God's 401K Plan

Matthew 6: 19-21 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and 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.

The world does a good job of distracting us. It does a good job of taking our focus off of God and onto the things of this world. We can tend to focus more on the temporal aspects of this life on earth instead of on the eternal life we have inherited as heirs with Jesus Christ. That eternal life is often mistaken as something that is still to come but if you are a blood-bought believer in Jesus then you are already living in the eternal. The trick is to live for the eternal and not for the temporal.

That is what these three verses from the Gospel of Matthew speak to. These are the words of Jesus Himself as he taught His disciples during the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus understood the propensity we would have for focusing on this life instead of the eternal life He has given us. The first verse implores us to not store up "treasure" here on earth. The easiest example of this is the pursuit of material goods and wealth. The world teaches that he with the most toys wins. We are raised to be competitive and seek material possessions to achieve happiness. The "American Dream" is largely achieving material wealth and there are more commercials for the lottery than it seems anything else. Unfortunately, some preaching has taken advantage of this as well; teaching a prosperity gospel. Selling prayer cloths or sacred water, wolves in sheep's clothing continue to sell the notion that God is seeking to unleash a prosperity blessing upon all followers. The problem is not necessarily with the philosophy of prosperity but that they have linked prosperity to excessive material blessings. God always has a better way.

God seeks to prosper us spiritually. Within the same teaching, Christ further instructs on this principle:

So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Matthew 6: 31-33

You can replace the word "pagans" with the world. It is the world that teaches us that we need to pursue these things. It is the world that teaches us to worry about prosperity. The gospel of the world says that it is a dog-eat-dog world and that it doesn't matter who you have to step over or on to get what you need. God's plan says "seek me". Seek His kingdom and His righteousness and let God worry about what you need. Why? The word says right here that He knows what you need!

But storing up treasure on earth goes beyond material issues. We can also seek fame, recognition, or power on earth as well and store that up. We can be easily wounded here on earth and seek retribution as well. We can hold grudges and revel in the misfortune of others. All of these are examples of storing up treasures here in earth. The Book of Acts tells us a story about a man named Simon the Sorcerer. We are introduced to him as someone who clearly bought into everything the world taught:

Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great, and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, "This man is the divine power known as the Great Power." - Acts 8: 9-10

For starters, Simon practiced sorcery. These verses also reveal that he boasted about how great he was and that he sought and received the attention of all people. Lastly, he also accepted the notion that his sorcery was divine. It is safe to say that Simon was storing up the treasures of fame, recognition and power on earth. He reveled in it. But then Philip came to town and Simon was amazed at the move of God that followed Philip everywhere he went. The Bible tells us that Simon "believed and was baptized." He was in fact converted and saved! But the old habits of storing up treasures on earth were hard to break for Simon. When he saw Peter and John laying hands on people to convey the baptism of the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues, he coveted the power. Not out of a desire to do God's will but out of the selfish desires of the world that he had known. He wanted to store up the power. So, he offered money to the Apostles to have the power he saw in them. This was the response of Peter:

Peter answered: "May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. Acts 8: 20-21

Simon the Sorcerer was still storing up his treasures on earth. He still sought the worldly lures of power and fame; wealth and recognition. These are the traps we can fall into as well. We can also store up treasures on earth by having an unforgiving spirit. We can view the hurts of this world more important than the promises of God. Our hurt in us can be bigger than Christ in us. We can deem that something is "unfair" or "unjust" and seek to correct what we apparently must think God has overlooked. But God never overlooks anything.

The Prophet Jonah was instructed to preach repentance to the wicked city of Nineveh. Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire, which had egregiously afflicted Israel. To Jonah, God must somehow be mistaken to even allow Nineveh to repent. Jonah was storing up his hatred toward Nineveh and instead of doing as God commanded, he ran away. God of course found him and eventually Jonah relented and preached repentance to Nineveh. To his shock, they did indeed repent but this only infuriated Jonah more and he asked God to take his life. He sat a distance away to watch what "would happen" to Nineveh. Jonah is still holding out hope that God would dish out the "justice" Jonah felt the city deserved. It was drastically hot and God provided a vine to grow up over Jonah to give him some shade. God then provided a worm to eat the vine, which almost drove the rage of Jonah over the edge. When God asked Jonah about his anger; Jonah replied that he was angry enough to die. Jonah was not storing up treasures for himself in heaven. He was completely focused on the temporal. He felt that Nineveh was not deserving of God's grace and here was the response of God:

But the LORD said, "You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?" Jonah 4: 10-111

Jonah had lost sight of what was important to God. His focus being only on what was happening in his world obscured the eternal view that God had. We were all in Nineveh before the grace of God saved us. Jonah lost sight of that in his pursuit of storing treasures in his heart of bitterness and revenge.

Going back to the key verses, we see that God presents the alternative; the solution. We are instead to store up treasure in heaven. By doing that we can be assured that no one can steal our treasures because they will be eternal. We can be assured that our treasures will not rust or fade with time, because they will be above our temporal understanding. When you store up treasures of wealth and material gain on earth; it is easy to forget that they are fleeting. The recent calamity of the stock market has reminded quite a few about the tenuous nature of the blessings the world revels in. Retirement accounts dwindling to nothing, exposed to corporate thieves who in their own pursuit of greed did not care who they hurt in the process. People losing their homes because of predatory lending and scam mortgages and people losing their jobs due to the failing economy. Many had their treasures stored up in their 401K or in their home value; which also plummeted during the beginnings of this recession. The thieves broke in and stole their treasures. Those who had stored up the treasures of power and position also saw the moth and rust eat away at them as their companies downsized them out of their treasure. Years of service to the world repaid with a small severance package and a goodbye. But not in heaven. When we store up our treasures in heaven, we are assured of their eternal value.

God's 401K plan does not lose its value during a recession, it gains value. The more faith you pay into the plan, the greater dividends you receive. Not just in heaven but here on earth as well. When you know the Jehovah Jireh is your provider than you are not swept up in the panic and worries of this world. Your remember that God knows your needs. Why is this concept so important to God? Because of the last of the key verses tells us that where your treasure is, so will your heart be. Even in the response Peter gave to Simon the Sorcerer he said that the problem was that his heart was not right before God. When your store up treasure on earth; that is where your heart will be. Jonah's heart was not concerned about the things of God; of saving a city from eternal damnation. His heart was buried in the things of the world. Hatred and the desire to seek revenge. When he saw Nineveh repent that should have been a glorious moment in his life. That God would use him as the vehicle to bring salvation to 120,000 people! Instead the treasure of hatred in his heart welled up and choked that glorious moment off.

The parable of the rich ruler tells us a story of someone who was seeking advice from Jesus on how to ensure that he would inherit eternal life. Jesus told him he needed to obey the commandments, to which the rich man gleefully told Him he had kept since childhood. Looking into the heart of the man, Jesus responds:

When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." Luke 18: 22

The man went away saddened greatly. This parable is not telling everyone to sell their possessions. The issue was not the wealth the man possessed but the condition of his heart. Jesus knew that his temporal wealth was more important to Him than anything eternal. He had stored up his treasures on earth and not in heaven. Where he stored his treasure, in the material wealth of this world, was where is heart was.

What is God speaking to you today? Where is your treasure today? Once we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior He is instructing us to store up our treasures, what really matters to us, in heaven with Him. No matter what our financial situation is, our treasures in heaven will never rust. No matter what injustice has been visited upon us in this world, we will have an eternal perspective on it; being able to see past the temporal unfairness. God is asking you to invest the treasures of your heart in His 401K plan today. The more faith you pay into the plan, the greater the strength and wisdom you will have to navigate your time here on earth. The dividends include an eternal perspective and living an eternal life right now. There are no recessions of His love, grace and mercy. There are no lay-offs and downsizing. There are only treasures beyond our mortal comprehension if we would just open that storage account in heaven. Invest today beloved.

Anthony Wade November 15, 2008