Worship that is Sincere (Do Not Be Like the Hypocrites)

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts. Morse Corner is a non-denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

If you'd like more information, visit our website, morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message. When you do a good deed, don't let people know about it, if that's at all possible. So essentially, when we do good, we're doing it for the glory of God.

Doing Good for God's Glory Rather Than Public Recognition

Now sometimes you can't always keep it secret, but to the extent that you can, that's what Jesus is telling us to do. And, you know, this is one reason why a lot of Christians, and I'm sure you've noticed this, a lot of Christians are not even totally comfortable with others recognizing them for their good deeds.

You probably noticed over the years sometimes we joke, maybe I'll say something that, hey, I really appreciate this person and all they do, and I know they really don't want me doing that, but I appreciate them, so I say so.

And I'll joke like, well, I'm stealing their heavenly reward. You know, because I'm bringing it up, I'm stealing, listen, I can't steal anyone's reward. Only you can do that. But the scripture says in Proverbs 7, 27 verse 2, let another man praise you and not your own mouth, a stranger and not your own lips.

So it's okay if somebody else recognizes your good deeds. You know, sometimes if somebody thanks you or recognizes you, sometimes we'll praise God and we try to pass off the glory to God, and that's probably the way to go, but it's okay to say, hey, you know, thank you.

That's okay. It's okay to recognize people. We just don't want to be tooting our own horn, basically. Jesus said in Luke 14, 11, those who exalt themselves will be what? Humbled. But those who humble themselves will be exalted.

So if you want, and again, this isn't our motivation to be exalted, but the right way to be exalted is to let God exalt you. We don't want to be exalting ourselves. Okay, verse 4, if the disciples of Christ would do their charitable deeds in secret, if we adopt this attitude, Jesus says your father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

And then he goes on to the subject of prayer. Same type of thing. When you pray, verse 5, you shall not be like the hypocrites. So don't be like the scribes. Don't be like the Pharisees or Sadducees.

What did they do?

They would stand out in the open. They love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets that they may be seen by men. Surely, I say to you, they have their reward. Now, somebody is probably thinking, well, Pastor, you stand in the church and you pray publicly.

Yeah, but again, it's like the robe thing. Just because somebody wore a robe doesn't make them a hypocrite. It's why are they doing it. Even Jesus wore a robe, right? So it's the heart. It's the heart.

It's the motivation of the heart. To be honest with you, the pastoral prayer is my least favorite part of the service. I'm just telling you the truth. I remember when I started ministry, somebody, another pastor gave me advice and he says, your public prayer, your pastoral prayer should be at least 15 minutes long.

And I thought, what?

I don't think other people would like that, but I'm not doing that. But again, if somebody makes a public prayer and it's long, you know, don't judge the person. Hey, they're one of the Pharisees. No, again, it's the heart motivation.

Okay.

Jesus prayed in public.

He did.

Now, it was when he was blessing the food, so it probably wasn't a long prayer. There's another example of the prophet Daniel. There was one time where Daniel, in his house, before he prayed, he opened up all the windows to make sure that people could see him praying.

But was Daniel a Pharisee? Was he a hypocrite? No, because that situation, it was made illegal to pray and Daniel was not ashamed. So he opened up his windows. And we look at Daniel as a great man of God for that.

So again, it's why are you doing it? Again, Sermon on the Mount is all about the heart, right? So Jesus is telling his 12 disciples, basically contrasting their behavior. You need to do things the right way.

Do good the right way. Do not do it like the hypocrites do. Do not do it like the religious leaders of Israel. So the 12 disciples needed to be instructed the right way to do good. Now, this might seem like a rabbit trail, but how many disciples were there?

Twelve. This is a good time to bring this up, a good time as any. Have you ever wondered why there were 12 disciples? Why didn't Jesus choose 10, or 7, or 20? Why 12? Well, you know, numbers have meaning in Scripture, right?

Twelve is a number, it's symbolic. There were how many tribes in Israel? Twelve. So by choosing 12 apostles, Jesus, it was a signal. It was a roundabout way of saying, hey, there's a new spiritual order in town.

The old system of Judaism that had been corrupted by the Pharisees and the scribes, it was going to be replaced with a new system, Jesus and the 12 apostles. So instead of an elite class of religious people, because the Pharisees and scribes, you know what another term for them is?

I think only the King James Version brings this out. They were also called the doctors and the lawyers. So it's like this elite class of people. They are the religious men. They are the people that everyone looks up to.

Jesus is replacing them with what? Fishermen. Average, ordinary, common people. And he's setting a pattern of worship that our prayers and everything, it's to be more simple. We're kind of stripped away of all the pomp and circumstance.

It's to be more simple. It's to be raw. It's to be real, okay? Our worship should be real. It should be sincere. And, of course, that appealed more to the common man. So instead of praying their way, the way the religious leaders did it, Jesus says, pray my way.

Look at verse 6. But when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut the door, pray to your father who is in the secret place. And your father who sees in secret will reward you openly. So don't make a show out of your prayers.

Because, really, prayer is a sacred thing. And if you're going to make a spectacle out of it, it really destroys the whole purpose. It's supposed to be you, one-on-one communication with God, right?

You're not doing it for everybody else. And as far as public, because Jesus is saying, go into your room. You've heard of, like, the prayer closet. This is where people get the idea. Go into a room just by yourself.

But I think it's true, when we pray publicly, it's kind of hard not to be aware that everyone's listening to you. So when we pray publicly, let's face it, we are affected by that. Some of you watch reality television.

And, you know, that's not reality. If somebody is there with a camera filming everything you're doing, it's not real. Like, that affects the way people act, obviously. And even when we pray publicly, we know people are listening.

So, you know, we want to look good to people. We don't want to look like a fool. When you pray, when I pray at home, I might mumble. I might say things. I'm not speaking in tongues, okay. But, you know, I might, I'm not worried about my prayer sounding good.

I'm not worried about them praying, worried about myself praying, you know, in an eloquent way. I'm just trying to communicate what's on my heart. And when we pray in public with other people around us, sometimes that gets affected, whether we want it to be affected or not.

So, hopefully you see what Jesus is saying. Go, if you really want to pray to God, pray in private. That's the best way to do it. Jesus, in John chapter 4, spoke about how worship should be before God.

It should be in spirit and in truth. So, to worship in spirit means it's from the heart. So, our worship shouldn't be a production. It should be sincere. And we're not just going through the motions. It is not to be an outward show just to look good.

And, again, we need to kind of balance this as well because some people take this too far. And they think that only true worship, it needs to be done in private. And there's people that have this idea that, you know, the real worship between me and God is all done in private.

And that gives them an excuse to sort of discard the church. You know, I can worship at home. I can worship out in nature. Yes, you can. But that doesn't give us a reason to cast away the church. Because you know what some people say.

A lot of people say this. Where can you find hypocrites?

Yeah.

Oh, yeah, the people that go to church, they're the hypocrites. That's what a lot of people say. Of course, we used to have a pastor who, some of you know what I'm going to say. You say, oh, well, oh, you think the church is filled with hypocrites.

Well, that's okay. Come and join us. We could always use one more. But, you know, not to say that everyone's a hypocrite. But, listen, everybody can be hypocritical. The idea that you can worship God, just you and God, by yourself, and you don't need the church, you just don't understand it.

But a lot of people have this idea. I don't need to go to church. That's where all the hypocrites are. Or I don't need to go to church. There's another thing people say. I am the church. Have you ever heard this?

I am the church. And I get what some people are trying to say. But you, by yourself, at home, or you with a couple of your buddies in your living room, you're not a congregation. Because church, the word church means a called-out assembly, a congregation.

And you, by yourself, are not a congregation. But, on the other hand, I realize that through the centuries, some churches, some organized churches, or what people call organized religion, they have made sort of a spectacle of the worship of Christ.

I mean, it happened in Old Testament Israel with Jehovah God. And, yes, some Christian churches, I think, have turned it into a show. And I think of the established churches with the vestments, the holy robes, the traditions, the ceremonies, the high church, liturgy.

Again, you can't look at that and automatically label that hypocrisy. You can't, because you don't know their motivation. But I can't shake the feeling that sometimes that system, where it's all very elaborate, and everyone has to kneel, and do this, and do this, and dress like that, and there's all the...

I can't shake the feeling that that type of system can lead to the same trap that Israel fell into. Where, at some point, maybe originally it was meant to show reverence for God, but after a while, it all becomes about being seen by men.

The little information we have in the New Testament. How the early church was organized. The way it functioned. I just don't think the Apostle Peter walked around. Can you imagine? The Apostle Peter, kind of a rough around the edges fisherman.

I just can't imagine him walking around with this flowing vestment in a three foot tall hat. And all the Apostles are genuflecting at the right moment in the ceremony. And they all have their hands folded and talking very properly.

I just don't think that's the way it was. I certainly don't read that in scripture. And then Peter would sit on his throne and make the sign, bless you my child. I don't know, that doesn't come off as being all that sincere.

God forgive me if I'm wrong, but all that to say this, we want to do things the right way. And the most important thing is that our worship is sincere. And that our good works are done for the right reason.

Sincere Worship, Not a Religious Performance

What's the title of the message? Doing good the right way. Jesus' way. We are followers of what?

The way.

So Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. We want to do things the way Jesus told us to do it. So the application for us is simple. The way we approach God and one another, it should be real. It should be sincere.

It should be motivated by love. Everything you do for God and for one another, love should be our motivation. Not to puff ourselves up. God cares about us. And this is how we show God that we care about him.

Doing things, doing good, but doing it his way. You know, religion, a lot of people have religion. A lot of churches have religion. There's other religions that worship other gods. Religion is not really what we're about.

We're about the sincere worship of the true God. I realize that's categorized as religion, but we want it to be real. A real living relationship between us and the Lord Jesus Christ. Thanks for listening.

I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Morris Cornick Church. If you'd like to listen to the complete message, or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website, morriscornickchurch .com.

And we'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett. Until next time, may the grace of God be with you.