The Practice of Secrecy | Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18 | Coleton Segars

Happy Memorial Day weekend.

We are pausing our normal series to just do something different today to focus on a different portion of the scriptures and something that we genuinely care about, but I just wanted to jump out of the regular series for uh a holiday weekend.

So uh we're gonna be in Matthew six, uh verses one through six, and then uh verses sixteen eighteen.

So if you have a Bible, you can jump to Matthew six.

Um otherwise it'll be on the screen for us.

But this is the teaching text.

Jesus says this He says, Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them.

If you do, you have no reward from your Father in heaven.

So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets as the hypocrites do, to be honored by others.

Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.

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 in secret.

Then your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray to be seen by others.

Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.

But when you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your father who is unseen.

Then your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

And when you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting.

Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.

But when you fast, do so in a way that will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your father who is unseen.

And your father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Let's say this together.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

I want to focus on a practice today.

Uh Jesus says in his word that there is a qualitatively different life that we are able to experience if we put his word into practice.

And so the qualitatively different life that's available to those who hear his word and put it into practice will be substantially different than people who just hear his word and don't actually put it into their lives.

Um, we were talking at Bible study on Wednesday about what it looks like nowadays to follow Jesus because um it's easy to see someone visibly and then go and follow that person.

It's more difficult to the unseen father to see that and follow them.

And uh Jesus calls us to practice putting his word into our lives as our way of following him today.

Here's what I've said when you put it into your life and it changes the direction of your life and it changes the things that you're doing, it is leading you and shaping you after me.

It is it is allowing me to lead you in that way.

And so I want to talk today about this specific practice, the practice of secrecy, um, which maybe you know a ton about this, or maybe you don't know anything about this, but I love this idea of practicing the way of Jesus.

I think it is how we follow him, and so the practice of secrecy, uh, a definition for what this is uh is that secrecy is practicing serving others in secret without them knowing, being anonymously generous, and not displaying to anyone the good or righteous things that you do.

It's the practice of doing something for God alone because only he will know about it.

And so, what I want to do today is really simple.

I just want to give you three uh reasons that Jesus calls us to practice this thing of secrecy from this text, three things that he leans on and points out of why he calls us to do this, and then I just want to give you some practical ways that you could actually begin following Jesus in this particular way.

Okay, so very simple, just three things that we see from this passage.

The first is that Jesus calls us to practice secrecy to free us from caring about what other people think about us and from wanting to be seen as important.

He is seeking to free us from this desire that we have, and sometimes an addictive desire that we have to like care what people think, and then the need and desire to like, I need to be seen as valuable and worth something and important.

He wants to free us from that thing.

You see it in verse 2, 5, and 16.

He says it in each different section of this passage.

He says, They practice, the hypocrites do, which is hypocrite is the word uh where we get our word actor.

That's what it meant back then.

And so they're acting righteous, but they're not really righteous.

Um, they practice their righteousness in front of others to be seen by them, to be honored by others.

They care what other people think.

They love to pray to be seen by others so that they seem more holy, they seem more important.

They disfigure their faces to show that they're fasting so that people will think highly of them, and so on and so forth.

And so Jesus is trying to free us from this idea.

They struggle in this passage, the people he's referencing, they struggle to worry about and to feel I only matter if other people see me doing certain things.

I am important when other people say that I'm important.

I'm valuable when they think that I'm holy or valuable.

And I think this is something that we all deal with mainly because Adam and Eve deal with this idea.

Like he, they, they deal with this in the garden in the midst of perfection.

They still feel like I want to be more important.

And so that's why they choose to eat the fruit.

They're like, God is God and He is who He is, but we could be more like God if we eat the fruit.

And so we could be more important and more valuable and have more knowledge and more wisdom if we eat the fruit.

And so, even in a space of perfection, they dealt with this.

And so, to me, if they dealt with it in that capacity, we live in a broken world.

This is definitely something that all of us deal with in one way or another.

We all in some form or fashion care what people think about us and want and have this innate thing in us to want to be seen as worthwhile and important and things like that.

Uh Adele Calhoun, in her book on spiritual disciplines, she says that uh being anonymous, anonymity is not our thing.

Recognition, accolades, and limelight, those are our things.

We want people to know just how generous and smart and successful and popular we are, but we don't want to appear to be a braggart, so we come up with subtle and socially approved ways of promoting ourselves and our image.

We give money to causes where our name just happens to get out.

We name-drop about who and what we know, we let slip uh how and where we volunteer.

Like, oh my goodness, I wasn't supposed to say that, but we do it anyways.

Every good deed that we do sees the light of day, every juicy secret we know comes out in our next conversation.

Now, if you are someone who was like, I completely disagree with that, that's not my issue at all.

Pride is then your issue, but we'll deal with that in a different one.

But if you think that like this isn't my problem, don't worry.

I created a quiz to see if you actually struggle with this.

So, you know, not a show of hands.

This is not meant to shame anyone, it's just meant to prove a point.

All right, so you might care what other people think about you and want to be seen as important if a person shares information that you already know and you feel the need to tell them that you already knew it first.

And so it happens like this: like you someone shares information, they're like, oh yeah, you knew that.

Well, she told me yesterday, I just didn't say anything because I was trying to be cool.

And so that's how that goes.

You have to let them know that you knew before they did.

More important, more valuable.

If you do something but someone else gets the credit and you feel cheated, and or make it known that you also deserve some credit, you might struggle with this.

If you've ever posted a family photo to social media that looks perfectly happy when in fact everyone was arguing or crying or angry or all of the above just moments before, and that's how you post your photo, you might struggle with this.

If you've ever posted a photo of yourself in order to get comments to make you feel better about yourself, that's called reassurance, affirmation, or something.

There's there's an actual psychological, psychiatric term for it now based on social media that exists.

Uh if the way that you worship or pray has ever been guided or shifted by what other people might or might not think about you, what will people think if I raise my hands?

What will people think if I pray out loud?

What will people think of my prayer?

What will people think?

Like if that's something that you deal with even as we're singing or things like that, we struggle with this.

If you've ever spent so long deciding what to wear that you relate to an event, you might struggle with this.

If you've ever purchased something in order to get comments and accolades, if you have subtly tried ever to one up another person's story, you might struggle with this.

If you've ever name-dropped in order to let it be known that you know important people, if you've ever blamed someone else for a mistake that you made, this is most of marriage, instead of owning it for yourself.

If you have ever faked being knowledgeable about a topic or a person because you didn't want to feel ignorant or out of the loop, then you might struggle with this.

The way that this goes is do you like, do you know so-and-so?

And it's like, uh, and you have no idea who so-and-so is.

But you're like, the name sounds familiar.

That's normally what people say.

The name sounds familiar.

Not lying because every name sounds familiar.

We could come up with anything.

I actually have a friend who really struggles with this, and so to be honest, every now and then I just mess with him.

And I just like throw, like, hey, do you know what are the names that I've read?

Do you know John Blackberg?

And he's like, oh, I think I'm like, bro, you don't.

I just made that up.

Like it's completely fake.

I was like, why what is this that you have that you're like, yes, I know everyone that you know?

I'm like, we live in different states, there's no way.

But it's like they do it with books too.

Have you ever read Don Quixote?

Like, oh yeah, Donnie, love it.

You tell me your version of what you read, because I may have read something.

I just want to hear it from your like, and it's like, dude, you didn't read the book.

It's fine.

Like, you're not dumb for not having read the book.

But like, we struggle with this idea so much.

So if you found yourself like completely scot-free in the middle of that, talk to me later.

You're a saint.

We should talk about that.

But the tragedy of all of this, because it uh it can be funny at certain times, uh, but the tragedy of all of this is like all of the biblical examples of people who make decisions because of what they would be seen as from other people, or they're trying to please other people, or they're trying to be seen as more important than they are, all of them end up really, really, really badly.

There's never like, ah, it wasn't that bad.

It's always, always terrible.

So for example, Adam and Eve chose to eat the fruit because they wanted to, go to the next slide.

Uh, chose to eat the fruit because they wanted to be better than they were.

They end up breaking the world based on this thing.

We live in the brokenness of the world because they just wanted to be more important than they currently were.

King Saul wanted to be seen as a greater king than David, or greater than David.

He didn't want to be seen as a failure.

He wouldn't own his mistakes for fear that it would make him look bad.

And it led to the downfall of his kingdom, the death of him and his sons, and suffering for the nation of Israel.

Pretty bad day as a king.

Rhabon, the fourth king of Israel, didn't want to be seen as a weak king, and so he rejected the counsel of the elders and treated the people of Israel instead with like harshness instead of compassion, and he ends up ripping the kingdom of Israel in half.

There's a gigantic wars that begin to follow.

Peter from the Gospels, fear of being associated with Jesus, denied he even knew him three times.

Religious leaders in Jesus' day, fear of what the Pharisees would think about them, refused to follow Jesus publicly.

John 12 says that because they they did this because they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.

And so followed Jesus, but didn't follow him publicly.

And then Pilate, for fear of losing his position of importance and of what the Jews and Caesar would think of him, ended up handing Jesus over to be crucified.

Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5, fear of not looking as sacrificial as everybody else, everybody like donating their money from their houses and stuff like that in Acts.

And so they sell their house and want to look just as generous as everybody else, but they keep some of the money back and they lie about how much money they made on their house.

They end up dying because Peter says, You didn't lie to us, you lied to the Holy Spirit, and both of them dropped dead.

Peter again, Peter really struggles with this.

Peter again, fear of what the Jewish leaders would think about him led him to racially discriminate against the Gentile believers.

Like, there's just not a normal, like, oh, you did that because you were worried about what people think about you, it's really not that big of a deal.

It's a huge deal, consistently.

There's not a single instance where worrying about these things goes well for us and goes well for the people in the scriptures.

And so when the motive for any action that we do is in order to be seen as important or based on what other people will think about us, the result is always terrible.

And this is why in Proverbs, why Solomon is saying, like, hey, the fear of man is a trap, the fear of man is a snare.

Um, the word for fear, go to the next slide here.

That word for fear is haradah.

In Hebrew, it means anxious care.

And so the the idea is like the anxious care of people is a trap to you.

Anxiously caring what they will think about you, anxiously needing their approval, anxiously wanting them to see you as important.

It's a trap, it's a snare.

Uh and it's different.

Like the fear of man is a trap.

That word, we've if you've been in the Bible for any period of time, y'all know that like the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

That's a completely different word in the Hebrew.

It's a ura.

Uh, and the idea is that uh that's like reverence and respect and awe and wonder towards the Lord.

This is like you just anxiously care about what the people around you think about.

And the scriptures testify that consistently, like when you care about this, when this is a part of who you are, it leads to a bad place in your life, it leads to a bad place in the lives of those around you.

It doesn't lead in good direction.

And so Jesus is seeking in this space to go, let me free you from this thing that will ruin your life, that will trap you.

It will not set you free to do the things that people in your life want you to do and you're worried about what they might think, and so you do it.

It will not lead to freedom, it will lead to a trap.

And I think realistically, you get to see this in our culture every single day because social media makes their money exploiting the fact that we desire to be thought well of by people and we desire to be valuable and important.

And so all of social media's money is coming from this addictive thing that we have to be seen well by other people.

And all the stats suggest it is not freeing us, it's actually riddling us with anxiety, eating disorders are on the rise, suicide is on the rise, like all of these self-worth is on the plummet.

I mean, everything is about like the fear and the anxious care of what people think about us, that primarily is the goal of social media to make them wonder and do they care about you, and to post in order to get likes and comments, that those likes are going up, and our social, our our our actual space of like feeling uh worthy and feeling good and feeling joy is plummeting.

Like, and it's it's just this thing that's actually happening, and what they're seeing, and the culture is seeing it too.

They're seeing that, like, man, this is actually real.

Wondering and caring what other people think about us is actually a trap that steals something from us, it doesn't actually set us free.

And again, our current culture is trying to move towards ways to not care what people think about us, and they're agreeing with the scriptures without actually saying it.

And this is why Jesus is actually calling us to practice secrecy.

It's meant to be this space of counterformation in our lives, that doing things in secret without anybody knowing that we're doing it, because we're not doing it for anybody else to see.

It's meant to be this counterform practice that shapes us into different kinds of people who isn't, who aren't worried about what people think about us.

Dallas Willard uh says this, he says about the discipline of secrecy that this discipline will help us break the grip of human opinion over our souls.

Practicing secrecy will form you into a person who can receive praise without needing to add any self-deprecating comments, and it will give you the freedom from the hunger for fame and recognition.

And I think he's just pointing to this thing specifically and saying, This is it's going to do so much for you that this other thing just steals from you.

This will just pour into your life.

But it's very, very difficult to break because it seems like more accolades will actually make me feel better.

And it's like, I think actually that is stealing from you, it's not actually building anything in you.

But the practice of secrecy will break human opinion over your souls.

It will make it to where when people comment and say nice things to you, you don't have, you don't feel the need to be like, no man, not me.

I'm not that good.

It's like you don't feel that because it doesn't matter.

All you get, you just get to live in the freedom of like, I'm just I don't have that chain on me of what people think about me, how they care about me, and all the rest of it.

And so this is what Jesus is seeking to do for us.

He's trying to save us from this trap.

And so that's the first thing.

Trying to just practice this so that this terrible stuff doesn't happen in your life, so you don't fall into this trap of what people think about you and wanting to feel important.

That's the first thing.

Second, Jesus wants you to practice secrecy so that you have such a close relationship with God where you share secrets just between you and him, that your relationship with God is like a friend relationship where you have secrets just between you and him that nobody else knows about.

And so again, verse 4, 16, and 18, your giving may be in secret, then your father will see what is done in secret.

Verse 6, then you pray, and your father who is unseen will see what's done in the unseen world.

He will see those things and what's done in secret.

And then when you fast, you're not fasting in an obvious way that's but your father who is unseen will see what is done in secret.

And so consistently, Jesus is pointing to, we have this space where it's like you get to do something that nobody else sees, that only he will see, and it will be this thing that you and he just do together.

And I think for us, we don't need to rush past this idea or skim over the fact that like it's really sweet what Jesus is asking us to do, and it's what really sweet what he's he's kind of it seems kind of silly to be like, hey, have secrets between you and God.

But it is really sweet.

Like, I think sometimes we can think of like our relationship with God, like he's like up there somewhere commanding our obedience from way away.

But really, he's like, no, no, no, it's it's not that.

I actually want to be very, very close to you.

I want to do stuff with just you and you alone.

Don't bring anybody else into it.

Just let me and you do this thing together.

And so when you do something in secret, you're not doing this with the community around you.

You're just literally doing something with me, for me, and we are doing this thing together.

I'm the only one who sees these secret things.

I am not far off, some distant God.

I actually want to be very, very close to you, but when you do your good deeds and the things that you're supposed to be doing to spend time with me, you end up doing those for other people and with other people, and we are feel distant because you're not really doing those things with me anymore.

You're doing those things apart from me.

And what Jesus is calling us to is like, hey, I actually want you to have such a close relationship with him, the way that friends share secrets with one another and have secrets that they keep between one another if they're good friends.

I want us to have that kind of relationship.

That's what he's calling us into.

Psychologically, uh, sharing secrets between two people builds, if they can keep the secret, I realize it could ruin relationships as well, but if they can keep a secret, it builds and deepens relationships.

Um, Alyssa Bedrov, in her recent article, um The Role of Sharing and Receiving Secrets in Friendship, this is what she says.

She says, secrets, and with the caveat, if kept between friends, bolster their communication and bolster their closeness.

And then Frank Warren in his book, Half a Million Secrets, and he also does this TED Talk that's really interesting that you should all go look at Frank Warren, Half a Million Secrets is the TED Talk.

But he says this that secrets are the currency of closeness, and by sharing them, we develop stronger relationships.

The currency of closeness.

And so again, I don't want us to miss the fact that Jesus is like, have secrets between you and the Father.

Like, have the type of a relationship where there's only things that you and he know, so that your relationship is formed and built and close and connected, so that you are actually not this thing.

It's like, do you are you are you a Christian or do you follow God?

It's like, yeah, he's very close when I screw up.

I feel like he's eyeing me really badly every time I sin, but when I'm when life's going normal, I feel like he's very distant.

And it should be the other way.

We should constantly be walking in close connection with him, being very close to him, because we're doing things that he is the only person that sees this.

He's the only person that's actually walking with this with me.

I'm having a secret conversation, I'm having secret interactions only with him that he sees that nobody else sees.

This is what Jesus wants.

Not a transactional relationship between you and the Father, but actually a very, very close one.

Jesus in the scriptures and Isaiah in the past would criticize the religious people, and especially the nation of Israel.

It's like, you're you honor me with your lips, but your hearts are far from me.

Like there's something broken.

I don't want this rote, I obey in this way and that kind of thing because you just tell me to.

I want something that's more relational.

I want something that's very close.

And so for the Father to have this space with you, where you're just doing things between you and with him, it's seeking to build that relationship that he actually wants.

Not like, well, I tithe and we want you to tithe, we want you to, but I tithe, but it's really just on an auto-pay kind of thing, which again is fine.

Technology's great.

But if it's just never this thing that you're like, I, but but it's just, it's something out there that I do, I don't never think about it ever again.

Like I pay my MLG and W bill.

It's like, honestly, I don't want a relationship with them until my power goes out, and then I want a really bad relationship with them.

But like, he doesn't want that type of relationship with us.

He wants something that's very, very interactional, something that's very close and connected.

Uh in the Psalms, David says it like this: that God wants the same thing.

He says, Psalm 25, 14, he says, the Lord confides in, or the Lord shares his secrets with those who fear him.

A professor at the seminary I went to, Dr.

Vin Gameron, said this about this passage.

He said, uh, the Hebrew idiom for the Lord confide confides is really the secret of the Lord.

The secret of the Lord is with those who fear him, which may be translated intimate circle.

Those who do his will are his confidants.

They are his inner circle.

God wants an inner circle of people.

He's not thrilled when it's like, yeah, I follow him, but I don't ever feel close to him.

That's not what he wants.

Another commentator, Alexander McLaren, says this.

He says, Some read this passage that the friendship of the Lord is with those who fear him.

It signifies familiar, confidential intimacy, and select fellowship.

And so whether we translate it secret or friendship, the sense is substantially the same.

Obedience will be rewarded by the whispers or by whispers from heaven.

I love that idea.

Obedience will be rewarded with whispers from heaven.

And again, I don't want us to miss the sweetness of this thing that we have that Jesus is calling us into.

I mean, it's like a little child, like when Teddy shares a secret with me about going to get present a present from Mother's Day for Rainey.

It's like it's very sweet, and we joke about it, it's funny.

She has no idea that we're doing it.

He's so excited and he's giddy about it.

And it's like Jesus is going, you could have that with the Father.

You can have this very, very sweet thing between you and him to where you're like, I don't feel distant from him.

We do stuff together every day.

I'm constantly with him in this space where only it's just me and him.

I don't have this thing that's like, oh yeah, I don't really feel close to him.

It's not that.

And so Jesus is calling us into this space, this type of relationship.

This author, Elaine Prevelet, talks about her experience with this, and I think this is what Jesus is pointing to.

She was a nun, or when she entered the nunnery, this is what she says.

When I first entered the nunnery in my early 20s, I decided to do one small act of kindness each day that was completely unknown to anyone.

And so I would keep my eyes peeled for something helpful that I could do that no one would see.

I wanted to be absolutely sure that I was doing it for no one but God, whom I loved with a kind of simple and quiet, passionate fervor.

I made beds, I folded clothes, I tidied at least one a day, and no one knew.

And that very small act each day gave me enormous joy.

It gave me a kind of inner excitement to do this only for God, a secret between me and Him.

And again, I I just I just think that's really sweet that Jesus is calling us into that type of thing.

Don't allow this relationship with God to feel distant.

I've constantly wanted to be close with you, and the way to press into that is to act in secret between the only person who sees what is done in secret is Him.

And primarily our experience with that is our sin.

We do, we sin in secret, and we know God's the only one who saw that, and I can keep it hidden.

It's like, man, it was, I mean, and that's its own thing, and Jesus covers that.

But it's supposed to be the other way.

But I do these righteous things in secret where I'm building my relationship with him, and I have these things stored up that's just between us because it's that sweet.

It's supposed to be that way.

And Jesus is talking about a sweetness and a friendliness inside of a relationship with God that was foreign to the people of their day.

And I think sometimes it's still foreign to us today.

That's like, man, he wants something secret between, he wants to keep secrets back and forth so that y'all are that tight, so that you're that close.

Our relationship with him is supposed to be close, and that's what Jesus is calling us into.

This practice removes any distance because you were doing things.

Y'all know this, I mean, in in real life.

If you spend more time with people, me and Desmond had lunch the other day, trying to spend more time with men in the church to get to know people.

We know if you do that over time, the relationship takes steps forward over and over and over, and the friendship grows over and over and over.

And it's slow and there's no way around it.

It can't go fast.

Relationships are built slowly.

And the Father is saying, I want a very, very close, tight relationship with you.

And so doing these things and practicing, looking for them the way Elaine did, looking for them and going, where can I find this space that I do something only between me and the Father?

So that our relationship gets closer and closer and closer, so that we have that.

And so if you feel distance in your relationship with God, this is a practice that Jesus is offering and saying, I'm inviting you into this sweet thing.

Do things just for him, do things just with him, and your relationship will get will be built up consistently more and more and more.

Alright, that's point two.

Point three, last one.

Jesus calls us to practice secrecy because God will reward you openly.

When you practice righteousness in secret, God will reward you openly.

Verse six, or excuse me, four, six, and eighteen, again, just in each different section, says the Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

And it says actually, he'll reward you openly.

I'll get to that in just a second.

One of the things that we need to remember is that our obedience to God doesn't go unnoticed.

It's never neutral.

I think, especially with Christians in our day, because we know that we can't earn our salvation, like we're saved by grace through faith, not of works done so that we can't boast.

We know that, which is great, and that's so true.

But because we know that we think, then our good deeds do nothing.

And so we have this question like, why even do anything good if I'm saved by grace through faith and not by good works?

Why do anything good?

And then we have this misinterpretation of Isaiah's passage where it's like, even my righteous deeds are as filthy rags to him, so why even do a righteous deed if he sees it as filthy rags?

But that's a misinterpretation of that passage.

What Isaiah is referencing in that passage isn't everyone's righteous deeds.

He's talking specifically to people who are actually doing what Jesus is talking about.

They're practicing their righteous deeds for the wrong motives.

He's saying your righteousness is filled with selfishness.

Your righteous deeds are filthy because you're doing them not for God.

You're doing them to be seen by other people.

You have input into your righteousness and following the law, really, really sinful stuff.

And so even when you do something righteous according to the law, even when you bring that sacrifice, you're not bringing the right type of sacrifice because you're doing it with the wrong heart.

And so he's not saying that all righteous deeds are filthy rags.

That's not what he's saying.

He's saying that the way that they're practicing it, it's the same that what Jesus is saying.

The hypocrites practice these things incorrectly.

They practice these things to be seen by others, not to actually, they're not seeking to serve the Lord, they're seeking to serve themselves.

And that righteousness is filthy.

But for us, righteousness actually, righteous deeds are can be good things if we're doing them for the right reasons.

Your righteous deeds will be rewarded.

Charles Spurgeon says this that he will reward you.

As a father rewards a child, he will reward you as one who saw what you did and knew what you did was holy unto him.

And so he rewards you.

And that's what Jesus is saying.

Like, we have to realize that your doing righteous things and being obedient will be rewarded.

He constantly says that your father who sees what is done will reward you.

But it doesn't just say that he will reward you, it says that he'll reward you openly.

This is confusing a little bit because in the NIV, ESV, NASB, any translation of the Bible that you probably have.

Unless anybody got the King James Version Bible?

No, it's okay, fine.

King James Version is the only one that translated correctly.

There's a Greek, in the Greek version of the scriptures, the manuscripts that we have, there's this word that's uh go to the yeah.

Uh it's I'm not gonna say it incorrectly, but phoneros uh is it means evident, openly, in public, and manifest.

And so the only space that you actually see that word interpreted in a translation of the Bible is the King James Version and the New King James Version, and then an Aramaic translation of the scriptures.

But what it says is your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you phone ros, will reward you openly.

And so, next slide here.

Yeah, so it says, do not be, this this word is used consistently, do not be like the hypocrites who love to be seen in public, fane, it's the same word, it's just past tense.

And your father will reward you, fane ras in a public way.

And so what Jesus is saying in this space is like, if you choose to do your deeds in public to be seen by the public, you will receive a reward of them going, You're really righteous.

But if you will choose to do your good deeds in a secret way, you will be rewarded by the Father in a public way.

So if you choose to do your good deeds in a secret way, he will reward you in a way that's super evident to you and evident to everybody else.

And that's what he's pointing to.

It's not just I'll be rewarded one day with crowns in heaven.

It's not, it is that, but also it's it's more than that.

It's not just like, I did a righteous thing, nobody saw it, I'll be rewarded one day.

It's like, no, no, no, he's saying he'll do it today, he'll do it now.

You will be rewarded for secret things done just to the Father.

You'll be rewarded openly.

That's what he's trying to get at.

And so NT Wright says this it says, if you learn to love and serve God right now, you will have treasure in the present, not just in the future.

Jesus wanted his followers to establish heavenly treasure right now, treasure which they could enjoy in the present as well as in the future.

And so, what's important for us in this particular space is like Jesus is like, hey, do these things because the Father wants to give you something, and he wants to give you something now and in a public way, and don't feel bad, like no one's gonna see this is like, oh, the person who needs to see it will see it, and he will reward you openly.

He's a God who likes to give rewards.

And I think it in many ways it's left out of the NIV and the ESB and all these different things because the a movement of um extreme Pentecostals are like, he will reward you now with millions of dollars, he openly means money, and it's like, wow, no, that's not what that means.

Um but it is true that he says it, like, but your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you, and not just later, he will reward you openly now.

Your life will take on the visible qualities of rewards when you do things in secret for him and for him alone.

And I think it's important for us to know like our obedience and our righteousness in this particular way, he sees that and he's like, it's not neutral.

I want to reward that, I want to do something for you now.

Now, Jesus doesn't say what the reward will be.

It's definitely not a million dollars.

If it is, come talk to me.

We're looking to buy a building.

Um that's it's it I it's nothing like that.

Um but he doesn't say what it will be, he just knows the promise is though, the father who sees what is done in secret will do something for you publicly.

And so that's true for us, and that's a promise that Jesus has.

One of the greatest stories that I've heard on this idea of people doing things in secret and then experiencing reward publicly uh was Susanna Wesley, who is the mother of uh Charles Wesley and John Wesley.

Um I believe it's Charles Wesley, who like wrote like 6,500 hymns, Hark the Herald Angel Sings, like all this different stuff.

And then John Wesley was a part of like the first Great Awakening and everything that happened in the UK.

But uh Susanna Wesley, the mom, when she was uh when John and Charles were just little, she had 10 kids in the house and she had a very she loved the Lord, had a very difficult time with 10 kids finding any private space to be alone with him in the secret place, like just very, very difficult.

Um because she homeschooled them and all the rest of it.

But uh, what she would end up doing is she would throw her apron over her head while everybody else was like doing their schoolwork or whatever.

She would just sit in a chair and put her apron over her head and bring her Bible there.

So Jackie Green in her book, uh Only One Life says that this was this was her solution.

So uh right here she writes Mother Wesley's solution to finding privacy was to bring her Bible to her favorite chair, throw her long apron over her head, forming a sort of tent.

And it says this became something akin to the tabernacle, the tent of meeting in the days of Moses.

Every person in the household, from the smallest toddler to the oldest domestic helpers, knew well to respect this signal.

When Susanna was under the apron, she was with God and was not to be disturbed except in the case of the direst emergency.

There, in the privacy of her little tent of meeting, she interceded for her husband and children and plumbed the deep mysteries of God in the scriptures.

And what I love about that is like she found space to do something privately, to do something in secret.

And the reward from her obedience of seeking to do things in secret led to Charles Wesley writing hymns that have changed the course of, I mean, if you've been in church in any capacity whatsoever, you have sung these hymns that have shaped the church.

If you are here as a Christian today, our church has been shaped at some point by the first Great Awakening that John Wesley was a part of.

And so there's all these different things that take place and that have been rewarded to her and her faithfulness that took place in her family that she was able to be a part of.

I heard another story of a Christian who wanted to practice this and be secret and be kind to someone in secret.

And so there was this atheist woman that couldn't pay her rent, and so the Christian trying to do this secretly uh dropped the money in the atheist's mailbox one afternoon and didn't leave a note or anything like that.

And uh said that when the atheist saw the money, even though she was an atheist, she had no one to thank, and so she decided to pray a prayer and thank God to who she did not believe in.

And it was just a simple story of like, that's really sweet.

Like in the absence of no one to thank, she ended up thanking a God that she was like, I don't even know if you're actually there.

But the reward of that, of like leading that woman to even consider, is maybe God does exist, and maybe my beliefs aren't real.

And so my point in all of this is just to say, like, I don't know what the reward will be.

I just know that the reward is promised by Jesus to us, that when we follow him in secret, he rewards us publicly.

And so maybe it's true for you and for me that when we follow him in secret, maybe we will lead someone to actually believe that Jesus really exists.

Maybe your secret kindness in their life will be an answer to prayer they just prayed, wondering, like, God, just give me a sign that you're real.

And then somewhere out of nowhere, you don't rush in and be like, I'm awesome, I'm doing this thing for you.

But something happens in secret and it leads them to go, like, oh, you see me.

Maybe it'll change the course of like, maybe they're thinking, I no one knows me, I don't exist, it's better if I don't exist, and they're moving in that direction.

And then your secret kindness shows that, like, no, the Lord sees you and you're blessing them in secret.

Who knows what it will be?

But I do think that the promise remains the same.

That Jesus is saying, you will be rewarded in public if you do things in secret, and you get to choose.

Would you rather have a smattering of applause by other people in your life for what you do and what you give and that kind of thing?

Or would you rather experience something from heaven itself, from God Himself, who wants to do something far greater than anybody else can do in your life?

And that's what he's calling us to.

So, those three things.

This is why Jesus calls us to practice secrecy.

He wants to free us from the public opinion of others that traps us.

He wants to form us into a relationship with God that's friendly and close and not this transactional thing.

And because he genuinely wants to give us something as a reward, and this is the way that he has chosen to do that.

I will reward you if you do it in secret.

And so for us, I'd encourage us, let's practice following Jesus in secret.

We are supposed to let our light shine before men, that's true.

But if that's all we do, we only do good things in front of other people so that other people can see it.

We only do those things because we're allowing our light to shine before men.

That's one way of doing it, and that's wonderful.

But it can shift and turn into this, now I only do it not for him anymore, now I only do it for the applause of other people.

And so we have to be careful.

So I want to give us two ways to practice this.

The first, if you want to practice this, is um this week, do something kind for someone without letting anyone know it.

Do something kind.

It's very simple.

Do something kind for someone without letting anyone know it.

Don't share it with anybody, keep it a secret between you and the father.

And this week, choose to do something for or give something to someone anonymously.

You can ask God, and I would encourage you to do that.

Like, hey, have a conversation.

I want to do something nice for someone in secret.

What should I do?

Allow him to give you thoughts on that.

It's a normal conversation that Teddy and I had about giving Rainey something for Mother's Day.

Hey, we need to get something for mom on Mother's Day.

And he's like, this is amazing.

We're gonna be secret and go get this.

Like, it's a sweet thing that the Father wants to share with us.

And so ask him to help you discover what you should do.

As you talk to people, pay attention to what they might need, what they mention.

You're just listening to conversations on certain things, just do that thing.

I don't know what it looks like.

Uh but plan a way of following through without letting them know, without letting anyone know.

And the temptation will come if you if you do it.

The temptation will come to like that, you go, you want to go talk to somebody and you want to tell them that thing.

And it's very, it's like somebody needs to know this because we have this addictive desire to be seen as like awesome.

And it's like fight that desire and just keep it between you and him.

It will build your relationship.

And I would encourage you to get creative around this.

I don't know what that looks like, but just ask him.

He's creative.

And then practice number two uh secret spiritual disciplines.

Uh, I love hearing what people read in the scriptures and all that.

I love that.

Uh, I would encourage you to do something in a spiritual discipline that no one knows about, that you don't even share about, that never hears the, it never sees the light of day, any way, whatever.

I know we talk about how to read the Bible and talk about a prayer room and we talk about these things, and I love all that.

And I think that's necessary.

Find something that's just between you and him.

A way of chasing hard after him that nobody else will know.

So practice fasting through a meal and don't tell anybody about it.

Pray about something for someone in secret, and when the Lord answers you, don't tell them that you're praying.

When he does what you were asked that person, when it when it happens and you prayed for them, but they never knew you were praying for them, don't tell them, I've been praying for you.

Don't do that.

Just hold it there.

And I know that it's a tendency to be like, it happened.

Well, of course, my prayers are awesome.

Like, don't do that.

Just allow it to be a space where it's a secret between you and him.

And then pray for someone, maybe even someone that no one would expect you to pray for, and you're praying for them, even though everybody in your office hates this person, but you're like, I'm gonna secretly pray for them, one, to save my own skin, and then two, I'm gonna do this as the spiritual discipline so that they don't know.

But just practice doing things in secret that's just between you and him.

Allow this to be a space where you do that.

In every church I've ever been a part of, and I've worked for eight different churches, there always is a culture, and it's true in this one too.

There is a culture that exists of waiting to do something until I'm asked.

So I will give money to a cause if I'm asked.

I will give money to a family if I'm asked.

I will serve in this capacity if I'm asked.

And part of that is nice.

You're being deferential, you don't want to overstep, you don't want to do that thing.

But if you only ever serve in that way, or only ever give in that way, and you're only ever over-generous when someone asks you, if that's the only time you're doing it, you're never practicing things in secret.

There's always at least one person that knows that.

And so you're never actually doing this thing that Jesus says, make sure you don't give do your good deeds in front of other people.

And so it's impossible to follow Jesus in this way and choose to wait to be asked to do something.

We're supposed to be looking forward in this thing.

We're supposed to be proactive in this, intentionally trying to take the initiative and to practice in those things.

And so I love when I'm able to go to someone and say, hey, we need a lot of money for the mission trip, and I know who to go and ask, and I know they'll give it to us.

But I also think there's supposed to be a space in here where no one has asked.

No one even knows that this is even a need.

I'm the only one that's recognized that this is a need.

And to me, that's how Jesus calls us to follow him.

There's a reward that's greater than just me going, thank you so much, that really helps us.

And that's awesome.

And I want to say thank you to the people that bless our church and to do kind things.

But I think there's something greater that comes not from me, but from the Father who sees what is done in secret and then rewards you openly.

And so my encouragement to you is to find a way to practice these things.

And if you secretly buy us a building, just leave the deed off at my house, and then we'll be good to go.

I won't tell anyone if you won't.

But don't settle for people's rewards and accolades when you can have rewards and accolades that come from God Himself.

Don't settle.

He has something better for you.

You guys okay?

Everybody good?

All right, I'm done.

Let me pray.

Lord Jesus, thank you for just the idea that you want to be close with us.

That there exists in our culture, in our time, to be a Christian and not to know God, uh, which is so backwards.

And that you're just seeking by your word to go follow me in this, do these things so that we experience the blessings of God in our time, so that we experience the closeness of God in our lives, and so that we're saved from the things in our culture that would seek to kill us and the traps of the enemy that are set for us.

You're trying to help us, you're trying to bless us, and you're trying to be close to us.

That is what you're asking us to do in this practice.

And so, God, I just pray that we would put this into our lives, that we would allow it to be a space that we look around and look at the needs not only in our church, but in our community, in our families, look for spaces like Elaine Prevalet and just actually go, like, I just want to do one kind thing that no one knows about, that I'm just doing between me and the Lord.

God, I pray that you would set that in our hearts, that you would give us even minds right now and hearts right now.

Uh place things in our lives that we could do that you want to see blessing move out into the world in a secret way.

Um I pray that you would do that in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Y'all, we're gonna take communion.

And uh, if so if you helped with communion, please come up here and do that.

Miss Barbara, will you help me over here?

Is that okay?

Can you help me hold these?

Is that all right?

Um Rainey's back with the kids.

But um take communion, we get this space.

Communion is awesome for so many reasons, but like Jesus didn't die in like he died in a public way, but not in like the eyes of like everyone in the entire world.

Like, marched him out of the city into this space to do this thing in secret, and nobody knew what he was doing.

Why are you giving up your life?

Nobody really understood what he was doing.

And so it wasn't this space where anybody was honoring him and doing that, like, oh, look at him go to the cross.

I know what he's doing for the joy of the Lord, set before him.

Like, that's what he's, he's he's serving me in this way, he's redeeming me of my sins.

Like, no one knew that.

He is just seeking to follow the will of the Father.

Everybody thought he's been overpowered and that's why he's dying.

He's like, I'm actually doing an incredible, incredible secret thing for everyone to do, to experience my life in them.

And no, everybody will say that this is a shameful thing and this is actually going to become the most glorious thing that he would give his life for the ransom of sinners.

And so he embodies the secret love of the Lord, the secret obedience to the Lord.

And so we get to partake in this his body broken for us, his blood shed for us.

And so take some time in your seats to pray and ask the Lord.

If you've just spent most of your life doing things in the public eye, and you're like, all I want to do is give money so that people see me, all I want to do is serve people so that I'm like, then repent and confess that sin to the Lord.

This is a great space to do that, and then come and receive the acknowledgement and the truth that like you are forgiven and loved.

His body was broken for your sin, his blood was poured out to cover you.

And so take some time in your seats and then come as you're ready, and let's receive communion together.