Again a good reminder of our heart attitude as we come to God's word tonight and every time we open up scripture is Lord teach me what you would have for me in the passages that we are working through. in each service. And help me to be submissive to your word. Give me understanding, and help me submit to that understanding. So a good song for us tonight. We're back in Sermon on the Mount, and we're going to continue for the next few weeks. I think I finally have a good idea on what we're going to be in next, but I'll keep you in suspense for another week or so. As we finish up the Sermon on the Mount and I want to remind us of the main purpose of the Sermon on the Mount And that is Jesus is really you could kind of sum it up in this question. What kingdom are you living for? Or whose side are you on? Jesus is pointing out that the kingdom is coming he is before his disciples and He's getting ready for ministry at the beginning of his ministry and Teaching them these things what a disciple how disciples should act what a disciple should look like and he will pay the ultimate sacrifice and die for our sin be risen again and Establish that kingdom as he's as he ascended and is sitting on the right hand one day will return and But those of us who have trusted in Jesus Christ, we are members of that kingdom. Jesus is our king. And so in this sermon, which again is his only fully recorded, documented sermon in the New Testament, Jesus is showing us what those that are a part of the kingdom, how they act, how they live, the examples that they are. And certainly even this morning in talking about anxiety and worry and care, what an example we can be toward others that we're on the right side when we live our lives on a daily, a weekly basis in confidence that our Heavenly Father will take care of us as we serve Him. And people see, not people that are stressed out and worried and anxious all the time like the Gentiles, like those that have rejected God's kingdom, Those that are a part of the other side, but those that have confidence that their heavenly father is going to take care of them. What a testimony we can be and attract them to want to be a part of God's kingdom, again, through faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Well, tonight, we're going to, I mentioned this morning, we're skipping around a little bit at this point. We're gonna go back to the beginning of Matthew chapter six. And we're gonna look at verses one through four. And then if you'll notice verse five, we've already gone through about prayer. So we're gonna skip ahead to verses 16 and 18 and cover, so verses one through four, and verses 16 through 18 tonight, not many verses. We're gonna look at tonight, right things done with the wrong motives. We can be filled in doing all kinds of things for God. and have the wrong motives and have it really our service be meaningless. And God doesn't want that and Jesus is warning against that. In chapter 5, if you'll remember, Jesus had mentioned recently in chapter 5 that righteousness, our righteousness, must exceed that of the Pharisees. And as his audience, the disciples and the Jewish people in that area around the Sea of Galilee were listening, they surely would have been shocked to think that they had to have a higher righteousness than the very people they looked to that were on the top escalon of righteousness who did in their eyes everything the way that they were supposed to. And when Jesus said, no, you need to live in a righteous way that's even beyond what they live. People probably thought to themselves, well, how do we do that? Ultimately, Jesus is pointing to himself. He's saying, follow me and I will lead you to a righteousness that is greater that you need through what I'm going to do. But as well, Now he's going to go into more detail about why this righteousness that these religious leaders that they so were in awe of and were so endearing to them, why it was less than necessary. And that as they were doing things that they didn't always have the right motives. And Jesus is gonna focus on three aspects of service, of pious living that was very, very important to the Jewish community. One of those we've already touched on, and that's prayer. Prayer was a part of the everyday life, not only of the Jewish person, but also in their community. Getting together to pray at certain sacrifice times, and being asked to pray. Prayer was a constant thing that was constantly in front of the people, And we talked last week about what Jesus had to say about sincere prayer, the right way to prayer. We worked through the Lord's Prayer. And I hope that was a help to you. There were two other things, though, that were a normal part of the Jewish methodology or service to God. And that was almsgiving and fasting. Now, it's specifically in the area of fasting I'm expecting tonight. This is kind of like when we talked about oaths. And when I bring this up initially, and I use the word fasting, that many of you aren't cowering there in guilt and concern about what I'm going to preach on regarding fasting. In fact, you might be interested, well, what is he going to talk about in relation to fasting? And that is going to be an interesting topic that we're going to look at here in a minute. But first of all, Jesus is giving, at the beginning of chapter 6, an overall general principle for all of these things. And let's look at this together. We'll look at these passages together, pray, and get into this further. Chapter 6, verse 1. Take heed that you do not do your alms before men to be seen of them. Otherwise, you have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore, when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth, that thine alms may be in secret. And thy father, which seeth in secret himself, shall reward thee openly. Now skip to verse 16. Moreover, when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou fasteth, anoint thine head, and wash thy face, that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy father which is in secret. And my Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. Lord, give us understanding tonight from your word and help the truths of what Jesus is presenting here to permeate our thinking and our lives and help us to examine our service to you. Is it sincere? Is it done out of love? Or are we somehow, as he is warning the disciples here, we're going through the motions for some sort of earthly recognition or glory? Lord, let us be convicted tonight and help us to, in a sweet spirit, sincerely and full of love of you, serve you because of all you've done for us and because we want to represent you well. Let that be our motive. Let us want to testify well of who you are and not of our own importance. All this we ask in Jesus' name that we pray, amen. Jesus is talking about hypocrites, and we mentioned this last week, even as we talked about prayer. Well, what is a hypocrite? Well, if you remember when we described this, it was someone even in this time, in the time of Greek culture, there was plays, there was theater that was put on, and it was done almost entirely, my understanding is, by the men, which would be really interesting, wouldn't it, to see a play? like that, but they didn't have all of the nice modern things that we have, costumes and makeup and all these things. They basically had faces that were on some sort of stick and they would replace the face as they would change characters or a new character would come out and they would hold these masks up to their face and that would be portraying who they were trying to portray. And I'm sure they were very good at it, and I'm sure if we ever got to see something like it, it would definitely be a cultural experience, wouldn't it? To experience something like that. But what it came to be used for, and what Jesus is using it for, is for when people would try to hide who they were, and put on a mask, and look like somebody that they weren't, and act like somebody that they were not. And they would be called then a hypocrite. And Jesus is warning that even in service to God, The thing that we should be most genuine about and most faithful and devotional about. That this attitude can creep in and we can actually make it in our struggle with the sin that still remains in us. We can make it all about ourselves. And Jesus is warning against that. The basic principle here is verse 1. Take heed then that you do not your alms before men. to be seen of them. Otherwise you have no reward of your father which is in heaven." Now what are alms that they're referring to here? Alms would be basically the Jewish system of giving to the poor and giving to those that were in need. Although he's going to talk further about this practice of giving to those in need, It seems as if it'd be better translated in this first verse, rather than to talk specifically about alms, to have it translated this way. The ESV puts it, beware of practicing your righteousness before other people to be seen of them. Jesus' warning. that the pursuit of earthly rewards for faithful service and pious actions can actually negate the receipt of heavenly rewards. He's warning his people. In fact, he's describing a situation where somebody is literally serving God but they're trying to pay out early to get the recognition to get what they want early. Jesus is saying if you're doing these things to get glory and to get recognition then you're receiving your payment already Don't expect that God's going to reward that kind of attitude because it's abhorrent to God That old saying Good things come to those who wait it could be applied to faithful service as well Jesus is reminding us that What we do in service for God may not have any immediate rewards that we can see. Does that deter us from serving him faithfully? Does that bother us at all? Jesus says, in God's timing, he'll reward you. So don't try to pay it off early and get your reward early and get the recognition in all of this. But be patient. Wait on God's timing. What then, Are these heavenly rewards that Jesus is referring to in this passage? Well, the problem is, in this passage in particular, he really doesn't say. He doesn't really tell us what those rewards are. He doesn't give us the details. And so we might think, well, what good is it then? How am I supposed to be motivated, Pastor Brock, for these rewards? And I don't even know what they are. Or some of us might say, you know, I'm not even sure that sounds right to have to have a motivation of rewards. Pastor Brock, aren't we just supposed to do this because we love God and because he's called us to do this? And I've heard people talk about this before. And yeah, we do need to have the right motivation. Obviously, Jesus is saying that in this passage. It can't be all about, if all we're thinking is the reward we're gonna get one day, and it's not out of unselfish devotion to God, there's a problem there. But sometimes, if I could put it this way, we tend to, or we can tend to, even faithful servants of God, act a little more righteous than even God is. And Jesus says it's okay to look forward to those heavenly rewards. He doesn't tell us what they're going to be. But I guarantee you, though, that if God supplies us with the things that we love and the things that we need on this earth, think of the thing that you enjoy the most, that God in his grace allows you to do. Maybe it's some sporting activity, maybe it's something that you enjoy eating or time doing a specific something, whatever that is. If God in his grace has fulfilled those delights in your life right now, don't you think that you can trust him that whatever those heavenly rewards are going to be, that they're gonna be things that we're going to enjoy, that they're going to be things that we will look forward to, and that we will be filled with joy as we receive them. And most likely, I would say humbled. Wow, Lord, I didn't do this in the way that I should have. I could have done it so much better. Thank you. You ever get a gift that far surpasses what you feel, the work that you've, and the effort you've put into it, and it's humbling, isn't it? Well, one day we're all gonna face that. As Jesus, as God gives us rewards, and we realize, I didn't even do that, that was the power of Jesus working in me, but thank you, Lord. Whatever those rewards are going to be, Jesus says here, they're worth the wait. So don't cheapen it by trying to stir up, trying to find some kind of reward on your own in this life. Let God reward. Don't try to take it on yourself. And then he gives two specifics here that, again, were very much a part of Jewish life. Verse two. Therefore, when thou doest thine alms, or when thou giveth to the needy, Do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites, there's our word, do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. For verily I say unto you, they have their reward. Have you ever thought through this picture that as the Jewish people were giving to the needs of other people that were less fortunate, that somehow there was a trumpet being sounded? Well, what was that all about? What did that look like? Why would there be a trumpet sounded anyway? And this seems to, as far as what I can tell in my study, probably the best explanation of what Jesus is referring to here was that at the beginning of the Jewish ceremonial fast, and we'll talk more about fasting in just a minute. that was a regular part of a Jewish person's life that they would sound the trumpet and that also at that time announced the opportunity at the beginning of that time to give money for the needy. So when they heard the trumpet sound that let everybody know it's time now to give our alms or to give our money for those that are in need. Does that make sense? And so Jesus here says, when you're giving your alms to not sound a trumpet, and what would happen, let me give you a little more information on this. Synagogues, the temple in Jerusalem, but synagogues all over the country, also functioned at this time as relief organizations. And they would distribute funds to those in need. And they depended upon the funds from Jewish people in the community. So people would come to the synagogue and at the special time, the trumpets or whatever would be sounded, they would know it was their time to give, it was their time of ceremonial fasting and their time of worship to God. And they would give. But the hypocrites in particular, those that were wearing masks and masking and trying to act like someone that inside in a heart situation that they were not, they would make sure that when they were giving that it would be at the synagogue or at the street and these were two main places where giving would take place and they were the two main places where everybody could see what you were giving. And so Jesus is pointing out to those religious leaders and others who were listening for the sound of the trumpet, there it is, okay, now's my big moment, and here's my money, and I'm going to give it in front of everybody in front of the synagogue, or over here in the street corner over here, and everybody around me will know that I'm giving money, and what a wonderful person I am. And they would receive glory for that. And Jesus says, they're being hypocrites. They are doing the right things with the wrong motives. They also, they relish earthly praise. For these people, the only thing they care about is the glory they receive for themselves. And Jesus says, that's the only glory they're gonna get. That's the only reward they're gonna get. Because my heavenly Father won't honor that kind of attitude. They were all about the earthly praise. Well, if you spent any time on this earth, you know that earthly praise is fleeting. If you get praised one minute, just wait for it. It won't take too long, a day, a week, maybe a month, and there'll be somebody that's being critical again. Earthly praise is fleeting. It doesn't last very long. And so if we're pursuing that, you're going to have to constantly be doing things and be exhausted trying to get more and more of that. It's not something that ultimately satisfies. And literally they're paying out for an earthly reward. And Jesus says that shouldn't be the case. When you give to the needy, let not thy right left hand know what thy right hand doeth. And as a child, I always thought of some magician, you know, doing a magic trick where, you know, you have something in one hand and then right in front of everybody, you know, somehow he'd pull something out of his sleeve over here or he'd make the object in his hand disappear. And literally the right hand wouldn't know what the left hand was doing. Wow, that's really cool. Well, I think we understand here Jesus isn't referring to a magic act. What he is saying with this description is this. Make sure it's in total secrecy. Make sure that it's done not with the praise of others, but without maybe even the knowledge of anybody at all. Now, sometimes that's hard to do, especially when we're having an offering in a church where the offering plate's being passed and people see you put your money in there. Jesus isn't saying, well, don't do that. Just wait till later and kind of slip it in the plate when nobody's looking. He's not saying that, and I think we know that. What he is saying is that your heart attitude should be, I don't want anybody else to know. I don't care about that. I just want to serve God. I just want to be faithful. I just want to be devotedly serving Him. And I don't care who knows. Nobody has to know, in fact. And that actually is a good measure of our motive and our sincere faithful service. Are we willing to serve when nobody else knows about it? Are we willing to give? Are we willing to be as devoted to God when no one knows about it as when everyone knows about it? These are basic checks in our lives. And sooner or later, all of us are gonna stumble at this. And Jesus gives us a good reminder here. But don't worry, because even as we do this in secret, he says, verse four, thy father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly. This has a positive and a negative aspect to it. The negative is, is that just in case you were wondering, God knows all your secrets. You may think that you have some secrets in your life that no one else knows about, and you probably have been pretty good at covering those things up. But the God of secrets, he knows it all. He knows all your secrets. Now, for the person who's trying to get away with something, that's not really encouraging. And maybe Jesus is warning us today, you know, you shouldn't do that. You shouldn't be involved in that, because God knows. But for those of us who do the right things and we know that not a lot of people know about it, we don't have to worry either in a positive way because we know God knows. God knows every service and every bit of ministry that we do. He's aware of it. You look at sports heroes, and I'm not saying this is necessarily a bad thing, but I grew up watching basketball and being involved in watching all kinds of sports with my family. And you get a number of these famous sports figures. In the 80s, it was, of course, Michael Jordan. And we recently are thinking of Kobe Bryant that lost his life in the helicopter crash and his daughter and the tragedy of that. And you need to pray for the family. These heroes that we hear so much about, you know, their families need prayer, too. But these sports figures and female sports athletes as well, they put in the effort and they give 100% and they achieve fame. And everybody knows their name. And whether they're trying for that or they're rather humble about it, whatever it is, they've done what they need to in this world to attract people, to be famous, and they receive the rewards of that. But ultimately, with them or with anybody else that receives that kind of fame, what is the most important thing in their lives? If those people or anyone who's famous don't realize their need for Christ, then all that fame and fortune and recognition In the end, it's going to mean nothing. And the reward that really is meaningful, the eternal reward, they won't receive unless they trust Jesus. So instead of wanting to be the flashy person who gets all the spotlight and the fame, Jesus says, just serve God faithfully where you are. Be faithful to him. Let God work out all the rewards and all of that. And love him the way that you need to love him. There is an aspect to this that needs to be brought up, and that is, and we actually covered this verse when we talked about retaliation last week. But it is the verse in Matthew 5, 42 that says, give to him that begs from you, and from him that would borrow of thee, turn not away. And it kind of goes hand in hand with this. And the question is, well, what does this all mean then? Does this mean that we just give to anyone who asks us for money? Now, this is kind of a side related thing, but it is important and we do need to answer that. Because some people take this passage and the other passage that I just read and say, well, that means that we need to give to everyone that asks for us, right? Well, not exactly. God expects us to be discerning. In our culture today, people would say, oh yeah, just give to whoever asks. What they want, actually, the people that would say that want you to give your money to whoever asks, while they keep most of theirs. But it is an interesting question, right? When I would drive around Baltimore, you would get to a busy intersection and would have a concrete barrier there with, you know, the grass and the whatever they call that, the midway there, and you would have people that were holding up signs that looked like they'd been through a rough time that were asking for help. What do you do about those people? I would get phone calls. from people that said that they couldn't pay their rent for the month, and they were living out of a hotel, and would we just send them money to cover that one month's rent? Well, Jesus says to give. I don't know, what should I do? Those actually are pretty tough questions. What do you do? Well, there is another side to that. And let's give the rest of the biblical evidence to be able to know what to do in that situation. 2 Thessalonians 3, 10 through 12, you don't have to turn there. But there is this principle too. For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any of you would not work, neither should he eat. For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busy bodies. Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that they with quietness they will work and eat their own bread. There is the other side of it, that those that we need to be diligent, And Paul says, if they're not willing to work and do their part, then they shouldn't have bread, or they shouldn't expect people to help them. Okay, so you've got both sides of it. What do you do? Well, this is on an individual level, you pray about it, like we do everything. Lord, what do you want me to do in this situation? There are times where if I listen to that person and I prayed, I thought, okay, I'm gonna do this, Father, and I'm gonna trust that this is what you want me to do. There have been other times where I've said, I'm sorry, but we just don't have the ability to be able to help you right now. I will pray for you. And I will pray that you are able to find the help that you need. But I just don't have the time to investigate and find out all the details. And what about those people that ask for money from a church? Well, on a practical level, you have to be very careful in giving money where you don't know how they're going to spend it. Practically speaking why not if you feel like the Lord leading you to do something give them some food Give them something that you know practically that they can use and they can you can actually you've spent the money You know what they're getting they know what they're getting There was one time where Leslie and I were on one of those rare, wonderful date nights, and we went to a nice restaurant. And afterwards, we walked out, and there was a man that came up to us, and he was kind of a young guy. And he seemed sincere, but he said, I'm in real, I'm kind of desperate. My wife just had a baby, and we have to live. We just, we got kicked out of our house. We don't have the money to pay rent. And we just, we have this baby and we want to take care of it and we just don't have any food. And so Leslie and I said, well, give us a minute. We talked it over and prayed about it. And we just, we told him to wait there. And we went to the grocery store. And we know what? We went down the aisles, and we said, well, you know, a family would use this and use this. And we actually enjoyed taking that time, even though we had other ideas for how we were going to use it, to help those people. And then we gave him, and he seemed so thankful. He didn't scoff at it. Oh, I was hoping you'd give me money. But he was thankful for it. In that instance, I felt like we did the right thing. did what God called us to do in this regard. We have to be careful. We have to be wise on how this plays out in our daily lives. But we have to be willing to give. And then when we give, make sure our motive is for God, not for ourselves. There's another aspect here. Hypocrites desire the recognition of right actions. We've seen that, righteous actions. But they also desire the recognition of religious devotion. And this falls into that category, verse 16. Moreover, when ye fast, be not as the hypocrites of a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anointeth thy head and wash thy face. Well, what is fasting? Well, fasting was the common practice by the Jewish people in New Testament times. They only had a couple fasts that God required for the whole year. It was required by Jewish law on the Day of Atonement and on the New Year. People were required to fast to show their devotion to God. And this would normally involve not partaking in food, although it could involve some other things as well. But wouldn't you know, of course, as we would expect, the Pharisees, the religious leaders, took that to the extreme. Oh, well, if God's going to request that, then we're going to fast every week on every Monday and every Thursday. So these men would fast twice a week. And people that were looking and thinking, wow, they are really devoted. They're really pious. I mean, they really take this thing to another level. This fasting would have to do with abstaining from food, but it was also directly and vitally connected to prayer. And that's important. Fasting was taking time to be more devoted to prayer and seeking God's face in morning and even sometimes they would wear sackcloth. And all of this was a part of supposedly being sincere in their fasting before God. But Jesus says, interestingly, don't be of a sad countenance. Don't disfigure your face. Well, what does that mean? Remember, I think of this. Remember when, as a kid, you would make faces and nasty faces to impress the girls or your friends around you? Wow, that is a really nasty face or an ugly face. And your parents would come out and say, Don't do that. Your face will stick like that forever, right? Or something along those lines. Well, in a sense, Jesus is referring to the fact that these people, these religious leaders that were going about fasting, would let everybody know how sacrificial they were being, even to the point of having long faces and disfiguring their faces like they were really going through it. Oh, you wouldn't believe how hard it's been not being able to eat today. But praise God, You know, He's given me the strength, and oh, but they wanted to show even on their faces how horrible the process was so people would be even that more impressed. And they would receive even more glory. Look at how pious and dedicated these people are. Look at how disfigured and ugly they can make their faces. It's amazing. And Jesus says, stop all that. Stop all the fooling around. If you want to fast, Then he says something interesting here, anoint thy head and wash thy face. Well, what's that all about? In one sense, he's basically saying, take a bath. Well, why would he say that? The idea here of present yourself in public in a normal, everyday fashion. Oil many times was used as, believe it or not, a hair lubricant, because even back then, people's scalps would get dry. So sometimes they would pour oil in order to help their hair, and they would go out in public, and it was obvious that they had done that. But what Jesus is saying is, go do the normal things of life. Take care of yourself. Don't try to present yourself in a ugly, disfigured way. But when you fast, act like everything's normal. Don't try to glorify or proclaim what you're doing. Keep it secret. Verse 18, that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret. And here the idea of our heavenly Father being in the secret places and the heavenly places that we can't see yet. But Jesus says, you can trust, God does see when you do these things. And the one that's in secret shall reward thee one day openly. It takes faith, is what Jesus is pointing here, to expect that reward that we'll get one day. And it is a matter of faith to, even as we serve him, and maybe not just fasting or giving, but all aspects of service, when we give to God, it takes faith for us to not pursue that glory and that honor in this life, but say, Lord, I'm just gonna give because I love you, and I wanna serve you and be devoted to you, and you'll take care of the rewards. I believe that. I trust that. Sometimes our motivation can get mixed up when we're not even realizing it. But some practical things, when we're serving in a church and we don't get the recognition, or somebody even criticizes what we do, or people have assigned to us wrong motivations, all these things are little signs and little tests to see, why are you doing this in the first place? Jesus says, do it for the right reasons. Well, we need to bring this up really quickly here. But what is the purpose of fasting anyway? And should we be doing that today? I enjoyed a very good meal this afternoon. And as always on Sunday afternoons, Leslie is a great cook and we enjoy that food together. Should I feel guilty after reading this and teaching this that I am not partaking in this as much as I should? And as I look down, I think, well, maybe I do need to fast a little bit more. I don't know. But are you doing this? Is the purpose of my bringing this up to make you feel guilty because you're not fasting? The purpose of fasting can be summed up like this. It's private communion and intense seeking of God. And it's also an intensely personal activity. It's not a public one. And so this is a personal thing between each person and their Heavenly Father as to when they should do it and why they should do it. And that has to be between you and God. And there may come times in your life, and I've had times in my life, where not as a magical way to somehow get God's attention as to show Him how much more devoted I am than normal. That goes back in that spirit that Jesus warns us about. but to put things aside to be able to spend more time. Sometimes, I've just felt, you know, instead of taking time for lunch, I need to take time in prayer because this situation is that serious. I just need to seek God. I need his face, I need his help. And so, skip a meal. Now, I probably just lost a blessing from that, from even acknowledging that to you, but I didn't tell you when I did it, so it's still okay. But it's an intensely personal. And it is helpful if we decide to do it. Why? Because it reminds us of the importance of God above every aspect of life. When we fast, we're reminded God's more important than even the food I want right now. When we do that, that's up to you and God. But remember, it's also closely connected with prayer and seeking God's presence. Don't fast if you're not going to pray. Don't fast if you're not going to seek God's face. What's the purpose in that? except to get glory to yourself. Don't talk about it. I really do think in this regard that fasting is something that's so personal that I don't talk about it. I don't let anybody know if God's called me to do that. Well, except for my wife, because, you know, well, why aren't you eating? Well, God's called me to do this. But it is something that we shouldn't talk a lot about. And when you pray and when you sense, God will make it clear if he wants you to start in that. But I think it is something that we ought to consider a little bit more often than we do. And even in my own life, I've thought, you know, a little bit more fasting once in a while, that might be good. Might be a good thing for me to do. I've seen a negative and a positive example of this. I'm never going to be one that feels called to call us to a public fast because, first of all, I don't think you'd follow it anyway. Well, who's he to tell me when I can eat and when I can't? So I can't do that publicly because it's a personal thing between you and God and I shouldn't. But I do know of another situation where some men got together and they had a friend they knew of someone that was going through a very difficult time of cancer and they said, let's go ahead and fast and pray for this individual that God will heal him. I think that's a good use. And God loved them to do that. Regardless of where we come down on fasting and how much we've been giving lately, I think overall as we finish up here, we understand that God expects our faithful service to match up with faithful devotion to Him. They both have to be there. Whatever we do for Him, make sure that it's because of our devotion for Him. And this is so important, but ministry service that's done for our own personal glory is ugly before God and before others. And even more importantly, it's actually probably blasphemous because we're trying to take all the glory on ourselves and buy our reward. And Jesus says, no, do it out of love and let God handle the rewards. Our devoted service for God should not flow from our own desires, but a heart of love for him. That's where it should come from. So in the end, Jesus says here, don't be a hypocrite. Don't wear a mask. Let your service for God be out of love and sincerity for him. Father, thank you for your word. Help us to really understand even more than, although I think it's important for us to consider possibly fasting once in a while, Father, that's a personal thing for each member in this room. And giving is something that needs to take place as you motivate and move us to do that, but help us to be wise in that as well. But Lord, most importantly, help us to have the right motivation as we serve. Help us even this week. Father, as we look at ourselves and maybe some of us here say, I've been serving with the wrong motivation. Help us to be willing to repent of that and then go forward and enjoy serving as through our love and our devotion for you. That it may again be a joy to us and not a dreariness because we're expecting the wrong things. And help us to have faith that you will reward us in your timing and that those rewards will be far greater than anything we can ever imagine. Father, thank you for your grace for your love and for the ability you give us to serve you faithfully. All this we ask in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen.