Secret Service
One thing that makes Jesus’ teaching so powerful is that he understands the very depths of the human heart. He knows what we say and what we do, and he can discern our motives behind those actions and words.
The focus of this week’s sermon is Secret Service based on Matthew 6:1-6; 16-18. Jesus teaches us that it’s not just about what we do that matters but why we do it.
1. Publicity
In verse 1, Jesus teaches us not to practice righteousness (e.g. volunteering, donating, praying, worshiping, serving at church) in front of others to be seen by them. While this doesn’t mean we should never do these things in public, Jesus tells us to be careful not to practice righteousness in front of others just to be seen by them. Jesus understands human nature and he warns us to watch ourselves as it’s easy to be driven by the desire to be seen by others.
Do you ever find yourself being conscious of how you look to others?
Jesus teaches us that doing good things just to get approval from others is a very unstable way to live and He invites us to live a better way.
2. Secrecy
In verse 3, Jesus says to be discreet in our giving. In other words, we should strive to keep our giving between us and God. We are also taught to do the same thing with our prayers in verse 6. Importantly, however, Jesus does not say to never pray in public but, instead, the main part of our prayer life – the part that takes up the most time - should be in private. If your prayer life can be more found in public then that’s dangerous.
Jesus warns us that our hearts can be deceptive and that pleasing people is a trap. Instead, we should aim for a life that focuses our thoughts vertically towards God instead of horizontally towards other people. It is easy to be obsessed with what other people think and Jesus wants to free us from that feeling through our acts in secrecy.
3. Reward
We are taught in verses 16-18 that if our motive is to please others, then the only reward we get is human applause. Not our heavenly reward from the Father.
However, this heavenly reward should not be the only thing that motivates us. Instead, we should be motivated by our thankfulness for Jesus Christ which inspires us to want to gracefully serve God. In this way, we will appreciate that Jesus also motivates us with rewards. The kind that is as rewarding as hearing our father saying to us, “well done my good and faithful servant”.
Dear God,
Thank you for your desire for intimacy and a relationship with us. Today, we ask for your forgiveness for the times that we had self-centred motives behind our good deeds. What we all need is your reward and a relationship with you. We pray that our thankfulness for what Jesus Christ has done will transform our hearts to be pure and genuine.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen