In the sermon 'An Audience of One' by Jason Dohm, the focus is on Jesus' teachings from Matthew 6:1-8, which caution against performing religious deeds for human approval. The sermon addresses the hypocritical nature of the scribes and Pharisees, who sought glory through visible acts of charity, prayer, and fasting. Jesus emphasizes the importance of heart motivation, urging believers to perform good deeds, pray, and fast with God as their sole audience. The sermon contrasts true disciples, who seek God's glory, with hypocrites, whose actions are self-serving and lack integrity. The speaker highlights the need for vigilance against pitfalls and snares in religious practices, encouraging believers to examine their motivations, prioritize private prayer, and seek God's reward over human applause. The sermon concludes by encouraging believers to revive their 'first love' for God, ensuring their actions are genuine expressions of faith and devotion.

Alright, the sermon text for today is Matthew chapter 6 verses 1 through 8. Take heed that you do not your charitable deeds before men to be seen by them, Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven. Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you they have the reward. But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.

That your charitable deed may be in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will himself reward you openly. And when you pray, you should not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you that they have the reward. But to you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in a secret place, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.

Therefore do not be like them, for your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask him." Let's pray. Oh Heavenly Father, I pray that you would speak to us through your word today and Give us ears to hear and eyes to see the great truths that you have presented here, this revelation of the human heart, the desire for the praise of men. I pray that you would, through this preaching, help to conform us to this and by your spirit to make us a people whose praise comes only from God and not from men. That we would not do everything we do for the temporal pleasure and the temporal satisfaction of human praise. But that we would seek that eternal prize and reward which you have laid up in store for all those who seek after you and who do those things which are pleasing in your sight Would I pray that you give mr.

Dome wisdom and great understanding to see presents this word Give him a clear mind and the ability to present your truth with understanding What I pray that you'd be with him. In Jesus name I pray, amen. So last week we concluded the first chapter on the Sermon on the Mount, Chapter 5, And we finished the last of six representative case studies that were really all about counterfeit law keeping. The scribes and the Pharisees were putting forth a religion that could be done, that could be accomplished. And so Jesus comes and he talks about murder, and he talks about adultery, he talks about the keeping of oaths, he talks about personal retaliation, And he drills into the teaching of the scribes and the Pharisees and how they had tried to contract these different commandments of God down into something that was a single act that you can keep an eye on and know how you are doing.

And so the scribes and the Pharisees are contracting and contracting and whittling away, but Jesus is expanding these commandments out and He's driving the issue back into the heart so that murder is not just about a single physical act, but it includes anger against your brother without a cause. It includes what you say about your brother. And adultery isn't just reduced down to a single physical act, but it's expanded out to what you're thinking about during the course of the day. And then in the last verse of the chapter, verse 48, Jesus says, Therefore you shall be perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect. And Jesus is expanding it all the way out to say that the law is a unit, and it stands as a unit.

And when you stumble in one part of the law, that you've broken all parts of the law. And in saying that, We all stand condemned. There's not one person then who can claim to be righteous. And so the scribes and the Pharisees had a religion where you could say you were righteous, but Jesus is demolishing that. And now in chapter 6, he's shifting from counterfeit law keeping to counterfeit good works.

He's switching from the teaching of the law to the practice of religion. And he's just continuing the all out assault on our hypocrisy. Now you might say, well he's really been targeting this at the scribes and the Pharisees. But if you don't think that the things that Jesus has been saying and is saying applies to us, that Jesus has something to say to us in these things, and you haven't been thinking about it very differently. I've found, actually, the time to be very brutal, to be really difficult to wrestle with these texts and see everything that the scribes and the Pharisees were guilty of present in way too much abundance in my own heart.

And I pray that all of us are experiencing that as well. Jesus now in chapter 6 is going to, the first part of first half of chapter 6, is going to take up three topics. And he's going to talk about three things that are good, that are three things that ought to be part of our exercise of our faith. And there are things that are designed by God to be a blessing. And it's charitable deeds and it's prayer and it's fasting.

We'll only talk about two of those today. We'll talk about charitable deeds today and we'll talk about prayer today. And then we'll see the model prayer next week in the Lord's Prayer. And then the week after that, we'll talk about fasting. So these are things that ought to be part of the exercise of our faith.

We ought to do charitable deeds. We ought to pray. We ought to fast. And yet, Jesus keeps driving these things back to our heart and saying that these three things, as good as they are, as much as they were designed to be a blessing, all three things can be done with no love for God in the heart at all. You can do charitable deeds without any love for God in your heart, or any love for God for the person who's the object of your charity.

You can pray without any love for God. In fact, you can pray and God not even be the audience for your prayers. You can fast, and fasting ought to be a good thing, it ought to be a blessing, but you can fast with no love for God in your heart. So Jesus comes back to the heart motivation. And he's pointing to the fact that with the natural man, even in religious duties, the heart motivation is me.

You've heard the phrase, looking out for number one. And what does that mean? It means looking out for me. I'm number one. And with the natural man, that's always true.

So Jesus desires that we would examine our hearts to see when we're doing our religious activities, when we're doing the things that ought to be part of our faith. Are we doing them according to the natural man? Are we acting like we have been born again? Are we acting like we have really repented of our sins and entered into the kingdom of God. And we are acting like Jesus is our King.

He is reaching back here into chapter 5 to chapter 5 verse 16 where Jesus says, Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in Heaven." So here in chapter 6, Jesus is taking up the topic of good works, but he is also reaching forward to the end of chapter 6 where he will say, but seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added to you." And he's saying that as we do these good works that we ought to be doing that we must be Kingdom minded and that there's a completely other mind to take where the action will be the same and yet the focus of the action will be ourselves. And it won't be an act of worship to God, it will be an act of worship of ourselves. So here is the central question that Jesus is asking us to consider. When you do your religious things, who is your audience? When we do these things that are so important to the exercising of our faith, who is the audience of those things?

And that's why the title of the sermon is, An Audience of One. Jesus is calling us to remove everyone else from the audience so that the only person that we care about the approval of is God himself. So let's go right to the text and reread 1 through 4. Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven.

Therefore when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly I say to you they have their reward. But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. That your charitable deed may be in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will himself reward you openly. Now the whole point of the text, underlying the text is an assumption that we will be doing charitable deeds.

Isn't that true? That charitable deeds are a part of the exercise of our faith. And of course this is founded on the second greatest commandment. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Here we are in a world with so many needs.

Our neighbor has needs that are abounding. And when a person who has been born again sees that need, there's a reaction. There is to be a reaction where we say, we want to come alongside. We want to help. And so there's an assumption that there will be a charitable deed.

But here's the reality that Jesus is pointing to. Deeds are a part of both true and undefiled religion and they're also a part of faker religion. Charitable deeds are a part of real, vital, authentic exercise of faith, but also a counterfeit kind of faith, a faker kind of faith. And in verse 2, Jesus introduces the word hypocrite. And he's condemning the hypocrites.

And we have in our mind what a hypocrite is. But when you go back to old Greek, a hypocrite was actually an actor who wore different masks to play various roles. In other words, one actor would play multiple roles in the same play. And when they were changing roles, they would just hold up a different mask. And then they went from being this to being that.

This is at the heart of what it means to be a hypocrite. It means to be an actor who's playing different roles for your own advantage. And sometimes you wear this mask because it's an advantage and sometimes you switch it and you wear another mask because there's another advantage to be had and that's what it means to be a hypocrite. It means to be an actor with different masks that you're switching so that you can leverage things always to your own advantage. Now Jesus starts out with two words, take heed.

Take heed. Give attention to this. The NASB and the ESV translate it, beware. It's a warning to us that there's something to be looked out for. And we should know this, that Jesus is saying that in the Christian life, there are pitfalls and that there are snares.

And that's why we need the scriptures. Because there are these things that are resonant in our hearts. There are seeds in our hearts and they're always looking to grow, to sprout and grow and to bloom and so we need to be vigilant. We need to take heed. We need to beware because the Christian life has pitfalls and snares.

So this is not about what you do necessarily, but this is about how you do it. This is about why you do it, this is about what is your heart in the exercise of your faith. What is the core motivation that would cause us to pray, that would cause us to do charitable deeds, that would cause us to fast. These things that were designed by God to be good and to be a blessing, but they can go horribly wrong when we go about it in the way that the natural man goes about it. And what we find is exactly the same thing can be done.

And in one case, God is pleased and God is honored. But in another place, God is displeased and God is dishonored. And it was the same act. But in one case, God's pleased. In the other case, he is dishonored.

Jesus offers us three distinctions between a good and right exercise of our faith and what the natural man has to offer. Here are the three distinctions. The reason, the audience, the method. All three of these things are in the text. So the reason, verse 1, to be seen by men.

Verse 2, that they may have glory by men. The hypocrite has a reason for his charitable deeds. And it's to be seen. It's to be out front. It's that he might receive a glory.

That he might receive appreciation. Back in verse 5-16, which I've already cited, that they may glorify your Father in heaven. The actual true disciple isn't worried about that. He isn't worried about being seen. He's not worried about having glory from men, but he's worried that God would receive glory.

And that is the reason behind his charitable deeds. Number two, the audience. The hypocrite has men as his audience. And the more the merrier. And the true disciple, the authentic disciple of Jesus Christ has God as his audience.

Here's one thing that we should know for sure. Man-pleasing is really me-pleasing. When we talk about, you know, I'm a man-pleaser, only sort of true. Man-pleasing is really me-pleasing. The reason you're a man-pleaser is that you desire the approval that's at the heart of it.

And man really isn't the target there. You are the target there. So man pleasing is me pleasing. The audience might be men, but the motivation is number one, me. And Jesus says that they're doing these deeds out in the synagogues, out in the streets, and so no place is off limits.

They're doing it here, they're doing it there, And the more people the better, the louder the applause the better. Now we take that, that's one thought, and then we go back and we consider the Beatitudes. What is the essential nature of the Christians. Well, they're poor in spirit. They mourn.

They're meek. And this is completely the opposite. The hypocrite is promoting themselves. The believer who has these character qualities of the Beatitudes is done with self. They've had it up to here with self.

They have learned to despise the things that come out of themselves. But the hypocrite can't get enough of self. The hypocrite has an audience of many and the true disciple has the audience of one, though many may see, as we'll talk about. But if everyone in the world is against them, but God approves, they're satisfied. That's the nature of the authentic believer.

Everyone in the world is against them and frowning upon them, but God is satisfied and God is smiling, then they are content with that. And Sometimes that happens. John 5, 44, Jesus says, how can you believe who receive honor from one another and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God? Jesus, in John 5, 44, says, if that's your attitude, if you're happy with honor from one another, but you're not seeking the honor of God, you can't even believe. You can't even have faith if your mind is like that.

Number three, the method. The hypocrite has a toolkit. And it comes complete with a trumpet and maybe a tambourine or anything that will draw attention to the charitable deeds comes out of the tool kit so that they can draw a crowd, so that they can initiate the appropriate applause for their charitable deed. But the disciple is not like that. The disciple does it in secrecy.

And it's so much secrecy that the left hand doesn't even know what the right hand is doing. You might say, how do we reconcile this with chapter 5 verse 16? That they may see your good works. In chapter 5 verse 16 it says that they may see your good works. And now here in chapter 6 it says to do it in secrecy.

So much secrecy that your own hands don't even know what the other is up to. But, you know, I don't think these things are difficult to recognize. Salt doesn't need a trumpet. Light doesn't need a trumpet. It is itself.

It doesn't need to be trumpeted. It doesn't need to be heralded. How many times does Jesus say in the gospel, he's done a miracle, he's healed someone, and he says what? Tell no one. Tell No one.

What is always the next thing that happens? They're just telling everyone that they never obey him in that. He heals them, and he says, tell no one. And then they're telling everyone. And this is really the nature of good deeds.

Good works are actually very hard to keep hidden. They're not that hard to be done in secret, but they're hard to keep hidden. And it's because things are actually being done. You have a world full of people in need, And when the needs are met, it starts to be obvious, doesn't it? And the good works are their own evidence.

And so we ought to be doing, not talking. We ought to be giving, not self-promoting. And that's the point of what Jesus is saying here. And it's done in such a way that it is done in secret, but often these things can't help but to come out. And when they come out, the glory goes to God and not to man.

And that's as it ought to be. Now turn in your Bibles to Acts 5. Acts 5 is a prime example of this. Actually we'll start a few verses before that. But go ahead and get your finger to Acts 5 And then we'll back up a couple of verses.

Acts 5, you're very familiar with it. It's Ananias and Sapphira. And this is the early church. And the early church had a beautiful characteristic about it, which was people were sharing their stuff. People were very open handed with their stuff.

So when I say stuff, I mean their things, their possessions. Acts chapter 4, the end of chapter 4 starting in verse 34, That's where we'll start. Nor was there anyone among them who lacked, for all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, and laid them at the apostles' feet. And they distributed to each as anyone had need. And Joseph, who was also named Barnabas by the apostles, which is translated Son of Encouragement, a Levite of the country of Cyprus, having land sold it and brought the money and laid it at the Apostles feet.

So here somebody sold land and they brought it to the Apostles feet and it was so that people wouldn't lack. This is a charitable deed. This is exactly what Jesus is describing in Matthew 6. But a certain man named Ananias with Sapphira, his wife, sold a possession, and he kept back part of the proceeds, his wife also being aware of it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the Apostles' feet. But Peter said to Ananias, but Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself?

While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God. Then Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and breathed his last.

So great fear came upon all those who heard these things, and the young men arose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him. Now when it was about three hours later, when his wife came in not knowing what had happened, and Peter answered her, Tell me whether you sold the land for so much? She said, Yes, for so much. Then Peter said to her, how is it that you have agreed together to test the spirit of the Lord? Look, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.

Then immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. And the young men came and found her dead, and carrying her out, buried her by her husband." The sin was obviously not that Ananias and Sapphira had sold their possessions to give to the poor. Barnabas had just done that. The sin was that they were desiring to be seen for this, and they wanted full credit for a partial donation. Now, Peter actually says, you could have given None or part or all, but you just wanted to be seen.

That was the nature of the sin here. They're doing a charitable deed, but it's not for God. God is not the audience of Ananias and Sapphira. The brethren are, and they're desiring that people would come and say look they've come and they've given all of the proceeds of this and this is what they're seeking and what we should learn from this passage if we learn nothing else is that God is very serious about integrity of heart in our charitable deeds. God killed Ananias and Sapphira because they lacked integrity of heart in their charitable deeds.

Now let's talk about rewards. The reward structures in these two different scenarios are very different. If your audience is men, God says fine. If what you're desiring is glory for men, then God says, okay, you can have that as your reward, but you'll have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Verse 2 says they have their reward.

And it's present tense, it happens all then, and there's no reward held up for the future. There's no reward held up for another place and it's finished. The NASB actually tax on in full. They have received their reward in full, because that's the sense of it in the Greek. Full payment.

You want an applause? Okay. Nice deed. We're done. Here's the question.

Is this enough for you? Is it enough for us that we would just have a little applause and then it would be done? Brothers and sisters, Jesus Christ is calling us to examine our appetites. Are our appetites so dull that we would be satisfied with a little clapping? To be satisfied to actually be seen by our neighbors and appreciated for a charitable deed.

Our appetites are so dull if that is the case. The true disciple is learning every day to care nothing for the applause of men. He's learning it. It's in all of our hearts. This is an exhortation for a reason because it's a snare and a pitfall.

And we start in one place and God is calling us to increase and increase so we end up in another place. But we're learning it, but we're learning to care nothing for the applause of men. To be completely dissatisfied with the approval of our neighbors. That's what Jesus is calling us to. May it be so.

May Jesus make us a people who would be so dissatisfied if that's all we were to receive was a little applause from our neighbors. But that we would actually exert ourselves to be pleasing in the eyes of our king. The true disciple has an audience of one, is concerned about the glory of God. He's doing things in secret, knowing and expecting that God is able to reward him openly. Here's what Hebrews 11.6 says.

Hebrews 11.6. But without faith, it is impossible to please God. For he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. This is the heart of a true disciple. He sees God as someone who is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

And so, He's willing to put all His eggs in that one basket. Have you ever thought of it that way? The true disciple is someone who puts all of their eggs in one basket. They bet everything on just one square, and that square is God, but they have such confidence that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him that they'll completely forgo the applause of their neighbors. And they're willing to bet it all on that one square, to put all of their eggs in one basket because of their confidence in God that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

Well, what are these rewards? What is it that we get from God when God is our audience of one and the text doesn't say? But if you'll remember back to our time in Deuteronomy where it talked about the blessings and the cursings, What we learned from that was the blessings come in a hundred different categories and so do the curses. They come in a hundred. God has an infinite number of ways to give to you, to bless you, to reward you.

And he has an infinite number of ways to take things from you and to curse you. Proverbs 11, 24 and 25 says this. There is one who scatters, yet increases more. This is the person who is doing a charitable deed unto God. He is scattering, and yet he increases more.

And there is one who withholds more than is right, but it leads to poverty. The generous soul will be made rich, and he who waters will also be watered himself. So Proverbs 11, 24, and 25 gives us a picture of someone who's watering, but is being watered. We're watering. We're doing a charitable deed here.

And yet, we're being watered by God. He is able to reward openly those who will do their deeds in secret. How about this as a reward? In Genesis 15, 1, God says this to Abraham, after these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision saying, do not be afraid Abram, I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward." So when God talks to Abram, later Abraham, about the reward that He's going to give him, he just says, I'll give you myself. I'll be your exceedingly great reward yourself.

Now, you know what? You have to be in the kingdom to appreciate that. You have to have King Jesus to appreciate that. People, the natural man, will never, what? My reward is only God?

That's it. But those who have repented, who have been born again, who know the sweetness of being in the presence of God hear that And say more more more How do I have more of that that God would be my exceedingly great reward. In Matthew 13, Jesus describes the kingdom of God like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls. And this Merchant comes across a pearl of great price and all of a sudden he can only see one thing, he can only think about one thing, he can only pursue one thing because it's such a beautiful pearl. And Everything on the periphery fades from sight and it's all about that pearl and he'll go and he'll sell all of the rest of his possessions with joy to have this pearl.

And Jesus suggests that he is that. That he is this thing that is of such great value that when you actually see this pearl, that all these things out here on the periphery, all the applause of man just fades away, and you just have tunnel vision. You can only see this thing that is of such great value. And for joy over it, you'll go sell everything to possess this pearl. Everyone has a vision of God.

Everyone has a vision of man. It's true of the hypocrite, and it's true of the authentic disciple. The hypocrite has a vision of God and he sees a method, a tool, a way to get what he desires, the glory and the applause of man. And that's his vision of God. And he has a vision of man.

And that's as a source, that's as a source of the thing that he's looking for, to be applauded and approved and loved. But the true disciple has a completely different vision of God. The God to the true disciple is the God of the Bible, the God who creates ex nihilo, out of nothing. So God doesn't shuffle around materials like we do when we are creating. He actually just speaks things into existence.

And the true disciple sees that God and says, that is my audience. I no longer care about anyone else to be my audience. But this God who can make things out of nothing, He is my audience. And He looks at man. He has a vision of man.

And he says, look at all these fellow worms. They're just like me. They're just as worthless as me. And I could care less if they applaud for me. Now, am I suggesting that we're all this or all that?

No. I wish it were so. I wish our vision of God was so consistent and so compelling. And I wish our vision of man was so consistent and so, what's the opposite of compelling? Whatever.

But we find ourselves kind of lapsing between the two. But we ought to have a consistent, compelling vision of God. And we ought to see man rightly as well. So to end this section, I would just say this. Pour yourselves out, friends.

Pour yourselves out. Do more charitable deeds than you've ever done in your life. Do them well. Do them consistently. Do them often, but do them for the glory of God.

Jesus Christ says, take heed. There are pitfalls And there are snares out there. And this is directed. He's teaching to us that we would pour ourselves out, but that our audience for that would be God alone. Now, five through eight.

And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. By men. Assuredly I say to you they have their reward. But you when you pray go into your room and when you have shut your door pray to your father who is in the secret place and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.

Therefore, do not be like them, for your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask him." Jesus moves from charitable deeds to the topic of prayer, and all of the same principles apply. Hypocrites, the actors who have masks and they change them whenever there's an advantage to be gained. The hypocrites pray where they can be seen so that they can be seen. They love to pray in the synagogues. They love to pray on the street corners.

And if we were just to isolate that, we would say, they love to pray. This is great. And yet, there is no praise. There is only censure from Jesus in the Scriptures. Because they love to pray that they may be seen by men.

And so the reason and the audience and the method is exactly the same as when they are doing their charitable deeds. And the true disciples aren't like that. We are not to be like that. Jesus says that twice. Don't be like them.

Jesus says that twice in these verses. And we are not to be like that. We are to actually go into our room and shut the door and do our praying in secret. We're to have very different reasons and a very different audience and very different methods. And of course, this isn't a condemnation of all corporate prayer.

It's abundantly established throughout the Old and New Testament. That's not the point that Jesus is making. Brothers and sisters, we must take care that our praying is actually to God. It seems so elementary, it seems so silly to even waste sermon space saying that our prayers ought to be to God. And yet Jesus is saying that in the text.

Our prayers ought to be to God. Are our prayers ever for show? Where we heap up the words. We Really lay it on. And not just heap up the words.

We heap up the best words. We pick new words that never get used in any part of our vocabulary. And yet, it's a special time. It's time to impress. Let's be honest.

And so we sound different than any other time where we're ever saying anything else to anyone else. Here's what Ecclesiastes 5 2 says, Do not be rash with your mouth, and let not your heart utter anything hastily before God. For God is in heaven and you on earth, therefore let your words be few." Now again, this isn't a condemnation of long prayers either. We'll see that there were times that Jesus went away and prayed for a long period of time. He's establishing a pattern for us.

It's not a condemnation of long prayers. But It is a condemnation of saying things hastily and just blabbing, babbling on and on and on when God knows the things that we need already anyway. Here's what Matthew Henry says. This is brilliant. I love Matthew Henry.

Children do not make long speeches to their parents when they want anything. Let us come to him with the disposition of children, with love, reverence, and dependence. They need not say many words that are taught by the spirit of adoption to say that one is right. Abba, Father. Exactly so.

Children when they want something from their parents don't come and filibuster. They come and they're simple and they're concise and yet often when we come we filibuster. God doesn't need us to come and filibuster. He doesn't desire that. He knows what we need anyway.

Do we ever pray like the words are magic? Like it's some sort of an incantation. If we just say the right words, we'll prevail upon God. We're not thinking rightly about God if we're doing that. If we think we just have to find the right sequence of words.

Now, the most obvious violations of this come from people like Catholics who say the rosary and it's Hail Mary over and over. And this is exactly the kind of vain repetition that Jesus is forbidding. But don't we have our own brand of it that's more subtle? Here's what you'll find about the charitable deeds and prayer and Jesus's condemnation of hypocrisy is that Jesus is talking in really flamboyant terms. He's talking about trumpets, and he's talking about standing on street corners, and yet, and he's making a point.

He's emphasizing, that's what he's doing, and yet, there are so many more subtle brands of both of these things. There are so many more subtle ways to be self-promoting in our charitable deeds. There are so many more subtle brands of both of these things. There are so many more subtle ways to be self-promoting in our charitable deeds. There are so many more subtle ways where we pray to actually impress the other people in the room, and we're not even praying to God.

So Jesus tells us to take heed. Are we ever praying to teach people in the room or to exhort people in the room? Now govern yourselves on this one. I'm not giving you ammo against your brother to say he does that. I'm giving you ammo to go into your own heart guns blazing to convict yourself and deal with yourself.

But do we ever pray to teach people in the room or say things that we think they need to hear and admonish them and exhort our brethren through prayers. That is inappropriate. Our prayers are to God. Our prayers ought to be vertical, not horizontal. We ought to be pleading with our Father in heaven, not trying to teach our brothers and sisters who are in the chairs around us.

That kind of prayer is actually hypocrisy and it dishonors God. If you have an exhortation for your brother, by all means go to your brother and exhort him. But don't use our prayer times to do that. I've done it a thousand times. You probably are approaching that.

But we need to stop because it's hypocrisy and it dishonors God. I've taken, actually, if there's background that needs to be done so that you can be understood in the prayer, I've taken to just stopping the prayer. I don't stop the prayer, but I just start talking to people. I open my eyes and I say, I have an aunt and she's really in trouble. And I'll do this right in the middle of prayer so that I'm not trying to weave God in a way that makes it sound like God needs to know the back story on this.

That's absurd. And it leaves the wrong impression. And so we should just, if people need to know the back story, just say the background and then return to your prayers. And then you can start talking to God again once you've talked to your brothers and sisters. What is the ratio of our public to private prayers?

This is a real serious question that ought to be considered from this text. What is the ratio of our public to private prayers? This is not a condemnation of corporate prayers, but it does mean that if all the praying we ever do is in our family worship time and is on Monday mornings for the men, it is on Wednesday nights, and is on our corporate prayer time on Sunday mornings, and we've got a one-to-one ratio or even lopsided even more heavily towards the corporate side of things. Things are way out of whack. Jesus' encouragement is we should have a ratio that has our private prayers overwhelming being an avalanche over the top of our corporate prayers.

The bulk of our prayer time is actually us speaking to our Father in secret behind closed doors. What is the ratio of our public to private prayers? Now, I want to draw our attention to some of the most precious words in the Bible in verse 6. Pray to your Father who is in the secret place. Pray to your Father who is in the secret place.

He is there. You go into your room and you shut the door and you're alone but you're not alone. Your father is there. I wonder if we've forgotten that he's there. Now, wrestling with this text, over the last several days, I have done more of this, actually disappeared and gone in secret to pray.

And I have found that my father is there in a way that I knew from a long time ago, but I've sort of forgotten. Not that I would have taught wrongly about it or didn't know it, but it wasn't top of mind. And it reminded me of my first love. It reminded me of when I first got saved. And I actually would go just to enjoy fellowship with my father.

It's not just that God is behind closed doors. It's that God is your father. And he will be with you. He will accept you into his audience. He will accept you into his presence.

And you can have fellowship with him there. Do you remember what it was like when you first got saved? And you were on fire. And you couldn't wait to be alone with God. Have you forgotten what it's like to be alone with God?

I will confess, in some ways, I've forgotten what it's like to be alone with God. And I'm ashamed to admit it, but I would just say the text is working on me. The text is beating on me. And I praise God for that. I praise, I pray that the text would be on all of us that way.

And we would know again The partner of our first love. That those days would come back to us where we would just rejoice to sneak away to be with God. When was the last time you snuck away to be with God? For me, it had been a long time. This is fellowship with God and He is your Father.

Talk about a reward. Do we need to go further than that? There are other rewards maybe, but do we need to go further than that? Lastly, and also on a very personal note, it became so clear to me this week, as I was studying this part of the text, that I have been talking big. That We as a body have been talking big, but I've been right out front of that.

What will Youngsville be like in a hundred years if God would make us faithful? Let's plant a flag for Jesus Christ in Youngsville. And I just want to say, after studying this text, that unless we learn to do this thing in a radically different way, then I should just stop talking. We should all stop talking. Because if not, we'll focus ourselves on our actions, and we'll make ourselves very busy to do something for God in Youngsville.

And we'll think that prayer is too inefficient. There's work to be done. Doesn't that assault your ears to hear that? Prayer is too inefficient? Prayer is eminently efficient.

Prayer is the most efficient activity in the world because it's people who can do nothing, who control almost nothing, going and pleading with God, who can do anything, who controls everything. What could be more efficient than spending our time in prayer? Turn to Psalm 127. Psalm 127. The first two verses of Psalm 127 tell us what we need to know.

Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. Unless The Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows, for so he gives his beloved sleep." God isn't saying here, don't rise up early, don't stay up late. He's talking about the disposition when you're up early and when you stay up late. You'd be better off to plead with God who controls the things that you care about than to just extend your days so that you can squeeze a little more labor out of your two meager little hands.

What are we thinking? Rise early to pray and plead with God. Stay up late and pray and plead with God. He can do anything. He controls everything.

The fastest way to have the form of godliness without the power of it is to be prayerless. That's from 2 Timothy 3, 5, talking about a form of godliness, all the things that we do and the structure is in place but with no power. And this is what it means to be prayerless. We talk to each other but we don't plead with God. Have we been guilty of that brothers and sisters?

Talking to each other, talking big but not pleading with God. The great men and women of God have seen this. They've seen the pattern of Jesus' life and they've understood this. Here's what I mean about the pattern of Jesus' life. I'm going to read you seven verses just in quick succession and you'll see how impressed the Gospel writers were with Jesus' conduct in the area of prayer.

Matthew 14, 23, And when Jesus had sent the multitudes away, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. Now when evening came, he was alone there. Mark 1, 35. Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, he went out and departed to a solitary place and there he prayed. Mark 6, 46.

And when he had sent them away, he departed to the mountain to pray. Luke 5, 16. So he himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed. Luke 6.12, now it came to pass in those days that he went out to the mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer to God. Luke 9, 18.

And it happened as he was alone praying that his disciples joined him. And he asked them, saying, who do the crowds say that I am? Finally, Luke 18, 1. Then he spoke a parable to them that men always ought to pray and not lose heart. Jesus talked the talk, Jesus walked the walk.

That says nothing of all the actual prayers that are recorded in the Gospels. But all of the Gospel writers were so impressed that Jesus often would go away to be by Himself and to pray. Often, He would leave the work of ministry. He would leave the multitudes and he would go away. Jesus didn't think it was too inefficient.

Jesus would actually extract himself from work of ministry to go be with God. I don't even know how to make sense of that. Jesus is God. Jesus is a member of the Trinity. And yet, in some form or fashion, He was man.

And in that sense, He needed to go and be with His Father. Jesus talked it. Jesus lived it. And those who walk closely with Him have the power of the resurrection. Those who will go and be with Him and pray have the power of the resurrection at their disposal.

In conclusion, this is about the end of self. We're comparing the hypocrites, the actors with masks, to the true disciples. And this is about the end of self. This is about you decreasing so that Jesus can increase. This is about me decreasing so that Jesus can increase.

And it's about narrowing the audience down and stopping our caring about our neighbors and even the people here and the approval and being willing to do things in secret because we have faith in God that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Here's what D. Martin Lloyd-Jones says about the pitfall that we're dealing with in this text. We tend to think of sin as we see it in its rags and in the gutters of life. We look at a drunkard, poor fellow, and we say, there is sin, that is sin.

But that is not the essence of sin. To have a real picture and a true understanding of it, you must look at some great saint, some unusually devout and devoted man. Look at him there upon his knees in the very presence of God. Even there, self is intruding itself. And the temptation is for him to think about himself, to think pleasantly and pleasurably about himself, and really to be worshiping himself rather than God.

That, not the other, is the true picture of sin. Isn't that so true? We think about sin. We think about the guy in the gutter and we say, look, there's sin. And yet, what Lloyd-Jones is saying is, look at the devoted man who's in prayer and how much of a temptation he struggles with, not to think pleasurably about himself and end up worshipping himself instead of God.

That is sin. Not that it manifests itself to the man in the gutter. That should be no surprise to us, but that it manifests itself so frequently, so powerfully in those who would even offer themselves to God. Take heed, these are the words of Jesus. I'll close with these words.

Seek this applause. Seek this applause. Well done, good and faithful servant. You are faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many things.

Enter into the joy of your Lord. Oh God, may it be so. May that be the applause that we seek. To hear you say, enter into the joy of your Lord, having spent a life doing our deeds unto you, not caring if anyone ever sees, trying not to be seen, that our prayers would be lifted to you in secret, and that we would have the sweetest fellowship with you. Thank you God that you are in the secret place that when we go into a room and we shut the door and we pray to you, we are not alone, but we are with our Father.

Oh God, I pray that you would revive our first love, that you would come refresh us, Lord. Cause us to repent so that times of refreshing would come from the presence of the Lord. Cause us to turn away of a prayerless life towards a life filled with prayer, so blessedly inefficient, so wonderfully efficient, all at the same time. God, may our hearts be yours, in Jesus' name, Amen.