April 7, 2025 • 18 mins
The age-old tension between shining our light and remaining humble sits at the heart of authentic Christian service. How do we navigate Jesus's seemingly contradictory instructions to let others see our good works while also keeping our charitable deeds secret?
This episode delves deep into the motivation behind our actions, exploring the critical difference between doing good works that glorify God versus those that seek personal recognition. Through a careful examination of Matthew 5:16 and Matthew 6:3-4, we unpack what appears to be contradictory guidance but reveals a profound truth about the heart of service.
We contrast two powerful biblical examples: Barnabas, who sold property and gave generously with pure motives, and Ananias and Sapphira, whose deceptive giving revealed their hunger for recognition rather than genuine generosity. These contrasting stories illuminate how seriously God takes our motivations, reminding us that true service flows from a genuine desire to honor God rather than impress others.
The reality check segment prompts honest self-examination: Are we disappointed when our good deeds go unnoticed? Do we feel compelled to share our charitable actions on social media? Have we mastered the art of the "humble brag"? These questions help us uncover whether we're truly serving for God's glory or our own.
This week's mission challenge invites you to practice anonymous service by doing something good where the recipient cannot possibly know it was you. When you do receive recognition, we offer practical guidance on how to graciously accept thanks while redirecting glory to God. Ultimately, this episode reminds us that we were created to reflect God's goodness through authentic, humble service that seeks His approval rather than human praise.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Welcome to Made for Good, the podcast where we
explore how to live out ourpurpose through good works,
guided by biblical truth.
Hey, I'm Josh.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
And I'm Mark.
Today we're talking about animportant balance in our faith
doing good works whilemaintaining humility.
Jesus calls us to serve andshine his light, but he also
warns against seekingrecognition for our good deeds.
So how do we make sure we'redoing good for the right reasons
(00:36):
?
That's what we'll explore today.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
To be or not to be, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
What are you?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
interrupting.
Is this your Shakespearepodcast?
No that comes out later.
I'm sure that has a lot ofsubscribers, oh well thanks, but
let me finish.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
To be or not to be seen of a man that's really what
we're talking about themotivation.
Why are we doing what we'redoing?
Why are we doing good?
So people struggle with wantingrecognition all the time, and
whether it's a small childwanting the recognition and the
(01:19):
affirmation and the praise fromtheir parent, or, in the
workplace, people wanting doingthings to be seen by the boss,
it's natural, and we want tofeel appreciated, we want to
feel valued.
But when that becomes thereason that we do good works, we
(01:39):
are shifting the focus awayfrom God which should be our
purpose we're going to talkabout in a moment and onto
ourselves.
So the warning in Matthew 6,verse 1, is this Jesus says
Beware of practicing yourrighteousness before other
people in order to be seen bythem, for then you will have no
(02:02):
reward from your Father, who isin heaven.
It's not that the good worksshould always be hidden, but
here's what's key the motivationmatters.
So today we'll talk about howto ensure that our actions
always glorify God rather thanourselves.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Yeah, we're going to be looking at Matthew 5 and
Matthew 6, which is really thetransition right into our Bible
basis.
And, to be clear, the Bible isclear that our good works should
be done for God's glory, notfor personal recognition.
So look at these verses with us.
We're going to start in Matthew5.
This is verse 16.
And we've mentioned this on aprevious episode, but the Bible
(02:34):
says this let your light shinebefore others so that they may
see your good works and giveglory to your Father, who is in
heaven.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
So this is very clear to me that the motivation
should be glory to God, right,but there's also an implied fact
here, and that is they could beseen by other people.
In fact, how will a personwho's either the recipient or
(03:06):
maybe even a third party,somebody who observed something
happen, some good thing happened, one person did a good work for
another person.
How can they give glory to Godif they don't see it?
See that it happened, and we'lltalk about a little bit more in
a moment how they may show thatglory or give that glory to God
(03:29):
.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Well, but flip your Bible over to another page, to
Matthew 6, and look at verses 3and 4, where it says something
different.
But when you give to the needy,don't let your left hand know
what your right hand is doing,so that your giving may be in
secret and your father, who seesin secret, and your father, who
sees in secret, will reward you.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
So it also, I think, depends on what you're doing
right.
So in this particular passageit's talking about giving.
It doesn't say, if you give tothe needy it says when and in
all this, when you give your all, it's when you do this.
So the implication here is thatyou should be doing these
(04:08):
things, and maybe giving,particularly financial giving,
really should be done in secret.
But there are other acts ofgoodness that we can do.
They're going to be known, theycould be seen.
Now, this seems like acontradiction, so which is it?
Should our good works be seenor should they be hidden?
(04:31):
The answer really depends onwhat's in our heart, what's our
motivation, and to a certaindegree, it matters what is in
the heart of the observer aswell.
Are they going to impugn thewrong motivation?
Well, look at them.
They're just doing that to beseen.
(04:51):
Maybe, possibly, but maybe not.
So really, both people the doerand the observer need to check
themselves and make sure thattheir heart, their heart, is
focused on giving God the glory.
So if our actions are supposedto point people to God, to give
(05:15):
God the glory, then you knowwhat they need to be seen.
That's right.
They need to be seen by otherpeople, not so that it can be
reflected back on us, but thatthe glory is given to God.
Now I think that this risk ofinterpretation may cause a lot
of us, josh, to just choose tonot do the good deed that we
(05:38):
know we need to do, and so Ibelieve that the key here is to
do it anyway.
The key here is to do it anyway.
Again, if your motives are pure, I really want to do this for
them.
They really need it, but I'mworried about what someone else
may think you need to do itanyway.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
There was a time where Jesus rebuked some
Pharisees and I think it'shelpful in this conversation.
In John 5, 44, he said how canyou believe when you receive
glory for one another and do notseek the glory that comes from
the only God?
Our goal should never be toimpress people, but to serve and
honor God.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
You know, when you look at that verse a little more
closely, I want to go back toit he's tying their ability to
have faith in God with theirability to give glory to God.
Yeah, and so if you're onlylooking to give glory to
(06:41):
yourself, then it could reallyimpact your faith yourself.
And so he says how can youbelieve?
You're not even in the rightmindset to believe because
you're focused on receivingglory just from one another and
not glory from God.
So if you get your mind focusedon God, then your belief can
(07:02):
happen the way it needs tohappen and your deeds can be
done with the right motivation.
What I want to do in ourmission profile today is to
explore two examples one withthe right motivation and one the
absolute wrong motivation.
So the first one we're going tolook at is Barnabas.
So in Acts 4, we see the storyof Barnabas.
(07:26):
There are people, lots of brandnew Christians, in Jerusalem.
They obviously have needs.
A lot of them are from out oftown, so they're hanging out
after they become Christians andthey're meeting together.
They have needs, they have toeat, they have a place to stay.
That required funds.
(07:56):
It required money and, as faras the Bible says, nobody told
Barnabas to go sell someproperty and give it to the
church.
He chose to do that.
He gave freely, without seekingany attention, because I
guarantee you, if he was seekingit, if he was doing it to seek
attention, he would have had thesame result as our next example
, and that's Ananias andSapphira.
(08:16):
It happened, these two thingshappened, one right after the
other.
Ananias and Sapphira also gothey look, do you think that
Barnabas got some recognition?
Probably because Ananias andSapphira wanted that recognition
that Barnabas got.
Now, barnabas didn't do it forthe recognition, but he may have
gotten the recognition.
His motivation was pure, but heprobably got some recognition.
(08:40):
And when he got thatrecognition, ananias and
Sapphira said Ooh man, let's godo that.
And Ananas and Safar said oohman, let's go do that.
Let's make sure that we don'tgive all of what we give, but
let's give the impression thatwe sold the land for such and
such, and then we'll keep back alittle bit for ourselves.
(09:02):
So, look, not only do we getthe recognition, we get the cash
, and that's in Acts 5.
And so these two examples aredirectly opposite.
They're next door to each otherin the Bible, but they're
directly opposite, and I thinkthe message is to be taken
together the motivation behinddoing good.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
And these two examples you've highlighted
motivation, and one of the waysto check our motivation is to
ask would I still do this if noone knew about it?
And if the answer is yes, thenit's probably for the right
reason.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Hey, that's a great point, josh.
You know that reminds me of apassage in Hebrews 10, verse 24
and 25.
It says Hebrews 10, verse 24and 25.
It says let us consider how tostir one another up to love and
good works.
We can just stop right there,but I'll finish the rest of
verse, not neglecting to meettogether, as the habit of some,
(09:57):
but encouraging one another.
That's the purpose of the loveand good works is to encourage
one another, and meetingtogether is one way to do that.
No-transcript, to stir oneanother up to love and good
works.
I don't know, can I stir youwithout you knowing what it is
that I'm trying to get you to do?
(10:18):
Possibly, but probably not.
You need to know.
If we're going to go cut one ofthe widow's yards, you're going
to know about it because you'regoing to be a part of it.
I'm stirring you up.
There's an implied communicationabout the good work.
So as soon as another personknows about it, or maybe two or
(10:39):
three or four, depending on howmany you get together, then it's
not in the scenario of notletting your left hand know what
your right hand is doing.
Now.
That group can still brag aboutit.
Right?
That group can still brag aboutit.
Right, they could post onsocial media or whatever that we
did this or did that.
But the purpose here is toencourage others to do good
(11:03):
works.
That's very important.
But we got to make sure thatwe're doing it for God's glory
and not for personal praise oreven, in this case, group praise
, not for personal praise, oreven in this case, group praise.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
All right, it's reality check time where I want
to with you to talk about ourgood works.
Are they truly about God or arethey about us?
So just a few things on abounce off of you, the first one
being seeking approval.
Yeah, so if we only do goodthings when other people are
(11:33):
watching, then maybe themotivation is is not quite right
, or maybe feeling disappointedwhen we don't get recognition.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Yeah, you know really true godly service.
Service that praises Goddoesn't expect applause,
recognition, maybe even thankyous.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
And maybe another thing is making sure people know
about our good deeds.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Yeah, Are we telling others about what we did?
One of the things that you willnot hear us say on this podcast
is post your good work onsocial media and let us know
Hashtag made for good.
Ok, there probably is a hashtag, but that's the point to the
podcast, not to your good deeds.
(12:14):
We're expecting you guys aredoing good deeds and that's
great, but we're not doing it.
To broadcast, we're not doingit.
You know what's the term thehumble brag.
Oh, hey, I need to post thispicture of all of us, you know.
Again, to use our example atthe food bank, it was such a
hard day but it was a purposefulday and we were so happy to
(12:37):
bless the poor in our communitywith our service today at the
food bank.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
By the way, with a selfie and the food bank picture
in the background.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Oh yeah, that's, you know.
So To virtue signal, to say howyou look at me and all the good
things that I'm doing.
That's not the way Truehumility serves without this
expectation.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
1 Corinthians 10 31 sums this up perfectly Whatever
you do, do all to the glory ofGod.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Yeah, amen to that.
Okay, so mission challenge time.
So, as we have done in the past, our challenge for you this
week starts with a prayer.
So what we're asking you to askGod is to search your heart, to
reveal any areas where pridemay have crept in or the desire
(13:33):
to seek recognition.
And what we want you to prayfor is for God to help you serve
with a humble, humble spirit.
All right, so the next thingwe'd like for you to do is one
anonymous good deed, and here'sthe, here's the kicker Help
someone in a way where theycan't know that it was you.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Can you give an example of that?
Speaker 2 (13:57):
So I'll tell you what I'm not talking about.
I'm not talking about you're inthe drive-thru and you pay for
the person behind you, becausethat person behind you they may
not know it at the moment, butthey're going to know who did it
.
They're right in front.
Maybe a way to do it is forthose of you who've always
wanted to be a secret agent isto maybe buy something.
(14:17):
You got to be careful.
People have ring doorbells,your own video.
But if you're going to dropsomething off to someone's house
, maybe you just mail it with noreturn address or a generic
return address.
Go on Amazon, as we talkedbefore, maybe some small thing.
If you want to do somethinggood, find a way to get it
(14:38):
delivered anonymous.
I think that, man, it'sactually fun, josh, to have
you're on a secret mission andyour goal is for them to not
figure out who did it, and thatcan be fun.
If you've got family, if you'vegot kids, we're going to have a
whole episode about involvingyour kids in good works.
(15:00):
You know, hey, what can we dothat?
Our neighbor won't know it's us, but it's something really good
for them.
They're out of town.
You go again.
People got cameras all over theplace.
So cutting their grass whilethey're gone may not be a way to
be completely anonymous, buttry to find a way to do it where
(15:20):
they can't possibly know whodid it.
And then the last.
The third one is going to bethis If someone does know that
you did something good and theywant to come and compliment you,
point them to God as the reasonfor what you do.
But be careful.
Somebody may be trying to doone of these other good deeds by
(15:43):
saying thank you for somethingthat you did, maybe in worship
service or maybe in thecommunity.
And if the first thing thatthey hear back from you maybe
they're a child or maybe they'resomebody just not used to
giving feedback to people theymay, you know you want to say,
well, all glory to God,absolutely appropriate.
(16:05):
But they may take that as acriticism that don't you dare
compliment me or thank me.
You should give glory to God.
So here's what you could do.
You could say thanks, I reallyappreciate that, but really, all
glory goes to God.
And what you do is you affirmwhat they're doing, you
encourage what they're doing,but you're also tacking on the
(16:29):
real reason, not just for themto understand, but it's good for
you to say it yourself, so thatyou are not receiving the
recognition alone.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
I love that, because not everybody's an extrovert and
there could have been someonewho hasn't done that, hasn't
encouraged someone that way atall ever.
And it took everything out ofthem to do it, and then they
could have been someone whohasn't done that, hasn't
encouraged someone that way atall ever, and it took everything
out of them to do it, and thenthey could have maybe felt like
they were shot down and they maynot do it again.
So it was already hard for themto go forward and do that.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Yeah, so say thank you, say I appreciate it, and
then give glory to God,absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Well, like always, we are going to put your mission
on social media.
Hey, by the way, are we goingto talk about our side project,
the secret project.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
The secret project, yeah, no, I don't think, so
We'll probably cut this part out, okay.
Well, let him mention thatLater.
Okay, later, all right, okay.
So you said you could find themission for this week on social
media.
We've mentioned all thosebefore, so I think that's it for
today's episode of Made forGood.
Again, if this conversation hasencouraged you or challenged
(17:34):
you or caused you to look atwhat you do a little differently
, to make sure your motivationis correct, that was our
intention.
So be sure to subscribe so youdon't miss the next one.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
And we hope you found this helpful.
Consider sharing it with afriend.
Until next time, serve humbly,shine for God's glory and
remember you were made for this.
Thank you.
Welcome to Made for Good, the podcast where we
explore how to live out ourpurpose through good works,
guided by biblical truth.
Hey, I'm Josh.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
And I'm Mark.
Today we're talking about animportant balance in our faith
doing good works whilemaintaining humility.
Jesus calls us to serve andshine his light, but he also
warns against seekingrecognition for our good deeds.
So how do we make sure we'redoing good for the right reasons
(00:36):
?
That's what we'll explore today.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
To be or not to be, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
What are you?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
interrupting.
Is this your Shakespearepodcast?
No that comes out later.
I'm sure that has a lot ofsubscribers, oh well thanks, but
let me finish.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
To be or not to be seen of a man that's really what
we're talking about themotivation.
Why are we doing what we'redoing?
Why are we doing good?
So people struggle with wantingrecognition all the time, and
whether it's a small childwanting the recognition and the
(01:19):
affirmation and the praise fromtheir parent, or, in the
workplace, people wanting doingthings to be seen by the boss,
it's natural, and we want tofeel appreciated, we want to
feel valued.
But when that becomes thereason that we do good works, we
(01:39):
are shifting the focus awayfrom God which should be our
purpose we're going to talkabout in a moment and onto
ourselves.
So the warning in Matthew 6,verse 1, is this Jesus says
Beware of practicing yourrighteousness before other
people in order to be seen bythem, for then you will have no
(02:02):
reward from your Father, who isin heaven.
It's not that the good worksshould always be hidden, but
here's what's key the motivationmatters.
So today we'll talk about howto ensure that our actions
always glorify God rather thanourselves.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Yeah, we're going to be looking at Matthew 5 and
Matthew 6, which is really thetransition right into our Bible
basis.
And, to be clear, the Bible isclear that our good works should
be done for God's glory, notfor personal recognition.
So look at these verses with us.
We're going to start in Matthew5.
This is verse 16.
And we've mentioned this on aprevious episode, but the Bible
(02:34):
says this let your light shinebefore others so that they may
see your good works and giveglory to your Father, who is in
heaven.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
So this is very clear to me that the motivation
should be glory to God, right,but there's also an implied fact
here, and that is they could beseen by other people.
In fact, how will a personwho's either the recipient or
(03:06):
maybe even a third party,somebody who observed something
happen, some good thing happened, one person did a good work for
another person.
How can they give glory to Godif they don't see it?
See that it happened, and we'lltalk about a little bit more in
a moment how they may show thatglory or give that glory to God
(03:29):
.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Well, but flip your Bible over to another page, to
Matthew 6, and look at verses 3and 4, where it says something
different.
But when you give to the needy,don't let your left hand know
what your right hand is doing,so that your giving may be in
secret and your father, who seesin secret, and your father, who
sees in secret, will reward you.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
So it also, I think, depends on what you're doing
right.
So in this particular passageit's talking about giving.
It doesn't say, if you give tothe needy it says when and in
all this, when you give your all, it's when you do this.
So the implication here is thatyou should be doing these
(04:08):
things, and maybe giving,particularly financial giving,
really should be done in secret.
But there are other acts ofgoodness that we can do.
They're going to be known, theycould be seen.
Now, this seems like acontradiction, so which is it?
Should our good works be seenor should they be hidden?
(04:31):
The answer really depends onwhat's in our heart, what's our
motivation, and to a certaindegree, it matters what is in
the heart of the observer aswell.
Are they going to impugn thewrong motivation?
Well, look at them.
They're just doing that to beseen.
(04:51):
Maybe, possibly, but maybe not.
So really, both people the doerand the observer need to check
themselves and make sure thattheir heart, their heart, is
focused on giving God the glory.
So if our actions are supposedto point people to God, to give
(05:15):
God the glory, then you knowwhat they need to be seen.
That's right.
They need to be seen by otherpeople, not so that it can be
reflected back on us, but thatthe glory is given to God.
Now I think that this risk ofinterpretation may cause a lot
of us, josh, to just choose tonot do the good deed that we
(05:38):
know we need to do, and so Ibelieve that the key here is to
do it anyway.
The key here is to do it anyway.
Again, if your motives are pure, I really want to do this for
them.
They really need it, but I'mworried about what someone else
may think you need to do itanyway.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
There was a time where Jesus rebuked some
Pharisees and I think it'shelpful in this conversation.
In John 5, 44, he said how canyou believe when you receive
glory for one another and do notseek the glory that comes from
the only God?
Our goal should never be toimpress people, but to serve and
honor God.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
You know, when you look at that verse a little more
closely, I want to go back toit he's tying their ability to
have faith in God with theirability to give glory to God.
Yeah, and so if you're onlylooking to give glory to
(06:41):
yourself, then it could reallyimpact your faith yourself.
And so he says how can youbelieve?
You're not even in the rightmindset to believe because
you're focused on receivingglory just from one another and
not glory from God.
So if you get your mind focusedon God, then your belief can
(07:02):
happen the way it needs tohappen and your deeds can be
done with the right motivation.
What I want to do in ourmission profile today is to
explore two examples one withthe right motivation and one the
absolute wrong motivation.
So the first one we're going tolook at is Barnabas.
So in Acts 4, we see the storyof Barnabas.
(07:26):
There are people, lots of brandnew Christians, in Jerusalem.
They obviously have needs.
A lot of them are from out oftown, so they're hanging out
after they become Christians andthey're meeting together.
They have needs, they have toeat, they have a place to stay.
That required funds.
(07:56):
It required money and, as faras the Bible says, nobody told
Barnabas to go sell someproperty and give it to the
church.
He chose to do that.
He gave freely, without seekingany attention, because I
guarantee you, if he was seekingit, if he was doing it to seek
attention, he would have had thesame result as our next example
, and that's Ananias andSapphira.
(08:16):
It happened, these two thingshappened, one right after the
other.
Ananias and Sapphira also gothey look, do you think that
Barnabas got some recognition?
Probably because Ananias andSapphira wanted that recognition
that Barnabas got.
Now, barnabas didn't do it forthe recognition, but he may have
gotten the recognition.
His motivation was pure, but heprobably got some recognition.
(08:40):
And when he got thatrecognition, ananias and
Sapphira said Ooh man, let's godo that.
And Ananas and Safar said oohman, let's go do that.
Let's make sure that we don'tgive all of what we give, but
let's give the impression thatwe sold the land for such and
such, and then we'll keep back alittle bit for ourselves.
(09:02):
So, look, not only do we getthe recognition, we get the cash
, and that's in Acts 5.
And so these two examples aredirectly opposite.
They're next door to each otherin the Bible, but they're
directly opposite, and I thinkthe message is to be taken
together the motivation behinddoing good.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
And these two examples you've highlighted
motivation, and one of the waysto check our motivation is to
ask would I still do this if noone knew about it?
And if the answer is yes, thenit's probably for the right
reason.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Hey, that's a great point, josh.
You know that reminds me of apassage in Hebrews 10, verse 24
and 25.
It says Hebrews 10, verse 24and 25.
It says let us consider how tostir one another up to love and
good works.
We can just stop right there,but I'll finish the rest of
verse, not neglecting to meettogether, as the habit of some,
(09:57):
but encouraging one another.
That's the purpose of the loveand good works is to encourage
one another, and meetingtogether is one way to do that.
No-transcript, to stir oneanother up to love and good
works.
I don't know, can I stir youwithout you knowing what it is
that I'm trying to get you to do?
(10:18):
Possibly, but probably not.
You need to know.
If we're going to go cut one ofthe widow's yards, you're going
to know about it because you'regoing to be a part of it.
I'm stirring you up.
There's an implied communicationabout the good work.
So as soon as another personknows about it, or maybe two or
(10:39):
three or four, depending on howmany you get together, then it's
not in the scenario of notletting your left hand know what
your right hand is doing.
Now.
That group can still brag aboutit.
Right?
That group can still brag aboutit.
Right, they could post onsocial media or whatever that we
did this or did that.
But the purpose here is toencourage others to do good
(11:03):
works.
That's very important.
But we got to make sure thatwe're doing it for God's glory
and not for personal praise oreven, in this case, group praise
, not for personal praise, oreven in this case, group praise.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
All right, it's reality check time where I want
to with you to talk about ourgood works.
Are they truly about God or arethey about us?
So just a few things on abounce off of you, the first one
being seeking approval.
Yeah, so if we only do goodthings when other people are
(11:33):
watching, then maybe themotivation is is not quite right
, or maybe feeling disappointedwhen we don't get recognition.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Yeah, you know really true godly service.
Service that praises Goddoesn't expect applause,
recognition, maybe even thankyous.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
And maybe another thing is making sure people know
about our good deeds.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Yeah, Are we telling others about what we did?
One of the things that you willnot hear us say on this podcast
is post your good work onsocial media and let us know
Hashtag made for good.
Ok, there probably is a hashtag, but that's the point to the
podcast, not to your good deeds.
(12:14):
We're expecting you guys aredoing good deeds and that's
great, but we're not doing it.
To broadcast, we're not doingit.
You know what's the term thehumble brag.
Oh, hey, I need to post thispicture of all of us, you know.
Again, to use our example atthe food bank, it was such a
hard day but it was a purposefulday and we were so happy to
(12:37):
bless the poor in our communitywith our service today at the
food bank.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
By the way, with a selfie and the food bank picture
in the background.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Oh yeah, that's, you know.
So To virtue signal, to say howyou look at me and all the good
things that I'm doing.
That's not the way Truehumility serves without this
expectation.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
1 Corinthians 10 31 sums this up perfectly Whatever
you do, do all to the glory ofGod.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Yeah, amen to that.
Okay, so mission challenge time.
So, as we have done in the past, our challenge for you this
week starts with a prayer.
So what we're asking you to askGod is to search your heart, to
reveal any areas where pridemay have crept in or the desire
(13:33):
to seek recognition.
And what we want you to prayfor is for God to help you serve
with a humble, humble spirit.
All right, so the next thingwe'd like for you to do is one
anonymous good deed, and here'sthe, here's the kicker Help
someone in a way where theycan't know that it was you.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Can you give an example of that?
Speaker 2 (13:57):
So I'll tell you what I'm not talking about.
I'm not talking about you're inthe drive-thru and you pay for
the person behind you, becausethat person behind you they may
not know it at the moment, butthey're going to know who did it
.
They're right in front.
Maybe a way to do it is forthose of you who've always
wanted to be a secret agent isto maybe buy something.
(14:17):
You got to be careful.
People have ring doorbells,your own video.
But if you're going to dropsomething off to someone's house
, maybe you just mail it with noreturn address or a generic
return address.
Go on Amazon, as we talkedbefore, maybe some small thing.
If you want to do somethinggood, find a way to get it
(14:38):
delivered anonymous.
I think that, man, it'sactually fun, josh, to have
you're on a secret mission andyour goal is for them to not
figure out who did it, and thatcan be fun.
If you've got family, if you'vegot kids, we're going to have a
whole episode about involvingyour kids in good works.
(15:00):
You know, hey, what can we dothat?
Our neighbor won't know it's us, but it's something really good
for them.
They're out of town.
You go again.
People got cameras all over theplace.
So cutting their grass whilethey're gone may not be a way to
be completely anonymous, buttry to find a way to do it where
(15:20):
they can't possibly know whodid it.
And then the last.
The third one is going to bethis If someone does know that
you did something good and theywant to come and compliment you,
point them to God as the reasonfor what you do.
But be careful.
Somebody may be trying to doone of these other good deeds by
(15:43):
saying thank you for somethingthat you did, maybe in worship
service or maybe in thecommunity.
And if the first thing thatthey hear back from you maybe
they're a child or maybe they'resomebody just not used to
giving feedback to people theymay, you know you want to say,
well, all glory to God,absolutely appropriate.
(16:05):
But they may take that as acriticism that don't you dare
compliment me or thank me.
You should give glory to God.
So here's what you could do.
You could say thanks, I reallyappreciate that, but really, all
glory goes to God.
And what you do is you affirmwhat they're doing, you
encourage what they're doing,but you're also tacking on the
(16:29):
real reason, not just for themto understand, but it's good for
you to say it yourself, so thatyou are not receiving the
recognition alone.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
I love that, because not everybody's an extrovert and
there could have been someonewho hasn't done that, hasn't
encouraged someone that way atall ever.
And it took everything out ofthem to do it, and then they
could have been someone whohasn't done that, hasn't
encouraged someone that way atall ever, and it took everything
out of them to do it, and thenthey could have maybe felt like
they were shot down and they maynot do it again.
So it was already hard for themto go forward and do that.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Yeah, so say thank you, say I appreciate it, and
then give glory to God,absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Well, like always, we are going to put your mission
on social media.
Hey, by the way, are we goingto talk about our side project,
the secret project.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
The secret project, yeah, no, I don't think, so
We'll probably cut this part out, okay.
Well, let him mention thatLater.
Okay, later, all right, okay.
So you said you could find themission for this week on social
media.
We've mentioned all thosebefore, so I think that's it for
today's episode of Made forGood.
Again, if this conversation hasencouraged you or challenged
(17:34):
you or caused you to look atwhat you do a little differently
, to make sure your motivationis correct, that was our
intention.
So be sure to subscribe so youdon't miss the next one.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
And we hope you found this helpful.
Consider sharing it with afriend.
Until next time, serve humbly,shine for God's glory and
remember you were made for this.
Thank you.
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