January 19, 2013
Title: Week 13 — Tooting your own horn
Series: The King’s Speech
We resume our series called The King’s Speech. We have seen the what of the Christian life, and now we will move into the how. It is important that persons not only do what is right but that they do it in the right way. Jesus begins chapter 6 of Matthew by warning about the very righteousness he has just taught! Righteousness too can be harmful! Martin Luther often insisted that our righteousness is more dangerous than our sin. For righteousness can serve the most self-centered of all human desires: self-glorification. Chapter 6 will start with this phrase, “Watch out that you do not do your righteousness in front of other people in order to be theater to them.” Over the next couple of weeks, we will examine three matching contrasts that set out the wrong and the right way to undertake three prominent religious duties–almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. These activities illustrate righteousness in a person’s three main relationships: toward others (charity), toward God (prayer), and toward oneself (fasting). This message specifically explores Matthew 6:1-4, which is centered on almsgiving or charity.