MK040 Sermons
Secret Gifts (Audio)
There you go. Well some pretty amazing stories that we had a chance to hear of God at work and sometimes we think that the process of birth, we see it happen so many times that it almost becomes something we expect to happen without a glitch and yet sometimes God does remarkable things in the lives of people and we get the cool opportunity to be a part of that and so as you remember Gabe and the things that are going through and Corey and Amy with the adoption process with their little girl Tristan, we just asked that you would lift them up. On the screen behind me are some pictures of the children who were dedicated in the first service and want to give you a chance to see those before I begin my message. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So you saw the pictures of Bennett and of Abigail and of Emily who were dedicated in the first service so it's pretty cool that God allows us to be a part of their lives and we're so honored to be a part of that. As many of you have been praying for one of our high school students, Tyler, he has been battling lymphoma and we actually continue to keep him in our prayers. They're selling some purple wristbands that look like this and it just reminds us to pray for him and so when you see Mike back at the sound booth I think he'll be there in the next week or two, you can hound them for one of these or two bucks, I think they'll have them for the students at Flipside and C3 as well so just a way to remind us to be praying for Tyler this week is his week off of treatment and so he gets to enjoy a good week and then he'll start another round the following week so please keep Tyler Lehman in your prayers. One of my favorite movies that I like to watch over and over again are series of movies that I like to watch over and over again is the Rocky series and every time it comes on you know they rolling around all the time, Rocky marathons, you know I'm like oh yes get to watch this again my wife's like you want to watch that again, you know and like I don't say that to you when you want to watch Princess Bride again, you know or Pride and Prejudice again but you know let me just enjoy this for the moment you know and so you know my wife and daughter they're growing about it and you know oh you've seen it again they're just punching one another you know that's all it is but you know it's part of my history I kind of you know that series came out when I was in high school and you know kind of the rocky theme music and all that's associated with that and even though I didn't live near Philly or wasn't in PA it was still a part of our world where I grew up in the Maryland area and you remember the story that you know he's an unknown from the south side of Philly and he fights the world champion and survives 15 rounds and then the next movie fights the world champion and actually defeats him you know Apollo Creed and then in the third movie he's now risen to a place of great success you know he's moved from his row home on the south side of Philly now he's in a suburbs got a nice fancy house you know and and he's fought a few title contenders and beaten them pretty easily and and now he's unveiling the statue of himself and now the steps of the art museum and as he's unveiling his statue of the steps of the art museum you know the number one contender clubber lying also known as Mr. T from the A team in the 80s you know he shows up on the scene and kind of calls him out you know right there on the steps in front of all of his friends and family and people that are celebrating him and so he says I'm going to fight him I'm going to fight him and his his trainer mixes no you're going to get killed you're going to get killed you're not ready you're not prepared and he says I'm ready I'm prepared and so you see the clips of him preparing and they've got this big ballroom you know and there's it's like a circus going on in there where he's supposed to be training he's doing photo ops and he's doing commercials and he's not really doing hardly any training and then you see clobber lying and he's in obscurity and nobody sees him and nobody knows where he is and he's training to get in the best shape of his life and the story goes that when they eventually met in the ring he destroyed Rocky he humiliated him he embarrassed him in a devastating loss and it didn't matter what he looked like on the outside because something was missing on the inside and because something was missing on the inside he didn't produce in the end it gave him a little bit of fame initially but then he lost all of that as the movie portrayed it and it's easy for us to become enamored with things that look good on the outside whether it's people or whether it's companies or whether it's sports teams it's easy to get enamored with things that look good on the outside but the reality is is if there's not something if there's not someone paying attention to what's going on in the inside it'll crumble it'll crumble you know historically a team that doesn't have a lot of flashy sports stars but they have a lot of guys that will work hard and play together as a team they will often succeed and go farther than a team that has a lot of superstars in the NFL they say offense which is flashy which everybody likes to see wins games but defense the hard stuff the difficult stuff that nobody notices what wins championships and the truth is I think we all know this that if we don't pay attention to the things on the inside the little things that nobody really sees we're not going to be effective when it really matters it's not enough just for you to practice with your team you got to pay attention to your sleep and your diet and your disciplines when you aren't at practice and when it's off season when nobody is watching you and being disciplined over a long period of time is going to produce long effective results there's a story of two groups that were making their way to the North Pole the first time and one group became familiar and known as the ones that participate in the 20 mile March and every day their goal was to do 20 miles it didn't matter if it was raining if it didn't matter it was snow it didn't matter if it was a blizzard their goal was to make 20 miles they didn't make 20 miles every day but they made 15 12 15 nearly 20 the other group they only they only travel when the weather was nice when it was perfect ideal conditions and then they would go as hard and fast as they could but when the weather got bad and it was a little uncomfortable a little difficult guess what they just stayed in their tents and if you know the story you know that the ones that pursued the 20 mile March approach they got to North Pole first the others they had people die and they barely made it to the North Pole and this morning we're going to talk about what's going on on the inside what's going on on the inside as we continue our series on the Sermon on the Mount if you have your Bibles if you would pull them out and turn to Matthew chapter six if you don't have a Bible our guys have some and they'll pass them out for you to follow along with us this morning Matthew chapter six and if you haven't been with us we've been in this series on Jesus's message his most well-known message called the Sermon on the Mount and he was preaching this message to a group of religious people group of religious people and it's a little odd because he says the kingdom of heaven is near that's not odd but he says before that he says repent it seems odd to say religious people repent it seems like you would say to people they were irreligious that didn't care about God that had gone and made a message their lives you need to turn your life around and repent but no that's not who Jesus says to do he says it to the religious people you say why is he say it to the religious people because he's saying it to people who had adopted a way of life that was all about what looked good on the outside it's all about following the rules it was all about image management and Jesus said there's something more that I have for you there's something more that I have for you and I don't want you just to do more things that's not what this is all about but I want you to trade the way you're living for a way that I'm going to suggest the way of the kingdom the way of following and allowing me to be king of your life that's what I'm going to invite you to do and so Jesus says I want you to trade the way you're dealing with anger and conflict for my way and I want you to trade the way you're dealing with lust and how you view men and women of the opposite sex for my way and I want you to trade the way you're looking at relationships for my way and I want you to trade the way you're making promises for my way and I want you to trade the way you're responding when people take advantage of you for my way and we've been looking at that over the last number of weeks and you haven't been with us encourage you to go to our website and you can listen to some of the messages and track with where we've been going but Jesus takes a different approach in this passage a different approach because up to this point in time he's been saying you have heard it said not that it is written but you've heard it said this is the oral tradition this is what they keep hearing but I say unto you so he's telling them something different than what they have been hearing in the religious community and that's what he's been doing all throughout chapter five beginning of chapter six he changes direction just slightly and let's read this through this passage and then we'll come back and spend some time talking about it Matthew chapter six beginning in verse one it says be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them if you do you'll have no reward from your father in heaven so when you give to the needy do not announce it with trumpets as hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets to be honored by others truly I tell you they've received their reward in full but when you give to the needy do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing so that you're giving maybe in secret then your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you and when you pray don't be like the hypocrites for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others truly I tell you they've received their reward in full but when you pray go into your room close the door pray to your father who is unseen then your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you and when you pray don't keep babbling like the pagans for they think they will be heard because they're many words do not be like them for your father knows what you need before you ask him then jump down to verse 16 and when you fast do not look somber as the hypocrites do for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting truly I tell you they have received their reward in full but when you fast put oil on your head and wash your face so there will be obvious to others that you are fasting not obvious to others that you are fasting but only to your father who is unseen and your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you so back to verse one what does Jesus say he says be careful be careful kind of an odd caution because what he's going to do is he's going to talk about things that religious people do he's going to talk about giving to people in need he's going to talk about prayer he's going to talk about fasting but he said you need to be careful when you practice your faith it's kind of an odd challenge to us because we're almost we're kind of conditioned when we come to the Bible to think okay it's going to tell me I'm supposed to this and supposed to this and supposed to this and that's not really what Jesus says there's a sense in which he's not really that concerned with how you practice your faith he's concerned with why it's concerned with why and if there's one thing I hope you walk away this morning it is why do I do the things I do to live out my faith why do I do them notice Jesus warning here is there he says be careful not to practice your righteousness or your right way of living in front of others what's your reason to be seen by them now what Jesus is not saying is he's not saying don't any let anyone see the way you live out your faith it needs to be completely in secret that's not what Jesus is saying he's saying you need to be careful about your motives careful about your motives and what he goes on to say is he says if you do them so others will pat you on the back and say good job that's the only reward you're going to get it's the only reward you're going to get you know I kind of experience this a little bit on a given Sunday morning because there are some mornings when I speak and you guys see me I talked to a lot of people and some some weeks no one will comment at all about anything that is said up here this morning and I wonder hmm was that helpful did that make any sense to anybody was anybody awake out there you know it's kind of dimly lit like you can't see if you're awake or sleep out there you know but yes I can I really know it so I was just saying that but no but you know it's just a reality that when you when you do things in front of other people you wondered was that good now please don't take that as that I need to hear that because that's an issue with me and God that's my issue with God not yours but this is an example for me of what these kinds of things look like and we're going to talk about three things this morning now remember guys not saying you should be doing each of these things I think they're all good and they're all meaningful he's saying how do you do what or why do you do what you do why why do I do this for the applause of others for the praise of others because if that's my motivation and I get that and I hear that from a few people God says that's the only thing you're going to get he goes on to say but if you do this for me then you'll receive a reward from heaven now I don't really know what that looks like honestly I don't but I know this I know that God is the creator of all and that God is a good unloving father and that God always does what's best and so I'm going to trust that it's going to be something good it's going to be something good you know it's so it's so counter to our thinking to be rewarded not based on our accomplishments but rewarded based on why we do what we do it just doesn't register in our brains I mean imagine if you went into work and they're doing performance reviews for last year and the boss says to you you know we're not going to do we're not going to give you a bonus based on how close you got to hitting your goals and objectives for the past year that's not how we're going to give anybody a bonus this year we're going to give everybody a bonus based on how much they enjoy their job how pleasant they are to be around how great of an employee and some of you thinking that would be sweet you know there would be some people that would get sick stuff and they would get nothing because they're horrible employees even though they accomplish incredible things you know imagine what that would be like but that's literally what Jesus is saying you know he's in the ones that are rewarded are the ones that do the things they do for the right reasons not because other people are going to see them let's take a look at what these things are the first one is giving to the needy giving to the needy was a foundational pillar of the Old Testament culture of the Jewish faith they lived in agrarian society they were farmers if their crops didn't come in they had to take care of one another dude around me 1511 from the Old Testament law says there will always be poor people in the land I command you to be open handed towards your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in the land and so this was something that they often did and some of the ways that they would do it is if they saw someone who is a beggar who physically couldn't work because of a disease or illness or injury they would give to them another way that this would happen is they would come to the temple and as they walked in the temple there was a usually a big collection bowl of some kind and they would drop their gifts into that bowl and you may remember the story that talked about in the old test or in the in the gospels where Jesus talked about the woman who could only give one or two coins but she gave it joyfully and she gave all that she had versus the religious leaders who came in and dropped their coins blank blank blank blank blank and Jesus says they have no reward they have no reward and so what Jesus is talking about is he's talking about the way that you give and he goes on in verse two of Matthew chapter six he said don't announce it don't toot your own horn as the hypocrites and he's going to use this word over and over again a hypocrite came from the theater culture of that day in the city where Jesus grew up the city of Nazareth there was a large theater likely that Jesus and his father maybe built there was also theaters in Jericho and Samaria and actors were called hypocrites in those days because they put on different masks to represent different characters different figures Jesus said these people that announce what they have done they're putting on a mask they're basically a phony and look what why do they do it to be honored by others to be honored by others now again what Jesus is not saying is he's not saying do a do a full surveillance sweep ensure that nobody is within sight lines and nobody knows okay now I can give nobody knows nobody can see not what he's saying but he's talking about our heart and our motive to give you know some of you in the room here this morning you are gifted in giving say what does that mean does that mean you limit your lifestyle so that you can have resources to bless other people and you do it over and over and over and over and over again most people don't even know most people know you know but but Jesus says this should be true of all of us true of all of us and if you struggle in this area if you struggle in when you give announcing it Jesus says I have a suggestion for you this is a way you can repent stop doing what you're doing and do something next time you give to someone in need look at the next verse don't tell anybody don't tell anybody ask yourself this question when was the last time I did something for someone else I gave money I helped people out and I didn't tell anybody about now some of you you live that way all the time you do you do it's the way God has gifted you and wired you and you do it all the time but for most of us it doesn't come that natural you said what Jesus is saying he's saying you need to examine your heart and your motive why do you do this and if you're struggling with your motive here's a way for you to do something about it give and don't tell anyone you say john should should I be giving to people in need I think you should I think that should be true of all of us as Christ followers not just to contribute to the local church so God can do what he wants to do here but you know people in need you know I have a lot of people that say to me you know what are we going to do with the new building we got all this space and one of the things that I say to people all the time is what what does God call us to do as a church it's called us to introduce them to the love that God has for them and show that love to others and so we're asking ourselves a question how can we do that how can we use this building not to meet our own needs but so that we can serve this community so that we can introduce people to the message of Jesus I was talking to a group of pastors recently in this one church in the in the Denver area they serve 200 people breakfast once a month and they serve it out of a few classrooms in the basement of a building and I'm thinking we have a commercial kitchen and a full-size gym that God just put in our laps how does God want us to use that maybe it's to serve people in need the second one is one that I think we're all familiar with and that's prayer that's prayer Jesus again is talking about why do you pray why do you pray look what he says in in verse five let's go to verse five when you pray don't be like the hypocrites for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the streets to be seen by others there's that phrase again to be seen by others why did they do it what's he talking about here well in the Jewish culture prayer was a regular thing that would happen they would pray usually three times a day you might recall the story of of a man in the Old Testament by the name of Daniel he was known for praying three times a day in a pagan country that said you can't pray to anyone except the ruler of the country and he was thrown into the lion's den because of that and so prayer was a common part of their way of life and sometimes they would be by themselves and so they would just stop and pray and other times they might be in a public setting and they would pray but it's obvious when you read this passage that they like to be heard and they like to be recognized when they pray have you ever noticed that some people have a different praying voice and they do a talking voice you may ever notice that you know when they pray their voice gets a little deeper and slower you know and they talk to God you know or their voice gets a little softer and lighter when they talk to God you know I'm not sure if that's what he's talking about you know or he's talking about individuals that just want to be seen and recognized by people because of what they do but regardless it's not it's not what you do it's why you do it why you do it look what he goes on to suggest in verse six he said if this is a struggle for you he said I want to offer this suggestion for you go someplace where nobody knows and talk to God a room close the door pray to your father who is unseen again Jesus is not saying this is the only way to pray but he's saying if you struggle in this area in an area that is supposed to be a conversation with you and God and it becomes all about how I talk to God then maybe you need to make it private with just you and God and he said your father will reward you he then in this section he goes on to add one more perspective look what he says in verse seven he says some of you when you pray don't be don't keep on or be babbling like the pagans they think they'll be heard because of many words we were one church service a while back visiting some relatives and the prayer seemed to be pretty long and I realized that one of my family members afterwards had timed the prayer and it was ten minutes long in the middle of the service and someone else had looked up and around and they were pretty sure half the room was sleeping by the time the guy got done with that prayer you know I mean Jesus is saying here he saying you don't have to use a lot of words you don't have to use a lot of words but I think what the point is be thoughtful when you talk to God don't just ramble on endlessly but be thoughtful when you talk to God I won't ask you but how many of you have ever sat down to a meal and started praying your in your in your prayer you're praying for food and there's no food you know at that setting you know or you're thanking God for a nice day and it's you know a blizzard outside you know or it's thunder and lightning you know you oh maybe that wasn't such a good thing to you know I think this is what he's getting at where our prayers are without thought and they're without purpose and God's our father that just says will you come and talk to me and just tell me what's on your heart tell me what you're going through as we heard these couples story you you know we we can't imagine if you've never been through what they have been through you know to have a mom and a dad expecting to have this baby arrive and be told the day you're supposed to bring him home he's not coming to your house or to be expecting to take him home from the hospital and we've got to rush him to her she you know you find yourselves in those situations where we're desperate and we cry out to God but God says I want you to talk to me simply without a lot of words anytime that you need to well he goes on then to talk to us about how to pray and we're going to spend the next two weeks looking at the Lord's prayer and looking at what Jesus has to say about how to pray and then we're going to spend some time doing that together over the next two weeks one final thing that he talks about in verse 16 and that's the subject of fasting now for most of you when you think about this concept of fasting the only thing that you know about fasting is when the doctor says don't eat anything for 12 hours before you come into what give some blood right that's what they tell us to do that's about the only thing you know about fasting but fasting was a part of the Old Testament culture it's a part of the Jewish faith there would be seasons of time where they would go without food you say why would they do that so that they would recognize how number one how reliant are they our own food and number two to turn to God when things were really important in their lives a couple of examples in the bible where it talks about there was the story of Daniel that I mentioned when he and his buddies for 10 days I believe they said we're only going to eat a certain kind of food and we're not going to eat all these other things there was a woman in the Old Testament by the name of Esther when her the Jewish people were at a moment of crisis and there was a possibility that they were going to be wiped out completely a genocide and she called all the people to fast and not eat for three days to pray that God would do something in their situation and so there's examples of these things happening over and over again where we say I'm going to say no to my to the physical needs so they can be attentive to what God wants to do in my heart in my life again it says here when you fast so it's assuming this was part of their religious culture is God calling you to to fast well that's between you and him maybe he is maybe he will do that for something that's going on in your life to go without food for a meal for a certain period of time or a whole day or maybe an extended period of time but what was going on in this in this passage he says when you fast don't look as somber as the hypocrites but they disfigure their faces to show that they're fasting not I'm not really sure what they disfigure their faces are the only thing I can think of is it's kind of like maybe elementary school boys or maybe middle and high school boys who just they come in and they're like starving and they're going to die if they don't have some food and mom I got to have some food and you know it kind of happens every day for some of your households you know maybe that's what it's like you know they haven't they think they're going to die if they don't get food but I think the next verse gives us a little bit of clue on what that might be look at the next verse he says but when you fast put oil in your head and wash your face it's basically what he says and and I think what Jesus is saying is saying don't act like anything is different but he says in verse 18 he says this he says so that it will not be obvious to others you are fasting again this is not about other people to look at you and say oh I can't believe you're doing that how in the world could you do that you know I could never go without one meal let alone two meals and you do that every single week y'all you're an amazing person you know that it's not what Jesus says that's not what this is all about it's not what it's all about the only person who should see is your father who is in heaven who sees what is done in secret they see the issue here is not necessarily for you to start giving to the poor although that's a good thing or not necessarily for you to pray more that's a good thing or for you to fast that's a good thing to do but the issue is to ask yourself why do I do the things that I do why do I do the things that I do and too often in the church community in faith settings we often talk about what we're supposed to do you should be doing this and this and this and this and we don't spend as much time would Jesus seem to spend more time talking about why do we do it God says when you give why do you give God says when you serve why do you serve God says when you spend time reading the Bible and praying why why do you do that when you show up in here on Sunday morning when you could have slept in why why did you do that why do those things and part of what my challenge for you this morning is for you to ask yourself some really hard questions about why do I do that why do I do it do I do it simply because my parents have told me to do it and I really don't have a choice do I do it because I think it'll impress someone else do I do it because well that's what I've always been told I should do I'm not sure that those are the reasons that God wants us to be doing all of those things you know I'm pretty convinced that you have to really love other people's children to hold them in your arms when they're crying for an hour and change their poopy diapers you know you have to really we do that with our own kids and some of you even struggle with that but to do that with somebody else you have to really love those children and love doing that and one of the things we want to see happen here at CCC is we want to be people and we want to be followers of Jesus who do the things that we do because we love to do them and because we love God and this is our way of saying thank you to him for all he's done for us not because we're obligated not because it's a have to but it's because I want to I want to do this I want to serve I want to give I want to share I want to be involved in the lives of others I want to make sacrifices because not only does it give me incredible joy an incredible delight but it's an amazing opportunity for me to say thank you to a god who loved me who created me who made me in his image and cared so much about me that he was willing to give his one and only son so that I could have a relationship with him forever Paul talked about this in the New Testament in the book of 1 Corinthians listen to these couple verses he says if you're articulate spiritual you speak with the tongues of men and the angels but you don't show love you're just like a loud gong or a crying symbol if you have the gift of prophecy and you can understand deep and mysterious things about the scriptures and if you have this amazing faith that trust gods for significant things that could even move mountains but if you don't have love it's pointless it's nothing if you are a generous generous person and you care about others and you give to people in need and you even give your body over to science so when you die it can be used to benefit other people but you don't have love you don't have anything you don't have anything and too often our focus has been on what we are supposed to do instead of why do I do the things that I do why do I do the things that I do I'm pretty convinced that Jesus is not real thrilled with Christ followers who just do a lot of things because they feel obligated to do them you might be thinking John if that's that's where I'm at what am I supposed to do just quit just drop out I don't think that's what God wants you to do I think He wants you to spend some time examining your own heart and saying why do I do that what is it that God has done for me that motivates me to do those things because that's what we have to come back to over and over and over again but join me in prayer as we close God it's really easy for us to get impressed with things that look good on the outside from buildings to programs to communicators to people who are incredibly generous but God you really push us hard to look at our hearts and really wrestle with our motive for doing all of these things God and God if it can't be because of our sense of being overwhelmed with your love and your devotion and your commitment and sacrifice to us it's probably pretty pointless God and that may seem a little harsh because people are making sacrifices and they are making effort and God but the thing that you care most about is our hearts God you want people that love you that want a relationship with you and we'll put that relationship above everything else and we'll give and serve and share their lives Lord because of their love and devotion to you God I pray for each of us that we would be willing to ask ourselves some very hard questions and when faced with those questions God that it might take us back to our relationship with you and back to exploring what you want the most from us and that's a heart that is fully devoted and deeply in love with you and your name we pray amen