It's never comforting when you walk up and something is happening on your computer in front of a couple hundred people. So hopefully all is well. We're good. It's working. All right. So again, I apologize for my voice. I hope that it's not a distraction this morning. I really thought I was safe. start a cold two weeks ago, and then to get here today. I'm thankful for last week's missions conference and all the great time we had with the missionaries and last week's service with the missionaries. with Stephen Poindexter, who preached for us last week. And I'm thankful for Dave, who actually, Pastor Dave, who preached two weeks ago. And he introduced this particular section as we get into Matthew chapter 6. He started with verses 1 through 4. If you were following along today with Andrew, Andrew read verses 1 through 8 and skipped 9 through 15, which is the text we're going to focus on next week. So this is what we're going to cover today in verses 5 through 8 and verses 16 through 18. And then next week we'll actually focus on the passage that actually contains the Lord's Prayer, what's commonly known as the Lord's Prayer. But I really think that Dave's message a couple weeks ago, Matthew 6, 1-4, and today's message, we could have probably tackled it in one service, but Dave, thankfully, he took care of a lot of the background, and so we're going to just jump right in to our text. What we have been, into our study, as we have been considering Matthew's Sermon on the Mount, his reminding us and telling us what happened, what Jesus said during his Sermon on the Mount, we have been using, I personally have been using this term Kingdom Righteousness. And it is the idea that as children of God, we are called to live like our Father in heaven. We are supposed to manifest His attributes that we're able to manifest. And so we're supposed to live righteously. in a way that glorifies him. And so we're only able to do that if we are citizens of the kingdom. And that's why I call it kingdom righteousness, because it's not a righteousness that we can manifest on our own. It's not something that we can come up with. It is a righteousness that is ours because of what Jesus Christ has done on our behalf. So kingdom righteousness is to characterize the lives of Jesus' disciples. And if you are here this morning and you have placed your faith in what Jesus Christ did on the cross, He died so that your sins could be atoned for. Just like all the sacrificial lambs in the history of Israel died to atone for sin, they were all pointing to the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ. And if you have come to know that as truth for you and the reality that your sins were placed on Jesus Christ on the cross, then you are saved. You are born again. You are a child of God. You have stepped from death to life. All that terminology that we use to describe Christians. And one of the terms that we use often is this idea of a disciple. And it came up in our Sunday school class today. I was very thankful for this. What is a disciple? Other churches use the word follower of Jesus, which is fine. A disciple of Jesus is someone who's following Jesus' teachings. If Jesus were here, we would be sitting at his feet as disciples, as his disciples did at the Sermon on the Mount when he's speaking to them. His disciples are listening, but they're not just listening politely. They're listening with the intent of taking what he is teaching and putting it into their life and living it out. And that's what we are called to do. We are called to live out this kingdom righteousness as an aspect of our lives. Jesus' disciples act righteously in front of others to point them to God. This is, certainly we're called to live as disciples and live righteously, but there's part of the point of that living is to live it in front of others who do not know Jesus. And we remember this from Matthew 5.16, which is our theme verse for the year, but it's also not too long ago in the text. We're called to live out our faith. in front of people, and that might sound frightening to you. You mean I have to be vocal? Well, you really should. You mean I have to do right all the time? Well, yeah, you're supposed to live righteously all the time, not just in certain parts of your life. But one of the questions I thought about is, you know, when do righteous acts cease to be righteous, right? We're going to look at three. Dave already looked at the first one for us, but I'm going to remember it for all of our benefits here in a minute. But when do righteous acts cease to be righteous? And I think it's when they point to someone other than God. We're going to talk about giving, prayer, and fasting today. That's what we're gonna talk about. Not so much about the giving, because that's what Dave talked about. But Dave introduced his sermon last week, verse one, with take heed. He called that a warning, and I do believe he's correct. It's a warning. Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds, which he defined as righteous acts. And if you want to go back, please go back and listen to his sermon. He did a good job explaining that. If you take ye lest you do your righteous acts before men to be seen by them, otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven. So this is the introduction to these three aspects of righteousness, these three righteous acts that we are called to participate in, and that is giving, prayer, and fasting. And he says, listen, the issue in this text is warning Make sure you're focusing on who you're supposed to focus on. Don't seek to be seen by others. If that's your motivation, as Dave was explaining last week, you're in error, you're in sin. It's a dangerous place to be. So I thought to myself that Christians have a choice. If you're a Christian, if you've come to faith in Christ, you have this choice. If you have not come to faith in Jesus, you don't have a choice. First choice. Christians can live as disciples of Jesus, sitting at His feet, listening to His words as I've already described. Or we can live as hypocrites. We can live as those that say we know the truth, but we aren't living the truth. And we know that nobody likes a hypocrite. Nobody cares for a hypocrite. I think Dave probably expressed the truth that the term hypocrite is the idea of an actor. It's the idea of wearing a mask. Back in, certainly this century, a hypocrite was an actor who would put on a mask to play a part. But he wasn't that part. I mean, if we were to do it in our day and age, we would put a mask on and say, Shakespeare, King Lear, or whatever. We'd put a mask on if we were pretending to be King Lear. And we would, during that portion of time, we would pretend to be him, but we are not him. A hypocrite is someone who wears a mask. They are pretending to be something that they are not. For a Christian to live as a hypocrite is to say, I am seeking to be godly, but my life is not actually demonstrating that. Matthew, as we go into the text, he gives us examples of righteous acts, and I put them all on one slide for us to start off with. He says, therefore, when you do charitable deeds, the idea of giving, this is verse two, so this is the idea of when you're actually giving to charity or giving of your resources, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites. Then in verse 5 we see, and when you pray, you should not be like the hypocrites. And moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites. So we see these three areas of righteous acts, giving, prayer, and fasting. And then I want to bring your focus as Dave did. Each one is introduced with the word when. And this word is conveying the idea that It's expected that you're actually doing these things. Now, Jesus is talking to his disciples. He's describing what kingdom living is all about, what kingdom righteousness is all about, and he says, when you are giving, and you should, when you are praying, and you should, and when you are fasting, which you should, right, when you're doing those things, you are doing righteous acts, and so he gives us examples. Now, this is not an exhaustive list. I think we could think of some other areas of righteous acts that we do. Now, what fascinates me is the three of these are all in the aspect of worship. We have already had an offering today, so we've accomplished giving. We've already prayed to open the service. We'll pray at the end of the service. The fasting part of it, we're gonna talk about that. That's not necessarily something we do as corporate worship, although we could. We just haven't. I'll talk more about that maybe later. But all three of these are in the aspect of worship. I think to myself, if any of these instrumentalists were to take this to heart, that they would be up here playing their instrument with the idea of doing it to God's glory. When they are playing the keyboard, or playing the guitar, or when they are singing, when the vocalists are singing, they ought to do it not like the hypocrites. And so, because I believe there probably are hypocrites that do those things too. So this is not an exhaustive list. Jesus is just trying to draw our attention that there is a way to be in a disciple and there's a way that a disciple should not be lived. You should not be acting. So he gives us these examples of, he also gives, so he gave us examples of these righteous deeds, but he also gives us the idea of what a hypocrisy is. And it's the same thing. It's amazing to me to think about the fact that we can be involved in worship and some of us in this room, myself included, at any given point on a Sunday worship could be guilty of hypocrisy. We could be guilty of saying, I'm here but I'm really not here. Matthew has been pointing out that our righteousness is supposed to exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, the religious people of their day. And he's gone through, and I'm not gonna rehash all that, but he's saying, listen, Christians have the ability to act the part, but not to have the internal reality present. And we have to be careful. When we say we are coming to worship, We are coming to worship, but we are saying we're worshiping God, and if we're guilty of standing here and not actually worshiping, we look the part, but we're not actually doing it, we're a hypocrite. So these examples are the same, whether it's acts of righteousness or acts of hypocrisy, they're the same. And he's saying, listen, when you're doing these acts of hypocrisy, he's saying, do not, every one of these things, giving, prayer, and fasting, do not do as the hypocrites. Do not, you shall not be like the hypocrites. You do not be like the hypocrites. I think Jesus was trying to get an important point across. We're not supposed to be like these hypocrites. And he's exposing these hypocrites for who they are, but please understand, Jesus knew the heart of every person. We do not know the heart. We have to be careful, because I don't think this text is necessarily telling us to point out the hypocrites. The point of this text is for us to look at ourselves, to evaluate ourselves. Are we hypocrites? Are we acting as true disciples? So the motivation to hypocrisy is what I want to talk about first. I'm going to talk about the negative and we'll finish with the positive. But the motivation to hypocrisy is seen in each of those verses, each of those sections as well. For those that want to give, they give that they may have glory from men. I remember being a little kid in the church and throwing my change into the offering plate and enjoyed it when I heard the clinking and the clanking, right? It's like, ooh, people know I gave. I do remember the guy that in two rows in front of me as a kid, I saw the plate go through and he put in a bill and took out four other ones. That kind of shocked me. I was like, I think he put a five and took four ones out. But it's, you know, it was a kid. They didn't have ATM machines back then, right? So, but we can see that here it says that they may have glory from men when they're giving. That they may be seen of men when they're praying, verse five. And that they may appear to men when they're fasting. And we'll look at the text in more detail in a minute. But we see these three acts of righteousness that Jesus is highlighting. He's highlighting for the purpose, and they're very specific purpose, but they're paralleled, each one. So what is the benefit of hypocrisy? You think, well, there can't be a benefit to hypocrisy. Well, there actually is a single benefit to hypocrisy in the context of this text. It's that they have their reward. Each one, same words. They have what they were looking for. They have the applause of men. They have the special nature, the special appreciation of those around them. Because remember, hypocrites are not worshiping in acts of righteousness. They're not doing it to worship God. They're doing it for the benefit of themselves. And Jesus is telling them that when hypocrites do these things, they have the reward. It's done. And I would ask you to consider if you've ever experienced this. I have experienced this in my life, especially in ministry. You know, young believer, I'm in a group of people at a college campus and I'm asked to pray or I'm asked to share a testimony or something and you do a good job and people come up to you and they're patting you on the back, yeah, yeah, and you're like, yeah, I did do Oh, wait a minute, that was wrong. Or maybe what's happening here is that I want to, as your pastor, maybe I want, David talked about this last week, Dave, Pastor Dave, talked about this a couple weeks ago. He's like, the idea that you get into our heads and our hearts, right? is that we might want to please you. We might want to somehow not say a statement as strong as we should because we don't want to offend or something like that. Those pressures are real when you're preaching. But the reality is, whenever you're seeking to please others, that in the end, as a hypocrite, you have your reward. You might have the blessing of other people, but you don't have the blessing of God. The way of the hypocrite is focused on receiving the praise of men and therefore falls eternally short of God's rewards. They have their, that's what everything we've talked about, they have their reward, it's done. But we seek other rewards, do we not? We seek rewards that God would have us receive in the future, excuse me. But I think we're supposed to be encouraged that we're not supposed to pursue the way of the hypocrite. I think that's pretty straightforward. What about the way of the disciple? I mean, is there a way for us? Well, yes, there is. The way of the disciple is focused on receiving the praise of God and therefore will eternally rejoice in God's rewards. It's a simple message, folks. This is not rocket science. It's not deep theology. This is day-to-day living out the Christian life. And we are called to give to God's glory, to pray with a dependence among God, to fast with a desire to discern God's will, whatever that fast may be accomplishing. But we are supposed to pursue the way of a disciple. We just covered in Sunday school class the idea of the strategy of discipleship that we're calling is discover, believe, connect, serve, multiply. If you haven't taken the beginnings class, take it. If those words are not familiar to you, take the beginnings class. Look on our website. Go on our new website and look at these things because we have a desire as your pastoral staff to see you grow and mature in your faith, in your knowledge of scripture. We desire that you follow the way of the disciple, a genuine disciple of Jesus Christ who's seeking to learn and to fulfill part of that great commission. Jesus said, teaching them all things that I've commanded you. And Lord, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. He's saying, listen, I have teachings. Listen to them. Practice them. Because the way of the disciple is focused on receiving the praise of God, not the praise of men. And therefore, there's no falling short in this area. you will eternally rejoice in the rewards that God gives us. The focus for the Christian life is not on the rewards. But let's not shy away from the fact that the rewards are real and genuine and they will be given to us by God. He will decide what they are, who gets what, and we will rejoice in it for eternity. But our rewards are not temporal. They're spiritual and they're eternal. So how do we receive the praise of God? That's a great question for a Christian to ask. And so I ask you to consider, how do we receive, that should be a question mark there, how do we receive the praise of God? Well, as you look in the text, he says, when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. Here's the first example. The second one, giving's the first one. This is the first one for today. When do we pray? He's saying, don't be like them. What are they doing? They are praying standing in the synagogues. The normal posture of prayer was more of a standing position, arms raised. This was a normal way to pray, all right? And it's a beautiful, open palms, hands up, directing to God, and we're praying. But they loved to pray, all right, the Greek here is, the nuance of the Greek is fascinating because it says they loved to pray, standing in the synagogues, That's when they love to pray. It's not that they love to pray and, oh, by the way, standing. It's like, no, they love to pray standing in the synagogues. That's when they love the prayer because the prayer that they're offering isn't intended to be for God. It's intended for people to notice and for people to think that they're more holy and they're going to gain the respect of people. Remember, these are hypocrites. They're putting on the mask, and Jesus is exposing them and saying, listen, they, speaking of the hypocrites, love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets. It was the practice of the certain times of day that you would pray, and wherever you were in that time of day, you would stop and pray. Well, miraculously, these people would find their ways to the corners of busy streets so that they would all, oh, look at the time. Oh, and then they would pray, right? Oh, look how they're dressed. Look how godly they are. They're stopping what they're doing and they're praying. They're hypocrites. It's for show and nothing else. It's for the appeal of men. They do the same thing, so they do it in synagogues, they do it in the corners, and Jesus says that they do this so that they might be seen of men, and he says they have their reward. But on our side, he says, but you, you, disciples, when you pray, now here's where some very practical, he says, go into your room, And when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly." And I'll just throw it out there, in many translations, the word openly is not there, right? It's filled in. It's in some manuscripts, not in the majority of the manuscripts, much like what Dave was talking about last week. But the idea of reward is very true. It's the idea of, listen, our Father rewards those who pray in secret. Does that mean we should not pray publicly? No, that's not what he's saying. But he's saying the way of a disciple is one who is characterized by praying privately. How do we receive the praise of God? I'm going to keep being reminded that I failed to put a question mark there, so just ignore it from every slide from hereafter, all right? How do we receive the praise of God? We pray privately. You've heard of a prayer closet. You may have seen the movie, what was it called? War Room, thank you. Wow, I actually understood you that time. All right, so yeah, War Room. So this is a real thing. Prayer is a real thing. And we're gonna talk more about prayer next week as we look at the Lord's Prayer and talk a little bit more in depth about what we're encouraged to do by Jesus. But here he's saying you have the hypocrite on one side and you have the disciple on the other. And he's saying, listen, make part of your life the private prayer. that only God knows. Don't seek the affirmation of men. Seek the approval of God and come to Him in prayer. But he goes further and he says, And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore, do not be like them, for your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask. And so he's saying, listen, first of all, pray privately. Next, he goes, pray naturally. Where am I getting that from? It's the idea of like, listen, don't use vain repetition. If we talked the way we often pray to people, they would think we're crazy. We're reciting things, and we have a relationship with God, our Father, because of what His Son, Jesus Christ, has done. And when we pray, we enter into the power of the Holy Spirit as we're praying, and we're able to pray naturally. When I say naturally, what do I mean? If you use slang in your speech, if that's the way you communicate, use slang. God understands slang. I'm not saying rudeness or crudeness. I'm just saying if you were taught to never say ain't, but you used ain't in your regular vocabulary, use ain't when you're talking to God. I'm saying just when you come to God, he's a person. And He desires to commune with you. He desires to have relationship with you. And you've heard it before, you know, there's people that come out, the ones that would, they're more stereotypical, but they'll say, oh God, our Father, we praise Thee, and we, you know, all those things. But listen, is that how you talk to your spouse, or your children, or your friend? No. No, you just, hey. You got a minute? I could really use some encouragement. I could really use some advice. Pray naturally. Pray to God because he's a person and he's listening. It says it right there. For your father knows the things you have need of before you ask him. He already knows. And what's fascinating to me is that right after this verse 8, 9 through 13 I think it is, is the actual Lord's Prayer. And it says there, don't use vain repetition. That is the one prayer that is probably prayed more vainly and repetitiously than anything else. It's the most famous prayer in the world. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And that's where you stop if you're under a certain tradition. And then other ones say, for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, amen. So we know that prayer. It's wrote. It's memorized. but it's scripture. And for us to repeat scripture is totally fine, not a problem. But to repeat it vainly, what does that mean? I'm just saying the words, but I'm really kind of checked out. I'm going through the motions. I did this for most of my young life until I got saved. Now I read that, I'm like, wow, that's a high standard of Christian living that we're called to. Forgive others as we've forgiven them? Whoa. So when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do, the non-believers. There is a practice, obviously, in that society to do that. But they think they'll be heard for their many words. Listen, if we're encouraging, if we're supposed to pray naturally and you're a succinct person, pray succinctly. If you're a verbose person, I mean, someone that just has an artistic way of speaking, speak that way. Just be genuine, be natural, talk to God, because He desires to communicate with you. He wants you to talk to Him. He wants to talk to you. Then we jump down to verse 16. He says, So here's another aspect of Christian life. It's not one that we often practice in Baptist circles corporately, but I know many, many people who fast privately, and I think that's appropriate. I would be open to a corporate fast. with plenty of announcement and plenty of caveats on safety and all those things. But I'm just saying, as we talk here, fasting was part of the Jewish life. They were actually commanded to fast at one point in the calendar year, but through tradition and other things, they would fast at other times, sometimes corporately. A king could declare a fast for all of Israel because of some pending danger or important decision that had to be made. And so that's often when you see fasting taking place is when someone or a group of people are searching the will of God. And they're saying, I am choosing to fast. I'm not going to give you the detail. Fasting is basically to do without food for a period of time. But you could fast other things. You can fast your time. You can fast your resources. You can fast other aspects of life. I'm just going to leave it at that. I did this growing up. It was at the season of Lent. I would give something up. I gave up TV once. It was one of the hardest things I ever did, but I'll tell you, I benefited from it. I was addicted to TV as a kid, and I fasted for 40 days. I did not watch TV. It was hard, but it was good. So I'm just saying, this idea of fasting, it's not foreign to us, but when should we fast? It's not a mandate of the church. Jesus doesn't command us to fast. But yet he says, when you fast, the expectation is that you are doing it. So I encourage you, research fasting. Consider doing it as an individual. Consider doing it as a family. But when you do it, do it in a certain way. He says, but when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your father who is in the secret place. You're only concerned about the father. You're only concerned about how he sees you. And your father who sees in secret will reward you. So I put it this way, fast secretly. I actually had fast clandestinely, but that's just too much of a military term, right? Clandestine, you know, secretly. But secretly is a lot easier to communicate, right? In other words. It's not wrong to tell people that you're fasting. I know some of the pastoral staff, they fast at different times. They let us know. Like if we say, hey, you want to go to lunch? It's like, well, no. Actually, well, are you sure? No, I'm fasting. That's OK. They weren't doing that to be prideful. You certainly ought to probably tell the people in your home who are preparing the meals. Right? Hey, I'm going to go on a fast, just so you know. But you're not coming up here and saying, hey, by the way, I'm fasting for the next week. Anyone want to join me? Right? It's not the idea. It's the idea of do it secretly, do it for God's approval. So the benefit of acting righteously, all right, there were benefits, remember the singular benefit of acting as a hypocrite was you received a reward. The benefit of acting righteously in these three areas and many others, all right, is the idea that God rewards those, right? He will himself reward you, verse four. He will reward you, verse six and verse 18. God rewards the righteous acts of his disciples. And we ought to seek to participate in those things as we are led to. So the way of the disciple is focused on receiving the praise of God and therefore will eternally rejoice in God's rewards. There is going to come a time where we stand before God and our works will be evaluated if they're gold, silver, precious stones, or wood, hay, and stubble. Again, I think Dave pointed that out a couple weeks ago. What survives the fire? God says there are rewards attached to that. But it's His rewards. He determines what it is. Don't pursue the rewards. Pursue God. And be thankful for the rewards that He will ultimately give. So I wanted to just give you further encouragement to live out kingdom righteousness. And there's just one or two slides left here. Further encouragement. I thought it was interesting that as we talk about the giving, that our Father hears, excuse me, as we talk about our prayer, our Father hears our secret prayers. That's good news, isn't it? As we talk about being a disciple, what's the benefit of being a disciple of Jesus Christ? We have access to God. Again, Dave said it two weeks ago, we can boldly step into his presence. But our Father hears our secret prayers. He knows our genuine needs. He knows what we need. And he knows how to discern what we want and what we need. And he says, I will give you what you need. And our father sees our burdened hearts. That's the idea of the fasting that I'm encouraging. When should you fast? Should it be a weekly thing? Should it be a monthly thing? Well, I'd say at a minimum, it ought to be a burden thing. When you are seeking God's wisdom and you have to make a decision, that's when I think you ought to fast. And to say, Lord, I'm going to set aside food at certain times of the day for a certain period of time, whatever that might be, because I am burdened. with something. I have a decision to make. I'm having an issue in my family. I have an issue at work. I am discerning a career change. I'm trying to figure out if you're calling me into ministry or if you're calling me to the promotion. You're in a place where you just need God to know that you're sincere in your desire to serve him no matter what. There are many people who practice fasting as if it's somehow special spirituality. Just get away from that. God doesn't, oh, oh, he's fasting. Move him to the front of the line, right? No. He wants genuineness of heart. It's what he's been talking about this entire time. Do your work so that men will see them, but they'll glorify God. Be perfect as I am perfect, right? The idea of be like a child of God, have the characteristics of your Father. He's saying be a disciple who seeks the praise of the Father in Him alone. Are you willing to pursue God this morning? Are you willing to be a follower of Jesus in every area of your life? Because that's what we're called to. All right, let's pray. Father, I thank you for the encouragement of your word. Thank you for the gift of giving. I have been on the receiving end of giving and I have been on the giving end of giving and both are just beautiful. manifestations of your grace to me and through me. I'm thankful for that, Father. I'm thankful for the giving of these people week after week for allowing things to continue here at Merrimack Valley Baptist Church. But I'm thankful for the private giving that goes on between children of God as one hears a need of another and meets that need without any fanfare. So Father, I thank you that we can give. I thank you that we can pray, that we can come into your presence. Yes, boldly, but often in a crushed spirit, needing help, needing to know that you are there and you are caring. And Father, thank you for the good news that you hear our every prayer. Thank you for this gift of fasting, which I think, I know, I speak for myself, I don't practice nearly enough. Thank you, Father, that you promised to sustain us even during those times. And thank you, Father, for the message of this whole section that Jesus is talking to his disciples. He's saying these acts of righteousness, these please you when they're done with the intent of glorifying you. Father, may every aspect of our life be lived with the same goal and to be lived out in such a way that we know, that you know, that it's sincere. And Father, when we fall and we are guilty of being a hypocrite, Father, I pray that you'd call us to account, but that we would, in that moment, repent of that sin and start doing right again. Stop wearing the mask. and being the genuine disciple you've called us to be. Father, we praise you. I pray that as you are working in hearts even now, in whatever area that you are choosing to work in, Lord, I pray that your people would respond as you would have them to respond. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.