This sermon explores the concept of mammon, emphasising that it encompasses more than just money, but includes security based more on our accumulated assets rather than the provision of God. By examining passages from the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, the sermon highlights Jesus’ teaching that one cannot serve both God and mammon. It calls believers to place their trust in God’s provision rather than in their own financial arrangements, urging a focus on divine faithfulness.

Automatically Generated Transcript
[00:00:00] In our Gospel of Matthew was, we went through about the Beatitudes and came out the other side, and hoping to get going along through the Gospel of Matthew to make a bit more speedy progress, the trouble is, I keep on running into interesting words that need chasing down and is bogging us down a little bit. And one of those such word, we got, was the word, And so I’ve been on about the word mammon which was here in Matthew, and it’s talking about the fact it is something to do with money. Anybody want to give me a definition of what you think mammon is? This is a big prehistoric monster. What is mammon that we ought to be afraid of and be aware that it could ruin our Christian lives? And Jesus spoke about in verse 24.
[00:00:55] no one can serve two masters’ – this is Matthew 6 24 – for either he’ll hate the one or love the other and will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon, is what the older versions read, and this translation up there now puts in money. So going chasing about that word mammon doesn’t exactly mean just money. In fact it means a little differently from that because you have to chase it down in the language from which you come. It’s a bit of a loan word. A loan word is when in one language you borrow a word from another country and it takes on meanings that your people put into it. And this word is a loan word from those sorts of languages that were the Afro-Asian languages that came as a consequence, if you want to go back far enough, to Noah and the flood and one of the sons of Noah, I think it’s Shem, who ended up populating
[00:02:09] or his offspring did, down through Africa and Central Asia. And Malta is another country that has these languages. And in those particular languages it doesn’t quite mean money as much as it means your assets. It means your ability to make money. It means that all of the things in which you might trust for your security. And so when the Bible talks about mammon it’s talking about where you rest your hope for security. And here Jesus is speaking about the fact that you can’t serve both God and looking after yourself, getting enough assets so you feel secure. Is basically what he’s saying. For either you’ll hate the one and you’ll despise the other idea. You can’t serve both God and mammon, or ability to set up your own security by your own economic advancement or the arrangements you make to be saving
[00:03:13] money or the properties that you have. Interestingly, I found out that back in history, England was thought of as a place very much run by money, particularly in those years where the boats from England went out and brought things back, and it was the most powerful economic scene in the world. But the people were known to be always aware of who’s got the money and who hasn’t. As a matter of fact their politics is built around there being the ones who are the people with the money and the ones who represent the labor and we have a little bit of that in Australia as well.
[00:03:56] But there’s a sense in which if you put your security in one, you don’t have your security in the other. And that is what Jesus was trying to explain. And in this chapter of, in Chapter Six, listen to how Jesus talks therefore I tell you do not be anxious about your life. He is talking about thinking that you’ve got to really be worried about whether you’ve got together your security. Jesus is saying, ëDonít get anxious about your life.í And he said, very simply, ëWhat are you going to drink? And what are you going to, how are you going to look after your body? What you will put on your clothing? Is not life more than food? And the body more
[00:04:39] than clothing!í So heís talking about the fact that all of us do go through a stage of having concern for how weíve set our lives up so we can be secure. And that is actually what this is all about. Therefore I tell you don’t be anxious about your life it’s what Jesus is saying to us today. And it illustrates with the birds of the air. The birds of the air neither sow nor reap, nor do they gather in the barns, yet your Heavenly Father feeds them… So where their trust in is the animals, by their instincts. their trusting in God for who they are and where things are secure for them. And that’s not very secure, if you ever watch those birds having a fight
[00:05:29] outside my front yard, especially if they get another bird down and they are pecking it all the time. I use to think they are little sweet creatures and then as I got older, I realized it wouldn’t be a very easy thing to be a bird and fly around and have the other birds chasing you. But then Jesus says, Are you not more value than thy? Which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And if you listen to the advertisements on television, if you hear the culture that we’re in, there are so many people telling you how you can just do a little bit more of this
[00:06:13] or that. Or buy these medicines or whatever. are crazy all the supplements that you can fill up your drawers with.” Medicines, I’m not got a whole part of the fridge, all my supplements are. And I went to one doctor and they told me when she saw how much I had all these things to take, she told me, there’s too many. Now remember, you don’t need to do all of that, but it’s amazing how our culture is pressing us to be concerned for how we can last the distance and how we can somehow have the best health and sometimes the question of money comes into it. Now there’s where mammon is.
[00:06:52] Mammon is the idea that you have some financial security. That you worked it out. And it can get a grip on you. And Jesus is saying, relax. He’s saying trust God, like the birds do. And he goes on to talk along the same line. And down the bottom there, in verse 32, the Gentiles, these are the people who weren’t the religious — well, they weren’t the Jewish people of the time. But, he says, don’t be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof, the old translations used to read.
[00:07:33] And Jesus was saying, if you get so uptight about the future a year and a half away, what you should do is just pray about the day. And in the Lord’s Prayer that we’ve been going through, He teaches us to pray for our, what is it? Daily bread. And if you look to God to help you for today’s worth, leave the rest with Him. Now what’s interesting is that there are some people that God has really blessed and opened up and provided for. And there are others who have heard their stories, and have heard about how God blessed them and provided for them, and they went as missionaries overseas. I’ve been listening to The Power to Change People and one of the issues if you’re involved in missionary work like they’re planning to do their missionary work here in Australia, which is good. But some of them also go overseas, and some of the Power to Change missionaries,
[00:08:30] that they come from overseas and they see being in Australia as their Mission. I think that’s rather nice. Don’t know whether they’re all empowered to change, but that idea that all of us as Christians are in Mission. But when the moment you set yourself to be doing God’s work, what He doesn’t want you to be doing is distracted by trusting and all the effort you do to raise your funds. Now I know some of the Mission organisations tell you just the opposite but I think the heart of being a missionary is you’re resting God to look after you. And there’ve been people that the Lord has led to be missionaries who said,
[00:09:08] yes Lord I’ll go and I just left it with him. And he looks after him. I can tell you this because I felt the Lord was leading me to go overseas in studies and I did so with the strength of my bank card getting me there and then see what happens. I’ve got lots of stories to tell about how somehow God worked and provided every step along the way, but there are other people who decided to do the same thing. They launch themselves and go somewhere to study, or they launch themselves to go as a mission worker in another country, and they just about starve. Now how do you explain that God seems to support some, and that there are others who seem to have a difficulty and they come home really frustrated at the fact that
[00:09:55] God didn’t seem to step up, well I’ll tell you the difference. I had a lecture at the college, when I was a student myself, at a Theological college, and he told his story of how he went overseas to get some degrees so he could come back and be the lecturer he was to us, but when he got there, he took his family and he told me, he just about starved. He thought he was stepping out in what was God’s leading, but nothing happens. How come there are some people who seem to have the Lord providing? I know the difference. If you go because He told you, then God will pick up all the bills. But if you go because it’s your idea, He’ll leave you to pay your own. It’s a bit of a principle. But Jesus is saying that we don’t want to serve God and mammon, so what some
[00:10:44] Some people do in order to provide for their ideas is that they get all sorts of extra streams of income. I had a friend when I was a young man of in my early 20s. I had a fellow, another friend of mine who said he was going to serve the lord, but he said, first of all, I’m going to make a lot of money that will help me do it. Well, he’s still making the money. He’s older than me. He’s not in Christian work. affects all the business to do of money – he got him tricked up, and he is never going to be.
[00:11:21] You have to trust God or your schemes to make the funds! Youíre listening to me. Thatís what Jesus is saying. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient unto the day is the trouble thereof, or of its own trouble. Now, as we talk about this, this is not the only passage that mentions the word mammon. It comes up in another parable across Luke’s Gospel and chapter 16, I think it is. And in Luke’s Gospel chapter 16, Jesus tells what is the most difficult story to really understand what he’s getting at. And he … you know, some people criticize Jesus,
[00:12:03] for it sounds like he’s giving good wrap-ups to a dishonest man. And he’s praising a bloke for being dishonest. Let’s go through the parable. This is Luke 16. He also said to his disciples, there was a rich man who had a manager. So in the older Bibles, it reads, it’s someone who looks after his property, someone who does all the work, while the rich man’s travelling around enjoying himself.” Well, there was a rich man who had a manager.
[00:12:37] And charges were brought against the manager, the steward, that he was wasting the possessions of his master. And he was sort of being dishonest with the money. And Jesus is going to commend this dishonest man, so you better listen to see what on earth did Jesus find to commend him for, and charges were brought against this manager, and he called him and said to him, What is this that I hear about you? Turn in an account of your management, for you can no longer be manager. In other words, he’s going to get dismissed. And the manager said to himself, Look at what this dishonest manager does. He says, What shall I do since my master is taking the management away from me I’m not strong enough to dig and I’m ashamed to beg well I do well I’ve decided what to do just see whether you’ve got that to you I’ve
[00:13:42] decided what to do so that I’m when I’m removed from management people may received me into their houses. So summoning his masters debtors, one by one, he said to the first how much do you owe my master? and he said a hundred measures of oil and he said to him take your bill and sit down quickly and write. Fifty instead of a hundred. Then he said to another how much do you owe and he said He said, a hundred measures of wheat, and He said to him, Take your bill and write 80. He was being dishonest. Now, Jesus actually wasn’t backing that up as the right thing for him to do, because later on Jesus talks about dishonest people, and he said something very interesting about money which you know, I’ve discovered with us Christians.
[00:14:34] This is true. He says the person who’s sneaky, or dishonest in little, will end up being dishonest in a lot. And it starts with just little things. Where you did promise the Lord that you’d support his work. And different people read the scriptures to say, Varyingly, as to what way some people are strict about the tithe. And then if you’re strict about your tithe is it, the gross that you give the tithe of? or is it only when you’ve taken all the deductions out ..?
[00:15:10] And sometimes the scriptures are not clear and it’s really a question of your faith, what you agree with God about. I don’t believe in setting any strict things of what we should do because giving should be something we do because we want to and Jesus actually said God loves the cheerful, the Bible says. God loves a cheerful giver. It’s a bit of an unusual statement but what it means is someone who gives willingly. He doesn’t want, you put under the pressure, you’ve got to support the church, there’s nothing worse. And God doesn’t like it by the way because you know what it does to him. It makes him look like he can’t support his own work. The last thing God wants is some human mechanism thinking it’s propping up God. I hate those services where people give the idea, we’ll do our worship and and they saw a picture of God will climb up on the worship and,
[00:16:06] I speak worship! How happy I am that you worship me!” God is not like that! Let me tell you, he doesn’t crave worship like we without fallen human nature, might act like. Worshipping God is just the natural recognition of who he is. Did you know the heart of sin is when you displace God and worship something other than him. That’s what sin is. Some people say pride, but pride is really a version of the same thing.
[00:16:43] But the heart of sin is when you displace God and put something else there. And this whole sermon that I’ve got about mammon is when you trust in mammon to keep you safe and secure. And God says, I was here all the time for you to trust in Me. Don’t displace God as your security. Does that makes sense? Well the Master commended to the Dishonours manager for his shrewdness. And the shrewdness was to recognise,
[00:17:24] listen, listen, to recognise that we’re in one era now. But there’s another era that really counts more. And the ultimate of one era, going into a more important one, is the fact that, we all die and go to eternal habitations of one sort or another. And if you’re shrewd, and you see, Here is this making money business, and you use your money, wisely. So that when you go to glory, you find your real treasure in heaven. Jesus says, you know, your treasure be in heaven, not on earth. He said the reason for that is that where your treasure is, is where your heart will be also. It’s hard to keep your heart
[00:18:16] somewhere when your treasure has been put somewhere else. And Jesus is talking to the people about the fact that we have got a propensity, we’ve got a tendency, we have a sinful nature that can very easily put our treasure in the wrong place. And if you put it in your way of keeping your security in mamam, which is all your assets, which is all your built up reserves, which is your ability to make money and have a good career that provides a salary. If you trust in those things but not God, then your heart will be those things and not God.
[00:19:05] What this dishonest fellow gave a bit of an example of is that he recognized he was in a crisis time where he was going to lose his managerial role, and he’ll have nowhere to live and no money to live on! And so he’s going to deal with unrighteous mamun which Jesus called it, money and trust in it, in a way that will get him friends for the next era. there. Now, Jesus wasn’t commending as dishonesty but as much as his rudeness to recognize that none of the arrangements that we have in terms of our career and our salary and all the rest can really be relied upon like many of us do. You need to trust in God, not those arrangements of yours.
[00:19:59] And then secondly is, as I said, Jesus wasn’t backing up his dishonesty, for he talked about being faithful and little, and the people who are faithful and little, tend to be the ones who carry it through to be faithful and much. And God sometimes gives us opportunities with our money to see what we’ll do. And if you’re like in the storyline of the Book of Acts of Sapphira and her husband, Ananias is it? And Sapphira, they had some property which they sold and because that the local, among, amongst their Christians that they were mixing with there was a sort of movement to help other people out and many people had extra properties and they sold them, and would give their money to the poor
[00:20:52] Well, they decided that they wanted to be thought of as being like that, too, but when they sold their property, they lied about how much money it got. And they said they gave it all, but in fact, they just gave a part. And Peter the apostle called them in and said, did you do it for this amount? And when they continued the lie, Peter told them off and they dropped dead, one by one, Mananias, first and later, Sapphira. And God had discipline on them because they were in a revival time where the Spirit of God was working, but they were also putting up a false look that they were following The Lord when they weren’t. It’s because if you are unfaithful in the little things, it follows through you end
[00:21:43] up being unfaithful in The Lot. And that’s the warning Jesus was giving. So in Luke 16 the unjust steward, although he’s a dishonest man and Jesus is not commending that, he is commended for being shrewd enough to know not to hang on to your security which is in your job or which is in this present regime. And in terms of life here on earth, where none of us are here for necessarily as long as we may think, And it is the fact that there are lots of things that can happen
[00:22:24] where a person can be doing well, the time can change as did happen In my parents’ generation when there was that great depression around the world that as last week we were talking about the fall of the markets, the stock exchanges and how the what happened in in New York affected Australia and so many people here, lost their jobs, and and my mother used to tell me how they ate bread and dripping for a while. Do you know what dripping is? Dripping is that grease that comes out from under the oven, you know, and she used to collect it in the tin. But they used to put the dripping
[00:23:09] because they didn’t have money for butter on the bread, and that’s how they ate. The economy can change. What about all these sicknesses? How many of these silly COVIDs are going to come through? I have trouble getting my voice, you hear it sometimes a bit scratchy because all the germs get on you and these COVIDs are really, actually at the moment our families suffer a lot of not COVID, but all the rhinos. I don’t know whether they’re COVIDs anymore or not.
[00:23:41] I’ve quit trying to find out, because, you know. But what if there’s a movement of health loss, and suddenly the government, with all their promises of supporting us, have run out of money, and half of us end up very poor? Don’t trust in the human side of life, but put your trust in God. That’s the lesson. And recognize that not only about just trust in God and the here and now,
[00:24:19] like the birds trust in God, as I said before. But also the fact that our lives end up in glory. If you’re a Christian, you know you’re going to heaven. But some of us will get into heaven by the skin of our teeth. That is to say, Jesus spoke about there being like a fire that burns up the record of the things that we did, or burns up the works that we did. And there are some Christians who face the judgment of Jesus as Christians. It’s not as to whether you go to heaven or hell, but it is about the things that you’ve done, and whether they’re acceptable to God.
[00:24:59] And some Christians are going to have all their life’s works all burned up, and get in as paupers in heaven. They’ll be in heaven But they’ll be the lowest of the scenario There I don’t know how God’s rewards will work in heaven but don’t trust in what you have here now in this era Jesus says, use unrighteous mammon use this money that we have to deal with as a vehicle to store up for yourselves treasures in glory. And so when you have some money, an asset, use it to bless, find someone poor that needs you to help them. And don’t do it in a way that blows a trumpet, like
[00:25:46] some of the Pharisees used to do, so everybody’s see what they’re doing. They’re just quietly where nobody knows. Use the money that you have to get you treasure in Heaven. And if your God calls you to go as a missionary. Just go. And even if you find your paw, he will look after you. I’m not going to tell you all my stories but I want to tell you God surely looks after the ones that he sent and he provides for them. And it’s a fantastic thing, to know, have the confidence and the assurance and the the realisation that what you’re doing is certainly the Lord that led you because he turned up when you needed him. And it’s one of the joys of being in Christian things. Although there are lots of difficulties of being involved in full-time Christian work, I I want to say that the joy that you have when you realize that the Lord is with you, and he’s
[00:26:54] doing it, is a fantastic thing. And the fellowship that you have with people who, likewise, you have joined with them. Now church is meant to be that for us all. And can I say? It’s been wonderful how our church has made that decision to get this place air-conditioned for the sake of the more people coming to hear the Gospel? My reason straightforward. That it’s a fact that churches make it easy to listen and have air conditioning to help people not pay attention to whirring fans and they listen to the sermon, they get more people come to know the Lord. And we’re doing it and we made that decision unanimously.
[00:27:41] We’re moving in a terrific direction, I want to say in the history of this Church That we do have hassles with noise and some of the young people who have their Singing times after in going a bit late into the night the people down here don’t like it and naturally So I’m not blaming them. And so they call up and say, you know it was after 10 o’clock when All the noise was still coming and we have to learn not to do that. But the fact that that – that set of flats is built is really because at some earlier moment there was a previous pastor who wanted to buy all those properties next door. Not a bad idea! It’s actually taught. We used to teach in college. If you’re a local church you always buy the properties next door and while they’re at a cheap rate. But this Church didn’t. Now, we have the flats and they’re telling us when we are too noisy, we were here first.
[00:28:46] But they’re telling us and that’s … the poor people are in the rooms, they have to to go to sleep, but we shouldn’t have left those lands and not brought up anything. It’s a principle in church growth that churches, if you can get your people to raise the funds, you always buy all the properties next door. You should. Do you know what the government are presently doing? One of the parties anyway is suggesting that there will be a scheme of all the land that different denominations have got reserved for the expansion of new churches and new areas. They somehow get a hold of those properties and let people build houses on them.
[00:29:35] They have to take those lands kept by the denominations, probably largely thinking of the Church of England and the Catholic because they have a lot of properties preserved for But that’s not a very good thing at all, that the government wants to rip those out from the churches using them to have more churches. We’re living in a time where the politics could change right against Christianity. It already is in little things! And we should be taking up the opportunity to evangelize these people of Australia while you’re still being allowed to do it. you’re still being allowed to be someone who preaches the gospel. And that’s
[00:30:22] a call from the need of our society for Christians to stand up and to recognize that we have a role to play and not trust in simply, that things will be fine, because we live in a great country and that’s true for the moment. We need to keep it great by letting the people know about Christ. Anyway, I can go off on a tangent, but the lesson that Jesus gave here is no person can serve two masters. Where’s your treasure? That’s what you’re serving. And if your treasure’s on Earth, you’re not serving heaven.
[00:31:02] And, the person who’s serving heaven is the one who lets his treasure be with Jesus and spiritual things, and with glory and with the Gospel and the Kingdom, and not treasures just down here on Earth, where rust and moths and things can destroy. Jesus spoke about it. And he asks us to use what money availabilities you have to enhance the next era of your existence, Not the present one, and to use unrighteous mammon to further the kingdom of God. And it’s interesting that you keep running into people in Christian things. When you travel around you keep running into people who have taken Jesus’ word so literally
[00:31:57] that they have always dedicated their life to be giving. I’ve met some people that they keep on giving more of all And every time they gave more to God’s work. Somehow they got more! The bible says that God is no man’s debtor. You cannot out-give God. And when you take this money business and you let God have as more as you can give as you can absolutely do, he gives back to you. He doesn’t like— He’s not at God who wants to get himself in debt. And when you give to God, he gives to you. Now, this is not prosperity doctrine. It’s just the principle
[00:32:47] that the God of heaven is not in the position that he’s ever going to be. The debtor. You can’t out give God. He will see to it. He’s the one who you trust in and will be giving to you. let’s have a word of prayer, shall we? Heavenly Father, I thank you Lord for the parable that Jesus gave. Some people find it hard to understand that Jesus seems to be praising the fellow who was dishonest. But it isn’t his dishonesty that he’s praising but his shrewdness to recognize that
[00:33:26] money is not necessarily, or in his case, having a very nice little position where he can trick the money out of his master. But that’s not going to last. And he saw that unrighteous mammon can be used to set things up that he might be… have a lot of friends who would let him come and stay for the future. Lord, help us to recognize, not to trust, in all the human things that we’re so readily putting our weight in. Help us to be people who, Lord, rely upon you and say, Lord, you tell us what to do. We will do it and we’ll trust you to bring the means of it to happen.
[00:34:17] Give us as a church also that we might continue to do as we’ve been doing, as Our Treasurer has been leading us about. Help us to continue to trust in you more and more. Thank you for the blessings recently to do with some of the property things that we’ve done. Thank you for the decision to go ahead and to change the air conditioning question. Lord, thank you for the opportunity to have a bus that will take our people down to the Gold Coast Convention Center for a Graham team
[00:34:55] a BGEA really rally, we are an evangelist, Billy Graham’s grandson in fact is going to be preaching and all the people around the world who pray for the things of their organization will be praying for something that we could be taking people to. They are providing us the baths, we’re not praying for it. We might have an opportunity an opportunity to take people to hear the gospel, and Lord, help us to take these opportunities, which are about your kingdom. Thank you for the testimonies of Alanna, and also Lord, uh, what’s his name again? Andrea.
[00:35:43] I know it’s Andrea, not Andre, it’s Andrea. We thank you Lord for their stepping out and it’s rather amazing to see them doing that. They’re not getting rich, certainly not, by being in Christian work, and it’s interesting how the people of their organization call them missionaries. They’re Christian workers and they were doing exactly that, taking the mission of the Gospel and, Lord, we pray for them that you’ll bless that step away from financial security that they’re taking, and we pray, Father, that you look after them and show your great power
[00:36:27] to supply when you call someone to something. You don’t, they don’t pay their own bills. You come and pay them, we give you praise and thanks for that. And Lord we commend to you, our Church, that we might follow you, and that we might be willing to trust you in bigger and bigger steps of doing something that looks to you to be the supplier of the need and We pray this in Jesus name Amen