Who's Your Audience Series

Who’s Your Audience?

Matthew 6:1

NOW – this morning (8/21/22)… we are going to drill down on just a single verse... Matthew 6:1, in a conversation that I am calling, ‘Who’s Your Audience?’

Prayer

A guy named Dallas Willard said there are four great questions of life that everyone has to deal with, whether they want to or not, and

Those questions are…

• What is real?

• What is the good life?

• Who is a good person? and

• How do you become a good person?

AGAIN - everyone has to answer those questions whether they want to or not. They are inescapable.

AND – here’s the deal… You pretty much are answering them by the way you choose to live your life.

AND MGCC - in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gives His four answers to those great questions.

Q #1 - What is real?

What can you count on?

ANSWER - God and his kingdom, his reign, his will. Jesus says that the foundation of existence is not (as widely thought in our day) a random universe; a giant, meaningless machine; atoms and molecules. INSTEAD – the foundation of existence IS… a personal God of immense power, wisdom, and love.

Hallowed be His name.

AND - that's why Jesus says to seek first the kingdom of God, because that is what…

• is most real

• is unshakable and will endure forever

• will remain standing after the waters rise and the winds blow

Q #2 - What is the good life?

AND – we all want to know, right? What is the good life?

AND MGCC - Jesus answers that in the Beatitudes.

UNDERSTSAND - the good life, contrary to contemporary wisdom, is not based on wealth, IQ, attractiveness, thicker hair or whiter teeth.

NO – that is not what the good life is based on…

INSTEAD – the ‘good life’ is based on…

• being ‘poor in spirit’ (acknowledging our brokenness and need for God)

• mourning, being meek, hungering for righteousness, showing mercy, having a pure heart, being a peacemaker.

AND LISTEN – this ‘good life’ is available to anybody who chooses to live in partnership with God in His kingdom.

THEREFORE - you, right there in your life, can be blessed, living the dream, in the good life.

Q #3 - Who is a good person?

NOW – people are really fuzzy on that one in our day.

BUT MGCC - Jesus says a good person is someone who is compelled, consumed… overcome and pervaded by God's love and who routinely works for the good for others being the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

UNDERSTAND - a good person is not a rule-breaker or a ruler-follower.

That's why in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus often contrasts,

"You have heard it said…" (behavioral compliance) with,

“But I say to you…” (inner transformation).

Q #4 - How do you become a good person?

ANSWER…

• BY PUTTING – your full confidence in this Jesus and becoming… His disciple, His apprentice, His student, and…

• BY SEEKING - with sincere intent and the help of God, to creatively, powerfully… obey Him in all things.

UNDERSTAND B/S - the reason the Sermon on the Mount is the most influential talk in human history

(and why we've been unpacking it for the last 17 weeks)

isn't that Jesus got lucky. NO – it’s simply because…

NO ONE ELSE - answers the four great questions of life in a way that comes even close to, (the guidance or wisdom) that Jesus' answers have provided, now for 2,000 years…

AND LISTEN – Jesus’ own life… displayed, manifested, lived out that wisdom in a way that still inspires today.

SO HEY - you picked a great weekend to be here.

I MEAN – like this week, if somebody at school, in your neighborhood, or at work asks you, "What are the four great questions of human existence?" you can tell them the questions and give them all four answers, and we haven't even started the sermon yet.

LIKE - that's all bonus, free material just by way of summarizing the greatest talk in human existence.

AGAIN THIS MORNING – we are going to just look at one verse, Matthew 6:1…

WHERE JESUS - is warning against a common mistake people made back then and still make today, in terms of how they pursue the good life and how they try to look like a good person. AGAIN - it's a warning.

I. The Warning

Here's what Jesus says:

"Be careful

‘Be careful’ – (prosecho… pros ‘before’ echo ‘hold’)

Now the idea is to turn one’s mind and attention to a thing by being on guard against it.

(present tense)

• Mt 7:15 – Jesus (watch out for false prophets, they come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves)