Okay. Thank you, sir. Bless the lord, everybody. Bless the lord. Alright, we're going to enter into his, what is it? Into his courts with thanksgiving and into into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. Amen. And the scripture said, I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord. And so this is an opportunity for us to come together as a body. I say week after week, it's good to be reminded because we have so many distractions during the course of the week. I don't know about you, but a lot of people that I'm around don't necessarily rejoice in Jesus. A lot of the people I'm around don't want to necessarily hear a word from the Lord. So when we come in here, we have a different environment And we have a different culture. And we have an opportunity where we can easily, easily, because we bless them anytime and all the time, but we can easily come together on one accord. And that is a blessing. In doing so, we create a habitation, a house. The physical building doesn't mean anything as much as the individuals that come together with the right heart, with the right mind and the right focus and the purpose. And so that's what we are. We're coming together. We're coming to lift up his name. We're coming to celebrate his name. We are very blessed to have a praise team and a worship team and a bunch of musicians who easily encourage us to lift up the name of the Lord. And so we can join with them and celebrate with them and celebrate with each other. And one of the things we can do is celebrate with each other, knowing each other. We're all part of a family. We're all part of the royal family. I mean, That's next level, right? And we're not only part of the royal family, but we also have each other to get each other's back. And we know that these times are hard. They get rough. We get the prayer requests. If you're on the prayer request, you'll see people are constantly going through things. And if they ain't going through things, their loved ones and friends are going through things. So there's always somebody going through something, and it's not usually a lightweight something. It's usually a heavyweight something. But we also know that we are a house of prayer. We pray for one another. We bear one another's burdens. We encourage each other in the faith. We love on each other. And that is a blessing. Because I remember what it was like before I started going to church, before I had a relationship with God. And I just went through it. And I went through it and didn't know what was gonna happen. Always thinking it was gonna be the end of me, and nobody cared about me, and I'm the people that supposedly cared about you. You see what happens when everything went down. They weren't really there like they said they would be there. So it's a whole different situation when we're in the house of God, and it's a blessing to be a part of it. So let's bless God for this body. Let's bless the Lord for being a part of our life, being our heavenly father. Lord, we come boldly. Let's all stand to our feet and let's just get into an attitude of rejoicing and gratitude. Let's lay our burdens before him. If there's any unconfessed sin, let's just confess it so we can have unbridled, intimate fellowship with him. We want just him to have his way in this gathering. So Lord, we do. We come boldly before your throne of grace, where we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need. That's the often quoted scripture in my heart and mind because it is a throne room of grace. We should never take it for granted that some people are going to stand before that throne room is going to be a throne room of judgment. But because we are those who you call to yourself, and we received the finished work of Jesus Christ, your shed blood, your perfect life, your sacrifice that you would made on our behalf, we now have the right to be called the sons of God, the daughters of God. We are your children and we now have access that we can come boldly without reservation, without apprehension before your throne room. And then we can get mercy because we always coming short of your glory. Lord, even in our best endeavors to strive toward the mark of the prize of the high calling, we come short in thought, word, and deed. And so, Lord, if we're guilty of anything, Lord, we just want the relationship to be strong and intact. So forgive us, cleanse us, Lord. Sins of omission, forgetting to do something that you wanted us to do, or neglecting to do something that you want to do. Sins of commission, doing something that you didn't want us to do. Lord, we know you're growing us up into our most holy faith. So Lord, we just want to take ownership. We don't want to call good evil and evil good. We just want to call it for what it is, sin. And we want to ask for your forgiveness and cleansing and filling. Lord, we want to be filled individually and collectively. So just have your way in this gathering. Move by your spirit like you did in the foundations of the earth when you brought order out of chaos. Move in our hearts and minds, Lord. If there's chaos, confusion, Lord, bring in your peace, your order. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. We just want to come, come and enjoy your presence. And we want to enjoy each other in your presence. We just want to celebrate you. We want to have a time of rejoicing and gladness. Lord, we know many of the afflictions of the righteous, but you deliver us from them all. And we're all living epistles, testimonies of your goodness and mercy. We all have testimonies of overcoming things that we thought we would otherwise succumb to because of your goodness and your mercy. We are living epistles, testimonies, Lord God. And you said they will overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimonies, because they love not their lives unto death. So Father, just use us in this gathering to bless you. Use us in this gathering to praise you and worship you, even as you've created us to do so. Just have your way, Lord. We love and appreciate you. In Jesus' name, amen. Bless the Lord. OK. OK, we're going to be reading together from First Peter, Chapter four, verses 12 through 19. This was in my heart this morning. So let's read together. Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you. as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. But none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. Yes, Lord. For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God. And if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? If the righteous is scarily saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner? Therefore, let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful creator while doing good. Bless the Lord, our faithful creator. Bless the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord always. And again I say, Hallelujah. Rejoice. I'm going to say that one more time because I know we got some stuff going on in each and every one of our lives but rejoice in the lord always. Hallelujah. And again, I say, rejoice. Hallelujah. I encourage y'all to just keep rejoicing. When it looks bleak, and fear not for the Lord God is with you. Hello. Amen. Hallelujah. We ready to lift him up this morning, this afternoon. Hallelujah. We ready to lift him up on today. Hallelujah. You know, we serve a great God. The splendor of a king clothed in majesty. Let all the earth rejoice. Let all the earth rejoice. He wraps himself in light. The darkness tries to hide. They tremble at his voice. They tremble at his voice. How great, how great is our God. Sing with me, yeah. How great, how great. Oh, we'll sing. How great, how great is our God. Beginning at the end, beginning at the end. He's the Godhead, three in one. Father, Spirit, Son, the Lion and the Lamb. My God, He's a great God. Oh, see how great. We lift your name on high. We lift your name on high. We lift your name on high. We lift your name on high. We lift you higher. We lift you higher. higher, higher, higher, higher, higher, higher, higher, higher, higher, higher, higher, higher. He's a great God. He's a great God. He's a great God. He's a great God. Everybody say great God. Great God. Great God. Great God. Great God. Great God. Great God. Great God. Great God. Great God. Great God. Great God! Great God! Great God! Great God! Great God! Great God! Great God! Great God! Great God! Great God! Great God! Great God! Great God! He's a great God! Great God! He's a great God! Great God! He's a great God! Great God! He's awesome! Great God! He's awesome! Great God! He's awesome! Great God! He's awesome! Great God! He's awesome! Great God! Great God! Great God! Great God! Great God! He's a great God! Great God! He's a great God! Great God! He's a great God! Great God! He's a great God! Everybody say great God, great God, great God, great God, great God, great God, great God, hey. How great is our God. Sing with me, how great is our God. Oh, we'll sing, how great is our God. How great is our God. God, we love you today. Help me say, how great is our God. Sing with me, yeah. God, we worship you today. Oh, we'll sing. How great is our God. One more time, say, how great is our God. It's our God. Lift your hands in worship. How great. We love you today, Lord. How great. It's our God. Lord, we love you. We worship you today. How great. How great. How great. It's our God. You're so great, God. You're so wonderful. We give you honor and glory this morning. Thank you for being the bread of life, God. Thank you for being water when we're thirsty. Bread of heaven, feed me till I want no more. Oh God, we're waiting on you today. Speak, Lord. Speak, Lord. We're listening for you, God. We bow before you, God. We give you honor and reverence today. We bless your holy name. I dare you to stretch your hands toward heaven today. I dare you to give God your problems today. I dare you to trust him a little bit more today. He wants us to trust him a little bit more today. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So Lord, we, we trust you more and more today. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. It's alright to bless him. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. It's alright to lift his name higher. It's alright to worship the king of kings. How many know god is amazing? Yes. Yes, he is. Yes, he is. I mean, amazing. Amazing. Not You did good today. Gold star. I mean, I'm talking about he created the heavens and the earth. Yes. Yes. He told the ocean where to stop at the sand. Yes. Thank you god. Amazing. Incredible. Yeah. Jesus. Put the stars in place. Told which ones to twinkle brighter and which ones to ease back. He's amazing. He's amazing. Told which clouds to fly over and which ones to stick around a little bit. Put the sun and the moon in perfect rotation. Yeah. That's amazing. I'm Yeah, yeah. You are so amazing, God. Help me sing to you. Say, you're amazing. You're amazing. You're amazing. You're amazing. You're amazing. You're amazing. So amazing. So amazing. You're amazing. You're amazing. You're amazing. You're amazing. You're amazing. You're amazing. You're so amazing. So amazing. You heal the sick. You heal the sick. You raise the dead. You raise the dead. You're Lord of all. Lord of all. The great I am. The great I am. You cause the sun and stars and moon to shine. I'm so glad you're mine. Oh, I'm glad to say you're mine. We stand. We stand. In awe of you, we're amazed at the things you do. You're holy, worthy is the Lamb who was slain for me, we sing. ♪ Amaze, amaze at the things you do ♪ ♪ The mighty shout your holy, your holy ♪ ♪ Worthy is the lamb, worthy is the lamb ♪ ♪ Who was slain, who was slain for me, for me ♪ ♪ Put your hands together, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ Cause God is so amazing ♪ Oh, help me say it. Oh, help me say it. No one compares. No one compares to you. No one compares. No one compares to you. No one compares. No one compares to you. You're amazing. You're amazing. You're amazing. No one compares. No one compares to you. Nobody can even come close to you, Jean. No one can dance to you. Compared to what you've done for me, Jean. No one can dance to you. You're amazing. You're amazing. You're amazing. You're amazing. You're amazing. Amazing. Amazing. They hug him higher, they stretch him wider. He hugged his head, then for you and me he died. But then I know, the story ends. Cause in three days, he rose with power. With healing power, with saving power. amazing. You're amazing. No one compares to you. No one compares to you. Say you're amazing. You're amazing. You're amazing. You're amazing. No one compares. No one compares to you. Nobody can even come close to you, Jesus. To watch you die for me, Jesus You're amazing. You're amazing. You're amazing. You're amazing. Say, you're amazing. You're amazing. Say, you're amazing. You're amazing. Say, you're amazing. You're amazing. You've been so good to me. You're amazing. You've been so great to me. You're amazing. You keep on loving me. You're amazing. You won't stop keeping me. You're amazing. You hold me in the midnight hour. You're amazing. You hold me in the midnight hour. You're amazing. You're amazing. You've been so good to me. You've been so great to me. You've been so good to me. You're amazing! You're amazing! You're amazing! You're amazing! No one compares to you. Come on, lift your hands. No one compares to you. No one can come close to you, Jesus. Oh, say you're amazing. You're amazing. You're amazing. You're amazing. No one compares. No one compares to you. You're so glorious, Father. No one compares to you. You're so beautiful, Savior. No one compares to you. You're amazing. You're amazing. You're amazing. You're amazing. So amazing. Glory to your name, Jesus. Somebody shout, you're amazing. You're so amazing. Thank you, Jesus. I just want to say. Thank you. I just want to say. We're your vessels, lord. Use us for your glory, lord. Change lives today, holy ghost. Change hearts today, holy ghost. Fill our cups, Lord, till we overflow. Hallelujah, Jesus. Till we overflow. Let's stretch our hands towards heaven. We're leaning on you, Lord. We're depending on you. Marvelous you are. Wonderful you are. He's undefeated. He's undefeated. Champion of the universe and creator of us all. We worship you. Have your way in us. you. Praise the Lord, everybody. You're amazing. You're amazing. So faithful. So good. You're amazing. You're amazing. So dependable. Right on time, God. He's a right on time, God. He's a right on time, God. So amazing. So amazing. So amazing. So amazing. What would I be without you, Lord? Where would I go without you, Lord? So amazing. So amazing. So amazing. Come on, let's stand to our feet. There's a move of the Spirit that is happening right now. And in your own way, just tell the Lord, thank you. Thank you for your goodness. Tell God about his track record, about how good he's been. Go through your history and give God praise for every time he's brought you out, every time he's made a way out of no way, every time he's come through for you, every time you didn't think you were going to make it, but you did. Tell God, thank you. You're so amazing, God. So amazing. Hallelujah. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, God. Hallelujah, God. Hallelujah, God. Hallelujah, God. Hallelujah. Listen, while we are in the spirit of worship, we are still worshiping. I want you to get your offering together. Get your gifts that you want to give to the Lord because he has been so good, so kind, so kind, so kind. This week I struggled because there were some expenses that I had and I paid my my tithes, my offering, I always give God an offering. And some money came in and it was a little bit bigger than normal. And so, you know, the Lord has to test you. So I was like, whew, I'm about to write a sizable check last week for my tithes and offering. Amen. I'm a pastor. I'm human. I trust the Lord, but I still get tested. So I wrote that check and then some expenses came through and I saw some of that go. And then right at that time when, you know, money was looking a little like, oh, we're gonna spend some money this week, someone called and said, brother Jamie, I have a problem. And I can't talk to everybody about this, but I need your help. And the spirit was pulling on me to help this person and my flesh was saying, no, you've already spent enough money this week. So I decided to go ahead and give. And I trusted the Lord. And this person said they were going to give the money back by a certain time. Well, it's past the due date. And they have not come through. And the Lord was like, you know, I want you not to get on the phone and call this individual and be like, you know what? You promised so-and-so-and-so-and-so. God was letting me know, I am your source, not this person. When I tell you, in very small ways, God removed some bills, God took down some bills. There were some things I thought I was gonna have to pay. I didn't have to pay the same amount. Then I wanted to take my wife out on a date. I took my wife out on a date on a Friday night. I was like, ooh, you know, we can't go cheap. So I got her, you know, we went out on a date. When I tell you, on the date, somebody walked up to me and said, I'm paying for you and your wife's dinner. Not only that, they put money in my pocket on top of that. So I went in for a free dinner and walked out with more money than I came in there with. God was saying, I am your source. I got up this morning, and the Holy Spirit reminded me, you went to the mailbox on Friday, but you didn't check the mail. And I'm sitting here thinking, that person still hasn't given me my money that they owe me. I looked into my mail, opened up the mail, and I was like, oh, wait a minute, there's a check here for me, for the exact same amount that I gave the person. They happened this morning. God is amazing. God is faithful. We worship God with our giving, not because we are asking a bunch of stuff from him, but because he's faithful and he's faithful to his word. He will show up right on time. He is our source. Your bank account is not your source. Your job is not your source. People are not your source. It's God. He is your source. So right now, take out your phones, take out your envelopes, bring your cash, whatever you got, we're gonna give to an amazing God this morning. Amen, amen, amen. So amazing. So amazing. So amazing. So amazing. So amazing. So amazing. God loves a cheerful giver. Amen. And we have a reason to be smiling because we serve a God who has everything. Pastor Rick, come on up here. I'm gonna need you to pray over the offering while I get my offering together. Amen. It's okay, you're not on camera yet. Because sometimes we'd be tripping. I'm 60. I get some grace. Amen. Amen. Praise the Lord. Hey, right now. Ready? One second. I'm going to get mine in before we pray. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Thank you for your faithfulness, God. Let's stand while we're praying. Whatever you did, if you already gave, just go ahead and lift your hands. If you got your phone and you gave on that, lift your phone, come on. That's right. Lord, we thank you for an opportunity, Lord God, to be used by you to sow into this kingdom agenda. Lord, the thing that was on my heart is stewardship. We wanna be good stewards, Lord, of whatever you've given us, Lord. Everything that we have is given by you, Lord. And so everything we have is yours. And Lord, we just want to be faithful over it, Lord. So we're trusting for your leading and your guidance in our giving, Lord, and speaking whatever the situation and circumstances are, Lord. And we trust you to meet every need according to your riches and glory in Christ Jesus. Lord, we just pray that you bless this offering, Lord, and let it meet every need. Lord, for everyone who's giving and the leadership of this house, Lord, we always want your leading guidance, conviction, clarification, wisdom, insight on how to be steward over everything you've given us, Lord. So Lord, we even want your correction. We crave your conviction, Lord, because we know we are but dust aside from you. So Lord, by your spirit, bring conviction, bring clarification, Bring, you know, give us wisdom and insight and leading and guidance. And we commit our way to you, Lord, because you said, we commit our way to you, you will establish it. And Lord, we commit these finances to you, Lord, and so establish it according to your divine purposes. And Lord, we thank you for these things and bless you for these things in Jesus name, amen. Amen. All right. Amen. It's good to see everyone today. Amen. Good to be in the house of God today. Amen. Let's go ahead and stand. We're going to read the word, then I'm going to pray, and then we're going to go into the word. Amen. We normally give our announcements at this time, but I feel like the spirit is just moving. Let's just go ahead and stay in this frame of mind. I appreciate you, brother, but I think I'm going to keep moving, okay? Amen. We're in the book of Matthew, still in the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew, the sixth chapter, 16th through the 18th verse. Amen. The word of God reads, 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. Father God, I thank you so much for this word. I thank you for your truth today, Father. You know that I did the very best I could. I ask for your anointing today, Father. I pray that you would touch my body, Father, as I attempt to press forward and deliver this word, Father. I need your help today. Holy Spirit, you know what needs to be said. Make it simple, make it plain. Help me to get out of your way, God. I pray, Holy Spirit, that you would prepare the hearts and speak this very powerful truth, Father, so that we are level set and we are in line with you, where our heart position, Father, is not in a way that is worldly or human, but supernatural, Father. And only you can do that. Because we don't think like you. And we have things that have trained us, God, to think and act in a certain way, Father. It is not your original intention. So I pray, Father, that you free us, Father, first and foremost from ourselves. And we thank you for these things. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much, praise team. I'm gonna speak to you today from the sermon titled Sincerity in Seeking God. Sincerity in Seeking God. Amen. I will, wife, by God's grace. The word of God says, and when you fast, verse 16, Elijah, Matthew 6, 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. Now, I must admit to you that it is 2025, I am an American, and I had a hard time relating to understanding the history of this verse or relating to this verse. We are not Jews from that time. The Jews that Jesus was preaching to, there were certain cultural things that we are always not aware of when we first look at the scripture, amen. So I don't know of anybody who would intentionally want to look bad in public for any particular reason. Most of the people that I see, even including you, myself as well, we try to look as good as we can. We come trying to look our best when we are in public. Amen. Many folks will put on their best before they step outside their house. Amen. Some people are very concerned about how they look. They want people to know that they're doing well. Amen. Some people wear certain brand clothing. They put on Gucci and where they bring the most fashionable designer purses. You know, you want to look your best. They put on, you know, Gucci, whether it's fake or real. Fake Louis's in the whole nine yards, right? They want to make sure they put it on because they want you to see the label. You know, they floss a little bit. You know, God is good, yes he is. Right? People in today's time are concerned about their appearance. We put on makeup, ladies, amen, right? We make sure our lips are not ashy and chapped, amen. Many of us, many of us, many of us put on deodorant, amen. Most of us, most of us, most of us, most of us brush our teeth before we come to church. Amen? I said most. Hi, Pastor. Good to see you, Sister Jackson. Good to see you. Right? We're still praying for those folks that are not in the most. Amen. There's not a person in this church that doesn't groom themselves or try to present themselves, right? My wife and my mother, she, I don't know, they don't, they're not the same person, but they are very similar. She's very concerned about how our children look, you know? That changes a few things. That changes budgets in the whole nine yards. Right, right, right, Harron? You know, brothers that got kids, my mother was like, you know, it has to look right. My grandmother, Lois the Pie Queen, her whole business model was not just how good the food tastes. She said, if you put the food on the plate and if it doesn't look right, nobody will want to eat it. So that's the outside. But what about the inside? Not a person in this church who is listening today online. We have been through some things, right? We've gone through certain trauma. Most of us have not been protected from the effects of sin in this world. Some of us have been hurt by others. Some things we've done to ourselves. Amen? Some of us have suffered tragedy. Amen. Immense tragedy. Many of us have experienced being broken. Simply because we're humans, we do what we normally do. We take our brokenness on the road. We go into survival mode. Right? Because that's all we know how to do. We function out of brokenness for years. Amen. And then, by chance, you know, we get saved by God's grace, amen, and the Holy Spirit enters our lives, and we are now considered children of God. But it doesn't take long for us to realize that even after being a child of God, there's still some things that are wrong. Right? There are things that we struggle with. Things that we want God to change about us. Amen, amen, amen. Jesus said that the hypocrites at that time took, you know, the effort to get, you know, to look a certain way. They wanted to look gloomy. They wanted to disfigure their faces. They tried to look sad. The same verse in the New Living Translation puts it this way. And when you fast, don't make it obvious as the hypocrites do, for they try to look miserable and disheveled. You know? And again, I struggle with this because most of us today, you know, when it comes to even our feelings, our emotional state, thank you, Holy Spirit, if we're sad, we try to cover it up. We go out of our way to make people think we're doing better than we really are. We dress up the outside to hide what's going on in the inside. Right? I say that to say this. There comes a time when we realize that we don't have time to play games with God or religion. There comes a time when life gets so hard, when situations hit you so fast, where we have decided, you know what, I need to get serious. I need to be very focused on where I am and where I want God to take me or where I want to be. And we begin to understand that I don't have the power in and of myself to make some changes. I can't change what's inside of me without the help, and I can't change or affect change when it comes to the circumstances that are outside of me, that may be affecting me. And I realized that I desperately need God to come through. So at that time, we may decide that we need not only to pray, we need to fast. I need something to happen, and I need it to happen right now. Amen? Now, here's the thing. When you're desperate for God to do something, and I'm not going to be before you long because there's only one major point here. When you're desperate for God to do something, you really don't have time to care about what everybody else thinks. When you're okay, maybe you can fake it a little bit. But when you're desperate, I don't care how this looks, I don't care how that looks, I just need God to come through. Amen, amen. So concentrating on people is not necessarily something that's really a matter for you, amen? Here's the thing about fasting. Originally, fasting for the Jews was centered around the Day of Atonement. Just give you a little history here. It was really about recognizing that they had sinned against God and that there was a need for repentance, which is turning from those sins and turning to God. So they abstained from food, in some cases even bathing. Amen. From any comfort or pleasures in order to recalibrate the mind into focusing purely on God. So that was the original focus or way that we did fasting as far as the Jews, as far as people who were of God. We stepped away from the world so I can get my mind on God. Amen. And originally That was the case for the Jews. But somehow during the time that Jesus is preaching this message, this sermon that he's preaching, the Jewish culture changed and they got a hold of fasting and they turned it into, and here we go, it was basically a display of spiritual pride. It wasn't really about me getting my prayer through even. It was about me showing off that I was deep and holy. Amen? That I could abstain from things. Originally, fasting took place, as I said, on the Day of Atonement, but later, culturally, fasting days were typically, in Jesus' time, on Mondays and Thursdays, which just so happened to be the same days when the marketplace was most crowded. So the hypocrite would show up on Mondays and Thursdays and look as horrible as they could in front of the biggest crowd that they can get. Isn't that interesting? Watch this, there were many at that time, Henry, who took deliberate steps to see that others could not miss the fact that they were fasting. What'd they do? They walked through the streets with their hair deliberately unkempt. Your weave is sideways, just. They wanted to look disheveled. You know, clothes in disarray. Spill something on your shirt. Just to get the attention of people. They went through to the great length of deliberately whitening their faces so it can accentuate the paleness of their face. This is over the top. in order to get attention. You know, we had this thing, I had a conversation with somebody very close to me years ago, and thank you, Holy Spirit, for reminding me. We had a conversation about dress code and whether you should dress seductively or whatever have you, and this person was really, really hung up on how women dressed in church. They bring attention to themselves, they strutting down the aisle, you know, letting everybody know exactly what size their hips are and what their top is and the whole nine yards. And then, you know, I passed her. You know, all of that kind of, you know, just getting attention this way. And I argued, I said, you know, that's very true. We must be modest in our apparel. But then there's another extreme where you can come in looking so toe up where you also are drawing attention to yourself. Right? Well, you look bad. And people will pay attention to you looking really, really good, really, really seductive, or really, really horrible. In this case, they were like, let's just kind of go over the top. So people will notice that I'm fasting. I want you to know I'm talking to God. Right? Now, some of us may not do that with our fashion or our outward appearance, but we may do it with our words and our attitude. Some folks wait till they get to church and tell everybody what they don't do anymore. Well, I don't eat that. Well, I don't drink that. Right? I've abstained from those things. I don't watch those things anymore. I wean myself from social media. Why? Well, I'm fasting. Right? You've seen these people? What are they doing? Thank you, baby. They're showing off how holy they are by how they can abstain from certain things. Help me, Holy Spirit, with this. Now, I'm not saying that it's wrong to discipline yourself. I'm not saying that it's wrong to deny yourself of certain unhealthy foods, right? Or stop watching certain addictive media or Or it's a known fact that when the human being starves themselves of certain comforts, you automatically become more spiritually in tune. It's a known fact. If you go without, you actually tune in. Amen? But if you're doing it to impress people, then the attention of people is all you're going to get. OK. Now, the people in Jesus' day, the hypocrites that he's talking about, they did it to prove specifically that they were more holier than others. Amen? I am holy because I am seeking God right now, and I do certain things which says to me, Curtis, that I am closer to God than you are. Can't you tell? That's how it is. I'm over-exaggerating, but people do it with their little words and stuff like that. Oh, really? Man, you are some wonder in Jesus, I tell you. Now, I truly believe that there are times when we fast that God will respond and he will change things for us. We may need God to step in and intervene in our health. Right? We may have problems in relationships with our family members or our spouse. Right? We might need God to intervene when it comes to our finances. Amen? But one thing I notice about God that is always consistent, this is something he does. He's never just working on your problem. He's always working on you. I can stop right there. One of the biggest issues that humans face is pride. Pride. There's no difference in me walking around with my, and I do have a pair of Gucci glasses, don't talk about it now. I don't always wear them to church, but sometimes I do. But there's no problem having nice things. That's not it. But if I am doing it to make it seem like I'm better than you, that's a problem. Because here's the thing, I don't know about you, no matter what you got, everybody needs Jesus. And if you live long enough, you're going to get to a place where you're going to have to sincerely seek him. You're going to have to get on your knees and say, God, if you don't come through and work this out, make a way out of no way, I don't know how I'm going to make it. And all your Gucci ain't going to help you then. OK? So fasting in Jesus' day. There are people that had a problem. Now watch this, just a little bit more history. I'm almost done. There's not a whole lot here to go into. I don't want to over-preach this. Originally, fasting in Jesus' day was not designed to save an individual or rescue an individual. Okay? From the time of the law, they knew that, you know, for instance, let's say if we needed the rain to come and the harvest was expected and we had a problem with our crops, The people would pray to God and they would fast and abstain from certain things in order to, quote-unquote, get God's attention so that he would send the rain. If the people were under governmental oppression from another country, like the Romans or somebody like that, or, you know, the Assyrians, they would, you know, they would call out to God and say, God, you know, I'm going to turn off my Netflix, I'm going to do whatever I got to do. to get your attention. Why? Because we as a whole are people, not just myself. We are under siege. We are, you know, there's an enemy at the gate. They're threatening us. God, we will step away from whatever we got to step away from in order to get you to come in and intervene. So it wasn't really more so about my individual issues that I was dealing with. Fasting back in the day was really rather a way to move God to liberate a nation from its distresses nationally. Here's the problem. During those times, the religious elite would say to themselves, well, now that our country's in trouble, this is not a job for ordinary people. We need the exceptional saints to come in. And we need to go before God and, you know, get in prayer and step away from certain things because we know that God will hear us because we are those people. So we had the Pharisees who were like the religious elites who would show up on Mondays and Thursdays. Right? Because the nation is underneath the Roman oppression. Right? And I want everybody to know that this is my job. This is what I do. I help work out things with God and pray with God and ask for, you know, deliverance because you regular people don't have it. You know, they don't really have that connection. He said, ordinary people, this is a quote, ordinary people in the rabbinic scriptures or whatever, he said, ordinary people could not do this, they were too involved with work and the world. We will do this extra thing to counterbalance the necessary deficiency of piety in others. You see the attitude? The great issue with this particular thing in fasting is that some people might fast as a sign of superior piety. You know, I am more in tune with God than you. They fast that they might put on a deliberate demonstration, not to God, but to others. And the demonstration is I want you to see, God, how devoted I am. Let me change that. I want you to see people, how devoted I am, how disciplined I am, how I've got my spiritual attitude or my proclivities, I've got all those things together. And this is exactly what Jesus was condemning. He was saying that when you go to God, you don't flaunt your attitude. You don't flaunt how wonderful you are. You don't flaunt how spiritually deep you are. We are nothing but dust that God has breathed into. And if it had not been for God, I don't know where we would be. So I have no business putting down somebody else, looking down at somebody else. And the bottom line is I'm barely making it myself. And if God doesn't come through for me, I'm done. Are you hearing what I'm saying here? So really, honestly, I'm almost done. This passage is really not about fasting. There are other passages that are. This passage is really not about fasting, it's really about spiritual pride. Fasting here just happens to be the vehicle that they're using to display it. Right? If you really look at the passage, he's really focusing not so much on what you're abstaining from, he's really focusing on the motive behind why you're abstaining. It's the heart, it's the same thing, sweetie, thank you. So here's the thing, saints. When we approach God with sincerity, there's a heart posture that God is looking for. Amen? And I don't know about you, but there are some things that I am dealing with right now in this season. I don't have time to play games. I don't have time to pretend in front of people. Amen. When I'm praying, you know, them people can't help me with this stuff anyway. Amen. So showing off spiritually will not get my prayer answered. The issue he's coming with, or he's talking about, he's dealing with, is there must be humility and sincerity when we approach our God who can do anything. God is near to the humble. Amen? Those who are pretending to be humble will never get the response that they actually need from God. Amen? Those who are exalting themselves like some self-denial guru, they are people who are not of God. He's basically saying that the hypocrite, the one who looks like he's really doing the right thing, He's not. He's saying that the hypocrite may not even really have a connection to God whatsoever. That's what he's saying. You know, that's why you got to take your mouth off of folks and when you're looking at them and sizing up and judging folks, you don't really know. You know, the person that is coming in looking a certain way, they might actually have a better connection than you think. It all depends on the heart. Amen? We get to church like folks in the marketplace back then. We wait for the biggest audience to show off how wonderful we are, how deep we are, how well together we are. What would happen in the church if everybody really, really practiced humility? If we actually sincerely went to God and said, Lord, you know, I am going to abstain from these things. Not to get the attention of men. And honestly, I don't even know if I could really get your attention. Because the only one that really got your attention is your son. And the reason why you answered my prayer is because I'm in him. Not because I'm doing most wonderful things. Are you hearing me? Jesus Christ is the reason why we get our prayers answered, okay? So all that, you know, pumping yourself up ain't gonna do nothing, you know? He's the only reason why, you know, without His shed blood, I have no access to God. Without Him dying on the cross for my sins, I have no access to God. Without Him being raised from the dead, I have no access to God. Without God being, you know, totally satisfied with His sacrifice, I have no access to God. Jesus did it all for me. That's the only reason why God hears my prayer. Not because I'm wonderful, but because Jesus Christ has paid for me. Amen? Last statement. Yep, I need to shut it down. Fasting is really not about denying yourself. That is the, physical mechanism that we actually use. It's not just about denying yourself food and pleasure. It's more about reminding yourself that you don't need any of those things more than you need God. Did you catch what I just said? See, that's how we purify this thing. That's how we make sure our motives are right. The bottom line is it's not about me abstaining from things. That's not the main principle. The principle is we use that mechanism or that practice or that religious practice of fasting to remind myself that most of the stuff that I think I need, I really don't need. Who I really need is God. Amen? So once again, He's really just getting us in the right heart position. The truth of the matter is some of the things that we are asking God to fix, some of those things are things that God is trying to free us from in the first place. Right? That's right. I said it on Facebook this week. I said some of the stuff I'm praying for, that's not the big deal. What's really the big deal is God changing my heart. The things that I want him to fix, those are just pawn moves in his chessboard. There are things that happen to us, things we go through. God is just using those situations to get our attention. The goal is heart change. The goal is sincerity. The goal is humility. The goal is reverence for Christ. Amen? The goal is diminishing our pride. The goal is me stepping away from the things that I think I need. Because some of those things we've made essentials when they're not essentials. What's really essential is our relationship with Jesus Christ. And if you're going fast, then the thing that God will more than likely do, even if He doesn't fix your situation, is He will fix you. So it ain't about getting the attention of everybody else when God is trying to get your attention. Are you hearing what I'm saying? When we approach God, we approach Him with sincerity, with humility. Amen. Reverence for who Christ is. Amen. Not thinking about everybody else and trying to, you know, impress anybody else. It's not about that. We recognize that we have a huge problem with pride. Amen. You know, we have a huge problem with pride. That's one of the reasons why we try to get a bunch of things and stuff. I want to feel like I'm doing something. I am somebody. Right? Some of that stuff we don't even need. Right? God is showing us that our dependence really needs to be on him. He is, we don't want to make a God out of things. And we don't want to make a God out of our desire to have people think about us a certain way. These were supposedly holy men putting on a mask like they were holy to impress people. That's major. That is major, major pride. And God is moving us from that, stripping us from that, amen, getting us to be humble and sincere when we approach Him. I think I'm done. That's all I want to say. Let's stand. As I said, there are things that we do, and we don't even know why we do them. I don't know about you, but I've been affected by some things being on this planet, some things that have happened to me, and they've rewired my thinking in a way that is not godly, where I care about all the wrong stuff. At the top of the year, we will fast. Amen? We will step away from food. We will step away from media. We will step away from social media. My God, that thing is so addictive. All it does is feed pride or cause us to compare ourselves with others. Right? We need to step away from those things. Why? Fasting does something. I said it before. It recalibrates the mind. Amen? Stepping away from the world and focusing on God. Amen? And can I be honest with you? If our minds need to be recalibrated, it's a good chance that my prayer list needs to be recalibrated. I don't know what I should ask for. I didn't design me. Some of the things that I'm asking for, God may want me to have. Some of the things that I'm asking for, God may be like, I know why you want that, and I don't want that for you. Amen? Some of it is to impress people. Some of it is to make ourselves feel good about ourselves. Right? I want you to fix my fans' problems so I can do craziness. Right? I want you to give me a husband and a wife so I can actually not spend any time in my prayer anymore. We don't say that. But sometimes that's what's happening, right? So when we go to God, At the top of the year, we're going to fast and we're going to ask God to give us his list. Give us his motives. Change my heart. Why I'm asking for these things, I don't know. Can you expose that to me? Can you straighten me out? It's okay for me to have some things, God, but I don't want to make things out of God. I don't want to make people and their opinion out of God. I don't want those things to become my God. It will run me all over the place. Right? I want you to change me. So Father, we just come to you today, first of all, thanking you for this very simple word, asking, Father, that you would bring us sincerity. There are things in us, Father, that we don't even know that we're doing. We don't even know why we're doing it. We've had painful things happen and they've shifted us and changed us. We've had the effects of this world speak to us, Father, and lead us and guide us and teach us things that are not of you. We don't even know what our default setting really is. So we ask God that when we seek you, Father, that we seek you for the right reasons. Take all the other stuff, the people and the things out of the way. Recalibrate our minds, God. Let us start this week, Father, by pulling away from those things for the right reasons, so that we can hear direction from you, so we can actually just hear how much you love us. Remove the clogging channel, the channel that gets clogged up with the world, Father. Help us, Father, to really hear you. Speak to our hearts in such a way, Father, we are satisfied with you and you alone. We ask these things in Jesus' name. And we thank you for delivering us from ourselves, delivering us from our pride, delivering us from the concerns and cares of the world or the concerns and cares of people. Help us to recalibrate and come sincerely to you in our time of need. We know you can fix anything, God. We know you can do anything. When we come to you, Father, let it be from a pure place. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen and amen. God bless you. God bless you, God bless you. Amen. Listen, I don't know if you got a chance to, we didn't do our greeting, but let's do it now. Let's go ahead and hug two or three folks that we didn't come with. Amen. We're not going to do it now. Yeah. Hug two or three folks that we didn't come with. Amen. Say hello to somebody. We will see you next week. God bless you. Love you. Amen. you