WEBVTT 00:00:08.160 --> 00:00:10.720 Matthew 6, I'll begin reading in verse 1. 00:00:10.960 --> 00:00:20.879 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. 00:00:21.120 --> 00:00:28.399 Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and the streets, that they may be praised by others. 00:00:28.640 --> 00:00:32.000 Truly I say to you, they have received their reward. 00:00:32.880 --> 00:00:41.520 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. 00:00:41.920 --> 00:00:50.320 And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners, that they may be seen by others. 00:00:50.479 --> 00:00:54.000 Truly I say to you, they have received their reward. 00:00:54.640 --> 00:01:02.240 But when you pray, go into your room, shut the door, and pray to your father who is in secret, and your father who sees in secret will reward you. 00:01:02.799 --> 00:01:06.239 Now jump down in your eyes to verse sixteen. 00:01:06.640 --> 00:01:15.920 When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces, so that their fasting may be seen by others. 00:01:16.079 --> 00:01:19.120 Truly I say to you, they have received their reward. 00:01:19.359 --> 00:01:31.120 But when you fast, anoint your head, wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others, but by your father who is in secret, and your father who sees in secret will reward you. 00:01:31.359 --> 00:01:33.599 This is the word of the Lord. 00:01:34.239 --> 00:01:39.040 The key word in this verse is the word hypocrite. 00:01:39.120 --> 00:01:40.480 It is in verse 2. 00:01:40.719 --> 00:01:43.040 Do not be like the hypocrites. 00:01:43.280 --> 00:01:47.519 Hypocrite is a word from the Greek world. 00:01:47.680 --> 00:01:49.200 Let me teach you a Greek word right now. 00:01:49.280 --> 00:01:51.760 It's the Greek word hypocrite. 00:01:53.120 --> 00:01:54.480 It comes right into English. 00:01:54.719 --> 00:01:57.040 Unadulterated, unchanged, hypocrite. 00:01:57.120 --> 00:02:00.239 It's a word from the drama world, somebody who puts a mask on. 00:02:00.400 --> 00:02:02.560 The Greek actors would have multiple masks. 00:02:02.640 --> 00:02:04.400 You'd have one person playing different roles. 00:02:04.480 --> 00:02:06.719 They would put this mask on, then that mask on. 00:02:06.799 --> 00:02:08.319 It wasn't fooling the crowd. 00:02:08.479 --> 00:02:10.000 It was just to convey. 00:02:10.159 --> 00:02:11.520 They would even change their voices. 00:02:11.680 --> 00:02:14.639 I'm speaking in this voice, this mask, and this voice, and this mask. 00:02:14.719 --> 00:02:17.280 And that was the two people, two different roles. 00:02:17.439 --> 00:02:19.120 Neither of them were the real person. 00:02:20.080 --> 00:02:26.000 As you think through that, it is worth asking yourself as you survey the whole Bible in your mind. 00:02:27.439 --> 00:02:37.360 There's a category, maybe if you've been doing Bible reading, you might have this in your mind, of people whose sin was so extreme that God struck them immediately dead. 00:02:38.080 --> 00:02:55.919 And I'm not talking about large groups of people that the Lord took out of this world together, like opening the ground and swallowing them, or the Babylonian leaders getting annihilated by the Persians in a single night, but I'm talking about an individual or a pair of people that sinned in such a way the Lord said, Up with this I will not put, and took them out of the world immediately. 00:02:56.240 --> 00:02:59.039 And there's a few examples of that in the Bible. 00:02:59.759 --> 00:03:08.719 I think immediately of Nadab and Abihu, who in the book of Leviticus, the office of the high priest, had just been instituted from Moses to Aaron. 00:03:08.879 --> 00:03:10.879 Aaron's sons had been trained in this. 00:03:11.039 --> 00:03:14.960 They went out and they got fire for the offering the high priest was supposed to offer. 00:03:15.039 --> 00:03:18.159 They paraded their fire through the streets so that everybody would see them. 00:03:18.240 --> 00:03:23.199 They then offered their fire before Yahweh at the temple, and the Lord struck them dead immediately. 00:03:24.240 --> 00:03:26.560 Aaron came to Moses and said, What gives? 00:03:26.719 --> 00:03:34.080 And Moses says right away, the Lord killed them so that it would be known among all people that in his presence he's to be taken seriously. 00:03:34.240 --> 00:03:36.960 Nadab and Abihu were parading themselves through the streets. 00:03:37.039 --> 00:03:43.520 They had made their religious act of worship into a spectacle for everybody to see, and the Lord struck them dead. 00:03:48.319 --> 00:04:07.759 The ark, remember, had been left outside, away from Jerusalem since uh for decades now, and David decided to move it into Jerusalem, and they did not follow the way it was supposed to be done with worship and sobriety, but instead they uh made a pomp and circumstance and a parade, and everybody who was the who's who of Jerusalem was out there. 00:04:08.000 --> 00:04:23.920 Everybody whose uncle was on the planning committee was lining the highway, and they were blowing trumpets, and they was like, look at us, and we get to move the ark in, and the oxen stumbled, and the ark tottered, and Uzzah grabbed the ark to keep it from falling, and the Lord struck him dead. 00:04:24.560 --> 00:04:28.800 I mean, the whole thing was obnoxious to the Lord from start to finish. 00:04:29.600 --> 00:04:36.879 But somebody driving the cart into the city with the ark on it was too much for the Lord to bear. 00:04:36.959 --> 00:04:45.759 And you can jump to the New Testament with Ananias and Sapphira, who were giving to the Lord, as was often the custom as the church got in the Lord's Day. 00:04:45.920 --> 00:04:50.879 People would offer their offerings and their gifts to the Lord, and they would give. 00:04:50.959 --> 00:05:00.879 But Ananias and Sapphira, they had sold a field and they made a big production of letting everybody know that they were giving all they got from the field to the Lord. 00:05:02.399 --> 00:05:04.560 It almost doesn't even matter if that was true or not. 00:05:04.639 --> 00:05:07.120 It wasn't true, the Bible says, but it almost doesn't even matter. 00:05:07.279 --> 00:05:09.439 I mean, think about you guys give at church. 00:05:09.600 --> 00:05:17.279 Think about what it would take for everybody in the church to know that you sold your car and you're giving every penny from your car to the church. 00:05:17.519 --> 00:05:19.040 That would be weird. 00:05:19.279 --> 00:05:21.600 That's a lot of work to let everybody know this. 00:05:21.680 --> 00:05:23.040 But they figured out how to do it. 00:05:23.120 --> 00:05:28.560 I mean, I have been in churches too in Ghana and in Rwanda where people give by dancing down the aisles. 00:05:28.639 --> 00:05:31.680 You know, they every you get up a row at a time and everybody dances down the aisle. 00:05:31.759 --> 00:05:34.000 And we don't do that in our country. 00:05:34.240 --> 00:05:35.199 Praise God. 00:05:36.000 --> 00:05:40.240 But as people get to the front, they dance around the little offering box and they put their money in the offering box. 00:05:40.319 --> 00:05:44.160 But even there today, you know, they do a closed fist in the offering box. 00:05:44.240 --> 00:05:47.519 So if you were watching, you couldn't tell if that guy gave$0 or$1,000. 00:05:47.839 --> 00:05:49.439 You'd have no way of knowing. 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:51.920 But not in an essence and Sapphira. 00:05:52.000 --> 00:05:52.720 Oh man. 00:05:52.959 --> 00:05:57.759 They let everybody know how much they supposedly gave, and the Lord killed them on the spot. 00:05:59.759 --> 00:06:02.240 For the same reason, to strike fear into the heart of the people. 00:06:02.399 --> 00:06:04.399 Now you take those three examples together. 00:06:04.560 --> 00:06:10.720 Do you recognize that all three of those examples, it's the same sin. 00:06:11.920 --> 00:06:17.040 It's the sin of parading your religiosity in front of other people to be seen by them. 00:06:17.120 --> 00:06:18.800 It is the sin of hypocrisy. 00:06:18.879 --> 00:06:43.680 It is the sin of putting on the mask and acting like this sober worshiper of the Lord when you are really putting on a performance for everybody in the audience, and the audience is those all around you, those lining the streets in Nadab and Abai's case, those lining the streets in Uzza's case, those lining the pews in Ananias and Sapphira's case, you're performing for them, not for the Lord. 00:06:46.319 --> 00:06:48.079 The Lord killed those people. 00:06:48.560 --> 00:06:52.319 And Jesus makes this a driving point in Matthew chapter 6. 00:06:52.639 --> 00:06:55.439 Don't worship like them. 00:06:55.839 --> 00:07:08.720 Again, the word hypocrite, it's this the word for the mask, and it's what the actor puts on, and I mentioned this earlier, but the actor with the mask is not fooling anybody as to who he really is. 00:07:08.879 --> 00:07:10.399 It's not designed that way. 00:07:10.560 --> 00:07:12.720 This is not a high-budget production. 00:07:15.439 --> 00:07:20.959 I remember many years ago I used to do the sock puppets in Cubbies in Iwana. 00:07:21.360 --> 00:07:30.560 And I would kneel behind the little tables that were set there, and I'd have Yui the Lamb above me, and I don't even remember the other guy, and they'd be having a conversation. 00:07:30.720 --> 00:07:35.759 But even the little four-year-olds in Iwana, then, they could see me through the chairs. 00:07:36.079 --> 00:07:37.759 They weren't fooled. 00:07:38.560 --> 00:07:43.120 In fact, one of the reasons we do an evening service now is to get me out of puppet duty in Iwana. 00:07:46.720 --> 00:07:50.399 Nobody's actually fooled by the sock puppet. 00:07:51.439 --> 00:07:55.360 But the religious hypocrite thinks he's fooling everybody. 00:07:55.439 --> 00:08:00.800 He's putting the mask on, unaware that everybody else can see his whole body. 00:08:01.920 --> 00:08:06.959 He thinks he's putting on a presentation for everybody to convince them of how godly he is. 00:08:08.079 --> 00:08:11.759 But the Lord sees right through it. 00:08:13.040 --> 00:08:18.240 It was Calvin who said that essentially all the world is a stage and we are merely actors. 00:08:18.399 --> 00:08:20.720 Shakespeare, by the way, stole that from Calvin. 00:08:20.959 --> 00:08:27.920 In Calvin's design of it, we are just secondary, supporting actors. 00:08:28.160 --> 00:08:30.319 The star of the show is the Lord. 00:08:30.480 --> 00:08:36.000 We're all moving to and fro on the stage, but we're keeping the spotlight on the Lord. 00:08:36.480 --> 00:08:39.039 That's how it's designed to be. 00:08:40.559 --> 00:08:43.759 But the religious hypocrite puts himself in the spotlight. 00:08:43.840 --> 00:08:50.639 The religious hypocrite pushes the Lord off of the stage and wants the spotlight on him so everybody sees him as a star of the show. 00:08:50.799 --> 00:08:52.159 But Calvin is right in this. 00:08:52.320 --> 00:08:55.440 In a sense, we are all actors. 00:08:55.600 --> 00:08:58.320 We are all playing a role on the stage. 00:08:59.440 --> 00:09:03.679 And so I'm going to give you an outline this morning to make a way through Matthew 6. 00:09:03.919 --> 00:09:06.799 So, you want to be an actor, do you? 00:09:07.360 --> 00:09:09.759 That's my best parent voice right there. 00:09:10.080 --> 00:09:13.600 To the teenager who comes and says, I think I'm going to move to LA and be an actor. 00:09:13.840 --> 00:09:16.559 So, you want to be an actor, do you? 00:09:17.600 --> 00:09:21.440 I used to serve in a church in Los Angeles in college ministry. 00:09:21.519 --> 00:09:28.799 The college ministry was students who were moved to LA for school, and students moved to LA to be an actor. 00:09:29.279 --> 00:09:32.320 You could tell the second category, by the way, they all worked at Chili's. 00:09:32.399 --> 00:09:34.000 That's how you you knew that. 00:09:36.080 --> 00:09:44.240 And there's certain questions that you would ask the person who moved there to be an actor, and here are those questions right here. 00:09:44.480 --> 00:09:46.000 Who is your audience? 00:09:46.240 --> 00:09:48.320 Who are you performing for? 00:09:49.360 --> 00:09:51.840 You know, what kind of what role are you going to take? 00:09:52.000 --> 00:09:53.679 Do you want to be an actor in a soap opera? 00:09:53.919 --> 00:09:55.840 Do you want to be an action star? 00:09:56.000 --> 00:09:57.759 Do you want to be in a telenovela? 00:09:58.879 --> 00:10:00.159 You want to be on the stage? 00:10:00.320 --> 00:10:05.279 I mean, choose one because once you go down that road, you can't jump to another path. 00:10:07.840 --> 00:10:10.879 So know what kind of actor you're going to be. 00:10:11.039 --> 00:10:13.279 What reviews are you after? 00:10:13.679 --> 00:10:16.000 You know, whose opinion matters? 00:10:17.120 --> 00:10:18.639 Who are you performing for? 00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:23.679 Whose opinion are you cultivating and is motivating you? 00:10:24.480 --> 00:10:32.559 And thirdly, and I mean this in the nicest way possible, what talent do you actually have? 00:10:33.360 --> 00:10:37.360 I know your grandmama said that you're a great actor or a great actress. 00:10:37.679 --> 00:10:40.320 Has anybody else vouched for that opinion? 00:10:41.279 --> 00:10:51.279 Those are three kind of basic questions to ask the person who wants to make it in Hollywood, and I have those questions for you this morning as we work our way through this passage. 00:10:51.519 --> 00:10:54.559 First, who is your audience? 00:10:54.720 --> 00:10:56.000 Who are you performing for? 00:10:56.159 --> 00:10:58.639 Jesus begins, Matthew 6, beware. 00:10:59.759 --> 00:11:02.000 And this is a warning sound. 00:11:02.320 --> 00:11:04.720 Take heed, it's a cautionary word. 00:11:04.960 --> 00:11:08.080 The yellow sign on the floor, cuidado, piso mahado here. 00:11:08.159 --> 00:11:08.559 Pay attention. 00:11:08.639 --> 00:11:10.639 You see the sign, look out. 00:11:12.960 --> 00:11:18.080 Beware of who you're practicing your righteousness in front of. 00:11:18.240 --> 00:11:22.399 Even the word practicing is dripping with sarcasm here. 00:11:23.600 --> 00:11:26.399 For the hypocrite, it's all a show. 00:11:27.759 --> 00:11:34.000 It's designed to be reminiscent of the actor who's doing his lines in front of the mirror to see if he's convincing to the mirror. 00:11:35.919 --> 00:11:42.240 That's what Jesus describes, the religiosity of those who are putting on a performance for the watching world. 00:11:42.399 --> 00:11:45.279 They're like the actors rehearsing in front of the mirror. 00:11:45.440 --> 00:11:47.200 They're just practicing. 00:11:47.759 --> 00:11:49.600 What a dismissive phrase. 00:11:49.759 --> 00:11:54.080 Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people. 00:11:56.000 --> 00:12:01.679 This is the person who is on the street corner, praying out loud on the street corner. 00:12:01.759 --> 00:12:05.840 You think, why would somebody pray out loud on the street corner? 00:12:06.000 --> 00:12:08.240 That doesn't make a lot of sense to me. 00:12:08.720 --> 00:12:11.120 Isn't it distracting to pray out there? 00:12:12.320 --> 00:12:13.679 That's odd. 00:12:14.480 --> 00:12:16.720 Well, they want to be seen by everybody. 00:12:17.200 --> 00:12:20.480 Of course, they could pray in their room, but nobody would see that. 00:12:21.600 --> 00:12:23.759 So they pray it on the street corner. 00:12:24.159 --> 00:12:29.200 Or the person who's blowing the trumpet before they give their money. 00:12:29.840 --> 00:12:30.639 That's odd. 00:12:32.879 --> 00:12:33.440 Cling. 00:12:36.000 --> 00:12:40.000 You know, they're doing it for the watching people. 00:12:40.240 --> 00:12:42.159 It's a production for them. 00:12:42.399 --> 00:12:44.240 Or the person who's fasting. 00:12:44.559 --> 00:12:51.200 Fasting is supposed to be conforming your heart to and your desires and your passions to God's will for your life. 00:12:51.759 --> 00:12:52.960 That's what fasting is supposed to do. 00:12:53.039 --> 00:12:54.480 It's an act of conformity. 00:12:56.320 --> 00:12:59.679 But some people like to fast so others will see. 00:13:00.879 --> 00:13:02.159 So others will see them. 00:13:02.320 --> 00:13:05.919 This is the, I think back to my time as a youth pastor on retreat. 00:13:06.159 --> 00:13:08.240 I have no individuals in mind. 00:13:09.120 --> 00:13:24.480 But I think back to times like on youth retreats and camps or whatever, there's always the one or two students that choose that weekend when they're with all of their friends to fast, you know, and the youth leaders are watching what everybody's eating, of course, because that's what youth leaders do. 00:13:24.559 --> 00:13:29.679 They're paying attention to the group, but there's always the one person who's like walking around and not eating the food. 00:13:29.840 --> 00:13:31.919 And like, oh, what are you doing? 00:13:32.080 --> 00:13:35.039 Oh, I couldn't possibly tell you why I'm not eating. 00:13:36.799 --> 00:13:38.879 Wait a minute, are you fasting? 00:13:39.600 --> 00:13:42.399 No, I wouldn't want anybody to know I'm fasting. 00:13:47.840 --> 00:13:53.759 Person who prays, prayer is supposed to be conforming your will to God's. 00:13:54.159 --> 00:13:56.399 Prayer is moving you closer to the Lord. 00:13:56.720 --> 00:13:59.120 You understand prayer doesn't change God's mind, right? 00:13:59.200 --> 00:14:01.039 When you pray, you're not trying to change God's mind. 00:14:01.200 --> 00:14:03.360 You're drawing yourself to the Lord. 00:14:03.679 --> 00:14:07.360 But the person who prays so everybody can see, that's flattening it out. 00:14:07.519 --> 00:14:11.039 They're not praying to change their desires to the Lord's desires. 00:14:11.200 --> 00:14:14.799 They're praying so everybody sees that they have the Lord's desires. 00:14:16.799 --> 00:14:21.279 Notice something that is designed to be vertical. 00:14:21.440 --> 00:14:23.679 It's designed to be from you up to God. 00:14:23.919 --> 00:14:25.519 Fasting, prayer. 00:14:27.039 --> 00:14:36.639 Performing for other people flattens it out, squishes it down, makes it just on a normal horizontal plane. 00:14:38.399 --> 00:14:39.919 Makes it like everything else. 00:14:40.159 --> 00:14:40.960 Giving. 00:14:42.080 --> 00:14:44.000 God has given you money and resources. 00:14:44.080 --> 00:14:54.879 You're supposed to be using that to advance God's kingdom in this world and to let your light shine into this world to direct the attention back to God and to do God's purposes with it in this world. 00:14:54.960 --> 00:14:59.600 But the person who gives with trumpets and pomp and circumstance and look at me, look at me. 00:15:00.559 --> 00:15:02.960 They're not giving to advance the Lord's work in this world. 00:15:03.039 --> 00:15:06.000 They're giving to advance their own image in this world. 00:15:07.679 --> 00:15:10.159 It's a performance for other people. 00:15:11.200 --> 00:15:13.279 You know, we have offering boxes in the hallway. 00:15:13.360 --> 00:15:17.279 They're there forever, but you can imagine the person with their check above their head. 00:15:17.519 --> 00:15:21.120 Oh, ushers, where do I put this large offering? 00:15:23.120 --> 00:15:24.639 Where does this go? 00:15:25.679 --> 00:15:27.919 And they say, oh, it goes in that box right there. 00:15:28.080 --> 00:15:33.919 Oh, could you please give this to one of the pastors and know that it's from me and have them put it in the box for me? 00:15:35.039 --> 00:15:35.360 Okay. 00:15:39.039 --> 00:15:40.799 Jesus says, beware. 00:15:41.200 --> 00:15:45.200 Understand who you're performing in front of. 00:15:45.440 --> 00:15:46.879 Who is your audience? 00:15:47.120 --> 00:15:50.879 Are you performing in front of the Lord or are you performing in front of other people? 00:15:53.919 --> 00:15:57.679 Now this comes down to what kind of role are you going to have? 00:15:57.840 --> 00:16:02.799 I mentioned that Calvin said we all have supporting roles to play on the stage. 00:16:04.080 --> 00:16:07.039 The star of the show is the Lord, the audience is God. 00:16:07.120 --> 00:16:09.039 In the Christian worldview, the audience is God. 00:16:09.120 --> 00:16:10.080 Everything is before Him. 00:16:10.159 --> 00:16:10.960 It's not other people. 00:16:11.039 --> 00:16:12.159 The audience is the Lord. 00:16:12.320 --> 00:16:13.519 The star is Jesus. 00:16:13.679 --> 00:16:20.480 We're all supporting actors moving to and fro about the stage to keep the spotlight on the Lord. 00:16:20.720 --> 00:16:23.120 We're supporting actors. 00:16:23.840 --> 00:16:25.679 That's the Christian worldview. 00:16:26.240 --> 00:16:35.919 My oldest daughter right now has an assignment in a writing class where, you know, she's read a series of books, and her assignment is to write about who the best supporting character is from the books. 00:16:36.080 --> 00:16:37.440 And that is a very interesting question. 00:16:37.600 --> 00:16:41.840 It makes you ask, what makes a good supporting character? 00:16:43.440 --> 00:16:45.679 What does make a good supporting character? 00:16:46.080 --> 00:16:48.480 Somebody who hogs the spotlight? 00:16:48.720 --> 00:16:50.720 Somebody who steals the show? 00:16:51.759 --> 00:17:01.840 No, a supporting character is somebody who directs the attention to the star, who helps the plot advance so the star advances, not so that they advance. 00:17:05.039 --> 00:17:11.119 You know, you are a good supporting role on the stage if you keep the spotlight on the star. 00:17:11.200 --> 00:17:14.799 And you're relatively nice to the other supporting actors and actresses around you. 00:17:15.039 --> 00:17:19.920 You make their little few minutes on the stage as pleasant as possible while you're putting the attention on Jesus. 00:17:20.079 --> 00:17:21.279 That's a good supporting actor. 00:17:21.440 --> 00:17:24.160 You've done your role well in this life. 00:17:24.640 --> 00:17:32.079 If those that are on stage with you, you made their life a little bit better and you directed everybody's attention to the Lord. 00:17:32.319 --> 00:17:34.240 That's what a good supporting actor does. 00:17:34.400 --> 00:17:38.880 A terrible supporting actor pushes Jesus off the stage and hogs a spotlight for himself. 00:17:42.160 --> 00:17:44.240 Imagine giving with the trumpets. 00:17:45.599 --> 00:17:48.160 Imagine fasting and disfiguring your faces. 00:17:48.240 --> 00:17:52.799 I mean, the Jews, religious leaders, would fast on Tuesdays. 00:17:53.039 --> 00:17:55.200 Okay, they would go a day without eating. 00:17:55.759 --> 00:18:03.519 But man by lunchtime on Tuesday, they're like gloomy, outside where everybody can see, pacing back and forth by the salad bar. 00:18:03.680 --> 00:18:04.000 Oh. 00:18:05.920 --> 00:18:08.400 They got donut crumbs in their face still. 00:18:08.960 --> 00:18:11.599 Like, I think I see poppy seed in your teeth. 00:18:12.160 --> 00:18:13.920 Oh no, no, no. 00:18:14.160 --> 00:18:15.359 I'm fasting. 00:18:16.720 --> 00:18:18.640 Praying so that everybody could hear you. 00:18:18.799 --> 00:18:22.319 That is a person who's after the star role. 00:18:24.799 --> 00:18:27.839 Not a person who's putting the spotlight on the Lord. 00:18:28.000 --> 00:18:35.200 When you become a Christian, you are taking yourself out of the center of the stage and putting the spotlight back on the Lord. 00:18:35.359 --> 00:18:38.960 Your life exists to direct attention to the Lord, not to yourself. 00:18:39.119 --> 00:18:45.440 So beware of practicing your righteousness before others in order to be seen by them, Jesus says. 00:18:47.279 --> 00:18:51.759 The right way to be the actor is the end of verse 3. 00:18:52.000 --> 00:18:55.920 When you give, don't let your left and your right hand know what they're doing. 00:18:56.000 --> 00:18:58.799 It's just an idiom for you're doing it in secret. 00:18:59.039 --> 00:19:07.200 So that your father, look at verse 4, who sees you in secret, you're doing it for his approval. 00:19:08.559 --> 00:19:09.759 For his approval. 00:19:10.400 --> 00:19:12.880 So know who your audience is. 00:19:13.039 --> 00:19:13.680 Second. 00:19:14.480 --> 00:19:16.319 Which reviews are you after? 00:19:16.960 --> 00:19:19.599 Which reviews are you after? 00:19:20.160 --> 00:19:24.000 Who are you performing for influences whose reviews you're after. 00:19:24.160 --> 00:19:26.880 If you're performing for other people, you want their approval. 00:19:27.039 --> 00:19:30.720 If you're performing for the Lord, you want his approval and he sees your heart. 00:19:30.799 --> 00:19:32.559 He sees right through it. 00:19:34.400 --> 00:19:38.400 You understand whose reviews you're cultivating. 00:19:39.119 --> 00:19:51.680 There was a period in my life where I was a soccer referee, and I would find out before the games who the assessor wash in the league, who didn't, you know, the guy who was grading my performance. 00:19:51.920 --> 00:19:54.559 And different assessors had different things they liked. 00:19:54.640 --> 00:19:59.039 There was one assessor from England and he graded like an Englishman. 00:19:59.119 --> 00:20:03.519 You know, if you took off somebody's leg, he would expect maybe a warning, you know. 00:20:04.400 --> 00:20:06.319 You murdered someone in a tackle, okay. 00:20:06.400 --> 00:20:07.359 Don't do that again. 00:20:07.599 --> 00:20:08.960 Broke one leg, okay. 00:20:09.119 --> 00:20:12.720 Here's a yellow card, because he's got two legs, you can do it one more time and then you're gone. 00:20:14.079 --> 00:20:16.480 There's a different inspector from Mexico. 00:20:16.880 --> 00:20:18.640 Man, that guy had totally different standards. 00:20:18.720 --> 00:20:20.640 Like a shirt pull is an international incident. 00:20:20.720 --> 00:20:22.400 Like, you better shut that down. 00:20:23.279 --> 00:20:25.119 And I would referee accordingly. 00:20:25.359 --> 00:20:29.599 The British guy in the stands, it was just mayhem and murder, and he would be so happy after the game. 00:20:30.720 --> 00:20:34.880 The Mexican guy in the stands, like it was law and order, and none of that. 00:20:35.039 --> 00:20:36.400 They're like, yes. 00:20:37.599 --> 00:20:39.599 You all recognize that in your own work. 00:20:39.680 --> 00:20:42.240 You know, you put a tie on if you got a meeting with your boss. 00:20:42.480 --> 00:20:47.279 You might roll in with jeans if you don't, unless you work at the Pentagon and then I don't know what you wear. 00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:56.720 Your life, you have to determine whose reviews you're cultivating. 00:20:57.039 --> 00:21:00.480 Are you doing things to be pleasing to the watching world around you? 00:21:00.640 --> 00:21:02.960 You're gonna act in a superficial way. 00:21:03.119 --> 00:21:06.000 You're gonna act one way around these people, another way around that people. 00:21:06.160 --> 00:21:11.279 Are you living in such a way that the Lord who sees you at all times, he's your audience? 00:21:12.160 --> 00:21:30.079 The person who lives and acts to cultivate the reviews of others is not going to be mature, is not gonna have the kind of ethics and integrity that will transcend situations, but will really live and act in one way around these group of people and another way around that group of people because they have no standard. 00:21:30.160 --> 00:21:32.880 They don't, they're not thinking the Lord sees both groups of people. 00:21:33.279 --> 00:21:40.240 They're so concerned about their appearance before these guys and so concerned about their appearance before these guys that they have no lasting integrity. 00:21:40.480 --> 00:21:42.400 So when no one's watching, it's anyone's guest. 00:21:42.480 --> 00:21:44.480 They feel lost when no one's watching. 00:21:47.359 --> 00:21:53.359 This is the high school kid who's you know, around his non Christian friends at school, he's the moral one. 00:21:53.759 --> 00:21:58.160 You know, he's act as acts a little bit better than them, so he's the moral one around those kids. 00:21:58.240 --> 00:22:03.680 And around the Christian kids, he's He's the, you know, he's he's the punk kid around the Christian kids. 00:22:03.759 --> 00:22:07.920 He's the coolest of the Christian kids, and the most moral of the non-Christian kids. 00:22:08.079 --> 00:22:13.359 He's living flatly, with no convictions that guide him. 00:22:14.480 --> 00:22:17.119 It's putting on a sh it's the two masks. 00:22:19.119 --> 00:22:22.160 And that person thinks others don't see. 00:22:25.680 --> 00:22:27.440 You have to decide who you're living for. 00:22:27.599 --> 00:22:32.160 The person who lives for the Lord is gonna act the same way in every situation. 00:22:32.240 --> 00:22:34.640 And some of you, I said high school kids, some of you are like that at work. 00:22:34.799 --> 00:22:43.200 You act one way around your work friends, another way around your church friends, another way around your family, and as long as those three groups of people don't get their stories straight, you can get away with it. 00:22:46.880 --> 00:22:55.119 In contrast, the person who lives and acts before the Lord develops a life of stability, a life of integrity. 00:22:57.279 --> 00:23:02.720 Now, the theological background of this, theological principle, is that rewards are real. 00:23:03.440 --> 00:23:04.720 Rewards are real. 00:23:04.880 --> 00:23:06.720 And Jesus makes this point. 00:23:07.279 --> 00:23:09.039 Well, look at verse 2. 00:23:09.200 --> 00:23:10.480 I'm sorry, look at verse 1. 00:23:10.640 --> 00:23:15.759 If you do your righteousness in front of other people, you will have no reward from your father who's in heaven. 00:23:16.400 --> 00:23:18.000 Or verse 2. 00:23:18.720 --> 00:23:27.519 If you get praise from other people because of your giving, you've already received your reward, Jesus says. 00:23:28.160 --> 00:23:34.240 In contrast, verse 4, if you give in secret, your father will reward you. 00:23:35.200 --> 00:23:40.799 Or verse 5, if you pray in secret, or if you pray in public, you don't get a reward. 00:23:40.880 --> 00:23:41.680 Look at the end of verse 5. 00:23:41.759 --> 00:23:44.240 If you pray in public, you've already received your reward. 00:23:44.400 --> 00:23:54.480 But verse 6, when you pray in secret, your father who sees in secret will reward you. 00:23:55.359 --> 00:24:02.640 Verse 18, if your fasting is done in secret, your father who sees in secret will reward you. 00:24:03.279 --> 00:24:07.759 There are rewards for prayer and giving and fasting. 00:24:07.920 --> 00:24:08.960 God does reward you. 00:24:09.200 --> 00:24:14.400 Hebrews 6, verse 10 says, God is not unrighteous so as to forget your deeds. 00:24:15.119 --> 00:24:18.480 God knows what you're doing and he will reward you. 00:24:18.640 --> 00:24:21.359 Now, to be very clear, this is not talking about salvation. 00:24:21.519 --> 00:24:24.799 You receive salvation as a gift from God of grace. 00:24:24.960 --> 00:24:27.759 You don't deserve salvation, you cannot earn salvation. 00:24:28.000 --> 00:24:29.759 Remember how the Sermon on the Mount begins. 00:24:29.920 --> 00:24:31.039 Blessed are the bankrupt. 00:24:31.200 --> 00:24:33.920 Blessed are those who realize they don't have righteousness. 00:24:34.079 --> 00:24:35.440 They cannot earn salvation. 00:24:35.519 --> 00:24:38.079 They don't have anything to merit it from. 00:24:38.880 --> 00:24:43.119 So you confess your unrighteousness through faith in the gospel. 00:24:43.279 --> 00:24:45.279 You receive the righteousness of God. 00:24:45.599 --> 00:24:49.119 Now, how do you use that righteousness that God gives you? 00:24:49.359 --> 00:24:50.720 That's what you're rewarded for. 00:24:50.880 --> 00:24:52.480 So it's not talking about salvation. 00:24:52.640 --> 00:24:56.079 It's talking about how you live with what God gave you. 00:24:56.160 --> 00:24:57.599 And you don't all have the same stuff. 00:24:57.680 --> 00:25:01.519 Some of you have more talent than others, more time than others, more money than others. 00:25:02.000 --> 00:25:06.000 You are rewarded based on how you used what God gave you. 00:25:06.240 --> 00:25:08.799 God graves on the curve for sure. 00:25:11.599 --> 00:25:13.279 Some of you are saved later in life. 00:25:13.359 --> 00:25:18.160 You have less time to use the righteousness God has given you. 00:25:19.759 --> 00:25:22.880 Some of you have less money than others. 00:25:24.480 --> 00:25:32.240 God rewards you for, you know, if you have oversight over two cities and you do it well, the Lord rewards you with more cities in the kingdom. 00:25:32.400 --> 00:25:38.960 If you have oversight of five or ten cities and you rule them well in this world, then you receive more than that in the kingdom. 00:25:39.119 --> 00:25:41.440 This is talking about rewards in the kingdom. 00:25:41.599 --> 00:25:48.559 When you reign on the earth with the Lord, you will be rewarded based upon how you use what God gave you in this life. 00:25:48.799 --> 00:25:56.160 Store up for yourself treasure in heaven, Jesus says later in Matthew 6, where thieves don't steal it and where it won't corrode or rust and all that. 00:25:56.480 --> 00:26:00.319 Just by Jesus saying that, it follows that not everybody will do it the right way. 00:26:00.480 --> 00:26:02.640 Not everybody will store up the same amount of treasure. 00:26:02.799 --> 00:26:05.119 So Jesus commands you to store up treasure. 00:26:05.359 --> 00:26:10.480 How you use what he gives you determines how much of that is stored in the next life. 00:26:11.039 --> 00:26:12.400 Do you hoard it for yourself? 00:26:12.480 --> 00:26:14.240 Do you build bigger barns for yourself? 00:26:14.559 --> 00:26:15.440 No reward. 00:26:15.680 --> 00:26:18.559 Do you squander it on things with no eternal value? 00:26:18.880 --> 00:26:19.839 No reward. 00:26:22.079 --> 00:26:24.400 Do you invest it in the kingdom? 00:26:24.720 --> 00:26:26.160 Lots of reward. 00:26:27.599 --> 00:26:29.279 What reward do you value? 00:26:29.440 --> 00:26:36.960 Now, the word that's used here in the end of verse 2, they have received their reward. 00:26:37.519 --> 00:26:39.519 That's basically one Greek word. 00:26:39.680 --> 00:26:40.960 It's kind of a technical word. 00:26:41.039 --> 00:26:42.880 It's the word for like getting a receipt. 00:26:43.440 --> 00:26:52.240 You've received the receipt, you gave the money, you got the product, and you got a receipt that said, received, paid in full, no returns, no refunds, no exchanges. 00:26:52.559 --> 00:26:53.200 Boom. 00:26:53.680 --> 00:26:57.839 So when you take that receipt and you take that product, that transaction is over. 00:26:58.000 --> 00:26:59.200 There's no returning that. 00:26:59.279 --> 00:27:00.880 It's settled at that point. 00:27:02.319 --> 00:27:07.599 That's what it's like for somebody who does their righteousness before other people in this world. 00:27:07.839 --> 00:27:13.279 They receive their reward right here and right now with no future reward. 00:27:15.839 --> 00:27:27.680 I was once bumped from a flight and I was offered by the gate agent$400 or 40,000 frequent flyer miles. 00:27:28.640 --> 00:27:31.119 And I said, can I get both? 00:27:32.160 --> 00:27:33.440 No, cannot get both. 00:27:33.920 --> 00:27:34.720 Can I think about it? 00:27:34.880 --> 00:27:35.440 Also, no. 00:27:35.519 --> 00:27:36.640 You had a little iPad. 00:27:36.720 --> 00:27:38.720 I had to check one box or the other box on the iPad. 00:27:38.799 --> 00:27:39.759 That decision is right there. 00:27:39.839 --> 00:27:44.240 And I could either get my$400 right now, it would have been in a gift card right there and handed it to me. 00:27:44.400 --> 00:27:45.039 Yes. 00:27:45.440 --> 00:27:48.319 Or 40,000 miles that will go into my account for future use. 00:27:48.480 --> 00:27:50.559 I chose the miles because I have kids. 00:27:52.640 --> 00:27:55.759 This is what it is like when you do your righteousness. 00:27:55.920 --> 00:27:59.839 You do something that is righteous, you can cash out right now. 00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:04.559 You can do it in front of other people, and they can say, Oh, look how godly you are. 00:28:06.240 --> 00:28:07.680 And that's your reward. 00:28:08.000 --> 00:28:08.640 Done. 00:28:10.880 --> 00:28:14.480 Or you can hold out for reward in heaven. 00:28:15.359 --> 00:28:18.480 Every act of righteousness you do, you have that choice. 00:28:19.759 --> 00:28:24.559 Get rewarded from others, or get rewarded from the Lord. 00:28:25.519 --> 00:28:29.759 Every opportunity of Christian service is an opportunity for one reward or the other. 00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:32.880 The Lord to reward you, or they add a voice from other people. 00:28:33.039 --> 00:28:42.000 Now, the crazy thing in this passage, when you think about it, is that on the outside, those two actions might look exactly the same. 00:28:42.160 --> 00:28:50.079 I mean, I used hyperbolic examples earlier, with the person waving their offering check in the hallway, or the high school kid with sackcloth and ashes around the salad bar. 00:28:50.240 --> 00:28:52.640 Those are obviously hyperbolic examples. 00:28:52.880 --> 00:29:04.559 In real life, somebody who's doing street evangelism for the praise of others, and somebody doing street evangelism for the praise of the Lord is going to look exactly the same. 00:29:04.880 --> 00:29:15.599 Somebody who's a small group leader in high school ministry for the praise of the high school students as a kind of a behind-the-scenes way for the Lord to see their service, it's going to look exactly the same. 00:29:15.759 --> 00:29:18.319 And you and I could not tell the difference. 00:29:18.559 --> 00:29:29.200 Or, more practically or personally, somebody who preaches a sermon could preach it for the praise of people or for the praise of the Lord, and you could not tell the difference. 00:29:31.279 --> 00:29:33.839 This is a little window into authentic Christianity here. 00:29:34.000 --> 00:29:36.160 The Lord sees the heart. 00:29:36.960 --> 00:29:40.400 On the outside, you don't know. 00:29:41.279 --> 00:29:43.440