Matthew 6 Life with the Father

SLIDE 1 Life with the Father Last week we studied the beatitudes and true righteousness through Christ.  This lesson is a continuation of the Sermon on the Mount. Three righteous acts spoken of in chapter 6 are giving, praying, and fasting. Jesus expected the disciples to perform these actions. Notice in the scripture; “when you give”, “when you pray”; “when you fast.” But each of these righteous acts can be perverted by the wrong motive. God cares about why we do our good works, and with what motive we do them.

My second point in our teaching is how we use our resources.

In Matthew, Mark, and Luke -one out of every 6 verses deals with money. Of the 29 parables Christ told, 16 deal with a person and his money.

SLIDE 2 Luke 6:38 “Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you."

Proverbs 3:9 reads: Honor the LORD with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce.

Most of our lesson will be paraphrased so please follow in your bibles.

SLIDE 3 Matthew 6:1-4 Those who practice their righteousness before other people to impress them will not be rewarded by our Father who is in heaven.

When you give to the needy, don’t toot your own horn. Give in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. God is not concerned with how much you give; He looks at how much you keep for yourself.

Pharisees and Sadducees made a point of practicing righteous acts according to the laws. However their righteous acts were seeking the approval of men, instead of the approval of God. The word hypocrite referred to Greek actors on a stage wearing various masks to portray the different characters. Jesus uses the term here to discredit proud individuals who are acting righteous for the praise of others.

Our theme tonight is Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness.

SLIDE 4  Notice the trumpet shaped coffers to collect the money in the women’s court of Herod’s temple. The sounds of the coins being given were probably magnified by this shape.  

The song Our Best by S. C. Kirk was written in 1912.

Hear ye the Master’s call, “Give Me thy best!”
For, be it great or small, that is His test.
Do then the best you can, not for reward,
Not for the praise of men, but for the Lord.

A man went on a trip to Israel. He was about to enter the famous and impressive Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv to hear a concert.
He was admiring the unique architecture, and the modern decor throughout the building. Finally, he turned to the Israeli tour guide and asked if the building was named for Thomas Mann, novelist and winner of a Nobel Prize in Literature.

"No" the tour guide responded, "it’s named for Fredric Mann, from Philadelphia."
"Really? I never heard of him. What did he write?" asked the tourist.
"A check," replied the tour guide. (SermonCentral.com; Robert Rust)

Matthew 6

SLIDE 5  ¹"Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.

²"And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.

There were two main places where a Jew in Jesus' day might pray in a hypocritical manner. They might pray at the synagogue at the time of public prayer, or on the street at the appointed times of prayer (9 a.m., noon, and 3 p.m.) Some were even known to arrange to be on the street during this time of prayer.

John 12:43 (NLT), “For they loved human praise more than the praise of God.”

Anytime we seek to gain the glory meant for the Kingdom of God we lose our reward.

SLIDE 6 ⁶But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness.

Jesus draw aside to pray various times through his ministry. He is our example.

⁷"And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles (pagans) do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

Dr. Robert Cook often said "All of us have one routine prayer in our system; and once we get rid of it, then we can really start to pray.”

SLIDE 7  Jesus gave us a model prayer laying out simple statements that can be adapted to our lives today. Jesus addresses our basic needs in the following verses.

⁹"Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Abba father is a term of endearment to express intimacy. We begin with praising his holy name. We should approach with awe and honor due the Creator of the universe.

Ecclesiastes 9:7-8 "Exalted and hallowed be his great name in the world which he created according to his will"

¹⁰Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Robert Laws said "Prayer is a mighty instrument not for getting man’s will done in heaven, but for getting God's will done on earth."

SLIDE 8 ¹¹Give us this day our daily bread, ¹²and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.¹³And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Notice we asked for daily bread, that means we should depend on God provision and come before Him each day.

John Piper admits, “ Today I will stand before innumerable temptations. That’s what life is: endless choices between belief and unbelief, obedience and disobedience. But, O mighty God, forbid that I would yield. Hold me back from stepping inside the temptation.”

 ¹⁴ For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you,

¹⁵  but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

SLIDE 9 Forgiveness is required for those who have been forgiven. We are not given the luxury of holding on to our bitterness towards other people. Guzik

Warren Wiersbe adds Fellowship with my Christian brothers helps determine my relationship with God. Forgiveness is important to prayer. If God answered the prayers of a believer with an unforgiving spirit he would dishonor his own name.

If we are truly Christians living as Jesus did while he was on this earth, how can we not forgive. Our memory verse last week taught we are to love and pray for our enemies.

Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness.

SLIDE 10 Our Father knows our needs and he even knows our desires, so why do we have to pray? It is all about spending time with our Heavenly Father, our dearest friend, our wonderful counselor. How often do you reach for the phone when you have good news or a grave injustice is done to you?  

Our loving Father wants us to call on him; to spend time with us. Remember God created the Garden of Eden so He could come down in the cool of the day to spend time with His creation.

SLIDE 11 We have talked about reasons for fasting in the last two lessons.  Fasting is another righteous act Jesus expected of his disciples.  Jesus said "And when you fast,” The law required only one fast a year on the day of atonement.  Verses 16-18 discuss the proper way to fast. Fasting is a private activity between you and the LORD. 

¹⁸that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

SLIDE 12 Our memory verse-20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.²¹For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Ladies, Satan’s minions are out there waiting to tempt us with all the pleasures the world had to offer. More, bigger, better. Why can’t we be satisfied with the provision God has gifted us with. Every time I gaze at the beautiful blue sky, I say thank you God.  As I enjoy the beauty of flowers, I say thank you God.  When I sit in the quiet of my home, I say thank you God.

Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness.

 SLIDE 13 Seeing the wonderful things God has given us keeps our eyes healthy.
²²"The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light,²³but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

 
The evil eye in the ancient world is that enviously covets what belongs to another. It is greed for wealth.

SLIDE 14 ²⁴"No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

Ecclesiastes 5:¹⁰ He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity.

Hebrews 13:5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness.

The last question of the commentary application asked you to choose one area of worry to relinquish to the LORD. Fear not, do not be afraid, do not be anxious; the LORD tells us over and over to depend on Him. He will never leave us or forsake us.

The command “fear not” KJV 71 times. We are told “be not afraid” 33 times in Matthew; five times in chapter 6 he tells us Do Not Be Anxious.

SLIDE 15 ²⁵"Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

Our Heavenly Father has proven himself over and over again. Will you trust Him to care for you?

²⁶Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? ²⁷And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?

SLIDE16 ²⁸And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin,²⁹ yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.³⁰But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

SLIDE17 Forbes.com The Daily Mail reports that women in the U.K. buy half of their body weight in clothes each year, and the average woman in England has 22 unworn items in her closet.  A University of California Los Angeles study of middle-class American families found that three in four garages are so packed with stuff that there is no room for a vehicle. How many of you have too much stuff?

CS Lewis says, “Don’t let your happiness depend on something you may lose.”

SLIDE18  ³¹Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'³For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.

³³But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

2 Corinthians 9:8 says: "And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work."

SLIDE 19 ³⁴"Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Trust in your Heavenly Father for your tomorrow. He is already there.

SLIDE 20 Philippians 4:19 "My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus."

Are you willing to seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and allow Him to care for you?

Pray