Serve God Without Worry Series

Sermon on the Mount

Pt 10

Serve God without Worry

Matthew 6:24-34

No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. [25] Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? [26] Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not more value than they? [27] Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? [28] So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; [29] and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. [30] Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? [31] Therefore do not worry, saying, What shall we eat? Or What shall we drink? or What shall we wear? [32] For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. [33] But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. [34] Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. [NKJV]

OPENING REMARKS

A man came walking down a busy sidewalk wearing a sandwich board which read on the front – I AM A FOOL FOR CHRIST! on the other side it read – WHOSE FOOL ARE YOU?

----- [Jerry Shirley, Who Owns You? (sermon on Mt. 6:19-24), downloaded from www.SermonCentral.com on 25 October 2007 (adapted)] -----

1. Most people understand that Matthew 6:24 – No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. – is concerned with the issue of giving oneself over to either God or money.

2. Ask people what is the root of all evil and they will usually answer: MONEY. -- Is that right? Well according to the Scripture MONEY of itself is not the root of all evil but the LOVE of money.

1 Timothy 6:9-10

[T]hose who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition [ruin and destruction - NASB]. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

Prosperity/Godliness

America is a rich country especially when compared to the other countries in the world. In the US an individual’s value status is determined by what they have and how much they are worth. Individuals are taught from their young childhood throughout their whole life that they are not to depend on anyone other than themselves to take care of their lives. THIS IS NORMAL! – Matthew 6:32.

That is the worldview of the lost – make as much as you can, as fast as you can, and hold on to it as

long as you can. God blesses those who help themselves!

Over the Course of Time – things have not changed.

OT – This was the thinking of the OT culture – an example would be that of Job. When God tried Job and took all of his possessions and family away from him, his friends came to visit to tell him just how sinful he must be because he had lost all of his material and most prized possessions.

NT – In the culture of the NT era most considered anyone who had riches to be blessed by God. The rich young ruler – Matthew 19:16-26 – is a good example. When Christ told His disciples that it would be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, the disciples were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved (?). Why? Because they thought that the rich are blessed of God.

Today – Our culture is no different, especially among many throughout Christianity.

A. Bruce Wilkerson –

1. The Prayer of Jabez, 2000 – the purpose was that Christians might break through to the extravagantly blessed life by following the principles laid down in the prayer of Jabez – cf. 1 Chronicles 4:10.