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GREATEST OF ALL TIME | Week 7 | Sermon · Rewind

Rock Point Church

42 min

Pastor Hunter Perry · Jun 9, 2024 · 4 min read · 42 min listen

The big idea

Quoting the message: Pride does the right thing for the wrong reason, end quote., but Jesus calls us to do the right thing for the right reason.

In this message

The big idea
Point 1 of 7It's possible for people who love Jesus to do good things for the wrong reason
Point 2 of 7Jesus defines perfection as reaching your end, not unattainable flawlessness

Point 3 of 7Pride cares how we look; Jesus cares where we end
Point 4 of 7Pride is ancient and it separates us from God
Point 5 of 7Cain shows the three symptoms of pride in real life
Point 6 of 7Search your soul and check your intentions
Point 7 of 7Do good to be good, and do it in private
Take it into your week
Transcript

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Scripture in this message

Matthew 6:1-4
Matthew 5:48
Matthew 5:20
Isaiah 14:13-14
Genesis 4:3
Genesis 4:6

Rewind AI drafted the Big Idea and some point headings shown here from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

Pastor Hunter Perry · Jun 9, 2024 · 42 min watch · 2 min read

GREATEST OF ALL TIME | Week 7 | Sermon

In this message

Big Idea
Key points
Application

Scripture in this message

Matthew 6:1-4
Matthew 5:48
Matthew 5:20
Isaiah 14:13-14
Genesis 4:3
Genesis 4:6

Big Idea Key points Application

Big Idea

Quoting the message: Pride does the right thing for the wrong reason, end quote., 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.

Key points

1
1It's possible for people who love Jesus to do good things for the wrong reason
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.
2
2Jesus defines perfection as reaching your end, not unattainable flawlessness
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.
3
3Pride cares how we look; Jesus cares where we end
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.
4
4Pride is ancient and it separates us from God
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.
5
5Cain shows the three symptoms of pride in real life
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.
6
6Search your soul and check your intentions
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.
7
7Do good to be good, and do it in private
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.

Application

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

Search your soul about your intentions
Ask honestly whether your good actions toward your spouse, kids, giving, serving, or church attendance come from love or from wanting something back, and pray Psalm 139 for God to search your heart.
Do good to be good, not to be seen
Follow the example of humility over pride by choosing faithfulness over recognition, the way Vern Wiggers served for 65 years without seeking a following.
Do something good this week and tell no one
Pick someone who can do nothing good for you back, help them, and keep it between you and God rather than displaying it for others to see.

Take it into your week

Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

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Scripture in this message

From the transcript
“Jesus brings this up in Matthew chapter six, verses one through four. Verse one says this, watch out. Don't do your good deeds publicly to be admired by others, for you will lose the reward from your father in heaven”
Read the whole chapter →
From the transcript
“He ends Matthew chapter five with this verse. So what we just read, this is the verse that comes right before Jesus's watch out. Matthew five verse 48. He says, But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect”
From the transcript
“Look at what he says in Matthew five twenty. He says, but I warn you, unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven”
From the transcript
“In Isaiah 14 thirteen-fourteen, he says this, For you said to yourself, I will ascend to heaven and set my throne above God's stars. I will preside on the mountain of the gods, far away in the North”
From the transcript
“So this time of year comes around when they bring their offering willingly to God. And that's where we pick up our story in Genesis chapter four, verse three. When it was time for the harvest, Cain presented some of his crops as a gift to the Lord”
From the transcript
“He didn't get the attention he wanted, so he feels dejected. There's our second one. Verse six, Why are you so angry? The Lord asked Cain. Why do you look so dejected? You will be accepted if you do what is right”
From the transcript
“The first solution to pride is to search your soul. Jesus says in Matthew six:one, Watch out. Don't do your good deeds publicly to be admired by others, for you will what? Lose the reward from your Father in heaven”
From the transcript
“here's a really good passage for you. It was written by King David, and it's in Psalm one thirty nine. It says this, Search me, oh God, and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life”
From the transcript
“Jesus says this in Matthew six two, when you give to someone in need, don't do as the hypocrites do, blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets to call attention to their acts of charity. I tell you the truth, they have received all the reward they will ever get”
From the transcript
“James, the half brother of Jesus, writes this in his letter to the church in James chapter four. And I would add some commentary to this, but James is gonna slap you in the face enough, so I'm just gonna read it. In verse one, what is causing the quarrels and fights among you”
From the transcript
“I've got a verse for you, and this verse has been wrecking me lately. It's first Thessalonians four eleven. It says this, Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business, working with your hands, just as we instructed you before”
From the transcript
“Jesus finishes the passage like this in Matthew six. Says, but when you give to someone in need, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Give your gifts in private, and your father who sees everything will reward you”

Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

7-day devotional

A personal reading plan from this message — scripture, reflection, and prayer for each day.

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Day 1

Jesus opens this teaching with a warning that is easy to skim past: 'Watch out! Don't do your good deeds publicly, to be admired by others, for you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven.' It is a striking way to begin. He does not question whether you are doing good things. He questions why. Pastor Hunter pointed out that pride does not usually show up as an obviously bad act — it often shows up as a quietly bad motive hiding inside a genuinely good deed. That is what makes it so dangerous. You can feed the hungry, give generously, or serve tirelessly, and still be doing it entirely for yourself — for the feeling of being noticed, appreciated, or admired. The act looks right. The heart is pointed somewhere else entirely. This week is an invitation to slow down before you act and ask an honest question: Who is this really for? Not as an accusation, but as a checkup. Jesus is not warning us away from good deeds — He is protecting the goodness of them. He wants our kindness to be real, not a performance. And that kind of realness starts with being honest about what we are actually after when we do something kind.

For reflection

Think of a recent act of kindness or service — what did you hope would happen after you did it?

Pray

Pray for honest self-awareness about the motives behind your good deeds today.

Day 2

Pastor Hunter made a point that is hard to shake: we are most like Satan when we are most prideful. That is not hyperbole — it is grounded in what Isaiah records about the heart behind Satan's fall. 'I will ascend to heaven and set my throne above God's stars... I will be like the Most High.' Five times the word 'I.' Every sentence a declaration of self-promotion, self-elevation, self-will. Pride, at its core, is the insistence that I deserve the center — that my comfort, my reputation, and my recognition matter most. It is the posture that says, even subtly, 'I will determine what is good for me.' Before we are too quick to distance ourselves from that description, it is worth sitting with it. Pride rarely announces itself. It rarely feels like rebellion. It tends to feel like ambition, or self-respect, or simply wanting credit for what we genuinely worked hard for. But the direction is the same: inward and upward, rather than outward and God-ward. Recognizing pride for what it is — not just a personality quirk but a posture of the soul — is the first honest step toward humility.

For reflection

Where in your life do you notice the quiet pull to put yourself at the center — in a relationship, at work, or even in how you practice your faith?

Pray

Pray for eyes to see where pride has taken root in your heart without your noticing.

Day 3

Cain's story is older than most of us realize, and it is uncomfortably close to home. He brought an offering to God — that part is easy to overlook. He was not ignoring God. He was doing a religious act. But something in his motive was off, and God saw it. When Abel's offering was accepted and his was not, Cain's response tells us everything: anger, jealousy, and eventually violence. Pastor Hunter described three symptoms of pride that Cain's story puts on full display — living for applause, doing good only to be seen as good, and feeling accepted through attention. When the applause did not come, Cain could not handle it. The problem was never really about the offering. It was about what Cain believed the offering was for. He wanted recognition. He wanted to be seen as the good one. When that did not happen, his identity cracked. This is a picture of what pride does over time: it ties our sense of worth so tightly to being seen and affirmed that any moment of being overlooked becomes unbearable. The gentle question Cain's story leaves us with is this — what happens inside you when someone else gets the recognition you felt you deserved?

For reflection

When you are overlooked or unappreciated for something good you did, what is your honest emotional response?

Pray

Pray for the freedom that comes from finding your worth in God's eyes rather than in others' applause.

Day 4

Pastor Hunter called this a dangerous prayer — and he meant that as a compliment. 'Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.' Most of us are comfortable praying prayers of request. We are less comfortable praying prayers of examination. This one is different. It is an invitation for God to go places in you that you might not be ready to look at yourself. That takes courage. But Pastor Hunter framed this kind of soul-searching as the first solution to pride — because pride thrives in the dark. It survives on the assumption that our motives are fine, that we are the exception, that we mean well enough that it does not need to be examined closely. When you invite God to look honestly at what is driving you, you are already moving in the direction of humility. You are saying, in effect, 'I do not trust my own self-assessment.' That posture is the beginning of something good. This week, before you do a kind act, try praying these two verses first. Not as a ritual, but as a real question: Am I doing this to be seen, or simply to be good?

For reflection

What part of your heart do you find hardest to let God examine — and what might that resistance be telling you?

Pray

Pray honestly, using the words of Psalm 139:23-24 as your starting point, and sit quietly with what surfaces.

Day 5

James does not soften things: the conflicts, cravings, and frustrations we experience often trace back to wanting something and not getting it — and pride is at the center of that wanting. But the same passage that names the problem also names the path through it: 'Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up in honor.' That is the second solution Pastor Hunter drew out — do good to be good, not to be seen. James is describing the same inward flip that Jesus calls for in Matthew 6. Instead of performing goodness for an audience, you do it because it is right. Instead of managing your reputation, you trust God with it. Humility, in this framing, is not self-deprecation or shrinking. It is a reorientation — choosing to let God be the judge of your worth and your work rather than auditioning for that verdict from the people around you. This is genuinely hard. We are wired for social belonging, and being seen matters to us. But James suggests there is a kind of being-seen that actually satisfies — not the shallow approval of an audience, but the steady attention of a Father who 'opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.' That grace is the reward worth trusting in.

For reflection

In what area of your life would it feel most freeing to stop performing and simply do what is right without anyone noticing?

Pray

Pray for the grace to pursue humility not as an ideal but as a daily, practical choice.

Day 6

'But when you give to someone in need, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.' This is where Pastor Hunter's week-long challenge lands most concretely. Do something good for someone who can do nothing good for you in return — and tell no one about it. That instruction feels strange, maybe even a little anticlimactic, because so much of how we share life now involves narrating it. But Jesus is asking us to flip the instinct — to bring our struggles and failures into the light before God, and to let our kindness stay hidden. The reward He points to is not a like, a comment, or a story someone tells about you later. It is the Father's eyes. 'Your Father, who sees everything.' That is a remarkable phrase. It means nothing good you do is ever truly unseen, even when no human witness is present. The One whose opinion actually shapes eternity is watching. That should be enough — and Jesus seems to be saying that learning to let it be enough is part of what it means to grow in humility. Private kindness is not less real. It may be more real, because it has nowhere left to hide except in the hands of God.

For reflection

What would it look like this week to do one genuinely kind thing in private — and leave it completely there?

Pray

Pray for the quiet confidence to act for an audience of One, trusting that the Father who sees in secret is reward enough.

Day 7

Coming back to the whole passage at the end of the week feels different now. Jesus is not giving a list of rules about charity. He is describing a way of being — a posture of heart that chooses hiddenness over performance, genuine goodness over the appearance of it, and the Father's reward over the crowd's applause. Pastor Hunter tied this to the Greek word telios — not sinless perfection, but the completeness of reaching your intended end. You were made to love God and love others with a whole heart, undivided by the need to be seen. Pride fragments that. It splits your attention between what is right and what looks right. Humility puts it back together. This week, the invitation has been practical: search your soul before you act, do good for the sake of doing good, and let at least one act of kindness stay entirely between you and God. None of that is easy, and none of it is a one-time fix. But it is a direction — and walking in that direction, even imperfectly, is what growth actually looks like. If anything from this week stirred something deeper in you — a question, a conviction, a conversation you need to have — consider bringing it to someone you trust at your church. That kind of community is part of how this work gets done.

For reflection

Looking back over the week, where did you most feel the pull of pride — and where did you sense God's invitation toward something truer?

Pray

Pray for the courage to keep walking in humility beyond this week, and for at least one person in your life you can be honest with about the areas where pride still has a foothold.

Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

Small-group discussion guide

For leading a group conversation about this message.

Open

This message took a hard look at how pride can quietly hollow out even our most generous moments — and how Jesus calls His followers to a different way of doing good.

Discussion questions

1
In Matthew 6:1–4, Jesus warns that doing good deeds 'to be seen by others' means you 'have received all the reward you will ever get.' What do you think Jesus is saying about the relationship between audience and motive?
2
Pastor Hunter pointed to the story of Cain in Genesis 4 and identified three symptoms of pride: living for applause, doing good only to be seen as good, and seeking acceptance through attention. Looking at Cain's story, where do you see those symptoms showing up in how he approached God?
3
Pastor Hunter described the Greek word telios — translated 'perfect' in Matthew 5:48 — as reaching your intended end or becoming complete in Christ, rather than achieving sinless flawlessness. How does that understanding of the word change the way we might read Jesus's call to 'be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect'?
4
Psalm 139:23–24 is described in the message as a 'searching' and even 'dangerous' prayer — an invitation for God to examine our motives honestly. What makes that kind of soul-searching feel risky, and what might make it worth the risk?
5
Pastor Hunter challenged us to flip a natural instinct: instead of parading good deeds and hiding sin, bring sin into the light before God and let acts of kindness stay hidden. How might that reversal change the way a community of people lives and relates to one another?
6
Pastor Hunter's practical challenge was to do something good this week for someone who can do nothing good for you in return — and tell no one. What would it look like for a group of people to actually live that way over time, and what might get in the way?

Pray together

Asking God to search our hearts, purify our motives, and give us the freedom to do good simply for His eyes alone

Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

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Week 7 · 8 messages

Where these passages are preached

Matthew 6 Matthew 5 Isaiah 14 Genesis 4

Explore related topics

Hidden Good Deeds Pride and Humility Right Motives Seeking God's Approval

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