From God For God

“From God and For God”

Matthew 6:24-34

A robin said to a sparrow, “I really don’t know why it is these human beings rush about and worry so much.”

The sparrow to the robin, “I think it must be that they don’t loving God, such as cares for you and me.”

I think sometimes we live as if we don’t have a loving God that cares for us and whom we can trust.

It cuts right to the heart of why so many of us waste so much time worrying, getting stressed out and being miserable.

Jesus says, “No one can serve two masters…

… you cannot serve both God and money.”

The word translated as “money” here is the Aramaic word: Mammon.

When capitalized Mammon kind of sounds like the name of a pagan god.

And while there was no religion in Jesus’ day that formally worshiped a god named “Mammon,” people in every age worship at Mammon’s altar.

Today we might call it affluence or success or promotion or prosperity or the good life.

Many of us use it as a guide or direction for our lives—the goal even.

But Jesus says we can’t be guided by both God and Mammon.

We can’t be disciples of both Jesus and money.

Think about it:

Jesus calls us to walk by faith, Mammon calls us to walk by sight.

Jesus calls us to be humble and Mammon calls us to be proud.

Jesus calls us to set our minds on things above and Mammon on things below.

Jesus beckons us to his light and freedom, Mammon leads us into fear and darkness.

Jesus encourages us to look toward things unseen and eternal and Mammon encourages us to look at things seen and temporary.

Jesus calls us to be generous; Mammon calls us to be greedy.

In verse 21 of Matthew Chapter 6 Jesus says, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Worry or anxiety as it has to do with material things, with money, with Mammon is what Jesus is really getting at this morning.

The problem is not so much in having Mammon than it is in serving it—giving our heart to it—letting it rule our lives—making it our top priority—letting it stand between us and God.

The Psalmist writes in Psalm 62:10: “If riches increase, do not set your heart on them.”

Wealth can tempt us to selfishness, but it is possible and vitally important to use wealth unselfishly.

God expects those of us who follow God to help the hungry and the homeless. and this does require some financial resources.

Toward the end of Matthew’s Gospel Jesus will warn that, on Judgement Day, God will count as his sheep those who have taken care of the needy and will count as goats those who have not done so when given the opportunity.

While this might seem overwhelming in its scope, Jesus calls us to trust God and not to worry.

And there can be no doubt that worry as it has to do with money is a soul cancer that strikes at the rich, the poor and those in the middle.

A person close to me is worth $250,000,000.

By the world’s standards she has hit the target.

She has won the game!

She can now be content and live a worry-free life.

She told me this summer that the number one thing she worries about most is MONEY!

I guess she’s afraid of losing it?

I don’t know, I didn’t ask.

“Therefore, I tell you,” Jesus says in our Gospel lesson for this morning, “do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.”

This may cause us to balk and say: “That is impossible!”

And there is no doubt that worrying is a normal part of our human experience.

But left unchecked, it can get the better of us.

I find that I worry most when I am focusing on the things of this world rather than on God.

When I am focused on God, and service to others my faith is strong and I worry less.

What exactly is worry?

Worry means to give way to anxiety or unease; to allow one’s mind to dwell on difficulty or troubles.

It is distress caused by something we might possibly experience in the future.

The object of our worry can be anything from a presentation we have to give in 30 minutes to developing a serious illness 20 years from now.

Mark Twain wrote: “I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them have never happened.”

Have you known a great deal of troubles that never happened?

Excess worry can cause our minds and bodies to go into overdrive as we focus on “what might go wrong.”