"Sermon on the Mount" Pt. 3

Hi, this is John O'Zanting, lead pastor of Evolve Church, and this is the Evolved Church Podcast.

Thanks so much for tuning in.

We hope that you find today's message encouraging and full of hope for wherever you're at.

Well, we're in a um a series on Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.

And maybe you grew up in church, maybe it's your first time in a church service like this.

Uh in uh one of the firsthand kind of eyewitness accounts of Christ, uh in a book in the Bible called Matthew, and there's three others Mark, Luke, and John, these eyewitness accounts of Christ.

But in Matthew, um in chapters five, six, and seven, we read what's what's lovingly called uh the Sermon on the Mount.

Why is it called that?

Because Jesus preached it while he was standing on a mountain.

Um I thought I'd get a better laugh out of that one, but that was pretty simple.

But um two weeks ago, Pastor Brian, I guess three weeks now, because we had the August long weekend, but um Brian Globish uh started things off with a teaching on the Beatitudes.

Beautiful.

If you missed it, go back and listen uh on our podcast or YouTube channel.

Go go take a listen to that.

Last week I continued in Matthew chapter five, and I get to continue today in Matthew chapter six.

But before I do, I kind of wanted to pull the room.

Is that okay?

This is audience participation time.

You ready?

Uh, and the question of this like, what are some basic, all-purpose physical habits or physical practices for a human being to stay healthy?

Basic physical practices or habits for a human being to stay healthy.

Drink water, exercise, sleep, eat well, brush your teeth.

Deodorant.

I wish everybody believed that.

What else?

Anything else?

Somebody said housework?

Oh, housework.

I love it.

You get in the house clean and your ear.

So these are these are all great examples.

I had one of our young dads come up to me after first service, and he's like, I wanted to shout out sex, but I didn't.

And I was like, Well, you could have.

I mean, uh, for all the married people in the room.

You know, let's call that a basic, all-purpose physical practice for flourishing.

Yeah.

Um, I wrote down showering and bathing, dental hygiene.

Nobody said brush your teeth.

We need to have a did did we?

Oh, okay, I missed it.

I did, okay.

Let's see this.

Dental hygiene.

I apologize.

Food and nutrition, rest and sleep, fitness, exercise.

All of these things, can we just agree for a second on principle that these are basic, all-purpose physical habits, physical practices for like healthy physical well-being.

Can we agree on that?

Cool.

Um, and can we also agree that they all require some kind of time or energy or commitment as a priority?

And it from an early age we practice them so that they kind of become rote.

Hopefully, at this point, you wake up in the morning, you don't have to really think about brushing your teeth.

You just do it, right?

Unless you're a 15-year-old boy, which case you still need a reminder.

But um, and what happens without these things?

What happens if we neglect to brush our teeth or bathe or put on deodorant?

What happens?

You smell maintenance, disease?

Did you say disease?

Yeah, disease.

I mean, at its extreme, yeah.

Like if we neglected to bathe, shower, sleep, exercise, like the byproduct eventually would be like sickness and disease.

Um, I would say social isolation.

Like if you're not wearing, if you're not showering and wearing deodorant, there's a good chance people don't want to be close.

Uh, what about like poor mental health, poor spiritual well-being?

And what if on the off chance a human being's like, I hear what you're saying, man, but these things are good for you, but I don't think I need to do them.

Like, what if what if what if one of your kids was just like, listen, I'm 18, my whole life you've been saying, take a shower, brush your teeth, get good sleep, exercise, eat healthy, but I'm my own person now, I'm gonna do what I want, and I think all of those things are ridiculous.

What happens, what happens to that person?

They deteriorate.

That's a great, that's a good answer.

Where were you in first service?

That's a great answer.

We might even say, like, cuckoo.

Like, come on, give your head a shake.

This is these are basic, well-known, all-purpose, physical things.

So today, I start with that to lead us into a bit of a review from last week.

As we continue into the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus boldly proclaims what you do matters.

He said it then, it echoes right through into this room today, to the church in Edmonton.

What you do with your life matters.

But also, and maybe more importantly, can I have your heart and your motives and your intentions?

Can I have your inner life as well?

Can I have your inner life first?

Can I capture the full attention of what's going on from the inside as it works itself out?

How many of you know if we get the inside right, it flows out and impacts our outside living?

It starts with the heart.

And in Matthew 5, we read last week, verse 19 trivialize even the smallest item in God's law, and you will only have trivialized yourself.

But take it seriously, show the way for others, and you will find honor in the kingdom.

Unless you do far better than Brian Globish in the matters of right living.

Because he's in the room.

Five bucks.

You won't know the first thing about entering the kingdom.

And and the and the Pharisees, when they heard Jesus say, unless you do far better than the Pharisees, um, they were like, shock and awe.

How dare you say that?

Nobody could do better than us.

We check all of the boxes.

And the enemy, the enemy of our soul, the deceiver, from from the from the book of Genesis to today, the original sin, the enemy will always challenge by questioning the motives and the intentions of God when it comes to how we live and our inside life.

The enemy's always going to want us to second guess, did God really say, and does God really care?

So here's what's true: our salvation comes through faith in Jesus Christ and faith alone, through a powerful understanding and receiving of God's amazing grace.

That's how our salvation comes.

It doesn't come through good works.

The Pharisees thought it did, but it doesn't.

So it's true that our salvation comes from Jesus.

However, our relationship with the Father stays clean and pure, and our Christian witness remains beautifully consistent when we pursue a desire for obedience that spills over into a practice of obedience.

So we're supposed to live as a credit to the message of Christ Jesus.

So how we live matters, but how we pay attention to our hearts, which impacts how we live, matters even more.

And that's basically like one of the core premises of the Sermon on the Mount.

Our righteousness doesn't come from doing good works, but we will desire to accomplish good works because our righteousness comes from Christ.

When we abide in Jesus, when we allow the word of Christ to dwell in us richly, when we stay tethered and drink from the well that never runs dry, when we see ourselves as a branch attached to the vine, Jesus is our source, Jesus is our strength, Jesus is our hope, and Jesus is our template for how we're meant to do life in this world.

So of course, how we live matters, but how we surrender our hearts matters first.

Last week I read Psalm 119, I will walk in freedom, for I've devoted myself to your commandments.

When we devote ourselves to the Father's best, to the Father's commandments, that's real freedom.

There is a narrative in our culture that says real freedom means I can do whatever I want whenever I want to.

But as followers of Christ, can we wrestle that tension for a moment and just decide I will walk in freedom because I devote myself to the commandments of God?

In other words, Father, you can have my heart.

You can have it all, inside out.

And because you have my heart, I choose to believe that you are as good as Jesus says you are.

And because I believe that you're good, I trust you, and because I trust you, I will obey at all costs, even when it hurts me, I'm gonna do what you ask me to do.

And so, what does the Father ask of us?

As we step into Matthew chapter 6, Jesus continues to share some powerful truths, highlighting the priorities of heaven's kingdom and how the law was made complete and fulfilled because of Jesus.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

And once again, this is an in-depth searching and weighing and probing of our hearts, our attitudes, thoughts, intentions, motives.

Because following Jesus is not about checking boxes.

It can't ever be.

It is about surrendering our hearts, our thoughts, emotions, intentions, motives.

King Jesus, you're Lord of it all.

Our habits, our desires, our hopes and dreams, you're Lord of it all.

You reign above it all.

So in Matthew 6, Jesus presents what I want to call some basic, all-purpose spiritual practices or spiritual disciplines or spiritual habits of a Christ follower.

And if you're in this room today and at some point in your journey, in your story, you've made a decision to surrender your life to Christ, then it's probably good for you to know that there are some basic, kind of all-purpose spiritual practices that followers of Jesus need to pay attention to.

Much like human beings need to pay attention to brushing their teeth, showering and bathing, and eating well and exercising in fitness and sleep, these are kind of the spiritual equivalent of those things.

And much like we get to pay attention to our hearts today, as Jesus teaches us in Matthew 6, some basic principles, where is there any part of your heart today that's like, oh, I think that's good for some Christians, but not for me.

Right?

I don't want to be like that 18-year-old whose like independence gets wrapped up in doing whatever they want.

No, there's basic, all-purpose, life-giving principles, and Jesus teaches a few of them.

And the three in Matthew 6 that he begins with are giving away money to people in need, prayer, and fasting.

And the reason that he starts with those three is because the Pharisees were really, really great at putting on a good show when it came to checking boxes of giving money to the poor, giving money to those in need, praying and fasting.

And Jesus just goes at them.

He goes at their public display and their hypocrisy and putting on masks of behaving well in public, but having corrupt desires and corrupt hearts.

And Jesus is always seems to be kind of butting heads with the Pharisees about what the law says and the letter of the law and the spirit, which what we find Jesus healing sick people on the Sabbath, and the Pharisees being like, how dare you, right?

And the heart of Jesus is like, can I capture you from the inside out?

This isn't about you checking all of the legalistic boxes.

This is about you living yielded and surrendered.

My hands up, Father, you're in charge.

And to remember, it's not just that we do the things that a Christ follower is invited to do, but that we actually take the time to sort out why we choose to do those things.

What's our heart motive?

What's our drive?

What's our intention behind it?

And these habits, they also require our time.

They also require our energy and our commitment as a priority.

So we think of these things as spiritual equivalents to showering, bathing, dental hygiene.

And the three in Matthew 6 are giving away money, praying, and fasting.

And today I'm gonna tackle giving money away.

From the heart of Jesus, starting in Matthew 6, verse 1, here's what it says: watch out, begins with a warning.

Matthew 6:1

Don't do your good deeds publicly to be admired by others, for you will lose the reward from your father in heaven.

First thing I want to point out, Jesus is like there should be an inner desire, an inner motive, not a public motivation, not some kind of accolade or admiration or recognition.

And as we're faithful in giving, Jesus also teaches us there's there's something about for the Father in Heaven that rewards this kind of obedience.

When you give to someone in need, don't do as the hypocrites do, blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets to call attention to their acts of charity.

I tell you the truth, they have received all the reward they're ever gonna get.

If you do it for public accolades, you're gonna get public accolades, and that's it.

Okay.

But when you give to someone in need, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.

And this is a picture of like a private heart surrender.

Okay?

Giving your gifts in private, and your Father who sees everything will reward you.

Now, giving alms to the poor, praying, fasting, these were very important disciplines in the religion of the Pharisees.

And Jesus doesn't condemn these practices.

Jesus isn't saying don't give away money.

Jesus isn't saying, certainly isn't saying don't pray and don't fast.

Jesus doesn't condemn these practices, but he does caution us to make sure that our hearts are right as we practice them.

Okay?

The Pharisees used alms giving to gain favor with God and attention from men, both of which are wrong motives.

No amount of giving money away can purchase our salvation.

For salvation is a gift from God, Ephesians 2.

And to live for the praise of other people is a foolish thing because the glory of man just doesn't last.

1 Peter 1.

It is the glory and the praise of God that really counts.

This is Warren Weirspy in his commentary on Matthew 6.

Or as the prophet Jeremiah says in 17, the heart is hopelessly dark and deceitful, a puzzle that no one can figure out.

But I, God, search the heart and examine the mind.

I get to the heart of the human, I get to the root of things, I treat my kids, paraphrase, but I treat them as they really are, not as they pretend to be.

And so I would love for this to be our posture and our prayer as we continue in this message today.

Lord God, search my heart, examine my heart.

Get to the heart of me today.

Get to the root of things in me, not as I pretend to be, not as I am tempted to pretend to be, not as I intend to be, not as I plan on being, shrouded in like some kind of false pride or ego, but just like soft, humble before the Lord, clean hands, pure heart.

Father, would you treat me as I really am today?

You can have my heart.

See this old sinful nature that is at war still within us, like the the day we surrender our lives to create to Jesus Christ, there's a there's a transformative work that takes place from the inside out.

We're changed.

And the old person still, that old sinful nature rears its ugly head.

And in issues of resource and money, it can be so subtle that can even mess up a good thing, like sharing our money and sharing our resources with other people or someone in need.

See, if our motive is to get the accolade of other people, then like the Pharisees, we're gonna call attention to what we're doing, or worse, not deal with our hearts, not check our heart motives.

But if our motive is to serve God in love and please him, then we freely, freely able to just give whatever we want to, give it away without calling any attention to it.

And as a result of that, we grow spiritually, God is glorified, and other people are helped and served.

But when we give with wrong motive, we rob ourselves of blessing.

We rob ourselves of what Jesus teaches, a reward from the Father.

Even though the money we're giving might might actually help somebody in need, if our motives are right, all we're gonna receive is the accolades of human beings.

So does this mean that it's wrong to give openly?

Must all giving be completely anonymous?

Not necessarily, okay?

For everyone in the early church knew that Barnabas had given income for the sale of his land.

Everybody knew about it.

When the church members laid their money at the apostles' feet, it was not done in secret.

The difference, of course, was in the motive and in the manner in which it was done.

I contrast Ananias and Sapphira, if you've read that story in Acts chapter 5, it's a pretty powerful and potent example of wrong motives gone awry.

Acts 5 · chapter mention

Ananias and Sapphira, who try to use their gift financially to make people think that they were way more spiritual than they actually were.

Their hearts were corrupt, and there was a severe consequence that we can read about in Acts 5.

I even think of the life of Jesus, like we read in the narrative of these eyewitness accounts, that Jesus would sit in the temple and he would watch people give.

That's crazy.

Right?

Is that our Lord and Savior today paying close attention to what we give and how we give it and why we give it?

You know, there's a there's a new AI trend right now.

Maybe you've seen it on social media where people are like, if I if I put into AI like all the bills that I have to pay and my my monthly income, AI, could you create a budget for me?

Have you guys seen that?

It's like a new AI trend right now where we we we open open-handedly submit, this is the money that's coming into my family or into my life or into my bank account every week or every every other week or every month.

And then AI, would you these are these are like this is what I owe in in rent or a mortgage payment?

This is kind of my what I spend on groceries, like you kind of offer it up to AI and say, could you write me a healthy budget?

I thought about that.

I was like, what if we did that with God?

What if we were like, Lord, this is what I make?

This is what everything costs.

Would you prioritize finances for me because you're in charge anyway?

I wonder what would show up in God's budget for me.

I wonder what would be first.

I just I can't help but wonder.

And and would I have a soft heart and a deep place of surrendered trust to believe that whatever He gives me is best for me.

Because that's what really matters.

Not that I not that I fulfill that budget out of like a deep sense of obligation or even like contempt for how dare how dare you, God?

How dare you ask me to give away first that which costs me hard work and time.

Jesus in Matthew 6, verse 2 begins, and he says it later on as well, when you give.

Matthew 6:2

And I think that's important.

That's a great place to start because Jesus doesn't say if you give or if you feel like giving or when it's convenient to give, but when you give.

It's implied that giving money away as a follower of Jesus is a basic, all-purpose spiritual habit or spiritual practice as practitioners of Christ Jesus.

And Jesus is so kind and so loving that he quickly addresses the biggest core issues, the biggest reasons why we would have a hard time saying yes to this practice.

Because already in the room today there's tension.

It's one of the things I get to sense and feel and discern as a pastor when I get to lovingly get up and say, let's talk about money.

Right?

I already feel like there's there's there's a sense in the room of just like this is really hard.

And even some of you, if you're honest, that would be like, yo, I hate this.

Okay?

And that's why like I love Jesus, because pretty quickly he addresses the the biggest reasons.

He's like, when you give, give with the right motive, give with the right intentions, check your heart, trust God, there's a reward from heaven.

By the way, fear and worry are gonna mess with you.

Like right away, right out of the gate, he just sort of addresses your heart, addresses the core issues.

What are the number one reasons why you would be reluctant to say, God rate my budget?

Because I'm afraid.

I'm afraid that I won't have enough to spend on me.

I'm afraid that I won't be able to save enough for my retirement.

I'm afraid that one day my kids will want to go to university, and how can I afford that?

And I'm afraid that one day my kids want to get married and I want to be a blessing to them, and I'm afraid that I can't even pay for groceries this month, and I'm afraid fear and worry are the drugs.

Factors of a heart that would begin to hold on with greed.

Greed, simply not like, ha ha ha ha, greed, but greed that's like, I don't trust you.

This is mine.

Greed.

So in verse 19, Jesus teaches, don't store up treasures here on earth.

Where moths eat them, rusts destroy, thieves break in, store treasure in heaven.

Where moths and rusts cannot destroy, and thieves don't break in and steal.

And I love that, I love verse 21.

Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will be.

The desires of your heart are connected to where your treasure gets directed.

And I think like, real practically, if we were to just like swap bank accounts with everybody, like here's my last three months of spending habits.

You would be like, bro, your desires are on donuts, right?

Like you it's just clear that your treasure goes towards donuts, right?

And and what would I see in your bank statement?

What desires of the heart would be made evident in where your treasure's going?

Where would it go?

How what picture would that paint?

And I love this.

Jesus is like, where your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will be.

And it goes both ways.

Sometimes I desire the things of God, so I send my treasure there.

Sometimes in faith, I send my treasure to the things that matter to God, and then my desire shifts towards that.

It goes both ways.

And it's beautiful.

Now, verse 22, Jesus gets a little picturesque and cryptic.

He says, This I, your eye is like a lamp that provides light for your body.

When your eye is healthy, your body's filled with light.

When your eye is unhealthy, your whole body's filled with darkness.

And if the light you think you have is actually so we're we're pretty clear, we're talking about treasure, we're talking about desires, we're talking about earth, we're talking about heaven, now we're talking about our eye.

What Jesus, what's up?

Right?

And then attached to that is this classic Jesus statement.

No one can serve two masters.

Man, even if you didn't grow up in church, there's at some point you probably heard somebody say, You can't you can't serve two masters.

You can't serve God and mammon.

You can't serve God and wealth or money.

No one can serve two masters.

For you'll hate one and love the other, or you'll be devoted to one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.

And so here's this like really poetic, even kind of strange to our modern ears, teaching from Jesus on a healthy eye and an unhealthy eye, and because of my eye I'm filled with light when it's healthier, or because of my eye I'm filled with darkness when it's unhealthy.

What are you talking about, Jesus?

So a healthy eye was actually a figure of speech in Jesus' day and age.

And this is what's important.

The Greek word for healthy here implies being generous, and specifically with our money.

Not just generous, well, I'm generous with my time or I'm generous with my kitchen table.

No, generous with finances.

The Greek word here implies being healthy means I'm generous with my money.

And the Greek word for unhealthy here implies I am stingy with my money.

As Eugene Peterson puts it in his paraphrase, your eyes are windows into your body.

If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light.

But if you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body's like a musty cellar.

If you pull the blinds on your windows, what a dark life you will have.

In other words, my eyes serve as a lamp to my body.

If my eye is generous with my money, like what I'm what I'm observing in the world is with a spirit of like, I want to just give more away.

I want to be more generous, then my whole life is full of light.

But if my eye is stingy, I'm afraid and I'm worried, and I hang on with greed, then my whole life is full of darkness.

What a teaching from Jesus.

And if I'm honest, what a hard, like what a challenging teaching from Jesus.

Because when it comes to our resource, like there's been seasons in my life where I'm like, I love you, God, you're Lord of it all, except my money.

Right, I'll I got that.

I'll look after that.

And with grace and with like a father's heart and real love and compassion, just waits quietly.

Just like, hey, he waits quietly.

Why?

Because we have to choose.

Will I have a healthy eye or will I have an unhealthy eye?

Another way of saying it, will I have a mindset that sees God as provider, or what's called an abundance mindset, or will I have a mindset that sees the world as a crazy place, which is often called a scarcity mindset.

So with an abundance mindset or with a healthy eye, you look out at the world and you see God's kingdom of abundance.

Oh man, he's Lord of it all.

He's my father and he's my provider.

I'm his child.

All of this life is a gift from the one who created it.

This is my father's world, and it's teeming with more than enough for everyone.

I look around and I echo the words of Jesus that we're gonna read in a few minutes.

Like, look at the birds, there's they're so taken care of.

Look at the flowers, they're beautiful.

I don't have a care in the world, I don't have to worry about anything.

There's no fear that can grip my heart when it comes to money.

In other words, I've got a healthy eye.

Okay?

Now, a scarcity mindset: you look out at the world and you see lack everywhere.

You see everything in this life is like um like a fight to the death for like your tiny piece of the pie.

There's a pie, and I got a piece, and my piece is little, and I'm not sure my piece will ever be bigger, I'm not sure it will ever be big enough.

And then, like, and I look at my piece and I'm like, I don't even know how to do what I need to do with this tiny little, ah, there's no father provider.

I'm on my own.

And your heart begins to be gripped by fear as you battle over what feels like limited resources and worry and you having to look out for numero uno in your life because it's doggy dog out there, it's hard out there.

So your vision is focused on that what I have, I'm scared to lose.

And what I don't have, I really, really wish I had more of.

And so you're consumed by greed and fear.

Guess what?

Jesus' followers in the first century, Christ himself, would say, You've got an unhealthy eye.

So there are very two different ways of viewing our relationship with God's kingdom and God's glorious creation, and as such, our relationship with money.

It's wild to me that two people, two like let's pretend picture your house for a second, and then your next door neighbor, and it's probably like your next door neighbor probably has a house similar to your house.

Like if you rent an apartment, picture your the neighbor in the apartment beside you.

If if you have a condo, picture a family.

But like, if if there's two people and they kind of like live on the same street, same style of house, they make the exact same amount of money, their bills are like nearly identical in terms of who they're providing for and the groceries they have to pay, and heat and electricity, and probably way too many TV streaming services, right?

But like apples to apples comparison, they're identical.

Two people can have the exact same income, cost of living, economic responsibility, but see the world in drastically different ways.

Why?

Because one of them has a healthy eye and one of them has an unhealthy eye.

Especially if someone grew up in poverty or in an unsafe home or an unstable family.

I had a very unhealthy eye for many years, and it was a it was gripped by fear.

And the lie of the enemy attached to that fear for me as your pastor was like you need to be very careful because one day you could lose it all.

And the reason that lie existed in my life is because when I was seven years old, my parents went bankrupt, and we literally lost everything.

We moved from King of the Hill, nicest neighborhood, swimming pool, things galore, successful business, as a family.

We moved from everything to nothing.

And by nothing, I actually mean nothing.

And in that season, wouldn't you know the enemy comes along and says, see, God's not as good as Jesus says he is.

That's that's original sin.

Right in the book of Genesis.

It's a real for for me that and it wasn't until I was probably 24 years old that I began to recognize the lie of the enemy in my own heart and realize that I get to choose what kind of mindset.

I get to choose what kind of eye.

And from that point on, I said, Oh, I don't I don't want to live with an unhealthy eye.

I want to live with a healthy eye.

This is my father's world.

How do you how do you see the world?

Can I pastor your heart for a second?

I just I want you to, if it's helpful, you can close your eyes for a minute if you want.

Just look at take a second with you and the Lord.

But when a pastor gets up and begins to teach about money and financial stewardship and scarcity mindset or abundance, it's actually really vital that we pay attention to our hearts.

Like, what am I feeling right now?

Am I feeling anxious?

Am I feeling like, how do I get out of this room?

Am I feeling guilty and ashamed?

Well, that's that's not God, so let's pay attention to that.

Am I feeling embarrassed or less than?

If you had absolute assurance that God would always provide enough for you, how would that change your relationship to money and a kingdom practice of generosity?

Or in other words, what's it gonna cost you to let the Lord write your budget?

You see, if we come to trust Jesus' vision for abundance, Jesus is teaching in Matthew 6, God, our Father provider, then all of Jesus' teachings really begin to make sense.

Because he's like, hey, don't worry.

And he's talking about money, don't worry.

Seek first the kingdom, give and it'll be given to you.

We're free.

Our hearts are free to be generous with what with what we've been entrusted with.

If we believe those teachings from Jesus attached to our our our finances and how we steward our lives and how we let God lead us, then we're like, oh, that's great.

Seek first the kingdom.

I get to the very first thing I do with my money is put God's kingdom first.

And the very first thing I do with my money is to give and trust that God's gonna provide.

And the very first thing I'm gonna do with my money is to be free, to give freely and to bless other people.

The very first thing I get to do with money is to not worry and not be afraid.

But if we don't believe Jesus' teachings, we read it and he's like, He sounds crazy.

Generosity from the mouth of Jesus, if we don't believe in who God is, then it sounds not only foolish, but kind of reckless, kind of dangerous.

In other words, this might hurt me.

If you knew what was actually going on in my life, you would never ask me to give first to the things that matter to the heart of God.

Jesus, that's mean.

Why?

Because I'm enslaved to fear and worry and greed, which is why Jesus goes on to say, no one can serve two masters.

Some translations have you cannot serve God and mammon.

And Matthew actually left that word mammon in on purpose.

Scholars think it was because uh the word mammon was the name for an ancient Syrian God of wealth, small G God.

So it's Jesus' way of saying, like, money's gonna try and be a rival God in your life.

If you're if you say, I live surrendered to Yahweh, I live surrendered to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, I live surrendered to the Lord of it all, I live surrendered to the one enthroned on high, and money's gonna be like, yeah, but I'm gonna try and take over.

For Jesus, money, fine, financial wealth is actually powerful.

Why?

Because it has sway over our hearts and is often demonically animated force in our work and in our souls and in our society.

Like just look at the globe, economic factors of disease and um war, famine.

Like you think money has so much to do with the state of the world that we live in.

No wonder we worry.

No wonder we're afraid.

The God of mammon is working hard to convince God's people that he's not as good as Jesus says he is.

That's an unhealthy eye.

Who are you gonna believe?

Hence, Jesus says, you cannot serve God and riches.

You cannot serve God and mammon.

Not you shouldn't, not you should rethink it, but no, you cannot.

It's impossible.

It's impossible to serve both God and wealth.

It's not that it's bad, it's just impossible.

The rival God of mammon will take over your heart unless you resist his gravitational pull.

His gravitational pull towards fear and worry, towards success, towards riches, towards having more.

Resist the gravitational pull.

How?

As a Christ follower, how give it away, give it away, give it away now.

It's through generosity.

That's the practice.

You know, for every lie of the enemy, there's a spiritual discipline and a spiritual practice that will override the enemy of this world, the deceiver.

And when it comes to the lie of mammon and wealth, the spiritual practice, according to Jesus, is generosity.

I close Matthew 6, verse 25.

Matthew 6:25

That is why I tell you not to worry.

Isn't Jesus the best?

Like when we look to the heart of the Savior, when it comes to how we steward our money, he ends with this.

That's why I'm telling you, not to worry about everyday life, whether you have enough, enough food and drink or enough clothes to wear.

Isn't life be honest, isn't life more than just food?

Isn't your body way more than just clothing?

Caveat, please wear clothes.

But isn't life more than just clothing?

26.

Look at the birds.

Here it is.

I want I want to be like Jesus.

I want, I want to, I want to examine this wide expansive view of God's kingdom.

I trust that he's my father and that he's a good provider and that he holds it all.

And as such, he's not Lord over my life with just some of the things that are convenient or some of the things that are easy.

This teaching from Jesus addresses my heart and addresses the fear and the worry for lack, and will I have enough?

And will I ever have enough?

And I'm my temptation to with greed just hold tightly.

But Jesus is like, look at the birds.

They don't plant, they don't harvest, they don't store in barns.

Why?

Because the father feeds them.

And this powerful statement that I just even sense is going to become true for somebody in this room for the first time today.

Are you not more valuable to the father than birds?

This goes straight to the core of your heart.

Do you believe that God is as good as Jesus says he is?

So much, in fact, that the righteousness you have in Christ adopts you into family.

Your identity is rooted and anchored in Jesus to the extent that God sees you, knows you, calls you his own.

Are you not more valuable than a bird?

And then also, can any of your worries add a single moment to your life?

And in one simple question, what's the cost?

Hairs open all of my fear and worry.

Like, what's the cost of worry?

It's it's not gonna add anything to my life, it's certainly taking away from my life.

Why worry about your clothing?

Look at the lilies, look at the birds, and then look at the lilies, how they grow, they don't work, they don't make clothing.

Solomon, in all of his glory, was not dressed as beautifully as these lilies.

And if God cares, here it is again, God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and thrown in the fire tomorrow, He will certainly care for you.

And then here's the question why do you have such faith is directly connected to what we worry about with our money?

Worried about my everyday life and expenses and job, worry about groceries and clothing budgets, worry about will I be able to take my wife on a nice holiday uh for our 25th anniversary?

Will I be able to worry, worry, little faith.

Ouch.

Ouch.

Okay.

So what's the alternative?

Healthy eye resist the gravitational pull of mammon.

How it sucks me into fear, it sucks me into that guide, it sucks me into holding on, sucks me into not trusting that God, the Father provider, is as good as Jesus says he is.

Or as Eugene puts it so beautifully in his message paraphrase to the church in Edmonton.

What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax.

Take a deep breath.

To not be so preoccupied with getting so that you can respond to God's giving.

People who don't know God, people don't who don't know the way God works, fuss over these things.

But come on, church, you you know both God and how he works.

Steep your life in God reality.

Steep your life in God initiative, steep your life in God provision.

Don't worry about missing out.

You'll find all of your everyday human concerns will be met.

Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now.

And then don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow.

I love that part of our daily practice, our daily habit, what Jesus actually refers to is like a basic principle, like an all-purpose, like on the physical side of things, brush your teeth, take your shower, bro, comb your hair, right?

Put on clean underwear, go like take care of yourself.

And on the spiritual side of things, Jesus is like, deal with your heart when it comes to money, trust that God is as good as he says he is, and then initiate that trust by radical obedience and just being willing to participate in what God is doing with your money.

It's a basic practice, it's a it's a principle.

It's a basic principle.

And much like we would say to an 18-year-old who's like, You've been telling me to brush my teeth, but I think you're nuts, we have to pay attention to our hearts where you're like, I I hear you, Pastor, I hear you say Jesus is like, not if I give, but when.

But I'm an 18-year-old and I'm gonna do whatever I want.

That's an unhealthy eye.

And our invitation is to see things through the lens of Christ with our heart first, and then with our hand, we give it away.

Don't worry about missing out, you'll find your needs met.

Give your entire attention, and what's implied here, give your entire attention with where your money goes to what God is doing right now, and and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow.

God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.

And that's like that's brutally honest, Jesus.

Hard things are gonna happen.

FYI, you're gonna have a hard time, but that doesn't have to impact your heart posture towards money.

So we give with our whole heart, we give our attention to what God's doing.

This requires time, this requires energy, this requires commitment, this requires a commitment to it being a priority in our life, thinking of it like a spiritual hygiene habit.

Is that helpful?

Or or like, Lord, could you write my budget for me?

Let's stand as we close.

I want to give us a moment to pray together and to respond.

If our heart posture Is is one of the people of God saying it's not just in part or not just in theory that I say, be seated on the throne of my life, God.

But I would love for that to overflow into every piece of my existence, every piece of my story.

I would love for my my desire for obedience to spill over into a responsive obedience, a lifestyle of obedience.

And as this first part of Matthew 6, where you invite us to declare that there is no other God that holds our hearts when it comes to money save you.

As for me and my house, we will we will serve the Lord.

We will declare, we'll put a stake in the ground today.

This is God, when it comes to how I spend, you're in control.

What I give to first.

I want you to notice today I I didn't tell you what to give or how much to give or when to give.

I just said Jesus says give.

And now our response is to pray.

How much, how often, and to where?

What does it mean to participate in the things that matter to the Father in this world?

And begin with this is a centuries-old teaching for Christians to begin with a percentage.

Start somewhere.

You give a percentage of your money to your house, you give a percentage of your money to groceries, you give a percentage of your money to all of the streaming services and Wi-Fi and cell phones, you give a percentage of your money to lot hobbies and to golf and to uh motocross racing and to fixing up old cars, you give a percent, so give a percentage of your money to God first.

That's that's kind of that's the principle.

And then the the caveat is as a New Testament Christian, dealing with our hearts means that we're never gonna be satisfied with how much we give away.

Because early Christians learned how to live off of less and always give away more.

So this is an area of growth for us, an area of maturity.

This isn't just about plunking in a percentage and saying, look what I did, I checked a box.

No, this is about my heart.

Maybe next month I only have, as an example, um Netflix.

And I cancel my Amazon Prime and my Disney Plus subscription because I want to live off of less so that I can give away more.

Do I really need all three?

That's probably that's a great practical example of God messing with our hearts, saying, Hey, trust me with more.

Trust me with more.

And so, Father, we ask today for wisdom, for supernatural grace, for kindness and clarity to just like mess with our hearts in a way that we have this overwhelming, obedient response connected to our desire for a healthy eye.

We want to look out at your kingdom and your world, everything that you created, not from a posture of fear and worry and dread and greed and lack, but from a deep, wide open trust that you are God and we are not, and that you actually hold it all.

So would you would you move our hearts towards a greater posture that says, Father, it's all yours?

Would you grow and develop and prioritize your kingdom in us first from a place of gratitude and contentment and real peace, laying our lives down, living off of less and living off of less and less to give away more and give away more and more with a cheerful heart that trusts in you alone, that trusts that you are our father provider, and that you hold it all.

Why?

So that we can be a people who have your heart to care for the needs of others, to see your kingdom come here on earth, here in Edmonton, as it is in heaven.

And so, as a people of faith, we respond in faith, free from worry, free from fear, free from greed, be Lord of it all.

We cannot serve two masters.

For us in our homes, we'll serve the Lord.

Come, Holy Spirit.

Thank you so much for listening to today's message.

If you're ever in the Edmonton area, pop by for a visit.

And if you need any more information, visit Evolvechurch.com.

We hope to see you soon.