Text: Genesis 3:1-7
“Now the serpent was craftier than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so, they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.”“
1. The Snakebite
The snake bit the first humans and the poison has infected and affected people ever since. Jesus taught into this in his Sermon on the Mount…
Matthew 6:24, *”No one 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” *
Jesus switched from Greek to Aramaic for emphasis
Mammon is more than just money. Originally, the word Mammon came from the ancient Chaldeans (The people group from which Abraham came) and actually has its roots in the words, ‘confidence’ or ‘trust.’
Aramaic, mammōnás = to trust in treasure or to have our confidence in our material wealth. It’s the praise of possessions; the worship of stuff! A person who serves Master Mammon will live their life to progress in the accumulation of material wealth as more important than living to worship and serve God ~ No one can serve two masters!
Jesus personifies mammon by contrasting it with God. That is, you cannot be devoted to the True God and also be devoted to “the god of riches.”
That’s why First Fruits is such a powerful thing. It is a freewill act by which we declare that our trust, confidence and devotion are securely in God and NOT in material wealth. We do this to break the spirit of mammon that so easily ensnares us…
15% of Jesus teaching is about money. In fact, he said more about how we are to view and handle money and possessions than any other subject. There are 2,350 verses in the Bible that speak about money – twice as many as devoted to prayer and faith combined.
Why? The Bible authors were aware of the snakebite, the deception that Eve was seduced by that says, “what I have is not enough!
So, what’s the cure?
2. The Antivenin
The Antivenin to counteract the poison of mammon comprises two main ingredients:
Luke 3:7-14, John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 9 The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”
10 “What should we do then?” the crowd asked.
11 John answered, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.”
12 Even tax collectors came to be baptized. “Teacher,” they asked, “what should we do?”
13 “Don’t collect any more than you are required to,” he told them.
14 Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?”
He replied, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely—be content with your pay.”
No one asked him about money. They asked him about spiritual transformation (contentment and generosity)
Contentment: What I have is enough!
Matt 5:5, “You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are — no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.” (THE MESSAGE)
Q. What gives you the greatest contentment in life?
A. Longing for God and not for things
Contentment is one ingredient in the antivenin. The other is generosity. Contentment says, what I have is enough.
Generosity: What I have is more than enough!
1 Tim 6:18-19, “Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.”
(Randy Alcorn, Money, Possessions and Eternity)
“[God] will call us to take action that breaks our bondage to money and possessions and frees us to live under his exclusive Lordship.”
“Generous giving frees us from the hold of our possessions, breaking us out of their orbit. Through generous giving we can escape the gravity of things on earth by establishing a new orbit around treasures we store up in heaven.”
It’s the same with us. When we’re generous we break the pull of mammon on our lives.