A Teaching on Dedication

One of the sermons of our Lord Jesus Christ that highlights the importance of setting our priorities right as believers here on Earth is the teaching on wealth accumulation. It is also the most twisted and often intentionally ignored sermon considering it discourages to a point the now indiscriminate campaign on prosperity and financial increase by Preachers today who should I say sadly are overtly more interested in fame and fortune than making it to Heaven. Is the goal still Heaven?

The Love of Money💰

In the time Christ’s Ministry was on Earth wealth was only in the ✋ of a few. You could count them in Israel. Rome had the control of more than 50% of the world including Israel. In Israel you had the Merchant traders licensed by Rome. The Tax officers who made money from oppression and extortion and then fishermen. To excel in that time you really need to belong to a system that favors a certain class of the society. Many Jews denied their faith and loyalty to Israel just to win Caesar’s favor. They consequently got what they wanted. Others became Roman spies and harbingers of violence against their people. Others found Tax collection a lucrative career. They became really rich from exploiting the poor. Losing such opportunities and connections would mean losing the respect they brought them, and becoming poor again. To protect that luxury would require gaining more and staying there at the top at whatever cost. So the more of this fortune they gained the more relevant they stayed. Jesus understood that this would be a major problem for the Jews. So this teaching was timely then as it still now. In Mathew 6 vs 19 he reminded his audience that everything here on Earth has an expiry date especially wealth. Making it a priority would take ones interest away from the things of God and life after death. It also is not possible to keep having them even in the grave since everything will decay here. Why worry so much about it? Why do just anything for it?

The Perfect Treasure

He went on to share a Kingdom information on investment (verse 20-21). This is it: Fortunes accumulated in Heaven last forever. There there is no decay. There is no pollution nor is there any race over wealth or struggle over who has more. And remember, there is no sorrow or weeping there. That makes it the right place to invest your fortune on. But you asked; How can I store treasure in Heaven literally?

1. Kingdom Remittance: There is a formula for achieving this. It is like a system that let’s expatriates in Nigeria for instance have their salaries paid into their foreign accounts which is in their country of residence where of course their families are. They are however given certain allowances for shopping and miscellaneous expenses. So as they work they earn. Their salary range depends on hours worked and efficiency. So the one who takes his jobs serious and delivers on it earns more and his foreign account balance rises. This is a simulation of what is obtained in Heaven. Every good deed and effort made towards living righteously has a certain measure of wage it attracts. The more hard one works the better off their accounts in Heaven is. The Kingdom lazy and negligent ones keep zero accounts in Heaven. How busy your account is determines the weight of your treasure in Heaven. At the end of everyone’s time here on this workspace we will stand before the Auditor General and defend our account statement.
2. A New Life in Christ: We have before us a brand new key to a safe, a cheque book, a new Visa and everything you will ever need for a brand new life in Christ. God has indeed given us a reason to smile again. When we acknowledge and receive Jesus into our lives we begin afresh and can now store up the real treasures. We live and work like him who when his work was done here ascended to Heaven where now seats to judge the living and the dead. Today he sits on the throne of David as the Chief judge of all. What treasure is greater than that? Like Jesus, let your aim be to represent God here on Earth by every means made possible to you by the spirit. Be interested in living a holy and emulatable life. Heaven takes records of all things.