This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

We're in the second part of Matthew chapter 6 this week. This is day three of
our look at how to manage our possessions, our finances. We're going to focus on
verse 24 today.

We've talked this week already about the investment decision, where will I put
my treasure, the interest decision, how do I see my possessions. The question
behind this third truth that Jesus teaches us is who will I choose as master?
It's the management decision.

Verse 24, Jesus said, "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.

Now, this one verse, three of the most important truths that Jesus taught us
about who we are and what direction our lives are going to take. They are in
this verse about finances. Jesus teaches us in this verse that everyone chooses
their master.

Second, he teaches us that no one can serve two masters. And then third, he
teaches us that God is the only worthy master, or in essence, money is a great
servant but a terrible master. Truth number one, everyone chooses their master.

There's a lot of choices that are made for us in this life. You don't get to
choose a lot of things. You may not even get to choose the job that you have or
the place that you live.

There's a lot of choices you don't get to make in life. But do not let anyone
ever fool you into believing that somebody else is choosing your master. That
choice is yours.

And no one else can take it from you or make it for you. Now, you and I, we were
made to live with God as our master. He's to be our Lord, and he's a good Lord.

We're made to live in vital relationship with him. And when we try to live with
someone else or something else as our master, well, that's actually called in
the Bible having a false idol. That's putting someone else up in the place of
God.

An idol is anything that we put in the place of the one who we were made to
serve. And usually we create a false idol, either in our minds, in the Old
Testament times they did it in actuality. We create a false idol to try to get
what we want because we don't feel like we're getting it.

Here, we're taught by Jesus that one of the struggles we have is the struggle
with whether God or money is going to direct our lives. Now, can money really be
your master? Of course.

Money masters you when it begins to control your thoughts, control your actions.
Money can absolutely be a master. There are some of you listening to this right
now.

It's all you're thinking about right now is money, either because you're in
trouble or because you're in competition, you've got to beat everybody else.
That's all you're thinking about. And you can make an idol of money.

Now what are the signs, what's the pattern that shows you've gotten caught up in
idol worship, in choosing someone other than God as the director, the Lord, the
master of your life? Well, you see this pattern, this three part pattern
repeated in the Old Testament, the people of Israel again and again and again.
The pattern is disappointment, distancing, and deciding to get it for yourself.

First it starts with disappointment. This anger that God is not getting you what
you expected. You don't have the job that you expected, the life that you
expected, the stuff that you expected.

Whatever it is, they went through this in Israel all the time, whenever they
went through a difficult time, difficult winter, difficult season, God's not
coming through fast enough, let's go pray to the false idols. First comes the
disappointment, then comes the distancing. I will distance myself from God.

Now for them in the Old Testament, they actually went to the high places, the
mountains, and they worshiped these false idols. So they left Jerusalem, the
city of God, and they went up into the mountains. They physically distance
themselves from the things of God.

We do the same thing. We start to distance ourselves from the people of God,
from other believers. We start to distance ourselves from church.

We start to distance ourselves from God's word or from prayer. God hasn't gotten
me what I want, I'm mad about this, so I sort of pout. I distance myself from
God.

And then the third part of this is you decide to get it for yourself right now.
I'm going to do what it takes. I deserve this, they got this.

And I certainly deserve it more than they do, so you start to chase after it
yourself. Now for them, they actually built a false idol and they chased after
it by going and giving offerings and prayers to this false idol. Our false idols
today are in our actions.

We decide, I'm going to be totally committed to work. That's the only way I'm
going to get what I want. Forget my family, forget the Lord, I'm going to be
totally committed to making money.

And you tell everybody else, oh it's so hard and it's so difficult, they should
feel sorry for you. But you know in your heart what you're chasing after. You're
deciding to get it for yourself right now, as quick as you can.

That's the pattern of chasing after an idol. Now how do you break free from that
pattern by the way? You break free by going to God with your disappointments.

The truth is every one of us is going to be disappointed in this life. This life
isn't heaven, things don't work out here like we wanted them to. So you're going
to be disappointed.

In that moment, you either distance yourself from God or you decide to get
closer to God and talk to Him about those disappointments. You see the people of
Israel, if they just talked to God as the one who loved them about the
disappointments, they would have heard from Him. They would have heard a
prophecy.

If you and I will just talk to God, we will hear from His word, we'll hear from
His people. Everyone chooses their master. And money can become the manager, the
master of my life if I'm not careful, if I'm not careful with my
disappointments.

The second truth that Jesus taught us here is no one, no one can serve two
masters. You cannot, Jesus said, serve God and money. Now we all want to.

We all want to say, okay, okay, God or money, I will choose, I'll choose both. I
want to have both. And could we throw in like health too?

So I'll take all three. We want it all. We want to serve both or all three or
all five masters.

It is an undeniable truth. Jesus teaches us and He knows us. No matter how hard
you try, you cannot accomplish it.

You can't serve both. You're going to love one, you're going to hate the other.
When you try to serve two masters, you always end up hating one of them.

You try to serve money and God, you end up hating God because He's keeping you
away. You read His word, you hear the word, you're involved in worship, He
speaks to you through His Spirit and He's trying to keep you away from chasing
after money the way you want to. So you've got a choice.

You either listen to the Lord or you start rejecting Him, you start hating Him.
You serve money and you exclude God from His rightful throne. So you're not
going to have a good relationship with Him when you're trying to serve both.

We can only serve one master at a time. That's the way that we're made. It's a
sad truth that for many Christians, more of their decisions are made by their
debts than by their Lord.

The first step to getting out of debt is realizing that you were not made to
serve that debt. It may feel that way. The world may be telling you that
message, but that's not the truth.

You were made to serve the Lord. And while you're still in debt, realize that.
That's the first step to getting out of debt because then you start to see your
life, yourself in a brand new way.

Whether I'm in debt or out of debt, whether I have a lot of finances or I'm
struggling in my finances, the truth of the matter is I'm going to serve God.
Paul said it so clearly in Philippians, "I've learned how to be content in every
circumstance. I've had a lot.

I've had a little. But in any and every circumstance I've learned, I can do all
things through Christ who strengthens me. " There's a third truth that Jesus
teaches us here, and that is that God's the only good master.

Or to put it the negative way that he teaches us here, money is a great servant,
but it's a terrible master. In fact, anyone, anything but God is a terrible
master. Money, possessions, they are given to serve us.

They serve to meet our needs, and they enable us to serve to meet other people's
needs. But when you start loving money, "I've got to have more and more in order
to feel better about myself or get the things that I deserve," or whatever
you're saying to yourself, when you start loving money, you start serving money.
How do you know if you love money?

Well, having money makes you feel better about yourself. When having money makes
you feel better about who you are, then you know you're in love with money. The
truth is, whether you have money or not, you're loved by the Lord.

Whether you have money or not, you have an eternity with him. When you love
money, you start serving money, and eventually you find out what a terrible
master it is. Why is money such a terrible master?

It should be obvious, I guess, but let me just remind you of three reasons. One,
it promises what it cannot deliver. Money promises us joy and hope in real life.

All it can deliver is things, and things can't give you joy and hope in real
life. They might seem to for a day or a month or even a few years for some
people, but it doesn't last. You get tired of the things, and the happiness goes
away, and you realize it wasn't joy at all.

It promises what it cannot deliver. Number two, when it doesn't deliver, then it
just starts asking for more. That's why it's such a terrible master.

Just a little more, and you'll be happy. And you start chasing an empty dream
all of your life. And the third reason it's a terrible master is in the end, it
leaves you empty.

You might even succeed materially, only to find out that money can't buy love,
it can't buy relationships, it can't buy purpose, it can't buy hope, it can't
buy joy. God is the perfect Lord, because whatever he promises, he delivers. And
when he delivers, it fulfills.

And in the end, in the end, he's got nothing but joy for us. So he's the one I
want to serve. He's the one that I want to focus my life on.

Let's take a few minutes to pray together, and just thank God for who he is. Our
Father, we thank you that you're such a wonderful Lord. You are forgiving.

You are full of promise for our lives. You want to give us hope and joy and
faith. And in the end, you have the promise of eternal life in heaven.

Thank you for what a wonderful Lord, wonderful master you are. Lord, forgive us
for those times when we put some false idol into our lives, to try to get what
we want, we end up serving money or some other person or some false ideal. We
want you to be our Lord.

We want you to be our guide. We want you to be, we want you to be the one who
manages every decision in our lives. So we recommit ourselves to you, to the
Lordship of Jesus.

We do it in your name, Jesus, amen. Tomorrow we're going to talk together about
the contentment decision.