Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Salt + Light Community is a SOMA church plant in the heart of Fort Worth, TX. Here you’ll find teaching and discussions from our gatherings on Sundays.
Speaker: You.
Uh, wanna ask you, what's the, uh, what,
what, what's the most known part of
that passage called that Matt just read?
What's the most known part?
It's called the Lord's Prayer.
We're not gonna touch that
today, just so you know.
Little spoiler alert.
So, uh, we're gonna come back to
these verses after Memorial Day.
Um, but today, wanna give a little bit of
the context around the Lord's Prayer, uh,
that hopefully will make, uh, the, the,
those verses become even more rich as we,
uh, come back to them in a couple weeks.
So just want you to know as you're,
like, waiting, hanging on, like,
when are we gonna get to the prayer?
We're not today, but we will later.
Cool?
Great.
Resounding yes.
Y'all are a verbose bunch today.
So, uh, last time I got to teach
through the Sermon on the Mount, or,
or led a team through teaching on the
Sermon on the Mount was 2011, and a
lot's changed in the world since 2011.
Uh, for me, we had one kid.
She was a baby at that point.
We have three kids and had
a lot of babies come through
our house through foster care.
I was 29 years old when I first
taught through the Sermon on
the Mount, so was super wise.
Um, now I'm 44, so probably
equally super unwise, but doing,
trying a little better at least.
Um, had less gray right here.
Um, th- th- zooming out, though,
uh, the world has changed a ton.
Now, there's way more division, and yet
somehow way less connection globally.
Um, maybe the biggest change, though,
as I was reflecting this week on these
verses specifically, is that it feels
like every bit of life is lived online.
Yes?
Everything we do is online.
Compared to 2011, like, we had...
If we needed to pay for something,
we had these green pieces of paper
that we would give to other people.
Not exclusively, not like the 1900s.
But nothing, nothing happens
in cash hardly anymore.
Like, everything's lived online.
Everything happens online.
Everything is, uh, put online.
Influencers tell us what
life should look like online.
There are these beautiful pictures.
Everything says, "Look at me."
All of life's lived online, and
so we focus on ourselves online.
And so, so I'll be honest, like I, I, I
wrestle with this everything online life,
especially as it relates to social media.
Maybe just 'cause I'm getting, like,
a crotchety old man kind of thing, and
the darn kids with their social medias.
I don't know.
Um, it's helpful, sure, to keep up with
people, share things that are coming up,
but man, that temptation, that slippery
slope, the comparison that an online
life invites is just, it's just hard.
Is that just me?
The online life is a hard life.
The tide is toward a performative life.
The tide is toward making everybody look
at your life and go, "Look how great I am.
Look how great we are.
Look at the great things we do."
The, the public displays just run rampant.
And so if that's the tide, if all
of life feels, we use the word
performative, if all of life feels
public, then it's easy for the things
of faith to become performative
and become public as well, yeah?
And this mindset, this performative public
life, performative public faith, it just,
it just runs so contrary to the words
that Matt just read out of Matthew 6.
And so the question for today,
the question at the heart of this
passage is, why do we do the things
we do, especially as it relates to
things like spiritual disciplines,
especially as it relates to things,
uh, like religious acts, especially
as it relates to things of faith.
Why do we do the things we do?
And for context, if you're just
joining us, we're walking through these
three chapters that, uh, tradition
calls Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.
And, and what we've seen so far
is that Jesus cares way more
about the heart than the actions.
He cares way more about the motives
that are going on internally than the
performance that lives externally.
And today, Jesus is just continuing that
theme and applying that truth even to,
like, the most religious acts of the day.
Even the, quote, unquote, "good and
godly things" that His people in His
time did, and even the most, quote, "good
and godly things" that we do today, can
either be done with, like, this pure
as possible, humble as possible heart,
or it can be done as this prideful act
of performance and public religion.
And the difference in
posture is huge, yeah?
And so Jesus has given us four examples
of, of acts that can be good and godly.
Um, very religious at the time acts,
and, and He's inviting us to consider
why we do things like these, and why
we do other religious things as well.
Is the focus on ourselves
or is the focus on God?
So in these verses surrounding the Lord's
Prayer, He talks about giving to the poor,
He talks about praying, He talks about
fasting, and He talks about forgiving.
Are those good and godly things?
Only maybe.
I tricked you.
It depends on your heart.
They look good.
They're, they're good religious
things that God calls people to, but
again, He cares about why we do them.
So the lens for, for this whole
conversation today is the bookend verses,
the first and last verses that Matt read.
So I'm just gonna read those,
and then we're gonna build on
the foundation between them.
So beware, and, and I think Jesus
would say this to us, beware of
practicing your righteousness before
other people in order to be seen by
them, for then you'll have no reward
from your Father who's in heaven.
That's Matthew 6:1.
And then the last verses Matt read:
Do not lay up for yourselves treasures
on earth, where moth and rust destroy,
and where thieves break in and steal.
But rather lay up for yourselves
treasures in heaven, where neither
moth nor rust destroys, and where
thieves do not break in and steal.
That's the foundation we're building on.
Father, would You help us to, to see
our life and see our religious acts?
Would You even stir something in
our hearts if there's something
we need to pay attention to today?
Would we grow, grow closer to you
as we consider this, this passage.
In your Son's name, amen.
All right, as, as, so as we dive in,
I wanna be clear, what Jesus does
not say is, "Stop giving to the poor.
Stop praying.
Stop forgiving people."
He doesn't say, "Stop doing these things."
Uh, even as Matt read, you heard
things like, "When you give,
when you fast, when you pray."
A- and that's important, 'cause at
times, if you're like me, if we know
something's off in our heart, we think
it's easier just to avoid that thing.
Like, it's the slippery slope argument.
If I can't do step one well and it
might lead to me rolling down the
hill, I just won't even do step one.
That's, that's not what
Jesus is saying here.
We think it's easier to avoid things,
but, but Jesus is encouraging us in these
verses to do something harder, but better.
It's better when we realize something's
off in our heart to go, "Okay, how
do I correct this by the power of
the Spirit and the grace of the Lord?
How do I redeem this thing that's broken?
How do I try to right the wrong,
to, to row against the tide?"
Is that harder than just
not doing something?
Absolutely, it is.
But it's better, especially
'cause these things can be good.
And so again, the question is not,
should we give, should we fast,
should we pray, should we forgive?
The answer is yes.
Should we do religious things?
Yes.
Should we, should we pursue
spiritual disciplines?
Yes.
That's not the question today.
The question is why and how?
Again, it's a hard question.
And so we'll tackle them all together.
On one hand, we can do good and
godly acts for our own glory and
to lift ourselves up, and that's
what Jesus is speaking against.
When you give to the needy,
sound no trumpet before you
do as the hypocrites do.
When you pray, you must
not be like the hypocrites.
If you do not forgive others...
It's interesting that's the only if.
We'll come back to that.
When you fast, do not look
gloomy like the hypocrites.
Who gets the glory in this posture
that Jesus is speaking against?
Who gets the glory for doing,
quote, "good and godly things"?
Me.
Sounding the trumpet when
you give says, "Look at me."
If you heard, if you hear a trumpet sound,
you're not, you're not not gonna look.
The, the image here is, is one of,
like, a king or a generous benefactor
bestowing a gift on the lowly and needy.
Look at me.
Standing on a street corner praying
is not like standing there muttering.
It's, it's announcing.
It's in public.
What's that saying?
Look at me.
I can't, I couldn't even make
it to the synagogue, that's
how good a prayer, prayer I am.
I'm praying and I'm in public.
I'm singing in a store.
Listen.
Listen to me.
Look how zealous I am.
Hear the great words that
I say to a great God.
Listen in awe of my prayer.
Look at me.
That's the image that
Jesus is weaving here.
Um, making your face gloomy and
disfigured when you fast is, is
a way of saying, "Look at me.
This hunger's awful.
Look how downtrodden I am,
but look how pious I am.
I'm even willing to, to go through this
terrible thing of missing a few meals."
Th- th- I mean, he says, like,
"Clean yourself up," like, "I can't
even shower because I'm so weak.
But I'm so holy that it's worth it.
Look how much I'm willing to suffer.
See how good that makes me."
You get these images that
Jesus is painting for us?
Look at me, look at me, look at me.
Even conditional forgiveness,
again, it's the only one that
says, "If you forgive..."
Conditional forgiveness, you deciding
whether to forgive someone or not,
puts you in the place of God by saying
you're now the arbiter of truth.
If you get to decide whether
you forgive or not, wh- whose
role is that objectively?
That's, that's God's.
Our posture before God as one
who's been forgiven is to forgive.
And so if we decide that what you've
done, if I decide that what you've
done is too bad to forgive, I'm saying,
"Well, I'm in the place of God now.
I'm the judge of godliness.
Look at me.
I'm God."
This make sense?
And, and so we can expand it out.
There's not just these four
things that Jesus is speaking of.
These are i- in, in, in his day, uh,
still true in, in a lot of O- Orthodox
Judaism and, and Islam as well.
Like, these are the kinds of things,
alms giving and, and, uh, public prayers
and, and specific times of prayer.
Like, these are common religious
acts, not just in Christianity,
but in, but in any religion.
And so Jesus is, is looking and
going, "Don't stop doing these things.
But ask the question of why.
Why are you doing them?"
And so there are other acts that
Jesus might say if he was looking at
us in two thousand twenty-six today.
It might be a question of when you're
in your DNA or with Christian friends,
don't be the first to try to try to answer
every single question that gets asked.
When you take your Bible to
Starbucks, maybe not sit at
the front table to be seen.
When you buy a homeless person dinner,
what, what's your motive for doing that?
Do you post every religious thing you do?
Do you, do you share every
conversation you have about God?
I'll be honest, I even struggle with Salt
and Light posting our teaching on Sundays.
I get the wisdom.
I get why we do it, but
I wrestle with that.
Is there any part of me or us that
goes like we're trying to build
an online platform kind of stuff?
I mean, we don't even
have an Instagram account.
We're not, but I wrestle with that.
Because the world, like here's why even
the church world around us, especially
in North Texas, says, look at me.
Look at my faith.
Look at how godly I am.
Look at our church.
Look at all the happy, beautiful
people doing happy, beautiful things.
I think Jesus might say, when
you show up at church, dot,
dot, dot, what's your motive?
I grew up in a small town with a city
politician who would show up at church
for like three months every two years
when the election cycle was coming up.
And he'd get elected and sort of disappear
for about another year and nine months.
I mean, that's some of the stuff
that Jesus is talking about.
Are we using religious
acts for personal platform?
Are we using anything that
looks like a faithful, godly,
good thing for personal gain?
And who does Jesus say, back to
the text, who pursues performative
public religious acts like this in
three of the four examples here?
What's he call them?
Hypocrites.
You know what that word means?
In Greek, it's the word for
actor, orator, one who wears
a mask, one who is disguised.
And so that's telling.
Just when you do these public
performative things, A, you're
not being your sincere self.
You're putting on an act.
You're becoming a character
is what he's accusing them of.
You're impersonating someone
who's not really you.
On the other hand, what's
the motive for an actor?
What's an actor receive for a great act?
Applause.
Which is fine in theater, to be clear.
It's fine if you're in
a performative moment.
It's fine if you're a comedian, a dancer.
Like, that's great.
Go for that.
But in the things of faith and the
things of religion and the good godly
acts before God and in normal life,
if we're performing, if we're putting
on a show, then we're taking this
rich, beautiful, meaningful thing
and turning into this cheap
show before an audience
looking for their applause.
When you give, don't sound a trumpet.
When you pray, don't
be like the hypocrites.
When you fast, don't look gloomy.
Because, Jesus says, "Truly I say
to you, they received their reward."
Truly I say to you, they've
received their reward.
And then the last verse, "Truly I say
to you, they've received their reward."
Oh, and then there's the neither will
your Father forgive you part, which
should be terrifying to all of us.
Here's the principle.
You wanna be seen by others,
you wanna be praised by people?
Great, their praise is your reward.
You're not gonna forgive?
Okay, you, you won't be forgiven.
Here, here's the heart
of what Jesus is saying.
We're gonna dive much more into
forgiveness in a couple weeks,
gotta move past it for the moment.
But, but in all, in all of these,
Jesus is saying, "You might get what
you want, but you're gonna miss God.
You're gonna miss the heart of God."
These are, these are treasures on Earth,
the applause of others, the celebration,
the notoriety, the fame, the platform,
whatever it is, the look at me.
That's treasures on Earth.
Moth, rust proverbially destroys that.
Does it feel good for a second?
Absolutely, it does, but
it has no lasting value.
It doesn't matter for eternity.
So again, is the answer
stop giving to the poor?
Stop praying, stop forgiving?
Stop fasting?
It is not.
Again, we're asking why
and how we do these things.
So if on one hand doing good and godly
things for our own glory and self lifts
us up, then on the other hand, there has
to be a way to do these good and godly
acts for God's glory and to lift God up.
Yes?
There is hope here.
So this is what Jesus says, "When
you give to the needy, don't 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."
A few verses later, "When you pray, go
into your room and shut the door and pray
to your Father who is in secret, and your
Father who sees in secret will reward you.
If you forgive others their
trespasses, your Heavenly
Father will also forgive you.
When you fast, anoint your head
and wash your face so 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."
All right, so we have to guard
against another extreme here.
If one extreme is doing everything for
ourselves, then if we're taking this
literally, is the question you can only
pray in literal secret in some closet
somewhere, you can never pray with others?
Like, should we rebuke Matt for asking
us to pray for the Lloyds because
we weren't, like, in secret here?
That was a joke.
We should not rebuke
Matt, just to be clear.
Like, that, that...
There, there, there's some, there's some
degree of swinging the pendulum too far,
'cause here's the tension: Jesus already
called us salt of the earth and light
of the world, and said, "Let your light
shine before others so that you can s-
they can see your good works and, and give
glory to Your Father who's in heaven."
So there's, there's gotta be this tension.
Like, it can't just truly be go off on
your own and sing a song, 'cause if you do
it with anybody else, that might be fake.
If you ever pray in the presence of
others, probably gonna get rebuked.
That's...
It can't, it can't be that far.
So what's the answer?
I think the, the, the underlying
principle for all of this is be normal.
Like, be fully devoted to God, but in
the context of just your everyday life.
Practice religion.
Give as, as a normal part of life.
Fast as a normal rhythm of, of, of
your week or month, or times of need.
Pray as a normal part of
your everyday devotion.
Forgive as a normal part of living
as one who has been forgiven.
'Cause if we live our everyday normal
life over here, and then somehow have to,
like, gear up for some massively public
big event before we go to the Lord in
prayer, or look around to make sure people
are watching before we make some donation
to some cause, we're somehow saying,
like, that's not part of normal life.
It's big, it's
extraordinary, it's postable.
It's, it's, it's worthy of living online.
But our, our everyday normal life,
that's not worthy of posting online.
That's boring.
It's mundane.
I wanna show people this part of my life.
What does it look like to give, fast,
pray, forgive, be part of a DNA,
answer Bible questions, read your
scriptures, do all the things, practice
disciplines, be part of a church family?
Like, what does it look like to do
p- to do all that stuff as just part
of our normal everyday lives with
our hearts set on becoming closer to
God, not, not seeking some audience,
not seeking the applause of others?
I think that's what Jesus is getting at.
Just be normal.
Does that sound too light?
I, I just wonder if that's the answer.
Like, practice these things
as part of just our normal
life of walking with Jesus.
And so as a follower of Jesus, give.
Yes.
Give.
Give generously, give often.
We'll pass around a
basket here in a minute.
You don't have to, like, hide
if you wanna put some stuff in.
In fact, we'd love you
to put something in.
Great.
Um, but, but part of that is going, like,
we're not asking you to wave it around.
We're not asking you to count
it and go, "I'm one-upping you."
That's for sure.
Like, give, give.
Give to the church.
Give to global missionaries.
Give to causes.
Give in a way that doesn't
even get you a tax write-off.
Just give.
We're generous people.
We've been...
We've received so much.
Give generously.
Give often.
But give in a way people can't praise you.
Giving, after all, says, "My job, my
money isn't what provides for me."
Giving is an active sacrifice that says,
"I, I need to trust you to provide for me.
I'm going to trust you such
that I even give something away
that I could use for myself."
It's an act of sacrifice.
It's an act of trust.
Give to glorify God.
Don't give to glorify you.
As followers of Jesus, pray.
Pray often.
Pray fervently.
Pray without ceasing.
Pray even if we don't
feel like God's listening.
But pray in a way that
people can't glorify you.
Again, prayer, similar to giving, prayer
says, "My mind can't figure this out.
My way isn't powerful enough.
I need you.
I trust you to make the things
happen that I need to happen.
I can't trust myself."
So prayer glorifies God, not you.
As a follower of Jesus, forgive people.
Forgive people readily.
Forgive people fully.
Don't give lip service to, to one
of the most holy and one of the
hardest parts of the Christian life.
Feels like one of those things,
like, we know we're supposed to
do it, so we'll, we'll say...
We'll, we'll pronounce
forgiveness outwardly before,
before we're ready in here.
You don't have to raise your hand
if you've ever had that experience,
but man, the only thing worse than
not forgiving is fake forgiveness.
Saying, "I forgive you," and
holding onto it in a way that
holds some debt above you.
Sin is a debt to God
before it is anything else.
Yes, people can sin toward us.
We can be sinned against.
But, but primarily, sin is breaking
God's law, breaking God's command.
And so we can't cancel
our own debt before God.
Only God can fully cancel
a debt, and he did.
And if we believe that, then every time
we forgive anyone of something they've
done toward us, we're reflecting the
heart of God that he first showed us.
And forgive in a way that glorifies
God, not in a way that makes you
the arbiter of somebody else's life.
Give in a way that glorifies
God, not, forgive in a way
that glorifies God, not you.
And if forgiveness is the hardest, fasting
may be the most foreign one of these
four in our, in our culture and context.
Um,
and I think Jesus might charge us
sometimes to, to fast, to do it
intentionally, to do it meaningfully.
But fast in a way that people
can't praise your piety.
Fast in a way that doesn't look
so like, "Oh, wow, I pray, I
forgive, but, but she fasts.
She's like A-team Christian."
Like, fast, fast is a normal part of life.
If you, if you're unfamiliar with this
practice, fasting says, "My food, my, my
drink, the, the things that I love, like,
that's not, that's not what sustains me.
I can't sustain my physical welfare, Lord.
I trust you with my life.
I trust you with my physical body.
I need you to sustain me."
And so there's a way that's fasting
to our own glory, and there's a
way to fast to the glory of God.
And then the same can be said about
being part of a church family, and the
same can be said about public reading
of Scripture, and the same can be said
about and about and about and about
disciplines and this kind of stuff,
and we could keep going forever.
You with me?
Again, we'll revisit these
verses after Memorial Day.
We'll, we'll dive deeper into the prayer
that Jesus teaches his followers to pray.
We'll, we'll revisit this
idea of, of forgiveness.
But for today, we just need to see
both the Lord's Prayer and, and
Jesus' words about forgiveness that
flow out of the Lord's Prayer, they
fit within this broader teaching.
And, and maybe it's just simply because
the Lord's Prayer can be one of the most
performative public prayers that's said,
but because it becomes so rote and ritual,
do we actually mean the words we pray?
Or is it just something that, oh,
as soon as we hear, "Our Father,"
we just click in and can say out
loud while our hearts aren't in it?
Uh, as a child, our, our church
recited the Lord's Prayer every
Sunday, so I learned it by, by
hearing it before I could even read.
Um, and it blew my mind when I read the
Scriptures that God's name was not Howard.
Because what I heard was, "Our Father
in heaven, Howard be your name."
But I, I, I think that's the point.
Like, we can hear and recite and say
words and do things and not hallow the
name of God, and not pray as if God
is actually holy and to be revered.
There's a Howard be your name way to fast.
There's a Howard be your
name way to to give.
It's this external thing that
has nothing to do internally.
Any godly act we can do can
flow from a right posture.
I'm not enough.
I need you, God.
Even my religious action, even
this practice of faith can't
produce or earn what I need.
And while that's hard to admit in a
world that says be performative, be
public, in a faith, a faith world that
says be performative, be public, that's
actually the, the best good news.
Almost every other religion on
Earth would say, "If you do these
things, God will love you more.
If you do more of this than other
people, you'll have a higher place.
You'll have a, a, a more
easy access to God."
You'll have all these different things
depending on the specific tradition.
But the fact that we can't earn God's
love, we don't have to be performative,
we don't have to be public, we can do
things in secret, it's the best good news.
'Cause what it reminds us is that
what we can't do and what our
acts can't accomplish, Jesus has
already done all that for you.
What are God's promises?
What are Jesus' promises?
Even in this text, if we pursue good and
godly acts with a pure and humble heart,
your Father in heaven will reward you.
It says seven times throughout this, "Your
Father who sees in secret, your Father
in heaven, your Father will reward you."
What's that reward gonna be?
It's probably not gonna be a lot
of money, probably not gonna be
platform, probably not a lavish life.
That kind of goes against what Jesus says.
Rather, throughout scriptures,
the, the rewards look like,
we've already read this, letting
our light shine before others.
Jumping down to the next verse, "Jesus'
divine power has granted to us all the
things that pertain to life and godliness
through the knowledge of Him who called
us to His own glory and excellence."
That's from II Peter.
The, the, uh, address got
cut off at the bottom.
The, the, the promise, the reward
looks like God supplying every need of
ours according to His riches and glory
in Christ Jesus from Philippians 4.
His reward looks like if we who are
evil know how to give good gifts
to our children, how much more
will your Father who's in heaven
give good things to those who ask?
And then you know what's right after that?
You know what the, the pinnacle of the
reward is in that, the pinnacle of,
of good gifts is in that last verse?
It's from Matthew 11...
Or Matthew 7.
Jesus will give you His Spirit.
God will give you His Spirit.
And so what's the reward?
The reward is, is God's promise
of giving you everything you need.
God might not give you everything
you want, but He promises to give you
everything you need, and more than that.
God promises to give you more of Himself.
And while that may feel kind of squishy,
may not feel tangible, that is the best
and highest reward that we can seek in
this life, 'cause it's the, the only true
reward that carries us into the next.
Jesus is our greatest reward.
And through that lens, these things,
praying in secret, fasting in
secret, pursuing the heart of God,
not just performative actions, those
things lead to treasures in heaven.
The acts are unseen, the posture's
harder to live out, but that is the value
that lasts and matters for eternity.
Amen?
And that's what we get to celebrate
at communion, is that at the cross,
Jesus showed the generosity of God.
He didn't withhold anything.
He gave generously.
We were poor spiritually,
and Jesus gave it all.
You were sinful and broken,
and God through Jesus's acts on
the cross forgave and healed.
You were empty, and God filled you.
You were unable to do any of
these things and earn God's love
and get our way back to God, and
yet Jesus did all that for you.