Matthew 5:48 - 6.4 | Show-Offs Never Win

This morning it's Matthew chapter six.

If you would take a Bible, and if you don't have a copy of God's Word, that's okay.

You can use a copy that's in the seat back in front of you, or just follow along on the screen here.

We've been looking at the Sermon on the Mount together.

We've covered chapter five, and now we enter chapter six.

And the Word of God says from the lips of Jesus on the mountainside that day, beware of practicing your righteousness before other people, in order to be seen by them.

For then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.

Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpets before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others.

Truly I say to you, they have received their reward.

But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret.

In an online article, Ben Witherington wrote In an age of self-centered everything, it is not surprising that a lot of self-centered religion, and in particular, self-centered Christianity, has emerged.

Perhaps that's what led atheist Christopher Hitchens to write, Religion teaches people to be extremely self-centered and conceited.

End quote.

That doesn't tell you the times in which we live.

I don't know what does.

But in all truthfulness, this article by Frank Powell is really quite insightful.

So insightful I'd like to share with you his eight signs that he identifies in a little bit about what he says about each one.

Eight signs that you are a selfie centered Christian.

The first one, you are easily offended.

He writes, and I quote, I can confidently and sadly say that Christians are the most defensive group of people around.

It's strange, really.

If you follow Jesus, you should be a fish swimming upstream, a counter, countercultural model of what a Christian should be.

Instead, Christians are more sensitive to others' remarks than most non-Christians.

Number two, you have a never enough mindset.

You have a never enough mindset.

Frank Powell says selfie-centered Christians focus on what they lack and what others have.

They believe almost everything from success to money is finite, it's limited.

There's only so much to go around.

The spotlight only shines so bright.

So what's the result?

Self-centered Christians are tight-fisted with everything, from their praise to their pocketbooks.

They are plagued by discontent, by shame, and disengagement.

And the most toxic part, he says, is that selfie-centered Christians believe the answer to their never enough problem is abundance, having an abundance.

The next item that he identifies is that your mood shifts positively or negatively based on the opinions of others.

Again, quoting from Frank Powell in this article.

Selfie-centered Christians allow the opinions of others to determine their self-worth.

Their mood shifts positively or negatively as they scan Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

If their likes and loves trend upward on their latest post, the selfie-centered Christian feels better about themselves.

If, however, their latest picture, the one they spent 30 minutes filtering, doesn't receive any love, they are overcome by feelings of shame and unworthiness.

Next, you think God needs you to hold it together, regardless of the mess in your life.

Selfie Christians, by the perfectionism lie.

Hold it together at all costs.

Don't let anyone see your flaws.

Cover your imperfections.

Sweep them under the rug because you must hold it all together.

Are you beginning to see some of yourself in these?

Or maybe some of your family members?

Next is you have few meaningful relationships.

Mr.

Powell says the impact of good friends on my life is indescribable.

But selfie-centered Christians aren't willing to pay the price for meaningful relationships.

They want a quick fix, but intimacy requires time.

They want everyone to focus on them, but intimacy requires give and take.

They refuse to show weakness, while intimacy requires vulnerability.

And so we have few meaningful relationships.

Next, you are your own worst cynic.

Make no mistake, Mr.

Powell says, healthy criticism, either from others or through self-evaluation, is important for our growth.

Without it, we lack self-awareness.

But what plagues our culture today is not healthy criticism, it's destructive cynicism.

Cynicism is an inside out job.

Cynics spend years shooting themselves before turning their verbal bullets at others.

Most cynics hurt others only after they have left their own hearts for dead.

Cynicism doesn't allow for discussion or debate.

Cynicism is threatened by risk takers and nonconformers, and the only way to appease a cynic is to agree with their point of view.

Where are we?

Number seven, you do not practice gratitude.

When was the last time you gave thanks or something?

Expressed an appreciation, a gratitude for what you have been given or what has been provided to you.

And number eight, you aren't compassionate or empathetic.

Mr.

Powell says, selfie-centered Christians don't have time to care about others.

When scrolling through their Facebook timeline, Jill's rant about her teacher and an article about refugees receives the same attention.

We often equate clicking like to showing compassion.

This is the tragic result of a selfie-centered life.

We are desensitized to pain.

We can't show compassion with a click.

Our constant connection to social media creates a disconnection from the real pain around us.

But compassion is an important virtue for Christians because it connects us to our mission, it leads to action, but it requires humility and selflessness.

Compassion gets us into the mess of life.

It cries with those who cry, it hurts with those who hurt.

To cultivate compassion, we must connect to real people.

End quote.

I'm not here this morning to preach on an internet article.

However, these eight signs may very well be the modern version of the kind of people Jesus said not to be in the Sermon on the Mount.

To this point in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus has addressed self-centered religion.

See, religion was pursued often very selfishly in ancient Judaism of the first century.

Contrary, Jesus says, to the way God intended it to be pursued.

And so, as examples, in Matthew chapter 5, Jesus pointed to God's commands about anger and adultery and vows and vengeance and retaliation.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

In each of those illustrations, Jesus pointed out how God's commands in the Old Testament were being twisted to serve us, to serve self-centered people.

And all along the way, God intended them to be ways in which we would serve Him, to love Him and to love our neighbor.

Now in Matthew chapter 6, there's a slight twist, a slight shift in Jesus' sermon.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

We could say that the major focus of Matthew chapter 5 is right belief, right doctrine, a right understanding of God's Word.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

Now in chapter 6 in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus shifts to talk about a proper expression of your faith.

How should we go about living out what we believe?

Just as Jesus corrected a wrong understanding of Scripture in the first part of his sermon, here he corrects why we do something.

What's the reason that you are here this morning?

What's the reason that you pray?

What is the reason behind why you do what you do because of Jesus?

And Jesus chose three common expressions of faith in ancient Judaism: giving to the needy, prayer, and fasting.

And those are just a few of the ways that faith is lived out, Jesus doesn't give an exhaustive list here.

Instead, he chooses three vital elements of people's faith in his time to point out the correction that needed to happen in our hearts.

These were three critical areas of Jewish life and faith that were all being pursued for the wrong reasons.

It's pretty simple, really, when you look at each of these three items in the first 18 verses, these three parts of Jewish life, Jesus says, in the grand scheme of what God is doing, show-offs never win.

It never pays to be a show-off.

Don't make it your goal to show off your righteousness for personal benefit.

So let's see then how Jesus begins to point his finger at us, really to perform heart surgery, to open up our hearts to say, look at why you do what you do.

And as we do that, we need to notice first that Jesus is addressing the motives that lie within us, the motives for living out our faith.

That actually the last verse of chapter 5 we read last time, you therefore must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Now, last time we noted how that word perfect carries the idea of wholeheartedness, of a wholehearted commitment to following God, to loving God and following Him with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind, and with all of your strength.

It's not a striving to sinless perfection, but it's a life given to pursuing Jesus.

And that statement came right after a discussion of how to treat those people in our lives that we find hard to love.

We all have those people, right?

Those people that irritate us, that get on our nerves, that frustrate us, that hurt us, that bring pain into our lives, we find them hard to love.

But Jesus says, you therefore must pursue Jesus with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind, with all of your strength, even in loving the hard to love.

That's a living out of our faith.

If we have the right standing with God that we need to have in Jesus, then that rightness will be seen in our treatment of other people.

Our standing with God will be seen in our treatment of others.

But there's an inherent issue with us human beings.

We like to be noticed.

We like to be noticed.

We we like to be to be praised.

Not all in the same way.

Not everyone likes to be noticed by being up on a platform.

Not everyone likes to be noticed by being praised by a whole bunch of people.

Maybe it's just being praised by one person or two people or by your boss or whatever.

We all like to be noticed.

We are self-centered by nature.

And that self-centeredness can very easily stain any act of worship or good works that we might do in the name of God.

So Jesus says, beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them.

Do you notice, though, that Jesus isn't condemning religious or spiritual practices?

He doesn't say stop doing them.

He doesn't say don't do those things.

It's bad to do those things.

When he speaks about giving and praying and fasting, he doesn't oppose doing those things.

They are actually proper ways to show and to display your love for God and for others.

He doesn't even oppose doing them in public in front of other people.

It's the attitude that is the core problem.

You see, there's an expectation that the life of Christ, the righteousness of Christ that is within you, will be lived out in appropriate ways.

Isn't that what Ephesians 2 tells us?

That we are to live out the good works that God has prepared for us before the foundation of the world?

That's an expectation.

But the core problem here is the reason we do those things in the name of God or in the name of religion or spirituality.

You see, three times here, once for giving, once for prayer, and once for fasting, Jesus uses the phrase, be seen by them, or be seen by others.

If our motive for doing good or for participating in spiritual actions, if our motive is to be noticed, to gain approval, or to gain some kind of standing in the eyes of other people, then any gain that we get out of that is only temporary.

It doesn't last.

Spiritual show-offs never win in light of eternity.

We could translate the beginning of this verse.

Always beware.

Keep on being aware.

Always watch your hearts.

Because we're always in danger of doing things for God with the wrong heart motive.

We're always in danger of that.

Until Jesus comes back, it will always be a problem.

And that applies to whatever we do.

It's not just limited to giving and praying and fasting.

You can read your Bible with the wrong motive.

You can share the gospel with the wrong motive.

You can even talk to God with the wrong motive.

And we need to notice here that Jesus points out that we need to have the right audience for our faith.

There's a right audience and there's a wrong audience.

Three times in the first 18 verses here in chapter 6, Jesus says that the Father in heaven sees.

Then in verse 32, we are told that the Father knows.

The Father sees, and the Father knows all there is to see and all there is to know.

Therefore, if if your fellow human beings fail to see what you're doing, there's someone who always does see.

God Himself sees.

It began in chapter 5, verse 12, and it's picked up here in chapter 6 and verse 1, verse 2, verse 4, verse 5, verse 6, verse 16, verse 18.

You can connect them all with a line as I have in my Bible.

Jesus is going again and again and again to your motive.

Why do we do what we do?

What are you hoping to get out of it?

Those particular statements about reward are followed in verses 19 through 24 by a discussion about our treasure.

Is your treasure something that you're building up here on earth, or is your treasure something that you're building up in heaven?

Where is your treasure?

Because if you're pursuing a reward that is here, it's not going to last very long.

If you're pursuing a treasure that is in heaven, it's going to last forever.

Where is your treasure?

Then the end of chapter 6, Jesus talks about the result of that.

See, Jesus knows that if we are pursuing rewards that are eternal in heaven where God the Father is, that means that we might not have treasure here.

And if we don't have treasure here, then we might become anxious about having enough food on the table.

Or about paying the bills.

So then Jesus says, don't be anxious.

Because your father knows what you need.

Your father sees and your father knows.

As we put all of this together, we arrive at a kind of a two-part conclusion.

If our motive for living out faith in this world is to gain here and now before other people, then that fickle reward is all that we're ever going to get.

There's nothing more coming.

But if we pursue rewards that endure forever, rewards that come from the perfect Father, those rewards will endure forever.

It may mean, though, that we don't receive any benefit until we get to heaven.

But the Father Will give rewards to those whose motives are pure and focused on eternity rather than today.

Rewards, Jesus says, will be given to those who obey the Father's will for the Father's glory from our perfect Father, received in his presence, and for which we wait patiently.

And that's the focus of this chapter.

Watch out for your motives.

Pay attention to the reasons for which you live out your faith.

Why do you help out in the church's ministry?

Why do you teach a Bible study?

Why do you help a neighbor in need?

Maybe you spent yesterday helping somebody dry out their basement.

Why did you do that?

What was your motive?

Why do you tell people that you will pray for them?

Why do you give to the Lord's work?

Why do you post certain Christian things on social media?

What is the reason for what you do?

Now, giving is the first example that Jesus pulls out here to really drive home his point.

And he says, when you give, he assumes that people will participate in this kind of religious pattern.

And it was expected in Judaism that people would give not only to God in the temple, but they would give to the poor who needed help, who needed assistance.

So he says, when you give to the needy.

Understand that Jesus isn't, he's not laying a guilt trip on you for not giving money to the professional panhandler standing on the corner.

He's talking about people who are in genuine need.

See, this is giving that meets needs where people have those needs.

The Jewish society that Jesus was living in didn't have Social Security, didn't have food stamps, didn't have Medicaid.

The poor relied on assistance from everyday people.

And in that culture, it was expected that you and I would contribute to help those people survive, to help them eat.

As we'll see in the rest of Matthew, Jesus is pretty clear on the order of importance.

He will go on to say, first, meet the needs that are there within the family of faith, then look outside that family to meet needs.

But there is the assumption that we, as the children of God, will seek to meet the needs of our brothers and sisters.

When you do that, don't make a big deal about it.

In fact, it's better that no one knows but you and God.

Even more, it would be best if you helped somebody out but didn't know that you were helping them out.

It's true.

Stay with me here, stay with me.

We can't be certain of the cultural issues going on here.

We don't know if some people literally had a trumpet blasted in front of them as they gave money.

Maybe Jesus was referring to the sound of coins tinkling down the trumpet-shaped receptacles of forgiving in the temple.

We don't know the cultural things for sure going on behind this.

But what is clear is that Jesus is opposed to his people making a big deal out of helping those in need.

Others, he says, do it to be praised.

They do it in order to be seen.

It's sort of a sort of a passive-aggressive way to gain popularity.

Today's version would be snapping a picture of yourself serving at the homeless shelter and then posting it on Instagram or Snapchat so everybody can give you likes and loves for what you did.

Don't say anything about yourself, but make sure people know that you helped somebody else out.

There is a reward for that, Jesus says.

There is something that comes from that.

There is some gain that will come from that kind of work and that kind of activity, but it's fickle and it's temporary.

And whatever notice you get, whatever notoriety comes from that, is the only reward you will get.

You won't get anything from the Father.

If you care about loving God, then don't pursue the rewards that are temporary.

Some might ask, well, what about celebrating good giving?

Today is the official start of Harvest Community Church in Castleton, the church plant that we so wonderfully and powerfully and substantively supported financially.

Can't we celebrate that?

Olomotes Baptist Church just about ready to cross the finish line and finishing their building, and we supported that to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Can't we celebrate that?

Well, yes.

Yes, we can celebrate those good things if we're celebrating the God who does it.

Not if we're celebrating the people who do it.

You see the difference?

So Jesus says, but when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, or your right hand know what your left hand is doing if you're the opposite-handedness.

I read this week that the only way this might be possible is if you have a lobotomy.

It's best that you don't know what you are doing when you give to the needy.

When you let your faith live itself out.

Why is that?

It's because we are so quick to be selfish and self-centered.

We want the glory.

We want the gain.

We want the temporary reward.

That's what sin does, isn't it?

It wants the immediate gratification, it wants the immediate satisfaction.

It's been that way since Genesis chapter 3, when Eve saw that the fruit was good to eat.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

But Jesus is speaking in hyperbole here.

It's not possible in a strictly literal fashion for your right hand to not know what your left hand is doing, or vice versa.

No, Jesus is making a very clear point.

When the Spirit of Christ that is working within you moves you to meet a need of someone who's truly in need, do it as quietly as possible.

Don't make a big deal about it.

See, the working out of our faith is to be done in such a way that our only audience is God Himself.

We don't care if anybody else notices.

Let me put it a different way.

You are more likely to have the proper attitude if you can be content with giving in complete secret.

If we can do, if we can live out our faith such a way that we are content if nobody knows, we're more likely to have the proper attitude.

Do you want the reward that comes from the fickle, sinful human beings, or the reward that comes from the Father of lights from whom all good gifts come?

In the grand plan of time and eternity that God has already established, showing off your faith will not get you what you think it will.

Jesus says in verse 2, they have received their reward.

He uses language that refers to getting all you're going to get.

There's nothing more.

If your motivation is to get attention, to benefit from other human beings, then that's your pay.

You've been paid in full.

But if your audience is the Father, and your motive is to please Him, to live out the reality that you are a child of God, then there's more coming from God the Father.

We exchange the temporary for the eternal.

And we've been looking again and again every week that Jesus said we must have exceeding righteousness.

Righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees.

That righteousness can't be hidden.

You remember what Jesus said about a light on a hill?

It can't, city on a hill can't be hidden, can't be kept inside forever.

God has prepared good works for us, and the child of God will do them.

But our hearts can deceive us.

We can talk ourselves into believing that doing something is good and righteous when the reality is we're doing it for selfish reasons.

Let's poke a little bit more at the open sore that we've got now.

Ian Campbell in his commentary on Matthew writes The problem is not just that we like being congratulated by others.

We also enjoy being congratulated by ourselves.

Ouch.

Who among us hasn't patted ourselves on the back for a good deed?

Who among us hasn't hasn't put something in the offering plate when times are tight and then congratulated ourselves for it?

Sometimes we do things that are righteous, that are good, that are holy, just to feel good about ourselves.

But aren't we told to do all things, whatever we do, for the glory of God?

Not to feel good about ourselves?

Don't sound the trumpet when you help someone out.

Instead, do it so that the only one who will notice is your father, the father who sees.

And the one who sees will reward you.

So if you find yourself patting yourself on the back for putting something in the offering plate as it's passed by, maybe you should just put it in an envelope with no markings whatsoever and mail it to the church office.

You find yourself serving at the rescue mission so that others will talk about how much time you're giving to helping others, maybe you should find a way to give your time so that no one will know.

But there's one thing we must do.

We must pursue Jesus.

We must hunger and thirst for his righteousness so that we become more and more day after day like him, so that our desires become consistent with his.

It's then, it's then that we will become more and more each and every day like Jesus, who, we are told, even though he was God the Son, did not hold on to the priorities of his deity at all costs.

No, it tells us that he made himself nothing by being born in the likeness of human beings and taking the form of a slave so that he might die a death, even a death on a cross.

That's the humility that we must pursue, that it doesn't matter who I am, it doesn't matter what praise I get, what glory I get, what honor I get, but I'm glorifying my Father who is in heaven.

Now, if you're following along with me, hopefully you're already thinking about what comes next in that passage in Philippians 2.

After it describes the humility of Christ, he goes on to say, Therefore, God has highly exalted him and given him the name that is above every name.

As God the Son was exalted for glorifying the Father, so too the Father will reward all of his sons and daughters who have their sights set on him in his glory instead of their own glory.

Why do you do what you do?

Lord Jesus, we confess to you this morning that our our hearts are convicted.

We struggle with this.

We struggle because we are we're human beings who who think we know what's best, who are living in light of today and we struggle to see eternity.

Help us to see eternity.

Enable us to have have the faith vision to see things from your perspective.

Lord Jesus, give us give us eyes to see you and to pursue you so that we might love you with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all of our mind, and with all of our strength, and we might love our neighbor as ourselves so that we are set aside and you are glorified.

We ask this for your glory.

Amen.

Stand and sing together.