Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Daniel Boerman once said, “The Christian lives in this world, but his sights are set on the world above.”

We live in a time where many things are trying to catch our eye and gain our focus/attention.

Many of these things aren’t inherently bad either!

These are some of the top goals that Americans mention that they’d like to reach within the next 10 years: Financial stability, physical health, education, social relationships, advancing in one’s career, balance in life, several other goals are mentioned by many Americans - these aren’t bad things, in fact they can be used to do a whole lot of good!

But they cannot be our primary goal as individuals if we seek to live a Christlike life and truly be satisfied.

We read in God’s Word in places like Colossians 3 that we are to set our mind on the things above, not on things that are on the earth.

Friend, where is your focus today?

Illustration from the Hobbit as Bilbo Baggins and his counterparts enter the Lonely Mountain and find a ferocious dragon, Smaug, laying on top of the largest pile of gold imaginable.

Bilbo was afraid of the dragon leading up to the room but upon seeing the gold all of his fear went away… His heart has been captivated by the treasure in the room and his focus isn’t on the deadly dragon but on the billions of dollars standing in front of him.

The lure of riches took his eyes off of the danger before him.

This is how wealth can be in our lives today as we know that there is danger lurking but we can get tunnel vision by looking at the bottom line and storing up earthly wealth and thinking that those possessions/things will provide satisfaction/support/security.

The truth of the matter, though, is that true security isn’t found in things - it’s found in a person.

True satisfaction isn’t found in more and more - it’s found in belonging to Jesus.

As we continue studying the Sermon on the Mount we find ourselves in a transition section of Jesus’ message.

Jesus has just given us instructions on what to do and what not to do - He shared with us that His disciples must give, pray, trust in Him, and forgive others.

These things are not for the faint at heart and for those who seek to live out His commands He has more to say today.

Jesus, again, is interested in our heart being changed and bent towards serving Him in all that we do: including how we think, act, and plan for the future.

Jesus wants us to be all in for Him!

As we prepare our hearts for His message, ask yourself this: Who am I serving today?

We’re all tempted to serve ourselves and plan accordingly, but Jesus desires for us to serve Him and trust in Him to meet our every need.

In the way that you think, act, and plan, are you serving Jesus Christ or are you serving yourself?

Let’s read this morning from Matthew 6

Pursue God’s Face, not Man’s Approval (16-18)

Last week we discussed our motivation behind why we do what we do.

As Christians our motivation behind our actions should be to glorify God, not to earn a pat on the back from other people or to make ourselves look really good in the sphere of public opinion.

As humans we like to be liked and we will do lots of things in order to be liked.

Whether it be acting like we enjoy something that we really don’t or pretending to know something in order to fit in, we’ve all been in a situation where we try to win the approval of other people.

Maybe this works for a time, but eventually we get exposed or we fess up and tell the truth.

Other times we go with the flow and we end up getting in trouble!

Michael Lopez, a statistician from New York, conducted a study of analyzing over 5 years of NFL games in order to see how peer pressure influenced NFL referees in their decision making.

Specifically Lopez studied plays where a player was hit after he had gone out of bounds - a play that is supposed to result in a personal foul penalty against the defense.

An official should call this foul whenever it happens because it breaks a rule of football… But what Lopez found in studying over 1400 individual plays is that the referees often have to make a judgment call in the moment and more often than not the referee makes a call that benefits the team he is closest to.

Meaning this, if the referee is next to the Kansas City Chief sideline and there’s a 50/50 call that he has to make, chances are he will make the call in order to benefit the Chiefs simply because the referee is closest to that sideline.

This is how situations often work in our world.

Intimidation works!

Peer pressure is a real thing - it doesn’t matter how old you are!

If you live to please people and be approved by them, you’re going to either make biased decisions or you’re going to end up getting in trouble because we’re going to come across as a hypocrite.

Jesus doesn’t want this to be the case for His followers so He offers an alternative option.

He says to do what is right, to do it in secret, and let God take care of the results.

Specifically in Matthew 6:16-18 Jesus touches on the topic of fasting - this isn’t a fun subject for Southern Baptists because we like our food!

Fasting is something that is found in Scripture as the Jewish leaders, Pharisees specifically, practiced fasting 2x a week.

Jesus practiced fasting at times and we know other Christians have undertaken this practice from time to time as well.

Fasting has traditionally been from food but that’s not the only type of fasting we “have” to do.

The purpose of fasting is to set aside a period of time to rely on God.

Jesus fasted in the wilderness in Matthew 4. The difference between the fasting of the Pharisees and the fasting of Jesus and His disciples is that it’s a voluntary fast.

Pharisees would fast 2x a week and Jesus calls them hypocrites because it was a publicity stunt.

Jesus encourages but doesn’t require fasting.

He says to do it in secret.

We know some people focus exclusively on outside looks - how will people look at me if I do this or what will people think if I achieve this status?

It’s a genuine temptation to focus on the outside and Jesus condemns the pharisees for this practice… Instead, as has been the case throughout the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is focused on the heart - on our motivation behind what we do.

Think this morning about the word success.

How do you measure success?

In the world of business maybe success is achieving a certain monetary threshold.

In the world of athletics maybe success is breaking a personal record or winning an important tournament.

In the world of parenting success might just look like surviving through a difficult day.

What does success look like in the church?

To some people, success looks like it would in the world of a business.

More money, more people, more memberships, more baptisms, more, more, more!

The trut of the situation, though, is that the church might have business meetings but the church cannot operate like a business does.

Our view of success in the church doesn’t hinge on more things - it hinges on us becoming more like Christ and being faithful to do what He commands us to do.

Some of the most faithful churches I know are churches that have less than 50 people in them.

Does that mean that they’re not successful because they’re small?

Absolutely not!

Church size isn’t the definition of church success.

The definition of Christian success is faithfulness to Jesus Christ.

Jesus repeatedly condemns the practice of doing things to look good in the public eye.

He calls us to fast - to pursue His face.

To pray for His Kingdom to come and His will to be done.

To give and to pray faithfully.

As we do those things and as we proclaim the Gospel to others, absolutely we pray that the lost would be found and that the saved would be encouraged to serve.

There’s nothing wrong with a great harvest and an increase, but those things cannot be our barometer for success - we’re not a business, we’re Jesus’ Church and He promised to build it.

We take Him at His Word and we simply remain faithful to follow Him in secret and in public because doing things to win the approval of our fellow humans will inevitably lead to failure.

Pursue Rewards that Last (19-23)

Think of the things that last the longest in this life.

It’s not looks, it’s not cars, it’s not even houses or buildings.

The things that last are not those with an expiration date.

Yet, for so many in our world they focus exclusively on the here and now that they accumulate earthly treasure that will one day be of no value to them and eventually be of no value to anyone!

While there’s nothing wrong with having much, the call from Jesus is to make sure that our pursuit is not more temporary stuff but more eternal riches.

I’ve heard it said before that “There’s no reason to be the richest man in the cemetery” and this is true for all of us - but especially true if you’re a Christian.

You can’t take it with you and Jesus speaks of the danger that pursuing earthly riches can have on our lives in Matthew 6:19-21 as he shares that earthly treasures can experience harm from 3 sources: moth, rust, and thieves.

What’s significant about these things?

In the Middle East a tiny moth could wreck havoc as it could destroy any and everything!

Even the nicest of clothes could be devoured by a tiny insect.

You could spend hundreds of dollars on designer clothes only to have it destroyed by something seemingly insignificant.

Maybe high dollar clothing wasn’t a temptation for Jesus’ audience, look at what comes next: rust.

What does rust do?

It corrodes metal, including precious metals.

It destroys the things that we view as being valuable.

Even whenever we keep our possessions safe and clean there is always the risk of things being stolen by others in this world as earthly possessions are always at risk.

Earthly possessions promise more than they can provide and they fail to deliver on their word.

So what should we truly pursue with our life?

Primarily heavenly riches - not earthly ones.

2 questions for us to examine at this point

What is heavenly treasure?

Why is this treasure important?

What is heavenly treasure?

Jesus says that we should store up heavenly treasure in part because it cannot be taken away.

What is this treasure, then, if it cannot be taken away?

Jesus talks about the treasure of the Kingdom later on in the Gospel of Matthew and shares this