Ugly Motives
The Ugly Christmas Sweater • Sermon • Submitted
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· 59 viewsEvery person is motivated to act by specific things in life. The question is, what is your motivation? Sometimes we are searching for praise from people when we should be seeking praise from God only. With healthy motives, we become people who live a healthy life.
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Good morning and welcome back!
This morning if you will turn in your Bibles to Matthew 6.
We are going to be continuing on with our series concerning the “Ugly Sweater” and what fills that sweater that makes it so ugly.
And so far, we’ve talked about how the Christmas season should be the most wonderful time of year.
But, we also said, many of us end up with ugly thoughts, ugly actions, and ugly words that can hurt the people around us.
Today we want to take the next step in the journey and talk about ugly motives and how they can hinder our relationships and harm our witness in the world.
And when we are thinking about this, this morning, ugly motives don’t have to always be things with evil intents or desires to “destroy” someone.
And ugly motive can be something as simple as selfishness.
I will give you one example from my own life, a story my wife likes to tell on me.
It’s no secret that I like gadgets and technology and a few years back a new phone came out that I just “had to have,” but I knew Michelle would fuss about it, so I waited.
Then one day came my chance! Michelle dropped her phone and cracked the screen.
Now it wasn’t a horrible crack and the phone was still usable and I think she said (can’t really remember exactly how it went) she said she was just going to go on using the phone.
But I wasn’t having any of that so I convinced her it was time for her to go and get a new phone.
And in the back of my mind though I was thinking, we get her a new phone and I will get one too!
So off to AT&T we went and Michele picked out a new phone and I was looking and well you know, since I was ready for an upgrade too, I went ahead and brought one home as well.
And Michelle knew what I was doing and called me out on it!
And even though I did something nice for her, my real motivation was to do something nice for myself.
But many times it is those things that breed selfish intent that cause us more trouble than just evil intent.
And if we are going to be honest with one another, we all have done it.
Each of us make decisions in our lives based on different motivations.
And it is so important for us to pay attention to our motives because they can result in us blessing others or result in us only focusing on ourselves.
The mark of a Christian is someone who is motivated by love to treat others as better than themselves.
Which is difficult because we are always being tempted by our sinful nature to put ourselves first.
But through the empowerment of the Spirit and the example of Jesus we can rise above our selfish motivations.
During His earthly ministry, Jesus was particularly interested in people’s motives and the reasons for why they did what they did.
Jesus knew that people’s motives were really deep-seated heart issues.
Which is what we going to quickly look at in Matthew 6.
So, you can follow along on the board or if you have a Bible with you and found it, Matthew chapter 6, starting in verse 1 . . .
Scripture Focus
Scripture Focus
“Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, 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 honoured by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. “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 men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
NOW SKIP TO MATTHEW 6:16
“When you fast, do not look sombre as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Don’t Be Like Everybody Else
Don’t Be Like Everybody Else
Now, this chapter is smack dab in the middle of Jesus’ sermon on the Mount.
And he is trying his best to teach these people something about what true righteousness and righteous living actually mean.
Jesus is speaking to a group of people who focused too much on living out the law and looking righteous in front of others.
Their passion to look spiritual was more important to them than actually having a healthy spirituality.
However, Jesus’ issue was not with the actions the individuals were taking in and of themselves.
Of course, giving to the needy is a good thing, and praying + fasting is a good thing.
Jesus was interested in the motive behind the action.
Let’s look at a few of the verses . . .
“Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, 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 honoured by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.
“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 men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.
And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
“When you fast, do not look sombre as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.
These are what I would call the “do not” verses of the passages.
These are the things that Jesus is telling them and us not to do.
And you will notice that there is nothing at all wrong with the actions themselves.
Giving to the needy—A GOOD THING.
Praying and communicating with God-A GOOD THING.
Fasting, yest we really should be fasting.
Notice is says when you fast, not if you fast.
But fasting—A GOOD THING!
But again, that is not the problem we are dealing with here.
The problem is the motivation behind what they are doing.
Their motivation is not honor and glorify God.
Their motivation is their own selfish desires—to be seen and made to feel important.
Look back at verses 1-2 again . . .
“Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, 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 honoured by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.
It is all for them to be seen.
To glorify themselves.
To honor themselves.
And they are hypocrites for it!
And think about it, we’ve all seen people that do this.
The Christmas season is full of opportunities to serve others and meet their needs.
However, some people see these opportunities as a way to receive praise for their generosity.
So, what they do is drop money in the bell ringer’s buckets hoping the ring of the coins can be heard by all and they make sure to tell the story of how they went to help at the soup kitchen downtown in hopes that others will acknowledge how spiritual they are.
I call this THE HUMBLE BRAG.
Acting all humble but all you are doing is bragging about how great you are.
And you have to be careful about that also.
It can be very sneaky and very deceptive.
Pastors and churches do it all the time.
They will talk about how great a revival service was or in our day post pictures all over Facebook, making sure it is the more favorable shot of a big crowd or people with raised hands and full altars.
Which there is nothing wrong with, but...
Their motivation is not to glorify God, but rather to glorify themselves.
And it goes something like this . . .
“I was blessed to lead a wonderful service, praise be to God.”
Or, “Today the Spirit let me preach so good, praise be to God.”
And on and on and on.
And if we do those kinds of things, well we need to STOP IT!
Because Jesus says these folks have received their reward in full.
They get the applause and recognition they desired from others, but that is the end of it.
And honestly all it really does is turn people off and away.
Because people see when you are just bragging and who wants to really be around people like that?
However, in this same passage Jesus tells us what we are supposed to be doing.
Do It This Way
Do It This Way
Starting in verse 3 . . .
But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
And the key thing here is honoring God and lifting God up, not ourselves.
Being a representative of God.
Our motivation should be Jesus.
Look at Colossians 3:23 with me . . .
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men,
We work for God and we should be motivated by God and by glorifying God.
It is really as simple as that.
Think about how Jesus came to us in the first place.
Did he come in a way that kings and princes come?
No, he came in a humble manner to serve out of love.
I mean look at it really quickly.
Luke 2 . . .
In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
Wrapped him in clothes and put him in a manger.
This is the Son of God.
He could have came in full power with a host of firey angels around him.
But he didn’t.
He came as a helpless baby, put in a manger for our sake.
Because He loves us and chose to come to save us.
The very reason we celebrate during Christmas is because of a divine act of humility in the birth of Jesus.
He set the example and invited us to follow His lead.
This whole sermon series topic, think about it . . .
What is the purpose of even wearing an ugly sweater?
An ugly Christmas sweater at any Christmas party is meant to do one thing. It is meant to draw attention to ourselves.
When Jesus is our motivation though, the deep desire within us is to draw attention to him.
When we serve others, it becomes easy to say we are doing this only because Jesus first served us.
When we love others around us it is easy to say we are doing this because Jesus first loved us.
We are taking the spotlight off of us and place it on our Savior, the true hero.
He is our true motive.
Finally, Philippians 2:3 . . .
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.
Altar/Challenge
Altar/Challenge
It’s not about us folks, it’s about God and it’s about honoring God.
So this morning what is our motivation for doing what we do?
What is our motivation for being here this morning?
That’s what we really need to think about.
And as a challenge, this week choose one person to do something kind for as a way of honoring Jesus and honoring them.
Here is the key though, this needs to be done anonymously.
Whatever way you choose to bless them, do not let them know it was you.
Allow your motivation for service to be Jesus rather than recognition.
Let’s pray . . .