REWARDED FOR SECRECY

And start turning to Matthew chapter six again. Pastor Josh will be back from

his preaching class, his intensive that he's been doing up in Chicago next Sunday,

Lord Willing, next Sunday, he'll be back with us. Yeah,

I'm especially thankful for that this morning because I don't know why, but I

had strange, strange preaching dreams last night that included things like a little piece

of fabric that was on the front of my mic that was hitting me in

the mouth over and over again as I was trying to speak to you all.

In addition to the fact that I was juggling multiple Bibles in my dream

and my notes, and then kind of along with my notes as I'm shuffling

through things, there was a fresh, unused disposable diaper. I don't know

what to do with those things. But again, I'm glad that we'll have

Pastor Josh back next week. I kid you, yuh, could you not

sometime in the four o'clock hour this morning that was happening in my weird brain.

But if you're not already in Matthew six, get there, because we're

gonna jump right into the middle of what we often call Jesus's Sermon on the

Mount, and I believe we're going to see together this morning in this passage

that the Lord Jesus wants to warn us. He wants to warn us about

the potential loss of reward from God, something that we might not really think

about necessarily every day, but it's part of his opening statement here in this

section of his sermon that we're going to look at here in a moment,

and I think we'll see from him that he is concerned that we be concerned

about the danger of doing righteous works wrongly. He's concerned that we be concerned

about that danger of doing righteous works wrongly. So let's read it now.

Follow along with me in your copy of God's Word from Matthew, chapter six,

verses one through eighteen. Jesus says, beware of practicing your righteousness before

other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have

no reward from your Father, who is in heaven. Thus, when you

give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do

in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others.

Truly, I say to you they have received their reward. But when

you give to the needy, do not let your left hands know what your

right hand is doing. So that you're giving me be in secret, and

your father, who sees in secret, will reward you. And when you

pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand

and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners that they may be seen

by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.

But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door,

and pray to your father, who is in secret. And your father,

who sees in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do

not heap up empty phrases, as the gentiles do, for they think that

they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them,

for your father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like

this our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom. Come.

Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us

this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also

have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us

from evil. For if you forgive others their trespasses. Your heavenly father will

also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither

will your father forgive your trespasses. And when you fast, do not look

gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that they're fasting may be

seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their

reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,

that your fasting may not be seen by others, but by your father,

who is in secret. And your father, who sees in in secret,

will what he will reward you. That's right. So Jesus gives us the

main thrust here, the key matter that we're to look at that he wants

us to understand. Right there in verse one, let your eyes fall on

it again. It's all about forfeiting reward, right, And that's our first

slide and point here. Don't forfeit your reward. So as you're glancing down

at verse one again, you'll see that that there are there are good things,

There are righteous acts that a god fearing person can and should do in

life. And he says that we can go about those things in such a

way that it all ends up being for naught, right if we take Jesus

words there at face value. So, in other words, what's the what's

the bad way to do righteous things? What happens when we're motivated by getting

the attention of other flesh and bones humans around us, right, and doing

so as a complete forfeiting, Jesus says, of any reward from our father

in heaven, you will have no reward. Jesus says, startling words there.

And as I've been looking at this, I kind of started to wonder,

I wonder if this bothers me. I wonder if it bothers us in

the way or to the extent that I think Jesus means it to this morning?

Are you disturbed? Are you disturbed over that thought of losing reward from

your father in heaven? And again, as I've continued to look at this,

the more I think that for myself, I'm just not nearly troubled enough.

And I think a lack of being troubled over this probably comes down to

a couple of things. And firstly, it comes down to the fact that

I don't really feel the gravity that I meant to feel of the sin that

Jesus is pointing to for us. You know, if what's taking place in

me, in my heart is a faithless, empty approach to doing like godly

things, If that's what's happening in me, to performing works that God prescribes

in his word, you know that frankly says a lot about my heart and

whether I truly know or trust this Jesus who came from heaven and served me

to the point of death on across For instance, let me just pick up

something from later in Jesus's sermon in seven twenty one through twenty three. You

might have it on the same page, or you might have to flip one

over. But if you look there in seven twenty one through twenty three,

what we see there. The gist of it is, if there are those

who, on the day of reckoning think themselves good with Jesus because of good

things that they have done, even with His name on their lips, if

they on that day are going to hear from him I never knew you depart

from me, you workers of lawlessness. If that's going to happen for some,

shouldn't I be wrecked over that? The possibility that apart from God's mercy.

That could be me, right, That could be me just a poser

hopping on the Jesus train to use his name or bit of influence to get

what I, even if subtly, really want most in my heart of hearts,

namely looking to be seen by others when I practice my righteousness. Sobering,

isn't it to think about? So that's certainly a problem. Not thinking

about the consequences of my desire for man's praise. That's an issue. But

me not being bothered enough. I think it stems from a second thing as

well, a second issue in my heart. It's this I don't understand and

I don't wonder over the stunning reality that this God of the universe promises reward

to us his image bearing creatures. That's a wondrous thing that he provides that,

And it's only logical to assume right that he's going to know what kinds

of rewards will delight us the most. He's our creator. He knows.

Now, we're not given every detail about like degrees of rewards that we see

spoken of in other places and scriptures that the redeemed will receive, or even

the entire picture of what that great reward of Heaven itself will entail. But

you know what, we've got a lot to go on. We've got enough,

I think, to get us truly excited about what God has in store

for us. Even a really brief look at the bookends of the Bible,

there's no corruption of sin there, and God is personally gloriously present with his

people. Seeing pictures like that that should thrill us, even just the bookends

of the Bible. So, for instance, I'm going to turn quickly,

and you can either listen or turn as well to the very beginning of the

Bible, Genesis chapter one, and I'll pick it up in verse twenty six

and read several verses. So then God said, let us make man in

our image after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of

the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the live

stock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps

on the earth. So God man in his own image and the image of

God. He created him. Male and female. He created them, and

God blessed them. And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply,

and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of

the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living

thing that moves on the earth. And God said, behold, I've given

you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth,

and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.

And every beast of the earth, and every bird of the heavens,

and everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life.

I have given every green plant for food. And it was so,

and God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very

good, and there was evening and there was morning the sixth day. So

my goodness opening seeds created order that we see Adam and Eve in sweet partnership

with one another, made to reflect God, listening to the sweet blessing and

instruction from the mouth of God himself, having authority over a peace filled domain.

Food at they're ready, everything declared very good by the Creator himself.

Stunning, we might say, Heaven on earth right, And even just from

that opening scene, we have to ask, I mean, does God know

how to bless his children or what? Yes, he does. Our Creator

is so good to us. But that's not just some dream that's merely disappeared.

It's right there at the beginning of the Bible. We know a lot

transpires after that in the scriptures. But he's going to make all things new.

He's actually going to do that for us, with heaven and earth fully

coming together, and this time a perfected city garden scene that we see at

the other book end of the Bible, at the very end, and Revelation

twenty two. So again you can turn there or just listen Revelation twenty two,

starting in verse one, Then the Angel showed me the river of the

Water of Life, bright as crystal, flowing from the Throne of God and

of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. Also on

either side of the river the Tree of Life, with its twelve kinds of

fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for

the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but

the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his

servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will

be on their foreheads, and night will be no more, and they will

need no light of lamp or son for the Lord God will be their light,

and they will reign forever and ever. So there we have God the

Father and Jesus the Son, as the slain and resurrected lamb. There in

radiance, nothing tarnished or broken anymore by sin, heavenly seasonal fruit all year

long, Authority granted to his servants again over a peace filled realm. Now,

who would not want as much of all of this to as high of

a degree as it's meant to be enjoyed? Shouldn't we yearn for this inheritance,

for that picture and any additional rewards that God wants to give within it,

originating in some way from our present faithfulness and how we walk through this

life, wouldn't we want? But again, but again the problem, the

problem in my heart, I'm guessing in yours as well, is that I'll

have a hard time remembering that richness to its full extent. Anyway, even

by lunchtime today. It doesn't take very long for that to leak out,

does it. Well, that was a long time to spend there, just

on verse one, and we'll pick up the pace here a little bit.

But it so shapes everything that we see here in Matthew six from Jesus concerning

what we should be warned of, namely doing our righteous acts to be seen

by others, and what we should long for, namely our father's approval.

And they're a great reward that he has for his children. So while practicing

your righteousness, this is a general heading right that is meant to be applied

to any and all works of obedience of faithfulness that we might perform, or

or any skills or gifts from the Holy Spirit that we might exercise. Jesus

kindly here gives us three specific examples to look at together. Three things says

that we should be eager to do. How to do in secret he repeats

three times, So let's look at those. So the first one that he

says is that we should give in secret. That's your next blank there to

give in secret. You see him address this in verses two through four,

so we can read them one more time here this morning. Matthew chapter six,

Verse two. He says, thus, when you give to the needy,

sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and

in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I

tell you, or say to you they have received their reward. But when

you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your

right hand is doing, so that your giving maybe in secret, and your

father, who sees in secret, will reward you. So here Jesus introduces

us to some people of his day, and he calls the hypocrites the hypocrites

of his day. And he doesn't tell us in these verses, in our

direct context here exactly what group they're from. He doesn't give us any names

per se. But we know some things about them just by inferring right,

we can tell that they are religious people, those with some level of a

knowledge of God and his word, because they're seeking to do these acts of

righteousness right. Well, it helps, though, maybe to know that in

chapter twenty three of Matthew, Jesus specifically calls the scribes and the Pharisees hypocrites,

and he does it six times over, and he pronounces woes on them

for the spiritual damage that they do to others. So probably we can assume

it's a similar group that he has in mind here when he induces us to

the hypocrites. But regardless, he paints quite the scene of these people,

doesn't It doesn't he because what do they do? They create as much theater

as they can with their giving. Now, I'm guessing that none of you

travel around with a trumpeter in front of you, right, you probably don't

have that. But you can imagine maybe maybe our present context. Imagine that

you you come in on Sunday morning with one of those giant checks and it's

designated specifically for the Benevolence Fund, you know, and and during that time

of giving, you kind of march around the long way. You know,

you can't really stub it in that box, but lay it back there,

you know. Or you you would do the same maybe on a street corner

where an d persons has been hanging out there and you're kind of broadcasting that

as you deliver it. All right, maybe a present day scene that we

could we could imagine in kind of a hyperbolic kind of way. Now,

of course, it all sounds just ludicrous, right, And that's part of

the point here that Jesus is making. But I wonder, if you're like

me, if you've ever done something generous, or if you've given of your

time or energy in a big way you served somebody in need, and then

you know later you're just looking for this opportunity to kind of weave that deed

into the conversation that you're having with somebody else. Have you ever been there?

It can even be for the small things. You know, you just

kind of want to know that, Oh, I was with such and such

person did this great thing? Has your heart ever wanted that? Have you

ever perhaps uttered those words? I know, I know that I've been in

that place, And a scripture like this certainly calls me up short in that

even as I can a chuckle chuckle over just the silliness of the fact that

that would even happen in my own heart, I also grieve over it,

and we should grieve over it. Right as we look at this passage and

realize that at some level, at least, we've traded reward from God for

a tiny bit of human attention. Isn't that crazy? Isn't that crazy that

we would choose that? It's ridiculous, It's even grievous if I take God's

word seriously here, and that's what we want to do this morning. So

yes, Jesus calls us out of this. He challenges us to be generous

in such a way that there's as much subtlety as possible where you you hardly

know what you've done, right. I think that's partly what he's speaking about

with the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. Where God

alone, where and when possible, has been the one who's seen what has

taken place. That's the aim. That's a goal, not to be sure

God he knows the heart right. I'm not saying that there's never a right

time and way to talk of generosity or acts of kindness. Those can actually

be used to help others also be faithful in good and strategic ways. I

suppose there's a right time and place for that, but we don't want to

let that lessen the impact of what Jesus says here about just giving in such

a way that our father, who sees in secret will reward us. This

is what he's calling us to. So imagine if the phrase your father who

sees in secret will reward you, Imagine if we held on to that and

it became for you and I this absolutely thrilling statement, because we loved and

we trusted him so much that his eyes were the only ones that really mattered

to us, and when as we thought to serve our church, family and

community and generally lift up others around us who would benefit from our help and

kindness. Oh, that that would be what was in our hearts and minds.

Are we ready to give in such a way and so be rewarded by

our Father who sees in secret? I know I want I want more of

that in my life, And I've got a good way to go in really

fully realizing the full beauty of that obedience as well. So that's the way

that Jesus speaks of secret, giving his first example that he has for us

there. But then Jesus gives us a second example, doesn't he. He

calls us to do what to pray in secret? To pray in secret?

And he takes this example in two moves. He gives us two illustrations.

He's going to highlight for us the hypocrites again, right, And he also

speaks of the wordy gentiles we'll call them, perhaps those separate from the Jewish

religious circles, but still seeking to maybe relate to God or to Deity in

some way. But let your eyes there rest again on verses five through seven

to see how Jesus presents this to us the initial picture there is a lot

like what we saw with Giving, isn't it, Because we observe these religious

hypocrites going big with their prayers, standing in the synagogues and on the street

corners, probably knowing a lot of scriptural and ritual language, using the kind

of volume to make sure that their voices were on center stage as they prayed.

In Jesus' words, they were praying to be seen by others. But

then see how he says, again, like you said with giving, pray

in secret. Pray in secret. And here's a proper example. He says,

in a quiet room under the eyes of your heavenly Father. Again,

such a contrast right now, in all of this, I think, maybe

especially in this one, the irony is just thick. Right. They were

presumably praying to who praying to Almighty God, but really the attention wasn't on

him at all, as they hijacked this spiritual activity to impress earthly ears and

eyes. And then that's it, reward complete. It terminates there, right

because they've already received their reward from man. It hasn't been to praise God

for his ears. Again, Jesus commands the alternative. He says, pray

out of you behind closed doors, practice the righteous act of private prayer,

where only God hears, and where you can focus on truly communing with Him,

the very one that we're supposedly addressing with our lips. Anyway, imagine

that, Imagine that those two things would be connected well, Friends of you,

if you ever experienced the richness of this kind of praying in your own

life, this kind of private prayer before the Lord. Do you have a

time and a place where you regularly gather for this kind of private prayer?

I want to say I found it to be such a freeing thing to have

that time and that place For me. I often pray aloud, quietly at

the dining room table before anyone else is awake in the house. And sometimes

I walk around and I express kind of like I am now with my hands

and the way that I would when I was talking with a friend. Right.

Nobody sees this but God, And until recently, I hadn't really thought

about the fact that, you know, He sees this as a practice of

righteousness that he rewards. Isn't that cool? Isn't that humbling that God would

do that, inviting us into prayer and then saying, this kind of prayer

is actually one that gives gets us reward from Him. That's amazing. How

generous is our God he wants to meet us in times of private prayer.

This blows me away and makes me all the more eager to enjoy those private

times with him, knowing how he views this kind of prayer. Well,

I got to say, even though I enjoy those times of prayer, guess

what, I fall on the hypocrite trap and this one as well, because

when praying around others, guess what their ears your ears have at time has

been way too important to me. You know, It's just reality for me

as a pastor as well. Here at Crossway, you probably already know that

we as elders, we take turns drafting a prayer to be read in this

context on Sunday morning and then wanting to just really join with the congregation and

prayer over that. And I tell you I've had to really watch my heart

in this and ask God to help me both write worshipfully and then actually pray

to Him and that exercise that we have together on Sundays, even as I

want to serve God's people well, of course by speaking clearly reading at the

right pace so as not to distract people from the Father that we're hopefully focused

on together. But our hearts can get so twisted up and all of that

right wanting to do some right things suddenly the attention of other people being our

main focus. And I can have that even in trying to lead you all

on a Sunday morning. So what about then, this second negative example,

this example of prayer where Jesus points out to us, these these gentiles,

these wordy gentiles as we called them, who were likely addressing God and their

prayers. How are they doing that? They were perhaps carrying on in the

same way that their pagan ancestors did. We might think of the prophets of

Bail and Elijah's day, who cried out for hours on end, making such

a scene to try and get Bail's attention and show up the followers of the

Lord. There it's an amusing account to read in One Kings eighteen. So

maybe maybe somewhat of a flavor of that here, or some tamed down version

of just praying and praying some more and praying with some other words and phrases

that might be good in a prayer to pray and give to God that prayer,

you know, maybe something more like that. But Jesus says, don't

simply stack up the phrases thinking that a certain word count is what God is

after. Yeah, that's how we write papers and composition class and college a

certain word count, just getting there so that you can get the passing grade.

But that's not what God has for us in prayer. He's got so

much more for us. It doesn't reflect the attitude toward the Father that we

should have when praying. So can we never pray around or with others?

Or do we just need to avoid lots of words to make our prayers count

for eternal reward and only have it within you know, a word count of

one hundred words? And that's it? Is that the point here? No,

it's not what Jesus is saying to us. We should look again in

our Bibles at what's often called the Lord's Prayer that sandwiched right into the middle

of this passage right and verses nine through thirteen. He provides us with an

example of a simple prayer that's meant to direct things like our reverence for God.

Right, Hallowed be your name. He says to also express our desire

for God's kingdom, to have all the prominence your kingdom come, your will

be done right, and to help us express our need for him needy people

that we are, for daily bread, for forgiveness, for protection and deliverance

from evil, these great needs that we have expressed those to God as well.

And interestingly, the prayer, what kind of language is it in here?

See words like our and us and we language which really kind of helps

us to understand that private prayer behind closed doors isn't the only kind of acceptable

prayer here. No, he'd have us pray with one another. Praise God

for that, otherwise we'd be in a ten years of a whole lot of

trouble around here. Right. No, he would have us to pray with

one another. But the charge is still to do this in the secret places

of our souls, that place that only God sees, where we desire clean

and humble and lowly hearts that are full of forgiveness toward others, that forgiveness

that coincides with the forgiveness from our Father. And Jesus doesn't pull any punches

here, does he, In the way that he talks about there, It's

clear when he says, if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly father

will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their trespasses,

neither will your father forgive your trespasses. So no forgiveness right horizontally with one

another is equated in some way. There's more to be said with this,

of course, but equated in some way with no forgiveness in the vertical sense.

Because people who have been forgiven, what do we do? We forgive,

we forgive. So when it comes to the practice of prayer, we

simply lose what matters most. If we're one trying to hypocritically impress our fellow

humans, or two pridefully holding resentment and bitterness against one another instead of standing

and humility and quickly repenting of sin before God and each other. If in

any case, horizontally focused attention is our aim, our prayers will not,

Indeed, they cannot be what they ought. Right, we're praying to our

father in heaven. So how's your prayer life? How's your prayer life as

it relates to this passage? I know again there's always work to be done

in my own heart. More humility, more patient, grace for others,

more earnestness, more focus, more anticipation of glory is so much needed for

me, and I'm guessing you would say much of the same for yourself as

well. Let's let Jesus usher us into that with a passage like this.

But let me take just a quick aside here for a moment with you,

because you might be present this morning and you're not a submitted, repentant follower

of Jesus, someone who doesn't identify as a Bible defined Christian when we see

in the scriptures, or you might be someone who you know Christian or not,

you're in this place where you're carrying some major frustration or sadness over some

big messes that came out of some hypocrisy that you've witnessed in the church,

because that happens, right. But hopefully what we're seeing here as we look

at God's word is that Jesus sees and he speaks against that kind of ugliness

as well. That should be a comfort to you to us this morning.

He hates that sin, but also in love dies for sin in the place

of sinners like you and I, and even for sinners like the ones who

may be cause the mess in their hypocritical ways. Granted it's not right.

It can be so damaging when hypocrisy shows up among disciples of Jesus. But

at the end of the day, we all have to evaluate Christianity on the

basis of Christ, and He never fails us. He's never hypocritical toward us.

So, in jumping back into the text here, we've seen two practices

of righteousness that Jesus speaks to, giving in secret praying in secret. But

there's one more that he puts before us. Right, Christ says that we

should fast. We should fast in secret. You know, normally we enjoy

the gifts of God and regular eating, but there are right time to restrict

ourselves for the purpose of extra focus on the Lord, zeroing in on our

need for Him, giving ourselves to earnest prayer, feeling our weakness through fasting

for a period of time, all with the desire to be strengthened in the

Lord in a unique way. So we should look one last time at the

text in verses sixteen through eighteen. Look at those again with me once more,

Jesus says, And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the

hypocrites. For they disfigure their faces, that they're fasting may be seen by

others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.

But when you fast, anoint your head, wash your face, 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.

So while it's almost two obvious to say that the hypocrites here that Jesus

had in mind were not looking to advance their humble dependence upon or hope in

God through restricting themselves from food. That's not their aim, was it.

This was another way to get attention for doing something uber religious, right,

A little twisting up of the face, I mean, can you picture it,

you know, just like kind of crinkling up. I'm in so much

pain, a little twisting up of the face, a little more disheveled looking,

maybe as they would they would walk around, and well, people are

gonna notice, right, people are gonna notice, and oh, oh my

goodness, what's wrong? Just fasting for the Lord. We'll be over,

Sue, We'll be okay, I'm sure I'll be closer to him. And

then right there, just like with the other illustrations. That's the only reward

earned attention from someone who may or may not be even slightly impressed, and

who will probably forget five minutes from now when she walks off to dinner,

leaving the Pharisee to look for someone else to notice his righteous self restriction.

Right, So what's the remedy? What's the remedy? Well, Jesus says,

get cleaned up, get cleaned up, then your father, and your

father only sees the ache in your stomach and your temporarily reduced physical vigor and

the secret prayers of your heart, and he will reward you. Is his

reward. What we want most is the question that's begged once again. Now,

I know we haven't gotten into the nitty gritty of what exactly those rewards

might be, or the different degrees of rewards that are going to be given

to true disciples. Jesus doesn't teach us that here, but we do know

who they're coming from, and we do know where we'll get to enjoy them

in fullness, and that hopefully provides barrel upon barrel of high octane fuel for

our souls. It should every time we see the unsatisfying nature of worldly pursuits

and human praise. Let's remember that God, God knows how to satisfy.

He knows how to do that. Now we're landing the plane here, but

let's take a few more minutes just to get extra practical with this whole rewarded

for secrecy thing. Right, how about a big one. The ultimate anti

secrecy medium is social media in its various forms. Right. It is something

that probably everybody in this room pretty much has interacted with, at least probably

most of us have accounts. And I still have a number of counts,

and and and I know that, uh, you know, there are there

are so many platforms. Now there's kind of different age demographics where they they

uh are are more and more used some by by others in a certain like

younger category. Like I don't know what are the the teens in the twenties?

Is it things like Snapchat and discord? Is that somewhat accurate? Maybe

I don't know. They're looking at me like just keep going, you know

not what you speak of? Okay, it's probably true. I did do

some research though, I actually pulled some stuff off of the Google. Right,

So it's maybe that for them, maybe for us in our thirties and

forties, the your Twitter or slash x sorry elon that, the Insta,

you know, maybe LinkedIn, maybe you you more seasoned saints with your what

say it? Facebook? We all know it, we we all know it.

The older generation still likes the Facebook a little more. But it's okay.

It's okay because what does YouTube do? It unites us as all one

big, happy, screen enslaved family. Right, So we all have that.

But again, I have some of those accounts. And here's the thing

though, with those platforms, they do tend to invite a kind of look

at me, the best me, the strongest, boldest me, kind of

attitude, don't they. Sometimes there's even trends that promote a kind of like

real life, messy life, brave life kind of persona. They're that kind

of approach that can also suddenly become look at me not being concerned about being

perfect? And isn't that so beautifully genuine of me? I'm poking fun,

right, But that's the reality. We've seen it, we've observed it,

perhaps participated in it, and I have been there as well. We've got

our our even our own explicitly Christian versions of it too, you know,

we want to let people know that we're super focused on our daily quiet time

with the perfect insta shot of the Bible, notebook, coffee, sunrise scene,

those things exist, and we laugh because it is a true and crazy

world that we're in as we do our scrolling and we see and perhaps we've

done our posting. I'm not saying that everyone who falls into these these these

traps automatically. You don't have to fall into them automatically, although again I've

been guilty of that. But how about our heart's desires? How about our

heart's desires and who we're really serving and where we want the attention to fall

when we post and when we scroll with these mediums. If nobody, if

nobody ever commented or liked or complemented you, there would your soul be every

bit as satisfied because of having God's I favor alone, just a grid to

think through as you consider your use of the platforms. Right, and then

what about fasting or really any kind of proper self restriction for the sake of

good discipline and right stewardship of your life and body, which we would say

is good to have. You know, a few years back, I knew

it was probably the faithful thing for me to adjust my eating and lose a

little bit of unhealthy extra weight that I was carrying. And I tell you

what, guess what, it became nice when people noticed and even as they

stood in front of the mirror, looks a little different. You've done it

too. You've done it too. My goodness, my goodness. It became

something where maybe it started in a good place, but I found that faithful

stewardship and a desire to simply be seen by my father secret hasn't often been,

hasn't always at least been my deepest motivation. So I even wonder,

you know, I wonder as I think about that time of my life,

that body stewardship move, if I've already in some measure gotten my reward for

that season of trimming down right there on the spot when I had a kind

of self centered motivation. You know, I feel a regret over that,

as funny as it all kind of is, And I wish it would have

all stemmed from and stayed rooted in honoring God and in deepening my enjoyment of

God. Oh that it could have just stayed there. Now we've all fallen

short, right through all these messed up, mixed up desires of the heart,

and we'll go from here. We're still gonna need his mercy when we've

played the hypocrite again, even in the most subtle ways. So where does

this leave us? Where does this leave us? MOPy hopeless over the fact

that our motivations are just such a mess. No, No, we don't

want to conclude things there, do we? We should return for a minute

to the model prayer. Look at it again that Jesus outlined for us.

Because we have a God who hears our plea for help, who provides for

our needs, who forgives us, purifying us, including our motives, and

who protects us. And Jesus, who taught us to pray for such things,

also gave his life to secure them for us, not just for now,

but forever. He didn't teach these things, dropped the mic and head

back to heaven. No, what did he do? He finished his course.

He purchased our salvation with his life, so that we now look to

his perfection in all of the these matters, and we trust him to transform

us by his spirit, one degree at a time. And so we say

yes, We say yes to obedience but with our trust ultimately grounded in His

perfect obedience. Right, that's where we want to land. We've got to

rest there with hearts moved to praise. Well, the band want to invite

them to come back up. They're going to lead us again, and some

of that praise and adoration. But churches, we see this big call that

we have before us into a life of humility where secrecy in practicing our righteousness

is rewarded. We should take comfort. We should take comfort if the state

of our hearts, by God's amazing grace, is a state of tenderness and

repentance, with a desire to move forward in faith from here, trust that

Christ's blood covers our immense lack and that forgiveness is indeed available to us.

And that's really the life of a disciple, isn't it. Steps of faith

sprouts of real growth while resting in Christ's perfect righteousness. That's ours through faith

and Him alone. Amen.