Francois Fenelon was the court preacher for King Louis XIV of France in the 17th century. One Sunday when the king and his attendants arrived at the chapel for the regular service, no one else was there but the preacher. King Louis demanded, "What does this mean?" Fenelon replied, "I had published that you would not come to church today, in order that your Majesty might see who serves God in truth and who flatters the king."

It does not take much to figure out that there are a lot of people who are playing at being a Christian. While 87% of Americans claim to be Christian, fewer than 10 percent of Americans are deeply committed Christians, says pollster George Gallup, who adds that these people "are far, far happier than the rest of the population." Committed Christians, Gallup found, are more tolerant than the average American, more involved in charitable activities, and are "absolutely committed to prayer."

While many more Americans than this 10 percent profess to be Christians, adds Gallup, most actually know little or nothing of Christian beliefs, and act no differently than non-Christians.

"Overall," says Gallup, "The Sunday School and religious education system in this country is not working."

So, we might be inclined to say that they’re a lot of hypocrites calling themselves Christians. Even a child can tell. A rather pompous-looking man was trying to impress upon a Sunday School class full of boys the importance of living the Christian life. "Why do people call me a Christian?" the man asked. After a moment's pause, one youngster said, "Maybe it's because they don't know you."

Jesus knows the evil of the human heart. He warns the disciples about hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is the sin of small men and woman. It is an attempt to make ourselves look bigger than we really are. So, what little we do, we want to be seen and recognized. We want to be praised and honored. There is nothing wrong with honoring someone or praising someone. What is wrong is when we let the praise of men become our substitute for a real walk with Christ.

Hypocrisy means to play act, to try to be something that we are not. During one of his political campaigns, a delegation called on Theodore Roosevelt at his home in Oyster Bay, Long Island. The President met them with his coat off and his sleeves rolled up.

"Ah, gentlemen," he said, "come down to the barn and we will talk while I do some work."

At the barn, Roosevelt picked up a pitchfork and looked around for the hay. Then he called out, "John, where's all the hay?"

"Sorry, sir," John called down from the hayloft. "I ain't had time to toss it back down again after you pitched it up while the Iowa folks were here." (Bits & Pieces, Nov. 12, 1992, pp. 19-20)

This is the way that many people live their Christian lives. They present themselves before men to be seen in an effort to impress others. Jesus’s warns us to avoid practicing our righteousness before men, to be seen by them. We are to live the Christian life with integrity. Why do you do good? Why do you live the Christian life? Is it to impress your fellow Christian or to impress the world or is it to impress God? This is a crucial question. Jesus said if I practice my righteousness before men to be seen of men so that they might say, "my, what a great guy Randy is," then I have my reward. I have play acted the faith for the purpose of gaining something from others.

If we do acts of righteousness from a wrong motivation, there is no reward from God. Strangely enough, we seem to ignore the doctrine of rewards. We forget that God has promised us rewards in our eternal home based on what we have done here in this life. We are to seek, not the recognition of men but, the recognition and glory of God. We seek fame with God. We seek to hear him say to us, "well done thy good and faithful servant."

"When therefore you give alms . . . " The term means to help the needy. The Bible assumes that the Christian will do certain things with their money. The Christian is expected to give a tithe to his church. That is the means by which we finance the church. A tithe is 10% of one's gross income. Another thing that the Christian is expected to do with his or her money is to help the needy.

So when you give alms, do not be a hypocrite. Don't brag about it, don't do it in such a way that others will see you and say; boy, he's a great guy. Jesus said that if that is the way you approach things, then you have your reward, the praise of men. A hypocrite is one who does a good deed for the wrong motive. He does his deed for the honor of men rather than the glory and praise of God. Jesus says that it is better to do your good deeds in secret than to do it to be seen by others.

We are expected to pray. Prayer is one of the most basic things any Christian can do. Without prayer I don't see how we can have function as Christians. We must take Prayer seriously. That means that we are not to abuse prayer. For one thing we are not to pray so that men might hear and congratulate us on how beautiful our prayers are. In the day of Jesus, there were certain times of the day when one was to pray toward the temple. In the city of Jerusalem, a trumpet would blow and you were to stop and pray. This was a time when the self righteous would bow in the streets and pray long, beautifully worded prayers to demonstrate to all how pious they were. Jesus is saying that our prayer life is too important to be used as a platform to show others our piety.

We can even be hypocritical in our personal prayer life. One blistering hot day when they had guests for dinner, Mother asked 4-year-old Johnny to return thanks. "But I don't know what to say!" the boy complained. "Oh, just say what you hear me say" his mother replied. Obediently the boy bowed his head and mumbled, "Oh Lord, why did I invite these people over on a hot day like this?"

Personal prayer is a conversation between you and God. Jesus tells us to take personal prayer to a private place away from others. He is not banding all public prayer. There is a time and a place for public prayers, a time when one prays on behalf of the congregation. But, it is never appropriate to use prayer to gain the applause of men.

Then, there is the subject of fasting. Fasting is a time when we forgo food and other wants so that we can focus ourselves on God. It may be a time of renewal and revival. It could be a time of repentance and contrition. But the point is, if we do it, it should be to draw attention to ourselves. It has been a fad in the last few years to go on public fasts and then tell others how great and wonderful it is. That is simply wrong. When we fast, it is between us and God, no one else. No one should ever know that you are fasting. It is not an event that makes you look spiritual before others.

Our goal in living the Christian life is not to gain the recognition and honor of man. We seek a much greater reward, we seek the recognition and honor and glory of God! We are no longer ordinary citizens. We are citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. And as such, the honor of men is beneath us, it is way too low for our aspirations. We are now the Children of God and our goal is to please him. We want to hear the praises of God. We want to be well known by him. We want to hear "well done thy good and faithful servant."

We don’t want to be small men and women. We are called to attempt great things. We seek no less than to change the world and make it conform to Christ. We seek the grandest of all ideas, we seek to be like Christ.

It isn’t the praise of men that we seek, it is the eternal weight of Glory. Don’t short change yourself. Settle for nothing less than the very praise of God.