Matthew 6:24-25 “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?”
We must all ask ourselves, what is our main priority
in life? Is it family, maybe financial security for your family? I could ask
you this in a hundred separate ways, but you get the pitcher here. Whatever you
list first as priority on your list, it becomes the first in your heart. And if
our priority is not God then we are wrong and devalue God, because we put
something above God. Our first priority will enslave our heart, meaning we will
focus and treasure that priority over all others. It will control our mind and
cause us to value that priority more than God, therefore we will lessen our
service to the Lord. As Christians we make choices everyday of our life, and
our priority is what directs those choices. It is easy in this flesh, even as
Christians to become shackled or a prisoner to the desire to have material
things of life, for ourselves or our families. If our hearts are on material
things then that becomes our treasure, and the more we seek earthly treasures
the more we lose heavenly treasures. Earthly enrichment overrides spiritual
enrichment which causes us to fail God in our worship. God said, “No man can
serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else
he will hold to the one, and despise the other.” Gods warning to us all is,
we will hold to our most important priority and treasure it over God if He is
not our main priority. Then God tells us, “Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” Because
worldly riches will become our god, it will even replace our need for God. And let
us all be honest, money is high on every person’s list of priorities, we all
like security for our families and ourselves. However, it is not money that is
our problem, it is our scale of love for money. God said in1Tim. 6:10 “For
the love of money is the root of all evil:” the key word here is “love”
because we all know our love is where our heart’s desire is. Almost every evil
on earth begins with money and our love for it. Then God said, “which while some coveted after, they have erred from
the faith” erred because
we were “seduced.” By our sinful desires of it. Then God
finished with these words, “and
pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” Why sorrows, if it helps us so much,
and we live a comfortable life, isn’t that a blessing from God? Listen, it
matters not if you agree or not, but this is the truth, God will never bless us
to lose our priority to worship Him. Once anything becomes our god over God
then we have lost so much. We must understand we still walk on this world with
our old fleshly nature, and it will attempt to cause us to sin against God, it
is called the desires of the flesh. The desires of the flesh are sinful, Paul
wrote in Eph. 2:3 “Among whom also we all had our conversation in times
past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the
mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.” We will
find that it is more profitable to direct all our “zeal” or “passion” toward
our worship of God, the bible, and the church. As Christians we cannot allow
anything, not even the love and support of our family come between us and God
or His church. We must remember what Jesus promised, “Therefore I say unto
you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink;
nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat,
and the body than raiment?” We must trust that God will supply all our
earthly needs, and believe me, God will never bless you with anything that
comes between you and Him or cause you to “forsaking the assembling of ourselves together…” Heb 10:25 God will not always give us what we want
but He will always give us our needs. Php.
4:19 “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in
glory by Christ Jesus.” The words “all your need” is everything you
and your family need in life, this is His “His wealth in glory in Christ
Jesus.” for us. The question is, do we trust God, do we have our priority
in Him and him alone. Putting anything, including our needs or our family’s
needs before Him, His word, or even His church is a sin and putting mammon as
our god, whether we admit it or not. Christians can live in darkness because
disobeying God’s word is to walk in darkness and if we are not walking in the
light than there is no fellowship with God. And the riches we gain means we
will pay a great price for those riches, because God did not give them, God
become less valuable to you in your life. You can have riches as a Christian
but only if God gives them without devaluing our worship and service to
Him.
