One Master

“No one can serve two masters, for 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 God and money."

These words from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount were played out in real life during last year's Tour de France. Arguably the greatest professional cycling team manager in the history of the Tour, Johann Bruyneel, (whose teams have won 13 Grand Tour titles) had the two greatest current winners of the Tour on the same team, both Lance Armstrong (7 time winner) and Alberto Contador (2 time winner). As the race unfolded Bruyneel had to decide who the team was going to support in their effort to win the yellow jersey.

After Contador rode away from the rest of the contenders on a huge mountain stage, Bruyneel's decision became clear. He had to support Contador. If he had continued to try to support both Armstrong and Contador for the win, neither would have won and another team would have taken the yellow jersey. No one can serve two masters. If Bruyneel had tried to serve both Armstrong and Contador he would have failed them both. That's why when it came time for preparations for this year's Tour, Bruyneel went with one of the two, Lance Armstrong, on Team Radio Shack.

Jesus told us the truth in Matthew 6:24. You cannot serve two masters. If you try to serve God halfheartedly while your real goal is to obtain wealth, you will be sorely disappointed. If you get wealthy, your relationship with God will diminish, and you'll discover the emptiness of riches. If you seek to use your talents to serve God and glorify Him you may get wealthy in the process, but you will see your wealth as a gift from God to be used for His honor according to His will.

I'm convinced that the reason God commanded the tithe in Malachi 3:10 was simply because no man can serve both God and money. God understood that if we trust Him enough to give Him the first 10% of all that we receive, and truly believe that He is able to supply all our needs with the remaining 90%, then He really will be our One Master.

That's why God said, "Test me in this!" Once we've tested him we will recognize the joy and blessing of serving God as our One Master. But we have to test Him first. We have to take that big step of faith to give Him our tithe. As we do so, we will see Him provide our every need and we will also begin to experience the joy of laying up treasures in heaven.

This creates a positive feedback loop. As more of our treasure is dedicated to heavenly things, our hearts are more and more centered on the things of God. Serving God as our One Master becomes more and more natural for us. We rejoice to devote ourselves to the Kingdom of Heaven.

Ask yourself who can take better care of you and meet all your needs? God or Money? The answer is a no brainer. Choose your master wisely.