Sermon Tone Analysis

Welcome

Good morning and welcome to CCC.

I pray you had a great week, this past week was amazing as it was spring break my family and I we were able to rest and recoup in preparation for the sprint to the finish line in May.

It was awesome to get to spend most of the days last week in my office here at church working on the sermon and being in the Word.

I pray that one day I will be able to do that all the time but in God’s time and His will be done in that situation.

Before we get going I want you to notice in your bulletin there are two additional pieces of paper.

One is the sermon handout that you can fill in the blanks and take notes on this morning.

The second is a question sheet.

My heart and desire is you take that question sheet home and as you wrestle with what God is bringing to you this morning and as you spend time in your secret place this week you honestly answer those questions.

I pray that they will help you get more out of your time with God and allow you to see how the Holy Spirit wants to apply the truths from this morning to your life.

Prayer.

Start OBS

Matthew 6:1-4

““Watch out!

Don’t do your good deeds publicly, to be admired by others, for you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven.

When you give to someone in need, don’t do as the hypocrites do—blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets to call attention to their acts of charity!

I tell you the truth, they have received all the reward they will ever get.

But when you give to someone in need, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.

Give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.”

You Are To Do Good Deeds For God Not For People And Worldly Recognition

Your motive matters more than your actions.

Look again at verse 1 “Watch out!

Don’t do your good deeds publicly, to be admired by others, for you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven.

When you do good deeds publicly or for show the reward you receive on earth is your reward.

Most of us don’t do this intentionally but do this in our hearts.

When we do good deeds most of us don’t say I am going to do this to gain recognition or fame or men’s praise but our hearts want that praise and recognition.

How do we know, we do the good deed or give to the poor and then get mad that know one noticed or said anything about it.

I spent x amount of hours at that church doing this or that and that pastor never even said one word about it.

I helped and helped that person and they never even once said thank you.

I helped lead the charge to help the homeless in town but the paper never even did an article on it.

That is the last time I help them, they were not even grateful but just expected my help

This is why Jesus spends time talking about this because our hearts can be prideful.

Most of us do get good feelings when we do something for someone but we must guard against that becoming why we do something for someone.

Most of the time when you do good deeds people will notice and thank you but that cannot become why you do those things.

IT has nothing to do with us and everything to do with Jesus

It is just like why you come to church or Bible study on Wednesday nights.

It has nothing to do with your preference but everything to do with surrendering to God and showing up to learn and teach and serve.

Teaching styles vary.

Structure varies but what doesn’t vary is that Jesus willingly went to the cross for you but beyond that wants a personal relationship with you and wants you to grow in Him and grow together as His bride the church and children of God.

That is why you come to church and Bible studies.

If you don’t come because you don’t like the music or you don’t like how someone teaches you are in it for the wrong reasons.

You need to check your heart in that case and get with Jesus!

You don’t need to be blasting facebook with your good deeds because that means you are seeking man’s approval and praise.

God doesn’t need facebook posts to know you did something for Him.

Jesus strongly condemns hypocrites

Matthew 23:27-28

“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees.

Hypocrites!

For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity.

Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness.”

If we are true Christians then this should be part of our daily secret time.

God show me my heart, is my heart like that of the Pharisees clean on the outside but evil on the inside.

Show me what stands between me and You.

Look at the description Jesus uses here, whitewashed tombs.......they look beautiful on the outside but can you imagine what the inside looks and smells like.

Rotting flesh.

That is a disgusting picture but when we live for us, and you choose to call the shots and you choose to praise God on Sunday and cuss out your co-worker on Monday you are like that whitewashed tomb.

Mark 7:6

Jesus replied, “You hypocrites!

Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote, ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”

This is something else that as true Christians we should be praying about.

God do I honor you with my lips but have a heart that is far from you?

You have to be intentional about this because the enemy uses his demons and the world intentionally to get your heart far from God

Are you the same person on Sunday that you are Monday through Saturday?

Are you the same person on Sunday that you are at the lake or the golf course or the dirt track or whatever your hobby is?

Jesus wants your heart not a fake behavior.

You may feel better about yourself but if you do not have a true heart relationship with Jesus you will hear away from me I never knew you and spend eternity in hell.

Doesn’t matter how much good you did,

how many Sundays you attended church,

how much money you gave in tithes, how much you gave to help the poor and needy......

none of that matters if your heart is far from Jesus!!!!!!!!!

Church you must guard your heart and ask God daily to inspect your heart and if it is far from Him surrender whatever it is that is making you far from God!!!!!

Luke 18:9-14

“Then Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else: “Two men went to the Temple to pray.

One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax collector.

The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: ‘I thank you, God, that I am not like other people—cheaters, sinners, adulterers.

I’m certainly not like that tax collector!

I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.’

“But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed.

Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’

I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God.

For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.””

Which are you, the Pharisee or the tax collector?

Do you pray and thank God that you are not like the sinners around you?

Do you lift yourself up and put others down in your prayer life or are you like the tax collector and humbly approach God knowing what you have done, what you deserve and understand the mercy that God has shown you in what you get?

Church you must get real with yourself and God here.

Your mind and wicked heart,

Jeremiah 17:9-10

“The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked.

Who really knows how bad it is?

But I, the Lord, search all hearts and examine secret motives.

I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve.””

Your heart and mind will make you think you are like the tax collector when really you are like the Pharisee......You have to ask God to search your hearts…HE is the only one who sees it clearly!

This goes beyond prayer.

What about your daily life?

What about your thoughts about people......

look at that person I am glad I am not like them.......

look how dirty they are........

boy I have done some bad things but nothing like so and so.

Remember if you think them, not just they enter your brain you take them captive and kick them out, but you dwell on them you truly think them it is the same as saying them because you said it in your heart and that is what Jesus cares about is your heart.

Outcomes Don’t Really Matter Because God Sees All