The first title I had for today was:” Public vs. Private, What’s the Difference?” but that sounded too argumentative. Then I almost titled today’s Message: “Mom’s good necklace, is in with the Hogs”. It was my attempt to rename an idea expressed in Matthew 7:6;
6 “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs…
But that really cuts short on what I really want to talk about today. Really, I need to quote Matthew 7: 1-6;
1 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. 3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. 6 “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.
Or there is a time to share and time just for you and God! By the way, when the Lord uses pigs & dogs when He is teaching Jews, He is trying to get their attention! Are people projecting their smugness or receiving God’s blessings? And dogs & pigs referred to might be us.
Well, there’s just not enough room on the sign for all of that, and I am drifting away with the central theme here which is there is a time and place for everything, even the speck in your own eye. Also, a time for when we share with all, our worship and service to our incredible God!
Or a person could say; timing & context can be everything… in many things. As you can see Sermon Titles are sometimes hard for me.
If you are burdened with how and when is it proper or appropriate, and even needed to pray, serve, and worship God in private vs. public. When is the right time for expressing how I, serve, give, and feel about the Lord? If these things leave you wondering about your Faithwalk, and how to judge what is right for you, then today is just for you, my friends. If you have never thought about these things, then… today is also just for you, my friends!
Not that I am an expert at any of this, but I truly believe that when we come together as the Body of Christ, we can begin to make sense of these questions as they pertain to us individually, and to us as a family in God. You see what is so special about our small Congregation, is that together we are very powerful indeed. As long as we stick to our Lord’s direction by following His Word in the Bible, and His Holy Spirit that is readily available when we meet as a Family, … The Lord will provide our way ahead!
We do know that there is a time and place when we should shout out and rejoice to our God for all of the incredible gifts and works, our Lord’s Holy Spirit is doing in our lives! Just think about all of the miracles that have taken place just for you to be here this morning.
With those thoughts in mind, let’s return to the Call to Worship reading that Carlitos read for us today. Reading again Psalm 100;
1 Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Worship the Lord with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
3 Know that the Lord is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
5 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.
And gratitude should be a common theme that each of us carry all day long every day of our lives! Now, the gates that we enter into God’s Temple are an inverse of the original, and are located within the recesses of our own hearts that house the Spirit of our Sovereign God! Instead of looking inward our direction is to proceed with the Lord, to look outward into His World to: Share Him!
I had this picture in my mind when I read this passage to prepare for today, of the children of Israel going up to the Temple to the very porch of Solomon and worshipping our God. They had a one of a kind relationship with the Lord, and they even nicknamed parts of the Temple to express that relationship. There were two pillars in the first Temple of Solomon, before it was destroyed by the Babylonians called Boaz and Jachin. Nearly 6 feet thick and 27 feet tall they were thought to be copper and overwhelming.
Yet in all of its greatness, the Temple of God served as way for Israel to get close and personal with the Lord as a family. When a sacrifice was offered the providers (people like you and me, guilty of sin), would sit down and eat a portion of the sacrifice with the priest in the presence of God. An early version of our after-church fellowship, … 3,000 years ago.
So, there is a time when our worship, prayer and service need to be with other people, and rightfully so. In Fact, now that we are adopted into the Children of Israel’s family, the Family of God, our place is certain. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians explains this new reality of two people now as one in God. Reading from Ephesians 2:11-22;
11 Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)— 12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
We get to be a part of God’s Holy family, where all of the willing are invited to share in the warmth, bask in the grace, and marvel at the majesty that is our God! Forever!! And when we get to the end of forever, we get to do it some more!!!
Now with this new found sense of one’s self, it’s probably a great idea to get a handle on a couple of impulses natural to our fallen selves. Beginning with how we help other people. Reading again from today’s Prelude Reading, Matthew 6:2-5;
2 “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 honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
*Please let me interject with our Lord’s instruction to say; It is so easy to get excited when we are doing the Lord’s work, and we are helping another person, that we can sometimes forget to remember that we want to spare the person we are helping from any embarrassment. The Lord is teaching us to not make a production of our efforts. In other words, there is a time for transparency and a time to hold a moment sacred.
This is why we do not talk to the newspapers or TV about our ministries in the community. The people we want to help deserve our love, confidence, and discretion! I am so glad we are of one accord in this effort to serve other people. What a blessing for all involved! Now, on to verse 5;
5 “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 others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.
This is a hard one. When is it right to pray around other people, for other people, or to be overheard by other people? Here is one tip; If you are beginning to enjoy the attention, its time to step back and reassess just who are you serving. By the way, I am kicking my own backside more than I am thinking of anyone else right now.
My actions as a Christian must reflect my desire to serve God by serving other people, and not the selfish me. That is an important ingredient in making a sincere effort at service, support, and prayer.
I must tell you there are times when I am praying with another person or persons on a Food Pantry / Praise Dog night, when a spontaneous prayer takes place because someone has a need. Then there are other times, when we will need to step away from the crowd because it doesn’t feel right to pray in the group for someone. That’s discernment, and I can’t really give you a one size fits all because there isn’t one. The more that you make yourself available to God’s Spirit, and other people, the more this will make sense to you!
Essentially, we must all of us be in a relationship with our Lord and each other so that our discernment in the Holy Spirit will lead us and direct us when to pray in public or when we are led to make it sacred time. A time for distance and reverence. There is nothing to hide, we just want to keep the moment free from our own human nature of wanting to celebrate our selves instead of venerating our God!
Again, as always, we are talking about a case-by-case approach. One size does not fit all applications, which is why we need God’s Holy Spirit for our day to day living! Because only God’s Spirit can save us from our ourselves.
For more perspective of the things we need to combat within ourselves, our Lord give plenty of instruction in the Gospels. Please let me revisit today’s Message Reading in the Gospel of Mark 12:38-44;
38 As he taught, Jesus said, “Watch out for the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, 39 and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. 40 They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely.”
*Interrupting our Lord’s instruction to say; We have Christians that hold this view of Pastors in the here and now. Which means that there have been those who chose to go into a ministry that is supposed to be dedicated to serve God, by serving God’s people, only to have discussing leaders better themselves instead. And our Lord’s verdict on those people regardless of the teachers in His day or the preachers in your day is: “These men will be punished most severely.” I take God at his word that woe is them that are called out by God for this sin.
So how are we to act in light of this insightful and much needed instruction from our Lord? Here are a couple of ideas that came to me when thinking about you my beloved family in God:
- Pastors and leaders can’t pull the wool over your eyes when you know your scripture. It is your responsibility to get in and prayerfully read and study your Bible. All of it! And then study;
- Continuously at home with your family
- With people you trust at your church and beyond
- With a variety of people and translations as you mature.
- If a Pastor is not following scripture say goodby!
- Pray that God’s will be done and not yours.
- Cuze we barely have a clue, but God does!
- And listen to what He is saying.
- Do not fall into the manipulation of others!
- There are those who generate emergency so that they can fix things for you. Don’t let them!
- There are leaders that want to create a world of us vs. them. Don’t let them!
- They want to isolate and are grooming you.
- Do not fall into the gossip game.
All the above apply to Pastors, leaders, and you! And if this has happened to you and you have been hurt, do not play the victim. You must find a way to begin to forgive those that have hurt you! Continuing now at verse 41;
41 Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. 42 But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.
**Cutting in again to say; Here is a great contrast of humility vs. arrogance. Giving out of my wealth (talent, riches, or status) isn’t much, but out of faith… There were big brass collectors shaped like an inverted horn (narrow end up) that people would drop their offering into as they entered the Temple. Many rich people would drop their coins spaced so that they could make a lot of noise when they gave. This became known by some as blowing your own horn.
The poor widow would have merited a minimal note or two on the horn, and yet this is what our Lord has to say. Beginning at verse 43;
43 Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44 They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”
That’s the kind of thing that excites your Lord! Living on faith and knowing when to be public and private when we give, serve, pray, and worship our God joyfully, honestly, and faithfully.
My hope and prayer for all of you this week is that you will get a chance to break away from all the noise to be alone with your Lord. When so, I hope you ask sincerely for discernment in how to love Him more deeply. God bless you my beautiful family in God
Amen!