This is the Way
Week three - Performing Faith or Relational Faith
Matthew 6:1-24
Bottom line: Performative self-focused faith, gross! Relational God-focused faith, beautiful!
Hypocrisy. Everyone hates it… at least in others. It’s not only the big scandal type things, but the everyday ways we live that don’t match our stated beliefs or intentions.
- We like to please others
- We like to appear better TO others
- We like to appear better THAN others
In the middle of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus calls out hypocrisy in some key areas where performative faith tends to show up – in giving, prayer and fasting. These are incredibly beautiful spiritual behaviors! But they are also areas in which we can perform our faith instead of entering into a deep connection with God.
Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. —Matthew 6:1-2
And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. —Matthew 6:5
When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. —Mathew 6:16
You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. —Matthew 5:14-16
Jesus Invites Us to a Relational God-focused Faith. That is where the real and lasting reward is found. For each case study, He offers a way to do each practice in which the Father will reward us.
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. —Matthew 6:19-21
One thing I’ve gained, having the privilege to come back here is to have some perspective and no matter where you are in your career, no matter what you’ve accomplished, it can all go away. —Adrien Brody
Jesus invites us to ask ourselves, “Where is My treasure?” He invites us to check our motives and to evaluate the source of our rewards. Is it the affirmation of others, the addiction of compliments and likes, the feeling of pleasing others or being better than them?
No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. —Matthew 6:24a
In prayer, we are focused on communion with God, not currying favor of others. …Prayer wards off the unrelenting demands of our shadow side - that part of us that seeks to legitimize our existence through the rewards that come from the praise of people. —Rich Villodas, “The Narrow Way”
Our Father in heaven,
may your name be kept holy.
May your Kingdom come soon.
May your will be done on earth,
as it is in heaven.
Give us today the food we need,
and forgive us our sins,
as we have forgiven those who sin against us.
And don’t let us yield to temptation,
but rescue us from the evil one. —Matthew 6:9-13
Beginning with “Our Father” invites us to recognize this is a long-term relationship and not a quick transaction. The prayer causes us to ask ourselves, “Am I doing this church/faith thing because I have to or because I want to enter the relationship God, as Father, is inviting me to have with Him.
Will you accept the invitation…
- To step out of the way?
- To not perform your faith for the praise of others?
- To pursue the better way, a life fully devoted to your God?