To God be the Glory?

Title: Check your motives pt1

Text: Matthew 6:1-4

D.T Who do your actions glorify?

Introduction: I figured we’d start this morning with a little refresher. We’ve been in a series on the sermon on the mount for the past several weeks. Recently we’ve found ourselves in a section of scripture which expands upon the nature of sin and reminds us that we are more guilty than we may have originally thought. This was a particularly brutal stretch of passages that left us feeling like a Mohomed Ali punching bag. Today we are going to move into the next section of the sermon on the mount. This is a section that will not be nearly as brutal as Matthew chapter 5. However make no mistake, Jesus still offers his fair share of challenges in chapter 6. Jesus will start this section by asking us to examine the nature of our motivations. Jesus first asks us to examine the motivations of our actions.

READ Matthew 6:1-4

Matthew 6:1–4 ESV

“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 trumpet 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. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

So why is Jesus so insistent that we not practice our righteousness as to be seen by others? The first reason is obvious, because It brings glory to us rather than God. In Exodus 20 we find the 10 commandments, and one of the first commandments is “You shall not worship Idols” Oftentimes people's greatest idol of worship can be themselves. Attempting to show off our righteousness is worshiping ourselves, and not the Lord. The second reason is this, It effects how we are perceived

In this passage Jesus is describing a phenomenon that occurs in culture, and that phenomenon is called “virtue signaling” virtue signal is defined as “the practice of publicly displaying opinions are sentiments intended to demonstrate one's good character or the moral correctness of one's position.” I don’t know about you, but this sounds exactly like what Jesus is warning us against and telling us not to do in this passage.

One of the most common ways we see this happen today is on social media. How many of you who are on Facebook have that friend who is just desperate to show the world how good and virtuous they are? They say all sorts of things about they’re good deeds, and they show all these pictures of them doing good deeds. How does it make you feel? It annoys you right, it puts you off and you scoff at how they are trying to make yourself look better. This is natural, people are going to be repulsed and put off by peoples attempts to make them look better than everyone else. People don’t like seeing people worship themselves. This is why Jesus overwhelmingly says don’t do it, because it rob’s God of worship and it’s not a good witness on Christ's behalf.

So how do we respond? The simple answer is to just do everything in secret. The passage even tells us as much. However this would not be correct. This would be an over correction. Because Jesus also doesn’t want us to completely conceal our good works. In the middle part of Matthew 5, Jesus is talking about what it means for us to be Salt and Light. When Jesus is talking about us being light he says this

Read Matthew 5:16

Matthew 5:16 ESV

In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

You have one passage that says show you light before others, and another that says “don’t practice your righteousness in order to be seen by others.” So how do we handle this? How do we explain this as not being a contradiction, when it seems as though it is

Let me ask you a question. When are people most tempted to hide their commitment to Jesus? When are people likely to hide the fact they follow Jesus? It usually happens in the face of public oppression. During those times, when it’s not favorable to follow Jesus, those are the times we must remember Matthew 5:16 do not conceal your christian identity, but make it shine before others. Jesus encourages us to show your light in places of darkness. Let me ask you another question. When are people most tempted to promote themselves through religious acts? The answer to that is in the corporate worship setting. During those times when it’s easy to make ourselves look better in the midst of fellow Christians, we must remember Jesus' words in Matthew 6:1 do not practice your righteousness in order to be seen by others. Situational awareness is the key. So the situation and question is this. Who do your actions glorify? Are your actions bringing glory to God? Or are they bringing glory to you?

How do we ensure that our actions are glorifying God instead of ourselves? More importantly, how do we maintain this mindset? It can really be easy to start off intending to want to glorify God. However as we start getting affirmation, praise, and attention, Satan can begin to work on us. We can easily become self centered, we can become jealous of other Christians, we can lack self awareness of how we are being perceived. In 1st Peter 5:8

we are told. The question of who do we glorify, that is one of the areas Satan loves to attack. So with sober judgment we must daily ask ourselves the question. Who am I going to glorify today? God? Or Myself?