You Can Only Have One Master Who Do You Serve Sermon Series Part 2 of 4

Hello and welcome to Social Media Ministries. My name is Spencer Coffman. Thank you so much for joining us today. If this is your first time, you picked an excellent time to join us. This is part number two, we are in a four-part sermon series about who do you serve.

So if you missed last week’s message, don’t worry, you can check it out in a playlist here on our YouTube channel called “Who Do You Serve.” You can do that, you can navigate to the YouTube channel or you can click on the card referenced above if you’re watching on YouTube.

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If you are a returning visitor, take advantage of those share icons. Follow us on additional social media sites, and help us out in that way. Today we are talking about how you can only serve one master.

Now you might say, “Oh yep, I know that you can’t serve God and money.” I’m talking about more than that. We’re taking this to another level today so you better be ready because this is serious. I’m not kidding, no, it’s not a joke. This is serious. This is serious business as everyone is laughing, but it’s serious though.

“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.” “I knew it,” you say, “It’s about money.”

It’s not about money. That’s from Luke 16:13, no one can serve two masters and Jesus gives these great words. Either you will love one and hate the other. Okay, or you will be devoted to one and despise the other. Now there are those two things.

I mean this is about more than money, we could even title this “More Than Money,” but we’re not talking about money. I want to get you away from the money perspective because there’s so many out there that say “Oh these preachers, all they talk about is money. They just want money or they avoid talking about money.”

Money is mentioned so much in the New Testament, it’s incredible. It’s something that God wants us to fully grasp and fully understand. We have a whole bunch of sermons on money that you can watch in a playlist called “Blessed To Be A Blessing.” You can check that out on our website on YouTube, wherever you want to go and watch those.

We’re talking about who you serve. We are in the “Who Do You Serve” sermon series, you serve one master, that’s it. You can have one master. Why? Well, you either love the one and hate the other, that’s what God is saying about money.

If you love money, you hate anything else that pulls you away from money. You hate spending money because it’s getting rid of your money, you hate indulging in things because it’s getting rid of your money, you only serve money. You want to work all the time to get more money. You are serving money, you’re loving money and you’re hating anything that separates you from that.

Okay, but then you have another one. You will be devoted to one and despise the other. Now of course you could say, “Oh yeah, he’s devoted to money, he’s trying to make money,” all this stuff. But it’s different. You could be devoted to your football games. What about those people?

Football has monopolized an entire day of the week and they’re going for more. They are always going for more. They are going for more. They want more touchdowns. They want more viewers. They used to play on Sundays only.

Football Sunday, they took the day of the week. Then it was Monday night football. Now it’s Thursday. Now they’re playing on Saturday. They’re monopolizing the week for an entire season.

I’m not saying this is bad. One of my favorite things to do on a Sunday afternoon is sit down on the couch and do nothing and just watch football. Why? I don’t really even care who wins and loses. I just like the fact that we can sit around and I have an excuse to be lazy. I can take my day of rest seriously. That’s what it is for me.

But I also go to church. I like to go to church. I like to just fellowship with others, get a good message, hear, understand. You say, “Wait a minute, you preach messages and you go to a church?”

You bet, you bet I do. How do I get fed? Through this, yes, but I want more, and so I go to church and then when church is done, during that football season, I watch football and relax and take my day of rest.

But guess what, I don’t let football dictate the church. So for example, what I’m saying is there are people who say, “Hey, church seems to run a little late, maybe we’re just gonna sit in the back and kind of leave early so we don’t miss the start of the game that starts at noon or the pre-game that starts at 11 or 11:30” or whatever.

Or you say, “I think we’ll skip church and watch it online so we don’t miss,” then all of a sudden what’s happening? You are devoted to something else. Pretty soon you will despise the other. You’ll be like, “Oh man we got to go to church? But there’s a game on today.” Whoa, whoa, now you have a problem.

I don’t care if it’s football, or if it’s your kid’s hockey game, your sport, wrestling meets, and you say, “Oh man we got a wrestling meet this weekend” or “We got a hockey tournament, but we got church.” That’s all right. We’ll go. No.

Who do you serve? You have one master. Now this may make you a little unpopular because you might be telling your kids, “Hey this is our priority” and they say, “But dad I want to go to practice” or “I want to go to this.” You say, “Where’s our priority?” Now sure, once a month or something like that or once in a while yeah, you guys could go off on the weekend and do that sport.

But what’s the priority, is the sport the priority, or is the sport just a once in a while thing away from the priority? Because you always need more. You can’t tell your kids, “Nope, you’re not playing any sports because you’re going to church all the time.”

That’s not a life, that’s a dictatorship. They’re going to end up hating church and religion and they’re probably going to not like you and not in a good way. You got to let them have some more too.

We’re not talking about parenting. We’re talking about who do you serve? You have one master. You can’t love two things equally and serve them both. You can’t be like, “Well I love going to church but then I love going home and watching football and they are both right here.” No, like I said, what’s it for me, church, football, going home, relax and watch football?

But if I miss it, it’s fine, it’s not a big deal. It’s not like I’m gonna throw a fit, I’m not gonna be all sour all day, but I like just putting it on and relaxing. When football season is not in, what do I do on Sunday afternoons?

I like to go, sit on the deck, relax, enjoy the good weather or if it’s cold out and rainy, spend time with family. Maybe have a fire by the fireplace or lay on the couch and watch a family-friendly movie or something. Just relax, like I said it is kind of a day of rest for me.

Now, of course, maybe your day of rest is Saturday. That’s fine. Maybe you work during the week and you have Tuesday or Wednesday off, so you pick one of them as your day of rest. That’s fine, there’s no law or rule that says it has to be a certain day.

It’s human nature to prefer one thing. We all have favorites. Even though God says we’re not to have favorites, but we do. If you have something and something else, you’re gonna like one better than the other.

At some point in time, that’s going to happen, even if it’s temporary. This is true even in your own experience. You have a mom and a dad or something, if you are fortunate enough that your parents stayed together and you have two parents together, oftentimes you love them both, but once in a while you may be upset with one and you like the other better.

You’re like, “Well my mom is my favorite,” or “Dad is my favorite” and then later on in life, it might flop back and forth. Yes, you love them both, but you might prefer one or the other. Hopefully, you don’t. Hopefully, you can accept that and get over that, but at some point in your life when you’re growing up, you will have that favorite.

If you remember back on your life, you maybe don’t remember specific instances. I have no idea of mine but I know that I’m sure that happened at some point or another, I liked one better than the other. Then during phases of my life, pretty much during phases of anyone’s life, male teenagers hate their dad, and female teenagers hate their mom at some point in life.

It’s some kind of a natural thing that goes on psychologically, physically. Freud has all kinds of explanations from childhood up, all these psychologists do, but the point is there is always some mode of resistance with one parent sometime during your life.

You can’t love two things equally. Now parents with your children, this is where it gets tough. Hopefully, by that time, you have matured past that stage. You have recognized this favorite thing and the loving two things.

Devoted to one loving the other, despise, love, hate, all this stuff and you have grasped this concept. You say, “Hey God says no favorites,” God says no preferences, everything equal.

You say, “Okay I need to have both my parents, I need to love them both equally,” and then by the time you have children and you have multiple children God willing that “Hey I can’t love one more than the other” or “I cannot prefer one more than the other.”

Now yes that may happen, you might, there might be one that is more like you and one that is more like your spouse and you just identify with that child better. Now that’s fine, but you still have hopefully matured enough that you can love them all equally.

God wants you to be completely devoted to Him. Now what does that mean? Hey, that means like over your spouse. Over your kids. Over the sports. Over your Sunday afternoons. Over Monday nights. Thursday nights. Saturdays. Sundays. Football. Basketball. Baseball. Hockey. Whatever it is. Your favorite TV show. God wants to be above all of that.

You got to be committed to Him, not the things of this world. All the other stuff is of this world. Yes, even your spouse is of this world. Even though they may have been given to you by God. If you found the right one.

That was given to you. It was a gift from God. Favor from the Lord. But it is still of this world. God has to be first, everything else after that. You can’t have one favorite than the other whenever they suit you.

God wants you to completely serve Him every moment of every day forever. Why is this? Well God doesn’t want any gods before Him and you say, “Wait a minute, how did we go from football and sports and activities with kids and a spouse maybe, to having a god before God?”

Listen, if you’re prioritizing them before God or before your time with God, even okay every day you read the Bible but today you didn’t, why? Because you had to get up early to take so and so to basketball practice. Wait a minute, maybe while they’re at basketball practice you could read the Bible. You have got to be prioritizing your time with God. You can’t let it go.

You can’t be like “Well I didn’t have time to do my devotion today.” You had all kinds of time. You had the same amount of time today as you had yesterday. “No, I didn’t, I was busy all day today.

Yesterday was my day off.” Same amount of time. There are 24 hours in every single day, not a minute more, not a minute less, same amount of time. What you choose to do with that time is what dictates who you serve. I’m serious.

Who do you serve? Who’s taking priority in your life? It better be God. You’re like, “Man, I’m feeling a little convicted.” Good, then make a change. Make a change, you can do it even if it’s 10 minutes every morning. You read one chapter of Proverbs. Five minutes and then you go about your day. It’s better than nothing.

God wants no gods before Him. Exodus Chapter 20 Verse 3, “You shall have no other gods before me.” If you are serving something else, if you have more, if something is pulling your attention away from God that’s becoming more important than God, you’re serving that more than God.

God doesn’t want that. He doesn’t want any other gods before Him. You’re like, “Well, I’m not worshiping that thing.” If it’s taking your time, what’s coming next? It’s a kind of a precursor. It’s almost idolatry. This idol, this thing of the Earth is taking more of your time than God.

Now, of course, let’s say you have a job where you go there for eight hours a day. Do you spend 10 hours a day with God, actively in church with God? No of course not, I’m not saying minute for minute you need to be counting up your time and tallying where it’s going.

What I am saying is your life needs to be living for a certain purpose, for God. That means throughout your day, at work, working for someone else of this world, you are constantly praying. You have Scriptures going through your mind. You’re being a light, you’re being a good example, you’re full of salt, you have the Holy Spirit within you.

When things happen in life, you’re not taking on worldly remedies like swearing or gossiping or complaining or venting to others. You’re taking it in. You’re allowing it. You’re saying, “Oh man this is overwhelming” and then you’re taking it to the spiritual level. You’re fighting in the spiritual realm and you’re letting God handle it.

Something happens to you. You’re overwhelmed. You give it to God. All throughout your day someone is mad. Something happens, someone cuts you off in traffic – you just say, “It’s yours God.” You forgive people instantly, you live your life for God. Even though you are living in a worldly place working kind of for the world, you’re working for the world when you’re down here.

Why am I working, what is this, am I working right now for God or for the world? Guess what? It’s a mentality. You might say, “Well you’re preaching, you’re working for God.” Yes, but I am also working to bring more people to God so I’m working for you. For the world.

But if you do everything, when I do laundry at home, is that for God or for the world? Well, if I’m doing laundry for my family, kind of for the world. No. Mentality. Do everything as if working for the Lord.

And if you have that mentality, who are you serving? Serving God, even though your time, the majority of your time might not be actively like in church or on the mission field or preaching or something like that. Of course, you’re not going to spend the majority of your time doing those single things. We can’t do that.

Your time throughout your regular tasks is a mentality. It’s a state of mind. I am doing this for the Lord. You are doing it with a joyful heart. You are not complaining. You are following His commands. You’re living your life how God would want you to live it. You’re completely devoted to Him. One master. You trust Him with everything.

Your money, money coming in, back to money, again – yup – money coming in. You’re working. What are you working for? You’re working for money. What’re you doing with that money? You are being a good steward. You’re handling it how God wants you to handle it. You’re working for God. You’re following God.

Placing anything higher or more important to Him is idolatry. It’s like I mentioned, the precursor to other gods is idols. First, you have that idol and then all of a sudden you start worshiping false gods or other gods.

Whether it’s a statue or whether it’s something in your life that is taking priority. It’s another form of that idolatry which, would then come into something being more important than God in your life. We have to flee from that the second that starts happening. The first time that you realize that, “Hey, sermon’s running late, I’m missing the game. Whoa, stop it, get out of my head.”

You have got to recognize it. The Bible says, “flee”. 1 Corinthians 10:14, “Therefore my dear friends, flee from idolatry.” You gotta flee. You gotta flee. I had a professor one time in psychology who said when you’re seeing clients, and you have certain clients when you’re seeing them for a long time, you could start to develop a relationship with them.

Now sometimes that relationship could be more, but it can’t be. He’s talking like romantically. But even if it’s not romantically, he says the second you’re waking up in the morning deciding what to wear and you say, “Oh I see so-and-so today, I’m going to wear this shirt.” Boom, stop, you need to get rid of that client.

They have to go somewhere else. Make a referral. Get rid of them. You say why? You did because you were changing your appearance to make them happy and that’s not your job. Your job is for their mind and that way if you start changing who you are to fit them. You got to get rid of them.

That’s the same thing that applies here. The second you start changing something in your life to take the place of God, “Oh church is running late, let’s sneak out and get to the” — no, the second that happens the Bible saying flee from it, could become idolatry. Then of course it can be an idol and then another god before God. I mean it’s a slippery slope.

You gotta flee. You gotta run away from it. Why? Because God is a jealous God. He doesn’t want to be on the back burner. He wants to be the number one priority in your life. Deuteronomy 32:16 says, “They made him jealous with their foreign gods and angered him with their detestable idols.”

Foreign god doesn’t necessarily mean from another country. Like if you’re living in the U.S., a foreign god could be like the gods of Hindu or the gods of the Buddhists, or even the god of Islam. You say, “Those are foreign gods.” Foreign god could be, if this pen is starting to become more important, this is a foreign god. It’s foreign to your one true God.

Leviticus 26:1, “Do not make idols or set up an image or a sacred stone for yourselves, do not place a carved stone in your land to bow down before it. I am the LORD your God.” Don’t do it. Flee from it the second something starts to take more priority. Flee from it. If you love God then you’re completely devoted to serving Him every moment of every day.

But if you’re only focused on making money or making sure you catch that game or making sure you go to this sporting event or whatever, then you’re treating that as your god. It’s becoming more important than your God you are serving. To do that, earn money, see sports, you’re living for that. That’s wrong. You’re serving to do that, you’re living to do that. Instead, you need to be living to make God happy.

Now of course, you need to have a purpose, maybe you found a new purpose in life and you just love boxing, and all of a sudden you’re going all these places. You love some sport in it and you are like, “That sport saved my life. It got rid of my addiction. It did this. I did this.” That’s great, play that sport with the mentality of serving God. It’s a heart – it’s a heart and a mind change. Everything you do needs to be for God.

Colossians 3:5, last verse, we will start to wrap it up. I know you are probably getting antsy. Gotta go see that football game. No. Colossians 3:5, “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature.” Put to death, so not only are you supposed to flee from it as in 1 Corinthians. Something starts to creep in, flee from it, but put it to death.

Take a look at that psychology teacher that said that the second you start to change. That client, wait a minute, get rid of the client. Put to death that thought. That you are changing your nature for something else earthly, so put it to death.

“Put to death therefore whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed which is idolatry.”

Now is He saying greed is idolatry or everything there is idolatry? Either way, if you’re desiring something more than God, that‘s greed. Whether it’s money. Whether it’s time with someone. Whether it’s sports. Whatever you are greedy for, that earthly thing, that is idolatry.

Idolatry leads to worshiping a false god. God is a jealous God. Don’t worship anything else, don’t put anything else before Him. Who do you serve? Who are you serving? The one true God.

Let’s pray. Lord Jesus thank you so much for this time together, this inspiring message to help people examine their hearts and their minds and find out what is the priority in their life. I ask that they would examine their life.

That they would find out where they are spending their time. That they would realize that they have the same amount of time each and every single day and that they would begin to prioritize that time so that they are living with you.

Whether it’s in prayer, in thought, in spirit, in what they do. That they would be a light, that they would shine for you. That they would always remember to do their devotionals. That they would make time to read your Word and to be in your Word. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

All right, so remember we have got two weeks left. I hope you’re enjoying this sermon series. If so, please use those share buttons. Why? Not to serve us, but to bring more people to God and help them understand who they serve.

Anytime we ask you to share something or ask you to help us out in some way, whether it’s financially or sharing or liking or subscribing. It’s not to build us. It’s not to build this. It’s to bring more people here to help them realize what they are doing with their lives. That they need to be living for God. God bless.