GREATEST OF ALL TIME | Week 7 | Sermon

The big idea

Pride does the right thing for the wrong reason, but Jesus calls us to do the right thing for the right reason.

Jesus invites us toward perfection — reaching the end He made us for — but pride sneaks in and makes us care more about how we look to others than about who is actually shaping us. The good news is that God sees what's done in private and rewards it, so we can trade pride for humility and let Him alone be our audience.

Point 1 of 7

Pastor Hunter reads Matthew 6:1-4 where Jesus warns against doing good deeds publicly to be admired, contrasting the hypocrites who blow trumpets for attention with giving in secret. He frames this as Jesus' big point in the passage.

Point 2 of 7

He explains the Greek word telios, used in Matthew 5:48, means having reached its end or being complete, not an impossible standard. He illustrates this with a closed spyglass that can't let light through until it's opened and stretched out, picturing how we must be stretched to be used by God.

Point 3 of 7

Pastor Hunter connects the words perfect and hypocrite appearing close together in Matthew 6 to show that pride wants to look perfect while resisting the process of actually being perfected. He points to social media data on rising depression, self-harm, and suicide since 2012-2013 as evidence that a culture obsessed with self-image is hurting rather than helping.

Point 4 of 7

He traces pride back to Lucifer's fall in Isaiah 14:13-14, where Satan's repeated 'I will' statements show self-focus that got him cast from heaven. He warns that we are most like Satan when we are most prideful, and that this is company we don't want to keep.

Point 5 of 7

Working through Genesis 4, Pastor Hunter shows how Cain's rejected offering led to anger (wanting applause), dejection (craving acceptance through attention), and doing right for the wrong reason, which spiraled into killing his brother Abel and being cast out. He ties this to God's warning that sin crouches at the door eager to control us.

Point 6 of 7

He walks through everyday areas — marriage, parenting, giving, serving, church attendance — asking whether we act from love or from hope of getting something back. He points to Psalm 139 as a dangerous but necessary prayer, asking God to search and test our hearts.

Point 7 of 7

Using James 4 and the story of his grandpa-in-law, Vern Wiggers, an 89-year-old pastor of 65 years who built his own church and never sought recognition, Pastor Hunter shows what it looks like to live for God's eyes only. He closes with Jesus finishing Matthew 6 by saying our Father who sees in secret will reward us.

Take it into your week

Pastor Hunter's charge is to do good to be good, and do it in private, trusting that God who sees will reward it.