You guys remember when Daniel LaRusso was like, I really want to do karate that much. I kind of like girls to like me and to succeed at high school and be popular. And then Mr. Miyagi sits him down. He's like, hey, look here, kid. If you walk on the right side of the road, you're probably safe. Left side of the road, safe. But you walk down the middle of the road, and sooner or later, pal, squish like grape. It's like really good speech, and it motivates Daniel LaRusso to get cooking and become more fully dedicated to karate. And we all know how that works out for him. But the the principle that Mr. Miyagi's throwing out there is just one about singleness, right? Is singleness not like being single, that kind of worked two ways. But like singleness of heart, singleness of mind, like we've talked about as we've worked through this whole Sermon on the Mount thing. Jesus' whole big thing here in the Sermon on the Mount seems to be pointed toward there is this kingdom, there is this king, and it is so true and so good and so real and so permanent that it demands your full heart, your full investment, and no other investment makes any sense. Right? That's what we just got done talking about with the whole in relation to money segment. Don't store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth and rust don't destroy, and where thieves don't break in and steal, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. This concept is one of singularity. That is what Mr. Miyagi is driving at. Don't try to be two things at once. Don't try to live on two sides of the street at once. You can't squish like grape. And now Jesus is giving us the squish like grape teaching in Matthew 6, 24. No one can serve two masters. Either he's gonna hate the, he didn't say he's gonna, 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 both God and money. Based on my research from Warner Brothers cartoons, the two sides of the spectrum spiritually that one can walk on are Jesus and the devil. And when things appear over your shoulders, it's not an angel and money. It's an angel and a little demon thing with a pitchfork. Has Jesus never watched Warner Brothers cartoons? Does he not really operate outside of space and time? Because if he did, he would know that even in the first century AD. What the heck, Jesus? Well, the answer is Jesus is pointing out a different two sides of the road. One that isn't exactly the one that we picture, which is the obvious good guy with his flowing hair and wise teachings and willingness to lay down his life for those he loves, and the evil bad guy with his evil goatee and his clashing, dangerous, unappealing red and his pitchfork and his clear intent to murder and kill. No, the thing on the other side of the road, no, the rival lesser deity on the other side of the road on the other shoulder should be portrayed as you. That's a more act that's a more accurate depiction of how Jesus seems to see the thing. And at this point, you're probably like, well, he didn't say either you will love God or you will love a version of yourself. He said money, right? But let's break down the money thing and just think about what Jesus is probably driving at here. I mean, what is money really? Money is you converting your life energy, your time, your talent into a commodity that you can use to buy other people's life, energy, and time and talent. And we kind of forget this a little bit because economic theory has changed so much in the last 50 years. And I heard snores right now. Like I just heard some of you be like, oh no, economic theory, we're doing this stuff again. I'm out. No, but really, I mean, you saw what just happened with the stimulus thing. You know, we're doing the COVID-19 thing right now. There's a great big stimulus, it was like six trillion bucks that just materialized out of nowhere. Now, I'm not saying that was a good policy decision or a bad policy decision, strange times, difficult times, but it certainly did alert everyone to the reality that you can just make six trillion dollars if you're the government. That can just appear out of nowhere. So we tend to be a little bit detached from what money actually is, but in its truest sense, money is a convenience. It's a mechanism by which we take things and eliminate the 55 trades you'd have to go through to move the thing that you do, like say, collecting eggs all the way over to the thing that someone else does, like say making windshields. That might take a hundred trades at market to get to the windshield, or we could just all agree that these little magic pieces of paper and coins represent effectively human time, human life energy. And I trade uh what I think is a reasonable amount of time that I spent going and getting those eggs for some magic paper that represents value for my time and my energy. If we understand money for what it is, your past self, your ability to go and interact with things and commodify your past self to get the stuff you want, to trade up, to make better deals, and eventually to gather the commodification of other people's past selves into something that looks like wealth and control over your life. If we think of money as money actually is, then whoa! The right side of the road, the left side of the road, the thing on the right shoulder, the thing on the left shoulder suddenly look very, very different. So, in light of that, God is on the one shoulder and us and all the things we hope to obtain and get, all the things that we seek comfort in, our own pleasure, our own comfort, our own wealth, our own power and popularity. All of that really can be summed up in money. Now, in fact, there are parts of the New Testament where the term money, as Jesus teaches, is translated as mammon. Now, mammon is a more general descriptor of stuff, all the things that humans could accumulate, both physical and abstract. So either you can chase after the values and the currency of the kingdom, which is the forgiveness of God given away to others, which are those values in the Beatitudes, either you can start to trade in that currency, or you can continue to trade in the currency of the world. Naked you came in, naked you go out, you take nothing with you. The idea of this passage is it is a very foolish investment to walk on the side of the road where money is, to listen to the little thing on the shoulder that is chirping at you about money and mammon and stuff. It's a very prudent investment to throw your energy in your life after these more eternal things, well, not more eternal, eternal things that God is behind. So I guess another paraphrase of what Jesus is saying here in verses 24 and do we get to 25? No, just 24 is pick. You can't have both. Squish like grape if you try for both. There's nothing going there. Now, I don't think the Miyagi illustration holds up because Jesus is clearly saying that the way of money and mammon is perilous. So there's really only one side of the road that you can walk on, but it seems to be particularly perilous to try to thread the middle. And as we read more about what Jesus says about money and stuff and hypocrisy and fake religion and all of this stuff, we discover more and more that it's not just that it's not safe, it's gross, it's tacky. It's one of the things that are is most off-putting in the mind of Jesus, in the mind of God as a lifestyle and a pro and an approach to things. So pick. Well, but that's tricky. I mean, what does pick look like? And stuff, I mean, stuff is kind of the parachute here, isn't it? Like you throw most of the things at the kingdom and at God's stuff, because you know, maybe it's probably true that seems good, but like this is definitely true. I'm definitely here. I definitely am in this place, and and money definitely buys me food and fills my belly and gives me things that I can do that are happy, and stuff makes me feel safe and distracted. And now that I don't really have to do anything anymore, because we live in the 21st century and heat just happens and water just happens, and transportation is easy and everything's basically fixed. I need that distraction just to get through. And so we want to hedge my bets a little bit. Well, Jesus is using the language of master and servant. He's used the language of heir, he's used the language of, you know, an heir, of course, is a son or a daughter. So there's this question not just of pragmatism, which one is the better investment. There's also based on the way he's framing it, nobody can serve two masters. There's also the question of loyalty and devotion. He's using those words. Where does your heart go? So it's not an entirely pragmatic question. He's done a marvelous job of building out this idea that to really be in the kingdom is to give God your heart and to want the things that he wants to be vested in the things he's vested in. And that's really tough when you get into stuff and enemies, and he took it right into stuff and enemies. I think the real rub here is that we're just not quite sure. I mean, like if we were sure, like sure in the way that you're sure of your physical surroundings right now, sure in the way that you're sure of all the predictable things that your practical, day-to-day, empirical nature has brought to a place of certainty, like when I touch this, it does that. When I walk that way, I go that way. When it's cold, I feel this. All of those empirical certainties get reinforced every day, but the God thing, it doesn't get reinforced the same way. It's a different set of categories. So come on, Mr. Miyagi, come on, Jesus, how sure do I have to be of this thing? And is it a leap of faith? Well, kind of. I mean, maybe at this moment in Matthew chapter six, it feels like a leap of faith. And I kind of wonder how much of the audience was like, this is very, very bold, what you're saying. And if it were true, what you're saying is right. But lots of people say lots of religious things, man. And your stuff sounds great, but come on, like I gotta eat, and I'm just not willing to sell out completely for your whole kingdom idea, though it does sound great. Well, fast forward a little bit, as soon as the Sermon on the Mount is done, spoiler alert, we get into chapter eight, and Jesus starts demonstrating in front of tons of people. Again, this might not be satisfactory for you 2,000 years after the fact, but it clearly was satisfactory for a huge amount of people then. He starts demonstrating, no, I have the credibility to say this, and here, like this is what it looks like. And yes, I am real, and this breaks the laws of time and space, and that breaks the laws of time and space. But for you and me, it's tough to imagine changing loyalty. And I honestly think this teaching is a little bit easier for the original audience than it is for us. Because they could go to the people who saw people raised from the dead and other crazy things happen and be like, Did that happen? Because you were there, Carl, and I only heard about it secondhand, and uh, you've never lied to me before, and you seem like a pretty practical thinker. Like, did a guy's arm grow back out of thin air? Because that like that's just that doesn't happen normally. And and then if Carl was like, Yeah, I was there, Doug, I saw it, it definitely happened, is pretty weird. And that's why uh I guess uh my family follows Jesus now. Well, then that was compelling, and it partly explains the spread of Christianity. But for you and me, we can't ask Carl. We have to run a little different equation here, and we don't have time to sort out how that equation works right now. Other than to say, I think it is crystal clear that Jesus is moving into the last third of this Sermon on the Mount, and he's kind of heading toward landing the plane. This is not esoteric thought. This is not just philosophy. This practically deals with you, disciples, you people on the hill who are curious. And the bottom line is this kingdom that sounds so beautiful is something that is antithetical to the perishable things of the world kingdom. And the invitation that is being put out there is a hard one. Maybe many will reject it, but you can't be loyal to both of these things. Either you are loyal to the values, the currency, the agenda, the purposes of the kingdom, or you're loyal to self. And both don't work. Squish like grape. We're not done with the conversation. The obvious question is so what I just starve? I mean, what okay, let's say your kingdom's real. What do I do then about like my bills and stuff? And that's going to be addressed in the next passage, and then I'll try not to spoil it. We'll get to it, uh, Magnana. I'm Matt. This is a 10-minute Bible hour podcast. Let's do this again soon.