The Head Decides
Today is the last week in our generosity series, because next week we’ll be back in our Broken Saviors series, which is a study we were doing on a book of the Bible called Judges. We took a little break from that series to do a short 3 week teaching series on generosity, which is something we do every year as a church. The reason we do a series on generosity every year is because Jesus often talked about generosity, and because we know the positive impact that generosity can have on our lives, our relationships, and our city. Both skeptics and believers should want to grow in generosity instead of greed, because both would agree that our lives, our relationships, and our city would be far better off with more generosity than greed.
So to help us grow in generosity we’ve been doing a series called Grace-Fueled Giving, and in this series we’ve been talking about how a grace-filled heart leads to grace-fueled giving. In the 1st week we talked about how generosity starts with the heart, not the wallet. It’s motivated by grace, not guilt. In the 2nd week we talked about how generosity starts with the heart, but it also needs to continue with the hands. It needs to move from the emotions of the heart to tangible actions with the hands. In this 3rd week we’ll be talking about how generosity also needs to be decided with the head. We’ll learn the heart motivates, the hands move, but the head must decide. So let’s turn to Matthew 6 and get into it. If you open your bible to the middle and keep turning right, you’ll find Matthew. We’ll be in Matthew 6:19-24, and the title of today’s message is The Head Decides. The big idea of the message is that generosity is a decision to share our treasures, not just save our treasures...Generosity is a decision to share our treasures, not just save our treasures...It’s a decision to treasure Jesus and his kingdom, over wealth and our own kingdom.
Here’s your context. At this point in the book of Matthew we have the longest sermon Jesus preached in recorded history. It’s called The Sermon On The Mount, and you can read it in Matthew Ch’s. 5-7. In his sermon Jesus is primarily focusing on how we’re to live our lives, and he covers all kinds of topics such as how to live a blessed life, how to pray, how to live a content life. We’re studying the part of his sermon where he talks about how to view our wealth. Let’s check it out.
Matthew 6:19-24 states, “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.” Jesus is talking about our wealth and possessions here. He’s comparing our treasures on earth with our treasures in heaven. He’s saying don’t live your life pursuing temporary treasures on earth that’ll eventually fade away; instead live your life pursuing eternal treasures in heaven that’ll never fade away. To be clear, he isn’t saying we can’t have any wealth and possessions. The bible isn’t against us having wealth, possessions, being fiscally smart, saving to enjoy nice things, or nice vacations. The bible isn’t against any of those things! It’s against us treasuring those things more than God or thinking they can satisfy us more than God, which they can’t. All our wealth, possessions, treasures on earth can satisfy us for a little while, but they can’t satisfy us forever because they’re all temporary. God is the only one who’s eternal, so he’s the only one who can satisfy us eternally.
But we’re often jumping on the consumerism treadmill chasing things we think can satisfy us, but none of it ever does. The reality is we’re all running on the consumerism treadmill, chasing different things, different treasures in life. So the question isn’t are you chasing treasures; it’s what treasures are you chasing?...The question isn’t are you chasing treasures; it’s what treasures are you chasing, and are those treasures temporary or eternal?...Are they temporary treasures on earth, or eternal treasures in heaven? Jesus is saying don’t treasure your wealth and possessions more than him, because none of it can ever eternally satisfy the joy void in your heart like him. He’s saying don’t live your life pursuing temporary treasures on earth that’ll eventually fade away; instead live your life pursuing him and his eternal treasures in heaven that’ll never fade away.
Again vs. 19 states, “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.” Notice that Jesus is connecting our treasures to our hearts, which I mentioned in the first week of this series. He says where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. It’s because the heart is like a steering wheel that drives our deepest emotions and desires in life. Whatever our heart feels, desires, treasures the most in life, will often steer us and drive us to live our lives pursuing those things. So Jesus is saying we need to make sure our hearts are steering us in the right direction, which is to treasure him and his eternal kingdom over everything else. He’s saying we need to decide what we’ll treasure most in our hearts. Will we treasure him and his eternal kingdom, or wealth and our temporary kingdoms?
In vs. 25-34 Jesus connects our wealth with worry. It’s because when we treasure wealth and possessions in our hearts more than him, it increases our worry, not our happiness. We get worried over not having enough, worried over losing it all, worried over having to fix, clean, maintain all the excessive possessions we have. Having more wealth and possessions increases our worry, not our happiness. In his book “The Progress Paradox: How life gets better, while people feel worse,” journalist Gregg Easterbrook states, “Ten times as many people in the Western nations today suffer from unipolar depression, or unremitting bad feelings without a specific cause, than half a century ago. Americans and Europeans have more of everything, except happiness.” His point is wealth and possessions can’t buy us happiness. For centuries human civilizations have survived off far less luxuries than what we have today, and we can too. But we keep running on the consumerism treadmill because we’ve fallen for the cultural lie that having more wealth and possessions will increase our happiness. If you don’t believe Jesus is enough to satisfy you, then the cultural lie has a grip on your heart. It has a grip on your heart, which means it's steering you away from increased happiness into increased worry. Jesus says the solution is to treasure him and his eternal kingdom, because where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Vs. 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!” In the 1st Century in this cultural context, if somebody said your eye is healthy, it meant your eyes are focused on the Lord. But if they said your eye is bad, it meant your eyes are focused on something else more than the Lord. In this case, having healthy eyes is about us focusing more on the Lord and his eternal kingdom over wealth and our temporary kingdoms. C.S. Lewis states, “If you read history, you’ll find the Christians who did the most for the present world were those who thought most of the next. The Apostles who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade. They all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. Since then, Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world, and they’ve become ineffective.” His point is when Christians take their eyes off Jesus and his eternal kingdom, we become ineffective at transforming the world. But the more we focus our eyes on Jesus and his eternal kingdom, the more effective we’ll be at transforming the world.
Vs. 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.” Jesus says you can’t serve both God and money, which means you have to make a decision. Remember when it comes to growing in generosity the heart motivates, the hands move, but the head has to decide. Jesus says you have to decide if you’ll serve God or money. But the struggle we face in our American culture is we’re constantly taught that having more money is a better God. We’re constantly taught that having more money, wealth, possessions can bring us more happiness than God, and so we keep running on the consumerism treadmill. In fact French sociologist Jean Baudrillard has repeatedly said what’s replaced cultural Christianity isn’t atheism, it’s materialism and shopping. The reality is many of us have turned Amazon into a regular place of worship, the “buy now” button is our offering plate, and we give generously to feed our consumerism Amazon god. But I wonder if Christians would be more effective at transforming the world like C.S. Lewis said, if we started feeding the Kingdom of Jesus more than the Kingdom of Amazon. If we started prioritizing growing the Kingdom of Jesus, over growing our bank accounts and possessions.
Jesus says you can’t serve both God and money, which means you have to make a decision. You have to decide if you’ll serve God or money. You have to decide if you’ll invest in growing his eternal kingdom, or invest in growing your own temporary kingdom. John Piper states, “Either you are mastered by money, ignore God, and make him a bellhop for your business, or you are mastered by God and make money a servant of the kingdom.” Which is it for you?...Are you mastered by money, or are you mastered by God?...Are you viewing money as a resource to help grow your temporary kingdom, or are you viewing money as a resource to help grow God’s Kingdom? Jesus says you can’t serve both kingdoms. You can’t serve both God and money, which means you have to make a decision. I want to say thanks to everyone who’s been giving generously to our church this year, because it’s helped us continue to grow the Kingdom of Jesus. This year...
· Our financial giving increased by 8%.
· We added 27 first-time givers.
· We added 12 new members, and we have several more who are in the process of joining.
· We added 10 new volunteers, for a total of 110 volunteers, and 18 are student volunteers!
· We’ve been involved in local and global missions.
· We’ve helped care for children living on a literal garbage dump in the Dominican Republic.
· We’ve helped build a chapel in the Dominican Republic, for a local church community that didn’t have a place to gather for worship.
· We’ve given over $22,000 towards local missions, global missions, and church planting initiatives, to help start new churches for even greater kingdom expansion.
· We’ve celebrated baptisms.
· We’ve celebrated parent commissionings.
· And most importantly, we’ve celebrated people’s lives being transformed by Jesus.
Throughout the year I’ve shared testimonies from people in our church whose lives have been transformed by Jesus. In fact here’s another recent testimony from a woman in our church.
“I developed a lot of hurt, anger, and envy at a young age, which later turned into depression. So I tried to find an escape through alcohol, edibles, and porn. I also struggled with same sex attraction, and I got into a same sex relationship for five years. That’s when my life was at its lowest. I tried to commit suicide thinking my life was meaningless, and that I didn’t deserve to live. The devil is a liar!
It wasn’t until I met a girl at work, that I started to feel curious about Jesus. I wondered how someone could be this happy all the time? How they could be so hopeful and filled with life? So I asked her about the gospel. I listened to her, and I was instantly filled with hope! I went home later that day, opened a bible, and started reading about Jesus. I was filled with an intense feeling of love and peace, and I started to realize this is the reason for life! This is the Love that I have always been looking for! I realized that all those nights I cried myself to sleep, all those nights I thought I was worthless, all those times I felt alone, Jesus was there! He’s always been there!
I’m now blessed with my family being transformed by Jesus, and I also have an amazing husband! City Awakening has filled me with great community, which is hard to find living in such a worldly culture. But I’ve met amazing people here, and I’m very grateful for my small group too. Something that I want everyone to know, is that you’re loved more than you can ever imagine, and your life matters! All glory to our savior!”
Let’s give Jesus praise for this testimony!...This testimony is evidence that Jesus is still saving and transforming people’s lives today in and through our church. It’s evidence that your life can have an eternal impact on people’s lives both in and outside the church. It’s evidence that when you invest your time, talents, and treasures in our church, what you’re investing in is people’s lives being saved and transformed by Jesus. So thank you for investing in our church. Thank you for investing in people’s lives being transformed by Jesus. Thank you for investing in growing the Kingdom of Jesus in 2025. But let’s keep investing our time, talents, and treasures so we can finish this year strong, and so we can keep leading even more people to Jesus in 2026. Spend some time this week considering how you can invest your time, your talents, and your treasures both in and outside our church, so we can keep seeing more people’s lives transformed by Jesus.
The big idea of the message is that generosity is a decision to share our treasures, not just save our treasures. It’s a decision to treasure Jesus and his kingdom over wealth and our own kingdom...The good news of the Gospel is that Jesus treasured us so much, that he was willing to give up his entire life for us on the cross. Jesus said in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave...For God so loved the world, that he gave, his one and only son, so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but shall have eternal life.” Jesus loves and treasures us so much, he loves and treasures you so much, that he was willing to give up his life for your life on the cross. If you put your faith in him, then you’ll get to enjoy eternal treasures in heaven with him.
So don’t waste your life pursuing temporary treasures, when Jesus is offering you eternal treasures in heaven with him. Instead make Jesus the greatest treasure of your life, and invest in growing his kingdom over your own kingdom. Your money won’t love you enough to die for you. Your wealth and possessions won’t love you enough to die for you. But Jesus loved you enough to die for you, and he invites you to participate in the expansion of his eternal kingdom. The degree to which you view Jesus laying his life down for you as your greatest treasure, is the degree to which you’ll be willing to lay your wealth down for him for the expansion of his eternal kingdom. It’s because a grace-filled heart always leads to grace-fueled giving...The heart can motivate, the hands can move into action, but the head must decide. Will you serve God, or money? Will you serve Jesus and his eternal kingdom, or serve wealth and your temporary kingdom?...Let’s pray...
