Good News: Hypocrites not honored in Kingdom of God

Matthew 6:1-18

 Cousin Fergy called. He said he was going to go to church for the first time in six months. He’d seen his pastor in town and said, “I guess you’ve noticed that I haven’t been in church in awhile.” The pastor said he had and Fergy explained, "Well, the reason I don't go is because there are so many hypocrites there." 
      

The pastor said, "Don't let that keep you away. There's always room for one more."

 A hypocrite is someone who pretends to be what he or she is not.  We do things hoping people will see something in us that’s not there. When we heap up good deeds for the world to see, we bury the picture of ourselves that God wants us to see.

 None knew this better than Jesus. So when he was explaining that people were part of the good news of the kingdom, he wanted to make it clear he wasn’t talking about the religious hypocrites. He was talking about people who stop pretending and started praying.

  Matthew 6:1-16. 

  1 “Make certain you do not perform your religious duties in public so that people will see what you do. If you do these things publicly, you will not have any reward from your Father in heaven.

2 “So when you give something to a needy person, do not make a big show of it, as the hypocrites do in the houses of worship and on the streets. They do it so that people will praise them. I assure you, they have already been paid in full. 3 But when you help a needy person, do it in such a way that even your closest friend will not know about it. 4 Then it will be a private matter. And your Father, who sees what you do in private, will reward you. 

5 “When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites! They love to stand up and pray in the houses of worship and on the street corners, so that everyone will see them. I assure you, they have already been paid in full. 6 But when you pray, go to your room, close the door, and pray to your Father, who is unseen. And your Father, who sees what you do in private, will reward you. 

7 “When you pray, do not use a lot of meaningless words, as the pagans do, who think that their gods will hear them because their prayers are long. 8 Do not be like them. Your Father already knows what you need before you ask him.

9 This, then, is how you should pray: “Our Father in heaven: May your holy name be honored; 10 may your Kingdom come; may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today the food we need. 12 Forgive us the wrongs we have done, as we forgive the wrongs that others have done to us. 13 Do not bring us to hard testing, but keep us safe from the Evil One.

14 “If you forgive others the wrongs they have done to you, your Father in heaven will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive the wrongs you have done.

16 “And when you fast, do not put on a sad face as the hypocrites do. They neglect their appearance so that everyone will see that they are fasting. I assure you, they have already been paid in full. 17 When you go without food, wash your face and comb your hair, 18 so that others cannot know that you are fasting—only your Father, who is unseen, will know. And your Father, who sees what you do in private, will reward you.  

It’s hard to do a good deed and not get any credit for it. We like to insure that we’ll be known as generous people who make sacrifices and look out for others. We probably don’t make a big show of it like the hypocrites Jesus described. We have more subtle ways to get call attention to what we’ve done.

Take me for example. Once in awhile I try to make some improvement on the farm to make life easier for Paula. Sometimes they’re pretty insignificant. And sometimes Paula is too busy to notice. That bothers me. I want some credit. So I ask, “How do you like so and so?” Bingo, I get credit with Paula but I lose the reward from God. That’s pretty short sighted: exchanging momentary credit for an eternal reward.

Even when we do something and think we’re not expecting anything in return, we do expect credit.  J. P. Morgan said, ”A man generally has two reasons for doing a thing.  
One that sounds good, and a real one.”  Part of our real motivation is selfish – to get the credit. In fact, that’s what’s on our mind as we do it. We hear the praise in advance.

What God wants is for us to do our good deeds secretly. When we do, it changes the whole dynamic. Instead of thinking about ourselves we can think about God. We can be thankful and pray for the recipient of our good deed. 

Jesus mentioned three acts of righteousness that we should do secretly:

1. Giving to the needy

2. Praying

3. Fasting

He devoted the most time to teaching about prayer. How do we measure up?

· Fortunately, none of us stand up during the coffee hour and pray at the top our lungs or prop a stepladder outside the Madrid bank and pray out loud so everyone can hear us.

· Unfortunately, I don’t think many of us spend as much time as we should praying in our rooms with the door closed.

· Fortunately, we don’t babble like the pagans do to impress God with a ton of words. 

· Unfortunately, for most of us the words we speak to God are far too few. 

· Fortunately, I didn’t see anyone showing off at the chicken barbeque that they were fasting. 

· Unfortunately, except for the Youth Group’s project, fasting is only done if our surgeon orders it. And we lose the reward that comes from spending extended time in prayer.

God does want to hear from us. He wants us to speak to him in private. And he wants our words to be genuine and from the heart. I think he wants us to be normal, to be ourselves. But he wants us to be focused on him not the praise we hope to receive.

It’s instructive that this teaching on prayer is embedded in a series of warnings against hypocrisy. Look at it this way: if you were writing a textbook and you wanted to include information on prayer, would you insert it in a chapter about hypocrites.  I doubt it.

The good news of the kingdom isn’t that church people are do-gooders. Kingdom people don’t make a show of giving to the poor, pretending to be righteous and doing religious stuff. Kingdom people do their spiritual work in secret and there’s nothing weird about it. No big deal.

Kingdom people are serious about being the kind of people they pray to be in The Lord’s Prayer:

1. People who want God to get all the credit

2. People who want his perfect kingdom to come

3. Who want God’s will to be done – not theirs

4. Who aren’t greedy because they depend on God

5. Who are forgiving

6. Who strive against sin and avoid hurting anyone

Kingdom people realize that they are far from what they pray for in The Lord’s Prayer and that the world is far from being a kingdom place – so they are committed to prayer. 

 Hypocrites can’t pray The Lord’s Prayer and mean it. But if we keep praying and thinking about it honestly, we will become less and less hypocritical and store up more and more rewards. Prayer’s a good antidote for hypocrisy.

Youth Message

If you want to impress God, don't try to impress people.

 What does it mean to impress someone? It means you do things so people will think your smart or nice. It’s kind of like showing off. Do you like to impress the girls? If you did, you might comb your hair in a certain way or try to hit a home run when they were watching.  Or maybe you want to impress your mom or a teacher or neighbor. And maybe we want to impress God.

  That’s shouldn’t be hard because God is watching us all the time. Proverbs 15:3 - The eyes of the LORD are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good. Let’s look at an example of what God sees that’s in 1Kings 15. Verse 11 says that King Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. Verse 26 says that King Nadab did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord. One king impressed God and one didn’t.

 Sometimes we do something nice so someone will notice. We want to hear them say what a wonderful boy or girl we are. But that doesn’t impress God. He wants us to do good things whether anyone sees in or not. Jesus even suggested that we do some things in secret and he promised God would reward us.