Living Before Your Father

Title: “Living Righteously Before Our Father” Script: Mt. 6:1-24

Intro: A prosecuting attorney called his first witness, a grandmotherly, woman, to the stand. He approached her and asked, "Mrs. Jones, do you know me?" She responded, "Why, yes, I do know you Mr. Williams. I’ve known you since you were a young boy. And frankly, you’ve been a big disappointment to me. You lie, you cheat on your wife, you manipulate people and talk about them behind their backs. You think you’re a rising big shot when you haven’t the brains to realize you never will amount to anything more than a two-bit paper pusher. Yes, I know you." The lawyer was stunned. Not knowing what else to do he pointed across the room and asked, "Mrs. Jones do you know the defense attorney?" She again replied, "Why, yes I do. I’ve known Mr. Bradley since he was a youngster, too. I used to baby-sit him for his parents. And he, too, is a disaster. He’s lazy, bigoted, he has a drinking problem. The man can’t build a normal relationship with anyone and his law practice is one of the shoddiest in the entire state. Yes, I know him." At this point, the judge rapped the courtroom to silence and called both counselors to the bench. In a very quiet voice, he said with menace, "If either of you asks her if she knows me, you’ll be jailed for contempt!" The judge was pretty insecure in front of this knowledgeable old woman. Do certain people unnerve you and cause you to act differently in front of them for their approval? Today’s message is for you (and me!). (Steve Shepherd illust)

Prop: Exam. Mt. 6 we notice 3 important insights in how we are to live before our Heavenly Father.

BG: 1. Sermon on the Mount. Masterpiece of a message. One main point: “How Kingdom People Are to Live.” 2. In this section our Lord highlights what true righteousness should look like, with an emphasis on the motives we employ in performing those acts.

Prop: In Mt. 6 we notice three important insights in how we are to live before our Heavenly Father.

I. Jesus Teaches that Righteous Living Requires Personal Discipline. V.1

A. Jesus Begins this Section of the SOM by Bringing into Focus His Goal for the believer.

1. As Christians we are citizens of Christ’s Kingdom. It is our highest loyalty and we need to obey His decrees as our Sovereign.

a. Now, if we remember what we have examined the last few weeks, we can remember that much of Mt. 5 dealt with the profound impact of the Moral Law of God. We saw what Christ said about the deeper application of God’s Word as it related to such things as murder, anger, adultery, oaths and speech and our relationship to our enemies. From our Lord’s interpretation of the Law we saw that Jesus gave the deeper meaning and pointed us to the Law of Love, which should be the Christian’s motivation. All of that section of the SOM would have us to realize that the righteousness God seeks in the life of His follower is an internal righteousness, characterized by a heart that is right with both God and neighbor. In contrast to the outward and peripheral righteousness of the religious elites of Jesus’ day, this message spoke to true righteousness being internal and thorough.

b. So, let us come back to V. 1 – Here we see Jesus’ prepositional statement for this section of His sermon: (Read v. 6 again.) Let’s be really clear in what Jesus is saying here… The citizen of Christ’ Kingdom WILL live/practice a righteous lifestyle. There is no dichotomy here between my “inward” spiritual life and the “outward” nature of my spiritual life.

2. As Citizens of Christ’s Kingdom we have internal as well as external responsibilities. I am sure that some of Jesus’ hearers that day thought to themselves: “This is wonderful! I can be inwardly pure and holy without any external effort at all.” “How liberating!” “How freeing!” However, Jesus is going to show us that actually, we are called to demonstrate external disciplines as citizens of His Kingdom.

B. Jesus Declares that True Righteousness is Expressed

1. True Righteousness is Expressed Externally in our Outward Disciplines.

a. Illust: Pretend: Beginning of the new year. You’re nearing middle-age and your doctor has told you that you’ve begun to develop a case of “Furniture Disease”. “What’s furniture disease, Doc?” “Well Chris, your chest has dropped into your drawers.” Now you go online to look at hiring yourself a personal trainer. You see two sites. One is for “Ian Paul” he is young and buff. There are pictures of him lifting and running, eating healthy, as well as training others. He has a decent resume, but he is younger and only has his BS and a few certs. Now, your Google search also reveals “Joey Luigi”, he’s about your same age. You see that he has a couple of advanced degrees, has written several peer-reviewed articles, 20 yrs experience. But strangely, in his current bio pic he’s about 50lbs N. of where should be, has 2 liter of pop and open bottle of bourbon while smoking a Havanan and he hasn’t even wiped the Dorito crumbs off of his desk! (Who are you choosings? “Luigi of course! Makes me feel better about myself!” No! If want results you hire Ian because you realize that he has both inward knowledge as well as external discipline!