Matthew Chapter 6
Intro
According to the Quran, we christians are called “people of the book”. So, we highly esteem the book known as the “holy bible”. We don’t worship this book, but we worship its author.
We find this book reveals the author Himself to us. Psalm 40 verse 7 says, “Then I said, “Behold, I come; In the scroll of the book it is written of me.”. Then Hebrews 10 verse 7 applies this to Jesus.
As pastor Shane has been saying, Jesus makes these “I Am” statements during his earthly lifetime. In these “I Am” statements that Jesus makes, He is directly identifying Himself as the letters יהוה, the God Old Testament. God fearing Jews then and now won’t even directly pronounce that name. You’ll hear Jews and the Jewish Bible (the TANACH) use the word HaShem in place of those letters. HaShem just means “The Name”.
I want us to keep in mind the “I Am” statement that Jesus makes in John 8:58, as we look at Matthew chapter 6.
31So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; 32and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” 33They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, ‘You will become free’?”
34Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin…
Then accuses them of wanting to kill him because he is exposing the truth about them…
Then they accuse Jesus of having a demon…
Then Jesus, caps the conversation off with this assertion in verse 56“Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” 57So the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” 58Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.” 59Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.
The Jews understood exactly what Jesus was saying; He was saying you know that God who revealed Himself to Abraham as the LORD, יהוה, which roughly corresponds to “I Am”. Jesus was indeed saying, “I Am” He.
We’ll talk more about “I Am” during this chapter, but let’s pray…
Charitable Deeds (read verses 1 through 4)
My main thrust here is that it is impossible to do a charitable deed without someone seeing.
I want us to consider, “What is the motivation for us to do charitable deeds?”
Back up one more step, if you or I try to do charitable deeds, to be righteous, that’s called “self-righteousness”. As detestable as a self-righteous person is to us, just think of what an affront it is to God, who is truly righteous.
If you are a Christian, and you’ve been given a new heart, you will have a desire to do charitable deeds. Your motivation will be gratitude to God, for what He’s done for you. You’ll love to serve God by serving others. Compassion will be the fuel and God the Holy Spirit will be the engine that drives you to do good works.
Matthew 5:16 “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
Prayer (read verses 5 through 13)
Prayer can be summed up with the Nike tagline, “Just Do It”.
What are some improper motivations for prayer?
Selfishness - James 4:3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
Religiousness - Verse 7 “And when you are praying, do not use thoughtless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. Not only repetitions, but if I use prayer as a way of preaching, God is not pleased with that kind of prayer. (I’m speaking to myself)
Sinfulness - Matthew 21:13 And He said to them, “It is written: ‘MY HOUSE WILL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER’; but you are making it a DEN OF ROBBERS.”
Can I encourage you… I know some of you are prayer warriors. Would you take it upon yourself to boldly lead fellow christians in prayer? Whether it be impromptu prayer between services or on the phone together, or a regularly scheduled prayer meeting time; would you find a way to employ your gifts here in this fellowship.
The LORD’s prayer is a great template for prayer (notice the statement about forgiveness)
Especially during this present time, we ought to be people of prayer.
I’ve found, when I’m desperate, I’m forced into prayer, I may not have the best motives for prayer, but God is gracious, when I’m honest with Him
We can learn about God by contrast from the parable Jesus gives in Luke 11:5-13
And He said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and goes to him at midnight and says to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, 6 because a friend of mine has come to me from a journey and I have nothing to serve him’; 7 and from inside he answers and says, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been shut and my children [g]and I are in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ 8 I tell you, even if he will not get up and give him anything just because he is his friend, yet because of his shamelessness he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
9 “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, it will be opened. 11 Now [l]which one of you fathers will his son ask for a fish, and instead of a fish, he will give him a snake? 12 Or he will even ask for an egg, and his father will give him a scorpion? 13 So if you, despite being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?” So, yes, be persistent, but know that God is giving and gracious and kind and compassionate; all the things that terrible neighbor was not.
Fasting (read verses 16-24)
I’m not an expert here.
I did do one-meal-mondays for many years.
To be quite honest, during 2020 I fell out of the habit
A lot of what I said about the wrong motives for prayer also apply to fasting:
Religiosity
If you think you’ll fast as a way to please God and “lose a little weight”, wink, wink. You just defeated the whole purpose of fasting.
Let me ask you, where’s your heart? Do you prioritize the eternal (the spiritual side of things)?
Do you desire to go deeper with God? Would that preclude a meal once in a while?
A disclaimer always needs to be given with fasting; Please don’t do anything without thoughtful consideration of your health situation and your nutritional needs. If you need to, consult your physician before embarking on any fasting. As well, there are many good resources available on healthy, godly fasting practices.
One possible motive for fasting would be Romans 8:13-15 for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!”
Take a moment and do a little introspection:
Where is your treasure? That’ll tell you where your heart is at.
Is your eye good or bad? In other words, where have your eyes been? I don’t have to go any further with that one, but to say, if you don’t have someone to open and honest and transparent with, about something bad you’ve put before your eyes, come to my men’s life group on the first and the third thursday evening of the month at 6pm here at church. Psalm 101:3 says, I will set no worthless thing before my eyes; I hate the work of those who fall away; It shall not cling to me.
Eternal Perspective (read verses 25-34)
This section is so pertinent to us
We are all prone to worry
We all have difficulties and troubles and trials, some face bigger troubles than others
If you’re losing sleep because of worry, you’re headed for a heart attack. Ask me how I know that.
This is where you can fall back on prayer.
This is where you can reach out to other believers for prayer.
This is where you can redirect your priorities and seek first the kingdom of heaven and His righteousness and all these things, (your needs, even godly desires) will be added unto you.
When you have the Great I Am as your friend, as your savior, you can have sweet fellowship with Him. The “I Am” implies God is outside of time. He is without beginning or end. He’s ageless. So if you have worries you can rely on Him. You can cry out to Him. You can avail yourself of His Holy Spirit, where He even helps you pray when you don’t know how.
