We’re going to begin this morning by playing a game of would you rather. I’m going to ask 10 questions. For this game, each one only has two possible answers. I’d like you to choose one by raising your hand.

• Would you rather have chocolate or vanilla?
• Would you rather have apple or cherry?
• Would you rather be cold or hot?
• Would you rather be 10 minutes late or 60 minutes early?
• Would you rather drive or fly?
• Would you rather be in your bathing suit in Antarctica or in a full snowsuit (with hat and gloves) in the Mojave Desert?
• Would you rather see the Eagles with the Super Bowl or the Patriots?
  • If you look up the words "eagles" and "patriots" in Scripture, you'll find 33 verses with "eagles" and 0 with "patriots"; sounds like a good score to me!

 That was all warm up. The last 3 questions are different than the first 7.

• Let’s pretend that you have $10,000 to invest?
  Would you rather choose a safe, secure investment strategy that promises (and can deliver) zero risk to your initial investment and slow but steady growth that will outlive you or would you rather choose an investment strategy that promises rapid growth but cannot guarantee the safety of your initial investment or that the growth will be steady or that it will outlive you?
  
  Did anyone find that to be a clear and easy choice?
  
• Would you rather live with perfect eyesight and enjoy all the benefits that come with it or would you rather live in blindness with all the struggles and challenges that come with it?
  
  Did anyone find that to be a clear and easy choice?
  
• Would you rather choose to live as a slave in the home of a master who loves you and genuinely has your best interest at heart or would you rather choose to live as a slave in the home of a master who cares nothing about you or what’s best for you?
  
  Did anyone find that to be a clear and easy choice?

You may feel like those last three questions came out of nowhere, but they are the kind of clear and easy choices Jesus laid out in the next portion of the Sermon on the Mount.

Matthew 6:19–24 (NIV84) page 685 and Bible app

¹⁹ “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰ But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

²² “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. ²³ 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!

²⁴ “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.

Do you see how Jesus set up “would you rather” is such a way that the choice to serve God rather than serve money should be a clear and easy one? It should be as easy as (1) The choice between the two investment strategies (2) The choice between living with sight or living blind, and (3) The choice between being a slave a loving or an unloving master.

Before we move on, let’s look at verses 19-21 again. You’ll notice that you find the word “yourselves” in both verses 19 and 20 and you find the word “your” twice in verse 21.

Obviously, in English “yourselves” is plural. Not quite so obvious in English is that both uses of “your” in verse 21 are singular. So, Jesus began this section by speaking to the group but made an individual application about a person’s treasure and heart. This is an issue each of must settle in our own lives.

There’s an adage that says if you want to know what’s really important in a person’s life, look at their checkbook and their calendar because we naturally devote time and money to the things we deem to be the most important.

What would your checkbook and calendar say about you?

          That last line gives us the phrase I want you to remember today:
  I cannot serve both God and money. Before we dig into this, I want to point out that Jesus didn’t say you cannot have both God and money, he said you cannot serve both God and money.

          The word cannot is a strong word. It indicates an impossibility.[1] It is impossible to serve God on a part-time basis.

          All through this series, I’ve pointed out that the Sermon on the Mount shows that God’s people are supposed to be different. You can already tell that today we’re looking at how we are supposed to be different in our attitude and approach to money.

          I want to consider this difference by addressing two temptations concerning money. If parts of this next section sound familiar to some of you, it’s because I borrowed from a message I preached on January 1 of last year.

1. We are tempted to serve money, but Jesus said we cannot serve both God and money.

• Isn’t it interesting, that of all the things Jesus could have paired with God saying we can’t serve both, he said money?
• He could have said we can’t serve God and power
• or God and popularity
• or God and ourselves
• or God and our sexual desires
• or God and whatever else

But he said we cannot serve both God and money.

• Why? I’m guessing it’s because he knew that for many people money and things would be the number one competitor for our hearts. We cannot serve both God and money.

Most of us would say, “I don’t serve money, I would never serve money.”

Well, think about these things:

• If we’ve ever bought something we didn’t need with money we didn’t have to impress people we didn’t like, then we were serving money.
• If we’ve ever hoarded money, then we were serving money.
• If we’ve ever compromised or neglected our families in pursuit of climbing the ladder or simply making more, then we were serving money.
• We may not have known it, but we were serving it.

 

I want to share a quote from commentator Craig Keener that is a bullet straight to the heart concerning our penchant to serve money: Most Christians disagree with what the prosperity preachers say over the radio and television, but the main difference between us and them in practice is often that they provide a theological justification for their materialism, where we do not.[2]

That’s a tough pill to swallow, but a necessary medicine to consider!

2. We are tempted to love money.

 1 Timothy 6:10 (NIV) – For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

• Money isn’t good or bad.
• Money isn’t the root of all evil.
• Money is neutral.
• We can use it for good or we can use it for evil.
• It is the love of money that is wrong.

 

Folks who don’t have much money might say, “I don’t love money because I don’t have a lot of it.”

• There are a lot of people who love money even though they don’t have a lot of it.
• They are consumed with wanting more.
• They are jealous and critical of those who have money.
• Why? because they love money.

 

Folks might say that people with money obviously love money.

• That is not always true.
• There are a lot of people with money who have it because they are good at what they do.
• They don’t love money.
• They have money.
• They use money.
• They leverage money.
• They’ve got it, but they do not love it.
• They have money…but money doesn’t have them.

That’s the important question: Do you have money or does money have you?

The temptations to serve money and to love money are real because people often think that if I just had more money, everything would be different.

If I just had a little more money, life would be better. If I just had some more money, I’d be a different person (a better person, obviously).

However, money is often a magnifying glass that makes people more of what they already are: Pastor Craig Groeschel explains it this way: If you are a broke jerk and get money, you’ll typically be a more obnoxious rich jerk. And if you’re generous without a lot of money, you’ll typically be more generous with more money.

Why? Because money is often a magnifying glass, making people more of what they already are.

Money will not change the kind of people we are…that’s what God does.

Often, the answer is not more money. We learn from Ecclesiastes 5:10 that, “Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income.”

We need to understand that all too often, more of something does not satisfy our appetites, it creates a desire for even more.

So, what’s the answer? How do we overcome the temptations to serve and love money? Since it is impossible to serve both God and money, we need to adopt this philosophy:

We don’t serve money; we serve God.

Money serves us as we serve God.

We want to help you live this philosophy, that’s why we’re offering another financial management class this year. It’s called The Legacy Journey and it begins next Sunday evening at 7:00 PM in the café. There is a cost involved. The course materials typically cost $109, but we are offering them for $89. You can get them when you attend the first session. If we need to order more, we will. You can sign up at the desk in the foyer or you can sign up online through the link in the Bible app announcements or the link is also printed in the bulletin.

          Our attitude toward money, whether we currently have plenty of it or not, shows what’s most important in our lives—the things of God or the things of this world, eternal things or temporary things. We cannot serve both God and money!

Let me leave you with this quote from John Stott before I pray. It’s lengthy, but on point:

Some people disagree with this saying of Jesus. They refuse to be confronted with such a stark and outright choice and see no necessity for it. They blandly assure us that it is perfectly possible to serve two masters simultaneously, for they manage it very nicely themselves. Several possible arrangements and adjustments appeal to them. Either they serve God on Sundays and [money] on weekdays, or God with their lips and [money] with their hearts, or God in appearance and [money] in reality, or God with half their being and [money] with the other half.

It is this popular compromise solution which Jesus declares to be impossible: no one can serve two masters…. Would-be compromisers misunderstand this teaching, for they miss the picture of slaves and slave owner which lies behind his words. People can work for two employers, but no slave can be the property of two owners, for single ownership and full-time service is the essence of slavery. So anybody who divides his allegiance between God and [money] has already given it to [money] since God can be served only with an entire and exclusive devotion. To try to share him with other loyalties is to have [chosen] idolatry.

And when the choice is seen for what it is…it seems quite inconceivable that anyone could make the wrong choice.[3]

          Two weeks ago, I challenged you to pray each day, I want to renew that challenge today. Keep building that discipline into your life.

          Last week, I challenged you to fast one meal. I want to renew that challenge also. I also want to share someone’s experience with fasting this week.

• On the day this person chose to fast, everything that could go wrong did go wrong.
• Such outcomes are designed to make us give up before we even get started.
• Let me remind you of something I said last week: Spiritual disciplines (praying, fasting, etc.) are a form of spiritual warfare and when you decide to step onto the battlefield your weak, sinful human nature, as well as the enemy of your soul, will spring into action to distract you and keep you on the sidelines.
• Keep at it.
  • Set a time.
  • Lose the excuses.
  • Outline a plan.
  • Welcome the inconvenience.

 

[1] Morris, L. (1992). The Gospel According to Matthew (pp. 155–156). Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: W.B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press.

[2] Keener, C. S. (1997). Matthew (Vol. 1, Mt 6:19). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

[3] Stott, John. The Message of the Sermon on the Mount (The Bible Speaks Today Series) (pp. 158-59). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.