THE SECRET LIFE | SUNDAY 9TH MARCH | JESS HORNE

wow what an incredible morning we've had

so far and thank you sue for bringing

that I know it was stirring in my spirit

even as I was just sitting there and I

just encourage you is anyone is there

any kind of physical healing miracle

that anyone's experienced even just now

in this moment would you just raise your

hand if there is or anything that yep

one come on let's come on let's let's

give it up for God for that physical

feeling feeling that Miracle now anyone

else is there any other kind of miracle

in this place that you feel there you

can see a change in right

now no that's all good all good but I

really do believe you know we serve a

god of Miracles we serve a God who is

faithful a God who is generous and I

believe that even if you haven't been

able to see that Miracle right now that

he is working God I believe you're still

working all things for good even when we

don't see and so I would encourage you

to press into that and to lean into that

as we go about the rest of this day and

into this week uh but yeah come on thank

you Jesus uh MOA church I'm Jess and

it's such a privilege to be here with

you this morning um we're going to get

straight into things and I hope you guys

have been enjoying over the last few

weeks we've been looking at how to be uh

a people of presence prayer and Mission

and that has been awesome and today

we're going to be starting a new series

based on the Book of Matthew in chapter

6 and so that's where we're going to

start this series today and to begin I

thought that I would give us a little

bit of context for this passage of

scripture now Matthew 6 is the second of

three chapters contain coning The Sermon

on the Mount which was possibly one of

history's most famous uh speeches and

it's essentially a collection of Jesus's

teachings to those who want to follow

his

ways throughout these passage of

scriptures Jesus addresses a range of

Life context from money to lust to anger

to loving our enemies to Revenge to

judging others to being the Salt and

Light of the earth and worry and so much

more and he teaches us how to live in a

way that honors and pleases God he

teaches these in view of his kingdom and

how as Believers we should relate to

these topics in each of these areas

Jesus continually challenges the

societal and cultural norms of the time

and encourages Believers to think act

and behave and live differently to the

world you see Jesus puts a higher

emphasis on the kind of people that

we're becoming than actually on the

things that we do he puts more emphasis

on our hearts than anything we could

ever

do this was Radical theology in Jesus's

time because it was an environment where

religion and laws were so heavily

enforced that sometimes they actually

superseded God in people's lives and the

place that he should have in their

life but throughout the Sermon on the

Mount we begin to see and understand

that God's kingdom is so unlike anything

of the world Matthew 6 is in the middle

of all of these teachings and it talks

about three common ways that people

Express their Devotion to God both then

and still now out to this day and those

are through giving through prayer and

through fasting Jesus teaches these in a

new light that challenges both the way

the religious people of the time were

imposing and living out these spiritual

disciplines and hopefully today will

challenge us as well about how we work

these out in our day-to-day lives and so

over the next few weeks we're going to

be unpacking some of these three areas

in more depth and learning about how as

Christians as followers of Christ what

they mean for us but today what I want

to do is draw our attention to some key

elements that link these three practices

together before we do that let's pray de

Lord Jesus we just thank you so much

that we're gathered here this morning

and that we can come under your name in

unity and we just pray that as this word

goes out father God that it would

challenge hearts that it was soow seed

Lord let it not be my words but let it

be yours and would it bless people for

generations to come we pray in Jesus

name amen thank you for that Jeff if you

have your Bibles with you today feel

free to turn turn into Matthew chapter 6

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

and if you don't it's going to be up on

the screen but we're going to start in

verse two today and it 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 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 may be done

in secret and your father who sees in

secret will reward you Jesus Jesus then

goes on to talk about praying to not be

like the Hypocrites who only pray out

loud for people to hear but that when we

pray we should actually go into our room

and shut the door and pray to our father

in secret and your father who sees in

secret will reward you next in verses 7

to15 he teaches us how to pray which I

think we're going to unpack a little bit

more next week but after that he goes

into talking about fasting and he says

that when we should F sorry past when we

should fast I was about to say f that's

not the case when we fast we should not

look gloomy like the Hypocrites for they

disfigure their faces that their 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 be seen by others

not be seen by others but by your father

who is in secret and your father who

sees in secret will reward you in a time

and culture where public Devotion to God

increased a person's reputation the

tempt

was there to practice righteousness in

front of people so that they might be

noticed and celebrated for it Many

religious leaders of the time were

actually believed to time and coincide

their giving with the sounding of the

trumpets at the temple so that everyone

would see that they were giving or they

would be known to make sure that at

prayer time when the prayer call went

out that they were on the street corners

so that they could be heard by passes by

or some of them even would like actually

make themselves look really disfigured

like they would not groom them

themselves not look after themselves

when they were fasting so that people

would see how spiritual they were I

don't know about you but sometimes if

I'm fasting I might look a little hagged

and a little tired probably not the best

version of myself but I don't think I've

ever disfigured my face you know put

mascara under my eyes or tear stain my

face so that people would see that I was

fasting but the essence of what Jesus is

saying in this Remains the Same that all

three of these practices lend themselves

toward easily being done in public we

might not sound a trumpet and we might

not pray on the street corners or

intentionally look gloomy when we're

fasting but the Temptation in our

society to do things to be noticed by

others is just as real if not

more you see in a day and age of

vlogging of live streaming of location

sharing and social media people's entire

lives can be put on display at the click

of a button we live in a world where

there's an ever increasing ability to

know what someone is doing at any given

time of the day the Temptation therein

lies to put our righteousness on display

for other people to see and now I

realized there's a range of generations

in the room today and not every single

one of you has social media or would

even claim to know what it is or how to

use it but the truth Remains the Same is

that we are all a part of a world and a

culture and a society that encourages

Humanity to do things to be seen to be

noticed to have your voice heard to show

people that you lead a good life to put

our faith on display it could be easy to

want to do that and to make people see

what good Christians we

are sometimes we even encounter this in

church culture I'm not talking

specifically necessarily this church but

just in church culture as a whole

there's this often this underlying lie

that we believe that the more we do the

better a Christian we are sometimes

there's actually this hierarchy within

Church culture that are because they

serve on the music team or because

they're part of the coffee team or maybe

because they they're the ones that pray

out loud in the prayer meeting they

actually they're a better Christian than

we are and what this creates in us as a

want to be seen by others in what we do

so that we can get the recognition we

think we

deserve and we might not be people who

explicitly do things in the Limelight

for the attention but I wonder how many

of us would subconsciously do things

hoping that people would

notice you know like personally if I do

something for someone and I go out of my

way I notice if they don't notice I'm

like what do you mean you're not

thankful for that I remember when I was

14 and I um used to deliver the

pamphlets and the newspapers to the

neighborhood my neighborhood that was

the Lakes up the Lakes let's go and um I

used to deliver the pamphlets and it

would suck some days because you'd come

home from school you'd be so tired and

the last thing you want to do is walk

around your neighborhood delivering

papers and I remember this particular

day I got home and I just had a rough

day at school and I felt like my world

was ending little 14-year-old just was

not having a good day and so I told Mom

that I didn't want to go do the papers

and I tried convincing her to not make

me do it tried convincing her she maybe

wanted to do it she wasn't buying that

and then she eventually just did any the

good thing any mother would do and said

well it's your job you've got to go out

and do it so I uh begrudgingly went out

and did the paper run and I finished my

rounds and I was on my way home and I

noticed this lady who had been doing all

her pruning and her gardening from the

old people's Village the retirement

shouldn't call old people's Village my

grandparents live there the Retirement

Village

okay um and she was picking up all her

pruning and stuff and putting it into a

black rubbish bag and I remember walking

by and thinking like the Lord was

prompting me to actually go and help her

and I was like nah no I'm too tired I've

I've already done the Paper Run Lord I'm

good and I kept walking and about 5 m

down he prompted me again and I had a

little argument with him in my head and

I was like no that's so weird if I

actually turn like you know when you're

walking this way if you're walking like

along the boardwalk at the mount you

never know when to turn around cuz it's

a bit weird to just like turn around and

walk back so I didn't want to be that

person so I said no again but eventually

the Lord won and I go and help this lady

and I pick up the things with her and

put it in the rubbish bag she thanks me

and I walk home and I'm feeling great

about myself and when I get home I

explain to Mom why I'm late and she says

something something along the lines of

like oh that's cool that's nice of you

and I was like what just that's nice of

me like there was a part of me that

secretly was wanting more like wow Jess

I know you've had such a rough day but

you went out of your way and did this

for the lady you're so good you're like

the dream daughter I was expecting a

little more I was like Mom come on meet

me where I'm

at but the thing is that there was

probably a part of me that wanted a

higher recognition for what I'd done you

see I felt like I should have gotten a

better reaction because Mom should have

just known the sacrifice that I'd made

to do that cuz it was a big sacrifice

guys let me tell you at the time

obviously you see whether I realized it

or not there was a part of me that

wanted people's praise for what I had

gone out of my way to do I can almost

guarantee that every person in this room

has had a time or a stage in their lives

where they've recognized or picked up on

someone not noticing that you've done

something for them even if it's

something as small as when you let

someone into traffic and they don't say

thanks anyone else hate that in here

that is like a pet peeve like all you

have to do is wave your hand or flash

your hazards at me that's all I'm asking

it's all right the Lord's working on my

heart in that

one but the reality is that our flesh

craves credit it craves attention

affection and affirmation and sometimes

the way we even feel about ourselves can

actually hinge on what other people

think about us because it's nice to be

be noticed who doesn't love feeling

loved and appreciated or being told that

you're great like I don't think I've

ever walked away from a conversation

with someone where they've encouraged me

and told me I'm awesome and thought dang

I wish they thought I was terrible I

wish they didn't think that I was so

great like it's nice to be noticed it's

nice to be recognized and the human

desire is to want to be

accepted as people made in the image of

God we are actually designed

intentionally this way to want

connection to want to be attended to to

want to be in community and there's

nothing in and of itself that's wrong

with that but the problem comes when we

begin when this begins to supersede our

connection with God when we seek human

validation more than we seek God and the

things that he's called us to when we

place a higher importance on being known

by people than being known by God and

serving him and Jesus challenges this in

Matthew 6 in verse one he says beware of

practicing your righteousness before

others in order to be seen by them for

then you will have no reward from your

father who is in

heaven you see sometimes we need to

check our hearts we need to check our

motives what is driving our actions is

it a genuine love for God and for his

people or is it just to receive praise

and admiration do we have a sincere

hunger to know God deeper or just an

interest in deepening other people's

love for us are we trying to become

better followers of Christ or are we

just trying to gain followers of our own

for the younger people in the room are

we chasing Jesus or are we chasing

clout you see Jesus calls these kinds of

people Hypocrites and some of you are

sitting there thinking wow I'm so glad I

came to church this morning first she

said we're attention seeking now she's

calling us

Hypocrites that's not at all my

intention but let me tell you the word

hypocrite in the original Greek word is

Hocus and I don't know if that's how

it's said but I've heard if you say it

with confidence in a bit of an accent

people will believe you so let's just

pretend that's how it's said

and the word htis refers to a person to

a stage actor putting on a show so when

Jesus warns against being like the

Hypocrites what he's really saying is

that when we give when we pray and when

we fast it shouldn't be done with the

intent to be seen by others we shouldn't

be putting on a show when we carry out

these spiritual disciplines or

necessarily any spiritual disciplines

for that

matter instead Jesus invites us into an

alternative way of living one that will

lead us closer to him one that will lead

us closer to him that's all you need to

know he challenges us to carry about to

carry out our giving our praying and our

fasting in secret away from people away

from the recognition we are hoping to

receive you see there's an essentially a

secret life that God actually calls us

to pursue to invest into and to

Steward one that isn't lived to make us

look good but to make God look good one

that we live out of a response to God's

love for

us not so that we might receive other

people's approval or

praise pursuing the secret life with go

God calls us to die to ourselves and to

the temptation to make it all about us

when we invest into the secret life we

make the conscious decision to lay down

our needs and wants in order for God's

name to be

glorified so what do I actually mean by

The Secret Life simp simply put it's

when it's just us and God when he is all

that we're seeking when we make time and

space for him in our everyday lives to

pursue him when we practice holy Habits

Like praying fasting and giving for only

him to see because true spiritual

devotion comes from a heartfelt desire

to please God rather than to be

recognized by

people the thing is that God desires an

intimate relationship with each of us

but so often as humans what we end up

doing is saying yes to a relationship go

with God yes to serving him but then we

invite everyone else into that

relationship like in a marriage you're

married you're not going to invite

someone else to come hang out in your

marriage

relationship that's just not socially or

culturally appropriate it's not what God

calls us to do and it's the same with

our relationship with God right that

should be personal between us and him we

don't actually need to invite other

people into that yes we share God's love

with them but we don't need to invite

them into our personal

relationship with him don't hear what

I'm not saying okay just to clarify

there's definitely a time and a place

for our faith to be lived out publicly

even Jesus prayed on his own in in

private and he also prayed in public

with his disciples because if we to be

his disciples and lead other people to

him there is absolutely a place and a

time for doing things publicly but here

Jesus warns us that if we're giving

praying and fasting only when others can

see it indicates that our real audience

isn't

God it highlights that our goal is to

acquire the behavior not actually refine

our hearts to become more like our

savior I'm going to say that again it

shows that the goal is to acquire the

behavior the action and not actually

refine our hearts to become more like

our savior you see it's in the secret

place that our hearts are transformed

that we can draw closer to God that we

can develop spiritual habits and grow in

awareness of his presence

there's so much God wants to do within

us when we pursue him in the things of

his kingdom in the secret place there

are things he wants to cultivate within

us and reward us with that he can't that

can't be obtained through our public

Ministry our private devotion should be

what fuels our public

Ministry these hidden practices when we

talk about the giving and the praying

and the fasting they should be practices

that grow Us in righteousness not only

give us the appearance of being more

righteous you see giving should be a way

of Cate celebrating God's generosity not

promoting our own prayer should be a way

to connect with God not a tool to boost

our image or our selfconfidence or our

self-importance fasting should be a way

to invite God's presence into our lives

into our situations not a means to seek

attention or

approval I remember once when I was

fasting uh not too too long ago but long

enough ago that I can share this without

getting too embarrassed but there was a

time that I was fasting and me and my

brother decided catch up and to hang out

so we we do that sometimes cuz you know

we like to catch up on each other's life

a little bit so we decided we catch up

and I was fasting and I knew that full

well but I decided to suggest we go to

Turkish that Loo's place in the mount

anyone been there that's a good place if

you haven't go there um I thought to

myself that all good like I'll just not

order anything he can order something

we'll be able to chat and so we get to

the Turkish place and he orders his his

dinner he goes and sits down I order my

glass of water go and sit down and then

they arrive with his food I thank the

waiter the waiter walks off and then

he's like did they forget your order did

you why is your order not here and I was

like oh it's all good like I'm fasting

and he goes oh okay cool well maybe we

should have done something else and I

remember the Lord convicting me in that

moment of actually why did I choose to

go to dinner like we could have done a

number of other things we could have

gone for a walk or a drive or met at his

flat there was a number of things that

didn't involve food yet for some reason

I had suggested dinner and I would argue

that it was so that I could test my

Temptation ability to say no to the

great food but I think that there was

probably a part of me that actually just

wanted someone to notice and applaud me

for what I was doing you see the best

way to ensure that our hearts are in the

right place when we live out our

spiritual habits specifically in giving

and praying and fasting is actually to

do them in secret where only our father

Seas Jesus also talks about uh how God

will reward the things done in secret

and we'll be hearing a bit more about

this over the next coming weeks but

contrary to the immediate reward that is

found in people's praises the reward

Jesus talks about is an always reive

straight away it's an investment as

opposed to an instant cash back it

requires an eternal perspective to see

beyond the now to see the way that God

sees and we can rest in knowing that the

reward that he has for us is so much

better and far outweighs any reward of

people

noticing but if People's praise is the

reward that we are seeking then that is

all the reward we will ever get and we

can actually end up missing out on God's

Eternal

blessing human Glory Fades quickly and

will not last into eternity but the kind

of reward that God offers is

Everlasting there's just a few uh quick

things that I want to talk about however

for right here and right now that I

believe a secret life will enable in our

spiritual journey and the first is this

that leading a secret life will help us

to align our hearts with God's Matthew 6

Matthew 6:21

verse 21 says for where your treasure is

there your heart will be when we store

up Treasures in the wrong place it leads

to our hearts being in the wrong place

if what we value is people's praise and

recognition then our hearts will end up

leading us to do these things out of

that overflow and and we're reminded in

Proverbs 4:23 to guard our hearts for

Proverbs 4:23

everything we do flows from that in

contrast when we Steward our secret life

with God when we treasure the things of

Heaven above any worldly recognition our

hearts become more aligned with god with

his plans with his purposes with his

Divine direction we then learn how to

love God and love people the way he has

called us

to God isn't simply after our words and

our actions he's after our hearts

he doesn't actually want life

altercation if it isn't led by heart

transformation and our hearts are

developed in that secret place Romans 12

and the message talks about not becoming

so well adjusted to the culture that we

fit into it without even thinking but

that we should fix our attention on God

to be changed from the inside out then

we can readily recognize what he wants

from us and quickly respond to

it the second thing is that leading a

secret life will actually Usher In God's

Presence into our lives living a life of

prayer fasting and giving in secret

sharpens our awareness of God's voice

and strengthens our dependence on him as

we sacrifice our resources through

giving as we give up our time in prayer

and deny the physical needs through

fasting instead pursuing the spiritual

ones what happens is that we begin to

more readily recognize his provision his

presence and his power

when done sincerely these three hidden

practices actually become an act of

worship that invite God's nearness his

guidance and his

Blessing James 4:8 tells us that when we

James 4:8

draw near to God He will draw near to

you by pursuing the secret life we

cultivate an environment and an

atmosphere where God's spirit is invited

to move reveal himself and manifest in

our

lives leading a secret life will also

ultimately grow God's kingdom while a

secret life implies that you do things

when no one is watching the fruit of a

secret life devoted to God will be

visible God will get the glory and his

kingdom will

grow seeking God in the secret place

through prayer fasting and sacrificial

giving shapes our character in a way

that others will be able to see more of

who God is similarly to Moses whose face

Shone after meeting with God on Mount Si

the transformation in us will be evident

we won't need to say or do anything

necessarily people will just recognize

that we've been with the Lord Our

Testimony should be a natural byproduct

of living out holy habits in the secret

place as John 13:35 reminds us by this

John 13:35

everyone will know that you are my

disciples if you love one another our

transformed live lives shaped by the

time we spend pursuing God in that

secret place will naturally reflect his

presence without us needing to draw

attention to our

actions if Patrice would like to come up

she what I want to leave us with today

is that God desires to be in

relationship with us that he is calling

us to pursue to invest into and to

Steward a secret life that glorifies and

honors him there's a challenge this

morning to examine our hearts and ensure

that what we do does not have any

hypocrisy in it but that it is fueled by

a genuine desire to know God and to love

him more

deeply as we seek the secret life with

God and choose to value relationship

with him over what people think of us or

what people are going to say about our

giving and our prayer and our fasting we

align our hearts with his we Usher In

God's Presence into our lives and we

actually are able to better contribute

to the growth of God's

kingdom living out the secret life life

with God where it's just us and him

actually allows us to experience so much

more of who God is the more we seek Him

the more we will find

him as a church we've just started a

season of Lent which is a term used to

refer to the 40 days leading up to

Easter in which we choose to fast or

abstain from something and seek God more

deeply in prayer it's also a time of

reflection as we prepare our hearts to

celebrate Jesus's death and Resurrection

and living out these three hidden

practices that Jesus covers in Matthew 6

each require an element of self-denial

and surrendering to God which we've

covered through today hopefully but

that's essentially the overall theme of

Lent because we aren't doing this to

obtain another gold star in our

spirituality but actually in response to

a God who loves us and wants to draw

near to

us I believe that God is wanting to do

something really powerful on the inside

of of US during this Lent season and

there's a challenge for us today that as

we participate in Lent to check our

hearts to check our motives and actually

to pursue the secret life that God calls

us to not for any praise or recognition

that we might get from people but

because we genuinely love God and want

to know him

more because at the core of all of this

is a God who loves you and wants to have

personal relationship with you he

doesn't want a performance of a

relationship he wants a genuine

heart-to-heart connection with

us and this morning you might have never

heard of this God who loves you and I

want to give you an opportunity in just

a moment to actually respond to that

because there is a God who loves you who

created you who has a plan and a purpose

for your life and if you haven't taken

that step to enter into relationship

with him I want to give you an

opportunity this morning to to do that

so I'm just going to ask if every uh

head can be bowed and every eye closed

just as a moment between you and God no

one is watching this this is between you

and God but if that's you this morning

could I just encourage you to just raise

your hand for a

moment if that's you this morning you

can raise your hand if you want to give

your life to Jesus and surrender to him

now's your

chance not going to count it

down just going to leave us in a moment

awesome

cool the other um call that I want to

put out for today as we close off this

morning there's just one more group that

I would like to pray

for and that's for those who feel like

they need to get right with God who feel

like their hearts are maybe not in the

right place this morning who feel like

they've maybe been putting on a show or

seeking people's approval over gods and

today you want to connect with God again

in in a real and authentic way I'm not

going to ask you to raise your hands for

this but if everyone could just Place

their hands on their hearts for a moment

I'd like to pray with you and if that's

you this morning would you just open up

your heart for God to move in this

moment thank you Jesus Heavenly Father

we come before you this morning and we

thank you for your love for us we thank

you for your grace and your kindness and

we pray this morning that we would come

and bring transformation in our lives

rid us of any temptation to seek

recognition or approval from others but

help us to seek you above anything else

and to be devoted to you

wholly teach us to seek you in the

secret place where our hearts are fully

surrendered to your presence let our

worship be genuine our giving be joyful

and our prayers be

sincere align our hearts with yours so

that everything we do flows from a place

of true love for you and for others in

Jesus name we pray amen amen