Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Treasure vs. Money

Episode Date: July 16, 2025

If we actually take the gospel, the essential message of Jesus Christ, and we live it out, what will it look like? That’s what the Sermon on the Mount is about.  And in this part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, we get to the area of money and possessions.  Jesus tells us three things we can draw out here: 1) how money exercises power over us, 2) why money exercises power over us, and 3) how we can break the power. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on May 2, 1999. Series: The Mount; Life in the Kingdom. Scripture: Matthew 6:19-34. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Welcome to Gospel in Life. This month on the podcast, we're featuring a series on the Sermon on the Mount, a collection of teachings where Jesus outlines what it really means to live the Christian life. In the series, Tim Keller explores a striking idea that Christianity is not just different from the world, it's also radically different from religion. Take a look in your bulletin. We have a passage on which the teaching is based. We're going through the Sermon on the Mount and we come to what Jesus has to say about money and possessions, and he has plenty to say, more than we can cover, but let's read it.

Matthew 6. Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light.

But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness. No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and is not the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or store away in barns,

and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. And are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow? They don't labor or spin, yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God closed the grass of the field, which is here today, and Demare was thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, What shall we eat? Or what shall we drink?

Or what shall we wear? For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." That's God's word.

Now the Sermon on the Mount talks about how if we actually take the gospel, the essential message of Jesus Christ, if we actually take the gospel and we live it out, what will it look like? And that's what the Sermon on the Mount is about. And now we get to the area of money and possessions. Money and possessions. And Jesus tells us three things that we can draw out here. He tells us how money has a, how money controls us, you know, how it has a power over us, how it exercises power. So first of all, how money exercises power over us, and then secondly, why money exercises power over us, and then thirdly, how we can break the power.

How it exercises power, why it exercises power, and then how we break it. Now first of all, how money exercises of the power over us? And one of the curious things for interpreters or anybody who's reading and trying to understand the passage is this illustration, this little saying about the eye. It says, the eye is the lamp of the body and if your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. If your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. Now what that means is very simple. We're in this room and there's light in this room. And if your eye works, it means if it takes the light in, you will by the light be able

to move your body through the room. You know, you'll see where the aisle is and you'll move that way and, you know, you won't stumble and you won't fall. And all this saying is basically pointing out is if your eye isn't working, even though there's a lot of light all around the rest of your body, your whole body is in a sense is in the darkness. If your eye's not working,

there's a sense in which there's no other part of your body that can see or take light in. So if your eye's not working, your whole body's in darkness, whether or not the whole room's flooded with light. So you say, and? When you're reading this, you say, what's that got to do with anything? In fact, if you look, you say, okay, verses 19 to 21 is all about money.

And then verses 24 and following is about money. What's the saying doing in here? It's a little easier to understand his point if you go to Luke 11 and 12. In Luke 11 and 12, Jesus uses the same discussion, this illustration, the eye is the lamp of the body. If your eye is dark, your whole body is dark. And he also talks about money. Again, it's connected. And when you get into Luke 12, you see after he talks about the eye and the lamp, he says, so watch out for greed. That's in Luke chapter 12.

He says, watch out for greed. Watch out for all kinds of greed. Now what is he saying? Very interesting. He's saying that greed and materialism, materialism is an inordinate desire or dependence on money and material things. An inordinate desire or dependence on money and material things. The materialism has the peculiar effect of blinding you spiritually, of distorting the way you see things, of it

has a power over the way you see everything. Now what do I mean by that? All right, well let me give you some examples. First of all, for example, materialism has the power to blind you to materialism. So what Jesus is saying is very interesting. Let me cast it in this light. Kathy, some years ago my wife Kathy noticed that I was doing a series of monthly morning breakfasts. I was speaking at a men's breakfast once a month on the seven deadly sins. And you know the seven deadly sins have lust and they have pride and they have envy and they have anger and so forth.

And of course one of the seven deadly sins is greed. And Kathy says, now are they advertising these things? I mean are they saying, here's the subject? And then people are bringing their friends. I said, yeah, right are they advertising these things? I mean, are they saying, here's the subject, and then people are bringing their friends? I said, yeah, right, they're advertising. He says, so they'll know when greed, the month that you're speaking on greed. I said, right, she says, watch,

the attendance is gonna drop. It's just gonna go down. They're not gonna come out to hear about greed. And she was right. She was right, it was the worst attendant of all of them. And I thought about that. Why, why, I'll tell you why of them. And I thought about that. Why?

I'll tell you why. It's not that they were hostile. It's not that people said, oh, that's a terrible idea. I don't want to talk about greed. I want to hear about greed. Oh, no. Everybody was just so absolutely sure it's not true of them. In other words, see, this is different than the other sins.

This is why Jesus says this is an eye sin. This makes, this puts, this darkens your eyes spiritually. You don't have to say to somebody, Jesus did not say to anybody, watch out, you might be committing adultery. I mean, if you're committing adultery, you know you're committing adultery. You don't say, oh, you're not my wife.

I mean, it doesn't happen, you know? but Jesus has to say watch out you might be greedy You see because greed hides itself It blinds you in a way that adultery doesn't really I mean, you know if you're committing adultery Over the years as a pastor I've had people come in to talk to me about sins It's a confess sins that come in and say I want to talk to you about a real problem I'm having, something wrong. I haven't confessed as other people, but you're a pastor, priest, rabbi type, and I'll

tell you about it. And they do. They come and they'll talk about anger, and they'll talk about bitterness, and they'll talk about lust, and they'll talk about pride, and they'll talk about everything. But I don't think I ever remember anybody coming to me ever to confess the sin of greed. I don't think anybody came in and said, pastor I'm materialistic. Never done it because it has a... now I know what this means is Jesus is saying you don't ask, you don't consider the possibility that you're greedy, you just don't think you are. You just... is it me greedy? You think

of rich rich people, you think of people that spend tons of... the trouble is you you've all got friends. In fact, most of you even have a relative who's much more kind of extravagant with money than you are. And that's all it takes. All you got to do is know somebody who's really greedy and you don't even think that you're greedy. You wouldn't even consider the possibility that you're materialistic. That's the reason why they didn't come. They were bored. They're bored. They figured, this doesn't apply to me. And you see this, I... If you're there tonight and you say, well, this is not a problem of mine,

that's a very bad sign. This is one of the sins that has the sign, a symptom is that I'm sure it's just not true of me. And therefore Jesus is saying, watch out, it's the sin of the eye. It darkens your eye. Let me give you some examples of how it can darken your eye. For example, sometimes you choose a job. Materialism has the power to get you to choose a job, not one that you love, not one that

you're good at, not one that helps people, but one that just makes you money. You do it because it'll get you to a certain status in life. And you choose a job on the basis of that. You know, for five to ten years, the adrenaline can keep you going, and then after a while, you just find yourself empty inside. Why did you choose the job? Your eye was dark. I'm not saying everybody does this, but so many people do.

Or let me give you another example. In the conduct of your job, not only can materialism blind you as you choose your job, in the conduct of your job, for example, many, many, many, many companies, many, many companies are making money, but we all know this, they're hurting neighborhoods, they're hurting towns, they're hurting people. We know this. Now there's all sorts of people in the company, and what are they doing? Are they saying, haha, in order to make money I am ruining the environment of that little town, haha? No, you're not doing that. What are you doing? You're not asking. You don't want to go there. You don't ask questions. You're

making, you don't want to know. You don't want to think out. You don't want to ask hard questions about is, are the deals that my company is making, are the things that my company is doing, is this really helping people or is it hurting people, is it helping the town or is it hurting the town, is it helping the neighborhood, is it hurting the town? You don't want to know. You don't want to know. That's the blindness. That's what Jesus is talking about. Greed doesn't go, ha ha, I am gouging the poor. No, but are you asking whether your company is?

You need to ask that. If you're not even asking that, that means the blind eye, the dark eye. Do you see that? Or one more. Materialism keeps you from asking hard questions about your lifestyle. Now you see, one of the problems with being professionals, if you're, you know, so many of you are professionals. Now if you, you know, if you go to the bowling alley

with the other kind of working class people, you know, by and large, everybody there is making the same amount of money. By and large. However, if you're a professional, one of the problems is the kinds of people you come into contact with many, many, many times, sometimes your friends are making ten times the money you are, or people you go to parties with, or circles that you get into. And there's always somebody, once you've got that little ticket into the professional world, you're constantly rubbing, you know,

the people you work with. You know, you might have a pretty good job, but here's a person who's three levels above, and that person's making 10 times, 50 times what you're making. And therefore, you're sure, and this is the reason why, don't forget, the person who is making,

that you think that person's rich, that person's making seven figures, they're hanging out with people who make 10 times more than they do every year. And therefore, nobody ever feels rich. You know, there's probably one or two people that know they're rich, but everybody else makes them feel okay. They probably say, I'm rich, you know?

But hardly anybody else does. And you don't ask these questions, do I really need to spend this much money on this? Do I need to be putting this much money into my apartment? Do I need to be spending this much money for my apartment? Do I, you know, do I need to be spending this much money into my apartment? Do I need to be spending this much money for my apartment? Do I need to be spending this much money on clothes? And you say, because you compare, immediately you think of other people who do much more, and therefore you don't ask the question. You don't go there. You don't ask. You don't say, wait a minute, isn't there ways in which I could be giving more of my money to the church,

to the poor, to my friends, to the neighbors? Isn't there ways in which I could be much more radically generous if I made this and that and that change? You don't want to ask. You don't want to think. In 1635, a guy named Robert Kane, 1635 now, I was a member of the first Congregational Church of Boston.

And I think back then there probably only was one Congregational Church in Boston, And I think back then there probably only was one congregational church in Boston, I don't know, I would think. And he was doing pretty well as a businessman, but in 1635 his elders disciplined him for the sin of greed. They, I don't think they excommunicated him, I think they, you know, suspended him from the Lord's Supper, they admonished him, so his elders disciplined him for the sin of greed. Now, how do they do that? It's because he was selling his product at a six percent profit and the church had decided three or four years before that

that they were only, Christians were only allowed to sell their wares at a four percent profit. So when they found out he was doing six percent, they disciplined him for the sin of greed. Now, some of you are out there saying, where is this illustration going? I'll tell you where it's going. They realized, now this is not as stupid as it sounds, my wife certainly thought it sounded stupid when I first read it to her, but I'll tell you why it's not. And I convinced her it wasn't. She said, where is it saying the Bible 4%?

What are you talking about? Well, listen, they knew something, and that is that when you're committing adultery, you know you're committing adultery, but when you're being greedy, you never know. And so they sat down as Christians and they said, now look, according to the Bible, Jesus talks about money all the time.

He's constantly saying, watch out for greed. He's always saying, give your money away. He's always saying, don't spend all your money on yourself. I mean, especially in the book of Luke, but all the way through the gospels, it is frightening. I mean, I can't preach on money as often as Jesus preached on money. I wouldn't have a church.

I mean, everybody gets so quiet. I mean, nobody walks out singing. And yet Jesus talked about money all the time. So this congregational church got together and said, we've got a problem here. Some business practices must be greedy. Some lifestyles have to be greedy. But how are we going to know?

There have to be some. We can't just say, well, you know, there have to be some. And so they said, all right, as a Christian community, let's sit down and let's just say at our time, in our place, in this spot, we can't talk about everything else, but let us decide what is a greedy lifestyle, what are greedy business practices. And so they got together and by consensus they decided on some and they said, now let us hold each other accountable. So it was mutual. It was consensual, you know, very modern, consensual. Everything is okay if it's consensual? You know, very modern, consensual, everything

is okay if it's consensual. And they got together and they made this decision and of course he knew about it, but he tried to move past it and therefore he was right. They were right. Now I am not saying by any means that today in our economy you could possibly come up when you consider how different every field is, you could possibly come up. When you consider how different every field is, you could never come up with a nice simple, I mean that was a whole different world in so many ways. You couldn't come up with a nice simple rule of thumb. Even if you all got together and said,

look we're just gonna do this for ourselves, you couldn't do that. But here's the point. Who are you accountable to? What Christians have gotten together with you, and you, and mutually you say, let's talk about how we're spending our money on each other, on ourselves. How much we're giving away, how much we're keeping what we're doing.

Who have you authorized, what Christians have you authorized to do that? And then you're, of course, authorized to do it with them. You have to talk about with somebody, you've got to have some standards, and you can't trust yourself. That's the principle, you cannot trust yourself to decide this. And I know what your answer, I know what you're thinking, I know what I'm thinking. And that is, I don't want to even think about that. I don't want to, I don't want, I don't even want to think myself about it. When I make, when I spend on money,

I don't even want to sit down myself and think, gee, did I really have to do that? I mean, I don't want to talk to other people about it. I don't even talk to myself about it. I just want to do it. And that's Jesus' whole point about greed. Money has the power to keep you from asking questions about how you spend your money and how you make your money. Money has the power to keep you from asking questions about how you spend it, how you make it, the hard questions.

Now, why? Why does money have that power? If that's how it has, it has... I mean, that's the power of greed. The power of greed is to not ask. The power of greed is to not think. The power of greed is to say, well, it's not true of me. We live in the most wealthy society in the history of the world, especially in the last 5 to 10 years. There's never been, right now at least 70% of the wealth in the whole world is essentially in the hands of about 5% of the people, which is pretty much America. And we're professionals, and if you're a professional in this room, that means you're in the top 20% of that 5%.

There's never been a group of people as wealthy as we are. And here, do we dare, is there anybody in this room that dares to say, I really am doing just fine when it comes to material things, I couldn't give any more away, I couldn't live any more simply, I couldn't be any more generous with my money. I'm pretty generous. The rest of the world knows better. The rest of the world looks at us and says to Americans, there's so many things you could be doing in this world if you just didn't think you had to have that gadget.

There are so many things, the rest of the world sees it. It's astounding that we live in the place we live, in the time we live, and we won't even think about the possibility that we're greedy. That shows the power of greed. Shows the power of money. Are you looking for ways to grow in your faith this summer?

Or are you hoping to help new believers or kids grasp the heart of the Christian faith? For many of us, the summer months can provide more time to deepen our faith and our understanding of what it means to follow Christ. A great resource to start using this summer is the New City Catechism Devotional, God's Truth for our Hearts and Minds. This devotional brings the historic catechisms of the Christian Church to life, offering

a question to consider for each week of the year. In the introduction, Tim Keller lays out the case for catechesis, the rich and communal practice of learning and memorizing questions and answers that frame the foundational beliefs of the Christian faith. Each week includes a scripture passage, a prayer, and a brief meditation that will challenge and inspire you. The included commentaries are by contemporary pastors such as John Piper, Tim Keller, and Kevin DeYoung, as well as historical figures such as Augustine, John Calvin, and

Martin Luther. This month, in addition to the New City Catechism Devotional, we're including a great companion resource, the New City Catechism for Kids, as our thank you for your gift to help Gospel in Life share the hope of Christ's love with people all over the world. So request your copies today at GospelInLife.com slash give. That's GospelInLife.com slash give that's GospelInLife.com slash give Now here's Tim Keller with the remainder of today's teaching Now that's how why I'll be real brief about this why is it

That money has this power. Well, the answer is in the little verse very famous verse What Jesus says where your treasure, there is your heart also. What he means by that is this, money serves the way in which you actually, the place where your heart really rests, is revealed by money. So, what it means is, money is a way of getting significance for many of us.

For so many people. I'm not saying it's everybody in this room on this one, because this changes. But Jesus says, for example, one of the reasons why we spend so much money, one of the reasons why we spend it on ourselves, one of the reasons we don't give it away like we should is because money is our significance. It shows us, for example, the fact that we're able to live in a certain place, the fact that we're able to eat certain places,

the fact that we're in certain social circles, the fact that we can dress in a certain way, makes us feel we're important. And you know, it's true, we have a tendency to do this. The higher up economically we get, we don't just look at other people who are below us economically and say, oh you're below me economically, we say you're below me. You don't see that happening to yourself? I mean you don't have to be very well off. Middle-class people in general feel

superior to the poor. We do. Oh we give money and we're sorry for the poor, we may pity the poor, but we feel superior to them. And there's no good reason to. You know, if we started the same place that they did with the same parents they had, with the same situation they had, do you really think you'd be that much better? I don't know. But we automatically feel, when we feel like we're better economically than somebody else, we feel like we're better. When we're higher caliber socioeconomically, we feel like we're higher caliber. It's so automatic.

It's so fast. And because money is something that many of us take, and we say, that's my significance. That's what makes me feel important. But on the other hand, for other people, other people are different. And other people take money and make money their security. See, some people use money for approval.

Other people use money for control. Some people use money in order to say, I feel important. But many other people say, I need money so I'm safe. Don't forget what I'm saying here. I'm asking this question. If you're not giving your money away in eye-popping proportions, if you find it very difficult, if you're not so radically generous that the world's amazed at the Christians, and most of us are not, why?

One answer is, why does it have that power? One answer is, money is your significance. The other possibility is money is your security. In other words, you feel like if I've got money, then I have control in an uncontrollable world. I have control over my life. I've control, you know, I've got, if things come along, I'm safe. And Jesus Christ says, running after these things cannot add a minute, an hour. They can't add a minute to your life. It's God who's in control of these things.

Money is not going to turn you into God. Money is not going to be able to get one little bit of control. One of my professors, Addison Leach, who was the second husband, he died, Elizabeth Elliott. Elizabeth Elliott who came here last week, some of you saw, met her or went to her conference, and she had two husbands die on her before she is now married a third time. Her second husband was a professor of mine and I heard him once tell this story. And he said, he was thinking about this idea that money can be your security. He had a couple of young women in his, a couple of young women where he was a teacher at college became Christians

in college and they came back to their parents and they said, we've become Christians and we want to be missionaries. And the parents, you know, said, oh no, missionaries. And they said, look, each of them said, now dear, you've had a religious experience, how wonderful. But you need some security. Before you go off to have your missionary experience, which is fine, if you want to go, that's fine. But first we want you to have a master's degree. We want you to have taken a job or two so you've got some records, so you've gotten

your career off the ground. And we want you to have some money in the bank for some security. And they came back to my professor, Dr. Leach, and they said, what do we say about that? And Dr. Leach said, oh, here's what I would say to your parents. Tell them we're on a little ball of rock spinning through space. It's called Earth. And who knows if we're going to run into something. But even if we don't, someday, under each one of us is going to open a trap door.

And everybody's going to fall off. I mean, at the end of your life, a trap door opens up underneath you, and you fall off the little ball of rock and underneath Will be the everlasting arms or nothing at all And you think a master's degree is going to give you some security See and that's what Jesus is saying right here He says he says the power of money is it seems like it can give you significance But actually when you make money your significance you become an arrogant person that nobody likes and you think money can give you some

security but the fact is that money can't possibly stop all the things. It can't stop death, it can't stop tragedy, it can't stop broken relationships, it can't stop anything. So how do we break the power of money in our lives? Well the answer is this. How do we get to the place where we're really is this. How do we get to the place where we're really radically generous? How do we get to the place where we're not worrying about money? How do we get to the place where we don't feel, you know, there's a lot of ways in which money controls us. Let's take a look. Verse 19. Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, where thieves break in and steal,

but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal." Now, literally, he says, don't treasure earthly treasures, but treasure heavenly treasure. That's what he says. And that's important to know. Everybody

at the center of their soul has something they treasure. What does it mean to treasure something? It means to look at something, fill your heart with the beauty and the value of it. And to treasure something is to say, if I have this, everything's worth it. If I have this, it's all worth it. And if I have this, I'm worth. In other words, everybody's got something. It might be money, it might be career, it might be status, it might be romance,

it might be family, you're looking at it and it's your treasure and you say, if I could have this, it'll all be worth it. Everybody in this room's got something, something on earth they're doing that about. Everybody. If I had this, it would all be worth it and then I'd be worth it. My favorite fantasy book, Lord of the Rings, which I've been re-reading recently, it's all about this special ring. And it's beautiful, and whoever owns it calls it the precious.

Any of you ever read Lord of the Rings? Everybody who gets this ring, in a sense, comes under its power because you look at it and everybody who gets it calls it my precious, the precious. And that's what Jesus is saying, is at the center of everybody's soul there's the precious. Something that you've looked at and you said, this is precious to me. This is the thing that if I have then it's all worth it. This is the thing that if I have it then I'm worth it.

You got something. But whatever that is, you are enslaved to it. Anything that your soul treasures, once your soul treasures something, you will pay any price for it. You will do anything to get it, because, you know, it's the only thing that's worth it. See? Now the Bible says, every treasure but Jesus will insist that you die to purchase it. But Jesus himself is the one treasure who died to purchase you. Anything else you make your supreme value will say, die for me.

But if you make Jesus Christ your supreme value, he's the one who said, I've died for you. How do you make Jesus Christ your treasure? Only if you make him your treasure? Only if you make him your treasure, only if he is your heavenly treasure, only if you treasure him, will you actually be, in a sense, free from money. I'll explain what that means in a second, but first, how can you treasure Jesus? Think about what he did with his treasure. He had the ultimate treasure. He was the Lord. He had the ultimate status and he also had the ultimate security. He was the son of the Father. But when he came

to earth, what happened to him on the cross? He was utterly stripped. When he was stripped naked of all of his belongings and all of his possessions, that was just an echo of the fact that he was spiritually stripped. He lost all of his treasure. Why? He died for something. Now you only die for that which is your precious. And what this means is Jesus Christ must have looked at us and must have said, if I have them, even going to hell will be worth it. And Isaiah chapter 53 tells us by prophecy that when he saw the results of his suffering he was satisfied. Now, you know, it's in 1st Peter 2, 9, it says, you are a chosen race.

He's talking to the Christians. You are a holy nation. You are a royal priesthood. You are God's purchased possession. That means you are a royal priesthood, you are God's purchased possession. That means you are his treasure. Unless you know that he was willing to lose all his treasure so that you could be his treasure, unless you realize that he looked at you and he felt towards you like that, that he felt, if I have them, anything's worth, nothing would be worth losing them, anything would be worth saving them. Anything would be worth saving them. You know that he treasures you.

You know he cares about you like that. That and that alone will free you, absolutely free you from money. It'll free you from everything. It won't just free you from money. Now here's what I mean by free you from money. Some of you... Here's a test.

Here's one of the ways you know that you have spiritual wealth. How do you react to rich people? I'll tell you how most of us do it. Many of you resent rich people. You feel disdainful of them. You say, look at their money, look at their homes, look at all this stuff, and you feel superior to them. And that shows that money still has power over you.

If you dislike rich people, if you feel superior to rich people, that shows that money still has power over you. If you dislike rich people, if you feel superior to rich people, that shows money still got power over you. It shows a lack of spiritual wealth in you. It shows actually a lack of humility. And the gospel is, you're a sinner. So you haven't really received it. However, if you envy rich people,

if you can't believe that this person has let me come into this room and into this apartment look how neat this is isn't this incredible on the see that also shows that money's got power over you the gospel is you're more sinful than you ever dared believe you're more loved than you ever dared hope the more sinful keeps you from feeling superior to rich people the more loved keeps you from feeling inferior to rich people and therefore the gospel puts you in a place where you really don't care about money anymore.

And the best way to see that money has no longer any power over you is that you can love rich people. Secondly, the way you can tell that money has no more power over you is that you also respect poor people. That you looked at them and you respect them and you expect to learn from them and you don't look down your nose at them. And boy that's mighty, mighty, mighty hard. But by and large there's a tendency, you know, money still has power over us because we very

often we get around poor people, we just really look down our nose at them. You know, you rub, this is New York fortunately and in New York you actually, actually do ride subways with poor people. And you see poor people. I mean, you know, the rest of the country we just keep, we just get them away. We just get them away. We zone them away. In New York, you can't zone people away. Thank you. That's great, New York. In some ways, New York is more like the New Jerusalem. A lot of people are going to hate the New Jerusalem because they hate New York. There's

not going to be any zoning there. And one of the good things is you are around poor people. How do you respond to them? One of the ways you can see that money has lost its power over you because of the gospel of Jesus, because you know that he lost all of his treasure to make you his treasure. That humbles you, that melts you, that lifts you up. And one of the ways you'll know is that you no longer, you have no trouble loving rich people. Secondly, you have no trouble loving rich people. Secondly, you have no trouble loving poor people. But the third sign that money no longer has power over your life is this. You get really generous. You know what's interesting?

Verse 22, the eyes, the lamp of the body, if your eyes are good, if your eyes are good, that word actually has a double meaning in Greek. The word good also means generous. And a Christian who's really been freed from money by finding Jesus as their treasure gets a generous eye. You're always looking and always looking for opportunities. You're looking at your friends, you're looking at your neighbors, you're looking at your church, you're looking at the poor, you're looking at your city, and you're always looking

for ways to give away. You want to say, church, you're looking at the poor, you're looking at your city, and you're always looking for ways to give away. You want to say, well, how much? This is the last thing I'll say. Well, you have to look at what Jesus did. When Jesus treasured you, he treasured you sacrificially. Now, if you want to respond to Jesus, that means that I have got to not just simply live out the cross of Jesus Christ in my relationships, I've also got to live out the cross of

Jesus Christ economically. Now, follow me here. You know, most every Christian says, oh, I'm a Christian. And therefore, I need to, Jesus died for me, and he lived a sacrificial life for me. And therefore, I have to love others as Christ loved me. Fine. That means you have got to give enough money away this year that it sacrifices your lifestyle.

If you give money but it doesn't really cut into the way in which you live, it doesn't sacrifice, there's no cross in your economic life. If you don't give away enough money so that it really makes a difference in how you live your life, in your lifestyle, then there's no cross and you're not really responding to Jesus as he's responded to you. Now for most of us, I'll tell you this, for most people, I shouldn't say of us, for most people, most places and most times in the world, the tithe is the goal. Why? Because most places, most times, most people, the Bible says give away 10%,

that's a good, nice figure to think about in terms of your giving. That's a good way to tell whether or not the gospel's working in your heart. Because if the gospel's working in your heart and you see what Jesus Christ has done for you, 10% doesn't seem like much. I mean, after all, what if Jesus had tithed his blood?

You'd still be lost. I mean, Jesus went way past the tithe. So the point is, 10% doesn't seem like very much. However, for most people, it does mean a sacrifice. There'll be a cross in the 10% for most of us. For most of us, 10% is really going to be hard. It's going to hurt. It's going to hurt.

But increasingly in America, there are people for whom 10% does not make a dent. And you see the 10% is not the point. The Bible tells you how much should I be giving away. The 10% is just a rule of thumb, it's just a helping, a good way to get started. The cross is the standard. The 10% is just sort of an example for most of us. But the cross is the standard. Is there a cross in your life, in your economic life?

If Jesus is your treasure, you'll love the rich. If Jesus is your treasure, you'll love the poor. If Jesus is the treasure, you will be giving your money away joyfully, deliberately, happily. That's the reason why the early church was so successful. We have an old letter from Diognetus who told about the early Christians, why they were so popular and why they stunned people. He says, we share our table with all, but we do not share our bed with all. He said, in other words, the pagans are promiscuous with their body, but very stingy with their money. And Christians are very stingy with their body and incredibly promiscuous with their

money. Which kind of person benefited their neighborhood? In other words, would you want to live in a neighborhood? I said this last week, I think. Would you want to live in a neighborhood with a group of people who are stingy with their money and very promiscuous with their body? What impact would that have on the neighborhood? If you're a child, where do you want to live?

Do you want to live in a neighborhood of people like that? Or do you want to live in a neighborhood of people who practice sexual integrity and financial promiscuity? A city filled with that kind of person is going to be a healthy city. A neighborhood filled with that kind of person is going to be a healthy neighborhood. There are tremendous public ramifications of the Sermon on the Mount. Let's live it. Let's pray. Our Father, I thank you for giving us this time to consider what it means to treasure

up treasures in heaven. We thank you what your Son did for us. We thank you for all of that. And we pray that you would help it become such a reality in our lives that money no longer has power over us. The intimidation we feel around people who have more money or the inferiority we feel or even the anger we feel or the superiority we feel, oh Lord, change that so that we are very different kinds of people. We are unique people. You've done it in the past. The early church really understood this. Let it be true

of us too. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks for joining us here on the Gospel in Life podcast. We hope that today's teaching encouraged you to go deeper into God's Word. You can help others discover this podcast by rating and reviewing it. And to find more great Gospel-centered content by Tim Keller, visit GospelinLife.com. Today's sermon was recorded in 1999. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel in Life podcast were recorded between 1989 and 2017 while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.