Ž Ž Bless the Lord, saints. Bless the Lord. It's time to come together, gather in his name, gather with him as the focus. We're going to lift him up. We're going to bless his name. We're going to worship him and adore him and do what we were created to do. Bless the Lord. We were created to. to reflect his image, to reflect his glory in the earth, to be light bearers. Hallelujah. Image bearers. So, right now, we're just going to bless his name. We're going to sanctify our hearts in this service and we just want him to have his way in this gathering. Let it bear the fruit that it intent, he intends, and let us in this gathering while we're here. Bless the Lord. So Lord, we come boldly before your throne room of grace, where we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need. We bless you, Lord, that you called us to yourself, Lord. The scripture says, while we were yet enemies of the cross, When we were working against you, we were doing everything contrary to your will, your desire. Lord, you still called us out of darkness into the marvelous light to show forth praises to you. So Lord, for that, we're grateful. For that, we want to worship and adore and praise you. For that, we want to lift up our voices and holy hands, Lord, and worship, adoration, and praise. For that, we want to sing praises to you. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. You said, let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. You said, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. So Lord, those of us who know we are a blood bond, those of us who know that we only have hope of eternal life because of what you did, Lord, we want to collectively, collectively with one heart, with one mind, with one purpose, celebrate you, Lord, in this gathering. So have your way, Lord. Use everybody in the sound of our voice. Let your body be the body. Every member supplying to the body what is needed. Let your body be the body. Everybody knowing that they have value and purpose and they have something to facilitate your move in this gathering. Let your body stand up, Lord God, and be the pillar of truth that you've called us to be in this day. But let your body stand up and declare your goodness in the land of the living. So have your way, Lord. Use the musicians. Use the singers. Use the preacher. Use the congregation, Lord. Use us all, Lord. Hallelujah. There's many of us who come broke, busted, and disgusted. We don't have anything, but you draw near to them that are of a broken heart. And you said you saved such as be of a contrite spirit. So even if we're broken, Lord, you can be present. You said your strength is made perfect in weakness. So we can go ahead and be weak and allow your strength to be demonstrated and displayed in us, Lord. Let your power be displayed in this gathering. We don't want just lofty words of human eloquence, but the demonstration of spirit and in power, your dunamis power, your power that transforms lives, your power that illuminates understanding, your power that opens the mind of the blind, your power, hallelujah, that heals the sick, your power, let it be demonstrated in this gathering. When the people in the book of Acts were with one mind, one heart, one accord, you showed up and you demonstrated your power and your glory. So we're asking that you do that again in this gathering for your namesake and your namesake alone. In Jesus' name, amen. Bless the Lord. Bless the Lord. Scripture says, I will bless the Lord at all times, and his praise shall continually be in my mouth. That means in good times. That means in bad times. That means in hard times. That's in hard-pressed times. In every situation, the Bible says, give thanks for it is the will of God concerning thee in Christ Jesus. So I don't know about you, but sometimes it gets rough. And then when it gets rough, it gets rougher than rough. But in the midst of it all, all I can say is bless you, Jesus. Thank you for being my strength in the midst of all. Thank you said you never leave us nor forsake us. Thank you. You said you would be with us forever until the end. So in the midst of everything, we have him and that's everything. Bless the Lord. So with that said, we're going to be reading together. My understanding is We don't have the projector for today and we may not have the online but we know how to you know how we know how to do So Romans 3 10 through 18, we're gonna be reading out of the ESV and Those of it who have it you can read with me as it is written None is righteous. No, not one. I No one understands, no one seeks for God. All have turned aside together. They have become worthless. No one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. In their paths are ruin and misery. and the way of peace they have not known, there is no fear of God before their eyes. I'm going to keep reading a little bit. Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by the works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, there is no distinction. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, for there is no distinction. Bless the Lord for his word. And we're gonna lift him up, bless the Lord. so so How many came to lift him up this morning? Hallelujah. Praise the Lord, everybody. Hallelujah. So y'all see I got a little more help today. Hallelujah. As we get set up, test. Just think on the goodness of Jesus. Hallelujah. Is that alright? Hallelujah. Let's think on the goodness of Jesus. Wanna tell y'all My the reason I worship so hard in the pain is to minister and they told me about how they had to cover their cars with leaves and go and hide and go and find the church in hiding and go in there. That's where that's the only place those people could worship. Hallelujah. That's the only place they can worship. So, they said, they said, see, in America, you guys don't have your I was like, fix my heart, God. Like, literally. That happened to me about 20 years ago, they were telling me that. And they still like, yeah, yeah, yeah, y'all still, y'all getting better, y'all getting better, but yeah, we gotta work on our desperation for God. Because we be feeling like when every bill is paid, maybe, maybe we ain't gotta pray as hard, you know, but God is still worthy of all of the glory, all of the honor, all of the majesty, all of the praise, whether we feel like it or not, whether the sun is up or not, whether the moon is down or not, it don't matter. He's always worthy. He's always worthy. He's always worthy. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. So, I'm just trying to help just share my heart a little bit. You know, just share my heart of worship with y'all a little bit so we can help just dig a little bit deeper so we can recognize that everybody don't have this privilege. Some people gotta go on a 15-mile hike. Some people gotta cover their cars with leaves to go in hiding to go worship God. Some people gotta read their Bibles with their flashlights because it's banned in their countries. Come on, y'all. Come on, y'all. Come on, y'all. Come on, y'all. Come on, y'all. He's worthy. Hallelujah. Yeah, yeah. Y'all ready? Here we go. Pick it up, man. Hey! We're rockin'. Here we go. Hey. Yeah. You're the same yesterday, today, and forever. You're the same yesterday, today, and forever. I pray. I pray. Your name. Your name. I pray. I pray. Your name. Your name. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Holy, holy. Holy, holy. You are worthy. You are worthy. Of my praise. Of my praise. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Holy, holy. Holy, holy. You are worthy. You are worthy. Of my praise. You are worthy. You are worthy. You are Alpha and Omega You are Alpha and Omega You're the beginning and the end You're the beginning and the end You're the same yesterday, today, and forever. You're the same yesterday, today, and forever. I pray. I pray. Your name. Your name. I pray. I pray. Your name. Your name. You are alpha and omega. You are alpha and omega. You're the beginning and the end. You're the beginning and the end. You're the same yesterday, today, and forever. You're the same yesterday, today, and forever. You are worthy. You are worthy. You are worthy of my praise. Hallelujah. Holy, holy. You are worthy of my praise. You're worthy of all praise Mighty are the works of your hands name above all name worthy of all praise mighty are the works of your hand mighty are the works of your hand I pray I pray your name your name You're worthy. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah You are worthy. Hallelujah. Glory to your name, Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Oh, I love to call your name, Jesus. The name of Jesus. Something always happens when you say the name of Jesus. At the name of Jesus, demons tremble. At the name of Jesus, bodies are healed. At the name of Jesus, souls are delivered and set free. Hallelujah. Oh, thank you, Lord Jesus. The thing I love about our god. I remember they used to tell me when I was a little girl, god knows every single hair on your head. He knows every hair on your head. He knows every tear you've ever cried. Yes. Hallelujah. He knows our name. My grandmother used to say, he walks with me. He talks with me. He tells me I'm his own. Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord Jesus. There's nobody like him. Thank you, Lord Jesus. You know my name You know my name You know my name ♪ You know my name ♪ And oh how you walk with me ♪ Oh how you talk with me ♪ And oh how you tell me ♪ That I am your own Yes, it does today. You know my name. Oh, you know my name. Oh, how you walk with me. Oh, how you walk with me. Just to commune with you. Oh, how you talk with me. Every step of the way, yeah. Oh, just listen to Him. You know me, so I trust you with my life, yeah. Oh, yeah. No fire can burn me. No battle can turn me. No mountain can stop me. In your victory, cause your power is within me. No giant can defeat me, cause you hold my hand. Nothing can burn me. No battle can turn me. No mountain can stop me. walk in your victory your power is within me no giant can defeat me why because of my love no fire can burn me no battle can turn me no mountain can stop me why because of my love You hold my hand You hold my hand You hold my hand. You hold my hand. You hold my hand. You hold my hand. You hold my hand. You hold my hand. You hold my hand. Every step of the way. You hold my hand. I don't have to be afraid. You hold my hand. You hold my hand. You hold my hand. You know my name. You know my name. You know my name. You know my name. Oh, how you comfort me. Oh, how you counsel me. Yeah, yeah. That I am your friend Everybody sing We have a friend in Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Let him hear you. Just open your mouth and tell god about how good he is. Thank you. Thank you for saving my life. Lord, I'm nothing without you. Oh, how you tell me. I am your own. I am your own. Yeah, yeah. So no fire can burn me. No battle can turn me. No mountain can stop me. Why? Because you hold my hand. Your power is within me. No giant can defeat me. Why? Because you hold my hand. Fire can't burn me. No battle can't hurt me. No mountain can't stop me. Why? Because you hold my hand. You hold my hand. You hold my hand. You hold my hand. You hold my hand. You hold my hand. You hold my hand. You hold my hand. You hold my hand. You hold my hand. You hold my hand. You hold my hand. You hold my hand. You hold my hand You know my name You know my name He knows your name. He does. He knows your name. Yes, he does. You know my name. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He knows your name. Yeah, yeah. He knows your name. Hallelujah. Yeah. ? ? Bless your name, God. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Is it okay if we just worship the Lord? Is it okay if we just bask in his presence? Is it okay if we're just grateful for what God has done? Amen. Hallelujah. I am your owner. Hallelujah. Oh. Yeah. Oh. Thank you, Lord. Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. Oh, my. Hallelujah. Hallelujah! We give you praise right now! Hallelujah! No one like you, God! No one like you, God! No one like you, God! Hallelujah! Hallelujah, God. Bless your name, God. It is a miracle that He knows us. It is a miracle that He has not forfeited us. It is a miracle that He has not let us go. God's faithfulness is unmatched. Amen? His faithfulness is unmatched. Amen. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Amen. I want to say right away that I'm grateful for Sister Dani and My son, Jamie. Amen. And all the people that are helping. Amen. We are finding our places and we're moving some things around and trying some new things. Amen. And I'm just grateful that we are taking risk and that God is holding us. Amen. Amen. I want to say thank you to the band. Amen. We have some people that have decided to come and sit in with us. I put out a call on Facebook. I said, I need some help. And several people reached out. And I had to kind of weed through some of the folks. And so we'll see where we land. But I am appreciative. We've got Casey and Brother Chris. I've seen you, CJ. Right, right, CJ. I call you differently. And this is Erica's son. over here playing a guitar. And we've got Henry on the drums. Amen. And Josh holding it down. I just want to say I'm just grateful for the response. Thank you so, so, so very much. Amen. Amen. All right. So this is our time when we get together and we stand up and we say hello to everybody because we haven't seen each other in several days. So let's go ahead and meet and greet everyone and the Lord. Amen. Give hugs and give encouragement. Amen. God bless you. ♪ ♪ ? ? ? ? So, Yeah. Testing one, two. Testing one, two. Praise the Lord. Amen. Take the stand. Put it in points with the audience. Capture the audience. Danny. He said no. He said no. No. He said no. All right. All right. Amen. It's good to see some familiar faces and some returning faces and some new faces. Amen. I'm grateful to God for what He's going to do. If you don't mind, I'm going to try to do something a little differently. We're going to definitely do our offering that we're going to give, but we'll do that towards the end. I want to just go right into ministry at this point. Amen. Thank you so much, man. If you don't mind, you guys can take your seats and hopefully listen to the word. Amen. All right, we'll do announcements and all that, whatever, the business part a little bit later. But I definitely want to get into the Word. I had the awesome privilege of going to preach this morning at another service. Amen. Pastor Nason, the man that came in a couple of weeks ago at the end of service, asked me to come and preach for his pastoral anniversary. So I had to get up a little bit earlier and get Things going a little bit earlier. I normally not used to getting into the pulpit until to something so I had to keep it moving and the Lord definitely met us there and We're praying for his church praying for his encouragement. Amen and And I want to say thank you to my amazing wife who helped with the children today and getting everybody out of the house and looking good. And she's not just a pretty face. She is very, very instrumental in partnering with me in ministry, and she's got some great ideas. So she is a pastor's daughter, been well trained by her mother, who is also a first lady of a church. She sees some things and she's going to be silently working in the background to move some things forward. And I really, really appreciate her. Thank you, Lady Ashley. Amen. All right, let's go ahead and pray. Thank you, Brother CJ. Good. Do what you gotta do. I understand. Appreciate you, brother. Father God, I just thank you so much for this word. Thank you that you have allowed me to stand before your people today, God. Thank you that I can pray to you and you hear me when I pray, not because of my own goodness, but because of the goodness of your holy and perfectly righteous son. I pray right now, Lord, that you would take this word and not let it be a performance, God, but let it transform the hearts of the people so that we are steered more towards what you've intended for us, God. I have studied and I have done research and I have checked backwards and forwards to try to make sure that I am right. But I know good and well, Father, that if you don't supernaturally charge this sermon, nothing will change. so we are your people this is your church you have paid for us with your precious and holy son his blood has redeemed us and makes us right with you and now we want to act in such a way that we line up with what he has done positionally for us, help us to do that practically in our everyday lives. We thank you for your son who is our example. We just pray, Father, that you would conform us more and more into his image. Help us to see the areas, Father, where we are hiding, the areas that you can see. And we pray, God, that you would bring that more into conformity with your will. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, we are now in Matthew, the 6th chapter. Matthew, the 6th chapter. Amen. Reading verses 1 through 4. Let's go ahead and stand as we get into the Word. The Word of God says in the 6th chapter, verses 1 through 4, Matthew, 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. 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," underline that, your father, who sees in secret, will reward you. May God add a blessing to the reading and the doing of His Word. Amen. You may be seated. I'm going to speak to you today from a very simple title. the reasons why we do what we do the reasons why we do what we do we do what we do for specific reasons as believers amen let's start off here um have you ever noticed that every now and then you read an article or you see something in the news, a story about some rich celebrity who decides to donate some insane amount of money for a good cause, and they do it because they can. They're stupid rich. Amen. I remember being on the road years ago and there was a pretty popular band that I was touring with and we thought we were doing some amazing things until we ran into a band that was much bigger. And I won't say the names of these people because I don't like to drop names, but we could sell out, you know, arenas, you know, and maybe sell out every now and then a Coliseum, amen. But we ran into some dudes from Europe that were selling out stadiums over and over and over again. Amen. And I remember hearing stories about this very familiar band, or famous band, should I say. And they let it out in conversation with us, and also we kind of heard from some other clips at this time, that they practiced on the regular giving to the needy. Amen. And I was pretty impressed by that because I was, you know, a church boy on the road with all these heathens. And I was pretty sure that the group I was hanging with, they weren't from the church. And I was certain that this other group that we were kind of looking up to, you know, these four guys who had been around for a long time, you know, white folks, that they were, you know, pretty much not from the Pentecostal church or they weren't Baptists. You know, but they had somehow decided that it was in their best interest to take some of the money that they had received and give it to the poor. They practiced giving to those who were less fortunate than them. They were known for giving, I mean, insane amounts of money, millions of dollars, to worthy causes. And everybody thought that that was very nice of them. Let me segue into something I said last week that I kind of want to just clarify. I said it's impossible to love your enemy unless you're using the power of God. Amen. Which means that more than likely you have a relationship with God. Well, there are people on this planet who practice religious things. such as forgiving their enemies or loving their enemies. And from a surface view, it seems like what they are doing is running parallel to what the Christians do. Amen. But the difference is they are doing it for a completely different reason. Amen. More specifically, the body of Christ, we're not just doing it for a certain reason, we're doing it for a certain person. Very different, amen. Matthew 5 and 20, don't turn to it because I've already preached it. I just want to go back a little chapter and just notice that it's there. Jesus said before he started his sermon, he said, For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the Pharisees and the scribes, or the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter into the kingdom of God. Unless you are practicing your religion or doing good things from the right heart, with the right heart, then you will not enter into the kingdom of God. If you practice external piety, in such a way that there's really no inward connection, then he's like, you're not gonna enter into the kingdom of God. He's like, you're a faker. And he's being very, very honest. He's saying, if you can't enter into the kingdom of God, you're going straight to hell. That's what he's saying, okay? So here's the setup. Once again, going back to the sixth chapter, verse one. Once again, Jesus is here in the same sermon, tearing off the mask of hypocrisy. We learned last chapter that just because you haven't sinned or done bad things in a physical way, that doesn't mean you haven't sinned in your heart, remember? Now, on the same day, in the same sermon, but just helping us because now we have it kind of itemized or laid out by chapter by chapter so we can follow along and kind of go through what Jesus said easily. He's saying that just because you do righteous or good things externally, it doesn't mean that good things are in your heart when you do them. Yeah, that's it. In other words, it's very possible to do godly things with the wrong motive. My God, he's got us going and coming, right? So from both sides, Jesus is saying, and this is what I want you to think about, no matter what you do, good or bad, God is looking at your heart. This is something that every believer needs to pause and think about, because if your Christianity is not from the heart, then you are practicing hypocrisy. So now, first verse, Matthew 6 and 1. Jesus says, first word, beware. You see it? Watch out. Be careful. What? Beware of practicing your righteousness. Underline that. We're going to go into that. I'm going to explain exactly what that terminology means. Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people, purpose clause, in order to be seen by them. Even though you and I would consider ourselves to be saved, sanctified, filled with the Holy Ghost, children of God, we still have hearts that can deceive us. You have a heart that can deceive you. One of the things that my buddies, Pastor Rick and Brother David, they're always talking about is, you know, doing things in a religious way with hearts that we cannot see. You know, there are things that we can do and not be aware of how wicked our hearts still may be. Saved and on your way to heaven, but still having issues in your heart. Okay? So he's saying, even if you're doing what could be called or considered good things, you could have it or do them from a place that is not godly internally. He said, if you do them in order to be seen by people, he said, for then you will have no reward, no tangible wage. Oh, I love that. No tangible wage from your father who was in heaven. You will get something out of it, but it won't be from God. Ouch! Right? Thank you, baby. All right. What is practicing righteousness? I know this is terrible, but I'm just going to put it there. What is practicing your righteousness in order to be seen? Practicing your righteousness is the act of giving alms. Okay? In this context, it is the act of giving alms, giving to the needy. The Jews saw that giving to the poor was seen as not just being kind, but it was seen as being righteous. Interesting. To the Jew, giving to the poor meant that you could gain merit from God. So if someone walked up to you and said, hey, bro, can you spot me five dollars? Right? And you actually gave that $5 to that person. You were considered, not only in the eyes of people, but in your own mind to be a holy person. Right? But there was more than that. They thought that if you needed your sins forgiven, then what you should do is give to the poor. In Jesus' day, this was a big thing. Amen. There were people who were used to getting right with God by giving money to the people who needed it. So technically, watch this, Saints, I could live in sin against God all day long and treat my fellow men horribly all day long and still be able to sleep at night if I made sure before I went to sleep that night I gave somebody $5. And this is not a new concept. Now, as crazy as that sounds, listen, this is not a new concept. There are many people today who believe that you can pay your way into heaven. How do you do it? By doing nice things for people. Listen, let me tell you right now, before you leave this sanctuary, there's only one way to heaven. And that is through the blood of Jesus Christ. Amen. Having faith in Jesus Christ, repenting of your sins, and trusting in Jesus Christ to save you. Amen. I don't know about you, but there's some stuff I've done that $5 would never pay for. There's things I've been around. I don't know about you, but I need a lot more money. My stuff was raggedy. Amen? If you can get off with five dollars, you're doing pretty good. All right. There was a saying from the rabbi, because I don't want to say that word wrong. Yeah. Thank you, Lord. And this is the saying, greater is he who gives alms than he who offers all sacrifices. That was the thinking. Almsgiving stood in the first category of good works. So if you had a choice between sacrificing an animal for your sins, right, in the old covenant, or giving somebody some money, I guess they figured that, let me see, a person is more valuable to God than an animal, right? So what I'll do is instead of killing up my animal, which is very costly, by the way, for my sin, I'll just give you $5. So cheap grace and forgiveness for sale works out great. I get off from doing whatever I did the night before and I only had to give somebody $5. Right? So they saw giving to the needy as a way to please God. Right? And they made, you know, watch, a public show of it. You know, I want people to see me doing this. I get something out of it, right? Verse 2, 6 and 2, he says, so Jesus responds to this issue of wrong thinking, wrong perspective by saying this, thus when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you. We'll come back to that in a minute. Sound no trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets. that they may be praised by others. He says, truly I say to you, when you do that, you have received your reward. They have received their reward already. It's the idea of getting a receipt for payment in full. You get nothing else out of it. Whatever God really intended to bless you with, your blessing has been forfeited, canceled. All of God's promises are yes and amen, and they will come to pass. But in this instance, whatever blessing or reward that God had for you, he now has to revoke that blessing because you already got what you really wanted. They have received their reward. You put on a show and you wanted to bring attention to yourself and praise from people so people would see you as holy? Well, here's your blessing. The rewards from man are temporary, but the rewards from God are eternal. Amen. So people who give to be seen giving hope to receive something out of it, maybe like a good reputation in the minds of people on earth. Oh, there goes Brother Jamie. He's such a nice person. Well, yes, I am. And when I come to church next Sunday, I'll show up like this. Because here I am. I'm that good guy. I want you to believe that about me. That's why I'm giving in the first place. I know you have a need. And I know you're broke. And I know that you probably can't pay your rent, or whatever the situation you're going through. Whatever needs, you know, your car broke down. And I want everyone to know that I helped you out. The reputation that you get is of a good person. So here's the thing, the rewards from man are always temporary. But if God sees you as a hypocrite, who cares what people think about you on this earth? It's more important for God to see you as a genuine giver than a person that gets praise from people temporarily. Verse 3, let's go. Jesus says, this is how I want you to think. When you give to the needy, don't let your left hand know what your right is doing. So that your giving, verse four, may be in secret. Right hand from left hand. Let's talk about that. In the temple where they worshiped in those days with Jesus, there was a place in the temple called the Chamber of Secrets. It was an area in the temple called the Chamber of Secrets. It was a place where the Jews could come and give anonymously. You walk up to the counter and you say, hi, I want to give this amount of money, and you walk away. Right? You can give anonymously to the people in need that didn't have much, people that were dealing with hard times. You gave your money and you walked away. Then in another area, there was another chamber where the people would come to receive from whoever gave, but they didn't know who it was. See what I'm saying? So the chamber of secrets where people could get what they needed, kind of like when you go to the Salvation Army or the Goodwill. Nobody really knows what you gave, And the person that's received it, they don't know where they got it from. More importantly, they don't know who they got it from. Right? So if you drop off your goods and someone else that you never met before comes on another day and their need gets met, Jesus is saying, that's like your left hand not telling your right hand what you're doing. Right? The left hand doesn't know what's going on. My left hand doesn't know all of my business on the right-hand side, right? You feel what I'm saying? But could you imagine how absurd it would be if you were to go into the Goodwill or Salvation Army today with a boombox, playing rap music, and you show up, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, with the boombox on your shoulder, right? And you sound the trumpet of your arrival. Got it? And you stand in the middle of the store, and you call the local news, Channel 5, and you want them to tape you as you pull out your old suits that you don't wanna wear anymore, and your old dresses, and you give in such a way to where everybody knows that you showed up, and you stand there and you wait for the people to come and get your suit. Is that insane? No one would believe in their right mind that you were actually doing this for the people if you did that. They would say, you're giving only to actually promote yourself and how good you are. It would be obvious that you're bringing the attention to you. Amen. No one would do this publicly. But I wonder if that's what our hearts look like to God. When we give with bad motives. Amen. I wonder if that's what God can see. You know, you got a megaphone in your throat every time you talk about what you've done for people. Here I am doing good deeds again. Do you see me? Boom, boom, boom. Right? As insane as that is, I wonder if that's how our hearts look like, what our hearts look like to God. Right? So here's the thing. I know that's extreme. But what Jesus is teaching in this passage is not just about giving. He's teaching about something a little bit more subtle. He's teaching about motive. And motive can go into several areas of quote-unquote good things. So here's a question, and we're going to wrap this up. I ain't going to be long today because I already preached earlier. Here's a question. How do we intentionally bring attention to ourselves by doing good things in the church or for others? Think about it. Are there ways that you intentionally bring attention? Little subtle things, you know? For instance, I just put myself on a chopping block first. When I preach, do I preach for God or for men? They're taping me right now. Am I concerned about God getting the glory in your life or am I really concerned about people saying, that Jamie, boy, I tell you. Mm-mm-mm, that man got a word in his mouth, I tell you. And then when you come and see me at the church, well, to God be the glory for what he's doing through me. It's a good thing, is it not? I'm doing it for the Lord, quote-unquote. Am I not? Or is my heart position showing off in front of the people to where you can think that I am better than I actually really am? All right? What about singing? Do we plan certain notes before we minister? When I get up there today, I'm like... Huh? Is that for God? Does God need to hear me go... You couldn't hear when I was singing regular, but now you can, Jesus. All up and down the scale. I did that for you, Jesus. I hope I'm giving you glory. Is it for God? Is it for men? Do I get something out of that? Man, I tell you, Brother Jamie, you sure can let the Lord use you when you sing. Well, yes, praise the Lord, all for the glory of God. Huh? Musicians. Uh-huh. When I play my instrument and I go on Facebook Live at the same time. Oh, it's quiet up in here. And I show everybody how well I'm playing. Am I advertising my gift or is it about God? I'm doing a good thing. I'm playing at church. I'm talking to myself now. I'm not playing for Joe to see him no more. I'm at church now. I'm using my gift. But what I want to do is I want to actually, you know, just showcase how much I love the Lord by going on Facebook and Instagram. Can you see me play? Do I sound good? Am I trying to get another job at the same time? Huh? Is it for God? What's the motive? When we usher in the church. You ever seen ushers that don't seem to know how to sit down? Just busy. Just walking on through the church. And just in time for your new shoes to be seen. Right this way, sir. Praise the Lord. Right this way. Sit down. Sit down. Right this way. Back in my other church. I'm not going to name the church, but you know what it was. We had this thing where we would walk around and give offerings. My dad was concerned because he stopped having people walk around and the offering went down. People weren't giving as much. And then he said, listen, you guys can walk around again. When I tell you people put on their finest Gucci, I'm going to give my offering to the Lord. And while I do it, I want you to know how blessed he is. I am blessed. You see this? Right? Walk it back. How you doing, Pastor? Remember that, Kim? Right? The fashion show. It's not for God, it's for you. You're doing a good thing. You're giving an offering, but it's not for God, it's for you. When we give to the poor and then we get on some social media at the same time to let people know and record ourselves how nice we're being to the homeless. Did we get a consent form from the guy to be seen this way? Huh? Did we actually put ourselves on blast and put this person's unfortunate situation on blast at the same time? Oh, God. And then what happens next week? I saw you, Brother Jamie. You're such a nice person given to those people. My goodness. I want my Christian to look just like yours because you are a holy person, I tell you. That went viral. Everybody saw it. Boombox. Trumpet blowing. Here I am. I'm a good person. I'm a loving person. I'm a holy person. I'm a righteous person. See how good I am? Verse four. When you give Do it in such a way to where your left hand doesn't know what your right hand is doing. And verse 4 says, so that your giving may be in secret. Jesus doesn't want us to stop giving. That's not the point. There are times when what you give will be impossible to hide. Okay? You won't be able to keep it from the public eye. Someone will find out about it. But if you're doing good and holy things from the wrong motive, then you will not get anything of real value from God. If all you get is praise from men, you've missed your reward. Are you hearing me? Amen. If all you do is tell people how good your marriage is and how wonderful your children are And you come to church and show that off to all the single people? Look at how well we're doing. You know, almost beat your husband crazy on the way to church. Right? Hypocritical. That's his point. He says, watch this, verse 4, given secret and your father who sees in secret, he will reward you. Wow, if, not yet, if you look through this chapter, you will see the word reward over and over and over and over again. It's very obvious, if you look through this chapter, that God wants to reward his children. Okay, so God has a blessing for us. Evidently, that's what he wants. But what is this reward? You know, I thought that it was just only about, you know, if I give somebody some money, God's gonna give me back some money. And so I would be like, you know, trying to give out money to everybody. You know, if I sold, then God will give me more money. That's true in some instances, but that's not what's being said here. Watch this. What is the reward? In the kingdom of God, the rewards that we get are of grace and they're not meritorious. In other words, we don't receive them because we did something wonderful to earn them. Number one, okay, the reward here in this specific passage is the ability, oh God, this messed me up. The reward is the ability to be satisfied with having a pure and uncorrupted desire to glorify God when we do good things. I'm going to say that one more time. Because when I found it, I had to say it over and over and over again because there were some things in my heart that God was like saying, see, Jamie, you ain't got it yet. Look at it again. The reward here is the ability to be satisfied with having a pure and uncorrupted desire to glorify God when we do good things. That is the reward. There is satisfaction that comes from God that we can experience if we ever get to a place where we are not selfishly motivated when we serve. He's saying because you're so focused on what you want to get out of it or how you want people to look at you, you're missing my blessing. And the blessing is satisfaction. You're not satisfied because you're thinking about you. The reward, saints, is the ability to have a pure motive when we love on people, when we give to people, when we serve in our churches, when we serve those in our community. That is the reward, to be able to set myself aside and say, self, get out the way. I'm not working for you today. I'm working for God. That's the reward. It's a superpower given by the Holy Spirit to forget about yourself and concentrate on God. Amen. When you minister to others, or as I said before, and been saying through this whole series, God gives you the ability to glorify him by doing things just like him, but doing them for the right reasons. The reasons why we do what we do. Amen? Amen. These rewards are rewards that you can have here and now, not just in heaven. Jesus was preaching because he's like, I want you to understand that you're in the way of your own satisfaction. That's good. That's good. It took me a minute. I'm not surprised. Because I was like, what are you saying? When I give, I don't get a bend out of this? Wait, wait, wait, wait. When I give, I don't get people to go, at least, Jamie, that was a nice thing. He's like, you're in the way of me giving you something that you don't even know you really want. Sin has messed up your mind so much to where you don't recognize a blessing that I have. Think about it again, people. What did Jesus come here trying to get? Nothing. Nothing and yet he was impenetrable. He was he was bulletproof. He was totally satisfied in his father That's what he's saying. He said we're missing out on something because even when we try to do good things We're doing it from the wrong motive and it's messing up our satisfaction The promise is satisfaction, being satisfied, which I believe has everything to do with, watch this people, God getting us to a place where we are finally free of the opinions of others. I do what I do because I love God. I ain't stutting you. Right? I ain't thinking about what you think of me. My motivation is not to impress you. I don't really care. You're a nice person and all that, but this ain't about you. OK? My energy is not going towards hoping that you think I'm a good person. Right? It's about me serving my king, not me serving people. This means, watch this. Here we go, let's go a little bit deeper and then I'm almost done. This means that even though there may be a big time preacher with a mega church that has big numbers, his reward could possibly be smaller than some Christian homeschooling mother. Did you hear what I just said? Did you hear what I just said? Just because you got a big name and you're doing big things and stuff like that and everybody thinks that you're really, really doing big kingdom stuff, it really depends on your motive. A homeschooling mother who doesn't do anything but just try to, you know, make sure her children get saved. And God, I'm just hoping that my children get saved. I'm just hoping that my nephew gets saved. That's all I want to do. I'm not tripping over that. Don't nobody know what I'm doing in my home but you and me, God. And he's saying the big-time preacher may have a much smaller reward than the mother who just wants her children to be saved because God sees her heart. It's motive. My God, there are giants in the pews that may never get to the stage. Did you hear what I said? There are giants in the pews that may never get up on the stage. This is why we don't compare ourselves to others in the church. It's not about visible gifts. Okay? We got a whole church system that actually brings in big numbers about, you know, God's going to bless you and then God's going to let you be in his talent show. The whole system is about that. Look how wonderful I am. And look how much God has blessed me. You bring in tons of people with that. But if you really look at what Jesus had, that's not what he was promoting. It's the complete opposite. Right? A lot of us are messed up in our relationships because we're thinking about the wrong things. We got our minds on the wrong stuff. And God is trying to bless you and be totally satisfied, and you're chasing after everybody's opinion. Okay. Amen. Pastor, you preaching. All right. Here. Here's the thing I want you to see. One thing that may be a deciding factor in whether or not you have a pure motive. depends on recognizing the hell that God brought you out of. There are some people, listen, let me tell you, you don't know what I used to do. You don't know what I couldn't get away from. You don't know who I couldn't get away from. Huh? You don't know how God rescued me. You don't know that he delivered me. But here's what I'm trying to say. I served God with my eyes focused on Jesus and alone. Jesus alone and not other people. Because people didn't deliver me. People didn't save me. People, do you hear what I'm trying to say to you? I'm not distracted by people. I'm too distracted about Jesus. So when I give, it comes out different. I'm coming from another place. The hell he rescued me from purifies my motive. I ain't thinking about the stuff that he pulled me out of. It's like, woo! How could I be thinking about what you think about me? I'm thinking about what he did for me. It's the ability to set self aside. Even when you're doing good, godly works. Amen? There's reasons behind what we do. Last part. He said, and your father, your father, your father, who sees in secret will reward you, right? Your father. When you know him as your loving father, it doesn't matter what people think about you. It doesn't matter what they think about how you give. All that matters is what He thinks of you and what you think of Him. Right? There's the purity right there. Right? Our giving must never be the grim and self-righteous outcome of duty. still less than that. It must be done to enhance, you know, the glory of God and not our own glory or our own prestige in society. Amen. It must be the instinctive outflow of a loving heart. We must give to others as Christ Jesus gave to him, gave himself to us. Right? Right? We have reasons for what we do. Right? We have reasons behind it. There are people out there who are staying in their marriage longer than some Christians. Don't even know Jesus. Right? There are people who do good things. Don't even know God. But we do it because we love the Lord. We do good things because we appreciate what God has done for us. We live holy because He's holy. I'm faithful to God and faithful to my church because He's faithful to me. So these rock bands that I got a chance to see, I was like, wow, that's pretty amazing that you can decide to love on people. But the other side of it, it was like, well, they also got praise from everybody knowing about it. Right? They were seen as decent people. You know? Which probably helped them for all the hell that they were putting or doing all during the week. Right? Live crazy like a rock star. Man, I need to give somebody some money. I don't feel so good. Right? That's what we do. We try to clean it up. Right? That's not a pure motive. We have reasons behind how we give and how we serve and how we love. Amen? Amen. I'm done. Amen. Amen.