"Soli Deo Gloria"
(Matthew 6:1-18)

Bringing the sermon home:

A foundational commitment of every healthy church is the commitment to live for God’s glory, not our own, seeking praise for Him rather than for ourselves.

Having already spoken against any notion of a works-based salvation in the first portion of this “Sermon on the Mount”, Jesus then teaches against “practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them.” God cares about the heart, not merely outward actions. Good deeds and spiritual devotions done for the wrong reasons are not smiled upon by God.

A church that genuinely desires to please God and to have their ministries blessed by God must be committed to laboring together for the glory of God alone.

Included in this portion of Jesus’ sermon is a lengthy discussion on prayer, teaching us that God cannot be manipulated by ritualistic chants, eloquence, verbosity, or anything else. Prayer is not about manipulating God into satisfying our worldly desires, but about humbly seeking to align our desires with His. Prayer is not about striving to win over the heart of God, but about striving for God to win over the heart of the one praying. So let us be faithful to pray: “Thine is the glory”.

For my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another. (Isaiah 48:11)