Matthew 6:19-24

19 “Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. 21 Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be. 22 “Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light. 23 But when your eye is bad, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is! 24 “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

As we come to the hundredth pandemic perspective we need to look at servanthood. We tend to think that serving is a choice and it’s something we will do if we feel like it, but in reality serving is already a forgone conclusion, we all serve it’s not a choice. The choice becomes who or what we serve, the real issue that we have to wrestle with is who will be our master?  In order to delve deeper into the question of who our master will be we have to wrestle with the word “treasures.” We all have things that we treasure and our hearts are directly tied to what we treasure. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be, the heart follows the treasure! The natural response to treasure is to try and store it up and Jesus doesn’t reject this response to accumulate, He simply wants to give it direction. Because where our treasure is, our heart will be also. What do you treasure? Where we store up our treasure has a large part to do with what our treasure is. If it’s earthly, we store it here, if it’s heavenly, we store it there. Answering what our treasure is not only helps us see where we will store it but also who our master will be. Serving is really about investing and investing is all about the future, what we do today affects tomorrow. There are inherent risks when we decide to invest, we could easily lose all or part of our investment. There are many factors that go into investing but when it is all said and done, the main thing that we are looking for is a return on our investment. 

One of the investment options is the world (v 19)

This option is one that our investment broker Jesus encourages us not to make. He says don’t invest your lives in the things of this world, He knows we will be tempted to try. Scripture doesn’t tell us to stop doing things unless we are prone to doing them and it doesn’t tell us to do things we are prone to do but rather the things we are not. The reason Jesus gives us to not invest in the world is because there are silent destroyers, things that will eat and carry away the investment making it unprofitable. Earthly investments are subject to being eaten by moths and rust, one consumes the other corrodes. Jesus also says that if we put or investment into the world it will be subject to being stolen. All of these are the silent destroyers that quietly eat and take away the investment. 

The other investment option is heaven (v 20)

This is where we are commanded to store our treasure because this is a secure option where there are no silent destroyers. Some questions that we have to ask ourselves when it comes to serving are who are you serving, who is really your master? What is your treasure and where are you storing it? What are you really living for, the temporary or the permanent? Are you securely investing or sloppily stuffing it into this world? Do you need to move your accounts from the bank down the street to the bank up stairs, from an earthly realm to a heavenly one?

1 Corinthians 16:13-14 – “Be on guard. Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous. Be strong. 14 And do everything with love.”

Not only does Paul call us to Show up but also to:

• Be strong

This literally is translated be strengthened, if we are to be strong for God we must be strong in God. It is in the passive voice, as opposed to the first three admonitions of the passage. When Paul tells his readers to be on guard, to stand firm, and to be people of courage, he is telling them things they are to do. When he tells them to be strong, however, he is referring to a willingness to allow God to strengthen them, something God does to them in them and for them, not something they can do for themselves. The instruction is to submit to the strengthening power and work of our Savior, being strong for His cause and one another starts with submission to the supremacy of the Savior. In Ephesians 6:10 we are called to “Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might” The strength He gives us enables us to stand firm in His spiritual truth and to courageously confront our culture with care.  For us in a 21st century culture, faced with spiritual pluralism, we must stand firm in spiritual truths as we apply them with courage. Our part is to be on guard, to recognize and know what is spiritually right and wrong, and to act with courage. God’s part is to strengthen us.

• Sacrifice

Paul’s call to battle now takes a strange turn, “And do everything with love.” We are to war in such a way that God is glorified, believers are inspired, Satan is terrified, and people are loved. We are to be steadfast and immovable because we are working for God, on behalf of His kingdom for the benefit of others. What moves and motivates us is not a desire to win the war, Christ has already done that, but to witness to the world.  We should let our love for God and others be the motive that moves us to sacrifice in this war. Love may seem like an impotent way but it’s what Paul calls the more excellent way in I Corinthians 12:31, because love wins the lost. Paul reminds us that the sum of all the commandments towards God and towards our neighbor is love. Any service rendered as a soldier of Christ void of love is a violation. Christ came not to conquer mankind but to call them to Himself and He did that through love, serving, sacrificial love. As a soldier you are called to stand up, show up, suck it up and sacrificially serve. So, no matter where in this world you sit right now as you read this my challenge to you is today will you stand with me strong in the Savior?