How to be Perfect
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PROGRESSIVE NARRATIVE SERMON OUTLINE
Date: 2022-02-20
Audience: Grass Valley Corps
Title: How to be Perfect
Text: Matthew 6:1-18
Proposition: Doing good to feel good isn’t good
Purpose: Practice righteousness for the glory of God
Introduction
Grace and peace
-illustration
Used to watch NCIS: LA faithfully.
CFOT – no time – no TV, 2 years. No NCIS:LA!
Tried to catch up – not available for streaming.
I suppose I could pick up now. Each episode is self-contained story, right? Except, no.
I’d only be hearing part of the story – gaps in character development, missing the big picture, not at all what the storytellers intended.
Like skipping chapters in a book! Or reading them out of order. Lose a lot.
Same with the Bible… The way we have cut it up into sections with chapter/verse make it easier to look up passages, but harder to understand the intended message.
Replace intended with our own idea based on just reading/hearing a piece of the story.
-proposition (principle/teaching of story)
For example: Jesus is about to explain to his disciples that their pursuit of perfection or WHOLENESS that God has for them requires them to be aware that doing good to feel good isn’t good!
-purpose (application)
Instead, they – and WE – should be focused on practicing righteousness for the glory of God.
-reference to text
Or, to put it the way Jesus put it in Matthew 6, verse 1:
“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.[1]
I. 1st Part of Story
A. Narration
Why am I picking on chapters and verses again?
If start with 6:1, miss that this isn’t its own teaching – part of the whole.
Your Bible probably has split passage into three or four sections, given each its own little header, as if they are independent from one another.
Truth is, all are illustrations of how to do what Jesus just told his followers they are all required to do. Which is what? If you started at chapter 6, verse 1, like we just did, you wouldn’t know. But if you think back to last week or look back to the end of chapter 5, you’ll see this:
48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. [2]
Why is he saying this? Because he’s telling them that perfection – again this is referring to a wholeness of being who you were created to be – takes some thinking and working through. He even gave a way to measure how you’re doing at it.
20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.[3]
Might be: Pharisees and teachers of the Law? Those pathetic losers?
Not a right understanding of either group!
Pharisees were laymen, but they were completely about living righteous lives. Believed that people living holy lives was critical to God sending the Messiah who would usher in a new age of following the LORD.
All about doing the right thing the right way!
Good men and women trying to live the way God expected them to.
Same with Teachers of the Law, also called Scribes. These were priests and temple workers. Job was to teach and help people understand the Law – God’s covenant passed on through Moses.
Good men and women, trying to live the way God expected them to.
Jesus didn’t use them as an example here because they were bad. Used them as an example of how you need to seek a higher standard. Like saying, “These guys are doing really well, but even they could do a little better if they understood this…”
They were the role models he pointed to, but like with all role models, the goal was to exceed their accomplishments.
But when goal is simply to equal or exceed a role model, where is the focus?
On the doing and measuring, right?
So it’s on yourself. How you did or didn’t do. How others think you did. It’s all about YOU.
So before giving his disciples examples of how to live out righteousness, Jesus cautions them against getting caught up in the performance. That’s what we read before:
“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. [4]
With me so far?
He’s about to give three examples.
Problem with how we read scripture: We’ve separated these out and given them their own little headers and made it look like they are three separate instructions. Which they are, in a way, but these individual acts aren’t what matters, and they aren’t given as a list of three essential behaviors or three best practices or even as three requirements for a faithful life.
They are RANDOM examples. They are drawn from the known public practices of the Pharisees and the Scribes, but they are random. Why do I say that? Because Jesus is using a specific kind of teaching here. And in that teaching, the supporting arguments are three random but on point examples. They are intended to teach a general understanding of a big idea, not specifics of individual ritual practices.
Here’s the first example Jesus gives of what it means to practice your righteousness as part of becoming who you were created to be rather than doing good to feel good. Matthew 6:2-4.
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 others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.[5]
B. Discussion (proves or explains this part of story)
Where we now think of a hypocrite as someone who says one thing, but does another, the key here is what the word meant in the First Century. Hypocrite was word for a type of actor who put a large mask on to convey what character they were. It was an outward appearance that literally masked who the person underneath was.
If your giving is done for an audience, then it isn’t about the caring and community the LORD instructed us to foster. It may outwardly look like you’re doing something for others in need, but that’s just the character you’re playing. It’s actually about the applause.
This is one of the things I hate about the Christmas season – almost all of the giving is hypocrisy. People say they want to help kids in need or families who are struggling or whatever, but then they only want to help a certain way – one which makes them feel good. It isn’t that their assistance isn’t still helpful – though sometimes, frankly, it isn’t – but it isn’t really about helping either. It’s about what they want, not about meeting needs.
Food drives were what sent me over the edge a few years back. What we needed were a dozen staple items for each of a hundred food boxes we wanted to distribute. If we had donors give us money directly, we could have bought all we needed at better than wholesale prices. Essentially, for what it costs you to buy a box of mac and cheese, we could buy four boxes. But people don’t like to give cash. It isn’t visible enough. And going online to make a donation doesn’t give them the same kind of warm fuzzy feeling that they get from putting a box of food into a collection barrel. It’s too mundane, too much like what they do every day anyway. That makes it feel less special, even though it really accomplishes so much more.
Anyway, the time and effort required to put out barrels and then keep them empty and to bring in the random collection of STUFF and trash they accumulate ended up costing almost as much as buying what we needed would have. And instead of providing us with our dozen necessary items, people used our food barrels as a dumping ground for every expired, opened and unfinished, or just plain weird item they could lay their hands on.
Rice crackers for babies that expired ten years ago? Hey, let’s throw them in the barrel!
Those dented cans of soup we couldn’t find a way to open? In the barrel!
That bottle of salad dressing which uncle Bobby used half of at Thanksgiving last year which has just been sitting at the back of our fridge for the last two years? In the barrel…
Pickled herring fillets that were given to us as a joke that one Christmas? Dust it off, let’s take it to the food barrel!
And we’ll be sure to tell people we gave a gift of food to The Salvation Army!
Drives me crazy, fills our dumpsters with expired and contaminated and open items, and ultimately helps no one and nothing except your own ego.
C. Application
Doing “good” [air quotes] to feel good isn’t good.
If no one knew what you were giving or to whom, would you still do it?
Are you looking to help someone in need, or are you hoping to score some points with yourself, with your family, with the people you are giving to, or with God? Because Jesus is pretty clear here: It won’t work. You want to get in on the reward God promises is available for those who give because they are choosing to do what they can to help someone in need the way he asks us to? Fine, do it in secret. Or do it publicly, but make your gift secret. Or do it publicly and let people know about your gift, but don’t put your name on the building. Whatever you need to do to keep your ego out and your true self in the open instead of hiding behind a mask.
That’s what Jesus is saying here.
II. 2nd Part of Story
A. Narration
And it isn’t just giving! He wants you to understand that it’s great to do your religious duty, but your attitude changes who it is you’re really doing it for. And that changes who you’re praying to, doesn’t it?
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 others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 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. [6]
B. Discussion (proves or explains this part of story)
Does this need more explanation? If you’re praying for others to hear your great prayers or so that they will respect your great piety or so they will hear your needs and meet them in some other way, then who are you praying to? When you pray to God, pray to GOD, not to yourself or to the others around you.
C. Application
7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
9 “This, then, is how you should pray:
“ ‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation, s
but deliver us from the evil one.’
14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. [7]
I must have a twisted sense of humor because I always find it funny that Jesus explicitly says not to mindlessly babble prayers just before tea hi g his disciples an example of how to pray that we almost immediately turned in to the prayer we mindlessly babble out on many occasions.
My brokenness aside, look at how Jesus built this prayer.
It's all about God!
Praise to YOUR name.
Your Kingdom come.
YOUR will be done.
Then there are three “US” requests: Give us, forgive us, lead us… But these are also God centered, because he is acknowledged as the source of what we need.
Then there is this little aside about forgiveness which is a reminder that our motives matter. Forgive us as we have forgiven! We should, of course, forgive others as easily and as readily as we hope that God forgives us. And forgiveness is an issue of the heart. It is a decision we make and an action we choose to follow through on. If we outwardly forgive, but inwardly harbor a grudge, then we are once again behaving like an actor staging a scene.
We cannot do good in order to feel good! That’s not good. We cannot pretend to forgive in order to be forgiven. We must actually forgive. Attitude and effort are required, not just going through the motions.
III. 3rd Part of Story
A. Narration
Which brings us to the final example of what it means to practice righteousness which brings glory to God instead of elevating ourselves.
16 “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. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 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.[8]
Fasting is giving something up in order to focus better on your relationship with God. In this context, and the way most people generally use the term, it refers to avoiding food.
B. Discussion (proves or explains this part of story)
Albert Schweitzer is said to have commented that human beings are so perverse that they take pleasure in the pain of their own penance. People can make themselves miserable and then brag about how miserable they are, as if this is somehow admirable.
Really, going a day without food isn’t likely to be visible. So, to make sure people could tell they were observing a fast, some would make a point of fasting from joy as well, trying not to smile or laugh. Others might use ashes or flour to make themselves look pale and drawn. They might wear torn clothing or leave their hair unkempt so that others would ask them what was wrong.
The prophet Joel, calling the people of Israel to repentance, warned them that they needed to tear their hearts instead of their clothes, because God sees what is in us and not just what we wear.
C. Application
God had decreed a fast for his people on the Day of Atonement each year. From sunrise to sunset on that one day a year their focus was to be on their relationship to him and his sustaining grace instead of on food.
Over time, people wanting to reflect a certain level of holiness had taken to fasting one day a week, but the Pharisees had taken that a step further, teaching that fasting twice a week was a mark of their closeness to God. Especially given what Jesus taught here, you’d think that his followers would have put that foolishness aside, or at least not made a deal of it. And I suppose they did, in a way. Some early Christian believers said that the Pharisees were obvious hypocrites for their habit of fasting on Mondays and Thursdays and that people who were REALLY righteous fasted on Wednesdays and Fridays instead.
Frankly, if something is getting in the way of your relationship with God, making a conscious effort to take a break from it for a day isn’t a bad thing. But if you spend your day letting people know that you aren’t focusing on that thing, whatever it is, they you’re obviously still focusing on that thing, aren’t you?
If you aren’t eating so you can focus on God instead of food, but you spend your whole day talking about how you aren’t eating, your focus is still very much on food, isn’t it?
If you’re going to set something aside, set it aside – don’t talk about it, show it off, or thrust your abstinence in the faces of others around you like it’s some self-given badge of honor.
Conclusion
-reference to proposition (principle)
The point here is the same as it has been from the beginning. Don’t do good to feel good, because that’s not really good.
-reference to purpose (application)
Do good – practice your righteousness – to bring glory to God, because that’s what it’s about.
-altar call
As Jesus said time and again, it is God, who sees what we do in secret, even in the secret depths of our soul, who we should be concerned about pleasing. It is our relationship with our Creator that matters most in this world and the next. If your only hope is in the things of this world, then you have no hope.
Let me invite you to place your hope in the everlasting, Most High God.
In the things beyond this world.
And in his plan for you, for me, and for all of us, to grow into the people he created us to be. People tied together by bonds of kindness. Of support for one another. Of interconnected community that centers on our relationship to him.
If that’s something you are willing to consider or even to try, let me invite you to pray with me.
[1] The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Mt 6:1.
[2] The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Mt 5:48.
[3] The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Mt 5:19–20.
[4] The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Mt 6:1.
[5] The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Mt 6:2–4.
[6] The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Mt 6:5–6.
[7] The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Mt 6:7–15.
[8] The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Mt 6:16–18.