Secrecy
- (Matthew 6:1) "Be careful not to do your 'acts
of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will
have no reward from your Father in heaven.
- (Matthew 6:2) "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 men. I tell you the truth, they
have received their reward in full.
- (Matthew 6:3) But when you give to the needy, do not
let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,
- (Matthew 6:4) so that your giving may be in secret.
Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
- (Matthew 6:5) "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 men. I tell you the truth, they
have received their reward in full.
- (Matthew 6:6) 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.
- let’s pray
-
- well, tonight we deal with a temptation that comes
to those who are progressing in holiness
- we’ve been talking these past few weeks about
some of the spiritual disciplines necessary if we’re going to become
fully devoted to Jesus Christ
- we’ve talked about some practices that are essential
if we’re going to grow: celebration, slowing, servanthood, confession
- we’re still going to talk about some others in
coming weeks: Scripture, prayer, and fasting
- but if we begin to practice these disciplines, there’s
almost a secret ingredient that is necessary to make all the other ones
effective
-
- part of the problem is that we get glimpses of the
beauty of perfect holiness
- but right away a thought pops into our head: "Imagine
how others would hold us in high esteem if we were like that"
- I like the words of Don Carson: we start out for the
goal of pleasing the Father, but it’s soon traded in for its pygmy
cousin, the goal of pleasing men
- we start off with the goal of genuine holiness, and
end up settling for external piety
- the irony is: the greater the demand for holiness,
the greater the opportunity for hypocrisy
- and that’s why tonight’s spiritual discipline
is so crucial to our spiritual lives
- because we can end up doing the right things for all
the wrong reasons
-
- the ancient Greeks called an actor who spoke through
a mask, "The Hypocrite"
- the word came to be used for a person who was pretending
to be something he or she was not, particularly someone who pretended
to be pious without really being so
-
- you see this problem all through the Bible
- but specifically in the passage I just read
- Jesus says it’s possible to do our acts of righteousness
– giving, praying, fasting – before other people, in order
to be noticed
- the verb, to be noticed, is related to the term from
which we get theatre
- it’s possible to be a play actor in the area of
spiritual disciplines, impressing ourselves and even others, but certainly
not impressing God
-
- John Calvin believed that in all virtues the entrance
of hypocrisy was to be avoided, since there is no work so praiseworthy
as not to be in many instances corrupted and polluted by it
- in other words, hypocrisy can ruin even the greatest
virtue
-
- it’s interesting that Jesus’ words that we
read tonight, from the Sermon on the Mount, come right after Jesus has
said:
- (Matthew 5:48) Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly
Father is perfect.
- right after commanding us to be perfect, Jesus tells
us not to try to impress others with our righteous deeds
- I THINK THIS BRINGS UP THE WHOLE AREA OF WHAT IS
CALLED "IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT"
- the whole area of living for other people’s approval,
instead of God’s approval
- Jesus’ gives us some examples in giving, fasting,
and praying
- but isn’t it true that we all give a lot of thought
to what others think about us?
- a lot of people live in bondage to what others think
of them
- call it what you will – "approval addiction"
or "people pleasing"
- John Ortberg writes:
- If we find ourselves often getting hurt by what others
say about us, by people expressing other than glowing opinions about
us, we probably have it. If we habitually compare ourselves with other
people, if we find ourselves getting competitive in even the most ordinary
situations, we probably have it. If we live with a nagging sense that
we aren’t important enough or special enough, or we get envious
of another’s success, we probably have it. If we are worried that
someone might think ill of us should he or she find out we are an approval
addict, we probably are.
-
- sociologists tell us that we carry inside ourselves
a mental representation of a group of people by whose judgment we measure
our success or failure
- it’s called "the generalized other"
- "Our ‘generalized other’ is a composite
of all the Siskels and Eberts in our life whose thumbs up or thumbs
down signal carries emotional weight with us" (Ortberg)
- our parents, peer group, neighbors, co-workers –
we all evaluate ourselves based on what we think they think about us
- our identity becomes wrapped up in whether or not we
think they think we’re attractive, productive, and important
- if being busy seems important to them, we act busy
- if making money is important to others, then we make
money
- if knowing important people is the key, then we drop
some important names
-
- this leads us to all sorts of negative consequences
- a sense of failure – we never feel like we measure
up
- comparison – always measuring ourselves against
other people
- deception – shading the truth in order to make
ourselves look more favorable
- resentment – resenting the people whose approval
we seek
-
- when we live for other people’s approval, that’s
all we get
- (Matthew 6:1) "Be careful not to do your 'acts
of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will
have no reward from your Father in heaven.
- if you live for the applause of other people, then
that’s all you’ll get
- and the problem is, the applause of people is fickle
and fleeting
- it will never really satisfy the spiritual man or woman
- if we live our lives for the applause of others, we’re
setting ourselves up for a lifetime of disappointment
- it’s a little like our jobs – if we work
for Dominion, we’re not going to get paid by Loblaws
- and if we work for the approval of people, don’t
think the pay – the approval – is going to come from God
- Jesus said, "You will have no reward from your
Father in heaven"
-
- in the final analysis, what really matters in life
is that we please God
- that our lives bring approval and affirmation from
him
- and the audience of one
-
- JUST TO SHOW I’M NOT MAKING THIS UP, LET’S
LOOK AT SOME OTHER PASSAGES THAT TALK ABOUT THIS
- (1 Corinthians 4:2) Now it is required that those who
have been given a trust must prove faithful.
- (1 Corinthians 4:3) I care very little if I am judged
by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself.
- (1 Corinthians 4:4) My conscience is clear, but that
does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me.
- Eugene Peterson translates this: "It matters very
little to me what you think of me, even less where I rank in popular
opinion. I don’t even rank myself. Comparisons in these matters
are pointless."
- for Paul, the opinion of others didn’t matter
- he didn’t even care about his own opinion of himself
- what mattered was his acceptance from a higher court:
"It is the Lord who judges me"
-
- imagine being liberated from the need to impress anyone!
- imagine our sense of esteem not resting on whether
someone notices how smart, attractive, or successful we are
-
- Paul writes to the Galatians:
- (Galatians 1:10) Am I now trying to win the approval
of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying
to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.
- whose approval are you seeking – others’
or God’s?
- do you spend your life trying to please everyone, or
do you simply live to please God?
-
- there’s another verse that is very disturbing:
- speaking of those who wouldn’t publicly confess
their faith in Christ, John writes:
- (John 12:43) for they loved praise from men more than
praise from God.
- driven by ego and pride, and tied to the approval of
others, these people lost out on the approval of God
-
- HOW CAN WE FREE OURSELVES FROM APPROVAL ADDICTION?
- how can we stop being people-pleasers?
- how can we avoid the trap of becoming hypocrites –
performing our righteous deeds simply for the applause of others?
- one of the answers, I believe, is what is called the
spiritual discipline of secrecy
- secrecy means that we stop living for the fame, justification,
and attention of others
- it means that we learn to love to be unknown, satisfied
to serve God without the thanks or acknowledgement of others
- that we will be content to serve in obscurity –
as long as God knows, we won’t care
- it means that we place our public relations department
entirely in the hands of God
- we let him decide when our deeds will be known and
when our light will be noticed
-
- secrecy doesn’t get much attention as a spiritual
discipline, but it’s a crucial one to practice
- Jesus spoke in Matthew 6 of doing good deeds and making
sure no one finds out about them
- he tells us that our good deeds should be so secret
that we don’t even congratulate ourselves on how well we’re
doing:
- (Matthew 6:3) But when you give to the needy, do not
let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,
-
- every once in a while, do something good and make sure
that nobody notices
- resign, John Ortberg writes, from impression management
- stop trying to get other people to think well of you
– don’t even live for their approval
- as you practice the spiritual disciplines, don’t
draw attention to yourself – practice them as quietly and as humbly
as you know how
-
- it’s a fact of life that acts done to impress
cease to have value as spiritual disciplines
- prayers offered to impress others have no value in
making you a more prayerful person
- gifts given so that you have your name publicly recognized
don’t actually make you a more generous person
- live simply for the approval of God, and not of others
-
- one other thing:
- get your reward from God
- a lot of us serve, hoping that the service will bring
us some sort of reward
- we take up some task in the church, hoping that somebody
will notice and thank us, perhaps give us some recognition
- it’s nice to be thanked, but don’t live for
the applause of others
- be content, if God wills, to toil unnoticed and unappreciated
by others, knowing that God notices, and he is the only one who really
counts
-
- Jesus applies this in three specific areas:
- YOUR GIVING
- don’t give to create the impression that you are
a generous person
- give generously – but you know what, let only
God know how generously you’re giving
- YOUR PRAYING
- don’t pray to other people – pray for God
- when we bow our heads in prayer, we’re not impressing
other people – we’re talking to God
- I think Jesus would ask some of us how much we pray
in secret, in private, without anyone knowing
- he’s not condemning all public prayer – Jesus
prayed in public himself – but how much are you trying to impress
others by praying publicly?
- AND FASTING
- we’re going to talk about this in a few weeks,
but don’t practice this or other spiritual disciplines to impress
others
- simply live to impress God
-
- Jesus tells us what happens when we practice the spiritual
discipline of secrecy:
- (Matthew 6:4) Then your Father, who sees what is done
in secret, will reward you.
- I want to close this evening’s message by asking
you to think of something you can do to secretly serve God, or somebody
else, without anyone noticing
- maybe God is calling some of you to steadfastly refuse
to blow your own horn this week
- refuse flat out to make yourself look good
- don’t try to impress anyone – leave that
job up to God
-
- maybe there’s something you can do in secret that
will help somebody out
- break into somebody’s backyard and mow their lawn
anonymously
- stick some money into an envelope and secretly deliver
it to someone who needs it – don’t even let them know how
it got there
- send an anonymous card to someone who needs a little
encouragement
- sign up again to serve in that position where you never
get acknowledged and nobody ever appreciates you
-
- and do things in private that make you a stronger Christian
- pray consistently this week in secret
- make it something just between God and you
- and God, who sees in secret, promises that he will
reward you
