Look at Me! Matthew 6:1-4

Look at Me!  Sometimes we just want the credit and attention.  Let's reflect on the instructions of Jesus on how we can help people and not tell our left hand what the right hand is doing!  Matthew 6:1-4 has tons to teach us about being God's secret agent of goodness. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Look at me. Join me in this reflection on Matthew, the beginning of chapter six, where Jesus encourages us to help each other but not draw attention to ourselves. Have you ever been tempted to scream, look at me, look at me, while you're helping others? It's all glory to God. This is Amy Copley Mulder. Look at me. Coming now.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

Doesn't matter if you're young or why. All that matters is you answer the door when Jesus comes to change your life. And it's about time we give it up to God. I catch a free. All the glory to God. And let's give all the glory to God.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

Look at me, I have said many times, is an only child with a penchant for theater and being on stage and living for the curtain to open. Look at me. Jesus is telling us how to live in Matthew 5 through 7. The entire Sermon on the Mount is teaching us how to live with people. And Jesus gets really specific on certain behaviors. He's saying, like, if you're doing this, you shouldn't. If you're trying this, maybe you shouldn't. It's a wonderful way that Jesus comes closely to us and explains the dynamics of being a human. And it's awesome because he knows what it's like to be fully human and fully divine. And so as we look at Matthew chapter six, I want you to remember that Jesus is continually, continually giving us a roadmap on how to live life together. But more than that, he's really asking about our heart issue. Where is your heart? Matthew chapter six. Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them, for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven. So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret, and your father who sees in secret will reward you. So this is an interesting, very specific instruction that Jesus is giving. He's saying, Listen, there are times when you have to give to others. Part of the culture was giving to the poor. And all of you that attend church, I hope you're giving your 10% of your gross income to that church body. That's kind of the instruction of God. Actually, it's not kind of the instruction of God, it is the instruction of God. And we hope that you also like help other organizations out. Giving is a good way to live your life. The reason God encourages us to give 10% is so that our financial life will be in balance continually with our spiritual life. We give our portion to the Lord. And you are going to do things for other people. I hope so. Because, you know, if we're really bringing God glory in our day-to-day walk, what happens is we will want to help people. We see people in need, we want to help them. We see people as the as an image of God, as created in the image of God. We want to be a vessel for the hands and feet of Jesus. But it's very easy to make a performance out of the good things we do for other people. And you may not even be trying to. There's something that happens in conversations. And I think I'm very much a perpetrator of this, so I just want to apologize to everyone. I've done this too. When I'm talking with other moms, I'd like to talk about my kid. You know why? Because I love my kid more than your kids. I love a lot of kids in life. There are a lot of wonderful children. I'm rooting for everybody on the team to do well. But if you want to know who I love the most and who I'm thrilled with, it's mine. Because they're God gave them to me. I hope that's not a debatable thing. I'm a I'm your kids' fan, but I'm always my kids' fan more than all, right? And so sometimes when you're talking to other moms, I send I sometimes fall into this one-upping thing. Like, oh, my kid did this. I'm like, oh, my kid did this. And I don't want to be in competition with anybody else. I have Ford Cooper and Tucker. They are my boys. I do not need them to be better than your boys. I'm sure your boys are great. I'm sure your girls are great. But my boys are great too. I mean, I just am very proud of them. And so sometimes I feel like I get in this one-upping thing. Like, let me tell you, my kid is this great and my kid did this. And we have to make sure that when we're in this life and we do things for people, that we're not trying to be like, look at me, look at how good I'm being. I have helped someone. This also kind of happens when people help people with a string attached. Like, I'm gonna give to this family, and they better not go get McDonald's with it or something like that. If you're giving a gift to some family, or you're giving a gift to your church, or you're giving, you are giving it. You are hands off. If you don't believe that the organization will take care of your gift appropriately, don't give to that organization. If you are giving to that organization, like the church or a charity, you are saying, I give this to you. My hands are off. You cannot dictate how you want it to be given. That's just my flavor that I'm feeling this today. And so it is easy to make a performance out of doing good things. When you do something for other people, you have an opportunity to be secretive. Now, this is kind of one of those good secrets in the life of faith. You don't want people to feel beholden to you. So let's say there's like five families at church and you help one family, you feel like God's really telling you that that family needs help. If you draw attention while you're helping that family, then guess what? All these other families either feel discouraged because you didn't help them, or they will come to you again and go, Will you help so and so? Can you help me now? So it's just a better plan to just try to be as secretive as you can when you give. And the way you do that is you try to find an anonymous way. And when we do our church reports at financial reports, it just says this is the money in. It doesn't have names attached to this is who gave what. So it is you are able to give without your name attached. And I think it's important that we get into the habit of giving, but also that we don't expect to get credit. It's easy to live our life for an audience, to be to be trying to impress certain people, to be people pleasing so that these people will like me for and to serve people, even with an ulterior motive of, oh, look at me, I have served. This makes me feel so wonderful. And I deserve to have more say or more opinions or more power because of my service or because of my giving. You know, if we're really trying to connect with other people and live our lives together, we have to make sure that none of that jealousy or competition gets a foothold in our communities and in our families. Competition is a death of a community. And we have to also just get over the scarcity model, this model of life that says there's only so many good things. Scarcity says that when God was giving out stuff, he had a limited amount. And so if so-and-so gets a raise, there's no way you will get a raise. Or if so-and-so has this easy time in life with their children, that you are owed an easy time in life with your children. Everyone's experience is different, and everyone's life is different. And how you encounter those set of circumstances is all different. You could take two separate people, give them the same set of circumstances. One person would feel blessed and thankful, and the other person would feel like I have nothing, and why am I even trying? So we have to be in the mode as Christians in giving, not in a transactional way, not in a let let me see, let me give so I can see what I receive. We're not collecting favors out here. I gave and I gave, and here's my favor packet, and you owe me, and oh my goodness, that is not the way of Jesus. And Jesus um calls attention to the people that when they do give to the poor, because when it's talking about in the scripture about giving alms, the custom was if you were, you know, disabled physically or you were disabled mentally, that meant that your main industry was begging. And so when it says give alms to the poor, there were just the poor and the and the physically disabled and the mentally disabled people would just be outside of the temple waiting because the only way that they could eat was through these gifts of alms. It was part of the worship service for these people to kind of even be on the outside, but this is the time we give. And so he's saying, look at the hypocrites, the ones that need attention, they're saying, look at me, I'm giving this. Hoo-hoo-hoo, I gotcha. And then what happens is he's saying they already got their reward. They already got it. If everybody knows that you gave this, it's not honoring God as much as if you could give it quietly with dignity and give people the chance to receive a gift with their full humanity intact. They're not grobling on the floor. Oh, please help me, oh, please help me. You are just giving because that's who you are, and they can receive the gift as they are. I hope that you find a way, you know, this week before we meet again on Thursday. I hope you find a way to do something secretly for someone else. It can be money or it can be a gift. Try to do something in a way that no one else knows about. And you have this beautiful moment with the Lord where he says, Hey, I knew you were giving, I knew who you were, I'm here, and you have given. And so you and God have a beautiful kind of moment together where you have given to someone, whether it's money or a service, and it's been free, it's your act of worship before God. And then you just know that that's something that you did. It's a beautiful way to live. Looking for ways to covertly, like a secret agent of goodness, do and give to other people. If you don't have the money, you can do something for somebody else. If you do have the money, pray for who in your life that you already know may need a gift, and then figure out a way to give that gift so no one knows but you and God. What an incredible mandate of Jesus. I just want to thank everyone in my life as a pastor and as a person who has been a part of our lives in giving to us. I remember our air conditioner broke in the middle of summer, and I just we didn't have the money, and I just kind of opened the windows and said, we'll just be hot until we can get this fixed. And a parishioner stopped by and helped me and just gave me$120 and said I felt like and I didn't tell anybody and said I felt like this is what I needed to give you. And it was almost the exact same number to get the air conditioner fixed. This is the kind of life that that person got the blessing. They did give it to me, so I knew it was them that gave it to me, but I knew it was just from the Lord and with good intention because it was something that I that would that I really wanted. You know, I don't think you need air conditioning, maybe in Michigan, but I wanted it. And let me tell you, summer was much better that way. We have an opportunity as the people of God to continually surrender our own agendas at the feet of Jesus. And if you are giving to other people, whether it's through service or money and saying, look at me, look at me, I am here. You have already received your reward. You've gotten attention, you've gotten applause, you've gotten notoriety, you've been able to speak what you say and have everyone wonder what you're about. But be brave this week and pray hard, and God will give you someone that you can gift with service or money that will be secretive, and you and God will have a delicious moment together, and you will worship God with the actions of your hands and the opening of your wallet. What could you gift? So if you are in danger of look-at-me disease and you want everyone to know what you're doing, I encourage you today to be a secret agent of goodness in the world you inhabit. This is all glory to God. I am Amy Copley Mulder. Join me Thursday as we talk about toxic positivity. That's a mouthful, and we're gonna go into it. All glory to God, to God.

SPEAKER_01 15:39

It's like that's done. So it's done, it's the bad time to get up. So that's give all the glory to God.