Jesus on Money (7) - Human Heart

Jesus wants understood the human heart.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (Luke 12:34).

We tend to focus on the place where our treasure is kept. If our treasure is in the bank, our focus will be on the bank. Jesus does not want his people to be distracted, so we must store their treasure in heaven.

There are two reasons why people store up wealth. One reason that people store wealth is so they can sit back an enjoy life. The context of Jesus teaching about treasure is the parable of Rich Fool. His farms produced a great crop, so he built new barns to store his crop. He said to himself.

You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry (Luke 12:19).

Jesus called the rich man a fool, because the very day that he said these words he would die. Storing up wealth, so we can take life easy and party is not an option for God’s people. The word for “laid up” is also to describe hoarding. Jesus put this challenge another way when he said,

Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions (Luke18:15).

A Christian cannot have a good life by eating and drinking and being merry. We find peace by serving Jesus. We must be careful that greed for possessions does not distract us from serving him. Those who have entered into the spirit of greed might need to give away their possessions to break this spirit.