do much more and therefore you don't ask the question you don't go there you don't ask you don't say wait a minute isn't there ways in which I could be giving more of my money to the church to the poor to my friends to the neighbors isn't there ways in which I could be much more radically generous if I made this than that in that chain you don't want to ask you don't want to think in 1635 a guy named Robert Cain 1635 now I was a member of the First Congregational Church of Boston and I think back then there probably was one Congregational Church in Boston Pelham I would think and he was doing pretty well as a businessman but in 1635 his elders disciplined him for the sin of greed they I don't think they excommunicated I think they you know suspended him from the Lord supper they admonished him so his elders discipline him for the sin of greed now how they do that is because he was selling his product at a 6% profit and the church had decided three or four years before that they that they were only Christians were only allowed to sell their wares at a four percent profit so when they found out he was doing 6 percent they discipline him for the sin of greed now some of you are out there saying where is this illustration going I'll tell you where it's going they realized now this is not as stupid as it sounds my wife certainly thought it's not as stupid when when I first read it to her but I'll tell you why it's not and I convinced her wasn't yeah she said where is it say in the Bible 4 percent what are you talking about well here at Nevison they knew something and that is that when you're committing adultery you know you're committing adultery but when you're being greedy you never know and so they sat down as Christians and they said now look according to the Bible Jesus talks about money all the time he's constantly saying watch out for greed he's always saying give your money away he's always saying don't spend all your money on yourself I mean especially in the Book of Luke but all the way through the Gospels it is it is frightening I mean I can't preach on money as often as Jesus preached on money I wouldn't have a church I mean you know you're everybody gets so quiet I mean it's nobody walks out singing you know and and yet Jesus talked about money all the time so the this Congregational Church got together and said we got a problem here some business practices must be greedy some lifestyles have to be greedy but how are we going to know there have to be some we can't just say well you know whether there have to be some and so they said all right as a Christian community let's sit down and let's just say at our time in our place in this spot we can't talk about everything else but let us decide what is a greedy lifestyle what are greedy business practices and so they got together and by consensus they decided on summit and they said now let us hold each other accountable so was mutual it was consensual you know very modern consensual everything is okay if it's consensual and they got together and they made this decision and of course he knew about it and he but he tried to move past it and therefore he was right they were right now I am NOT saying by any means that today in our economy you could possibly come up when you consider how different every field is you could never come up with a nice simple I mean that was a whole different world in so many ways you couldn't come up with a nice simple rule of thumb even if you all got together and said look we're just going to do this for ourselves you couldn't do that but here's the point who are you accountable to what Christians have gotten together with you and you and mutually you say let's talk about how we're spending our money on each other on ourselves how much we're giving away how much we're keeping what we're doing who has the love you authorized what Christians have you authorized to do that and then you of course authorized to do with him you have to talk about with somebody you've got to have some standards and you can't trust yourself that's the principle you cannot trust yourself to decide this and I know with your answer I know what you're thinking I know what I'm thinking and that is I don't want to even think about that I don't want to I don't want I don't even want to think myself about it on it when I make my night when I spend on money I don't even wanna sit down myself and think gee did I really have to do that not only don't want to talk to other people but I don't even talk to myself about it I just want to do it and that's Jesus whole point about greed money has the power to keep you from asking questions about how you spend your money and how you make your money money has the power to keep you from asking questions about how you spend it how you make it the hard questions now why why does money have that power if that's how it has it has I mean that's the power of greed the power of greed is to not ask the power of greed is to not think the power of greed is to say what's not true of me we live in the most wealthy society in the history of the world especially the last five to ten years there's never been but we right now at least 70% of the well in the whole world is essentially in the hands about 5% of the people which is pretty much America and we're professionals and if you're a professional in this room that means you're in the top 20% of that 5% there's never been a group of people as wealthy as we are and here do we do we dare is there anybody in this room that dares to say I really am doing just fine when it comes to material things I couldn't give any more away I couldn't live any more simply I couldn't be any more generous with my money I'm pretty generous the rest of the world knows better the rest of world looks at us and says to Americans there's so many things you could be doing in this world if you just didn't think you had to have that gadget there are so many think the rest of the world sees it it's astounding that we live in the place we live in the time we live and we won't even think about the possibility that we're greedy that shows the power of greed shows the power money now that's how why I'll be real brief about this why is it that money has this power well the answer is in the little verse very famous verse where Jesus says where your treasure is there is your heart also what he means by that is this money serves the way in which you actually the place where your heart really rests is revealed by money so what it means is money is a way of getting significance for many of us for so many people I'm not saying it's everybody in this room on this one because this changes but Jesus says for example one of the reasons why we spend some would so much money one of the reasons why we spend it on ourselves one of the reasons we don't give it away like we should is because money is our significance it shows us for example the fact that we're able to live in a certain place the fact that we're able to eat certain places the fact that we're in certain social circles the fact that we can dress in certain way makes us feel more important and you know it's true we have a tendency to do this the higher up economically we get we don't just look at other people who are below us economically and say oh you're below me economically we say you're below me you don't see that happening to yourself I mean you don't have to be very well-off middle-class people in general feel superior to the poor we do all we give money and we're sorry for the poor we make pity the poor but we feel superior to them and there's no good reason to you know we started the same place that they did with the same parents they had with the same situation they had it you really think you'd be that much better I don't know but we automatically feel when we feel like we're better economically than somebody else we feel like we're better when we're higher caliber socioeconomically we feel like we're higher caliber it's so automatic it's so fast and it because money money is something that many of us take and we say that's my significance that's what makes me feel important but on the other hand for other people other people are different and other people take money and make money they're security see some people use money for approval other people use money for control some people use money in order to fit say I feel important but many other people say I need money so I'm safe I don't forget what I'm saying here I'm asking this question if you're not giving your money away in i popping proportions if you find it very difficult if you're not so radically generous that the worlds amazed at the christians and most of us are not why one answer is why is that have that power one answer is it's money as your significance of their possibilities money is your security in other words you feel like if I got money then I have control in an uncontrollable world I have control over my life I have control you know I've got if things come along I'm safe and Jesus Christ says running after these things cannot add a minute an hour they can't add a minute to your life it's God who's in control these things money is not going to turn you into God God money is not going to be able to get one little bit of control one of my professors Addison leach who was the second husband he died of Elizabeth Elliott Elizabeth Elliott who came here last week some of you saw met her went to her conference and she had two husbands died on her before she is now married a third time her second husband was a professor of mine and I heard him once tell the story and he said he was till he was thinking about this idea that money can be your security hey he had a couple young women in his a couple young woman that where he was a teacher at college became Christians in college and they came back to their parents and they said we've become Christians that we want to be missionaries and the parents you know said oh no missionaries and they said look that each of them said now dear you've had a religious experience how wonderful but what but you need some security before you go off to take you have your missionary experience which is fine if you want to go it's fine but first we want you have a master's degree we want you to have taken a job or two so you've got some records so you've gotten your career off the ground and we want you to have some money in the bank for some security and they came back to my professor dr. leach and they said what do we say about that and dr. Lee said oh here's what I would say to my dear parents tell them we're on a little ball of rock spinning through space it's called Earth and you know who knows if we're going to run into something but even if we don't someday under each one of us is going to open a trapdoor and we're going to everybody's going to fall off I mean at the end of your life a trapdoor opens up underneath you and you fall off the little ball of rock and underneath will be the everlasting arms or nothing at all and you think a master's degree is going to give you some security see and that's what Jesus is saying right here he says he says the power of money is it seems like it can give you significance but actually when you make money or significance you become an arrogant person that nobody likes and you think money can give you some security but the fact is that money can't possibly stop all the things it can't stop death it can't stop tragedy you can't stop broken relationships it can't stop anything so how do we break the power of money in our lives well the answer is this how do we how do we get to the place where we're really radically generous how do we get to the place where we're not worrying about money how do we get to the place where we're not we're not we don't feel Creek you know there's a lot of ways in which money controls as well let's take a look verse 19 do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy where thieves break in and steal but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal now literally he says trek don't treasure earthly treasures but treasure heavenly treasure that's what he says and that's important to know everybody at the center of their soul has something they treasure what does it mean a treasure something means to look at something fill your heart with a beauty and the value of it and a treasure something is to say if I have this everything's worth it if I have this it's all worth it and if I have this I'm worth it in other words everybody's got something they might be money it might be career might be status it might be romance it might be a family you're looking at it and it's your treasure and you say if I could have this it'll all be worth it everybody in this room's got something something on earth they're doing that about everybody if I had this it would all be worth it and then I'd be worth it my my favorite fantasy book Lord of the Rings which I've been rereading recently it's all about the special ring and it's beautiful and whoever owns it calls it the precious any of you ever read Lord of the Rings everybody who gets this ring in a sense comes under its power because you look at it and everybody who gets it calls it my precious the precious and that's what Jesus is saying is is at the at the center of everybody's soul there's the precious something that you've looked at and you said this is precious to me this is the thing that if I have and it's all worth it this is the thing that if I have it then I'm worth it you got something but whatever that is you are enslaved to it anything that you're sold treasures once your soul treasures something you will pay any price for it you will do anything to get it because you know it's the only thing that's worth it see and the Bible says every treasure but Jesus will insist that you die to purchase it but Jesus's self is the one treasure who died to purchase you anything else you make your supreme value will say die for me but if you make Jesus Christ your supreme value he's the one who said I've died for you how do you make Jesus Christ your treasure only if you make him your treasure only if he is your heavenly treasure only if you treasure him will you actually be in a sense free for money now I'll explain what that means in a second but first how can you treasure Jesus think about what he did with his treasure he had the ultimate treasure he was the Lord he had the ultimate status and he also had the element security he was the son of the Father but when he came to earth what happened to him on the cross he was utterly stripped when he was stripped naked of all of his belongings and all of his possessions that was just that that was just an echo of the fact that he was spiritually stripped he lost all of his treasure why he died for something now you only die for that which is your precious and what this means is Jesus Christ must have looked at us and must have said if I have them even going to hell will be worth it in Isaiah chapter 53 tells us by prophecy that when he saw the results of his suffering he was satisfied now that you know it's it in in first Peter not to nine it says you are a chosen race he's talking to Christians you are a holy nation you are a royal priesthood you are God's purchased position that means you are his treasure unless you know that he was willing to lose all his treasure so that you could be his treasure unless you realize that he looked at you and he felt towards you like that that he felt if if I have of them anything's worth nothing would be worth losing them anything would be worth saving them you know that he treasures you you know he cares about you like that that and that alone will free you absolutely free you from money it'll free you from everything it won't just for you for money and here's what I mean by for you for money some of you here's a test here's one of the ways you know that you have spiritual wealth how do you react to rich people I'll tell you how most of us do it many of you resent rich people you feel disdainful of them you say look at their money look at their homes look at all this stuff and you feel superior to them and that shows that money still has power over you if you dislike critten rich people if you feel superior to rich people that shows money still got power over you shows a lack of spiritual wealth in you it shows actually a lack of humility and the gospel is you're a sinner so you haven't really received it however if you envy rich people if you can't believe that this person has let me come into this room and into this apartment look how neat this is isn't this incredible on the see that also shows that money's got power over you the gospel is your more sinful than you ever dare believe you're more loved than you ever dared hope the more sinful keeps you from feeling superior to rich people the more loved keeps you from feeling inferior to rich people and therefore the gospel puts you in a place where you really don't care about money anymore and the best way to see that money had no longer has any power for you is that you can love rich people secondly the way you can tell that money has no more power over you is that you also respect for people that you looked at them and you respect them and you expect to learn from them and look down your nose at them and boy that's mighty mighty mighty hard but by and large there's a tendency you know money still has power of us because we very often we get around poor people we just really look down our nose at them you know you rub this is New York fortunately and in New York you actually actually do ride snug ways with more people you see poor people I mean you know the rest of the country we just keep we just get them away we just get them away we zone them away and New York you can't some people away thank you that's great New York you're a little one and in some ways New York is more like the written a New Jerusalem a lot of people are going to hate the New Jerusalem because they hate New York there's not gonna be any zoning there and and one of the things one of the good things is you do you are around poor people how do you respond to them one of the ways you can see that money has lost its power for you because of the gospel of Jesus because you know the heat reg lost all this treasure to make you is treasure that humbles you that melts you that lifts you up and one of the ways you'll know is that you don't you no longer you have you have no trouble loving rich people secondly have no trouble removing poor people but the third the third sign that money no longer has power of your life is this you get really generous you know what's interesting verse 22 the eye is the lamp of the body if your eyes are good if your eyes are good that word actually is a double may has a double meaning in Greek the word good also means generous and a Christian who's really been freed for money by finding Jesus as their treasure gets a generous I you're always looking and always looking for opportunities you're looking at your friends you're looking at your neighbors you're looking at your church you're looking at the poor you're looking at your city and you're always looking for ways to give away you want to say well how much this is the last thing I'll say well you have to look at what Jesus did when Jesus treasured you he treasured you sacrificially now if you want to respond to Jesus that means that I have got to not just simply live out the cross of Jesus Christ in my relationships I've also got to live out the cross of Jesus Christ economically now follow me here you know most every Christian says oh I'm a Christian and therefore I need to Jesus died for me and he lived a sacrificial life for me and therefore I have to love others as Christ loved me fine that means you have got to give enough money away this year that it sacrifices your lifestyle if you if you give money but it doesn't really cut into the way which you live it doesn't it doesn't sacrifice there's no cross in your economic life if you don't give enough away enough money so that really makes a difference in how you live your life in your lifestyle then you then there's no cross and you're not really responding to Jesus as he's responded to you now for most of us I'll tell you this not yet for most people I shouldn't say of us for most people most places and most times in the world the tithe is the goal why because most places most times most people the Bible says give away 10% that's a good nice figure to think about in terms of your giving that's a good way to tell whether or not the gospel is working in your heart because if the Gospels work in your heart you see what Jesus Christ has done for you 10% doesn't seem like much I mean after all what if Jesus had ties his blood you still be lost I mean Jesus went way past the tithe so the point is 10% doesn't seem like very much however for most people it does mean a sacrifice there'll be a cross in the 10% for most of us for most of us 10% is really going to be really going to be hard it's going to be hard it's going to hurt but increasingly in America there are people for whom 10% does not make a dent and you see the 10% is not the point the Bible when the Bible tells you how much should I be giving away the 10% is just a rule of thumb it's just a helping a good way to get started the cross is the standard the 10% just sort of an example for most of us but the cross is the standard is there a cross in your life in your economic life if Jesus is your treasurer you'll love the rich if Jesus is your treasure you'll love the poor if Jesus is the treasure you will be giving you what money away joyfully deliberately happily that's the reason why the early church was so successful we have an old letter from diognetus who told about the early Christians why they were so popular and why they stunned people he says we share our table with all but we do not share our bed with all he said in other words pagans are promiscuous with their body but very stingy with their money and Christians are very stingy with their body and incredibly promiscuous with their money which kind of person benefited their neighborhood other words would you want to live in a neighborhood I said this last week I think would you want to live in a neighborhood with a group of people who are stingy with their money and very promiscuous with their body what impact would that have on the neighborhood if you're a child where do you want to live you want to live in a neighborhood of people like that or do you want to live in a neighborhood of people who practiced sexual integrity and financial promiscuity you a city filled with that kind of person is going to be a healthy City a neighborhood filled with that kind of person is going to be a healthy neighborhood there are tremendous public ramifications of the Sermon on the Mount let's live it let's pray our Father I thank you for giving us this time to consider what it means the treasure of treasures in heaven we thank you what your son did for us we thank you for all of that and we pray that you would help it become such a reality in our lives that money no longer is power or us the intimidation we feel around people who have more money or the or the the inferiority we feel or even the anger we feel or the superiority we feel Oh Lord change that so that we are very different kinds of people we are unique people you've done in the past the early church really understood this let it be true of us too we pray in Jesus name Amen for more of this series and other resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church please visit