Relocate Your Treasure to The Greatest Treasure 

Do you desire deeper purpose in your life and work? Do you want more power to influence the world around you — to make this world a better place? 

What if you could become more purposeful and powerful while simultaneously finding more peace, rest, assurance, and joy in your work? 

It is possible to be so sure you are doing the right thing, that you become completely transformed and are able to help the people around you — your work place and your city — thrive in new ways that you previously could not even imagine.

Do you want this? 

You can have this as you embrace the startling counterintuitive truth about where real treasure is located. 

Jesus is our Master Teacher who has the supreme ability to take something simple that seems counterintuitive and use it to invite us into life-giving, joy-filled, new life and new work. 

Tim Keller said this about what Jesus taught on treasure, “If any community of people ever took very seriously what Jesus was saying…it would make us into a human society like no other one on the face of the Earth.” 

Real Treasure 

Here is what Jesus says about real treasure: 

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” - [.no-reftag]Matthew 6:19-21[.no-reftag] 

Real treasure is not a collection of stuff we can see. Real treasure does not need to be protected by earthly means. 

Real treasure does not produce worrisome scenarios about losing it — it can never be lost. 

“Your current treasure is a map to your soul.” - Tim Keller 

Clear Vision 

“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!"  - [.no-reftag]Matthew 6:22-23[.no-reftag] 

A clear vision determines where you go and what you do. A dark eye — an eye set on the wrong things — blinds us. 

If you are blind to the right treasure — all of your life and work will be in darkness. 

“Money blinds us to its influence on our life and work.” - Tim Keller 

Only One Master 

“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” - [.no-reftag]Matthew 6:24[.no-reftag] 

You can only love and serve one Master.

The love of money or mammon is a false god that devalues all that is truly valuable. 

“Follow the money… see where your money flows freely to understand what you value and who you treasure.” - Tim Keller 

Relocate Your Treasure 

Jesus is offering a treasure that does not need to be protected from decay, corrosion, or theft. 

We can’t say that about our stuff in this world, and we can’t say that about our money. In this day of cyber crimes, you could easily argue no one’s money is safe. And even more importantly, the things we treasure on this earth cannot be taken with us.

Jesus is offering His very self as the treasure. Jesus treasures us! We are made to treasure Him! 

He gave up heaven to live and die for us. He is offering us a perfect treasure that can never perish, spoil, or be stolen. He is a perfect everlasting treasure now! 

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you.”- [.no-reftag]1 Peter 1:3-4[.no-reftag]

Utilize Your Treasure Now 

Yes. Jesus is calling us to treasure Him as He treasures us. The treasure of being with Jesus is certainly for eternity, but it is also for right now.

Jesus is offering us to live and work with Him now, building God’s Kingdom God’s Way. 

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” - [.no-reftag]1 Peter 2:9[.no-reftag]

As chosen people and royal heirs of the King, we understand that our daily choices in life and work allow us to consider what kingdom we are building.

The opportunity to follow Jesus more closely exists in every choice we make each day. Every moment we are given a chance to surrender our little kingdom to make a choice to honor God and love people. Doing this is far more practical than we may realize.

Relocation Steps at Work —  A Case Study

David Montague, the founder and Executive Director of Memphis Teacher Residency (MTR), offers us a great case study on how he chose to relocate his treasure at work once he found the one True Treasure.

[.text-color-blue]New Life at Work[.text-color-blue] 

David went to work as a stock broker in 1987 at Morgan Keegan. 

Life-Changing Truth

Kindness and generosity open doors. Dying to self can be the start to new life for others. 

“I came to Christ because of a co-worker. His name was Don Howdeshell. Don was kind to me. He helped me. I didn't know the first thing I didn't know the interest rates went down and the market went up. And I was trying to live on $25 a week in grocery bills. 

"And so I would bring a brown bag lunch with a can of tuna and an apple for lunch. And Don started bringing his brown bag and would sit with me in the break room.”

Defining Action

“Don would say, “Hey, would you work with so and so?” I didn't put it together at all until later. But you know what Don was doing. He was willing to go lower [in revenue] so that I could go higher. He was willing to die so that I could live. He was worshiping the Lord at work. He was demonstrating the gospel for my benefit.”

Takeaway

Listen to those who are showing and telling you about Jesus— they are pointing you to new life.

If you already know Jesus, give your work away to help others do better; spend time with them — this is exactly the way to show and tell Jesus at work 

[.text-color-blue]Utilize New Treasure at Work[.text-color-blue]

David had a challenging ethical decision early in his new life as a believer.

Life-Changing Truth

Trusting God is surrendering to His will, His way. 

“Here's what I'm going to do, Lord. I'm just going to put all my chips on the table. I'm just going to go all in. And I'm just going to choose to believe that everything in this book is true and that it is good for my life and soul. And I'm going to bet my whole life on it. And I'm going to bet my life on it for the rest of my life.”

Defining Action

“I get a fax at about 3:30 Friday afternoon. “David, I want you to sell this stock at $15 a share. And I've got 15,000 shares.” And so I see the fax, the market is closed. I put the fax down. I don't think about it again. I come into work on Monday. I forget that the fax came in. And I don't turn in the order.

“The Stock is at 13. He wants to sell it at 15. I get a call on Friday, and I say, “Hello.” And right when I heard that accent… I remembered that I'd forgotten the fax. And I didn't turn the order in.

“I told him, ‘It was in line, but there was other stock ahead of yours that got sold at 15 and yours didn't. Yours didn't get sold there.’ I just flat out lied, totally panicked in the moment. And I drive around town for about a week, and, like, I guess I'm like, totally depressed.

“So if you don't get it right the first time, you can get it right the second time, right? You do the next right thing. And the next right thing was to do whatever it took to make it right.

“It was $2 a share on 15,000 shares and the firm's not going to pay for that.

"So they took out five grand a month out of my paycheck for the next six months to cover the $30 grand loss.”

Takeaway

God’s word is clear and Jesus is with you. It may cost you something temporary to do the right thing, but it’s always worth it. The more you have to count on your true Treasure at work the more you will grow in maturity and joy.

[.text-color-blue]Give Away Leads to Treasure Growth[.text-color-blue]

David studied God’s word, trusted it, and wanted to grow deeper in surrender and joy. 

Life-Changing Truth

The tithing of your income to your local church is not a pay-to-play scheme or even dues paying. It can be the starting place to a life of unbridled generosity. 

“And David said to Ornan, “Give me the site of the threshing floor that I may build on it an altar to the Lord—give it to me at its full price—that the plague may be averted from the people.” Then Ornan said to David, “Take it, and let my lord the king do what seems good to him. See, I give the oxen for burnt offerings and the threshing sledges for the wood and the wheat for a grain offering; I give it all.” But King David said to Ornan, “No, but I will buy them for the full price. I will not take for the Lord what is yours, nor offer burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” So David paid Ornan 600 shekels of gold by weight for the site.”- [.no-reftag]1 Chronicles 21:22-25[.no-reftag]

Defining Action

“Tithing had been part of my story from when I became a Christian, but the tithe can also feel like a bribe. If I can give 10% of my money to God then I get  90%. And I can do whatever I want with 90% because I tithed the 10%.

“I was sort of asking these questions. The tithe went from something really faithful all the way to now it can be kind of the exact opposite. It can be sort of a license to do whatever you want kind of thing. And, so I'm wrestling with these things.

“God, everything that I have is yours. And so I thought, well, I guess I'm just going to budget, figure out how much we need to live on that. 

“In December, I get a phone call from a guy I'd never met or heard of in my life. And he says, I'm not happy where I am with my money. I'm going to move it to somebody else. 

“New Year's Eve, my wife and I get down on our knees and we just pray and we say, ‘Lord, 1996 is going to be our sabbatical.’ We did our budget. $5,000 a month to live.

“So it just so happened that the first day of the New Year, at 9:00am I'm supposed to go to this guy's office to talk to him about his money. I walk into his office. He said, ‘I'm giving all of my money to you. Fill out those transfer forms.’ 

“February first was a paycheck for the month of January, $75,000 paycheck. And I sit down with my wife at the kitchen table. I mean, I went three years making 12 grand a year.

“We don't have to do this, right? And so the last thing I want to do is back out. I just saw God move and work. So we put 5 grand in our checking account, and we sat at our little kitchen table and said, all right, where are we going to give 70 grand today?”

Takeaway

You can’t outlive God. The more you treasure God, the more you will see everything as his every opportunity is a chance to serve him

[.text-color-blue]Give Aways Bless Everyone[.text-color-blue]

Life-Changing Truth

David and Kelli gave boldly to organizations serving the poor, but they also gave to people personally. Giving to someone they saw had a great need.

Defining Action

"We made great friends with Chrisa, the checkout lady at Kroger, who couldn't speak or couldn't talk or hear. But we would do little sign languages.

"One day, we're pulling out at Kroger, and we see this red Ford Tempo pass us. And it was old and beat up, and the back windshield had been broken out. And we just happened to glance over, and it was Chrissa. So we go home, pick up the phone, Jack Morse Auto Glass. There's a Ford red Tempo in the parking lot of Kroger. Don’t tell her who it is.

“So, like, three months later, we get a letter in the mail, handwritten, five or six pages, and it's from Chrissa. 

“And she wrote, 'Oh, by the way, David and Kelli, are you the ones that fixed my windshield? I know it had to be you.

'For a year, I'd been saving money to try to get my back windshield fixed. And all along the way, I prayed every day that God would fix my windshield. And she said, there have been times when I had enough money to fix my windshield. But I didn't do it because I always used the money to buy groceries for people that were more in need than I am.

'And I have continued to pray that God would fix my windshield. And now he has.'

“So, this is one of the reasons we work is to steward God's money, to use it in ways that bring him glory and honor.

“I can't think of anything cooler than being used by God to be the answer to someone else's prayer.”

Takeaway

You can’t outgive the people you give to. Give to people you know who have the biggest need. The joy of knowing and helping the needy is overwhelming. 

[.text-color-blue]Giving Radically Leads to Great Work[.text-color-blue]

Life-Changing Truth

After the sabbatical year, David went on to serve as the director of SOS, and then moved his family to China to serve with Campus Crusade for Christ. As he contemplated returning to his old job as a financial advisor he sensed God calling him to something more.

Defining Action

David asked the question….

“Lord, show me the greatest need in my city and I'll give myself to it for the rest of my life.”

And God did show him. God demonstrated the need for better teachers and some new ways education could better reach some of the people who need it the very most. 

His work led him to start Memphis Teacher Residency (MTR) 17 years ago. He continues to lead that organization now.

MTR brings great young teachers to our city and they stay. There are now over 280 teachers teaching in some of the most disadvantaged schools and there are dozens more serving schools throughout our city.

Takeaway

The more you utilize your Treasure — the more you lean on and work with Jesus the more you will treasure Him and become like Him. You may build a world class organization or… You may serve and bless people in ways no one knows about. Either way you’ll be building a greater treasure on heaven and on earth.

Resources: 

Video: The Advantage of Work as Worship | David Montague 

Article: A Good Eye for Great Work | Howard Graham

Sermon: Treasures | Tim Keller

Worksheet: Create Value

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