October 10, 2019
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I used to really take heart when I saw my son poring over the newspaper, until I looked over his shoulder. He didn't care much about the news, but he was devouring the baseball statistics. Later, I'd see him poring over a magazine with almost no pictures in it, just names and numbers. It was the latest monthly magazine with the value on every baseball card imaginable. Our son got excited when certain players pitched a great game or got some of the runs batted in, or you know, they were tracking for an MVP award even if they played for a team he'd never root for. Now, what's going on here? Well if you've ever been, or if you've ever known a serious baseball card collector, you know that he had invested a lot of money in certain player cards and when they did well, he did well in the value of those cards. Like many investors, his interests followed his investments.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Money Magnet."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Matthew 6:19-21 - a little lesson in let's call it heavenly economics - "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." Jesus is talking to us here about safe investments; those that are really invested in things that matter in heaven. You can't lose those. Then there are unsafe investments: things that you sank a lot into here on earth where you can lose them.
The bottom line on values - your heart will be wherever your money is. The things you'll care about most will be those things in which you have invested the most, earth stuff, or heaven stuff. So where are major chunks of your money going? Jesus said that's where most of your heart will be going: A house, a business, recreation, clothes, entertainment?
In many ways your checkbook tells what you really care about. Not the songs you sing in church, or even the beliefs you hold, or the activities you're involved in. Jesus said it's your money that tells the story of what you really value. When that's something on earth, it tends to become an idol. Why? Well because just like my son with his baseball cards. Our interests, our time and our energies follow our investment.
The ultimate financial advisor, that's Jesus, said to pour everything you can into what matters in heaven; like getting the Gospel of Jesus to people who have no hope without Him; advancing God's work on earth; meeting the needs of the hurting people, the helpless people.
Every dollar given in Jesus' name for lost people or hurting people is credited directly to your account in heaven where you are going to reap the dividends forever. I call it Eternity Inc. I'm glad Jesus gave this concrete, objective way to measure where your heart is. It's like a spiritual EKG.
We can't hide behind spiritual rhetoric or Christian busyness. Not when He said, "Where are you putting your money?" If it isn't in the agenda of Jesus, you probably love something more than you love Him. But, today might be your day to begin revaluing your life, and if necessary repenting of treasure that's been invested in too much of the temporary.
Maybe this is the day you make Jesus Christ truly the Lord of your money, property, your possessions. Then you'll be reading different reports, you'll be hungry to know how the work of God is doing because that's where you're invested now.
If you're going to be a follower of Jesus, you will invest in the things He invested in with everything He had - the lives of those He died for.