Can You Keep A Secret?

Sermon by Pastor Dennis Gleason - Sunday, February 16, 2003

Motivation is the key to much of what we experience in life. For example:

On February 11, 1962, Parade Magazine published the following brief account -- itself a commentary on artificial motivation.

At the village church in Kalonovka, Russia, attendance at Sunday school picked up after the priest started handing out candy to the peasant children. One of the most faithful was a pug-nosed, pugnacious lad who recited his Scriptures with proper piety, pocketed his reward, then fled into the fields to munch on it.

The priest took a liking to the boy, persuaded him to attend church school. This was preferable to doing household chores from which his devout parents excused him. By offering other inducements, the priest managed to teach the boy the four Gospels. In fact, he won a special prize for learning all four by heart and reciting them nonstop in church. Now, 60 years later, he still likes to recite Scriptures, but in a context that would horrify the old priest. For the prize pupil, who memorized so much of the Bible, was Nikita Khrushchev, the former Communist czar.

As this anecdote illustrates, the "why" behind the memorization is fully as important as the "what". The same Nikita Khrushchev who nimbly mouthed God's Word when a child, later declared God to be nonexistent -- because his cosmonauts had not seen Him. Khrushchev memorized the Scriptures for the candy, the rewards, the bribes, rather than for the meaning it had for his life. Artificial motivation will produce artificial results.

Jesus deals with this issue of our motivation when he speaks to his disciples in the Sermon on the Mount and told them in Matthew 6:1-18 to:

¹"Take care! Don’t do your good deeds publicly, to be admired, because then you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven. ²When you give a gift to someone in need, don’t shout about it as the hypocrites do—blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets to call attention to their acts of charity! I assure you, they have received all the reward they will ever get. ³But when you give to someone, don’t tell your left hand what your right hand is doing. ⁴Give your gifts in secret, and your Father, who knows all secrets, will reward you.

⁵"And now about prayer. When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I assure you, that is all the reward they will ever get. ⁶But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father secretly. Then your Father, who knows all secrets, will reward you.

⁷"When you pray, don’t babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered only by repeating their words again and again. ⁸Don’t be like them, because your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him! ⁹Pray like this:

¹⁴"If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. ¹⁵But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.

¹⁶"And when you fast, don’t make it obvious, as the hypocrites do, who try to look pale and disheveled so people will admire them for their fasting. I assure you, that is the only reward they will ever get. ¹⁷But when you fast, comb your hair and wash your face. ¹⁸Then no one will suspect you are fasting, except your Father, who knows what you do in secret. And your Father, who knows all secrets, will reward you."

Our text for today in found in Matthew 6 and the focus of Jesus’ teaching in this section has to do with our relationship to our Heavenly Father.

He enunciates a principle that should govern our lives as believers and then begins to illustrate it by teaching about three things: Giving Alms, Prayer and Fasting. The motivation of our heart is the key element here. These three things are the major "What we do" of the Christian life. And it becomes clear as we look at Jesus’ teaching that the "why of how we do them" is more important than what we do.

The reason for this is that when we do the right things for the wrong reasons there is no eternal reward attached to them. When we have done them for the wrong reasons, we will have already received whatever recognition or reward we are going to get. God certainly does not take notice of them. There is no remaining spiritual value to them when we do them for the wrong reasons.

These three things sum up the whole of one’s religious or spiritual life and practice and

• they deal with the way in which we do our almsgiving;
• the way in which we pray, i.e. the nature or character of our prayer life; and
• the way in which we deal with the physical things of life.
• Jesus says, "Be careful not to do your acts of righteousness before men to be seen by them. If you do you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven."

There seems to be a contradiction of sorts in what Jesus is teaching here. He has already spoken to his disciples about being salt and light in the world. That certainly means that we are supposed to be seen by the people of the world and to live in such a way that they are attracted to Jesus themselves. And now Jesus is saying that you are to do your almsgiving, prayer and fasting in private, in secret. People are not supposed to see what you give, how you pray or when you fast. If you do all these things in secret, how will men know what you are doing so that your light might shine for Jesus and that you might be salt to them?

The obvious answer is that in some manner we can be doing both at the same time. People observe how Christian people live. They evaluate the quality of our lives as Christians. The result of that is that they give glory to God…and not to us. The supreme object of life for the child of God is to please Him, Him only and in everything. Look at Jesus for a moment: He lived his life absolutely and entirely for God. His words and works, He said, were the words and works His Father had given him to do and say. He never thought of himself. "I seek not my own honor but the honor of Him who sent me," Jesus said. We should be so much like Jesus that He is who they see when they see us. We must not have a desire or motivation to be seen by people and attract attention to our selves. The motivation of our hearts is the critical thing in this matter.

The issue becomes one of choosing between pleasing myself or pleasing God.

• Why are we concerned about pleasing other people?
• It is because we know that if we please other people they will think better of us and that pleases us.
• Ultimately, the only reason we have for pleasing men is that by doing so we may please ourselves.
• Self-gratification is the essence of sin and we have a sinful human nature that goes in that direction without much encouragement.

We need to understand that we are always in the presence of God the Father.

• He always sees us.
• He knows our every action, every thought, desire and motivation. He sees all. He knows all.
• He knows our heart; others do not, but He does.
• Jesus gives the warning: "Take heed that you do not do your righteousness before men…" The reason is given quite clearly: If we do what we do to please other people there will be no reward for that when we get to heaven. We will have already received whatever reward or recognition for it from people. God will not respond to it.
• The implication here is that rewards are OK. God will willingly reward his people for what they do for the Kingdom of God when it is done with the right motivation of heart.
• Jesus tells us here that when we have the right motivation of heart our "heavenly Father who sees in secret, Himself will reward you openly."

The Pharisees, for example, would go around Jerusalem doing their almsgiving. They would carry a small silver trumpet with them and when they were ready to give to the needy, they would blow the trumpet. This would announce to those around them and draw attention to themselves and their generosity.

Look again at our text: Jesus says "Beware, take heed not to practice your righteousness before men…"

• The sense of the verb he uses here is that of: repeat this every time you think of doing this publicly.
• The tense of the word practice speaks to us of constantly, repeatedly, habitually practicing these righteousnesses in order to be noticed (an anticipated fact) by people.

The application of the principle Jesus gives us is found in these three things…righteousness involves these three outward expressions of our relationship with our Heavenly Father, as found in verses 3, 7 and 17.

• Jesus is saying that the natural course of our worship and life as believers will include these three things:
• alms giving,
• prayer and
• fasting.
• If we get these three things right and do them in secret our Heavenly Father will reward us openly.

If we are to understand these three illustrations, we need to look at them in reverse order.

• The proof of human relationship with God in this world is found in our almsgiving.
• The power that creates the giving of alms is prayer.
• The condition that makes prayer powerful is fasting.

Let’s look at these three illustrations.

First of all, what is fasting? Fasting is the denial of everything that interferes with intimate, direct fellowship or relationship between our lives and God. This is much deeper that the matter of denying ourselves food for a spiritual purpose. It involves the suffering of loss even of our rights in order that we might come into a more intimate relationship with our Heavenly Father. There is a direct proportion between our understanding what fasting really means and putting it to practical use in our lives and discovering the infinite source of spiritual power.

After fasting, comes prayer. Jesus teaches us here that prayer offers us unhindered spiritual communion with our Heavenly Father. To those who fast, prayer becomes spontaneous, natural and powerful. Our relationship with God in its outward expression toward Him is prayer.

The result of that kind of prayer and communion with the Father is that we are always ready and willing to give our alms.

• Alms include money and much, much more.
• It is the sharing of our lives and substance with others.
• Our relationship to our fellow men in its outward expression toward them is alms giving.
• This is the true service of sacrifice.

When the motivation of our hearts is right, God is able to bless what we do for the sake of the Kingdom of God and His Son Jesus Christ.

• What we do then has eternal spiritual value.
• Jesus denounces all religious acting which is inspired by the opinions of men.
• When I announce to you how much time I spend in prayer or how much I give or how faithful I am to fast, I have denied the principle of secrecy and reveal the wrong attitude of heart.
• The principle for us is that we do these things in secret with the right motivation of heart.
• No one should know how we give, when we are praying or fasting.

What happens when a man is out of touch with God? Fasting ceases; he doesn’t pray and he gives less and less.

Columnist Herb Caen wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle: "Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn't matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle; when the sun comes up, you'd better be running." That is motivation!

The motivation in our spiritual lives should be a life pleasing to God. Fasting, prayer and the giving of alms in secret should provide us with a stronger, deeper relationship with God in Christ Jesus our Lord and provide the Holy Spirit with greater room to work in and through us.

Why does Jesus place His focus on the motivation of the heart rather than what we do for the Kingdom of God?

It is because of God tells us in the Book of Jeremiah.

"The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" ( Jeremiah 17:9 The heart will steer us in the wrong direction. And it will try to deceive us into thinking that it is for the right reasons.

Jeremiah goes on to give us this word from God: " My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug for themselves their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water."

It is for this reason the Jesus says beware. The end result of practicing our religion to be recognized and applauded by other people is that we think we are OK. Obviously God must be pleased with how good I am. That is what people think when the reality is that God does not even recognize what they are doing as anything more that being a broken cistern that can hold no water. That is the story of religion all throughout the history of mankind…broken cisterns that can hold no water. The result of that is people going into eternity without God’s provision for their forgiveness and salvation.

How do I get this to work in my life?

• Recognize the dangers of the wayward heart.
• Understand the blessing of the secret heart.
• By making the right choices. It is a matter of what I choose that makes the difference.
• The differences in life between pleasing God or living to please ourselves revolves around the simple choices we make.

How will we choose?

Will we fall into the trap of living for the praise of men?

Or will we be wary and make sure that we do our good deeds, prayer and fasting secretly so that only God will know what we have done?

The choice is ours.

The end result of making the correct choices will be that we will have a legitimate reward from our Heavenly Father because we have pleased Him with the right heart attitude.

-  Dennis Gleason