Bible Passage: Matthew 6
Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.

“Yeye (grandpa) look at me!”

My grandkids are at the young wonderful age where being noticed and encouraged by their parents or grandparents perhaps gives them the greatest joy of a moment.

Whether it is a ride on a carousel. Or a climb to a high point of a playground. Or simply a tiny jump into a wading pool. Living for the audience of one sparks unspeakable joy that rivals Marie Kondo!

In Matthew 6:1-18, Jesus corrects the warped practice of the three main acts of religious righteousness – giving, praying and fasting – amongst his countrymen.

The fatal problem in each and all of them was “practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them”.

What Jesus exposes is the fatal danger of self-focus internally in our hearts while dispensing an act of piety for God externally with our hands.

What was so wrong with Jewish piety when Jesus turned up 2000 years ago to call his people to repentance?

It was riddled with intentional self-interested piety that subtly inflated self and futilely impressed others but sadly dishonored God.

Does that describe you and I?

The Lord Jesus’ corrective was simple. He exhorted that their giving, praying and fasting to be conducted “in secret”.

And, more importantly, the reason for such radical piety was so that “your Father who sees in secret will reward you”.

Jesus was surely not prohibiting all manner of public ministry – beginning with prayer – as being repulsive to God.

Neither was he promoting “closet” discipleship as the new norm of pleasing God for that would undermine our very witness to the world.

The radical piety Jesus demands is the singular passion of true disciples “to simply delight in pleasing the audience of one” – God our Heavenly Father!

It is this redeemed living for the audience of One that will truly grant us freedom from the crushing tyranny of living for the audience of many in these three ways.

1.Freedom from Intentional Conflicted Discipleship

If we live with one eye on God and one eye on self, like those Jesus warned us about, it would lead to cock-eyed discipleship!

There is nothing more miserable than being a conflicted believer – never seeing clearly why we are doing what we are doing.

2. Freedom from Intentional Addictive Flattery

If we seek man’s applause, we will get man’s applause. But that is ALL we will get. We will soon realise how fickle and how empty man’s approval is.

A measure of whether we are outgrowing or making progress in being weaned from man’s approval is how much we long for, seek after or desperately need this horizontal affirmation in our hearts.

3. Freedom from Unintended Crushing Social Media Approval

An unexpected secondary and contemporary outworking of Jesus’ teaching today is the power of social media approval.

Today, many of us are not the intentional seekers but the unintentional recipients of peer scrutiny or public attention.

The context may be different between the 1st century and our 21st century world but the disease and remedy remains the same.

It is near impossible to be unaware of the “likes” or “dislikes” we get in our real or virtual world today. It is, however, more crucial we seek – not be unaware – but to be unaffected or unfazed by this pervasive modern pressure.

Too many of us – whether as impressionable youth, stressed out adults or despondent elderly – are highly vulnerable to what our new “virtual audience” thinks of us.

The power of the virtual audience over our spiritual, mental and physical wellness is endless – from body shaming, gender confusion, professional insecurity, personal unassuredness to crippling depression.

God’s enduring gospel remedy remains solidly the same: There is nothing more necessary and more liberating than living for the audience of one, for God!

The despised cross that Jesus carried along the Via Dolorosa and was cruelly crucified at Calvary is the ultimate experience of living for the approval of God alone.

It is the Cross that has set us free from the crushing slavery of living for man’s approval – be it from a judgmental parent, an impossible spouse, an ungrateful child, a personal critic or a fickle crowd. Have you experienced this Jesus’ freedom?

Post-Service Conversation this week:
How can we increasingly wean ourselves of the world’s approval and desire God’s approval of us instead? Identify your main worries and how can you overcome them by faith?

PRAYER:
“Heavenly Father, save me from having one eye on God and one eye on self. Save me from being a conflicted believer. Save me from addictive flattery. Warn me that if I seek man’s applause, that is ALL I will get.
Awaken me to how fickle and how empty man’s approval is. Finally, save me from crushing virtual approval. Help me to humbly accept that there is nothing more necessary and more liberating than living for the audience of one, for you O God!
I believe that Jesus alone lived and died for your glory O God. I believe in Jesus. Please set me free from the crushing slavery of living for man’s approval. Amen.”