1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:29,980 We've been walking through the Sermon on the Mount, and just a brief refresher before we pray to sort of give you the arc of what we are seeing. We are not trying to deal with every detail, nor are we necessarily trying to deal with every detail in the Bible that is contained within the Sermon on the Mount, but sort of like flying in a plane over the terrain of the earth, we're trying to sort of get a big picture of what Jesus is doing. 2 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:59,980 in these words to us. And so the Sermon on the Mount begins with what we know as the Beatitudes, "Blessed are the poor in spirit," and we find this picture of both invitation and of transformation, that Jesus invites us into a new way of life, and He begins transforming who we are. From there, we find that that transformation results in people who live for righteousness, and almost immediately, 3 00:00:59,980 --> 00:01:29,960 we see what happens when the world begins to push back. And so Jesus then addresses our fear of opposition, and He talks about how we are salt and light. Then Jesus will move into dealing with righteousness and the root of sin, starting in verse 17 all the way down through verse 48, that Jesus goes beneath the behavior and to our hearts. And as we moved into last week, we've moved into this relationship with God. 4 00:01:29,960 --> 00:01:59,940 And to our hearts, in terms where Matthew chapter 5 ends, sort of picturing these attitudes and actions we take toward others, Matthew chapter 6 deals with our relationship to God. And in doing so, Jesus is calling us into a deeper relationship with the Father. And He's not just showing us this morning, I think, where we should be, but also laying out a path for where we should go. 5 00:01:59,940 --> 00:02:29,920 Let's get right into it. Father in heaven, I thank You for Your Word. I thank You for the truth of Your Word, and the power of Your Word. I thank You that You have preserved it, and protected it, and provided it to us. I thank You for Your Spirit, who is at work applying this Word into our lives and to our hearts. 6 00:02:29,920 --> 00:02:43,920 To hear about giving and praying and fasting, to think of them simply as religious practices that maybe we do or maybe we don't, but help us to see more deeply into what You are calling us to be. 7 00:02:43,920 --> 00:02:59,900 You are calling us to be Your children, and to be near to You. So encourage this morning the discouraged, convict those who are running from You. May You open our hearts to understand and 8 00:02:59,900 --> 00:03:05,900 hear the Gospel. It's in Your Son's name we pray. Amen. 9 00:03:05,900 --> 00:03:20,900 So the reality is, I think, probably, most of us are list-making people, right? And you say, "Well, I'm not a list-making people," but the reality is, even if you're not a list person, you still live in a world that is governed and ruled by lists. 10 00:03:20,900 --> 00:03:29,880 And if you don't think so, right, you go to the DMV. You have to have a list of things you need before you get there. And it's always written, I think, in the most 11 00:03:29,880 --> 00:03:39,880 convoluted way possible, right? You need one document from tab A. You need two documents from tab C. And if you don't have two documents from tab C, you need three documents from tab 4. 12 00:03:39,880 --> 00:03:52,880 And when you get there, you don't even get to go talk to somebody at the DMV, at least in Virginia. You have to go to somebody who checks a list to make sure that you have fulfilled the requirements of the list before you're allowed to do anything. 13 00:03:52,880 --> 00:04:00,880 You see, we live in a world that is filled with lists. And maybe your lists are mental, right? And that's great. You sort of have a mental checklist. 14 00:04:00,880 --> 00:04:11,880 I do that a lot, and it's great until I completely forget what was on my list, right? The reality is, every single one of us lives in a world full of lists. 15 00:04:11,880 --> 00:04:18,880 Some are responsibilities. Some are overwhelming. Some are exciting things that we are looking forward to. 16 00:04:18,880 --> 00:04:28,880 And one of the reasons that we have so many lists is because oftentimes, right, they make things easy. We check the box and we move on to the next one. 17 00:04:28,880 --> 00:04:37,880 And probably a lot of us have some feelings about this. Maybe it's an opportunity. It's a tool to be more productive. If you're like me, sometimes it's a burden. 18 00:04:37,880 --> 00:04:47,880 It's a prison on my natural creativity. Don't fence me in with your silly list. Two things this morning as we think about lists. 19 00:04:47,880 --> 00:04:55,880 In our text, we're going to see three spiritual practices: giving, prayer, and fasting. And it's very tempting to see this as a list, right? 20 00:04:55,880 --> 00:05:04,880 Three things to do. Three boxes to check. Jesus, in fact, is not giving us a to-do list. He's calling us to evaluate our hearts. 21 00:05:04,880 --> 00:05:13,880 And once he has diagnosed the problem, he's going to lead us into something wonderful, a closeness with the Father who sees in secret. 22 00:05:13,880 --> 00:05:21,880 Second, I want you to understand that Jesus is speaking to all of us, but he may be speaking to us in different ways, right? 23 00:05:21,880 --> 00:05:30,880 Some of us need to be corrected, and some of us need to be corrected fairly frequently. Maybe we're doing the right things, but we're doing so for the wrong reasons. 24 00:05:30,880 --> 00:05:40,880 We're seeking approval, building reputation, storing up the wrong treasure, and Jesus is going to very clearly confront that. 25 00:05:40,880 --> 00:05:51,880 Some of us, what we need is an invitation, and what I mean by that is that maybe we're doing everything that we are supposed to be doing, but we're exhausted. 26 00:05:51,880 --> 00:06:00,880 We're checking boxes, but we don't feel like we're very close to God, and what Jesus is going to do is he's going to invite us into something better. 27 00:06:00,880 --> 00:06:05,880 And all of us, regardless of where we are, need to see the glory of what Jesus is offering. 28 00:06:05,880 --> 00:06:11,880 There is a Father who sees us, who knows us, and who calls us to himself. 29 00:06:11,880 --> 00:06:20,880 And so, as we walk through this giving, and this prayer, and this fasting, one of the calls of this text on our lives is to evaluate where we are, 30 00:06:20,880 --> 00:06:29,880 not necessarily in terms of a list with check boxes, but in regards to where our heart is into how we are following Jesus. 31 00:06:29,880 --> 00:06:36,880 You see, Jesus uses these three things—giving, praying, and fasting—to diagnose the problem of our heart. 32 00:06:36,880 --> 00:06:41,880 And I want to start by saying we need to understand that these things, Jesus is saying, they are good. 33 00:06:41,880 --> 00:06:46,880 Jesus' words here in this text assume that we are going to be doing them, right? 34 00:06:46,880 --> 00:06:51,880 The formula found in this text is "when you." 35 00:06:51,880 --> 00:07:03,880 So Jesus begins by saying, "When you give, when you pray, when you fast," the implication here is not if you do these things, it's when you do these things. 36 00:07:03,880 --> 00:07:14,880 Because there is a temptation that we frequently have that treats certain spiritual actions as sort of maybe the advanced class for people who are more mature than I am, 37 00:07:14,880 --> 00:07:23,880 or as optional add-ons that maybe improve a little bit, but they don't really change the structure of who we are in Christ. 38 00:07:23,880 --> 00:07:30,880 So sort of like sprinkles on ice cream, right? It's nice and it's pretty, but it doesn't really change the ice cream all that much. 39 00:07:30,880 --> 00:07:44,880 These spiritual disciplines that Jesus is using as examples of hearts that are either rightly focused or wrongly focused are a normal expression of life of people who walk with God. 40 00:07:44,880 --> 00:07:52,880 And the problem is that we can easily do these things for the wrong reasons, and so what Jesus is going to do is he's going to show us our hearts. 41 00:07:52,880 --> 00:08:03,880 So I want to start by showing you the pattern, and then we'll walk through and explain the contrast, and we'll talk about different kinds of people in our hearts and sort of see where we end up. 42 00:08:03,880 --> 00:08:10,880 So I want to move into the pattern, and the pattern in this is pretty simple. Three times is going to give us the same structure, right? 43 00:08:10,880 --> 00:08:20,880 When you give, when you pray, when you fast. And in that structure, what he's going to do is he's going to sort of contrast different audiences. 44 00:08:20,880 --> 00:08:27,880 So he's going to contrast hypocrites, or those who play a part, who are sort of play-acting at what they are doing. 45 00:08:27,880 --> 00:08:36,880 In prayer, he's going to add an extra group, not just the hypocrites, but the Gentiles, and then again in fasting, he's going to talk about the hypocrites. 46 00:08:36,880 --> 00:08:46,880 Now the contrast between these groups is those who are children of their Heavenly Father, right? Over and over, he says, "Your Heavenly Father." 47 00:08:46,880 --> 00:08:57,880 And so the contrast in this text, in this list of three things, there is a contrast between those who are sort of playing or seeking to manipulate with their religious actions, 48 00:08:57,880 --> 00:09:05,880 and those who are children of the Father. And then there's going to be a contrast in the Lord. 49 00:09:05,880 --> 00:09:12,880 He will say, "They have received their reward." And then three times he says, "Your Father who sees in secret will reward you." 50 00:09:12,880 --> 00:09:21,880 And notice that this is a completed reward, on one hand, versus a reward that is given by our Heavenly Father. 51 00:09:21,880 --> 00:09:28,880 And we'll talk a little bit more about that in a minute. I want you to understand, Jesus is not giving us three separate lessons. 52 00:09:28,880 --> 00:09:37,880 He's showing us one thing repeated three times, so that we don't miss it. Because sometimes, right, we have to have things hammered into our heads, 53 00:09:37,880 --> 00:09:48,880 and pushed into our hearts, before we can see the reality. And the pattern here shows that our spiritual practices, they go deeper than just sort of simple actions. 54 00:09:48,880 --> 00:09:56,880 And those actions don't just display what we believe, but they also display our heart, and they expose what we actually want. 55 00:09:56,880 --> 00:10:05,880 At the heart of this, there is something that we desire. And Jesus talks about this reward, and He talks about those who have received their reward in full, 56 00:10:05,880 --> 00:10:19,880 that their desire in these things is to receive acclaim, or importance, or to have themselves listed up, or to be seen as influential, or spiritual, or holy. 57 00:10:19,880 --> 00:10:24,880 There's something we want. That's the reward that's being talked about. 58 00:10:24,880 --> 00:10:39,880 And on the other hand, there is a reward that is given by our Father, and ultimately what we'll see is that is a relationship that is deeper and closer and more wonderful than anything we can ever imagine. 59 00:10:39,880 --> 00:10:47,880 And so in this pattern, the three things: the contrast, and then ultimately seeing this reward that we desire that shows us our hearts. 60 00:10:47,880 --> 00:10:53,880 Let me give you an example. Forgiving, it's the man who is generous, 61 00:10:53,880 --> 00:11:03,880 because it gets him acclaim, or the one who is generous because his giving helps him depend more deeply and more fully on the provision of his heavenly Father. 62 00:11:03,880 --> 00:11:12,880 The same is true for prayer. The man who is super spiritual or a call to remember and run to their heavenly Father. 63 00:11:12,880 --> 00:11:16,880 And the same is true with the priority of fasting. 64 00:11:16,880 --> 00:11:22,880 So I want us to, first of all, see this pattern, and secondly, I want us now to begin to understand 65 00:11:22,880 --> 00:11:32,880 the contrast. One of the things that's important, especially as we come to texts like this, is to see all of what God says on a topic. 66 00:11:32,880 --> 00:11:36,880 Because if we only look at a small piece, it's very easy for us to get the wrong idea. 67 00:11:36,880 --> 00:11:41,880 So imagine that you're studying marriage, and you only look at King Solomon, right? 68 00:11:41,880 --> 00:11:50,880 You're going to come away with a pretty skewed view of what marriage is and how many wives it's acceptable for a man to have at one time. 69 00:11:50,880 --> 00:11:55,880 And the same is true if we come to where Jesus talks about giving to those in need, 70 00:11:55,880 --> 00:12:02,880 as he talks about praying, as he talks about fasting, and he talks about doing so publicly versus in secret. 71 00:12:02,880 --> 00:12:10,880 If we only see this picture in this text, we're going to come away with an incomplete picture, right? 72 00:12:10,880 --> 00:12:18,880 The real problem here isn't, is giving, praying, or fasting public? It's deeper. 73 00:12:18,880 --> 00:12:22,880 It's, "What am I seeking as I give and pray and fast?" 74 00:12:22,880 --> 00:12:27,880 It's not the visibility. It's the motivation for that visibility. 75 00:12:27,880 --> 00:12:33,880 He's not saying that private is holy and public is sinful, and the issue is visibility or secrecy. 76 00:12:33,880 --> 00:12:36,880 It's the reason behind why you're doing it this way, right? 77 00:12:36,880 --> 00:12:39,880 It's, "Why are you doing it in this specific manner?" 78 00:12:39,880 --> 00:12:45,880 So, yesterday I was driving through town, and it was nice, and everybody was outside, 79 00:12:45,880 --> 00:12:51,880 and I'm driving by this one specific house that we go by on a pretty regular basis when we're cutting through town. 80 00:12:51,880 --> 00:12:56,880 It has no yard, or it does have a yard, but it's like the size of the communion table with a fence. 81 00:12:56,880 --> 00:12:59,880 The driveway takes up the rest of the front of the house, and there's no other space. 82 00:12:59,880 --> 00:13:06,880 And I drive by, there is a muscled, shirtless guy with his weight bench in the middle of the sidewalk 83 00:13:06,880 --> 00:13:11,880 with the biggest dumbbells I've ever seen, right? They had to be bigger than 50-pound dumbbells. 84 00:13:11,880 --> 00:13:16,880 And he's sitting there in the middle of the sidewalk, and he is not even doing anything. 85 00:13:16,880 --> 00:13:21,880 I had to stop right there for a few minutes because of a stop sign, and he's just sitting there, you know, 86 00:13:21,880 --> 00:13:27,880 one arm on his knee, the other arm holding the dumbbell, just in the middle of the sidewalk, not even in his yard. 87 00:13:27,880 --> 00:13:32,880 And I'm thinking, "Dude, like you have a house, right? The problem isn't people seeing you working out. 88 00:13:32,880 --> 00:13:38,880 It's when you have to move your car so you have enough room to drag your weight bench out the front door of your house, 89 00:13:38,880 --> 00:13:45,880 put it in the sidewalk, put your car back in the driveway, and then sit on your weight bench in the middle of Winchester 90 00:13:45,880 --> 00:13:51,880 so that everybody can know that you can curl 75-pound dumbbells even if they never actually see you doing it. 91 00:13:51,880 --> 00:13:58,880 The problem isn't being seen. It's why are you going through all of this effort in order to be seen. 92 00:13:58,880 --> 00:14:06,880 That's exactly what Jesus is talking about. The problem isn't that we pray publicly or privately, or we give publicly or privately, 93 00:14:06,880 --> 00:14:11,880 or we fast publicly or privately. It's why are you doing it the way that you're doing it. 94 00:14:11,880 --> 00:14:16,880 There is a time when we are called to do so privately. 95 00:14:16,880 --> 00:14:20,880 Jesus goes and prays privately all the time, but then there's other times where he prays publicly. 96 00:14:20,880 --> 00:14:26,880 In John chapter 17, there's times where we give quietly and anonymously, 97 00:14:26,880 --> 00:14:31,880 where our left hand doesn't know what our right hand is doing, but then there's times like in Acts chapter 4, 98 00:14:31,880 --> 00:14:37,880 where people are giving publicly to the work and support of the saints. 99 00:14:37,880 --> 00:14:40,880 It's kind of summed up like this. 100 00:14:40,880 --> 00:14:47,880 Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, 101 00:14:47,880 --> 00:14:50,880 for you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. 102 00:14:50,880 --> 00:14:53,880 Notice what this text specifically says. 103 00:14:53,880 --> 00:14:56,880 Beware of practicing your righteousness. Here's the key part. 104 00:14:56,880 --> 00:14:59,880 Before other people in order to be seen by them. 105 00:14:59,880 --> 00:15:05,880 That the purpose of this is those who do so in order to be seen by them. 106 00:15:05,880 --> 00:15:10,880 You see, the practices aren't the problem. It's the treasure that's underneath these things. 107 00:15:10,880 --> 00:15:13,880 So I want to take a look at these contrasts in this text. 108 00:15:13,880 --> 00:15:19,880 And I want to begin with Matthew 6:2-4. We'll move through these fairly quickly. 109 00:15:19,880 --> 00:15:22,880 And Jesus says this: 110 00:15:22,880 --> 00:15:24,880 "Thus when you give to the needy..." 111 00:15:24,880 --> 00:15:28,880 It's known specifically here, it's not sort of a general picture of offering. 112 00:15:28,880 --> 00:15:31,880 But it is giving specifically to the needy. 113 00:15:31,880 --> 00:15:33,880 "Sound no trumpet before you." 114 00:15:33,880 --> 00:15:36,880 Now there's a couple options here in regard to this. 115 00:15:36,880 --> 00:15:42,880 There were some receptacles in the temple that were sort of roughly trumpet-shaped. 116 00:15:42,880 --> 00:15:48,880 And so when you would put your coins in, because there's no paper money in this day and this time, it would kind of rattle in. 117 00:15:48,880 --> 00:15:54,880 So you could give like one piece of silver, or you could give like 150 copper coins. 118 00:15:54,880 --> 00:15:59,880 So if you really want to make your offering have an audible impact on the crowd that surrounds you, 119 00:15:59,880 --> 00:16:04,880 you get it all in pennies and you sort of rattle it in the offering thing. 120 00:16:04,880 --> 00:16:08,880 That may be what Jesus is referring to. I think he does later in the Gospels. 121 00:16:08,880 --> 00:16:11,880 But I think here, specifically, it's not about offerings in the temple. 122 00:16:11,880 --> 00:16:14,880 It's about when you give to the needy. 123 00:16:14,880 --> 00:16:20,880 And there were some who in this time, when they would give to those who are needy, 124 00:16:20,880 --> 00:16:23,880 they wouldn't simply seek out those in need, but what they would do is they would, 125 00:16:23,880 --> 00:16:26,880 and I thought about borrowing my brother-in-law's trombone for this. 126 00:16:26,880 --> 00:16:30,880 They would get there, and they would make a big racket, 127 00:16:30,880 --> 00:16:33,880 not just to let the needy know that there was money being handed out, 128 00:16:33,880 --> 00:16:38,880 but so that everybody could see them handing that money out to those who were in need. 129 00:16:38,880 --> 00:16:41,880 He says this, "When you give to the needy, 130 00:16:41,880 --> 00:16:46,880 sound no trumpets before you, as the hypocrites do in their synagogues and in the streets, 131 00:16:46,880 --> 00:16:50,880 that they may be praised by others. Truly, they have received their reward. 132 00:16:50,880 --> 00:16:53,880 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 133 00:16:53,880 --> 00:16:59,880 so that your giving may be in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you." 134 00:16:59,880 --> 00:17:02,880 There's two ways to give to those in need. 135 00:17:02,880 --> 00:17:10,880 One that glorifies self, and one that pursues and reflects the heart of God. 136 00:17:10,880 --> 00:17:15,880 Let's take a look at Matthew 6, beginning in verse 5. 137 00:17:15,880 --> 00:17:24,880 "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, 138 00:17:24,880 --> 00:17:30,880 for they love to be seen by others. Truly I say to you, they have received their reward. 139 00:17:30,880 --> 00:17:34,880 But when you pray, go into your room, shut the door, and pray to your Father who is in secret, 140 00:17:34,880 --> 00:17:39,880 and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. 141 00:17:39,880 --> 00:17:45,880 And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think they will be heard with their many words. 142 00:17:45,880 --> 00:17:50,880 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him." 143 00:17:50,880 --> 00:17:57,880 A couple of differences here. We have two groups contrasted to one instead of just the hypocrites versus the children of God, 144 00:17:57,880 --> 00:18:00,880 and one is the publicity. 145 00:18:00,880 --> 00:18:08,880 This is not talking about going out and publicly praying for someone or with someone or for something specific. 146 00:18:08,880 --> 00:18:14,880 It's not, I think, talking about the National Day of Prayer as you walk through D.C. praying. 147 00:18:14,880 --> 00:18:20,880 This is talking about if I, every morning, instead of going through my prayer list, either in my office or in my living room, 148 00:18:20,880 --> 00:18:25,880 I take my prayer list down to the corner by McDonald's and Pleasant Valley and Jubal Early, 149 00:18:25,880 --> 00:18:30,880 and stand as you would in the first century, my hands out raised, my eyes straight to heaven, 150 00:18:30,880 --> 00:18:36,880 and pray through my prayer list in a really loud voice so that everybody knows I have a lot to say to God. 151 00:18:36,880 --> 00:18:42,880 That's not about me talking to God. That's about me making sure people see me. 152 00:18:42,880 --> 00:18:47,880 The second contrast here is do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do. 153 00:18:47,880 --> 00:18:55,880 There's a tendency, when we're trying to find or get something, we try to manipulate people with a lot of words. 154 00:18:55,880 --> 00:19:02,880 So we add a whole bunch of extra words. As a kid, I never did this, but I knew kids that did who would go to their parents and say, 155 00:19:02,880 --> 00:19:12,880 "Oh, great and wonderful father! You're the best dad ever! You are so handsome, and you are so good at everything you do. 156 00:19:12,880 --> 00:19:18,880 Maybe we could go get some ice cream." Now, I never did that, and my parents don't believe anything they say about that. 157 00:19:18,880 --> 00:19:24,880 But there's a way that we sometimes try to manipulate with our words, and that's the picture here. 158 00:19:24,880 --> 00:19:30,880 I'm going to use a whole lot of words. Think about Elijah and the prophets of Baal, 159 00:19:30,880 --> 00:19:37,880 where they go out before their God, and they pray, and they scream, and they cut themselves with all their words, and nothing happens. 160 00:19:37,880 --> 00:19:43,880 And then Elijah simply kneels down, and he asks that God would show himself to the people of Israel, 161 00:19:43,880 --> 00:19:48,880 and flame descends upon the sacrifice, right? There's ways to pray. 162 00:19:48,880 --> 00:19:56,880 One that promotes self, one that seeks to manipulate God, and one that rests in his provision as a good father. 163 00:19:56,880 --> 00:20:04,880 Pick up in verse 16, "And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces, 164 00:20:04,880 --> 00:20:09,880 so their fasting may be seen by others. Truly I say to you, they have received their reward. 165 00:20:09,880 --> 00:20:14,880 But when you fast, anoint your head, wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others, 166 00:20:14,880 --> 00:20:19,880 but by your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you." 167 00:20:19,880 --> 00:20:25,880 I was in my third year of Bible college, and I had a couple roommates, and we had somehow secured 168 00:20:25,880 --> 00:20:31,880 what had used to be the preaching lab in the basement of the men's dorm as our room. 169 00:20:31,880 --> 00:20:37,880 So we had a very large dorm room. One of my roommates, conveniently, 170 00:20:37,880 --> 00:20:41,880 he worked at the gas station down in the corner that had, like, wings and pizza, 171 00:20:41,880 --> 00:20:46,880 and according to the corporate policy, at 9:30 we could make fresh wings and pizza, 172 00:20:46,880 --> 00:20:54,880 and at 10 o'clock they had to throw away everything that was made. And so we had a pretty fairly, like, large supply 173 00:20:54,880 --> 00:20:59,880 of wings and pizza in our dorm room fridge, and one of the guys in the dorm, 174 00:20:59,880 --> 00:21:03,880 and he was a younger guy, comes walking in, and he sits down, he's like, "Man, I am so hungry." 175 00:21:03,880 --> 00:21:07,880 Now we're pretty used to that, because everybody knows that we have a lot of wings and a lot of pizza. 176 00:21:07,880 --> 00:21:11,880 He's like, "Man, I am so hungry. I just really need some food." 177 00:21:11,880 --> 00:21:14,880 He's like, "Man, it's like my stomach's just eating itself up." 178 00:21:14,880 --> 00:21:18,880 And I was like, "Dude, you don't have to flatter us. Like, tell us how hungry." 179 00:21:18,880 --> 00:21:23,880 There's, like, pizza and wings in the fridge. He goes, "Can't do that, man. I'm fasting right now." 180 00:21:23,880 --> 00:21:27,880 That's the picture of what Jesus is talking about. 181 00:21:27,880 --> 00:21:32,880 He's like, "Get out of bed. I'm not going to wash around. I'm going to go work out and be sweaty and roll around in the dirt." 182 00:21:32,880 --> 00:21:37,880 And everybody goes, "Whoa, you look terrible." Yeah, I'm really, really worshiping God today. 183 00:21:37,880 --> 00:21:52,880 The picture here is, once again, not fasting is bad, but fasting in such a way that expresses the pride versus the picture of fasting that says, 184 00:21:52,880 --> 00:22:00,880 "God is more important to me than food." Right? Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. 185 00:22:00,880 --> 00:22:07,880 Am I doing this to be seen, or because I want to know my Heavenly Father more deeply and grow more closely to Him? 186 00:22:07,880 --> 00:22:18,880 Now, there is an objection that I've heard from some, is that in this modern day, I don't think anybody would ever go through religious practice in order to manipulate others. 187 00:22:18,880 --> 00:22:28,880 And I would just simply say to that, "Go to church camp, or a youth retreat, and look at all the 15-year-old boys who are worshiping, 188 00:22:28,880 --> 00:22:36,880 and holding hands with the 15-year-old girls." Right? Really giving their all, not necessarily as a former 15-year-old boy, 189 00:22:36,880 --> 00:22:44,880 because I really want to throw my hands up in worship, but because there's a really cute girl next door who will gladly hold my hand if I do that. 190 00:22:44,880 --> 00:22:53,880 Or, more practically, probably almost every week or every other week, we get some kind of mailer that's distributed to our congregation that says, 191 00:22:53,880 --> 00:23:01,880 "Hey, we're a Christian company, and we would really love for you to pass this out to every person in your church. Throw it in your bulletin." 192 00:23:01,880 --> 00:23:08,880 And everything, a lot of them are travel and tours, and they're not necessarily bad things, 193 00:23:08,880 --> 00:23:15,880 but it's sort of hiding an agenda under the name of Christ. 194 00:23:15,880 --> 00:23:23,880 Right? We may not blow trumpets, but we certainly know how to broadcast our goodness. 195 00:23:23,880 --> 00:23:28,880 There are three groups of people I want us to consider this morning, right? 196 00:23:28,880 --> 00:23:33,880 First, some of us practice these things in order to gain something for ourselves, right? 197 00:23:33,880 --> 00:23:39,880 Give to be seen as generous. Pray to be admired as spiritual. Fast to be known as devoted. 198 00:23:39,880 --> 00:23:45,880 And Jesus will say, "If this is us, we have received our reward in full." 199 00:23:45,880 --> 00:23:49,880 Right? We've aimed at people and we've gotten people. That's all we get. 200 00:23:49,880 --> 00:23:56,880 It's pride. It's performance. It's using spiritual practices to build a reputation. 201 00:23:56,880 --> 00:24:01,880 Some practice these things to know and to grow and to know God more deeply, 202 00:24:01,880 --> 00:24:05,880 and to know Him more fully and grow in our relationship with Him. 203 00:24:05,880 --> 00:24:09,880 Right? So in giving, it's an expression of how God has given to us. 204 00:24:09,880 --> 00:24:13,880 It's joyful thankfulness. And it's a reflection of the Father's heart. 205 00:24:13,880 --> 00:24:17,880 And in doing so, we find ourselves knowing and growing closer to God, 206 00:24:17,880 --> 00:24:21,880 and are rewarded by a deeper relationship with Him. 207 00:24:21,880 --> 00:24:29,880 That some who pray with God in focus, it's because they're dependent and honest with their God. 208 00:24:29,880 --> 00:24:33,880 Fasting because God is their greatest treasure. 209 00:24:33,880 --> 00:24:37,880 And Jesus says, "Your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you." 210 00:24:37,880 --> 00:24:41,880 Right? The reward isn't reputation. It's relationship. It's closeness. 211 00:24:41,880 --> 00:24:43,880 It's becoming closer to the Father. 212 00:24:43,880 --> 00:24:47,880 And this is what Jesus is inviting us into now. 213 00:24:47,880 --> 00:24:51,880 There is a third group that's found. 214 00:24:51,880 --> 00:24:57,880 It's not necessarily found in this text, but it's found a little later in the Sermon on the Mount. 215 00:24:57,880 --> 00:25:01,880 There are some who simply go through the motions. 216 00:25:01,880 --> 00:25:05,880 They give, they pray, they fast, they check the boxes. 217 00:25:05,880 --> 00:25:09,880 They're not seeking God, but they're not seeking people either. 218 00:25:09,880 --> 00:25:13,880 They're just sort of doing what they think they're supposed to do. 219 00:25:13,880 --> 00:25:17,880 Faith and salvation become a checklist. 220 00:25:17,880 --> 00:25:21,880 Something I can say that I've gotten this done. 221 00:25:21,880 --> 00:25:25,880 There's no heart, no dependence, no love, no relationship. 222 00:25:25,880 --> 00:25:30,880 Maybe it's a lack of spiritual desire, but maybe it's discouragement. 223 00:25:30,880 --> 00:25:33,880 Maybe it's struggle. 224 00:25:33,880 --> 00:25:37,880 Maybe it's opposition that we've been facing. 225 00:25:37,880 --> 00:25:40,880 Maybe it's heartbreak. 226 00:25:40,880 --> 00:25:43,880 And it's easy to find ourselves simply going through the motions. 227 00:25:43,880 --> 00:25:47,880 Jesus warns about this in Matthew 7:21-23. 228 00:25:47,880 --> 00:25:49,880 We'll be there in a few weeks. 229 00:25:49,880 --> 00:25:53,880 Those who said, "We have done all of these things," and Jesus tragically says, 230 00:25:53,880 --> 00:25:58,880 "You may have done them, but you never have known Me." 231 00:25:58,880 --> 00:26:00,880 It's not you didn't do enough. 232 00:26:00,880 --> 00:26:05,880 It's not you failed the test. It's that you do not know Me. 233 00:26:05,880 --> 00:26:09,880 There's a way to check the boxes and do the practices, 234 00:26:09,880 --> 00:26:13,880 but no relationship. 235 00:26:13,880 --> 00:26:17,880 What I want you to know this morning is that God knows your hearts. 236 00:26:17,880 --> 00:26:21,880 Three times in this text we find this phrase: 237 00:26:21,880 --> 00:26:28,880 "The Father who sees in secret." This is not a threat of divine surveillance. 238 00:26:28,880 --> 00:26:31,880 But it's rather this, right? We're so easily focused on what looks good. 239 00:26:31,880 --> 00:26:37,880 Samuel, in 1 Samuel 16, as he gathers Jesse's sons, 240 00:26:37,880 --> 00:26:40,880 and he begins to look at them, knowing that he's going to anoint one as king, 241 00:26:40,880 --> 00:26:47,880 he will look at Eliab, and he'll say, "Surely this is the guy. He looks kingly. He's tall. He looks like a mighty warrior." 242 00:26:47,880 --> 00:26:52,880 And in the very next verse, the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, 243 00:26:52,880 --> 00:26:56,880 because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees." 244 00:26:56,880 --> 00:26:59,880 Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. 245 00:26:59,880 --> 00:27:04,880 This is not a picture of how you dress, as it's so often used in church, right? 246 00:27:04,880 --> 00:27:11,880 This is a picture of where our heart is going. 247 00:27:11,880 --> 00:27:16,880 What God is saying to Samuel is that God sees what's truly going in on the inside. 248 00:27:17,880 --> 00:27:19,880 And God chooses David. 249 00:27:19,880 --> 00:27:23,880 And here's what we find about David in Acts chapter 33. 250 00:27:23,880 --> 00:27:32,880 Quoting from the Old Testament, "I found in David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, who will do all of my will." 251 00:27:32,880 --> 00:27:35,880 Here's the sobering fact about David. 252 00:27:35,880 --> 00:27:39,880 David's greatest failure comes when he stops seeking God's heart. 253 00:27:39,880 --> 00:27:43,880 When he stayed home from going to battle and he sees Bathsheba, 254 00:27:43,880 --> 00:27:48,880 he took what he wasn't his and then covered it up with murder. 255 00:27:48,880 --> 00:27:52,880 Confronted by Nathan, David repents, and he prays this: 256 00:27:52,880 --> 00:27:57,880 "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." 257 00:27:57,880 --> 00:27:59,880 You see, God isn't impressed with your public image. 258 00:27:59,880 --> 00:28:02,880 He sees your hidden heart. 259 00:28:02,880 --> 00:28:09,880 And the God who sees in secret transforms you in ways the praises of the crowd never could. 260 00:28:09,880 --> 00:28:14,880 So here's what I want us to lead us to, right? We've seen the pattern and the contrast. 261 00:28:14,880 --> 00:28:18,880 The different kinds of people. We've seen the text. What now? 262 00:28:18,880 --> 00:28:26,880 You can have a great appearance and still have a broken heart. 263 00:28:26,880 --> 00:28:31,880 So I want to try to diagnose our hearts with two questions and maybe a statement. 264 00:28:31,880 --> 00:28:36,880 The first is this: Are you part of the family? 265 00:28:39,880 --> 00:28:42,880 Right? There's things that we have to be part of before we can come in, right? 266 00:28:42,880 --> 00:28:46,880 There are some privileges that are only afforded to those in the family. 267 00:28:46,880 --> 00:28:52,880 So I can go to my parents' house, I can walk through the front door, I can lay down on their couch and fall asleep. 268 00:28:52,880 --> 00:28:55,880 Maybe not even saying a word to anybody. Just walk in, lay down on the couch and fall asleep. 269 00:28:55,880 --> 00:28:59,880 And that's fine. Weird if the FedEx guy does it, right? 270 00:28:59,880 --> 00:29:04,880 That's a little bit strange because he's not part of the family. 271 00:29:06,880 --> 00:29:09,880 And so this morning, the first question to diagnose our hearts is this: 272 00:29:09,880 --> 00:29:14,880 If I'm struggling in these ways, maybe I have no desire for any of these things. 273 00:29:14,880 --> 00:29:18,880 The first question is this: Am I part of the family? 274 00:29:18,880 --> 00:29:21,880 You might say, "How can I become part of the family?" 275 00:29:21,880 --> 00:29:24,880 Go back to the very beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. 276 00:29:24,880 --> 00:29:28,880 He opened his mouth and he taught them saying, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs are the kingdom of heaven. 277 00:29:28,880 --> 00:29:31,880 Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." 278 00:29:32,880 --> 00:29:37,880 The first steps to this are seeing our brokenness, our emptiness, the poorness of spirit. 279 00:29:37,880 --> 00:29:41,880 But not just seeing it, because we live in a culture that celebrates us saying, 280 00:29:41,880 --> 00:29:43,880 "You know, I'm broken, but this is the way I am." 281 00:29:43,880 --> 00:29:48,880 Notice this next thing that Jesus says, "Blessed are those who mourn." 282 00:29:48,880 --> 00:29:54,880 And this isn't general sadness, but a mourning over that brokenness in spirit, mourning over sin. 283 00:29:54,880 --> 00:29:59,880 We must see our brokenness. 284 00:30:00,880 --> 00:30:06,880 And as you continue on in this text, what you find is that Jesus takes those broken people, 285 00:30:06,880 --> 00:30:11,880 and he brings them into a kingdom, and he transforms them, and ultimately leads them to a deeper joy. 286 00:30:11,880 --> 00:30:13,880 So the first question is, "Are you part of the family?" 287 00:30:13,880 --> 00:30:16,880 The second question is, "This is what's in the way." 288 00:30:16,880 --> 00:30:19,880 Right? So we have a dog, and we have a bunch of baby gates. 289 00:30:19,880 --> 00:30:23,880 Not because we have babies, but because we don't want the dogs going where they're not supposed to. 290 00:30:23,880 --> 00:30:27,880 So we put up a barrier that keeps them from being where we don't want them to be, 291 00:30:27,880 --> 00:30:32,880 and maybe in your relationship with God there is a barrier right now. 292 00:30:32,880 --> 00:30:34,880 And maybe that's sin. 293 00:30:34,880 --> 00:30:41,880 Because one of the effects of sin is that we almost immediately hide or separate ourselves from those we have sinned against. 294 00:30:41,880 --> 00:30:47,880 Or you see in the book of Genesis that Adam and Eve's instinct was to try to fix it, and then they went and hid, 295 00:30:47,880 --> 00:30:49,880 and then after that they made excuses. 296 00:30:49,880 --> 00:30:52,880 And we do the same exact thing, and we know this happens, right? 297 00:30:52,880 --> 00:30:57,880 Ever loan somebody money, and they can't pay you back, so they just stop talking to you? 298 00:30:57,880 --> 00:31:02,880 They avoid you? They hide from you? 299 00:31:02,880 --> 00:31:09,880 Maybe it's not that. Maybe they've wronged you in some way, or maybe you've wronged others, and you just avoid people altogether. 300 00:31:09,880 --> 00:31:15,880 I was thinking about this back in college. We had a young man who, specifically about money, 301 00:31:15,880 --> 00:31:19,880 had a phone in our room, and he said, "Can I borrow it to call my girlfriend? I'll pay you for the long distance." 302 00:31:19,880 --> 00:31:24,880 And a $300 phone bill later, he never tried to talk to us again, right? 303 00:31:24,880 --> 00:31:30,880 That's what sin does. It says, "I've broken the relationship, and now I can't go back." 304 00:31:30,880 --> 00:31:36,880 And maybe the issue this morning is that you're part of the family, but you need to repent. 305 00:31:36,880 --> 00:31:39,880 But maybe it's distance and time, right? 306 00:31:39,880 --> 00:31:45,880 There are people, our relationship has fallen away because we're far away, and it's been a long time since we've seen them. 307 00:31:45,880 --> 00:31:55,880 And maybe in your relationship with God, that's the struggle, is that you have become distant from Him. 308 00:31:55,880 --> 00:32:00,880 Maybe it's discouragement and brokenness, and it feels like you're stuck and you can't move. 309 00:32:00,880 --> 00:32:08,880 Maybe it's pride, thinking you've got it all together. Here's the answer, I think, and it's found in your Father. 310 00:32:08,880 --> 00:32:16,880 Jesus tells some parables, and the one that's the most famous talks about a son who distances himself from the Father. 311 00:32:16,880 --> 00:32:26,880 In the midst of sin, he ends up feeding pigs, and eventually, in the midst of his sin, smelling like pigs, he comes back home. 312 00:32:26,880 --> 00:32:31,880 Not with reluctant acceptance, but the Father runs to greet him with joy. 313 00:32:31,880 --> 00:32:41,880 And he doesn't tell that son, "Go get yourself cleaned up," but the Father himself puts a clean robe on him, and a new ring, and a new celebration. 314 00:32:41,880 --> 00:32:52,880 And that same Father then leaves the party, and goes to the brother who is outside, who is full of pride, and has separated himself, and he says, "Come in." 315 00:32:52,880 --> 00:33:03,880 And if we look through Scripture, we see that God is the one who sits with the discouraged, and encourages, and strengthens, and helps. 316 00:33:03,880 --> 00:33:12,880 So one of the questions is, what's in the way? And then to see the Father who comes, and gets you, and welcomes you, and sits with you, and comforts you. 317 00:33:12,880 --> 00:33:19,880 And then sometimes, and this is maybe for the rest of us, sometimes we need to go get him. 318 00:33:19,880 --> 00:33:24,880 I love the story in the Gospels, where there's a man who couldn't walk, and he needs to get to Jesus. 319 00:33:24,880 --> 00:33:31,880 And so what do his friends do? They go, and they grab him, and they cut a hole in the roof, and they drop him down to Jesus. 320 00:33:31,880 --> 00:33:38,880 This guy was separated. There was a gate, and he couldn't get there. And so his friends went, and got him, and brought him to Jesus. 321 00:33:38,880 --> 00:33:44,880 And sometimes, that's exactly what you and I need, is somebody to grab ahold of us, and take us to Jesus. 322 00:33:44,880 --> 00:33:50,880 As friends, and we have friends, are we even thinking about that? 323 00:33:50,880 --> 00:33:54,880 And part of the reason maybe we don't think about it is we don't share our discouragements and our struggles with others. 324 00:33:54,880 --> 00:33:59,880 People can't help if they don't know. I'll give you an example. This week, Thursday, I was discouraged. 325 00:33:59,880 --> 00:34:06,880 Felt terrible all day. Wednesday, everything I had to do was piling up, and I was just struggling on Thursday. 326 00:34:06,880 --> 00:34:12,880 One of my good friends comes by my office, and I'm not like a hugger, but he is. 327 00:34:12,880 --> 00:34:18,880 He comes in and gives me a hug, and I was like, "Great. Thanks for that. It's helping so much." 328 00:34:18,880 --> 00:34:25,880 And he goes, "Hey, you want to go upstairs and pray?" And I was like, "I'm kind of not one of those guys who thinks that where you pray matters." 329 00:34:25,880 --> 00:34:30,880 He goes, "Let's go upstairs and pray." I was like, "Okay. I'll humor you." 330 00:34:30,880 --> 00:34:39,880 We go upstairs, and he prays for a bit. And you know what? That was exactly what my heart needed. 331 00:34:39,880 --> 00:34:44,880 To pull me out of the grumpiness and the frustration and the tiredness. 332 00:34:44,880 --> 00:34:49,880 And nothing was really all that wrong, but I needed a friend to come and drag me to where I needed to be. 333 00:34:49,880 --> 00:34:57,880 And so this isn't just a call for you to say, "I need to get there." It's a call for us to say, "I know someone who's struggling. 334 00:34:57,880 --> 00:35:02,880 How can I lower them through the roof to Jesus?" 335 00:35:02,880 --> 00:35:06,880 You see, every single one of us needs the gospel. 336 00:35:06,880 --> 00:35:10,880 This brings us to our third call is that we must guard our hearts. Maybe you're doing okay. 337 00:35:10,880 --> 00:35:13,880 Things are on the right track. 338 00:35:13,880 --> 00:35:16,880 Don't take the goodness of God for granted. 339 00:35:16,880 --> 00:35:19,880 Martin Luther says the gospel that we must learn it, we must know it, 340 00:35:19,880 --> 00:35:26,880 and we must beat it into heads repeatedly because we're a forgetful people. 341 00:35:26,880 --> 00:35:30,880 You see, every single one of us needs the good goodness of the gospel. 342 00:35:30,880 --> 00:35:39,880 There's a family, that there is a Father who comes and gets us, and there is one who guards us as we walk this life. 343 00:35:39,880 --> 00:35:45,880 Listen to these words from Psalm 68: "God settles the solitary in a home. 344 00:35:45,880 --> 00:35:54,880 He leads out the sinners to prosperity, but the rebellious dwell in a parched land." 345 00:35:54,880 --> 00:36:00,880 The picture of the God who comes, and He takes the lonely, and He puts them in a family. 346 00:36:00,880 --> 00:36:04,880 He takes the prisoners, and He brings them to a place of plenty. 347 00:36:04,880 --> 00:36:12,880 But if we are rebellious and say, "I will not go," we find ourselves in the midst of a parched and broken land. 348 00:36:12,880 --> 00:36:15,880 So our call this morning is to know that there is a family. 349 00:36:15,880 --> 00:36:18,880 It has been given to you in the good news of the Gospel. 350 00:36:18,880 --> 00:36:23,880 There is one who will come and get you, who will invite you in, who will forgive you, 351 00:36:23,880 --> 00:36:29,880 who will love you, who will save you, and that we guard that good news of the Gospel 352 00:36:29,880 --> 00:36:33,880 through thankfulness and remembrance all the days of our life. Let's pray. 353 00:36:33,880 --> 00:36:39,880 Father in Heaven, we've covered a lot this morning. 354 00:36:39,880 --> 00:36:44,880 Help us to see your heart for the broken and the hurting. 355 00:36:44,880 --> 00:36:51,880 Help us as we seek to follow you, that we do so not simply through external action, 356 00:36:51,880 --> 00:36:54,880 but with a heart fixed on knowing you more deeply. 357 00:36:54,880 --> 00:36:59,880 Forgive us of our sin. Strengthen our weary hearts. 358 00:36:59,880 --> 00:37:04,880 Help us to see those who need encouragement, and help us to have the courage too.