The Greater Kingdom: Where God is Big and People are Small
Mt 6:1-18
KLMF: independent short-term missions
Happy Mothers’ Day
We were made to live for something big, for something beyond ourselves. There’s more to life than earthly treasures and meeting our needs. But we’re selfish and unbelieving, so we live in the small kingdom of self instead of the big kingdom of God. We live in this tension/battle between living for our small kingdom versus living for God’s big kingdom.
Sometimes the battle is obvious, sometimes not so much.
When we’re completely materialistic, hedonistic, selfishly ambitious, etc., it’s obvious that we’re living for ourselves, for our small kingdoms.
The danger is when we’re religious, charitable, involved in ministry, so that we don’t even realize that we’re living for ourselves. Paul Tripp, in A Quest For More, writes
The most dangerous thing about the kingdom of self is how easily it masquerades as the kingdom of God. (73)
The most dangerous kinds of self-focus are those that take on the form of the good things of the kingdom of God. (74)
It is quite possible for you to be convinced that you are living for the transcendent glories of the kingdom of God when you are, in fact, living for yourself. (75)
For some people, Jesus is mainly
a “ticket to heaven”
a way to become improve your well-being or character, to become a better person
a way to solve some of the problems in our lives (lonely, depressed, anger, shame)
Getting involved at church is mainly a way to
find approval and acceptance
find friends
find a future spouse
These are real and good benefits (not bad things), but they are the wrong focus. These are all focused on ourselves. We can do all the right things that make it look like we’re living for God, but internally, we’re still just living for ourselves. We’re not loving, enjoying, serving, worshipping Jesus, we’re loving and serving ourselves. To use last week’s phrase, we’re only changing our investment strategy, but our treasures are still the same.
The danger is that we think we’re loving God, we think we’re “good Christians,” we think we’re living in the Big Kingdom, but we’re not. We’re self-deceived.
I remember eating at a restaurant with some guys and one guy orders this huge meal. Some one says, I thought you were on a diet. And so the other guy adds a diet Coke to the order. The danger is consoling yourself with the diet Coke when the rest of your meal is full of calories, carbs and cholesterol.
Our passage today gives an example of this self-deceived danger.
Jesus warns against giving, praying and fasting, doing spiritual things, but doing them so that we can be recognized by people, for the applause of men.
They’re trying to enhance their image of loving God more than actually loving God. It looks like they love God, they may think they love God, but in reality, they’re just loving themselves.
Stop and consider these three practices: praying, giving, fasting.
Some people pray to God, but they’re really just talking to the people around them, trying to make an impression, trying to tell people what to do. They’re not really talking to Jesus.
Some people give, but why? Perhaps they give to ease their consciences/feel less guilty, to keep some standard of nobility or character, in hopes of some return favor from God. They’re not really giving to Jesus, they’re giving for themselves.
Some people fast, but why? Perhaps they feel serious and mature Christians fast, and they want to be a “mature Christian.” Perhaps they want to be seen and admired as spiritual. Perhaps they feel they need to pay some kind of penance. They’re not seeking Jesus, they’re serving themselves.
Many things can look like we love Jesus, but in reality, its not Jesus that we love.
We may like praise, more because we like the music than because we love Jesus. (“That’s a great song,” more than “That’s a great Jesus”)
We may like Bible study, more because we like learning than because we encounter Jesus in His Word. (proud that we know more, or humbled by the glory of Jesus; head bigger or heart bigger?)
We may like helping the poor, more because it makes us feel good about ourselves than because we feel God’s love for them. (I’m a good person, or Jesus is a great Savior; who is the hero?)
The danger is that we pray and give and praise and study our bibles and serve the poor—and think we’re loving God, but actually, we’re just loving ourselves.
Some observations from the passage
1. Emphasis on the warning. Jesus made his point in 6:1, but I think noteworthy that Jesus then gives 3 illustrations (giving, praying, fasting) to make the same point. I want us to feel the weight of the warning. This is not a passing comment. Jesus is “camping out” on this point. This danger is real and pervasive.
2. Example of storing our treasures on earth. This passage precedes last week’s passage, where Jesus warned us to store our treasure in heaven not on earth. I think there is a connection. Jesus has been saying, If you do these things to be admired, you already have your reward. If do these things in secret, and your heavenly Father will reward you. Then Jesus says, store your treasure in heaven, not on earth. Trying to gain the applause of men is its own reward, it is “storing your riches on earth.”
Doing things to be applauded and admired is small kingdom living (it’s about me), living for earth-bound treasures. This is a warns us against small kingdom living and points us toward big kingdom living
3. What to keep: the reward and practices. Don’t throw away too much. Notice what Jesus preserves and what Jesus corrects.
In these 3 examples, Jesus warns against receiving your reward from people and then teaches us how to receive our reward from God. Jesus does not condemn seeking reward. Big kingdom living still seeks reward, but a different reward. Or, as we’ve been saying, we’ve found a different treasure. Big kingdom living still pursue a reward, it has a treasure. The size of your treasure is proportional to the size of your kingdom.
Notice also that Jesus does not tell us to stop giving, praying or fasting. The answer is not not doing these things. Giving, praying, fasting, serving, praising, preaching—these are good. Sometimes we over-react and throw out the baby with the bathwater. Some of us say, I don’t want to pray or read my Bible legalistically, so we stop praying and reading our Bibles. That is not what Jesus teaches. We simply exchange the sin of legalism for the sin of disobedience.
The main advantage of not doing these things is that it’s more obvious that you’re not living for God’s kingdom.
The danger of doing these things is that you can think you’re living for God’s kingdom, when you’re not.
4. What to change: our environment and our focus.
There is wisdom in “doing things in secret.” Sometimes the temptation is too strong. Given the opportunity to make an impression on people, our hearts will care more about wanting to be applauded and admired by people. The real issue is that we’re more sinful than we realize, we often overestimate ourselves, and we need to be honest that we care too much about what people think. For some of us, doing spiritual practices and ministries publicly is like the alcoholic going into a bar . . . if we want any chance of resisting these temptations, we need to change the environment.
The real issue here is not necessarily doing things in secret versus doing things publicly. The real issue is the focus of our hearts. Are we looking at people and their opinion of us, or are we looking at God? The reward, the treasure is God.
We’re more sinful than we think. We often turn the very things that were meant to help us see God and make them about ourselves. In prayer, we’re supposed to talk with God, but instead, we make it a performance about ourselves. In praise songs, the very lyrics we sing talk about the love and glory of Jesus, but we make it about how we feel and how we look.
Small kingdom living revolves around a small self.
Big Kingdom living revolves around a Big God.
How can we focus more on God? Let me give some practical applications.
1. Repent of our righteousness.
Repent of all the good things we do, thinking we’re doing them for God when in our hearts, we’re doing them for ourselves.
2. Repent of our unrighteousness.
Repent of how we do not seek God, do not pray, do not serve, do not worship. It is obvious that we do not serve or love God.
What does Jesus suggest in this passage? Change the environment, so we’re not so tempted. And then, he encourages us to give, pray, and fast. We should “go into our closets” and do these things.
3. Give, and in your giving, focus on God
Lord, You are worthy. I pour my perfume at Your feet. Like Mary pouring her precious perfume and Jesus feet, we say, Lord, you are so precious, so worthy, so supreme. When we collect offering, that is supposed to be a time of worship, a time when we, as it were, “pour our perfume on Jesus’ feet.
Lord, You are my provider. I can give because I believe that You who clothe the lilies and feed the bird, surely you take care of me. I can give freely because I trust that as I seek your kingdom first, all these things will be added to me as well (Mt 6:33).
Lord, you are my Lord. You own all that I have and all that I am. I’m giving back that which was yours to begin with. This offering is to help remind me that all I have belongs to You.
4. Pray, and in your praying, focus on God
You may ask, how, what does that look like? And Jesus actually shows us right here:
Lord, I glorify Your name. Be exalted.
Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Lord, Your will be done. You’re the King, and I invite you to rule in my heart and life, to rule in this world, as you rule in heaven.
Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Lord, I humbly ask for forgiveness. I do not come as a righteous Christian who prays and gives. I come as a sinner needing forgiveness.
Deliver us from evil. Lord, rescue me from my sin. I am such a sin-o-holic. Please deliver me from danger, from problems, from hardships, but most of us, please deliver me from myself.
This is not a performance. This is seeing God, recognizing God in light of who we are. “You are great and I need You.”
5. Fast, and in your fasting, focus on God
I think there are various forms of fasting and its best to find a kind of fasting that confronts our sources of comfort and significance. Doing things in secret is a form of fasting from people’s approval; slowness & solitude is way of fasting from productivity.
Lord, this much I want You, I need You. This seriously I run after You.
You are more important to me than food, than applause, than comfort.
Take my food, take my comfort, but give me more of Jesus.
Consider incorporating these practices this week. Through them, may we see more of God. And in seeing more of God, seeing His worthy, His grace, His faithfulness, His power, His love, you have a greater reward, a greater treasure, you live in a Greater Kingdom.
We were not made for the small kingdom of ourselves and people’s opinions. We were made for God, to live in a kingdom where God is big and people are small.