Scripture Matthew
6:24-34 (FOCUS)
Matthew 6:24-34 NIV
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.
"You can't worship two gods at once. Loving one god, you'll end up hating the other. Adoration of one feeds contempt for the other. You can't worship God and Money both.
25 "If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don't fuss about what's on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. 26 Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds.
When Christ
first becomes real to you, you receive a righteousness that you did not earn.
It was given to you as an act of forgiveness for your sins by Jesus death on a
cross in your place.
The key verse of this passage Mt 6:33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well suggests a daily working out of righteousness in our lives. We are first given it and after that we must seek it, pursue it, look for it, find it and exercise it in our lives.
In other words, we are granted a righteousness that is not our own, it is a gift from God, and from that moment we are to continually seek what we have already been given so we don’t lose sight, or use of it.
It would be like someone giving you a million dollars. What if all you did with that money was spend it instead of sought how to effectively use it for your ongoing benefit. A million dollars invested wisely could give you enough money to live well the rest of your life OR, you could spend it out in a few years. (Hmmmm, sounds reminiscent of the prodigal son)
God’s righteousness (the right way of living) is a benefit to us and we can receive it then choose to ignore it and not reap the lifelong benefits of it or we can invest ourselves into God’s righteousness and discover that living right is far superior to ignoring the gift God has given us.
There
is a caution here. This does not mean live right by all the strength you can muster.
Do not do works of righteousness in hopes of accomplishing what Jesus said.
Notice he didn’t say “do acts of righteousness, and
all these things will be added to you.” He said, “Seek first His righteousness and all these things will be
added to you.”
When
Jesus says “SEEK” what does he mean? FOCUS! How do we focus on something?
Mostly with our eyes. Jesus spoke about that visual focus just prior to our
text for today. Matt 6:22-23 The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your
whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body
will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great
is that darkness!
Greek and Jewish writers of the day often mentioned the eyes as a lamp, but they meant it as a light that shines outward. A person with a strong vitality of life will emit life through their eyes to others. But Jesus turns it around and says the eye is more like a window letting light inside you or that you remove your focus from him and pull the blinds down over your eyes and live a dark life. When the blinds cover your eyes, you cannot see or receive the light and obviously cannot focus on or seek God’s righteousness. If that is the case, do not expect the other important aspects of a fulfilled life to be added to you as well.
How dies the song say it?
Oh soul are you weary and troubled? No light in the darkness you see?
There's light for a look at the Savior and life more abundant and free
Turn your eyes upon Jesus / Look full in His wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim / In the light of His glory and grace
How
does Jesus in our text begin talking about our focus? No one can serve two masters. You will hate the one and love
the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.
When you look at something, each eye receives light rays which land on your retinas and form images. These images are passed along the optic nerve to the brain where the two images are combined into the one clear picture you see.
The cornea, which is at the very front of your eye, and the lens, which sits behind the cornea, work together to bend (refract) the light rays to bring an image into proper focus. Refractive error, or blurred vision, occurs when something is wrong with this focusing system. In addition to refractive error, other eye or health conditions may interfere with the focusing system and affect how well you see.
Symptoms of poor eye coordination include double vision, headaches, eye and body fatigue, irritability, dizziness, and difficulty reading and concentrating. Children with poor eye coordination might cover one eye, skip lines or lose their place while reading, perform poorly in sports, avoid tasks that require close work and tire easily.
Although each eye processes what it sees independently, both eyes must work together to see properly. Binocular vision gives you depth perception and in order to see with binocular vision, your eyes must be aligned correctly.
You can’t serve both God and Money.
Through death into life everlasting / He passed and we follow Him there
O'er us sin no more hath dominion / For more than conquerors we are
Turn your eyes upon Jesus / Look full in His wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim / In the light of His glory and grace
No one can serve two masters. The Greek for master is Kyrios. The word is on a continuum from a teacher to the ultimate Lord and master – God. And here, it is suggesting both – you can serve an earthly master or a heavenly one – but not both. However, the term ‘serve’ is not an adequate translation for us. The Greek here for serve is duleo indicating the work of a slave, not an employee or student. A person could work for two employers or have multiple teachers, but a slave can only have one master. There can be no double vision, you either serve the world or you serve God. FOCUS
Last week I shared something from the writing of Nicodemus that likely was not written by him. Not all extra-biblical material of the time was bad – it was just not right to be accepted as holy scripture. In the 2nd century, the Testament of Judah says this, “My children, love of money leads to idolatry because once they are led astray by money, they designate as gods those who are not gods. It makes anyone who has it go out of their mind. On account of money, I utterly lost my children. The prince of error blinded me, pointing to Satan’s activity in using material idolatry to lead God’s children astray.
Think about how many parents sacrificed life and training and love with their children for the pursuit of money. That is not to say, quit your job and live on love. It does say, keep your eyes focused where they should be focused and not on the things of this world. Keep your eyes focused on God’s righteousness and on His word.
His word shall not fail you; He promised / Believe Him and all will be well
Then go to a world that is dying / His perfect salvation to tell
Turn your eyes upon Jesus / Look full in His wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim / In the light of His glory and grace
When I think
about focusing on Jesus, on seeking his kingdom above all other things I cannot
help but think of Mary and Martha where Martha was distracted by stuff while
Mary sat at the feet of Jesus who confirmed that what Mary was doing was the
right thing.
Here that is that same idea in a modern setting:
A noted young concert violinist was asked the secret of her success. “Planned neglect,” she replied. Then she explained, “Years ago I discovered that there were many things demanding my time. After washing breakfast dishes, I made my bed, straightened my room, dusted the furniture, and did a host of other chores. I then turned my attention to violin practice. That system, however, failed to accomplish the desired results. So I realized I had to reverse things. I deliberately set aside everything else until my practice period ended. That program of planned neglect accounts for my success!”
When Israel lost
their focus they turned to foreign gods and it always went bad for them from
the smashing of the 10 commandments by Moses to exile in Babylon. Though we may
never bow to foreign gods we may follow the simpler idolatry’s that Israel also
participated in. Seeking after material possessions at the cost of
relationships. Or the idolatry of worry, which is rampant today. People work to
hard worrying about what is not yet present. You cannot handle tomorrow's
struggles because you don’t yet have tomorrow’s strength. You will not have
that till tomorrow. You only have strength for today to meet today’s struggles.
Don’t allow the idolatry of worry to blind you to seeking after God’s
righteousness. Open your eyes and focus on Him and Him alone – not material
wealth and not the problems of the day. And then, and only then, will all
theses other things be added to you as well.
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.
"You can't worship two gods at once. Loving one god, you'll end up hating the other. Adoration of one feeds contempt for the other. You can't worship God and Money both.
25 "If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don't fuss about what's on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. 26 Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds.
The key verse of this passage Mt 6:33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well suggests a daily working out of righteousness in our lives. We are first given it and after that we must seek it, pursue it, look for it, find it and exercise it in our lives.
In other words, we are granted a righteousness that is not our own, it is a gift from God, and from that moment we are to continually seek what we have already been given so we don’t lose sight, or use of it.
It would be like someone giving you a million dollars. What if all you did with that money was spend it instead of sought how to effectively use it for your ongoing benefit. A million dollars invested wisely could give you enough money to live well the rest of your life OR, you could spend it out in a few years. (Hmmmm, sounds reminiscent of the prodigal son)
God’s righteousness (the right way of living) is a benefit to us and we can receive it then choose to ignore it and not reap the lifelong benefits of it or we can invest ourselves into God’s righteousness and discover that living right is far superior to ignoring the gift God has given us.
Greek and Jewish writers of the day often mentioned the eyes as a lamp, but they meant it as a light that shines outward. A person with a strong vitality of life will emit life through their eyes to others. But Jesus turns it around and says the eye is more like a window letting light inside you or that you remove your focus from him and pull the blinds down over your eyes and live a dark life. When the blinds cover your eyes, you cannot see or receive the light and obviously cannot focus on or seek God’s righteousness. If that is the case, do not expect the other important aspects of a fulfilled life to be added to you as well.
How dies the song say it?
Oh soul are you weary and troubled? No light in the darkness you see?
There's light for a look at the Savior and life more abundant and free
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim / In the light of His glory and grace
When you look at something, each eye receives light rays which land on your retinas and form images. These images are passed along the optic nerve to the brain where the two images are combined into the one clear picture you see.
The cornea, which is at the very front of your eye, and the lens, which sits behind the cornea, work together to bend (refract) the light rays to bring an image into proper focus. Refractive error, or blurred vision, occurs when something is wrong with this focusing system. In addition to refractive error, other eye or health conditions may interfere with the focusing system and affect how well you see.
Symptoms of poor eye coordination include double vision, headaches, eye and body fatigue, irritability, dizziness, and difficulty reading and concentrating. Children with poor eye coordination might cover one eye, skip lines or lose their place while reading, perform poorly in sports, avoid tasks that require close work and tire easily.
Although each eye processes what it sees independently, both eyes must work together to see properly. Binocular vision gives you depth perception and in order to see with binocular vision, your eyes must be aligned correctly.
You can’t serve both God and Money.
Through death into life everlasting / He passed and we follow Him there
O'er us sin no more hath dominion / For more than conquerors we are
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim / In the light of His glory and grace
No one can serve two masters. The Greek for master is Kyrios. The word is on a continuum from a teacher to the ultimate Lord and master – God. And here, it is suggesting both – you can serve an earthly master or a heavenly one – but not both. However, the term ‘serve’ is not an adequate translation for us. The Greek here for serve is duleo indicating the work of a slave, not an employee or student. A person could work for two employers or have multiple teachers, but a slave can only have one master. There can be no double vision, you either serve the world or you serve God. FOCUS
Last week I shared something from the writing of Nicodemus that likely was not written by him. Not all extra-biblical material of the time was bad – it was just not right to be accepted as holy scripture. In the 2nd century, the Testament of Judah says this, “My children, love of money leads to idolatry because once they are led astray by money, they designate as gods those who are not gods. It makes anyone who has it go out of their mind. On account of money, I utterly lost my children. The prince of error blinded me, pointing to Satan’s activity in using material idolatry to lead God’s children astray.
Think about how many parents sacrificed life and training and love with their children for the pursuit of money. That is not to say, quit your job and live on love. It does say, keep your eyes focused where they should be focused and not on the things of this world. Keep your eyes focused on God’s righteousness and on His word.
His word shall not fail you; He promised / Believe Him and all will be well
Then go to a world that is dying / His perfect salvation to tell
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim / In the light of His glory and grace
Here that is that same idea in a modern setting:
A noted young concert violinist was asked the secret of her success. “Planned neglect,” she replied. Then she explained, “Years ago I discovered that there were many things demanding my time. After washing breakfast dishes, I made my bed, straightened my room, dusted the furniture, and did a host of other chores. I then turned my attention to violin practice. That system, however, failed to accomplish the desired results. So I realized I had to reverse things. I deliberately set aside everything else until my practice period ended. That program of planned neglect accounts for my success!”
CONCLUSION
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