Being Righteous The Right Way - [Matthew 6:1-8]

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The last song said it all, just about. Rejoice. Our Creator reigns.
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There is no greater privilege, of course, than to be a child of God, when once you were a sinner.
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And to be called into ministry, to serve Him and His church. Do you appreciate that?
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Do you understand this morning how much we have to rejoice about? Praise the
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Lord. He has chosen us from before the foundation of the world. He has called us to be
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His children, seen fit to use us in sometimes our stumbling, bumbling ways for His greater glory.
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And that in itself is a miracle, oftentimes, sometimes more than others. But praise the
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Lord. What a great privilege to know the Creator of the universe, to be called His sons and His daughters.
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And we rejoice that. It's a wonderful joy for us to be here and rejoice with you. There's so much fellowship we have, right?
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One Lord, one faith, one baptism. We share those things. And it's been a great privilege for Andrea and I and our family to share those things with you, to have partnership, fellowship in the gospel with you as our brothers and sisters in the
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Lord for these last 11 years. If you weren't here for the Sunday school just a minute ago, we are transitioning back to the
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U .S. And so at least the formal fellowship that we've had as church, supporting church and missionaries is in some ways in the next few months coming to an end.
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But the fellowship we have in Christ will last forever, right? And we are eternally bound together.
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And we praise the Lord for that. But I want to thank you as well for the years of ministry that you have had with us.
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And I'm sure, of course, your ministry in India through the Williams and through your prayers for the ministries there will not come to an end, obviously.
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But from our perspective, from Andrea and my, I just want to say thank you for your ministry to us and with us, with what the
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Lord is doing there in India for His glory. Because that's what it's all about, right? You know,
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I think oftentimes one of the greatest errors that we make in our
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Christian lives, and it's a two -sided error, but the greatest error we have is at the same time underestimating the glory and the greatness of our
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Heavenly Father. And at the same time, overestimating the significance and the importance of ourselves and our contribution.
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It's what Sunday morning is useful for. And frankly, it shouldn't just be on Sunday morning, but to sing the songs, to hear the exhortations from God's Word, to meditate on the truth that He is all in all, and we are the minute, relatively insignificant partners in that glorious scheme of bringing glory to Him.
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One of the greatest detriments to our walk with the Lord and our usefulness for Him, I believe, is our overestimation of ourselves.
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It's a trap that we fall into again and again and again.
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And what we're going to be looking at from God's Word this morning in the book of Matthew, in chapter 6, is a loving exhortation by our
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Lord about that. The exhortation that He must increase, and He is great, and He is powerful, and He is wise, and He will work for His glory in this world, in us, and through us, but we must get on track with His plan.
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And we must not think, and we must not expect, and we must not love glory for ourselves.
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That's what the Lord will challenge us with this morning. And when you get that, brothers and sisters, if you understand that, it provides a foundation in your life for wonderful glory and fulfillment for what
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God has created for you. Do you understand that? God has created you for His glory.
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God has saved you and caused you to be born again for His glory.
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And the sooner we get that, and the sooner we make our decisions and minister according to that, the better.
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It'll be good for His glory, it'll be good for your life. Do you understand that? And that's what we're going to be challenged with this morning as our
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Lord lovingly shepherds us through this text of Scripture in Matthew, chapter 6, verses 1 through 8.
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I just want to begin to frame our minds for these principles the
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Lord is teaching us by reading a quotation by a man named Paul Borthwick.
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You may have heard of him. He teaches in a college not far from here. And I don't know much about the man, so a little footnote here, so I don't know exactly everything he says.
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But what he said in these two paragraphs, I think is very good. And let me just read it for you.
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He wrote this, Anyone who has ever taught or attempted to lead others knows the tendency in all of us toward exaggerating our depth of character while treating leniently our flaws.
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The Bible calls this tendency what? Hypocrisy. We consciously or subconsciously put forward a better image of ourselves than really exists.
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Now listen to this part. The outward appearance of our character and the inner reality that only
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God, we, and perhaps our family members know do not match.
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And then he writes this. C .S. Lewis explains the conflict in the four loves.
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And he quotes Lewis here for the rest of the quotation. He says, Lewis said this, Those like myself whose imagination far exceeds their obedience are subject to a just penalty.
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We easily imagine conditions far higher than any we have really reached.
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If we describe what we have imagined, we may make others, and make ourselves, believe that we have really been there.
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Do you understand what Dr. Borthwick is saying? He's saying there is sometimes in our hearts a disconnect, a conflict between what we want to present to other people and what the inner reality is.
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And this is the issue our Lord is wanting to correct in our minds this morning. Do we imagine more and greater and deeper than what is the reality?
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In the entire Sermon on the Mount, which this is a key part, our Lord is teaching us to be real.
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And if you saw on the sign board next to the road, or maybe in the bulletin, the title for this sermon is
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Doing Righteousness the Right Way. Being righteous in a way that God requires.
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Often times we fall into the trap of doing righteousness our own way. In a way that will bring glory to us and the practicals and the working out of our good works.
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And Jesus says, No, be real. Be honest, first with the Lord and with yourself and with the people sitting next to you.
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May there not be that disconnect between what we present and what we really are.
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So let's go to the text, shall we? In chapter 6, verses 1 -8, and hear the words of our
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Lord. Follow along as I read. Jesus said, Beware of practicing your righteousness before men, to be noticed by them.
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Otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. So, when you give to the poor, do not sound the trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets.
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So that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.
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But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving will be in secret.
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And your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners, so that they may be seen by men.
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Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close the door, and pray to your
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Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.
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And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words.
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So, do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask
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Him. Let's just pause for a moment and pray and ask the Lord to teach us from His Word.
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Lord, I pray that you would give us right now humble hearts. Father, open our ears, open the eyes of our heart to see the truths you would have us to see.
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Open our eyes to our own condition, Lord. Help us to not be so wise in our own eyes that we're not able to learn right now.
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So, I ask your Spirit to teach us what real righteousness looks like. Help each one to understand.
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Father, I pray in Jesus' name. I want you to turn, before we get into this text, and understand how our
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Lord leads us to analyze our own hearts. I want you to turn back to chapter 5 for a moment.
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And you're going to have to use your careful thinking here for a moment. Chapter 5, earlier in this sermon that our
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Lord preached to His disciples and others, chapter 5, verses 13 to 16.
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I just want to read that for a moment, and compare that with the text that we just read in chapter 6. Read carefully, think carefully.
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Jesus says in the introduction to the sermon, You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again?
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It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You are the light of the world.
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A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket.
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But on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works.
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What is Jesus saying there? He's saying let your good works shine like a beacon on a hill, like a lighthouse on the coast.
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Let your good works shine before men so that they can see you. But what did we just read in chapter 6?
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Jesus is saying when you pray, when you give, do it in secret. Don't let it be known.
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It must be done anonymously. What gives here? Is there a contradiction? Do you notice the difference?
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Did you catch the difference between those two texts? It's the part I didn't read, right?
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If you're paying attention, it's the part we didn't read. What is it in the last part of verse 16?
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He says, and glorify your what? Glorify your Father who is in heaven.
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There's the crux. There's the key issue. There's the difference that makes all the difference in these two texts.
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Jesus is saying in our passage, who must receive the glory?
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What do you long for? Why do you do it in your worked out righteousness? In your daily doing of good deeds in service for the
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Lord? Is it the glory of God? Or is it the glory of yourself?
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And that is the crux of the matter that our Lord is teaching us about this morning. Why you do what you do is always more important than what you do.
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I quote that constantly, both to myself and to those who I teach and lead.
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Why? Because it's so important. The Lord is concerned about your heart, brothers and sisters. And what goes on there?
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What comes out is the overflow. But real righteousness, doing righteousness the right way, that God and our
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Lord Jesus Christ requires of us, begins in your heart. So the question we need to look at this morning, brothers and sisters, is what is the condition of our hearts?
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What are the motivations? Why do we do what we do for the
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Lord? Now, our Lord does this in a wonderful way, and there's two parts of his loving leading of us through this text.
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The first is found in just verse 1, where he gives us really a warning and an explanation of hypocrisy.
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And we'll look at that first in some detail. What is hypocrisy? Do I have to take that name of hypocrisy to myself?
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And in order to analyze that, the Lord shows us. What does it mean to be a hypocrite? But then lovingly, wonderfully, he shows us a picture of how not to do that, how to live righteously in the right way.
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And we see that in verses 2 through 8. Really a self -analysis is what the Lord intends to do there for us, a self -analysis of ministry, both on the human level and to God, that is done in an unhypocritical way.
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And we'll follow our Lord through that as well in those two parts. So let's look at it. Let's start out in verse 1 and see.
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There's really three points that we need to notice about hypocrisy. And we'll see that throughout the sermon today and throughout the passage, there are three components.
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The actions of a hypocrite or a non -hypocritical way of living, the motivations, and the rewards.
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Actions, motivations, and rewards. Our Lord follows that pattern all the way through. So let's look at, first of all, the actions of a hypocrite.
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Look in your Bibles at the first verse. He says, Beware of practicing your righteousness before men.
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Let's stop there for a minute. What is the action of a hypocrite? It's someone who lives his life as a play, as an act.
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Now, you may have heard this before. The word hypocrite comes from the Greek, and it came from the word that they used for a mask.
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They had theatrical productions in those days. The Greeks were very sophisticated culturally, and they had plays.
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And the actors would not put the look on their face. They would wear a mask. That was the hypocrite.
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The mask that they would wear with some exaggerated emotional reaction. Who knows what's going on underneath the mask?
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But you put it on in order to display what you want the people to see. That's the word that our
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Lord is using here in this text. Beware of that kind of falseness. Let me just read you this brief explanation of how hypocrisy works out in your life and my life.
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I think this is helpful to help us understand what hypocrisy is. This desire of pretense.
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What do we mean by that? A desire to put up a facade. This desire of pretense can lead to a habit of falseness, which can grow and eventually saturate all the issues and behaviors of our life.
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Life can become a performance instead of being genuine and sincere.
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Have you ever seen that happen? Have you ever seen that tendency in your own life? I want you to think a certain way about me.
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My actions, my abilities, my personality, my spiritual life. I want you to think something about me.
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And so I act in a certain way to cause you to think that. It's called the fear of man, isn't it?
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That's what the Lord says. You know what the word of God also says about the fear of man? It is a trap.
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Because you're constantly living according to the judgments of people who don't matter. Or what you think their judgments are about you.
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It's a horrible way to live. It's a difficult way to live. And our Lord says beware of that.
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Beware of the mask. Way of living. It's dishonest.
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It's untrue. And it leads to a lifestyle that is not bringing glory, first and foremost, to God.
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So our Lord says lovingly, watch out for that kind of action. That kind of living.
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We do this, don't we? Just think about Sunday morning, right? Struggle to get out the door on the way to church, right?
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There's Fred. You eat your food and disobedience and, you know, you went over a bump when I was putting my lipstick on.
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And you get in the church door, right? How are you doing? Great. Praise the
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Lord. Right? Suddenly everything changes. Why? Because you don't want people to know that things are a wreck.
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Why? Because I want you to think rightly about me. Brothers and sisters, that's called hypocrisy.
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It's a facade way of living. And our Lord is telling us lovingly, beware of that.
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It's common. It's dangerous. Well, what's it motivated by? And I think we all know what it is, right? Because we know our own hearts.
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But look back at what our Lord says. Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them.
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It's external. It's visual. It's on the outside. Instead of what really matters, which is on the inside.
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That's our primary concern oftentimes. It's a concern with giving glory to ourselves that drives this kind of living and thinking.
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It's pride, isn't it? It's selfishness. It's the motivation of the hypocrite.
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And then what is the reward? Action. Motivation. Result. What is the reward of a hypocrite?
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Notice what Jesus tells us. Otherwise, you have no reward with your
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Father who is in heaven. What is the reward? And we're going to see this more later on in this text.
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Jesus says you get no reward from your Father in heaven. That's the reward that you get. But you do get a reward.
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You get what you want. What did you want in the first place? Glory from men.
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Good opinion of them. You may be able to get that. And Jesus says that's all you're going to get.
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You won't receive glory and approval from your heavenly Father. Is that a reward?
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It's more of a punishment, isn't it? But Jesus is bringing this to our attention. He's not talking about salvation here.
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He's not talking about eternal heaven, eternal hell. He's talking to believers.
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Notice he says your Father. So he's talking about the children of God. But he's saying there will be loss of reward for you.
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I don't think we'll take the time. But in 1 Corinthians 3, verses 7 to 15, I think you're familiar with that passage.
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Paul makes it very, very clear that there are rewards for faithful ministry or loss of reward for deficient ministry and unfaithful service to the
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Lord. There are consequences for our practical actions. And the
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Lord is saying it depends on how faithful you are in this area of real righteousness.
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So the question we need to ask ourselves, as our Lord has given us this picture of hypocrisy, is this.
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What kind of reward do you ultimately seek? Be honest with yourself, will you? Who are you trying to fool?
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Be honest with yourself. What do I really long for and seek and expect and hope for in my service for the
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Lord? Why do I say it that way? Because talk is cheap. Oh yeah,
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I'm in full -time service for the Lord. Is it for Him? Then why am
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I upset when nobody's ever thanked me for doing what I do for the last three years? In fact, they complained about it.
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I've been making coffee for three years and nobody's thanked me. And then this week they said it was too weak.
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What is driving that kind of thinking and that kind of feeling? It's a competition for glory, isn't it?
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That's the reality. And Jesus is saying, no, for whom do you serve?
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What are you expecting? What are you longing for? What is the result you look for in your service, in the church, in your life?
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Another way to ask it would be to say this. What situations, what events in your life bring you the greatest joy?
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Is it enough to know that I'm serving the Lord and He has saved me and I'm growing in my walk with Him and I am serving
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Him in the church and His church? Is that enough? Or is there a need to be a vote of thanks or in a recognition of what was done?
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Do you do votes of thanks here or is that an Indian thing? I don't even know. But public recognition of the service of a person or a donation or what's been done or the plaque.
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What do you long for? What do you look forward to? What really gets you excited in your service for Him?
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The answer to that question will tell you who you're doing it for. You understand? And what your motivations really are.
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So our Lord shows us what hypocrisy looks like. It's not a very pretty picture, is it?
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But it's the issue that we need to look for ourselves in this text. Are there signs, are there symptoms in your heart, brothers and sisters, of a longing for that kind of human recognition?
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And if it doesn't come, then something's wrong. That's the question our
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Lord brings before us today. But now, He doesn't leave us there. He doesn't leave us with the conviction of those kinds of questions for us.
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No, He leads us now down the pathway, the gracious pathway, to correction of that problem in our hearts.
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And that's what we'll spend the remaining time looking at. Two examples that our Lord gives us of areas that hypocrisy is common and is tempting for us, but how we can work and live and minister in those ways in a way that is real and genuine and God -glorifying.
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So let's look at the first one. The first is having to do with our relationship with other people, our ministry to the poor.
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Giving, essentially, is the issue that our Lord is talking about first. And then secondly, in verses 5 through 8,
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He'll talk about prayer. And that's our relationship with God, done in the presence of other people, of course.
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But it's vertically related. So first the horizontal in verses 2 to 4, then the vertical.
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So let's take the first one. Hypocrisy in the area of loving your neighbor as yourself. And this is really where it gets practical for us.
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So look for yourself humbly as we look in this text at what our Lord says, starting in verse 2.
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Three key points we can understand about hypocritical giving. Whether it's in the offering plate or ministry in other ways to your fellow man.
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Look at what He says there in verse 2. So, when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men.
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Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.
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Again, let's look at what our Lord says here. Actions, motivations, and reward.
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What are the actions that are being done here? The action of the hypocritical giver is what? Sounding a trumpet.
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Can you picture that in your mind? I'm going to give my offering, and all of a sudden the trumpets blow.
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Here I go, I am giving. And you're thinking, I would never do that, right? My goodness. Did they really do that in those days?
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It's hard to say. It's hard to believe. Jesus doesn't say this is an illustration or an exaggerated point, so maybe this was done by certain individuals.
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Regardless of whether or not it was actually done, the point is they are drawing attention, going to great lengths, to draw attention to their good deeds.
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Look at me. Look what I'm giving. I'm giving this much. Let's post it on the wall, the donors, from order of more to less.
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I'm on the top, on the bulletin board. They're going to great lengths to draw attention to what they are giving.
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That's the actions of the hypocritical giver. What about their motivations?
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Let's look at the verse again. They're in verse 2. Do not sound the trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men.
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There's the purpose idea, right? So that. Why do you do it? So that they will be honored by men.
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Literally, so that they will be glorified by men. Brothers and sisters, let's understand what hypocritical giving is all about.
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It's a competition. It's a competition for glory. It's a competition for glory from God.
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Say, I just want a little bit. Is He willing to share His glory? Is that why
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He saved you? To share a little bit of the glory? Our Lord is saying, no, they're trying to draw away glory from the
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Lord to themselves. That's what hypocrisy is. Think for just a minute with me about Ananias and Sapphira.
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Remember those two? Famous couple, unfortunately, infamous. In Acts chapter 5, what happened?
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The early church was growing. People were being saved. The church was expanding. A lot of people were there from other places.
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And they're excited in the church. And their new faith in Christ. And yet, they didn't have money.
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They didn't have supplies. And so in love, in this new body, they're giving and selling possessions and property.
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And giving before the apostles' feet so that they could distribute for the new brothers and sisters who needed.
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And so they gave. So also Ananias and Sapphira gave. And they sold a property. And they came and laid it at the apostles' feet and said, we have sold our property and we have given this much.
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But what did they do? They held back some of that amount. And they kept it in their pocket.
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And the Lord did what? By way of punishment and by way of example for them, he killed them both. Why? Because they didn't give enough?
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Is that why? Because they didn't have the right style? Because they weren't hip enough?
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Or they weren't conservative enough? No, what was the problem? It wasn't that they didn't give enough.
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It's not that they even gave it all. It's that they lied. They presented a front, a facade of something that was not true.
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They lied to the Holy Spirit. And the Lord says, no, I will be seen as holy. I will not be mocked.
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This kind of deception is unacceptable. And he punished them. They went to heaven.
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But the Lord said, no, this kind of hypocrisy is not acceptable. The Lord takes hypocrisy seriously, brothers and sisters.
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Our God is a God of truth. Amen. And his seed is within us.
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We are alive because of his life in us. And we share as children share the image of their parents.
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We must share in that truthfulness that God has in his own character. So our
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Lord is saying, when you give, when you serve, when you minister, whose glory are you striving for?
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Now, I was in a church just recently. And perhaps you've seen this before. And I was just walking around before the service started for some time.
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And I was looking on some of the pieces of furniture and so on. And there were little brass plaques.
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You know what I'm talking about, right? With somebody's name given on this day to the glory of God.
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Right? Why do we do this? Is that okay? Is that right?
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You say it's okay to give thanks, yes. But let's go to the heart of the matter, right?
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That's what our Lord is saying. Why are you doing what you're doing? Is it for his glory?
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Is it right for us to publicly give thanks? I think it is okay. But we must never lose sight of what is going on in our hearts.
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That's what our Lord is telling us. So we need to be careful. We need to think about those situations in our lives that these symptoms of hypocrisy may come.
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So then, we've seen the actions. We've seen the motivations of competition for the glory.
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What are then the rewards of this kind of hypocritical giving? And you can see it there at the end of verse 2.
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Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.
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Is it wrong to just want a little bit of recognition, a little pat on the back, some encouragement? We must be careful, brothers and sisters.
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Whose appreciation do you want? Jesus will tell you someday, well done, good and faithful servant.
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Is that enough for you? Do your eyes lift up and raise to the eternal hope and the eternal reward?
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Or are they a little bit shorter sighted for the reward and the appreciation of men?
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Jesus is saying, do righteousness the right way to his glory. Now, we've seen in some detail the heart, the motivation and the reward of hypocrisy in this area of giving in ministry.
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Horizontally, let's look at the second example our Lord gives us then. And that is vertically in our relationship with the
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Lord, in worship. And we see this, I'm sorry, before we get there, we need the positive side.
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I did this last sermon too, I'm sorry. We need to look at the gracious part first, right? How to give in the right way.
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That's in verses 3 and 4. We need that part, right? Jesus must be more gracious than me,
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I don't know. I keep missing that part. But let's look at it in verses 3 and 4. This is the right way to give before we get to the prayer part.
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But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving will be in secret.
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And your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. What is
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Jesus saying here? Your left hand doesn't know what your right hand is doing? Is this some neurological problem? No, that's not what
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Jesus is saying at all, is it? He's giving us an exaggerated example of a principle that is key to how to do ministry in the right way, in a
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God -honoring, God -glorifying way. He's saying simply this. Your giving, your ministry, whatever kind of helps or giving ministry you're doing must be done with thoughtlessness.
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What do we mean by that? With simplicity. It is as though you do it in such a way that is so free and so disconnected from any thought of reciprocation or return or reward that it's as though your left hand isn't even aware of what your right hand is doing.
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Pulling the wallet out, taking the money out, putting it in, and your left hand never hears about it. Why? Because you are giving freely.
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You're giving with no thought of yourself. That's what our Lord is saying. To give openly, to give freely without any thought.
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Unheralded. Notice this is the opposite motivation of the hypocrite, right?
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He wants everybody to know. He wants to declare it from the mountaintops what's going on and how good
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I am and what God's grace has done in my life. Don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.
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Why? So that your heavenly Father will receive the glory and He who knows all things will reward you.
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What reward are you looking for, brothers and sisters? Our heavenly
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Father is loving. Do you believe that? He is kind. Do you believe that He wants more blessing for you than you can even imagine?
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That you can even conceive of? Haven't you seen that in your life before? Haven't you seen the
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Lord do abundantly beyond all you could ask or think? I know I have. We just have to recognize it.
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We have to trust. We need to give Him the honor of believing that He will reward in His time and in His way and leave it in His hands.
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The initiative for the reward, the timing of the reward must be left with Him.
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Notice it's not wrong to seek reward. Did you see that? The point here our Lord is saying is, no, you must seek reward.
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You must go for it. But you must seek it in the right place. Seek it from the right person in the right time, which is
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His time, not your own. Your job is to serve faithfully, freely, openly, generously, abundantly, and leave the reward in His hands.
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The Lord is asking us here to forget ourselves. Forget the reward from men.
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So my question for you this morning that our Lord would ask as well is, can you forget? How forgetful are you?
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Hopefully as we get older, we get more forgetful. Yes? Maybe not physically, but at least spiritually.
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Do you aspire to forgetfulness? To spiritual amnesia? That's what our
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Lord is saying. Give in that way. Serve in that way.
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When you preach, when you teach, when you counsel, when you give in the offering, when you serve in the
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Sunday school, when you make the coffee, when you sweep the floors, when you clean up the garbage around the pews, do it for the
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Lord and leave the knowledge and the reward in His hands. Amen?
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This is what our Lord is saying is real righteousness. Righteousness done the right way.
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Now let's look at the second area of application for us. Unhypocritical ministry in the vertical way to the
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Lord, in our prayers. And we can see that in verses 5 and following.
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Notice what Jesus says. When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men.
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Truly I say to you, and here's the tragic conclusion, they have their reward in full.
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Notice again the actions of hypocritical praying. They eagerly seek opportunities for public prayer.
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Do you like to pray in public? I used to be terrified of praying in public.
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I don't know about you. It used to terrify me. And by that I'm not justified.
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And we'll talk about that in a minute. But what Jesus is saying, there are people who love the public display of prayer.
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The problem is not praying in public. The problem is loving it. Right? For the reasons we've already discussed.
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Notice in the synagogues, which is very much like a church, on the street corners, in the broad streets is the word that Jesus uses there.
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The largest audience possible is what they're looking for so that they can be seen.
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What is this? I want to be seen as a spiritually impressive person. I make a mistake in my sermon and my face turns red.
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Why? Because I'm concerned about what you think of me. I don't want to get up and share my testimony because I might say something stupid.
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Whose glory am I concerned about? My own. My glory.
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What people think of me. What you think of me. Jesus is saying, don't live in that trap. When you pray, pray to the
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Father. If you were to pray in this church at 2 a .m. in the morning, everyone's gone home, would that be so attractive to this person?
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Would that be a lot more... would you feel relieved to have to pray in that setting when nobody's around?
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Why? You know, when I was... again, this issue. When I was a young person, in a teenage, you know, in the little
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Bible study group, we would break up and pray. And you know how it is. And this person would pray and then it comes and the next guy prays.
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Oh, what's coming around? It's a circle. Here comes the prayer circle and then the next guy and I'm getting nervous and my hands would start sweating.
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My eyes, literally, my eyelids would start twitching. Have you ever had this experience or is it just weird me?
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And my heart's starting to race. Right? And then it comes to my time and I can hardly...
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because I was so nervous. Right? Is that because I was so pious? Is that because I was so spiritual?
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No, it's because I feared men. I was worried about what all these people were going to think of me and I might say something wrong and I don't know what to say.
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Why? Because I wasn't just simply, really, truthfully, sincerely talking to the
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Lord. So ironically, both the one who loves to pray in public and the one who hates to pray in public do it for the same hypocritical, selfish reason.
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The fear of man. Hypocrisy. I want you to think something about me. And our Lord is saying, if that's the way you think, if that's the glory you want, that is what you'll get.
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But what does real, sincere, God -honoring prayer look like? Our Lord continues there in verse 7.
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Look at it with me. And when you are praying, do not use... I'm sorry, verse 6.
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But when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door, and pray to your
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Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.
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Stop there for a minute. Our Lord is saying, sincere, God -honoring, God -directed prayer looks like this.
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First point. There's two points I want us to understand here. First of all, it is God -directed in every respect.
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That's what the secrecy is about, right? That's what the closing the door behind you is all about.
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I'm going to pray to you, Lord, whether it's in public or whether it's in my closet, in the same way. It's directly to you.
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You've heard sermons and prayers, right? Maybe you've preached sermons and prayers with a
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Bible reference and the quotation, and pretty soon I'm talking about God. I'm not talking to God.
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Have you been guilty of that? It's a performance. It's a show. Instead of just saying to Him what is in my heart to say or what
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I want to express in worship and in love and in adoration and in request.
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So our Lord is saying here, good, true, righteousness, praying is just straight to Him.
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A direct line and nobody else there. With no thought. Forgetful, right? Forgetful of everything else and what they might be thinking.
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It's done in secrecy and the reward will be from your
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Father. The second principle I want us to see about this is that prayer trusts wholly in God.
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And this is the point we see in verses 7 and 8. And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the
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Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. So do not be like them, for your
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Father knows what you need before you ask Him. What is Jesus saying here?
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People feel like they've got to twist God's arm. And you do that by repetition and somehow putting a weight of burden upon the
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Lord and He's going to do it. Jesus says no. Give God the honor of trust. He knows what you need before you ask.
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Ask, express, and lean on Him. It's not a show.
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It's not a facade. It's not a worked up froth of spirituality. No. It's simple.
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It's humble. It's God honoring. It's God directed to Him alone.
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This is what true, real righteousness looks like in a person's life.
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So how do you compare? Have you seen yourself in these verses? Have you searched your heart for the motivations, the why you do what you do?
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Does the person sitting next to you know who you are? Of course they do. Church isn't that big.
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No, you understand what I mean. Do they know you? The real you? Or are you putting on a show?
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You're putting on a facade. What do I mean? Does that mean you have to spill your guts about every sin you've ever done? No. That might not be very loving or a very wise idea.
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But are you holding back? Are you putting on a presentation? If someone asks you how you're doing, can you tell them honestly and really what you're struggling with?
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This is what our Lord is saying. Live the life of truth. Our Lord says live in reality.
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Be real. And you know He expresses that, I think, very well in the prayer that He then gives us.
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The model of prayer that He gives us right at the end of this text in verses 9 and following.
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Let's just read that as we come to a close. He says pray then in this way.
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Notice the simplicity. Notice the God -word focus. Notice the humility of this prayer.
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It's a great example for us of real righteousness. Jesus says pray then in this way. Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be
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Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
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Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors.
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And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
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Amen. That's the prayer. That's the heart of simplicity, of honesty, of truthfulness.
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May the Lord give us the grace to be those kind of people who give Him the glory in everything.
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Why? Because we understand His greatness and we don't overestimate our own.
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We don't underestimate His greatness. Let's pray and ask the
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Lord to make that true in our lives. Father, we want to live for Your glory alone.
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As I often sometimes think, Father, like Peter said,
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I believe, Lord, help my unbelief. Lord, we hate the flesh.
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We don't want to live in those patterns of sin that we have lived for so long.
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We want to be free from them. And Lord, by Your resurrection power that is working in us, we know we can and we know it's
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Your will. And so we ask, Father, according to Your will, that You would deliver us from this kind of falseness, this pattern of hypocrisy that at times grips our lives.
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Teach us, Lord, what it means to be humble. Teach us what it means to live out what is true, which is to be bought by Your precious blood so that we are not our own.
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Lord, I pray that You would give wisdom to each one now as we ponder these things to identify those areas in which we are just a sham.
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May we repent of those, Lord, and come clean for Your glory.