Roger's Postings

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Matthew 6:24-34. Worry says it all??? 25/5/08

{24) "No one can serve two masters. 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 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 important than food, and the body more important 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} Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? {28} "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. {29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour 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, O 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.

No one can serve two masters. That is the challenge that is laid in front of each one of us today by our great and gracious God. Now before you start switching off, I believe that here we have one of the most relevant issues facing us today as Christians, who are seeking to be true and faithful but also wanting to live well in our current society. The difficulty for us is to find a balance between what the world around us tells and presses us to see as important; and what God has in mind for us. We feel that it should be possible to have both; and not miss out on either.
But what are the results for us as we go about our lives every day? On the one hand, it would seem that we are being nagged and nagged by the pastor to lift our game and to seek to have our lives more compatible with what we believe and say is important. On the other our society tells us that we have all these other things that we need to have and do, that almost totally erodes any time and thought for those other things that we know should be important. Where do we go with all of this? How do we manage it all? It is all too hard! It is all too much of a hassle!
No, look we have to have all this money, or our kids will miss out on a good education, or be deprived because we haven’t given them the latest, whatever. Our children have to have the sport and the recreation time. We have to have latest clothes. We have to have control over what is happening. We have to … We have to … It’s all too much! It’s all a worry!

But we have to have it, otherwise we are in trouble. If we don’t we and or our kids will lose out. We will be told that we are losers and our kids will be told the have deprived them; and they will resent us for it. If you continue to hold to what is right and true, you will lose your influence over others, so you have ease back and be more tolerant. No, you have to go with the flow, or you just won’t ‘cut it’. If you don’t go for what looks good, you will certainly be bypassed.

So the pressure of master no. 2 has his way over us. We worry and fret; we work our butts off to keep up; we put ourselves under enormous pressure in order to have what the world tells us we need to have and do. And we swallow it all, hook, line and sinker. And it is tearing us to pieces. Saddest of all we are more and more giving up on that which is truly important. Along with that we are telling our children and the world around us what is truly important in life. Master no 2 is rubbing his hands all the way to hell.

"No one can serve two masters. 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 both God and Money. One or the other wins out; we cannot have it both ways. As much as we might think we have it all under control; after all, it is only a Sunday here or there that we miss church. Is it? Look around and see those who only missed a Sunday or two a few years back; they are now mostly gone. Even sadder where are their children, now grown up: God is not even on their ‘radar screen’, far less as he who is all important. Our Lord says; "No one can serve two masters. 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 both God and Money.

Surely the message is clear to us all. There is no having it both ways. One or the other is to be all important. Which is it going to be? Certainly many have already voted with their feet and their lives. But each of us has to make our own decision on this matter.

But before we go any further let us also be sure that we have heard the rest of what our Lord has said here.
"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 important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 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? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these. 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, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.

So God has promised that he will take care of you. He will give you all that you need for life. As we trust him to be true to his Word we find that this is the case: So all this worry and striving after having all of these things is totally unnecessary. In fact it is even harmful to the cause of us having a happy and contented life. Think over the history of this country of ours; we have been very blest. For much of our early history we were known as a Christian country; however we have departed from that in recent times and have now sought to build our own life and fortune. The results there too are clearly seen, as worry, frustration, emptiness and more grows as we correspondingly serve the master of money and mammon.

Now a common response to this is often given in order to ease the conscience and as an excuse for not taking God seriously is that of the terrible tragedies in Burma, China, Africa and the like. Surely God is not looking after them. Now I won’t go into the issue of God’s providence in those situations; but simply make the point that God is also working through there as well. However the issue here is that master no.2 has no answer at all to them, or to us and scrimping and saving in order to help us through such tragedies of life. They leave us completely stranded.

However or Lord says that no matter what you face as you live in a sinful world; seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
So instead of worrying and striving, at all costs, to ensure that we have done everything in order to take care of every situation; we are challenged to first of all seek after the things of God and he will take care of everything else. Now of course that doesn’t mean we sit back and do nothing. That is ridiculous. But what he says here is, seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. Our number one priority is to look to God and what he has in mind for us. Serve him first and foremost then all these other things will find there rightful place.

Because of Jesus Christ and his death on the cross for us, we know that he loves and cares for us; we know that he has ensured that we have eternal life with him in heaven. Therefore we surely can trust that he will take care of us as we live out our lives every day.

Worrying however tells us that we would sooner trust and serve master no.2. Here, we know what God says will happen to this who place their trust in anything else other than him. So let us take up the challenge to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, trusting that he is true to his word. All the while let us remember that for all eternity glory and honour will alone go to our great God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. For he alone is God. AMEN.

Pastor Roger Atze
Redeemer Lutheran Church
Toowoomba

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