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Holy Trinity Anglican Orthodox Church
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Worldliness |
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Matthew
6:24 Fifteenth
Sunday after Trinity September
12, 2010 The
most dangerous sins are not the "big Sins" which the Ten
Commandments warn us against. They
are dangerous. They are
deadly. But we know about
them, therefore we are on our guard against them.
The most dangerous sins are the seemingly little sins, for they can
sneak into our lives unaware, leading us astray even as they convince us
that all is well between ourselves and God.
Serving Mammon is one of those sins. Serving
Mammon is really the sin of worldliness, and worldliness is simply being
preoccupied with your own comforts and security. It is an attitude of self-indulgence. I need to say here that God wants you to enjoy His blessings.
There are those who say God only wants you to pray and to feel bad
about your sins, and He doesn't want you to engage in the pleasures and
recreations of life. I say
such people are wrong. God
wants you to enjoy His creation and to enjoy the pleasures and recreations
He makes possible. He simply
wants you to enjoy them in a Godly way, which is to enjoy them as gifts of
His grace in an attitude of thanksgiving, and with a great amount of self
control. And, of course, your
pleasures and amusements must be things that are lawful according to the
Scriptures, not counter to the teachings of the Bible. I
also need to say that God wants you to reap the fruit of your labors.
If you work hard at honorable labor, God wants you to enjoy the
benefits of your work. Those
benefits should be first a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction, and,
second, financial rewards. The
worker is worthy of his wages. You
deserve a fair wage for your work, and you are free to enjoy your
financial rewards in any way that is Biblically lawful. The
danger is that you may become preoccupied with the pleasures, so that your
enjoyment of them no longer glorifies God, but actually comes between God
and you. When this happens,
you are no longer serving God, you are serving Mammon. Our
Lord states an obvious fact when He says you cannot serve both God and
Mammon. Every day we see this
exemplified in the lives of people. We
all know of people who are greedy and self-serving, and we clearly see
that they hate God. They
detest His laws about fair wages and fair day's work.
They mock words like, "love thy neighbor, thou shalt not
steal," and "thou shalt not commit adultery." To them, all the rest of us are suckers and commodities for
their use and pleasure. But
this sin is not always manifested in such open and blatant ways. In fact, it is usually much more subtle and innocent looking.
You can even be a good person and faithful church member, yet be so
caught up in your job, your hobby, or your possessions and pleasures that
God slips quietly into second place.
There is no need for me to go into great detail about this, for you
know if you serve God or Mammon. There
is a need for me to state that, though this may appear to be a very small
sin, it is in reality a very grievous sin.
It is to break the very first commandment, "thou shalt have no
other gods." It breaks
what Christ Himself calls the "great commandment," the prime
commandment, the very first principle of human life; "thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy mind and with all thy
soul." There
is also a need for me to state the cure for this grievous sin.
Actually, Jesus stated the cure, I am merely reminding you of
Christ's words. Our Lord
said, "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness."
Again, the meaning of these words is so clear that comment from me
is superfluous. But I will
comment anyway, and say that He means God is to be our first priority, and
our first concern in life is to seek Him.
Christ also means that we are to trust Him to provide our needs as
we put Him first. He who
works all things for good to those who love Him will freely give us all
good things, according to His wisdom and grace.
So, work pleasure, and possessions all have a legitimate place in
the plan of God. But, we find
meaning and joy in them only when we place them under the Lordship of
Christ, and pursue them according to His will revealed in Scripture. I
want to close with a reminder that the greatest treasure of all is God
Himself, and the greatest pleasure life can offer is to know and love Him.
The "Collect for Peace" in Morning Prayer correctly summarizes
the Bible when it leads us to recognize that the knowledge of Christ is
eternal life and His service is perfect freedom. In Him is life and peace
and joy everlasting. This
world had a beginning and it will have an end. And one day we will be
called from it to stand before God. On
that day, all our earthly treasures will be gone from us forever, and all
that we will have is God. What
good will it do us on that day if we owned the whole world, and loose our
very soul? Our
Lord was absolutely accurate in saying we cannot serve two masters.
We cannot live with divided loyalties.
We cannot be double minded. We
cannot have two things first in our lives.
What is first in yours? How
do you know it is first? Let
us pray. Lord
God, have mercy upon us, for we are weak of heart and mind, and we are
easily deceived and led astray. The
world is so real and tangible to us, while we see You only by faith.
The world is so alluring, while You command us to deny ourselves
and take up our crosses to follow You.
Have mercy upon us, O Father of all mercies, "and lead us
always into all things profitable to our salvation; through Jesus Christ
our Lord. Amen."
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