Saturday, April 28, 2012

A divided heart makes a divided life………


“Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal.  Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal.   Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.

 “Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light.   But when your eye is bad, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is!

 “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.   Matt. 6: 19-24 NLT

A summary of our series is that we cannot serve God acceptably with a divided heart. The Sermon on the Mount flows with such perfect harmony pointing to a heart relationship as the only to know and please God.

 A divided heart is equal to the serpent speaking with a forked tongue.  Have you ever been close enough to a snake to see its tongue poking out and wiggling at you?   The tongue goes in two directions.

 The expression, “he speaks with a forked tongue” means that what he is saying is not what he means, and what he means is not what he is saying.  Man, by nature, has the serpent's characteristics. The heart desires heaven as a way to escape hell, but lacks a desire for God.  That is the world’s religion today.

How many are truly seeking God?  How many churches teach the fear of God and a desire to do His will?  How many teach about a heart relationship with God?

We could sit under the most pure preaching of the gospel and still have a divided heart.  If we have a heart that is right before God, it is a heart of self-sacrifice and it is giving of ourselves to serve God for His glory. The Sermon on the Mount teaches the need of a Christ-like spirit, i.e., a heart of self-sacrifice which is required to serve God.

Serving two masters is contrary to the single eye concept Jesus taught in the preceding verses.  "The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light…."  (Vs 22)

We must understand that the sole objective of our heart is to be reconciled to God and do His will.  It should be our desire that God's will become our will then our eye will be looking to what is pleasing to God as the objective of our life.

Jesus is teaching in our passage how Satan is cheating our souls, how he is stealing the true treasure in exchange for temporal things.  We think we can divide our treasures, having it here upon earth and in heaven, too.  

Jesus tells us our heart will be where our treasure is; so if we are building treasures for here and thereafter, then we have a divided heart.  He wants a heart where He is the focus not our things.  He wants to know wherein, is our trust and confidence.  Where our heart is there our treasure will be or where our treasure is our heart will be.

Whatsoever is of the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, is mammon.  It is not only the love of money; it is anything upon which we claim gain. If we are going to be a Pharisee; a church-going person, claiming that by the works of the law, we can be justified, it's mammon. We cannot serve God for gain; we must serve Him out of love.

Jesus did not say we must not, nor does He say we should not, instead He tell us we cannot serve God and mammon; we cannot love both. Where our heart is, there is our treasure.  It is impossible to serve God if our heart is set on something else.

“Do not love or cherish the world or the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him.

For all that is in the world--the lust of the flesh [craving for sensual gratification] and the lust of the eyes [greedy longings of the mind] and the pride of life [assurance in one's own resources or in the stability of earthly things]--these do not come from the Father but are from the world [itself].

And the world passes away and disappears, and with it the forbidden cravings (the passionate desires, the lust) of it; but he who does the will of God and carries out His purposes in his life abides (remains) forever.”   I John 2:15-17 AMP

Please understand that God is not condemning us for being wealthy or rich. The question is, “Are you serving those things and committing idolatry by having them be your god?”  Money is not bad; it is the love of money that is the root of evil (I Timothy 6:10).

“Tell those rich in this world's wealth to quit being so full of themselves and so obsessed with money, which is here today and gone tomorrow. Tell them to go after God, who piles on all the riches we could ever manage—to do good, to be rich in helping others, to be extravagantly generous.  If they do that, they'll build a treasury that will last, gaining life that is truly life.”   I Tim. 6:17-19 MSG




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