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Well it's great to be back. I am so thankful to the elders for the Sabbatical and I am just so incredibly refreshed and so thankful for our body. When I came back a couple weeks ago to just worship with you guys I was just so moved listening to the worship, listening to the preaching, seeing your faces, remembering how much I love this body. It's supposed to be my job to do what I can to serve you, but I have felt so blessed and served by you it feels the other way around! So really, I just want to say this church is a special place. God has really blessed us, so much.

Review So after three months off today we get to return to the Sermon on the Mount. As I was reviewing my notes from our previous messages I was surprised how much this study has effected me. I

would have to say that this study has reorganized my thinking more than any study I have ever done. So I'm very excited to continue our study. If you're new and you weren't here for the first messages or if you are like me and you just forgot everything we talked about, I'll try to reset the table. If you will remember the Sermon on the Mount comes early on in Jesus' ministry. He has boldly crisscrossed the country and made strong proclamations assuming the title Messiah. Now it's one thing to just say, "Hey guys, I'm the long awaited Messiah prophesied by Daniel." It's another thing to back it up. And Jesus certainly did. He had gone on a absolute healing rampage. The immediate verses that precede the Sermon on the Mount say this:

So crowds were essentially seeing the miracle working power of Jesus and popularity, comparing that to their less than admirable

Roman counterparts and saying, "Hey, let's make this guy king." The Sermon on the Mount is basically Jesus saying, you want me to be king? Are you sure? Let me tell you what being part of my kingdom is all about. The Sermon on the Mount is explaining the values of the kingdom of God. Jesus is letting them know what it's going to be like to be under my administration. So that's how the sermon opens: A showcase of God's kingdom values in what we call the beatitudes. And almost every one of the values runs completely counter to the world's values. They are entirely countercultural. Think about it. Blessed are the peacemakers. What 5 star general values. Peacmaking? What CEO or athlete or Hollywood Star values being poor in spirit or being meek or being pure in heart or being persecuted? But Jesus actually values these conditions of spirit. But not only does he value things that the world despises, but he raises the moral and ethical standard far beyond what anyone would have conceived. He says, "You've heard it said not to murder, but I say to hate is murder. To lust is to commit adultery. Love your enemy. Give to the one who asks. Pray for the ones who persecute you. Your righteousness needs to exceed that of even the Scribes and the Pharisees. Chapter 5 ends with this grinding period. You need to be perfect, as your heavenly father is perfect. That's where we left off. I think it appropriate to pause here and resubmit ourselves to these words and the words to come. We are

citizens of Christ's kingdom and so we need to say, "Whatever it means to be part of your kingdom, that's what I want to do." We are followers of Jesus which means we don't stand with folded arms considering his suitability to function as king. He is a good king and what he commands is good. And if if our values don't align with his, it's not him that needs changing. Let's pray!

Prayer Lord, you say many things in your message here that have serious comfort implications. Lord we come this morning to confess our weakness in believing that these words are the very words of life, that fulfillment can only be found by following you and surrendering to you. Lord we ask that you open our eyes to see the countercultural wisdom of your words. Whatever you have for us, Lord we want to say, "I am ready to receive it." Break us down. Humble us.

Appearance vs Reality Let me introduce the passage this morning with a little story from this week. This week we were getting ready for school and part of getting ready for school of course is making sure everyone has the right size shoes to wear. As we were doing this we noticed that four of the people in our family have almost identical sized feet. So we took a picture to document the moment since it won't last long.

Now this picture appears to show you something that is in fact not the case. I'm deceiving you. The deception has nothing to do with shoe size but rather foot order. Here's what you are really looking at.

So what appears to be the case is not really the case - appearance vs. reality. This is one of the major themes in literature throughout history because this is such a common experience. So often what appears to be the case on first inspection is upon deeper inspection, not at all what it first appeared.

Now when this lack of agreement between appearance and reality is accidental we call it misinterpretation. You might misinterpret someones words and think they meant one thing but they really meant another. That happens all the time. But when the lack of agreement between appearance and reality is purposeful we call it deception. When somebody purposefully omits a detail to make it sound a certain way, when somebody adds a small little comment, to throw you off the trail, we call it deception. This deception can range anywhere from mild forms of hyperbole, exaggeration and image projecting on Facebook to plagiarism, fraud and identity theft. No matter the nefariousness, the goal is the same; all deception wants to disguise reality and exchange it for a perception. Deceivers want to distort, alter, change the truth. And today we come to a portion of the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus is going to point his finger very firmly on those of us who are

religious deceivers, those of us who want others to think that we are very religiously righteous people. He's going to talk about three spiritual disciplines that have the potential to be done in such a way that they make you look spiritual: giving, prayer and fasting. And we'll take these subjects one at a time, one message a piece. So let's look at the first one, giving.

So Jesus is saying, look carefully at your motives when your external acts of righteousness are on display. Avoid being ostentatious. When you can give secretly, do. Why does Jesus warn about external acts of righteousness at this point in the sermon? Remember Jesus has just finished talking about these super high standards for his kingdom. Never has a religious teacher dared to raise the standard that high. Never has the ethical standard been more clear. And for the legalist, this is like a piece of cheese on a mousetrap. You give me a bar, I'll jump. You tell me what to do and I'll do it. You can almost see the legalist salivating at more rules. And Jesus knows this. So he preempts that thought with this warning: Don't practice your righteousness before men. Why? Because you won't have any reward. Now when I was

younger I read Jesus' warning and kind of used this idea of reward as the interpretive key for understanding the text. And I think is, but the problem is that there's two ways you can hear it - and the way I used to hear was wrong. I'd say, "Well, if I give in order to be seen by men, then my reward is not going to be as good. My reward is going to be the empty praises of man. And then I'd go on and compare this lesser reward to the reward given if we give in the right way - verse 4.

So if I go on and give like this then I will get a reward from God himself which I assume is better than the empty praises of men. And my conclusion was, I better refrain from seeking men's praises so I can get that better reward. Now if you took that reading as I just explained it, that wouldn't get you in too much trouble. But here's where my reading was wrong. I always read the first part of the passage as the guy hoping for a great reward from God and

getting instead 'simply the praises of men.' But that is not at all the case. The guy who practices his righteousness before men, gets exactly what he wants. The praises of men was exactly what he was after. He's not disappointed. He got his reward. The issue at stake is quite simply, "What is your target?" Is your target the face of man or is your target the face of God? Because whatever your target is will determine your trajectory. Do you realize that the human being is a machine designed to hit its target? Well that is what Jesus is getting at in this passage. He is asking the question, "Who is your target?" Is your target the face of men? If so, your onboard guidance system will control your behavior such that you get what you intend, the praises of men. If you want Pepsi when you open the fridge you'll walk away with Pepsi when you close it. If you want the praises of men when you give your money, then you'll get the praises of men. Jesus is saying you got what you came for. You got your reward. The target was reached. You got what you wanted. Your not walking away disappointed. You got what you thought was ultimate. If for some reason you gave and people weren't watching you give, somehow you'll do something, say something, change some strategy such that the right people know what you gave. And Jesus warns against this. He says beware of practicing your righteousness before men, "IN ORDER to be SEEN by them." Do you hear motive, reason there? Don't give ostentatiously. Don't give so that you get your name on a plaque. Don't give so that you will be recognized. The problem is not what you are doing, it's why you are doing it. You have the wrong

target. But if your target is the face of God, then your trajectory will be different. Your reward will be your target, the face of God. If you give in secret, that place where only God can see, then you will be rewarded by his secret smile and that is enough because you got what you wanted. Do you see here that the question at stake is simply this: whose eyes do you care about? If you can pick only one set of eyes, who do you want looking? Do you want God's approval or man's approval?

Seeking Approval So let me ask you this: What sort of giver are you? What goes through your mind when you give? Do you crave thoughts like, "Man he's a generous giver." Would you just be elated if someone said that about you. Of course you couldn't smile if they did, because that would give it away, but internally it's ear to ear. Are you more prone to give in person or anonymously? Does it feel like a waste when nobody knew about it? Do you dream in your sleep about people's eyes popping out of their sockets when they see the gold bar you dumped into the offering plate. You want the respect that comes from that. Are you highly motivated by the plaque that has your name on it, by pulic recognition. Do you imagine others squirming with discomfort as you bless them and crave that feeling of superiority?

What does Jesus call a person who gives with these kinds of motives? Look at the text. He calls them hypocrites. It's a stage

word. You put a mask on and play the part of someone other than you. That's a theatrical hypocrite. No harm, no foul. The religious hypocrite, the religious play-actor pretends to serve God but really his service is for some other reason, so someone sees, so that he feel better, so he won't be negatively labeled, so he'll be wellesteemed in the eyes of his peers. The reason that Jesus speaks out so seriously about this kind of two-faced hypocritical behavior is that it literally prevents you from belief in God.

Just as a running man cannot walk, just as a married woman cannot be single, just as a swimming man cannot be dry, so a man who loves men's applause cannot believe God's promises. That might sound like a strange connection (to link desire for men's applause and unbelief), but it's made time and time again in the NT. Until you take off the mask of the hypocrite you literally can't believe in Jesus.

It's actually not possible. I want to show you how this works. Turn in your Bibles to John chapter 5. In John 5, we find Jesus wrangling with this exact class of people, religious hypocrites, people who think that by their impressive religious discipline they will obtain favor with God. And Jesus is saying, "Dude, you've missed the point all together."

You think the great point of life is to know your Bible? Your ridiculous. The point is to know me. The Scriptures point to me. Just ask me. Talk to me. Worship me. I'm the whole point. Something far greater than the Bible is here, the God of the Bible. But something is preventing them from believing in Jesus as Messiah. Here he is! The entire OT points to him. It's about as obvious as it comes and yet for some strange reason, even though they know their Bibles better than anyone else, they don't believe.

Why? Why don't they receive Jesus? The answer is interesting. The answer is, that Jesus is not their target. Jesus was never their goal. They are not seeking the face of God. They are seeking the face of man.

Do you see how belief and man-pleasing cannot coexist? Their desire to seek man's approval creates an environment where belief is not possible. Seeking glory from one another is a belief inhibitor. It's amazing. And this is not just related to giving. Any time you care about the eye of men more than you care about they eye of God, at that moment you are in an environment where belief in God is not possible. Every time you do your hair, make clothing selections, put makeup on a certain way with men in mind instead of God, you are exercising unbelief. Every time you ensure that your hard work is seen by others, you

are exercising unbelief Every time you steer a conversation such that people notice you, praise you, exalt you, well, that is unbelief.

You can't believe in God, desire God's face because you have already believed in man and desired his face. It's a lordship issue. It's either Jesus' kingdom or man's kingdom, but it can't be both.

Application to Giving So apply that to giving. When you give in any way, whether its here at church, to a neighbor, to a family member, even to your own spouse and you give so that you will achieve the praises of men, this is really an expression of unbelief. You are saying, God, I don't believe that your approval is enough. If I do it in secret, and only you see, well that would be a waste. Unfortunately, your approval is not enough, I might get shortchanged. I'm not sure I believe you are really omniscient and know all things. I don't believe that you are going to really reward this gift. And whatever reward you might give can't possibly be as good as the praises of mens, and so to hedge my bets I'm going to make sure I at least get something out of this transaction. Jesus says, of course you can't believe in me. All you care about is receiving glory from one another. And that is a dig. What an embarrassing condemnation. Imagine a pogo sticking club in the corner creating plagues and metals and awards that they give to one another. Their high fiving one another, creating awards ceremonies that they post to youtube, super elaborate handshakes. You'd label them insignificant and drinking the disease of being self-important. They are self-congratulating. Nobody of any seriousness sees those plaques as of having any real worthy.

This is exactly the picture of religious pride. Religious pride is an inbred sickness where men of insignificance seek approval from other men of insignificance. Later on in the book of John, Jesus condemns some Jews who were part of the Sanhedrin. And his condemnation is super interesting, because these Jewish leaders actually believe in him. They have concluded intellectually that he must be who he claims. He's doing miracles. He talks, acts and looks in every way like Messiah. He must be. But even though they knew that Jesus was Lord, they would not confess him as Lord because they did not want to be stripped of their position.

Men of insignificance seeking approval from other men of insignificance which creates an environment in which belief is not possible. I'm telling you, this is a disease that we all have, that we all

must repent of. Even the most self-assured, most confident, independents, seemingly unaffected among us are horribly addicted to the praises of men. We crave the compliment from the authority figure in our life - boss, parent, pastor, leader. Do you fantasize about certain people complimenting you. I remember early on when I was in seminary and teaching before a group of people and really feeling like I nailed it and then simultaneously feeling so bummed that my mentor was not there. What in the world is that? Gross. We crave the glory that comes from man. We want his approval. We want to be complimented for our beauty, complimented for our skill? Whatever you've built your identity around, that's your target area for praise. If your an artist, you crave compliments on your artwork. If your an athlete, you crave compliments on your athletic performance. If your a musician, you crave compliments on your music. If your good at your job, you crave compliments from those around you at work and from your boss. If your a preacher, you crave compliments from people that listen to your message. And of course, you can't show it on the outside, because of course that wouldn't be very humble. But inside we are wolves to blood, licking it up.

You know, your people pleasing tendencies can even work in reverse. Your desire for the praises of men can prevent you from doing something you know you should do. Perhaps you know you should talk to someone about their destructive behavior. Maybe a couple is sleeping together, maybe you know there is some toxic behavior going on in the marriage, maybe you know about some selfish attitude, but it's too hard. The relational consequence is too significant so you just shut up. You just pretend like it isn't there.

Being controlled by the eyes of men is so paralyzing. And one of the main reasons its so paralyzing is because all men can't be pleased. You might be able to please one or two, but not all. When I first started in ministry I was so paralyzed by this. I'd have a conversation with one guy who I really appreciated and he said, "Man I just can't stand these shallow, lame songs these days. Whatever happened to the deep orthodoxy that once fueled the church. And then he'd list some song that he didn't like." Then the next week, some other guy who I also appreciated for different reasons would come with tears streaming down his face saying how much that exact song meant to him. And here I was privy to both conversations. What do you do? Either way you are going to offend someone. Make your decision and in so doing pick your enemy. But the way to be liberated from this is to change the audience you care about pleasing. Paul said it so well in:

So let's apply this concept to giving itself. God I care only about your

approval. It's a very small thing to me what anybody thinks, whether they think I give too little or whether they are wowed by how much I give. It's nothing to me, since that is not my target. You are the judge; you are the king; you set the standard. And it's your eye I care about. I want to catch your eye. If that's true of you then here's what you need to do:

You need to develop what we are going to call giving amnesia. Jesus says, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Give in such a way that you almost forget that you gave. Not only are we not to tell other people about our giving; there is a sense in which we are not even to tell ourselves. It's not a notch on your belt, something you carefully track, something you pin on your chest like a metal of honor and wear proudly. You forget quickly. Why is this the command? Because you know your own heart don't you? Sure you gave and maybe that giving was even in private but

your heart will take those conscious acts of mercy and twist them into a form of spiritual pride. Self-consciousness of our religious deeds always deteriorates into self-righteousness and selfcongratulations. So give and forget. Well, how do you do this?

Focus on the Need The answer is here in the text and is so obvious that you perhaps might miss it. Jesus says, "When you give to the needy." Who are you thinking about when you give? Your thinking about the needy! Your giving is for God but it is also TO someone or something. Focus on that someone or something. When you stare on the real faces of people in need, or when you give to true ministry projects, you can't help but forget self. Its the same mutually exclusive principle we referenced earlier. When you are working out a calculus problem you cannot simultaneously be dreaming about your art project. Similarly, when you see a person crying and are moved with empathy, it's very hard to be selfcentered. Giving is a real activity involving real people in real need. Its purpose is to alleviate the distress of the needy or meet some real ministry need. The Greek word for almsgiving, has built into it the word mercy; it indicates that it is a work of mercy.

Application Let's not be hypocrites in our giving. A hypocrite is someone who gives to get. When was the last time you gave to get? You weren't giving to get the praises of God. You were giving to get something else, maybe a gift kickback, maybe a tax deduction, maybe the

praises of men, recognition. God does not want that kind of giving. Maybe take a moment to confess that. Now let's make our giving different. Let's make God the focus. What heart attitude needs to change in order for you to honor God in your giving, going forward? 1. 2. 3. 4.

Express your motive, "Lord this is for you." Pray for the need. Empathize. Meet more than just financial needs.

Baptism Now I want to transition into another religious activity that is not private at all. It's very public. I want to talk about baptism because tonight at Ann Morison Park at 5:15 we are having our baptism service. Now why is baptism public and giving private. Why is the communion public and fasting private? Why is prayer sometimes public and sometimes private. We could muddy the waters even further by asking the question isn't Jesus flatly contradicting himself?

Here he's saying let your good works be visible to men and then in chapter six he says let your good works only be visible to God.

Remember, its always about motive. Here's a great way to relieve the tension. Live by this motto: 'show when tempted to hide' and ‘hide when tempted to show' Why are we to keep our piety secret? to give glory to God. Why are we to show our piety? To give glory to God. I've met very few people who have been spiritually puffed up by getting baptized. It's a step of faith. It's scary. You are doing it out in the open, down by a river and people are watching and over the years there have been plenty of people who have made verbal jabs at us. You have to get up in front (which is hard enough) and then you have to tell the story of how you got so low you realized that you can't do it by yourself. You have to explain how God humbled you. That requires humility. We are tempted to hide here, but God tells us to step out! So that's what we will be doing this evening. We want to listen to the testimonies of people who publicly express their desire to follow Jesus with their lives. Now let’s take a moment while we are in this setting to teach about what we will be doing this evening. This evening at 5:15 we will be baptizing 9 individuals: TJ Browne Hailey Browne Sarah Browne Michael Pease Abigail Wood Logan Parks Ryan Beglinger Ben Beglinger Ty Hughes

If you are wanting to be baptized and I did not list your name please

let me know! Why do we do this? Baptism seems to be a relic from ancient history. Why do we still do this? It's a symbol of something that happens to us when we get saved and God has asked us to use this symbol to remind us of a very important spiritual reality. Let's back into the reason this way: A true understanding of the gospel will leave us with no choice but to affirm this statement, “No matter what you do, God accepts you because of Jesus’ finished work.” Which in turn will always leave us with the question, “Hey, if performance doesn’t affect my standing with God, then I can sin all I want and God will forgive me, right?” Listen how Paul answers that question by pointing to baptism.

So Paul's answer to why we should no longer sin is that we have been placed 'In Christ'. What does that mean? Just like when we are placed into an airplane the things that happen to the airplane also happen to us. The airplane taxis, takes off, flys in the air, and so do we! So Christ died, was buried and was raised again. And all those things happen to us as well. What's the significance of that? Why does that matter?

Baptism is a picture of death happening to you and its very sensory. We go down under the water and all of the sudden the sounds of the world disappear (you loose your sight, your all alone. Your actually in a condition that if you remained you would die - that symbolized death and burial. It should make you think of dying with Christ, his real death, his real suffering, his real separation from the father. As real as that water eddying around your submerged face, your death in Christ is real. But that's not the end.

Then we come up out of the water and the flood of oxygen hits your face and the sights and sounds return. That signifies new life and resurrection. Baptism is a symbol of faith. It is an expression with the whole body of the heart's acceptance of Jesus as Lord. Of all the things I could choose to follow, I choose you Jesus. And it is a symbol of dying with Christ on the cross, being buried in the tomb with Christ, and being resurrected with Christ. So the things that happened to Christ also happen to us. It is the ultimate act of identification with the person and the work of Jesus. There are men and women around the world who get baptized come up out of the water and are shot and killed for this act of identification. In baptism we don’t add Jesus to our trophy of trinkets; he replaces everything and becomes the center of our worship.

I think that's the best kind of language to use with unbelievers to describe who you are as a Christian. I am a follower of Jesus Christ. I follow his teachings. And that has a dramatic difference in the way we live. When we make Jesus Lord and when we are baptized, we are making a claim that Jesus is our master from now till the end of time. We are stating that Jesus is our King and we follow him. That of course is why it is so inconsistent to continue sinning. We have a new Lord, new master, new target, new goal that excludes our old way of living. So that is what we are doing this evening. I encourage all of you to come out tonight and rejoice as these 4 people proclaim that they are followers of Jesus Christ.