Years ago, I called a friend who had left his lovely wife and small children for his secretary.
He said…”Terry, I didn’t mean for this to happen; I just fell in love with her.”
“No, you have lost your mind, that’s what has happened.”
He responded defensively…”My counselor assures me my thinking is okay.”
I said, “Then your counselor has lost his mind as well.”
By the way, if that sounds harsh…He was throwing away a family, throwing away his promise, throwing away his honor and God’s glory…should I have been less direct?
There are times, when so much is at stake, that they require clarity not diplomacy.
If your child is heading for the busy street you don’t calmly say, “Sweetie, you may not want to go out there, it may not be a good idea.”
You yell “STOP, NOW!”
We are going to stay in last week’s reading, Matthew 6 because it is an important follow on from last week’s sermon on Lordship.
This week, our focus is this: You choose who or what you love by choosing your investment.
If you don’t like the direction of your heart, then change your investment strategy.
Don’t wait for a magic wind to blow you in the right direction…don’t wait for a rush of positive feelings…don’t hope for good things to just start happening.
This quote by the 13 Century Perian Poet.
“Your heart knows the way, run in that direction.”
“Ah, how beautiful, how moving…how nonsensical.”
That is the motto of many people who have ruined their lives.
Jeremiah said, The heart is deceitful (Jer. 17:9)
Jesus said, Make sure you train it to run in the right direction…my direction.
It’s not magic…its math.
Your heart will follow your investments.
“Terry, my faith is about relationship with Jesus, love…it’s not math…you are making it all seem cold and lifeless.”
I’ll tell you a story I have used at many weddings…in fact I used it on a Sunday morning earlier this year, but I will use it again because it fits here.
On his wedding day, the groom looks into his beloved’s eyes and says, “I vow to love you for as long as I love you, as long as I am feeling this deep passion and emotion I feel today, It will be you and you only…if all that fades, well, who knows what might happen then, all bets are off.”
Or this, “I am in, you and you only from this day on, when I die they will find my dead cold body pointing your direction…feelings will come and go…I am not going anywhere.”
I can’t imagine a bride who would not choose option 2…she may not love the wording on her wedding day, but I promise you, she will love that kind of heart.
You choose who or what you will love by choosing who or what you will give your energy, emotion, time, and resources to.
You have been given, by God, the ability to choose who or what you will love…by his gift of agency…which means you are not some kind of AI, you are BI, you bear the image of God
He is sovereign…and in his sovereignty he has given you the ability to choose.
“I have been investing, Terry, it’s not working…I keep sinning, my heart keeps wandering.”
It does work and it is working…if you have been making intentional investments in the things of God…and you continue to fail…but you desperately want to get to a place of continual victory…your desperation is a sign of the direction of your heart.
It is evidence that you have a heart for the things of God…otherwise, why would you so desperately want to have victory over your sin?
People who do not have a heart for God are not concerned like you are, with pleasing God…and they are not as concerned, as you are…when they displease him.
Keep investing, I assure you…it is working and it will work.
As I said, we are going back to a passage from last week’s reading because it goes so well as a follow-up for last week’s sermon on Lordship.
Our passage is Matthew 6:19-24,
Let’s stand and read this together.
Don’t store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t 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. 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. So if the light within you is darkness, how deep is that darkness! 24 “No one can serve two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money
The larger chapter context for this passage is Jesus contrasting earthly and heavenly rewards…or heart motivations.
He is casting his search light on the engine that drives our lives.
Is it the engine of the stuff of earth, or is it the engine of the stuff of heaven…the things that please men, or the things that please God?
We won’t read these verses…I will summarize them.
- Don’t practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them, or you have no reward from God.
The practice of righteousness was not the problem…it was the posing.
Spiritual disciplines are the training processes that we put in place to become more like Christ.
-Bible reading, praying, fasting, giving, serving, community.
These are means to a greater end, of knowing and loving Christ and becoming more like him.
Training is not the problem…posing is.
*I took my granddaughter Haddie to her bow lessons last week.
-There was a young man practicing at the same time…I watched him with great interest.
When he would hit a bullseye, he would look around, wait a very long time before he took his next shot…hoping to be noticed, hoping the instructor would come by.
-When he missed, sometimes badly…he would very quickly put an arrow in his bow and take the next shot…to cover up his failure.
He was not primarily training to become a better archer…he was largely posing to be seen.
But he is just a teen…I understand that his pride and insecurity are products of his immaturity…it’s okay, we hope he will grow out of some of that.
But Jesus was addressing supposed spiritual leaders
They had turned training in righteousness into posing for the crowds…and it was a waste of time and effort…worse still, it was shaping their hearts in the wrong direction.
- When you give to the poor don’t do it to for the applause of others. Don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Your Father sees, let him reward you.
I will sometimes serve Christy…in a way that she doesn’t notice.
The temptation to subtly or not so subtly…let her know…drop a hint…is just strong.
Sometimes I drop the hint…sometimes I don’t.
*But when I die to that impulse to make sure my “sacrifice” is seen…when I give and only God sees…and I choose to keep it that way…it does something different to my heart.
*I am not saying it is always wrong to tell others about an act of service…sometimes you should so they learn to give and serve as well…or rejoice with you in what God allowed you to give…or just know that you have loved them in this way.
The Lord’s point is, as always, the heart motivation…why are you making your act of service known?
- When you pray, don’t stand in public places to be seen, pray in private, God sees and he will reward you.
Then he gave the model prayer, also known as the Lord’s prayer.
A simple prayer of humility and trust.
He isn’t, of course saying you should never pray in public.
Praying together is good and important…Jesus prayed in public himself.
I have given hundreds of public prayers, in church, at funerals, weddings, civil, and military events.
It is very difficult in those circumstances to resist the temptation to pray to the crowd rather than for and with them.
Jesus was addressing those who were praying only for the crowds…they were looking to impress, not to bless.
I was so pleased at our recent church wide prayer meeting…at how it seemed to me that everyone just prayed simply, from the heart to God.
It was such a good experience.
- When you fast, don’t make it obvious, don’t drop hints. Once again, your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.
Practice doing things in secret.
-Love for your wife, or God, or others…discipline yourself, as I have already said, to not drop hints.
-Do you actually believe this stuff? Then whose reward matters to you?
Does it really matter that we impress others?
And we should know that no one is impressed by self-promoters anyway.
Do we believe this stuff? Then we want to please God?
Since we want to please God…we have to discipline ourselves to live for his pleasure and his applause.
This has never been harder than in our online age where every little thing we do is trumpeted online…it even has a name…virtue signaling.
Please be careful and mindful about what you post online…you can get the reward of an emoji or a comment…and potentially miss the reward of the pleasure of the one who sees in secret and rewards in secret.
This is heart shaping stuff.
When we live for the Lord’s pleasure it shapes our hearts into his image.
When we seek the applause of others it misshapes our hearts…into proud, insecure, and anxious things.
Everything is shaping or misshaping our hearts.
Who do you want to be?
What do you want to be true of yourself…actually true…not virtually true…not true in some fake image…but when it is you, looking at yourself in the mirror…what do you want to be true.
You can decide and you can move that way.
With all that as background let’s go back to our passage:
Three things from this passage
- We must store up treasure that lasts.
- Your heart will follow your investments.
- You heart can only have one master.
- We must store up treasure that lasts.
Don’t store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t break in and steal.
This is not about having or not having material wealth.
This is not about what you have at all, it is all about what has you.
There are people with very little wealth…who have wrapped their hearts around it.
There are people with great wealth…whose hearts are wrapped around the glory of God and the good of others.
Here, once again is that truism…what matters the most at the end, matters the most now…that is his point.
Psalm 90:12 Teach us to number our days aright so that we will gain a heart of wisdom.
You can’t take your stuff with you…treasure in heaven is the result of a faithful life.
Don’t waste your life on stuff that won’t survive into eternity.
- Your heart will follow your investments.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
We will come back to this; it is our main point.
- You heart can only have one master.
“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. So if the light within you is darkness, how deep is that darkness!
Verses 22,23 are a word play that we can miss in the English translation.
The “Healthy”, or sometimes translated the “good” eye comes from a word that literally means “single”…it represents generosity based on single-focus.
In context…a single eye is a single-heart…a single Lord.
Someone who sees what is valuable and what is not, someone who lives for God and not for self.
The “bad” eye is a metaphor for being stingy and selfish.
The single eye stands for the life that is fully devoted to the things of God…undivided loyalty.
A divided heart is a dark heart indeed…caught between two worlds, pleasing no one, never at peace.
Which feeds right into the next verses.
“No one can serve two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
You can have two bosses sort of, but you can’t be mastered by more than one person.
You can’t do what two different masters want you to do…if they want you do different things.
That’s the problem with two bosses isn’t it?
Years ago a tornado hit a small town and I received a call from the state chaplain, he said, “Terry, I want you to deploy to the disaster and start providing care.”
I said, “I will check with commander and get back to you.”
I called my commander who said, “Don’t go yet, stand by”
When I told the state chaplain, he was taken back and said, “I’m the state chaplain, I’m telling you to go.”
I said, “I understand sir, but I work for my commander…he has to agree, or you can get the general, my commander’s commander to buy in and I will gladly go.”
I ultimately went, it just took a few calls…and it helped us work through the chain of command issues for future clarity.
But it is super confusing…to try to operate with more than one boss…in fact…it is impossible.
Because one will end up in command…you have to either go or not go…you can’t do both.
If you have two masters or try to live like you do…you will live stuck and miserable.
You need to be clear on the chain of command in your life…Jesus is boss, commanders Lord.
If you are stuck in life, perhaps it’s because you have not settled the chain of command in your life.
We talked about that at length last week so let’s go back to the second point and look at how we can, practically speaking…train, or teach our hearts to love him as master.
How we can choose our affection by choosing our investments.
So, the second point from the passage:
- Your heart will follow your investments.
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
If you have a heart for the Chiefs or your Ford mustang or your retirement account…it is because you give those things your attention, thoughts, money and time.
These things are not bad in themselves…within balance.
My point is that our hearts will follow our investments…we choose who or what we love, by choosing who or what we give our life, our resources, our efforts to.
If you don’t like the direction of your heart…Then change your investment strategy.
*Proverbs 4:23 says: Above all else guard your heart, from it flow all the issues of life.
Above all else…this shows the priority of guarding what we give our hearts away to.
What we allow to capture our hearts is what we are allowing to control our lives.
There is a kind of vicious or virtuous circle here.
What we give our attention to we will have a heart for…we will gain affection for.
What we have a heart for…what we gain affection for…will in turn capture our attention and we will give our time, effort and resources to.
Affection follows Attention and Attention follows Affection
Where do we begin?
How do we make sure this is a virtuous not a vicious cycle?
Well, we should pay attention to both our insides and our outsides at the same time.
*I must be aware of my heart condition (my affection) …what have I trained it to love.
*I must become proactive in my investment strategy (my attention)…I need to start training my heart to love the things that are important to God.
Your heart follows its investments…it is how it is designed.
In the Bible, the heart is not the seat of emotions…it is partly that.
It is the command post.
It is the part of you that directs your life…it is the thinking, choosing you.
And that command post is resourced by what you give your time, attention, effort, affection to.
My friend…invested in his secretary…so he “fell in love with her.”
There was no “falling” involved…he walked, intentionally into an investment strategy that ruined his family.
Rarely, if every do people “fall into something”…they blow through barrier after barrier until they end up in some disastrous place.
Marriage expert John Gottman is not a Christian, but he has it right when he tells couples that people get the order wrong.
“Love doesn’t keep commitment alive, commitment keeps love alive. Nurture your commitment you nurture your love.”
This is the same thing said a different way.
If you think love keeps commitment alive…then you will often chase feelings not facts.
Who or what we give our lives for is not something that just happens…we decide.
Joshua as his life was coming to end and he was the very rare leader who had actually finished well…said to the people… “Choose…decide. I have decided, now you decide and live decided…not deciding.”
The decided life is about choosing investments to match who you have choosen to be your Master.
Investments of…
Thoughts
Time
Efforts
Attention
Resources
These areas and more are where we make the investments that shape our hearts and lives.
Give a few examples to help make this practical and not merely theoretical.
- If you are married, God has given you a wife or a husband.
God’s will for your life, in regard to your spouse is that you have a heart for him or her.
You don’t have to doubt if this is true, it is written very clearly in Scripture.
*I am speaking to the vast majority of marriages represented here as an illustration of a principle.
-If you have a spouse who is abusive or has committed adultery, there are other Biblical principles in play.
So, back to the principle…that applies to almost every marriage represented here.
You know what God wants…for you to have a heart for your spouse.
How do you get that heart, if it is missing or waning?
Get serious about investment in your spouse.
*I don’t mean some dramatic action…buy here new car, go on a cruise, or even some small thing…bring home flowers…that stuff is fine but not the point…it won’t shape your heart.
An investment strategy would begin with the daily practice of hunting the good stuff.
Make a list, rehearse the list, of all the good that is your spouse…pray through it, read through it, speak it to your spouse.
Sounds simplistic…nope, simple, but not simplistic…very effective.
It is training your affection by choosing you attention.
- God has given us his word, he wants us to have heart for it.
-Read it (I don’t understand a lot of it…join the club)
-Talk to others about it
-Practice it, do it
-Loving God’s word is a component of training not feeling.
Over a lifetime of being in the Bible…you will get a heart for the Bible and the God whose word is the Bible.
- Lost people, family members who are hard to love, spiritual disciplines, things that are good and pure and lovely
-The list could go on and on
-The principle is the same in all cases…do you want to have a heart for that or them?
Begin to strategically make investments that direction.
Your heart, over time will follow.
*This principle explains what you see all around.
The many of the actor or athletes who suddenly leave their spouse and family for someone else.
-It was not sudden; it was a series of bad investments.
Recently a former NFL quarterback and a national level celebrity announcer probably threw away a career, health, and maybe freedom…in a moment of drunken rage…it was not the result of a moment…it was a long movement of investments that shaped his heart in a certain direction.
The old saying, “What is in a cup comes out when you shake it.”
What is in a heart that comes out is what we put in there through a long series of investments.
It is not mystery…it is math.
Who or what we love is in direct proportion to the time, attention, energy and resources we have given to them or it.
Look at your life…do you love what is lovely?
Do you value what is valuable?
Are you, over time, becoming a person who lives for what matters the most at the end?
If the answer is yes, stay the course…don’t waiver.
If the answer is no, change your strategy…stop hoping things will get better…start making better investments.
If you are actively giving your life for empty and destructive things…STOP, NOW!
Cry out to God, cry out to others…everything, literally everything is at stake.