Masked Performer or Unmasked Worshiper

We've wrapped up chapter five. We're moving into chapter six today. Um and just going to go ahead and throw this out there. Um that I'm going to be pulling double duty for the next three weeks. And what I mean by that is um there's another church that's in our association of churches here in Indianapolis um that's asked me to come and preach for the next three weeks. Their service starts at 10:45.

Um, and so if you know anything about my preaching, um, I'm going to be cutting that real close because it's a 20-minute drive. And so, anyways, um, when when we wrap up and I give the last announcement, I'm going to be darting straight out. So, don't take it personal. I love you guys. I would love to stay and chat with you, but for the next three weeks, that's what it's going to look like. Um, that also might mean that we get done early today, but we'll see what the spirit has for us uh, when it comes to that.

And so, open up to Matthew chapter 6. And as you're turning there, uh, one thing that Kelsey and I love, um, and well, I would say Kelsey and I love, Kelsey really loves Broadway shows. Um, and when you think about a Broadway show, I want you to imagine a stage obviously, but an actor performing on the stage with a mask. Each scene is dramatic, obviously. It's rehearsed. It's flawless.

It's worthy of an of an award. But once the curtain falls, there's something the audience realizes. And it's always the part where they come back out and they kind of do the bow and everything. And what you realize in that moment is you actually don't know the real person. You just know the character. You know what they performed.

You know what they did as far as like you know the the lines and the songs and all that good stuff. All you know about them is the performance, but you don't know the real person behind it. Now imagine bringing that same performance into our spiritual lives when it comes to our giving, when it comes to our praying, when it comes to our fasting that it's being done not before God, but it's actually being done before people. And what Jesus is addressing in chapter 6 is this very temptation, doing spiritual things to impress others rather than doing them for intimacy with God. And so this passage we are be covering today contains three practical examples of religious life. Giving, praying, and fasting.

And in each of these, Jesus contrasts public performance for praise with private devotion for God's pleasure. And so I want to read it for us today, and I want you to follow along with me in your Bibles. Matthew 6 1-8. And so starting in verse one, here's what he says. Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them. for then you will have no reward from your father who is in heaven.

Now, I want to stop there for just a second. You know, when you go shop at a store and when you're uh checking out at the register, sometimes they'll ask you if you're a part of the rewards program and and I I am always the type of person that will I don't always say this because it sounds rude, but I'll say whatever program is where I give you money and you give me the product, that's the one that I'm here for. I'm not here for any other like signing up and getting emails and so forth. I just want whatever that program is. Um, but oftentimes there's rewards programs that the more you participate, the more you engage, the more rewards you get from it. Well, there's a unique thing going on here where Jesus is referencing a reward program, if you will.

A reward program based on the level of intimacy that we have with him. also then determines what we receive from him. And so just kind of keep that in your mind. At first you might be like that sounds really weird and conditional. It doesn't sound like the grace and the mercy that we always talk about in the scriptures. So just kind of keep it in the back of your mind.

Let's keep reading as we walk through this because there actually is some type of level of a rewards program with Jesus. It just might not be the one that you're thinking. But look at verse two. Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret.

And your father who sees in secret will reward you. And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they've received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your father who is in secret. And your father who sees in secret will reward you. And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.

Do not be like them, for your father knows what you need before you ask him. And here's actually our memory verse for July. If you didn't know, we do memory verses as a church. Then that just tells me that you don't read to the end of the email each week. But here's our memory verse for this week or for this month. Pray then like this.

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts as we forgive those or as we also have forgiven our debtors. and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may be seen by others, or that your fasting may not be seen by others, but by your father who is in secret. And your father who sees in secret will reward you. Father, we ask this morning that as we read this sermon that was preached by your son Jesus that the intended meaning and message that he is preaching and proclaiming and revealing to his audience that that meaning and that message would also be revealed to our minds and our hearts this morning.

So that we don't see Christianity as something that we do ourselves for the performance and praise of others but that we would see our spiritual disciplines of giving and praying and fasting are to be done in an abiding relationship with you for the intimacy of closeness with you. to be able to receive a reward from you that is greater than any reward that we would ever receive from the world. And so, Father, we just pray that you would guide us in understanding this and that you would also grant us the faith to believe that this is a better way of living than the way that sometimes we fall into the temptation of living. Father, may you also just help us in this moment by granting us strength from your spirit to be able to live in this way and to follow your son Jesus. It's in his name that we pray. Amen.

As the first part of Jesus' sermon on the mount showed us, which was all of chapter 5, motives matter. Again, this is him kind of adding some application to a lot of what he's been talking about in chapter 5, which chapter 5 really delve more into this idea that right activity does not lead to a right identity. In other words, doing the right thing is not going to lead to a right standing and a right identity with God. but rather having a right identity and a right standing before God leads to you having the right activity in your life. And so it's just reorienting the order of those things where yes, you are going to give and you are going to pray and you are going to fast and there's other spiritual disciplines that we'll walk through as we continue on going through the sermon on the mount. But the reality is is you're not doing these things in order to please God.

But because you've already found favor with God through the work of Jesus Christ, we then do these things for greater intimacy with him. So doing these things doesn't produce the intimacy with him. But because we have intimacy with him, we do these things. And it's just making sure that we understand the two different things. Because if you give and you pray and you fast just so that others might think that you're godly reveals that you're actually not godly. But when you understand what God has done for you and what he's produced in you and what he has done in the life, death, and burial of Jesus Christ and his resurrection, all that he has accomplished that has been granted to you leads you to want to do these things not for the sake of others when it comes to um um personal praise or public praise or public performance, but because it leads you into a deeper intimacy with the father.

And I believe Jesus is giving some just practical application here so that we're able to safeguard ourselves from the temptation to live spiritual lives for earthly clout instead of godly connection. And the three spiritual disciplines that he gives here as examples are giving, praying, and fasting. And so, as a caveat, I'll say this. All three of these spiritual disciplines, they do bring you closer intimacy with God. And so if you're wondering right now, I feel far from God or I feel distant from God, these spiritual disciplines of giving, praying, and fasting will reward you with closer intimacy with God. All right, so end of sermon, just make sure you give, pray, and fast, and we're good to go.

All right, let's pray. No, I'm just kidding. Um, I have a lot more explanation to do on these. So, let's start with point one. Point one, he tells us in contrasting with the way that they are giving to instead give in secret. And so this is a type of generosity that pleases God.

In Jesus' day when he is talking to Jews about giving and about generosity, this is not pre this is not Jesus preaching a message so that someone who doesn't give would start giving. That's not what he's trying to do here. Instead, he doesn't say if you give, but he says when you give. Meaning that it is an expectation according to their culture and their law that they give. So again, he's not preaching, hey, this is why you should give, but instead when you give, make sure it's done in this character, according to this identity. So if you don't give, that's not because you found some hidden doctrine or verse in the Bible that excludes you from giving, but rather it actually just reveals a lack of understanding in the way of Jesus.

Or because you might live in a way that is a lack of understanding of the way Jesus taught and the way that he's established us to be generous people. because he's generous means that you're just mismanaging the resources that God has given you because you're not discipled enough and steward in stewarding what God has provided for you. It would be like me buying my kids a video game and gifting it to them and then as they're playing it saying, "Hey, do you think I could get a turn?" And them being like, "No." And me being like, "Okay, hold up a second. I bought it.

I gave it to you. I blessed you with the resource and you're not willing to share it. Who do you think you are? And so when it comes to even just managing our resources and our finances, if we have a posture towards God that says we're not going to be generous, we're not going to give, we're not going to help in the mission of God and the purposes of God in advancing the gospel. Because at the end of the day, that's the only reason why we give to the church is for the purpose of having intimacy with the Lord in the purposes in which the Lord has provided when it comes to the advancing of the gospel ministry into not only here in Indianapolis but to the world at large. And so we're saying we don't want to be a part of that by hoarding our resources.

We don't want to share in that blessing. When Jesus says when you give that's one of the ways in which he is saying as followers of me we are givers. As followers of me we are generous. As followers of me we meet the needs of others and we fund the mission of God to make disciples of all nations. Jesus is saying here it's not a suggestion. It's a fruit of being a disciple of Jesus Christ.

It's a fruit of being a follower of him. Andrew Hopper, a pastor in North Carolina, says generosity is the first fruit of disciplehip. We see that in the story of Zakius. In the story of Zakius, when he gets saved by Jesus, the first thing you see is he moves away from a greedy worldview to a generous kingdom view. anything that I've robbed from anyone else, I'm going to I'm going to restore it to them, even four-fold, and I'm going to give away half of literally everything that I have. Like, the first fruit you see in him following Jesus is a radical generosity.

When the gospel is planted throughout the region of Macedonia, the first fruit that you see throughout Macedonia, even in poverty, is a radical generosity to the contribution of the the sake of the gospel and the growth of it across the region. It's just an amazing thing. And so the key verse that we see here in verse one again beware of preaching your practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them. In the ancient Jewish world almsgiving again as I already said was expected but Jesus warns that even good deeds can become spiritual performances. What the masked performers would do is they would take their tithes and their offerings and they would come into the offering room oftentimes in the synagogues or in the temple and they would parade around and they would dance. There would be these big jar like coffers in the offering rooms.

And what they would do is they would it would be like taking your $20 that you give and exchanging it for dimes and nickels and then coming into the room and just tossing them in. So that again it's sounding the trumpet. It's making noise so that everyone else man look how much money he is putting in there. He's just constantly he's taken hours in order to contribute. This is what they were doing so that everyone would see them and think look how godly they are based on how much money they are giving. And Jesus is going to repeat this phrase.

Truly I say to you, they've received their reward. What Jesus is saying is congratulations. Whatever feeling you get from the applause and praise of others, that's all you get. That's all you get. Whatever you're seeking, that's it. You're going to get that.

nothing more. That's your reward. And to true followers, true disciples, Jesus tells us, don't sound the trumpet. Given a way that your left hand doesn't even know what your right hand is doing. This isn't about hiding from accountability. It's about guarding your heart from pride.

Look how much I give. Remembering how you give, why you give, and what you are giving in the first place. And so a bit of application on giving here. 2 Corinthians 9:6-7 kind of tells us how we are to give or the posture in which we are to give. And it tells us to give cheerfully, to give generously, and to give in proportion to your income. Give cheerfully, generously, and in proportion to your income.

Number two, why should we give? 2 Corinthians 8:9 tells us to give because Jesus gave everything. to give because Jesus gave everything and it helps advance the gospel and meet needs in the area. In addition, 2 Corinthians 9, I want to read this passage for you, verses 1-5, the Apostle Paul in explaining to the Corinthians who at first didn't want to give because it's the church in Corinth. We always know they're all jacked up. But in helping them understand how to giving, he says this.

Now it is superolous for me to write to you about the ministry for the saints. Essentially, he's saying, I need to explain to you the need of why we need a gift from you. For I know your readiness of which I boast about you to the people of Macedonia, saying that Aaya has been ready since last year, and your zeal has stirred up most of them. But I'm sending the brothers so that our boasting about you may not prove empty in this matter, so that you may be ready, as I said you would be. Otherwise, if some Macedonians come with me and find that you are not ready, we would be humiliated to say nothing of you for being so confident. So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go ahead um to go on ahead to you and arrange in advance for the gift you have promised so that it may be ready as a willing gift, not as an exaction.

So again, one of the things that the apostle Paul did for the church in Corenth was he first laid out an explanation to them of how the churches in Macedonia contributed. that I already mentioned that they contributed out of extreme affliction and poverty and then beyond their means they just wanted to participate in the advancing of the gospel and the relief of the saints and the be and and to be able to get to the need because they have been so blessed by Jesus and what God has done for them. They wanted to go above and beyond even their means to be able to contribute to the mission of the gospel advancing. And so when Paul is explaining this to the church in Corinth, the church in Corinth gets discipled in it and they actually relate to Paul, hey, we want to participate in this way as well. And so Paul now is sending a team ahead to be able to say, "Hey, when they arrive, because you are willing, we want you to go ahead and set aside a gift.

Not because we are expecting this from you or exacting this from you, but because of your willing spirit." This is one of the reasons um and and it's more culturally for our people than it is um traditionally I guess you would say. It's one of the reasons why we don't pass the plate because we're not trying to exact something based on like peer pressure, but we want you to have a willing spirit because literally I think it's 98% of our people give online that if we passed a plate, there would be something weird in your spirit where you would be like the plate gets to you and you're like, I feel guilty for not putting in something in here. So when I give it to you, I give online and then you like pass it on to the next person. Like you would want to almost explain why. There are actually churches who because they still pass the plate, they have envelopes in front of them where they write I give online and then drop that in the thing and then continue moving it on as if it's like a proverbial way of of giving and so forth.

But that's just one of the ways that we don't pass the plate because again we have you give in secret. Not saying that passing the plate is a wrong thing, but I just think there it's a it's a cultural thing. We are more online versus we versus being like cash. I mean how many how many of you literally keep cash with you at all times? Like it's very rare that that happens anymore. Another reason why we don't pass a plate also is for this idea of of I'm going to pick on my old church for a minute.

Okay, so the church that I was at in Tennessee took this idea of giving cheerfully um to another level where and and at first I thought it was funny, but like they would actually like cheer when they dropped their money in the plate as it was passing. So during that like last song after the sermon where we would take up the offering before the the invitation as they're passing the plate, you would just hear woo. Yeah. Woo. Like just as people are dropping money in. It was the weirdest thing.

I don't know if they still do it. Um but I also then went and preached at another church, a neighbor of mine, uh who pastored a church and would have me come and preach every once in a while. Um I'm not kidding. This is how they would operate things. And and it's just look, every church does dumb things, okay? This is one of those dumb things.

All right? So, they would pass the plates and they would bring it down front and there would be a deacon who would come up and he would count it right right in the moment. And as he's counting it in the moment, he would look up at the pastor and he would do this. And then they would, "All right, that's not enough. We're going to roll it around again." And they would pass the plate again.

And then everybody, they bring it back up. And then I'm not joking. He would count it again. He'd look up and he would say, "No." And he'd say, "All right, guys. Do you follow Jesus?

Do you believe in Jesus or not?" Like, "Put your money where your mouth is or put your money where your faith is." And then they would literally pass the plate again. Like, that to me is leaning a little into that exaction. All right? Like, you're not giving based on a compelling spirit.

You're giving based on me compelling to give. And so we like to land somewhere in the middle where you rarely hear me actually talk about like just generosity or giving. And it's not because I shouldn't. I should. And I actually should talk about it more because of the reality that he's even lumping together giving and praying and fasting. Not saying that one is greater than the other, but he's putting these on the same level playing fields here.

Now again, I'm always going to say that the ministry of the word and the ministry of the prayer are the two greatest things that the church is is literally tasked with and making sure that we get right because it's what advances the gospel. But giving is in conjunction with these things. And we just want to make sure that we heir on the side of safeguarding and protecting the temptation that we have to give pridefully or to give for performance or to give for the praise of others. And so we give online u both because it's culturally but also because you're able to give in secret according to whatever the Lord between you and the Lord. And that's what you know more uh actually gets to here in a second. Number three, what should you give?

Money obviously. Um but also time, gifts, resources, talents that you have. Like you need to be able to make sure that you are giving so that it is advancing the mission of the gospel, what God has sent for us. I love that Paul in 2 Corinthians 9:6-8, he's just like, "Look, I'm tired of talking about this with you." The point is this, verse 6, "Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion."

Again, that kind of goes back to the passing of the plates idea. For God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. The last thing I'll say on giving is just when you think about your giving to the mission of God and advancing the gospel, do you wish you could give more? Because I think that reveals the heart posture that we have. When we look at what Jesus gave for us, his life, everything.

He gave everything. You can't outgive Jesus. That's going to inform what we give back. And obviously, you're going to need to provide for your family. You're going to need to, you know, provide for the bills that you have and so forth. But even a lot of those things are attached to maybe pride, maybe performance, maybe we, you know, we we drive something for the praise of others.

That was a that was a financial decision, maybe we buy the type of house that we have for the praise of others. So like it can even be indirectly tied to where you might not be giving publicly so that others can see how much you give. But the lack of giving based on how you are actually managing your resources and finances reveals the same pride just reoriented or redirected somewhere else. And so when we ask the question deciding in your heart how much to give that's going to be between you and the spirit. All right? It's going to be between you and the spirit.

And I would dare say that if you're going to look at the idea of a tithe, which is a tenth in scriptures. I would always say that's not the ceiling. Don't you're not you're not thinking in your spiritual walk with Jesus, all right, I'm just trying to work up Jesus to 10%. Okay? But instead asking Jesus, what I'm trying to work up to is cheerful generosity that also might feel sacrificial. And that also at times is going to be lavished because I want it to most reflect what you have done for me.

And so what that's going to require then of us is stewarding and managing the resources that God has given us to be able to then ask the question how much can I give that is cheerful, generous, lavish, sacrificial at times. So give in secret so that it is a joyful intimacy between you and the Lord. And then also we need to pray in secret. Pray in secret. This is an intimacy that connects us with God. This is verses 5-15.

And the key verse in here is verse six. Go into your room and shut the door and pray to your father who is in secret. Now this is contrasting with the hypocrite hypocrites of the day who pray loudly for attention. Pray loudly for attention. He also brings up the idea of the pagans which is his kind of way of just talking about the Gentiles who are not necessarily following God but there's still this idea of the worship of gods and how they are to pray to them and they just pray with this endless repetition. Jesus is saying that true prayer is not about volume or vocabulary but it's about vulnerability and vibrancy in relationship with God.

is about vulnerability and vibrancy and relationship with God, not about volume or vocabulary. And so I did something unique this week. I asked Chat GBT to give an example of a prideful, boastful, and hypocritical prayer. And here's what it returned. Oh sovereign, omnipotent master of the celestial realms, who inhabitth, and I love that a lot of this is in like King King James old language. I think I don't know if Chat GBT views them as being legalistic type people, but who inhabitth the ineffable dimensions of thine eternal dominion?

I beseech thee, nay, I entreat thee with sanctified verbosity to incline thine ear toward thy humble yet eloquent servant this glorious Sabbath morning. Lord, unlike the spiritually the lethargic pew filler seated to my left and right, whose spiritual fervor barely flickers, I come to thee as a blazing torch of righteousness. May thou smite my distractions as thou dissed the Amalachites, and grant me thine favor greater than even thy servant Moses, who though esteemed, never reached my current level of devotional consistency. And Lord, if it be thy will, and I'm sure it is, may my Instagram real devotional go viral so the nations might see thy glory and also admire the tasteful leather binding of my study Bible. Sa like the funny thing I uh I can think of names of people who pray like this. Now there's no one in this room.

Okay. Um but but people from my past who who prayed like this there there's a crazy trend right now. I haven't seen it but um a friend of mine who's a pastor was talking about it. A trend on Tik Tok. Um I think it's on Tik Tok. I don't know.

Is Tik Tok even still is it legal again? Can you go on it in America? I don't know. This is how disconnected I am. But um there's a trend on Tik Tok where people will set up their phones to record their personal prayer sessions in order to then post them to like show other people either how to pray like this like Christian influencer type of idea. And I'm like I think that's literally what this is talking about of what not to do.

What not to do. The Lord's prayer that he gives us here again, which is our our memory verse for the month. It's a model again. It's not a script. It centers on God's name, his kingdom, and his will before it ever moves to um our idea of our needs, our dependence, um our requests made before the Lord. You see, real prayer, it's it's less about public display and it's more about private dependence.

It's less about public display. It's more about private dependence. I remember when when I was like being early years of Christianity, kind of my 10th, 11th grade, 12th grade, you know, they'd get the youth group together and like in a big circle and everybody would pray. And I just remember always thinking like I don't know enough of the Christianes language to be able to pray publicly before everybody. And and I always felt this pressure of like, you know, whenever they say like, "Hey, we're going to have someone pray." And you're like, like you look down like don't don't make eye contact because then they'll choose you.

Um and so I'm always like, man, like where's the fly on the wall? Um don't look at me. don't. But then just I remember this this one boy who who was in the youth group uh who got called on and I think he got called on just because like his prayers were just so just like a four-year-old talking to his dad of just like hey I just I love who you are and I love what you're like and I love that you brought the sun up this morning and I love that you have like walked with me today and I love that you make sure that I have enough food to eat. In your name we pray. Amen.

And it's just like like it's not about the volume and the vocabulary but just the vulnerability just the authenticity that that you see and experience in that moment. Again, real prayer is it's about acknowledging who God is and then having enough awareness about yourself so that when you make requests of God, they're humble and accurate. Humble and accurate. And so, I'm always going to say like I I think if we if our prayers are rarely ever being answered by God, we're probably not praying to God. We're praying so that just other people hear us or that other people know we have a prayer life or we don't know the word of God and we don't know how God has operated and we don't know who God what his character is like. We don't know how he meets the needs of others and the needs of us.

And so we don't even know what to pray for. And therefore what we're praying for that is inaccurate, he's never going to answer or he's never going to provide. He might answer and it's just no. Like God always answers your prayers. It's either yes, no, or later. And it just might be a no because again, we don't know the word.

And that's one of the things that's so important is like when we're saying that we want you to pray to God, to make requests for God, as the model shows us in the Lord's prayer. I think it begins with God and his will being done. And you ask the question, what is that? The word of God is what reveals to us the will of God. And so before you will ever have a robust, effective prayer life, you need to know the word of God because it will inform you on what to pray. It will inform you on who the father is and how he answers prayers and what kinds of prayers he answers and the way in which he answers those prayers so that it then begins to then shape us and mold us to then pray correctly.

And that's why I love Romans 8. It it it basically says like, hey, even if you don't know what to pray for, just start praying. Also walk in step with the spirit. Get to know Jesus. know the word that reveals who Jesus is to us because again we don't have Jesus right here in front of us like the disciples did. So he's he's revealing themselves to him person on person for us.

We have the word of God that reveals to us the visible representation of Jesus who reveals to us the visible representation of God. And so in order for us to know what to pray for, we need to know the word. We need to know the word. And so don't separate those two. Which is why again I go back to the whole idea of the the two primary uh pedals that are driving the building and construction of the church is the ministry of the word and the ministry of prayer of prayer because one tells us who God is and one lets us communicate with him and so we need to pray with sincerity be real not impressive we need to pray with surrender seek God's will not your own and we need to pray with dependence trusting God daily for your needs so that we are provided for. And he knows what those are.

And we'll get to that as we continue on in chapter six in the weeks to come. But the last thing is that we need to fast in secret. We need to fast in secret. This is a hunger that honors God. And the key verses here 16-8. When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, but anoint your head and wash your face.

Thi this is why I titled this the masked performers versus the unmasked worshipper. They were literally painting their faces to make it look like their fasting was like deeper and like more rigid and more robust than anyone else's to where they're they're trying to make it look like they're skeletons essentially that they've so starved theirelves from food because of how godly and holy that they are in their hunger for righteousness. this. And Jesus is here responding to them saying, "Do you see how stupid that is?" Like, it's just stupid. Whatever reward they think they've that they have, that's all they're getting.

And so instead, he's saying, "Don't make it look like you're holy. Don't make it look like you're spiritual. Don't make it look like you're doing these spiritual disciplines. Instead, wash your face. If you're fasting and you are physically ill, make it look like you're not. Anoint your head.

Wash your face. What he's saying there is like um like they would literally not only would they starve themselves, but they would like not go through the proper channels of hygiene. So, they would just stink as if it was like the aroma that's pleasing to the Lord. And he's saying don't stink. Don't be stupid and don't stink. Anoint your heads.

Smell good. And also wash your face. As you're fasting, try to look normal as if you're not fasting. That's what he's saying here. So that your fasting is actually not you trying to draw others to yourself, but instead so that you are drawing near to God. That's the point Jesus is making.

And so an application question for you is who's watching your spiritual life? Others, yourself or your father? Who's watching your spiritual life? God sees what is done in secret. I'm gonna say that again. God sees what is done in secret.

He says that in verse four, verse 6, and verse 18. And that's not a threat. It's a comfort. It's a comfort that any private devotion to the Lord never goes unseen by him. That's amazing that because God is so omniresent and omnisient, which means he's everywhere at all times in his fullness, knowing every thought you have. When you are in your room and the weight of the world on your shoulders is causing you to break down in this moment in which you bear your soul before the Lord.

These verses are communicating to us that he is right there with you and that he sees you and that he knows you and that he wants to commune with you. And get this, in that moment, he has a reward for you. He has a reward for you that's greater than anything this world would have to offer that we might pridefully or temp temptingly like want to go after. He has a reward for us. And what is that reward? his presence, his peace, his eternal joy for us in that moment.

As I mentioned earlier, we there there are times if you come into this room and it's because there's a situation or just a feeling that I'm I'm running on empty or I'm distant or God is far from me. David would say those same things in the Psalms. Where are you, Lord? where are you? And then you turn the page and David is saying something like everywhere I go, there you are, Lord. I think there are moments where God in the He's always there.

He's always connected. But whether it's circumstances of life and I think oftenimes that's what David feels is the circumstances of life that are around him. I mean, people just always trying to kill him or take his kingdom or enemies are surrounding or there's like, you know, a coup within his family trying to take over his throne or whatever it might be or his own personal sin and he's saying like, "Where are you, Lord?" I think God allows us to feel those things as an invitation in that moment to come to him and say, "Lord, where are you? I need you right now. I need you.

And I think that's why we that's why he's given us the spiritual discipline of fasting is not that it produces this distance that we feel from God, but that it produces a physical representation of what that is like. And it reminds us that there is always an invitation for us to come near to the heart of God because he is always near to us. He is always near to us. Let's come back to that Broadway show. Imagine the stage actor performing with the mask again. Except now the play is over.

The curtain is dropped. The actor exits stage left and makes their way outside to the back alley where a small crowd waits at the stage door. But now there's no makeup. There's no mask. There's no spotlight. It's just the person.

It's just the person, the individual, raw and real. And suddenly you get to meet them. Not the character, not the projection, but the person behind it all. This is where relationships become real. Our relationship with God is not at the front of the stage. It's not in the way that we perform in front of others.

It's not in the way that we show off in front of others. It's not in the life that we build in front of others. It's in these back alleys in a room with the door closed where the Lord is the only one when we walk out that stage door and he's saying, "I'm here. Drop the act. Drop the mask. I'm here.

Come and commune with me. commune with me. Jesus was the only one who ever lived unmasked purely for the father and he was rejected so that we could be accepted. So as we walk out of here today, let's be the kind of people who worship not for attention but for affection. For affection. who give, who pray, who fast, not for applause, but from intimacy with God.

Because the greatest reward isn't being seen by others. It's being known and loved by our father. That's the greatest reward. And so, as the band comes up, ultimately Jesus is the only one who lived every moment for the father alone. He gave without seeking praise. He prayed without uh with perfect dependence.

He fasted to align his will with the fathers. And yet he was crucified publicly not for his sins but for ours. And through him we are invited into the kind of life where what's unseen by the world is seen and loved by the father. And so as we prepare our hearts for communion, there's a chance for us to do a couple of things. It's a moment for us to lay down our masks. Just to take them off and say, "Man, we're there's no one in this room that we have to impress.

No one in this room that we have to impress." The the church is the only place in the world where we should be able to come in and say, "I am messed up." And the rest of us say, "Amen, brother." We are too. We are too. We're imperfect.

We're messed up. We're a people that receive grace and mercy. We're not a people that try to impress God in order to earn it. We just receive it. And so you're welcome here. If you are messed up, you're welcome here.

Lay down our masks, confess our performative spirituality, and said, pursue secret, sacred intimacy with the father. Would you stand with me? If you believe Jesus died on the cross for you, that he broke his body, that he shed his blood, that that's the only way in which your sins can be forgiven is because he took the penalty of your sins upon himself and he died for you. If you believe that and you follow Jesus, I invite you to come down, grab the elements, bring them back to your seat as we remember his sacrifice at the end of the song together. And as you are singing through the song, thinking through the song, praying through the song, I want you to just consider a couple of things. Father, I don't want to perform for others.

I just want to walk with you in secret and be seen by you alone. For you are my reward. Think about that in this time. Come down as the Lord leads you.