Let's get started. It's really good to see y'all. I want to thank y'all for being a part of the group today. I want to thank y'all for having me here. It's always a joy and a privilege to come and share God's truth with you. And today, I know that it seems like we've been in it forever, but we're still in the Sermon on the Mount. And actually, in several of my other classes where I'm teaching this, we kind of picked up some speed, and we're almost done with it. We're finishing up. But with this group, it'll probably take us at least to the end of this month, if not into the next month a little bit to finish it up. But the Sermon on the Mount was a sermon that Jesus preached, and it was teaching the people. Just a refresher, since I haven't seen you guys in about three weeks or so, it's teaching people about what? Kingdom life. Kingdom life, right? Talking about the kingdom of heaven, talking about kingdom life, and what does that mean? As children of God, we live in a world that's falling apart, But we're a part of a kingdom that's not. And as this world falls apart around us, the kingdom of God still stands out. And the gates of hell will not prevail against it, right? We're gonna charge it and bust down the gates of hell and rescue everybody that's supposed to be rescued. And it's gonna come through us sharing the gospel. The devil has his kingdom here on the earth too, and he's got people trapped in there that belong to us, our brother and sister. And so we're kind of like on a mission. The gospel commission tells us to go forth and baptize people in the name of Jesus and teach them all things concerning him, disciple people. And so you, as children of God, as saved people who have been saved from a past, have been given the task of being a light and salt in this world. And the way that you live your life is very important. And if people see you living according to the kingdom principles, you're gonna stand out like a sore thumb. And a lot of people's not gonna like you, but a lot of people are gonna recognize there's something different about you. And prayerfully and hopefully that'll open up some opportunities for you to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with others. so that they can know the gift that you've been given. And that's kind of what the kingdom's about. And another thing that we learned about the kingdom of God and about the Sermon on the Mount was one of the underlying principles is that it's God's kingdom and that it will stand. But one of the underlying principles is it's not about you. That's one of the biggest underlying principles about the kingdom of God. That's hard to deal with, isn't it? Right? Because we're flat on selfish, right? We think about I all the time. But what is the greatest commandment? What did Jesus say the greatest commandment is? Well, first was to do what? Love God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, and all your strength. and love your neighbor as you love yourself. And what he say on these two laws, hang all the law on the prophets. And so, remember the Ten Commandments, there's ten of them. Four of them have to do with loving God, and six of them have to do with loving our neighbors, right? And so, as a child of the kingdom, as a citizen of the kingdom, we have a responsibility to live according to the standards that God has set for us, and that's not easy. It actually requires the kingdom at work in us for the kingdom to work out of us. And so one of the main foundational truths we've been finding out as we've been going through this Sermon on the Mount, and one of the hardest lessons there is to learn in life is it's not about you. It's not about you. It's about God and others. And once we start getting a grasp on that, then we start being more effective as citizens in the kingdom. And that's a lifelong task, is it not? I find myself being selfish every day. Every day I think about me more than I think about other people. But another thing that Jesus was teaching us in the Sermon on the Mount is that if the kingdom is in you, the kingdom is going to come out of you. And if God is at work in you, you're gonna work. And if he is at work in you, one of the things that he is doing through the power of his Holy Spirit and through the transforming power of his word is conforming you to the image of Christ. And so what that means is, since God is at work inside of you, as you live out your life, you're gonna become more and more Christ-like as you grow. Now, is that a smooth process? Nope. And do we slip and fall back? Yep. But if God's kingdom is at work in you, his kingdom come, his will will be done on earth as it is in heaven, right? And that's one of the things when we're praying, we're reminding ourselves of that. We're reminding ourselves that his kingdom will come and his will be done. So last time we were together, I'm not sure if any of y'all remember, but we finished up chapter five and today we'll begin in chapter six. So we're in Matthew chapter six. And as y'all are turning there, we'll open up in a word of prayer and get started with our lesson. Did we pray already? We prayed for the food. Huh? I don't think we've prayed yet, have we? No. No. Y'all prayed for your food while you eat lunch? Good. All right. Well, let's open in prayer and ask God to bless our time together. Father, thank you so much for the privilege and the joy of being able to come together as your children and to study your word and learn about your son, Jesus Christ. And thank you for all of the teachers that we have in your word. And I just pray for each and every man in this room, and woman too, and everybody, including me, I just pray that you'll be with us now. Help us to see your word, and help us to receive your word, and help us to believe your word, and give us the strength to walk in that word, and help us to also share that word with others. So again, as we study the Sermon on the Mount, help us to see more about you and how we're supposed to live as your children in this fallen world. your kingdom in Christ's name we pray amen all right so we're gonna go we'll go chunk by chunk today we'll start with paragraph 1 Matthew chapter 6 verses 1 through 4 verses 1 through 4 it 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 is in secret will reward you." So Jesus is warning us, number one, against beware of practicing righteousness before others in order to be seen by them. And one of the things that it's not saying is, it's not saying beware of practicing your righteousness, right? That's something that all of us as his children should be doing. What is it? Mine says charitable deeds. Charitable deeds, okay. Righteous acts, charitable deeds, both of those work. So, if you were practicing your righteousness, what does it mean to practice something? To repeat it over and over. Over and over again. And what is Dale saying? Practice makes perfect, right? The more you do something, the more it becomes a part of who you are. It becomes second nature. Think of some of the things in your life that you practice all the time that you don't even think about anymore, right? Like getting in a cookie jar. We don't even think about how many times we go to the cookie jar every day, but we practice that religiously, right? And so he's telling us that we need to be careful about doing things to be seen by other people. Now, what does he say? Beware of that because if you do that, if you do the things that you do because you want to draw attention to yourself or you want to be seen by other people, then you've got your reward. What is your reward? You got your ego pumped. That's exactly right. You got rewarded. He said, but when you do the things that you do, Do them, not so that other people see you, but remember you have a Father in heaven who is watching you, right? So what should be the focus of our righteous deeds? The same thing that should be the focus of our lives. What is the greatest commandment? Love God. So what should be the focus of our righteous deeds? Acts of showing love to God. And how will they play out? In showing love to our neighbors. But it's to God that we He's the one we want to see us doing the things we're doing. And not only do we want him to see the things we're doing, but just a quick reminder, what did we learn about last time we were together when we talked about the struggles we have in sin with anger and lust? What did we learn about anger and lust? Does anybody remember what we talked about? Don't wear your hat. No. What was the source of our anger and our lust? Our hearts right and our thoughts so the things that I think about and the things that I talk about are the things that I do and the things that I do is who I am and So when we talk about this today, what are we thinking? God is not only concerned with what I'm doing with my hands and my feet. He's concerned about the heart behind it Last week everybody had their Valentine's and I hope that If you have a Valentine's, I hope that you treated her or him very nicely on Valentine's Day. But I can promise you this. My buddy Mike down there is a newlywed. And did you give something to your wife for Valentine's Day? Yeah, you're a newlywed. All right, you gave her something. Now, when Mike gave something to his wife for Valentine's Day, he did not walk up to her and say, here, it's Valentine's Day. I got to get this for you. Here, take it. Right? So, by saying that, what would he be implying to his wife? That he's not doing this because he loves her, but because what? Because he has to, it's an obligation. Alright? And a lot of people are actually following the law out of obligation, but their heart's not in it. Right they want to do 65 in a 35, but they saw that policeman sitting over there and Under the shade tree and so their heart wants to do 65 But they're forcing themselves to do the speed limit you see so God is not only concerned with our actions But he's concerned with the thoughts and the emotions behind those actions as well, and that's very important because we can We can make ourselves do things even when we don't want to a matter of fact when it comes to giving to the poor given to the needy. Sometimes we do it because we pull up to the stop sign and we just happen to be the one stopping in front of the guy that's standing there with the sign. Right, if I was six cars back, I'd be sitting there doing like this, you know, trying to act like I don't see him and hoping that a red light turns red before he gets to my car. But if I pull up and he's the one staring right at me and I sit there for a second, what might I start thinking? Yeah, let me give him something right I better give something because you can just feel the Conviction on your neck when when he's looking in the car at you and there's a little sign You know what? I mean? And so What should I be doing? I should be thankful that God has given me so that I can give and I should be Giving I should be a given person. But if my heart is not behind the gift why give it? It's the same way with your tithes on Sunday. You go in and you put your tithes in the offering plate. If you're squinching about putting, dropping it in there, put it back in your pocket. Yeah. It has to be given with a happy heart. God doesn't need your money. He don't need your money. Your pastor might, right? And the finance committee might need it. But God don't need it. And so you understand what I'm saying. If you're going to give, give because God has given to you. And you want to show him how thankful you are by returning the favor. Right? Now you're not in debt to God. Well, I mean, we are in debt to God. God's not in debt to us is what I mean. So it's not like you're paying off some debt or something. We will never be able to repay God for what he's done for us. Never. But we can show him a thankful heart. And that thankful heart will come out in the way that we live our lives and the way that we treat other people. So, yes, we are supposed to practice our righteousness, but we're not to do it to be seen by others. I wonder about this sometimes, I work in, well, Laura, you know, you work in a charitable organization too, and we need funding in order to keep going. I give out 600 Bibles every, or 300 Bibles every two months, and those Bibles cost about $2 a piece. If you figure out the cost on that, that's about $600 every two months just to give our Bibles. That's not counting all the other necessaries. We get them for $1.98 a piece. So we get the ones that everybody complains and says, in case you get something with a little bigger print. It's actually this one right here. It looks just like this one you got right there. But we need funding. And so we have to ask people for funding. But sometimes I wonder, when we're asking people for funding, we're always having to toot our horn. How many services we've done this month? How many people, how many people, how many conversions has there been? You know, they won't number. Right, right. But the point I'm saying is, is this. Sometimes I wonder if I'm not just, I feel bad about it because I feel like I'm tooting my horn. You know what I mean? Like it's like, you're kind of bright. In other words, from time to time I'll tell a funny story about some kids that I work with. Kids say funny, they say super funny things. Right? I was just working with a group of young girls the other day. And it was Sampson. And maybe it was Sampson and Delilah or something. It was something about somebody was going to get married. And I asked, it was a young girl. They were 8 to 12 years old. And I asked the girl, I said, well, why didn't she want to get married to him? And one of the little girls said, well, I think his breast smelled bad. And you just hear little funny things like that, and when you hear funny little things like that, you wanna share it with people. Yeah, I almost fell over, yeah. I was doing a story one day about Jacob, about Abraham digging wells, and Isaac digging wells, and the people coming in and filling the wells in behind him, and so I asked a group of 12-year-old boys, I said, why in the world would you wanna dig a well out in the desert? What would be the point of that? And you know, what am I looking for? What's the answer I'm looking for everybody? Well, I have the first answer was this. Well, maybe he wanted to make a wish. And it's just amazing to hear little minds, to hear their minds and how they think. Well, I'm not sure about that. You ought to hear some of the other words. I don't know about pure. They're naive. I'll go with naive. I'm not going to go with pure. But the point is that a lot of times I'll get on Facebook and I'll tell a little funny story about something that I saw. And from time to time, I don't do it so often anymore, but from time to time, if there was a really touching story about how God had worked in somebody's life, I would share it on there. But sometimes I would feel guilty about it. Like sometimes I feel like you're tooting your horn when you You know what I mean? Like, in other words, you're doing your righteousness for... But to continue to get your funding, like, in my mind, you have to give them the numbers and you've got to tell the stories. That's just justification there. Right. Well, I guess the only way that you can justify it is by saying it this way. Well, I'm not sharing these things so that I can get glory for it. I'm sharing it so that God can get glory for what he's doing. Like, you could justify it that way. But I do feel guilty about that sometimes. And I do know that we as human beings, we like to be noticed when we do things. How many of you? I don't. Really? Not anymore. At first, I did. But anymore, like, when the whole church will pray for the Chatham Transcendence, they'll always say my name. They don't have to be doing that. Yeah. The whole church knows. I get embarrassed. I don't like that either. It's like, I don't want that attention. But think about this. How many of you are, I don't know if any of you are like me. Maybe I'm just weird. But I go, once a week, I go to the Five Burger Guy Fry place and get me a hamburger. Five Guys? Yeah, and they give me a hamburger, French fry, they got good hamburgers. But at the counter there, they have a tip jar. And every time that I pay, I always like to tip the guys that are working there. They're really nice guys. They always get my hamburger to me quick. But if they turn away from me when I'm about to put that money in the tip jar, I wait. I wait until they turn back around, because number one, I don't want them to think I'm cheap. And number two, I want them to know that I appreciate their service. But I'm always afraid that they're gonna turn their head and when I put that money down there I will see me give and then when I walk up they're gonna think You know cheat now, so let's take that and talk about justifying if I'm doing it so that I can be noticed by God I'm doing it for the wrong reason, right? But if I'm doing it to show them appreciation Then then that's that's okay, and it would be the same way at church. I mean how many people are you know, I wonder sometimes about giving it to Todd. A lot of times, I'll slip it in before I even walk into the sanctuary, like our ushers will be standing out there with the thing and I'll put it out there just so I don't have to give while I'm in the church house, like when I'm in, but a lot of people in churches say that that's a form of worship is to, it's a corporate gift. Right. Right. Because I do my tithes in the morning, and then I'm there in the afternoon with everybody in the ministry, and I'm not putting anything. I have started putting something. There. You understand? That's what I'm talking about, Lori. That's what I'm saying. You know you're already gay, but you don't want people to think that you're, like, not giving. That's exactly right. And so that's the point I'm making. It's like there's a part of me that wants people to know that I'm giving. Well, everybody's guilty of it. Yeah. That's why I'm bringing it. That's why I'm bringing it up. I also don't want people to think that it's OK not to give anything. You're trying to lead by example. Yeah. I understand. And that's why I'm bringing this subject up today. Because it could be the same thing with, you know, you walk in with somebody, and there's a homeless person. You give them some money, help them out. Hopefully you're giving it to him because you just want to help the homeless person out. But sometimes you just don't want your friend to think you're cheap. You understand what I'm saying? That's something we all have to wrestle with. I just think it's something, it might sound silly and trivial, but I think that's what he's talking about here. Don't be doing the things that you're doing so that other people will notice you. Do it so that God will notice you. And how will God truly notice you when your heart and your mind are behind what you're doing? Well, that's the motivation. What motivates you? Is it that person or yourself? And you were just like saying, it's not me, it's him. So it boils back to the same thing. But again, notice it said, if you do that to be seen by them, then you've got your reward. The attention you were seeking, you got. And how long is that attention going to last? Just a second. But when it's God that sees what you're doing, how long is that going to last? Forever. Matter of fact, I was just reading a story the other night with some kids. The woman came in and broke an alabaster box and poured an ointment all over Jesus a couple days before he was to be buried, to be crucified and buried. And remember what his disciples said? Man, we could have took that and sold it and gave all that money to the poor. And what did Jesus say? Leave her alone. You're always going to have the poor with you. And this woman has done this to prepare me for my burial. And not only that, from now on, the rest throughout history, when that my story's read, people are going to talk about what she did. And you know what? We're talking about it right now, aren't we? That happened 2,000 years ago. And so for eternity, that woman is going to be honored. But why? Because her heart was behind it. In the same way that the widow gave all that she had, her heart was behind that. There was a lot of people coming into the temple and throwing money into that. Much more money than she did. Yeah. And making the trumpet sound, right? What did that mean to make the trumpet sound? Blowing their own horn. In a sense, but back then when you would go into the temple, there was a big giant brass thing that you would throw your money into and it had a little tube in it that went down into a box. And so when you come in, when you would throw the money in, a lot of people would make sure they had some good heavy, like quarters and 50 cent pieces instead of dimes, you see. And so they'd throw it in there and they'd hit it so that everybody else in the temple would all look around and say, oh man, he must have given a lot. And he gave a lot. Listen how long that stuff was rattling around in there, you know, and drawing attention to themselves. And I think about things like that. I think about things like when I go into a church, and I don't know that anything's wrong with this, I'm not condemning anybody for it, but I've gone into churches before, and you open up the hymnal, and it says, this hymnal was given in memory of Sister Sarah. And you go into some churches, and you walk down, and on each one of the pews, a family donated money to buy that pew, and now the family's got their name on there. And so I wonder about that sometimes. Are they doing that? Are they doing that for recognition? I guess it doesn't. It matters to the board. That's what it matters. Right. But what does it matter to you? I guess it doesn't. Other than the fact that are they doing it to draw attention to themselves. So what does it matter? You got a point. It matters little to the organization that got the chair, but it matters to the board. And you're right. Maybe I'm judging them. Maybe I'm judging them. But I wouldn't want my name on there. If I were to give something, I wouldn't want my name on there. I wouldn't want that attention drawn to myself. Well, there's a bell right next to IPC. And I asked her a question about it. And she said it was replaced because it was cracked. inscribed on there in memory of, and it was, I don't know who it was, Joe Blow. And I thought, that's kind of strange that they would put a guy's name on here. Apparently, he paid for the, you know, for the new bell or for this to be, Well, that's not totally selfish. I mean, the person was thinking, you know, this is my late husband, and I want to do something to honor him. And it was probably the succession that decided to put the person's name on it, I would imagine. If it says, like, in memory, it seems like it was not given by that person. It's given by that person's family, or widow, or whatever. as opposed to just that person tootin' their horn. I mean, it was just... But nothing's gonna happen to an IBCMS in Session, so it's okay, so... They may have killed him since... And they got their reward, didn't they? They got a reward, because you don't know who that guy is, do you? No, I don't. You have no clue who he is. But his family or whoever was that paid that money for that bail, they got a reward. People know that. But now, a hundred years later, nobody even knows who they are. So again, with this woman who gave the oil in the alabaster flask, she's remembered for eternity. She's going to be mentioned for eternity. Who knows? I just sort of wrapped up. Yeah, I'll ask her when we see her. Thus, when you give before the needy, do not sound a 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 their reward. So talking about sounding the trumpet, I was telling y'all, it's kind of like rattling the brass, letting people know that you've given. 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, all right? So here's one that's going to get on everybody's nerves a little bit, because we're all guilty of it. How many of us give money, and then at the end of the year, we make a tax deduction on what we're giving, right? So the question is, would I give as much if I didn't get a deduction on my taxes? Sure, I would. I don't think of it that way. I think of it as I'm getting some money back from the government, and then I can give it to somebody else. In other words, I have more to give to who I want to give it to. for that to even work. You have to itemize. Yeah, you have to itemize. If you don't itemize, you don't itemize. Well, Jesus said, render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, and render unto God what is God's. And then Caesar can give you a little bit of it back. And if Caesar wants to give you some back, then let Caesar give you some back. All right, all right. So again, I'm just thinking of intentions behind it. You know, there's a lot of people at the end of the year, we'll dump a bunch of money into a charity or something. Or you'll need a lot of furniture. I do save some receipts and stuff throughout the year, and then put it in my tax folder, and I'll claim it. It's not everything, but yeah. So what do you guys think? What does he say when he says, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing? What does he mean by that? Don't overthink it. If you want to give, if your heart wants you to give, you give it. You do it in secret, where only God and I know about it. Dave doesn't have to know about it. OK. You're out of the loop, Dave. I would think that a part of it would be that you're not sitting around and scheming about it. Like, you're giving just out of, you know, you're not thinking. You're not sitting there trying to manipulate You see a need, and you just get it. You're not pulling out your wallet and looking at your money and going, OK, do I still have it? Well, I have enough. You know what I mean? Like you're not just sitting there trying to. I'm not at all being frugal in trying to plan out your expenses. I think we're supposed to plan out our expenses. That's normal. I mean, that's good. So when it says, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, It's basically just meaning you don't have to. That's kind of an expression. Where is that at? Matter of expression more than anything. Right. Where is that? In verse 3, 6-3. Because I've heard that particular thing misinterpreted by a lot of people. Oh, yeah. They don't even have that in Mexico. Oh, yeah. They're trying to, yeah, a lot of people. They say, well, it's in the Bible. They're doing something slick. Yeah. And then they don't want somebody to know about them being slick. And they always tell me, it's in the Bible. And they will cut. I have heard people quote it chapter and verse. Because they're trying to justify their wrongdoing. Because they're trying to justify being slick. Yes, sir. I see it. I was just showing this. Your left hand and your right hand, right? But if you, what does it say? Don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, right? What if you put them together? But I guess they know what they're doing. So like applause, you mean? I don't know if he was talking about applause. I think it was just a matter of on those televisions. You know, on TV, when they're raising money for something, they say, John Jones of Charlotte, North Carolina just gave $5,000. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Oh, yeah. They're trying to build me out. Yeah. All right. And that's what their job is, to keep doing. So let's kind of wrap up the summary here. I wrap up and summarize this first paragraph. If it's very important, that last statement what? That our father who sees in secret, he will reward you. But it needs to be done in a way that's to glorify him. And it's not about you, it's about him and it's about others. That's where our giving should be. And so I think maybe when it comes to the left hand knowing what the right hand is doing, I think what that means is you're giving. you're giving out with this hand so that you can get with this hand. So I have friends. So we got a note here, a figure of speech denoting the uttermost discretion or secrecy. Jesus follows or not to advertise their charitable works, even to those who are as close to them as their left hand or their right hand, or even to their intimate friends. I think that we take advantage of, I think we do things sometimes, just like we were saying, Lori, we give that tip and there's just a part of us that is still about me. That's just our human nature, our fallen human nature. And so our given should be, so it says, so how many of you have a friend, I got somebody, a family member particularly in mind that I'm thinking of, They give, but they give to get. They will give you their shirt off their back, but then for the next 20 years, you owe me. Or they're going to remind you of what they've done for you. Do you know that person I'm talking about? They'll do a lot of things for you, but then they're going to hold it over your head for the rest of your life that they did that for you. And they love to be a martyr. They love to let everybody know how much they've suffered by doing for other people. That's kind of a universal fault of all of us. It is. And I think it ties in with what we were saying there. So I think a part of that is, don't be given to get. What does it say in the Bible if the eye of Fenzi plucked it out, if your hand something cut it off? Yeah, we did that a couple weeks ago. And what does it say? Do you know? I mean, I don't know it exactly. Like something about, oh, OK, that's it, OK. Yeah. He was speaking in hyperbole. He was talking about how the thoughts and intents of our heart are played out in our actions. And your physical body is affected by your emotions. And if you're going to do something that's going to cause you to sin, cut it off. Now, he said pluck your eye out. But here's the problem. So if a man is struggling with lust, and you pluck his eyes out, is that going to stop him from struggling with lust? Even a blind man lusts. It doesn't mean literally. That's not a literal thing. I never thought about that. A blind man lusts. Yeah. Does a blind man lust? Yes, of course he does. And so by plucking his eye out, is that solving the problem? No. What solves the problem? A changed heart. Where did that come from? From God alone. And so we are commanded to kill sin, mortify sin. We were just talking about this on Sunday School Sunday. There's an old theologian named John Owen that said, be killing sin or sin will be killing you. It means to mortify the flesh, to die to self, to die to those old habits, and to die to those ways, or those ways will kill you. And it's a serious thing. And that's what he was saying when he was saying cut your hand. It's serious. It's going to hurt you bad if you don't. So we do have enough time to get into the next passage, but again, giving to the needy It needs to be a heart thing And it needs to be about God and the people you're giving to not about yourself. I think and I think that would sum up The entirety of it. Alright, so now we'll do the Lord's Prayer How many of y'all at your churches say the Lord's Prayer every week? Alright, we say the Lord's Prayer every week at our church. Let's look at that together One last statement about verse chapter 6 verse 2 Don't sound your trumpet as the hypocrites. We're going to see that word here in just a minute again. What did we say that the word hypocrite means? Does anybody remember a hypocrite? Someone who does what we're talking about. Yeah, me. I raised my hand, me. Someone who doesn't practice what they preach. OK, they don't practice what they preach. At that time in the Greek world, a hypocrite was an actor in a play. And you ladies back then, ladies weren't, they didn't have extras, they had masks. And so Little Johnny, if they needed a girl, they would let Little Johnny put on a dress, and then Little Johnny would put a little mask. Put on a mask with some little bobby tails, you know, what do you call these things? Pigtails, ponytail. And he'd come out on the stage with a mask on. So a hypocrite is someone who wears a mask. It means to put on a face and act like someone you're not. All right? And so that's one of the themes, right? If I'm going around with a mask on like I'm the most charitable guy in the world, but I'm really greedy, I got a problem, don't I? I'm trying to show other people that I'm charitable, but in reality, I'm stingy on the inside. And who would be the people that Jesus is constantly calling hypocrites? The Pharisees. The Pharisees were. Externally they didn't drink. They didn't smoke. They didn't cheat on their wives They didn't and they didn't hang around with people that did those kind of things either. They were Right, right And so they they were if you looked at one of them It would be like the most holy person that you could think of Did I tell you all the story about my Sunday school class the other day about what one of the little boys in there said? I'm gonna I'm gonna tell y'all this and I've already I've already told the lady who the story is about, I've told her that we talked about this, and she's okay with it. So the other day we were doing this exact verse, and we were talking about hypocrites, and we were talking about the Pharisees, and we were talking about how they acted like they were really, really super religious. And if you looked at them, you would think they were really, really super religious. But in reality, they were just like everybody else. They had their crooked ways. And so I asked all of the kids in my youth group the other night, I said, so guys, if you were to think of somebody in our church, if you were to think of one person in our church that you could put your finger on and say, that's really the most spiritual, righteous religious person that you know. If you're just thinking of all of our congregation and all the people in our church, if you could think of one person And and who they are and and who would it be and so all of the kids start going around? Well come to find out almost everybody in the room said the same person it was Miss Lucia it was it's an elderly lady in our church, and she really and she's a godly woman and she's very spiritual and And she loves the Lord and she is a true servant of Christ. So I said, well, and it was literally like there was probably 15 kids in there. And I would say that 10 of the 15 of them said Miss Lucia. A couple of them might have said, I think maybe a couple said the preacher. But mostly it was, like, she really is. If you think about it in our church, she would be one person you would say, if there's anybody in this church that's a child of God and saved and really, it would be her. And we all have that, you can think of somebody in your church that you would say, that person really is. Well, so anyhow, to make the example at the end, I said, but you know what? I said, I bet you that Miss Lucia struggles with sin too. And I bet that she has a hard time sometimes with her prayer life, and I bet she gets angry. And one of her grandsons piped up and said, yeah, you should have heard her the other day when the guy hit the back of her bumper at the basketball game with his car. And so we laugh. We laugh because we know we're all like that. We laugh because when somebody cuts us off at a red light, we bite the side of our cheek to keep from I'm saying a bad word. So a hypocrite is not someone who is a religious person and loses their temper and cusses. That's not a hypocrite. A hypocrite is someone who walks around trying to act like they're religious, but they are cussing all the time. There's no struggle with sin. When they get to the church house, You know, they get the scope out because they've been at the club since six o'clock in the morning before. And they got their scope, and they pray on some cologne so that you don't smell all the cigarettes on them, right? That's the hypocrite. The hypocrite is one who openly walks around you trying to act like they're holy, holy, holy. But in reality, they're embracing their sinful life. When they get home, they're a completely different person. So a hypocrite is not someone who falls in sin. We all do. The Bible says we all sin. We all come short of the glory of God. All right? But a hypocrite. These things are brought up, it seems to me, that they're brought up in the case of, yeah, there are people that are the consummate hypocrite, unconsummate good person, and all that. And we all fall somewhere in between. Right. And it's weird to be retrospect and look at ourselves. Right. Not to point to the biggest hypocrite in the church. But the hypocrite is looking to build themselves up and tear you down at the same time. Well, they may have problems. And not only that, why are they tearing you down? To build themselves up. To build themselves up. And again, who is it about with the hypocrite? Themselves. You see? Maybe they know there's a life, they just can't find it. Well, we're all capable of being hypocritical. We're all very capable of doing that. And you're right. And so it's only through the righteousness of Christ and the power of God that we can walk according to God's ways and will. But a hypocrite is someone, really, a hypocrite is someone, in this case, and what he's talking about here, a hypocrite is someone who don't care. They're literally trying to put on a mask and be something that they're, and show you that they're something that they're not. And they know it. And they know it. Well, there are certainly people out there that do it for business or whatever reasons, you know. Yep. All right. The Lord's Prayer, when you pray, you must not be like the? Hypocrite. Here we go. Jesus called them out. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners that they may be seen by others. So why are they praying? Are they praying to talk to God? No. No, they're praying to what? Be seen. So people will see them. All right. And I get tickled. Listen, this is not hypocrite. I'm not saying that these people are hypocrites, but I find this hilarious. I find, I love to hear people when they pray, if they pray in Kings and James English, when they start using these and dowels when they pray. Right? Because you know you don't talk like that. And boy, if they throw a whithersoever in there, then I know, I know there's some gas flying in. But, but you know what I'm saying? You understand what I'm saying? Like, and so what, what is the point when we pray? Huh? Yeah, there's a Baptist thing, yeah. There ain't no doubt about it. And not only that, but Baptists are very good at, because what they'll do is, the preacher at a lot of Baptist churches, when they go to take up the offering, they'll call on one of the brothers so-and-so to pray for the offering. It'll be just somebody out of the congregation. And man, sometimes them prayers last three or four minutes, you know, like they just go on, they're praying about everything, and all they're supposed to be doing is praying for God to bless the offering. And man, they pray for the little kid over there and panga panga. They're praying for everything. And it's just like, well, I've got an opportunity. I'm going to step up on my soapbox and show everybody here how good I can pray. My five minutes of faith. Yep. And it's about them. It really is. But now, let me warn you, the only reason that I can see that in other people Because I got a log in my eye, right? I need to understand that. I need to be honest with myself. We have a long prayer for different ministries and stuff in our evening service. Yep. Yeah, we do, too. We literally had a pastor that prayed over our Holy Communion, and everybody was wondering, did we fall asleep or whatever. I mean, everybody was like, oh my gosh, are we still awake? You know, you have your hair bows and your eyes closed. 10, no, he actually prayed for about 15 minutes. Mm-hmm. I remember when I was a kid, my grandfather was a Baptist preacher. And of course, at our church, it always ran over to, like, the sermon ran over to, like, 1220. You know, like, it was supposed to get over at 12, but it always went to 1220. And not only that, but then he'd close in prayer. And that closing prayer would be about as long as the sermon. I'm sitting there thinking about, I'm ready to go home and eat. My grandma got a roast in the oven. And granddaddy was just carrying on. They were sincere. I'm not busting on people about that. But what is he saying? He's saying, be careful about doing things to draw attention to yourself, even in your prayer life. And people like to stand on the street corners and pray. Stand on the street corner. Now, what did he mean by that? I mean, going out in the middle of Broadway Street, what would a street corner be indicative of? A public place where there's a lot of what traffic a lot of people to see you. All right but when you pray They love to stand and pray in the synagogue and street corners that they may be seen truly I say to you they've received a reward but when you pray go into your room and shut the door and pray to your father who is a secret and your father who is a secret will reward you So I know a lot of people have prayer closets. They actually have a closet. They go in and pray. There's a movie about that. The War Room. The War Room. And the woman had a prayer closet. I think if that's what you want to do, I'm all for that, if that's what you want to do. But you can pray anywhere. I think what he's saying when he's talking about a closet is he's talking about go somewhere where it's private and you can shut yourself off from the rest of the world. You can see the parallel there, the difference between the street corner and a closet. You see the difference in those two. And so he says, go and pray, and you'll be rewarded. Now, 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. How many of y'all have a friend that's got an idiosyncratic prayer, where they say the same word over and over again? You've got a friend that does that? I don't know if it's a friend, but somebody I know. Yeah. One that I hear a lot in the Baptist church, Father God. Oh, yes. Oh, Father God, give us our daily bread, Father God. Father God, Father God, Father God, Father God. That's one that I can think of right off the top of my head. But what would be the point? Why would he not want us using vain repetitions as the Gentiles do? Because then it's about role. It's just something that pops into your mind. But I do pray for the same thing almost every night. That's not being repetitious. What we should be praying for to begin with. I mean, it's not a matter of what we're saying to him particularly. Right. It matters. It's what our hearts are saying. Right. Well, he wants to hear our voice. He wants us to sound it out so we can hear it too, what we're talking about. But you know, so he says, heaping up empty phrases. Now, we're gonna see something in just a minute. We'll have enough time to get to this part. We won't get into the prayer proper today, but we'll get a little bit further here. One of the things that he says is, he says, don't do these vain, empty, repetitious prayers. And then he says this, when he says, pray the Lord, he's gonna give us the disciple's prayer, the Lord's prayer, as it's called. And he says, when you pray, pray like this. He doesn't say, when you pray, pray this prayer. He says, pray like this. So what he's really doing is he's giving us a skeleton or an outline for our prayer. And we're supposed to fill it in and put the meat on it. Now, guys, I'm not saying this at my church. I enjoy saying the Lord's Prayer with the rest of my church family. And you're actually quoting scripture, so there's nothing in the world wrong with saying it. But is there a danger that it could become rote? And if you do it every week, every Sunday, I remember as a kid, we used to pray at basketball games or football games when we played. We'd all put our hand in the middle and say, our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done. And we'd say it. And all of a sudden, hey, hey. And then we'd go out and break each other's heads. But I can remember as a young kid, 10, 12 years old, sitting there saying the Lord's Prayer, but looking at the big tall guy that could almost dunk at 13. I was looking at the players on the other team wondering about the game we was fixing to play. The last thing on my mind in the world was God. But that was something we did every week. We put our hand on our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. I can't come, but will be done. And so I think that's the danger he's warning about, because it doesn't mean anything. It's just words. It's just words. That's exactly right. Yeah, but it does mean something, especially today. Today, it means more than it did then to do it. even if it's hot to some. And that's coming from pagan rituals. That's where they're getting that from. It's a repetitious thing. If I say it enough, God will hear me. But why do we repeat when somebody sneezes And we say, God bless you. But everybody says, God bless you. Nobody says, Jesus bless you, or Mother Mary bless you. We always say, God bless you. I've heard Gesundheit. Gesundheit is German. German for God bless you. I thought it meant health. That's German for health. No, it means God bless you. Whatever it means, I'm just saying, maybe that's just a habit that people have. It is a habit. I tell people that. I tell people that. Why wouldn't I want to bless you? Well, some people used to believe that when you sneeze, your spirit goes out of you. That's where it all got started. So again, I think Michael hit on a point there when it comes to these constant repetitious prayer. I can, but you go back to things like ball games and things like that, where a football player makes a touchdown and he bows down and bows his head. The whole stadium goes, oh, wow, did you just see that? And then the game's back on. But that made a click in somebody's head. Well, I have some mixed feelings about that. I know what you're saying, and I agree with you. But it might not be sincere when they do it, but I'm saying it. But I think that. I think that a lot of these athletes and stuff, they're out here playing on Sundays and drawing everybody's attention away from God. And true. But there. Did you see that one I posted? He said, this touchdown's for you, Jesus. And they said, Jesus. And he was watching the hockey game. Yeah. And he was watching the whole game. Yeah, there was a football player saying, this one's for you, G. And then Jesus was up in heaven watching the hockey game on the TV. He didn't even see him. It wasn't really sexual. But again, I think when it comes to those kind of things, are they drawing attention, are they pointing attention to God? No. You say yes? Yes, absolutely. They mentioned the name Jesus, too. Now many millions of people are watching, and maybe there's a person that, you know, he's heard the name Jesus three times, and maybe that's the fourth time, and maybe that fourth time is going to be the time that reminds him. You know, when somebody like Donald West, you know, suddenly changes directions and stuff like that, a lot of people say, oh, what's all that about, you know? You talking about Kanye? Yeah, Kanye West. Yeah. I'm worried about that. You may not be able to say, well, I know he's a Christian and all that kind of stuff now. But that kind of says, well, people don't want you. What's all this, you know? He's starting to have Joel Osteen do his Sunday. He's starting to have Joel Osteen do his Sunday services. Yeah, he's tied in with Joel Osteen. They're filling up Yankee Stadium. So anyhow, let's wind down. We've got just a minute or two left. So when you pray, do not eat, verse 7. Verse 7. When you pray, do not heap up empty prayers 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. That's important to remember, right? When you pray, pray like this. And he doesn't say pray this prayer. And a lot of people have made a note that this is actually not the Lord's prayer. This is actually called the Apostle's prayer, because the Lord's prayer would be John chapter 17, where he prayed his high priestly prayer and interceded for all believers. But what is he doing here? He's teaching his disciples how to pray. And so next week when we get together, we're gonna go down, yeah, I'll be with y'all next week. What we're gonna do is our whole lesson will probably be on the Lord's Prayer. And we're just gonna go petition by petition through the Lord's Prayer and talk about each separate part of it. But again, today what do we learn? It's not about you, it's about God and others. And if we truly are a part of the kingdom, then we're required to live according to the kingdom standards. And that's why he gave us the Sermon on the Mount, is to say, if you're truly a child of God, this is how you'll walk, this is how you'll talk, this is how you'll pray, this is how you'll act. And again, we're not under the law, right? But the law has been ingrained in our hearts now. That's very important to remember. The Jews, a lot of the Jewish people, I pick on the Jewish people, but under the Mosaic Covenant, a lot of people in the Mosaic Covenant were doing the things that they were doing because they had to, not because they wanted to. And the difference in the New Covenant is that God has put a new want to in us. So to finish up, Michael, I was giving the example of you going to your newlywed wife and giving her some chocolates and roses and saying, here, I had to get this for you. It's Valentine's Day. She's not going to appreciate that very much and you're probably going to sleep on the couch that night. But not only that, but he loves his wife. And he's doing it because he cares about her. And that's the same attitude we should have when it comes to our relationship with God. If I'm not stealing because I'm afraid God's going to throw me in hell for it, That's the wrong attitude to have, right? Now, that does bring the fear of God in there. But what I need to be really thinking is, what, if I take his coke, I'm stealing from a fellow person created in the image of God. And it's not about my thirst, it's about his thirst. It's not about me, it's about him. And that's just one of the main keys of the kingdom. So we'll quickly close in prayer. I do hope you all have a good week, and God bless you all. Thank you, Ronnie. Father, thank you for this day, and thank you for this time that you've given us together. Thank you so much for this lesson and help us to apply it to our lives. Lord, I will be the first to admit in front of every man and woman in this room that I am certainly guilty of doing a lot of the very things that you tell me not to do. And I'm truly sorry. And I ask that you'll continue to change my heart and conform me to the image of your son so that I may be able to not only talk the talk, but walk the walk that you require of your children. I do pray for every man and woman in this room that you help them to do the same. that we would be a light and salt in a world that desperately needs you. In Christ Jesus name we pray, amen.