Matthew 6, verses 1-6 and 16-18. Jesus says, take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men to be seen by them. Otherwise, you have no reward from your Father in heaven. Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But when you do a charitable deed, Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret, and your father who sees in secret will himself reward you openly. And 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. Surely, I say to you, they have their reward. When you pray, 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. Verse 16, Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites with a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, 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, and your father who sees in secret will reward you openly." Parents, suppose that your teenage child on a Saturday is especially respectful and nice to you. They do their chores and even volunteer to do extra chores. And you wonder, why are they being so nice to me today? Well, later you find out that they're going to ask to go on a very late night outing with their friends. They were doing the right thing, but probably not for the right reason. And you know, the same thing can happen in our relationship with God. We may do things that a Christian ought to do, but as we see in this text, we may do them for the wrong reason. Let me ask you a question. Why do you attend church? I'm so glad that you're here today? Do you attend church because you love God and want to worship God and grow closer to Him? Or is it possible that you're here today because a family member expects you to be here, and if you're not here, things aren't going to go so well at home? Or perhaps you come because you just want to be with friends. Or perhaps some may even come to be seen and to be viewed as respectable. Well, you know, it's really important that we do the right thing for the right reason. Because Jesus says if you do it for the wrong reason, it may show that there's some hypocrisy. that you're just outwardly one way, but inwardly, you're something else. And also, it can affect your reward from God if you don't do things the right way for the right reason. I want to point out something else. In chapter 5, Jesus says, you know, you can commit murder in your heart by hating someone. You can commit adultery in your heart by lusting after someone. We're sinners, and it's often that we do not admit that we're sinners. But here in this text, even when we do the right things, we can do it for the wrong reason, thus showing the sinfulness of our own hearts. And so Jesus is preaching this Sermon on the Mount to help us to see that we are sinners and that we need the salvation that He Himself will provide. And so let's see what Jesus says here about having the right motivation when we do the right things. And I want to share first of all this morning the fact that we should practice righteous deeds. Verse 1, I believe it should be translated, take heed that you do not do your righteous deeds before men to be seen by them. Yes, we are to do righteous deeds. And James says in his epistle that faith without works is dead. If we have truly been saved on the inside, we will manifest our righteousness on the outside. And so Jesus gives three examples of righteous deeds that were practiced by all religious Jews. In fact, these three righteous deeds are included in the five pillars of Islam. And Jesus teaches that in this text of Scripture, he was expecting not only the Jews but also his disciples to do these three things. And what are they? First of all, we ought to practice giving. Verse two, when you do a charitable deed. Notice he did not say if you do this, but when you do this. He was expecting it. You know, by nature, we may be more eager to receive gifts than give gifts, The righteous thing to do, as Jesus said, it is more blessed to give than to receive. But notice the particular kind of giving that Jesus mentions here. He talks about charitable deeds, giving all. It's literally an act of mercy. Where you see someone in need and out of compassion, And out of mercy, you help them with that need, giving what they need. And helping the poor. There were many poor in that day and time, in that society. It was commanded by the law of Moses. It was exhorted by the prophets. And it was taught by Jesus himself. Of course, they gave their tithes and offerings to support the priest and the Levites and the work of the temple, but the rabbis viewed giving alms to the poor as the highest form of giving. And at the close of this service this morning, you will have an opportunity to give to our benevolence offering, doing the very thing that Jesus is talking about here. I would encourage this church to start participating in the annual World Hunger Offering of Southern Baptists. They do that every August. Supports given to the poor through our missionaries. And you know, when you come across someone that has a financial need, especially if they ask for help, then Christian responsibility is that we should help them if we can. And so we should give alms, gifts to those in need, but we also should pray, Jesus says in verse 5. He says, when you pray, he assumes that we will pray. And you know, Jews practice prayer at least three times every day. And it was one of the most important duties in the life of a Jew, and it's certainly one of the most important duties in the life of a Christian. And next Sunday, I will share more about what Jesus says about how not to pray and how we should pray. And so the question is, do you pray on a regular basis? Most of us pray at meals. Most of us pray when we come to church. Most of us pray when we face a great need in our lives. But we really ought to pray every day. It is a righteous deed that we ought to engage in. But Jesus also talks about fasting. Well, that's not a very popular subject among Baptists. You know, we like to eat. but it was definitely practiced by the Jews. It was a form of self-denial, and Jesus said that we are to be willing to deny self. When you fast, you deny something in the physical realm that you might achieve a spiritual purpose. And so the Jews would fast. But yet the Old Testament law only required the fast one time a year, and that was on the Day of Atonement. But there are other notable examples of fasting in the Old Testament. Moses fasted as he went up into that mountain. They would fast as a means of national repentance. And by the time of Jesus, Many religious Jews would fast twice a week. Twice a week. They would fast all day long until sunset. And so not only did the Jews practice fasting, but Jesus himself fasted for 40 days, remember, in the wilderness before he faced those temptations by the devil. I found five examples of fasting in the New Testament church according to the book of Acts. And Paul commended fasting for certain situations in the book of 1 Corinthians. And so with the fulfillment of the Day of Atonement, fasting is not required of Christians, but it is something that we Christians should consider doing at least from time to time, as long as it's voluntary and as long as we do it for the right reasons. Sometimes when revival is coming, Christians will fast and pray in preparation for revival. Sometimes you may be going through a difficult time in your life and you fast and pray. There is something good about that. And there are also some health benefits for fasting that we could keep in mind. And so Jesus says giving of alms, praying, fasting, these are things that we ought to do. These are spiritual disciplines we ought to engage in. And you know, there are other spiritual disciplines I could commend for your consideration. Daily Bible reading. to accompany your daily prayer, I think is a great thing to do. Then, weekly church attendance. We ought to discipline ourselves to attend services at a regular basis. We have communion on the first Sunday of the month. The Lord commanded us to remember Him by means of this communion observance. And so we ought to engage in these righteous practices as part of our Christian living. But I want you to see secondly this morning that we need to beware of wrong motives as we do these things. Notice what Jesus says in verse 1. Take heed. that you do not do your righteous deeds before men to be seen by them. In the original Greek language, it's clear that Jesus is saying, don't do these righteous deeds for the purpose of being seen by men. Because you know that if they see you do these things, They are going to admire and respect and perhaps even compliment and praise you for your devotion. If that is your motivation, you're doing it for the wrong reason. In fact, the Greek word translated scene is the word from which we get our English word theater from. And so Jesus is saying, when you do your religious deeds, it should not be a show. It should not be an act. It should be from your heart. And when it's only an outward act, then you may be guilty of the very hypocrisy that Jesus talks about in this text of scripture, that word hypocrite in Greek. We get hypocrite from it. It actually referred to the Greek play actor who would put a mask in front of his face and play the part of someone he was not. And when we simply pray and fast and worship and give alms as an outward act, And it's not truly something that you do because you're a Christian, because you love God, because like God you love people. Then it can be an act of hypocrisy rather than an expression of true faith. And so he gives some examples of doing these things for the wrong reason. The first is giving alms. Verse 2, therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound the trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and the streets. It's quite possible that some wealthy Jews would actually have someone sound the trumpet to announce that so and so is about to give alms. And then the poor would gather around and he would dole out his alms to the poor and oh how the poor would praise him and commend him for his devotion. Or it may be used symbolically to indicate any way that someone advertises and calls attention to their giving of alms. Perhaps he would have like a front man go out and say, brother so and so is about to give alms, gather around and they gather around and he gives alms and he leads the crowd in applauding such generosity. Now, Jesus actually saw people do this, or He wouldn't have said something about it. Years ago, I had a deacon who was blessed with making good money, and he also was a very generous giver with the money that God blessed him with. So far, so good. But he actually would say on numerous occasions this little saying, he that toots his own horn, the same shall not be tooted. And he would actually go all around town telling how much he gave to the church and how much he gave to various causes. And I'm sure he gave over $100,000 to our building program. And so he seemed like a really great Christian until one business meeting, the boat didn't go his way, and he really showed his true self. And so Jesus warns that you might do the right thing like giving for the wrong motivation. And so when you give, do you want people to know how much you're giving? Do you put that envelope face up rather than face down? You know, maybe because you want people to see how much you're giving. When you get your giving statement at the end of the year, do you show it to people about how much you give? Folks, we don't list the top donors in this church in the bulletin for a reason, because of what Jesus says here. We want to protect people's motivation. And then he talks about the fact that you may pray not for the right reasons. Jesus talks about the fact that some would go to the synagogue, perhaps early, and if people were coming into the synagogue, they would see them praying right there near the entrance of the synagogue. Or they would go to the street corner. And the word translated street in verse 5 is different from street in verse 2. Verse 2, it talks about the narrow lanes between buildings. This talks about a major street through the city. Again, they prayed three times a day and it was the obligation of the Jew to stop whatever you're doing at the call to prayer. And so perhaps some of them would just happen to be at a major street corner when it was time to pray. And they would stand there praying and people would hear them and see them praying. And Jesus says, listen, you're praying to be seen. men. Now we should pray in public, but your motivation should not be to pray to be seen. When we gather in public for worship, we pray in public for that reason, but your personal prayer time should be, as Jesus says, private, not to be seen of men. And then fasting. Talks about that in verse 16, what the hypocrites do. Oh, they disfigure their faces. They don't groom themselves. They go around groaning, just barely making it through the day because they're so hungry. They want everyone to know about how religious they are, how dedicated they are, because they're fasting. Oh, listen, we should not do that. We should not broadcast and advertise our religious deeds because if we do we're probably not doing it for the right reason but rather we're doing it to be seen and praised of men. And so Jesus not only identifies the problem of doing the right thing for the wrong reason but he tells us how to avoid doing the right thing for the wrong reason. We need to guard and protect ourselves from impure motives. And how do we do that? Well, look at verse 3, giving. But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret. And your father who sees in secret will himself reward you openly. Now, when Jesus says, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, he's using personification and hyperbole. It's not literally that When it's time to give, you only use one hand to get... I don't want my right hand to know what I'm doing, right? No, that's not the point. The point is that Jesus is saying that not only should you not give publicly to be seen and praised of others, but you should not even do your religious deeds to praise yourself, to congratulate yourself. Have you ever done that? You know, after you've done something good, you just congratulate yourself. Don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. And so, he says, give anonymously as much as possible. Now, there'll be times when Perhaps they'll ask you to give a stewardship testimony and to encourage others to give, you may share. But generally speaking, our giving should be private as much as possible to protect our motives. And what about prayer? Verse 6, but you, when you pray, go into your room And when you shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place. Instead of doing your daily prayers out on the street corner, do it privately in the most private place in your home where you can shut out the world and be alone with God. Do you have your prayer place that fits the description of what Jesus is talking about? It may be in the privacy of your bedroom next to your bed. It may be going to work before people get there and at your desk reading your Bible and praying. It may be like I enjoy on my front porch. There's a lot of shrubbery. It's a secluded little area. But wherever it is that you can find to be alone with God, that's where you should do most of your praying. And then Jesus says, when you fast, don't go around advertising about it. Don't make yourself look worse, like calling attention to your sacrifice that you're making. He says, wash your face. Groom yourself. Look normal. Don't give the impression that you're fasting and making such a great sacrifice. And so Jesus says, you can do the right thing for the wrong reason. In verse 1, He says, Take heed. Watch out. Guard your heart's motivation. And then finally this morning, I want you to see that by faith, we should do the right thing for the best reward. Jesus uses the word reward seven times in this text of Scripture. And the Jewish people were taught by the Scriptures that righteous behavior is rewarded and sinful behavior is punished. Read the book of Deuteronomy as one example. The prophets likewise would teach the same thing. We train our children, don't we, by rewarding good behavior and punishing bad behavior. And the same thing is true in our relationship with God. God does punish sin, but He wants to reward us when we do what is right. But as we do what is right, if we don't do it for the right reason, we can lose our reward, Jesus says. And so what kind of reward should we seek? Well, Jesus talks about the fact that if you do these things to be seen of men, that means you are seeking the temporary praise from men. And how long does the praise of men last? I want to ask you, how many of you know, raise your hand if you know it, who won the MVP of last year's World Series? Raise your hand if you know the answer. What? Nobody knows? Cheryl, you don't know? Freddie Freeman, one of the most prestigious awards in baseball, and not one person in this audience knew it a year later. That shows you how short-sighted we are if we seek earthly rewards and lose the heavenly rewards that God promises. Because He does say here that you will be rewarded by your Father in heaven if you do these things. Not to be seen of men, but because you love God. Because you want to thank God. You want to do the right thing. You want to grow closer to God. Do it for the right reason, and God will reward you. And His reward is far better, isn't it? His reward is for all eternity. His reward is from the greatest person there is. I would rather know that God sees what I do then man sees what I do. You know, I've been a pastor for over 40 years and sometimes I've seen people serve God and then somewhere along the way they quit. And I wonder why. And perhaps sometimes they quit because they say to themselves, you know, I just don't seem to get enough appreciation for what I do for that church. And that's the problem. You're doing it for the church, not for God. Because if you're doing it for God, it's not going to matter whether you get a lot of appreciation and applause for what you do. Seek the best reward. Oh, how wonderful it will be when we go to heaven to hear God say, well done, good and faithful servant. Would you bow with me in prayer? Heavenly Father, we thank You that Jesus taught us that we should do the right thing. Not for the wrong reason, but for the right reason. And I pray, Lord, that we will be very mindful in the days ahead to guard our motivation to do what we ought to do, but do it for the right reason. And Lord, if we are shown this morning that we outwardly do the right thing, but not because we're saved. Lord, help that person to be saved today. Help that person to be born again. Help that person to be genuine in their Christian walk. And Lord, bless this time of invitation and help us as we live our Christian lives. And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.