Heart Follows Money
Last week I talked about the connection our hearts have with our money. It’s a connection I don’t think Jesus necessarily tries to break—He simply understands. He uses it to teach us about our hearts and our priorities. Our hearts and our money (our treasures) are linked. That’s just the way it is. So, what we do with our money reveals a lot about our heart.
Your heart follows your money.
Spurgeon paints a good picture for us here:
“The heart will go in the direction of that which we count precious. The whole man will be transformed into the likeness of that for which he lives. Where we place our treasures our thoughts will naturally fly. It will be wise to let all that we have act as magnets to draw us in the right direction. If our very best things are in heaven, our very best thoughts will fly in the same direction: but if our choicest possessions are of the earth, our heart will be earthbound.”[1]
So, Spurgeon paints a picture of a giant magnet in heaven or on earth, and it’s tied to your treasures, basically where you put your money. And what the magnetic charge is pulling on is your heart. Where do you want your heart pulled towards? Heaven, of course!
Think about it this way: If you invest in Tesla, like you put serious money down on Tesla stock, you will suddenly develop an interest in Tesla. You will notice them driving down the road. You will read about them. You will be up on current features and models. You will point them out to people. You will become a Tesla person.
If you invest in missions, you will develop an interest in missions. You will go on mission trips. You will pray for missionaries and mission endeavors. When a need arises, you will try to help meet it. You might even live on mission here yourself, having developed an interest in missions abroad. You will become a missions person.
Randy Alcorn says, “If I want my heart somewhere, all I need to do is put my money there.”[2] So, invest in earthly things, and your heart is tied to earth. Invest in heavenly things, and your heart is tied to heaven.
The opposite is also true. Your money is a gauge of your heart. If your heart follows your money, what you do or don’t do with your money shows where your heart is. If all your money goes into being comfortable, your heart is in your comforts. You can’t afford to go on that mission trip, but you also can’t live without Netflix and Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV and Hulu Plus. You can’t give to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions, but you can’t live without hearing the Scooters drive-through say “Scoot on Around” every morning. You can’t afford to give 10% to the ministries and mission of the church, but you aren’t willing to live in a smaller house and below your means. The thing is, we aren’t willing to give up our comforts, but we are willing to not sacrifice for God. What does that say about what we truly value?
Our money is a gauge of our heart. When we don’t tithe, and I mean on a continual basis, we are saying to God, “I don’t trust you to provide for me.” We are saying something about our heart and our faith.
God wants your heart.
Charles Simeon says,
“Whatever our treasure be, it will occupy the supreme place in our affections, and engage in its service the noblest powers of our souls. But is such regard due to any earthly thing? Does not God claim our heart as His throne, on which He is to reign without a rival? Has He not required us to “love Him with all our heart, and all our mind, and all our soul, and all our strength?” If then we make any thing else our treasure, we rob Him of his honour, and cast Him down from His throne. And will He not fearfully resent such conduct?…
If, indeed, God would be contented with a divided heart, we might be less scrupulous about the objects of our pursuit: but as “he is a jealous God,” and “will not give his glory to another,” it becomes us to live in this world “as pilgrims and sojourners,” and to direct all our efforts towards the attainment of his favour and his inheritance.”[3]
You may be hearing in all of this, “God just wants my money.” What you need to be hearing is, “God just wants my heart.” Verse 21 says, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” If your treasure is where your heart is, and God wants your heart, then you must give your treasure to Him. That’s what leads to maximum flourishing—when God has your heart.
If there could be one theme traced all throughout scripture, it could be this: Man tries to follow his own heart and keep it for himself, but God seeks to draw his heart to Himself. And one way leads to destruction and one way leads to maximum flourishing. There is no other way. From the Garden of Eden to the New Creation, there is no other way.
God wants your heart because that is where your heart belongs. That is its safest place. Jesus isn’t condemning all money or all clothes or all cars and boats and things here. Jesus is condemning the love of money. Because God is after your heart. 1 Timothy 6:10 says, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.”
If we keep reading just a few more verses in Matthew, in verse 24 we will see that Jesus says, “No one can serve two masters, for 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 God and [mammon].” Mammon is a semitic word for money or possessions.[4] You see, God is after your heart, and He knows that money and things will draw your heart away from Him. And there’s no more dangerous place to be than away from God.
So, the best thing to do is to steward what God’s given you and store your treasure in heaven, not here on earth.
We either look forward to heaven’s reward or we despair of worldly loss.
Verses 19-20 say, “19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.”
Hear what Randy Alcorn says about this:
“Many Christians dread the thought of leaving this world. Why? because so many have stored up their treasures on Earth, not in Heaven. Each day brings us closer to death. If your treasures are on Earth, each day brings you closer to losing them.”[5]
“If your treasure is on earth, you are going from it; if it is in heaven, you are going to it.”[6] I love how Ray Pritchard put it:
“So many of us never grasp that point (that our heart follows our money). We spend all that we have on the things of this world and then we wonder why we have trouble concentrating on the things of God. Our problem is this: We’ve invested everything down here and nothing up there. Our money has kept our heart lashed to the earth with cords of silver and gold. You’ll never be able to get your heart focused on heaven as long as all your money is focused on the earth! I’m sure you’ve heard it said that when you buy a boat, you don’t own the boat… the boat owns you. The same thing is true of new car. Because you’ve invested so much money, you don’t own the car; the car owns you. It’s especially true of a new house. Let’s say you put down $20,000 and then finance $130,000. That's a huge investment of resources. Where is your heart going to be? In that new house. You’re going to think about it, worry about it, dream about it and talk about it. Your new house is going to be the center of your life. Why? Because your heart always follows your money. Would you like to discover where your heart is this morning? Open your checkbook and see where you’ve been spending your money. Your checkbook tells the whole story. So it all boils down to one question: Where is your heart? The answer is always the same: Your heart is wherever you’ve been spending your money… What are you sending ahead to heaven? What will you find when you pass through the Jordan River on your way to the Celestial City? What investments are you making today that will make a difference in eternity? The whole teaching of Matthew 6:19-21 may be summarized in six simple words: Invest in that which lasts forever!”[7]
Think about Moses in Egypt. The book of Hebrews tells us Moses gave up Egypt’s riches, why? “He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.” (Hebrews 11:26). He was willing to leave earthly riches behind because he was looking forward to the heavenly reward.
I know this is a lot of reading, but it is worth it, and I think you’ll agree. The great preacher W.A. Criswell told this story as he ended a sermon on Matthew 6:19-21:
“Let me tell you, John Raskus put three hundred dollars in the collection plate when it passed in front of him. And he said softly, “I’ll see you in heaven.” And those seated around John Raskus, one said to his wife, “Old brother John Raskus is getting aged.” And another one over here whispered and said, “Old brother John Raskus is getting senile. He says he’s going to see that three hundred dollars in heaven.” And after the service was over, those families were just around, you know, talking, and they mentioned what old brother John Raskus had said when he put that three hundred dollars in the collection plate, “I’ll see you in heaven.” And they all said to one another, “Well, he may meet his Maker over there, but he certainly is not going to meet his money.”
For you see, when the church treasurer took the three hundred dollars that old brother John Raskus had placed in the collection plate, with some of it, they paid the electric light bill to the Dallas Power and Light Company. And with some of it, they gave it to the preacher to buy gasoline for his car. And with some of it, they helped some of these boys over here to go to CBI. And some of it was exchanged for funny looking currency and sent abroad to the mission field.
Old John Raskus, they said, will never see that three hundred dollars again. That’s what they said. You know, the following early Sunday morning, we say: John Raskus died in his sleep. What God would say: the angel came for him and took him to heaven. And that first Lord’s day, he spent in glory. And old brother John Raskus walked down those golden streets. And a young fellow came up to him and shook his hand and said, “Thank you, John. Thank you, Brother John.”
And old brother John Raskus said, “For what do you thank me?”
And the young fellow said, “I was so cold and I was so lonely, and it was a dark night, and I saw the lights in the church. And just to get out of the dark, I went into the church. And while I was there, the darkness went out of my soul. And I found Jesus as my Savior, and I want to thank you, Brother John, for the lights in the church.”
And old brother John walked down those golden streets [Revelation 21:21], and he said to himself, “You know, I believe I got more out of that electric bill than the Dallas Power and Light Company.”
He walked on down those streets, those golden streets, and a young fellow came up to him and said, “Thank you, Brother John. Thank you, Brother John.” He said, “You know, the preacher came to my filling station where I work. And as I filled his tank full of gas, he talked to me about Jesus, and he won my soul to the Lord. And I want to thank you, Brother John, for the gas that went into the preacher’s tank. It was an occasion of my being saved.”
And old brother John, said, “You know, I thought about that preacher of ours and the souls that he had won, but it never entered my mind about that young fellow at the filling station.”
As old brother John Raskus walked down those golden streets, he met a throng who shook his hand and said, “I want to thank you for those CBI boys that you trained. They preached the gospel to me and my family, and we found the Lord.”
And as he went on, old brother John Raskus met funny looking people of a strange language, and of strange dress, and they said, “Thank you, Brother John, for sending us the gospel across the seas.”
Well, old brother John came to Hallelujah Square, and he sat down on a park bench by the side of an angel. And they were having a concert there in Hallelujah Square. They were praising Jesus:
Glory, I’m saved. Glory, I’m saved!
All praise to the Father, all praise to the Son,
All praise to the Spirit, the great Three in One!
Saved by the blood of the Crucified One!
[“Saved by the Blood,” by S. J. Henderson, 1902.]
They were just praising Jesus, and old brother John Raskus turned to that angel by whom he was seated, and he said, “I just feel sorry for you angels. You have never known what it is to be redeemed, cleansed, saved by the blood of Jesus my Lord. You don’t even know what it is like.”
And then old brother John Raskus mused a moment, and he turned back to that angel, and he said, “And you don’t know what it is to take the treasures and the possessions we have in earth and transform them and exchange them into the treasures of heaven. You don’t even know what that’s like.” And the angel replied to old brother John Raskus, he said, “Sir, all we do is just watch it from the balustrades of glory.”
My friend, God hath given to us an incomparable open door. The angels don’t possess it. God hath given the privilege to us to preach His gospel, to magnify His name in the earth, to win people to Jesus, to exchange the currency of this life for the coin and the treasures of heaven [Matthew 6:19-21]. May He be praised forever and ever.”[8]
Jesus is the greatest reward.
We store up treasures in heaven. Yes, there are treasures in heaven based on our earthly giving and obedience. That’s from the mouth of Jesus. But what’s even greater is the greatest reward of heaven. It’s Jesus himself. And He is the only way you can get there. Through salvation in Him. And that salvation is a free gift.
And in heaven the elders will lay their crowns at His feet (Rev. 4:10), because He is the ultimate reward. And once you understand that here and now, that’s when you start storing up treasures in heaven here and now, because nothing on this earth matters unless it’s for Jesus. And you can start sending things to His feet right now.
[1]https://www.sermonindex.net/books/spurgeon-charles-h-gospel-of-the-kingdom/14
[2] Randy Alcorn, The Treasure Principle: Unlocking the Secret of Joyful Giving, rev. and updated ed. (Colorado Springs, CO: Multnomah, 2017), 46.
[3] Charles Simeon, Horae Homileticae, vol. 11 (London: Holdsworth and Ball, 1832), 218.
[4] https://www.gotquestions.org/what-is-mammon.html; https://biblehub.com/greek/3126.htm
[5] Alcorn, The Treasure Principle, 44.
[6] https://www.preceptaustin.org/matthew_619-21#6:21
[7] https://www.keepbelieving.com/sermon/the-first-national-bank-of-heaven
