Breaking the Spirit of Mammon

January 31, 2016

Pastor David Koch Introduction:

Please turn to Luke 16. This is the only passage I’m going to ask you to turn to today. We are going to talk this weekend about breaking the spirit of mammon. It’s a word that appears in the four times. used it three of the times it appears in the Bible.

Luke 16:9-13 9 “And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home. 10 He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.

11 Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own?

13 “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”

You cannot serve God and mammon. Jesus again is saying, “God has to be first.” You cannot be divided when it comes to your service. You have to make a decision, a choice and follow through on that choice and let that choice be the choice of your treasure, what you value. A relationship with God has more value than anything that is transient in this world. So let me ask you a question. What is mammon?

I. What is mammon? originates from Babylon, an ancient city in Syria. The name of Babel means confusion. When you add Mammon is money but the answer is much deeper the suffix it means sown, or planted in confusion. than that. It is the Aramaic word that means riches. Its meaning comes from the name of a false god that You may remember the story of the tower of Babel. the Syrians worshiped by the name Mammon. It Genesis 11 Now the whole earth had one language and The spirit of antichrist does not rule through the one speech. 2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed threat of nuclear war but through the fear of not from the east, that they found a plain in the land of 3 being able to buy and sell. The mark of the beast. Shinar, and they dwelt there. Then they said to one So often the tempting thought is if you only had another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them more money, you’d have a better marriage. If only thoroughly.” you had more money you could help more people. God helps people, not money. They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. 4 And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us Jesus never said to anyone, “you need more money”. make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered At some point in time, we have all had this thinking. abroad over the face of the whole earth.” Either we need God to come through or we need someone to give us some money. If someone gives 5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the us money, we don’t need God. So Mammon is the 6 tower which the sons of men had built. And the LORD spirit that tries to influence us to do what we do said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one without God. language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from 7 II. Is money evil? them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s What Jesus is talking about is that Mammon is a speech.” spirit. If Mammon isn’t a spirit how can it talk? If

8 you start to give an offering, you will probably hear So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over voices. Mammon is a spirit that rests on money; it the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. 9 Therefore its name is called Babel, because there either has God’s spirit on it or the spirit of mammon. the LORD confused the language of all the earth; and The way you get God’s spirit on it is to give 10%. from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the Then it’s redeemed. face of all the earth. I Tim 6:10 – The love of money is the root of all These people believed they didn’t need God. They evil. They got under the spirit of mammon. Some thought their own power or energy could get them to people misquote this verse and say money is the root heaven. That thought is a spirit that contradicts the of all evil and that is not what scripture tells us. The spirit of God. It is an arrogant, prideful spirit that love of mammon begins with placing a higher value tries to replace God. Mammon is looking for and greater affection on money than on God. As a servants. It wants to rule in our lives. It’s about me, result people love mammon, serve it and come under what I want and how I can go about getting it not its authority. You will find your heart worshipping needing God. at the altar of whatever you value the most. That is where your treasure is. So the root of all evil is Many of us grew up under the servitude of loving and serving mammon, rather than loving and mammon. There is a message today called the serving God our creator. prosperity . It works selfishness and into your life and not out of your life. When it is V 9 – make friends for yourselves. Make friends preached, it says everyone should have a Rolls with money. Do favors for others when they are in Royce, a Rolex watch and be rolling in $1,000 bills. trouble. The problem with that is when something breaks, people end up despising God. They get mad at God; Take this unrighteous mammon and redeem it. they do this because they are loyal to mammon. When you use it to build the kingdom of God people Mammon actually promises us everything that only will get saved and become your brothers and sisters God can give us: Identity, Security, Significance, joy in Christ. When you fail means when you die, they and happiness. These are all things that only God will welcome you into your eternal home. There can give. Only God can give peace, love and joy. will be people in heaven that welcome you, because Mammon wants to rule. The spirit behind Mammon you helped others. is the spirit of antichrist. So money is not evil; it is neutral and can be used as to give you one. We have talked for four weeks a source for God and good or a source for self and about living the blessed life and in conjunction with evil. God is the only one who can take unrighteous that, the principle of tithing. mammon and turn it into souls, true riches. We all know God owns it all but from scripture the III. What should I do with money? tithe belongs to Him; set it apart. Don’t steal it, don’t use it for yourself, it belongs to God. Is it Be a good steward with what you have. You might possible that if you are not faithful with the 10% be thinking right now, “I have too little of this which belongs to the Lord, He will not trust you unrighteous mammon to be concerned with this with more? This is so important to understand. God message. If I had more, I would be listening is testing us to see what we will do with the tithe. intently.” V 11 – Who will commit to your trust, true riches? Listen to me lovingly. If that is your way of True riches are people. The only thing that is going thinking, you never will have any more. I had a to last for eternity is souls. Understand, eternity is conversation with someone recently when the forever. After you draw your final breath here on Lottery was 1.5 billion dollars. They said, “Oh what earth, and your temporal physical life is over, you good things I could do if I won the lottery.” I said to will end up forever in heaven or forever in hell. God them, “What are you waiting for? Start with what wants you in heaven, but if you reject His love you have.” through Jesus’ sacrifice and you reject the opportunity to receive His forgiveness and be You can adopt a child through compassion redeemed by His blood and your repentance and live international for $20 a month and that child will your life for Him, you will end up forever in hell. receive food and clothing and education. Amazing!. Souls and the place where they dwell are forever. For about the cost of one meal at McDonald’s a week you could change a child’s life for eternity. Heaven is being populated and hell is being You don’t have to be a billionaire to make a plundered by our offering. That is why it is so difference in someone’s life and if God sees you are important for us to give. God is taking the tithe we faithful in what little you think you have, He will see give and as a result people are getting saved from sin you are able to be trusted with more. and from an eternal hell.

V. 10 – He who is faithful in what is least, will be Why would the heavenly Father who has all power faithful in much. If you have a little and you don’t to bless you, do so when you don’t already handle tithe, you will never have much. We all start out unrighteous mammon in a responsible way? with a little and God sees if He can trust us. He gives us more and more until we can be a blessing to What is God saying to you? Please take a moment our family and a blessing to others. If you are not and ask, “Holy Spirit, what are you saying to me faithful with a little you are never going to have through this message?” Let Him know you are open much. and that you want the spirit and the strongholds of mammon in your life to be broken. If you need V 12 – If you are not faithful with another man’s prayer for any area of your life, I am going to ask wealth, who will give you your own? you to stand up with everyone and step out from your seat and come to the front so we can pray for There are lots of applications for this but I just want you.

Conclusion:

Don’t let the spirit of mammon dominate your life. The quickest way to break the strong hold of mammon in your life is to give the first 10% as tithe to the church. You can still do God’s guarantee.