Friday, March 13th

Generosity reflects who God is, reveals who we are, and declares who we trust. Generosity demonstrates our trust in God.

Read Matthew 6:21-24- 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

The eye discussion was another message from the past. Short version is that the way you can translate the word healthy and unhealthy is actually, a healthy eye is a generous eye and unhealthy eye is a stingy eye. Which means it’s the way you see life. Do you see with healthy or generous eyes? Or do you see with unhealthy or stingy eyes?

Where I want to land the plane for today is that last phrase in verse 24, You cannot serve both God and money. In some translations the word for money is mammon. This word is referred to as wealth, but it is deeper than that. It refers to this phrase, “the one who puts trust in.” Jesus is saying, you can’t serve two masters because you can’t put your trust in both.

You can’t put your trust in God and put your trust in wealth. You will either trust God or your will trust your wealth. If you want to jot down Matthew 19:16-26, the rich young ruler. That’s another discussion where the man asks, what else do I lack, I thought I’ve done everything and Jesus says, “sell everything.” He walks away from Jesus because he couldn’t trust that answer, trust that option.

Friends, Jesus never says money is evil. He says the love of money is what separates us from God. Because we put our trust in something other than God himself (1 Timothy 6:9-10).
Most of you need to hear this because it flies in the face of what some of you have grown up to believe. Wealth is NOT a Christian virtue. As is poverty is NOT a Christian virtue. Freedom is a Christian virtue because we are no longer enslaved by other “gods” or other things.

That’s why I love the completeness of Matthew 6, because when we segment it, we miss how verse twenty-four is directly connected to the next section. We like the next section because it says Do Not Worry. But if this was a continual conversation, it would look like this.

Read Matthew 6:24-34- 24 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. 25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? 28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Jesus refers back to God’s generosity in creation (birds and flowers) and directs it back to us. Do we see how generous God is? Do we trust how generous God can be?

Our worry is tied to our trust, our worry about finances is tied to what we seek. Do we seek his kingdom and his way of life (righteousness) or do we seek the world?

Generosity or lack thereof declares where we place our trust. Generosity shifts our security from what we hold to Who holds us.

I want you to take a moment with this song, Trust in God. It needs to get our attention for our lives to change. How do you need to step into obedience with generosity?

Because generosity reflects who God is, reveals who we are, and declares who we trust.