"To Be Seen"

Grace Reformation Bible Church iconGrace Reformation Bible Church

0 views

Preacher: Ross Macdonald Scripture: Matthew 6:1-4

0 comments

00:00
Well this morning we begin in chapter 6 of the Gospel of Matthew, so we spent some time working our way through chapter 5 and now we come to really the midway point in the
00:10
Sermon on the Mount with chapter 6. So this is still, even though we've spent several months already just at the beginning of this sermon, we're still just in one sermon that Jesus spoke to his disciples.
00:23
And of course as we make our way through chapter 6, we'll see there's three larger units that each in their own way are sort of the the greatest displays of righteousness or holiness, what we could call
00:37
Jewish piety in the time of Jesus. And this is almsgiving or acts of charity, prayer, and fasting.
00:45
Now there's a lot more than that, but Jesus hones in on these three and it reminds us of where we've been in chapter 5.
00:52
In chapter 5 Jesus displayed as the lawgiver all that the law requires and he calls his disciples to have the kind of response to God's law that was not just exterior, but interior, from the very heart.
01:06
And so he looked at several commandments as an example of failing to keep
01:12
God's commandment when we only do so exterior, in a pledge, as a token, rather from the very core of ourselves, from the heart.
01:20
And here as we go in Matthew 6, we see charity, prayer, and fasting as another example of ways that we may seek righteousness that is not actually from the heart.
01:31
And so in chapter 6 a major emphasis is doing the work of righteousness that Jesus calls for in chapter 5, apart from the hypocrisy that Jesus warns against in chapter 6.
01:45
Within that, of course, in speaking about prayer, we have Jesus teaching on the Lord's Prayer.
01:50
We're gonna spend several weeks working through each petition of the Lord's Prayer. But I'm trying to give you the 10 ,000 foot overview of where we'll be in chapter 6.
02:00
Remember where we left off last week, Matthew 5, verse 48, the sort of conclusion of everything we had been looking at from verse 20 and on.
02:08
Therefore, you shall be perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
02:14
And so we saw that emphasis that as Jesus wants us to reflect on His Father, He's also giving us the hope for our righteousness.
02:22
God is so working in the lives of His people that the day is fixed when they will be like God.
02:28
In His character, in His mercy, in His righteousness and perfection, they will see
02:33
Him as He is and seeing Him they will be like Him. And so we see this idea even now, disciples are to imitate the
02:41
Father. As the Father is generous and loving even toward His enemies, so the followers of Jesus are to be loving, generous, even toward their enemies.
02:49
We are to reflect the Father in every aspect of our lives in the way that Jesus Himself sought to live
02:54
His life. And this, of course, bans the sham, the ostentation, the parading of righteousness when there is no core.
03:04
That's reflecting a Father who only appears to be merciful, but inward is arrogant, jealous, selfish in all of the wrong ways.
03:13
So we see Jesus calls us for a righteousness that goes beyond the scribes and the Pharisees, the holy men of His day, men that were seen by all as the holy rollers, the righteous ones, the holy ones.
03:26
You wanted to gain their approval. You hoped that they would acknowledge you. And Jesus actually says if you want to be righteous in the way that God is calling you to be righteous, you need to be more righteous than them.
03:38
Here Jesus has not, again, the idea of a righteousness that is before others, but a righteousness that is before God.
03:46
And that's really the heart of these first four verses that we're looking at. So let me read from Matthew 6 beginning in verse 1.
03:53
Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men to be seen by them.
04:00
Otherwise, you have no reward from your Father in heaven. Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men.
04:14
Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your charitable deed may be in secret, and your
04:26
Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you. So let's work through this passage, and we'll come to some points of application.
04:35
Beginning in verse 1, take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men to be seen by them.
04:42
That's the emphasis, to be seen. Jesus' notice begins with a warning. Take heed.
04:49
You don't want to read past that too quickly. When Jesus says, watch out, watch out.
04:55
We go from, as one pointed out, Jesus saying, be perfect, to Him now saying, be careful.
05:01
Look out for this. We know that He just gave this call to exceeding righteousness, and if we're disciples that want to be exceedingly righteous, if we want to grow in the things that He's shown us, if we want to grow in grace and holiness, then there's going to be snares and pitfalls of legalism and hypocrisy all along the way.
05:20
And to that Jesus says, take heed. Be careful. You're striving after holiness?
05:26
Look out for the ditches on either side of that narrow path that few find, the ditches of legalism and empty tradition and the ditch of hypocrisy, of making it all for show.
05:38
Jesus even, notice, doesn't just say when you do. He assumes that you will do charitable deeds.
05:45
It's an assumption. He doesn't say if, He says when. When you give alms, when you practice charity,
05:52
He knows this is a part of what it means to follow Him. The concern is not those who are giving charity, but those who are only giving charity to be seen by others.
06:03
And notice also that Jesus is introducing a larger theme. He introduces this idea of a reward. Now, this is something that is integral to Matthew's Gospel.
06:11
When you read the other Gospels, for all they have in common, reward doesn't appear as a major theme.
06:17
Reward is a major theme for Matthew, perhaps the foremost book in the New Testament. I think Revelation would be second.
06:24
And this reward is not elaborated on. He doesn't say what the reward is. We could see it as either a blessing in this life, perhaps even the blessing of just knowing
06:35
God and acknowledging Him in all the ways we saw last week, adoration and gratitude. Perhaps it is temporal blessings that He gives from His hand.
06:44
Perhaps it is something eternal, the prospect of the heavenly reward. Perhaps it's both. This theme is developed in Matthew in all sorts of interesting ways.
06:54
Jesus simply says, if you give in a way that you just want to be seen by men, you'll have no reward from your
07:00
Father in heaven. Now again, we're tying into another theme, the Father in heaven. In fact, we saw that twice in chapter 5.
07:07
We're gonna see this again and again in chapter 6. Remember what we said, Jesus wants us to reflect, dwell, meditate upon the
07:16
Father, the Heavenly Father. And part of this is reflecting on what the Father gives, what
07:21
He bestows, His blessing, His reward. So if the motive of giving is selfish, if I only give to be seen, if the motive is self -promotion,
07:33
Jesus says there's no reward. In fact, you've received your reward. You've received it in full.
07:39
You got what you wanted. Matthew 6, beginning in verse 2. Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, again, not if, but when you do charity, do not sound a trumpet before you like the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they can have glory from men.
07:59
Notice again, drawing from the Old Testament, this major concern for the neighbor. What did we see?
08:05
The law is, first and foremost, all that I am toward God. And the second table is like that, to be like God toward my neighbor.
08:16
So I'm grounded and oriented toward God, and that orients me toward my neighbor, to love my neighbor, even to the point of loving my enemy.
08:24
This is just carrying that forward a little bit, practicing charity, works of mercy. That's where that word alms comes from.
08:32
In fact, the German word almosen, deeds of charity. It's just retaining the Greek, mercy, works of mercy.
08:40
So we do our charitable deeds. And Jesus is warning against sounding a trumpet. Now, the
08:46
Old Testament had a major concern for taking care of the poor, for giving alms to the needy. This was part of God's commands.
08:52
We won't go into the detail, but Deuteronomy 14, Exodus 23. Not only that, but you look in the narrators, you find examples of alms being given.
09:01
You read the prophets of the Old Testament. How frequently they're condemning the Israelites for taking advantage of the poor, in the language of Amos 5 or Isaiah 3,
09:11
Isaiah 10, treading down the poor, grinding the face of the poor. You find that not just in the
09:18
Old Testament, even James 5 in the New Testament warns against this life of selfish luxury that, as it were, causes others poverty, helps them rather to be reinforced in their affliction and need.
09:32
Now, in Catholic tradition, in Roman Catholic tradition, to do a work of charity receives merit from God.
09:40
You could see in a sort of fleshly construal where they get that idea from. Doesn't Jesus himself say, as long as we're giving charity without the driving factor being to be seen, that God himself will reward us?
09:53
So don't we have something like merit theology there? We notice, again, that this is what's required of those.
10:01
The reward is not something that we deserve, as if merit is something to be earned, but rather something
10:07
God is pleased to give. So we can't, against Catholicism, view works of charity as something that receives, as a dessert, merit.
10:18
So it's very easy to roll our eyes. In fact, when we recognize so much of the good works, we're actually receiving the reward in full in this life.
10:29
There is no merit theology attached to this in the Catholic sense. It's very easy for us to roll our eyes at that very idea, that you're going above and beyond what
10:37
God has required of you. Jesus himself said, listen, when you've done everything that God has required of you, as if you could in this life, just confess, at best,
10:46
I'm an unprofitable servant, at best. So there's no bonus works, no works that are so far and above the call of grace that, yet, now you've received merit.
10:56
And in fact, there's this treasury of merit. Matthew Henry, in pointing this out, he says, the duty is not less necessary, just because it's abused by others.
11:07
If superstitious papists, in other words, if Catholics have placed a merit in the work of charity, this is no excuse for greedy
11:15
Protestants to be barren in good works. It's well said. We don't roll our eyes and go, oh, you're just doing it to be selfish, unlike me.
11:24
I don't give at all. That's not the response. That's not the answer. And we see how delicate this is, don't we all?
11:37
Jesus warns against the trumpet. He says, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the
11:43
Hippocrates do in the synagogues and in the streets. It is making this great show, this great flashy appeal, all because they thirst and crave the glory from men.
11:54
And there's a lot of interesting views on what that sounding of a trumpet could be. Is it a literal trumpet that sounded?
12:01
Should we think of it in that way? We know that when there were fasts and religious occasions, the shofars would blow, and part of coming together in these religious feasts and fasts would be a formal way of giving to the poor.
12:15
You would take collections and give to the needy and the poor whenever you gathered to Jerusalem in these ways. So perhaps it's a reference to that.
12:22
Others say when you go to the temple, even the collection baskets for the poor were shaped like the form of a trumpet, of a horn.
12:29
And so maybe it's a reference to the money chests, as it were. Now, I think probably the safest answer is to say it's a metaphor for making this loud, flashy way of gaining attention.
12:42
And so you get the idea of the Pharisees and the Sadducees making sure that eyes were fixed on them.
12:49
You see that when the the widow is putting her two mites in. That goes unacknowledged, unobserved, but it doesn't miss the eyes of Jesus.
12:56
Do you see that woman? She gave more than them all. But you see how flashy, you know, it was like the the big cardboard lottery checks, you know.
13:05
This is what I'm going to be putting into that big horn bucket. It was like Donald Trump in Vegas, was it four or five years ago?
13:12
And they had the big video on him during the offertory, and they were passing around at this mega church these five -gallon
13:18
Homer buckets for their collection. You see him take out this wad of cash and not so discreetly put it in the bucket.
13:26
This is not what we're talking about. But you know what the feeling is like.
13:35
You go to a store and the clerk behind the counter, when they're checking you out, says, your total is, you know, $26 .48,
13:43
and would you like to donate $3 to St. Jude's for research? Yes, I would.
13:53
Aren't I so magnificent in my works of charity? And then you go and you check out and you do it at a screen and there's no clerk.
13:59
Do you want to give? No. No one sees it. And of course the companies themselves aren't so charitable.
14:07
This is all a tax write -off for them. You give money to be given and they get to claim that as a tax write -off when tax season comes.
14:14
So there's these selfish ways that we feel the pressure of wanting to give when eyes are on us.
14:21
When that person says, are you willing to give $5 for bone marrow cancer research? Don't you feel that scream in your stomach to say, no.
14:30
No, I don't. Let bone marrow cancer increase, right? You say, of course
14:36
I do. You feel that that bite, that push, that pull. And sometimes they'll give you that little gift card or bonus coupon or sticker, a little badge, a little flash of appreciation.
14:47
Now you can go around and parade your works of charity and Jesus says, you need to give in secret as it were.
14:53
Don't even let your left hand know what your right hand's doing. You think of the great trumpeter
14:59
Dizzy Gillespie, the great jazz musician. His whole head would swell when he would force air through his trumpet.
15:06
Just a magnificent jazz trumpeter. That's the image I have in my mind. Don't sound the trumpet when you're doing works of charity.
15:15
Don't let your head swell up and get so full of yourself when you're playing that trumpet. Because Jesus says, you have your reward.
15:22
You have it in full. You wanted the glory of men and you got it. Might not have seemed like much of a purchase, but you weren't giving as Robert Plummer says in his commentary.
15:32
You weren't giving, you were buying. You were buying the glory of men. And so you received what you wanted in full.
15:38
There's nothing left to give you. Giving in this way, it tends to make hypocrites of us all.
15:46
Jesus is almost calling for the kind of care and self -awareness that you're like a secret agent in the way that you give.
15:54
You know, you're secretly. This mission, if you choose to accept it. And somehow all these little acts of charity and works of mercy and gifts are given anonymously and you're never caught in the act.
16:05
No one can really trace it back to you. They're scrutinizing the handwriting. They're wondering, you know, where did this crockpot come from?
16:10
And all we have on the ring door cam is this little blur and they were wearing a ski mask when they dropped it off.
16:16
And that's the idea. You're not doing it to parade your own sense of self -righteousness.
16:21
You're doing it before the face of God as a response to what he's given to you. That's the idea.
16:27
Now, of course, it's very easy to to think, well, isn't that wonderful? And aren't I glad that I'm like that?
16:34
I'm not like these Pharisees and these scribes, these hypocrites that want to parade around their self -righteousness.
16:40
But if we've understood anything we saw in Matthew chapter 5, we realize we've met the enemy and they are us.
16:47
Jesus is speaking to his disciples. It's not speaking to Pharisees and scribes so much as those that are saying,
16:52
I'm giving my life to you and I want to follow you and be like you. And Jesus says, you want to be like me? Be aware.
16:59
Be careful. Take heed that you don't act like a hypocrite. So it's very subtle.
17:06
In fact, it's subconscious in the way that we do charitable acts, as we'll see, prayer, fasting, other acts of religious extremity, as a way of grandstanding, of posturing ourselves, of proving ourselves, of gaining a reputation, of somehow gaining an influence.
17:26
It pads our own ego. It soothes our sense of self -importance. These are all the things that Jesus says will explode your walk of following him.
17:34
These are snares and dragnets that will take you away from his righteousness.
17:40
So the needy have needs. God's people are given with such abundance that we are meant to meet those needs.
17:50
We're meant to be blessing in all that we do. There's nothing formulaic about it.
17:55
There's nothing formal about it. In an informal way, Christ's followers are generous people.
18:02
They live to serve and to bless. They are a blessing wherever they go. It's Abraham entering into the land.
18:07
You're going to be a blessing. Blessing, I will bless you. Wherever you go, you'll be a blessing. And so it is with the father of faith.
18:14
So it is with his sons, his children. We are to be a blessing in this very way. So Jesus warns against hypocrisy.
18:21
The whole idea here is hypocrisy is an actor. The term itself referring to the actor's mask.
18:28
We think of actors as sort of the paragons of social influence. In ancient Rome, they were a despised class of people.
18:34
That was like lower than the gutter to be an actor. They weren't welcome in all sorts of social arrangements.
18:40
Interestingly enough, we need to get back to that glory of the Roman Empire. But hypocrisy is an act.
18:46
That's what it is. It's an appearance that's not true to what's behind the mask, to who you really are.
18:53
Hypocrisy is an act. It's a performance. That performance can happen consciously and unconsciously.
19:01
It's very easy to ho -hum your way through Jesus' warning if you're only thinking of hypocrisy as a conscious, willful effort.
19:10
Jesus is peeling back the dangers of unconscious hypocrisy. Ways that you don't even realize you're seeking the sight and approval of men, rather than seeking the sight and approval of God.
19:24
The hypocrite has no heart for the sight of God. Their concern is the worship of men, not the worship of God.
19:31
And so they act accordingly. They play the part. And if you've given your life over in this way, it just becomes a way of life.
19:41
In fact, most of our social interactions, we learn how to cater ourselves for the acceptance and approval of others, right?
19:48
No one wants to be sitting in the lunchroom cafeteria alone. So we learn how to adapt, how to approach, how to self -mitigate, all so that we can be accepted and acceptable.
19:57
And when you live your life in that way, where you're never willing to be the black sheep, the social pariah, the fringe, the outsider, the tinfoil hat wearer, what have you, then essentially you've framed your whole life as a life lived before the sight of men.
20:13
And what you've prevented is the ability to be what you really are, if you're following Christ.
20:19
Great Latin phrase, esse quam videri, to be rather than to seem.
20:26
That's what Jesus is calling his people to. Be this. Don't just seem to be it. Be it.
20:33
Actually be it. You have during the D -Day evasions and leading up to June 6, 1944, this ingenious, sometimes
20:43
I look through military history, I'm just amazed at the ingenuity that we had in the middle of the last century.
20:49
And one of the great operations we did was sort of a false operation of where we were going to send the invasion force into France.
20:57
And so they inflated all of these fake tanks, fake trucks, so that reconnaissance footage would show this massing of equipment and armament, but it was all just balloons.
21:08
You can go to museums and you can find replicas of this and, you know, to German reconnaissance, they said, oh, it looks like the 3rd
21:14
Armored Division is going to be amassing here and here's the invasion force, and where do they get these numbers from?
21:19
And if you could actually walk up to it, you could burst it with a pin. It was just a balloon. It was a spray -painted balloon.
21:27
In other words, it was a decoy. It looked the part from afar, but when you got up close you realize, this is empty.
21:35
This is a joke. This is false. This is a decoy. That's what Jesus is warning against.
21:41
Not what seems to be true if you're far away enough, if you're infrequent enough, but true to the core, you know, come be with me.
21:50
Come live with me. Come walk side -by -side with me. The real McCoy, the real deal, that's the discipleship that Jesus is seeking.
22:00
When you do a charitable deed, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that it may be done in secret.
22:06
Your father who sees in secret will himself reward you. Notice what Jesus is doing there. He's saying, you become conscious of your behavior, of your activity.
22:15
In a way, you're seeking to understand the Father who sees all things and knows all things. Everything we saw from Psalm 139,
22:22
He knows the very motives and intents of my heart. He knows more about me than I could possibly ever attain to know about myself.
22:29
He understands my secret ambitions. He understands why I do the things I do, what I seek to gain from them, why
22:35
I refuse to do the things I refuse to do. He knows me from the inside out. Jesus says, my followers, my disciples, won't be decoys.
22:44
They won't be fakes. They won't be straw men. They'll be the real McCoy, the real deal, and that means they'll live their lives before the sight of God.
22:52
They know that just as God knows them in the secret ways, God also sees all the things they do in secret.
22:58
And rather than try to live before the sight of men, they'll be pleased to serve God with simplicity and anonymity.
23:06
I don't want to put anyone on the spot. I'm almost tempted to say, by a show of hands, how many of you have been anonymously blessed?
23:12
I know I have many times in my life. Anonymously blessed.
23:19
Things coming out of nowhere, just because of the love of Christ's people. Never to be rewarded, never to be acknowledged, never to be trumpeted or paraded around.
23:30
Simply done out of the overflow of God's goodness as a response to God's goodness to them.
23:38
Jesus expects his people to give as they have received. Very often we have so much in the modern world, post -industrial, capitalistic
23:48
West, on the grand scale of human civilization, we're filthy rich.
23:55
We have so much. Everyone in this room, whatever, wherever you are on that sort of economic spectrum, we in this room are the 1%.
24:07
On the grand scale of things globally, on the grand scale of things historically, we are the elite. We have so much.
24:14
So much, and yet we give so little. We give so little of our resources, we give so little of ourselves.
24:24
Jesus says, not so with my people. As the Father is open -handed, as the
24:30
Father is mindful, so his people will be open -handed, so his people will be mindful.
24:37
Where we lack resources to give, there's other things we have from God that we can give, gifts to use in his service.
24:44
Relationships to build, time to spend. There's a myriad of ways that we can share our influence and let it be known the treasure that's hidden within this jar of clay.
24:55
And Jesus calls his people to give as they've received. You look at Christians in a lot of places in the world today, they have far less than us, they give far more than us.
25:05
There's a way that they have overcome a lot of the stumbling blocks that we experience here in a very luxurious and luxuriant culture.
25:14
It parallels in a lot of ways what we read about the churches of Macedonia from 2 Corinthians 8. He says in the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty.
25:27
They weren't giving because the getting was good. They were in the midst of a sore trial, most likely intense persecution.
25:35
All sorts of local threats at the lightest level. Just the pressure of how can
25:40
I maintain my vocation in this guild when now I have a conscience about sacrificing to idols. And that means my own livelihood is at stake.
25:49
And even if they just let me off easy, now I have to find something else to do. And everything is bound by guilds worshiping pagans.
25:55
And I'm not going to participate in these things anymore. And that's best case scenario, worst case scenario.
26:02
That's our patron deity. You're offending them. You're ruining our work. We're going to persecute you now. And Paul says, yet with that sore trial, severe, he says, very severe trial and extreme poverty, no work, no food, how are we going to get by?
26:18
They had an overflowing joy that welled up in generosity. That's true in so many places around the world today.
26:28
The logic of the gospel leads to that way of thinking, not giving out of necessity, but out of privilege.
26:35
You can see that Paul ties it to the overflowing joy they had in the things of the gospel. And because it was an overflowing joy, it was overflowing giving.
26:44
They're giving not to those in need immediately among them. They're sending their gifts to Jerusalem, people they've never met, names they don't even know.
26:52
You would think Jerusalem should be sending something to them. That's not their understanding of things. Notice what he says.
26:59
This is beginning in verse three. I bear witness, Paul says, according to their ability. Yes. And beyond their ability, they gave even when they couldn't give.
27:07
Beyond their ability. What was the oil tycoon,
27:14
Getty, J. Paul Getty? The one thing that I'm actually let
27:22
Malibu burn, as far as I'm concerned. The one thing I'm thankful that was spared is the Getty Villa because it houses so many amazing artifacts from the ancient world.
27:30
It was a villa that was constructed by J. Paul Getty, one of the wealthiest men in the world back in the 70s.
27:36
His nephew was kidnapped and held for ransom. And he had a policy.
27:41
I'm not giving a dime. Do whatever you will. I think they took off the poor boy's finger or ear or something and send it to him.
27:47
We're going to send you part by part until you pay. Well, finally, he caved in. And he agreed to pay from his fortune a certain percentage.
27:58
But it was the bare percentage he could pay that could be written off. I'm not going to lose anything.
28:04
I only give when it's not at a cost to me. How different of a mindset is it for these
28:10
Macedonian believers? Beyond their ability, they give. In extreme poverty, they give.
28:16
In sore trial, they give. He says they were freely willing. Paul didn't go and coax them.
28:22
He didn't have some by before midnight infomercial. He just said that there is this need for saints in Jerusalem.
28:29
They're being persecuted. If you take up a gift and you give it to them, it would show that they accept you as believers.
28:36
It would show the gospel that I preach is true. The middle wall of separation has been broken down. Christ is forming one new man out of the two.
28:43
Is there any way you could give to this? I hate to even ask it. I know you can't. Perhaps you can't.
28:48
I'll just move on to Corinth. And the Macedonian Christians say no. No, of course we can give.
28:55
He says, in fact, not only were they freely willing, they were imploring us. We didn't have to go to them.
29:01
They came to us. How can we give to Jerusalem? No, we have to give. No, you can't. Of all people, you can't give.
29:07
No, I'm giving. They implored us with urgency that we would take the gift.
29:15
And not only as we had hoped, and here's the key to it all. They first gave themselves to the
29:23
Lord and then to us. Do you see? That's the key to it all. How could, how could the
29:28
Macedonian believers live like this? Give like this? In the midst of what they were facing and experiencing, the only answer is they first gave themselves to the
29:40
Lord and because they had given themselves over to the Lord, knowing they were freely at his disposal and trusting in themselves completely to his care, they were freed to give, not only that, they were fueled to give.
29:54
This is just the logic of the gospel writ large. And so, Jesus, if we take this back to Matthew 6,
30:01
Jesus is presupposing my followers are generous. My followers love even enemies that spite them.
30:07
My followers give like the father gives. My followers have this goal of being perfect like my father.
30:13
Their righteousness must exceed the righteousness of scribes and Pharisees and other hypocrites. And that means we cannot delude ourselves into thinking that merely giving pleases
30:24
God. Jesus doesn't say that. Merely giving does not please
30:29
God. Merely giving does not earn anything with God.
30:37
It doesn't earn favor. It doesn't receive reward if it's given for the eyes of men. Merely giving for the sight of men, for the soothing of a troubled conscience, accomplishes nothing with God.
30:50
You're doing God a favor? The cattle of a thousand hills are mine, he says. You're doing me a favor because you gave some small part of what
30:57
I'm constantly giving you? And that earns you something with me? You see how convoluted the logic is?
31:04
It's all mine, he's saying. That's what Jesus said just in Matthew 5, isn't it? It's his heir.
31:10
It's his son. It's his reign. It's his provision. People give a part back.
31:16
But if they're doing it for the sight of others, God says, well, there's your reward. And yet so generous, so amazing is
31:23
God that when we're seeking to give in secret, out of service and response to him, to his provision, giving ourselves first to the
31:31
Lord, the result is that he's pleased to give us a reward. He's pleased to bless us. Where we're going in all of Matthew 6, in all of these acts, whether giving charity or prayer or fasting, is to avoid hypocrisy, to avoid that double life, to be rather than to seem.
31:55
As Thomas Watson says, the great Puritan, the hypocrite takes more care to make a covenant than to keep it.
32:04
The hypocrite is more studious, in other words, diligent to enter into religion than have religion enter into him.
32:11
It's all for pretense. It's all for show. It's all for that quick zap. I'm going to just make a little change.
32:18
I don't really want this radical call in my life. I just want to hand up. I just want a quick turn, a quick help, a little boost, something to change the way
32:29
I'm living my life. But nothing serious, nothing as radical as taking up a cross, denying myself and following you,
32:36
Jesus. And for this reason, as another Puritan, Thomas Adams, he wrote, he had this tremendous sermon called
32:45
The Hypocrite Uncased. And one of the things he says in there is he says, a hypocrite is a kind of honest atheist.
32:53
A hypocrite is just an atheist being honest. I do it all for men.
33:00
Practically, it's as if God doesn't even exist. A hypocrite might seem very religious, might have all the
33:06
Christian east down, might seem to be very spiritual in all they do and fulfill their life. But at root, they're simply an atheist.
33:14
Their highest good isn't God, it's themselves. It's the lauding and applause of men.
33:20
Their heaven is not heaven, it's earth and whatever they can amass within it and upon it. They don't have any troubled conscience insofar as God is concerned, so long as men are at peace with them.
33:32
And so God is no longer judge, God is no longer the heavenly provider to whom we give out of gratitude.
33:39
God is no longer the one who stays in secret. God is no longer the one who numbers our hairs as he numbers our days.
33:45
Man is the judge. Man must be the provider. Man is the one who calls to account.
33:53
He follows the religion of man from afar, as Peter followed Christ, Adams write.
33:59
But when it comes to the cross, he denies him. And listen to this. Therefore, hypocrisy is the worst of sins because it keeps all sins.
34:09
That's so insightful. Hypocrisy is the worst of sins because it keeps all sins. You're not dealing with any other sins if you're a hypocrite.
34:18
It's all behind the mask. So there's a breeding ground of all sorts of sins that never get dealt with, never get touched, never get phased.
34:28
Because you're only living life before the sight of others. Whatever that rot looks like in the sepulcher just doesn't matter as long as the outside is polished white like ivory.
34:41
There are two ways to be seen. That's really the words that leap off the page to me, to be seen.
34:49
Because on one hand, Jesus is very concerned about the wrong way we seek to be seen. And in an implied way, he's very concerned about the way we ought to want to be seen, the right way to be seen.
35:02
The wrong way to be seen is, is first of all, acknowledging whether we do or not, we are seen by God.
35:09
You have to be a Christian to be seen by God. He's the one who made you, knows all things. We're seen by God.
35:16
That's bad news outside of Christ. We're seen and known by God extensively, comprehensively, without excuse.
35:25
The response to acknowledging in this bad way we're seen by God is what? Fig leaves.
35:30
It's cover me, hide me, call the rocks to fall upon me. I'm seen by God.
35:38
The problem is this. We're seen by God. We ignore that. We hide that. We smother that in our conscience.
35:44
We hide ourselves in fig leaves of many different types. We have a conscience that's dead, unable to serve the living
35:50
God. We're seen by God, but we don't know it because we'd long to be seen by men. So we are seen by God.
35:57
We long to be seen by men. That's the wrong way to be seen.
36:05
Here's the right way to be seen. We long to be seen by God. Even though we are seen by men.
36:14
Do you see the difference there? Do you long to be seen by men because of what that will mean to you?
36:21
And you forget that you are seen by God. You hate to remember that you are seen by God. Versus even though I'm seen by men,
36:30
I long to be seen by God. I long to serve my father who sees in secret. I long to be true to him, not just outside, but inside with my heart, with my mind, with my strength.
36:44
I long to serve the living God. That looks like, as the reformers coined the phrase, living quorum deo, living before the face of God, that all of life was construed with this longing to be before the sight of God.
36:58
And every aspect of my life is governed by that sight of God. I know that he sees and numbers all things.
37:03
I know that he is in control of all things. I don't have to be like Abraham. What's going to happen if I don't lie about Sarah?
37:10
I don't have to do that. God is in control. And that means if I'm longing to be seen by God, even though I'm being seen by men, this is what
37:19
I'm unconscious of. I'm not unconscious of the fact that God sees me, because I'm seeking the men's sight.
37:24
When I'm seeking God's sight, I become unconscious of the fact that I am being salt and light to everyone who sees me.
37:32
You're never more salt and light than when you don't even realize you're being salt and light. Because you're so bent and fixated on the sight of God.
37:43
The careless sinner forgets God. Isn't that what David says in Psalm 36?
37:50
The transgression of the wicked says within his heart, there is no fear of God before his eyes.
37:56
There is no fear of God before his eyes. But the upright man deals with God. And even though all the eyes of man are upon him, it's as if none of the eyes of man are upon him.
38:05
He's living his life before the sight of God. The world could approve him entirely. The world could condemn him entirely.
38:11
What is that to the man of God? What is that to the man who lives his life before the sight of God? Do we work in God's light, or do we do our works in the limelight, in vanity fair, in the theater of public opinion?
38:30
How carefully do you cultivate your social media, your Instagramable moments, to have an appearance, to seem to be something that is perhaps very distant from where you really are?
38:42
And as we'll see where we're going with prayer, that seeps into your prayer life. As C .S. Lewis says, you end up praying where you ought to be, rather than where you really are.
38:50
And now you're double -minded, double -tongued, you're living a double life. You're not following Christ, who calls us to wholeness, to simplicity.
39:01
So we live, another way of putting this, we live before God for men.
39:10
We live before God for men, rather than living before men for God, in scare quotes.
39:21
Because that's what happens. When you begin by living before men, God always just sort of goes to the margins.
39:30
And eventually, what replaces Him is what man approves. Isn't this the history of every error in the churches?
39:38
Error, compromise, worldliness begins because the church failed to begin at the right place.
39:45
Not living before God for the sake of man, but living for the sake of men before God.
39:51
And then before God, it starts to get minimal, and it starts to trail off. And eventually, your worship service has nothing to do with God, at all.
39:58
There's no fear of God before your eyes, it's all about the approval of man, the approval of the culture, the approval of the world.
40:05
I was watching some video the other day, there was some ELCA congregation that was celebrating the
40:12
Divine Feminine, and they had a resident witch on their staff. A resident witch in a
40:18
Lutheran church, like, this is how you get there. It's just about what we'll approve, what will the culture approve of, what will be interesting to others, rather than living before God and letting the second table flow from the first.
40:34
This is what leads to hypocrisy, or we could say well -intentioned heresy, living before men.
40:41
And in Luke 12, Jesus says to His disciples, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
40:49
It's the yeast, and you know, I know we have some bakers in the congregation, you know what yeast is like. It just gets into the dough.
40:58
You don't see where it's coming from, you only notice the effects of it, if you care to look. You left the dough, all you did was leave the dough alone, you come back and it's doubled in size.
41:08
Yeast has, in some invisible way, been infecting that dough, and having all of these consequences as a result.
41:15
And Jesus says, look out for the Pharisees. You might be so enthralled by the things that they get all the attention for, you better be really careful about that.
41:23
That's like yeast. That hypocrisy is going to infect your life. And pretty soon, just by emulating them and walking in their ways, you too will be trumpeting around in the synagogues and in the streets.
41:37
And again, we can't think of that as an out -there problem, that's an in -here problem. Trumpeting between the pews.
41:45
Having badges of our sanctification that we lord over others. Scrutinizing, viewing everyone through slanted eyes.
41:53
Taking out the big hydraulic clamps to pull out little splinters from each other's eyes.
42:01
This is all a result of the yeast of the Pharisees. So let's, as we kind of come to some practical application, let's look at what
42:11
Jesus says a little bit later about the Pharisees. And most of what he has to say about hypocrisy actually comes later in the
42:17
Gospel of Matthew in chapter 23. And let me give a couple qualifications to that.
42:26
Well, first of all, when Jesus is addressing the Pharisees, he's keeping in mind this view that, again, that the hypocrisy is what you seem to be in the exterior is not matching what you are in the interior.
42:37
He says in Mark chapter 7, Well, did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites? And now here's what
42:43
Isaiah has to say about hypocrisy. This people honours me with their lips, their heart is far from me.
42:48
You see? It's right where we are in Matthew 5 and 6. The heart of the disciple. Doesn't matter what the lips are doing.
42:55
Doesn't matter what the hands are giving. Doesn't matter where the feet are going if the heart is far from God. That's hypocrisy.
43:03
Jesus says, Well, did he prophesy of you? And now in Matthew 23, he's prophesying, Woe upon these religious hypocrites.
43:12
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. This is beginning in verse 23. For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, but you've neglected the weightier matters of the law.
43:21
Justice, mercy, faith. You're very exacting, but when you come to actually what the law is all about, you completely neglect it.
43:31
These you ought to have done without leaving the others undone. Blind guides. You strain out gnats and swallow a camel.
43:38
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. You cleanse the outside of the cup and dish. Inside it's full of extortion and self -indulgence.
43:45
That's a key word for me. Self -indulgence. Blind Pharisee.
43:53
Thinking you can see. First cleanse the inside of the cup, and then the outside may be clean also.
44:00
So you notice in all of the ways that Jesus is handling hypocrisy with the Pharisees and scribes he has view here in Matthew 6, he shows that a hypocrite is preoccupied with the outward show and ignores or minimizes the inward reality.
44:15
As long as I'm maintaining the appearance, as long as no one can see behind the mask, all is well.
44:25
And though the whole cityscape thinks that of the Pharisees, Jesus says, woe to you.
44:33
Judgment to you. That's what he says. So what are the roots of hypocrisy?
44:39
We can gather it, I'm going to give four. There's a lot more that we could speak to, but these were the ones that really stood out to me just in thinking about hypocrisy.
44:47
The first root of hypocrisy, I would say, is focusing on the externals, on the outside of the cup. This is simply what we read.
44:53
Woe to you. You cleanse the outside of the cup, but inside it's full of extortion and self -indulgence.
45:01
So you notice this selfish bent, this way of indulging, of caring and treating for myself, even at the expense or willful ignorance of others, is actually a way of living like a hypocrite.
45:14
Thomas Manton, a different Puritan, he says, men can be doctrinally sound, and yet not discern the secret vein of guilt that runs through their soul.
45:23
You shall not be judged by your doctrinal opinion, but by the disposition of your heart.
45:28
This is something in the Reformed circle we have to take to heart. Does God care that we can cross
45:35
T's and dot I's doctrinally if our hearts are far from him?
45:42
Well did Isaiah prophesy of you. This people worships me with their lips. He's saying it's actually sound, correct worship, lawful worship.
45:52
But their hearts are far from me. That's what makes a hypocrite. So a man may own grace in an outward display, and yet trust himself, pamper himself, seek for himself, live for himself.
46:06
And part of living for yourself is living for the approval of others. That's a large way of how we live for ourselves.
46:16
It means we begin focusing on all the external activities that count. We ignore and play fast and loose with the things that don't gain that kind of recognition.
46:26
It doesn't do much for anyone else toward us, so it doesn't do anything for us. That's not a way of living before the sight of God who sees in secret.
46:34
Father, this is what you desire. This is what you want. I won't parade it around. I'll just do it.
46:41
Jesus says your righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees. And part of an exceeding righteousness is cleansing from within first.
46:49
And then knowing that all the externals will flow from that. It's being rather than seeming.
46:54
It's where it's all growing from that is Jesus' concern. It would be like having a bowl of fruit.
47:01
You know, you go to someone's home, and they have this tremendous, gorgeous -looking bowl of fruit.
47:07
And they say, help yourself. Thank you. I didn't want to impose, but I can't restrain myself.
47:12
And you go, and you grab that pear that looks so promising and tender, and it's just styrofoam, painted styrofoam.
47:20
It's like, what? It's all appearance. It's useless. Another root of hypocrisy.
47:27
So you begin with, again, this focus on the outward, this ignorance of the inward. A second root is impatience.
47:34
And thinking about this, I think there's a direct tie between our hypocrisy and our impatience.
47:42
Let me give you an example of this. When Jesus is giving the parable of the man who's forgiven much, couldn't you say he performed the part of the convicted beggar very well?
47:55
There's no way I can pay this debt, but I'm going to make it happen. I'm going to make it happen. And the king simply says, the master says, your debt is forgiven.
48:04
It's something you can't pay, so I forgive it freely. Oh, so gracious are you, so wonderful.
48:10
You can just picture all the entreaties and the warmth and the humility. It was all feigned.
48:16
As soon as he gets out the door, he finds someone who owes him bubblegum and a nickel, and he grabs him by the throat. That's where he really is.
48:24
Notice there, though, it's the impatience that's the betrayal. He didn't notice how patient the master was with an unpayable debt, but he has no patience at all for a man who's wronged him slightly, a man who's just in his debt in some small, meager way.
48:43
For this man, he can't contain himself. He's impatient.
48:50
And my thoughts on this is, I think hypocrites tend to be very impatient people. They're ruthless, exacting, hypercritical, severe.
49:02
It's one of the ways you actually get into the walk of a hypocrite is you have to find ways to sort of make yourself feel better about yourself.
49:10
And that's always at the expense of others. If others aren't going to parade and praise you, then you better be down on them all the time.
49:16
You'll have no patience or no charity for them. It's all about their regard for you, whether they give it to you in parades or whether they withhold it from you.
49:24
And that causes a sense of impatience. Instead of a love covering offenses and throwing it to the wind, there's this self -indulgence that becomes very impatient.
49:34
I want more. I want more reaction, more response, more attention. I want people to sympathize with me.
49:40
I want people to know what it's really like with me. I want people to know how I feel about this. There's an incredible amount of impatience with a hypocrite.
49:49
This is what our flesh clings to. Think of Esther 3. When Haman saw that Mordecai did not bow or pay him homage,
49:55
Haman was filled with wrath. It was that quick, impatient reaction. Haman was only appearing to be this wise, neutral counselor to the king.
50:10
Another root of hypocrisy, and of course we're getting a little closer now, jealousy. Simply jealousy.
50:18
You know you're living before the sight of others when your sight is on them all the time. To the degree that you're jealous for the things that they have, the things that God has given them.
50:31
It might be jealousy for someone else's possessions. It might be jealousy for someone else's position. It might be jealousy for someone else's accomplishments or prestige or preeminence.
50:40
However wrongly conceived, you find yourself no longer being concerned about God's sight when your sight is fixed upon them.
50:54
One Puritan said, when the heart is grieved because another experience is good, it's a sign that the self is in dominion.
51:01
Many can rejoice and please themselves when God has been glorified by some act of their own, but when they're grieved, they are grieved when the work is done by another.
51:13
To give you a counterexample, Paul in Philippians 1, you remember in Philippians 1, he has these people that are there in Philippi preaching, and they seem to be taking pot shots at Paul.
51:25
Maybe insinuating that Paul's disqualified. God's not even blessing Paul. Look where he is.
51:31
You just need to kind of keep following our doctrine. Paul recognizes these men actually are preaching Christ. And so your reasons in Philippians 1,
51:40
I'm just happy that Christ is being preached. They might be unfair to me.
51:45
They might be very critical and mean to me, frankly, saying things that aren't even true about me, but you know what? If Christ is being preached, amen.
51:53
That's a man who has his eyes fixed on the sight of God. What's my reputation? My whole life is about God's reputation, so why would
52:00
I care to fend for myself? God will vindicate me in due time. That's someone who's patient.
52:07
That's someone who's concerned about the heart, the interior, not the external. That's someone who's not even jealous. He's in chains.
52:16
And then fourth, and perhaps the most obvious of all, a root of hypocrisy is pride.
52:23
Pride. The sin behind all sin. Pride that masquerades as service, but it's really self -service.
52:37
It's not God's service, it's self -service. And Jesus would have us take very seriously that soul -ruining, hell -destinating pride begins with good intentions to serve others.
52:55
And that's why he says, take heed. Be sober. Be humble.
53:03
Be repentant. Be honest. Be asking the Lord to examine your ways within you and find any unpleasing, any crooked way within.
53:14
Take heed, because what begins as a genuine, well -intentioned effort to serve
53:19
God by serving others will end in blowing the trumpet, will end in parading around the streets, will ultimately end in absconding with the claim of Christ and living wholesale for yourself.
53:36
Notice the difference between how the scribes, the Pharisees would give and how Zacchaeus gives.
53:43
What a beautiful, for a man that was ever selfish and self -luxuriant, pampering himself.
53:50
Did he live before the sight of others? In some profound ways, no. He was so self -absorbed, he didn't even care what people thought of him as a tax collector until a holy man was coming to town.
54:03
And when he caught wind of that, that really got him to think. What are they going to say about me?
54:11
What's this holy one going to say about me? What's he going to see in me? When Jesus invites himself into the home of Zacchaeus, the response is not giving in secret.
54:23
Zacchaeus, he's not quite there yet. Jesus will help him in due time. He can't help but exclaim, look at what
54:29
I'm giving. But that's not something to condemn. For a man that had paraded his wealth as a way of soothing himself for the hatred and the cruelty that he felt from his own people.
54:42
Yeah, they may think that I'm a sellout, a traitor, but at least I've got the Rolls Royce. What do
54:47
I care? I'm just going to charge them double next tax season. All of a sudden now, he wants to give spontaneously, freely.
54:55
Look, Lord. But you notice that. Look, Lord. He's giving openly.
55:02
He can't help himself. If I've wronged anyone, just form a line right here. People are walking through his house.
55:07
I'll take that. I'll take the espresso machine. I'll take the flat screen. And he says, OK, it's all yours. But where's his eyesight?
55:13
Where's his heart? Look, Lord. Look what I give, Lord. Look how
55:20
I'm giving, Lord. It's a response to God. And so pride begins in the heart with the way we begin to think about ourselves and then the desire we have for others to look at us in the same way.
55:38
Others need to look at me in the way that I'm presenting myself. And how can I keep presenting this mask in a way to gain that kind of attention and recognition?
55:49
It's all before the sight of men. And pride destroys the soul. Pride caused
55:57
Lucifer to fall from heaven. Pride is the sin behind all sin. Pride is a root of hypocrisy.
56:05
Jesus calls for his disciples to not be hypocrites. So let me close with this.
56:14
There is hope for hypocrites. Praise God. You've probably heard the objection
56:20
I've heard. I'd never set foot in a church. It's full of hypocrites. And the response that's often given is, we have room for another.
56:29
Everybody's a hypocrite. You think you're not a hypocrite? Everybody postures themselves.
56:35
Everyone tries to feel better about themselves. Everyone wants to appear a certain way. The one who's been humbled by Christ in giving grace as a gift knows it no longer really matters what men think of me, how men respond to me, how men regard me.
56:51
What matters is what God sees. What matters is me responding to God out of gratitude and adoration.
56:59
It means I want to be His son, His child. I want to be in favor with Him. It means even when everyone else is frowning and rolling their eyes around me, if my
57:09
Father in heaven who sees in secret is smiling, I am blessed and overflowing with joy. But if all the applause and all the recognition and all the adulation of the world is smiling and beaming upon me and I know in the very marrow of my soul that my
57:25
Father is frowning, then nothing is right in my life. It's like a bone out of joint, and I'm slowly shriveling.
57:33
There is hope for hypocrites. Listen to this, and I'm going to close with this. This is from an old writer,
57:39
Henry Scudder. It's just part of a daily devotional called The Christian's Daily Walk. Tremendous.
57:46
And he says this, and he's really, in my mind, speaking to the hope we have even as we put to death the sins of pride and jealousy and focusing on the externals and impatience.
57:58
He says, You will find the most evident mark of righteousness or uprightness from your sense of hypocrisy in yourself.
58:05
This is hope for hypocrites. You feel like we all feel. What a sermon to hear.
58:12
What a passage to be in. How can I even come up to the table and partake of the bread? All I am is a hypocrite.
58:21
The amazing thing is that no one can see it in the ways that I know it to be true. Well, listen to this.
58:28
You will find the most evident mark of your uprightness comes from the sense of hypocrisy you have of yourself, from your conflict with it.
58:39
In other words, you're conscious of the fact that you are a hypocrite, and you hate that, and you go to war with it.
58:47
The flesh lusts against the spirit, the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary to one another so that you're not doing the things you want to do.
58:54
That's a Christian. That's a spirit -led Christian. The upright man, in other words, is sensible of his hypocrisy, and it causes him to cry out like David, cleanse me, create a right heart in me, renew a steadfast spirit in me.
59:11
This is Scudder. Oftentimes, it makes a believer question whether he has any uprightness at all.
59:17
And until he's brought himself by trial to the sanctuary, to the Word, to the
59:22
Gospel of Christ, he ever has this fear that he is still a hypocrite. But there is nothing in his life which he would oppose more, nothing which he complains of more, nothing which he more prays against than his hypocrisy.
59:35
There's nothing that he longs more after, labors more after, prays more fervently for, that he may love and serve
59:41
God in sincerity. And all of this shows that this man would be righteous.
59:49
And if his heart's desire is so to be, this is his righteousness. I've had occasion over the past few months to say this to several.
01:00:01
Scripture is a mirror. And people spend their whole lives avoiding looking at themselves in the mirror.
01:00:10
Everyone else is the problem. No one else has been through what I've been through. No one else sees things the way I do. I'm just a good person, trying to do good.
01:00:19
You're just someone who can't look in the mirror. You're a rotting corpse in a sepulcher that's not even as polished and clean as you think it is.
01:00:30
Spiteful, cruel, hateful, jealous, covetous, impatient, full of envy, wrath, malice, spite, hating
01:00:41
God, hating neighbor, hating anything that doesn't suit you or serve you, loving yourself, even at the expense and cost of others.
01:00:52
To look in the mirror means, I really am like this. And to be righteous in the way that Christ calls us to be righteous is to say, and I hate it,
01:01:03
Lord. Put your spirit in me. Let me be rather than seem. Conform me to your image.
01:01:12
Because you came and you were as you seemed. And even then, men couldn't see it. Men couldn't see it, so they lied and they gossiped and they maligned you, they spit upon you, profaned you.
01:01:24
But you really were what you said you were. You really were what you taught. You were the only preacher who's ever practiced what he preached.
01:01:31
Only. Do we want to be seen by men?
01:01:37
Is that what we're longing for? So that we're double -minded, double -tongued, double -lived?
01:01:43
Is that thirst for men's attention and men's applause so powerful that we don't even recognize we're being seen by God?
01:01:51
Are we hiding in the fig leaves? Do we refuse to look in the mirror of God's Word? Or do you long to be seen by God, known by God, beheld by God, approved by God in sincerity?
01:02:04
Then cry out to God, who through Christ, by His Spirit, will make your life whole and give you peace.
01:02:12
Amen? Let's pray. Father, thank
01:02:20
You for Your Word. Lord, You are dealing with each of us in different ways this morning.
01:02:29
We pray that You would deal with us in a way that it would not be forgotten. That no one would leave from this room as a hearer only.
01:02:38
Lord, we would be doers of Your Word. We would be those who, though painful, though shameful, though hard, know how to look in the mirror of Your Word.
01:02:50
How to let You, by Your Spirit, examine us within and without. And yet confess all of our sin, all of our guilt to You with boldness, knowing that we name the name of Christ and are forgiven because of His blood.
01:03:07
And that by drawing near to Christ, this Savior, this Lover of our souls, Lord, we are made more and more like Him.
01:03:13
By Your grace, by Your patience, by Your mercy, we thank You, Lord, that He is not like we are.
01:03:21
We thank You, Lord, that His calling, though it seems at times so narrow, so thorny, and so few find it, is a calling that cannot end.
01:03:32
For the work that You've begun is a work You will continue to do until that day. And so we pray,
01:03:38
Lord, that we would hold back nothing, give ourselves wholly over to You, surrender all to You, to be found in You.
01:03:45
Let those in this room, Lord, who have not looked in the mirror of Your Word do so, even now.
01:03:53
For the one who thinks they're not a hypocrite, Lord, reveal to them the horrors of their hypocrisy and show them what it actually means to find themselves in You.
01:04:00
For You said, Lord, to lose your life is to find it, but to try to hold on to your life is to lose it.
01:04:08
So many hypocrites will lose their life at the end, Lord. We would be those who are humbled by our hypocrisy, repentant of it, and therefore find
01:04:16
Your healing, Your wholeness, Lord, as we pursue You. Through this work, we pray, Lord.
01:04:22
Bless us as this is the very heart of what it means to be Your disciples, Lord. And as we, as a church, pursue discipleship in this year, and especially as we begin this series next week,
01:04:32
Lord, I pray that truly we would get back to the ABCs of what it means to follow You, of what it means to name
01:04:38
You as our Lord, as our Savior. Lord, that there would be hope as well as conviction, and that the left and right hand and the left and right foot of both of these things would carry us and convey us on to glory.