In Whose Service Are you?
Matthew 6:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
Matthew 6:24(NLT) “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
Introduction: Welcome to another week at the feet of the Master. May the light of His words reflect in every areas of our lives in Jesus name.
Jesus said in our text today; “Ye cannot serve God and mammon”. NLT version says; “You cannot serve both God and money”.
Mammon is an Aramaic word in Greek which in English means; riches and opulence.
Devil uses riches and opulence to drive away Christians from serving and obeying God. Devil also knows that those who desire to serve God cannot do so once riches and opulence ( living expensively) become the focus.
🛑 The rich young ruler who wanted to inherit the Kingdom of God asked Jesus about the prerequisites of getting there.
❓Do you know this rich ruler kept God’s commandments from his youth?
Matthew 19:20 The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?
It is not positions in the Church that qualify for God’s Kingdom. It is when our minds are focusing on Jesus Christ in the service of God irrespective of position and physical possessions.
❓Is your eye single on Jesus or squinty on worldly possessions?
Jesus knows Satan can get anyone easily through riches and opulence (Mammon). Jesus then told the rich man with love what was lacking in his life as recorded in
Mark 10:21 Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.
Jesus simply told him to dispose the hindrance in his life and follow Him. The rich Church-minded man went away sorrowful.
Hear what Jesus Christ told His Disciples in
Matthew 19:22-24 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
Nobody wants to be poor. Even the Scripture says in
Proverbs 10:15 The rich man’s wealth is his strong city: the destruction of the poor is their poverty.
🙏 I reject poverty that causes destruction in Jesus name.
The Disciples also asked; who then can make the Kingdom of God because nobody wants to be poor.
Matthew 19:25 When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved?
Jesus answered them that it is possible to be rich and be saved but only through God’s dictates NOT worldly dictates in acquisition of wealth.
Matthew 19:26 But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.
❓The question is; In Whose Service are you? Is your service towards God or your belly? Do you obey the voice of God in your pursuit of wealth or voice of Satan?
1 Corinthians 10:21 Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils.
Satan has not changed his tactics by making Christians to look at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and ignore the tree of life.
There are several knowledge of creating wealth that Satan has introduced to the Church, it looks pleasant to the eyes and makes Christians to ignore the word of life.
Christians are to acquire riches through the word of life that prospers the soul proportionately to physical possession.
3 John 1:2 Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.
It is impossible to make the Kingdom of God if physical possession is NOT growing in direct proportion to the growth of the soul through the word of life.
❓Do you actually serve God or Mammon? How do you see your possessions? How do you live your life with your great possessions? Do you take care of your soul with the word of life?
Matthew 16:26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
When Jesus Christ came to fulfil God’s mandate for our redemption, Satan came to divert His focus to worldly riches but Jesus overcame through the word of God even though He was hungry.
Matthew 4:8-10 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
❓In Whose Service are you? God or Mammon? Is your service to God unstable? Instability is due to double mindedness of serving God and Mammon.
James 1:8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
You cannot love God and the World simultaneously For you will hate one and love other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other.
1 John 2:15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
Finally brethren, as we serve God with all our hearts, let our affections be towards God and NOT things of this world that will pass away.
Colossians 3:2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
✋ Maranatha.
