Unseen Abiding
Notes
Transcript
Me
Me
One of the strange things about social media is that it gives us instant feedback.
You don’t have to wonder if people noticed.
The numbers tell you.
Likes.
Comments.
Shares.
Views.
I’ll post something on my Facebook
Maybe it’s a photo, update, something I found interesting, etc
And then
I check.
“Did anyone like it yet?”
A little later
Check again.
But if I really want more people to see it, I know one trick.
Tag Tabitha.
Because when I tag her, suddenly way more people see it.
Way more people interact with it.
And there’s this part of me that enjoys watching those numbers go up.
Now, there’s nothing inherently wrong with social media.
There’s nothing wrong with wanting people to see something you’ve shared.
But every once in a while God will nudge my heart, and asks me a really uncomfortable question:
“Kyle why did you really post that?”
Was it because I genuinely wanted to encourage people or give them insight into my life?
Or because I wanted people to notice me?
And if I’m honest
Sometimes the answer isn’t as clear as I’d like it to be.
That’s the uncomfortable thing about our hearts.
We can do genuinely good things for subtly mixed motives.
And that’s exactly what Jesus begins talking about in Matthew 6.
We
We
And I have a feeling I’m not the only one that struggles with mixed motives
Because every one of us wrestles with them
We genuinely want to honor God.
But if we’re honest, we also enjoy being noticed.
Being appreciated.
Being thanked.
None of those things are wrong in themselves.
Encouragement is a good gift from God.
Appreciation is a good gift from God too!
But our hearts have a way of twisting good gifts into ultimate goals.
Suddenly, what began as serving God
Slowly becomes serving our reputation.
And that’s why this reaches into every part of life
While we serve.
While we give.
Even while we pray.
Because the issue isn’t the action.
It’s the audience
Somewhere along the way, our hearts quietly shift.
We stop asking,
“Am I honoring God?”
And we start wondering,
“Did anyone notice?”
That is a subtle shift.
But according to Jesus, it is an incredibly important one.
Because the greatest danger isn’t always doing the wrong thing.
Sometimes it’s doing the right thing
For the wrong audience.
God
God
That brings us to one of the most searching passages in the entire Sermon on the Mount.
Because Jesus isn’t talking about obvious sins.
He’s talking about good things.
Giving.
Prayer.
Fasting.
The kinds of things every believer would call spiritual.
Which raises the question.
Does Jesus really care about our motives?
If we’re still giving
still praying
still serving
Does it really matter why we do it?
According to Jesus it matters far more than we might think.
Listen to how He begins Matthew chapter 6
Matthew 6:1 “1 “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.”
Don’t Seek People’s Applause (v.1-8)
Don’t Seek People’s Applause (v.1-8)
Before Jesus talks about giving,
Before He talks about prayer,
Before He talks about fasting,
He gives us one principle that ties them all together.
The issue isn’t the action.
It’s the audience.
Notice what Jesus doesn’t say.
He doesn’t say,
“Don’t practice righteousness.”
In fact, Jesus assumes His followers will practice righteousness.
They’ll give.
They’ll pray.
They’ll fast.
The issue isn’t whether we do those things.
The issue is why we do them.
Notice these words again:
“to be seen by others.”
Those words explain everything.
Because Jesus isn’t condemning public acts of righteousness.
He’s condemning the desire to be seen.
Now at this point someone might say,
“Wait a minute.”
“Didn’t Jesus just tell us in chapter 5 to let our light shine before others?”
He did.
So is Jesus contradicting Himself?
Not at all.
In Matthew 5, Jesus said,
“Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”
The outward action may look exactly the same.
But the heart is completely different.
In Matthew 5,
People saw their good works
And glorified the Father.
In Matthew 6,
People show their good works
to glorify themselves.
That is the difference between a spiritual performance and a faithful heart.
Jesus isn’t impressed by spiritual performances, but by faithful hearts.
And that’s exactly why Jesus gives His first example.
Matthew 6:2-4
“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, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
Notice again, Jesus doesn’t say,
“If you give.”
He says,
“Whenever you give”
Giving to those in need was expected of God’s people.
The problem isn’t generosity.
The problem is generosity that has become a performance.
Jesus says,
“Don’t sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do”
That word hypocrite originally referred to an actor.
Someone wearing a mask.
Someone performing on a stage.
That’s the picture.
Someone putting on a spiritual performance.
Don’t turn generosity into a performance.
Then something that will repeat three different times in this passage.
“They have their reward.”
In other words, if recognition is what they’re after, recognition is all they’ll get.
Their reward ends the moment the applause stops.
That’s actually tragic.
Because the applause they worked so hard for lasts only a moment.
But Jesus offers us something far better.
”your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
Did you see the contrast?
The hypocrite lives for the crowd.
The disciple lives for the Father.
One longs to be seen by people.
The other rests in the fact that they are already seen by God.
Think about that.
The disciple doesn’t have to perform to earn the Father’s attention.
The Father already sees them.
And that changes everything.
And Jesus says, what is true of giving, is also true of prayer.
Because even something as beautiful as talking with our Father
Can quietly become another performance.
Matthew 6:5–8 “5 “Whenever you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, because they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by people. Truly I tell you, they have their reward. 6 But when you pray, go into your private room, shut your door, and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. 7 When you pray, don’t babble like the Gentiles, since they imagine they’ll be heard for their many words. 8 Don’t be like them, because your Father knows the things you need before you ask him.”
Do you notice how familiar that sounds?
Jesus repeats almost the exact same pattern.
“Whenever you pray”
“Don’t be like the hypocrites”
“They have their reward”
“Go into your private room”
“Your Father who sees in secret”
Different spiritual discipline.
The same heart issue.
Once again, Jesus isn’t saying,
“Don’t pray publicly.”
Jesus prayed publicly.
The early church prayed publicly.
We pray publicly every Sunday.
The issue isn’t the action.
It’s the audience.
Then Jesus points out another temptation we might add to our prayers
“Don’t babble like the Gentiles”
Now the problem isn’t performing for people.
It’s trying to perform for God.
The Gentiles believed that if they said enough words, repeated enough phrases, prayed long enough somehow, maybe one of the gods would finally listen.
Yet Jesus says, it does not need to be like that because
“Your Father knows the things you need before you ask Him.”
So consider what that means with us and God!
We don’t have to convince our Father to care.
We don’t have to earn His attention.
We don’t have to impress Him with the length of our prayers.
He already knows.
He already sees.
He already cares.
You know, since I’m a pastor, I oft get asked to pray and lead prayers of various places, which I do gladly
However, my favorite people to have pray?
It is the young kids, the new Christians who object because ‘they don’t know how to pray’, the ones that have not figured out Christianese yet!
Because when they pray, they are doing it very honestly and openly, and it is refreshing, because it is authentic
It is not about how spiritual you can make your prayers sound to other people,
But it is simply them praying for the group and allowing their heart for Jesus to show up and bless everyone that is listening
That idea becomes the bridge to everything Jesus teaches next.
If your Father already knows us, already sees us, already loves us
Then what does faithful prayer actually look like?
The hypocrites prayed to be seen.
The Gentiles prayed to be heard.
So Jesus invites us to pray as children talking to our Father.
Seek the Father’s Presence (v.9-15)
Seek the Father’s Presence (v.9-15)
Now, listen to how different it sounds.
9 “Therefore, you should pray like this: Our Father in heaven, your name be honored as holy.
10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
14 “For if you forgive others their offenses, your heavenly Father will forgive you as well.
15 But if you don’t forgive others, your Father will not forgive your offenses.
One of the unfortunate things about this prayer is that it has become so familiar, that sometimes we stop hearing it.
Many of us can recite it from memory.
But remember the context.
Jesus isn’t simply giving us words to repeat.
He has just shown us how not to pray.
The hypocrites prayed for the crowd.
The Gentiles prayed to impress their gods.
Jesus isn’t changing the topic.
He’s still talking about the heart.
Now He shows us what prayer looks like when it’s no longer a performance.
So this is how it begins:
“Our Father”
For some of us,
That may be the most comforting words in this entire prayer.
But for others they may be some of the most difficult.
Because when you hear the word Father,
You don’t immediately think of love.
You think of absence, anger, disappointment.
Maybe even abuse.
If that’s your story,
Jesus isn’t saying that God is like your earthly father.
He’s inviting you to discover your truest Father,
That your earthly father was always meant to point to.
Every earthly father, even the very best ones, fall short.
Some reflect God’s fatherhood well.
Some might reflect the devil more than they reflect God.
But none of them define who God is.
Jesus does.
And what has Jesus already told us about this Father?
Verse 8,
He already sees you.
He already knows what you need before you ask Him.
He isn’t distant.
He isn’t indifferent.
That is the Father that Jesus wants us to know.
And that’s what would have been so shocking to Jesus’ first hearers.
He was inviting ordinary people to approach the Creator of the universe as their Father.
Not because they had performed well enough.
Not because they had earned the right.
But because God was welcoming them into relationship.
Jesus is inviting us to stop trying to get the attention of a distant God.
He’s inviting us to come to our Father.
Who already knows, already sees, and already loves His children.
Then Jesus moves to the very first request.
“Your name be honored as holy.”
Before Jesus teaches us to pray about our needs,
He wants us to begin with God’s glory.
His name.
His reputation.
His honor.
Isn’t that exactly the opposite of what Jesus has been warning us about?
The hypocrite wants people to honor their name.
Jesus teaches His disciples to pray,
“Father, may Your name be honored.”
That’s a completely different posture.
Spiritual performance asks,
“How can I make my name look good?”
Faithful hearts ask,
“How can Your name be honored through my life?”
Which leads into the logical progression
“Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
Whose kingdom?
Whose will?
Not mine.
But His.
And slowly, prayer changes the kinds of things we ask for.
Instead of asking,
“God, bless my plans.”
We begin asking,
“God, help me join Yours.”
After Jesus centers our hearts on the Father’s character
He invites us to bring our needs to him
“Give us today our daily bread.”
Not because the Father doesn’t already know them.
Remember verse 8?
Have you ever stopped to think about that?
If God already knows everything, why pray?
You know, for years, I struggled with that question.
I knew Christians were supposed to pray.
But if God already knew everything what was the point?
Looking back, I realized I had a transactional view of prayer.
I thought prayer was about getting information to God
Or, convincing Him to act or somehow earning His attention.
But Jesus says none of those things.
Jesus is redefining prayer.
Prayer isn’t about informing the Father.
It’s about going through life with Jesus and our Father.
Think about healthy parents for a moment.
When their child comes and says,
“Dad, can you help me?”
“Mom, can you read me a story?”
The parent doesn’t respond,
“I already knew you wanted that, so don’t ask.”
No!
One of the joys of being a parent isn’t just meeting your children’s needs.
It is when your kids come to you with their needs.
In a far greater way,
Our heavenly Father delights when His children come to Him.
So why should we pray?
Because that’s what children do.
They ask.
They trust.
They depend on their Father.
Performing hypocrites think they have to earn the Father’s attention
Children already have it.
That is abiding.
We come to the Father, not pretending we have everything together,
But by honestly saying,
“Father I need You today.”
Then Jesus says,
“And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”
Isn’t it remarkable that Jesus
Includes the assumption that His disciples will still need forgiveness.
Faithful hearts never outgrow our need for grace.
We never graduate from our need for the gospel.
Which is why we don’t come to the Father pretending we’ve got everything together.
We come honestly.
Confessing our sin.
Receiving His mercy.
But Jesus doesn’t stop there.
He also teaches us to become people
Who extend that same grace to others.
For some of us, the forgiveness line is one of the hardest parts of this prayer.
Some wounds run incredibly deep.
Jesus isn’t minimizing those wounds.
Forgiveness is rarely as simple as pretending nothing happened.
It certainly doesn’t mean things like abuse were acceptable.
Nor does it mean trust is automatically restored.
Nor does it remove the need for boundaries against evil people
But Jesus is inviting us to let the Father’s grace slowly reshape our hearts,
So that bitterness doesn’t become the thing that defines us
The same grace we’ve received begins flowing outward.
People who are continually experiencing the Father’s forgiveness
Slowly become people who extend that same grace to others.
Not perfectly.
Not instantly.
But over time.
Because abiding doesn’t just change our relationship with God.
It changes how we relate to people.
The final line of this prayer, Jesus says,
“And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”
Faithful hearts know their weakness.
We don’t walk into temptation thinking,
“I’ve got this.”
We pray,
“Father, keep me close.”
“Protect me.”
“Lead me.”
“Deliver me.”
Because abiding isn’t pretending we’re strong.
It’s continual dependence on the One who is.
Do you see what Jesus has woven together here?
The prayer begins with the Father.
It stays centered on the Father.
And it ends with dependence on the Father.
His name.
His kingdom.
His will.
His care
His forgiveness.
His leading
This isn’t simply a prayer to memorize.
It’s a picture of a heart that abides.
A heart that no longer needs to perform,
because it has learned to rest in the presence of the Father
Trust the Father’s Reward (v.16-18)
Trust the Father’s Reward (v.16-18)
Jesus finishes with one final example: fasting.
16 “Whenever you fast, don’t be gloomy like the hypocrites. For they make their faces unattractive so that their fasting is obvious to people. Truly I tell you, they have their reward.
17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face,
18 so that your fasting isn’t obvious to others but to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Does that pattern sound familiar?
Different example.
Same disease.
Jesus says, don’t make yourself look miserable so everyone notices you’re fasting.
Don’t turn intimacy with God into a performance for people.
I remember learning this lesson as a freshman at Moody.
I was taking a class on spiritual disciplines.
One of our assignments was to fast, keep a journal,
and reflect on what God taught us through the experience.
So I did.
And honestly, I really wanted to grow closer to Jesus.
My desire was genuine.
But somewhere during that assignment,
I posted something about my fast on Facebook.
One of the guys on my floor came up to me afterward.
He wasn’t trying to embarrass me.
He simply asked,
“Do you think that’s kind of what Jesus is warning about in Matthew 6?”
I remember thinking,
“Ouch, he’s right”
I hadn’t posted it to brag.
But if I was really honest there was at least a part of me that liked the idea of people knowing I was fasting.
So I promptly removed that status
That conversation has stayed with me ever since.
It reminded me how easily even sincere devotion can quickly become spiritual performance.
In fact, the book that helped inspire our Abide theme this year, spoke to this very passage
John Starke writes,
Fasting is not for those who can see our face,
but for the One who can see our hearts
Jesus is really teaching us a ‘fast within a fast’.
Yes, we do fast from food, but we also fast from the glory and praise of other people!
Because the greatest hunger
Jesus wants to expose may not be our hunger for food.
It may be our hunger to be noticed.
Because it’s possible to give generously and secretly crave applause.
It’s possible to pray beautiful prayers and secretly crave recognition.
It’s possible to fast from food while still feasting on people’s approval.
The issue isn’t the action.
It’s the audience.
Which means the foundational question Jesus is asking us is not,
“What are we doing?”
It is: “Who are we doing it for?”
You
You
Which brings us back to where we started.
Throughout this passage,
Jesus keeps bringing us back to one simple question.
Who is your audience?
Not,
“Am I giving?”
Not
“Am I praying?”
Not,
“Am I serving?”
Jesus assumes His followers will do those things.
The deeper question is,
Who are we doing them for?
I don’t think many of us wake up one morning and decide,
“Today I’m going to become a hypocrite.”
It happens much more quietly and sinisterly than that.
Somewhere along the way, our audience changes.
We begin looking sideways.
“Did anyone notice?”
“Did anyone appreciate it?”
“Did anyone thank me?”
“Did anyone recognize how much I sacrificed?”
And before we realize it,
We’ve quietly stopped living before the Father and started living before the crowd.
Whether that’s in our giving.
Our praying.
Our serving.
Or just our everyday lives.
Our hearts are incredibly adept, at taking good things
And turning them into opportunities to build our own reputation.
Maybe another way to ponder it is this:
Would I still do this if nobody else ever knew?
Would I still pray, that prayer, if no one ever heard?
Would I still give, that amount, if no one ever thanked me?
Would I still serve, in the same way, if no one ever noticed?
Would I still obey Jesus, if the only One who saw was my Father?
Because the issue isn’t the action.
It’s the audience.
Jesus doesn’t leave us there
He isn’t exposing our mixed motives to shame us.
He’s exposing them to invite us back.
Back to the Father.
Back to abiding.
Back to the freedom of living before the audience of One.
Underneath all of this, our deepest longing is to be seen.
To be known.
To be loved.
Which is exactly what Jesus has been trying to show us
Our Father already does.
He already sees you and I.
He already knows you and I.
He already loves you and I
In Christ, we don’t have to perform to earn His attention.
We already have it.
So how do we begin retraining our hearts to break free from this pitfall?
Jesus actually gives us a way.
Practice hidden faithfulness.
Or in modern terms, turn on incognito mode, become the anonymous poster!
Do something this week that only your Father may ever know about.
Encourage someone anonymously.
Pray for someone without telling anyone!
Serve someone without looking for recognition.
Give quietly without needing your name attached.
Not because hidden things are somehow holier.
But because every hidden act loosens our grip on building our own reputation.
Every hidden act teaches our hearts to delight a little less in making much of our own name,
and a little more of making much of His
