The Pilgrim Path---Matthew 6: 24

“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.”

“NO ONE CAN SERVE TWO MASTERS…”

Money is an alluring master. Just remember, money makes offers that it is unable to fulfill. Money can buy you a super-mattress to rest on---but it cannot buy you a legitimate night’s sleep. Money can surround you with all sorts of admirers---but will not supply you with one loyal friend. Money may fill your table with the most delectable food choices---but will not give you an appetite to enjoy what is available. Money can put some of the world’s finest medical professionals at your disposal---but it will not make you whole. Money has limitations. It can not “clear” your conscience before the Holy God of Heaven. Money cannot reconcile you to the LORD of ALL the Earth or wash away your sins (only the God-Man Jesus can do this). You’ve maybe heard the old quip: “Many break their health---to get wealth. Then spend their wealth---trying to get their health back!” We must look at our lives with some regularity---and evaluate our stewardship for King Jesus. Are we controlling our money and things---or are they controlling us?

Here’s Jim Boice recounting of Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones story of a farmer who one day reported to his wife with great joy that his “best” cow had given birth to twin calves, one red and one white…

He said, “You know, I have been led of the LORD to dedicate one of the calves to HIM. We will raise them together. Then when the time comes to sell them, we will keep the proceeds that come from one calf, and we will give the proceeds that come from the other to the LORD’S work.”

His wife asked which calf he was going to dedicate to the LORD, but he answered that there was no need to decide then. “We will treat them both in the same way,” he said, “and when that time comes, we will sell them as I have said.”

Several months later the man entered the kitchen looking very sad and miserable. When his wife asked what was troubling him he said, “I have bad news for you. The LORD’S calf is dead.” “But” his wife remonstrated, “you had not decided which was to be the LORD’S calf.” “Oh, yes” he said, “I had always determined that it was to be the white one, and it is the white calf that has died.”

It is always the LORD’S calf that dies---unless we are absolutely clear about our service to HIM and the true nature of our possessions. Who owns our possessions? The LORD Jesus Christ tells us that either God owns them, and you serve Him, or else your possessions own you, and you serve them. In any case, no one ever really possesses them himself, although many persons think they do. May God give us each the victory that comes when our gifts, wealth, time, friends, ambitions, and talents are turned over to Him and we use them to establish indestructible riches in heaven.

From Thomas Watson: The famine was good for Jacob, for it brought him to Joseph. Sometimes God’s children must see the world’s emptiness to be acquainted with Christ’s fullness. If God sees it to be good for them to have more of the world, they shall have it. He will not let them lack any good thing.

Grace and Peace in Jesus, the Only Redeemer of broken and wretched souls, Pastor Jason