Serving Your Master

You have to choose because you cannot be a slave with two masters.

John 8:34-36  Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave of sin.  35  A slave is not a permanent member of the family, but a son is part of the family forever.  36  So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free.

Matthew 6:24  "No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

Deuteronomy 13:4 Serve only the Lord your God and fear him alone. Obey his commands, listen to his voice, and cling to him.

The news is filled with stories of war everyday, they are evidence of the spiritual battle that we cannot see, the battle wages on in the physical and spiritual realm. You may not like to think about it but there is a relentless force for evil that will stop at nothing to get you to choose any of his options over the single best choice.

Our loyalty to God is constantly being challenged just as it was for Adam and Eve back in the Garden of Eden. Satan is always questioning God's right to have our praise and worship. He wants to be God and he will stop at nothing to have us treat him that way. Satan knows that we were made to worship and that we will serve something or somebody so he is always looking to take advantage of this God given trait.

There is a lot at stake and we need to keep in mind some important advice:

Remember That God Won't Share 

1 Corinthians 8:6, Exodus 20:3-6, Deuteronomy 6:14-16

Over and over again God told the Israelite's that they needed to make a decision. They could choose from a long list of gods, they could choose to serve themselves, or they could choose the real God. God made it clear that he will not share what belongs to him with anything else.

Don't Serve The Things The World Serves 

Luke 16:13, James 4:4, 1 John 2:15-16

There is one true God and since is the only one that means there is nobody like him. Therefore he alone is to be worshiped and served. If you truly love God then you will have an unfavorable opinion of the world and it's philosophy.

Don't Value The Things The World Values

Matthew 6:19, 6:33, Luke 12:20-21

Jesus cautioned us to crave or value the right things. The world finds pleasure in craving what they can see, the toys that they have, pride in their accomplishments at work or school, all of the things that are temporary.

We love to seek our own kingdom, to stress how good we are and build up our treasure, we burden ourselves with the pursuit of the temporary. Seeking God's kingdom means that I must set aside my own kingdom and declare my allegiance with the eternal kingdo

Who You Serve Is Who You Trust
Romans 6:16, 18  Don't you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living.

Do you serve yourself? Do you serve money? If you think about it, whatever it is that you serve, that is the thing that you are putting your trust in. Why would you serve something you don't trust? If you feel secure enough to trust in something then it is reasonable to assume that you will probably serve that thing.

In our previous post we saw that Jesus called us all slaves, we are all serving something or someone, Jesus made it clear that a slave is usually a slave until the day they die. Because we are “in Christ” (Romans 6:11; 8:1), and He died in our place (Romans 5:6-8), we are counted dead with Him. I have become a slave to righteous living!

It is clear that I cannot serve both God and mammon, I cannot serve the god's that the rest of the world serves, they all want my full attention and my allegiance. I must choose everyday who I will serve, I must choose to serve the Lord wholeheartedly.(Joshua 24:14)

Using Your Money Wisely

Don't try to hog it all for yourself.

Luke 16:9-13 Here’s the lesson: Use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends. Then, when your earthly possessions are gone, they will welcome you to an eternal home.

10 “If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities. 11 And if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven? 12 And if you are not faithful with other people’s things, why should you be trusted with things of your own?"

13 “No one can serve two masters.For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

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Just about everybody loves money, some love to save it but most people love to spend it. In today's verses Jesus tells us that our allegiance to money and our faith in what it can do for us is at odds with our faith in God. God tells us to use our money for his purposes.

Jesus told a parable about a dishonest manager that is a little bit confusing, after-all isn't honesty the best policy, that's what I was always told. We need to realize that the dishonesty wasn't the point of the story.

Proverbs 23:4-5 Don’t wear yourself out trying to get rich. Be wise enough to know when to quit. 5 In the blink of an eye wealth disappears, for it will sprout wings and fly away like an eagle.

Jesus explains that the point of the story is that the manager used the money to benefit other people so that later they would recall his kindness and they would help him out. Jesus told us that unbelievers typically deal financially with each other so that they will win friends, whereas the believers often fail to use their financial resources to win people to faith, who will become their friends forever in heaven. The world tells us to use people to get money but Jesus says that people matter more than money and that we should use money to get more people.

We all have resources that we use everyday, the problem is that we usually use them for our own immediate satisfaction, we normally think of using our resources for our own benefit and we neglect to use them for the benefit of others or in order to advance God's kingdom.

Loving my money is a huge mistake and I will be severely disappointed when it disappears, but the friends that we win for Christ will be our friends forever, they will become part of the treasure that we are supposed to be storing up in heaven. (Luke 12:33-34)

Pay Your Taxes

Honesty in giving

 Matthew 22:17-22  Now tell us what You think about this: Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?"

18  But Jesus knew their evil motives. "You hypocrites!" He said. "Why are you trying to trap Me?  19   Here, show Me the coin used for the tax."

When they handed Him a Roman coin,  20  He asked, "Whose picture and title are stamped on it?"  21  "Caesar's," they replied.

"Well, then," He said, "give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God."  22  His reply amazed them, and they went away.

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Everybody hates paying taxes, we all probably think, "those guys don't have a clue how to spend our money wisely so why should I give them more of it."

These religious leaders were posing as legitimate Christ followers that wanted to know what Jesus teaching is on supporting the civil government, but there has never been a disguise that could outwit Jesus, he knew what there purpose was in asking the question.

Out of this quick discussion comes two rules that a Christ follower is to live by:

Give to Caesar what he is entitled to have, Jesus didn't come to earth to fight against the civil government, doesn't the Bible teach us that those that are in authority have been put there by God.

Romans 13:1-2  Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God.  2  So anyone who rebels against authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and they will be punished. 

Give to God what he is entitled to have, isn't it strange that most people are afraid to cheat on their federal income taxes but they don't worry at all about cheating God out of the tithe.

Malachi 3:8-10  "Should people cheat God? Yet you have cheated Me! "But you ask, 'What do You mean? When did we ever cheat You?' "You have cheated Me of the tithes and offerings due to Me.  9  You are under a curse, for your whole nation has been cheating Me.  10  Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in My Temple. If you do," says the LORD of Heaven's Armies, "I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won't have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put Me to the test!

Thank you Lord for opening the windows of heaven and blessing me, you are faithful to those that trust you in every area of life, I pray that I will always be obedient to give back to you in my tithes and my talents.

You might like to read: Commands of Jesus blog series.

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