As I’ve said several times, money is a powerful, powerful thing. It represents who we are, a piece of us, a slice of our self. Because we spend so much time and energy trying to make it, save it, invest it and spend it; money is a part of us. Money is so mesmerizing that it can, if left unchecked, become your master. It wants to rule us and dominate us. Money is looking for servants. It’s seeking worshippers. Our goods can quickly become our gods.

There’s a deceptive side to money, however, that most of us miss. Money always over-promises and under-delivers. It promises us those things that only God can give—security, significance, identity, independence and freedom. But it always leaves us asking for more.

One place that Jesus talked about money is in Matthew 6:24. He said, “No one can serve two masters. 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 both God and money.”

Jesus was basically saying that no one can have two bosses. The business world didn’t come up with that philosophy. Jesus did. It would be mass confusion if, in the professional world, you had to directly report to and serve two different bosses.

From a spiritual standpoint, the same is true. All of us must choose whom we will serve. We can either choose to serve ourselves in the Land of Ing by pursuing wealth, materialism and selfish pleasures. Or we can choose to serve God by managing our money according to his instructions.

Christ was saying that we can only have one master. But we live in a materialistic society where many Christians try to serve God and money at the same time. They spend their entire lives collecting, storing it, investing it and spending it—basically doing deals—and then dying and leaving it behind. Their desire for money and what it can buy far outweighs their commitment to God in spiritual matters.

Ed Young Fellowship  – we talked about those guys last week, you know the faithful firemen, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.  So they all hung tight.  They were in Babylon together.