Laying up Treasures in Heaven • Devotion 5: Who is Your Master?
Pastor John Carter
“No one can serve two masters, for 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 God and money.” Matthew 6:24
All this week Jesus has been challenging our earthly thinking in comparison to the way He desires us to think. He recognizes the condition of our hearts and how we have a very strong propensity to lean on our shallow, earthly view of life. He has been challenging me to stop thinking in this temporary way and expand my views to see things from a heavenly perspective, an eternal one. We have walked through many hard-to-hear things regarding the way we view money or wealth. Jesus takes it to a whole new level at the end of the passage we are looking at this week. Jesus asks us to whom our heart is devoted. Yes, this still has to do with money and wealth. I think Jesus knows that we as humans tend to put a lot of trust in our earthly possessions.
If I can be completely transparent with you, this subject has been a hard one for me. I am not sure if you could sense my struggle in the writing. Emotion is often hard for me to put down in written form. If you do not know my story, I went to school for finance. I dreamed of becoming a “successful” businessman and obviously having plenty of money in the bank account was at the core of my motivation. God had a different plan for my life. As often as I tried to resist it, He called me into ministry. One of the most amazing things I have ever had the privilege of walking through, was when God called me and my family to South Carolina. I went through a refining process that was like none other I had ever been through before.
God put me in a position where I was no longer the primary financial provider of the home. I was the stay-at-home dad. Covid really solidified this role for me as I was instantly responsible for the education of three daughters. There was a season when I was very bitter against God. I was very confused about what He was doing why He was doing it. I really started struggling through where I was in life. I considered my college education from a top state university had way more value to it than how I was using it. When I got my degree, I was a workaholic. I would work a full-time job and do school at night to pursue my ambitions. Often times, I would be gone from 5:30 am to 9:30 pm. I did all this with a family. Trusting my wife to do all the heavy lifting of raising a family, I went after the earthly things. I share this with you because I think it very much applies to the hard, disruptive topic we are walking through. As I found myself in a completely different role than I had ever imagined (stay-at-home dad), I found myself walking more in the things of the earth than I had realized. God was tearing down the things I put security in. God had to disrupt my life to show me where my heart was. I look back at the many lessons I learned during that time and often find myself full of joy. I find myself with joy because now I see that the disruption was very needed in my life. I needed God to snap me out of my earthly view of things and put me focused on the heavenly things that He has called me to.
In verse 24, Jesus lays it out as clear as day concerning the condition of our hearts. He illustrates it in terms of masters. “Boss” might be a better and more current word to use. He says that you cannot have two bosses (masters). Jesus points out that just like in real life, it is difficult to try to please two completely different people. Maybe you have two completely different bosses where one likes things done a certain way and another likes it done in a completely different way. The inner turmoil of that scenario is a very real one if you have ever been in that situation. What ends up happening is you end up choosing one over the other. It is usually the one you like more. Jesus then flips this example to tell us the way we serve money and the way we serve God are very much just like this example of two bosses. It is two bosses that are completely different. One, an earthly boss, sees and desires you to do things one way. He wants you to store earthly treasures and have an eye for earthly things. The other, the Heavenly Boss, has a completely different way of doing things. He wants you to lay up your treasure in a place that is eternal. He desires you to see things in this life with a heavenly mindset. Ultimately, we have to choose which one we will serve. All too often, we are deceived by the pursuit of money and wealth. We fail to see the misery and sorrow that comes with it and can even destroy our families all for the pursuit of money. We can easily justify our motives for the love of money. We put words in there like, “I am doing this for my family. I am going to make all the money I need then serve God.” We, as the church, easily walk through this as well. We will justify the way we spend money to bring glory to an organization or up our church comfort experience. Yet, in the same breath, we are ignoring the people we can help sitting right next to us.
So, the ultimate question is, who is your master? Who have you chosen to devote your time, energy, and resources to? Which one do you really despise? No doubt, these are seriously hard and disruptive questions to try and navigate through. I really do understand the hardship of these questions. I write them and cringe because I know my own heart. I know how for many years I have relied on, and still have the propensity to rely on, my own financial stability. It is a dangerous trap the devil sets for us. In James 4:4, it is said this way, “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”
I do not want to be an enemy of God, nor do I want to make money a master of my life! Being forced to walk through our heart condition when it comes to money is truly disruptive. It is completely and totally opposite of the way the world tells us to view it. The world tells us money is the answer. They say, “Cash is king.” I cannot count the number of times I have heard those very words in negotiating a deal.
Cash is not king; Jesus is King! Take some time today and truly work through the disruption. Is there something you are holding on to way too tight? Do you see an area in your life that if God tries to navigate you towards, you are quick to pull it away and say, “Not that, God. You cannot touch that.” Please, do not take another day to allow your heart to be convinced of the lies that wealth, money, or the pursuit of money, puts before you. Choose today to serve God and follow Him!