Pure-Hearted Practice

Sermon on the Mount

In all my sports experience, what a person works on in private is what shows up later. I know basketball season is beginning, and what are all the coaches having the team do? Ball Handling--- dribble dribble dribble… Another great phrase we hear is: “You play like you practice.” Right? Who you are on the field or court is really a reflection of who you have been in private.

Jesus covers a great deal of ground here within his teaching. Teaching us “here’s what the kingdom of God looks like”.

It isn’t just this far away concept, somewhere out there… It’s real, it’s here— Jesus brings it! He has started out in the teaching by confronting how people have been taught in the past— “You’ve heard it said”… becomes, “but I tell you”.

Owen did such a great job— with the Holy Spirit’s help to establish several key concepts, but one that really stuck out to me is the fact that we have a “horizontal” relationship with other people— and then also a “vertical” relationship with God. And Owen made a great observation that if you are having a hard time with the horizontal— that might be an indicator that there is some problem also with the vertical.

It today’s passage, Jesus is going to transition a bit to expand on that very concept. He’s going to challenge us in the areas of spiritual discipline, or spiritual practices---giving and prayer, and fasting— and how we can sometimes misunderstand why we do these things, because we are thinking about them in a horizontal context— instead of how they are to be properly understood— as first and foremost “Vertical” activities.

We’ve been talking a little bit about the idea of spiritual growth in our Wednesday night series— and I don’t want that term to scare you off:

Spiritual Disciplines- Habits, practices, and experiences that are designed to develop, grow, and strengthen the spirit.

These three — giving, praying and fasting, aren’t the only three— but these are the ones that Jesus brings up.

Here are a couple observations to begin with:

Jesus assumes we are already doing these disciplines. (“when you...” v.2, 5, 16)

Disciplines should be done discreetly. (“in secret...”)

Disciplines will be rewarded by God. (“your Father...”)

Jesus is going to start here with a warning— be careful.

As we practice the disciplines, we can fall into hypocrisy.

Hypocrisy: Taking on the false appearance of piety or virtue

Douglas Mangum, The Lexham Glossary of Theology (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2014).

Proverbs 26:23–24 NIV

23 Like a coating of silver dross on earthenware are fervent lips with an evil heart. 24 Enemies disguise themselves with their lips, but in their hearts they harbor deceit.

The consequences of hypocrisy are massive. Jesus takes us— if we will allow him— to the woodshed here:

Matthew 6:1–2 NIV

1 “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. 2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.

There is a lot going on here. Beware— be careful.

There are warnings like this all over in the bible.

We don’t take these warning bible verses, and throw them up on our Facebook or Instagram feeds! That doesn’t get quite as many likes or favorites or follows does it? I don’t follow that account.

Jesus is very loving, very encouraging, very gracious— but he also uses some fatherly warnings sometimes— to challenge us to obey and trust God. To trust the plan and guidance that God gives us.

Any of us that have raised children— we know what the most frequent phrase is--- “Be careful”. Wendy and I had three active little girls, and maybe some of you with boys said it even more than we did.

The reason we say that— is because the child doesn’t probably see how devastating the consequences are going to be if they keep moving into the direction they are going...

Warnings are not meant to shame you, or embarrass you. They are meant to alert you. Especially when you don’t think danger is very close to you.

Warnings are not meant to shame us, but to alert us.

A warning like “be careful” is maybe the most loving thing we can do.

Do you realize the number of times my parents or people around me when I was younger told me to be careful… Looking back on that— I had no idea how close to danger I was. Maybe you have similar situations in your life, or in your children’s lives! (Some of you are saying yeah— daily!)

Go back to verse 1 with me— Jesus is expressing a warning here:

Matthew 6:1 (NIV)

1 “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

Matthew 6:1 (NLT)

1 “Watch out! Don’t do your good deeds publicly, to be admired by others, for you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven.

Practice your righteousness- To practice living inline with the Word of God.

Don’t do good things SO THAT you will be seen by others. He’s saying be careful— because you will be doing those good things, but not because you love God— but that so you can be seen and admired by someone else. You may be doing good things— but you are doing them so that you can get the praise of other people around you.

Basically, you’re taking something that is meant to be vertical, and you’re practicing it horizontally.

He is reminding us— that in almost every single spiritual exercise, every discipline, even giving to the poor— we are closer to hypocrisy that we may realize. There is a very fine line between doing the right things for the wrong reasons— and doing them for the right reasons.

And what is the penalty or negative consequence that we will face in doing something good, for the wrong motive?

We will lose the reward from our Father in heaven. God isn’t into rewarding Hypocrites— no matter how generous they may be— to the poor.

Jesus knows that God knows the heart.

Proverbs 21:2 NIV

2 A person may think their own ways are right, but the Lord weighs the heart.

Remember Jesus is explaining and teaching that serving him, being a citizen of his kingdom requires us to live with integrity

Jesus calls us to live with integrity.

Matthew 6:2 NIV

2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.

He states that there are some people— and they probably knew who they were— who are hypocrites— that announced what they were doing— as they were giving to the poor, but Jesus says that’s where it stays. Praise from men.

Here’s the hypocrisy:

They were doing all these good things, and presenting them in such a way as to lead others to believe that they loved God...

We can do the right things, for the wrong reasons.

In our time and generation— authenticity is highly valued. I have named authenticity as a core value in our ministry here at church. When you want to be real--- Hypocrisy is the worst possible thing you could be.

How could we become something we despise so much?

I think it may happen when we start pursuing the praise of other people above and beyond our pursuit of the praise of God.

Receiving praise from other people, for doing things that are morally righteous, feels really good.

But to be praised for something that we know is good, and right, and righteous, that could be intoxicating.

It might just cause us to question— ok, am I doing this because I do indeed love God— or am I doing it because I really just want to be accepted and approved by everyone around me?

Lets state this: Obedience to God brings esteem in our community. That’s not a bad thing.

But Jesus is warning us to understand that, and not love the esteem from men more than we love God. The praise and approval of other people can become idolatry.

Jesus knows that your love of being praised, is the greatest threat to your faith.

If you feel like you are very sensitive to the approval and affirmation of others: I have some advice for you.

I want you to be loved the most, by those who know you the best. Not the other way around. Dad- Husband, be loved the most by those who know you the best. And guess who knows you the very best of everyone? GOD.

Your identity— your attentiveness to what God thinks— should always outweigh or supersede someone else’s view of you.

Here are some good application statements :

My giving should be directed by God, not by people.

The vertical relationship defines us— not the horizontal one. If you don’t fully get this (vertical)— you are only left with this (horizontal)

That is one of the roots of the pain and conflict that we see in the world today— It’s a whole bunch of people walking around living ONLY in the horizontal. And fighting desperately to either define reality for themselves, and demand everyone else agree— or allowing someone else define their reality and identity— all the while never even understanding that there is a vertical relationship at all.

Have you heard people try to make an argument or a point based on a large percentage of a group thinks a certain way?

I’m always pretty sceptical when it’s publically announced — on a particular issue, that a “majority” of people think a certain way. Like when we see an argument happening in politics or philosophy or religion—

Someone wants to say: 85%, or whatever, of the community says that they agree with this policy.

Now that doesn’t mean that those numbers can’t mean anything— but I just don’t want to base all my decisions on what the majority thinks...

We all were very excited for Owen to preach last week— and he’s received a lot of encouragement. Most of you who heard the message will agree that it was very good— But trust me— Matt and I am reminding him everyday that he doesn’t preach or teach for you and me or anyone to tell him he did a good job— he preaches and teaches for Jesus to tell him he did a good job.

This is how leaders can get knocked off track—

Jesus took on the Pharisee’s on this very point in John 5. He basically tells them that he knows exactly why they won’t accept him, won’t follow him. Because they live and work in a worldly, man-centered echo chamber of self-praise— and they are disregarding to ask the question: “What does God think?”

John 5:44 NIV

44 How can you believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?

Most of the time it’s not that we want to be approved by EVERYBODY. Most of the time it is that “somebody” that we want to approve or affirm us. It’s that one person that we want to impress. For some of you it’s your parents, or a boss, a coach, or a teacher— for some of us, it might be me! NO!

Jesus wants you to hear clearly today: You get up every morning, and have this dilemma, this decision to make— You will do the right thing— for the wrong reason. You need to be careful! Do the right things, for the right reason.

He gives us some great specific instruction in verse 3:

Pure-hearted giving

Matthew 6:3 NIV

3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,

Matthew 6:4 NIV

4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

This is an interesting way to put it. It’s not literal—I’m not sure how we could do something with one hand, while not informing the other hand-- but it’s called an “idiom”—It’s a phrase of words that have a meaning deeper than the exact words.

It’s a way of saying that your giving is so discrete that people around you don’t even know— and maybe even you’re own heart doesn’t know that you’re doing it. Because we could probably get pretty full of ourselves secretly— and Jesus says don’t even let yourself get proud of what you’ve done.

Jesus then deepens the application with this same concept, and he applies it to our prayers:

Pure-hearted prayer

Matthew 6:5 NIV

5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.

Prayer is an even more blatant example of something that should be in the “vertical” category, right? It’s you talking to God.

Matthew 6:6 NIV

6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Now let me say just a couple words about that phrase: “Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

That does not mean that every time someone knows you gave, or someone hears you pray, that then the reward is negated. That’s not it. What it’s saying is— back to verse one— if you are doing these things, SO THAT YOU CAN BE SEEN, that’s where we are running into problems.

Prayer is not about being seen or heard by people, but God.

It also doesn’t mean that God is going to reward you immediately! That’s why the praise of man is so tempting. It’s often direct and instantaneous. God’s reward might take a lifetime— but it is absolutely worth it— because He is in control and I didn’t do it for the reward anyway— I did it because of the father, not the reward!

You’re going to give and serve and pray— and people are often going to know what you did— hear what you say.

Let’s resolve ourselves to NEVER do these things — to impress someone else. Or to gain the approval or affirmation of a person. Unless that’s exactly what we are doing it. I guess that’s OK, but you are just doing it for the praise of the recipient. I would also add that we shouldn’t just do good things in secret to try to impress God either!

I love verse 7:

Matthew 6:7 NIV

7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.

There some jokes about that concept— we’re not going to go there. But when we are praying— especially on behalf of a group or in public. Just get to the point.

Verse 8 backs that logic up:

Matthew 6:8 NIV

8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

Pure-hearted fasting

Matthew 6:16 NIV

16 “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.

Matthew 6:17 NIV

17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face,

Matthew 6:18 NIV

18 so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Fasting is to let go of an appetite to seek God on matters we are concerned about.

“Fasting is not a renunciation of life; it is a means by which new life is released within us!”- James Earl Massey

Verses 9-15 are Jesus’ wonderful instructions on praying the Lord’s prayer.

Matthew 6:9 NIV

9 “This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,

Position. “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name”.

I’m the child, you are my father- you are in heaven, I’m here on earth— and to worship you connects us.

Matthew 6:10 NIV

10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Perfection. “your kingdom come...”

We want God’s will and way for the earth. Our lives should intend to be the answer to this part of the prayer. We want to do God’s will!

Matthew 6:11 NIV

11 Give us today our daily bread.

Provision. “Give us today...”

We often don’t think about what we need for just today. Lets just ask and appreciate what we have daily.

Matthew 6:12 NIV

12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

Pardon. “Forgive us as we forgive...”

The level to which we are forgiving— We are praying God extends that to us!

Matthew 6:13 NIV

13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’

Protection. “Lead us, and deliver us...”

Praise. “For thine is the kingdom...” (Luke’s version)

Jesus teaching us to pray:

Position (v.9)

Perfection (v.10)

Provision (v.11)

Pardon (v.12)

Protection (v.13)

Matthew 6:14 NIV

14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

Matthew 6:15 NIV

15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

“The general human failing is to want what is right and important, but at the same time not to commit to the kind of life that will produce the action we know to be right and the condition we want to enjoy.

This is the feature of human character that explains why the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

We intend what is right, but we avoid the life that would make it reality.”

― Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives