The sermon opens in Matthew 6:1-6 and 16-18, where Jesus warns against practicing righteousness "before other people, in order to be seen by them." The preacher notes that a superficial reading of this passage can lead Christians to conclude that true Christianity is a private matter, hidden from public view, and that communal worship and public ministry are therefore of lesser importance. He rejects this reading outright, pointing to Jesus' own words earlier in the Sermon on the Mount, "You are the light of the world... let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 5:14-16). Christianity, he argues, has no version that hides in the shadows; a city set on a hill cannot be hidden. The real target of Jesus' warning in chapter 6 is not visibility itself but motive — the desire to please man rather than God. The sermon draws on a memorable line from John Stott: it is human cowardice that leads Jesus to command us to let our light shine, and human vanity that leads him to warn us against practicing our holiness before others. The emphasis of the passage, the preacher insists, falls squarely on the heart's motive, since Jesus does not merely condemn practicing righteousness, or practicing it before others, but practicing it "in order to be seen by them."

The sermon likens the fear of man to a spiritual disease whose symptom is an inflated public ministry — much like an elevated white blood cell count signals an underlying infection even though white blood cells are themselves good. Hypocrisy is described as deceptive in two directions: it deceives observers, but it can just as easily deceive the hypocrite, who begins to mistake the mask worn for others as part of his true self, especially once genuine compliments reinforce the performance. The most reliable way to examine one's true spiritual condition, the preacher argues, is to observe how one lives when no one is watching — since a person's face is seen most accurately in nakedness, but the soul is seen most clearly in solitude.

From there the sermon walks through Jesus' three illustrations — giving, praying, and fasting — as diagnostic symptoms of a heart living for human approval rather than for God. On giving, the preacher notes that Jesus' image of "sounding a trumpet" before charitable acts is deliberately absurd, yet it captures a real cultural instinct: buildings named after donors, celebrities trailed by cameras during humanitarian work. He is careful to insist that action must come first — Christians cannot excuse inaction by appealing to pure motives, since the Bible condemns those who fail to do the good they preach, as with the Pharisees who withheld support from their parents under the guise of pious offerings to God. But action alone is insufficient; the ultimate reason for doing good must be God himself, grounded in who God is, what he has done, and the example and eternal reward Christ promises, echoing Paul's charge in 1 Corinthians 10:31 to do all things to the glory of God. Those who do good for human approval, Jesus warns, have already received their reward in full, and will receive nothing more from the Father.

Turning to prayer and fasting, the sermon clarifies that Jesus is not forbidding public prayer — Scripture is full of public prayers by kings, prophets, priests, and Jesus himself — nor is he ranking private prayer above public prayer. The issue again is hypocrisy: the temptation to use eloquent or passionate public prayer to elevate one's reputation. The preacher observes that modern equivalents of the Pharisees' desired reputation might not be "fervent in prayer" or "generous in giving" but rather being seen as kind, easygoing, or reliable — traits maintained carefully in public while being abandoned toward family, self, or God in private. Whenever a Christian recognizes this contradiction between public and private selves and still knowingly prioritizes the public self, hypocrisy and disobedience to this passage have occurred. This application, the preacher stresses, is difficult precisely because it targets the heart before the hands; it is not enough to simply do good or even to want to please God moderately — God is described as jealous, wanting to be the sole and ultimate reason for a holy life, so that when we pray or fast in private, human observation becomes irrelevant.

The sermon closes with three practical applications. First, love the people who cannot enhance your public reputation — often family members rather than church or school friends whose praise for one's love and generosity travels further. The preacher shares a personal, convicting anecdote in which his wife told him she wished he cared for her the way he cares for people at church, revealing how far he still was from loving without seeking human approval. Second, treat private and public sins with equal seriousness, since private sin inevitably spills into public life; if the chief grief over a sin's exposure is reputational damage rather than its offense against God, repentance will amount to mere damage control rather than dealing with the sin at its root. Third, do not let the fear of man rob you of joy in God — just as the Pharisees fasted with disfigured, miserable faces to be noticed and pitied, Christians can be tempted to visibly perform hardship or sorrow to earn sympathy for their faithfulness, rather than directing attention to God's sufficient strength and comfort in trials. The sermon closes by returning to Christ's finished work on the cross as the ground of freedom from living for others' approval, urging believers to find their identity, joy, and holiness not in reputation but in the redeeming love of Jesus Christ.

Bible Verses Used

• Matthew 6:1-6: The sermon's central text, in which Jesus warns against practicing righteousness, giving, and praying "in order to be seen" by others rather than for the Father who sees in secret.

• Matthew 6:16-18: Jesus extends the same warning to fasting, contrasting hypocrites who disfigure their faces for attention with the call to fast unseen, before the Father alone.

• Matthew 5:14-16: Cited to show Jesus commands visible good works ("let your light shine before others") establishing that the issue in chapter 6 is motive, not visibility itself.

• 1 Corinthians 10:31: Paul's charge to do all things to the glory of God is used to define the proper, God-centered motive behind every good work.