So we're continuing our study now in the
Sermon on the Mount.
Our title is Growth in Christlikeness and we
first considered in Matthew 5 verses 1 to
16 nine right attitudes and now we've been
in the last few weeks we've been considering
nine wrong attitudes and the first wrong attitude
we saw was anger in Matthew 5 verse
21 onwards and the second wrong attitude we
saw was sinful sexual lust verse 27 onwards
which included divorce and the third wrong attitude
we saw was lying verse 33 to 37
and the fourth one we saw last Sunday
was vengeance which we saw from verse 38
downwards and I just want to say one
thing in clarification there there's nothing wrong in
asking for justice we don't take revenge but
it's perfectly proper to ask for justice and
we have the example of Jesus there and
you know we need to understand what exactly
did Jesus mean when he say in verse
39 if someone slaps you on one cheek
turn the other but when you look at
Jesus own example because when he was before
the high priest it says people did slap
him in Matthew 18 22 the officer standing
there slapped him saying is that how you
answer the high priest and Jesus didn't turn
the other cheek you need to understand the
spirit in which Jesus spoke those words if
I have spoken wrongly he told them testify
of the wrong but if rightly why do
you strike me that was his reply so
we are not to understand turn the other
cheek in a literal way when Jesus said
cut off your right hand he didn't mean
it literally when he said plug out your
right eye he didn't mean it literally we
need to understand the figure of speech Jesus
was using there and here we find Jesus
asking for justice if I've spoken wrongfully sure
give a testimony and say that I had
said something wrong Matthew 18 John 18 23
but if right why do you strike me
he was asking for justice but when they
just slapped him again and sent him off
to the high priest he just kept quiet
so we see there the example of Christ
you know we've often said the new covenant
letter can kill just like the old covenant
letter we need to recognize that in an
old covenant it was the letter in the
new covenant is the word made flesh so
Jesus is our dictionary Jesus the word made
flesh is the one where we see the
answer to difficult questions and how to interpret
even Jesus own words otherwise you know if
you take the literal interpretation of Jesus words
you'll be another new covenant pharisee which can
be worse than an old covenant pharisee I
give you that warning because people many people
pursuing holiness in this day who think they
agree with us in our preaching holiness and
I say I don't agree with you because
your spirit is the spirit of a new
covenant pharisee which is to me 10 times
worse than the old covenant pharisee so Jesus
is our example now we go on to
the fifth wrong attitude from Matthew 5 verse
43 onwards which I call selectedness in love
and in the old covenant it was there
was a command you shall love your neighbor
and hate your enemy now there wasn't a
command like that it was Jesus said you
heard that it was said you shall love
your neighbor that part is the command but
and hate your enemy that was something they
interpreted from the command for example that God
told the Israelites to wipe out the Canaanites
who were their enemies so it's from that
they imply that statement but we need to
understand why the Lord told them to wipe
out the Canaanites it's because they did not
have the ability to overcome idolatry which was
the predominance among sin among the Canaanites and
if God was to preserve a pure testimony
for his name through which one day in
the nation of Israel the son of God
could come as a man and die for
the sins of the earth that was God's
ultimate goal in preparing a nation and giving
them his laws and it took 1500 years
to prepare that nation to receive Jesus Christ
it wasn't an easy thing it was not
something the Lord made a nation and the
next week he'd send Christ to earth no
they wouldn't have understood what it was all
about and the word of God could not
have been proclaimed as it was by the
apostles who've been grounded in the law so
we need to understand this that in order
to prepare that nation to receive Christ God
had to give them certain laws and they
did not have the Holy Spirit dwelling within
them so it was very difficult to keep
them from idolatry and you see how often
in spite of the prophets in spite of
the laws they kept on going back to
adultery again and again and again for a
thousand years after the time of Moses again
and again and again for 900 years until
they went into the Babylonian captivity they were
going back to idols and that was some
prophet would take them out of it again
some king would take them out again they'd
go back to idolatry and it was to
preserve that nation that the Lord said you've
got to wipe out all these idol worshipers
otherwise he they'll pollute you you don't have
the strength to overcome their the satanic power
that's operating through them there was no way
to overcome satan in the old testament and
on satan operating through the idol worshipers of
that time because the Jewish people did not
have the Holy Spirit so that's why he
said the only way is to eliminate I
mean to use an example it's like if
a man's got a infected leg infected foot
let's say which is developed what's called gangrene
gangrene is something that's so bad that if
you don't treat it it'll destroy your whole
body it'll kill you so do you know
what the doctors do they cut off that
foot now if you saw through a window
in a surgery a doctor cutting off somebody's
foot you'd think that man hates him no
he loves him it's because he loves him
that he cuts off that foot so that
the rest of the body is can live
so something cutting off the Canaanites and the
killing them was something equivalent to that many
people who read the old testament say has
God changed his mind in the new covenant
and why was he like that see when
you don't know God you have all these
wrong ideas when you read the bible the
bible can be understood only by one who
has first received the Holy Spirit and who
gets to know God through the Holy Spirit
if you try to understand the bible intellectually
you will have all types of questions not
only in the old testament but in the
new testament as well so that is what
they were saying hate the enemy but in
the new covenant the Lord was saying I
say to you love your enemies now you
can't do that unless you're filled with the
Holy Spirit see the ultimate answer to keeping
the Sermon on the Mount the commands in
the Sermon on the Mount is to be
filled with the Holy Spirit and if you
read the Sermon on the Mount and you
read it like the law of Moses you'll
just say it's impossible impossible impossible I mean
the old covenant law was impossible imagine this
and that's why a lot of people say
that and there are believe it or not
there are some Christians in certain groups I
don't want to mention their names they teach
that this is not for Christians this is
for the Jewish people and it's not for
us they call that the I call it
the Jewish waste paper basket whatever you don't
like you put in the Jewish waste paper
basket that's what somebody else used that expression
very good expression but what is the answer
to keeping the Sermon on the Mount I
believe it's what finally Jesus said at the
end of the Sermon on the Mount ask
Matthew 7 7 and it'll be given to
you what should you ask for good gifts
and what are the good gifts you compare
this with Luke chapter 11 verse 13 it's
the Holy Spirit so when you compare Matthew
7 these first seven verses no so verse
7 to 12 with Luke 11 and verse
13 you find that it's the gift of
the Holy Spirit that the Lord's telling you
to ask for if you want to keep
the Sermon on the Mount otherwise you just
can't do it forget about it I mean
if you're trying to keep this on your
own strength brother I'd say don't even try
I'll tell you right now you'll fail love
your enemies we have to love every if
you've got 10 enemies and you love nine
of them you have disobeyed the word of
God if there are 10 people who are
your enemies that means not that you're the
enemies they are your enemies a true Christian
has no enemies except the devil we read
in Ephesians 6 verse 10 to 12 we
have we wrestle not with flesh and blood
we wrestle with principalities and powers and evil
forces if you're a true disciple of Jesus
you have from your heart you have no
earthly enemy but hundreds of people may be
your enemies because you're a disciple of Christ
and the more fervent your disciple you are
the more you proclaim the truth without compromise
the more enemies you're going to have Jesus
had the maximum number they hated him so
much they killed him but he loved them
all every single one of them he loved
them even that soldier he came to capture
him who came to capture him when Peter
cut off his ear Jesus immediately picked up
that year and put him back and healed
him what a demonstration of love and love
is what wins people's hearts and I believe
that my conviction is that servant Malchus whose
ear was healed will be in heaven I
can't imagine a man who's being healed by
somebody he went to capture and not being
convicted by that and he'll be there in
heaven thanking Peter for cutting out his ear
he said God turned that for good and
here I am in heaven Peter because how
the Lord turned that evil to good love
your enemies and pray for those who persecute
you can you think of people who've been
troubling you maybe in your office maybe your
relatives maybe your mother-in-law maybe some
anti-christian person you know making life difficult
for you in your place of work because
you're a witness for Christ do you pray
for them otherwise you're not obeying God's commands
Jesus said if you love me keep my
commandments pray for those who persecute you pray
for those who have troubled you in some
way pray that they'll be saved that's the
best thing we can we can pray for
a few months ago some burglars got into
my home that was being locked for some
time and in India and well they didn't
find anything of value there they looked for
gold and cash and there was neither of
those there no jewelry nothing my wife never
wears jewelry in any case and they found
nothing of value and they were disappointed but
I prayed for them you know when I
heard that I said Lord I want to
see one of them at least I don't
know how many people went in but at
least one of them I want to them
to be convicted and to be born again
I pray and many times since that time
in these past few months I prayed that
the Lord would bring one of them to
Christ in some way somewhere the Lord knows
who they are and one of them oh
Lord lay hold of that person help me
hear the gospel so that one day when
I meet him in heaven I can he
embraces me and says you know Zach I
burgled your house because of that I got
saved wow that would thrill my heart and
if I can meet him on earth itself
that'll be even greater pray for those who
persecute you and so that you may be
sons of your father who's in heaven see
this is not the way to become a
child of God no don't misunderstand to become
a child of God is John 1 verse
12 as many as received him to them
he gave the authority to be children of
God which is the accurate translation as in
the NASB in some other versions it's not
translated correctly that's the way to be a
child of God we repent of our sins
and receive Jesus Christ as our savior who
forgives our past sins and we are born
from above into God's kingdom not of the
will of the flesh not of the will
of man but by the power of God
but a child is a baby but child
must grow up and become a son and
here it says if you want to be
a son if you want to grow up
then you must love your enemies and you
must pray for those who persecute you and
treat nicely those who despitefully use you love
those who hate you so the purpose is
that we might thereby demonstrate that we are
sons of the father and in fact not
only demonstrate that is the proof that you're
growing up now if you don't love your
enemies i'm not saying you're not born again
i'm saying you're an immature child and if
you keep on like that well i don't
know where you'll end up to tell you
honestly you could lose your salvation because hatred
is from the devil an unmerciful attitude is
not from God God is full of mercy
the one place in the universe where there
is no mercy is hell and if you
have a lack of mercy towards someone who's
treated you badly face up to it you
got a little bit of hell in your
heart and you know the number of believers
who got a little bit of hell in
their heart they've got a lack of mercy
towards someone who did something wrong to them
there's some husbands who are not even merciful
to their wives and particularly daughters-in-law
mothers-in-law what a lot of lack
of mercy there is among christians they've got
a little bit of hell in their hearts
because hell is the only place in the
universe where there's no mercy and wherever there
is on the earth here and there you
do find mercy here and there different people
but God's children are here and there but
hell is a place without mercy at all
and heaven is a place full of mercy
so when heaven comes into our heart through
the holy spirit he makes us merciful no
he doesn't say we don't pretend that that
chap never did me any wrong no sure
he did me wrong we don't pretend that
nobody killed Jesus Christ that wasn't evil it
was very evil but Jesus was merciful father
forgive them but they don't know what they're
doing what did they not know doesn't everybody
know that to kill a human being is
wrong but they did not know who they
were killing it was the son of God
and when people treat me badly i say
the same thing father they don't know who
i am they don't know i'm a son
of God they don't know what they're doing
you think i'm another human being i'm not
i'm a child of God and if you're
born again so are you and they don't
realize that they are poking the eye of
God like it says in Zechariah chapter 2
verse 5 and verse 8 he who touches
you touches the apple of my eye they
don't realize that they are touching the apple
of God's eye father forgive them they don't
know what they're doing and so we have
to be merciful love our enemies do good
to those who do evil to you in
the in James version this is an there
is expanded beyond what it says you love
your enemies do good to those who do
evil to you and pray for those who
persecute you and despitefully use you we got
to do good to those who hate us
and it says here that because then you're
a son of your father you've got the
nature of your father what is the nature
of your father you know you sons are
supposed to look like their father just like
physically you look at somebody and says hey
boy he's a spitting image of his father
and that's what people should be saying about
us spiritually in our life the way we
live what a challenge that is but the
people who look at your life and mind
should be saved boy that's a real image
of his father in heaven how is that
because he treats evil people in the same
way he treats good people the father verse
45 makes his son the s-u-n
to rise on the good and the evil
and the good and sends rain on the
righteous and the unrighteous there's no difference here's
a evil farmer who says there's no god
is all rubbish and treats people badly and
he's very unmerciful to his servants and here
next door to him is a good god
-fearing farmer who's kind to everybody but god
sends the rain equally on both farms it
looks a bit unfair you know why does
god treat that atheist farmer the same way
he treats his godly child of his he
makes the sun you know farm needs both
sun and rain and the sunrise sun shines
equally on both farms that's that's god's way
that's god's nature you cannot make god hate
anyone he judges people he hates sin and
he will punish one day he will judge
people fairly and in love for the humanity
he will send some people to hell they're
just like even on earth people put people
in prison because they love the rest of
human beings so hell is like a eternal
prison that's all there is to it so
this god loves everyone and he's equal in
his treatment of all he doesn't have a
grudge in his heart against anyone and that's
a wonderful thing to have you see if
god were for example let me use an
example supposing it was not like this there's
another reason why god sends rain on the
righteous and the unrighteous and makes the sun
to rise equally on the good and the
evil if god sent rain and blessings only
on righteous people and all the others suffer
because they're unrighteous a lot of people would
choose righteousness because they want the blessing upon
their farm because they want the blessing upon
their life if godly people are wealthy and
ungodly people are all poor and beggarly people
would choose christianity for the sake of money
god doesn't want that god doesn't want that
so he allows equal distribution of rain and
sun and even wealth some of the richest
people not some most of the richest people
in the world are not godly christians at
all far from them far from it and
so i know there's a false gospel called
the prosperity gospel that is being preached today
by people who don't know god who claim
themselves to be christians and claim to be
quoting the bible and they're mostly quoting deuteronomy
chapter 28 and not luke chapter 6 there's
a lot of difference between quoting luke 6
and deuteronomy 28 and they preach that if
you follow the lord you'll be prosperous they
say if you pay your tithes god will
bless you they're going to the old testament
in the new testament there's not a word
about that that's a false gospel because god
blesses people equally whether they are good or
evil did you understand did you read this
clearly you don't become prosperous by being righteous
because the most prosperous people in the world
are crooks and ungodly people what does that
prove and people who worship false gods and
idols are multi-millionaires and billionaires when it's
very rare to write a christian billionaire that
itself disproves this entire prosperity gospel so god
sends his rain equally on the righteous and
the unrighteous thanks to sunshine and the good
and the evil because he does not want
anyone to come to him because of material
blessing of prosperity i wish everyone in the
prosperity gospel preachers would read this and understand
it you'd be a son of your father
proclaim that truth and be like that be
good towards people to everyone that's how god
is otherwise it's foolish to say you're growing
up spiritually you can't say you're growing up
spiritually you're not growing in love for the
people who hate you and despise you and
so it's it's it's not enough to just
hear this right now and say yeah i
want to do that no we must keep
an account take an account book like you
keep an account of your money and here
you say now who are the people who
have done harm to me who are the
people who have treated me badly persecuted me
cheated me done all types of things wrong
to me borrowed money from me and never
returned it a whole lot of people and
did harm to my family which is worse
treated my son or daughter badly maybe your
boss in the office or somebody the teacher
in school or something like that or is
your brother-in-law cheated you of your
property or your mother-in-law treated you
badly whatever it is make a list of
it my brother sister if you're serious about
your christianity and go through that list one
by one and ask yourself do you love
them first of all do you treat them
nicely do you have good thoughts about them
or do you have grudge a grudge in
your heart against them well you're definitely not
a mature son or daughter definitely not but
sometimes i would even question whether you're born
again because you're not even trying to keep
this command of god i mean if you're
trying to climb this mountain and you see
i'm still struggling you're on the right track
ask god to help you with the holy
spirit to love every single person who's your
enemy to pray for every single person who
despitefully used you or persecuted you to do
good to every single person who hates you
you may not have the opportunity but a
lot of people you know i'm a son
of the lord and so i'm a target
of the devil so a lot of people
hate me and have done harm to me
and i've really prayed to god lord give
me the opportunity to do good to every
one of them if i get an opportunity
i will do good if i find them
lying on the road i'll pick them up
and take them to hospital and do whatever
i can to save their life i will
do whatever i can to help them and
their children i do not hate them i
cannot hate them i'm not going to be
super spiritual and do what jesus did not
do the word made flesh is my example
so when he said jesus loved the pharisees
of course he was willing to die for
them but he didn't go visiting the pharisees
houses with gifts and say hey i love
you fellows so much i know you spoke
badly about me but here are some gifts
to show you my love that is superficial
nonsense jesus did not do that so don't
go beyond uh try to be more righteous
than jesus himself be wise so to love
someone does not mean i have to go
around visiting the houses of those who hate
me and because the bible also says pursue
peace with all men there's a command like
that pursue peace with all men hebrews chapter
12 and i've discovered through the years and
i'll give you this advice in some cases
the cases of people who hate you and
don't like your face and don't want to
see you the best way to pursue peace
with them is avoid meeting them try your
best to avoid meeting them don't visit their
homes why because you want to pursue peace
with all men because you know they are
the quarrelsome type of people you go there
they'll start a quarrel so we need to
always make jesus our example to explain these
difficult verses so if you look at a
scripture and try to follow that even this
scripture you can go astray but the bible
says let us run the race not looking
at the verses in the bible but looking
on to jesus so when you read a
verse in the bible look on to jesus
and see how he did it and then
you won't go wrong these are very important
particularly in these verses because i found some
people who have a wrong way of fulfilling
these verses bless those who curse you and
do good to those who hate you and
they try to be more spiritual than jesus
and make a mess of everything and create
more strife then jesus went on to say
if you love only those who love you
verse 46 what reward do you have because
even the tax collectors do the same and
if you greet only your brothers what more
you're doing than others even the gentiles do
that so i'm supposed to greet people who
want to avoid me i mean again remember
what i said earlier jesus didn't go around
out of his way to shake hands with
the pharisees to greet them he uh he
wasn't avoiding them but he wasn't particularly keen
on going seeing people who were only out
to start a fight or argue and there
are people like that who you know the
only whenever you meet them they're out to
start a fight with you argue about some
doctrine or something that happened i avoid them
i mean i would really avoid them i
wouldn't go trying to shake their hands to
show my love or anything like that and
but i want to be like the sun
that i'm an son jesus said the father
makes his sun son shine on everybody equally
then you can be an son that's what
i want to be you know just be
warm and good and the sun doesn't go
out of the way to go and shine
on people just continue shining because that's how
we are to be and so there's no
reward if you do good to those who
do good to you for example you look
at your church and you say well i'm
such a nice person i help so many
people but who do you help you have
the people who are helping you examine your
life you're good to those who are good
to you somebody did some good to you
and you do good to them you know
what it says here you have no reward
verse 46 did you do some good to
somebody who did good to you let me
tell you what you got verse 46 no
reward i'm not saying you shouldn't do that
by all means let's do good to one
another in fact galatians 6 says let us
do good to all men especially to the
household of faith we have an obligation to
bless and help our brothers and sisters that's
that's a mark of a true christian but
you shouldn't be doing that for a reward
no what reward have you got for doing
that because he is even the sinful people
in the world non-christian idol worshipers also
help those who help them but how much
do you love those who don't love you
i'm not saying you go and give to
them let me emphasize that again and then
this verse verse 48 you are to be
perfect as your heavenly father is perfect now
a lot of people misquote this they say
jesus says he will make you perfect is
that what he says here no read carefully
you must be perfect as your heavenly father
is perfect it is not a promised blessing
it's a command to be obeyed now you
say how in the world can i be
perfect like god he's perfect in wisdom and
knowledge and power he's not asking you to
be perfect in wisdom and knowledge and power
always read a verse in its context you
know when you study the bible read a
verse in its context in what context is
he saying you must be perfect as your
father it is in your attitude toward people
who are unmerciful towards you be merciful to
them and good to them and the other
way we can know the truth is by
comparing scripture with scripture so this sermon on
the mount is also repeated in luke chapter
6 and there we read the same thing
luke 6 and verse 35 luke 6 and
verse 35 this is the sermon on the
mount again starting in verse 20 luke 6
20 onwards and all the way up to
verse 49 it's a sort of a compressed
sermon on the mount what is in three
chapters in matthew is in half a chapter
in luke 6 and here it's written like
this verse 31 treat others the way you
want others to treat you if you love
those who love you what credit is that
was luke 6 33 if you do good
to those who do good to you what
credit is that if you lend from those
you expect to receive verse 34 what credit
is that and but verse 35 love your
enemies do good and lend expecting nothing in
return and you will be the seal reward
to be great you'll see you will be
the sons of the most high and then
this phrase which we read in matthew 5
is be perfect as your heavenly father is
perfect compare scripture with scripture here it is
luke 6 36 be merciful as your father
in heaven is merciful so when you compare
what is written in matthew 5 with what
is also written in matthew 6 we realize
that the lord is asking us to be
perfect in mercy don't go by one scripture
it is written be perfect as your father
is heaven is perfect matthew 5 48 he
is also written in luke 35 luke 6
36 be merciful as your father is merciful
so that's the one area where i can
be perfect in mercy i can't be perfect
in wisdom and knowledge and power no never
not even in eternity but i can be
perfect in mercy right now what does that
mean if 10 people hate me i can
love all 10 if i love nine of
them i'm not perfect what does it mean
in a examination to get 10 out of
10 or 100 out of 100 that's perfect
that's a perfect score you can't beat it
so if you've got 10 enemies and you
love all 10 you you're perfect if you
love only nine of them you're not perfect
that's all it means be perfect as your
heavenly father is perfect in its context i
want to say something here in passing and
that is don't have this habit that so
many christians have they come across a difficult
verse like that and say oh that's impossible
it's not impossible but you misunderstood what he's
saying you compare scripture to scripture what what
it needs in your part is a little
diligence to study scripture with scripture to find
what exactly it means i mean god didn't
give me this as a revelation from heaven
no i just studied the scripture carefully and
when i came to luke chapter 6 and
saw the same thing hey i said this
is the same in the sermon on the
mount i spent a little time this is
not recent i'm talking about 55 years ago
i compared scripture with scripture and i said
hey i'm only supposed to be perfect in
mercy that that i can understand if i
want to be merciful i can be perfect
in mercy and i wanted to show you
also luke uh here in 635 how he
expresses how the sun shines on the good
and evil it says in verse 35 the
last part god is kind to ungrateful and
evil men that's a good thing to read
we are surrounded by a world full of
evil and ungrateful people it's a perfect expression
of the world ungrateful and evil people there
are christians who are ungrateful you do good
to them and they forget about it oh
i've had that experience numerous times you do
such a lot of good to them a
few years later they don't even remember it
they forget all about the good you did
to them ungrateful and evil men how should
i treat them says here god is kind
luke 635 to ungrateful and evil men you
want to be like your heavenly father you
want to be a son of your heavenly
father then be like the sun who shines
on evil ungrateful people just like he shines
on the grateful people okay that's selectiveness in
love wrong attitude number five now we go
to the next one which is chapter 6
and verses 1 to 18 matthew chapter 6
verses 1 to 18 which is another wrong
attitude which is seeking man's honor there are
three different areas he speaks about here one
is giving and the other is praying and
the other is fasting and in all three
areas he speaks about seeking man's honor now
again here is here are areas where we
find christians don't take this seriously at all
for example in giving it says here when
you give don't let your left hand know
what your right hand is doing matthew 6
verse 3 beware of practicing your righteousness before
men verse 1 now it's not that like
it says here the pharisees blow a trumpet
and then give no no no no we
don't do it like that it's you need
to understand the spirit in which you're saying
that in some subtle way you may want
to make it known what you have done
as a very subtle way in a clever
way you want to get honor for the
good that you have done now you know
in the old testament there was no law
like this there was no law which said
when you give your money or do good
don't let anybody see it don't let anybody
know what i mean that was god's heart
but when they didn't have the holy spirit
he couldn't enforce it so you know for
example when they pay the tithe they brought
their grain or their sheep which is their
tithe or if they converted it to money
and brought money to the gave it to
the levites in the temple they could make
a big show of it hey fellas do
you see how much i'm giving god's blessed
me immensely and here is my 10 in
fact i decided to give 11 today they
can boast about it and they did not
sin because they obeyed the law which says
pay your 10 and the other offerings as
well but in the new covenant you can't
do that in the new covenant it's not
a question how much you give but why
you give what is the motive and whose
glory were you seeking not only in giving
and praying and fasting and everything you know
this verse in 1 corinthians 10 31 is
all inclusive 1 corinthians chapter 10 and verse
31 is an amazing verse 1 corinthians 10
and verse 31 what whether then you eat
or drink or whatever you do do all
to the glory of god now eating and
drinking is the most ordinary thing that we
do every single day of our life so
jesus took that most ordinary thing and that
includes all the other things we do and
he said do it all for the glory
of god so if i'm doing anything for
the glory of myself for example to get
some glory or honor for myself even if
it just show you know how disciplined i
am in my eating i don't eat much
you're sinning it's good to be disciplined in
reading but when you begin to show off
about it or hint about it or try
to get some credit for yourself you're committing
a sin we need to be what are
eating and drinking for the glory of god
not to show what a disciplined person you
are there's a lot of that in even
among christians they do certain things they want
to show how disciplined they are and how
disciplined they are and how much i exercise
and how much i do this how much
i do that to show people i'm a
very disciplined person dear brother and dear sister
let god see it let god see it
if you do good try your best sometimes
we can't avoid it for example if you
want a large gift you want to give
a large gift for god's word you have
to give it in a check you can't
carry bundles of cash but naturally the treasurer
of the church will know about it but
that's okay you didn't do it wanting him
to know about it the point is not
whether somebody knew about it no the point
is did you want him to know about
it that's the question here in other words
motive we will discover in the final day
when we stand before the lord that the
important question will be not what you did
but why you did it you know that's
why it says in 1 corinthians chapter 4
and verse 1 corinthians chapter 4 and verse
5 don't judge others before the lord comes
because that day he will disclose the motives
of people's hearts that day you will discover
why he did this why he spoke like
this why he gave this testimony like this
and this other thing that he added in
his testimony why he added it you will
discover in that day it was to get
a little credit for himself that spoiled the
whole thing you know you can do a
very good work and then you do it
advertise it a little bit or do a
little bit of it to get some credit
for yourself and you've spoiled the whole thing
i call it like making a a wonderful
dish a very very tasty dish in india
say a chicken curry or some whatever dish
you eat in your country you make a
wonderful tasty dish and then you put a
dead lizard inside it and mix it up
with it ah you spoiled the whole thing
why in the world did you have to
go and put a dead lizard inside it
it was a first class curry up until
then but you went and put a dead
lizard inside it now nobody can touch it
that's an illustration you did a wonderful work
you give sacrificially to the lord but then
you spoil the whole thing by putting this
dead lizard of advertising that fact to others
in a subtle way even if it's a
small lizard it ruins that dish dear brother
sister don't ruin your offering to god by
advertising it that's what jesus saying when you
give don't let your left hand know matthew
6 verse 3 what your right hand is
doing now think of your left hand right
hand they don't have any intelligence right hand
doesn't have any intelligence about knowing what the
left hand is doing the left hand doesn't
know what the right hand it must be
referring to the body of christ the body
of christ has got a left hand and
the right hand and when we think of
the left hand and those are the ones
that work most closely together in the body
we're always doing things together so it's referring
to a brother or sister in the body
of christ who's very close to you don't
let him know don't let her know what
you're doing for the lord do it secretly
the devil will tempt you all the time
come on let somebody know get some credit
for it man say no i'm gonna do
my best if somebody accidentally discovers it i'm
not even hoping somebody will discover it but
he discovers it well and good but i'm
not gonna do it to get any honor
see in matthew chapter 5 it's all talking
about the inner life inner attitude inner attitude
inner attitude inner attitude in matthew chapter 6
is going one step further to motive what
is your motive inner life rather in the
first 95 is inner life and in matthew
6 it's your motive so inner life very
important motive just as important so they do
different things here in matthew 5 and matthew
chapter 6 so then it goes on to
the subject of prayer when you pray don't
be like the hypocrites don't pray in order
to be seen by men see that expression
in matthew 6 verse 5 to be seen
by men again what is the important thing
in prayer before he explains the lord's prayer
the important thing is motive now i have
seen in every christian group particularly those who
emphasize being filled with the holy spirit and
charismatic pentecostal i find many of them they
boast a lot about how long they pray
not only them i've seen i've read testimonies
of people who it's written in their biographies
they prayed for four hours every day or
they got up at such and such a
time and prayed and they get a reputation
for prayer for being men of prayer and
when they die they are described as men
of prayer and i say how in the
world did that happen you know i read
i used to read all this as a
young christian about these people who spent two
hours in prayer and four hours in prayer
and i had you accused to discourage me
he didn't encourage me discouraged me and i
read the bible and i never discouraged because
the bible doesn't tell me how many hours
jesus prayed every day he just tells me
once i i read that he went into
all night to pray that happened once so
big to find out who are going to
be his 12 disciples who are going to
you know establish the church for the next
20 centuries definitely he needed to pray all
night for that we don't have such 20th
century influencing callings in our life so i
every christian doesn't know how to pray all
night even once but how much did he
pray the other times he said the only
morning he went to pray when he needed
to find god's will about some particular situation
but you have to be very careful in
all this so are you supposed to tell
people that you pray for two hours every
day or four hours every day at least
how would they write that in your biography
unless you make it aware to people well
i people ask me sometimes brother zach how
long do you pray every day i said
do you want me to disobey scripture you
are inviting me to disobey scripture as you're
inviting me to disobey matthew six verses five
to five to eight the lord says don't
be like them i'm not going to be
like them so i'm not going to answer
your prayer your question don't seek for a
reputation as a praying man don't seek for
reputation anything and being holy before the lord
it says here it's wonderful to see what
you read here what jesus says here when
you pray it's like you're giving if you're
giving in secret your father who sees in
secret verse four will reward you let your
father see in secret how much you gave
sacrifice he will reward you and i'll tell
you his reward will not only be in
heavenly reward you right now with a blessed
happy life and a blessed happy ministry in
the same way when you pray don't seek
to be seen by men because that is
their reward there is no reward after that
he advertised the fact that he was praying
two hours every day or one hour every
day he's got his reward already when he
stands before the lord the lord says well
you never prayed at all say lord i
prayed one hour every day yeah you got
your reward for that in heaven beyond that
nothing imagine hearing that a guy who prayed
for four hours every day and he advertised
it everywhere and he already got his reward
here from people when he told about it
finally stands before the lord and the lord
says you never prayed at all he said
oh yes lord i prayed four hours every
day oh you got your reward for that
on earth nothing now it says there they
have their reward in full did you read
that matthew 6 5 there's no reward left
in heaven that's tragic i'm not saying we
pray in order to get a reward i
believe the purpose of prayer is to make
us more christ-like to me that is
the only reward of prayer for myself lord
i want to be more christ-like even
when i pray for others that they'll be
healed or god will bless them that's what
jesus did and i say i want to
be like that i i want i'm not
even praying for a reward in heaven i'm
praying because that's the nature of my savior
and the nature of jesus in me makes
me want to pray and never tell people
about it and to pray for those who
are needy etc so always your motive if
if matthew chapter 5 was speaking about the
inner life matthew 6 is talking about your
motive in giving your motive in praying why
are you praying is more important than how
long you prayed or what you prayed for
is when the motive is wrong the whole
thing is corrupt it's a dead lizard in
that wonderful dish you cooked and then he
said when you pray we're six go into
your inner room and close your door and
pray to your father who is in secret
and your father who is in sick who
sees what is done in secret will reward
you so what does that mean you know
i i think the old testament tabernacle the
old testament tabernacle there were three compartments well
the tent itself was two compartments but the
whole tabernacle was a big compound surrounded with
a curtain there was one gate and the
others people were outside and the all the
jewish people could come inside the outer court
it was called the outer court that's the
picture outside is the world inside you come
through the gate you come to the altar
of sacrifice the picture of calvary and the
labor full of water picture of water baptism
calvary and water baptism and that's where all
the believers gathered then there are two more
compartments which are covered with a curtain tent
that tent there was a holy place and
the most holy place so in the outer
court we can say we're all the believers
all the jews were there but in the
holy place only the priests went that's a
picture of the lord's servants the leaders and
in the most holy place in the in
those days nobody could go god dwelt there
god didn't dwell in the outer court of
the holy place in the most holy place
the fire of god rested over that most
holy place and that was blocked off in
the old covenant it's opened up when jesus
died in the new covenant so think of
these three pictures so there are people who
come into the outer court and they want
honor from one another whether it's praying or
giving and they want honor from one another
they're sinning then there are people who say
i don't want honor from any of these
people i pray and i'll give in secret
i'll pray in secret i'll give in secret
i'll fast in secret and they enter they
come to the next step and the most
in the holy place they say i really
seek honor from the leaders they don't honor
from the believers they move one step further
into the second compartment what do the leaders
think of me i want them to know
i want the elders in the church to
know that i'm praying i want the elders
in the church to know that i'm giving
i want the elders to know where i'm
witnessing to people or how many people i've
brought to christ i want the elders to
know what i've done for the lord here
and how i went and helped this person
there oh i want i don't want the
people to know no no i've gone beyond
the outer court i've come to the holy
place you haven't come to god yet those
who come through to the most holy place
they are not interested what the other believers
think about them they're not interested what the
elders think about them they're not trying to
impress the believers they're not trying to impress
the elders it's only god that's the true
son yeah the others are babies i'm not
saying you're not a child of god but
you're a baby you're a baby if you're
seeking honor from fellow believers you're a baby
if you're seeking honor from your leaders and
elders the son s-o-n is the
one who's finished with all this and say
lord it's only your approval i seek in
my life i don't seek approval for anybody
and so he says here when you pray
go into your inner room close your door
and pray to your father in secret and
you know you can do this even when
you're praying in public almost every believer who
prays in public seeks honor from others if
you don't believe me ask yourself when you
pray in public aren't you very conscious so
and so is listening so and so is
listening is very different from the way you
pray when you're alone kneeling by your bed
at home very different why all that flowery
language and all that you never use when
you're alone at home when you're at home
and you're praying alone to god you're crying
out in need but when you're praying in
public you use all this flowery fanciful language
and you're quoting verses and this that and
the other to impress people you know there's
so much of this what shall you do
i know when i started praying in public
i found i was seeking honor i'd go
home repent lord i'm sorry i didn't pray
to you i prayed to people i'd come
next time to the meeting and pray in
public again i would pray to conscious of
people i'd go home and repent and it
happened again and again for not one or
two days for years but i said lord
i'm going to get through this battle and
be an overcomer this giant of seeking honor
in praying in public must be slain and
must come under my feet i'm determined to
get this giant of seeking honor in public
prayer to come under my feet and a
day came and it happened it took years
and if you are determined to get this
giant under your feet it'll happen in your
life too it may not happen to need
not happen uh take so long for you
it took long for me because nobody taught
me what i'm teaching you now i wish
somebody had taught me this when i was
converted at the age of 19.
so many things which we shared today with
on cfc churches i say lord i wish
somebody had taught me all this when i
was 19 years old i had to wait
till i was 35 to even understand these
things you brothers are so lucky you hear
it at a very young age battle it
from a young age get these giants under
your feet and don't get discouraged if you
fail just go home and repent it'll be
better next time to be able to better
better gradually every blow will make that giant
weak and one day it'll die that's that's
the way it is and so i i
see it like this now when i pray
i must go into my inner room and
close the door and pray so when i'm
praying in public and there are hundreds of
people around in my mind i shut the
door why do we close our eyes we
must not only close our eyes because we
don't close our eyes because we won't don't
want to be distracted there's a door in
my mind that i must shut and in
my mind these people are they are here
but i'm not seeking their honor lord i've
come into the most holy place now it's
only you and i'm praying to you there
are people listening to me i know but
i'm before you i'm praying directly to you
in heaven otherwise my brother sister you're praying
to the walls many prayers are not answered
because they were not prayed to god they
were prayed to impress people you wonder why
god never answered it even when you pray
at home don't pray to impress your children
or your husband or wife pray to god
develop this habit it'll take time to get
through and kill this giant of seeking honor
but it can come work on it work
on it if you're serious about your christian
life jesus said if you hear my words
and you don't do it you'll build your
house on sand i don't want to build
my house on sand i want to take
these words of jesus and do them then
i'll build my house on a rock and
i'll never shake and i found through the
years my life becomes more and more unshakable
that's god's will for you as well then
one more thing before we close and that
is matthew 6 and verse 7 when you
pray don't use meaningless repetition as the non
-jewish gentiles do because they think they'll be
heard for their many words don't be like
them because your father knows what you need
before you ask him matthew 6 verse 7
and 8 so that's the other thing we
need to keep in mind don't think that
god will hear your prayer because you prayed
a long time when elijah and the prophets
of baal met on the top of mount
carmel they prayed for a long time nothing
happened they rolled and shouted and yelled and
all that and you look at elijah's prayer
it was less than a minute less than
one minute and the fire fell don't think
god hears you because you prayed for a
long time you prayed all night brother you
might as well have gone to sleep you
you were trying to accomplish a feat you
know when i was young as i said
nobody taught me this so i said oh
well i hear other people having all night
prayer you know what i did i was
on a ship and i had a cabin
to myself in the ship so i could
be alone and i decided i'm going to
pray all night and i knelt down beside
my bed and i started praying i said
i'm gonna get through all night it was
like a marathon i was trying to run
and i don't know what time i started
maybe nine o'clock i pray and pray
and pray and pray and said boy it
must be morning now hey holy 9 30
wow and i continue continue continue continue continue
once the time 10 30 when's this gonna
finish i'm determined i'm on my knees are
aching and i'm getting distracted but i'm keeping
awake keeping awake finally it was six o
'clock in the morning i accomplished it what
did i accomplish nothing except yeah i learned
something that that type of praying is a
waste of time i did learn something sure
so it wasn't a waste of time in
that way but i i never tried it
again i said prayer must come out of
a burden if it doesn't come out of
a burden doesn't come out of love for
the lord doesn't come out of love for
people you're wasting your time it's the motive
that matters in everything is the motive so
never talk about it look at jesus life
for 30 years you know how much he
prayed do you think he didn't pray he
prayed a lot i'm sure look at all
the good he did in 30 years do
you think he didn't help people in 30
years do you think he didn't fast in
30 years i'm sure he did he prayed
he fasted he did good but i turned
the pages of the bible and i don't
even read anything about it in the last
verses of john's gospel he says there are
so many other things that jesus did which
if it's written here even the world will
not be able to contain so many books
wow lord what all you did if you
read that verse the number of things jesus
did which he's not talking about the three
and a half years most of that is
written down the 30 years of secret she
lived before the father and we know he
did such a lot of good because and
never sought his own glory never advertised it
we still don't know it even today but
we know that the father looked at those
30 years and said this is my beloved
son in whom i am well pleased that
is baptism that is a public certificate at
the end of 30 years this son of
mine has done a perfect life and never
told anybody about it so when you pray
it says you don't use meaningless repetition don't
believe in long prayers pray as long as
you have a burden if you have a
burden pray for one hour pray but if
you have a burden to pray like elijah
only for one minute that's the end the
fire can come in one minute sure so
i'm not against long prayers i'm saying pray
as long as you have a burden the
old testament prophets always spoke about a burden
the burden of the lord there are two
things essential for prayer one is burden and
the other is faith if you don't have
a burden it's useless if you don't have
faith it is useless so ask god to
give you a burden and ask god to
give you a faith then your prayers will
be effective and if it's one minute or
one hour that's gene even god but avoid
meaningless repetition have you heard people saying hallelujah
hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah first of all they don't
even know the meaning of hallelujah it's a
hebrew word which means praise the lord you
can say it in english you don't have
to say it in hebrew for god to
understand you can say praise the lord it's
exactly the same hallelujah is not more spiritual
than praise the lord hallelujah is saying it
in hebrew and praise the lord is saying
it in english so it's not more advantageous
to say hallelujah the only advantage i can
see is if you're in the midst of
a lot of people who speak different languages
from different countries then they can all understand
hallelujah because it's become very common among christians
other than that i don't see any value
in it and don't keep on repeating it
to say praise the lord praise the lord
praise the lord praise the lord praise the
lord jesus said don't do it you're actually
disobeying jesus when you say that when you
keep saying hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah you're actually disobeying
jesus i don't know how many people understand
that i've seen christians who read these things
and they build their house on sand because
they hear it and they don't obey it
well you heard a lot of things today
my brothers and sisters go home listen to
this message again and ask god to help
you to have the power of the holy
spirit to keep it humility is the greatest
thing of all seeking god's glory alone let's
pray heavenly father we pray in jesus name
amen that you will help us to remember
all that we've heard the holy spirit will
be able to apply all this to our
life and speak to each of us individually
today tomorrow and this year next year until
you come about the areas where we need
to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the
flesh and spirit we pray in jesus name
amen