Now, Sabina, just before you sit down, I have one question for you.
How can we best be praying for you this week?
Well, I have a bit of a problem in that I really feel like I should donate to charity.
And it's either £2,000 or £3,000.
And I'm not quite sure.
We're saving for a house, so I'm tending more towards the £2,000.
But the charity does give you a lovely little emblem on their wall if you donate £3,000 or plus, which also sounds quite attractive.
And also, I mean, maybe you can join me just fasting about this topic.
It's weighing heavy on my heart.
And I know that fasting is really difficult.
And I'm not sure I'm even going to make it past the first day because it's just so exhausting with work and everything else that goes on.
And, you know, we need the energy and the food.
But maybe you'd like to join me in fasting too.
So I'd really appreciate that.
Now, I wonder if you were having that conversation with Sabina and she gave you that response.
What would you think her motives are?
So she's talking about doing good and doing right things, but for the wrong reasons.
And that's what we see this evening in our passage in Matthew chapter 6.
People are doing the right things, but for the wrong reasons.
So in chapter 5, Jesus was teaching the people about the law of God and correcting their misunderstandings and misapplications of the law.
And that part of the Sermon of the Mount ended with the command in chapter 5, verse 48.
You can look at there where it says,
Be perfect therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
In the verses that we're looking at this evening, I hope that we will both be comforted and challenged.
Because Matthew 6 acts like a mirror for our motives.
We stand before it with all our religious and devotional practices.
And we see that we're either doing things to serve the Lord,
or we're doing them to be seen by others.
What will we find this evening?
Will we find a heart that desires to serve the Lord and therefore does the right things for the right reasons?
Or will we find a heart that is stained by sin and that does the practices of giving,
praying, and fasting, not for the glory and honor of God,
but instead to receive honor and glory from mankind.
So Jesus focuses on giving, praying, and fasting.
And he is teaching that as Christians, as people who want to live lives that glorify him in every way,
we need to do these things for the right reasons.
But why does Jesus pick these things in particular?
Why doesn't he focus on something else?
I think Jesus picked these three topics because they were the religious practices of the day that were being abused.
But these truths are timeless.
These practices can be misused just as much today as they were back then.
We can do and we should do the right things like giving, praying, and fasting,
but we need to be doing them for the right reasons.
And that is what Jesus is asking us this evening.
Are you doing the right things for the right reasons?
And look with me at verse 1.
Jesus starts with an introductory comment that summarizes pretty much everything we're going to be speaking about this evening.
In verse 1 he says,
Now this is a sober warning for every Christian.
The practices of righteousness that Jesus is speaking about are the religious act of devotion to God.
These practices should not be done so that other people can see us and give us praise,
but they are to be done for our Father in heaven.
Now this doesn't mean that people won't see us doing these things.
I hope that everyone on this earth sees or hears a Christian live out their faith during their everyday life.
Jesus isn't telling us to go run to the hills and hide in caves away from everyone else,
but he's shining light on our motives.
These practices of righteousness are the good and right things that Christians should be doing,
but we need to do them for the glory of our Heavenly Father.
And so in verse 2, and in verses 2 to 4, Jesus speaks about giving.
And he hones in on this topic, but do you notice he doesn't wade in gently.
There is no sugarcoating on this teaching.
It flies right in the face of the wrong motives and practices that were at play in his day and that are at play today.
This week I had a quick search on the internet and discovered that the two topics that make most British people feel uncomfortable,
the two topics that people try to avoid are religion and money.
We spend so much of our lives working, saving, budgeting, worrying about how much money we need to save for that house,
for that car, for that holiday.
And those are all good things.
But how often do we take time to think about giving?
Now this isn't talking about just giving a few pounds to a homeless person as you walk to work.
But this is calculated giving.
You've sat down and you've thought about it properly.
And notice how Jesus starts in verse 2.
When you give.
So Jesus expects people to give of their finances as a sign of their devotion to and love for the Lord.
He could have started with if you give.
But he started with when you give.
And two kinds of giving are mentioned here.
Religious giving in verse 2 and giving to the needy in verse 3.
So for us you have giving to the church and giving to those in need.
In verse 2, read along with me.
He says,
When you give, do not announce it with trumpets as the hypocrites do.
Now why do they announce it with trumpets?
To be honoured by others.
We've all seen this, haven't we?
Companies that have billions of billions of pounds in revenue
hold a press conference to hand over a check to a charity.
Celebrities take selfies in soup kitchens on Christmas day.
Or more everyday examples.
People bragging about how much they donate to charities
or casually dropping it in a conversation here and there.
Or people going forward during collection in a church,
not once, not twice, but three times,
making sure that people see them.
Now these are all good things that we should be doing,
but are they being done for the right reason?
Jesus says that people do this to be honoured by others.
And the original word there that the NIV translates as honoured
is better translated as praise or worship.
So these hypocrites want to be worshipped for their giving.
They're seeking the attention and glory instead of giving it to God.
But I think if we're all honest, we struggle with this one.
Our sinful hearts want to receive all the praise from those around us.
We don't want to naturally give it to God.
In verses 3, Jesus says,
When you give, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,
so that your giving may be in secret.
Now people have used this verse to argue for absolute secrecy.
But if you look at it in its context of the whole chapter,
you see Jesus warning people not to glorify or draw attention to their giving.
So it's not that we need to hide our giving and almost be ashamed of it,
but we aren't to draw attention to it.
Jesus is saying, forget about yourself when you give.
Instead, give to and give for God.
Do not glorify your service to God, but glorify God as you serve him.
Now we can look at this passage and we can think,
well, I never do any of those things.
But how often do we walk past a homeless person
or a person in need on the street without thinking?
How often do we think more about our savings
than we do our spendings for the kingdom of God?
Or flip that on its head.
Have you ever given thanks publicly
for how God has been blessing you,
maybe financially or spiritually,
since you started giving more to the church?
What are the real motives in our hearts at those times?
Are we really doing the right things for the right reasons?
All of our money comes from God.
It is not our own.
And so our attitude should be that of sacrificial giving
for the good of the kingdom,
for the good of people,
and to glorify God in every single way.
That's what giving for the right reason looks like.
And then in verses five to eight,
Jesus speaks about praying.
Now notice again the same expectation
that Jesus has of his followers in verse five.
When you pray, do not.
So Jesus is warning his listeners and us today
of the dangers of doing the right things
for the wrong reasons.
There are some, like Jesus says in all three of these sections,
who are hypocrites.
They love to stand in the public eye
and pray for all to see and hear.
This doesn't mean that it's wrong to pray standing up
or to pray in public.
That was common practice among Jews in Jesus' time.
A devout Jew would have prayed
during three set times a day.
And that would mean that you probably would see
at some point people praying in the street.
That isn't the problem.
Jesus isn't condemning public prayer.
But notice that four letter word in verse five, love.
These hypocrites love to be seen praying publicly.
They stand up and make themselves stand out
to be praised by others.
So the problem isn't public prayer,
but it's the reason behind it.
And the challenge for us is to reflect
on our own prayer lives.
Do you pray out loud in a church meeting
so that you can use that new theological word
that you've been sitting on for two weeks?
Or to use that passage
that you've just spent a month memorizing from scripture?
Now, all of these are good things
that we should be doing.
But our motivation,
if our motivation is to be praised by others,
then we're doing the right thing for the wrong reason.
One element of a healthy prayer life
is submission to God
and recognition that we can do nothing outside of him.
And these hypocrites were doing the exact opposite.
Their prayers didn't humble them,
but they puffed them up.
So we need to watch our motives
because this is a very, very easy trap
for us to fall into.
We start to think
how others are hearing our prayers
rather than how our Heavenly Father
is hearing our prayer.
And in verse seven,
look with me,
you get another when you do not.
Now this verse suggests
that the hypocrites filled their prayers
with worthless words.
Jesus uses the illustration of pagans
because when they prayed,
they would have repeated the names
of their gods and other words
over and over and over again.
We'd probably call it chanting today
rather than praying.
If you want an example of this,
go home and read 1 Kings chapter 18,
where the prophets of Baal and Elijah
are on top of a mountain
and they're testing who has more power,
the God of Israel
or the false god Baal.
And so they kill a bull
and they put it on top of some wood
and the prophets of Baal
go in circles,
chanting,
beating themselves,
calling and begging
for their false gods
to answer them
for hours on end.
But nothing happens.
And Elijah throws water on the wood
and prays
and in seconds,
God answers.
There are religions today
where people pray
and repeat certain phrases
or have certain stances
when they pray.
They raise their voice,
they cut themselves,
they make parades
and hold huge feasts
for false gods
who have no ears to hear,
who have no eyes
to see what their people are doing
and who have no mouths
to eat or to speak to them.
So the hypocrites of Jesus' day
were piling tons of eloquent phrases
into their prayer,
almost mindlessly repeating things
in order to be seen by others.
But do you see
how in this whole bit
there is no mention
of their private prayer life?
They seem to only reserve their prayers
for when they're in public,
for when people are around
and people can hear them.
They're praying to people,
they're not praying to God.
And I don't think we can sit back
and think that this is irrelevant for us.
This should challenge
the way we view
and practice prayer.
Prayer is the way we communicate
with our Heavenly Father.
And so our attitude to
and our prayer lives
should be one of devotion to God
and a desire to glorify Him
in every way.
So how is your prayer life?
It's easy, isn't it,
to convince people around us
that we're doing well
and that we pray regularly.
We tell people
that we'll pray for them
as we leave the Sunday services.
But do we actually do it?
Now maybe we don't fill our prayers
with meaningless repetition,
but how often do we use
beautiful language
that we know people want to hear?
Instead of thinking
how others see our prayer life,
we should focus on
how God sees our prayer life.
That means that we shouldn't shy away
from praying publicly
because we maybe feel inadequate
or we feel that we don't pray
beautifully enough.
Instead, we should focus on God
and praying to Him
like we would if we were sitting
at our kitchen table at home
reading our Bibles in the morning.
We should be doing the right things
for the right reasons.
We should be praying to God
because we are told to in His Word
and we should be doing it
both publicly and privately.
And the two should be the same.
We should not,
we should be coming before the Lord,
laying ourselves bare before Him,
confessing our sins,
praising Him for His goodness,
bringing our daily needs before Him
and in assurance,
knowing that He is a Father
who loves,
who cares,
and who listens to us.
in the case of public prayer,
we need to forget ourselves
and focus on glorifying God.
That is what it means
to do the right thing
for the right reason.
And then in verses 16 to 18,
Jesus speaks about fasting.
Now fasting is a topic
that seems to be sidelined
in many churches today.
And I wonder if the majority
of Christians around the world
live as if these verses don't exist.
But fasting is a religious
and devotional practice
that we see in the Bible.
We cannot ignore it.
We see it in the Old Testament law.
Israel were to fast
for certain days a year.
In Isaiah chapter 58,
God corrects Israel
for how they had twisted fasting
and used it to lord themselves
over others.
The Pharisees fasted twice a week.
John the Baptist's followers
fasted often.
Jesus himself fasted for 40 days
and 40 nights in the wilderness.
He teaches on fasting
in these verses
and in Matthew 9,
verses 14 to 17.
In Acts and in the New Testament letters,
we see examples
of the apostles' fasting.
So we cannot ignore this topic.
And again,
Jesus starts in verse 16
with the same expectation.
When you fast,
do not.
And it's very basic definition.
Fasting is the abstinence from food.
The Bible uses different ideas
of why we should fast
and its purpose.
So we fast in eager anticipation
of Jesus' return.
We fast as an example
of our self-discipline
and self-denial.
We fast as a way
of humbling ourselves
which leads us to rely
and depend more on God.
And we fast
so that we can spend more time
in God's word
and praying to him.
But the hypocrites
that Jesus is speaking to
had distorted fasting
for their own glorification.
read with me
verse 16.
When you fast,
do not look somber
as the hypocrites do
for they disfigure their faces
to show others
they are fasting.
The word used in the NIV
for somber
could be translated
as gloomy.
So the hypocrites
were doing
a religious
act of devotion
but you can imagine
them walking down
the street one day
clutching their stomachs
moaning
every second
until someone
finally asked
the question
they've been waiting for.
What's wrong
with you today?
And then they kick in.
Oh, I'm just fasting.
Don't you worry about me.
I'm just giving up food
as a sign
of how holy I am
and to prove to God
that I can do it.
And then come the comments.
Oh, good for you.
You're such a good Christian.
I wish I could do that.
I can't even go one hour
without food.
Never mind one day.
But they took it even further.
It appears from verse 17
that they purposefully
did not wash their face
or make themselves presentable
because they wanted people
to ask them
what was wrong.
They wanted an excuse
to toot their own horn
about how holy they are.
So instead of
what we would normally do
before we leave the house
checking in the mirror
making sure we're okay
and we look presentable,
they checked the mirror
before they left
to make sure
they were scruffy enough.
Much like the children's story
of Snow White
and the queen
who had a mirror
and that she looked in
every day
and asked mirror,
mirror on the wall
who is the fairest
of them all.
All is well
as long as the mirror
replies you are.
But when the mirror
responds one day
with Snow White is,
the truth comes out
and reveals the wickedness
and jealousy
of the queen.
The mirror revealed
inner ugliness.
And these hypocrites
did the opposite.
They looked in the mirror
to make sure
they did not look nice.
To make sure
that people could tell
they were fasting.
Their mirror
would display
outward signs
of ugliness.
But it revealed
the same thing.
They had ugliness
of the heart.
Their hearts
were in the wrong
and they focused
on themselves
not on God.
Jesus says
let your fasting
go unseen
by others
because the only one
who matters
is God
and he sees
everything.
Jesus says
forget about yourself
and fast
for God
and his glory.
So the challenge
here is
do you fast?
Jesus expects
his followers
to.
Now he doesn't
give us a timetable
or a set period
that we need
to fast for
but the truth
is that he
expects us to
and that means
we cannot ignore
these verses.
I'd encourage
you to go home
and think about this.
Read Isaiah 58.
Read Jesus' words
in Matthew 9
and with wisdom
put into practice
what Jesus
is teaching us here.
Now these are
three big
and practical
topics
that Jesus
expects us
to do
as his followers.
Giving
praying
and fasting
are the right
things for us
to do as Christians
but are we
doing them
for the right
reasons?
We should
forget about
ourselves
and focus
on God.
Doing
these things
for the right
reasons mean
that we do
them for God
and not
for the praise
of others.
But this
also means
that it is
not our
place to
question
other people's
motives.
Jesus is
challenging
every individual
to look in
themselves.
It is not
our place
to stand
in judgment
of someone
else's motives.
The question
that we need
to walk away
from this
evening
from Matthew
chapter 6
is are we
doing the
right things
for the
right reasons?
Let's pray
together.
Father, we
come before
you the
God who
sees, who
knows all
things.
You know
our thoughts,
you know
our actions
and you know
our motives.
and we
ask you
for forgiveness
for the
times that
we have
done good
things,
right things
for the
wrong reasons.
We pray
that you
would help
us leave
this building
this evening
encouraged by
our discussions,
uplifted by
our prayer
time,
and with a
new desire
to do
right things
for the
right reasons.
that
everything we
do would
be done
for your
glory,
for the
upbuilding
of your
kingdom,
and for
the praise
of your
holy and
precious name.
Amen.
We're going
to have a
few minutes
break now
where you
can grab a
tea or
coffee and
then we're
going to
come back
and have
a discussion.
So I've
got two
questions for
us to think
about when we
come back
and they
are,
why can
these
three topics
be difficult
to live
out and
which is
most difficult
for you
and why?
So I kind
of cheated
there's three
questions in
that one but
we'll pass it
off as one
question.
And then the
second one,
what are
other righteous
acts that we
can do today
for the wrong
reasons?
So just take a
few minutes,
go grab tea,
coffee and I
think there's
still some
nibbles back
there and then
I'll call us
all back for
discussion around
our tables.