An Audience of One

Intro: The Big Stage

MLB Players stepping up their game during the World Series

Last night Josh texted me

Walker Beuhler (Pitcher for the Dodgers) looks good. Where was this during the season?

There are certain players who are totally different in the off-season

They thrive in the moment

They love the crowd

They love the energy

They love the lights

They can be average all season but when the spot light is on them in the big moment they’ll rise to the occasion and perform.

NFL Players stepping it up during the Super Bowl

Transition

There’s something about stages and audiences

Some people rise to the occasion

They live for those moments

All eyes on them

Everyone watching

Phones out recording

Some people live for those moments alone in their walk with Christ

They look for moments with an audience

Where they can rise to the occasion

Do something that everyone is going to talk about

Give an amount that will impress everyone

Serve in a way that will impress people

Speak in a way that will impress people

It’s easy to become addicted to the applause

Begin to live for it

Begin to do good things just for the applause of man

That’s what Jesus warns us of at the beginning of chapter 6

Passage

Matthew 6:1–4 CSB

“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. Otherwise, you have no reward with your Father in heaven. 2 So whenever you give to the poor, don’t sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be applauded by people. Truly I tell you, they have their reward. 3 But when you give to the poor, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

The Delicate Nature of the Christian Life

Review

Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees you’ll never get into the Kingdom of Heaven

What’s needed is more than just an outward portrayal of righteousness

Jesus is looking for a righteousness that comes from within

Murder - Hate

Adultery - Purity

Divorce - Faithfulness

Promises - Trustworthy

Retaliation - Grace

Love - Even for our enemies

He’s raising the standard

It’s not just about what you look like on the outside

It’s about who you are on the inside

He’s been talking a lot about morality

Now he transitions into religious activity

The stuff we do on a regular basis that is meant to align our hearts with God’s

The 3 examples he gives us

Giving

Prayer

Fasting

In our culture

Giving

Prayer

Church attendance

The essential things for all Christians to do

Surely we’re good there!

No way we’re giving wrong

No way we’re praying wrong

No way we’re fasting wrong

Matthew 6:1 (CSB)

“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. Otherwise, you have no reward with your Father in heaven.

Religion

There’s a way to do religious activity in a manner that’s not righteous at all

There’s a way to do good things that doesn’t get the applause of God

It doesn’t get the approval of God

How?

Practicing your righteousness in front of others in order to be seen by them

Religious activity with the goal of impressing others

Religious activity with the goal of glorifying self

The Jewish Honor / Shame Culture

What mattered first and foremost was what people thought about you

It was determined based on things like

Wealth

Education

Your ability to speak publicly

Family name

In their culture their name carried weight

Your family name could get you into trouble or out of trouble

Maybe you’re familiar with this

Had certain teachers who were harder on you because they had your brother or sister before you

This was the norm in an honor / shame culture

Everything you did effected not just you but your entire family

Social and Political Connections

Make friends in order to give you power

Give gifts. Help People. Share meals.

But it’s not out of love

It’s a desire for power

You’re hoping one day you can cash in these good deeds when you need help

In our culture we have a major push for self-esteem

Who cares what people think about you

The only thing that matters is what you think about yourself

You have value regardless of who you are and where you came from

Self-esteem did not exist in their culture

Who cares how you feel about yourself

What matters is what everyone else thinks about you

What they were after

Honor

Glory

Recognition

The goal was to avoid disgrace and gain status

Your value was determined based on what other people thought about you

Honor / Shame values had leaked into their religion

They had this longing…

For honor

For Glory

For recognition

They were using religious activity to get it

Remember the story of the widow’s mite?

Jesus is watching as the Pharisees gave

They’re putting in large sums of money

How did Jesus know?

How did the apostles know that the Pharisees were giving a lot of money while the widow was just giving a little bit of money?

They made sure it was visible

They gave in a way that was loud and obvious and public

Why?

Because they were hungry for...

Honor

Glory

Recognition

They wanted the applause of man

Hypocrite

Matthew 6:2 (CSB)

So whenever you give to the poor, don’t sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be applauded by people. Truly I tell you, they have their reward.

The definition of Hypocrite

In our culture

Someone who says one thing and does another

Someone who tells you not to speed on the highway and then the next time you’re in a car with them they’re speeding on the highway

Jesus’s definition is close but slightly different

Someone who does really good things but for the wrong reason

It’s a motive issue

What we keep finding out is that our motives are crucial for walking in righteousness

Doing the right thing for the wrong reason is not righteousness

It may get you the applause of man

But it will not get you the applause of your heavenly father

The grammatical definition

A pretender

An actor

Someone playing a role while seeing the world as their stage

They appear to be someone that they’re not

They appear to be extremely pious and devout but in reality they’re just concerned about their reputation

Careful

Jesus’s instructions are to “be careful…”

The delicate nature of the Christian life

Matthew 5.

Let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father in heaven.

It’s a delicate balance

We will be seen

Be we don’t live to be seen

The goal is that when we are seen, they’re not applauding us, but instead are applauding God

It’s a very thin line…

It is to fall in love with the recognition

How easy it is to fall in love with the compliments

How easy it is to fall in love with the applause

“Careful” - Defined

Be alert

Be concerned

It’s interesting how often we’re told to be careful

If we’re not paying attention our motives will take small steps in the wrong direction

We’ll end up somewhere we don’t want to be

Driven by likes

Driven by applause of man

Driven by compliments

Be careful

Applied

Consistently ask yourself good questions

Why am I doing this?

What if no one knew?

Pray intentional prayers

Lord reveal the sin within me

Search me and know me

Make me aware of any selfish motives that I have within me

Because…

Righteousness is only righteous, when it’s done with the right heart.

And then Jesus gives us an example… In the world of generosity

A Lesson on Generosity

The Assumption

It’s assumed that we will be generous

Jesus takes no time to tell us to give

He assumes we will

The Passage

Matthew 6:2–3 CSB

So whenever you give to the poor, don’t sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be applauded by people. Truly I tell you, they have their reward. But when you give to the poor, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,

The Pitfall

“When you give to the poor, don’t sound a trumpet before you…”

Were people actually blowing trumpets to signify their generosity?

Probably not

This was just a figure of speech

Don’t toot your own horn

Don’t bring attention to yourself

It’s possible to be selfishly generous

Several years ago I wanted season tickets to watch the Razorback baseball team

I wrongly assumed anyone could purchase these

Turns out unless things have changed, season tickets are first open to U of A donors

Not only that but the most generous donors are given a chance to buy season tickets first

Then they work their way down the line

If there are any season tickets left, they become open to the public

There are never any left

I’ve been on the waiting list for 4 years now and have never heard a thing about any season tickets left

But… I could donate

In their system the people who donate have power

Honestly… It’s a good way to get people to donate

And to be honest… I’m okay with that system in this context

But it often happens in churches as well

I don’t know of this happening in our church

But I have heard stories of this happening in other churches

Where people feel as though they have power because they’ve donated so much time and money to their church

They feel as though their opinion has more pull

They’re plans have more weight

Not because they’ve been faithful

But because they’ve given a large sum of money

This begins to motivate people’s generosity

They’re no longing giving to help

They’re giving because they long for…

Power

Honor

Glory

Recognition

They help others…

But it’s completely selfishly motivated

If we’re not careful we’ll do the same

Give generously

But we do it for attention

We do it so that people will be proud of us

They’ll brag on us

They’ll honor us

We do it for manipulation

In order to work our way up in a company

To earn the right for our voice to be heard

That’s not generosity

That’s selfishness

We must wrestle with this question.

Who are you trying to serve?

Jesus?

Yourself?

Who are you trying to please?

Jesus?

Yourself?

So often our acts of generosity are actually just subtle version of selfishness

We really just want people to think highly of us

What does Jesus tell us to do?

The Lesson

Give without telling anyone

Matthew 6:2 (CSB)

So whenever you give to the poor, don’t sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be applauded by people. Truly I tell you, they have their reward.

Don’t sound a trumpet before

Don’t bring attention to your generosity

I know someone

Growing up they couldn’t help but to tell everyone when they gave their offering

Like it was burning within them

I gotta tell someone

Someone has to know how generous I am

I used to see it on social media all the time

Typically it was cops showing how much they cared for people

Look at me being kind

Look at me being generous

The goal

Build a platform

Get likes

Get attention

Get applause

Jesus’s instructions

Give without telling anyone

Don’t announce your generosity

Give without telling yourself

Matthew 6:3 CSB

But when you give to the poor, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,

Don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing

This is a little harder…

It’s one thing not to announce it to others

We all somewhat get annoyed by those people anyways

But what about announcing it to yourself?

Though you haven’t announced it to others

You still say within your heart

I’m better than they are

I gave more than they did

I sacrificed more than they did

We pull out our notebook and we mark it down

Today, Tanner gave $25 to a man who appeared to be homeless. Check.

And he did it in secret. Double check.

Even that moves your generosity from the righteousness column to the selfishness column

You’re just doing it to feel good about yourself

The goal… Is that we could do things as we are lead by the spirit and then immediately forget about them.

How? By keeping our eyes on Jesus Christ.

That brings us to our final point.

The Proper Motive

passage again

Matthew 6:1–4 (CSB)

“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. Otherwise, you have no reward with your Father in heaven. 2 So whenever you give to the poor, don’t sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be applauded by people. Truly I tell you, they have their reward. 3 But when you give to the poor, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

What is this reward?

I don’t know if I fully understand what all is included…

Crowns

Jewels

I honestly don’t know how much I understand all of that

But I think the context helps

If you do it for applause from people… that is your reward.

The applause from man is your reward

The recognition is your reward

The honor you receive from them is your reward

The glory you receive from them is your reward

If recognition is what you’re after

From your family

From your community

From your class

They you may get it…

But God knows your heart so you’ll receive nothing else from the Father

If you do good things just for attention, you may get what you want, but you’ll miss out on what God has for you.

What is it that God has for you?

If we keep reward in the same context...

Then Reward = Honor or Recognition

I wonder if it may be the same thing

Applause

Honor

Recognition

Except this time it’s from your creator

From your savior

From your heavenly father who adopted you into his family

It’s a standing ovation from the God who knows all things

It’s honor and recognition, not from your boss, but from the King of Kings

It’s getting to heaven and Jesus says…

Well done… my good and faithful servant

The proper motive

What is it?

Doing things with a desire to please the father

Doing things with a longing for the applause of God

Doing things with a longing for recognition from God

That may sound and feel a little awkward

But Paul talks about it all the time

“I’ve run the race… and there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness.”

God has a reward for me…

I can’t wait to see it

I can’t wait to have it

The Proper Motive

We live for an audience of one

He sees all things

Sarah and Hagar

met with an Angel

What are you doing?

Running away

Angel promises blessing

Genesis 16:13“So she named the Lord who spoke to her: “You are El-roi,” for she said, “In this place, have I actually seen the one who sees me?””

Who’s applause do you seek?

That of your community?

That of your church?

That of your classmates?

That of your friend group?

That of your coworkers?

We live for an audience of one

The applause of Jesus Christ is the only applause we live for

Our greatest desire is just to be faithful to Him

Let go of the longing to be the greatest

To have your name up in lights

To have a massive following

We keep our eyes fixed firmly on Christ

So that we don’t even notice the crowd around us

Conclusion: The Example of Jesus

As you read through the gospel you find that Jesus had his eyes fixed completely on his father

The words that He spoke did not come from himself but from His father

The works that he did were just what his father told him to do

His entire life was dedicated around giving His father glory

There are often moments when he seems to want to keep himself a secret

He’ll heal people and tell them not to tell anyone

He’ll kick people out of the room before performing miracles

He lived entirely and always and only for the glory of God

He didn’t seek his own honor but the honor of the one who sent him

I leave you with this passage…

Philippians 2:5–11 CSB

5 Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, 6 who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited. 7 Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man, 8 he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death— even to death on a cross. 9 For this reason God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow— in heaven and on earth and under the earth— 11 and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

We live for an audience of one.

We live for honor and recognition.. not from man.. but from our heavenly father who gives incredibly generously if we’re willing to wait.