Matthew 6:19-24

Sermon On The Mount
“Who or What Do You Serve”
Matthew 6:19-24

Everyone's success depends upon what they value in life. If you value wealth, then your success will depend upon the standard of living and number of dollars in your bank account. If you value fame, your success will depend on how many people recognize and adore you. If you value power, then your success will be determined by the number of people you have under your control. Most people consider success a combination of wealth, fame or power. The amount of each can, and does vary between individuals, but success is measured within the parameters of those three categories

So what is your measurement for success in your life? What do you value? To know the answer to that question, one needs to examine what they put their time, talent, and treasure into. Do so, and you may be surprised at what you learn about yourself. Well, God does look, and HE does so closely. In today's study Jesus brings it all down to where your treasure is, so too is your heart.

1. Jesus now speaks of mankind’s perennial battle between God and Mammon and what we should strive for

1. God

1. Creator of the universe

2. Sustainer of the universe

3. Supreme governor of the universe

4. Who, has provided humankind with a revelation of Himself through the natural world and His Son

2. Mammon An Aramaic word that means “wealth, riches, or earthly goods”

1. The personification of riches

2. Wealth that is used in opposition to God

2. Inside every person is a struggle, while the flesh desires worldly success, the spirit is desiring spiritual pureness

1. Worldly success defined usually by 

1. Money, enough that we can be comfortable, which is never enough. Our living standard goes up

2. A good job, one that will allow us to live to the standard the Jones and Smiths have attained

3. Status, how many people are impressed with me, and my accomplishments?

4. A home, a nice home, but eventually no home is usually good enough, big enough, or nice enough

5. Different forms of entertainment, 

1. Passive

1. Watching Sports of Television

2. Listening to music 

2.  Participating in the activity

1. Playing soccer

2. Playing music

2. Spiritual pureness is defined by the Fruit of the Spirit Galatians 5:22-23 Ephesians 5:9

1. Love

2. Joy

3. Peace

4. Longsuffering

5. Kindness

6. Goodness

7. Faithfulness

8. Gentleness

9. Self Control

10. Righteousness

11. Truth against such there is no law

12. The sixth beatitude was “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” Matthew 5:8

3. There is a battle waging inside every one of us

1. Paul tells us the Flesh lusts against the Spirit and the spirit against the fleshGalatians 5:16-17

2. In a sermon on Romans chapter 9, Martin Luther King described this battle in a very apt way

1. He said we all have a schizophrenic personality

2. A house divided amongst itself if you will

3. A Civil war between the Flesh and the Spirit

3. While praying in the garden of Gethsemane, he caught Peter, James, and John sleeping

1. He knew that there was a war within each one of them

2. So He told them “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Matthew 26:41

4. Well it’s this battle that Jesus now tackles, as He teaches the disciples about the lure of mammon Lets read today’s Scripture Matthew 6:19-24

3. Matthew 6:19 Jesus tells us not to store up treasures on earth, where moth, rust destroys and thieves steal

1. Nothing on this earth will last and you cannot take it with you

2. Everyone comes into the world naked and penniless, and all shall leave naked and penniless

3. Jesus asked, “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” Mark 8:36

4. Matthew 6:20 Lay up treasures in heaven (What are the treasures of heaven?)

1. Time, how much time do you put into God?

2. Talents, how much of your expertise do you put into God?

3. Treasure, how much of your material goods do you put into God?

4. In the early church they understood the concept of storing treasures in heaven better then we do now

During the time of the Roman persecution of 250 AD, the authorities broke into a church thinking they could loot its treasures. The Roman prefect who was in charge demanded that the church leader named Laurentius turn over his treasure saying, "Show me your treasures at once."Laurentius pointed to a group of widows and orphans who happened to be eating a meal and said, "There are the treasures of the church. We have invested all we have in them." 

5. Currency in heaven is “Men’s Lives”, that’s the treasures of God’s kingdom. God treasures people John 3:16

6. Remember, what you keep you loose, & what you invest with God you will gain eternally

7. James tells us that saving a lost soul covers a multitude of sins James 5:20

5. Matthew 6:21 “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” 

1. Whatever a person loves the most is where they will spend their time, talent, and treasure

1. Workaholics spend all their time at work or at home working

2. Couch potatoes spend their lives in front of televisions

3. Athletes spend all their time and treasure improving their talents

4. Drug addicts spend their time finding money for their habit, and eventually end up without any talent

5. Christians should be spending their time talent and treasures on bringing people to Jesus

2. People will even die for what they cherish

1. People die everyday protecting their house, their car, money and other material things that will rot away

2. Drug addicts and alcoholics die every day because they cherish their high so much they cannot stop

3. Through the years hundreds of millions of Christians have died for their faith

4. At the last supper Jesus told His disciples there is no greater love than to die for a friend John 15:13

5. What would you die for?

3. Two extremes in the teaching of this passage, and both are wrong

1. One extreme is, “God wants all His children be rich like Bill Gates.”The prosperity teachers

2. The other extreme is “If you’re wealthy, donate it all to the church, or at least give it to the poor.”

4. It is not wrong to be wealthy, Christ is not saying money will destroy you, He says the”LOVE”of money will

1. Paul states the same thing as Jesus’ taught, when he reiterates it to Timothy 1Timothy 6:9-11

2. Jesus is in effect saying, "If God blesses you with great wealth, do not set your heart upon it."

3. God blessed men like Abraham, Job, and David with wealth, these men were billionaires in today’s terms.

4. The Rich young ruler was told to give away his wealth because he worshiped it Luke 18:18-23

5. Ask yourself this question in regard to your possessions: "Is it always the Lord's cow that dies?"

1. If we have financial difficulties and things get tight, do we take from God to make ends meet?

2. This is the biggest reason Christians give grudgingly or not at all

3. Do we worry what the church will do with our donations, or do we let God handle the matter

4. We need to remember that everything we own is Gods, we are just stewards of His treasures

5. That is why we are to give God a portion of our firstfruits, first of the gross not the net

6. We get what’s left, after all He didn’t have to give us anything

6. Finally, an old secular proverb that says “Be careful which beast you feed, it will be the one that grows”

1. Men who raise dogs or cocks for fighting feed their best fighter the most, so that it stays the strongest

2. Feed the desires of the flesh and those desires will grow stronger

3. Feed the desires of the spirit and the spirit will grow stronger

6. Matthew 6:22-23 The eye is the lamp of your body

1. At first look it seems that this lesson is out of place

1. Many take this as a lesson on lust and while it may be about lust, the main point here is money again

2. It comes directly after the lesson on laying up treasures in heaven

3. But before the warning that you cannot serve God and money

4. Jesus tells us that if your eye is good your whole body is full of light

5. If your eye is bad, your whole body is full of darkness

6. He is saying that the way you see reality determines whether you are in darkness or not

2. In reality it works in perfectly, remember Christ is perfect in everything he does and says

1. The question of one's eye, is how it sees God in relationship to one's own pocketbook

2. The eye is the meat of the sandwich, Where your heart is and what you worship is the bread

1. The lesson in 6:19-21is you should desire heavenly rewards over earthly rewards, or God not money

2. The lesson in 6:24is you cannot serve two masters, or you cannot serve God and money

3. What we have here is two descriptions of light.

1. If you are laying up treasures in heaven not earth, you are walking in the light

2. If you are serving God not money, you are walking in the light

4. Again I will point out that many people worship the flesh, and their eye will give them away by what they look at. Is a person constantly looking at someone of the opposite sex when they walk by. Are they lusting after the flesh? Then they worship it. You cannot worship flesh and God.

3. I have two lessons on men’s greed and their money, one in the OT and one in the NT

1. OT one is from Deuteronomy 15:7-11 in regards to the year of the Jubilee, forgive all debts

1. To withhold help because jubilee is near and all debts are forgiven is picture of bad eye, dark heart

2. NT one is the parable of the workers in the vineyard, in verse 15 Jesus uses the phrase

1. “Or is your eye evil because I am good?”

1. Their eye is bad because they do not see the mercy in the master as beautiful, but ugly

2. They cannot see mercy as more precious than money

4. The good eye sees God and His ways as being the great Treasure in life, not money

5. A good eye sees the things of God more precious than money, it sees God as beautiful & desirable

6. The good eye leads the whole body to the light and thus to God

1. It sees what will be treasures in heaven, and thus leads the heart & body to serve God not mammon

2. If our eye is good, then it is full of light, and the darkness cannot cast a shadow upon God

7. Matthew 6:24 You cannot serve two masters, God and Mammon

1. Mammon: A Syriac word that signifies any gain you make in this world

1. Lust of the flesh, eye, or even the pride of life

2. To some it is their belly Philippians 3:19

3. And then there are those who even prefer sleep Proverbs 6:9 

4. Then others prefer worldly riches James 4:13 

5. The Pharisee’s mammon was honor and praise from men

6. The world is what many people cannot deny themselves but we must 1John 2:15 James 4:4

7. In a nutshell mammon is “SELF” Christ said we must deny ourselves Mark 8:34

8. Christ does not say we must not, but He says we cannot

1. Greek word used isδύναμαιdunamai, (doo’-nam-ahee) a primary verb that means unable to do

2. Jesus is basically saying it is impossible to be a Christian and serve both self and GOD

2. Again what you love will control your actions, that’s why Paul wished for us not to marry, he knew our loyalty would be divided between our spouse and God, then our spouse and our children and God 1Corinthians 7:8-9

3. If you get some unexpected money, what is the first thing you want to do with it?

1. Spend it on material things

2. Save it for future use

3. Pay off some bills, like credit cards

4. How far do you get down your list before you think of giving God his portion?

4. If you serve God, then He should be the first one you think of, after all He gave it to you

5. If He is not the first on your list, then maybe mammon is where your heart is