“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy and thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money."
A number of years ago I was on my way to a hardware story to pick up something and I decided to swing by my band to pick up some cash. I used the drive-thru ATM machine – and requested $10 using my bank card (back when you could still withdraw $10 at a time). I was in a hurry – so I took the cash and the receipt without really looking at it – and slipped it into my shirt pocket. A couple of minutes later I reached into my pocket to pay for something small at the hardware store and noticed that I pulled out a $20 bill. After paying for the item – I went to my car and checked the receipt from the ATM because I was pretty sure I had asked for $10, not $20. Sure enough, the receipt said $10 – but I had pulled a $20 bill from my pocket. “That’s odd!” I thought to myself, “I wonder how that happened?” So I drove back to the bank and to the same ATM machine – and used my card to ask for $10 again – just to, you know, be sure. And this time, with me paying very close attention, the machine once again gave me a $20 bill.
I thought to myself, “God works in mysterious ways!” Just kidding. Seriously though, I have to confess, all kinds of things started to run through my mind. I thought about the seemingly endless ways my bank found ways to charge fees. I thought about times when I came through the drive-thru only to find the machine out of service. I wondered how many times I could press the $10 button and get $20 in return? But I knew what I had to do. I went inside and informed the bank management that their machine was being overly generous. At first they were incredulous, “That’s impossible,” they said. But when they checked they found the machine had been loaded improperly – with $20 bills in the $10 slot. Furthermore, they said that the machine had been loaded at 5 am, and I was the first person who reported to problem – and it was after 9 am.
This little story illustrates the truth that money is powerful. Jesus says it this way:
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
In other words, our money – our treasure – has the power to capture our hearts. When and if money captures our hearts – it then has the power to establish our priorities and make our decisions. Money exerts a kind of “gravitational attraction” on our lives. First it attracts our hearts; then it bends our values and behavior. That’s what was happening to me as I pressed the $10 button at the ATM. That’s what happens when we consider taking a job that will uproot our family because it pays a few dollars more. That’s why our culture tends to be fascinated with celebrity athletes and entertainers – their wealth exerts a gravitational attraction on our attention!
Money is so powerful, Jesus says, that it can function like a god in our lives and hearts. It can draw our attention, affection and even our devotion. And once money captures our hearts, it becomes our god – and money is a lousy god! Don’t misunderstand me – money can accomplish many wonderful things (more on that later this week) – but money, like gravity, is powerful and can be very, very dangerous. That’s why Jesus says,
“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.
Ask God to show you if there is any way in which money has captured your heart – by drawing your affection, by bending your values, or by causing you great anxiety. Ask him to help your heart to become free from the love of – or servitude of money and free to worship and serve him above all.
Pastor Brian Coffey
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