A right relationship with God requires that we live out that relationship with the right motives and rewards in mind...

This week, we have been looking at a part of a famous sermon that Jesus preached, called the Sermon on the Mount, which is recorded for us in a section of an account of Jesus life in the Bible called the gospel of Matthew. So far, we have seen Jesus here warn the crowds listening to His sermon to be on alert when we are living out their relationship with God in the presence of others. Jesus then explained to the crowds that what they needed to be on the alert for is the desire to be noticed by men. Now this word notice literally means to do things in a way that impresses others. So, in essence, Jesus is warning the crowds listening to His sermon to be alert to the danger of living out their relationship with God in a way that is focused on impressing others.

Jesus then explained that those who live out their faith with a focus on impressing others will not be recognized by God as having a high-quality faith life. After making the crowds aware of the danger, Jesus then gives three examples of spiritual practices that reveal the difference between living out a relationship with God in a way that is focused on impressing others and living out a relationship with God in a way that demonstrates a right relationship with God.

Jesus pointed to the practice of giving to reveal the reality that people who live out their relationship with God in a way that demonstrates a right relationship with God do not draw attention to what they are doing when it comes to their giving. Instead, people who live out their relationship with God in a way that demonstrates a right relationship with God give out of their love for God, not to be loved by others. People who live out their relationship with God in a way that demonstrates a right relationship with God invest of treasure in God’s kingdom mission solely to please God and in a way that is known only to God. People who live out their relationship with God in a way that demonstrates a right relationship with God only seek the recognition that comes from God as having a growing and mature faith.

Jesus pointed to the practice of prayer to reveal the reality that they were not to pray with a focus on what the people around them, who are visible, could see and hear. Instead, people who live out their relationship with God in a way that demonstrates a right relationship with God pray with a focus on being seen and heard by the invisible God who they cannot see.  Jesus point is that the prayer that is prayed with a focus of being seen and heard by the invisible God will not only be heard by God; God also recognizes the reality that that person has a right relationship with Him as His growing and maturing follower.

Today, we will see Jesus move to a third spiritual practice to expose the differences between those who live out their relationship with God in a way that is focused on impressing others and those who live out their relationship with God in a way that demonstrates a right relationship with God. We see this occur in Matthew 6:16-18. Let's look at these verses together:

"Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. "But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

Now to fully understand what Jesus is communicating here, we first need to understand what fasting is. So often when we think of fasting, we think of giving up food for a period of time. If you were ever involved in the Catholic Church, you probably remember having to give up something during lent or eating fish on Friday. But what is the point of fasting? Simply put, fasting is giving something up in order to make more room for God. Fasting is making time for God by giving something else up. Usually we associate fasting with giving up food, so when we feel hungry we think of God or when we are normally eating, we spend that time with God in prayer. 

But it does not have to be food. As a diabetic, I cannot simply fast from food. However, there are other things that I can give up in order to create more space for God and to hear from God. For example, there are seasons in my life when I seek God’s direction by fasting in a way that gives up television. And during that time that I normally watched TV, I spend that in prayer and solitude seeking God’s guidance and direction.

Now with that background information in mind, we see Jesus once again expose the reality that the poser’s primary motivation for fasting was to impress others. And to gain others attention so as to impress them, these posers would not shower, brush their teeth, and would even place ashes on their heads. The poser’s primary motivation for neglecting their appearance was for others to notice that they were fasting so as to be impressed by their seeming spiritual maturity.

However, Jesus explained that those who sought to impress others had received their reward in full. Since they sought nothing beyond the approval of their peers, nothing else was coming. Jesus then revealed the reality that those who live out their relationship with God in a way that demonstrates a right relationship with God fast to hear God, not to hear men. Those who live out their relationship with God in a way that demonstrates a right relationship with God are not focused on hearing from those around them, who they see.

Instead, those who live out their relationship with God in a way that demonstrates a right relationship with God are focused on hearing from the invisible God, whom they cannot see. Those who live out their relationship with God in a way that demonstrates a right relationship with God fast only to seek a response from God and the recognition that comes from God as having a growing and mature faith.

And it is here that we see Jesus reveal for us a timeless truth about the true nature of what it means to obey the message and teachings of Jesus and the true nature of a lifestyle that is living a right relationship with Jesus.  And that timeless truth is this: A right relationship with God requires that we live out that relationship with the right motives and rewards in mind.

Those who live out their relationship with God in a way that demonstrates a right relationship with God are focused on receiving recognition from God instead of impressing others. Those who live out their relationship with God in a way that demonstrates a right relationship with God give out of their love for God, not to be loved by men. Those who live out their relationship with God in a way that demonstrates a right relationship with God pray to be seen and heard by God, not to be seen and heard by men. And those who live out their relationship with God in a way that demonstrates a right relationship with God fast to hear God, not to hear from men.

So here is a question to consider: what motivates you to live out your relationship with God in your day to day life? What motivates you to go to church? What motivates you to give? What motivates you to pray? What motivates you when it comes to creating space to hear from God through fasting or some other spiritual discipline? Are you motivated to live out your relationship with God in a way that is focused on impressing others? Can your relationship with God be best described as checking off a list of behaviors that can be seen as being completed in a way that impressed others? Or are you motivated to live out your relationship with God in a way that is focused on engaging God?

You see, a right relationship with God requires that we live out that relationship with the right motives and rewards in mind, because Jesus is not concerned with our external behavior that is easily seen by others. Jesus is concerned with our internal heart condition. Jesus is concerned with our internal heart condition because Jesus knows, and human history has shown, that eventually what is in the heart will spill out. Jesus is far more concerned with why we do what we do then simply what we do.

And, as Jesus points out in this part of His famous sermon, a right relationship with God requires that we live out that relationship with the right motives and rewards in mind…