Sermon Cloud

It seems as if you cannot turn the TV on these days without seeing some news report on the latest stats from the latest polls on how Obama vs. Hillary or Obama vs. McCain or Hillary vs. McCain.  I don’t know about you, but for me, they all start running together, and to be honest all these polling stats seem to lose their purpose in informing me of the latest climate in the current presidential election.

Well, I want to begin this morning by telling you about a recent survey that caught my attention in the blogosphere a few months ago by Lifeway Research.  Since my calling is to pastor a church that reaches out to the unchurched, I was drawn to a very interesting study that Lifeway Research and The Center for Missional Research performed last summer and released their findings just a few months ago.

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The good news this morning is that Jesus focused much of his teaching on this earth exposing and correcting those that were guilty of not living congruent lives of word and deed.

Read Matthew 6:1-18 (NIV).

1)      Giving (vv. 2-4)

Our giving is much more about meeting needs and pleasing God than with earning a reputation of generosity and piety.

Is your giving prompted by a love for praise by peers?

Are you giving to please God and meet a real need?

2)       Prayer (vv. 5-15)

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Do I pray more frequently and fervently when alone with God than I do in public?

Do I love my secret place of praying?

Is your public prayer an overflow of your private praying?

Are you resting in the length of your prayers?  Or the volume of your words?

Prayer is a genuine act directed to God, not man.

3)      Fasting (vv. 16-18)

No voluntary act or spiritual discipline is ever to become an occasion for self-promotion.

Whom are you trying to please with your life?

I am convince that many people today are living miserable lives because they are trying to please everyone else but the one who created them and sent His only Son to die for them.

The world would tell you this morning that it is okay to please yourself, but I am telling you this morning that the Bible tells you this is how mankind got into trouble in the first place…by serving themselves in the Garden of Eden.

Adam and Even was charged with the same responsibility that we have today…please the one who made them and who desired to have fellowship with them.

God and His Church are more glorified in you when you perform your spiritual acts or disciplines out of a sincere heart.