Don't point the attention back to you.
Don't bring the attention back to you.
Don't say in the middle of the streets,
hey, look at everything I'm doing for God.
Don't look at everything I'm doing.
Look how amazing of a Christian I am.
Jesus is saying, instead, do it in secret.
And if you are found to be what you're doing,
then give all the glory back to God.
Hey, welcome back to the Matthew Devotional.
My name's Marcus.
We're going to be looking today at Matthew chapter 6.
Matthew chapter 6 says this in verse 1.
Beware of practicing your righteousness
before other people in order to be seen by them.
For then you will have no reward from your Father who
is in heaven.
Thus, when you give to the needy,
sound no trumpet before you as the hypocrites
do in the synagogues and in the streets,
that they may be praised by others.
Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
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.
And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Today, we're going to be breaking down
Matthew chapter 6, verses 1 through 4.
Then we're going to jump into the Lord's Prayer.
But what I want to really bring out in Matthew chapter 6,
verses 1 through 4, is giving to the needy.
And Jesus' warning against a worldly mind,
his warning against apostasy, that's
what Matthew chapter 6 is.
It's Jesus' warning against these things.
And so Jesus is warning them never
to be a believer who uses people as a tool
or as an instrument to make yourself or your ministry more
elevated.
We see in today's day and age, there's YouTubers.
You can just type in YouTube, feeding the homeless.
Or you can type in giving to the homeless.
Or you can just scroll on Shorts and on Reels,
and you'll see that there are so many people, believers
and non-believers, who record themselves doing
good deeds to the homeless.
Now, this has a negative effect twofold.
Fold number one is, I mean, we see the cheesiness of it.
We see how forced it is.
We see how cringey it is.
And it turns a lot of people off,
and it makes humanitarian work look like everyone's doing it.
It makes it look more popular than it actually
is, when in turn a person's only doing this
to boost views with the disguise of inspiring others
to do the same.
But the second negative view we see on that
is that it is actually something that
brings shame or embarrassment to the person that
is being helped.
We see that their story is elaborated or dramatized
to be able to make it fit a certain scenario
or to be able to fit a certain criteria.
And what we see on that is, this person
is having to be forced to be washed by millions
to look gruffer than they are, to look ruddier than they are,
to look dirtier than they are.
I believe we actually see, honestly,
more negative effect come out of that than we do positive.
And so we just see that giving to the needy,
when we're boasting ourselves, we're actually
using people as tools.
We're using them as stepping stones.
And that's the exact opposite of what God's wanting to do.
Churches today love to use little plaques
to honor a person or a family or an organization
to be able to honor them because they gave some great amount
financially.
And the intention may be good, and I'm not saying
that it is wrong.
Yet something as little as this, for some believers,
will cause them to grow arrogant or cause
them to either be boastful and try
to look for that next plaque, that next place,
or they'll be riding on that coattail
for years and years to come.
Or on the other side, it'll cause other believers
to be resentful or jealous of them.
And then they start judging, or they
start gossiping about these people.
They start making up these grandiose stories
on why they gave, that they gave because they
wanted to be seen, they gave because they were blackmailed,
or all these other things.
They'll make up these fake stories
to make themselves feel better because they, in turn,
didn't get a little plaque.
And so again, the intention may be good.
The intention may be helpful.
But what happens with that is people
start giving out of the wrong type of heart.
And so don't be self-focused when helping people.
Don't spread or be braggadocious about your works.
Jesus is warning against this when
he says, hey, don't let your left hand know
what your right hand is doing.
In fact, give in secret.
When he is saying to give in secret,
he's saying, don't point the attention back to you.
Don't bring the attention back to you.
Don't say in the middle of the streets,
hey, look at everything I'm doing for God.
Don't look at everything I'm doing.
Look how amazing of a Christian I am.
Jesus is saying, instead, do it in secret.
And if you are found to be what you're doing,
then give all the glory back to God.
And so Jesus' remedy for this and to be
able to avoid this prideful heart
is actually in the very next verses, which
is the Lord's Prayer.
Lord's Prayer says this.
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day 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 evil.
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 of them.
their sin, your father will not forgive you of your sins.
And so let's break these verses down.
Let's break this prayer down.
The first thing we see in the beginning,
when it says, our father in heaven,
hallowed be your name, Jesus is saying,
hey, remember God's sovereignty.
This prayer acknowledges that God is the ultimate authority.
This prayer acknowledges that God is sitting on the throne
over all creation, and by asking for his kingdom to come
and for his will to be done,
we recognize his sovereign rule over all of creation
and over our lives.
And so Jesus' very opening lines of this prayer
is to remember who God is.
Remember that God is sovereign.
Remember that God is powerful.
Remember that God is holy.
And remember where he's at.
He is sitting on the throne, and he is ruling.
The deep truth here is the acceptance and trust
in God's perfect plan and timing.
It calls for humility, it calls for submission
to God's greater wisdom and purpose.
So when we go into this prayer,
it's not just repeating these words,
but it's also knowing that these are specific points
that we can pray on, and it's also places
that we can take our mind to to say,
okay, when I'm praying to God,
I know that God is in heaven ruling over all of creation.
The second thing we see in this prayer
is when he says, your kingdom come, your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
We see that Jesus is saying, hey,
your prayer should be praying to a completely powerful
and holy God to transform the earth.
On earth as it is in heaven signifies the desire
for earth to reflect heaven's perfection.
And not only that, but it's also the desire
for your life and my life and our households
and our day-to-day to reflect that which is in heaven.
In heaven, God is so perfectly fulfilled.
In heaven, God is so perfectly worshiped.
In heaven, God is so perfectly served.
And prayer, when the heavenly beings are praying to him,
it's a plea for that same divine order
to be established here.
And so they're praying in heaven,
holy, holy, holy is the Lord.
We see that many times.
We see it when John is brought up to heaven
in the book of Revelations.
We see it when Paul is brought up to the third heaven.
We see that these angelic beings are saying,
holy, holy, holy is the Lord.
And everything that they do is to honor
and glorify and worship God.
And so we as earthly beings should be able to do the same.
Our lives should be able to reflect that,
which is holy, holy, holy is the Lord.
And every prayer that we lift up to heaven
should be a plea for our lives
to be able to do the exact same.
And then the third thing we see
is a personal and collective alignment.
When he says, our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name, your kingdom come,
your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
So going back to on earth as it is in heaven,
what we see is this prayer is both personal and collective.
It asks God's will to be done in our individual lives
and in the broader world as a whole.
Let me ask you this, when you pray for your friends,
when your friend says, hey, would you pray for me
on this situation or on that situation,
are you praying that God's will be done in their life
or are you praying that your will be done in their life?
When you're giving them advice,
are you giving them advice from the Bible?
Are you giving them godly sound advice
or are you giving them your own personal opinion?
Do you see the difference?
When we pray this prayer,
it's not only just repeating these words.
Jesus is saying, hey, make sure that you are in alignment
with heaven, make sure you are in alignment with me,
make sure you're in alignment with this prayer,
and when you pray this prayer,
it's a great reminder for you to say,
Lord, when I'm praying for others,
when I'm praying for your will to be done,
I'm literally praying that for your will to be done,
not mine.
You see, the deep truth here is that fulfillment
comes from aligning our desires
and our actions with God's will.
It invites us to live in a way that advances God's kingdoms
and values in our personal relationships,
communities, and societies.
And the last thing we see here in this prayer
is we see hope.
You see, when it says, give us this day our daily bread
and forgive us our debts as we've also forgiven our debtors
and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
And yes, that's asking God to provide,
that's asking God for his sustenance,
but that's also asking God in a place of hope.
You see, the deep truth of assurance
is God's ultimate victory and hope that sustains believers.
We're saying, Lord, I know you're sitting in heaven
and Lord, I know you're ruling over all creation.
And because you are, I'm asking you as my king
and as my Lord and as my God,
would you provide me with my daily needs?
What I'm asking, would you provide me
forgiveness of my sins?
God, would you provide me the strength to forgive others?
And Lord, would you provide me and keep me from temptation?
And so when we say these things, we're saying it in hope
because the first three things we're noticing
is acknowledging where God is, who he is.
The second one is saying, God, would you align me
to be able to be in step with your will?
Would you align me to be able to have communication with you
to be able to let my prayer echo that in heaven,
which is holy, holy, holy are you, Lord.
And because I can do all that, Lord,
I have a hope to ask you.
For needs, I have a hope to ask you for provision, and I have a hope to ask you to keep me until
the very end of days.
And so how can we apply this to our life?
Well, the first application we need to do is to be able to trust in God's plan.
You see, trust that God's will, even when it is challenging to understand, even when
we don't see the full picture of it, is to be able to trust it and know that it is good,
it's for His glory, and to be able to embrace the posture of surrender.
The second thing we can do is to be kingdom agents or kingdom workers, so we can actively
work to reflect heavenly values here on earth, we can engage in acts of love, we can engage
in acts of justice, we can engage in acts of mercy, and most importantly, we can engage
in seeking God to be able to transform our lives, to be able to transform our environment,
to be able to transform our community, and to be able to transform our society.
And so when it comes to that temptation of being prideful, to being arrogant, to being
able to tell others, hey, look what I'm doing for God, to be able to look at this prayer
and say, Lord, it's only you who can do this.
You're the one who's sitting on the throne over all creation.
You're the one who's sitting and ruling over the entire earth, and Lord, you're the only
one who can keep me, you're the only one who can keep my salvation.
The Bible says that you are the author and the finisher of my faith, and so because of
that, God, I'm asking, would you give me the strength to continue doing this work?
And when we're able to align our lives with that of heaven and with that of God, our works
are able to be that which are humble, to be able to that which are good, to be able to
that which are holy.
Well, my prayer for you today is that I pray that God's kingdom come in your life, that
God's kingdom will come in my life, that his will will be done in our lives, and I pray
that this encouraged you today.
So thank you for joining us for today's Matthew Devotional.
We'll see you next time.