Well, it's good to see y'all tonight We have talked about this before but if you have ever heard about or studied People who detect counterfeit money one of the interesting things is that they don't spend very much time with counterfeit money That's always been very striking and interesting to me that actually they spend about 95 plus percent of their time with Genuine real money and they make these people sit for hours and hours and hours at a time Sitting with real money looking at it feeling it smelling it All those sorts of things just kind of figuring out all the little details of what makes money real And that's what's so interesting to me because in a very similar way The way that you can tell that something is off so to speak something is counterfeit Spiritually is by looking at the real thing, okay? And asking yourself the question is what I'm hearing does this measure up with what the Bible says to be true Okay, is what I'm hearing measure up with what the Bible says is accurate? Okay, well really the passes that we're going to look at tonight There is a group of people who were teaching some different things and they were acting in some different ways and Jesus approaches them and he's teaching about them and he's saying Actually, what they're doing is not right, okay? Something is off and he's gonna use the word hypocrite to help us understand what he means here and why What these people were doing was off why it wasn't the way that it was supposed to be because how they were portraying Christianity wasn't real Okay, in an effect it was fake, okay? It was not the real thing and that's what Jesus is gonna go after in this passage now He uses the word hypocrite which is really another word for the word counterfeit if you will to say that something is off But hypocrite is a term that comes from Greek acting, okay? And basically it means this it means actor all right now actors wore masks at the time in Order to play a part in the drama and they wore that over their faces to represent the different parts in the drama that they played So a lot of times there were maybe one or two or three people who had multiple masks that they would wear during the drama But because they played multiple characters in the drama, okay? So Jesus is alluding to that here and what he does is he takes this term from Greek theater and he Applies it in the spiritual realm and this is so interesting. He applies it to a certain type of Spirituality and he paints a picture if you will of what a hypocrite is like, okay? So basically the idea ends up being you appear to be one thing But in actuality you are something altogether different you look like one thing, but you're really not that way at all That's what Jesus is saying to these people and about these people, okay? So before we dive in let's go to the Lord and prayer and ask the Holy Spirit to help us tonight Father, I pray that by your spirit you would come and you would Open up our hearts that you would encourage us that you would challenge us that you would convict us where necessary But most of all let us see Jesus and his righteousness on our behalf a pray that tonight Especially in this passage would you give us hearts that are receptive hearts that are teachable and hearts that are humble and willing and ready To hear from you by your spirit tonight. We ask these things in the name of Jesus and for his sake. Oh, man Look at verse 1 of chapter 6 with me. Jesus gives us summary here He says this 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 And then after he gives that summary verse he gives Three kind of examples of how we can all in many different ways be spiritually hypocritical in our lives, okay? In verses 2 through 4 he talks about in our giving in 5 and 6 in our praying in 16 through 18 and our fasting Okay, but I want you to stop for a second and I want you to think about all the other ways that we can put on a spiritual costume So to speak okay that we can wear a mask in order to be thought of as spiritually mature, okay? Or highly spiritual or whatever Okay, maybe here's some things that come to mind knowing spiritual lingo or language, but having no real spiritual life Okay Knowing big theological words, but not letting the gospel impact the way that you live day in and day out Having a markup Bible without really interacting with the passage in the Bible personally Appearing one way at church or at our uf and another way when you're alone with your friends or your boyfriend or girlfriend Only read the Bible or pray in public not in private because the goal is to be seen by other people In small groups to have to be the person who has all the answers But all the while you haven't let the Bible sift through your own heart first You want people to know how theologically mature you are You want people to know how emotionally or spiritually mature you are you brag to people about not missing a devotion time perhaps You accidentally and I say that in quotes you accidentally let it slip in conversation that you did something great Okay, now here's the reality all of us at times can be spiritually hypocritical all of us Okay, every single one of us in this room can do these things at different times and in different ways But I want you to think about this a little bit more because This thing about being spiritually hypocritical is especially challenging in the world that we live in today because of social media Because you have been trained to broadcast everything that you do Think about it, okay? We love as a culture to advertise our goodness now since it's not the end of the semester I feel the freedom to say this if this was you then Repent. I'm sorry But one of the things that's so interesting to me at the end of the semester is how people will kind of Spiritualize the GPA thing right? I saw this at the end of last semester somebody said this and I quote so thankful God bless me with a 4.0 Okay, but then it went on after that it said this do all things to the glory of God Okay, and I thought that's Disgusting okay, because what you're doing is saying hey look at me. I've arrived But the problem is y'all we do the same things spiritually don't we all of us We take these things that we do and we try to say hey look at all these good things I've done Okay, now it could be something as simple as this It could be and it hear me right it could be taking a picture from a mission trip where you say I'm so glad I got to spend the week with so and so Now that's not a bad thing in and of itself don't hear what I'm not saying That's a good thing, but the problem is sometimes we could take things like that and make it more About ourselves because obviously a mission trip is not wrong It's not bad, okay, it's one of the reasons why we're actively planning one for spring break that we're gonna Tell you about soon It's not wrong But what Jesus is trying to get at here is the motives beneath Those things He's trying to go after the heart beneath when you begin to feel that sense of self-righteousness That smug sense of I'm pretty awesome for doing this Then Immediately you're good in righteous action becomes sinfully about you You see what he's getting at here. He's going after the motive down deep in the heart. That's beneath the behavior But here's the question Why would someone want to appear one way on the outside But actually be something entirely different on the inside What are spiritual hypocrites really after, okay? Well, Jesus tells us in verse one He says in order to be seen by people In verse two that they may be praised by others In verse five that they may be seen by others in verse 16 that their fasting may be seen by others Here's the bottom line and this is what he's trying to get at Spiritual hypocrites are chasing people's recognition, applause and approval Okay, they do it because they want to be seen They want to be praised. They want people to look at them and say man she gets it He gets it That's what they want people to think of them and that's what Jesus is attacking here um There is a few things in life that will make you feel as cool as driving a minivan on the college campus And I have gotten experience this a number of times because my wife drives a white minivan She's the only minivan in town that has an r u f sticker on it And I this past Friday was my wife's birthday and her mom came to town and we had a good time We decided that we were going to go to acre restaurant which is fabulous by the way And we were going to go there for dinner, okay? And so we pulled up to acre in the minivan because it was the only thing that could hold all of us, right? We pull up and at the same time right next to us pulls up a Nissan GTR Okay, now for those of you who don't know what that is Nissan GTRs they start at they start at $110,000, okay? It's a beautiful car We pull up literally right next to them and the valet guys I see them immediately Walk right by our van and go to the car, okay? And then they finally came over to us and I felt so Awkward I felt so embarrassed that I was driving a minivan That I looked at the valet guy and I just said I'm so sorry and He said he said for what and I said For driving a minivan. I'm just I'm sorry and I felt terrible But here's the thing it made me realize this okay I am going somewhere with this just follow me here The idea is this okay in our culture Normal is not cool Ordinary is not cool, okay? Living a simple behind the scenes Ordinary faithful Christian life isn't sexy And what Jesus is saying is that's the point Okay, that's what he's saying that's the point and that's why there's so much confusion And our culture between what we could call cultural Christianity versus what we would consider to be Real Christianity now y'all know this I'm not saying anything that's new But there is a pressure that I have noticed that all burn to be a certain type of way Okay, to relate a certain type of way There's a pressure to be moral There's a pressure to have all of your stuff together There's a pressure to be positive or happy most of the time and if you're a Christian There's a pressure for everything to always be wonderful And good as a Christian and you know what by the way There's a lot of churches in town that are the same way Where everything is happy everything is wonderful It seems as if they've got all their stuff together all the time And they provide an atmosphere that is fun it's entertaining it can even be somewhat of an escape But here's the problem folks That doesn't speak to day in day out normal every day life It just speaks to the times that are happy that are fun But that's not all that life is you know this because you experience suffering Right That's the way it goes But here's the thing Eventually People begin to sense this disconnect And the reason is because people want to find a place that takes God spiritually That takes other people spiritually that takes the gospel Seriously and that takes life Seriously Not just in the joys but also in the sorrows because both are a part of everyday life Here's the sobering part of this passage In verse one Jesus says that counterfeit Christianity will receive no reward From the Father who is in heaven Instead don't miss this three times Jesus says this They have already received their reward in verses two five and sixteen What's he saying here Okay, here's what he's saying Their reward is that they get what they want They get the praise of other people If your desire is to get other people to love you And to praise you Jesus is saying you're going to get that They get the praise of other people So do the song and dance perform and other people will be impressed with you They will think you're awesome But what Jesus is saying is that's it After that there is no reward The reward ends in the validation ends as well So what he's doing here is he's trying to contrast Counterfeit Christianity with what we would call authentic Christianity Okay, so let's take a few minutes and look at what the real thing looks like In verses two five and sixteen They give us some of the features of what authentic Christianity is and what it looks like So Jesus says notice When you give When you pray and when you fast his assumption is that you're already doing these things Okay, so what's he getting at here? You can have righteous looking actions. Don't miss this. You can have righteous looking actions and be fake Okay, but you can't have no righteous actions and be real Okay, that's what he's saying So genuine faith is evidence by good works. All right, that's what he's getting at Now interestingly in verse three Jesus tells us to do our acts of righteousness in almost secretive ways Look at verse three with me. This is so interesting He says don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing Here's what that means Basically this not only should you not do things so that other people will be impressed with you You should not do things so that you will be impressed with you That's what Jesus is getting at okay, and verses three through four. He says give secretly And verse six when you pray do it privately Do it secretly Verses 17 through 18 when you fast don't walk around all sunken face and talk about how hungry you are now What in the world is Jesus getting at here Here's what he's saying Because the gospel is true Because the gospel is real and it's for you you don't need to draw attention to yourself Because the gospel is true you don't need to be showing about your relationship with Jesus Nor do you need to advertise your righteousness Because the gospel is true You don't need to tell other people about the great things that you've done or the great things that you're presently doing That's what he's saying you don't need to impress anyone Because you don't have anything to prove You already have a heavenly father who loves you intimately And infinitely you have nothing to prove So what he's saying is that authentic Christianity involves good works that are seeking to glorify God Not seeking to glorify ourselves Good works done to make him more visible not good works done to make us look more visible You see the difference there of what he's talking about Notice the word that Jesus uses for God in this passage And versus in versus um one through eighteen Jesus uses the word father Ten times in these verses, okay Now, what does that point us towards the real reason That hypocrites do what they do The real reason that hypocrites seek the praise of people want people to notice them To see all the good things they're doing is because they don't know God experientially as their father Okay, they're trying frantically to find and construct their own identity Which ends up being this endless search for meaning for significance for identity and satisfaction That only breeds spiritual anxiety it only breeds Trying to justify ourselves But folks here's the point We did the same thing all the time We forget not only who we are, but we also so easily forget who's we are and who we belong to Last year for fall break my family and I went down to seaside We saw a number of y'all there that week that was fun, but we went to seaside over fall break last last year and We were running around downtown we ate dinner one night early and we just kind of sat around in the little amphitheater area down there and Nancy and my oldest daughter Emily went into that really cool bookstore and Kate my youngest daughter said I just want to stay out here in the amphitheater and run around and so I sat on the wall And just watch Kate run it we're on around for a while But it was interesting because it was dark outside Okay, it had gotten dark and so Kate starts taking off and she just runs in all these different directions And then all of a sudden you could tell she stops in her tracks because she doesn't know where I am She starts looking around kind of frantically looking in different places Should run for a few a few yards and stop and look around then she'd run the other way and stop and look around And she could not find me now keep in mind the whole time I see her little glowing shoes going back and forth like I know where she is the whole time I'm watching her I'm not saying anything, but I'm watching her But she doesn't know where I am Okay, so she keeps running and looking around and all of a sudden she gets frantic As she doesn't know where I am and all I did was I said her name one time and immediately I could see she turned her face and looked directly in the in the direction of my voice directly at me And y'all the same thing is true in how we relate to God See by deeply knowing God as your father his love for you and Jesus becomes your identity So that you aren't tossed around like the waves of the ocean Driven to find yourself to find meaning and significance and satisfaction and all those things because your identity is in Jesus Jesus has given himself for you He is your identity You were found in him His righteousness belongs to you You belong to him He is yours and you are his And see what this passage is pointing you towards Is that you're being called out of that identity Being loved in Jesus completely and fully Forever you're being called out of that identity to live for God's glory and not for your own glory Not to make yourself more visible, but to make God more visible See that's the beauty of the Christian life is that you are free from having to try to get everybody to be impressed with you The goal is not to get people impressed with you. The goal is to make Jesus visible to make Jesus glorified That's the goal of the Christian life So you've got to ask yourself the question Am I doing the things that I'm doing so that people will notice me Or am I doing what I'm doing because I want Jesus to be visible to everybody That's the question That's what you're being called to Will you wrestle with it Let's pray father. I thank you for this challenge to us And God if we're honest tonight we all confess every single one of us in this room confess That this is an area that reminds us of our great need for you And we thank you Jesus that You are not just our example, but you are our savior A pray that you would fix the eyes of our hearts upon yourself Help us to make you more visible more glorified in everything that we do Please don't let us make life make the things that we do about us Free us from that help us to remember that we don't need to do those things Because we have no one to impress and nothing to prove Because you are our identity in Christ you love us infinitely For that we give you thanks pray that you would help us to rest in that to trust that And to live out of that identity the praise these things in Christ's name on that