MOVING FORWARD - pastor mike landry

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about how often our sincere devotion to God easily morphs into simply a performance or an act. The practice of a spiritual discipline can easily become a mindless routine. Worship is often reduced to simply the singing of a song or listening to a sermon. It can become a matter of form rather than substance.

You’ve heard that our worship should be for an audience of One. Unfortunately, the performance may be for an audience of one – but which one? Spiritual leaders are especially susceptible to this temptation.

A couple millennia ago, the Greeks and the Romans were into drama. Often a drama would start with a character called the narrator. He would open the play with a monologue and then place a mask over his face and become an actor in the drama. The word that described this actor was, “Hypocrite.”

Spiritually devoted followers of Jesus must always be careful not to fall into the trap of simply going through the motions. It is so easy to put on the mask and act like everything is just fine between you and God. Literally, that’s called hypocrisy.

Devotion requires the heart. Spiritual growth cannot be manipulated simply by improving the “sound byte.” But it is so easy to merely reproduce what worked the first time and think that reproducing the form or sound is good enough.

I think you got the point. So here’s an overly simplistic solution that I’ve found helpful in taking off the mask. More details are to come in my Sunday Morning message on July 12 on Matthew 6:1-8. You can listen anytime after the 12th at www.SarasotaBaptist.com.

DEVOTION PREVENTION TIPS:

1. DEPENDENCY – Be alert to your desire for the approval and praise of others. Choose to live only for the approval and praise of Jesus Christ!

2. DETERMINATION – Be committed to doing what the Bible terms as acts of devotion (or righteousness). i.e. giving to the poor, praying, fasting.

3. DIRECTION – Head in the right direction by daily denying your fleshy demands and live to honor and obey God by serving others.

4. DEDICATION – Make sure your prayers reflect your relationship with God. Don’t allow them to become magical incantations or simply expressions of your theological knowledge.

5. DESIRE – Pursue God, not His blessing.

Matthew 6:1-8 NASB

1“Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.

2 “So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.

3 “But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,

4 so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

5 “When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.

6 “But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

7 “And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words.

8 “So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.