Text: Matthew 6:24 Series: Truth, Judgment and Eternity Who Do We Serve?

Intimate Place of Identity When Jesus said, “Who do we serve, God or Money,” He was speaking to us from an intimate place of identity with the human nature. John 2:25 says, “He did not need man’s testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man.” Jesus knows men better than we know ourselves, for not only did He create all men, but He entered the earth and lived as a man and experienced first hand what men are capable of. So when Jesus said, you cannot serve both God and Money, He said that from a intimate experience with that truth.

Mammon The NIV translates the Greek word μαμωνᾶς mamónas as money, however mamónas is a Semitic term for "the treasure a person trusts in" (J. Thayer) riches, money, possessions, property. When it comes down to it, we serve anything which we love and put before God: this can be our job, sports, or our hobbies, it can be our addictions, ourselves, shopping, it can be sleeping, or even schooling, music, movies and entertainment. Christians find it really easy to blow off God time, in place of most other things.

Who Do We Serve? So when Jesus observed that men have a tendancy to love mammon more than God, He made us aware that we can only serve one or the other. We will either serve God with all our heart, or we will serve those things that we love and treasure, we cannot serve both. This Scripture should be a real check point for us. Does God take a back seat in your life, or is He at the wheel? Does your love of God place passion in your heart to serve Him, read His Word, pray and get along to church, or would you rather be doing anything but that?

You Have Been Raised with Christ This message I’m giving you today, Paul would give regularly to the early Church, that’s why he wrote: Colossians 3:1-2 “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” Paul tells us not to set our minds on earthly things, things of the world but to fix our minds on Heavenly things. 2Corinthians 4:18 “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

Hidden in Christ Colossians 3:3-4 “For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” Paul makes clear that when we first accepted Christ as our Saviour, that our old self died and that our life is now hidden with Christ in God. In saying that, Paul is revealing to us how God views our lives now, “Christ, who is our Life.” Ephesians 1:14 “The Spirit is God's guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people.” NLT

Put To Death After revealing that we have died and our lives are now hidden with Christ in God, Paul then reveals things that should be dead if they are still affecting us. Colossians 3:5-6 “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.” Paul explains that these things which continually tempt believers away from Christ are really “idols” in our life. The First Commandment Exodus 20:3 “You shall have no other gods before me.”

Rid Ourselves Colossians 3:7-8 “You used to walk in these ways [sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed], in the life you once lived. But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander and filthy language from your lips.” Paul expands on the list of our past life sins which Christians still commit, and tells us straight that we must be rid of them.

The New Self Colossians 3:9-10 “Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.” When we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, we took off our old self with all its sinful practices. In place of that old self we have a new self, and this new self is renewed, HOW ?, in knowledge... This knowledge renews us into the image of our Creator. This knowledge is found in Scripture and from the Holy Spirit who speaks through His ministers.

In Conclusion For many of us, because of our love of the idols in our life, God is generally placed last in our weekly priorities. The Word is clear: We cannot serve both God and Mammon, and we can expand that to: We cannot serve both God and our idols. God must be first. Once we realise the reality of our Almighty God and revere Him as we should, we cannot help but to place Him first and repent and turn away from our idols and sins which so easily entangle us.