Matthew 6:19-21 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
For months we have been studying chapter 6 of Matthew in our study of the Sermon on the Mount. We have been seeing how Jesus reveals that surpassing righteousness, that which is required by and for the kingdom of heaven, is not merely the avoidance of sinful actions but it is found in the motives of our hearts. The passage began with Jesus saying “Beware that you do not do your righteousness before men, to be seen by them.” Our worship is only truly worship when it is initiated by God, offered to God for the purposes and glory of God. Worship is not about us, it is from us. Now, the truth is that God, in His infinite kindness and generosity often responds to our worship with gifts of grace and blessing, but that is not to be factored into our worship because if we worship to get God to move on our behalf we have not worshipped we have attempted to manipulate Him, we have given to Him a song or a prayer or a fast or an offering in hopes of getting Him to give something back to us. That is not worship, in fact, according to Jesus it is what the hypocrites and heathen do. Most of the commentaries that I read interpret Matthew 6:19 as Jesus’ movement from the topic of worship to other topics, specifically those of money and worry. I disagree. I don’t believe that Jesus has shifted topics, I believe that Jesus is teaching us the role of treasure in worship and in doing so, in a few weeks we will see that Jesus teaches us that worry is the revelation of treasure taking an upside down role in our worship, that where worry is present worship is being misplaced and misunderstood. I believe that treasure and worship go hand in hand. We worship what we treasure and we treasure what we worship. Here is the question that I want to ask and deal with today, “Do we view God Himself as our treasure or have we allowed ourselves to view God as the One that provides us with the things we treasure?” The answer to that question actually reveals the condition of our hearts and the reality of our worship.