EYE SERVICE VERSUS HEART SERVICE

TEXT: Matthew 6:1-5

One of the reasons why it looks as if people serve God and help people and yet nothing happens to them is because their motivation is faulty. The desire to be noticed by people is the reason many are not noticed by God. What moves God is not just what you are doing but why you are doing it.

Just the way there are Biblical Pharisees, there are present day Pharisees. These are the people whose motivation for helping you is because they want others to see them as kind. When they help you they say it loud for the world to hear. This kind of charity has no reward in Heaven.

There was a time I was watching TV and heard some announcements. They were mentioning the names of some people and families that made contributions to homes for orphans and widows. They would mention their names and also the amount they donated. I didn’t know why these people could not take the gifts to the concerned homes but chose to take it to the TV station so that their names could be aired. This kind of giving carries no reward…it is “eye service” and not “heart service.” God says;

“Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward” (Matthew 6:2)

Even in the church, there are people doing service to please men and not because they think about God. When nobody is watching or around to supervise them, they won’t be concerned, but the sight of the leader is the reason why they work. These people are bothered about what people think about them and not what God thinks of them. This is hypocrisy.

More so, there are people who are only believers in the church but at home they are something else. Their ‘church record’ is brilliant but ‘home record’ is shameful. Some do not pray at home or read the word of God, but in church their voices are loudest and they are always interested in talking and leading. It is this environmental Christianity mind-set that has opened the way to worldliness in the church.

Beloved, it is time to get it right. Let God be the reason why you do what you do. Be real and not fake. Nothing fake has eternal life in it. To live a fake life is to endanger one’s Heavenly eternity.