Kingdom Part 4

NS 102 in CK building

awana’s/united

october 3rd/replacing ac

Groups plug

YouVersion

Recap

Matthew 6:1–18 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. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 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. 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. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 “This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 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 lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’ 14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. 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. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 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.

Prayer

Flow:

Jesus has been talking and focusing on the Law

He has focused on the heart or purpose behind it in our lives

He uses examples to get us there

and now he takes a little bit of a change

Jesus now begins talking about our righteousness in practice

He uses 3 big examples to show us what this looks like in this new kingdom of God

He’s going to talk about giving, prayer, and fasting

Jesus’ focus will be on how we do them

Just like he did with law in trying to get us to the heart of it, He’s doing a similar thing.

It’s as if He’s said with the Law: “ok you can not do wrong and still be wrong.”

This week He will teach us: ”You can do what’s right and still be wrong.”

As He’s focused on the inward part of how the Law works in our life

Now He will focus on how the inward part of our righteousness is practiced.

But it’s never a question of whether or not you should be giving, praying, or fasting. It’s assumed that you are.

He doesn’t say…so if you give, pray or fast…He says “When you give, pray, fast”

Notice also that it is focused in the question of reward.

So, the idea behind each is that public religion for human recognition stops there. That’s all you get.

But humble service to the Lord, not for human approval, should expect a heavenly reward

We are designed to succeed and achieve and accomplish

We aren’t designed to be losers

So there is nothing wrong with wanting rewards

Jesus will just teach us that when we do these things we only have two options

A reward that will fade and always be fleeting in the praise of man

Or a heavenly reward that stays with us for eternity

There’s also a question that may arise as we walk through this about what we do so that others may see and what we do not for others to see.

When Jesus talks about being salt and light earlier in chapter 5 He states, “let your light sine before men, so that they may see....”

But here He is saying “do not practice your righteousness in front of others.”

So which can it be?

Well, Jesus is speaking against two different and I think that’s the focus.

He speaking against our cowardice in chapter 5. Here He is speaking against our vanity or pride.

The Message of the Sermon on the Mount (A Christian’s Religion: Not Hypocritical but Real (Matthew 6:1–6, 16–18))

A. B. Bruce sums it up well ‘show when tempted to hide’ and ‘hide when tempted to show’.1 Our good works must be public so that our light shines; our religious devotions must be secret lest we boast about them

Here is what I would also add. This is a matter of motive.

The purpose of each is for God to get the glory

So ask yourself…why am I doing this the way that I’m doing it? Is it for selfish gain or motives? Or is it for the glory of God? And that will solve a lot of the confusion.

Am I giving, praying, fasting for people to see to puff up my ego and pride or is it for God to be glorified through it?

Now, let’s get into this individually and see what Jesus is teaching us about them

Generous

So the overriding warning is given in verse 1

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.

Then Jesus launches into generosity

The idea here is that as we understand the mercy of God we become merciful in all that we do, including the mercy we show through our resources.

Jesus obviously expects kingdom people to be generous givers

But the kicker of the kingdom is that generosity is not enough.

Jesus is concerned here, as He has been throughout His sermon, about the motivation or hidden thoughts of the heart

Where does our generosity spring up from?

The Pharisees were guilty of being sold out for the praise of men and that’s where their generosity came from

The word Jesus uses here is hypocrites. The Greek word is po cree taes

It was used to describe an actor. Someone who uses the world as their stage to put on a false identity

Someone who is no longer himself but in disguise, impersonating somebody else.

One of our core values here is to be humble and real

Jesus had a certain disgust with the hypocritical that doesn’t seem to surface many other places

Kingdom people are humble but real

We don’t put on a front/mask

We don’t play games with Jesus

We don’t always get it right

But we do always strive to be real

And that’s what kingdom people do

Quit the hiding, quit the pretending, it’s ok to not be perfect. it’s not ok to pretend like you are.

We are to be real and to be humble

Kingdom people should be guilty of being generous not for the praise of men but for the praise and pleasure of God

Jesus even goes a step further and says do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing

The right hand would have been known as the active hand and so the idea is that as you are actively giving and being generous don’t dwell on your generosity

Your sinful heart can be so subtle that it’s possible that even when you are taking active steps to do right and be generous that if you dwell on it long enough you may walk away full of pride in self-congratulation

So the whole point is kingdom people are generous people

They are generous because Christ has been to us

And we are generous for the glory of God and for no other reason.

We should work to keep our generosity a secret. A secret from others and a secret from ourselves but the reality is, Your generosity can never stay hidden from God.

He sees and He rewards.

The Message of the Sermon on the Mount 1. Christian Giving (2–4)

‘The proper rewards are not simply tacked on to the activity for which they are given, but are the activity itself in consummation.’

Here is what that means: The reward is not usually public and not necessarily for the future. It is the only reward which genuine love wants when being generous. To see the need relieved.

When through your gifts the gospel is put in motion then the love which prompted the gift is satisfied

And we begin to truly sense and understand what Jesus says in Acts 20:35

Acts 20:35 (NIV)

‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”

So, Let’s be generous as Christ is generous.

Then we Jesus talk about prayer

Prayer

A lot of these same ideas will move into every category Jesus covers

So again what’s the motive of our prayers?

Is it wrong to pray in public? No!

But your private prayer life should far exceed your public one

Do we stop praying at church, praying at meals, having prayer meetings?

Most certainly not. We would be just as guilty.

But our public prayers are an outpouring of our private ones.

If the motive behind our public prayers are to wow the one’s who hear it then our prayer stops there.

The essence of Christian prayer is to seek God

When verse 6 uses the word room it’s the greek word “tameion” and it was used to describe a storehouse or store room usually where treasures were kept.

The implication may be then, that there are treasures already awaiting us when we pray.

These rewards are too many to share today but in the words of the apostle Paul, when we cry, ‘Abba, Father’ the Holy Spirit witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God.

We are granted a strong assurance from the Father and His love for us

He lifts His countenance upon us and He gives us peace.

He refreshes our soul, satisfies our inner most hungers, and quenches our thirst.

Then Jesus gives us the famous Lord’s prayer that we are probably all familiar with

So when we pray we don’t just recite this prayer every time and we are good. It’s a model or formula of how to pray.

Wade actually spoke on this about a year ago and He had a great overview of how this prayer teaches us to pray

He talked about the focus of each part

It starts with the focus on relationship (Father)

then God’s greatness (Hallowed)

Then Surrender (Your kingdom)

Then our dependence for His

Provision (Give us)

Pardon (Forgive us as we forgive)

Protection (Temptation)

This is how Kingdom people pray

So we see Jesus teach us to be generous for the glory of God

How to pray for the glory of God and then…

Fasting

How to fast for the glory of God.

I think many churches will talk about generosity and prayer but for whatever reason fasting isn’t really talked about

It’s important:

We see John the Baptist and his disciples fast

We saw Jesus fast for 40 days and nights

We later see the apostles in Acts fast

And so this is not just an OT practice

But for whatever reason we embrace the idea of generosity and prayer but often ignore fasting and I just don’t that should be so.

So first, what is fasting? Strictly speaking it is a total restrain from food. It doesn’t have a specific length attached to it.

So it’s not necessary to fast for 40 days

Sometimes it’s just one meal or one day or maybe longer

In many ways it’s an act of self-discipline and self-denial

Usually when we see the act of fasting it is coupled with the act of prayer

So this isn’t done to punish our bodies but Paul goes into great lengths talking about how we are to be disciplined (our bodies included) to work out the Will of God in our lives

And so we fast and use the time and resources we would have used to consume a meal to pray and glorify God

We do not fast so that others may feel sorry for us or think of us as highly religious but for the glory of God

Fasting today can look a little different then it might then but here it is pretty strictly related to food and meals

You may fast social media

television

activity

Things that you spend a lot of time in or doing

And use that time in study and prayer

Wrap up

So, it’s pretty clear that giving, prayer, and fasting were just assumed by Jesus to be done by His disciples (kingdom people)

It’s also clear that He draws a line between the two sides of motives behind them

The motive of pride and vanity to be rewarded by men

And the motive of humility to be done in secret and rewarded by God

Here’s my challenge for us this week

Find a way to be generous the way Jesus describes here

If your married speak with your spouse

This isn’t a trick to try to get more money at the church

Maybe it isn’t given here

Maybe there’s a need you already know of

but I challenge you to be generous this week in some way

Next, I challenge you, everyday this week to pray using this model

relationship (Father)

then God’s greatness (Hallowed)

Then Surrender (Your kingdom)

Then our dependence for His

Provision (Give us)

Pardon (Forgive us as we forgive)

Protection (Temptation)

Lastly, I challenge you to fast at some point this week

Maybe it’s one meal

Maybe it’s a full day or more

However long it is or whatever it is you are fasting, use that time to pray/study/read and use that time to sit and meditate on the Lord. Sit, listen, let Him speak to your heart and stir things inside of you.

This is the challenge this week. Be generous, pray, and fast.

If we are saved/kingdom people then we won’t only do these things but we will also strive to them for the right reasons

Pray