Inside Out // How to Live an Extraordinary Life, Pt 11

A Different Perspective Official Podcast

Most people are concerned about what other people think about them. Some people are way too concerned what others think of them. And it turns out that when it comes to living an extraordinary life, the last thing Jesus was concerned about was what other people thought about Him.

They say first impressions count. Of course they do and so many people in this world are set on making a good first impression. Nothing wrong with that but it’s easy to take that one or two steps too far. I fact, way too far. A good many people these days, can I say maybe most people, live their lives to impress others. A good many people care way too much what other people think about them. You see it in men and women.

Just consider the way people dress as one simple example. Have you ever heard that expression, ‘Dress to impress’. Men love to power dress. They wear that dark shirt with the bold shirt and tie and the strong gold jewellery. I’m always interested when I sit down at a meeting table of how men position themselves – at the head of the table with the bright light from outside behind them so that the other person has to squint when they talk to them. It’s all about power and impressing people.

And women, I mean it’s lovely that a women would dress nicely and take care about her appearance, absolutely nothing wrong with that. But often on a bus I’ll see a woman who … well … the expression I would use is ‘tarted up’. She’s trying way to hard, using her figure perhaps to attract people’s eye. It’s all about impression; it’s all about the externals. Maybe it’s because I’m getting older and maybe a bit wiser these days, but to be honest, none of that impresses me any more. It used too, but come on, all that power dressing is just a sham.

This week again on the program we’re continuing in our series of ‘How to Live an Extraordinary Life’. The best way I know of answering that question is to look at that most extraordinary that’s ever been lived on this earth – the life of Jesus. If you’ve been able to join me over the last few weeks you know that we’ve been following Jesus around, as it were, through Matthew’s Gospel account of His life and His ministry and we’ve seen some amazing radical things that Jesus did and said and believed which contributed to the extraordinariness of His life.

I figure if you and I can just pick up just the odd thing from how He lived His life maybe we can turn our ordinariness into extraordinariness. That’s what this program is all about. And the facet of His life that we’re going to stick under the microscope today is His passion for focusing on the things happening inside us, the things that happen in secret, rather than on the externalities that so many people are focused on these days. Have a listen to what Jesus said about this subject. Matthew Chapter 6 beginning at verse 1:

Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them for then you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So whenever you give alms to the poor, don’t sound a trumpet before you like the hypocrites do in the Synagogue and the streets so that they might be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have already received their reward. But when you give to the poor, don’t let the left know what the right hand is doing so that your alms may be done in secret and your Father in heaven, who sees in secret, will reward you.

Now, I know some people, when they give money to God’s work who want to go and tell everyone about it. There’s one visiting preacher who came to my home town once who had an area roped off at the front of the auditorium for those who gave a lot of money to this particular ministry. But Jesus was into giving in secret. Why? Because the point isn’t to impress other people, it that’s what we’re in to. That’s our reward, that’s it.

What underlies this teaching? What makes it extraordinary? Simply this. God wants us to honour Him first, not other people. God wants us to server Him in faith, not seek the adulation of other people. And this teaching stop with what we give. Jesus went on. He had more to say about this whole thing about our priorities – about who it actually is we’re trying to impress. He goes on to say,

Whenever you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites. They love to stand up and pray in the Synagogues and at the street corners so that they will be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have already received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room, shut the door, pray to your Father who is in secret and your Father in heaven, who sees in secret will reward you. When you’re praying don’t heap up empty phrases like the Gentiles do, for they think they’ll be heard because of their many words. Don’t be like them for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. Pray then this way:

Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread; Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. And don’t bring us into a time of trial but rescue us from the evil one.

This is the most powerful thing of all for me. This was the source of Jesus’ power. We saw Him do it all the time. He withdrew to pray in secret. Jesus was a rock star. He was pulling massive crowds. Villages and towns were literally shut down when He came. He’d get tens of thousands of people to listen to Him. He was, in today’s time, a celebrity. And yet Luke in Chapter 15 verse 6 tells us, He would withdraw to deserted places to pray.

I was chatting with a young women at our church recently. She’d been on one of my blog posts on this very thing – praying and Bible reading, and God convicted her to start doing that. And over a coffee she told me what an amazing transformation had taken place in her life. All of a sudden she was empowered and anointed to have conversations with her friends about Jesus, and she was seeing one person after another coming to faith in Him, starting with her sister, Vanessa, who, you’d have to say, had been one of the hardest nut Atheists you’d ever find on this planet.

But a third time Jesus talked about the inside-out approach to living an extraordinary life. Here it is. Straight after He teaches them about the Lord’s prayer, Matthew Chapter 6 beginning at verse 16:

And whenever you fast, don’t look dismal like those hypocrites. They disfigure their faces so as to show others that they’re fasting. Truly I tell you, they’ve received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head, wash your face, so that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

See, over and over again, Jesus wants us to do this "inside-out" thing. He’s into this inside-out way of living. His focus is what’s happening on the inside, in secret, in a person’s relationship with God. Not how impressed people are by a person’s external trappings. Let’s face it, most of us a pretty good play actors. We put on our masks; we can fool most of the people most of the time.

But let me ask you, do you want to live an extraordinary life? Then what’s happening on your inside, deep down there somewhere where you live, what’s happening in your secret relationship with God Himself – that’s where it’s all at for Jesus, and that’s where it’s all at for you and me.

Extraordinary lives don’t happen by setting out to impress people, extraordinary lives happen when we get close to God, when we have a deep dynamic relationship with Jesus. Everything else flows out of that. The transformation, the power, the sweet fragrances of His love, the fruit in all our lives. It all happens when we get close to Jesus, not on the outside but on the inside, and that’s extraordinary.