Sermon preached on Sunday, January 30, 2011 at Garden Valley Chapel; Matthew 6:5-8.

As you may recall from our previous study of this probing chapter, verse one (1) of this chapter dominates our Lord?s discussion from vv. 2 -18.

The focus in these verses is that of our religious life, our worship, what we might deem the religious part of our life (vv. 1-18). The later part of this chapter will focus on what we might call our life in general, our world, the mundane part of our life (vv. 19-34).

Either way, whether you are addressing the religious part or the mundane part of our life, God in Christ cares about how you live your life and we should desire to be instructed in this realm.

As the father commands his son in Prov 4:13 -

13 Take hold of instruction; do not let go. Guard her, for she is your life.

Hold on to instruction. Hold on to our Lord's instruction in this most probing and humbling chapter of all the Scriptures.

Here our instruction begins with a warning in Matt 6:1 -

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.

*Watch out that you are not some phony playing the part of a Christian.

Believe it or not, there are unbelievers in churches to this very day masquerading as Christians. There are even believers who pretend to be spiritual and are about self-promotion.

The church has always had its hypocrites.

This is what a hypocrite is: he is an actor that plays the part and thus gives a false appearance, concealing the real truth of who he is on the inside.

And so the warning is that you take a close look at your life and examine yourself whether there be any hypocrisy found in you! Beware! Watch out!

The scribes and Pharisees had become masters in deception. They played the game of pretense. Their religion was mostly an act, not the real deal.

Their religious life was examined and found lacking in three areas:

1.Their giving.
2.Their praying.
3.Their fasting.

As 6:2-4 exposes their hypocritical giving and verses 16?18 their hypocritical fasting, verses 5-8 expose their equally hypocritical praying.

Follow along as Pastor Dave preaches this important message on "Praying without Hypocrisy."