Let's stand for the reading of God's word where in Matthew
chapter 6, the first few verses were in the exact same section.
We were in last week where Jesus moves from chapter 5 to really
begin speaking about motives of the heart.
And in this case, he highlights three aspects of a righteous
Life Giving prayer and fasting. This morning, we're going to
look specifically at what he says about giving then we're
Going to spend several weeks, starting next Sunday, on the
Lord's Prayer, which is what follows, and then, we'll look to
what he says about fasting but not until November, actually,
right before, Thanksgiving, that's great timing.
All right, Matthew 6, this is the Lord's sermon, The Sermon on
the Mount. I'll begin in verse 1 of Matthew
6, and read through verse 4, beware of practicing your
righteousness before other people in order to be seen by
them for. Then you will have no reward
from your father who is in heaven.
Thus when you give to the needy sound, no trumpet before you as
the Hypocrites, do in the synagogues and in the streets
that they may be praised by others.
Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward but when
you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know, what
your right hand is doing so that your giving may be in secret and
your father who sees in secret will reward you, this is the
word of the Lord. Thanks be to God, please be
seated. This morning in the time we have
I would like to answer one question.
And the question is, how do we kill How do we mortify the
desire in all of us to be praised by men?
We all have it and if you don't think you have it you're wrong.
You do we all do. And it comes out Us in so many
ways with so many layers. How do we kill this desire?
How do we to use that old word mortify?
This part of our flesh? The good news is, we can Anne.
In Christ. And the power of His Spirit, we
actually can receive compliments which aren't wrong and not feel
pride in a way that elevates self But there's only one way to
do it. I'll get there in a moment.
We're going to focus specifically on the
illustration, Jesus uses of giving, but this is not a sermon
about tithing We had a long series back in February of this
year on giving. And if you've never learned much
about giving I think would be worth listening to.
This is about motivations of the heart and Jesus uses giving and
prayer and fasting as an illustration.
And it certainly is applicable to so many other areas as well.
So, the first thing I want to say is that for of believer, for
a person who knows the Lord giving is a given, This isn't
debatable as those who know, Christ, the call in our life to
see those in need and respond with love and charity.
And benevolence is a Given In this passage.
If you look at verse 22, Jesus says, thus when you give to the
needy and the word here is alms, it's not just the tithe he's
talking about it, seeing in need and in making that need met in
the need specifically is of the poor.
So Jesus says, thus when you give to the needy.
So giving is a given and that's all I'm going to say about that
this morning because the focus of Jesus Is not on how much it's
on the heart of the person who is giving in simply put in these
few verses, Jesus shows us, there is a wrong way to give to
those who are in need. And there is a right way.
And what's underneath all of that is a desire that we like
the Pharisees, the Hypocrites, Hypocrites Hypocrites, that he
mentions here desire to be praised by man.
So what's the wrong way? What's this?
Look at the Text look with me again at verse 2.
Thus, when you give to the needy needy, Sound no trumpet.
Before you as the Hypocrites, do in the synagogues and in the
streets that they may be praised by others.
This was their motivation. We spent time here last week.
They're deep heart's. Desire was to be praised by man.
What every time we see sin in our own lives and the life of a
loved one, or in the word people who are sinning, we always need
to be looking at what's the sin underneath?
The said it's easy to say, the Is the Sadducees the religious
leaders. Got it wrong by wanting to be
praised by them. But why did they want to be
praised by man? We're going to get there in a
minute, but Jesus clearly states, this is the wrong way to
give to those who are in need he says again in verse 2, when you
give to the needy giving as a given sound no trumpet, before
you as the Hypocrites, do in the synagogues and in the streets
that they may be praised by others.
So what's the wrong way of giving it?
Making an announcement. when they desired to give, They
desired something more than the desire to meet that.
Need what was really taking place is that an announcement
was given by actors craving the Applause of men?
An announcement was given by actors craving hungering for
thirsting for the Applause of men.
Why do I use the word actors? Jesus says in verse 2 as the
Hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, a hypocrite
was an actor. It was a person, a male, who
would then put on a mask or some other, you know, Vale tudo.
To deteriorate how they looked really.
So they moved into a place on the stage of pretending to be
someone. They were not well the same
thing was happening with the religious leaders, they were
putting on the impression that their hearts desire was to give
the appearance that they treasured God.
They treasured the righteous things actually the word alms as
connected to the word righteous. They treasured the things of God
but they didn't what they treasured was, the praise of
man. And so when the praise of man is
greater in your life than the Delight of God, the desire to
bring God. Praise You're a hypocrite.
The Apocrypha? See that existed here was done
by those who wanted so much the announcement to be made, that
they were generous that they were giving.
So Jesus says, don't blow the trumpets.
Don't make an announcement, don't let others know what
you're doing, so that you may be praised by them.
Those who do that are hypocrites.
They're actors, they give the appearance of Godlike.
This, but their heart is far from me.
He would say that later. So what's the right way to do
it? Jesus moves from verse 2.
He says, thus when you give to the needy sound, no trumpet
before you as the Hypocrites, do in the synagogues and in the
streets that they may be praised by others.
Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward last week.
I spoke about this. So maybe listen to that, because
I'm not going to spend much time there today, then he says, but
when you give to the needy again, giving is assumed
Believers are generous. People giving as a given, but
when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know,
what your right hand is doing so that your giving may be in
secret and your father who sees in secret will reward you.
Now, Jesus is clearly using hyperbole hair.
It is impossible for us to not know what my left hand is doing.
In my right hand, it's impossible.
So, what's his point? The point that Jesus is making
is this the Hypocrites long to make an announcement, an
announcement with trumpets blasting, that others might see
their acts of righteousness and bring them praise.
They were making much of self, making much of me.
That's the wrong way. Jesus gives us the right way.
He uses his hyperbole to essentially say, don't do what
the Hypocrites. Did, don't make an announcement
to others that you're giving the right way to do it is to not
even make an announcement to yourself.
Don't let your left hand, know what your right hand is doing
your right hand, know what your left hand is doing.
Don't announce it even to yourself.
Well, that's not possible. This is where we have to
understand what Jesus is getting at.
We are so tempted to seek Applause even if it's our own
Applause. So what Christ is saying as be
free in me to give what you're called to give.
But don't seek the Applause. Of others are the Applause of
yourself. You see some of you in here.
You've been giving a long time and it's never been an issue for
you to not have your name in print.
You like, you don't want that if I give you shock that other
people do. So, does that mean you're free
from? This course, not what it means
is that you would be tempted to say, I'm glad I'm not like those
who want their name in print, who want their name on a
building or East on a brick, the layers go deep because our enemy
wants all of us, never to make much of God, but to make bunch
of self. It's not wrong to receive a
compliment. It's not wrong to come up to
someone after you see something, they've done that brings God
glory and say I have is encouraged by what you did.
The Apostle Paul Come ins people throughout his letters but what
is wrong is to live for that Applause.
It's wrong to Crave that Applause in the image of.
Don't let your right hand and left hand know what they're
doing is really helpful because for all of us, when we receive
something like an affirmation, there's a part of us that wants
to be like, no, no, no. No, no don't do that.
But the other end saying, give me more, give me more or patting
ourselves on the back. Its deep deep deep in US.
So much. So that many think it's
impossible. All the various ways I mentioned
last Sunday at how we seek to praise to be praised by others
is overwhelming. The responses I received from
you last week, really were so encouraging but they all kind of
had the same almost defeated position like, ah, well I ever
get over this. Well, the battle ever end.
Well, the battle will never end. For Christ returns.
I mean you'll be tempted to think about yourself, you're the
very end, like what you want people to say your memorial
service or what you want. Put on your Tombstone, whatever
it is. But Victory really is ours in
Christ. There is a way this side of
Heaven in Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit to wage war on
this to actually be in a place where we can not make much of
self. But there's only one way.
I mean, this is not hyperbole, there's only one way, there's no
other way. The only way to not make Much of
self. The only way to not announce
things that you're doing spiritually in order to be seen
and praised and applauded by others is this way.
And that is to make much of God, the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit, always the only way to die.
To mortify, the flesh that wants to make much of me.
Make much of self is to make much of god, father, Son and the
Holy Spirit. You hear that you're like well
of course, Of course. And maybe you're afraid to say,
but it doesn't work. It does work.
The issue isn't whether it works or not.
Or whether you experiencing it working or not.
It's that when we fail to make much of God, which is all the
time, it's making much of self which rises in and fills that
space But what's the sin underneath it?
If we know it's wrong to blow the trumpet or if we know it's
wrong demon Bullock quiet trumpet in our closet or maybe
we're not announcing what we're doing but we're announcing it to
self feeling pretty good about self.
How do we do this? How do we make much of God?
I want you to think turn in your good, turn in a Bible, grab the
blue and in front of you and just for a few minutes, I want
to go to John 4. This is the story of the woman
at the well, it's a well-known Bible story.
It's about a woman who's going to meet Jesus.
What I want you to picture for a minute is I'm going to lay the
scene is that Jesus is fully man.
What we said about him with our voices together from Colossians
1 earlier in the service is all true.
It's also fully man he's hungry and he's thirsty in his thirst.
He finds himself placed by a. Well, there's a well that has
historical significance and his disciples of left him.
They've gone into town, they're going to get food.
When a Woman by herself because of the You know, basically her
reputation by herself, she comes to get water.
Jesus asked her for a drink, and then this amazing discussion
takes place, I want to pick it up.
In verse 13, John 4:13, Jesus said to her, everyone who drinks
of this water, speaking of the physical water in the, well,
everyone, who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but
whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be
thirsty again, the water that I will give him will become in
him, a spring of water, welling up to eternal life.
This woman doesn't understand. What Jesus is saying, so she
responds in verse 15, the woman said to him, sir, give me this
water so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to
draw water. Now changes when Jesus who's
fully man needs. Physical water says something to
her that she has no idea how he knows.
We knows, because he's God. He's omniscient.
There's nothing he can learn about her about us verse 16.
Jesus says to her go, call your husband and come here.
I wonder how long it was before the woman spoke, we don't know.
It might have been instantly, it might have been a little while.
But she says to him verse 17, I have no husband.
Jesus said to her, you were right in saying, I have no
husband for you. Have had five husbands and the
one you now have is not your husband.
What you have said, is true. The woman said to him, sir, I
perceive that you are a prophet, our fathers worshiped on this
mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where
people ought to worship. Jesus said to her woman, believe
me the hour is coming. When neither on this mountain
nor in Jerusalem, will you worship with the father?
You were. Worship.
What you do. Not know we worship.
What we know for salvation is from the Jews, the hour is
coming. And is now here when the true
worshipers will worship the father in spirit and Truth for
the father, is seeking such people to worship Him, don't
lose this. The father is seeking for her to
become one, who's going to worship Him in spirit and Truth.
This, providential collision between the Living, God Christ,
Jesus in this woman, who's had five husbands?
And she's with another man who is not her husband.
About to bring Salvation and Redemption verse 24.
God in spirit and those who worship Him and must Worship in
spirit and Truth. The woman said to him, I know
that Messiah is coming, he who is called Christ.
When he comes, he will tell us all things.
Jesus said to her, I who speak to you, a.m. he Let that sink
in. I who speak to you who just said
you are right and claiming you don't have a husband, you've had
five. And the man you're with now is
not your husband, I who speak to you a.m. he now, here's what I
don't want you to miss. When you're tempted to make much
of yourself in prayer or in fasting, or giving the very one
who's in, you the very one you're seeking to serve is the
same man who was speaking to this woman.
How do we stop making much of self by making much of him?
The Living God says, to this woman, I who speak to you a.m.
he and he's the same God that speaks to you through his word
and spirit. The disciples returned verse 28,
it says to the woman left her water jar and went away into
town and said to his people. And I think it's significant.
She left her water jar. Why it's heavy?
There's something more important to give back to the people.
Then the water I would came for. The one who's talking about
living water water that, if I drink from, will never thirst
again. I need people to know, so the
woman left, her water jar went away and came to town and said,
to the people come see a man who told me all that ever did.
Can this be the Christ? So they went out of the town and
they were coming to him. The disciples have a
conversation with Jesus, then. But I want to move forward to
verse 39. Here's what happened.
This collision between this woman and Jesus.
The father seeking people who will worship Him in spirit and
Truth takes place. And now it says, in verse 39,
many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the
woman's testimony, he told me all that I ever did, so when the
Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them and
he stayed there, two days and many more believed because of
his word they said to the woman, it is no longer because of what
you said that we Believe, for we have heard for ourselves.
And we know that this indeed is the savior of the world and the
same man that stayed with them for two days.
The same man that continue to teach them the word that he is
the living water is the same one.
We give to the poor for in his name.
It's the same one. We pray to even when were
tempted to have other people think we pray deep and eloquent
prayers He it's the same saying, same God.
Now what I'm about to tell you next is not in the Bible.
This is not what happened, but imagine is days and weeks went
on. And people came to this place
and Samaria. And people said, this is the
woman that met Jesus, at the well, who's he told her
everything she ever did. Imagine over time that woman
begin to say, well yes, it's true.
He did all those things but, but don't forget about me.
I was the one who actually came to the well because I was
thirsty and I was getting Waterfront.
Don't forget about me. Yes, what he did was great, but
don't forget about me, I have a testimony.
It's pretty. Sensuous, it's one of those
testimonies that really sizzles. I wasn't just somebody that kind
of grew up in the church. I have had five husbands and the
man I was with when I met him wasn't even my husband, so don't
forget about me. It's not in the Bible.
Because I don't think that's what happened.
But when we are tempted, To blow a trumpet.
Or to toot our own horn in the quietness of our prayer.
Closet applauding, ourselves are being applauded by others.
That's how ridiculous it is. When we want to make much of
ourselves to be praised by others, it is ridiculous.
And I do it all the time. I do it from the 9:30 service.
Would it ends to the 11:00 service?
When it begins? The reason I have to confess
with you at 11:00? What?
I just confessed at 9:30 is because there's been enough
minutes in between but the same thing to be confessed again.
And by the way, this is one of the most powerful public
confession of sins we've ever had and I don't know who wrote
it. It wasn't me.
But I'll confess it again later today and tomorrow and some of
you might say, then where's the victory?
The victory is in the fact that when I'm convicted by the Holy
Spirit, the Living God, I know that the only way out of this
race. Is to make much of him.
It is not to bend. My will towards self and say
stop doing those things. It's actually to have my eyes
fixed on something that is so much greater so much more,
beautiful, who paid all that was necessary for me to have
salvation. So that when I want somebody to
know that I'm giving a large tip, or I'm showing up with
money to give a group of hair stylists to Lost.
Money and covid and we're going to care for him as a church.
And I'm tempted to say, next time I come in I hope they know
it was me I think about the one who said, I gave my son.
And he never sinned. And he took all of your sin.
And all of his children sin and he died and suddenly that little
voice and it really is little that saying, praise me.
I'm great. Our praise me because I'm not
that great. Is silenced.
Because something far more glorious far, more beautiful,
far, more sacrificial. Something that's eternal.
Causes that to dissipate it really is the great Christian,
hymn lived out. Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus. when
you're about to give, And you're tempted to say, look at me.
Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus. When you're about to give a
quote, that makes you sound smarter than most Christians.
And for some reason that makes you feel more Godly.
Or if you despise people like that.
So you don't quote, anybody and you make makes you feel more
humble. Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.
And look full in his wonderful face.
And here's what happens. Then the things of Earth.
Including the praise of, man. You're a great mom.
You're a great dad. You're so generous?
and the things of Earth, including the praise of, man,
the things of Earth will grow strangely dim in the light of
his glory and grace. It's the only way.
There's no other way. The only way to kill to mortify
the part of us that says make much of me is to make much of
God, the Father Son and Holy Spirit.
Let me in with this. Ten times in Matthew 6, 12 18,
including twice in the verses we looked at today Jesus says
something that wasn't said, very often not said very often in the
Old Testament. but said, 10 times in these 18 verses that
deal with giving prayer and fasting 10 times he says Your
father in Heaven. What was the sin underneath the
sin that led these religious leaders to want the praise of
man? They didn't see God as father.
They saw God. As a slave master.
A militant tyrant. Who demanded perfection?
And so they lived a life of deep insecurity That Was Then
motivated by other people giving evidence that they're living a
righteous life. That's what motivated them 10
times. Jesus is going to present to his
audience. The father.
Abba. Ten times.
He's going to make much of his daddy.
Ten times he's going to urge the listeners to see God for who he
is. So how do we died is that self?
How do we modify that flesh? Make much of what the word of
God says about your heavenly father?
About his son Jesus and about the Holy Spirit who lives in
you. And as you do that, that voice
that says blow the horn. Make the announcement.
Let people know what you did or let people know what you didn't
do cuz that's a little horn. Make much of the father.
Make much of the Sun make much of the Holy Spirit.
And when you do watch The desire for men's, praise to dissipate.
Make much of God. Or Jesus.
I'm so thankful that I'm in a church.
That wants to hear the word proclaimed.
I'm so grateful that I can stand in this pulpit and admit how
hard the battle is. but to also celebrate that it's in the
bottle were used so graciously show us that your mercies more
You can actually help us to laugh at ourselves to take
ourselves less seriously. To see the foolishness.
Of how we could never be satisfied by enough.
Praise of man. And we don't need it.
We have you. The Living Water.
Make us secure in you and satisfied in, you?
God, please. Have mercy.
Become much, much greater. In all of our Lives.
We pray in Jesus name. Amen.
It's Dan.