And I invite you to turn in your copy of God's Word to Matthew 6. And we'll be looking at verse 1. And you might say, wait a minute, we were in verse 1 last week when we looked at verse 1 through 18. And we are, in fact, going to be looking at almost the exact same text as last week. So if you see it printed there in your bulletin, you'll see it's almost precisely the exact same thing. But we're going to be doing something a little different. You might consider this part 2. You remember that last week, this is part of the Sermon on the Mount, most famous sermon in history, and you might remember that we were looking at how Jesus was discussing spiritual disciplines, what an earlier generation might have called religious duties, but people don't like the term religious anymore. In our circles, you know, we tend to think of them as spiritual disciplines. And Jesus was warning us against doing spiritual disciplines in such a way that the reason we do them is in order to gain the approval of others. In other words, to be seen by others. So he's warning us against the wrong way of doing them. But he has a lot also to say about the right way of doing them. Now, if you're not really familiar with when we talk about spiritual disciplines. Ah, this is wonderful. Thank you, Adam. on a nice and dry, cold day like today. When we think about spiritual disciplines, you might think, well, what is that? Why does that matter? But have you ever found yourself wishing that you were better at resisting temptation or better able to focus when you read the Word and you find that, you know, I'm just not really where I know I need to be? That's where the spiritual disciplines step in. There's a wonderful book that was written back in 1977, so I guess that's 49 years ago now, by Richard Foster. It's called The Celebration of Discipline. It's become a classic amongst Christians. He talks about how we should engage in the spiritual disciplines. He has this as an opening line. See if any of this resonates with you. He starts by saying, if you are anything like me, you generally long for abilities that are beyond yourself in order to face the demands of everyday life patiently and wisely. You, I and we, would love to have the inner resources to replace deep destructive habits of thought with even deeper life-giving habits of mind and heart and spirit. In our best moments, we do have other moments. We seek the ability to overcome guile and manipulation. We generally want to be free of all anger and bitterness and strife. We desire to possess the unadulterated goodness that will enable us to defeat evil whenever and wherever it appears. We long for the deep character formation that can free us from all boasting and arrogance, all narcissism and conceit. We seek fulfillment in serving others. We yearn for the inner courage to forgive others, even our enemies, especially our enemies. We long for a spirit of repentance and the strength to live a transformed life. We hunger for an ongoing, life-giving, interactive relationship with Jesus. We want to be characterized through and through with the joy of the Lord. And we seek after all these things, not as some outward show, but as a deep transformation of the inner person. Is that you? Do you have that longing? I know I do. Something that we so much need, and it's that that Jesus is talking about when he talks about spiritual disciplines. So whereas last week we dealt with them from the perspective of how not to do them, let's look at it this week from the perspective of how to do it. We'll start again, chapter 6, verse 1. We're going to skip the middle part there where he talks about the Lord's prayer. I want to deal with that separately, and we'll start that next week. But let's take a look at verse 1 here where our Lord has to say. 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. 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 synagogue and at the street corners that they may be seen by others. Truly I say to you they have 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 then we'll skip the Lord's Prayer, jump down to verse 16. 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 not be seen by others, but by your father who is in secret and your father who sees in secret will reward you with us for the reading of God's word. May he bless it to our hearing, especially as it's preached to us this morning. Well, people of God, I am convinced that my doctor and my wife are in cahoots. Oh, they are. They both tell me that I need to exercise more. Something about, oh, it promotes health and well-being. I mean, who knew, right? As much as that is true for our physical lives, it's the same for our spiritual lives. Your spiritual health, your spiritual vitality requires training, it requires discipline, it requires work. And in the same way that we are resistant to get off the couch and go to the gym to work out our bodies, so we are resistant to engage in those spiritual disciplines. In fact, we live in an age and a culture where we are being told you don't have to work to get the blessing. These things simply come to you by virtue of who you are or by other things that you do. A generation ago, Tony Campolo, who was an evangelical church leader, once wrote, he said, Ours is an age in which spiritual blessings are being promised to those who buy material things. The spiritual is being absorbed by the physical. The fruit of the spirit suggests the media can be had without God and without spiritual disciplines. And that is one of the lies that we're constantly told, but it's not true. You cannot have a buff body without working out. I mean, just look at me, I'm proof. Likewise, you cannot be spiritually robust without spiritual discipline. In that little book, Celebration of Discipline that we just quoted a moment ago by Richard Foster, he also said, The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people or gifted people, but for deep people. And it goes on to talk about that mean people who are holy, people who have been transformed by the gospel. So it's that that we want to look at as we look at our passage. And we're going to look at three things. We're going to look at kingdom life, kingdom conflict, and kingdom training. So we might just be dealing with kingdom stuff here. Kingdom life. What is life supposed to be like in the kingdom? Kingdom conflict. That kingdom is in conflict with the world. And then kingdom training. How do we train for our life in the kingdom? So let's go ahead and look at the first of those points. Kingdom life. And you might remember, chapter 6, of course, is right in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount. Sermon on the Mount, the most famous sermon, most oft-quoted sermon in history. is chapters 5, 6, and 7 in the book of Matthew, the gospel of Matthew. And back in chapter 5, Jesus explained to us that God desires a righteousness that is not peripheral, that is not superficial, but a righteousness of the heart. A righteousness that is thorough, a righteousness that is enduring, a righteousness that is persistent. And you might think that's fantastic. That's what we need, an inward righteousness. So therefore, there's no need for outward things. We don't need an external righteousness. We don't need spiritual disciplines. All that leads to legalism. Instead, all God wants is for us to be holy and pure on the inside. But that is what we call a false dichotomy, and it's something that the church has been wrestling with for a long time. Because Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount doesn't distinguish, even as He speaks of righteousness of the heart, He doesn't distinguish between the outward and the inward. You see that inward righteousness is expressed in righteous deeds on the outside. You can't have one without the other. And what Jesus is going to show us here is that he expects that righteousness that has to be of the heart. Yes, inward being expressed through these spiritual disciplines outwardly. That's why he says in verse one, he speaks about practicing your righteousness. Notice when he warns us, right, and he tells us to beware, to beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them. The warning is not against practicing your righteousness, not even against practicing your righteousness before other people because sometimes that's unavoidable. You might be praying in a home fellowship group or in a Bible study, and you do so in front of other people. That's not the point. Jesus' warning, which we looked at in detail last week, is practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them. The problem that Jesus was addressing was the motivation behind why we did those things. Because we might be doing them in order to be seen by others in order to seek their approval But Jesus in himself is not against or Jesus is not against religious duties or spiritual disciplines in and of themselves In fact, he affirms them in verse 2. He says when you give to the needy in verse 5 when you pray in verse 16 when you fast he expects us to be doing these things and you might say well wait a minute last week you said that we don't do these things in order to gain the approval of others because we already have the approval of God which we do that approval comes to us because of what Jesus has done We have his perfect obedience given to us, imputed to us, right? He lived the perfect life that we're not capable of living, and that record of his righteousness is given to us. That's why we're approved. And the record of our sin and our disobedience is given to him, and he carried it on the cross. You might say, well, if that's the case, then why do we need to do anything outward? Is that not legalism? So let's take a moment this morning to examine these two different poles that very often folks in the church seem to gravitate around. On one side, you have folks who sit there and say, you have to do good things. And if you do these good deeds, you gain righteousness and therefore you gain God's approval. That's what we call legalism. Some folks push against that and they say, no, since we don't have to do things in order to be saved, then we don't have to do anything at all. There is no outward expression that's necessary. And in one sense, that's technically true. We don't have to have anything that we do in order to be approved. But does that mean that Jesus expects us to not do anything that's outward and external? Well, no. Look, when we look at the passage, we see that Jesus is clearly not talking about legalism, that you have to obey and do these things in order to be approved. Because remember, the Sermon on the Mount, he's speaking to his followers. He's speaking to believers. He's speaking to those who are already in the kingdom. We already have the approval of God. So clearly he's not saying do these things in order to gain approval because you have his approval because of what Jesus himself has done for us. Remember the entire Sermon on the Mount is about what life is like in the kingdom of God. We have been brought into that kingdom and it's not because of anything we've done. Colossians 1 13. God has delivered us from the domain of darkness. It's the old world. and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. So it's God who does the work by his grace through what Jesus has done to transfer us from that domain of darkness, from the world, from the world of sin and hell and the devil and so on into the world, the sphere of grace and of following Christ and so on. So it's because of what Jesus has done on the cross for us. But as we saw immediately at the very beginning of the Sermon on the Mount in chapter 5 in the Beatitudes, those Beatitudes were describing what our character as citizens of the kingdom are like. And it told us that we now have a new character because we are in the kingdom. In other words, when God brings us into his kingdom and transfers us into it out of the domain of darkness, He doesn't just give you a visa so that you can enter into the kingdom or even a certificate of citizenship, more so than a visa. We are permanent residents of that kingdom. He doesn't just give it to us and say, come on in just as you are. But once he brings us in, he transforms us. He begins to change us. 2 Corinthians 5.17 says, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. So we have gained that. As citizens of the kingdom, a whole set of new desires, of new wants, of new habits, we in fact have a new character. And that's what kingdom life is about. Kingdom life is about a new way of living that's in contrast to the old way, to the ways of the world. We've left behind the old ways, the domain of darkness, and now we have a new way of life. Paul makes that crystal clear in 1 Corinthians 6, 9 through 11. Notice the contrast. He says, Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? And it's being very clear, if you are not righteous, you will not enter into the kingdom. Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And then he says these words, which really is the whole of the gospel. He says, and such were some of you. Such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. So it's very clear that when we are in the kingdom, we have been not just translated from one sphere, the old world to the new, but we have been transformed in our character and we have a new way of behaving. That's what kingdom life is like. So the thing that Jesus is pointing out to us here is not the dichotomy of, well, I either have to obey, and if I obey, I'm approved. No, we're already approved. God has brought us into his kingdom by his grace. But that other statement, well, now that I've been approved, I don't have to do anything, doesn't fly either. Because we have been brought into the kingdom, because we're approved because of what Jesus does, we now are being transformed by the Holy Spirit, and we have a new way of living, and that's expressed in a spiritual vitality that the rest of the world does not have. That spiritual vitality is seen in these spiritual disciplines. So yes, what you do externally is evidence and is a result of the internal change, but both have to be in place. And that's what kingdom life is like. Now, Let me just say it's very clear that none of us is 100% there in our spiritual vitality. We're not all spiritually 100% buff yet. We very often find ourselves not, you know, sort of half-hearted obedience. We do the things that we know we ought not to do, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7. And those things that we want to do, we don't do. And so we do find that it is often a struggle. Our relationship with God can sometimes become anemic. And so that's why the Holy Spirit is working in us to continuously mold us and shape us and conform us to the image of the Son. And what really is happening during that process, we call that sanctification. is that that kingdom life is taking root, that character, that new character is growing in you. But it is a struggle, and we all know that in our Christian lives. Whenever a person tells me, oh, you know, and I might ask them how you're doing spiritually, and they tell me everything is absolutely smooth, that there is nothing, you know, disturbing their spiritual life. They are just all, you know. And they're thinking, I'm up here, everything is so smooth. But when you tell me that's smooth, what you really tell me is you're all the way down there. You're all the way in the bottom, because it's only on the floor that it's smooth. But in real life, if you're really struggling as a Christian, and you all know this, sometimes you're really on high, and then other times you struggle and you fall, and this kind of thing. That's the reality of kingdom life. And that leads to our second point, kingdom conflict. Because there is a struggle going on. So let's look at that second point. When you're in the kingdom of God, you are in conflict with the world. And it's a conflict between good versus evil. It's a conflict between light and darkness. You see, that's because there's a clash here of different worldviews, of different approaches to living. We now have different desires from those in the world, and we have different behaviors, and all that comes together in clashes. Now, Jesus is the one who's at the very forefront of this conflict, of this fight. In 1 John 3, the Apostle John says, the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. So he came to take that fight into this world. He's our leader, the captain of the ship, our general who leads the way. But as his followers, we also are called into that struggle. Later on in Matthew 16, verse 18, Jesus is going to tell us, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. The idea is that we, the church, are going right up into the very gates of hell and we will defeat it. Paul makes it clear in 1 Timothy 1.18, he says, "...this charge I entrust to you, Timothy my child, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith in a good conscience." So, we are called to that fight. We are in that struggle. That's why I say you're going to have this kind of thing in your life. If it's all this, that means you're back at base camp and you're not in the struggle at all. Now, mind you. This conflict is not physical, but it's spiritual. I think we need to say that because there are some Christians, especially nowadays, and probably has been in every age, who lean into the physical more than the spiritual and kind of think that it's all about going out there and whooping on some enemies physically. But Paul says in Ephesians 6, 12, we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Wow, that is a cosmic struggle on a grand scale, as big as World War II was, the biggest conflict we've ever had. It doesn't even come close to this. And this conflict has been going on since the garden. It's that big and we're all in it. And because it is a spiritual struggle and not a physical struggle, then the weapons that we use are different. The tactics that we employ are different. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10 verse 3, For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds." What strongholds? Are we talking about, you know, going to Mecca and pulling down? Do we go next door to the mosque and raid them and destroy their building? No, the strongholds he's saying is, we destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ. So our battlefield, as it were, is to go against all those worldviews, all those commitments, all those idolatries, all those spiritualities that do not recognize Jesus Christ as God come in the flesh and do not submit to Him as Lord and King. That's the battle that we're fighting. And we're fighting that battle on two fronts. We fight it externally because we're confronting the world with the gospel. We have to push back on the darkness that's out there. We have to spread the kingdom of God. That's what Jesus was talking about in chapter 5 when he talked about his followers being those who are salt and light to the world. But we also fight on another front, an internal front. where we are being called to root out the old sinful nature in our hearts. And you need to have both of those fronts because you cannot confront the world out there with the claims of the gospel if the world still remains in here. So you start working in here, battling first in your heart, and that enables you then to go out into the world and to do battle. So we are in a conflict. And we're fighting on all sides. And none of us is capable of doing it in our own strength. And that is where we need to focus on these spiritual disciplines, because you see, like good soldiers, we have to train in order to be spiritually fit. Paul says in 1 Timothy 4, Be a good servant of Christ Jesus, trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed. Look at that word, hear that word, trained. And notice what we're being trained in. in the use of broadswords, in the use of M60 machine guns, no, in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed. Those are our weapons. The word is the sword of the Spirit. That's what we have to employ. That's what we have to know how to use. That's what we have to train in its use and in its knowledge. He goes on to say in verse seven, train yourself for godliness. For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. Notice Paul does not dismiss physical training. He's saying, yeah, go out and work on your bodies, but that has a limited. A limited set of value, but godliness is not only for this life, but it's for the next life. That's where you have to train. And it's these spiritual disciplines that make us spiritually fit. You have to work on them. Earlier when we read from Galatians chapter 5 and we read about the fruit of the Spirit, right? Back in verse 22 of Galatians 5. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Those are not things that come naturally to us. They have to be cultivated in us. We have to work to develop them through the Spirit. And so, these spiritual disciplines are given to us as the means by which we make use of them. In order for you to be able to demonstrate these qualities and character in your life so that you can be spiritually fit and you can engage in the struggle, then you have to have a properly structured life, a life that is disciplined. They don't come naturally. And Jesus very clearly sees these spiritual disciplines as deliberate activities in your life. And I say deliberate because there are things that you have to say you're going to do. If you just sit there and say, I will go to the gym when I finally get around to going to the gym, you never go to the gym. right? It's the same thing like brushing your teeth, right? I hope most of you brush your teeth. And you've now worked it into your schedule. So when you get up, you brush your teeth. When you go to bed, you brush your teeth, right? It's just part of your schedule. You just do it. In the same way, we have to work these things in. There are some Christians who believe That it takes no effort that, you know, just by being that we're saved, it's automatically going to come to us. And if you set any amount of time and effort, and sometimes money, because sometimes it takes money to work on these things. If you do set aside any of these things in a definite way, in a sacrificial way, then that leads to legalism. And when they don't engage in these things, What they end up realizing is they begin to really follow their own desires and their own feelings. Don Carson, that wonderful now retired biblical scholar from Canada, in his book, For the Love of God, said this, he said, We drift toward disobedience and call it freedom. We drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation. We slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves in thinking we have escaped legalism. We slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves that we have been liberated. Notice the language he uses, we drift, we slouch, just small little things. We don't realize them before you know it, we're all the way over here because we're not engaging in the hard work of spiritual disciplines. Those are basic to our spiritual vitality. So, let's look at our last point, kingdom training. How can we actually train with these spiritual disciplines to become spiritually fit warriors for Christ? Well, Jesus mentions in our passage three spiritual disciplines. He talks about helping others when he talks about giving to the needy, he talks about praying, and he talks about fasting. And there are other spiritual disciplines that we can talk about. These are not comprehensive, but Jesus has used them as three examples because they illustrate They illustrate how spiritual disciplines operate along three different dimensions. You see, giving to the needy, that's a dimension of being focused toward other people. Praying, it's along the dimension of towards God. So you've got your horizontal and you've got your vertical. And fasting is a dimension toward ourselves. And you might say, well, why those three dimensions? Because those are the three spheres of life that have been disrupted by sin. When sin entered into the world, it disrupted our relationship with God. It disrupted our relationship with others and it broke us on the inside. So he gives us three examples of things that address those three areas that have been broken by sin and how now we have to work them out. It's like looking at different parts of your body and saying you have to work on this part, you have to work on these muscles and so on. There are different areas in which we want to address. So when you look, for example, at verses 2 to 4 and he talks about giving to the needy, that's a discipline that helps to develop our spiritual muscles in caring and thinking about others because, let's face it, we are naturally selfish in our worldly state. And so he's talking about giving money to the needy, but it can really be many other things. It could be the time that you give when you help others and so on. And the thing that I want us to notice today is in verse 3 he says 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. So Jesus uses this colorful metaphor of not letting your left hand know what your right hand is doing. And which, of course, he's trying to communicate here is that our giving ought to be quiet. Our giving ought to be private, as he says, that your giving may be in secret. In other words, your giving then should be just between you and God. And why is that? Because that privacy ensures that the reason you're giving is because of compassion, real compassion for others. Not about what others think of you, but real compassion for the needs of that person. And also because you want to generally please God, thank God he's given to you, and now you give to others in gratitude. So what he's talking about is that we're not so much focused on what other people think of us, but we're only focused on pleasing God. And when we do that, then we begin to push ourselves out of ourselves, if I can say that. We begin to think about other people, and that's how we begin to work those spiritual muscles. That's spiritual exercise. When you're no longer worried about what others think about you, you've forgotten about yourself, you've forgotten about what others think of you, and your focus is simply on what that person needs, that's when you begin to work out those spiritual muscles, as it were. Your concern is now them, not you. You recognize how God has been so good to you, how he's met all your needs, including the deepest need that you have. And so now, in gratitude, you begin to do that for others. And when we do that, we become like the Macedonian Christians that Paul talks about in 2 Corinthians 8. He said in verse 3 of 2 Corinthians 8, he said, They gave as much as they were able and even beyond their ability, entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord's people, and they exceeded our expectations. They gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us. And you see that order is because they were first pursuing Christ himself. They wanted to give to the Lord. They wanted to be with him. They wanted to be like him that they then moved that moved them to be kind to others. That's a spiritual exercise. And then in verses five through eight, he talks about praying. Now, that's a discipline that's no longer horizontal. That brings us now into the vertical realm, our relationship with God, and it begins to better that relationship. And again, Jesus says in verse six, when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your father who is in secret. You're beginning to see a pattern here of what Jesus is trying to say when we do these things. They, again, ought to be private. One of the things we saw last week when we were examining what he was warning us of is that very often when we pray publicly, there is pressure to perform for other people. We pray to the audience because we want them to think well of us, and so we use the right terms and the right inflections and tone of voice and all this other stuff. Now, there are times we're going to have to pray publicly. Like we said, you might be in a Bible study or leading devotions in your home or whatever the case may be, but most of your prayer ought to be privately. Thomas Merton in his book Thoughts and Solitude said, as soon as you are really alone, you are with God. There's no one else there. It's just your Father who is in secret, as Jesus says. And when you pray in private, it removes that pressure of worrying about how others hear you and see you. And it encourages you to just build a relationship with the Father. You're just talking. That's all you're doing. You're just talking, but you're no longer worried about how it sounds to others. And that again becomes spiritual exercise. Because when you come before Him, It's just you. He knows you. He sees you. There's no airs to be put on. He knows what we're really like. So you get to just be yourself, and you get to cry out to Him with your hurts and your wants and your needs, including not just those external things that are happening, like bill collectors, you know, at the gates or so on, but you get to talk to Him about your brokenness and those things that you know need change in your life, and you don't have to worry about others. So Jesus calls us to do that spiritual exercise of going into our private places and there calling out to God. He goes on, however, and gives us a little more detail in verses 7 through 8. He says, 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 what he's referring to is a practice that was common amongst the pagans, amongst the Gentiles, where they would repeat their petitions to the gods again and again and again in order to be heard. The idea was that as you heap up all these different phrases together, you'll be able to punch through, right? You know, there's all this static and they can't really hear it. You're gonna make yourself be heard. And the idea is also then that you end up manipulating the god that you're praying to. because you're invoking the right formula, you're saying the right things, and if you do it enough times, you might just be able to get what it is that you're asking for. And look, a lot of that stuff happens today. In one area of Christianity, hey, say 10 Lord's Prayer and 10 Hail Marys and all that stuff, as if the constant repetition of those is what makes yourself heard. But on another side of Christianity that rejects that, We end up still doing those repetitive phrases. Oh, Father God, we come before you, Father, because, oh, Father, we so long to hear you, Father. And that even that is getting at this sort of thing here. And God is just Jesus is just saying when you come before God, he already knows you don't have to lay it out and just in excruciating detail and repeat it. Just say, Lord, I'm really hurting. I really need help in how I'm dealing with my wife. Lord, I want to kick the dog. Stop me from doing that. Lord, I've got this person at work who's driving me nuts. Help me show a Christ-like love towards them, regardless of what they do. You know, just simple. You just state your things. God knows. God hears. So this builds up trust. You're not trying to manipulate God for your many words or with the words you're using. It builds up trust because you're having to just leave it in his hands. And when you do that, what are you doing? You're working out spiritually, building those disciplines. And the last thing that Jesus talks about in verse 16 is fasting. And that's a discipline that helps to better ourselves. Now, many people don't fast nowadays. Fasting was very common in the old days in times of repentance, in times where you find yourself dependent on God, you would fast in order that you would be able to focus on God. And that really is the key. It's not just food and water. It's when you set aside anything that might distract you so that you can, in a better way, focus on God. In one sense, we're doing that right now. Right? We can all be doing something else. We could be sleeping in, we could be, you know, getting ready to, won't be to watch the Cowboys play because the chances of them making the playoffs are zip. But, you know, you can watch TV and watch whoever else is playing and winning or whatever. But you set those things aside because you say, this is more important. I want to be able to focus on the things of the Lord, so I'm going to set certain things aside. And we find that all throughout, you know, scripture. Andrew Murray, in his 19th century book, With Christ in the School of Prayer, he said, And that's the idea. Fasting is a tool. It's something that you do. And in order to be able to be freed up to focus, on the things of the Lord. Paul speaks about it in 1 Corinthians 7, that married couples should set aside marital relationships for only one reason, in order to be able to go and pray. That's a form of fasting. So there's all sorts of different things that we can set aside in order to be able to engage properly in the things of the Lord, to engage in serious Bible study, in order to be able to come to worship, in order to be able to engage in personal and family And all these things improve our focus on God and build up our spiritual muscle. And they all require self-denial. They all require surrender. They all require self-discipline. And that's what we have to do. Tomorrow, as most of you I'm sure know and you're all sitting at the edge of your seat awaiting, is the national championship game for college football. And two very good teams are going to come together. Indiana University and the University of Miami and I guarantee you that these two teams for the last two weeks Have not been sitting around, you know sipping Mai Tais and just basking in the fact that they won their respective games again They are what they have been working hard They have been doing drills. They have been doing all sorts of things in order to be prepared for tomorrow. And that's what we are called to do. We have to do the hard work of self-discipline in order to prepare ourselves for that spiritual fight. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9 24. Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. He says don't just get into the race and run around silly. Run to win, he says. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, that was the trophy that was handed out then. But we, an imperishable, so I do not run aimlessly, I do not box as one beating the air, but I discipline my body and keep it under control lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. That's what we're called to do. That's what fasting is like and other things that we set aside even beyond food and water. We do so that we can focus and be focused on studying the word, focused on praying, focused on spending time in church because all those things are essential to the Christian life. And when we do those things and we work as hard as those college athletes are doing for the title game tomorrow, then that's us doing our spiritual exercise, building up those disciplines. And the one thing you've seen in all three of these things that Jesus talks about, the giving to the needy, praying, and fasting, is that they all have a cost. They all require sacrifice. You cannot have a buff spiritual body unless you take the time, the effort, and the discipline, unless you sacrifice. Ronald Rollheiser, in his book, The Holy Longing, says, we want to be saints, but we also want to feel every sensation experienced by sinners. We want to be innocent and pure, but we also want to be experienced and taste all of life. We want to serve the poor and have a simple lifestyle, but we also want all the comforts of the rich. We want to have the depth afforded by solitude, but we also do not want to miss anything. We want to pray, but we also want to watch television, read, talk to friends, and go out. Does anything in any of this resonate? We have to choose what's most important and we're going to have to sacrifice certain things, certain distractions in order to be spiritually buff. John Wilbur Chapman, the Presbyterian evangelist from a century ago once said, anything that dims my vision of Christ or takes away my taste for Bible study or cramps me in my prayer life or makes Christian work difficult is wrong for me and I must as a Christian turn away from it. And he's not just talking about sinful things. He's talking about things that may be good in and of themselves, but they get in the way of that discipline. And people of God, let me just tell you, you're in a spiritual war and in that war, the adversary, the evil one, he wants to distract you. He wants you to get involved in all these other things because it ruins your aim. As you get your rifle and you're ready to aim, he comes up to you and goes, boom, right? That's what he's trying to do. He's trying to keep you wrapped up. Again, Richard Foster in his book Celebration of Discipline, he says, Our adversary majors in three things, noise, hurry, and crowds. If he can keep us engaged in muchness and manyness, he will rest satisfied. A lot of you know that those are the areas in which you have to fight. And people of God let me just say, take to heart the things we're talking about today. You're gonna have to go and make sacrifices. You're gonna have to say, I need to do this. You cannot wait until a moment of crisis in your life, when that diagnosis comes and says, you have only so many months to live. When your spouse tells you, I am leaving you. When your child confesses something to you that leaves you cold. When that pink slip comes and you wonder, how am I going to pay my mortgage and my bills because I don't have a job? You cannot wait until that moment of crisis in your life to expect that you will respond in a spiritually mature way. You cannot expect for you to have any real spiritual vitality if you've not done anything to prepare for it. R.A. Torrey once said, the reason why many fail in battle is because they wait until the hour of battle. The reason why others succeed is because they have gained their victory on their knees long before the battle came. We have to start the training now. You ever seen, like, when a ninja gets attacked? He doesn't stop at that moment to sit there and say, oh, I'm being attacked. What do I need to do? Oh, I need to do this, and I need to do that. He already knows by instinct because he's had long hours of training when he gets attacked and he's... And he does all those things by instinct, by training. That's what you need to be. Spiritual ninjas who will be able to respond when those bad things happen. You will know how because it's been internalized. It's part of who you are. So that's what Jesus is calling us to do in this passage. He's calling us to arms. So let's close with this wonderful passage from Ephesians 6 with these words where Paul calls us into spiritual conflict and spiritual battle. He says, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for the saints. Well, people of God, let's start training. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we are indeed in a spiritual battle, one that puts us at odds with the rest of the world, and we have to recognize that we're in that battle, and we pray that you would help us as your people, as the followers of Jesus Christ, to be able to engage in a way that makes us useful soldiers in which we're not being wasted. And father, for that we have to be spiritually fit. And we confessed earlier in the service that so often we are distracted by the things of the world. And so we pray that we would pay attention to the things that Jesus is calling us to here to truly engage in spiritual battle by preparing ourselves to be spiritually fit by focusing on the word and by focusing on him in prayer. We pray, O Lord, that you would be able to work in us to continually set aside those things that distract in those things that may be even good in themselves, but keep us from pursuing your son, Jesus. Help us to do that, Lord, so we can really, truly experience the blessings that you have for us, even in this life, so that we can find ourselves ready to resist temptation and to be able able to deal with those hard and difficult things that come our way.