Real Life Selkirk
**FEB 1** Sermon on the Mount #2 (Matthew 6)
  • If it's True
  • Cast My Cares
  • Finished Work Of Christ
  • Doxology

  • Sermon

    Key Passage

    Matthew 6 NIV
    “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. “This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’ For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

    Vision/Mission/Process

    Vision- We exist to reach the whole world for Jesus, one person at a time
    Mission- We do this by creating Biblical Disciples in Relational Environments
    Process- We shepherd everyone toward Spiritual maturity then release to disciple

    Introduction

    We are navigating through the book of Matthew.
    I again want to lift our eyes up to the purpose that Matthew wrote this book.
    Selective Biography
    Matthew is writing this book for a purpose and we are seeing that purpose as we study the opening chapters of this book.
    The events of Jesus’ life that Matthew is revealing direct us to understanding the nature of this God/man, Jesus
    His miraculous birth
    His baptism
    His tempting in the wilderness
    And even his move to Capernaum
    Proclamation
    Last week, we began to see the proclamation of Jesus in His introduction to the Sermon on the Mount
    Matthew ensures that we allow Jesus to make the case for who He is.
    Our journey through the Sermon on the Mount
    Over the last summer, we walked through this verse by verse in great detail.
    If you have specific questions about any of these teachings, I encourage you to go to our website where we have linked those sermons for your review.
    Because of this, we aren’t going to dive deep again.
    We are going to look at this from the 30,000 foot perspective of what Jesus was communicating, and what this sermon was communicating about Jesus.
    Last week, we used Matthew 5:17 as our key text to unlock Jesus’ purpose in this message:
    Matthew 5:17 NIV
    “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
    I want to reiterate this point.
    Jesus did not do away with the law.
    The law was good. The law was given by God. The law is holy.
    The problem is that we are not holy and we break the law, further separating us from a Holy God.
    Here is the Jared Bible Translation (JBT) paraphrase of what Jesus is saying here:
    “You will never get 100% on your holiness test. Holiness is still the standard, so Jesus gives you His 100%”
    We saw that principle played out for the rest of the opening of this sermon.
    The Beatitudes: This isn’t the New Testament law.
    These are descriptors of the heart of Jesus
    Further than this, these are descriptors of the nature of God.
    Jesus was humble in Spirit
    Jesus was meek
    Jesus hungered and thirsted after righteousness
    “You have heard it said, but I say” passages
    Jesus then talked about elements of the law that people strived to uphold.
    Jesus said, “I’m not giving you a new law. I’m showing you who I am.”
    All of these demonstrate the heart of God in relation to a specific matter that we deal with on a daily basis.
    What was revealed is that Jesus wants us to be disciples of Him and to see the Father through Him.
    We see the nature of the Father as we follow Jesus and we are changed.
    Part of this change is living out the holy heart of the Father in every aspect of our lives.
    We are changed. We don’t just change what we do.
    We are changed as we follow Jesus.
    This leads us into today’s passage.

    Preaching Time

    We finished last week looking at the areas where Jesus said, “You have heard it said, but I say”
    I want to front-load our next discussion points around this truth:
    Jesus is not creating a New Testament law.
    Jesus is revealing aspects to the nature of God that we need to see.
    When we see God, we change.
    There are two verses that I want to contrast as we begin today.
    Matthew 6:1 NIV
    “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
    Matthew 6:33 NIV
    But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
    We will be talking about two righteousnesses today.
    Your righteousness and His righteousness.
    We all know that we ought to do good things.
    The way that our “acts of righteousness” are seen is by others.
    This is the fallacy of what the Jews believed about the law.
    Somehow by following the law, they would become righteous.
    We will find that our righteousness does not make us righteous
    The law came to show us sin, not make us righteous.
    The law came to reveal our need for a savior, not to save ourselves.
    We’ve used a math test as a metaphor for this principle.
    Imagine that you have a math test. The test does not fully show how well you know something. It is simply a tool to reveal where you are short of perfection.
    100% doesn’t mean that you are smart. It simply means that you know the truth. It means that you have reached the standard of being right. Not extra right. You have only grasped the standard.
    Most of us got under 100%.
    We need a savior. We need someone, because our entire life is a test. Any one question missed shows separation from God’s holiness.
    We’ve all missed more than one.
    Now we will introduce three sections that Jesus instructs us in the heart of which we are to do things.
    Matthew 6:1–4 NIV
    “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
    Matthew 6:5–8 NIV
    “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
    Matthew 6:16–18 NIV
    “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
    All three of these passages are very similar
    During the time that Jesus shared this message, giving, prayer and fasting were all a part of the regular religious life
    There were rules, laws and expectations for all of these
    The line of thinking was that by doing good things God would be pleased
    God is pleased by our consistent prayer life
    God is dumping out blessings for our giving
    God is crediting us with extra credit for fasting
    But these acts don’t bring us righteousness.
    Jesus highlights that there is an element of “our righteousness” that needs to be seen by others.
    If I am righteous, then what good is it unless others see my righteousness.
    This is a variation of the “If I run a mile, it doesn’t count unless I put it on social media”
    I want to talk about righteousness for a moment:
    There is a big principle that Jesus is revealing here.
    It is a principle that encompasses words like righteousness, holiness and justification.
    I’m going to simplify all of this for us:
    My Righteousness:
    Visible to the world
    Appear to be holy
    Appear to be blessed
    Appear to be justified before God
    His Righteousness:
    Not seen by anyone
    No more holy
    No more blessed
    Cannot justify myself
    My righteousness builds a prideful mask that deceives others and will even deceive me. It is a “New Testament Law” approach to righteousness. It’s a mask that we want to see on ourselves that makes us feel like we are holy. This is built through giving to the poor, prayer and fasting.
    I’m going to say something provocative. I don’t normally do this, but I feel this is the time to do it: “Giving, prayer and fasting can push you further from Jesus’ righteousness or embrace Jesus’ righteousness.”
    His righteousness is the full surrender to the work and the righteousness of Jesus.
    What I do doesn’t earn me credit. It is the ongoing work of the Father revealing Himself in my life as I follow Jesus
    I don’t need to become holy. I’ve been made holy.
    My righteousness has been exchanged with the righteousness of Jesus.
    I don’t seek blessing here. I seek to store up for myself treasure in Heaven.
    It doesn’t matter what happens to me here. My eyes are set on Him.
    When you ask me, “Why has God accepted you?” I would say, “He hasn’t. He has accepted Jesus. I’m not good enough, but Jesus is.”
    I don’t justify myself. Jesus justifies me.
    This concept drives into our next three passages:
    Treasure, our eyes, and our service.
    Jesus gives us a series of either/or scenarios that reveal our hearts.
    Matthew 6:19–21 NIV
    “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
    Jesus rightly assesses the source of our activity in this world by saying, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
    Our heart is the target of Jesus.
    This is why we don’t need to justify ourselves. This is why fulfillment of the law is found in Jesus.
    Our heart and what we treasure are connected.
    I can talk about this from a super practical way, but the big picture here is that if our heart is in Christ, He is what we treasure.
    Matthew 6:22–23 NIV
    “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
    Similarly, our eye reveal who holds our heart
    If our eyes are unhealthy then our entire lives will be full of darkness.
    Any light in that case is not truly light. It is darkness masquerading as light
    That is utter hopelessness
    I feel this is the condition of our world.
    We are looking for hope in a world of darkness. If we continue to search in darkness for light, and we are deceived into thinking that we have found it!
    How truly sad this is. Truly hopeless.
    Matthew 6:24 NIV
    “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
    You can’t serve darkness and light
    You can’t store up treasure on earth and treasure in heaven
    You can’t serve two masters
    Jesus is being incredibly exclusive in His message.
    We like to sit in the middle ground and say, “Can’t I have both?”
    No. You can’t
    This revolves around the same spectrum of “Our righteousness” and “His righteousness”
    Matthew 6:23–34 NIV
    But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
    This is a massive teaching and believe me, it is really hard as a preacher not to dive down deep into all of these topics.
    What I want to do is drive these points home with a large encompassing point that Jesus is making here.
    I think this big picture will help us understand what Jesus is calling us to and what Matthew is revealing about Jesus’ teaching.
    I want to step back and look at our definition of discipleship and God’s purposes in discipleship.
    Jesus launched His ministry and called His disciples to Him
    In doing so, this was the means by which God would demonstrate His love, His nature and His will to Jesus’ disciples.
    John 14:6 NIV
    Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
    John 14:9 NIV
    Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
    John 17:6 NIV
    “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word.
    Jesus came to be the sacrifice for sin. But Jesus also came to reveal the Father through His relationship with His disciples.
    It is in Discipleship that we surrender to Jesus’ lordship and Follow Jesus
    A Biblical Disciple Is:
    Following Jesus
    Being changed by Jesus
    Obedient to Jesus—Fishers of Men
    I cannot reiterate this enough.
    We can go through the sermon on the mount and come to the conclusion that Jesus is giving us a new law to live by.
    We can evaluate this as, “I’m supposed to pray, but pray in a special way” “I’m supposed to give but give in a special way” “I’m not supposed to worry or I’m breaking the new law and God will be displeased”
    JESUS IS NOT GIVING US A NEW LAW.
    JESUS IS REVEALING THE FATHER
    In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the earth.
    It was VERY good
    We were created to be in a perfect and holy relationship with a perfect and holy God.
    Sin separated us from holiness, so in turn, sin separated us from the Holy God.
    We were created for a relationship that we could not engage because of our sin and His holiness
    Separation is the word we need to know.
    Separation from God
    Separation from His created purpose in our lives
    Separation from one another. All conflict is derived from sin
    Jesus says He is the fulfillment of the perfect holy law of God.
    In Jesus we have righteousness. Not our own, but His. We’ll open this up more in a moment.
    Everything we do, every thought, every aspect of life now revolves around the One that we have been brought near to.
    My righteousness doesn’t add anything to me. I am full of righteousness
    My righteousness is perfect. It is from Jesus. He has fulfilled the law for me, once for all.
    My actions in this world are the reflections of a loving Father who is changing my heart and likeness into His very own.
    It looks like a giving, prayer, and fasting that is an act of worship to Him.
    It looks like a life that is consumed with the pursuit of God that this temporary world and what it offers, whether they be treasures, money or our earthly loves, come up lacking.
    It is a life that is simply dependent on Him.
    I know some of you are squirming in your chairs because you know that I skipped over the Lord’s prayer.
    I did that on purpose and I want us to look upon it with this perspective:
    Jesus is not saying that no one should hear our prayers. If that is what you are reading out of this, then you are looking through the lens of Jesus creating a new law.
    Jesus says, “Go close the door when you pray” then prays right in front of them, apparently with the door open.
    Why would Jesus pray this?
    He is revealing the Father and how we respond as disciples of Jesus who have been brought near to the Father through Jesus Christ.
    Listen to this prayer:
    Matthew 6:9–15 NIV
    “This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’ For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
    Discipleship is living our lives with others so they can see our good works...what good works? The nature of God that is being reflected through our growth toward maturity...and glorify our Father in Heaven. He gets the glory!
    Jesus is modeling prayer so they can see the heart of Jesus who is God.
    Our father in Heaven, hallowed (holy, amazing, legendary) is your name
    Your kingdom come Your will be done
    Give us our daily bread— Don’t worry
    Forgive us our debts— We don’t set our eyes on the things of this world
    Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us
    May we forgive as you have forgiven us
    The entire point of this prayer is demonstrating a life that is entirely directed by the Father.
    We can often tell that our heart is in this world, rather than the Kingdom when we pray this prayer backwards.
    Our eyes get set on this world and the troubles we are having.
    God, deliver me and help me take the right path in this life. Things are certainly going difficult
    And also forgive me. I think my sin may have led me to this place of trouble.
    I need your supply. Help me by providing my needs.
    And, oh yeah, maybe I should have started here looking at your kingdom, not mine.
    Please glorify yourself.
    We cannot get this prayer backwards. This is not simply a prayer, but rather, it is a perspective of priority and life.

    Conclusion

    I want to conclude talking about God’s righteousness
    Whiteboard metaphor
    What if I keep sinning? His grace is enough
    I don’t deserve it. No you don’t. He loves you and wants you to be what He created you to be.
    This is grace. This is mercy.
    This is Faith
    Faith is knowing what the Scriptures say about Jesus.
    He is the fulfillment of the law. I am not gaining merit based on my following of the rules.
    I have merit before God based on my following of Jesus.
    I follow Jesus: He is Lord
    I am changed by Jesus: I experience His grace
    I make fishers of men: My faith results in a life that is lived for the world to see Jesus through me.
    This drives us home to the greatest word that we can embrace: grace
    Grace is the righteousness of God given to us without our merit or earning it.
    Conclusion: Lord’s Prayer as an act of humility, recognition of grace and discipleship.
    I keep sinning—What is wrong with me?
    Faith leads to obedience

      • Matthew 6NIV2011

      • Matthew 5:17NIV2011

      • Matthew 6:1NIV2011

      • Matthew 6:33NIV2011

      • Matthew 6:1–4NIV2011

      • Matthew 6:5–8NIV2011

      • Matthew 6:16–18NIV2011

      • Matthew 6:19–21NIV2011

      • Matthew 6:22–23NIV2011

      • Matthew 6:24NIV2011

      • John 14:6NIV2011

      • John 14:9NIV2011

      • John 17:6NIV2011

      • Matthew 6:9–15NIV2011

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