This is Darrell Bailey, thank you for tuning in here this Friday as we get into service for Christ. We'll be talking about single-minded devotion out of Matthew chapter 6 verse 24 Stay tuned as we get into the wonderful Word of God July the 25th 20,025 the 29th of Tammuz 5785 Hallelujah, let's get into the wonderful Word of God Hey man, I'm glad as we open up with a time of prayer this Friday afternoon. Heavenly Father, we come before you asking that you would illuminate your word and search our hearts. Reveal any divided loyalties, any competing affections, and bring us into a place of wholehearted devotion to Christ. Help us to see that you alone are worthy of our service, our sacrifice, and our soul. Father, thank you so much for saving us by the marvelous grace of Jesus Christ. And now, Lord, as we get into the wonderful word of God out of Matthew chapter 6, verse 24. Give us what we need to say. Hide us behind the cross. You alone are worthy. And we ask all of this that we may give the gospel unto those that are listening for the message of their part. to apply to their lives. May it find a lodging place within their hearts. In Jesus' marvelous mighty name, we pray. Take your Bibles over to Matthew chapter 6, verse 24. The Bible says, no man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammoth. And so when we look and realize that this is flat out stated as an impossibility, it is total devotion to God. Ultimately, it will be total devotion, either you're one to the Lord or to the world. And so mammoth is derived from the Babylonian mima, which means anything at all. Are you devoted to anything at all? Or are you devoted to the Lord? I'm talking about being with a single-minded devotion. And so I'm glad. There's a story of a man who tried to ride two horses and each was galloping in different direction. And you know what? He didn't ride long because he couldn't. The same is true spiritually. Many today try to serve both God and the world. They wear the name Christian, but they serve the idol of Mammon. And Jesus spoke plainly as the nose on your face. No man can serve two masters. That's not a suggestion. It's a verdict. And in this passage, Jesus doesn't leave us guessing. He calls for single-minded devotion, a loyalty that doesn't waver, a heart that's not divided, a life that's fully yielded to him. I want to walk through what that truly means. There are two roads that we can take in life. One road is well-worn from much travel, but the other is without wear and overgrowth, for it is less traveled. Most will take the road that is well-worn. However, there are those who choose to take the road less traveled. And so I'm glad that, you know what? It'll make all the difference in the world because before each of us, there opens a way. We can choose to be a high soul or we can take the highway or choose to be the low soul and take the low. Well, you know what? As we look at the Sermon on the Mount, we see that Jesus talks to us about an important choice that we must make in life. You could say that it is a choice of taking a highway or a low way or the road less traveled or a road frequently traveled. The poet Robert Frost once said, we cannot walk down two paths at the same time. Jesus echoes this truth in even stronger terms. There's only two roads and we must choose one. We can't travel both of them. One leads to life and the other to destruction. A decision must be made. Which road will you take? And so I'm glad that Jesus tells us in Matthew chapter 6 verse 24 and elsewhere, in Matthew chapter 7 verses 13 and 14 that he says, Enter you in at the straight gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there be that go in thereat. And verse 14, because straight is the gate, narrow is the way which leads unto life, and few there be that find it. Well, every contract heart earnestly desires to be among the few, but the requirements are greater than most are willing to accept. You see, here, that straight gate, that's the door. who is Jesus in John chapter 10 verse 1. And so, every one of us, when we look, there's no middle road. There's no spiritual tightrope walk. You're either following Christ fully or you're being pulled by the world. Jesus isn't calling for indecision. He demands devotion. And every person sooner or later must make their choice. Look at me at what Jesus said about these two roads. First notice from Jesus' words that he speaks of two authorities, the conflict of allegiances. No man can serve two masters. He said this in verse 24, and the word master speaks of one supreme in authority. It speaks of a controller or a lord. Jesus is talking about who is in charge of our life. He's talking about who is lord of our life, and each of us is controlled by someone or something. There's someone or something that sits upon the throne of each of our hearts, and the great question that Jesus confronts us with is who or what? And so Jesus speaks of two authorities, and in these two authorities we see two rival rulers. They're two that are competing for control of our lives. There's the devil, and there is the Lord Jesus. There is the eternal and there is the earthly. Paul described it as competition between the flesh and the spirit. We read in Galatians chapter 5 verse 17, for the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. You see the word lustous means to set the heart upon. to long for, and the spirit and the flesh are in constant war with each other for the control of our life. Now let me pause for a minute. There's somebody listening to this that don't want to hear this, because I'm sticking strictly to the Word of God. Somebody wants to be entertained. Somebody wants to sidetrack another path. They want to hear something that'll tickle their ears. But I'm telling you, I'm on the straight and narrow path of the Word of God. Both have made it the goal to be the master of our life. Both long to be a charge of all who do and all we are. They're constantly competing to be the Lord of our life. But they're not only competing masters, they're also not only two rival rulers under those two authorities, but they're conflicting masters. When Paul speaks of flesh lusting against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh for control of our life, he adds, these are contrary, the one to the other. And to be contrary to the one another means to be to lie in opposition to one another. They're bitter adversaries of one another. Their agendas are opposite to one another. And their purposes stand in a stark contrast. Their objectives are as different as night and day. And one seeks to draw us close to God, while the other seeks to draw us away from God. And one has the objective of making us like Christ, while the other seeks to make us like the world. One is motivated by eternal values, while the other is motivated by earthly values. You see, the question that is before you and I this Friday is which one is winning the battle and which one is controlling your life. It is one or the other. And so Jesus said, no man can serve two masters. There are two opposing powers competing for the control of your life, and only one can be served. And the word serve literally speaks of a slave. As a slave, there can only be one master. A Baptist and a Mormon were walking and talking one day about the subject of polygamy. And the Mormon said to the Baptist, hey, show me one verse in the Bible that forbids polygamy. And the Bible says no man can serve two masters. Well, Peter T. Forsythe was right when he said, the first duty of every soul is not to find its freedom, but its master. And again, the question that's before us is who or what is your master? One of the great hymns of our faith is Judson van Deventer's, I Surrender All. In the late 1800s, after graduating from Hillsdale College, Van Deer Venter became an art teacher, a supervisor of art in the public schools of Sharon, Pennsylvania. The great passion of his life was to become a recognized artist. He was a Christian. He was an active member in his church. And during an evangelistic meeting in his church, God began to speak to him about being an evangelist. And for the next five years, he struggled with a pull within his heart to evangelize his desire to become a recognized artist. And in his own words, I quote, for some time, I had struggled between developing my talents in the field of art and going into full-time evangelistic work. At last, the pivotal hour of my life came and I surrendered all. A new day was ushered into my life. You see, his prayer was, Lord, if you want to give my full time to thy work, I'll do it. I surrender all to thee. Well, following that hour of surrender, he wrote one of the greatest hymns of all time. All to Jesus I surrender. All to Him I freely give. I will ever love and trust Him in His presence daily live. Within every believer that wages a war as to who or what will be master and Lord of our life. The world wants to lay claim to your allegiance. As well, the Lord Jesus Christ wants to be your Lord and Savior. But I want you to understand something. The world desires to be your Lord, but Jesus deserves to be your Lord on the basis that He is your Creator. He's your Savior. Praise God. He deserves to be the Lord of your life. And so we look at the conflict of allegiances that no man can serve to masters. The Greek word serve, dulio, it means to be a slave, not just a worker. Jesus is describing ownership, not employment. You're either completely His or you're not at all. And this does not mean working two jobs. This is referring to the soul's loyalty. You can't split your spiritual allegiance. You're owned by one or the other. And the two masters that are in view, one is God, holy, just, loving, and the other is mammon, a personification of wealth, greed, materialism, and worldly ambition. Roll unto me if I preach not the gospel. These two never agree. I don't care if I got to preach to a pile of rocks. I'm going to keep on preaching the word of God, and I don't care if they ain't a single one. That's what I mean by that philosophy. If you're called, you're called. And I ain't nothing going to stop me from my calling. And so I'm glad we serve, but there is a conflict of allegiance. the inevitable choice that Jesus said, either he will hate the one or love the other. There's no neutral zone. There's no fence. There's no third option. I wonder, what does Jesus mean when he says no man can serve two masters? He means that our hearts cannot be divided. We must choose either full solarity to God or to be ruled by the world. It's a binary spiritual condition. But secondly, notice with me that Jesus not only speaks of two authorities, but he also looked at what Jesus said next, Amen. He said not only to authorities where there's a conflict of allegiance, no man can serve two masters, but secondly, two affections. Listen, there's the danger of mammon's dominion. You cannot serve God and mammon. And the reason there must only be one master in our life is because either he will hate the one and love the other. Jesus was saying that whosoever. or whatever has authority in our life will also possess our affection. We will love one and hate the other. And the word hate, as used in verse 24, is a word that is often used to speak of loving less. For example, Jesus said in Luke chapter 14, verse 26, if you run reference, if any man come to me and hate not his father and his mother and his wife and children and brethren and sister, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciples. Does that sound crazy? It would be preposterous to think that Jesus is telling us that we must hate, that we must detest, that we must despise our father and our mother in order to be his disciple. Nothing could be further from the truth. What Jesus meant is clarified in Matthew chapter 10, verse 37. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Jesus is talking about loving less rather than hating in our sense of the word. And so Jesus was telling us that if the world is the master of our life, the mammoth, we will love the Lord less. And if Jesus is master of our life, we will love the world less. And so you know what? The second question Jesus confronts us with is who or what? And so Jesus confronts us with that, who or what do we love? It can only be one or the other. Think with me for a moment about these two affections. First of all, that first affection is a forbidden affection. The Bible says in 1 John 2, verse 15, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Paul said in Ephesians 2, when we look at these two affections, first the forbidden affection, He speaks of the course of this world in Ephesians 2, and the word course means age. When you talk about the world, you're talking about the age in which we live, an age or a society that has no room for it, for God. The things that are in the world refer to the possessions, the pleasures, and the purposes of the world, things that often have a grip on our attention and our affection. And John Wesley defined the world as anything that cools for our love for Christ. Anything that draws us away from God is worldly, and therefore a love for the world is condemned. We're not to love the world or the things that are in the world. And so, we saw the two authorities. And through those two authorities that we saw, when we looked and we realized that he was talking about two rival rulers, two conflicting masters, amen, but then we see the two affections a forbidden affection but secondly a faithful affection as well hallelujah because jesus said in mark chapter 12 verse 30 as we run reference and thou shall love the lord thy god with all thy heart with all thy soul and with all thy mind and with all thy strength and this is the first commandment we should all take careful note that loving god is commanded i wonder would you pay more attention if i was just real soft spoken and uh tiptoed through this message Would you hear it better? Would I be able to deliver it and get through if I was just like a little soft flute that was playing a musical tune that you would comprehend it? I'm excited about telling you the Word of God and we should all take careful note that loving God is commanded Loving the Lord is more than some heavenly STP that you put in your Christian life to make it run better in your spiritual fuel tank. It is commanded of every Christian that they love God. And when I think of all the Lord has done for you and me, we should never have to be commanded to love him. It should be so easy to love the Lord with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all of our mind. We should be in hell tonight, or at least on our way to hell. If it had not been for the Lord Jesus, how can we not love him? Tell me, how can we not love him? I think about a girl that came home from a date and she said, I ran up the door, opened the stairs and basically put on my pajamas and said my prayers. Well, she got it backwards. She ran up the door, opened the stairs, said my pajamas and put on my prayers. She got it backwards turned off my bed and stumbled into my light and all because he kissed me good night Boy, we should all be fumbling around because god's love is so powerful. We get everything backwards It's like when you first saw where my wife I was washing an old dirty ford pickup truck Where my and a holy shirt where my wife first come by to check me out before a blind date She won't know what I look like Man, 35 going to 36 years later, good God Almighty, hallelujah, gets better with time. We should be madly in love with the Lord Jesus Christ for all that he's done for us. I read a true story about a young actress of a theater troupe owned by her father. And one day in that large city, she was walking down the street and noticed through an open door a pale, sick girl lying on the couch. She stopped, walked in thinking that she might cheer up that young invalid. What she found was a young lady. who was a devout Christian of the Lord Jesus Christ. The words of that young girl that were invalid, her attitude, her spirit, her countenance, lit with a heavenly glow, greatly impacted that actress and led her to accepting Christ as her Savior. She went to her father, told him that she was given up the stage and wanted to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. The father told her that if she quit, their means of living would be lost and their business would be ruined. She said, You're the star of the troupe and you can't quit." She loved her father dearly and she said she would fill their engagement in the next city. The father was happy that he had been able to change his daughter's mind. That evening came for the show and a large audience had gathered. The curtain arose and the young actress stepped out onto the stage to the applause of a crowd. She stood there for what seemed the longest and then she softly said, My Jesus, I love Thee. I know Thou art mine. For Thee all the follies of sin I have resigned. My gracious Redeemer, my Savior art Thou. If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus is tis now. Listen, can you say, If ever I loved you, my Jesus tis now? Jesus has confronted us with two questions, and we see That those questions, that mammoth isn't just money. It's the spirit behind the money. It's the greed. It's the control. It's the false security. It's the promises of fulfillment that never delivers. It turns people into spiritual orphans. A man was once asked how much money is enough, and he said, just a little more. That mammoth talking, always craving and never content. The seduction of prosperity. It draws people away. They stop attending church. They stop giving. They stop praying. And for the love of money is the root of all evil, 1 Timothy 6, verse 10. But mammoth mastery leaves you empty. Serving mammoth leads to anxiety, bondage, and spiritual blindness. And when a Christian begins to pursue riches at the expense of righteousness, they're already deceived. The Holy Spirit will not compete for your attention. He must be Lord of nothing at all. Listen, why can't we serve both God and Mammoth? Because Mammoth demands our trust, our focus, and our time. And the very things God alone deserves. The two masters are in constant conflict. And so, We see question number one is, who or what is your master? Question number two, who or what do you love? But there's a third question, and it has to do with not only the two authorities, no man can serve two masters, two affections, and you cannot serve God and mammoth, but two allegiances, the conflict of those allegiances. Because that third question arises from the words, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. And in these words, Jesus is confronting us about our loyalties, our love and loyalty will be given to whom or what is master of our life. And as we look at this loyalty, Jesus calls for, we see that he describes, first of all, of those two allegiances. The first one, complete commitment. The word hold means to hold oneself opposite. The idea of complete commitment to where one's allegiance and affections lie. If the world is your master, if you love the things of the world, you will give it your devotion. If Jesus is your master and you love the Lord Jesus Christ, he will get your total devotion. It is one or the other. And so single-minded devotion is what it's about. And so, we see the two allegiances. Complete commitment or second complete rejection. Jesus said that when we hold to the one, we'll despise the other. And the word despise literally means to think against. It is the disesteem something or someone. In other words, we will place great value on one and little value on the other. There'll be total disregard of one because of the complete commitment to the other. And I'm sure you're familiar with that little song. I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back. No turning back. The world behind me, the cross before me. The world behind me, the cross before me. The world behind me, the cross before me. No turning back. No turning back. Though none go with me, still I will follow. Though none go with me, still I will follow. Though none go with me, still I will follow. No turning back. No turning back. That is what Jesus is talking about. Jesus is the Lord and the master of our life. We're to love him with all of our heart, with all of our mind, with all of our soul. It is the decision to follow Jesus and never turn back. And it is the world that is behind us and the cross that's before us. And there is complete commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ, complete rejection for the world. And to me, one of the most inspiring men, David Livingston, The great missionary, Robert Moffat, who said on a clear morning that the smoke of a thousand villages could be seen where the name of Christ had never been heard, he would serve 30 years in Africa. And after hearing of his death, Florence Nightingale said, God has taken away the greatest man of this generation. What made David Livingstone such a great man was not his exploration that added to the known globe about million square miles. It was his devotion to Christ. And Livingstone wrote, I am a missionary heart and soul. God has an only son. And he was a missionary and a physician, a poor and a poor imitant. imitation of him, I am, or wish to be, unquote. Heart and soul, he belonged to Christ. There was no doubt who was master in his life, who he loved and where his laureties lay. His heart would be broken by the death of a child in infancy and the death of his beloved wife, Mary. Time and time again, his body would be wracked with fever, dysentery, other sicknesses. On one journey alone, he had 31 attacks on intermittent fever. But in 1871, His strength failed him finally. Feet sore under ulcers, teeth falling out through sickness, weary in body and sick of heart. He lay in a hut for 80 days. His sole comfort and help was in the word of God, which he read through four times during this period. And so, holding to God means letting go of the world. You cannot cling to both. The word hold means to cling to, to be faithful to. A soldier doesn't flirt with the enemy. I'm going to die on the battlefield. Do you want to just say sitting around the rest of your life? Listen, I'm a warrior. I'm going to die on the battlefield one of these days. Are you? What's you? Are you just going to sit up like somebody else not doing your part? A bride doesn't have two grooms. So why do some Christians try to live in two kingdoms? You see, devotion is demonstrated in action. Matthew chapter six, when you look up a further, it talks about giving. in the third verse of Matthew chapter six and he tells but when you do alms let not your left hand know what your right hand does look on down at verse six of Matthew chapter six we see prayer he says but you when you pray enter into your closet and when you have shut your door pray to your father which is in secret and your father which sees in secret shall reward you openly look on further over into verse 17 but you when you fast anoint your head and wash your face and he's talking about fasting but in verse 21 of Matthew chapter 7 go on just a little further over and he's talking in verse 21 and he tells us not everyone who says unto me lord lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven but he who does the will of my father which is in heaven what is the will of a father well Let me tell you what it is. Look on down in verse 23 of Matthew chapter 7. And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you work iniquity. You see, we have access to God only through Christ and access to Christ only through the cross and access to the cross only through a denial of self. Any other message is judged by God as iniquity and cannot be a part of Christ. And so Heaven's investment strategy is Jesus urges us and he urges us to lay up treasures in heaven in verses 19 and 20 of Matthew chapter 6 that he tells us amen I'm glad that he tells us he says listen lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth we're mocked Rest do corrupt and where thieves break through and steal in verse 20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rest do a corrupt and where thieves do not break through no steel When we serve God alone Our treasures last for eternity. What does true devotion to God look like in a daily life? It looks like seeking him first. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you. Obeying his word, prioritizing his kingdom, resisting all of the worldly distractions. On March the 19th, 1872, one 59-year-old wrote my birthday, my Jesus, my King, my life, and my all, I again dedicate my whole life to thee. But the gray-haired foresore explorer and missionary this time went forward through swollen rivers, swamps, every day of the march being marked with dysentery, excruciating pains, and every convenient place he would carry and stop, he would rest, But April the 29th was his last day of travel. On the morning of April 30th, they found him in his hut, a candle burning beside his bed, kneeling as if in prayer, his faith in his hands. But the greatest servant of God was dead. The natives took the great master, as they called him, buried his heart. internal organs under a tree. They embalmed his body by drying it in the sun and then wrapping it in calico bark and canvas. And then they began a nine-month journey in which they carried his body and all of his personal effects through hostile country all the way to the coast where it was taken back to England. And there, identified by the arm crushed by the lion's jaw, his body was laid to rest with great honors in the famed Westminster Abbey. The Africans kept and buried his heart in Africa because they said his heart belonged to them. But in one sense, they were right. But in reality, his heart belonged to the Lord Jesus Christ. His devotion was the evidence. And so, Where does your loyalty lie? The answer to that question is who or what do you love? And the answer to that question lies in whom or what is your master? The greatest threat to the church, the local assembly across this world, isn't atheism. It's divided hearts. God help us with those divided hearts. We need unity among the body of Christ, not disloyalty and split. We had too many believers trying to serve two masters in the local assembly of the church house. Jesus didn't die on a cross so we could give him half-hearted loyalty. Some of y'all are doing things that Christians are not supposed to be doing. And he wants all of us total surrender, single-minded devotion. Look at me. What Jesus said about these was there were two authorities, two affections, and two allegiances. A missionary once asked a native chief to receive Christ, and the chief offered his bow, his arrows, and even his canoe. And the missionary said, God doesn't want your things. He wants you. And the chief responded, then I give him myself. Can you say that today? Can you say I give him myself? Listen, this Friday night, the Spirit of God is drawing hearts back to undivided devotion. Maybe I need to have, there ain't enough preaching on a Sunday that I've got to preach on a Friday to get somebody in the house of God Sunday. If you've allowed mammoth, whether through money, comfort, destruction, or fear to pull you away from a life of surrender, it's time to return. Come to the altar. Lay down that second master. Let God reclaim that first place in your heart tonight. Give him everything and gain everything in return. Will you? Do you hear me? Will you pray with me this? Lord Jesus, forgive me for trying to serve two masters. I surrender to you alone. Take my heart, my mind, my desires. I want to be fully yours. Break the chains of mammoth. Set me free to follow you. Lord, as we thank you for the truth of your word, let it dig deep into the hearts tonight. Break every idol, tear down every high place that competes with you. Help us to walk daily in single-minded devotion, seeking first your kingdom. In the mighty name of Jesus Christ. You can't serve two masters. True discipleship demands undivided loyalty. Re-evaluate where your loyalty lies. Is God first or is there a rival throne? May God bless you as our prayers.