Laying Up Treasures in Heaven

Praise God, I’d love today’s song selection. It really eases us into the section that we’re gonna cover today. I was actually listening to Renson’s message on contentment in a greedy world, and I was thinking, “Man, there goes half of my message.” But it’s awesome that this is something God really wants to drill into all of us, you know, and we’re gonna hear more about the importance of storing treasures in heaven instead of on earth.

I do want to ask for your prayers because what I’m gonna speak about today is something that I myself need to work on. I know we will all be accountable for everything that we hear being preached from this pulpit, but those who actually share it will be held more accountable, and we’ll get the extra ID if we mess up, right? So definitely need your prayers here.

So we’ll be wrapping up our series on 1 Timothy 6:17-21 with the final few verses. So far, we’ve been hearing about the directions Paul the elder is giving to the young pastor Timothy about keeping a sound doctrine and training the church to behave in a manner worthy of their calling. So we’ll come to our final portion in 1 Timothy 6:17-21:

“Command those who are rich in the present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of life that is truly life.”

I want to start off by differentiating riches from needs, right? We all have needs in life; we need a job, we need education, we need money, shelter, and God knows that. With God’s help, we have to do our best to provide these things to our family. There’s no doubt about it, right? We should also be grateful for what God has given to us and also be good stewards of the things God has entrusted us with, so that we can help each other out. So Paul’s definitely not talking about needs; he is talking about riches.

I know many of us are not considered rich by the standards of the society, but we can say we have our basic needs met, right? And for some of us, more than our basic needs met. But Paul’s message applies just as much to us as those with great wealth. Now before I proceed, I don’t want you guys who are in schools and colleges to tune me out because you heard the word money and riches. Paul’s not necessarily condemning money, but our attitude towards money, right? So that means it applies for anything we value. So for those who are in schools and colleges, it could be anything we get recognized for on earth. Of course, money, wealth, possessions, properties are all part of riches, but also beauty, right? Health, special talents, any giftings or honor or status in the society that you have, right? These are things that we may hold close to our heart, which we strive to increase and then eventually end up depending upon. So just because you hear the word riches doesn’t mean it’s just about money. It could be anything that we value a lot on earth.

I’m gonna pivot to the rich young ruler in Mark 10. We know this incident: this is a rich young man who came to Jesus asking for the way to eternal life, and Jesus says, “You know the commandments: don’t murder, don’t commit adultery, don’t steal, don’t lie, honor your father and mother.” And then this rich man says to Jesus, “Teacher, I’ve kept all these things from youth.” And then it says, “Looking at him, Jesus showed love to him and said to him, ‘One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and then come, follow Me.’ But he was deeply dismayed by these words and went away grieving, for he was one who owned much property.”

It says he was deeply dismayed and went away grieving. So take a moment to think about your most prized possession on earth. If it’s taken away from us, would our reaction be the same as this rich young man, right? Will we be deeply dismayed and walk away, possibly from faith, grieving? If the answer to that is yes, then we can recognize that our treasure is indeed on earth.

Now, I know nobody here is going to openly admit that your treasure is on earth, right? Because if I ask you what is your goal as a Christian, obvious answer is we want to spend eternity with Jesus, right? But today I want us to truly examine: do we have an unconditional faith or conditional faith? Meaning, do we do what we do to store treasures here, or are our attitudes and the way we look at life, the way we read the Bible, the way we interpret the Bible, our actions and reactions, our expectations of the future, are they reflective of a heaven-bound life?

Bottom line: everybody, Christian or not, has a tendency to store treasures on earth knowingly or unknowingly. And that is why there is the constant tug-of-war inside us, right? There’s a tug-of-war between the flesh and spirit, because the spirit wants to fight against the flesh to store things here, but the flesh sometimes does take over and win, and we kind of find a way to justify it by calling them blessings, so that we can store treasures on earth.

I want to say that the biggest reason for Christians to have a tendency to store on earth is because of misinterpreted scriptures. We may not have our treasure and priority in the right place because of misinterpreted scriptures. And prime examples are messages about Bible heroes who went through trials and got good things on earth, right?

One example is Joseph. We know the roller-coaster life of Joseph: he was in the pit, then he was also sold as a slave, and then he was promoted to be a manager in Potiphar’s house. Then he was put in jail, then he became in charge of jail, then he was forgotten, then he came to the Pharaoh and became a governor. So the way this story is sometimes presented to us is that if you stay faithful to God through your trials, God’s going to put you up on a pedestal in whatever situation you’re in, right? And that way we’ll be exalted in front of our enemies, and we can say, “My God exalted me.” I mean, we still give credit to God—“My God exalted me so I can teach you a lesson.” In other words, this is revenge. That’s how that story is presented to us sometimes.

But we know that Joseph’s intentions were not to become the governor, right? He never prayed to become a governor. If becoming a governor was such a big deal for him, the first thing he would have done is go back to Canaan and show off to his brothers, “See how God exalted me,” right? We know that’s not what happened. All he wanted was—it says in Genesis 39:2—“the Lord was with Joseph, and therefore he prospered.” So that’s what he needed. He was a little kid who was so full of himself, showing off his coat of many colors and dreams to his brothers and his dad. But when he went through the trials, he learned to be more humble, right? That’s why he was able to flee from sin when no one was looking, and that’s why he was able to forgive his brothers when they showed up in Egypt, right?

Another example we hear about is Daniel. We know Daniel was taken to Babylon as a captive. He was made a top official in Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom and also Darius’s kingdom. So sometimes how that’s misinterpreted is, “Keep ourselves from sin, and God’s going to bring you to top of class wherever you are.” So then our goal becomes to be recognized by higher authorities. We say, “God, I said no to these sins, so give me the honor that I deserve,” right? Although we don’t say it out loud, it may be in the back of our minds. But we forget that Daniel didn’t refuse the king’s food in order to be top of class, right? He was focused on getting the interpretations of the dreams that he was having and the kings were having. That’s why it didn’t bother Daniel when Nebuchadnezzar’s grandson didn’t make him an official. It wasn’t a big deal for him, right? When the writing came on the wall, it was the Queen Mother who had to remind Belshazzar, “Hey, there’s a prophet.” So we know he didn’t really care about that position much.

And then another example is, of course, Job. Job lost everything, and then eventually he got double. So basically saying, “Serve God, and God will honor you,” or “Be faithful to God, and He will give you double of whatever you lost,” right? When scriptures are presented to us in this way, then our focus is to be recognized here, to enjoy the good things of life here on earth. Heaven’s a bonus, but we want to enjoy it here too.

This is not to say that God won’t give us the outcomes that Joseph or Job or Daniel got. But if God chooses not to give those outcomes, what would be our take on life, right? That’s why we need to ask the question: do we do what we do to make our parents happy or our pastors happy? If the answer to that is yes, then treasure is here—to be acknowledged by people here, right? So that we’ll have a good image in front of people here. Or do we do what we do because we feel guilty or scared that God’s gonna punish us if we don’t do it? Then also, our treasure is here, because we want a pain-free, problem-free life on earth. And unfortunately, you know, this kind of misinterpreted scriptures is what attracts people to church sometimes, to faith, because they come by having a healing or deliverance, and when they come here and then later on in life they face more problems, they fall away from faith.

So we saw how everyone, you know, Christian or not, tends to store treasures on earth. But why does the Bible advise against this? Why is Paul telling Timothy don’t depend on these treasures on earth?

The first reason, obviously, is life is uncertain, right? You know, phrases like “Eat, drink, and be merry,” and phrases like “Dance like there’s no tomorrow,” or “YOLO”—those phrases that Merin talked about in the last encounter—which point to the “seize the day” culture, it’s very common. But if you pause and think, “Who said the phrase ‘Eat, drink, and be merry?’” you probably won’t say it again, because it’s from the parable of the rich fool, Luke 12:19. This is the rich fool saying to himself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy, eat, drink, and be merry.” But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you’ve prepared for yourself?” Of course, it could go to his kids if he had a written will, but then life’s uncertainty applies to them also, so who’s gonna enjoy it after that?

So life’s uncertainty and the risk with storing on earth is mentioned again in Matthew 6:19. It says, “Don’t store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.” And then again in Proverbs 23:4-5: “Don’t toil to acquire wealth; be discerning enough to desist. When your eyes light on it, it is gone, for suddenly it sprouts wings, flying like an eagle toward heaven.” So both these verses teach that riches—and again, not necessarily money itself, but beauty or talent or honor—they can disappear quickly, like an eagle flying away.

The other reason why it’s not worth storing on earth is the reward for storing on earth is transient. People accumulate things for themselves—money, property—or do many things to be more beautiful, or, you know, work out like, I don’t know, twelve hours a day and build up muscle and things like that, so that they will get recognized here, right? And Jesus said that applause of men was the extent of the Pharisees’ reward. So if we use our talents or spiritual gifts, coveting the praise of men, we will get it. But that’s about it. And that’s what it says in Matthew 6:16: “Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.” In the NLT version, it says that people’s praise is the only reward they will get. And we know the problem with people’s praise is it’s temporary, right? Like Paul found out, even the people who think so much of you today could revile you tomorrow, and the ones who praise you today could mock you. The ones who support you today could stab you in the back tomorrow. And that’s not necessarily because people are evil; it could also be because God’s allowing this to happen in our lives if He sees pride in us, in order to humble us. It could happen that way too. So the outcome we expect to get from storing on earth is temporary.

Another problem with storing on earth is we run into the risk of risking our testimony. This next quote by Mahatma Gandhi, it says, “I like your Christ; I don’t like your Christians.” That’s very true, right? I have so many—I have so many family that’s still not in faith because they have so many examples in front of them that’s hindering them from coming to faith, because Christians are not living out their lives as Christians. And that’s because, if you look in the parable of the sower in Matthew 13, you know, the seed falling among the thorns, Jesus says that it refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth are the thorns that choke the word. So when a word is choked, obviously it’s unfruitful. What’s unfruitful word? It’s a bad testimony, right? Because when we have things on earth as treasures, we’ll be spending our energy and time to store them up, and then the next worry is to make sure we don’t lose them. So when that worry is in our mind constantly, it doesn’t matter—we could be coming to church and praising and worshiping and listening to the word like every Sunday, every Saturday, Wednesday—but if our prized possessions are here, then thoughts about them act as thorns that will choke whatever we hear, making it unfruitful, right? That’s why we can’t live a proper Christian life. According to the Bible, that’s exactly why we have lawsuits between believers and, you know, fights for positions in church or outside, and elections and committee meetings become very adventurous, right?

So we saw why it’s not worth storing treasures on earth. But next is how can we stop ourselves from doing it knowingly or unknowingly?

Matthew 6:21, it says, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” So in order to change what we consider as the treasure and where our treasure is stored, we need a change of heart. It’s a heart problem. And the first step is to remind ourselves: how did we become a believer, right? Ask ourselves, compared to what God did for us by saving us from hell, what can we say that I’m doing so much for God, and I’ve done so much for church, that I deserve to get this and that, right? God’s not obligated to give us anything for what we do here in church or at home or even in our personal lives. So we gotta remind ourselves, you know, we don’t come to church so God will accept us and give us what we want. We come to church because God accepts us and has given us what we need. We don’t do things for God so He will be pleased in us, right? That’s what other religions do. They do things for God so that their gods will be pleased in them. We don’t do that. We do it because God is pleased in us and has adopted us into His family. Then naturally, like Paul, we can say, “I consider things on earth as garbage so that I may gain Christ.” So that’s step number one: reminding ourselves that God’s not obligated to give anything to us in return for our devotion.

Step number two is to correctly interpret the word. So we already saw how misinterpreted word can cause us to, you know, store things here. But now we come to the opposite side, which is, you know, promise verses, I would say, are the biggest culprit for this. So we gotta start correctly interpreting it, and Ransom touched on this too, like Philippians 4:13, for example: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” I myself am guilty of using this like a, I don’t know, Super Mario power-up, where I look at the world as mine—I just pray, “Jesus, give me the strength, and I’m gonna get it,” right? That’s how people sometimes interpret it. But we know Paul’s sitting in a prison, probably chained to a guard, expecting his death any minute, and he’s saying that all the circumstances that God has brought him through was for good, because he learned to be content in plenty and in nothing, right?

And then another promise verse, Psalm 37:4: “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” It doesn’t mean that God’s going to act as a genie and grant any wish you may have, right? When you delight yourself in God, when you start walking with God, God’s going to instill in us the desire for things that are truly good, that will satisfy us. And that may not be things on earth, right?

And then Romans 8:28 is another one: “All things work together for good for those who are called according to His purpose.” Again, people carelessly kind of apply this verse like a band-aid over people who are hurting. But we know that suffering, in any manner or capacity, is not pleasant when it happens. So even if we’re using it to comfort someone else, or even if we’re using it to comfort ourselves, right, we can’t always expect a tangible good out of everything that happens to us. I mean, look at the lives of the disciples, right? Their life on earth sucked, but their end was also very terrible. Paul was beheaded, Peter was crucified upside down, Thomas was pierced with spears. Even though there was no tangible good that God worked in it, God did work it all together to produce something very good, which is the church, right? So in Romans 8:28, you know, Paul’s saying that through our trials, we’re being sanctified and conformed to the image of Christ. And then we can better understand what the “good” Paul and God are trying to speak of. That good obviously points to our ultimate salvation.

So I talked about why we tend to store treasures on earth, why it’s not worth storing treasures on earth, and how we can kick off that change of heart or mindset from looking at things on earth as prized possessions. The next step is obviously: how can we practically store treasures in heaven? Simple answer is to consider Jesus as our treasure. I know that’s such a cliché statement; it may sound very theoretical, but the way we can think about it is, when Jesus is our most prized possession, we will commit our resources and our time and our talents to His work in the world. This is why we see throughout the Old Testament that God wants His people to consider Him as their portion and Him as their inheritance, right? So that they don’t spend their time running after things here, which is temporary.

So basically, it’s a call to live a life based on Colossians 3:23-24, which says, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord and not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance.” So how do we practically apply that? If you’re in school or college, work at it as if Jesus is your teacher. If you are, you know, at work, conduct yourself as if Jesus is your boss. In the family, fulfill your duties as knowing that Jesus is the head. In the church, whatever ministry you do, do it knowing that Jesus is in our midst. And then again, in your secret time, your personal time, alone time, behave as if Jesus is in the room. That’s basically what this verse means, right? “Whatever you do, do it as if you’re doing it for Christ.” And just like how we sang, you know, once Jesus becomes the center of it all, then we will be moved to do the list of things that Paul told Timothy to tell the rich people to do: to be good, and to be rich in good deeds, and be generous and willing to share. And that’s how our works will be made of stone, silver, and gold, instead of hay, stubble, and straw that will be burned up in the fire.

So what happens when we store our treasure in heaven, right? So that’s back in 1 Timothy 6:17-21. Paul tells Timothy that treasures in heaven become a firm foundation for the coming age. It helps us to be better equipped for what’s to come, which includes persecutions, right? Because Jesus says in Mark 10:29: “Truly I tell you, no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for Me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age—homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields, along with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life.”

We have our own forms of persecution now in the name of, you know, inclusion and tolerance and cancel culture and not being socially accepted when you speak up for your faith. And that’s why we need a firm foundation if we need to continue to get the courage to be vocal in sharing our beliefs and calling out sin as sin. I actually saw a very graphic video—I wanted to show it, but I thought it was too graphic—of an Indian pastor who was being beat up with a steel rod on the streets of North India. And then we heard the news about 70 Christians being beheaded, right, by Islamic militants in Africa. And soon after, I saw in our church group chat about attacks on churches in North India again. So that level of physical torture hasn’t come to the US yet, but when it does, we need to have a firm foundation to stay true to our calling, right? Because we can’t do that if our treasures are here, because the first things these persecutors are doing is confiscating property, beating you up—which is doing harm to your body—or stripping you of your position. If those things are what we consider as prized possessions, we will easily fall away. And these men and women of God are able to still stand because they have considered Jesus as their treasure, right?

We get courage to endure persecution by putting our treasures in heaven. It’s not just that, but it also sets us up for rewards in heaven, right? Rewards in Revelation—in all the letters to the churches, you know, the instruction is common, as you can see in the next table: “Keep the faith, be faithful until death, strengthen what remains, stand your ground,” and the reward in heaven for doing these things is we get the right to eat from the tree of life, we will get the crown of life, the hidden manna, the stone with a new name, get to rule over nations, clothed in white, will have a place in God’s presence, and share Christ’s throne. But don’t think that we will only reap the benefits when we get to heaven; we will reap the benefits here too. And that’s what Paul tells Timothy in the end: when you store treasures in heaven, we will live a life that is truly life, right? Obviously he’s talking about eternal life, but, you know, as we were reminded in last encounter, eternal life is not something of the future. Knowing God and knowing Jesus is eternal life. That means we can reap the benefits of it, just like what this famous hymn says:

“Pardon for sin and a peace that endures.” Peace that transcends understanding, right? It’s a peace that’s different from what the world experiences or offers, because it’s not dependent on our circumstances. That’s what sets us different from the rest of the world, because for others, their problems have to go away for them to experience the peace. But those who look at Jesus as their treasure can experience that peace even in the midst of their problems.

And then “God’s own presence to cheer.” We will be cheerful people. We’ll have the joy of salvation. It’s a joy that comes from knowing that our sins are forgiven and that we’re a child of God, no matter what happens around us, right? “Strength for today and a bright hope for tomorrow.” We’ll be able to live a content life even when there are physical shortages in our lives, right? We’ll be able to live a life of quality over quantity, because we know numerous people who have everything who don’t experience the joy and the peace and the comfort that we experience as Christians. “Blessings all mine and ten thousand beside.” So there is a God-sized hole inside everyone that no money or possessions or college degrees or beauty or substances or treasures on earth can fill, because if it could, there would be no more anxiety or depression or worries in the world, right? Nobody would be going for therapy. This God-sized hole can only be filled by God.

And when we allow God to work in us and kick off that change of heart, you know, then our focus will shift from things on earth being the treasure to Jesus being the treasure. And when Jesus becomes our treasure, our source of joy and satisfaction automatically changes. By doing that, we will have that firm foundation to face persecution, right? That’s what we talked about—it’s a firm foundation for the coming age. And we will be set on the path to receive the rewards that were promised from Revelation, but not just in heaven, but also on earth, experiencing peace and joy on earth regardless of our circumstances. Then what we do will not be to get acknowledgment and people’s praises, right? Then what we do will be from a place of gratitude for the One who gave it all without wanting anything in return, and believing that the One who began a good work in us is able to finish it.

As the worship team comes up, we can wrap up in prayer. One takeaway from today’s message is: think about life that is truly life, right? Define what life means to you—fullness of life. What does that mean to you? And evaluate what are the things that we would focus on in order to get that fullness of life, right?

Heavenly Father, we thank You and praise You for allowing us to go through this book in the Bible, for showing us the importance of standing for sound doctrine and making sure that our gaze is fixed on You, God. And as we sang today, to consider You as our treasure, so we don’t spend our energy and time and resources on going after things on earth which are futile. Help us to focus on what’s truly important, focus on what truly matters to You, so that we can be happy, so that we can be peaceful, so that we can be content. We know that Christian life is not a bed of roses, but we know that You have brought us into this faith because You have bigger and better things planned for us. Give us grace, Lord, to truly align with Your word that says whatever we do, help us to do it as if we’re doing it for You, God—not considering people’s praises as important or not considering acknowledgment as important, but always evaluating how we stand in Your eyes, God.

Just as we prayed before, Lord, help us to stand before You on judgment day and truly hear the words, “Good and faithful servant,” God, for You know the deepest, darkest secrets of our hearts. You know our hypocrisy; You know our shortcomings. And we pray that the Holy Spirit will continue to strengthen us, Lord, in those areas, so that we can truly be devoted to You, so that we can truly live a life according to what we preach, and live a life according to what we sing, but live a life that’s aligned with the prayers that we pray publicly. Give us grace, Lord, to continue to glorify You in every aspect of our lives—in our public life, in our personal lives, in our private lives. And we pray that we’ll be able to submit ourselves, Lord, old and young, that we will, as we grow and as we go through the different phases of life, focus on what is truly meaningful to You, rather than what the society thinks is meaningful or important.

Use each one of us, Lord, for Your glory. Use each one of us to expand Your kingdom and share this truth with the people around us, God, so that we can live a testimony that truly reflects how Christians should be, how Jesus wants us to be, God. Thank You, Lord, for blessing us beyond what we asked or imagined. We pray that we’ll give You glory through our words, our thoughts, our actions, our desires, our dreams, and our expectations. As we spend the next few minutes in giving You praise, give us grace, Lord, to truly praise You from the bottom of our hearts and give You the praise and glory that You deserve. We ask all this in Jesus’ name.