Take Care Not to Practice Your Righteousness

In one paragraph

This message was part of First B's ongoing Sermon on the Mount series, working through Matthew 6. Pastor Ray walked through what Jesus taught His disciples about giving, prayer, and fasting, and then connected those teachings to what Jesus said about treasure, the eye, and serving two masters. The thread running through all of it was the difference between doing right things with the right...

Read together

1. Revelation 4:11 read aloud at the start of worship to open the service
2. Psalm 92 read and sung during the offering as a call to give thanks to the Lord
3. Matthew 6:1-24 the main sermon passage, Sermon on the Mount, covering giving, prayer, fasting, treasure, the lamp of the body, and serving two masters
4. Matthew 5 referenced as the prior week's passage containing the command to let your light shine before people so they glorify your Father
5. Ephesians 2:10 the word poiema cited to connect the verb for practicing righteousness to we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus
6. Matthew 11 quoted at the close: take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart

Talk about it

1. Pastor Ray pointed out that giving to the poor is presented as a 'when,' not an 'if,' meaning generosity is assumed of disciples. What does it look like in practice to give without letting your left hand know what your right hand is doing, and what makes that genuinely difficult?
2. Pastor Ray described praying in front of others as one of the things he is most humbled by, because it requires real effort not to do it to be seen by people. When have you noticed that temptation in yourself, and how did you handle it?
3. The sermon contrasted 'thoughtless repetition' in prayer with honest acknowledgment of God and his provision. What is the difference between those two things in your own experience of prayer?
4. Pastor Ray said that if the light in you is actually darkness, 'how great is that darkness,' and that this is a danger when our lenses are more cultural than Christian. Can you think of an example, in your own life or in church life generally, where that kind of unrecognized darkness has shown up?
5. The sermon closed with the idea that you cannot serve two masters, and that God is served with single-eyed devotion or not served at all. Where do you feel the pull of a divided loyalty most strongly, and what does it look like to bring that back under God's direction?