Sermon Tone Analysis
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Intro:
So I recently came across a new word, it is called a humble brag.
Have you ever heard of a hublebrag?
Well it is something that people do particularly on social media, but also in other areas of life.
So a hublebrag is statement in which you pretend to be modest but you are really just telling people about your success or achievements.
Here are a few humble brags:
When I bought this Ferrari no one warned me I’d get pulled over all the time
So have you ever heard of a hublebrag?
Well it is something that people do particularly on social media, but in other areas of life.
A
You
Graduating from 2 universities means you get double the calls asking for money/donations.
Or a young woman posting online:
Why do I always get asked to the dance by so many guys?
Or
So pushy and annoying!
Humbled that my album hit the Billboard Top 100
Guy who rents my apartment lost his job.
Told him not to worry about rent this month.
Paying it forward, baby
Or if you are too lazy and want to just toot your own horn all you have to do it put the words “humbled that” before you brag on yourself.
“Humbled that my album hit the Billboard Top 100.”
If the Pharisees in Jesus day would have had social media, they would have been the best humblebragers around.
Guy just asked me how I manage to pray in the temple for so many hours a day, I don’t know, must be a gift.
#blessed.
Well, maybe we have humble bragged before, or maybe we are at least tempted to.
When we have done something that we desire to be seen by others.
And sometimes we are tempted to practice our spiritual devotion in order to be seen.
So we do discipline to fast, or pray, or give to others in need, but we do it for the wrong reasons so that others would see us doing it, and slowly we become more hypocritical, with out even knowing it.
FCF: We are tempted to be motivated to practice our devotion to be seen by others.
So we do discipline ourselves, but for the wrong reasons.
Or on the other end we give up on the disciplines, or expressing faith in visible ways because we don’t want to be hypocrites, but we miss out on opening ourselves to the presence of God.
Or on the other end we give up on the disciplines and expressing faith in visible ways because we don’t want to be hypocrites, so we just don’t practice the spiritual disciplines at all.
We say well, my heart is not in the right place so I won’t practice it at all.
But we miss out on opening ourselves to the presence of God.
but we miss out on opening ourselves to the presence of God.
But what we see in our passage this mornings is that
Proposition: Because God’s presence is our reward we should practice the spiritual disciplines.
We should expect to practice the spiritual disciplines
So first, what are spiritual disciplines, or spiritual practices?
Well spiritual disciplines are personal and corporate practices that creates space in our life for the worship of God and growth in his grace.
So in we hear Jesus telling us about some of these disciplines that we will be walking through during this season of lent.
That is the spiritual disciplines of giving, prayer, fasting, and simplicity.
We will talk more about these in the coming weeks.
And Jesus expects his followers to practices these spiritual disciplines.
Look with me at verse 2. “When you give to the needy” then in verse 5, “when you pray,” and then in verse 16 when you fast.
Jesus does not say, if you do these things, he says when.. that is he takes it for granted that his followers will do these things.
It is just part of what it means to follow Jesus.
Illustration:
So like if you are telling a parent, now when you change a diaper this is what you do.
So if you are a teacher, your supervisor might say, now when you give an assignment make sure you do it this way.
Or like when I got old enough and my father said, now son when you do your taxes make sure you have someone help you, you don’t want to have to do that on your own.
Application:
It is not a matter of if, but when.
A teacher will give assignments, a citizen will pay taxes,
and a Christian is someone who practices the spiritual disciplines.
The life of a Christian is an ongoing life in Christ, communion with God in Christ.
It is not simply that you have this one moment when you profess believe.
The life of a Christian is a participation in the the life of God.
And the Spiritual disciplines are how we create space for us to be aware of, and enjoy, the life that we have in God.
But while Jesus says when you practice these spiritual disciplines he does not say it with out qualification.
We need the spiritual disciplines if we want to be open to God
We should beware of our motives when we practice the spiritual disciplines
Main Point 2: We should expect to
In verse 1 Jesus gives his disciples a warning.
And multiple times he wants them not to do as the hypocrites do, that is practice the disciplines in order for others to see them doing it so that they can be praised for it.
Now Jesus is not saying it is wrong to be seen praying or fasting, but he does say it is wrong to fast or pray in order to be seen.
In order to be seen...
So when you practice the disciplies
When you practice the spiritual disciplines rather than being done to be seen by others there is to be a kind of forgetfulness that is to accompany them.
As Jesus says in verse 3:
So at first it may be something you have to think about, but as it is having communion with God, it is about being seen by God.
Application:
It is not so much the disciplines that matter, as it is having communion with God.
Illustration:
I know what it means to be a hypocrite, I have first hand knowledge of it.
I lived it.
I was the good kid, I did the right things.
And I practiced the spiritual disciplines in order to be seen.
I wanted people to know me as the Christian.
When I got a Bible as a teenager, I went through and highlighted all the way through it, so it would look like I read my bible.
When I went to college I make sure to pray and read my bible in the morning so that my roommate would see me doing it, so that I would be a good witness, at least that is what I told myself.
But things began to come to a head, when the outward life of devotion, could not support my desperate soul.
The lie became too great, I was living a double life.
One of outward devotion where I was a student leader a campus ministry, and the inward one of spiritual decay and secret sin.
But everything came to a head one night when I was driving to a leaders meeting, listening to a song entitled I repent.
And the singer spoke before the song and said these words, i will never forget them.
If all your sins were displayed on the five oclock news it would be the best thing for you.
For you would only have Jesus to hold on to, and he is all you have anyway.
, and there was this moment
I could not lie to myself.
And it was at that moment that it felt like the Holy Spirit hit my chest with a gigantic mallet, and all the wind was knocked out of me.
I knew what I had to do, I had to confess my sin to my mentor Jonathan.
I had to take the mask of false spirituality and be seen.
I sat down with Jonathan, and through tears confessed, expecting rejection, expecting to lose all my friends.
I wept with my face in my hands, and he said to me.
Look at me.
And when I did look at his eyes, he saw me, and said I love you, I love you.
I love you.
I was seen, I was known and I was loved.
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