Matthew 6:1 “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
The Law is more than what you do or you do not do, but about a reflection of our character - about who we are on the inside. It is not just doing what is right, but being right which is more important. Matthew 6:1 says not to do our acts of righteousness before men, to be seen by them because if we do that we will have no reward from our Father in heaven.
ILLUSTRATION:
There was a period of time when the pharaoh was Greek. Ptolemy was in charge of Egypt. He commissioned a great architect named Sostratus of Cnidius, a skillful architect, to build, what came to be one of the great seven wonders of the ancient world. The Light House of Alexandria was over 400 feet tall and built it with the masonry stones, which is huge. They poured melted lead to hold these stones together.
Sostratus built it with the intention to last for a millennium, and it did. It stood until 1500 years later, when it was destroyed by an earthquake.
The Greek Poet said, when this architect built it, he had his name engraved on one of the stones at the base in huge letters. Then he had it fill in his name with masonry and on top of that, he had in beautiful, large, metal letters, Ptolemy II. This building was in the midst of the sea and under the weathering and the rainfall over the course of centuries, the masonry dissolved. And so Ptolemy's letters began to fall from the surface of the building. After the masonry was washed away, one could see the name of the architect.
He had it made so over time it will not be a monument for Ptolemy, but a monument for Sostratus. On the outside the glory was for Ptolemy, but on the inside the glory was for the architect.
How many of us do something like that? On the outside we do it for God, but on the inside, we do it for ourselves. Is it for God’s glory or ours? Our hearts are desperately wicked and God knows our hearts.
After this introduction, Jesus describes three specific applications of the general principle, concerning:
Giving,
Prayer, and
Fasting
We will look into fasting first, then giving and then finally prayer.
Matthew 6:16-18 - FASTING
Matt.6:16-18 – the principle is to not do spiritual things to be seen by people; for unspiritual purposes, but to do it with the right motivation.
ILLUSTRATION:
There was this pastor when he was younger, now he is about 82 years old, he would visit people’s homes and sometimes he would do his visits during the days he was fasting. If he were offered something to eat, this pastor would simply say, “No, I am fasting.” The host would go, “Oh!” This pastor in California said, if you go to someone’s home and you are given something out of hospitality, “break the fast and eat the cake, otherwise you are kind of boasting and proving your spirituality!”
Matthew 6:2-4 -- GIVING
2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
ILLUSTRATION:
A mother was hysterical because her little son had swallowed a 1 rupee coin. She turned to her husband and screamed for him to call a doctor. So he picked up the phone, but instead of calling the doctor, he decided to call his pastor. The wife was upset and said, “We don’t need the pastor, and we need some medical help!” The husband replied, “Our pastor can get money out of anyone!”
Some pastors do not even want to talk about giving because they don't want people to think the church exists only to receive. God made us the body of Christ so that we can give. I have a friend who says that the church is God’s bank. He deposits money in us so that we can give out the loan to others in need. Some people are blessed by God with wealth and they think – “Praise God, I can celebrate – I can be comfortable, eat fancy food, drive a fancy car, wear fancy clothes, fancy watch and jewellery – praise God!” But they miss out the point that God gave to them so that they could be a blessing to others and have the added blessing – it is more blessed to give than to receive, to have the eternal joy of storing up for themselves treasures in heaven.
There is one way to give which brings glory to you, but there’s another way to give which brings glory to God!
ILLUSTRATION:
We have fund raisers sometimes in campus. And when the students come to tell me, they always tell me about how much the other faculty members gave. And then of course I feel, how can I give less than the other person has given? Probably I should give a little bit more. What’s my motivation for giving?
Even today gifts are often given with great fanfare. If you give, and call in the news media & have the cameras rolling, you can be sure that you already have your reward. God will not give you any further reward in heaven.
IT IS THE SECRET GIFT WHICH STANDS FOR ETERNITY!
Not letting your left hand know what your right is doing means we do not pay that much attention when we give. One part of your body does not know what the other part is doing – don’t give so much attention.
Some people borrow and forget easily that they have borrowed, but if they give, they will never forget what they have given. They can remember when, where, why and exactly how much they gave even years later.
Jesus is saying we must be the opposite. When others owe us, we should easily forget a debt. When we give to others we must easily forget.
Matthew 6:5-14 -- PRAYER
5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
Prayer is such an intimate issue to our heart. There are many people who become Shakespearean when they pray. And they think when they say, “Thou, Art, Thee..” they are being formal and they are honoring God through this. In Shakespearean English, when you use “Thou” you are speaking to someone below you in authority or rank or a child, or speaking in words of intimacy to a lover. The "thee's" & "thous" are words of intimacy, not of respect.
YOU FAST, GIVE AND PRAY SECRETLY.
Matthew 6:5-6. Some have read this as against public prayer, but Jesus does not have anything against people praying in groups or publicly—He prayed publicly (John 11, 12, 17, etc) and His disciples did as well (Acts 2, 4, etc).
The problem is praying with the wrong motivation—just like giving in order to be seen by others, we must avoid praying in order to be seen by others. Our prayers are between us and God, and for God.
ILLUSTRATION:
I was invited to pray at a school for the Republic Day recently. When I first got the invitation, I thought there would be dignitaries there, chief guests, some politicians, and all these kids that do not know the Lord. So I thought to myself, “I want to pray a prayer they will not forget!” So I began to pray about praying. But God spoke to my heart, to just pray naturally and not try to put on or be eloquent.
Sometimes, especially, when we are in ministry, we want to be eloquent. We want everyone to think of us as a great man of prayer. Jesus said, when you pray – make it simple, quiet, private and do not pray to be seen by others.
ILLUSTRATION:
Bill Moyers was invited by Lyndon Baines Johnson to come to the White House for a meal. Bill Moyers was the son of a Baptist preacher and the President asked if he would pray for the meal. And he bowed in prayer, murmuring something quietly. The President Johnson asked him to speak up! And Bill Moyers looked up and said, “I was not talking to you.”
He did not want to impress the President. He was praying to God.
Another problem has arisen in the Church- repeating, “Our Father in heaven, Our Father in heaven…” Some people say this prayer over and over till it has no meaning-the opposite of what Jesus taught.
The Disciples' Prayer is not given for repetition, but as a pattern or a model. It is SHORT. It is TO THE POINT.
Some people say “If God knows what I need, then why should I pray?” It is true. God not only knows what we need. He knows what we are going to ask for before we ask. We are commanded to pray, so we pray. He does not need to be informed. Informing God either of our NEED or of our PLAN is not the purpose of prayer. Prayer opens the door for God to work on our behalf. He knows both our need and HIS PLAN. But He has determined to work in accordance with our will, not against us. He has given us free moral agency-the right to choose. He will often choose not to act until we invite Him to.
Prayer invites God into our lives, our will, our purposes and our plans and allows Him to replace our work and will with His. He is a gentleman. He will wait until He is invited.
So, we need to ask Him, but since He already knows, we need not beat Him over the head with useless repetition.
How should we pray then?
OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN
Notice, first, it does not say “my Father” it says “our”. There is not a “my”, “I” or “me” anywhere in this prayer, but only “we”, “our”, “Your”... It is either speaking of God’s Will, His plan and His purposes, or us, His community. It is understood to be corporate and non-individualistic. Even if other people are not present we should ALWAYS have other people in mind as we pray, not just ourselves.
It also, obviously, says “Father”. If you did not have a good father, you may have trouble with this part. Some people have had an absentee father, but we serve a Father, Who is always there. Some have had a father who is cruel, mean and disengaged, but we have a Father, Who is loving, gracious and engaged. Some have had fathers who used and abused them. But we cast our cares on the Father, because He cares for us.
Not everybody has the right to call God Father. In the sense that He is the Creator of all of us, I suppose we all can say that God is our Father, but only in the same sense that a dog or rock or planet or star or galaxy could be called the children of God. The only ones who really have the right to call God Father are those whom God has adopted as children.
Paul explained it this way in Rom.8:13-15, those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. So, we can only refer to God as our Father if His Spirit lives in our hearts.
HALLOWED BE THY NAME
Notice, again, what Jesus doesn’t say. He does not say “your name is holy”. He says “hallowed be”. Another way of putting this is “May your name be hallowed”. In-other-words Jesus is telling us to pray that God’s name would be made holy. By nature God’s name is holy, but His name can be profaned.
We insure that God’s name is hallowed when we as His people live like His people. We as His people must be a reflection of His glory, of His attitude of humility, of His grace, then His Name will be hallowed and praised! His name is not made holy when we live like hell.
YOUR KINGDOM COME, YOUR WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.
ILLUSTRATION:
A friend who is a pastor has been going through a great struggle in the ministry, as his denomination has made it very difficult for him to do what God has called him to do. We were discussing this prayer and he said “I think this is a very dangerous thing to pray. If God’s Kingdom comes, people will get involved and they will mess it up!”
The prayer isn’t just that God’s Kingdom would come on earth, but also that His will would be done & that both would be done here as in heaven.
In heaven there is no jockeying for position, no competition, no pettiness, and no strife. There is only worship.
In the book of Revelation as the leadership of the church is described (the 24 Elders) they are constantly worshiping Jesus, and the rewards, the crowns they have earned, symbols of their accomplishments and authority, they take off and thrown them at Jesus' feet. We must pray that God’s Kingdom be established in us and through us, and that He establish that Kingdom to honor and worship Him as in heaven.
GIVE US TODAY OUR DAILY BREAD
There are three aspect of prayer we notice here:
1. Dependency:
we are dependent on God even for enough food to sustain us for only a day. We may not recognize this, but it is true. We depend on Him for our next breath. He is the source of our life and sustenance.
2. Simplicity:
contrary to what some preachers today teach we should pray, Jesus does not say “Lord, give us this day a Tan Tata Safari”. We are to ask the Lord to provide for our basic needs. If He chooses to take care of more, that’s wonderful, but we should keep things simple. I actually heard one preacher say, “God did not answer your prayer, because you did not ask for the blue Mercedes!” James said, “You do not get, because you do not ask. When you ask, you ask amiss that you may consume it on your flesh.”
3. Immediacy:
the prayer is TODAY, our DAILY bread. We acknowledge in our prayer that we need Him today, we needed Him yesterday, and we’ll need Him tomorrow.
FORGIVE US OUR DEBTS, AS WE ALSO HAVE FORGIVEN OUR DEBTORS.
Already in the Sermon Jesus has said “blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy”. Our forgiveness from God is tied to our forgiveness to others.
Think of Joseph’s example of forgiveness. He had every reason to be bitter and every justification to not forgive his brothers who had sold him into slavery. But he says, “Do not be angry at yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. . . you intended it for evil, but God intended it for good . . .”
Philip Yancy says (“What’s So Amazing About Grace?")
“At last I understood: in the final analysis, forgiveness is an act of faith. By forgiving another, I am trusting that God is a better justice-maker than I am. By forgiving, I release my own right to get even and leave all issues of fairness for God to work out. I leave in God’s hands the scales that must balance justice and mercy.”
ILLUSTRATION
February 9,1960, Adolph Coors III, who was in charge of a multi-million dollar company was kidnapped. The person gave a ransom note and Coors’ wife put together over $500,000 but the man never showed up to take the ransom, and Adolph Coors ended up dying in his keep.
Joseph Corbett was caught by the FBI in Canada and placed in prison. Adolph Coors IV, son of Adolph Coors III, 15 years later in 1975, he became a Christian. Even after he became a Christian, he still had a terrible hatred for the man who killed his father. But he knew that that unforgiveness and hatred he had was not compatible with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He went to the prison to meet his father’s murderer, but the man would not come to meet him. Coors IV went about three times and the man would not show up, so wrote a note and put it in his Bible. The note said, “I am here to see you today, and I am sorry that we could not meet. As a Christian, I am summoned by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to forgive. I do forgive you and I ask you to forgive me for the hatred I have held in my heart for you.” Later Coors confessed that he had a love for this murderer only Jesus Christ could have put in his heart.
God can take hatred and unforgiveness, and bitterness that you’ve picked up, and you may have been truly wronged and you are justified in your anger. God calls us to forgive and He gives us His Holy Spirit so we have the power to forgive. “For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”
And I tell you the truth, if you do not forgive, you will not be forgiven! God is ready to forgive us of anything, yet He says, if you do not forgive, you will not be forgiven.
"Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." No, "if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads." Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." Romans 12:19-21
AND LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION, BUT DELIVER US FROM THE EVIL ONE
Notice the prayer deals with the past “forgive us as we forgive”, the present “give us this day” and the future “lead us not into temptation. Deliver us”. Surely, just as there is a sin that leads to death, and we should not pray for that, there is a temptation that leads to sin and we SHOULD pray for that. There is testing, which God uses us to mold us into the image of His Son. There is a temptation, which is designed by the enemy to cause us to fall. We must pray that God will lead us everywhere but into the kind of temptation into which we might fall. This, again, acknowledges our dependency on Him even when it comes to being faithful to His word.
So here ends the direct portion of the prayer-simple, direct, elegant. It focuses first on God & His glory, then to us & our immediate need, then to our future & how God must deliver us so we can benefit those around us without falling into sin.
