When we market our good deeds and get regcognition from men for what we have done, we lose the right to be recognised from God. By marketing the church and what we do, even in good intention, we clearly miss the point of Matthew chapter 6 –
“Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, 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 men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 3But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” (NIV)
Promoting what you do in front of men and even others in the ‘church’ robs you of being rewarded by God. Why do we need to video our good deeds, why do we need to exclaim how much we have spent on orphanages, hostels, feeding the needy – is it because we want to have world justify us and accept us- are we worried that we will be rejected – are we the new ‘hypocrites’ that Jesus spoke about, storing treasures for ourselves on earth, is this where our heart is ? (As it says in Matthew 6:19)
I believe we are meant to be counter-cultural, not conforming to the ways of this world but transformed into His likeness, to be a transformer. Its tougher and spiritually more sensible to do your good deeds without mans recognition – I would far rather have God reward me than any pat on the back from anyone else. There is an interesting web site out there that has the title “Church Marketing Sucks” – I want to suggest something else – “Church Marketing is Dumb”.
Read Matthew 6 right through – there are some amazing nuggets there – read it all and consider the context of where it starts off from and where it ends up. It ends with “Do not worry about your life…But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
“Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, 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 men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 3But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” (NIV)
Promoting what you do in front of men and even others in the ‘church’ robs you of being rewarded by God. Why do we need to video our good deeds, why do we need to exclaim how much we have spent on orphanages, hostels, feeding the needy – is it because we want to have world justify us and accept us- are we worried that we will be rejected – are we the new ‘hypocrites’ that Jesus spoke about, storing treasures for ourselves on earth, is this where our heart is ? (As it says in Matthew 6:19)
I believe we are meant to be counter-cultural, not conforming to the ways of this world but transformed into His likeness, to be a transformer. Its tougher and spiritually more sensible to do your good deeds without mans recognition – I would far rather have God reward me than any pat on the back from anyone else. There is an interesting web site out there that has the title “Church Marketing Sucks” – I want to suggest something else – “Church Marketing is Dumb”.
Read Matthew 6 right through – there are some amazing nuggets there – read it all and consider the context of where it starts off from and where it ends up. It ends with “Do not worry about your life…But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
What have I done today to make a difference that only God knows about ?
No comments:
Post a Comment