M And M Sermon (Methods And Motives!)

Have you ever wondered how and why this company came into existence?

Mr. Forrest Mars, Sr. founder of the Mars Company, got the idea in 1930s during the Spanish Civil War when he saw soldiers eating chocolate pellets with a hard shell of tempered chocolate surrounding the inside, preventing the candies from melting.

When operations were started, the hard-coated chocolates were made in six different colors: brown, yellow, red, green, orange, and violet. In 1949, tan replaced violet as one of the six shell colors.

Mars received a patent for his own process on March 3, 1941.

Where did the M & M come from?

? One “M” was for Forrest E. Mars Sr.,

? The other “M” was for Bruce Murrie, son of long-term Hershey president William F.R. Murrie

Now I mention the M and M candy to lead into this sermon. In our text the Lord deals with two things:

? Money (and)

? Motive.

This is why I call this sermon an M and M sermon.

As the Lord deals with MONEY and MOTIVE He shows us that the Scribes and Pharisees gave MONEY but their MOTIVE was not right.

Notice, He says to His listeners and His disciples, Matt. 6:8, “BE NOT YE THEREFORE LIKE UNTO THEM….”

He taught them they should not be like them in their GIVING, their PRAYING and their FASTING.

Let me show you how God does not want us to be like them when it comes to -

I. THE MONEY.

Giving, praying and fasting are things the Bible teaches we should do as Christians.

But notice - HOW DID THEY GIVE?

Look at verse 1. We read, “Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, TO BE SEEN OF THEM: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.”

Did you know that people respond better in their obedience to the commands of God if there is someone watching them?

It is the nature of man; he likes to be SEEN AND RECOGNIZED! This is true in the secular world and the spiritual world.

Illus: The next time you watch a professional football game think about this, there may be 80,000 people in attendance, and it may be televised before millions on television.

Do you think those men would play with the same fervor if the stadium was empty and there were no television cameras there? I DO NOT THINK SO!

PEOPLE LOVE TO BE SEEN

Illus: Former television pastor, Rex Humbard, once was pastor of a large church in Ohio. Almost every Sunday the church was full, reaching as many as 5,000 a Sunday. When he was preaching, he televised the Sunday morning services. During the services the television cameras were constantly scanning the audience as they prayed, gave, and worshipped the Lord. When he announced he was going to retire and the services would no longer be televised, the attendance was immediately cut in half.

It is a statistical fact that if you can provide a forum for people to be seen, THEY WILL BE THERE TO BE SEEN!

This is especially true for politicians.

Illus: They say the most dangerous place to be in Washington is between a politician and a television camera and microphone.

It is not only true only of politicians; most people like to be seen.

Illus: Have you ever been watching a news program and the person you were watching was sitting by a window, and the people out on the street saw they were on television and they started waving their hands and jumping up and down? Why? They wanted to be seen. It is a fact of life, people love to be seen.

In Matthew 6:1-4, the Lord is teaching that our motive for giving should not be to be seen by men.

Does that mean Jesus was teaching that all our giving should be done PRIVATELY?

No, that is not what the Lord is teaching here.

Illus: Dr. Odell Belger received an offering for a foreign missions project. The people responded well and brought their offering down and put it in the offering plate. After the service, this wonderful Christian man came to him and said, “Dr. Belger, I did not come down this morning, but here is some money I want to give for the mission project.” Dr. Belger thanked him and said, “Let me ask you something, why didn’t you bring your offering down with everyone else?” He said, “Because I believe the Bible teaches that all of our giving should be done privately.” He then said that the Bible says “...let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:”

Dr. Belger quickly explained that there are times for private giving, but the Bible teaches public giving also.

He explained to him that in the New Testament, they literally brought their offerings and laid them at the Apostle’s feet.