1. Perfect according to motivation
a. Motivation for good deeds (6:1-4)
b. Motivation for prayer (6:5-15)
c. Motivation for fasting (6:16-18)
2. Perfect according to mindset
a. Mindset toward material wealth (6:19-24)
b. Mindset toward physical needs (6:25-34)
c. Mindset toward sin in self and others (7:1-5)
3. Conclusion—Perfect according to the Good News
a. Warning—in light of 7:1-5 (7:6)
b. Invitation (7:7-11)
c. Commission (7:12)
Volumes have been written and preached on the details of these verses we’re looking at tonight. But we’re not going to focus on the details tonight. We’re going to focus on the broad themes Jesus was teaching. We’ll focus on those broad themes and see how they inevitably point to a need for His grace.
MATTHEW 7:12
I heard a story once about a rebellious little boy in school. He was always causing trouble. He’d throw rocks on the playground. He’d disrupt class and just generally drive his teacher nuts. His biggest problem is that he would never sit down. Well, one day, the teacher couldn’t stand it any longer. She sent him to the principal. Now, this was back in the day when you could get a whipping at school. And that’s what happened to this little boy. See, when he got to the principal’s office, he still wouldn’t sit down. As a matter of fact, he was running around all over the office. Finally, the principal got hold of him and tore him up with the paddle. Then she made him sit down on her couch. He finally sat down and glared at her. After enduring his cold stare, the principal asked him if he had anything to say for himself. He looked straight at her and said, “I may be sitting down on my outsides, but I’m standing up in my insides.” Isn’t that how we act toward God? God, I’ll follow your rules. I’ll try to keep your Law. But I don’t have to like it. That’s why Jesus moved on to the section in His Sermon on the Mount we’ll be looking at tonight. Last night we looked at His perfect Law. We looked at how He didn’t come to do away with the Law, but to fulfill it. And we looked at how His Law still applies to us and how it entailed more than we had ever imagined. But the Law deals with the outsides. After getting his whipping by the principal, the boy was following the law. He was sitting down. He was following the Law, but was his heart right? See, not only does God require outward perfection in the things that we do—that’s the Law. He requires inward perfection in who we are in our inmost being. But because He knows that we can’t fulfill His requirements, He promises Good News. I want each of us here tonight to see ourselves in light of God’s holy requirements. Even more than that, I want each of us to see God’s perfect grace as the only way to fulfill those requirements. Now, last night, we already looked at the first area in which God requires perfection. The outward area—His Law. Tonight, we’re going to look at the next two areas in which God requires perfection—the inward areas. The first inward area is we must be perfect according to our motivation. What motivates you? Why do you do the things you do? Jesus uses three situations that the people were very familiar with to talk about having the right kind of motivation. The first one is found in chapter 6, verses 1-4.
MATTHEW 6:1-4
The first motivation Jesus talks about is our motivation for good deeds. Many times we think of the King James word “alms” as concerning only money. But that’s not the case. Alms is really any kind of charitable deed. Whether you give of your time, effort, or money, that’s a charitable deed—a way of giving alms. The interesting thing is that Jesus doesn’t command us here to give alms. He doesn’t tell us, “thou shalt do good deeds.” He knows that people will naturally do good deeds. But instead, He tells us to do good deeds for the right reasons. With the right motivation. So, why do we do the good things that we do? Do we do them to get some benefit? Do we give our money to the church and then expect that that buys us the right to say how it’s spent? I don’t like the color of the carpet, so I’m not giving to the building fund any more. When we give our money, we give it to the Lord. We don’t give it as an attempt to buy influence. Jesus says that whether we give of our time, talents, or money, give in secret. In other words, give not looking to get anything in return. No strings attached. He talks about our motivation in prayer the same way. Look at verses 5-15:
MATTHEW 6:5-15
Jesus is talking about prayer here. Once again, there are so many great things that He says here that we could spend weeks on. But let’s stick with the overall subject. The broad brush of what Jesus is talking about. He’s still talking about having the right motivation. But now He’s talking about having the right motivation when we pray. Once again, He doesn’t tell us to pray. God created us as praying people. No matter how hard they try, the government will never be able to remove prayer from schools. As long as they have tests in school, they’ll have prayer in school. Everybody prays—the question is, who are you praying to? Who are you praying to and why are you praying? I’ve heard people misuse this passage to say that we shouldn’t pray in public. That’s not what Jesus is talking about—He prayed in public. He’s saying that whether we pray in public or not, our motives need to be right. Not only do they need to be right, they need to be perfect. Are we praying to the right God? Is our heart in the right condition, or are we harboring hatred and bitterness toward other people? Are we acknowledging who God is and what He’s done before we ask for our needs? Or are we praying strictly for what we can get out of it? Does our prayer time sound like when we used to sit on Santa’s knee at the mall every year before Christmas? Gimme this, and gimme that, gimme something else. What is our motivation when we pray? Is it, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven?” Our motivation for good deeds has to be perfect. Our motivation for prayer has to be perfect. Also, our motivation for fasting has to be perfect. Look at verses 16-18:
MATTHEW 6:16-18
It seems like the church in America today doesn’t place much emphasis on fasting. When we do talk about it, we tend to change the subject from doing without food and water to doing without something like TV. Some even twist the Scripture to make fasting into some sort of diet and fitness plan. When Jesus talks about fasting, He doesn’t go into a lot of detail. The New Testament always associates fasting with prayer. Most of the saints of the Bible fasted and Jesus fasted. But, unlike giving and praying, fasting is not commanded of New Testament believers. The only fast commanded in the Bible is associated with Israel’s observance of the Day of Atonement. Don’t get me wrong, when fasting is talked about in either the Old or the New Testament, it’s talked about as being a good thing. A good spiritual discipline. That is, if it is done with the right motivation. Yes, Jesus is talking about fasting here. But once again, that’s not His focus. His focus is on what motivates you to fast. Is your heart in the right place? Are you doing it so people will think you’re some sort of super Christian? Are you doing it to manipulate God? Fasting is not a way to manipulate God. Fasting is a way to get us to agree with God that He’s in control and His Will is always right. It bends us toward Him—not the other way around. Jesus requires that our motivation be perfect. Our motivation for doing good deeds. Our motivation for prayer. And our motivation for fasting. But not only does He require that we are perfect according to our motivation, He requires that we are perfect according to our mindset. Mindset is our point of view—The way we look at things. To a boy with a hammer, everything in the world looks like a nail. That’s the boy’s mindset—the frame of reference he looks at the world with. Just like Jesus used three illustrations to talk about our motivation, He used three illustrations to talk about our mindset. The first mindset is our mindset toward material wealth. Look in verses 19-24:
MATTHEW 6:19-24
I love old Jimmy Stewart movies. I think my favorite movie ever is, It’s a Wonderful Life. Besides the fact he was an Air Force man, he was a pretty good actor. In the movie, Shenandoah, he was a farmer who had lost his wife and was raising their children by himself. Apparently, his wife was a godly woman and he tried to carry on some of her ways with the children, like praying before meals. This was his blessing before one meal: “Lord, we cleared this land. We plowed it. Sowed it. Harvested it. We cooked the harvest. We wouldn’t be here, we wouldn’t be eatin’ if we hadn’t done it all ourselves. We worked dog-boned hard for every crumb and morsel, but we thank you just the same anyway, Lord for the food we’re about to eat. Amen.” Isn’t that just like our attitude with money? I worked all my life for what I have. My land, my house, my promotion, my job, my investments. If I hadn’t worked hard for it, it wouldn’t be here. But thank you Lord anyway. Guess what? It isn’t yours. Work hard and do the best job you can, not to make money. Do it for the glory of God. The money and the stuff is all His anyway. You can’t be working for your paycheck and working for the Lord at the same time. Jesus called that serving two masters. And He won’t put up with that. Do your work. A Christian employee should be the best worker a boss could ever have. Because they’re not working for him. They’re not working for their paycheck. Because they’re doing everything they do for the Glory of God. That’s the right mindset toward material wealth. But, not only do we need to have a perfect mindset toward material wealth, Jesus says we must have a perfect mindset toward physical needs. Look at verses 25-34:
MATTHEW 6:25-34
Each and every one of us in here tonight has battled worry in our lives. Jesus gives us a very logical picture about why we don’t need to worry here. He tells us that God is the creator of the universe. You are His crowning creation, created in His image, and He loves you. You see how He takes care of all the other things He has created. Don’t you think He’ll take care of you? It’s all very logical. Our brains can make sense of it. It makes sense. But what happens when your child is out later that he’s supposed to be and you haven’t heard from him? What happens when that surprise bill comes in the mail and you don’t have the money to pay it? What happens when your loved one has to go to the doctor for a biopsy? We worry. But Jesus tells us not to. He tells us to have a perfect mindset toward our needs. He says God knows everything. None of our circumstances surprise Him. He knew about them since before He created everything. But Jesus knows that you can’t not worry by telling yourself not to worry. It’s like telling you not to think about the color red. What’s the first thing that happens? You think about red. Then you look around the sanctuary for things that are red. Then your head’s so full of red, you can’t think of anything else. Jesus said, don’t worry. And then He used a very important word in verse 33—But. He said don’t fill your head with this stuff, fill it with this stuff instead. Fill it with the kingdom of God and God’s righteousness. When we do, then, He’ll fix our mindset toward physical needs. But there’s one more mindset He talks about. One that’s even more difficult than dealing with the worry issue. That’s our mindset toward sin. Look at chapter 7, verses 1-5:
MATTHEW 7:1-6
If you could take a poll and come up with the most abused and misused Bible verses of all time, this would have to rank right up at the top. Isn’t that the favorite cry of people today? Don’t judge! Well, in some ways they’re right. God doesn’t ever tell Christians to judge non-Christians. That’s His job. And rest assured, He will. That’s why we’re supposed to evangelize the lost—not judge them. Evangelize them so that they won’t have to suffer God’s judgment. But Jesus doesn’t say Christians are not ever to judge other Christians. He’s telling us to hold up the same standard judging yourself that you use on others. He says that I have to check my life first. I have to get the board out of my eye. Once the board is gone, then I can see clearly how to help my brother or sister get the harmful stuff out of theirs. Any time we see a brother or sister in sin or difficulty, it should cause us to examine our own lives first. Clean our own house, and then, by all means, help someone else clean theirs. Now, in verse 6, He follows that up with a warning. Some people will refuse to hear correction, even when it’s done according to the way Jesus tells us to do it. If they do reject holy correction, Jesus calls them dogs and swine. Things that the people He was speaking to could have nothing to do with. In other words, He said that these people were to be treated as if they are lost and under God’s judgment, not ours. Don’t waste your time with judging their sin. Spend your time instead on evangelizing them. Jesus says that we are to be perfect according to the Law. He says we are to be perfect according to our motives. He says we are to be perfect according to our mindset. Once again, we see a standard that we can’t hope to achieve apart from Him. That’s why He gave us hope in verses 7-11.
MATTHEW 7:7-11
Once again we see ourselves in the mirror of God’s Word. Once again, we see ourselves as He sees us. Once again, we have been tried and found wanting. We have seen the standard and have fallen short. We have seen the perfection that God requires, and not measured up. But my God is gracious. My God said that all we have to do is ask. If you see how short you’ve fallen in each one of these areas, but you still don’t believe Jesus is the answer. Just ask Him. Ask Him for faith. Jesus has made you a promise. He has said that if you ask, He’ll give it to you. Ask Him for faith tonight. If tonight, you’ve found yourself confused by your ideas of God and the world. You’re confused because what you’ve been taught doesn’t seem to match with what you’ve heard tonight. If you’re confused and looking for answers. Jesus said, if you seek, you will find. He promises that if you honestly seek to know the truth, He will introduce Himself to you. Because He is Truth. If you seek, my Jesus promises that you will find. If you know you’re not the kind of man or woman God would have you to be tonight. If you know that He is your Savior, but you have closed Him off from areas of your life. You’ve shut the door on Him. He’s made you a promise tonight too. Just knock. Just knock and He will open those areas of your heart up to Him. He’ll open those areas and give you the good things only a right relationship with Him can bring.
