Show Notes
You simply cannot have two focuses, you cannot serve God and Money at the same time.
One will make the other impossible to focus on, and honestly. I'd rather focus on God than on Money.
Let's chat about it.
View Full Transcript
Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] What if I told you that what you are focusing on the most is actually what you are serving?
[00:00:12] God doesn't design us to fit. He designs us to be impactful.
[00:00:18] The most we've been In Matthew chapter six, we actually started at verse 24, five, talking about care and anxiety. But what we ended up finding out is like there's a therefore at the beginning of that small chunk of scripture. And usually when you're studying the Bible, you need to understand what the therefore is there for. So we've been going back a little bit and understanding where everything is come from, why Jesus decided to talk about care and worry. And we actually find out that it is honestly about where we store our treasures in the earth and in heaven. And Jesus is giving his understanding and giving us principles by which we need to be able to store up the right things. So we only have a little bit left. That gets us back to Matthew, chapter 6, verse 24. And I'm actually going to start reading. We're just going to jump right in if you have. If you don't know me, I'm Ryan. Welcome to Shifts and Ladders. Getting right into it.
[00:01:24] So we're going to start at verse 22 this time.
[00:01:27] Verse 22 says this. The light of the body is the eye. Therefore, if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is unclear in your whole body, your whole body will be full of darkness. Therefore, if the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness?
[00:01:49] No one can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other.
[00:02:01] You cannot serve God and money.
[00:02:05] Okay, we're just gonna jump right into it.
[00:02:11] You know, I, we usually go to if you don't know.
[00:02:15] Sometimes I wear glasses on this. I have corrective lenses, particularly contacts.
[00:02:22] And generally what we are getting tested for when we go to the optometrist is whether we can focus on things far away or things up close. So they usually have all the letters in the far part of the room to say, tell me what is the lowest line you can read?
[00:02:46] And then you start reading what that is, right? Then they bring it up close and say, okay, what's the smallest or the lowest line you can read? And then read that back to the optometrist.
[00:02:57] What they're testing is the amount that your eye can focus on small things. So if you're not able to, that determines how much power they need to put in the contact lenses. Or the glasses so that it can get you to 2020 vision. Okay? So some of us are a few eggs short of a full carton when it comes to eyesight. Some of us need a whole lot of help and a whole lot of power in order to get our vision where it needs to be. But what we need is corrective lenses. Now, here, check this. So what ends up happening is the lenses and the power of the lenses helps determine how much light gets in the eye and how much power you need, how much power you need in order to focus on those particular lines, items, road signs, whatever. Okay?
[00:04:04] But it determined. It's determined by how much light your eyes can let in in order for that to happen.
[00:04:11] But if you don't have enough light, it makes it really hard to focus.
[00:04:15] Makes it really hard to see.
[00:04:19] Not just in the daytime, especially in the nighttime, because your eye is actually looking for light in order to focus on the right things that you're looking at.
[00:04:32] So what does this have to do with the scripture for today? I'm glad you asked.
[00:04:37] What we find that we do is that we tend to get more of what we focus on. So if you are looking for more money, you will search for and gravitate to more money.
[00:04:58] Okay. If you're looking for love, you'll start looking for love anywhere.
[00:05:07] There's a line that says, sometimes we're looking for love in all the wrong places. We are going to look for what we focus on.
[00:05:16] However, this is the problem, though.
[00:05:19] Sometimes we don't know what to really focus on.
[00:05:24] And the eyes was. Jesus is displaying and depicting. Here are the very things that are actually the gateway to our soul.
[00:05:33] Okay.
[00:05:39] We tend to spend a lot of time looking at and watching things that we really want.
[00:05:49] Have you, have you, have you. Have you had that before?
[00:05:52] You were looking at a particular car, and all of a sudden you see the same car pop up at the stop sign, at the grocery store, at the movie theater. And you're like, this must be God.
[00:06:08] You're like, God's trying to give me a sign on something. Maybe I can't be the person to tell you whether or not he's talking to you about it. But I will tell you this. You just weren't focusing on it at that time.
[00:06:19] Now you're looking for it.
[00:06:22] You are focusing on and looking for some kind of bias that's actually always been there the whole time.
[00:06:34] It's not like these cars just popped up on the road.
[00:06:39] You just hadn't been able to focus on those things. So What Jesus is saying is, if you're focusing on light, which light in the Bible is a sign of revelation? So if your eye is full of light, the body is going to be full of light. Why? Because the eye is one of the gates by which we get and gain information.
[00:07:02] You have the. Is the eye gate, the ear gate, and the mouth gate. But the thing is, your eyes tend to help you when you are walking, talking, seeking things for those who have licenses, which I hope many of you do.
[00:07:23] Usually what they tell. What is the thing that they tell you when they get you a license? Particularly. Particularly now, these days with distracted driving and all that kind of stuff. They say keep your eyes on the road.
[00:07:38] And why do they tell you to keep your eyes on the road? Because where your eyes go, your driving will go.
[00:07:49] Isn't that crazy? You will find yourself slowly veer off to the right or to the left if you get slightly distracted by that McDonald's sign or that Chick Fil a sign.
[00:07:59] Or Wendy's. The Wendy's sign. I couldn't think of it. The Wendy's sign. Why? Because it's right there. Our eyes take. They get distracted.
[00:08:15] So if you're getting things that are full of light, which is revelation from God, and if you have darkness, which are anything that is not the word of God, it could be worldly things. It could be, you know, it could be violence. It could be porn. It could be all those kinds of things. It could be things that are dark. If your eyes are full of those kinds of things, then your body, your soul is full of it. Those kinds of things. But what he's also saying is you don't want to break up the rest of the scripture. He's saying if you serve. Here we go. Verse 24.
[00:08:50] No one can serve two masters.
[00:08:53] That means you cannot, in your sight, split your vision two different ways.
[00:08:58] Your eyes don't go like one way and the other way. They are designed to work in concert with one another.
[00:09:06] So one eye, both eyes actually create the vision that you are seeing in 3D. So Bible is saying with this imagery of two eyes, of light in the eyes, that no one can serve two masters. So your eyes cannot divert to two different things at the same time. So what he's saying is that you cannot serve two masters. Jesus is a masterful illustrator and teacher, because either you will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other.
[00:09:44] You cannot serve God and money.
[00:09:49] So why does Jesus, out of everything, mention God?
[00:09:55] The Father and money.
[00:09:58] I've always asked this. He didn't mention the devil.
[00:10:03] He didn't mention Satan or himself. Satan. He didn't mention himself. He didn't mention Satan. He didn't mention, you know, your family. He didn't mention your things. He mentioned money, God and money.
[00:10:22] He mentioned money and God got him on.
[00:10:26] He gave us a cheat code though, because he said he put God first in front of the money. Isn't that crazy?
[00:10:34] He's even teaching in the details.
[00:10:37] Why is that?
[00:10:39] Because we love what money can get us.
[00:10:45] Money can distract us and distract us from a whole life of purpose, meaning and fulfillment.
[00:10:56] I mentioned this in a previous podcast. There's been studies and documentaries showing of people who wish they had spent more time on the things that they couldn't see love relationships than they did chasing the bag.
[00:11:14] The ojs misquoted scripture saying that money is the root of all evil. That's not what the Bible says. It says the love of money is the root of all evil.
[00:11:24] What does that mean?
[00:11:26] The love of money can cause you to do all kinds of evil.
[00:11:34] It can cause you to do any kind and all kinds of evil for a dollar.
[00:11:40] It's not necessarily the reason why people do evil things, but it can be the root to all kinds and all types of evil in the world. Okay.
[00:11:52] It's a bridge.
[00:11:54] People do what they want to do to get, get paid. Right?
[00:11:59] So why does Jesus mention this?
[00:12:03] Because we end up serving the thing that we love.
[00:12:09] And honestly, all God created the money in Genesis. I mentioned this in Genesis. Everything that is in this earth, God made good for a purpose.
[00:12:23] All of the materials, the trees, the water, all of these illustrations point to a God who is loving, who is pure.
[00:12:34] The one of the things and characteristics about gold is that it can't rust.
[00:12:39] It's also malleable, which means you, you can shape it, it can melt, and you can, you can use it and cover it in different ways.
[00:12:49] That is one of the most powerful things that we don't understand yet, y' all.
[00:12:54] Is that Jesus in. And what God has created Jesus is this. Excuse me. Jesus is depicting characteristics of God that are still good but can't be put in front of him.
[00:13:12] I mentioned this earlier and I'm gonna get in a previous podcast. But the word priorities did not become a word until like the 1910s and 1920s in the industrial Revolution with the Rockefellers and the Carnegie's and all of those titans and pioneers of American industry.
[00:13:34] The original word is priority, meaning one.
[00:13:39] So what ends up Happening is when you make a single word, which means one into multiple words called priorities.
[00:13:47] You have multiple number ones.
[00:13:50] And the last time I checked, addition tells me when you have one and one, you actually have two.
[00:13:57] Therefore, nothing is a priority and everything is important.
[00:14:02] God is not saying that here.
[00:14:05] Jesus is making it clear that you are going to serve one and then have another.
[00:14:13] You can have all these good things. There's nothing wrong with money, because money, God made it is good. It has a purpose.
[00:14:21] But what is also important to know is God gave you a family.
[00:14:26] God gave you responsibility.
[00:14:28] God gave you some incredible things to steward and take care of.
[00:14:32] But here's the other thing.
[00:14:34] You cannot put them in front of God.
[00:14:41] All of these scriptures that we've talked about over the last few weeks have been focused on making and putting God first.
[00:14:52] You cannot serve anything that's not first. If it is first, you're serving it.
[00:14:59] And last time I checked, money is a poor master.
[00:15:03] It gets you great stuff. But you will do a lot of things for a dollar. You will stay over late and miss games. You will not spend time with your family. You will do a lot of things. You will sacrifice a lot because of that priority.
[00:15:20] Jesus says, if anything or any opportunity that Jesus or God himself asks us to sacrifice for, has he not given us something good in sacrificing the very thing that we say that we want or thing that we need?
[00:15:43] God says he will bless you.
[00:15:46] Abrahamic covenant says we are blessed to be a blessing. He will bless those who bless you. He will curse those who curse you. He will give you the desires of your heart. In fact, he will give you the desire to desire the right thing that serves his purpose and his will, and ultimately brings his kingdom here on earth.
[00:16:05] Therefore, don't worry about what you're going to wear, what you're going to eat, what you're going to drink.
[00:16:13] God knows you have need of these.
[00:16:16] This goes right into what we initially talked about.
[00:16:21] Why? Because we worry about things we cannot control.
[00:16:26] Money. We can hold God. We can't. God is actually holding us.
[00:16:32] So what are we going to trust? Are we going to focus on the God who is keeping everything together?
[00:16:42] Who in the entire universe of things happening has enough focus and care for what you have going on in your life? There are billions of people in the world and God has not forgot one.
[00:16:59] He knows how many hairs are on your head. He's counted them. He's counted and captured all the tears that you have cried for whatever reason they are. Why? Because he cares for you.
[00:17:11] He loves you.
[00:17:15] So who wouldn't want to serve a God who is so detail oriented to create the environment that we live in, but so thoughtful and mindful of us that he cares when we shed a tear?
[00:17:33] I get it, y' all. It's hard because we need money.
[00:17:38] We need things.
[00:17:41] The Bible says in Ecclesiastes. I believe It's Ecclesiastes, chapter 3.
[00:17:47] Money answereth all things. It's in the Bible.
[00:17:51] If it's a thing, money can answer it.
[00:17:55] But if it's not a thing, something you can't touch can't be answered by money.
[00:18:02] It just can't.
[00:18:04] So I want to conclude with this, y' all.
[00:18:08] We need to choose who we serve.
[00:18:12] One of the depictions here is there's a who and then there's a what.
[00:18:16] God is the who, the money is the what.
[00:18:20] Today, if you haven't choose God first.
[00:18:27] This leads us right to Matthew, chapter 6, verse 33. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all of these things shall be added unto you.
[00:18:39] But put your focus and serve him first and see what will happen.
[00:18:45] You might be surprised.
[00:18:46] We'll check you in the next pod. Thanks for listening. Peace.
