Last week Pastor Ben kicked-off our Bring It Out series. And he shared this formula: Who > Why > How > What. And he focused on the 'who' portion of that formula – that who you are becoming matters more than what you do. (Be sure to go back and listen if you missed that message.)

Today, we are going to focus on the 'why' part of the formula. Why we do what we do is more important than what we do. So let me ask you, "Why do you do what you do?" In his book, Pastor Ben asks some of these important questions: Why do you want what you want? Why do you live how you live? Why do you spend money on the things you spend money on? Why do you volunteer here at church or at another nonprofit organization? Why do you work where you work? What is it that you’re really after with what you do? I guess the question that we are asking this morning is this, “What is your motive for what you do?”

Now, one of the problems with motives is that you can’t see them. For example, let me turn the question on myself: "Why am I up here teaching today? Is it because I really care about you, and care about seeing more of your life oriented around Jesus; or is it so that you think well of me and I can get a few of you to say, 'That was a great message'?"

To one extent, it might not really matter why I’m up here – God can still use it and help you orient your life around Jesus. But to another extent, what am I doing to my own soul – and even my longevity – if my motivation is self-centered?

Here’s another problem with motives. Not only is it a problem that we can’t see them. But we aren’t always even sure of our own true motives. Proverbs 16:2 says, "All a person’s ways seem pure to them, but motives are weighed by the LORD." Listen, we can fool others, we might even be able to fool ourselves (by thinking that our motives are pure), but we will not be able to fool God.

So because motives are so tricky does that mean that we should not do anything? No! Listen, yes - your why is more important than your what. But hear us, your what is still really important. You see, God has prepared good works for you to do. ("For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." –Ephesians 2:10). There is a purpose and a ‘what’ for your life. But here’s the thing, we need to make sure that the reasons – the motivations – for our ‘what’ are in line with God’s character. And here’s why – as we are going to see – if our motives are off we could be missing out on so much that God has for us; that God wants to bring out of us.

Check out this warning from Jesus from his Sermon on the Mount:

Matthew 6:1-4

“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.” 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."

In this passage Jesus is talking about the good work of giving that we are called to do as his followers. If you keep reading Matthew 6 he talks about the good work of prayer and fasting in a similar way. But know this, under that category of good work that God has prepared for us to do, it’s not just spiritual practices like prayer, giving, and fasting. ‘Good works’ can be and should be what you do at your job and for your coworkers. It’s what you do here at church when you join a team and serve a team. It’s what you do at home for your family or your roommates or your neighbors. The ‘good works that God has prepared for you to do’ is anything that we do to connect with God and to help others.

And throughout the Scriptures we are invited to step into those good works. But in the passage that we just read, Jesus tells us that there is a great danger that we must be watchful for as we engage that work – and it has to do with our motives. He says, “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them.”

Jesus is like, "I want you to practice your righteousness, I want you to do good things, but don’t do it simply to get attention and an audience, don’t do it simply to get applause, don’t do it just to get eyeballs on you." Now this is counter cultural to the environment that we are living in now. Because we live in a social media world that is giving you the platform to get more eyes on you – to get you to share how great you are and say “look at me”.

But Jesus’ warning is clear: If that is your motivation for doing good, to be seen, look at what he says: "If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.”

Jesus is basically saying that your why (your motivation) can cancel out the primary benefit you would receive from doing that good activity – a reward (blessing) from your Father in heaven. This would be like (imagine this) you work out (exercise) primarily to look good, and because that is the main reason, you miss out on all of the health benefits. (Some of you are like, “I’m okay with that. As long as I look good!”) But that’s missing the point.

Pastor Ben has this great line:

"I don’t want to live for the applause of Earth if it causes me to miss the applause of heaven." -Ben Pilgreen

And that’s what happens when we get this wrong. But let’s be honest here. We all have this need to be seen. We all have this need to be affirmed. We all have the need to be significant – to know that we have worth. And I believe that is placed there by God.

Now, we can help each other with that a little bit – by encouraging one another and affirming the great things that we see in each other. But ultimately, as followers of Jesus, we need to find our significance in God.

Here are some examples of this in the Scriptures. I think of Jesus at his baptism, where the voice of the Father was heard declaring over Jesus, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17) At that moment the Father was affirming Jesus – before he had done anything in ministry – and he’s ascribing love and significance to him as a son.

And those words are for you, too. You are his son or daughter, whom he loves, and surprisingly to some of us, with whom he is well pleased.

I also think of Hagar. Hagar was an Egyptian slave who was being mistreated by her owner, Sarah. Can you imagine how insignificant and hopeless Hagar must have felt to be a slave, and to be mistreated. And so she runs away; and while she is lost in the middle of nowhere it says that the angel of the Lord appeared to her. And he spoke to her and it changed everything for her. This is what it says that Hagar did at that moment. She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.” (Genesis 16:13)

Hagar is the first person in the Bible to give God a name. In Hebrew it is “El Roi” – the God who sees me. Let me ask you, "Have you seen and are you looking to the God who sees you – the God who ascribes significance and purpose in your life?" El Roi is the one who has every hair on your head numbered and counts every tear that you shed. He knows every detail of your circumstances. And when you pray to El Roi, you are praying to the God who knows everything about you.

Here’s another Pastor Ben quote:

"Knowing God sees you can free you from making sure everyone else does." -Ben Pilgreen

Do you know that you have a God who sees you? Here’s another thing that we can do to free us from needing to be seen by others. Jesus gives it to us in our passage; but first let me give you the principle. To counter our need to be seen we need to regularly practice obscurity. Jesus says, "But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." (vv.3-4) This doesn’t mean that we only practice in secret (only give, pray, fast in secret) – because again, I would be in trouble right now. But if this is an issue for you – as it is for all of us – we have to be sure to go to that secret place to keep our motives in check. If you find yourself only doing a practice or good things in public, that should be a warning sign to you. We are to practice our faith in private and in public – with others and in the secret place.

While we are on this topic of motives, and significance, and being seen by others, we need to bring in another word that is important to our discussion today. And that is the word ambition. Do we have any ambitious people here? Some of you are not sure whether or not to raise your hand because you are not sure whether I’m going to say that it’s a good thing or a bad thing. Well, it depends. It depends on who or what the ambition is for.

Let’s look at the example that Jesus gives of a person that I would describe as ambitious. “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." (v.2) Again, Jesus is describing someone that is doing something good – giving to the needy. And they are going about it in a big way (ambitious people go big) by announcing it with trumpets; which is not wrong in and of itself. But their motivation for doing that good deed is what? – simply to be honored by others. So they are doing good, but not for the good of the needy, but for their own good.

And so this is the distinction. Ambition is great and needed. So much gets produced here in San Francisco because of ambition (which is defined as “a strong wish to achieve something”). But it can go wrong when it is selfish – when it is for our own benefit. We are told in Philippians 2:3 to “Do nothing out of selfish ambition…” (Philippians 2:3)

That verse is written by the Apostle Paul – who is easily a top contender to take the title of the most ambitious person in the Bible. If you read how he describes himself prior to following Jesus, you are blown away by his ambition. He calls himself a ‘Hebrew of Hebrews’. He says he was ‘zealous for the Law’. He says if anyone has reason to boast for their righteousness, he had more reason. (This is all before he knew Jesus.)

But everything he did was all to gain something for himself – it was to gain an identity. But when he encountered Christ, the only thing he wanted to gain was just more of Him.

But at that moment of becoming a Christ follower Paul did not lose his ambition. He just redirected it. And we can learn so much from him. Here are The two main things that should drive our ambition: the glory of God and the good of others.

"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God – even as I try to please everyone in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved." (1 Corinthians 10:31-33) Don’t do things to be honored by others, like Jesus’ example in Matthew 6. But do things to honor God first and foremost. And secondly, don’t seek your own good but seek the good of many.

And you might be wondering, "What about me? Who is going to look out for my good?" This is a hard shift for many of us. Because we have been taught all of our lives to look out for number one. But where has that gotten you? Has it left you any happier?

Putting myself before others and God has never filled the void in my heart. But pursuing Jesus, and following his example of putting others before myself, that is what has led to lasting joy in my life.

So again, why is it that you do what you do? You can be doing a lot of good – which is great! But like it says in 1 Corinthians 13 (v.3), "If I give all I possess to the poor… but do not have love, I gain nothing." You have no reward, like Jesus says. Love should be our motivation. Love for God and love for others. Isn’t that the greatest commandment? Jesus once said, "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends." (John 15:13) That’s what Jesus did for us. Now, you may never be required to physically lay down your life for another. But would you be willing to experience, almost on the daily, those little tiny deaths that will have you put others before yourself?

Here’s the crazy thing about what we are talking about today. This might not change anything that you do. It might not change your ‘what’. You might be doing all of the right things. But the goal for today is for Jesus’ words to change your why. Why you do what you do matters more than what you do.

So as we close, I want us to search our hearts. I want us to recite and pray Psalm 139. And as we read and pray, for us to be open to receiving a word on where your motives might not be in the right place – for us to be open to hearing what God may want to do with our ‘why’. He may want you to practice more in obscurity – in the secret place. You might hear a specific instruction on how you can put others before yourself in a given situation. What some of you may need today is just to know that you have a God who sees you.

Psalm 139:23-24

Search me, God, and know my heart;

   test me and know my anxious thoughts.

See if there is any offensive way in me,

   and lead me in the way everlasting.

Feel free to come up for prayer based on anything that you have heard today – anything that spoke to you. Maybe it’s something you want God’s help with. But also, in a room like this we know that there are many things that you all are experiencing in life. Some of you may not have been able to focus because of what you came in here carrying. Feel free to come up as well if you’d like prayer. That’s what we are here for; and that’s what this time is for.