“Worshipping an Uncontrollable God”
Matthew 6:19-7:1

I.    Introduction

We are on sermon number two of a three-part series.  We are exploring three kingdom principles for how Christians should handle their material possessions in a way that pleases God and appropriates God’s blessings by freeing up more resources for kingdom work.  Last week we examined the kingdom principle of “Investing for Eternity.”  In this sermon, we are going to examine the kingdom principle of “Worshipping an Uncontrollable God.”  

II.    The Kingdom Principle of Worshipping an Uncontrollable God

Now last week’s sermon dealt with the practical matters of how a Christian should specifically handle their finances and material possessions.  This sermon attempts to draw out of our Bible passage the deeper matters of the heart in relation to our material possessions.  So, it is much harder to explain and to grasp.  These are deep spiritual truths we are wrestling with today.

In our passage, Christ cuts right to the heart of why it is so easy for humans, you and me, to become overly obsessed or worried about gaining material wealth, and the serious danger of doing so.  Now for the sake of trying to present these matters of the heart in a form we can get a hold of and apply, we are going to explore six realities, six dynamics of the human heart in relation to worship.  

The first dynamic, a foundational truth about being human is this:

1.  Humans are created to worship

God created human beings to worship.  No one can escape this core drive within every human.  It does not matter whether one embraces a particular world religion or is a Christian or atheist, every human worships.  The question isn’t will one worship, but what or whom does one worship.  

What is worship?  Worship is to ascribe to someone or something a place of highest value in our life because it provokes a sense of awe and gratitude, and because we believe that person or thing is a primary source of what we believe we must have to live a life worth living.  

Why do pagans often end up worshipping the sun, or the elements, or mother earth?  Because they believe that these are primary sources in their life that they could not live without.  So, a universal truth is, we worship what we believe will give us life.  That truth is discovered throughout Scripture.  In our Bible passage this morning, Christ puts this truth in these words: “….where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  Which brings us to our second truth about worship:


2. The passion of your heart follows the place of your treasure

Just like the truth that we will worship what we believe will bring us life, we will be most passionate about whatever we ascribe the highest value.  Whether it is hunting, sports, family or God, we will be most passionate about that which we value the most.  And since our behavior is always driven by our deepest passions, it is imperative that we are passionate about those things that foster godliness not worldliness.

So what are those things that you cherish, treasure, love the most?  We know how we should answer that question: God, family, others.  But how we spend our time and money truly reveals what we value most!  Your calendar and your checkbook are the true indicators of what you treasure the most.  

What Christ is calling us to in this passage is to continually allow the Holy Spirit to reshape our passions so that what we grow to treasure more and more those things that have eternal significance:
•    our relationships,
•    seeing unsaved people becoming adopted children of God,
•    seeing God’s people restored from deep woundedness and equipped for kingdom work,
•    seeing the justice and peace of God’s kingdom implemented now in every possible place in the world to relieve the horrific suffering of humanity.  

These are the pursuits that we should treasure the most, be most passionate about, so that they receive the bulk of our time and money!

If you are a Christian with the Holy Spirit living in you, then this is an inescapable reality for you:  You will only discover the deep joy, contentment, purpose, and significance you long for when you allow Christ and the work of the kingdom to become your primary passion.  

You can seek all you like to find such joy in worldly passions, but they will always come up short.  And here is another inescapable truth about the need to be very careful what becomes your primary passions, which is our third dynamic of worship:


3. We become like what or whom we worship

In the series of books turned moves “The Lord of the Rings” by Tolkien, there is a fascinating, complex character named “Gollum.”  The core of these stories is that there is this magical ring that granted the possessor of this ring enormous power over others.  The catch was that, like power always does, it corrupts the person who wears this ring, and the ring and its power become an overpowering, addictive, obsession, and the person slowly becomes an instrument of the powers of darkness.  

This character Gollum found this ring and unknown to all for many years, he possessed this ring in secret.  We discover in the stories that Gollum used to be a Hobbit which are a race of people who are short, joyful, social beings who loved good food and a good story.  The ring however had turned Gollum into this slimy, bent-over, slithering reptilian-like character with a split personality torn between the kind, joyful Hobbit he once was and this twisted creature of darkness that he had become.  The author Tolkien captures for us in this Gollum character a powerful illustration of the truth that we become like what we worship.   

Christ puts this principle in these words, “If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!”  

God has designed the human being so that we take on the characteristics of what or whom we worship.  Now God did so because God’s desire and eternal plan is that the human race for all eternity becomes more and more like Jesus Christ as we worship the triune God alone.  But this dynamic of being human is inescapable, and so it applies to every human no matter what or whom is worshipped.

For example, when one worships money, he becomes defined by greed.  When one worships pornography he becomes a one-dimensional, shell of a man.  When one worships alcohol or drugs, their personality, even their appearance takes on the characteristic of the substance being abused.  Look at teenagers when the worship some rock star, they take on the characteristics, and often even the appearance of the star worshipped.

But on the good side, the more we worship the triune God in the fullness of His majesty, glory, beauty, and holiness, the more we take on these characteristics!  Now there is even a danger here in worshipping the true God if our image of God is inaccurate.  If we worship a legalistic God, we become legalistic.  If we worship a judgmental God, we become judgmental.  And so on…   

So it is mandatory that we live lives saturated in the Word of God so that our image of God is true and ever expanding, and thus so will our worship and hence so will our character.  So not only must our worship be of the true God as revealed in all Scripture, our worship must be singularly of this God.  We must not, indeed we actually cannot, worship multiple gods.  This is our fourth dynamic of worship:


4. Our heart is only capable of worshipping one god at a time

God has so designed the human heart that we can only worship one god at a time.  Moreover, the triune God refuses to share His glory with another so that even if we could hold two gods equally in our heart, Christ would never settle for double occupancy in our heart!  The God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, the God who we Christians claim to worship, is a jealous God who demands sole worship!

You are only dangerously fooling yourself if you think you can spend the majority of your time and money pursuing earthly passions and still worship the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit!  God simply will not settle for anything less than first place!  

This dynamic of our hearts being able to worship only one god at a time also explains why a Christian cannot engage in willful sin and worship of the true God at the same time.  For a Christian to abuse a substance or look at pornography, or engage in any willful, habitual sin, he or she must first do something to turn off the worship of God in their heart in order to turn on the worship of their idol.

Now this dynamic works in reverse as well.  When a Christian is tempted to engage in some habitual sin, some idol worship, the way of escape is to enter into authentic worship of the real God!

So, we cannot serve the true God and “mammon!”  “Mammon” is the better word to use in this verse instead of money, because mammon represents all material things.  This does not mean we neglect to care for ourselves and others.  It does not mean we cease to take great delight in our earthly relationships, and even in our earthy pursuits that are not sinful.  It is all a matter of priority.  We must keep first things first.  And for a Christ-follower, the first thing is always worshipping and serving the triune God of the Bible.


Now, this next dynamic of the human heart in worship reveals why we always slip into idolatry:

5. The fallen human heart always seeks an idol, a controllable god

It is rightly said that we are not primarily physical beings who have occasional spiritual  experiences, but we are spiritual beings having a temporary physical experience.  Still, because we are right now so defined by our physical existence on planet earth, we are primarily driven by what we believe will bring us what we feel we must have as to protection, provision, purpose, and pleasure.    

Now because within each of us, even as born-again, Spirit-filled Christ-followers, there remains a sinful nature, much of our pursuit of protection, provision, purpose, and pleasure takes us down either blatantly sinful paths, or at least paths of idolatry where we depend more on sources and plans other that God’s to acquire these necessities.

Idolatry is any pursuit of protection, provision, purpose, and pleasure outside of God and God’s means of meeting these needs.  We want a god who we can control how this god provides, protects, offers direction and purpose, and pleasure.  Because the true God just seems to come up a bit inadequate in these areas at times.

You see at the core of all our sin and fallenness is a deeply seated mistrust, or at least an inadequate trust in those that are more mature in their faith, that God isn’t really good enough or powerful enough, or at least He doesn’t use His goodness or power in a fast or full enough way to bring me what I need as to protection, provision, purpose, and pleasure.  So, in any particular area where we feel God is coming up a bit short, we determine we had better do it our way!”     

A single women says in her head that God will provide mate in His good time.  But then she engages in desperate, sometimes questionable behavior driven by desperation for companionship.
A man says in his head that God’s plan for sexual gratification is best, but then he turns right around and uses pornography because its provision is controllable, immediate, and requires nothing from him.

A couple says with their lips that God’s plan of provision is best, and this investing for eternity is right, but then driven by fear of not being adequately prepared for the future, they place a larger percentage of their income into a retirement account than into tithing and missions giving.

A mother says in her heart that she knows God promises to protect, but she lives with a deep unshakeable fear that something terrible might happen to her children.

What we discover as we look closely at Christ’s teaching is that we either a live a life of worry, anxiety, and trust in oneself for protection, provision, purpose, and pleasure.  Or we live a life of faith trusting the heavenly Father for these needs.  This is what Christ is getting at when in our passage he talks about our anxiety of what we will eat or wear instead of trusting the heavenly Father.  And it is because of this deeply seated mistrust or inadequate trust that authentic worship requires this last dynamic:


6. Authentic worship requires a radical honesty that encounters an infuriating but trustworthy God

The deepest barrier to our ability to live lives of faith, hope and love, is a deeply seated lack of trust in God’s plan of provision in these four areas because as we look around and examine the data of our personal life and the horrific suffering in the world, the sobering, shocking reality, if we allow ourselves to see is, is that God does not seem to always provide, protect, offer purpose and pleasure in a way that seems sufficient.  

Now as Christians, we fear to ask these questions out loud.  We feel it too disrespectful even blasphemous.  So most Christians retreat from such troubling questions behind the veil of what I call “cliché” theology of statements like, “O God will work everything out for good.”  Or, “Well we don’t understand it, but someday we will.”  Or, “It’s not God’s fault, humans have free will you know.”  

And it’s not that these statements aren’t true.  It’s just that they aren’t adequate to take away the questions still stirring deep in our hearts of why God doesn’t seem to use His considerable power in ways we think He should all the time.  Even if we can convince our heads to be satisfied with these theologically-correct answers, deep in our hearts we are still asking these disturbing questions.  

If we weren’t, we would always trust God fully in every area where we need protection, provision, purpose, and pleasure.  Our lack of full trust in God all the time in these areas proves that these questions are indeed stirring in the deep places in our heart.  So, we might as well be honest with God and ourselves and voice them in prayer!  

The movement from naïve faith to mature faith requires wrestling with God in venting, brutally-honest prayer until we encounter the presence and person of God in real and powerful ways.  It is these ongoing encounters that continually close the gap between what we believe in our head and what we really believe deep within our heart.  

So how do we allow the Holy Spirit to remove these barriers of mistrust or inadequate trust?  We stop pretending that life is safer and nicer than it is, and stop pretending that God is more understandable than He is.  Choose to live lives of radical honestly with yourself and God.

We must continually allow ourselves to feel the full weight of the troubling questions that stir deep in our hearts about God’s goodness and plans until we encounter God in all His often-hard-to-see goodness and often-infuriating mystery.  It is in these personal experiences with the presence and person of God that our hearts move to a place of deeper trust in God’s person and plans even in the face of still not understanding His purposes.  

This is the place of brokenness, mature faith, and authentic worship.  And only in this place can we live the lives of radical generosity and risky faith that we are called to in this Bible passage we are exploring.