Matthew 6:1-34,

Matthew 6:1-8, 16-18

“Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: that thine alms my be in secret: and they Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly. And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him…Moreover when ye fast, be not as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face. That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.”

“…Hey, let’s say a word of prayer, and we’ll get into our study in Matthew chapter 6. ‘Lord, as we are gathered here, I know folks are tuning in too, and as we just come together Lord, in heart, as your people Lord, maybe even at this moment gathered around the Word from different churches, but one body in Christ. And thank you, we can come together. And your Word, your Word is what it’s all about, what your Word does as it goes into our hearts and minds. Sometimes we don’t even realize it, but we just read it or study it a little, or we’ll hear a little thing and maybe it won’t excite our emotion. But a little later, that truth will begin to sink into our hearts in a way that it begins to effect some of our decisions, and you’ll bring it to mind at certain times, and you’ll use it to lead us. And so Lord, thank you. Of course we know through the hearing of your Word comes faith, so we grow in faith, faith in you. So Lord, we just thank you for this time. And just simply we’d ask Holy Spirit you’d be upon all of us, and even upon myself now as we go through your Word, in Jesus name, amen.’

Hypocritical worship verses true worship of God

So we’re again returning to the Sermon on the Mount here in Matthew chapter 6. Finally finished chapter 5, after ten weeks of study, now we’re in chapter 6. And as we’ve seen, Jesus continues to address issues of the heart. It’s exactly what he’s doing. As he’s speaking, he wants us to understand, ‘What is a truly spiritual person?’, ‘What is a real man of God?’, ‘What is a real woman of God?’. As we started chapter 5, ‘What is the Blessed life?, ‘What is the good life?’. You know, a man of God, a born-again Christian, walking in the Spirit, a woman of God, walking in the Spirit, that is the blessed life. That is the good life. And so as he’s been speaking to the people around him, and as we’ve been studying in this sermon series, we’re being reminded, it’s all about the heart. And it’s important that we understand what this life is. As he continues now in chapter 6, you know I think of back to my time in our HQ church, Mike being the pastor, I think back to a season there where I remember a particular man who used to sit in the front row. And he’d be there every week, and he reminded me a bit like a certain country-western singer, he had the dark black hair and beard, really nicely looking hair…but he always dressed in black, and he had this large cross he’d wear on his chest. I mean, everybody noticed the cross, the guy sat there with the cross. But there was this way to him that when you saw him, and you saw him walk, the way he held his Bible, the way he listened to the studies, the statement was ‘This was a righteous man, this is a godly man.’ That’s the sense that he would give off, godliness and holiness. Well I was interning at one particular time as a pastor there, and Charlie O. was interning at the same time, and it was our turn one particular day to do the counseling. And so we were counseling as people came in to the offices there for counseling, we were the pastors that were doing that, and I remember Charlie coming to me at this one particular time, and he was frustrated, he was frustrated because of an experience he just had in counseling, and was just going to talk to another pastor about it, and I was there. So it turns out he had actually been counseling with this particular man and his wife. And his wife had actually brought him in for counseling. The reason why she did, she was desperate, man. The marriage was on thin ice, it wasn’t going very well. And she was one of these gals that was hurting, man. And she just wanted a husband that loved her, and she wanted help. So somehow, she I’m sure had begged and begged over a long period of time, and had dragged this guy to the counseling, and there they sat. Well as Charlie was sharing in counseling, he quickly discerned that this man was really prideful. In fact, he wasn’t teachable, and anything that Charlie would try to suggest he wouldn’t respond to, he sat there with his big old cross and his Bible, had that weight to him, but he just was not teachable. But his wife, his wife, I mean, she was dying on the vine. He was a miserable man to be married to, and it didn’t even seem to affect him. So Charlie of course, as he got done with that, he was frustrated, just kind of sharing the deal with me. Now this man, I don’t know the man, but I remember the story, and I remember seeing him, and thinking of him one way, and then hearing that, makes me think of where we’re going now in Matthew chapter 6. [For a very good study on what makes a marriage work, from both the man’s and woman’s perspective, log onto: http://www.HOWMARRIAGEWORKS.COM.] You know, the religious Pharisees that Jesus now addresses again, as he’s done repeatedly, same sort of thing in the sense that there was a look, and they really worked hard, they wanted to look so spiritual. But you know, if you had a camera at their home, or maybe if you had God’s camera and you could see into the inner man, what you’d see would be quite different than what they were portraying to people, like this one particular man. Now this man at our HQ church, you know, he wanted you to have the sense that he is close with God, spiritual man, but then I think of 1^st Peter, and he may have given the crowds at the church, he may have given some wonderful prayers too, and there are some people there that can pray, man, when you’re in the prayer-group at times. And maybe he was one of them. But you know, when it came to being close to God, I think immediately of 1^st Peter chapter 3, verse 7. Right? “Husbands likewise dwell with them (that is your wives) with understanding, giving honor to the wife as to the weaker vessel, as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered.” The point being, if you’re not doing this, you have no communion with God. And so here’s a man that’s looking like “I am so spiritual, I’ve got it down”, and yet the Bible’s saying “You’re not even anywhere close to God, because I can look at an element in your life”, and even I can attest to that. That if your wife is saying “Love me, show me some attention and the world doesn’t revolve around you”, then certainly the Bible says ‘You’re prayers aren’t even answered, you’re prayer-life is hindered.’ Well it’s this show, right, putting on the show, the religious show, and not having the heart.

Jesus is looking at three major areas of religious practice---asking, why do you do the things you do?

You know, as we go through these verses now in chapter 6, Jesus focuses specifically on the religious practices of man, he looks at three particular areas that we’re going to look at this morning. That is, 1) Charitable deeds, the giving of charity as far as the giving of alms, and financial gifts, 2), secondly, he looks at prayer, and then, 3) he looks at fasting. Of course those three areas are big in religion, even today in Islam, those are the three big areas, the giving of alms. At that one particular time in Islam, you give the alms, you fast during the day, and you have those prayers multiple times a day. So, religious practice, he deals with that, and he goes right to the heart of the matter, and what is in the heart. You can lay these couple questions across our text today, certainly questions for you and I, questions to stir the heart. Here’s one of them. Why do you do the things that you do? Why do you do them? And what is your true motive in your heart in doing them? When it comes to prayer, and giving and religious practice, why do you do it? Why do you come to church, why do you pray, where do you pray, and what’s the motive and manner of your heart? That’s where Jesus is going here. Are you, am I, more like the man I just described, you know, working real hard to look a certain way before other men? But if you were to come into my home or if you were to get that spiritual sensor that God has so that he can look into my heart, would you see something quite different? Would your private life or my private life, the inner man, confirm that we’re really people that love God? Or would it say ‘Wait a minute, we have an inconsistency’, and as we see here today, Jesus says that’s hypocrisy. That when the outward show is one thing, but the inner life really isn’t there. That’s just hypocrisy. That’s not the blessed life, that’s not the life that God wants for you and I.

1. Doing of charitable deeds

Well let’s begin in verses 1-4 of chapter 6. “Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father. Therefore when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly. I say to you, they have their reward. But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will himself reward you openly.” So, once more, going right at that issue of the heart, and especially with these religious leaders, the scribes and the Pharisees, he deals with that false religious piety, you know, where these guys are, they got the flash, man, but there’s a real void in the heart. And they want you to think one way about them, but man, if you were to get God’s vision about their heart, their hearts are so void of real love and fear of the LORD. Now, outward performance, outward performance, that’s what he’s dealing with, trying to impress people. And yet, as you see in this Scripture here, it’s not impressive to God at all. A little later in Luke chapter 16, Jesus will say directly to the religious leaders, the Pharisees, he says “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.” Trying to look impressive, but not only is it not impressive to God, if the heart’s not there, trying to impress men, you may actually be an abomination in what you’re doing in God’s sight. It’s an offense to God when I try to look a certain way before men, and yet the heart isn’t there for God, that the real motive and manner of the religious thing that I’m doing isn’t simply between me and God, but when it’s merely to impress other people. Three times Jesus calls them hypocrites. As he’s going on, if you haven’t seen the scowl on the faces of some of these guys in the crowd, I mean, there’s a grimace that is growing. He’s already stated back in verse 20 of chapter 5, he says “Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you’re not going to be admitted into the kingdom of heaven.” That of course was a shocker that got it started. But now he’s even got to using words like “hypocrites”, and when he’s saying hypocrites they know who he’s talking about, because of the way he’s describing the things that he’s saying. He’ll even speak of performances that they do directly themselves. And he uses the word “hypocrite.” Nobody likes to be called a hypocrite, that’s for sure. But that’s what he’s talking about here, hypocrites, you know. And I’m sure it’s not earning any points for him with them, that’s for sure. But you know, as we look at the hypocrisy that he refers to here, no doubt there are people here today, man, people in church life all over this country, maybe some folks listening right now to this message, that are guilty of the same thing, hypocrisy, hypocrisy. Where somebody would be convinced that they’re very spiritual, and as you look at them walking down the aisle in church, you see them with the big cross, big Bible. When they’re in conversation, you never heard of commentaries like that, ‘Who is that guy? Whoa, he’s so spiritual’ and they go on and on and on. But you know, when you’re in their homes, you’d never see ‘em praying, they’d never be alone praying with God. But in the church, in the prayer-group, they just consume the whole thing, you know. But they never pray at home. And so it’s hypocrisy, it’s this thing, ‘I want you to just think that I’m spiritual, I want you to see me as spiritual.’ But they’re not that at all, there’s no love for God in their life. If there was a love for God, they’d be very different. Their private life would be a certain way, and their public life then wouldn’t come from that, it wouldn’t be hypocrisy at all.

Where the word “hypocrite” comes from

Well, the word for hypocrite here comes directly from the Greek, in fact our word hypocrite comes from a Greek word that sounds very close to that. And the Greek word for hypocrite that’s used here is that word for “actor”, they put the mask on in the Greek culture when they were acting in plays. And in some instances the mask would even have an expression that would be greatly exaggerated. You know, if it was a sad face, or an emotion that they were trying to depict, it would be really exaggerated, so as they were acting in the play, you would see the emotion, and you would see on that face, this man is sad. And so that word, hypocrite, actually comes from the Greek word for the actor, the guy who had the mask on, the guy that was playing the part, the guy that was appearing one way, but in the inner man, underneath the mask wasn’t necessarily that way at all. We get our term two-faced from a similar thought, having the mask on, and appearing this way, but underneath it, it isn’t that way at all, two-faced. So he says hypocrite, these religious actors, like folks you’d watch on TV that you’d think ‘Oh man, that guy’s just cool, he always gets the Clint Eastwood parts, what a cool guy. But then if you were to hang out with him for lunch, he’s a whimp, he’s very passive, and he’s not like that at all, but he plays the part. But in real life he’s not that way. [Now with Clint Eastwood, you basically get what you see, he’s a real man. He is used to portray parts that fit what he is. The same went for John Wayne, not much of an actor, because he was always playing parts that fit the true man he was. But most Hollywood actors and actresses fit the word hypocrite, in the acting sense.] Hypocrite is like that, the religious hypocrite. Jesus exhorts, as you see there in verse 1, he says ‘Take heed, be warned, take heed, search the heart, make sure you’re not like that, that you’re not like these men, doing your charitable deeds before men, your acts of righteousness, to be noticed by them rather than being noticed by God.’ In fact he says “to be seen by them.” The word “seen” is interesting here too. In fact, the word “seen” we get from that word, is very close to our English word “theatrical”, we get our word “theatrical” from the word “seen” there. So again, they do it to be seen, meaning, in the theatrical sense, this performance, this spectacular performance. And Jesus says, ‘Watch out, watch out that you’re not like that’, putting on the spiritual act before other men. Now it is interesting, thinking about our own lives, thinking about the church life, something that may appear spiritual, something that actually to me I may say ‘Wow, that was such a spiritual act that guy just did, man that sacrifice was so great, he just stepped in and he sold his house and he gave it to help those people, that was so spiritual.’ What may seem as a great spiritual act may in fact be very selfish, and maybe hypocritical. Somebody maybe doing something that everybody’s going ‘Whoa, check that out, did you hear what he did? Did you see what she did? Man she does that stuff all the time.’ And yet in the heart, God’s going ‘That is so offensive, that is so offensive to me, because you’re doing it to impress people and get the praises of men. That’s a real turn-off, I’m not impressed at all.’ Jesus in these verses refers to how the religious leaders actually sounded the trumpet when they would do a charitable deed. And there is some debate here, you know, you do some research, evidently historically there is not a lot of stuff you can find to back up what he’s talking about there. But there are some that tell us, and how they get the historical reference I do not know, others will say there’s almost no historical reference to confirm this. What does he mean when he says “Sounds the trumpet”? But there are those that suggest to us that in the Temple court originally, next to the chamber of secret, was this container, this large chest that was called a trumpet, and people would deposit their offerings there. And it was done in a way that was humble and discrete, kind of like we do here with our agape boxes, there would be that next to the Temple, it’s called the trumpet, the box. A little later it would fill up, and there would then be this particular time where now the poor people would come, and the religious leaders would then distribute these offerings, gifts to the poor people. It was a way to provide for them. Well some have suggested that over time the religious leaders decided to modify that and started to actually carry around a little small brass trumpet, or maybe they had somebody with them that did this, and they decided to go into the communities. So they would go into a particular neighborhood, maybe a park, and they’d have money, and they would blast that little trumpet, and the poor would know, ‘Hey, Joe Pharisee is here, and he’s got money, man, he’s going to toss out the bubble gum, and the kids would come running, and the people would come running.’ But they would blast the trumpet, certainly getting everybody’s attention. ‘I’m here to bless your life. I’ve got it right here, and here we come with our wonderful religious and generous spirit.’ Well, everybody thought it was pretty cool. Obviously Jesus had a very different opinion. You know, Archibald Robertson speaks of a missionary who had a discussion one particular day, he was sharing a story like this in India where a Hindu priest, or a group of Hindu priests would do the same thing, they would blast a trumpet before they would give their charitable gifts and their blessings to the poor, they would blast a trumpet. And no doubt, what he’s referring to here is common even in the church life, maybe guys aren’t blasting trumpets, but man, sometimes there’s flashing lights. I’ve seen flashing lights, you know, where somebody’s given a big one…and there goes the flashing light. It’s common even in church life. You can go to churches where there’s the pews, and on the side of the pew is “Mr. Whoever” and you understand that Mr. Whoever gave a good sum of money, so Mr. Whoever has his name on the side of the pew in the church. Been there a long time in some instances, but everybody knows “Mr. Whoever”. In some instances there’s church buildings, church facilities that you can go to, and there’s a big old name on top, there’s always the middle initial, but there it is up there, and it’s signifying, it wasn’t that they were a martyr for Christ on a mission field somewhere, often it is the case that that dude gave a big check, or the dudette did when he died, and there it is, the name, his name up on the side of the building. [I have seen when passing a certain graveyard in southern Maine this combination mausoleum-tombstone that has for the front of it a glass display case, that has all this guy’s awards and trophies on shelves behind the glass. One is even a golden model of what must have been one of his sailboats. The heart of what the pastor is talking about, right as part of this guy’s mausoleum-tombstone!] And that’s the deal that Jesus is addressing here, is this issue at heart. You know, in our society, no doubt outside the Church it’s common. I get from my university that I attended, I get a magazine, and I don’t know how often it comes, monthly, I don’t know, and I always flip through it because maybe I’ll see somebody I knew in college. That’s the only reason why I do it, maybe I’ll see an old roommate or something, usually I’m not too interested in it other than that. But there’s always that section in the back, there’s pages, and it’s laid out in columns where there’s the zero to 5,000, and the 5,000 to 10,000, and then it goes from 10,000 to 25,000, and actually it goes up to the 100,000, and then there’s the five million and above column. And what’s listed under that, isn’t like we’ve got six checks for over five million, it’s the names of the people. You can read who gave five million bucks to my university, this guy did right here. And sometimes if you gave even the big checks, there would even be a photograph, maybe they’d even have an article on the guy. And it’s the same thing, it’s ‘I’m doing this, I want to impress you, I want to get your praise, I want to get your affection. And when people do that, what does Jesus say? “You’ve got your reward.” That was your reward, the little light the flashed on the little TV thing, that little telethon that flashed, and you’re name came up and your address and where you live, that was it, you just got your reward. For a moment you had a little emotion, maybe you’re in a room with people, and people are looking at you thinking ‘Whoa, that’s what he gave?’ And you’re thinking ‘Yes I did, yes I did, it was such a privilege.’ That little feeling is all you got. When it says “reward”, the Greek is actually, in other ancient papyri, the NIV has it this way, the NIV is actually close to that word, the NIV says “They have received their reward in full.” And that Greek word has that sense to it. In the ancient papyri, that word is often seen in referring to like a receipt, when you’ve paid something, and you get that receipt which says “Payment in full”, your receipt. And Jesus says “You’ve got your receipt.” That was all you got, and that little moment. And boy, that’s a fleeting moment. Doesn’t last too long. In fact, Peter reminds us of that in 1^st Peter chapter 1, verse 24, “All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers and it’s flower falls away.” All the glory of man is like grass. In New England you get the sense of grass. It’s not around for very long, and then it dies. Grass, very temporary. And he says ‘the glory of man is like grass.’

“Don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing”

Jesus says ‘Take heed, examine your heart, let me show you your heart, what the motive is what you do it for.’ And if you do things like that in your church life, before other men, boy it’s so foolish, take heed that you don’t live that way, ensure that you keep your heart in check. So what he says, there’s a way to ensure that, rather than sound the trumpet, don’t even tell people when you give, or you do certain acts, don’t even tell anyone. Don’t broadcast it in any way. Then he goes even a little further with it, doesn’t he? Here’s a little heart-check to help you, “Don’t even let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.” That’s pretty tough [chuckles]. You know, I generally know, I think my right hand has figured out what my left hand is doing, it’s kind of a coordinated deal here, they kind of work together. But don’t even let your left hand know what your right hand is doing---the point is, is do it so that you’re not impressing yourself. Because you might be doing it in private, you might be like ‘Whoa, that’s a big check, they’re gonna get their socks blessed off, boy, the fact that I’, and you are actually tooting your own horn in your own heart (mind). So, whatever it is, whatever you’re doing, do it in such a way that you’re like ‘God, thank you that you’re giving me this grace, and I just love serving you Lord, this is the best I can do, but use it Lord, let it bring you glory’, so that it’s done that way in the heart---in the heart so that it glorifies God, and so that there’s not pride and seeking to glorify men. In Matthew chapter 25 Jesus does note people, people who actually did charitable things and didn’t realize they did. You remember where he stands there and speaks in the future of separating the goats from the sheep. And he’ll say to those, his children, ‘Man, you fed me, you blessed me, you were so good go me.’ And the response of the righteous is ‘Lord, when did we do that? When did I feed you Lord? When was I good to you, I don’t remember?’ And he says ‘When you did it to the least of these my brethren.’ But the point is, he said, ‘You’ve blessed me’, and then he says, ‘Here’s blessing for you’, and the response was ‘When did I even do that? When did I even do that?’ I mean, just sincerely loving God, and so humbly ‘What could I possibly give to God? I’ll give him everything, but it’s so little, my life, my love.’ Now, remember, at the same time, he’s always balancing Scripture, that’s the great thing about going verse by verse. Because you can get legalistic if you’re not balancing the Scripture. This doesn’t mean, you know if you leave here, and you see somebody writing a check out for somebody else, and you’re like ‘Whoa, they’re like in sin, I can’t believe…’ It doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re in sin either. It’s a matter of the heart. We go from here in the Scripture, a little bit later in the Book of Acts you’ll see people actually publicly giving. You know, at the end of Acts chapter 4, Barnabas, he comes and he lays a lot right there at the feet of the disciples, and it’s stated in a way that, man, this guy is just giving to God, and it is a very beautiful thing. And it’s done publicly. So Jesus is not saying that its always a sin to do something publicly. What he’s speaking of is the heart, and hypocrisy, and why we do the things that we do, and what is the motive, what is the manner in which I’m doing it. Is it just to glorify him, or is it toot my own horn. Interesting, when you’ve got Barnabas there, chapter 4, you have the contrast, very next verse is the beginning of chapter 5, we have Ananias and Sapphira, doing what looks like the same thing on the outside, Barnabas just did it, they come along, and they drop dead. [Look up and read Acts 4:34-37 and Acts 5:1-11, which is in direct contrast to Acts 4:34-37.] You read that passage, you get a sense, God was not happy [about Ananias and Sapphira tooting their own horns to look good in front of everyone else, it cost them their lives]. He was not happy with what they just did. But with Barnabas, it looked like it was pretty cool. But why wasn’t God happy with Ananias and Sapphira? You even have God the Holy Spirit showing Peter what was going on in their hearts, and he’s like ‘Why are you lying to the Holy Spirit? Hypocrites, man.’ And they drop dead. Shows you what God thinks of it. It isn’t like God says ‘Man, no big deal’. Offensive abomination in the eyes of God to be a hypocrite…So then, here we are, Sunday morning, New England, it’s a blizzard. This is the passage we happen to be on. Some of you guys are actually here, and others are listening in. And what’s in my heart? What’s in your heart? Why do we do the things that we do? Do we do it to be seen? Do we want people to really think that we are spiritual people, ‘It’s important for them to think I’m a spiritual man (or woman).’ And maybe you somewhat are. But if you’re driven for that, man, you’ve got your reward there when they go ‘Whoa, what a spiritual guy.’ ‘I can’t believe he’s got so many books in his library, man, I can’t believe he knows all those terms. Spiritual dude, man.’ You just got your reward. I don’t care, whatever they want to think they think, I just love God.

The balance between “Let your light so shine before men” and “Don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing”

And I am blown away by his love and his grace. And if there’s anyway in my little old life I can please God, then that’s what I want to do, if I can just please you Lord, regardless of what people think, misunderstood, or misread, I don’t care. Just a bit earlier in the Sermon on the Mount, you know, there’s that balance. As we saw in chapter 5, Jesus said “Let your light shine.” And then in verse 16 he says “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works.” That seems public to me. But, the key is, that they would glorify God, glorify your Father in heaven. It’s the way in which the works are done. Live in such a way that the light of Jesus Christ comes out, and people are going ‘Man, praise God. Praise God to have that gal in our church, man, thank you Jesus, she’s such a beautiful sister, you know. Praise you Lord! We’re just so blessed, she encourages me in my walk with God, praise God.’ And people are noticing and seeing around you, but they’re not going ‘Whoa, I am so impressed with her’, but instead it is ‘Praise God, praise God.’ That’s what he’s speaking of. [Comment: This can be more recognized properly as our light shining forth from God, when our alms are done in a church-corporate manner, such as when Samaritan’s Purse came into the region of Katrina’s devastation and those Christian volunteers and workers helped rebuild many houses, all in the name of Jesus Christ. Also when a congregation sent members down into that area to do the same thing, in the name of Jesus. The glory went to God, to Jesus, the way it should have. When you give to Samaritan’s Purse or Mission Aviation Fellowship or even a tiny Christian orphanage I know of in South India that always needs support, say you cut a large check or whatever, nobody has to know about it (except for maybe your tax accountant). See http://www.unityinchrist.com/evangelism/samaritan_purse.htm, http://www.maf.org and http://www.unityinchrist.com/evangelism/sisterchurches/BlessiOrphanHome.htm .]. It’s a thing of the heart. Recently I was thinking about that, I was with some of the leaders saying, ‘We ought to tell the church what we gave to the Tsunami relief, we never noted that we did,’ and then I came to this text, and I thought ‘Should I actually say anything?’ In some instances it would be right. Right? If you want to inform people, just so you know, we’re not ignoring the needs of the world, and we’re involved, and this is what we’ve done. But in other instances we could be like ‘Guess what we gave guys. Guess what, man. Oh, I’m glad this is on the radio, man, I want everybody to hear this, man.’ [chuckles] And ‘Hey, listen, call the local newspaper, let ‘em know what we gave.’ And because we’re in this text I’m not going to tell you what we gave, just in case. [laughter] Just in case. If you need to know, you can go ask somebody else, I guess, go ask Mike, he’ll tell you what we gave. And it’s not really important. Although I think it’s important that we want to do that. And you guys do, and of course the giving comes in, there’s even little notes ‘Hey, send this on’. Praise, God, man, there’s hurting people, let’s go and just share the love of Jesus Christ, and give that ‘little cup of cold water’ here in the North County.

2. Prayer: how it’s supposed to be done, and how it’s not supposed to be done

Well Jesus goes from the charitable deeds, and he goes to the next deal, and this kind of pricks the heart, man. “And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they might be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask him…” {Matthew 6:5-8) I’ve noted this before, but every time he says Father, it’s also catching their attention, that the Jewish man would not come to God and call him his Father. The nation of Israel [Judah, Judea at this time] would refer to God in that sense. But an individual would never come and say Abba to God. [Abba in the Hebrew literally means Daddy. If you’re ever walking the streets in modern Israel today, you will often hear a little Israeli boy calling his father “Abba, Abba” which means ‘Daddy, Daddy’.] So he’s making a statement too about the relationship, this blessed life with the Father and closeness to God. But what is the man that has that? What is the woman that has that intimacy? Well it certainly isn’t a hypocrite, somebody who’s trying to appear religious, as opposed to somebody that’s actually close to the Lord. So here he addresses this issue of prayer. And possibly, surprising to some, you can hear a beautiful prayer, you can hear a flowing, just so passionate and the tears are coming man, and you’re hearing it going ‘Wow! Unbelievable. I wish I could pray like that.’ And God may be going ‘I didn’t hear a word of that. I didn’t hear a single word. Didn’t impress me at all. In fact, it bothered me a bit, even offensive to me.’---because of what was in the heart of the person who was praying. And they knew who was listening, and they knew it was impressive, and they knew you were going ‘I don’t even know if I want to pray after them, I don’t know if I can do that.’ He says again ‘Take heed that you’re not like these hypocrites’, he rebukes the spiritual leaders, don’t be like them when you pray. They do so publicly, and they do so in a way that folks are really impressed. And yet God isn’t impressed, and they’re not really thinking about him anyway.’ Now that very thing goes on in the Church today too, the performance in prayer, folks performing, and rather than having a true heart that’s crying out to God. I think of some of the political ceremonies too, the university graduations and things like that, televised events will have a prayer, and you know, I don’t know a person’s heart, but when I see a prayer often like that, and even sometimes you can see a church on TV or whatever, and you even wonder ‘Is God hearing that prayer?’. Boy, it was so polished. I’ve done this, I don’t know if you’ve done this, but on TV ‘Do they have their eyes open, are they reading that thing?’. You can have a read prayer too and God hears. But it just doesn’t feel right to me, it sounds so polished and cool, so politically correct, I wonder if God’s going ‘Oh, I’m so blessed.’ I don’t know the heart, if it comes out of the heart I could be wrong. But in the Church, man, there could be some sophisticated, polished speeches, or maybe not so sophisticated and polished, but yet the heart is trying to impress others in one way or another. And yet God isn’t so impressed. When we have a religious gathering or a ceremony or something like that, and it’s so important that that prayer is done in a certain way, and you pick just the person that going to sound really impressive, you gotta wonder if it’s going to be something that God’s going to hear, if that’s the real purpose, man. If that’s the real purpose and makes it sound nice in the middle of the ceremony, well, that was the reward. ‘It was nice, oh, it fit so well, moved us, stirred our hearts’, but it probably wasn’t very effective. Although, you know, I was watching the inauguration of George Bush this week the other day, and I was thankful for those public prayers that were there by those pastors, I was just rejoicing. There was even one point where my wife and I, I just lifted my hands and said ‘Praise God!’. I don’t know the hearts, my emotion got stirred, but God could have been going ‘Well, yeah, all right, fine’, it fools you, you know. Yet I was thankful, I was thankful because you’ve been hearing maybe a lot about these atheists trying to stop the inaugurational prayer. So I was glad to hear these guys get up and pray. I was just blessed, the atheists didn’t win this time. They tried. And I was glad to hear the songs that I heard, the references, all through the inauguration, a lot of God was in that inauguration, referred to in one way or another. In the end there when that one particular pastor got up, and I thought he had a great prayer, I thought, ‘Man, there’s an awful lot of good points in that prayer, it’s pretty Biblical’, and I’m like ‘This is cool’, and then he got to the end and he says ‘And I respect all other faiths.’ And then he said ‘But I pray this prayer in Jesus name’, the Son of God, and that’s when I went ‘Yea!!! Praise God!!!’ You know, there was a sense, watching it, that we are saying to the world, still, we’re a Christian nation. And that’s all that was said in that. If you wanted to know what kind of nation we are, we were saying ‘We are a Christian nation still.’ And as I was watching that I was thinking about some of the European elections, and I’ve never really seen a European leader being put into office, this would be my guess, and I think it’s a good guess, that if you watch a ceremony you would not even hear one reference to God. They would absolutely, positively make sure not even a song, not in any way, no reference to God. And yet, when George Bush was up there, there was a ton of references, we were saying repeatedly, ‘One nation under God.’ I just rejoiced. [Comment: Yet, very sadly, most of the United States is not under God, only the believers in Jesus Christ who happen to live in the U.S. are “under God” in reality, as will soon become more evident. For positive proof that the United States was once a Christian nation, log onto this resource: http://www.wallbuilders.com and http://www.wallbuilders.com/LIBissuesArticles.asp?id=23909.] We’re fighting the battle we are because of Europe, because of that mindset that’s rising up, and now we’re fighting it. The battle against becoming a secular nation. But we were a Christian nation, and we still are a little bit. Well, it’s important to be somebody of prayer. He says, “When you pray…”, and we’ll go on. In fact next week, I was going to do a certain bit of verses [8-15] and I’m going to skip and go to the next thing. We’re dealing with the thing of hypocrisy here. But as Jesus is dealing with hypocritical prayer here, he then goes on and talks about how we should pray. And I was looking at it, and I’m like, ‘I won’t do it justice, I’ll go way over in time, so I’m going to skip the part where he teaches us how to pray, verses 9 to 15, we’ll do that next week. But prayer is important, and as he responds to hypocritical prayer, not only does he do that, but he goes on to say ‘This is the way you should pray’, and then goes on to give us tremendous thoughts about prayer. It is so important at such a time as this. I was even wondering, maybe this morning, I would just teach on prayer. But I’ll wait till next week. But as such a time as this, it’s important that we are a people of prayer. And the point that he’s especially making here, is that we are people of private prayer. If you’re somebody of private prayer, then you have the right to pray publicly, and then when the Church prays together publicly in a community sense, that we are people of private prayer, now our public prayer is probably going to be effective. But if all the Church ever does is come together publicly in the community, if the people at this church and other churches, you know we have the little prayers we say and the little prayer-meetings, but if we’re never alone in our houses, as he says, in the prayer-closet, in secret with God, then our prayers aren’t going to do a whole lot. But it’s the private prayer-life that is the barometer that tells me in the prayer-meeting if my prayers are effective. It’s the heart, and a good barometer of that is when I’m alone in my house, do I feel the desire, and do I have the habit of getting alone in my office or wherever, and going ‘Jesus, Jesus, and crying out to him.’ So now when I’m in the prayer-meeting I can go ‘Jesus, Jesus’ and there’s a good chance it’s going to be a genuine prayer. But if I ain’t doing that at home, when I get together and I’m doing that at church, it’s maybe an emotion and I’m just kind of going with the crowd, just wanting to make sure they hear me pray---I am a Christian so I’ll make it sound that way. But that’s what the Church needs in New England, we need Christians who have private prayer. Also the prayer-meetings we have, Stand New England, whatever. But it’s the private prayer, it’s the families, it’s the men and women in the houses in the North County, up and down the streets of the Leominster, Gardner and Townsend and Holden and all the communities around us, it’s in those homes, in the morning, in the evening, in privacy, in the car, it’s that prayer that starts to vibrate the nation, and to move the heart of God. And that’s what we so much need.

“They pray three times a day”

He says, ‘When you pray, don’t be like these hypocrites, when all they ever do is pray publicly to try to impress you.’ You know, evidently, historically, he says ‘Don’t be like them, standing in the synagogues and the corner of the streets’, and God in the Law didn’t have these types of stipulations, but these religious leaders came up with this. Of course, they wanted to look good, but they decided ‘We need to pray three times a day in the synagogue, 9am, noon, and 3pm.’ [Comment: It all started out well enough, as they were basing it on a Psalm of David, where David said he’d pray to the LORD morning, noon and night. Also it is recorded that Daniel prayed three times a day, morning, noon and night. But the Pharisees went on to make a legalistic show out of it.] That’s the Pharisees and religious leaders, ‘We’re so religious, we’ve gotta be at the synagogue three times a day altogether to pray.’ What they would do, is that sometimes they might even plan it this way. You know, it takes me eighteen minutes to get there, and if I delay a couple minutes I’ll probably end up in that big park, or I’ll be right at that busy intersection’, and so they would do that on purpose, and so they’d go out the door, they’ve left a couple minutes late, looking like they’re making their way to the synagogue, but now it’s noon, and they’re in this busy intersection. What else can they do? So right there, in front of everybody, there goes this prayer-life, you know. And everybody’s going ‘Wow! Did you see that guy? Right there, man. I was trying to get to lunch, I had to stop there, and there he is praying.’ It was planned that way. They’d be on the corners, or they’d be on the way, and maybe they’d get there on time, but their hearts were so overfilled with prayer they’d stop on that busy intersection anyway. ‘I just gotta stop and pray’, and they’d just stop and pray. And they would make it look that way. And you’re like, ‘Boy, that guy is such a prayer-guy, can’t even wait till he gets to synagogue.’ And God’s like, ‘It is absolutely disgusting and gross to me, because he’s a hypocrite, trying to appear one way. You go to that guys house, Joe Pharisee, I have never heard him pray once when he’s alone. Guy’s a hypocrite. He doesn’t have a heart for me, he wants to look a certain way.’ But Jesus says ‘Don’t you be like that.’ I think of when I’ve been to Israel a couple times, we’ve done that as a church, going to the Wailing Wall. I don’t know their hearts, I don’t know their hearts, but when you stand at the Wailing Wall, and you watch some of these guys, who are so intense into bobbing up and down, it seems such a display, you can’t help but notice, the guy’s gonna fall over if he goes any faster, guy’s going to get dizzy. Is it really true, is it the heart, I don’t know, maybe it is. The one time I was on the Israeli airline there [El Al], going from JFK to Tel Aviv, the first time I went, and seeing the guys, it was beautiful to me to watch. They’d get up, right there as the sun was coming up on the plane, wherever we were, they’d put on the phylactery deal and prayer-shawls, and right there in the aisle, you know, you got all these people sitting, and now these guys are lined up in the aisle doing all these bobbing-weaving things. Is it sincere? It could be. ‘I don’t want this day to start no matter where I am without saying my prayers.’ But it also could very possibly be ‘I want you to know I’m very orthodox.’ [I once worked for Legal Seafood, in their first restaurant in Inman Square, Cambridge, MA. Right next door to Legal was a little Jewish kosher meat market, run by Sam and Silvia, I don’t remember their last name, but a wonderful married couple. They had to be orthodox. But I learned through much conversation, Silvia would sometimes relate a tiny bit about her prayer-life. She prayed in private to the LORD God, and I knew she prayed about an hour a day. She prayed for other people, Sam her husband. Good Jewish woman, totally sincere. Funny thing, the Jews know they’re praying to Yahweh, and Yahweh is the very one who became Jesus, Yeshua. Strange, the Jews pray to the one who became Yeshua, and yet don’t realize it, yet.] So here I am, right in the middle of a 747, and some of you have got one eye open because it’s early in the morning, and there they go. [laughter] And, yet he says “Be a man or woman of private prayer.” That’s what he says, he says “When you pray, you go into your room, you get up with that cup of coffee, whatever it is, you go in there, you shut the door, nobody can hear you, you’re not trying to impress your kids. ‘I heard that John Wesley’s wife, you know, kids could hear her praying in the morning, so I want my kids to hear’, or ‘My neighbor just happens to go to the same church, so I make sure that light is on, I put out the outside light so they could see I’m up at 4 o’clock just in case you’re wondering.’ No, you go in there, nobody knows you’re there. But somebody very important knows you’re there, and it’s God, and you’re there to do business with God. And your heart is humble, your heart is desperate, and you cry out to God, and God says ‘I hear, I hear. I’m gonna work, I’m gonna move.’ That’s what we need in new England, we need private prayer, man, men and women that truly pray in their heart. And how would we know. We wouldn’t know that you’re necessarily doing it, or I’m doing it. But we’ll know when things start to happen. We’ll see the evidence and the fruit of it, in the holiness of our lives. We’ll see our churches grow and multiply. We’ll see people get saved, as clearly we’re people hungering for God. And now the light is shining and the good works are seen, and God has been glorified in the community. It’s private prayer. [This website has a whole section on prayer. Check it out at http://www.unityinchrist.com/prayer/prayer-teamessentials.htm.]

3. Fasting: How not to and how to

He goes on, and then he deals with this issue of fasting. Oh no, we just did that. Right? Verses 16-18, and we’ll end with these, and then again we’ll come back to the issue of how to pray. Verses 16-18, “Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.” Now the word for disfigure would mean that they would do it in such a way that their face is covered, in the sense that maybe there’s ash on it, or dirt, or they’ve got a hood over it. ‘I mean, I’m so miserable.’ Could you imagine, someone’s fasting, and he’s got ash all over his face? ‘I’m just dying here’, they want you to think they’ve gone without food and they’re at the point of death, because they’re so godly. They have their reward, ‘oh that guy’s gone for six months without food, I’m sure.’ [laughter] ‘What a godly man, super-spiritual man.’ He says, ‘But when you fast, anoint your head, wash your face, look as if you’re not fasting. Take some measures and steps to demonstrate to people that you’re not actually fasting, and you’re not trying to show them that you are. If they figure it out, they figure it out. I mean, you might be in a situation that somebody might figure it out. So that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in secret, it’s a private deal. It’s your heart before God. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. Now the New King James has that word “openly” in verse 4 and 6, verse 18, and it’s probably not in the original translation, most commentators would argue. [It is also in the Old King James version too.] And so, he’ll reward you, and that is the point. And it’s not necessarily that you do something in secret, now God’s going to stand you before everybody and go ‘Whoa’. It’s not necessarily that way, so it’s probably not part of the original text, but the important point is, that when you have a heart and you’re drawing near to God, and man, God responds, and you’re fasting, and it’s you and him, and you’re moved to do it. And now again, though, he’s not prohibiting public prayer, giving publicly in certain instances, and even fasting communally as we just did as a church, he’s not prohibiting that. You’ll go on in the New Testament and you’ll find the whole Church fasting. That’s not the point, again it’s an issue of heart. It’s an issue of heart. It’s that I’m doing this for the reason of pleasing God. And if other’s know, I didn’t really intend for them to. If we did it as a church, you know, we made it clear last week, if you fast, it’s between you and the Lord, however you do it, but we’re going to stop and fast as a church. And there are plenty of times God’s people do that. Nobody knows that. I ate at McDonalds every day, that was fast-food, [laughter] but my wife was eating Slim-fast you know, that was her fast food [laughter], nobody knows, you know. Whatever, it’s private, of the heart. Now I was just at a retreat center at the end of our week there with some men, there were a few of us together, it was pretty clear, we were all fasting, and it was hard to avoid, we were there a couple days and we would have to get in our cars and act like we were going to restaurants for every meal, and not eat, and not be together, and try to fake, ‘You know I’m going out to eat.’ We were there, and there was no food, and nobody went to eat, and it was pretty clear, nobody’s eating, and we even joked a little bit about it. But there was a sincere heart that was there. Nobody was impressed with each other. We wanted to come together and to ask God to bless us, and to seek him. And God did, he responded. It’s the heart, it’s the heart that God responds to. I tell you what, in New England, the Church in New England, the heart, God says “What is the motive? What is the reason, motive for what you do, why you do it? Why are you fasting, why are you praying? Why are you doing those things in your church? Why? Is it because it’s the way we do it and it looks impressive? And if I don’t do this people are going to think I’m weird?” [People already think I’m weird, I don’t have to help them along in that area. Just that general animosity that occurs between believers and non-believers.] Or is it that you just hunger for God and you want God’s blessing---and you want him to work in our nation and community? That’s the difference. And so next week we’ll pick up with the study on prayer. Let’s stand together…[expository sermon on Matthew 6:1-8, 16-18, given somewhere in New England.]