Matters of the Heart #5 (Heart Treasures)
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Discover how guarding your heart and laying up heavenly treasures produces lasting growth in faith, family, and every area of your life.
Description
Heart Treasures Overview
In this fifth installment of the Matters of the Heart series, Pastor explores the powerful biblical concept of heart treasures drawn from Matthew 6:19-21, where Jesus instructs believers to lay up treasures in heaven rather than on earth. The message opens with a recap of previous sessions covering the two hearts every person carries, overcoming heart failure, and the importance of a heart that remembers. The central teaching unpacks what it truly means to treasure God above all else, connecting the idea of worship as worthship — demonstrating through our daily actions and commitments what we value most. Using the parable of the great supper in Luke 14, Pastor illustrates how earthly distractions and excuses rob believers of the kingdom fruit that God intends for them. Personal testimonies of obedience, including planting a church from nothing and refusing more comfortable opportunities, reinforce the truth that steadfast commitment to God’s directives builds lasting spiritual and material increase. The sermon also addresses what it means to carry one’s cross, count the cost of discipleship, and continually draw on God’s strength to finish what He has commissioned. A compelling call to guard the heart and grow its treasure capacity runs throughout this message.
Heart Treasures Outline
- 0:00 – Series Recap and the Two Hearts: Pastor reviews the previous four messages in the Matters of the Heart series, covering the physical heart, the spiritual heart given at new birth, overcoming heart failure, and the heart that remembers God’s miracles.
- 8:30 – Introducing Heart Treasures: The concept of heart treasures is introduced with the illustration of a physician explaining what it takes to become a doctor — you must have a heart for it. This frames the entire message around where our deepest commitments truly lie.
- 15:45 – Matthew 6:19-21 — Laying Up Heavenly Treasures: An expository reading of Matthew 6:19-21 in multiple translations establishes the foundational teaching: do not store up earthly treasures susceptible to corruption, but invest in treasures in heaven where your heart will follow.
- 24:00 – Worthship — What Is God Worth to You: Pastor unpacks worship as worthship, illustrating through personal stories and the analogy of a thousand men and one woman how genuine devotion is demonstrated by choosing God above every competing opportunity.
- 33:30 – The Parable of the Great Supper — Luke 14: Jesus’s parable of the man who prepared a great supper is examined verse by verse. Each excuse offered by the invited guests reveals how earthly attachments — land, business, relationships — displace kingdom commitment.
- 44:00 – Carrying Your Cross and Counting the Cost: Drawing from Luke 14:25-33, Pastor teaches that discipleship requires dying to self, bearing one’s cross, and honestly counting the cost. The cross has one meaning — death to self — and that surrender is what makes hearts grow and treasures multiply.
- 52:00 – The Church at Ephesus and First Love: A reference to Revelation and the church at Ephesus illustrates the danger of working for God while losing one’s heart for Him. Believers are called to return to their first love and keep giving their hearts to God daily.
- 58:30 – Strength from God to Finish the Work: Pastor closes by sharing the personal reality of seasons of spiritual weakness and the necessity of crying out for God to strengthen the heart. Our sufficiency is in Christ alone, and as we lean on Him, the treasure within us grows to produce lasting fruit.
Scripture References
Matthew 6:19-21, Luke 14:15-33, Proverbs 4:23, Deuteronomy 11, Revelation 2:1-7
Key Takeaways
- Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also — your daily choices reveal what you truly worship and value most.
- Worship is worthship: every time you honor a commitment to God over a more comfortable alternative, you are declaring that He is worth more than anything this world offers.
- Guarding your heart and laying up heavenly treasures produces tangible, growing fruit in every area of life — family, ministry, and provision.
- Carrying your cross means dying to self-interest daily, and that act of surrender is what causes the heart to grow stronger and its treasure to increase.
- Earthly excuses that pull you away from God’s directives are the very things that keep you from experiencing the fullness of kingdom increase.
- Our sufficiency is never in our own strength or resources; we must continually return to God and ask Him to deposit greater treasure and strength within us.
- You cannot live on yesterday’s obedience and expect tomorrow’s promises — growth requires continual commitment, not a one-time decision.
Heart Treasures Notes
Central Teaching on Heart Treasures
The core of this message rests on Matthew 6:19-21, where Jesus draws a direct line between what a person treasures and where their heart resides. Pastor explains that laying up treasures does not mean possessing earthly goods is sinful, but rather that gripping them so tightly they become the object of our deepest attention is dangerous. The heart is a spiritual factory: what you feed it, protect, and invest in determines what it produces. Heavenly treasures — obedience, faithfulness, discipleship, worship — are incorruptible and grow stronger with every act of commitment.
Worthship as Visible Devotion
Pastor reframes the word worship as worthship, making the concept tangible and measurable. Every decision to show up, keep a promise, or press through inconvenience to honor God is an act of declaring His worth. Conversely, every excuse that pulls a believer away from what God has asked communicates that something else holds greater value. This is not abstract theology; it is the lived-out daily reality of what the heart actually prizes. The illustration of a coworker who claimed he wanted to attend Bible study but chose otherwise lands this truth with practical clarity.
The Parable of the Great Supper Applied
Luke 14’s parable of the great supper is read not merely as a salvation allegory but as a pastoral warning to those already in relationship with God. Each excuse — a newly purchased field, five yoke of oxen representing a new business, a new marriage — reflects a heart whose treasure has shifted to earthly priorities. Pastor notes that the excuses themselves are logically absurd, which mirrors how hollow our own justifications sound when we allow the world to displace kingdom commitment. God responds by filling His house with those whose hearts remain available and willing.
The Cost of Discipleship and the Cross
Jesus’s words in Luke 14:25-27 about hating father, mother, and one’s own life are carefully unpacked using the Greek word miseo, meaning to love less or hold in relative disregard. The point is not hatred of family but a hierarchy of allegiance where nothing surpasses devotion to God. Bearing the cross carries a single unmistakable meaning in the ancient world: you are going to die. Every believer is called to die to self-preference, self-protection, and self-advancement so that something greater — the purposes of God — can be built through them.
Personal Testimony of Obedience and Growth
Pastor shares the story of arriving in Wisconsin with nothing but two mattresses, living in a broken-down motorhome with no running water, and turning down far more lucrative and comfortable ministry opportunities in Florida, the Bahamas, and Hawaii. What began as a few people meeting in a living room has grown into a ministry spanning 37 nations, with radio and television stations, publishing, schools, and day cares. This testimony serves as concrete evidence that sustained heart treasure — repeated choices to obey God over personal comfort — produces extraordinary fruit over time.
Daily Dependence and Heart Strengthening
The sermon closes with a sobering and encouraging truth: even a seasoned pastor faces weeks when showing up feels impossible. The answer is not self-discipline alone but running to God for fresh deposits of strength and courage. Drawing on Deuteronomy 11, Pastor reminds listeners that God is the one who gives the power to produce wealth and increase — human effort apart from His strengthening leads to pride and eventual collapse. The invitation is to count the cost honestly, acknowledge personal insufficiency, and ask God daily to build the treasures within the heart that make endurance and fruitfulness possible.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does it mean to lay up treasures in heaven according to Matthew 6:19-21?
Jesus teaches in Matthew 6:19-21 that earthly wealth is subject to corruption, theft, and decay, while heavenly treasures are secure and eternal. Laying up treasures in heaven means investing your time, obedience, and faithfulness in the things God values — discipleship, worship, kingdom work — rather than hoarding earthly possessions. The principle is not that material goods are evil but that they must never become the primary object of your heart’s devotion.
What is the biblical meaning of worship as worthship?
The English word worship is derived from the Old English worthship, meaning to ascribe worth or value to something. Biblically, worship is not confined to singing but encompasses every action that demonstrates what you prize most. When you honor your commitment to God despite inconvenience or competing options, you are declaring through action that He holds greater worth than anything else in your life.
How does Luke 14 connect to the topic of heart treasures?
In Luke 14:15-33, Jesus tells the parable of a man who prepared a great supper and found that every invited guest had an excuse rooted in earthly priorities — land, livestock, and a new marriage. This parable reveals that heart treasures determine whether we respond to God’s invitation or allow the things of this world to crowd out our commitment. Jesus follows this parable with the call to carry one’s cross, reinforcing that discipleship requires valuing God above every earthly attachment.
What does it mean to carry your cross as a disciple of Jesus?
Carrying your cross, as Jesus describes in Luke 14:27, means embracing a daily death to self-will and personal preference in order to follow God’s directives fully. In the ancient world, carrying a cross had only one meaning — someone was going to be executed. For the believer, it represents dying to the impulse to pursue comfort, recognition, or personal gain at the expense of kingdom obedience, and it is this surrender that causes spiritual growth and heart treasure to increase.
Why did God warn the church at Ephesus about leaving their first love?
In Revelation 2, God commends the church at Ephesus for their hard work and doctrinal integrity but rebukes them for abandoning the love and personal devotion to Him that marked their early faith. It is possible to do the right things for God while doing them from a place of duty rather than genuine affection. He calls them to repent and return to their first love, showing that activity and relationship with God must go hand in hand.
How does guarding your heart relate to the fruit you produce in life?
Proverbs 4:23 instructs believers to guard the heart with all diligence because out of it flow the issues of life. The spiritual heart functions like a factory — what is deposited into it through obedience, commitment, and dependence on God determines what it produces. A heart that is continually surrendered to God and strengthened by Him will generate greater faith, provision, and influence over time.
Is it wrong for a Christian to have earthly wealth or possessions?
Scripture does not condemn having material possessions; the warning in Matthew 6 is against making them the storehouse of your deepest security and attention. God gives His people the power to obtain wealth, as stated in Deuteronomy 8, so that His covenant purposes are established. The danger arises when earthly treasures compete with kingdom priorities, drawing the heart away from obedience and dependence on God.
How can a believer grow stronger when they feel like giving up?
The sermon points to the practice of daily returning to God in prayer and asking Him to strengthen and increase the capacity of your heart. Personal sufficiency is never the foundation; Christ is. Just as Jesus was tempted at His lowest and His highest points, believers face spiritual resistance in both hardship and success, and the answer in both seasons is to keep your heart anchored in God’s directives and trust that His strength is sufficient to carry you through.
