No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other, or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. [Matthew 6:24]

"...two masters... "
There are ONLY TWO MASTERS a man can possibly serve. The first is GOD ALMIGHTY, while the other is MAMMON.
Mammon is the deity that operates behind MONEY. Whosoever you are, it is either you are serving GOD or you are serving Mammon, the god of money.
Mammon is a worldly principle that rests absolutely on money as the determinant of the life of a man. Mammon pushes MONEY forward as the answer to your problem, instead of God. Mammon exalts money as the giver of life, health, comfort, pleasure and joy instead of God. Mammon seeks to displace GOD in the hearts of men, by setting itself on the throne as the God to be worshipped instead of GOD Almighty.
1. Mammon says that: "the value of your life depends on the volume and amount of money you can possess", and not necessarily the volume of GOD you know. This is the reason why you are so eager to get more money, whereas you are very sluggish to get more of God. By this, you are beginning to worship and trust in Mammon!
2. Mammon says that: "The life of a man depends on the abundance of THE THINGS THAT he has…”. This is the reason why you feel more secured around money than around God. You feel more relaxed, comfortable, happier and joyful when you have money and the things that money has bought, instead of having God and the fullness of His presence. Deep within, something keeps telling you that “Money can take care of it”. Something within you agrees that guns, security men, heavy dogs, a high fence, and all the security gadgets that money could buy, can protect you more than God can. So you put your TRUST in them, and call on God only as protocol i.e. giving honour to whom honour is due, but never because you depend on Him absolutely. You are beginning to adore Mammon by this.
Normally, God is the One who should make you more relaxed, happy, secured and strong, but since Mammon has taken Gods position in your heart, and all the glory that belong to God have been hijacked by money, money simply becomes your Master, the god you are serving.
3. Mammon says that: Your greatness in life is calculated financially. It says you are great because your pocket is great. It says you are a big man because your bank account is big. You are a man to be reckoned with because you have assets, goods and worldly investments. Mammon makes you feel inferior because you do not have the goods of this world with which it rates success. Once you have goods and gadgets, Mammon makes you feel classy, with a higher status than those who cannot afford what you possess. No wonder your head normally swells because your house is big. You feel proud and on top of the world, and even intimidate others because your car is more expensive and flashy than those of others. Mammon tells you that you are bigger as a Company Executive than the one who is a Clerk. Mammons yardstick of measurement is money, not God.
Though according to the Word of God, greatness, bigness, being a man of authority and a man to be reckoned with, is only attained because a man has God, and not goods. But, the measuring parameters of Mammon are carnal, while those of the Bible are spiritual.
When Mammon has confused you so much, you can even bulldoze your way through any means just to secure things for yourself because Mammon says, “unless you have me [money], you are a useless man in this world…”
Do you find yourself striving, labouring, even fasting and praying everyday so that:
• You can make it,
• You can be great,
• You can outshine others,
• You can be a voice in the society to be reckoned with,
• You can be a man of authority…
and your means to these, is by looking for more money, instead of looking for more God? "The simple verdict of Scriptures is that Mammon has become your God. "
Have you not discovered that Money (NOT God), is becoming your yardstick for measuring how successful you are as a man? Even in many churches where God is preached, many have shifted focus from GOD to MONEY subtly. Money now dictates how successful the programs are, not God! Those who have money are the men being exalted into positions. The silent question determining decisions, is “How much money does he have?” Not “How much God does he have?”
There are ONLY TWO MASTERS a man can possibly serve, to whom he will automatically be enslaved. It is either God or money. The question is “Who are you serving?”

"… NO MAN can serve two masters... "
Jesus, who is the creator of all men, knows the man whom He created, and He says "the man I created cannot serve two masters together at the same time". That man is a big liar, who says he is committed to GOD, but he is also committed to Mammon at the same time. Jesus says, you are either serving God or you are serving Mammon.
No matter how you try to serve God, if your platform and focus is money, if your eyes are on money or what money can buy, if what you use to gauge Gods goodness can be measured financially and not spiritually, then, God is out, and mammon is in. You have not started serving God once your eye is on money, the alternate God.
It would NOT have been a major problem, if it was possible to combine these two Masters and serve them together at once, but Jesus says: IT IS IMPOSSIBLE.
Today, even among those that call JESUS, the yardstick of men now is not MORE OF GOD, instead, it is MORE OF MONEY. The testimonies being given, is a reflection of what men are seeking. Money, goods, better life, comfort, greener pastures… and NOT GOD.
Friend, if we can prove that you have been serving Mammon, it means that you were never serving God AT ALL. All your churchianity and religion has been a service to Mammon though hypocritically using God. You have been serving God for your belly.
Pastor, could it be that all these years you thought you were serving God, the naked truth is that you have been preaching for your belly? Could it be that the reason why you were so passionate about your church growing was so that finance (offering) would increase, and not that souls would find salvation? The reason for the special prayers, is it not all about Money? All the admonitions to giving, evangelism, bringing people… what are the underlying matter unexpressed? Is it not money? Are you not more concerned about filling up the church rather than filling up the Kingdom of God?

"...he will hate the one, and love the other..."
The church of today is filled with the Generation of Esaus: Men who have cast off their birth right in Jesus, because of a spoon of pottage A generation of Hophni and Phinehas, who are in the work of God because of what they will get out of it, and not because they love God. For many, when money had not come, you saw them committed in church. You thought that God was their ultimate and pursuit. You thought they loved God and were passionate about Him. But, until little money began to come, their allegiance completely shifted from church to their business. What was the matter? Money was their pursuit all along, they were only using God as a means to grab it.

When money becomes your object of worship, when your pursuit of money has replaced your pursuit of God, when having money has become an alternative definition of having God, and you begin to count yourself godly because money has increased, when you trust in money instead of God, and what grants you peace, security, comfort, pleasure, happiness and joy is now money, surely, you have begun to worship mammon, the root of all evil.
You could be calling the name of Jesus with your mouth, whereas, your heart is far away from HIM into something else that you can get from Him. Many are in church, but NOT for God. They honour God with their lips, but with a covetous heart.

"...masters: … God and mammon"
As God is a Master, so also, Mammon is a master. For anyone who decides to serve money, money is never controllable, it must rule over you. It is a master, it is a god. Once it is money you put your trust in, it will trap you, you can never be free from its grip. You will never be satisfied with little. All your prayers will be on how you can get more. You will use God many times to serve Mammon, thinking that it is God you are serving. You will become a slave to Mammon, and everything about your life will depend on it.
The issue of mammon being paraded among the Christian fold today, is one of the greatest success stories of the devil. The devil has won, in the matter of WHO OWNS MAN. THE DEVIL HAS RELEASED MEN TO "GOD", WHILE MAKING SURE THEY HAVE A DIFFERENT FOCUS which is THE PURSUIT OF MAMMON. The devil will not say you should not serve God. He will release you to God, to go to church, to carry Bible, to preach and even pray, inasmuch as it is his man money that you are pursuing, not God. The devil has found a way of taking our eyes from the personality of God, unto the good things of life (or even the things that God can give). So, you can actually be seeking and holding God vigorously, yet, your longing is not for Him, your eyes are on what He can give you.
In years past, the attack of the devil on Christianity was SO DEADLY AND DESTRUCTIVE. He prevented people from going to church. He painted Christianity so bad and hurled huge persecutions against those who professed Jesus. To profess Jesus was simply to sign your death warrant. Once you confessed Christ, you knew you were in for trouble, tribulation or even death. Christians were seen as heretics. They were sawn asunder, cut in pieces, and burned alive SLOWLY. Some were thrown to hungry lions at the amphi theatre. When emperors wanted to celebrate their birthdays or had any ceremony, Christians were used to make bonfire for the parties...While Christians were burning and being roasted alive, the light from their fires were used to give light at night for the celebrations of heathen parties. I wish it was still like that today, Christianity would have been real!!! Back then, we had Christians who were ready to die. Their joy was ONLY in Christ, they were pilgrims on their way to heaven. You could not profess Jesus unless you were true and genuine. But today, the devil rarely uses that method again. He saw that he was losing too many people to heaven. He saw that persecutions were making the believers STRONGER, so he decided to wear another cloth a subtle, brilliant, cunny cloth. The devil decided to become very friendly, no more appearing wicked. He decided to be generous and give you things. He decided to be religious, no more syncretic. It is not that the devil stopped being devilish, he only changed his strategy to become more effective. Alas, the strategy worked. Christians have now relaxed and embraced the world/devil. Instead of being PILGRIMS on a journey, we have become DWELLERS and LANDLORDS in a strange country, praising God for the world that Jesus came to deliver us from.
Before, we had fewer population of Christians, but they were heavenly minded. But today, we have a great population of Christians, but very earthly minded.

"...Ye cannot serve God and mammon..."
Have you fallen into the trap of the devil? The devil gave you a sugar-coated poison, and you took it. You are so devoted to church, yet heaven knows you are serving another Master, the devil, but disguised as Money and better life.
Friend, the devil is not interested in killing you or cutting off your head anymore. He desires to keep you alive if only you can serve him. If being alive will make you serve Mammon, who is the disguise of the devil more, he will not hesitate to keep you alive like Methuselah.
The devil is no more interested in starving you. He wants you to “make it” if only it will take your eyes away from heaven, and fix it on making money. He wants you labouring night and day to grab more money, instead of more of God.
Are you a man of God, the devil is not interested in killing you. He knows he will lose you to heaven if he succeeds. Instead, he wants to adulterate you, sift you of God and grace, and fill you with the grandeur of mammon. The devil wants to populate the churches with so-called men of Mammon who have been emptied of God. He will make them his own vessels: men who will serve his purpose FOR MANY YEARS, so that multitudes coming to church will be in his cage through the man of God. No wonder, prosperity preachers have increased tremendously today. Men who use the pulpit to propagate money, instead of propagating Jesus have multiplied. The devil is looking to use the house of God to preach and propagate Mammon more and more, so that multitudes of people going to church, thinking they are serving God, will actually be serving him the devil.
The devil is not interested in scattering your business, rather, he wants that business to serve his glory. The devil could give you countless customers every day, and increase your pocket and your store with goods, once he knows it will capture your whole heart for money, and cut you off from seeking and serving Jesus devotedly. The devil can bless you and make you very rich and comfortable, so that you will keep serving mammon, but foolishly praising God for it.
Are you the unserious type praying that "if it is Gods will for me to leave this thing I am doing, then let God scatter it!!!"? Friend, the devil will never want that thing to scatter. He knows he has captured your heart already with that, so, he will sustain it and bless you very well with it. You will become the chicken in his cage, and he will feed you to fatness (and you will foolishly be thinking that it is God at work). God and Mammon today look so much alike, it is the deception from hell. Many times, you are focusing on Mammon, but it looks like God. You will even be praising God and sharing testimonies, but Mammon has taken over.
There is a very thin line between God and Mammon. If you are not careful, you will miss it. Many things you have ascribed to God, but NO, it is NOT God, it is Mammon that has become the alternative god being worshipped today.

Everything in the world today has been reduced to the issue of money:
 Success is being judged by money. [People will say "hei! he has made it"]
 Acceptability and having a “voice” (whether in the family, at work, in the society, or even in church). This is also judged by money.
 Greatness or “bigmanism” is measured by the size of money.
 Success in ministry, Outreach success... is judged by the issue of money.
 Comparison between individuals, the yardstick being used now is money, not God.
 Consideration for employment, is basically determined by how much money you will get, not how much it will give you space for God.
Friend, do you know that ALL that you ascribe and attach to money, it is GOD that actually has those qualities? But you have accrued those praises to money because money has become the GOD you are serving. Do you not discover that money now determines how you serve God? Money determines your mood? The presence or absence of money dictates your joy, your faith and your comfort? Your testimonies are about money, not God! Did you not notice that your hope is now in your business? Your hope is in your salary? Your trust is NO MORE in God. Money has become the alternate God you are serving. Even when you sincerely go to God, do you not notice that you are majorly seeking God now for promotion, for money, for breakthrough, for blessing, for things…? Rarely have you ever taken time apart to seek God for His sake alone, and to love Him dearly!!!

The question to you today is, “Who are you serving?” God or Mammon?