Double-Agent Series

I. INTRO: NOT A SERMON I WANT TO PREACH...BUT A SERMON THAT MUST BE PREACHED.

A. I think I don’t want to preach about this subject because I'm at the center of it.

1. I'm BUSTED...Nowhere to run...the cat’s out of the bag...pointing out the elephant in the room. I’d rather just ignore this stuff and move on...but I can't.

B. Public service announcement!!

1. “This message will change the way you see Christianity”

2. Maybe I should place a “Warning Label” on this message

Oleg Gordievsky: Former colonel of the KGB who became the KGB resident-designate and bureau chief in London, and was a double agent, providing information to the British Secret Intelligence from 1974 to 1985. Some say the info he gave to British Secret Intelligence and the CIA aided in ending the Cold War. He may have prevented nuclear war between the Soviets and the West. The Soviets were afraid the West would strike first with nuclear weapons and wanted to beat them to the punch...Gordievsky gave that info to the CIA and British Intelligence. So the CIA and British Intelligence were able to assure the Soviets that there was no such plan. He moved up the ranks of the KGB, raised a family under his false identity. He lived a life that LOOKED the part...so convincing that NO ONE was able to tell. Picture of Oleg in disguise...wig, fake beard, glasses. Oleg Gordievsky was a “DOUBLE-AGENT”. Movies, right? Bond...James Bond, Mission Impossible, Johnny English

C. Definition of “double-agent” - an agent who pretends to act as a spy for one country or organization while in fact acting on behalf of an enemy.

D. ANOTHER example of a “double-agent”? Myself.

II. GOSPEL OF MATTHEW CALLS OUT “DOUBLE AGENTS”

A. The Book of Matthew was written primarily to those already familiar with the Old Testament.

1. Known as the most Jewish Gospel

a. Written in Hebrew

b. Matthew doesn’t explain any of the Jewish practices

c. He assumes his audience would understand.

2. He’s speaking to those who should know better..

a. And those who know better, but act contrary to what they know...

b. He calls them “hypocrites”

B. Matt. 6

1. Vs. 1-2 “No reward from your father in Heaven.”

2. Vs. 5 “Reward is what people think of you...IMPRESSIVE on the outside”

3. Vs. 16 To show OTHERS they are fasting...the reward is others thinking that I'm super-righteous

C. Actors...hypocrites.

D. Vs. 19-21, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

1. Treasures on earth = honored by others, seen by others, in front of others.

2. Reward in full only on earth.

3. Treasures in HEAVEN = investing in the right thing.

a. Not worrying about stuff I'm going to lose. Reference Vs. 25-34

b. When my treasure is anything other than Heaven...I’m gonna be miserable trying to be a Christian.

4. Have I been making deposits into my “spiritual bank”?

a. How’s my investment in heaven doing?

NOT A SERMON I WANT TO PREACH...BUT A SERMON THAT MUST BE PREACHED..

III. “I NEVER KNEW YOU...”

A. Matt. 6:24, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

B. We cannot be a double-agent because...

1. ...we will eventually love one and hate the other

2. ...we cannot be in love with the world and with God

C. James 4:4, “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.”

1. Hostility toward God

2. “Don’t you know that loving the world is hating God?”

a. Hostility, animosity, opposition, conflict, feud, contentious

b. God sees a double-agent as an adulterer...cheating on Him

3. I would as well if I were God

a. I'm not sharing my wife with another. How about you...husbands?

b. I would bet that my wife wouldn’t share me either. How about you...wives?

c. I would at that point become an enemy of my wife...animosity, opposition, conflict, feud, contentious

D. Scariest moment...biggest fear as a Christian

1. Matt. 7:21, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”

a. Matt. 6:25 - don’t worry about protecting your stuff here

b. Matt. 7:1-5 - judging others...the whole time you have a plank in your eye, but you are judging the piece of dust in your brother’s eye