July 22, 2001
The Treasure Chest – Part 4
INTRODUCTION
Life is full of conflicting requirements….
A high school girl wants to be accepted by her chosen peer group. But their requirements for total acceptance involve wearing certain kinds of clothes, such as tops that expose a bare midriff. Her parents absolutely forbid her to leave the house wearing anything like that. She finds it impossible to please her peer group and her parents simultaneously because of their conflicting requirements.
Several of you have told me that your boss would be happiest if you stayed until 10:00 every night. However, if you have a family you realize that coming home late every night isn’t they way to a strong and healthy family. So, because of their conflicting requirements you can’t always fully please your boss and your family simultaneously.
An athlete is perhaps told by his trainer that to be the best he can be, he has to spend more time in the gym. His sport has to become the top priority if he wants to reach his full potential. However his English teacher keeps reminding him that he’s nowhere near his academic potential. He just needs to apply himself more to his studies. He finds he can’t fully please his coach and his English teacher simultaneously because they both have conflicting requirements of 110% effort.
President Bush is faced with the issue of whether the government will fund research on embryonic cells. Since these stem cells can only be obtained by destroying human embryos which might otherwise one day become babies, the President can’t fully please eager scientists and Pro-Life groups simultaneously because of their conflicting requirements.
The McDonalds corporation not too long ago mandated that all of their restaurants would become non-smoking establishments. So now, a McDonalds franchise owner can’t entirely please the corporation and his smoking patrons simultaneously.
A female high school science teacher at Glenbrook North High School is undergoing a “formal process of gender reassignment.” That means she will return to school this fall as a male. The School Administration can’t fully please concerned families and the ACLU simultaneously because of their conflicting requirements.
Yes, life is full of conflicting requirements.
The solution to conflicting requirements? Typically it is… COMPROMISE
We’ve been conditioned to believe there must be a middle ground. A way to please all parties involved.
To please both her peer group and her parents, an adolescent may compromise by secretly changing her clothes after leaving home. Accepted by friends and parents never know.
Employee may reach a compromise with his boss and family by working late a limited number of times each month.
A U.S. President may compromise by attempting to do a little give and take on both sides of an issue.
On some issues compromise is a good solution. On others it is disastrous.
And compromise certainly won’t work when it comes to our loyalty to God.
Listen to the what Jesus has to say in Matthew 6:24:
No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.
Here’s the big idea behind this statement: A Christian must be willing to say…
Big Idea: I will live a life of undivided loyalty to Jesus Christ.
Jesus reveals…no one can serve two masters.
TRANSITION: We’ve learned about the choice of two treasures (one is on earth and one is in heaven), and the two visions (one has the right perspective on things the other is focused on greed). Now. . .it all comes down to…
I. THE CHOICE BETWEEN TWO MASTERS
Familiar to the people of his day, Jesus used the imagery of slavery. Not condoning it, just using it as an example they would understand. No slave can be the property of two owners. The exclusive nature of the slave – owner relationship rules out all other owners.
If there would be an attempt at shared ownership, it would be a failure. The owners would demand things of the slaves that at times would conflict.
Illus – When I was in college one of the drama teams performed a sketch in which one boy ran back and forth between two other people who gave orders. One person said, “Thomas, bring me a chair.” He picked up a chair and moved in that direction. The other person said, “Thomas, bring ME a chair.” So he turned and walked toward that person. Order after order – back and forth – conflicting requirements – finally he dropped to his knees in exhaustion and said, “No one can serve two masters.”
You see…
I can cheer for two teams
I can work for two employers
I can volunteer for two charities
But I can only serve one master
I can have two friends
I can maintain two interests
I can own both foreign and domestic cars
But I can only serve one master
I can support two candidates
I can attend rival colleges
I can invest in competing companies
But I can only serve one master
Serving more than one master at a time is an impossible proposition because inevitably their requirements of me will conflict.
TRANSITION: How does this relate to the issue at hand? That of money? Let’s consider…
II. THE CONFLICTING REQUIREMENTS OF GOD AND MONEY
You and I won’t be able to serve both God and Money at the same time because what they require of us is different.
Listen to how verse 24 is translated in The Message…
You can’t worship two gods at once. Loving one god, you’ll end up hating the other. Adoration of one feeds contempt for the other. You can’t worship God and Money both. (The Message, Matthew 6:24)
This got me wondering. So, I made a short list of what serving Money would require of me, and then contrasted those things with what God requires of me. If I were to value money above all else, it would demand my…
1. Loyalty – by nature when we serve money it becomes the most important and most valuable thing to us. Some people sarcastically point this out by referring to the pursuit of money as “chasing after the Almighty Dollar.” By contrast, God has this to say about loyalty, “Seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness.” (Matthew 6:33) That’s impossible to do if we’ve given our loyalty to money.
If I were to value money above all else, that would dictact its…
2. Use – by nature the service of money means we will keep it and spend it on ourselves – amass it and purchase things for our own pleasures and desires. By contrast, God says, “Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.” (Matthew 5:42) A conflicting requirement.
If I were to place the highest value on money, it would demand my…
3. Love – by nature the service of money takes our heart, our affections our love. But God says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” (Mark 12:28). Those requirements conflict.
The service of money would demand my…
4. Attention – by nature the service of money requires our focus, our every thought. It demands our dreams – so much so that soon we give our constant attention to how to get more money, how to make more money, how to invest it for the best and fastest returns. God says, “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” (Col 3:1) and “Fix your eyes on Jesus.” (Hebrews 12:2)
The service of money requires my…
5. Trust – when we serve money, it demands our trust – it requires that we look to it for security. Money asks us to consider what catastrophes might occur in the future, then Money asks to be counted to see if there is enough to weather the storm. Money says you need me and you can depend on me, you can trust me when the going gets tough. God says he alone is worthy of trust. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart…” (Proverbs 3:5)
The service of money requires my time…
6. Time – the service of money requires a lot of time. Time to earn it, invest it, count it, read about it and fret over it. By contrast God tells us how to use our time, “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.” (Romans 12:11). A conflicting requirement because time devoted to one will take away service time from the other.
What Jesus wants us to see is that Money is really a rival god – In many translations of the Bible, Money in Matthew 6:24 begins with a capital letter. That’s because Jesus is using a proper noun or a name.
Literally, Jesus says, “You cannot serve God and Mammon.” Mammon originally meant the wealth a person entrusted to a banker. Years later it came to mean that in which a person places his trust. Mammon was the name given to money or wealth, because – just like it were a person – or a master – because people place their trust in it.
ILLUS – Randy Rowland tells the story of an Irish teenager who came to live with his family here in America. While standing in line to pay admission for a movie he and the boy were talking about Irish culture and American culture. Randy jokingly said to him, “It should be obvious that America is a Christian country. I mean, look right here. It says, “In God we trust.” The boy responded, “Yeah, but that is your God.”
The rock group Creed sings the words, “Only in America we stamp our god, “‘In God we trust.’” (Creed, “In America”)
Money is a rival god. Money competes for our loyalty, trust and affection.
The Bible has a word for the worship of rival gods – idolatry.
This verse tells us that anyone who divides his allegiance between God and something else has already given it to something else.
God can only be served with an entire and exclusive devotion.
Isaiah 42:8 says, “I am the Lord; that is my name. I will not give my glory to another.” To share God with other loyalties is simply to opt for idolatry.
Yet, some of us are trying to serve both – as though that were a legitimate possibility – trying to carve out a compromise to please both God and Money. It can take on many forms…
Serving God on Sundays and Money on the weekdays
Serving God with our lips and Money with our hearts
Serving God in appearance but serving Money in reality
Serving God with half our being – serving Money with the other half
Jesus says you can’t do it. You cannot serve both God and Money. Their demands are too different. Their requirements conflict.
Jesus wants us to know…
WE SERVE WHOM WE VALUE THE MOST
Either you’ll hate one and love the other, or you’ll be devoted to one and despise the other. We’ll seek to please whom we value the most. That’s true whether the choice is peer groups or parents, boss or family, or money and God.
That’s why the issue of treasures in heaven is so crucial.
The Real Question Is, “Who Is Going To Be My Master?”
Who owns you?
We answer – no one does. But right there we’ve exposed our owner.
Because the person not owned by God is owned by something lesser – owned by something or someone or some ideal that is temporary.
Listen to these voices of reason:
1. “God entrusted us with all we have. It is the supreme treason to prize the gift above the donor – the thing above the Creator.” (Bible scholar, Michael Green)
2. “Where riches hold the dominion of the heart, God has lost his authority.” (John Calvin)
Illus – Paper money is 25% linen and 75% cotton. Jesus asks us, “Who will you serve? God or a cotton blend?” The Creator of the Universe or a group of atoms bonded together through the attraction of positive and negative charges that are only temporary anyway.
John Stott says…
“And when the choice is seen for what it is – a choice between Creator and creature, between the glorious personal God and a miserable thing called money, between worship and idolatry – it seems inconceivable that anyone could make the wrong choice.” (John Stott, The Message of the Sermon on the Mount, p. 159)
TRANSITION: So to keep from making the wrong choice, you and I need to live…
III. THE LIFE OF UNDIVIDED LOYALTY
How can this be done when faced with the choice of God and Money? Let me give you two points of application, then I’ll close…
Conquer Money, then use it
When we think of conquering something, perhaps images come to mind of a battle, or of warfare – a fight to the finish. Where we’d say, “Never surrender!”
You want to hear something bizarre?
We conquer money by surrendering everything we have
We gain mastery over it when we lay it all down
The Bible tells us what God owns…
a. God owns me – “You are not your own. You were bought at a price.” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)
b. God owns all my possessions – “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it.” (Psalm 24:1)
One of the greatest tests in the life of undivided loyalty is realizing that nothing is really our own. God owns it all.
Juan Carlos Ortiz illustrates it like this:
A man says,
“I want to buy this pearl. How much is it?”
“Well,” the seller says, “it’s very expensive.”
“But how much?” we ask.
“Well, a very large amount.”
“Do you think I could buy it?”
“Of course, everyone can buy it.”
“But, didn’t you say it was very expensive?”
“Yes.”
“Well, how much is it?”
“Everything you have,” says the seller.
We make up our minds, “All right, I’ll buy it,” we say.
“Well, what do you have?” he wants to know. “Let’s write it down.”
“Well, I have ten thousand dollars in the bank.”
“Good – ten thousand dollars. What else?”
“That’s all. That’s all I have.”
“Nothing more?”
“Well, I have a few dollars here in my pocket.”
“How much?”
We start digging. “Well, let’s see – thirty, forty, sixty, eighty, a hundred, a hundred and twenty dollars.”
“That’s fine. What else do you have?”
“Well, nothing. That’s all.”
“Where do you live?” he’s still probing.
“In my house. Yes, I have a house.”
“The house too, then.” He writes that down.
“You mean I have to live in my camper?”
“You have a camper? That, too. What else?”
“I’ll have to sleep in my car!”
“You have a car?”
“Two of them.”
“Both become mine, both cars. What else?”
“Well you already have my money, my house, my camper, my cars. What more do you want?”
“Are you alone in this world?”
“No, I have a wife and two children. . .”
“Oh, yes your wife and children too. What else?”
“I have nothing left! I am left alone now.”
Suddenly the seller exclaims, “Oh, I almost forgot! You yourself, too! Everything becomes mine – wife, children, house, money, cars – and you too.”
Then he goes on. “Now listen – I will allow you to use all these things for the time being. But don’t forget that they are mine, just as you are. And whenever I need any of them you must give them up, because now I am the owner.”
(In Improving Your Serve, Chuck Swindoll, p. 35-36)
So when we agree to live a life of undivided loyalty to Jesus Christ, we find that the best way to conquer Money and its hold on us is to surrender it back to its real owner. Conquer it and use it. But use it for what?
This brings up the issue of stewardship and giving. God tells us how to both conquer and use money when gives us the instruction on tithing. Tithing is the practice of giving 10% of what we make back to God.
The biblical basis is:
Malachi 3:10 – “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse. . .Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.”
God says the first way to get yourself freed up and properly prioritized is to give 10% of what you make to the Kingdom as an act of faith and love. In this way you’ll conquer the god known as Money.
What Kim and I try to live by is that 10% is a starting point. It’s not to be used as an excuse to be selfish. Because if we just give our 10% and selfishly hold on to the other 90%, which is actually more than what two people need to live on, we haven’t fully conquered the god of Money.
Illus – Bruce Larson used to pastor a church in Seattle and he tells a story about a wealthy man who one day came into his office.
The wealthy church member told Bruce, “You’ve been talking a lot about tithing. I’m definitely listening and growing as a Christian, but Bruce, I make a ton of money. I can’t possibly tithe. That would be a huge chunk of cash.”
In his wisdom, Bruce asked the man if he wanted to pray about it. The man agreed and opened an out loud prayer in which he asked for God’s guidance in the matter of giving. Bruce prayed next and said, “God, help my dear brother here earn less money this coming year so he can afford to tithe.” (Randy Rowland, Sins We Love, p. 136)
When we’ve conquered money, we’ll be able to afford to tithe. Because money is no longer our god. We will have surrendered t to the Living God.
A person who serves money looks at his or her wealth and asks…
How much of this can I possibly keep?
A person who has conquered money and serves Jesus Christ asks…
How much of this can I possibly give away?
I know many of you through FNF have reached the place in your giving where you are now tithing. I’m sure you’re experiencing God’s faithfulness and blessing – go farther.
If you’re not yet at a giving level of 10% to God’s Kingdom – keep at it – the battle is won through surrender. Keep at it. Surrender everything to God. You cannot serve both God and Money. Conquer it through surrender – use it through tithing.
2nd application point. To live a life of undivided loyalty, I need to…
Be a slave of Jesus
The Bible speaks over and over again that Christ is our Lord and Master when we give our lives to him. We are his servants – or his slaves in a sense.
Romans 6:22 says, “Now that you have been set free from sin you have become slaves to God.”
Sounds so strange –
Conquer money by surrendering everything we have
Being a slave of Jesus is the only way to be free
When linked to His cross – when we become his bondservants – it is there and only there that we experience freedom from the bondage of sin – freedom from being controlled by a lesser Master. And we’re all slaves of sin until we find freedom in Jesus.
And when Jesus is our Master – what a wonderful Master he is. He will never mistreat you. He will never give you up to another. You are his forever.
You are not your own – you were bought at a price. The price was the precious blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who paid the penalty for everything we’ve done wrong when he died on the cross.
Want to live a life of undivided loyalty? Then chain yourself to the cross of Jesus Christ. Pick up that cross every day and follow Him. And I guarantee you will find freedom.
Being a slave of Jesus – linking ourselves to Him is the only way to be free. You can’t serve two masters – so why not serve the one who sets you free?
CONCLUSION
Ivan the Great, a Russian Czar of great fame was told by the people in his top positions of government that he needed a wife so that he could have an heir to the throne. He sent some of these officials off in search of a suitable bride for the czar. The girl they found was the lovely daughter of the King of Greece.
In order for Ivan to marry this girl, he would have to become a member of the Greek Orthodox Church. So a tutor was sent up from Greece to instruct Ivan the Great and 500 of his soldiers as well on how to be Orthodox.
Before the marriage the time came for Ivan and his 500 soldiers to be baptized, immersed, into the Greek Orthodox Church. They traveled to Greece where 500 Orthodox priests were gathered to perform all the baptisms. They all went down into the water – all 500 soldiers and all 500 priests, but the king of Greece saw a problem. You could not be a warrior and a member of the Greek Orthodox Church – because of their conflicting requirements.
After a quick meeting a solution, or rather a compromise, was brought forth. Just before going under water, each soldier would pull out his sword, and hold it high above his head. The way his fighting arm would stay out of the water. And that is what they did. History has called this, “The Unbaptized Arm.”
Is your wealth the unbaptized arm of your life?
Undivided loyalty will get us nowhere. But a life in service to Jesus Christ experiences real freedom.
Remember: Jesus is either Lord of all or He’s not Lord at all.
Let’s not even attempt to divide our loyalty.
