Theme: Even the O’Jays knew!
This morning, as I pondered Pastor Dan’s message on money, which Jesus spoke of in Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount, I began to think of truth and how deceitful Satan truly is. Our God created us in His image and with a knowledge of who we are in Him. John Wesley referred to this innate knowledge and desire to know our creator as Prevenient Grace. This knowledge is buried in us due to the fallen state we are born into, but we do recognize a void in us that we strive to fill our entire life. Jesus Christ perfectly fills this void, but Satan has made it so many things of the world will temporarily fill it also, and one of his top temptations is money. Being that these are counterfeit, however, they do not fit perfectly and require us to look for more constantly. The Book of Proverbs says, “There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end, it leads to death.” Let me explain what I have said thus far, using an example from our physical bodies.
There is a special place in your body's cells where oxygen is supposed to sit. It is like a little slot that, chemically speaking, is shaped just perfectly to hold that oxygen atom. The problem is that carbon monoxide is identical to oxygen, so it also fits perfectly in that slot where only oxygen should go. And when it starts to go there in mass quantities, your body starts to suffocate.
However, you do not realize this is happening. You think that you are fine. After all, you are breathing, your lungs are still expanding and contracting, and you feel air coming in and going out. Your body is going through all the motions it should be going through. All systems are normal, right? Wrong. You are being asphyxiated. You are suffocating even though you do not know it.
Spiritually speaking, that is what money can do when it takes the wrong place in our hearts, reserved only for God. Money fits in this slot because it can be tempting to trust it like we should trust God. It sometimes feels like a perfect fit. Like many of the world’s fake means of fulfillment, money can bring a sense of joy, security, self-esteem, and purpose. However, the insidious nature of these false gods is that they are never wholly or entirely satisfying. Instead of fulfillment, there grows a deeper hunger for more. Money, when hoarded and coveted, soon becomes a jailer to be despised. Like the atom of carbon monoxide, what seems like a fit ends in destruction, all while we go about our days in the “darkness of the lie,” as Pastor Dan said.
Unfortunately, so many go through life on this endless hunt for more, believing that this is our destiny. They often do it while balancing the desire to please a god they do not know, a god who rewards based on how few people you damage during your hunt.
What about those who claim to know the true God and claim salvation through Jesus Christ? Have we thoroughly cleaned everything out of that God-space? Is there anything hidden in the dark corner? God’s word tells us exactly how we should walk in Him if we are indeed His. Further on in Matthew 6, verse 33, Jesus tells us, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
How do we keep Jesus as the only occupant of our hearts? When the Sadducees and Pharisees questioned Jesus about the greatest commandment, he responded, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40 NIV)
The one we love with all our being will be the one we trust with all our being. That one will occupy the center of our lives, and we will not allow anything to take His place in our hearts. As Paul put it, we will only want to please Him, and all else will be like so many things in this world: dung. Money is not bad or good. It is what we do with it that determines its value.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told us to do two things with money: one, do not hoard it, and two, do not worry about it.
Who do I love?
I just noticed that there is no “Eternal Moving and Storage” truck parked in my driveway!
Scripture: Matthew 6:24 (NIV)
“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
Prayer:
Lord, teach me to open my hands and not cling to what you have blessed me. Whether love, money, joy, or purpose gives me the desire not to hoard them but allow them merely to pass through me to others. And, Lord, please change my heart if I ever give out of duty, and not because of the knowledge that it was never mine, to begin with, and will not have worth in eternity. Amen!
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