Latest / Reformed Thinking / Lay Up for Yourselves Treasures in Heaven by Giving Sacrificially and Generously | John Piper

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Lay Up for Yourselves Treasures in Heaven by Giving Sacrificially and Generously | John Piper · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to Reformed Thinking, the show that helps you gain
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  clarity on timeless truths. For today.
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  I'm your host and with me is our insightful expert.
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  It's good to be here. Ready for this deep dive?
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  Today we're really getting into what Jesus said about money,
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  about generosity and, well, the eternal stakes tied to our
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  earthly possessions. Our sources today come from an
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  excerpt. It's titled All That Jesus
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  Commanded by John Piper. Lay up for yourselves treasures
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  in heaven by giving sacrificially and generously.
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  And this deep dive really focuses on a central command,
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  doesn't it? Helping us sort of discern what
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  truly holds worth from a heavenly perspective.
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  It's a chance for us and for you listening, to consider how our
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  everyday choices about wealth, well, how they reflect the
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  deepest leanings of our hearts. Right.
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  Our mission today is to unpack these teachings.
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  We want to understand why Jesus spoke so frequently about money,
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  maybe more than we realize, and to grasp the surprising
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  connections between our giving here on earth and our joy and
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  eternity. You might think you know what
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  Jesus said about money, but honestly, prepare for some truly
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  thought provoking insights. Let's sit into it.
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  So we're starting our deep dive with a really foundational
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  passage. It's from Matthew chapter 6 and
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  it pretty much sets the stage for everything else Jesus talks
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  about on this topic. That's right.
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  It's a very clear directive. You find it right near the
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  beginning of the Sermon on the Mount.
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  Jesus says do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth,
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  where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and
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  steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where
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  neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break
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  in and steal. And then the kicker for where
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  your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
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  That's Matthew 6, verses 19 through 21.
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  OK, so right away this creates a really stark contrast, doesn't
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  it? Earthly treasures versus
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  heavenly treasures. Can you help us understand the
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  imagery here? It's quite vivid.
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  What do moth and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal?
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  Really communicate about earthly stuff?
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  Well, the imagery is very pointed.
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  It speaks directly to the fragility, the temporary nature
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  of material wealth. Think about it, Back then,
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  especially moths, they were a real problem for clothing, for
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  textiles, which were often signs of wealth, Things could be
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  ruined quite easily. Right, valuable garments just
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  eaten away. And rust, well, that corrodes
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  Metals, tools, maybe coins, anything made of metal would
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  eventually decay. It points to an inherent
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  insecurity. You know, These things just
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  don't last. They have a built in
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  obsolescence almost. Kind of, yeah.
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  And then there's the external threat these break in and steal.
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  It highlights that even if things don't decay on their own,
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  someone else can take them. There's just no ultimate
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  security in earthly goods. They have a limited lifespan.
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  And then this stands in direct opposition to heavenly
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  treasures. He describes those as immune to
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  all this. Immune to decay, immune to loss,
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  they possess A permanence, A lasting quality that earthly
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  wealth just fundamentally lacks. The point isn't that earthly
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  things are inherently bad, maybe, but that they are really
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  unstable foundations for our ultimate hope and security.
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  You just can't build your life on them.
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  OK, that makes sense. Then comes that really powerful
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  follow up. For where your treasure is,
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  there your heart will be also. What's the significance of this
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  connection between our treasure, what we value, and our heart are
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  affections? Well, this verse is I think the
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  bedrock principle for so much of Jesus is teaching on money.
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  It establishes a direct link. What we value, what we pursue.
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  That's where our affections, our deepest inclinations, will
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  inevitably lie. Our treasure isn't just, you
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  know, what's sitting in the bank.
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  It's what we spend our time on, our energy, our resources.
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  It reveals our true priorities. So it's like our spending habits
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  are a map to our heart. In a way, yes.
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  If our treasure is here on earth, our heart, our mind, our
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  energy, it'll be consumed by getting it, keeping it safe,
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  worrying about losing it. All that anxiety Jesus mentioned
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  comes with it. Constantly guarding it right.
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  But if our treasure is in heaven, then our heart will be
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  set on God, on eternal realities.
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  Our focus shifts. Our security isn't in things
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  that can rust or be stolen, but in God Himself.
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  Which should lead to a different kind of, well, peace, maybe.
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  A different kind of security, certainly a heart oriented
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  towards God, finds its rest in Him, not in his portfolio.
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  Now, the source we're looking at calls this command hashtag 35
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  specifically, lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven
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  by giving sacrificially and generously.
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  It suggests this demands, quote, radical freedom from the love of
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  money and radical generosity, especially toward the poor.
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  That sounds pretty intense, more than just a gentle suggestion.
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  Oh, it's certainly is presented as a command.
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  It's not optional for followers of Jesus, and the excerpt even
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  makes this striking claim. The more sacrificially generous
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  you are on earth, the greater will be your enjoyment of
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  heaven. Wow.
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  OK, so our actions now, our generosity, directly impacts our
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  future joy in heaven. That's the connection being
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  made. It links our earthly stewardship
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  directly to our eternal experience.
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  And the source argues, Jesus calls us to this, summons us to
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  maximize our eternal joy out of his love for us.
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  It's framed not as a burden, but actually as an invitation.
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  An invitation to find deeper, lasting happiness by letting go
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  of the temporary stuff. Sort of, yes.
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  An invitation to invest in what truly lasts, which ultimately
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  leads to greater joy with God forever.
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  It's seeing generosity not just as obligation, but as wisdom for
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  our own eternal good. The source also pulls in a
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  couple of other verses quickly to support this.
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  Matthew 10.8 you received without paying, give without
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  pay. And then that principle from
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  Luke 16 about faithfulness and little things specifically with
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  unrighteous wealth leading to faithfulness with true riches.
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  How do those fit in? Well, Matthew 10.8 connects our
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  giving directly to the grace we've received.
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  Everything we have from God, salvation, spiritual gifts, life
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  itself, it's all free grace. So our own generosity should
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  reflect that same spirit. Not a transaction, but an
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  overflow of the grace we've experienced.
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  Give freely because you've received freely.
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  It mirrors God's own character then.
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  And then Luke 16, point den zero to 12, that's about stewardship.
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  It contracts unrighteous wealth, which is earthly money.
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  Call that maybe because it's part of this fallen world
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  system, often tied up with the injustice, and it's temporary.
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  It contrasts that with true riches, which are heavenly
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  spiritual realities. Jesus basically says if you
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  can't be trusted with the temporary worldly stuff which
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  isn't even truly yours, it's God's horse, then how could you
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  be entrusted with the real eternal riches?
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  So how we handle money now is like a test, a training ground
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  for eternity. That's a good way to think about
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  it. It demonstrates our character,
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  our trustworthiness, our hearts priorities.
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  Are we faithful with what God has given a stewardship over
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  now? Because that faithfulness, or
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  lack thereof, indicates our fitness for the greater lasting
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  treasures of God's Kingdom. Our handling of money reveals
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  our hearts true allegiance. OK, shifting gears slightly, but
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  still on generosity. When we talk about giving, often
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  we think bigger is better, right?
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  The size of the check. But the source immediately
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  highlights Jesus's teaching on the widow's offering, which
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  really flips that idea completely.
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  Yes, it's a very striking story from our 12 Jesus is watching
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  people give at the temple treasury.
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  Lots of rich people were putting in large amounts, probably
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  making a show of it. Right, you can imagine the
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  scene. Then it says a poor widow came
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  and put in two small copper coins which make a penny.
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  Just two lepta, the smallest value coins around.
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  Basically nothing in comparison. Teeny.
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  Insignificant by worldly standards.
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  But Jesus calls his disciples over and says something quite
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  shocking. Truly, I say to you, this poor
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  widow has put in more than all those who are contributing.
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  More than all of them, even the ones giving large sums.
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  Yes, he explains why. For they all contributed out of
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  their abundance. But she, out of her poverty, has
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  put in everything she had, all she had to live on.
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  Everything she had. Wow.
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  So what does this reveal about how God measures a gift?
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  It's clearly not the amount. It shows that the value of a
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  gift in God's economy isn't measured quantitatively, it's
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  measured by the level of sacrifice.
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  It represents the rich gay from their surplus.
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  It cost them relatively little. They had plenty leftover.
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  Their security wasn't threatened.
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  Their lifestyle probably didn't change one bit.
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  Probably not. Their giving might have been,
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  you know, socially expected or even religiously mandated, but
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  it didn't necessarily spring from deep trust or dependence on
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  God. But the widow, She gave
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  everything out of her poverty. Her gift represented her total
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  livelihood. It was an act of profound trust,
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  casting herself entirely on God's care.
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  So the sacrifice reveals the heart's posture.
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  Precisely. The source emphasizes that
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  sacrifice is the better measure because it directly reveals the
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  condition of the heart. If a wealthy person gets a large
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  sum but still has vast amounts left, their heart can still find
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  its rest, its security in the money they kept rather than in
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  God. Interesting.
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  So a big gift doesn't automatically mean big faith.
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  Not necessarily, but when someone sacrifices greatly, like
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  the widow giving away what they need to live on, their heart is
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  forced in a sense to depend on something other than money.
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  It's far more likely that their heart is resting on Jesus, on
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  the hope of heaven. It demonstrates where their
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  ultimate trust lies. That's why her tiny amount was
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  more. It represented more faith, more
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  love, more worship. That really challenges our
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  typical ways of thinking about charity and giving.
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  It's not about the amount, but the cost to the giver.
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  It's about the proportion, the dependence it demonstrates.
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  It turns worldly metrics completely upside down.
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  It really does. Now, considering all this, it's
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  quite astonishing just how much Jesus talked about money and
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  possessions. The source sites Randy Alcorn's
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  estimate, something like 15% of everything Jesus said relates to
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  this topic. That's apparently more than his
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  teachings on heaven and hell combined.
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  Yeah, that figure really stops you in your tracks, doesn't it?
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  It underscores how central this issue was for Jesus.
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  It wasn't a side topic, it was core to his message.
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  Why such a heavy focus do you think?
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  Well, let's look at just a few examples from the source to see
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  the pattern. It's not just one or two verses.
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  Think about the rich young man again.
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  In Mark 10, Jesus tells him, Go sell all that you have and give
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  to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven and come
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  follow me. It was a direct command tied to
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  discipleship for him. His wealth was his idol, the
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  thing he lacked letting go of. So following Jesus meant for him
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  radical renunciation. For him, yes.
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  Then look at the warnings and blessings in Luke 6.
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  Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the Kingdom of God.
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  But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your
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  consolation. That highlights the spiritual
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  dangers that often come with wealth, and maybe the spiritual
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  advantages poverty can sometimes bring in terms of dependence on
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  God. A complete reversal of how the
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  world usually sees it. Completely.
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  And then there's Luke 14.33 even broader.
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  Any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot
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  be my disciple. That's a huge statement.
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  It's about the necessity of prioritizing Christ above
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  everything, possessions included.
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  A willingness to let go of anything that competes for first
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  place in our hearts. Not necessarily selling
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  everything for everyone, but a total surrender of allegiance.
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  That seems to be the heart of it, a readiness to forsake all
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  for him. And what about that famous image
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  of the camel? Yes, Luke 18.25.
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  It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of an eel than
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  for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God.
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  That's hyperbole obviously meant to shock.
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  It conveys the extreme difficulty wealth often poses
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  for salvation, not impossibility.
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  With God all things are possible.
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  Jesus says right after. But wealth creates such a strong
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  pull towards self-reliance, making it hard to humbly depend
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  on God. It provides a false sense of
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  security, maybe. A very powerful one.
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  Then contrast that with Luke 12.151's Life Does Not not
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  consist in the abundance of his possessions, a direct
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  contradiction to the world's message.
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  Our worth, our meaning, isn't found in accumulation.
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  Or think about the positive command in Matthew 6.33.
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  Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all
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  these things, food, clothing will be added to you.
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  Right. That sets the priority straight.
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  God's reign first, then trust Him for material needs.
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  Don't reverse the order. And even practical advice like
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  Luke 12.33. Sell your possessions and give
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  to the needy. Provide yourselves with money
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  bags that do not grow old. Linking earthly generosity
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  directly to securing heavenly imperishable treasure.
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  A heavenly bank account, you might say.
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  We also saw Zacchaeus. His immediate response to Jesus
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  was radical generosity. Yes, Luke 19 Behold Lord, the
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  half of my goods I give to the poor.
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  And Jesus confirms today salvation has come to this
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  house. His changed heart overflowed
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  into change finances. It was evidence of salvation,
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  not the cause. A visible sign of an inward
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  change. Definitely.
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  And the parables to the treasure hidden the field in Matthew 13.
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  The man finds it, and in his joy, what does he do?
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  He sells all that he has and buys that field.
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  It shows the overwhelming worth of the Kingdom worth giving up
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  everything else for joyfully. Compare that to the rich fool in
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  Luke 12. Right.
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  The man building bigger barns focused only on earthly
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  security. God calls him a fool this night.
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  Your souls required of you and the things you have prepared,
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  whose will they be? It highlights the absolute
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  futility of hoarding earthly wealth while ignoring God and
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  eternity. He was rich toward himself, but
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  poor toward God. And finally, Jesus's own
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  example, Luke 9. Foxes have holes and birds of
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  the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his
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  head. Followed immediately by the
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  command Follow me. Yeah, demonstrating his own
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  detachment from material comfort and security, and calling his
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  followers into that same posture of dependence on the father.
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  OK, yeah, listing them like that, it's undeniable.
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  This wasn't just a side topic for Jesus.
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  It was constant, consistent, woven through everything.
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  So we've established how much Jesus talked about money.
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  But why? Why was this such a crucial
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  topic for Him occupying so much of his teaching?
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  We keep coming back to that principle, don't we?
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  Matthew 6.21 For where your treasure is, there your heart
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  will be also seems like the key. I think it is.
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  The source puts it plainly. The reason money is so crucial
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  is that what we do with it signals where our heart is.
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  Our actions with money are like a diagnostic tool for a
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  spiritual condition. And the source connects that
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  directly to worship. Where our heart is means where
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  our worship is. Explain that connection well.
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  Think about what worship involves.
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  It's about what we value most highly, what we cherish, what we
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  pour our energy and affection into, what we ultimately trust
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  for our well-being and happiness.
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  So whatever captures our heart in that ultimate way is
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  effectively what we're worshiping.
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  That's the idea. We might not build an altar to
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  it, but if something holds that place of ultimate value and
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  trust in our lives, it functions as our God.
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  And this leads straight into Jesus's stark warning in Matthew
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  6.24. No one can serve 2 masters,
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  right? For either he will hate the one
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  and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and
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  despise the other. You cannot serve God in money.
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  Cannot not, should not, but cannot.
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  It's presented as an impossibility.
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  An impossibility. The human heart, according to
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  Jesus, seeks a single ultimate loyalty.
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  You can't have divided ultimate allegiances.
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  One will always win out. Now that phrase serving money
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  can trip people up. We don't usually think of
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  ourselves as, you know, doing chores for money.
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  What does serving money actually mean here?
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  Yeah, that's a common point of confusion.
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  The source clarifies this really well.
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  Serving money doesn't mean like being money's Butler, providing
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  a service for it. Right, that sounds.
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  Silly. It means the exact opposite.
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  It means looking to money to provide a service for you.
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  It means relying on money. Depending on money to meet your
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  needs, give you security, provide happiness, solve your
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  problems. OK, so it's about who you look
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  to as your provider, your helper, your source of security.
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  That's it. Serving money means you plan,
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  you dream, you strategize, you maneuver your life primarily to
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  maximize wealth and what wealth can buy for you.
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  Money becomes the benefactor, the giver, the one you trust to
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  take care of you. You're looking to money to meet
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  your needs. Exactly.
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  Now contrast that with serving God.
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  The verb serve has to mean the same thing in both parts of the
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  sentence. Right, logically.
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  Yes. So serving God also doesn't mean
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  meeting God's needs. God is self-sufficient, He
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  doesn't need anything from us. Serving God means looking to God
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  to be our helper, our benefactor, our treasure.
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  We plan, dream, strategize, and maneuver to maximize our
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  enjoyment of God and what He alone promises to be for us.
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  We look to God to meet our needs, provide our security, be
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  our ultimate satisfaction. So the service is about reliance
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  and dependence and where we seek our ultimate good.
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  Yes. Who is the ultimate provider and
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  protector in your life? Who or what do you fundamentally
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  trust? Jesus says it cannot be both God
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  and money. You have to choose.
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  That distinction is absolutely vital.
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  It reframes the whole issue away from just amounts and towards
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  fundamental allegiance. It does, and the source points
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  out that really across all cultures and all times, money
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  and what it represents, Possessions, power, pleasure,
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  security, stands as the primary rival to God for the treasure
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  spot in the human heart. It's the great alternative
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  object of worship. This is why it bumps up against
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  the very first commandment. You shall have no other gods
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  before me, and the last one you shall not covet.
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  Coveting isn't just wanting stuff then, it's wanting stuff
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  in place of God as your ultimate source of satisfaction.
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  That's a huge part of it. Money and all it can buy offers
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  this illusion of control, of security, of happiness apart
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  from God. It pretends to deliver what only
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  God truly can. That's why Jesus was so
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  concerned. Our actions with money aren't
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  just financial transactions. They are acts of worship,
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  revealing whether God or mammon sits on the throne of our heart.
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  OK, let's try and bring this full circle now.
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  We started with that quote from the source.
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  The more sacrificially generous you are on Earth, the greater
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  will be your enjoyment of heaven.
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  How does that statement connect back to this idea of serving God
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  versus money and where our heart lies?
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  It feels like it carries a lot of weight.
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  It definitely does, and the source unpacks it as having two
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  significant claims built into it.
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  First, there's the implication, or perhaps the direct claim,
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  that it's selfish spirit. A heart fundamentally oriented
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  towards accumulating earthly treasure for oneself, might
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  actually prevent someone from entering heaven at all.
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  Wow. OK, that's serious.
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  How so? Well, if our heart is truly
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  where our treasure is, and our treasure is entirely earthly,
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  self focused, hoarded, then our heart isn't with God.
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  If we are fundamentally serving money, looking to it as our
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  ultimate source, then we aren't serving God.
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  It goes back to you cannot serve both.
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  If money is master, God isn't. And if God isn't your Lord and
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  treasure, can you really be part of His Kingdom?
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  It raises A profound question about the nature of saving faith
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  and it's necessary connection to a changed heart orientation.
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  So extreme selfishness isn't just a character flaw, it could
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  be evidence of a heart that hasn't actually surrendered to
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  God as its ultimate treasure, a sign of not truly being saved.
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  That seems to be the potential implication drawn out in the
• 19:08
  source material, aligning with Jesus's warnings.
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  It's about the fundamental direction of the heart's trust
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  and worship. Then the second claim in that
• 19:16
  statement is about degrees of reward, or maybe better put,
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  degrees of joy or capacity for joy in heaven.
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  OK, explain that part. It suggests that our level of
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  sacrificial generosity now on earth somehow influences the
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  measure or depth of our joy in eternity.
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  It implies that while everyone in heaven will experience
• 19:35
  perfect joy in God's presence, there might be variations in our
• 19:37
  capacity to experience that joy related to how faithfully we
• 19:41
  lived for Him and invested in eternal things while on earth.
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  It's not about earning salvation, but maybe about
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  capacity, how much we can contain of that eternal joy.
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  That's one way. If the illusions have disgusted
• 19:52
  it, it suggests our choices now, especially regarding generosity
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  as an expression of where our treasure lies, have lasting
• 19:59
  consequences for the quality of our eternal experience.
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  Now, these claims, especially degrees of joy, can definitely
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  spark debate among Christians, but the source suggests they are
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  consistent with laying up treasures in heaven and the
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  value of sacrifice we've already discussed.
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  Right. The argument is that if we are
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  commanded to lay up treasures in heaven, and sacrificial giving
• 20:20
  is the means by which we do that, then it seems logical that
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  the amount of treasure laid up, measured by sacrifice, not
• 20:26
  quantity, would relate to the eventual reward or enjoyment.
• 20:30
  It implies this dynamic link between our present faithfulness
• 20:34
  in stewarding God's resources for his Kingdom and our future,
• 20:37
  fuller experience of his goodness.
• 20:40
  It's not earning entry, but perhaps shaping our readiness to
• 20:43
  receive all that God has for us. It suggests our earthly life
• 20:46
  isn't just a waiting room, but a preparation ground that shapes
• 20:50
  our eternal experience with God. Yes, a preparation, A
• 20:53
  stewardship whose results echo into eternity.
• 20:57
  It gives immense significance to our daily choices regarding
• 21:00
  money and possessions, seeing them through an eternal lens.
• 21:03
  What a well, what a challenging deep dive into a topic Jesus
• 21:07
  clearly cared a lot about. It forces you to see that how we
• 21:10
  handle money isn't just a practical matter.
• 21:13
  It's not a minor detail in the Christian life, but a really
• 21:16
  clear indicator of where our true allegiance, our true
• 21:19
  worship lies. The insects from Piper's work
• 21:22
  here really push us to reevaluate what we consider
• 21:24
  treasure, to think about the eternal outcomes of our everyday
• 21:27
  stewardship. It challenges us to look beyond
• 21:30
  the immediate, the visible, the tangible, and to adopt A
• 21:33
  heavenly perspective on what brings true, lasting joy and
• 21:36
  security. So here's something for you, the
• 21:38
  listener, to really chew on. If your heart inevitably follows
• 21:41
  your treasure, what does the way you use your resources, your
• 21:44
  time, your energy, your money today reveal about the actual
• 21:47
  direction of your heart? Where is it pointing?
• 21:49
  Toward earth or toward heaven? And maybe take it a step
• 21:52
  further. What might one practical shift
• 21:55
  toward more sacrificial generosity look like for you
• 21:58
  this week? And how might that small act of
• 22:01
  faith connect to your future enjoyment of all that God
• 22:04
  promises to be for you in eternity?
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  That's. All the time we have for this
• 22:08
  deep dive. Thank you so much for joining
• 22:10
  us. Until next time, keep thinking
• 22:12
  on these things. For the deep drive, this has
• 22:14
  been reformed thinking.