“Who Are We Trying To Please?”
Matthew 6:1-18
Sermon Series: “Audience Of One”
Introduction: Many times people do “spiritual” things in order to impress people instead of God. Are we guilty of that sometimes? Jesus deals with that issue in this section of the Sermon on the Mount. He again uses the Pharisees as an example and deals with the heart of the matter instead of just external appearances. He uses 3 examples to teach one, main principle.
Main Principle: Jesus is teaching us that seemingly godly actions can become ungodly if they are done with the wrong motivation of pleasing ourselves by impressing people.
Question #1-What does Jesus want us to do? He wants us to live to please and glorify God alone. We can’t please everybody. Trying to please everybody is a route to failure. We can live to please God or live to please people, but we can’t do both. The hypocrites Jesus spoke of in this passage were looking for “glory from men.” Do we want people to glorify us, or are we living to glorify God? 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”
Question #2-What do we have to give up in order to do this?
A. The desire to be recognized and rewarded by people. Craig Groeschel said, “Becoming obsessed with what others think about me is the quickest way to forget what God thinks about me.” We are called to lay down our desire for earthly recognition and reward and live to be recognized and rewarded by our Heavenly Father alone.
B. Our hypocrisy. Hypocrisy basically means “to wear a mask,” “act out a role,” or “play a part.” Basically, it means we are intentionally portraying ourselves as one way when the reality is something different.
C. Living to please ourselves: At the root of all this, the Pharisees were living to please themselves. Their religion was
about themselves instead of the glory of God. They wanted adulation from men. They were doing these things in front of people in order to please themselves by the adulation they received. However, the reality is that living to please ourselves is a sign that we do not really have a relationship with God.
D. Self-righteousness: They were trusting in their own righteousness. They thought they were righteous because of all their religious activities. However, we have no righteousness apart from Jesus Christ. Romans 3:10 says, “There is none righteous, no, not one.” Isaiah 64:6 says, “But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags.”
Question #3-What do we need to believe in order to do this? We have to believe that God is the only One we have to please, and the way to please Him is by trusting Jesus because He is pleased with us through His Son. Galatians 1:10 says, “For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.” Zephaniah 3:17 says, “The Lord your God in your midst, the Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.” Ephesians 1:6b says, “To the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved [Jesus].” Romans 8:8 says, “So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Hebrews 13:20-21 says, “Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.” Hebrews 11:6 tells us that we cannot please God without faith.
Conclusion: George Muller said, “There was a day when I died, utterly died, died to George Muller and his opinions, preferences, tastes and will; died to the world, its approval or censure; died to the approval or blame of even my brethren and friends; and since then I have studied only to show myself approved unto God.”
