Scarborough Chinese Baptist ChurchSeptember – December 2015
Daily Devotional
for Sermon Series
a study of The Sermon on the Mount
Week 9: November 2 – November 8
The following series of daily readings and questions have been designed by Pastor Tom Cullen to lead up to the sermon for the coming week. There are five daily studies for each week. Allow about 20 minutes a day to complete each daily devotional.
The weekly sermons can be heard at scbc.com Each week’s daily devotional guide is also available online at en.scbc.com.
Sermon Schedule
Living in the Kingdom
November 8 – On Ambition (Matthew 6:19-34)
November 15 – On right relationships (Matthew 7:1-12)
November 22 – Making the right choice (Matthew 7:13-29)
Scarborough Chinese Baptist Church Fall 2015
Sermon Series Devotional Guide
Living in the Kingdom
a study of The Sermon on the Mount
Is it wrong to be ambitious? To be sure ambition often has a bad image because it has a selfish flavor. But ambition can equally refer to other strong desires – unselfish rather than selfish, Godly rather than worldly. In other words, it is possible to have a Godly ambition.
In fact, according to Jesus, our ambition, our desire for God can be so deep and so intense that it rivals humanity’s desire for riches.
Indeed, all through our study this week Jesus seeks to put two alternatives before us. He will speak of two treasures, two costs, two masters and two preoccupations. There is two of everything but in the end Jesus says, “There’s only one choice.” We are either ambitious for one or the other. You cannot have both. We are ambitious for and preoccupied with our own security or we are ambitious for God’s kingdom, his rule and his authority.
So Jesus is telling us that it isn’t wrong to be ambitious. It is a normal part of life. But he asks us, “What are you ambitious for in life? What is it that you are seeking? What treasure are you hoping to find and accumulate? What is that drives you? These are the questions that Jesus asks us this week.
The words we study may be very familiar to you so you will have to pay special attention. Don’t skim over them without thinking about what drives you in life. Allow his words to truly penetrate your thinking and affect your actions. If you are ambitious for anything other than God you will discover that the price you are paying for your ambition isn’t worth the cost.
In him, Tom.
Monday November 2
Read
v Matthew 6:19-21
Study
- What does Jesus warn us not to do in verse 19? Why?
- Do you think this verse prohibits a Christian from owning personal property or have a savings account? Why or why not?
- What does Jesus say we should do in verse 20? Why?
4. What are the chief characteristics of “treasure in heaven?”
5. What do your ambitions reveal about you? (Verse 21)
6. How do you think it is possible to store up treasure in
heaven?
Reflect
Have you seen the television game show called “The Price is Right”? I’m sure you have. It’s a game where things of little value are seen as having great worth and things of great value are assigned little worth.
I once read of an 18 year old girl who won $38,000.00 in prizes on the show. She rode off with a ’96 Chevy, two Honda motorcycles, a living-room set and eight other prizes including 3 gold bars. She could have declined the prizes she didn’t want but in the excitement she said, “I want it all.”
Then, one day, the tax man came knocking and she found that all her winnings put her into a higher tax bracket. She couldn’t pay. Her solution? Sell all the stuff she won.
But then she made an important discovery – when she went to sell the stuff she discovered the goods weren’t worth the value the producers of the Price is Right estimated. She sold her Honda bikes, valued by the show at $6,6000.00 each – for $1,500 dollars. The price is right? I don’t think so!
Unfortunately we play the price is right all the time in life don’t we? We assign high worth to things of little value, and little worth to things of great value.
Take a moment and list all the things that you think are “treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy.”
Then, beside each “heavenly treasure” place a value beside it. Do your attitudes and actions demonstrate the value you gave to each? Think carefully.
Tuesday November 3
Read
v Matthew 6:22-23
Study
1. What does Jesus say the eye does for you?
2. When can a person be full of light? When is a person full of darkness?
3. How do these verses relate to Jesus’ previous words about
treasures in heaven and treasures on earth?
Reflect
Kent Hughes offers this commentary on these verses, “The idea here is simple but beautiful. The eye is pictured as the window through which light comes into the body. If a window is clean and the glass is clear, the light that comes in will properly light every part of the room. If the window is dirty, or if the glass is uneven or tinted or discolored, the light will be hindered, and the room will not receive the full benefit of the light. The amount and quality of the light that comes into a room depends on the condition of the window through which it comes. So it is with the eye. The condition of the eye determines the quality of the light that enters the body.
…. Jesus is not giving us a lesson on optics. He is saying that the light that comes into a man’s soul depends on the spiritual condition of the eye through which it has to pass because the eye is the window of the body. That is the basic meaning. But there is a more specific and deeper meaning depending on the two words, “clear” and “bad”. I believe that “clear” here means “generous” and “bad” means “ungenerous.” … That this is the Lord’s meaning is substantiated by the fact that it fits perfectly within the context, for this text is framed on both sides with warnings against selfish materialism. The preceding words are, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth.” And the following words are, “No one can serve two masters … You cannot serve both God and Money.”
…. Sadly, most of those who are in the darkness do not even know it. They are self-deceived. Many Christians are like this. They think their eye is good when it is bad. They think their loyalty to Christ and his values is deep and grounded, when in fact it is shallow and contrived. Greed reigns, not Christ! And “how great is that darkness!”
…That is the dark side of Jesus’ saying, but there is also a bright side: “If your eyes are good [generous], your whole body will be full of light.” The believer who has a generous spirit, who is not tightly grasping the things of this world, maximizes the reception of light (divine truth) in his life. The Scriptures are open before such a heart, for he is seeking the things above. Then not only does the eye of such a person receive light, but it radiates light to those around.”1
How is your “vision”?
Wednesday November 4
Reading
v Matthew 6:24
Study
- What two masters are compared in this verse?
- Why does Jesus say that it is impossible to serve two masters?
- How do people try to serve both masters?
4. What choice does Jesus say we must make? Why?
Reflect
Martin Lloyd Jones asks, “Whom do you serve? That is the question, and it is either God or money [mammon]. There is nothing in the last analysis that is so insulting to God as to take his name upon us and yet to show clearly that we are serving money [mammon] in some shape or form.
I remember hearing a preacher tell a literal story … about a farmer who one day went happily and with great joy in his heart to report to his wife and family that their best cow had given birth to twin calves, one red and one white. And he said, “You know I have suddenly had a feeling and impulse that we must dedicate one of these calves to the Lord. We will bring them up together, and when the time comes we will sell one and keep the proceeds, and we will sell the other and give the proceeds to the Lord’s work.” His wife asked him which he was going to dedicate to the Lord. “There is no need to bother about that now,” he replied, “we will treat them both in the same way, and when the time comes we will do as I say.” And off he went.
In a few months the man entered his kitchen looking very miserable and unhappy. When his wife asked him what was troubling him, he answered, “I have bad news to give you. The Lord’s calf is dead.”
“But”, she said, “you had not decided which was to be the Lord’s calf.” “Oh yes,” he said; “I had always decided it was to be the white one, and it is the white one that has died. The Lord’s calf is dead.”
We may laugh at that story, but God forbid that we should be laughing at ourselves. It is always the Lord’s calf that dies. When money becomes difficult, the first thing we economize on is our contribution to God’s work. It is always the first thing to go. Perhaps we must not say, “always” for that would be unfair; but with so many it is the first thing, and the things we really like are the last to go. “You cannot serve God and money.” These things tend to come between us and God, and our attitude to them ultimately determines our relationship to God. The mere fact that we believe in God, and call him, Lord, Lord, and likewise with Christ is not proof in and of itself that we are serving him, that we recognize his totalitarian demand, and have yielded ourselves gladly and readily to him.2
May we all examine our hearts.
Thursday November 5
Reading
v Matthew 6:25-30
Study
- What are we not to worry about? (verse 25)
- Why are we not to worry about these things? (verses 26 – 30) (Solomon was the son of David and one time king of Israel. His wealth is legendary. See I Kings 10:23-24)
- What attitude should we substitute for worry?
- How does worry demonstrate “little faith”?
Reflect
I once heard Tony Evans, a preacher from Texas, tell of how he and his wife were on a cruise to Alaska. Along the way they hit a huge storm with waves 40 feet high. It was terrible, food was flying off the table, people were throwing up, others were screaming and fainting. It was a scary scenario.
And Tony Evans said, “My wife was angry. She wondered, “Why would the captain of the ship leave the safe place they were in and go into the storm?” So she called the captain to give him a piece of her mind. She couldn’t reach the captain but left a message.
Five minutes later, she received a call back from the operator. She said, “I have relayed your message to the captain. He knows you don’t think he should have taken us into the storm. But he has two messages for you. First message: “Lady go to sleep. I’m awake on the bridge and there’s no need for both of us to be up - so go to sleep.” Second message: “Lady, this ship was built with this storm in mind.”3
I don’t know what is on your mind today, what you are worrying about. But you need to know that your Father in heaven is on the bridge of your life looking after your safe passage. He knows the storm you are facing and he knows your ship. And he knows that if he is at the helm of your life, if you are seeking his kingdom first, you will be able to weather the storm. Even if the waves of this life may rock your boat it’s not going anywhere. Your worrying is unnecessary.
Make a list of your worries. Read over the list and recognize that your heavenly father is at the helm of your life and enabling you to weather the storm.
Friday November 6
Read
v Matthew 6:31-34
Study
- What do the “pagans run after?”
2. Why don’t we need to copy the ways of the pagan?
3. What are we to put as a priority in our lives?
4. What other reason does Jesus give us for not worrying?
(verse 34)
5. Have you been challenged to re-think your goals and
aspirations? How? What will change for you?
Reflect
Jesus says that we are not to worry “about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:34).
How many times have you worried about an event that never came to pass? How many times have you fretted about something that never ended up happening? What is a better attitude to have?
Endnotes
1. R. Kent Hughes, The Sermon on the Mount (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 2001) 212, 216.
2. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, vol. 2
(Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1959) 95,96.
3. Tony Evans, as heard at the Moody’s Pastors’ Conference 1998.
Sermon notes for Sunday November 8
Page 11