A Treasure Mentality
Excerpted from The Treasure Principle: Unlocking the Secret of Joyful Giving by Randy Alcorn
Jesus doesn't just tell us where not to put our treasures. He also gives the best investment advice you'll ever hear: "Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven" (Matthew 6:20).
If you stopped reading too soon, you would have thought Christ was against storing up treasures for ourselves. No, He commands it! Jesus wants us to store up treasures. He's just telling us to stop storing them in the wrong place and start storing them in the right place!
"Store up for yourselves." Doesn't it seem strange that Jesus commands us to do what's in our own best interests? Wouldn't that be selfish? No. God expects and commands us to act out of enlightened self-interest. He wants us to live to His glory, but what is to His glory is always to our good. As John Piper put it, "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him."
Selfish people pursue gain at others' expense. But God's riches are infinite. When you serve Him and others, you store up treasures in Heaven. This doesn't reduce the treasures available to others. Everyone gains; no one loses.
The man who finds the buried treasure pays a high price now by giving up all he has—but soon he'll gain a magnificent treasure. As long as his eyes are on that treasure, he makes his short-term sacrifices with joy. Delayed gratification lets him frontload his anticipation of future joy into present joy.
What are these "treasures in heaven"? They include godly power (Luke 19:15-19), possessions (Matthew 19:21), and pleasures (Psalm 16:11). Jesus promises that those who sacrifice on Earth will receive "a hundred times as much" in Heaven (Matthew 19:29). That's 10,000 percent-an impressive return!
Of course, Christ Himself is our ultimate treasure. All else pales in comparison to Him (Philippians 3:7-11). A person, Jesus, is our first treasure. A place, Heaven, is our second treasure. Possessions, eternal rewards, are our third treasure.
"Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven." Why? Because it's right? Not only that, but because it's smart. Jesus makes not an emotional appeal, but a logical one: Invest in what has lasting value.
You'll never see a hearse pulling a U-Haul. Why? Because you can't take it with you.
Do not be overawed when a man grows rich, when the splendor of his house increases; for he will take nothing with him when he dies, his splendor will not descend with him.
-Psalm 49:16-17
John D. Rockefeller was one of the wealthiest men who ever lived. After he died, someone asked his accountant, "How much money did John leave?" The reply was classic: "He left . . . all of it."
Jesus takes that profound truth, "You can't take it with you," and adds a stunning qualification. By telling us to store up treasures for ourselves in Heaven, He gives us a remarkable corollary, which I call the Treasure Principle:
You can't take it with you—but you can send it on ahead.
Anything we try to hang on to here will be lost. But anything we put into God's hands will be ours for eternity. If that doesn't take your breath away, you don't understand it!
If we invest in the eternal instead of in the temporal, we store up treasures in Heaven that will never stop paying dividends. Whatever treasures we store up on Earth will be left behind when we leave. Whatever treasures we store Heaven will be waiting for us when we arrive.
Faith & Finance Perspective
Consider the sentence from the third paragraph above, “God expects and commands us to act out of enlightened self-interest.” This suggests that the earthly treasures of power, possessions, and pleasures aren’t things we necessarily terminate, but rather transfer. God wants us to have what we need—and even some of the things we want—to get through life here on earth. He longs to delight us as we delight in Him. But the warehousing instructions are clear: Anything we store here on earth will perish, but anything we transfer—or “send ahead”—will be permanently preserved and waiting for us when we arrive. And we will experience far greater joy with treasures there than we ever could here.
We send ahead treasures when we share the good news, care for the poor, serve in our church or community, support those who are extending gospel presence where none yet exists, sponsor youth for a short-term missions trip, mentor or disciple a young believer, come alongside a neighbor who is going through hard times, and anything else the Spirit prompts us to do. Or, better put:
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.
- Isaiah 61:1–3