Where is Our Faith

For the next few messages from me we are going to be talking about faith and God’s provision, and where is our faith placed. But before we dive into the text we need to understand what that word means, so I have a definition and then I also have some information from some surveys done to show us where people place their faith.

Faith Defined

Trust, dependence, and reliance on God.

Trust is defined as: believe in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of.

Dependence is defined as: reliance on someone or something for financial support.

Reliance is defined as: a person or thing on which someone depends.

• Often legalism creates a gap between knowing who God is and experiencing a relationship with God. Legalism is a superficial and mechanical (going through the motions) way of displaying one’s faith. Usually it entails rules, guidelines, and ideas of how one should look and act as a Christian.

• Numerous research studies by Gallup reveal a growing dissatisfaction with the state of religion in America. Only about half of Americans view religion as being very important, while nearly three-fourths of our nation see religion as a waning influence in American culture. In fact, three out of ten Americans view religion as old-fashioned and out-of-date, and that number appears to be growing.1

• Yet despite losing faith in the church, the majority of Americans still believe in a higher Being. A Newsweek poll found that 91 percent of American adults claim a belief in a god of some sort,2 while Time magazine reported that 85 percent of Americans identify themselves as Christian.3

• A Gallup study reports that 73 percent of Americans “are convinced that God exists.” Only 3 percent of the American population identify themselves as atheists, being “convinced God does not exist.” For the remaining 24 percent of Americans, the jury is still out.

We need to keep this definition in our minds as we go through the text, and don’t worry I will repeat it several times so we do not forget. Trust, Dependence and reliance on God. The text we are going to be looking at is from Matthew chapter 6, which is a part of the Sermon on the Mount.

Matthew 6:19–21 ESV

19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Matthew 6:23–24 ESV

23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! 24 “No one can serve two masters, for 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 God and money.

As I mentioned at the start for the next few messages we are going to be talking about faith, and God’s provision and to do this we will be looking at Matthew 6:19-34, but we will break them down as they are in our Bible, so we will look at these verses 19-24 first as a unit and then we will go through 25-34, but these two sections are tied together. They both deal with faith and God’s provision. Now lets dive in verse by verse.

Matthew 6:19 ESV

19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal,

Here we see the command from our Lord and Savior to not accumulate treasures. So, lets start of by saying that no it is not a sin to be wealthy, it is not a sin to have a full bank account, it is not a sin to have investments. Where the sin comes in is when we have all of these things and we do not use them for God’s work, for the kingdoms benefit. We only use them for our selfish desires, that is where these treasures turn bad. Wealth in the ancient world most often consisted of precious metals and cloth. In the hot and sandy Palestinian climate both moth and rust were common, so the wealthy person would be consumed with protecting their assets. Thieves were a common problem in those times as well as today. Jesus is telling us to wisely invest where things will be eternally secure.

Matthew 6:20 ESV

20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.

Here Christ tells us where our wealth should be invested. We should be using our worldly gains to further the kingdom, we should be working for spiritual riches which are invulnerable to the loss of moth, rust or death.

“After the millionaire died the question was asked of his accountant how much money did he leave, and the reply was all of it.”

We should be worried about investments that last an eternity, not just while we are here in this temporary life. When we invest in the kingdom of God, that investment is secure, it can’t be destroyed or stolen.

Matthew 6:21 ESV

21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

In these next few verses Jesus focuses on the internal state, which can be seen from our desires, our heart. Remember God is the only one who can truly see what is in someones heart, but we get a glimpse of it through their focus, their treasure. Wherever our focus is that is where are heart is. If we are focused on wealth of this world and not that of the kingdom of God, that shows where our heart really is. So, for the person who claims to be a Christian, but the treasure they are putting away is earthly, then I would question their salvation. God requires total and complete allegiance, and devotion, and if our treasures are here on earth then we are not completely devoted to Him.

Matthew 6:22 ESV

22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light,

A good eye lets in light, a eye that is bad does not let any light in. Jesus uses this as an illustration just as the heart is the center of one’s affections and commitment, the eyes enable the whole person to see. Good and bad eyes parallel a good and bad heart. If we have good eyes we see clearly and the light is allowed to penetrate our body.

Matthew 6:23 ESV

23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

If what should lead to good actually causes evil, then the person is truly perverse. This shows of a corruption of one’s spirit. The darkness comes from within the person. A false superficial religion causes a dark heart.

Matthew 6:24 NKJV

24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

So, here I used the NKJV translation, I will explain why in a moment. Yesterday at our men’s breakfast Brother Bobby talked about what a biblical man was, and made the point that there is only one way. We cannot straddle the fence, with God there are no grey areas, there is only light and darkness, good and evil. We can not serve the world and our Lord. The word master here is used to illustrate slavery, there must be total allegiance to our master. So, which one do you serve. Many translations say “money” instead of “mammon”, well mammon represents all of a persons material resources not just their money. One of the things we must guard against is materialism, a desire for things not kingdom related. We cannot serve God and our stuff.

Where is our Faith

You might be asking so what does this have to do with faith, and God’s provision. What is the person on this slide doing, they are taking a selfie, are we relying on our selves, putting our faith in ourselves, not trusting God to provide for us. Are we investing all of our efforts into worldly things, or are we truly investing for our future. Where is our focus. Are we focused on the world, and just playing church hoping to get by with a self-made salvation, or are we truly putting all of our trust in God. Are we putting all of our resources, which by the way are not really ours anyways, because everything we have comes from God. We should be working to gain real riches, kingdom riches, godly riches. Remember that definition, trust, dependence, and reliance on God.

Trust is defined as: believe in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of.

Dependence is defined as: reliance on someone or something for financial support.