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Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them.

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If you do, you'll have no reward from your Father in heaven.

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So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets as the hypocrites do in the

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synagogues and on the streets to be honored by others.

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Truly I tell you, they have received the reward in full.

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But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is

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doing so that your giving may be in secret.

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Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

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Good morning everyone.

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It's great to be together.

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If you can smell campfire, do not worry.

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The place is not burning.

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We had a wonderful time last night.

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All the men got together around a campfire, around good meat, good conversation and Liam

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led us in a wonderful devotion.

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And so it was a brilliant time that we've got one coming up in a couple of months.

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So I highly recommend that you get to one of these men's events.

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If you're a man, that is.

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Before we open the word, let's come to our Father in prayer.

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Lord Jesus, we are so thankful that these words have indeed been given to us by you,

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these words of eternal life to your church.

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We ask that as we peer into these words, as we explore what's being said here this morning,

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that you would change us by your spirit, that you would give us ears to hear, hearts to

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know you in a deeper way.

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And we ask for this in your name.

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Amen.

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It seems like forever ago, but before COVID or BC, as it's come to be known by many, Australia

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actually went through some of the worst bushfires ever recorded in our nation.

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They were absolutely devastating and affected thousands of people as their communities were

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rocked by nature, burning up in front of them.

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It truly was a horrible, horrible time for many people, but something beautiful also

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happened in the midst of the ashes.

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And that was that many people around this nation gathered together to help those who

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were in desperate need.

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People did whatever they could with whatever they had to lend a hand.

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Some helped with makeshift housing by giving tents, others gave clothing, some donated

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toys for children, and some churches even got together with other churches and went

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out and made sandwiches and tea and coffee for the hundreds of volunteer firefighters

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who were putting their life on the line for others.

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Not to mention the millions of dollars raised by anonymous donors moved by the pictures

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on our TV screens.

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It was a wonderful display of everyday people selflessly giving of their time, efforts and

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money to help those in need.

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However, there was something that really stood out to me in the midst of all of this, and

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that was that one Hollywood power couple were announced by Channel 7 to have a special message

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for us all.

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And what was their message?

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Well that they were hoping for the best and that they were thinking of all those affected

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by the bushfires.

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Absolutely wonderful.

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But things got a bit awkward when you could tell that they wanted to let those in need

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know, and the world watching of course, that they were personally giving one million dollars

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of their own money.

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Now what was what they were doing by giving all that money a great thing?

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It was absolutely a great thing.

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It was an amazing thing and I'm sure it helped those who really needed it.

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And even though the papers went wild the next day and their movie sales skyrocketed, Jesus

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says it is actually more of a blessing to help those in need behind the scenes rather

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than practising it, this righteousness in front of others.

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We're going to see that in our passage this morning.

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More on that in a moment.

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However in keeping with the theme of famous people, what we've been looking at for the

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past couple of months now is probably one of the most famous sermons of all time given

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by the most famous person in history who never sought the attention or approval of his peers,

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just his heavenly father to which he encourages us, his disciples to do the same.

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Now we have to understand a bit of the context in which this sermon that we've been exploring

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has been delivered.

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See if we go all the way back to the start of Matthew's account of the gospel, we will

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first remember that his whole purpose of writing this gospel was to prove to the Jewish people

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that their messiah or king as we would call it had finally arrived.

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And I say finally arrived because King Jesus was actually spoken about beforehand for years

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and years by a group of people called the prophets.

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Now I mention this because Jesus came to a nation of people expecting a king to come

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and overthrow the enemy which just so happened to be the Roman government.

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But as we've seen through the weeks, as we've been going through the book of Matthew, nothing

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that the Jewish people were expecting of their king was happening.

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For example, Jesus was born in a stable.

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I mean when the Magi of the East came to Jerusalem, they were expecting a king to be born in a

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palace.

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Hence why they asked the puppet king Herod where the real king was.

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We all remember how that turned out.

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Again Jesus grew up in a backwater town called Nazareth where no one expected anything great

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to come from.

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And for all intents and purposes, there was complete silence on King Jesus until some

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ragged preacher with locust legs and honey in his beard appeared out of nowhere calling

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the nation of Israel to turn from the way that they were going back to God as he was

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about to arrive and bring in the kingdom of heaven.

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Then what did we learn?

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God announces Jesus as his son.

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He gives him the Holy Spirit and instead of getting on a white warhorse and riding into

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Jerusalem to destroy all God's enemies, he goes in completely the opposite direction

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to be tested in the wilderness by the devil who is the ultimate enemy of the people.

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All this to say, every step of the way God has not met the expectation of the people

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of Israel because their focus was completely on earthly things.

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And I say that because no more clearly have we seen where their heads have been than in

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just the past few weeks.

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We've seen it because Jesus has totally dismantled the popular teaching of the time, which was

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essentially that the law was given to the people to only deal with the external and

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to only change the temporal.

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Not so, says the King of God's heavenly kingdom.

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No, the law was revealed to cut into the internal and radically change the perpetual.

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In other words, the law was given to do major heart surgery, revealed to show that the heart

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is deceitfully wicked and that you actually need a heart transplant.

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Admittedly, Jesus didn't use those exact words, but that's what he's getting at when he said

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it is only the poor in spirit who will enter the kingdom of heaven.

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And how have we seen that diagnosis come about?

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Well, we've seen it time and time again.

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The law is an X-ray machine.

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Jesus is the surgeon with the cure.

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I'm saying all of this because that's the type of people who Jesus is addressing here.

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The crowds to which, as we've seen, were people who were expecting a king, but also looking

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exclusively to the physical and temporal to assure them that they were blessed of God.

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Time and time again, Jesus has shown it's not just the external, but it's also the internal

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that God transforms.

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This morning, Jesus is actually going to shift the crowd's attention from what they have

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heard to what they have observed.

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I want you to notice that in our text and over the next three sections, actually, which

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we'll be looking at over the next three weeks.

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And we're privileged to have Justin Forie come and preach to us next week on the Lord's

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Prayer.

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But Jesus shifts from what the people had heard to what they had seen in regards to

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giving, prayer, and fasting.

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This morning, we're going to just focus on giving.

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If you have your Bibles with you, have a look at verse 1.

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These are the words of our Lord.

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He says, be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them.

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If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

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Now, I'm keenly aware that I just said we'll be focusing on giving this morning, and that's

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certainly the case.

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But we also need to recognize that this sentence in verse 1 actually encompasses the next three

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sections as well.

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As Jesus is keen to see his disciples shift focus from that which is earthly to that which

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is heavenly.

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But two things might be said here with this sentence that we have before us this morning,

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which will help us understand what Jesus is going to teach us in the rest of our passage.

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First, we're to be careful as the disciples of Jesus to not practice our righteousness

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in front of others.

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Now, the question that might be asked, what righteousness does Jesus have in mind here?

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Well, to answer that, we need to look at the sermon on the Mount as a whole.

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And we've clearly seen that the righteousness that he's talking about is practicing the

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will of God not only in just what we say, but in all that we do.

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I'll say that again.

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Righteousness is practicing the will of God not only in just what we say, but in all that

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we do.

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That's the righteousness that's on view here.

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It's not just knowing the will of God, but doing it with all that we are.

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And Jesus says here we're not to do that in front of others to be seen by them.

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And he'll explain to us exactly what he means by that later on.

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Second, if you practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them, well,

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there'll be no reward from our heavenly father.

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Pretty straightforward, right?

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We are to practice the will of God in all that we say and do, but don't do it in front

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of others to be seen by them.

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Otherwise there'll be no reward.

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Well, I don't know about you church, but this raises a few different questions for me.

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And good thing for us, Jesus actually expands on what he's talking about here in the next

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couple of sentences.

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So let's explore what he has to say to us.

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Starting with verse two, when you give to the needy, don't announce it with trumpets

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as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to be honored by others.

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Truly I tell you they've received their reward in full.

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Okay, so the first thing that I want you to notice here is that Jesus seems to be kicking

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back against giving that is motivated by public opinion.

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That's what's on view here.

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Giving in general doesn't seem to be the problem in Jesus's day.

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It's that the giving had taken on a life of its own where the one who gave was more motivated

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by peer praise than anything else.

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A little bit of historical background is going to help us here.

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You see the synagogue was the central community hub of many Jewish villages in first century

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Palestine.

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It's where people would meet most days to either read the law because it was usually

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only one copy in the entire town or pray and also it was a place to encourage your fellow

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Jew to keep on keeping on with life under crippling Roman occupation.

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It was also a central place where Jewish boys would go for their religious study not to

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mention where the whole community would come together on the Sabbath day to hear the preaching

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of the word.

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In other words, the synagogue was the heart of any Jewish village and people met there

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as a way to maintain their national and religious identity in a world that was being invaded

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by pagan ideology.

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One thing to note here is that people were really aware of each other's needs.

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Most villages weren't like cities that we have now.

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No, they were much smaller community hubs where most people knew each other because

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there was some sort of physical relation or connection.

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Instead of ignoring the disadvantaged and because there was no government agencies that

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took care of those who were in need, the synagogue had set up a system where money was collected

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from the people and then kind of like Centrelink was distributed among those who are in need

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in the diocese.

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New Testament scholar Grant Osborne is helpful here.

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He says, many depended on the contributions from people in the community to survive.

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Therefore, it was natural that serving your community became connected with giving to

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the synagogue.

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It seems, however, some saw this duty as an opportunity to be seen as particularly holy

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in that community.

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That's what Jesus is touching on here this morning.

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That's what he's drawing our attention to.

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He's not saying that it's wrong to give in any way.

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No, it's a great thing to give and there was even opportunities to give over and above

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that which was collected in the synagogues.

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But what he's drilling down on here is motivation.

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Notice the language he uses in verse two.

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When you give to the needy, don't announce it with trumpets as the hypocrites do in the

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synagogues and on the streets to be honoured by others.

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That's what he's touching on.

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To be honoured by others, to be seen by others, verse one.

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Now, I want to be fair to the Pharisees here.

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They had set up a system through the synagogues in which to collect money and distribute the

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funds to the poor.

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That's not the problem.

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That's a good thing.

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And even now, there's many incredible charities that work with and out of churches to help

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the poor and needy.

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If you've never read William Booth's book, Salvation Soldiery, which is his manifesto

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to the Salvation Army, I highly commend that you do so.

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It's free online.

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He had a real heart for those in need.

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And giving and charity and fundraising and looking after the poor is great in God's sight.

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The Bible reveals to us that the people of God are to help those in need.

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We're commanded to do so.

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But says Jesus, the motivation that he had witnessed, which was modelled for the people,

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modelled for the crowds, was all wrong.

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And he draws our attention to this in that trumpet and hypocrite language.

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I don't know about you.

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I don't know how many of you have gone to a concert where they've had a horn section.

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But to say that they're captivating is an understatement.

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That's because trumpets are designed and made to be alluring.

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They draw your attention to certain syncopated notes.

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That's what they're designed to do, to get your attention on something.

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That's the kind of thing that Jesus is getting at here.

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He's saying, don't bring the so-called horn section with you to the synagogue so that

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people stop in their tracks and are captivated by your giving.

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Now that's what hypocrites do.

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Now I want to say something on that word hypocrites because it's actually a very interesting word.

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It's an old Greek word that refers to actors who put different masks on so they could play

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different characters for their audience.

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So when Jesus uses that word, he's saying there are those who wear masks in their day-to-day

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life.

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They're one thing in front of their family, their friends, their work colleagues, but

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they're another thing in front of the religious community.

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They're another thing at church.

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It's a two-faced lifestyle.

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It's playing different characters in front of different audiences.

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To put it simply, it's a theatrical religion.

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That's because they don't really care about the needy behind the lights and camera.

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No, they give their offerings in order to be seen by the public.

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That's why they want people to sit up and pay attention because they want to be celebrated

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as holy people and get the applause of their peers.

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In other words, they weren't giving because they really wanted to help those in need,

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but because they wanted to keep up a status in the public opinion polls.

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They were doing for the sake of public relations so that they would be celebrated by people.

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Hence, they couldn't stand to do it when no one was watching.

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And isn't this the thing that Jesus has been going after time and time and time again in

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the Sermon on the Mount?

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The crowds before him were taught, and in this case, shown to focus their attention

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on earthly things, on external and temporal accomplishments.

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The warning that Jesus is giving here is that there is a form of righteousness, dear ones,

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which is practiced for the sake of getting the approval of others.

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Though it might seem holy, it's not the kingdom righteousness that is given by God, which

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motivates us from our very core to please our Creator because we share in the same heart

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and mind with him towards those who are in need.

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No, it's a counterfeit righteousness that on the surface seems great, but dig down under

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that soil a bit, and the motivation is all wrong.

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In other words, it's not sharing in God's heart to care and love the needy among us

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because the Holy Spirit is cultivating that great desire.

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No, it's working hard to be seen by, praised by, and honored by other people.

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That's the warning.

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People that help the needy from that place of purely seeking the adoration from others,

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they might be seen.

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They might get the public approval ratings.

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They might even get awards in front of the entire world.

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But what does Jesus say?

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They have their reward.

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Go back to verse one, how much reward do they have from our heavenly father?

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A little less?

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No, he says they have no reward, none.

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And it's here that Jesus is addressing and identifying a real danger in the religious

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community.

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The one that he has before him, and these words have been given to the church for us.

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There were people that he is addressing in his sermon who seem to be greatly religious,

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saintly even, yet they were stuck, still hard at work maintaining an outward righteousness

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as they were looking for the approval of others in their community.

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And they, says Jesus, they receive nothing from God.

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And we will look at that in just a moment, this reward that he's speaking about.

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But Jesus makes it clear for us, doesn't he?

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His disciples, he's saying be very careful, be very careful about what motivates you when

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you go to help those in need.

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Be very careful that you're not seeking the praise of others and motivated to get the

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attention around with those around you so they'll think, wow, you are just such a great

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guy.

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Now when you give, says Jesus, when you give to the needy, don't let your left hand know

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what your right hand is doing so that your giving may be done in secret, verses three

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and four.

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Now I want to say something here on giving and it has been obvious with everything that

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we've looked at this morning.

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It is so totally presumed by our Lord, isn't it?

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It's so totally presumed of his disciples.

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Look at the language.

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So when you give to the needy, but when you give to the needy, there's such a matter of

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factness in his preaching.

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It's like saying when you eat, when you breathe.

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So we shouldn't in any way hear Jesus saying stop giving, stop helping so that you don't

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end up like the hypocrites.

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No, not in any way.

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We're to give and help those in need in any way we can.

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Some of you might be wondering here this morning, but Michael, aren't we to be the salt and

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the light of this world?

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Are we not meant to draw people into the kingdom of heaven by the way that we act differently

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to them?

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Absolutely we are.

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There's no contradiction with what Jesus has said previously in verses 14 through to 16

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of chapter five about our good works.

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What's on view here is when, not if, but when you go to help those in need, don't do your

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acts of righteousness for the purpose of getting people to praise you.

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Brothers and sisters, Jesus knows that as his church is obedient, he knows that as we

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practice our love for God and others in front of this world, that the world will stop and

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pay attention.

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We saw this last week.

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They should.

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They're meant to.

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But as we go and love our neighbours and even our enemies in this world, Jesus says our

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motivation must not be to get praise from the world.

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That's not why we help others in need church.

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It's not to gain the love and the adoration of our peers of the world.

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It's to please our God.

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That's what's on view here.

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It's the motivation of the heart.

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And that's why Jesus brings in this language of secrecy.

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He's addressing our own spiritual walk.

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He's addressing our attitude towards the practice of giving to others.

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You see, Jesus is teaching us that when we give, we're essentially to forget about the

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opinions of others and even to not really consider ourselves as our left hand, shouldn't

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even know what our right hand is doing.

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Now, I have to confess, that's a very funny picture, right?

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To be so ambidextrous that your hands can be totally independent of each other.

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Every drummer's dream ever.

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But it makes sense when we understand the context into which Jesus is speaking.

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You see, he's saying to his audience, when you go to give, when you put that coin in

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the box at the synagogue, at church, and the other hand's kind of just dangling on the

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other side, don't use one hand to put the coin in and the other hand to pat yourself

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on the back.

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No, don't even consider yourself.

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In other words, our giving should be done in such a way that we leave me, myself, and

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I out of the picture.

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I don't know about you church, but there is something about helping those in need that

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I'm keenly aware of in my own life.

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It draws me in one of two ways to make it about myself.

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The first is so others will see and give praise, we've had a look at that already, but the

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second is just as tempting, and that's that we help others to feel good about ourselves.

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That's what Jesus is saying in all of this.

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He's saying seek the way of God and do it not for your own pleasure, not for the praise

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of others, but because you are out to obey God in whatever way he commands and directs

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you.

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Then he ends on this.

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Even your father who sees what's done in secret, he'll reward you.

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Church, this is the thing that Jesus says here that completely turns everything on its

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head.

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There is a word that he has just used in our sentence in this passage this morning, and

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I want you to notice it, it's a word that he has used in our relation to God and one

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that he will use over and over in the coming verses, and that is the word father.

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I want you to notice that in our passage this morning.

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And he uses the word father as he is directing his disciples, us, to our relationship to

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God as one that is to be thought of as between a father and his children.

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That makes all the difference here, all the difference.

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That is how we give generously without falling into the temptation of seeking the approval

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of others or self-gratification.

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It's knowing who we are in relation to God.

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It's moving from seeing God as some distant deity that doesn't care about us to knowing

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him as our heavenly father.

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It makes all the difference in the world brothers and sisters.

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You see when we look to Jesus Christ who was declared by God to be his son, that is a declaration

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over every single person who has come to put their trust in Christ as well.

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That's why Paul uses the language of in Christ.

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We are in Christ and because of Christ we are more than citizens of the heavenly kingdom.

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We're adopted sons and daughters of the most high.

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Meaning in a very real sense we can look to God as our heavenly father and because of

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that his commands are in no way detrimental to our well-being.

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As a good father towards his beloved children his instructions are only ever for our good.

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Think about it.

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He sent Jesus and he made a way for us while we were still dead in our sins and his enemies.

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And so though giving might not make any earthly sense in our circumstances, whatever they

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may be, because of Jesus you can know that he loves you and cares for you better than

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you could ever care for yourself.

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And he is more concerned about your needs than you will ever be able to fathom.

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And so church we can give and serve in light of the fact that the one who sent his only

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son for us, who knows what we need, commands us to give because he knows what's best for

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us even when it might not make any sense to us right now.

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See if we don't look to Jesus we will only ever be insecure before God.

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We'll only ever look to our own works to see if we're accepted and therefore we will continually

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look for our security by trying harder and harder to please those around us looking to

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what they think of us.

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As we've seen over the weeks, people looked to the external to find their approval before

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God as that's what they were taught to do.

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And because they couldn't live to the standard that God had revealed in the law, they had

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in a very real way become hypocrites, practicing outward righteousness so as to be honoured

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and praised by others all the while internally they were far from God.

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We all need to hear this this morning, every single one of us in this room, by the work

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of God on our behalf, by his work on behalf of his people, by the work of the Father sending

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the Son, by the work of his Son's life, death and resurrection, by the work of the Holy

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Spirit uniting us to Jesus, we have been set free from slavery to public opinion.

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We've been set free from slavery to self-gratification and adopted into God's family so that we really

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might pray our Father who is in heaven and go about doing what he tells us to do with

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joy.

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And when our Father sees us doing that, he rewards us.

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So I want to finish our time this morning asking that question, what is the reward that

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we are given in serving the needy in whatever way we can?

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Well I want to put it forward to you this morning, that those who genuinely seek to

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please our Father in heaven by helping those in need, and I want you to notice the language,

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it's not necessarily with money, it can be with money, it can be making dinners, it can

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be spending time with people, it can be giving them clothes, whatever it might be, the reward

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is to see those in need, served in such a way that those served give glory to our Father

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in heaven through our obedience.

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I believe that's the reward that's on view here.

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We heard it this morning, we don't get to a certain level of Christianity then we say

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to God, I'll take it from here.

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And in no way is Jesus saying that we work for salvation.

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I believe our reward is seeing our Father glorified.

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And when through our Father's good gifts that are given to us through his leading and providing

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in situations where the hungry are fed, the naked are clothed, the sick are healed, the

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oppressed freed, and that person that you have been sharing the gospel with and praying

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for comes to faith.

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When you see our Father being glorified and praised by your obedience, our reward is seeing

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those who were in need provided for by God through our obedience and that he is glorified

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in the doing.

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He's glorified.

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Church, I was tempted, I must say this morning while writing this sermon, to go into the

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real practicalities of how we might serve Armidale as a church.

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But as I was thinking on these things, our helping the needy is going to take so many

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different shapes and will look so different for every single one of us in this room who

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is praying for a way to help those in need around us.

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We each have gifts given to us by our heavenly Father to serve those around us.

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We saw that when we went through the Ephesians series.

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And so let us pray to God this morning.

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Let us pray that he would use Grace Christian Church, use us individually to help those

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in need.

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And might we ask that we would take great, great joy in seeing our Father being glorified

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in our midst.

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Would you please pray with me?

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Lord Jesus, we started our time this morning asking that you would help us to understand

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the words of eternal life.

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And Lord, these words for your original hearers for us this morning is challenging.

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We're always tempted to make our giving about ourself.

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But we would ask that these words don't just stay in our heads, but are taken to our hearts

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and that we would see the work of your spirit in our lives as we look for opportunities,

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as you place us in positions to help those in need with the things that you've given

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us.

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Might we not only be a community here in Armidale, but us individually in our workplaces, our

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families, whatever situation you have us in.

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Lord, would you please give us opportunities to help those in need?

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Might we be a praying people, ultimately leading people to the gospel?

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Would you give us courage?

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Would you give us wisdom?

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Would you help us?

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And might you be glorified in all that we do?

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We ask for all of this in Jesus' name.

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Amen.